She transferred to Louisiana on December 1st!

Week of Nov 2 – 8 (in Clinton, Mississippi):

It's apparently already winter here.  yeah it's pretty chilly.

Last Monday we went bowling!! The sisters from Vicksburg came over to join the party! The bowling alley is owned by a member so we got to bowl for free! Woo! We had a competition and my partner (not my comp haha) and I WON. It was fun :)

Then we had FHE with a family and the opening song was "Army of Helaman."  It was the cutest thing I've ever heard. Those kids can BELT that song.  It just warmed my little heart.

Then we taught our investigator and reviewed the Word of Wisdom, the law of chastity, the law of tithing and the importance of the Sabbath day. He already knew them all; we just wanted to review them all before his BAPTISM INTERVIEW on Tuesday! 

Tuesday we were tracting and met a woman who started out by telling us that she lost her faith! She told us that, “yeah it’s sad but that's what happened” and she's okay with it. She grew up in another church (I forgot what church) and had wanted to be a missionary! but she had just been taught to believe without questioning and then when hard things came along it wasn't enough for her. It was SO SAD. She told us a couple of times that she didn't want this to happen to us!  She doesn't believe in the Bible anymore, but she is SO NICE. She told us to go visit the lady down the street whose husband just died, she talked about taking care of her grandbaby, she told us how nice it was what we were doing. It was the weirdest, nicest tracting experience. 

Then we went to the baptism interview! And our investigator PASSED!  He was like 15 minutes late so there was a slight worry that he wasn't going to show up but hey he did!   And we just talked to the Mission President while we waited. That was cool.

On Wednesday we had district meeting in Vicksburg!   Then we tracted for a looooong time. We talked to a guy in his doorway for like an HOUR cause we couldn't go in. When we told him about a prophet and asked him what he'd think if there was a prophet on the earth today, he didn't miss a beat!: "my preacher is a prophet!" "uhhhhh"  He is VERY loyal to his preacher and we asked him what he'd do if his preacher moved or retired and he was like "you know, he has been saying he wants to move to Texas.. I've also been thinking about moving to Texas..." so this guy is just going to follow his preacher across the US. haha

On Thursday we were tracting and found a guy that we had met like forever ago just walking along the sidewalk.  We had talked to him and his girlfriend for like 2 hours just on the sidewalk.  Then we found his house this week! I honestly did not recognize him at all and I was very glad that my companion did! haha  Don't worry y’all. He talked to his Sunday School teacher about us so he knows all the facts. I find that to be the most annoying thing. Why would you ask someone from a different church about what another church believes??

Then we met with a sister from the ward and our investigator.  We planned his baptismal program! THAT's exciting!

Then the sister dropped us off for our dinner appointment and lesson with a young couple.  In our last lesson with them, we got stuck on the apostasy and we didn't know how to get past that. Someone in district meeting said that they probably have a deeper concern that we need to find. So we started out talking about the Restoration pamphlet. They didn't really get the evidence behind the apostasy or why we think there was one. We read Amos 8:11-12 and the man got all caught up in the context.

THEN, while they left to put their daughter to bed, my companion and I said a prayer cause we had NO IDEA what to say.  When they came back in, we were talking about the apostasy again and then the SPIRIT stepped in and I started just asking questions: "What do you THINK an apostasy is?" and then it was great.  We FOUND THE CONCERN. They don't think that there even IS one church of Jesus Christ.  So, of course the apostasy and the priesthood don't matter if you don't even think that you need to be baptized! It was SO GOOD. It was the best.  Now we know what the real issue was! It wasn't the apostasy.. we need to reteach Christ's earthly ministry! It also made me wonder how many people here in the South really just believe the same thing... that you just need to have faith in Jesus and you're saved and that's it. Probably everyone here actually. 

