Five more weeks at once

Week of May 16 to 23:  the days are long but the transfers are short!

This week was the first week since the beginning of the transfer where we didn't have TOO much STL madness going on! That meant we actually got to see our investigators!! Woo!

We started the week off with a referral from our Sunday walk the day before! We met an 8 year old girl who wants to be baptized! Both parents served missions and their daughter isn't baptized! what. She volunteered: "I'm 8! When can I be baptized?!" whenever you want kiddo!! We think her mom just really wants to be sure she has a testimony before she gets baptized. either way we've been teaching her the lessons!

Tuesday it rained allllll dayyyyyy. It was a weird day. We tried to set a baptism date with one of our investigators but he doesn't really understand the difference of the priesthood and he really didn't get it when we tried to explain it! We had a great lesson with another investigator, though! We read Ether 12 and talked a lot about how God will help us strengthen our weaknesses.  we were like "do you know what you need to work on?" and she was like "YES I'm gonna do it." not sure what it is, but the Spirit told her what to do!  We're excited :) 

We taught the 8 year old AGAIN that night because this girl is excited to get baptized. We gave her a Book of Mormon stories book to read and asked her to read 1 story a day and she said "I'm gonna read 3!" and she has been! We taught her the restoration and her mom basically taught the whole thing. That was cool. :) 

Wednesday we had our last district meeting of the transfer!  Afterwards we went to a pizza place and a guy came up to the whole table of us and said "hey I used to meet with missionaries! Come see me again!" and turns out he lives in our area. Pizza is always a blessed decision. 

We taught the plan of Salvation that afternoon with one of the laurels who just graduated from high school! After church on Sunday when we had a missionary homecoming talk, she was like "I just want to go on my mission now!" but she has to wait a year until she turns 19 so we're just going to take her out with us as much as we can! She did awesome.   The investigator was talking about making choices here on earth and she was like "that makes me think of a scripture!" and pulled out a perfect scripture mastery for it! It was so great! :) 

That night we stopped by the church and saw a former sister missionary!   We were in the same district in Biloxi and she's back visiting for like a whole month!! Weird. It was fun to see her and say hi though :) 

Thursday we read the whole tree of life story with another investigator!  My comp drew it out for her and it went great!   She's at the point where she needs to decide for herself what she's going to do! She hasn't been taught everything yet, but she needs to realize her own commitment level before it's going to mean anything to her. She really related to the tree of life! :) 

Then we went home and cleaned and cleaned because we had apartment inspections! We THOUGHT we were going to be stuck at home all afternoon (even after the senior couple left) because we had started our oven on self-clean and it still had like 2 hours left BUT then we realized that we could just turn the self-clean off and we could leave. haha 

We went out to Sumrall and had dinner and a lesson with a young mom and her kids.  We had a great lesson! We referred to our lesson with her as our "come to Jesus." We just talked about what SHE wants and what SHE'S going to do to get it. She wants her husband to be all in for church too, but he's not right now. But will she?? It was a great lesson and she is determined to be an example for him and live her life how she should!! It was great!! 

Friday we weekly planned and then handed out fliers for the stake's church tour and then tried more referrals from our Sunday walk!   The member we walked with pointed at 2 houses in the neighborhood and said "they always seem sad. Maybe they need the gospel." and we have a return appointment with one of them! haha that was kind of funny :) 

Then we ate dinner with a member family.  Since it was the last day of school, we had a campout! AKA we ate hot dogs and watermelon and made s’mores in their driveway :) that was fun. I love watermelon. And summer. I'm so excited for summer. I love summer things! Except it'll get hot but I'm trying to ignore that fact :) 

Friday night we finished teaching the plan of salvation with another member (a single, older man) and we turned to him and said "would you like to share your testimony of the plan of salvation?"  He retaught the whole thing in greater depth and detail. So that was nice.    Then we turned to our investigator and said "if you REALLY want to know if God even loves you, you have to do the little things." I hope that got through to him! 

