Last Monday, we played volleyball at the church with the missionaries in our district! for like 3 hours. Which was awesome.
Then, we had set up to go out with a member that evening but the people we lined up canceled (#shocker) so we went with her to visit teach! She is a missionary mom and she is so great! It was really fun to get to know her!
Wednesday was busy! We had zone meeting (not zone conference... it was like district meeting but with the whole zone and zone leaders taught). We spent the rest of the day going to the backups to our backups because I think literally all of our appointments cancelled on us that day. It's so much easier to roll with the punches with the car! Then we don't have to bike to kingdom come, we just hop in the car and drive off! :) Also, I like that we trade the car with the elders so that only half of every week is sweaty and gross and miserable, but never the ENTIRE week. #blessings.
Thursday was amazing. Of course it didn't go to plan but hey whatevs. We received a media referral for a lady who requested a Bible so we took her one! She was really nice and SO open! She was saying how she's started going to church again recently and things in her life fall into place more when she puts God first. #elect we taught her and her husband the Restoration and they LOVED it. We gave her the Bible she requested and then left her a Book of Mormon too! She and her husband are super super nice and are genuinely interested which is REFRESHING. That MADE my day because we were just going to drop off a Bible but then it turned into so much more! :)
Saturday was the day of the ward Fish Fry that we were SO looking forward to and invited everyone we talked to! It was going to be at the park but Saturday it POURED. So it ended up being at the church! I I had a really productive time talking with recent converts and investigators and less actives and then, when we were about to leave, someone got an alert on their phone for a tornado warning in the area. So we stayed a little longer......
Sunday we had ward council and got a lot of assignments! Which is good :) our bishop is awesome and is very involved with the people of the ward and with missionary work. After church, some members take the elders out to contact less-actives but, when the elders can't go, then they want to take us. It’s always nice to go out with members! I have never heard of members being more involved than the members here. It's really impressive actually. :)
FYI - It is SO HUMID here.
A couple of church signs...
"Every member was once a guest. Please join us!"
"Truth cometh by hearing... have you heard recently?"
I'm excited for this week to be better than last week. :) always moving forward! Adventure is out there!
Just a little taste of paradise!
May 19 – 26
We met a new investigator a few weeks ago, when he stopped us on the street and was like "hey Mormons! I used to live in Provo with RMs! I love Mormons!" Whut. He clearly already has a social conversion, but he's never had the lessons. He says that he likes to ask missionaries really hard questions to stump them so we'll see how the next lesson goes haha
Thursday we had interviews! It was our LAST interview with President McDonough because we will have a new mission president on July 1st. After interviews, we returned to our area and tracted in the pouring rain.
The 5th Sunday is always "Missionary Sunday" so we get to talk in church this week! The topic is obviously missionary work. The Ward Mission Leader will be talking about the ward mission plan and then my companion and an Elder will be talking about how members can do missionary work. Then the other Elder and I will be talking about examples of missionaries. I want to talk about Ammon but, instead of just the cutting off arms thing, Alma 26 - where he is SO excited about being a missionary.
On Friday we went out with our Relief Society president! She took us around and we visited a couple of people.
On Saturday, we went to the library to look up stuff for our talks and then we chalk talked! By then it was like noon and it was SO hot and humid that we didn't stay long. haha
We tracted and met this really nice girl! She opened the door and was kinda clearly not interested…but we asked if we could say a prayer with her (and then we were just going to go) but she was like "well y’all can come in to pray!" So we sat on her couch (in the BLESSED air conditioning) and said a prayer and then we kept chatting with her and then taught a lesson anyways because we had an opening prayer so why not go for it? And, don't we all need the gospel? We left her a Book of Mormon and asked her if she'd read it and she said that she was interested now!
Then we spent the evening tracting! As we kept tracting, this lady was like "y’all are tracting in some really bad weather!" and we were like "oh it's really humid and a little windy but it's okay!" and she was like "no like there's a tornado warning for this whole area." And so we went home. #scary
Yesterday was a FUN pday! None of our district could email because all of the libraries were closed so we had district pday! President made a new rule of NO BEACH between June and October so, since next Monday is the first day of June, yesterday was our last pday on the beach! Even though it rained on us almost the whole time, we went and played beach volleyball!