On Friday afternoon we were trying to find less actives and met a very interesting fella. The less active member had moved and this man lives there now.  He had some veryyyy interesting questions. At least I think he did. He literally never finished a thought or a sentence. Several times, he just stopped and gestured and was like "you know?" and we were left like "I don't know to agree or disagree with you cause I don't actually know what you're talking about." So that was fun. He told us some false doctrine he thought was in the Book of Mormon and when we said, "that's not in the Book of Mormon," he was surprised and was like "have you read the Book of Mormon?"  we were like, "buddy, have YOU read the Book of Mormon???" It was hilarious cause he might have contradicted himself like 17 times but we'll never know for sure cause he never finished a thought. OH at one point, we were like "could we say a prayer?" and he said that he is constantly praying from the minute he gets up until he goes to bed so after we left we were like “does that count as a lesson then??” haha

THEN one of our investigators texted us that he couldn't meet later that evening cause a lot had been going on and the devil had been working on his family. He has rescheduled SO much and we haven't actually seen him in forever. I did NOT want to just try to reschedule so we called him and I was like "WE KNOW THE DEVIL IS WORKING ON YOU THAT'S WHY WE NEED TO COME SEE YOU RIGHT NOW." And I don't know where that burst of confidence came from but it worked! We biked right over and had a 15 minute lesson with him! I don't think the lesson was as powerful as my desire to see him right away was but that's okay.

Then we biked home to use the bathroom before we started tracting and while we were home a MASSIVE rainstorm hit! So that put tracting on hold. haha  Then  a senior missionary couple called and invited us to dinner with them! They took us to Cock of the Walk a fried catfish place! It was truly a Southern experience. 

Also it was raining so much we were practically underwater. Twas great.

Saturday was full of rain and tracting and getting SOAKING wet! That was fun. :)

On Sunday I played the piano in primary again!! Primary is a hoot. We did the Saturday song and the chorister brought in a whole bunch of different supplies to do the actions and it was really funny :) Also for sharing time they acted out the Good Samaritan and, in senior primary, the President was very clear in her instructions to the robbers: "This is pretend. You cannot actually hurt him." The actions were still rather violent although no one actually got hurt. It was hilarious :) 

Then we tracted! It was actually really good! We knocked on someone's door and he literally couldn't open it. He kept twisting the knob and locking and unlocking it but he literally could NOT open the door! It was hilarious! He finally told us through the window to come to the back door! We taught him about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and it was so good! I was feeling good about how it was going even though I don't think he was super interested. It was really good! Then we biked home before it started raining and it was COLD. We finished the night by having dinner with a member family and then playing the sacrifice game. 

I wish I had something short and witty to end this email with, so I'll end with what the senior elder says every time they drop us off:. "Y’all stay particular, ya hear??" 

Love,

Sister Nash

RAIN. doesn't it look like england or something? NOPE mississippi

Week of Nov 9 – 15: We had a baptism!

We had exchanges on Tuesday! I stayed in Clinton (Mississippi) and my companion went to Richland.  It was fun! I know that a lot of sisters straight up hate exchanges, but I've always thought they were fun.

The STL told me on Tuesday that my tires needed air, so my companion and I attempted that first thing on Wednesday morning. We felt like idiots cause we couldn't get it to work! So the elders came over and discovered that there was actually an issue with my front tire (something with the tube?).  They spent forever trying to fix it and then they ended up taking the tire! So I was left with 1/2 a bike. I did not take their suggestion of just riding it around on a wheelie. So we walked.

While they were at our apartment destroying my bike, the elders (they're the zone leaders) kept telling us to go to the library to use our mormon.org time but they wouldn't tell us why! They kept saying "if you're smart, you'd go to the library today." So we were stupid and were like "yeah we're smart!" and we walked all the way to the library just to realize that it was Veterans Day and it was closed. BOO. So we visited less actives in the nursing home right by the library,