Saturday we went to the thrift store and did service! The Spanish elders have started going there as well and the ladies there have started having a lot more questions about our church because of it!! Which is good cause I don't ever want to work in retail so if I can have a missionary purpose there then that's great! :) 

Sunday's excitement was definitely church.   Two of our investigators came and we had a gospel principles lesson on exaltation.  WELL. They both just started asking all of these questions about their situations and exaltation and the teacher was answering them! We have heard all of them from both of them but it was AWESOME for a member to answer them!!! AKA it was great for a member to say the same things to them that we have been saying. They actually listened. It was wonderful! The same thing happened in Relief Society! It was great. I love members. 

After church, we went to a lunch appointment where MORE unsolicited referrals were received and then had a lesson with a less active that my comp has tried her whole time here to meet! Woo!

We booked it to the church for the stake's church tour but none of our investigators showed up and that's when President called and told us about transfers! So we didn't get a lot of the tour.

Then we taught the 8 year old again! This girl is on fire. And we were randomly invited to a member's BBQ next door. because why not. 

What a crazy week! 

Church signs: 

"trade God your pieces for His peace"

"to love God is to know Him"

I LOVE Y’ALL!

Love,

Sister Nash

Week of May 24 to 31: Another transfer has begun!

Another week has come and gone! Don't tell me how many I have left though... I know it's very simple addition but I've been trying to not add it! haha

On Tuesday my comp got on one transfer van at the same time that my new comp got off the other transfer van! So I already had my new companion in the morning but, because we’re STLs, we had to stick around with the other sisters who were still waiting for their new comps. We went to breakfast at IHOP (cinnamon roll pancakes... yuuumm) and then did service at a thrift store for like 3 hours. We were tired! We had a dinner appointment and then waited for no one at our weekly church tour (so I gave the tour to my new comp instead!) and then we headed out to walmart!

GUESS WHAT. Being a missionary is hilarious. A guy stopped us in walmart and was like "could I ask you a question about your TV provider?" and we were like "ummmm we're missionaries" and so we taught him the restoration. It was awesome. haha THEN a walmart worker stopped us and talked to us for like 20 minutes about how he's researched Mormons and there are just some things he doesn't like. Either Joseph Smith is the greatest thing to happen to the earth or he's the biggest liar. At this point, it was like 8:45 at night in walmart and I was like "BUDDY you stopped US and talked to us for EVER about Joseph Smith? I think you know" except I said it nicer. He calls us like all the time now. 

Wednesday we went to downtown Hattiesburg to pick up the other 1/2 of my new comp's luggage that got left in Gulfport and was delivered by the senior missionaries.  Then we had a District meeting where a lot of our district had changed! We spent a lot of the afternoon just trying a bunch of investigators.  One of them CRIED when she realized that my former comp was actually gone. That was rough. We helped her in her yard for a while.

Then we had dinner with a member who is the sweetest thing. Her husband isn't a member but he comes to church pretty regularly.   It was an interesting dinner appointment! 

Thursday we went out again with the recent high school graduate to see a less active sister!   She had done a YW project with her and was excited to see her again :)   The sister had cancer and she said that she has a hard time remembering things because of the chemo. She said "people can tell me things that I said a month ago and I can't remember it!" so I said "well, a month ago, we came by and you said you'd give us a million dollars" and her eyes got REAL big and she was like "I did??" and then she caught my joke and laughed for like 10 minutes. It was so funny. hahahaha

Friday was our Sumrall day! We started by helping with bishop's storehouse and that is always good fun. It was fun to see all the new missionaries there! and it made me hungry. helping at the bishop's storehouse always makes me hungry. 

Saturday, we had a return appointment from tracting in a neighborhood that we never go to so I might have gotten a little bit lost getting there but that's okay! We made it. haha he wasn't there so we ended up tracting for a good while instead. There was this little yappy dog that followed us to every house for like 15 minutes BARKING right behind us. That was nice. haha as it always turns out, it was the LAST house that we knocked on that we found someone. It's always the last house. When in doubt, knock on one more door. Then, as we were going back to our car, we talked to a guy sitting on his front porch for a while and gave him a Book of Mormon! It was an unexpected morning but it turned out well!