One recurring theme of this whole week has been RAIN. It's been wet. And tornado-y. I knew that the coast got hurricanes but I didn't realize it got tornadoes too!
I didn't see too many new church signs this week.. this was a good one:
"Anyone can wear the cross but can you bear the cross?"
But - of course - the storage place wins again:
"Real success lies with the person not the job."
We saw this on a door while we were tracting.
I wanted to knock on it. But we didn't!
 |
| I'm hilarious. This store is right by our apt complex and we walk by it all the time. |
We had another great lesson with our new investigator! She said that she read 3 Nephi 11 but couldn't remember what it was about so we read it with her. I don't know how much she cared, but I was a "Preach My Gospel" successful missionary because I really felt the Spirit as we taught! #score
Then we tracted and found a guy who is in the marines and is heading out to Africa in a few weeks. He asked if he could borrow the Book of Mormon and read as much of it as he could, then give it back to us before he left. Hahaha That's not how it works. Oh that was cool. We told him he could borrow it and then we'll come back and see what he's read and talk about it! He likes studying religions but had a BIG issue as we talked about prophets. "I don't trust people to tell me what to do." It's not just a random person talking to you.. he’s speaking for God! We'll see if we can get that through to him.. We're going to see him again tomorrow morning and I'm EXCITED to see how much he's read of the Book of Mormon!! :)
Then we went to a lesson with a recently reactivated sister. She said that she wants to make a goal of going to the temple but she couldn't possibly see how someone like her could go. So I said something like, "Hey, they let me in the temple and I'm not perfect!" and she really appreciated it. I could tell because she told me like 4 times after I said it, throughout the rest of the lesson AND as she dropped us off at our dinner appointment. :)
Wednesday we had district meeting and then went to Hardee's for lunch!! Hardee's is the southern Carl's Jr!! Like it IS Carl's Jr. The same logo and everything. The burgers had different names though. So that was a nice Southern experience. I like doing things with other missionaries! Our district is really big (5 sets of missionaries) so it's fun to talk to different people. :)
Thursday we walked like A LOT because our car was out of miles for the month. But that just was to our benefit because we knocked on a part member family's door and the mom (who is not a member) was like "Oh, are you dying? Come in and I'll give you water." So SCORE. Taught her family a lesson AND enjoyed some nice air conditioning. win win.
Thursday was our FOUR MONTH BIRTHDAY! It's fun to be with my MTC companion because all of "my" month marks become "our" month marks, so that's fun. :)
We tracted in a shady southern-looking neighborhood. Here's a picture:
Is this not the most southern street ever?
I heart the south.
It's crazy because it's not that hot, but it is so humid. I'm not used to it not being hot but still dying. It's a new experience for sure. I don't know how smart it was for me to time my mission for TWO summers. haha But, if I can survive 21 Las Vegas summers and then 2 Mississippi summers, then I can do ANYTHING!!!
We had a lesson planned with a man who is super nice and polite to us but told us that he's not really interested in changing anything. We went with a sister in our ward that I didn't know and we just hoped for the best. He hadn't done the reading assignment, so we read 3 Nephi 11 together. That was about all that we had planned and it turned into something amazing! I paused us after every couple of verses that we read and talked about it and it turned into this awesome lesson/discussion about verse 14 where Christ is still inviting us PERSONALLY to come to Him. We can't live on borrowed light forever!
On Saturday we helped with our stake's emergency preparedness fair! The coordinator was a sister in our ward who called the Mission President and specifically asked for the missionaries' help. She picked us up at 7am and drove to Gulfport to set up for the fair that started at 9. The fair ended at 4 pm and then we helped clean up. I talked to a lot of people and so that was fun :)
Sunday was the 5th Sunday which meant that it was missionary Sunday!! Which meant that I spoke in Sacrament Meeting. I spoke about Ammon and how excited he was about missionary work and it was good.
Tomorrow we're doing exchanges! I'll be staying here and working with one of the Sister Training Leaders. I was with her for the last exchange so I'm excited :) We have a full day planned for us. We're going to go visit a media referral that we didn't have the miles to visit last week. A woman requested a Book of Mormon in Tagalog and the request came from the Polynesian Cultural Center... so it's bound to be interesting. :)
New church signs!! I hope yall don't get bored of these but I take great joy in them. :)
"World's best data connection with no data cap! Details inside everyone welcome!"
