March 31, 2014
Hello, Hello!
Happy last day of March!
I’m not too sure where January and February went, and I’m trying to
figure out how the heck March got away from me too! I mean, I suppose it’s a good thing, I would
rather be working hard and lose track of the days as opposed to having them
never end, but it’s still strange.
It was a pretty good P-day.
We got to e-mail first, so that was nice. All the e-mails I got were good this
week. Gotta thank Lacey and Dad for
letting me know my 9 month mark is next week.
How did half of my mission slip away from me!?! I swear that I have not been out that
long. It is hard to think about and sad,
but at the same time I know that I can be proud with what I have accomplished
so far! Luckily, I still have a little
while to go, though, I know that the last 9 months will slip by even faster
than the first 9 month. Oh bother! I just can’t win.
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| Sisters Bowling League! |
Dinner was at the Alleys.
I love them! Their 3 boys are the
cutest. Sister Alley found out on
Saturday that they are having another boy.
She is a little sad that it isn’t a girl, but she is an awesome sport
about it.
We didn’t have a set appointment with anyone, so we decided
to try some less-actives. We made a goal
to focus on 1 or 2 less-actives and get them active! Well
we went to the Hanawalts and talked with Sister Hanawalt for like 45
minutes. When we headed home, we decided
our goal was to get her and her husband active and to the temple! We are excited!☺
April 1, 2014
Happy April Fools Day!
Mom, I thought about when you were on your mission and called Grandma
really quick. It made me laugh to think
about you finding a payphone and putting in whatever Belgian coin it took and
connecting just long enough to say “Happy April Fools Mom!” before it clicked
off. That memory made me laugh.
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| That's my cute district! |
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| The Hickory Flat and Canton Sisters!! |
Then we headed over to the Sucars. We haven’t seen them for a few weeks. Luckily they were home! Sister Sucar said she had been waiting for us
to call. Well, we had. But the number she had given us was some
stupid store. The oops probably happened
on our end. Luckily we got it all
figured out and hopefully she can come with us on Friday to see the Frias
family!
Then we went tracting.
And was it HOT! 80 degrees. Ugg..
So sweaty! But we had fun. This new tracting thing that we’ve got going
is awesome! One guy we talked to invited
us in and we taught him the first lesson!
He used to be in the Secret Service and had pictures with him by Richard
Nixon and Ronald Reagan. So cool!! His wife was nice and a little out
there. She believes that this life is
all a dream and that we are all in Heaven right now, but we’re asleep. That is a new one for me.
Then we had a lesson with Bill. He reminds me so much of Richard, it’s
nuts! He is a cutie and I just love him
lots. We asked if he would like a
blessing and he said yes. He didn’t like
it too much that only the Elders can do that.
Haha!
We ended our night with the Kings. They took us to William Bros. Barbecue--
which is huge here in the South. I’ll
have to send you some of their BBQ sauce sometime. It was fun!
I really like their son Jon, now that he has been home from his mission
for a while. He is getting back to normal. He is the same age as me and home from his
mission. Weird. Well, I guess most of my friends are home
from their missions as well. I’m not
sure how it has already been two years for them. Crazy!
April 2, 2014
Oh my! It was an
exhausting, but productive day today!
And it was about 80-85 degrees the whole entire day. Ugg.
So stinkin’ HOT! I had blocked
the feeling of always being sweaty from last summer. But it’s back. : /
We started off our day with a lesson with Jenn. Ah! I
just love her! It’s so funny, cause she
is my age. She turned 21 in August. It just kinda boggles my mind. We are the same age but as such different
points in our lives. I just love
her!! She is so excited for her baptism.☺ Her interview is between sessions of General
Conference on Saturday! Whoot! So that’s all going good!
We met Elder Peña’s new companion Elder Hayward. He came out with Sister Knight and Elder
Angilau (who was in my MTC district) trained him! So that was fun. ☺ I hope he and Elder Peña will get along
well!
Then we went to visit Morgan. She is really trying to get her life in
order. I don’t know if she is going
about it in the best possible way but she is putting effort into it. I love her and continue to pray for her.
Then we went tracting.
In the heat. And sweated ling
pigs! : / We met some cool people though! We met a guy named Cain who was working on
a house. He has some great potential and
seemed really interested! My goal is to
make Cain a solid investigator and then find an Abel! That would be super awesome! Okay so I think I am funny!
We also met a guy named Pete from Greece! He also took a Book of Mormon so that was fun
and exciting!
When we got back to the car, we had a text from the ZL’s. It said to be on the lookout for one of the
elders in our Zone. I don’t know what
happened to him. Hopefully they find him
soon.