Sunday we were going to have correlation and ward council but literally no one was at church! It was Memorial Day weekend and a member of the ward had passed away and his funeral/viewing was during church in Columbia (like 40 minutes away) so almost no one was at church!   The less active sister we visited did though!!! I told the young member who went with us it was because of her and she told me it was because of my joke that she laughed at forever. haha 

Our 8 year old investigator and her little sister came and sat by us and colored and used my stickers through the whole meeting. that was cute :)  I was craning my neck through all of sacrament meeting to see if any other investigators came but I didn't see anyone walk in. SO after sacrament we were just standing around when the Purvis sisters come up and were like "where is your gospel principles class? your investigator is looking for it!"   It was someone we had specifically invited to come. She had just never come before! It was awesome! She really loved church! I'm so glad that she came! 

Yesterday was NOT pday which was interesting! We celebrated Memorial day with Chinese food.. haha

We saw the investigator who cried about my former companion leaving and it was great because she said to a member, "my girls leave me but YOU will never leave me!!"  I love member missionary work. It makes transfers so much easier. 

Yesterday evening we went to see a golden investigator we tracted into forever ago!  She just had surgery so we sat on her bed with her. AND HAD THE BEST LESSON EVER. She has soooo many questions and they're all great! She grew up Hare Krishna and has only recently been learning about God. She didn't know anything about Mormons (she asked if she joins will her whole family have to move somewhere and be a missionary) but she felt so peaceful about what we shared!   I look forward to her baptism on June 25. :) 

It was a good week!

Today we're going to the zoo! 

I kinda slacked this week on church signs.. 

"may the peace of Christ be with you"

"make a right turn. It'll be the right turn" conveniently the church is on the right side of the street... 

LOVE YOU,

Sister Nash

Reaching the 16 month mark!

Week of May 31 to June 6: HOLY COW TIME FLIES

Week 2 is over and we PACKED it.

So last Monday wasn't pday and Tuesday WAS pday and that was kind of weird. We picked up the Purvis sisters and spent all day with them because it was the 31st of the month and they did not have any miles left. haha we couldn't even go grocery shopping because our cards hadn't been refunded yet. So we spent all stinkin’ day at the zoo!!

The Hattiesburg zoo is an experience. It was rather small...no elephants or lions or giraffes or bears OH MY....so we could go through it pretty quick.  It did have alligators though. Go figure. 

And tigers! that was fun! 

It was SUPER hot.   

This picture of the lemur accurately expresses how we feel sometimes: "I don't WANT to tract!  It's too hot!" haha we got a kick out of that :)

It was fun though!

Then it was already Wednesday! that was crazy. Our mission had a district leader conference where all the district leaders were shipped up to Jackson for a day or so and talked about what a district leader should do so our district meeting on Wednesday was GREAT. that was nice :) 

Afterwards, we went and helped our investigator! We were going to pull out her porch and rebuild it but instead we power washed her trailer. We're going to do her porch on Tuesday instead. I was telling another missionary that we'd be doing that and she was like "does she know y’all aren't professionals?" so we'll see how it turns out. The Spanish elders are going to help too so, between the 5 of us, something might get done.

Thursday we had MLC! It was a mess because we still hadn't grocery shopped and even though we weren't going to be home for 2 days, we were running low! So we went in the morning before MLC.   Then the Gulfport elders and sisters met us here in Hattiesburg and I drove the Gulfport sisters up to Jackson while they both slept in the backseat…I had to drive instead of sleep!

MLC itself was good! We talked about having district meeting in the afternoon and making transfers smoother by people having less stuff. haha I learned what an STL does! We're basically just over exchanges but we give input to the zone leaders on zone things and then they decide and do it all. So that's nice to know at least. That night, we drove to Clinton and stayed there with my former companion! I was really excited to see her! She's doing well so that was good to hear :) it was fun to see her even though I was her companion like 2 weeks ago. haha

Friday we had a lot more learning and instruction. We had to plan zone conference!  Normally President does all of zone conference but he delegated it to the zone leaders to plan what to teach and we all talked about it. that was fun. Then we drove home! We dropped off the Gulfport sisters (who slept the whole way again) at the church.