"The Bible may hurt you with a truth, but it will never comfort you with a lie."
"If you think all dogs go to heaven, read Revelation 22" (look it up. We did.)
And then a more straightforward one...
"God does not take summer vacation. Attend church." hahaha
I think that's all! I love you all!! or as they say here. Love yall!!
This is me holding a turtle! It's a big deal with some ward members here to rescue turtles (Roadkill is real, my friends) so we frequently stop the car to rescue turtles that are trying to cross the street. We just put them on the other side of the street. After we hold them and take pictures with them first. Obvi. If I look drenched, it's because I was drenched. We were tracting and it POURED on us. By the time we got back to the car, it had stopped but we were already drenched!
We saw a lot of Katrina'd houses last night. The floor was still in tact. You could see the tile in all the different rooms. I seriously hear about Katrina at least once a day here. It's sad, but I'm constantly amazed how people are so strong: "yeah we lost our house and everything in Katrina. I remember helping find other people's houses! Man it smelled bad." No one complains about it. They say how devastating it was, but mostly just how people came together and helped each other after. It's amazing. I really want to be here for the 10th anniversary of Katrina to see how people commemorate it.
In related news, today is the first day of hurricane season! Woo. haha
June 2 – 8: It's Summmmmmahhhhh!
This week was sure exciting!! And by exciting I mean incredibly humid!! Someone look up the humidity here because it has to be like 90%. It's not that hot yet (hot, but not Las Vegas hot) and I think I'm fine walking around but then I touch like my hair or my face or something and I realize I am literally dripping. DRIPPING. I'm melting here, people. MELTING. It's kinda gross.
On Tuesday we had exchanges and I stayed here with one of the Sister Training Leaders. It was awesome!
Several exciting things happened on Tuesday. First of all, we went and contacted the lady who requested the Book of Mormon in Tagalog. We had NO idea what to expect but guess what? She spoke perfect English. Her response when we told her why we were there? "I'm Methodist and I'm not interested. Is this because my husband filled out that card?" YES. So I hope they enjoy their Tagalog Book of Mormon that will be coming in the mail... haha
The next excitement on Tuesday? Oh my gosh. I met the two most Southern men ever. They were just sitting on their porch, in front of their pile of beer cans, next to their pens of chickens and in front of their goat. Just sittin’ there. So we shared the gospel with them. One guy (Billy) spent the whole time saying how his brother is a preacher and he gets enough religion from him but the other guy (Rick) was actually pretty interested. As we were talking with them, a car pulled up in their dirt (I would not call it a driveway..) and a lady hopped out and said "hiii sisters!!" I had NO idea who she was and I knew the Sister Training Leader didn't, so I asked her "I'm sorry, ma'am, what was your name?" Turns out she's the less active daughter of one of our active members. She stopped to say hi to us as we talked to Rick and Billy!! Whaaaat. It was awesome. And then we left them a Book of Mormon and I took a picture with their goat, Potato Chip. Yes that is the goat's name. It was great.
ME AND POTATO CHIP!!!!
On Wednesday, we had district meeting and then ate lunch at the senior couple's house! That was really sweet of them.
Later, we tracted and we purposely found a shady street (shade actually makes a difference! it's cooler in the shade. who knew) but I got EATEN ALIVE. Oh so bad. The bugs LOVE me here! I think I might have forgotten bug spray that day too.. my legs look like I have chicken pox and I have recommitted to NEVER forget bug spray again. The weird thing is they don't really itch. I just look diseased. So that's fun.
Thursday we couldn't find anyone to teach. We tried like all of the potentials in an area and got nothing. So we chalk talked! There's a neighborhood with a golf course in it and there was a covered pavilion along a path so we chalked there! It was fun AND people actually stopped by and talked to us as we did it! No one was interested, but hey it was more successful than last time!
Chalk talk!! I was really proud of this one :)
Friday was Donut Appreciation Day so you bet we went and got our free donuts!
On Saturday we were going to do Thirsty Saturday because we hadn't done Thirsty Thursday. The point of Thirsty Thursday (or in this case Saturday) is finding! It's easier to stop and talk to someone while you're walking or on a bike than riding in a car. It's true! Since it was Saturday afternoon, there were a ton of people outside!