We had dinner at the Delahunty’s. Brother Delahunty wasn’t there. The kids were so funny! They had lots of energy.
After dinner we tracted some more and then met with Sister
Owens who just got called to be the new Relief Society President. We talked about some ladies she wanted us to
visit and how the RS can help with missionary work. I love Sister Owens! I’m so excited for her!
Last but not least, I got my first letter in a week
today! Whoot! Thank you Sister Hooker!☺ Haha!
Sister Rowe always feels pretty bad when she get the mail. She usually has at least one letter, ususally 3ish. And she always gets packages from her mom and
neighbors. I am happy that they take
good care of her. It is fun to get
mail. Ah well, I figured it would be at
about month 9 when things slowed down for me. ☺ Mom, don’t think I’m chastising you or
anything! Cause I’m not! You are fabulous at sending letters
and packages.☺ You too Daddy.☺ And Lace is awesome on her e-mails! So don’t worry! I know I’m not forgotten by y’all.
April 3, 2014
Man, I thought we would never get through this day! Whew!
We were pretty productive but it was just a long and weird day.
We started out with our lesson with Jenn and that was
awesome.☺ She is
getting baptized a week from Saturday and we are SO excited!! She is too! ☺ We went over the interview questions with her
and talked about them. She understands
the gospel really well and is constantly trying to learn more!☺
Then came the difficult part of our day- - less
actives. Sister Owens gave us a good
list of people to visit. NO ONE WAS
HOME!!! Stupid spring break! : / Finally we got into one of the homes. The Skaggs.
That was interesting. Brother
Skaggs doesn’t really have a testimony and sadly doesn’t even care. Sister Rowe was asking him questions about
his conversion and that made him squirm a little.
After the Skaggs we were trying to figure out what to
do. Well my watch had broken yesterday
morning and I was dying without one. So
we decided since it was so hot we would go find me a new one and try to do some
contacting along the way. We made a goal
to talk to at least 3 people while .
Sister Rowe talked with the ladies in charge of the dressing room at TJ
Maxx. It ended up being like a 30 minute
discussion! It was awesome! But I couldn’t find a watch. We headed to Target. I found a watch and we got some contacts in
as well. It was awesome! Different than knocking doors- -I guess it
was just a nice change of pace.☺
Dinner was with the Haruch’s. Sister Haruch reminds me of you, Momma! I felt very comfortable and at home with her.☺ So that was nice! They did something pretty cool before we
left. Brother Haruch asked us if we
would bless their home. I guess that is
their tradition every time they have the missionaries over. I liked that!
So I did the harvest blessing.
The harvest blessing is a prayer with the only difference being that after
we address Heavenly Father, we add, “by virtue of our calling as
representatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” It was cool!
And it really brought the spirit.☺
Then we went tracting until like 8:30. It’s nice that we can do that now and it’s
not dark! The one good thing about
daylight savings!☺
We are doing a lot better with our numbers this week than we
thought we would with spring break! It’s
been nice to see our numbers not go down!
Ah! Guess
what?!? One more day until General
Conference!! I’m so excited!! I can’t believe that after this session, I
will only be able to enjoy conference one more time as a missionary. It makes me pretty sad. There is just something different about
watching General Conference as a missionary!
Part of me is more excited for it than I was before my mission! Which is crazy caus I loved it before then
too!☺ Ah! I just LOVE General Conference!
April 4, 2014
Oh my exhausting day!
Mostly mentally and spiritually, which then makes you physically
exhausted.
We started out with weekly planning which went great! We planned Jenn’s baptism officially and got
everything figured out and got everyone doing what we needed them to. ☺
It was hard planning for most of our investigators cause we’re
kinda up in the air about most of them.
So that was a little rough. But
we followed the spirit and planned what we felt we should for them.
After planning, we went and saw a lady named Marion. She is a referral from Sister King’s friend,
who is Marion’s daughter-in-law. Marion’s
son converted when he was 16 and got married in the temple, has 5 daughters,
with one on a mission. They have tried
everything with Marion. She has read the
Book of Mormon and believes it’s true.
Basically she told us that she just doesn’t want a big calling in the
church, she doesn’t want a big responsibility.
Really?!? She said we could visit
but there’s nothing we can do or say that will change it. She said when her granddaughter gets off her
mission she’ll try to convert her (Marion).
Marion said maybe she will join then.
Oh boy she was a sweet lady. She
said that she can’t meet with us for the next 2 weeks. So I guess we’ll see what happens.