We went to see our golden investigator and had a great lesson with her! Her sister was really anti-ing her but she said that she was defending the church! She said that! She said she was getting really defensive! She asked us how to answer questions her sister asks, like how to prove it. I've never had an investigator ask to Bible bash in FAVOR of our church. that was awesome. haha her husband is getting more and more involved too! He's been very "whatever you feel is right!" it's been awesome. 

Saturday we got up and drove to Petal for exchanges.  I dropped off my comp and brought one of the Petal sisters back to our area.  We volunteered at the thrift store for a while and then saw the man who came up to us in a pizza place at district lunch and asked for missionaries to come see him again. OKAY. Well, my comp and I went once and so the Petal sister and a member and I went back and taught him the restoration. He's kinda an interesting fellow, but the gospel is for everyone right? haha We are tentatively planning on his baptism July 2!

Then our wonderful member missionary friend, Dede, drove us to Sumrall and we read 2Nephi 31 with a couple!  One of these days, something will light a fire under them and they'll make their own changes. But it was a good lesson.

Then a new member lesson with Dede where she already knew all the answers (she's so great) and then we read 3Nephi11 with another couple.   She's on bedrest for 6 weeks from her surgery so they didn't come to church but she said for sure next week! :) 

Yesterday we didn't have ANYTHING scheduled but we were so busy! I think we were blessed because we tracted. We didn't meet anyone while we tracting but, as we tracted, we got phone calls to go see people so we were busy all night!

And then this morning! The guy who stopped us in Walmart called us and wanted to meet somewhere for a discussion! Well we met at the church and he basically talked the whole time. But we steered it with questions: why did you want to meet with us? have you read the Book of Mormon? what kind of answer are you expecting from God?" It was really good. He's kind of interesting but he really wants answers. that's how you get them! I also find it hilarious because he works at the walmart where like 7 sets of missionaries shop every week and he stops and talks to ALL of them and has given ALL of them his number and gets annoyed with ALL of them because they never actually call. WELL I think we've called him like ONCE and so he keeps calling US and telling US that he wants to meet with us. haha he told us today that we're the only two that he felt were actually sincere. #score

the only church sign I have this week: 

"receive Jesus, God's greatest Memorial gift" 

I love being a missionary and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ! Like we told an investigator this morning, it's the only thing that really helps.

LOVE Y’ALL!

Love,

Sister Nash 

Week of June 6 to 13: SO MANY MILES ON OUR NEW CAR THIS WEEK!

This was a crazy week! 

Tuesday, we WERE going to help an investigator build her porch but she didn't have the right saw and she had been in the hospital! She really hasn't been feeling well :( so we just had a lesson with her. Then we went to see someone else and SHE had been in the hospital too! We got there and she was hooked up on oxygen and she said "sisters can you help me with something? will you clean my house?" So we swept and mopped and dusted! She needed all the dust out for clean air. It was great to actually be asked to help and just get to work right away.

Then we had another lesson with the man who came up to us in Mercury Pizza and asked for missionaries to come over again! We went with a member and read 2 Nephi 31 with him and reminded him to pray about his baptism date.  We have since learned that he is already a member which really just makes a lot of sense why he knew so much already. hahaha 

That night we were going to have a church tour but our investigator didn't show up so we just gave the tour to the members who came!

Right before the tour, we got a call from Sister Olson (the Mission President’s wife) and she said "hello! We'll be in Hattiesburg tonight! Can I come plan with you tonight?" So right after the tour, we booked it home and tidied up just a tad (or hardcore cleaned) and then waited at the church with the zone leaders (because President was going to plan with the zone leaders).  THEN during our nightly planning we learned that we were actually going to be on an exchange the next day! With Sister Olson!

