Yey Y’all:
Boy do I love hearing from you every Monday. Lacey, you are a fabulous little writer! I love your e-mails. Momma, daddy thanks for being faithful writers. I know I can always count on both of you for e-mails. Gabey, checkmate dude! It’s your turn to e-mail me back. Sydney, I don’t like this DARE thing. You should ask for an exception so that you can use electronic devices. Though by the time you get this “book” as you call it…I will have an e-mail from you. Hannah I LOVE your letters. I will try to be better at sending you letters.
Today we pretty much just hung out at the church. I e-mailed and then wrote letters that I have gotten from the last 2 weeks… I felt very productive putting all those letters in the mailbox. There was one for Liz, Tara, Talynn, Ashley (my roommate who is here on her mission), and my friend Sarah from school (she was my visiting teaching comp from last year…I love her). It was fun to write them back. Oh boy did my hand hurt after that though!
The Elders needed to go to the store so we took them. Sis. Carrigan didn’t feel good so we stayed out in the car. She slept and I finished writing my letters. We got to our dinner appointment by 6:30 like we had been asked but dinner was still not ready. We ended up waiting another 20 minutes or so. I was antsy because we were supposed to go to Shanna’s (the family we tracted into) at around 7:30. Did that happen? No. We ate dinner and then I gave the thought. We had a really hard time breaking away and I wanted to cry because we were late. I was getting so frustrated. Finally Sis. Carrigan said that we had to go and could we end with a prayer. By the time we got out of there it was like 7:45ish. We also had to go meet Lauren at the church (she is the one who was tracting with us when we met Shanna). Basically by the time we got there it was 8:15 and very dark. They were at home but didn’t answer. I was so sad! We are going to call her tomorrow to try and set up another time. Ugg!
September 24, 2013
Being sick is no fun! Even if it is a little baby cold. I woke up this morning at like 4:30 because I was so stinkin' hot. I got up and turned on the A/C. Suddenly I was freezing. My body wouldn’t just give me a middle ground. Luckily I finally got back to sleep. When I woke up at our alarm I just wanted to sink back into the covers! My throat felt ( and still feels) like sandpaper and my nose was stuffed up so much that I was breathing through my mouth, probably why my throat felt even worse than yesterday. Oh! The life of being a sick missionary.
District meeting was …interesting. The first part we had the Bishop from Sharon Springs come talk to us about working with the ward to figure out less actives. That was really awesome! I didn’t know that Salt Lake is trying even harder to figure out the records of people that have been misplaced. It makes sense. We have been getting quite a few of those records to try and figure out. After that we had some teachings and then we did role play. That is where the interesting part comes in. So the idea that E. Smith had was really good. Lots of times as missionaries we get asked the dumbest questions like about polygamy or why blacks weren’t allowed to hold the priesthood. Well at least I think they are dumb. They wrote down those and a few others that were good. The only thing is, that they also mixed in some really silly ones because, well, they are boys and forget that they are missionaries sometimes. Well one of the missionaries blatantly refused to do it. I thought that it was a little silly. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Most of their idea was pretty good. Eventually the missionary decided to do it did it and it wasn’t that bad. The funny part was that missionary didn't even have one of the silly questions.
After district meeting we went to lunch at Panda Express (not gonna lie, I’m so glad that we have one here. I love their orange chicken! Yum!) E. Rahman is trying so hard to fit in with the other Elders. He is the only greenie in our zone so he doesn’t have anyone that is in his same boat. Poor kid. At least I had a few others who had come out with me not just in the same zone (like Sis. Hooker) but I had Sis. Alvey with me in the same district. It just makes you feel a little more comfortable to be with others as new as you. But he is a good elder and he does fit in more than he knows.
After lunch we went to go help Marni clean her house. She is so stinkin cute! She is very worried that when transfers come she won’t get to say goodbye if one of us leaves (Sis. Carrigan is practically already packing though!). Punk! She keeps saying she knows she is leaving. It is driving me crazy. We promised her that we won’t leave without saying goodbye. I like her lots! She always calls us girls. It makes me giggle.
We were asked if we were going to help at the blood drive. Well, maybe it was more like we were told we needed to help. Not complaining though. We talked to a few people who weren’t members so that was pretty nice! Not too bad!
At 5:30 we left for dinner at the Smith’s. They are an older couple in our ward and they are awesome! When we got there dinner was not quite ready. Sis. Smith has a baby grand piano so we played that. It was awesome! I dunno what it is but it seems like this happens every week. One person will make us something like tacos or spaghetti and then during that whole week that is all that we will eat because basically everyone makes the same thing. Right now we are on chicken pot pies. They have all been really yummy though and so it doesn't feel like days on end of left overs or anything. I know there are missionaries in other countries who just eat black beans and rice. So ya, we are kinda spoiled.