Thursday was our zone meeting! It wasn't zone conference, but the whole zone was there and President came and taught. So I don't know what it was. But it was good! The biggest things that he changed were that we no longer have mormon.org time each week (we had 2 hours and now we have 0), we went from needing to do 4 hours per week of service to now needing to do 6 hours per week, and the MUSIC RULE CHANGED. Before, we could only listen to songs sung in General Conference.  Now we can listen to anything sung in sacrament meeting!  I never thought that President would change it! But he did. It's weird cause now I'm one of the older missionaries (THATS WEIRD) so I love MoTab. haha

Friday was DAD'S BIRTHDAY!! We celebrated by weekly planning. You're welcome. :) We also tracted in a suuuuuper nice area. As in, we tracted a little bit into dusk and we weren't even scared. It was great. Then we taught one of the kids in the ward, so that she can get baptized.  She's cute and it was fun. :)

Saturday was the day of the baptism. The day of all stress. Patrick ASSURED us that he would be at his baptism. We arranged that we would call him earlier in the day and check if he got a ride or if we needed to arrange for someone to pick him up. So we called. And did he answer? NO. Did he text back? NO. But we went to the church and set up and were stressed and decided to just take a minute and say a prayer and really see what Heavenly Father wanted us to do. We were at the point where we needed to start filling the font and wouldn't have enough time to go drive to his house to check on him and get the font filled in time. So we prayed. We both felt calm. It was okay. We were incredibly STRESSED and NERVOUS but we knew we needed to just fill the font and stay at the church. So we did. And he walked into the church at 5:30 . Oh we were happy. His baptism went GREAT. It was GREAT. SO HAPPY.  

After church on Sunday, we tracted to get our 7 hours for the week and met a nice lady! Her adorable doggie had escaped and we talked to her and taught her the entire restoration cause she said that she's looking for a church. At the end, she took a Book of Mormon and said that we helped her more than we know. It's the little things. 

A joke from Brother Black (the senior elder):

         "What's smarter than a talking dog? A spelling bee of course!" 

He has the daddest dad jokes ever. It's great.

Love,

Southern Sister Nash

Sunrise! #blessings for getting up at 6:30

Week of Nov 16 – 22: IT GOT COLD

Hey y’all. It gets cold here in the South. WHO KNEW. IT'S FREEZING. There was frost on the lawn this morning. 

A lot of things happened this week but the thing I remember the most is that I got sick so we'll see if I can remember what happened farther back than the last 4.5 minutes. 

Monday was interesting! We played handball at the church! Handball is a delightful mix between ultimate frisbee and soccer with a volleyball. Take 2 sports I hate and smoosh em together and it makes a sport I really like! Whoo!

On Tuesday we tried EVERYONE. All the less actives, potentials, investigators, ANYONE and no one was home. Eventually we decided to just start tracting cause we weren't having any luck. Literally the second door we knocked on we found a high school senior  who didn't know why he stayed home from football practice that day but we do! We talked to him for like an hour! He had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and even just about how God answers prayers/is there for us. It was really cool to talk with him! #EFYmoment

Then the elders fixed my bike! I had issues pumping it up last week so they took my front tire and replaced the tube. (?) I don't know what they did but they fixed it! So then they put it back together cause I sure don't know how!

On Wednesday we had district meeting and then spent all afternoon tracting as one by one our evening plans fell through.  THEN. all our our original evening plans actually fell into place!! We heard from our dinner appointment and she was ready to pick us up. Our newest member responded that we could come see him, and the sister we asked to go with us to him UNcancelled on us. Twas a miracle.

On Thursday, while we weekly planned, we got a text from one of our favorite bashers. haha  So we went over to see him.  He started by asking us who we believe God is. At least we've moved on from him asking us repeatedly who Jesus is. Well we talked about that for a while and then he started saying (YET AGAIN) how there are just some things that he feels really uncomfortable about that we believe and it scares him. He was like "I've been doing research and it just scares me."  So then we asked him where he'd been doing his research and he's been reading blogs of "well educated" preachers of other religions. SO I asked him, "If you have a math question, I'm sure your social studies teacher knows something of math, but wouldn't you ASK YOUR MATH TEACHER??" And he got it! It helped that he named a couple of completely false weird things we don't believe and then he was like "I think I need to actually read the Book of Mormon." and we were like "yeah you do." He still doesn't really want to know the truth.  He just wants to know factually what we believe but it was a step in the right direction. 