We were going to have our zone training meeting in the afternoon so we met up with President and Sister Olson for companion study in the morning and then went out with Sister Olson and Dede.   It was only a little intimidating to have 4 ladies at your door.. haha it was funny. It was kinda a hectic morning, trying to finish getting everything ready for teaching at our afternoon meeting AND also teach lessons with Dede and Sister Olson. Dede got to stay for the meeting though and she loved it :) 

After ZTM, we went home, packed and picked up the elders and drove to Meridian! We dropped off the zone leaders and then drove to Philadelphia. Longest day ever. haha 

Thursday we had the same training meeting with the Meridian district and then went on exchanges! I got to be with a sister I was in Clinton with during her first 2 transfers! It was so fun to see her again :) she's the funniest :) We tracted for just like 15 minutes and then a guy came out and was like "I don't have anything better to do for a few minutes.. yeah I'll listen" and then he kept nodding and liking what we were saying and asking "is there anything else you need to tell me?" and it was hard to not jump in and teach him EVERYTHING! He is so cool though! I'm excited for them to teach him! I love how miracles always happen on exchanges :) 

Friday morning, we helped them get started weekly planning and then hit the road! We picked up the zone leaders and drove home! Once we got back to Hattiesburg, Dede insisted on feeding us lunch because she claims she hadn't fed us in too long (last Saturday) and then she went with us on a visit! We talked about the Restoration and our investigator is going to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning! That'll be exciting :) 

THEN we picked up the Purvis sisters and drove to Columbia! The Columbia ward was doing a church tour and there were 7 sets of missionaries there to help them with it! And none of their investigators showed up. That was heartbreaking. There were some nonmembers though! It was kinda silly that there were so many missionaries though. We did eat a lot of food though and help with the tour. AND a less active man's dad is an active member in the Columbia ward so I talked to him for a long time about how to help his son. That was awesome!

Saturday we drove out to Sumrall for brunch with a member family! It was at 11:30 so it was basically breakfast for lunch for us but they had to haul their kids out of bed to eat. Teenagers. haha we heard the WHOLE girls camp report and that was fun :) I'm so excited that my major is the equivalent of the girls camp director calling. SO PUMPED. 

We had a great lesson with Dede! She committed herself to memorize the first vision so we read Joseph Smith History together. I've never realized how much converts can really relate to Joseph Smith. They had the same experience!!

Then my comp was miserable with a cold so we went home and she took a nap while I made cookies. Then, when she woke up, we delivered cookies! I swear, delivering cookies is like magic. Every time that we've just dropped by to see one investigator, she tells us her house is too messy for us to come in (even though it's never that messy!) but - when we went by on Saturday and said, "we just wanted to drop off cookies!" - she said "come in! Let's have a lesson!!" and we did. It was great! haha cookies are like magic. 

Yesterday we had ward council and then, after church, we stopped by some less actives that we were told to go visit in ward council! I was glad that we were able to go the same day we were told about them! Then, last night, we had a lesson in a member's house! She taught a family home evening lesson on journal writing/writing spiritual impressions.   Our investigator keeps saying, "I know that the Lord wants me to be in this church." One day we will figure out why she's not! She'll get there :)

CHURCH SIGNS! 

"hate is like acid; love is wellness"

"he who saves one life saves the world"

"rest in the Lord and He will take care of the rest"

"it is a joy serving the Lord"

"if any man may be in Christ, he is a new creature"

"stop drop and roll will not work in hell" hahaha

"where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom"

"grace greater than all our sin"

"let your words build others up not tear them down"

"don't fear tomorrow; God is there"

"prayer is not about getting all you want, it's about getting in God's will"

I LOVE Y’ALL!

Love,

Sister Nash

Week of June 13 to 20: First day of summer!

When I changed my puppy-a-day calendar this morning and saw that it was the first day of summer, honestly my first thought was "It hasn't officially been summer yet?" haha 

This week has been the longest week of my whole life! I honestly can't believe it's only been a week since I've last emailed. WHOA. 