Then came Bill. : /
Yesterday on the phone he said he needed to talk to us. I didn’t like the sound of that. Well, when we got there he dropped us. His reasoning? Because we celebrate Easter. You may be thinking, “Huh?” Yeah, us too.
He said that Easter in its Greek form is a woman’s name that means
fertility or something. I don’t really
know. Then he said we shouldn’t be
celebrating Easter, but Passover. I
tried to talk about how we’re celebrating Christ and HIS resurrection. But nope.
So there ya go. I think we get
the reward for one of the weirdest and stupidest reasons to drop the
missionaries. : / Go figure.
Sister Rowe was pretty sad the rest of the day. It was hard.
I had to remember that this her first legit dropping. It was pretty awful. So because we were bummed, I decided we would
go to Gloria’s and Sister Olah’s like 4 houses down, cause we knew they loved
us! So we chatted with them for a while
and felt a little better.
Dinner was at the Ashment’s tonight. Brother Ashment was working and their oldest
son (who has autism) was a bit all over the place. Sister Ashment is just sweet, gentle, and
patient. She just went with the
flow. She is really just an awesome
person and a great example. We did our
armor of God with them. Let’s just say
we’re gonna need to either fix up our armor or get new armor. It was a hoot! They are a great family.
Then we went tracting.
We knocked on one door and this little man answers the door, he reads
Jesus Christ on my tag and invited us in and grabbed his wife. His name was Al and his wife, Maria. They were Hispanic and basically they just
talked to us a mile a minute. Maria told
us about 10 times that she was Catholic.
It was pretty cute. We attempted
to give the first lesson but we could hardly get a word in! I think Heavenly Father sent us there to
cheer US up more than anything. It was
quite a hoot!☺
We ended ournight at the Frias! ☺ They are a good family! They are planning on coming to some of
General Conference! Hopefully something
will be said that touches their hearts!
April 5, 2014
Happy Saturday sessions of General Conference! Ah! So
many things to learn! It’s so funny to
me that here, General Conference goes from 12-2 and 4-6. Last October, that totally threw me off, this
time, not so much.☺
Before we went to General Conference we took Jenn to find
her some modest church clothes☺ cause she’s getting baptized
in a week ya know!! And she wanted to
make sure that she had some nice modest outfits. The members are super awesome about making
sure our investigators feel comfortable in their clothing, so we had some money
to pay for some of what she got, which was great! After we were done, she was so excited! She had her interview today and on the way
home was planning which outfit she would wear!
Ah! I just love her!!☺
Then we went to the
church for General Conference! Whoot! It was us, our elders, the Canton elders and
sisters, the Kings and an older guy named Stanley from our ward. No one else was there. But I kinda like that way. It is quiet and easier to concentrate.
Okay, just gotta say, I LOVED Elder Holland’s
talk! He hit right on the spot with a
few things, mostly about missionary life.
I loved that he pointed out that sometimes we question if what we’re
doing out here is even worth it. Not all
the time, but on the mashed potatoes thrown at the back of your head kind of
days, the wondering and doubt that creep in.
But it IS worth it!
Especially when you pull in what Elder Scott said about teaching with
the vision of families being sealed in the temple!
Then I loved Elder Rasband’s talk. What an amazing story about the little girl
and the tornado. Sister Rowe and I have
been thinking it would be cool to get at least a tornado warning. I had one in Suwanee. But now we’re thinkin’ maybe not. I like how he said we neede to “take up the
joyful burden of discipleship.” He’s
right, sometimes it’s joyful and sometimes it is a burden, but it is our duty
as member of Christ’s church!
In between sessions Elder Anderson our District Leader,
interviewed Jenn.☺ Afterwards we’re talking and he looks at us
and says, “She is elect sisters!” Cute
Sister Rowe gets a big grin on her face and said, “Really?!” I had to giggle. We knew she was elect, but Sister Rowe was
glad t ohear it from someone else. ☺ I
was too. It is nice that others can see
in her what we see in her. We tracted
for the rest ofo ur time in between sessions then went back. This time, it was only the missionaries.
I
loved when Elder Nelson said, “Those who face their fears have courage as well.” Sometimes, we believe that because we have
fears, we are weak, But as long as we are facing them, we are courageous!
And
Elder Scott’s talk was awesome! One of
my favorite things he said was , “Be the change in someone’s life for ETERNAL
good.” I feel like especially out here,
that is our main focus, it is an eternal good to be baptized, to get sealed in
the temple, and endure to the end, and if we can do that for even one soul, “how
great shall be your joy.” ☺
Last
but not least, was Elder Cook! I think
mainly that was one of my favorites because he spoke to just us missionaries
like a month ago! I did love that he
said, “temple work is connecting roots to branches.” How true that is! I wish I could go to the temple and do
that! But, I guess right now we are the
gatherers. We are picking up the fallen
branches and grafting them back on to the tree.☺
Ah! I just can’t wait for tomorrow’s sessions!