We did find a new investigator! She was taking out the trash as we walked by her house and we stopped and talked to her! She was really interested and she said, and I quote, "I have 2 questions for you. Are y’all Catholic or Baptist?" When we said "neither!" she looked like her whole world had been shaken and said slowly "I didn't realize there was anything else..." oh it was so funny.
Relief Society was all about visiting teaching and the importance of it. Afterwards, our investigator was crying! I seriously had no idea what to say or any idea WHY she was crying but I figured I should talk to her. She said "I can't believe y’all do all this for each other. That y’all would do this for someone like ME." Oh man! So…good tears, I guess. On the way home she was saying how she wants to keep going to church and be a good example for her husband and kids and she said "I didn't think about it before, but I think I want to try this Mormon thing" haha we'll take it!
Yesterday we were tracting and this guy opened the door and he was like "sorry I can't talk right now! My wife is in I think it's called labor so we're doing a lot of breathing exercises right now and I gotta go!" I wonder if he got in trouble for opening the door while his wife was starting LABOR!
June 9 – 16: Last Week of the Transfer!!
This week was the end of my 3rd transfer!! I'm like old now. Except not really at all. haha Next transfer day, July 28th, is my 6 month mark!! Is it just me or is time flying?? I swear every day lasts forever but then suddenly it's June? Like when did that happen?? :) I guess that's good thing! I'm glad that time is flying by! I still have SO much to learn but I'm glad I know more than when I first got here.
On Monday evening, the investigators we were going to see weren't there but, instead of trying someone else, we decided to tract. We went to an apt complex climbed up to the 3rd floor and knocked on the door. A man opened it and we asked him if he'd found a faith in Christ and he was like "no." So we asked him if he'd like one and he invited us in and we taught him and his girlfriend. We were kinda in shock that it went so perfectly hahaha but they took a Book of Mormon and seemed genuinely interested!! We just taught them for like 15 minutes and then left and as we walked out back to our car for our next appointment, we were whispering to each other "What just happened???" I think that was our big miracle of the week. :)
Tuesday afternoon was spent trying to track people down and SCRUBBING our car for zone conference on Wednesday! The car senior missionary said that we did a good job cleaning our car for how banged up and old it is! :)
Wednesday was our last zone conference with President and Sister McDonough!! I played the piano and I was so nervous but it was still good :) Afterwards, we got pictures with President and Sister McDonough! I'm gonna miss them!
President and Sister McDonough!!
As SOON as we got home from Zone Conference in Gulfport, a family from the ward picked us up and we visited a less active sister! The members’ 11 year old grandson set up the WHOLE thing! He wanted us and his grandparents to visit his friend's mom who grew up a member and hasn't been active since. So we did! It was awesome. We did literally nothing but it was so perfect. :)
Saturday was our FAVORITE day! (this is very sarcastic) We tracted for 3 hours because we got so behind with zone conference. We learned this week that the AC in our car doesn't work and Saturday was SO humid. It actually rained on us too! We were standing in the yard of the door that we had just knocked on and could SEE the pouring rain in the yard next to us BEFORE it hit us! It was crazy! We RAN for the car and sat in it dripping wet for like 5 minutes and then it stopped and we got out and tracted more! It was crazy. Mississippi weather is crazy.
Our investigator came back to church and she LOVED it. She said that as she left the building she heard the Spirit tell her "you can be a part of this."
On Sunday afternoon, we went around visiting people with some ward members. We were trying to find a member and learned that they had moved but talked to the guy who lives there now. He was saying that he doesn't read the Bible but he reads the Hible or something. He said that he can't comprehend the abstract "God" so he changes it to "Good." So Jesus becomes Jess and Christ becomes Chris. I asked him as we were leaving if he knew anyone else who could use a message about Christ and he was like "you mean Chris?" and I was like "no." You can't just change what you don't like about the Bible!! It's the Church of Jesus Christ! Not the Church of Jess Chris! OH it was so weird.
A week or so ago, a member gave us a BUNCH of fresh blueberries and I was like "What can we make with so many blueberries?" and my companion said, "Blueberry pancakes." So that's what I've eaten for the past few days for like every meal. SO GOOD.
Yesterday, we started out by taking our car to the dealer to get the AC fixed! Because, let me tell you, AC is necessary. NECESSARY.