We had an appointment with the YSA relief society president so we ran over to talk to her. Basically we talked about a few people who we could help with and talked about how the YSA could help us. It was fun but by the end I was so tired! This cold is totally wiping me out! I can’t believe that I am being beaten by a cold. So after the meeting we ran home. We were a bit late for curfew (dang it)! I got a letter from Brittany Young (Jimmy Johns). She remembered about Talk Like a Pirate Day. That made me laugh. I also got the letters from the girls in primary. I will write them each back a quick note.
September 25, 2013
Oh! My goodness! I hate this cold. Ugg! My body is so sore and I can hardly keep my eyes open. It’s
rough! After personal study (my favorite!! Even though I was having a hard time staying awake today) and companion study, we went over to Sis. Pruitt’s house (primary president). We talked about what the primary needs from us. That was fun. She is a super awesome lady! What can I say? I love this ward! I think that Suwanee ward will always be my favorite! It’s like what you said Momma, it’s my greenie city/ward and I will always love it here a little differently than any other place I go. I won’t constantly talk about it to my comps though because that drives me a little, ok kinda a lot crazy.
After Sis. Pruitt we came home to eat lunch. On Sunday Sis. Peterson told us she had left food in the fridge for us. Taco soup and homemade corn bread. Yummy! We have been wanting it all week and this is the first time since then that we have had time to eat it. Totally worth it though. It has been raining all day so it was the perfect food for the weather. Watch, now everyone is going to feed us taco soup for the week. But like is said . . . Yummy!
After lunch we planned to go and meet the Collins Hill Elders because they had Kelly’s teaching record. It took forever. We waited for them for quite a while. E. Calkins is in Collins Hill so I was excited to see him! We finally got the teaching record and nothing was on it! Kelly hasn’t been taught anything! She has kept all the commitments so that’s good but nothing has been taught. Well, at least not by the Elders. So now we have to figure out how to get the teaching record that the Sisters had for her. Hopefully they have taught her a little more than that! The Elders said that the only thing they know the Sisters taught her was how to wear clothes and they wouldn’t be surprised if that was it… Great.
After meeting with the Elders we headed over to Pep Boys. Again. Our car is so annoying! It has been making weird sounds with the brakes. We are so close to getting a new car! Only like 600 more miles until it is retired. They should probably switch it this next transfer. We shall see. So, of course, we were stuck there for about 2.5 hours.
When we finally got home we headed over to the church. We were asked to get some Mormon Messages put together for a little baptism that is this Saturday. It’s for a little 8 year old boy who is from a less-active family, so there should be quite a few non-members there. Good missionary opportunity. We did that and then it, was time to head home so we didn’t “turn into pumpkins” as our ward here likes to call it. It’s day like these when I feel like a slacker of a missionary. We did really important things. I just didn’t feel very productive.
September 26, 2013
Oh my goodness. We are having amazingly beautiful fall weather here! Like crazy beautiful. It has been sunny with lots of white puffy clouds, it’s getting cool with a light breeze. Ah! Perfect! Today we went and finally saw Richard after 2 weeks. He told us we were the highlight of his week. The stubborn old man just needs to be baptized already. We brought Bro. Wernli along as a team-up. That was really awesome! Bro. Wernli was finally able to answer some of Richard’s questions that we had been trying to answer but just couldn’t answer in a way that Richard was really able to understand. He has finally committed to coming to church! Yay! Now we just hope and pray that he will actually come. Bro. Wernli gave Richard a priesthood blessing that he wouldn’t have problems with his legs if he was determined to come to church. The Spirit was so strong and Richard felt something different. He knows there is something different, that’s why we are the highlight of his week, cause we bring the Spirit into his home. So, that is where we are at with Richard.
After Richard, we went tracting for like 3 hrs. That was good. We have been told that we will be blessed if we tract 2 hrs. every day. I feel guilty and like a bad missionary when we don’t. Yesterday was one of those days. Funny story! So we knocked on this door and while we were waiting for them to open the door we are looking at the house. I looked up at a window that was open and suddenly there is a man
sticking his head out of the window. He had no shirt on and I’m almost sure he had no pants on either. He told us he was working…ummm ok. Well, I guess if you are home alone and just working on the computer there is no harm in working naked I suppose!?! Until two sister missionaries come knocking on your door! Haha! It was kind of funny/quite awkward.