After,
we went to dinner at our house, and prepared for a lesson with Amanda. I’m so tired of her beating around the
bush. So I told Sister Rowe that I may
end up asking pretty hard and direct questions.
Well, I did just that. I asked
her some pretty hard questions. And what
it came down to was that a) she doesn’t want to change and she knows she’ll
have to if she finds out the truth, and b) finding God and the truth is not
really her top priority. It was sad and
frustrating. It is hard when you really
love someone and want to share with them what you love most, and they just don’t
really care. But after, we felt calm and
peaceful. I was bold, but loving, and we
got the answers we were looking for. Not
necessarily the answers we wanted but. . . .
Our investigator pool is dwindling.
It’s because we have a baptism next week. Satan is working hard. But that’s okay. We will just stay the course and work harder
than him. We may still be in the middle
of the battle but we know the ending. And
we are on the winning side!!!
April
6, 2014
Happy
General Conference Sunday. I so love
Jesus Christ and what a gift his birth was for us. I love that this is the day the church was
officially reorganized so many years ago.
Wow there is a lot going on on the 6th of April.
So
I got a little sad this morning at 10 o’clock my time, 8 o’clock yours. Why did I get a bit sad? Well, cause I figured if I were at home, the smell
of Daddy’s waffles and peaches would be filling the house with a yummy
smell! Mmmm! I miss those things! Alas, what’s a girl to do besides wait 9
months for that yummy taste!?!☺
Well,
wasn’t conference just dandy?! I just
loved President Uchtdorf’s talk! I liked
Elder Ballard’s talk about following up!
Because we do just that as missionaries FOLLOW UP! All the time!
We’re going to be doing a tone of that this next week because we have 7
new potentials from tracting! So it was
a nice reminder to do just that! And his
story of “following up” on his wife was so cute.☺
Elder
Bednar’s talks are always great! As long
as you are able to follow along with that deep thinking of his.☺ Sometimes
I get a bit lost with him.
Hey! Google “Character of Christ”
by him. It was a talk he gave in the MTC
and they only play it there but I think you can find the written version on
line. It is AMAZING!
Okay,
anyways. And then there was cute
President Monson. He seemed so much more
serious. It makes me sad. A little of his light went out when his wife
died. Though I can’t say I blame
him. Elder Winter said he was pretty
serious in the Priesthood session too.
In between
sessions we went tracting and we went to the houses that probably haven’t been
tracted in years because they are on one of the main roads and pretty hard to
get to. It was quite the adventure! We were so close to hitting our contact goal
for the week but luckily we would have time after dinner, so we just figured we
would do it then.
We
got back to the church and chatted with Sister King for a while. She is just the greatest. I really love her. I am so thankful that she is so great to us.
A
funny thing happened when we were altogether with the other missionaries. One of the elders who is a really good elder,
was telling us a story about when he was at home. His companion said something about how HE was
here to be focused. Huh? I didn’t, but I wanted to say, “The Lord did
not call us on a mission and tell us to forget and never talk about our home
life. He sent us here to learn, grow,
and touch certain people with our personalities and that means our life before
the mission too.”
Okay,
now back to conference. The last session
was awesome too. I like how Elder
Corbridge talked about how there will be the most opposition where the truth
is. It is SO true!! Elder Aidukaitis was pretty funny! Which doesn’t happen a whole ton in General
Conference. I liked him! He had character.☺ Elder Christofferson’s talk was just
stellar! One of the things I loved that
he said was, “Christ’s victory over death ended the human predicament. Now there are only personal predicaments.”
So
conference is awesome! I love it!☺ Oh!
And Jenn came and she LOVED it!!
She is going to be such an awesome member of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints. We need her in this
church!
We
had dinner at the Moran’s after the last session. They are a good family.
After
dinner we sped tracted. We didn’t just
run from house to house, we like sprinted, in the rain, so that we could get
our 70 contacts and still go have a lesson with Jenn. Every door we got to we were panting. BUT!
We were blessed! Not only did we
get our goal, but we also passed out 3 copies of the Book of Mormon and got 2
potentials out of it! The Lord most definitely
blessed us for wanted to hit that goal!!☺
Our
lesson with Jenn went well! She and Max
committed to pray together at least once every day! Sister Rowe and I were beat by the end of the
night.
I
love you all! Have a great week!!☺
♥
Molly
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