Tuesday was exchanges in Purvis! I stayed in Purvis and we had a party.   The other sister and I came out at the same time and we've served around each other a lot so it was fun to spend a day with her! She's a really good missionary :) We spent our day walking around! Literally. I think she said that we walked like 6 miles. yay. haha As we were walking along the road (sidewalks don't exist here), she was suddenly like "WHOA look!!" and there was a SNAKE. I have heard my whole mission that snakes are in tall grass and don't walk in tall grass and all that but I did not realize that for snakes the definition of "tall grass" is like 4 inches tall!! I guess they are pretty short... haha it was slithering away from us but we decided that we didn't really want to walk behind it.. so we turned around and walked another way to where we were heading. CRAZY. 

Also tender mercy. We left an appointment and it was slightly sprinkling.. She was like "we could go walk to this one person or we could walk home and get the car and go see someone else" but by this time, it started picking up a little bit and by the time she said "let's just walk home cause it's raining" it was dumping BUCKETS and we were drenched. Well right at that time, a member in the Purvis ward pulled up next to us and said "hey y’all need a ride??" and we hopped in! It was great. We got 2 random rides like that that day. :) I love nice people. Especially when it saves me from walking an hour home in pouring rain. So good. :) 

Wednesday morning I was still in Purvis and we saw an investigator that the sisters hadn't met yet (they pink-washed the area which means they BOTH got here this transfer) but I had! I had met her on exchanges like 2 transfers ago and she was like "it's good to see you! Is this your new companion?" and it was funny that we had to explain to her that I didn't actually live in that area :) haha

We had lunch with a member who got so much out of our lesson (we shared Alma 5:26 "can you feel so now?") that she called us later that night and asked us to come over! So we went over and she told us how she doesn't like it when she has doubts if God really cares for her and she wanted us to pray and read scriptures with her. I have no idea what we said but she told us how much we really helped her and she appreciated it.  I think all we did was bring the Spirit and give that lady a good ol’ hug. And I guess that's all she needed!  I love her.   

Thursday we drove to Hattiesburg for more exchanges! It was fun!

That night, we did something I've never done before! We sing tracted! We just tracted but we started with "we're missionaries and we're singing a hymn for people. Could we sing a hymn for you?" I was nervous but the other sister loves it and does it all the time so I wanted to try! I thought it was like caroling, but a lot of people were like "nah you don't have to sing to me" so then we just talked to them like normal. haha WAY easier than I thought :) we did sing "where can I turn for peace?" for this one lady. I really liked it!

Friday we helped the Hattiesburg sisters weekly plan so therefore our own weekly planning got pushed back!

We tracted a lot that night and tried to track down our evasive appointments (we literally saw one man drive home and then he didn't answer…).   We got to another appointment as it started blowing and sprinkling and he told us that there was a big tornado close by so we needed to go home! So we booked it to the church as fast as the tiwi would let me ("check your speed") and it seemed to be intense!   But it only lasted for like 20 minutes and then it wasn't even raining and we determined that he just didn't want to have a lesson. haha 

Saturday we helped out at the thrift store and then helped an investigator.  She wanted to pay us but she just bought us sno-cones instead! I've had more sno cones the past few weeks than ever before in my life. Then we taught her boyfriend's son the Restoration. He's like 13 and he had a lot of great questions! It felt so good to actually be able to help her! 

Yesterday, we had church where the main topic was our POPPAS! There were 2 musical numbers (one was the primary!) and every song on the family in the hymnbook. haha it was fun! We spent our afternoon visiting part member families we hadn't met yet and sharing the "Earthly Father Heavenly Father" video! It also rained a lot. That's just the south y’all.

Church signs:

"what do you think about the Son Christ who"  - this was LITERALLY ALL the sign said. I even drove around the back of it to see if it said anything else. NOPE.

"Thank You Father for our dads"

"a wise father knows the Heavenly Father"

"O God please clean my heart up"

"how do seedless watermelon have children?" this was on a storage unit place :)

"life is short and the world is wide"

"even Jesus has a fish story" this one is favorite

ANYWHO. I LOVE Y’ALL

Love,

Sister Nash 

The sunsets here are beautiful!