After tracting we went to see Kelly. She is now saying she is getting a divorce! Not once did she mention an annulment (yah). We watched the Restoration video and afterwards she just kept saying how badly she wanted to be baptized. I finally asked her why she wanted to wait until after her divorce when she could have all of those blessings and the gift of the Holy Ghost during the divorce. She thought about it for a minute then said, “You’re right! I want those blessings! I would really like to be baptized on Oct. 26!” YAH!!! Kelly is getting baptized in a month. I’m so happy.
After that we went tracting. Sis. Carrigan seemed a little grumpy. She won’t say anything. I think it is probably because Kelly is being baptized after transfers so she thinks she won’t be here. Understandable I guess. I would be a little sad not to see her get baptized if I got transferred but oh it doesn’t matter! I’m just so very excited for her! Ahh!
We had dinner at the Watkins tonight. They are so cute and so very funny! Sis. Watkins has always wanted to serve a mission since she joined the church. She has told Bro. Watkins that they are. Well last Sunday she got called to be a ward missionary. She is so excited! She has already planned out our whole Saturday for us. Luckily we got permission to go to the Relief Society broadcast and so Sis. Watkins kindly put that in our Saturday schedule. Haha! It’s kind of funny. Basically whatever plans we did have for Saturday changed.☺
After dinner we went to the Willeys. We didn’t really know if they wanted us to practice a lesson on them or if they wanted to talk about the YSA. I suggested that we ask them about missionary work. For Bro. Willey, what helped him on his mission and what she wished the missionaries teaching her should have done differently. Oh! Good ending to the night. My pirate package finally came. That was so fun and way cute! Thanks mom. You are awesome. I LOVE my pirate things. They are cute. The pink eye patch made me giggle! Speaking of pirates, did you like your pirate present? I had to search a little harder for things like that cause I don’t have the internet to help me! But I found you a pirate something so I was pleased. All in all this was a pretty dang good day!!
September 27, 2013
SYDNEY!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUTE GIRL! WHOOT! I can’t believe you are 12. Good grief. It feels like I was 12 only last week. I thought about you all day long. I’m sad I couldn’t be there but glad you got your present. I searched long and hard for the mustache stuff.
So today we went to the dermatologist so they could check out my tongue. We went in and then the doctor came in. She is asking me all these questions and then she asks “are you sexually active?” I said no and then she looks at me and then looks at Sis. Carrigan (who is quietly sitting in the corner) and then looks back at me and says, “Do you want her to leave the room while I ask the questions?” It was pretty funny but also very sad that she didn’t believe me. What is the world coming to when doctors question the answer of a negative to that set of questions. Sad. Just sad! But still kinda funny…
Now I am very jealous of Sis. Galt right now! No fair. She got to talk to you Momma! Ah! She called me
and said, “Your mom sounds like a lovely lady.” I told her you were and that you were my favorite lovely
lady. So I love that you and Sis. Galt got to talk but I am insanely jealous! Lucky duck Sis. Galt. (The doctor had also asked Molly what prescription she had taken previously. She needed someone to find out so her cute Sis. Galt was the lucky winner of that texting back and forth/phone call.)
After the doctor we went to go see Clara. She is so funny! She friended me on facebook. She showed
me and it was weird to see my facebook page. I loved that you made it say that I moved to Suwanee, GA. That made me smile. Everything else was blocked so I couldn’t see much since it was on her profile and we aren’t friends yet. So, go ahead and add her. Her last name starts with an M and I’m not going to even attempt to spell it. We asked her if she had gotten her marriage license yet, she said yes but she didn’t know where it was. Ugg! She can’t get baptized until she gets married! We are kinda pushing her to get that done. Sis. Carrign told her if she didn’t get it done in the next 3 weeks she wouldn’t be there cause she would be transferred. Maybe that will get Clara’s butt in gear even if it is not Sister Carrigan who is gone but me! I just want so badly for these people to have the gospel and the gift of the Holy Ghost in their lives all of the time.
After Clara we were but really hungry so we went to Jimmy Johns for lunch. It’s so weird to go in there and not have it be the Idaho Falls JJs and not see my people. While we were there Sis. Carrigan predicted what
the girl she thinks I’m going to train will be like. She keeps saying it over and over that I’m going to train. I know I could if I were asked to. I do think it would be kind of fun and I could try to implement some of the ideas that I have but have not been able to use up to this point as well as everything I have learned from Sister Carrigan. Well if I do end up training I will find out the week before transfers (the week of Oct. 6). I will let y’all know.