The only new church sign this week was WELL worth it:
"Your name may be on a Coke can, but is it written in the Book of Life?"
and this old one I don't think I've sent you yet...
"When you put everything in God's hands, you start to see God's hand in everything."
June 17 – 22
Before we tracted on Saturday, we specifically prayed to share the Book of Mormon with people because we had barely done any tracting at all this week and hadn't lent any book of Mormons! And we did! It was really humbling to see that the only real difference in our tracting approaches on Saturday versus the rest of the week was how intently we prayed beforehand. It was awesome even though we melted.
tracting!
No new church signs, but we did see a sign on a door while tracting that said:
"The view is great, the friendship free... won't you sit on the porch with me?"
And when we told a brother in the ward that our AC had been broken in our car, he asked if we used the 4/60 air conditioning system... 4 windows down going 60 miles per hour :)
proud of this chalk talk! :)
Look at these freaky lizards!!
My companion was poking them with sticks and they didn't even move. I was terrified.
I know Amy got all sorts of pictures holding all the crazy animals but NOT THIS SISTER NASH.
Walmart shenanigans..
I felt like Amy in her fancy London hat :)
"McFamily night?
Yes, we'll provide the lesson if you provide the treats.."
June 23 – 29: Snowflakes in June in Mississippi???
This week has been an adventure! I think every week has been/will be. This is a trend that I'm noticing. Haha
On Tuesday I was thinking about how all President wants for the sisters is to find joy and satisfaction in the work. I thought "but it's kinda not all that fun..." and it hit me.. you have to FIND it. I would say that Tuesday was a success finding joy.
Tuesday night we had dinner with a new family that just moved into the ward! I love sharing messages with active member families because they are the ones who gather the family: "okay lets all go in the living room! I'm sure the sisters have a message to share!" I like when people expect it from us!
On Wednesday morning, we had district meeting and my companion taught! She was super nervous but she did a great job! (I'll be teaching district meeting in a few weeks. Ahhh!) Afterwards, we ate lunch at Pizza Hut. I blame EFY for my love of pizza.
We have actually decided that we will no longer tract from like noon to 3. We just can't do it. Especially in bike week, we're going to try to schedule our appointments during that time and tract in the evenings. We tracted or tried potentials from the area book from like 2-5 and we DIED. Never again! Except we've done that almost every other day this week as well.. haha
On Thursday we tracted in the afternoon again and wanted to die. We were trying potentials and met a lady from the area book. She had ZERO interest in the gospel. Straight up no interest.. but she gave us each a snowflake that she had crocheted! So...snow in June in Mississippi.
We taught a lesson about the Word of Wisdom this week and I explained that it's about agency. God doesn't want us to be a part of ANYTHING that alters or limits our agency. She was so appreciative and said, "’What you just said changed EVERYTHING that I've ever thought of the word of wisdom. I understand it so differently now." Boom.
We met a new investigator when we knocked on her door and she was like "do yall have my dog?" Apparently she's used to people bringing her dog back to her. We were like "no ma'am we don't have your dog." So she started yelling out from the screen door for her dog. Well, the dog came home and we taught her the Restoration! It was great. She told us not to forget to come back to see her this week!
On Saturday we helped at the bishop's storehouse! We actually just biked there because we're only a mile and a half away and we were wearing our service clothes. I loooooove biking sooo much!
That afternoon we went through our area book and then texted one of the recent high school graduates to come to our 2:00 lesson with us! She told us that she's filling out her mission papers! Wooo! It was a great mission prep experience for her because our lesson wasn't home and neither were the 2 backups that we planned! So we went and dropped in on someone else! That was a very realistic taste of a mission. ;)
Tracting that evening, we told a guy holding a beer bottle that we had a message about Jesus Christ and he stroked his beer bottle and said "i've got my Jesus right here." UH…Okay. You have fun with that sir....
Yesterday was stake conference. President and Sister McDonough both spoke and they are so great. I love them!! They go home on Thursday :(
Last night after dinner, we were tracting and a woman barely even opened the door, just enough to tell us to go away because she believes that God loves His children and didn't want to hear us say that He doesn't! Eventually she figured out that we agreed with her. She was really accepting of the Book of Mormon and, when she asked what we believe about the gift of tongues (she grew up in a Pentecostal church), I literally just quoted the 7th article of Faith. She loved it. You have just the best experiences tracting... hahah
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