After JJs we went to Mary and Arianna. At first they were cute and just chatting away but then Mary started making snide comments about the church. We invited them to the broadcast and she told us she was going to stay away from all of that. I asked her why and she said she didn’t believe in things we did and wasn’t going near it. I asked what kind of things she didn’t agree with and she said Joseph Smith (well shocker on that one. Not!) I said, “Did you know that it actually talks about Joseph Smith in the Bible?” She looks at me and says, “show me” like she was challenging me. So they got the bibles out and we flipped to Isaiah 29:11. I read it and she goes quiet for a minute and says “Oh, well my bible says this is about Jerusalem.” Okay, whatever. I don’t get her. No one in her church comes and visits her or takes care of her. None of them come over and cut her grass without being asked to. None of them make sure to remember Arianna’s birthday. Obviously we care about her but she just remains - she is so close-minded. I don’t like loving someone so much and having them be so close-minded! It is not a fun feeling. So that wasn’t a super fun visit and it made me so sad and frustrated when we left.
Sis. Carrigan needed to go to the bathroom so she stopped at this old, run-down, kinda sketchy gas station. We walk in and there area bunch of lotto machines in the back with a bunch of old Hispanic men playing them. Sis. Carrigan was in front of me and she passed them without even looking. Well 3 of them were watching us so I just turned to them and gave them a little smile and nod. One of them winks at me and smiles. Weird! Oh boy! Some of the people that you meet on your mission. I’m not so sure about them.
We went tracting for a few hours until dinner. One lady we met was so stinkin cute! She said that she was new in town. We gave her our card and she says, “Well, I think I just might need to come visit your church.” You will hear no arguments from us if she comes! I really hope she does. Ok, and now for my awkward tracting story. So we are tracting a bunch of town homes and as we are going to turn into this driveway the garage opens. So I say hello and start talking. Well he was working on his truck and had dirt all over his nose and face. He told me he already had a church. I asked him what church he went to. He said, “Well, we used to go to a Baptist church but we quit going there and now go to North Point.” (that would be a non-denominational church) “Life is a lot better now without the Baptists.” I thought he was joking and I couldn’t tell but I thought that he was grinning a little bit. So I giggled. He looks at me and asked what was so funny. I just started spluttering umm….I…ah….well… for about 10 seconds. Finally I say, “I can relate.” No I can’t. I can’t relate one little bit to switching churches! My life is awesome! I can’t relate. So I quickly said goodbye and we left. Awkward on my part. It’s really funny to me now and it was at the time a little bit. Sometimes you just don’t know what to say. So at that moment in time I was crowned as the most awkward person on the face of the planet!
She may be awkward but she's cute. She sent this picture in honor of her aunt. She acknowledged that it probably wasn't spelled right but wanted her to know she was thinking of her.
Sydney, I hope you had a FABULOUS birthday full of fun. Send me a collage of all your birthday
presents. You know you want to!
September 28, 2013
Oh today was a pretty good day. So we got to go to a baptism this morning. A little 8 year old boy named Alex. His family got baptized about 3 years ago and have kind of gone less active. They still consider themselves active but Alex wanting to get baptized has been good for them. It’s gotten them going back to church a little more. They asked us to do the middle message thing. We chose the Mormon message called Patterns of Light. It is so good. Go watch it! It’s a 3 part message. The baptism was good. Poor Alex was so nervous! He had to do it 3 times before it was good. They kept talking to him and trying to calm him down. The Spirit was so strong in the room. It was awesome! He is such a cute little boy.
We ate lunch there at the church and then went to get my prescription. The dermatologist cost a whopping $60 (ugg) and the medication was $10. I don’t know how much it would have cost without insurance but $60 is still a lot!
I told you that Sis. Watkins had our day all planned for us so we went over there. She was baking cookies and cupcakes and all sorts of things. Her plan was to go tracting and pass it all out. We had no idea what we were going to say to people but we went with it! We set up the plates and made them look pretty. We got the cakes and cookies all ready and set off! Lots of people asked us how much we were selling them for. It was kind of funny. We ran into a few sweet old ladies and one of them, Ruth, just came out and gave us a hug! It was so cute! I love getting hugs from cute old ladies. The last lady we talked to was Dorothy Ramey. Her yard was so pretty!! She is a spunky 85 year old. Her husband passed away a few years ago but she just kept plugging along! She has friends that she goes out with, they went camping last weekend…at 85! She has the best Southern accent ever!! She has lived in the South her whole life and you can tell. She is so sweet. Her birthday is on Monday so we are going to go back and talk to her. Cute Sister Watkins!!! That was fun!
Then we got to go to the broadcast! Yay! And guess what? I got to see my Sis. Hooker. That was fun! Our church is the stake center so all the Sister missionaries were there from our zone. It was kind of cool to have all of us there together. Mom! Sister Hooker says you guys talked to her family! What?!? Jealous!
The broadcast was so good. I loved it all. President Monson has lost quite a bit of weight. President Eyring looks like he has lost weight too, and he doesn’t have anything to lose in the first place. One of my favorite parts of the broadcast was when I saw Brittany Beckham in the choir!! That was so fun. I’m sure that Sister Beckham saw her, I hope she did. Did you guys see her? I was looking to see if Lindsay Kuhn was in the choir but I didn’t see her.
When we got home it was a little after 9:30. We had permission though so we were okay. Well Sis. Watkins had given us the rest of the cookies and cakes. We had a lot and we didn’t really need them to go to our waistlines. We decided to run some over to our neighbor who we see all of the time. So we did. Her name is Brenda. She thought we were nuns. Haha! Ummmm no. We got that straightened out quickly. Not that there is anything wrong with nuns, but I have no desire to be a nun. It was a great day!
September 29, 2013
Oh church! I love church. Sundays are always a grand old time! Plus it means that the next day is P-day. And, well I can hardly argue with the excitement of that. Since today was the first Sunday of the month everyone met together for Relief Society and Priesthood. I dunno about you guys, but for the last month and a half they have been pushing ward missionary work. We watched a few clips from the missionary broadcast thing that happened right before I left. It was really good! Sacrament meeting was awesome too (that was before the combined meeting… I just forgot to mention it first). You know how you always get the people who get up to bear their testimonies and it’s just kind of a facepalm with the shaking of your head? Well that didn't really happen today. Anyways, testimony meeting was good! I just love church. I love seeing my ward members and talking to them! Cute Sister Olsen came up to me today and handed me a maxi skirt. I guess I had told her more than once how cute it is so she just gave it to me. It was so nice of her. Ah! I just love this ward! It’s really going to kill me when I get transferred out. There are so many people who I just love who I will for sure keep in contact with! And who I will come back and visit. I would be SO okay with training if I got to stay here for another 6 months.
We had to weekly plan today so we didn’t get to go tracting at all. We had a zone fast. They challenged us to fast to get someone to set a baptismal date this week and if we already had one (Kelly for us yea!) to fast for another one. So we did! I also fasted that we would be able to find a family to teach. I told y’all about Shanna so I prayed that if that was the family that we would be able to get in with them. I know that as long as we work hard and look/pay attention, that Heavenly Father will answer.
We had dinner at the Beasley’s house tonight. Neither of us really knew who they were. We went over and at first it was a little awkward. Luckily things warmed up. Sister Beasley actually went to Bonneville High School and Bro. Beasley went to IF high school. That was kind of fun. They have 2 boys and 3 girls, who are all married except for Josh who is a 7th grader and their 18 year old daughter who is up at BYU-I. Josh and I are kindred spirits! I have now finally met someone who is just as afraid of everything as me! He understands! He was pretty cute. He is not afraid to let people know how bad of a chicken he is and he is only like 13. I’m impressed with him. I told him what you told me once Momma, when I was frustrated with how scared I get, you just said that my Spirit is just more gentle than some others. Sis. Carrigan just scoffed at that. I dunno if you told me that just to make me feel better but it worked and I liked it. So scoff all you want but I believe that it’s true.
It was pretty dark by the time we said goodbye to the Beasley's. Stupid Winter and getting dark at 8. We went over to Sis. Fullwood’s to drop off some hammers she had lent us. We visited with her for an hour. I love her! She is so sweet! Heavenly Father has an amazing guy planned for her! I don’t know how we got
on the subject but I told her how I love to watch guys with their little siblings. I love when they are just gentle and kind with them and that is a quality I want in a husband. She told me she had the perfect guy. Some missionary who served here before and was in the Suwanee ward. She said after my mission if he was still single she would set me up. Go for it Sis. Fulwood! It was funny. Who knows?
Well my lovely family, I love you buckets! I love writing letters to you and I love getting letters from you! Keep being my amazing, awesome family.
Love, Molly
P.S. Mom! Have you read Tramp for the Lord? It is by Corrie Ten Boom. I want to read it.
P.S.S. Daddy, would you give those letters to the cute little primary girls? Well I guess Momma could do
that too… Love you.
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