On Friday we helped at the Bishop's storehouse! They deliver and set it up at the church. Normally it just takes an hour or so but I think because of the holiday, there were TWICE as many orders as before and it took like 3 hours!

That evening, we went to the ward Thanksgiving dinner.  It was so fun!  We were in charge of organizing all the food on the table as people brought it!   Southern fact: stuffing is called dressing. My companion was confused cause she saw the huge bowls (of dressing) with tin foil on them and was like "Is this a bowl of ranch??" So funny.  Also there was plenty of mac and cheese which is considered a vegetable here and a crucial part of Thanksgiving dinner. #theSouth

On Saturday we tracted literally all day cause everyone cancelled on us! A sister took us to a lesson but no one was there so then we had her drop us off in a neighborhood far far away where our next appointment was (in like an hour) so we could tract until then. And then it was FREEZING. And I just had a sweater and my companion was in a short sleeved top. Our next appointment called and said she needed to cancel. She was going to be our ride home so then we were just a little bit stranded and freezing!   We called members until a sister said she could take us home. So we went home and bundled up and then we tracted even more!  What a day full of knocking on doors. We met some interesting people too. One guy had met with missionaries in Meridian and we're gonna go back and follow up with him about the Book of Mormon he already has!

Yesterday was CHURCH!  I went to bed at 9 that night cause I was tired. 

The end. That's the week! 

Oh yeah - The tornado warning went off one night this week!  We texted a member and asked what to do and she said to get in the middle of our apartment, put on our shoes and bike helmets.  I think she just wanted to make us look dumb.  

The tornado didn't touch down anywhere but it was close! Kinda scary in a second floor apartment!

Love,

Sister Nash 

Week of Nov 23 – Nov 29: GETTIN TRANSFERRED

Hey I'm getting transferred to…

SLIDELL, LOUISIANA! 

I'm going back to the coast!! 

And my current companion is going to train one of the 2 new sisters! There are only 2 new sisters coming out this transfer! Probably because this transfer starts 25 days before Christmas. #yikes.

I'm glad y’all had a good Thanksgiving!! I did too!!! I had a SOUTHERN Thanksgiving :) it was great :) 

Here’s a brief report on the week:

Monday I was SICK.

Then Tuesday I was SICK. I didn't want to bike and it was cold and we did a lot of tracting. We had a lot of evening appointments set up but everyone was out of town and no one could take us :( 

Wednesday was the day of all happiness. aka we got the car.   My comp taught district meeting and it was SO GOOD. Then we went to lunch at Newks (aka the southern Zupas).

After lunch, we decided to go try a former investigator!  She had been taught everything in February and had a date for baptism but for some reason stopped investigating. Well we knocked on her door and she was like "I got my answer!!" she said that like 4 times before we were like "answer to what?" TO BEING BAPTIZED. She had a vision and knows she needs to come to church.  It was so weird and so good. 

TURKEY DAY.  My Thanksgiving dinner did not have rolls, mashed potatoes, corn or stuffing. It did have dressing, cabbage, ham, sweet potato pie and greens. It was SOUTHERN.  It was a GREAT DAY!

On Friday we didn’t feel good, but had a great lesson anyway.

On Saturday we had high hopes of catching up on our tracting but did service instead.  We helped a sister set up her Christmas tree! She was SO happy!

On Sunday I said goodbye to members at church!   You never know how much you're loved until you say goodbye to everyone.

On Monday we FINALLY taught our golden investigator!   She kept talking about how she really wants to find truth. She's on a spiritual journey and just wants to follow God! She said that she's been nervous to pray about the Book of Mormon being true because she can feel that big change is coming.   BUT at the end of the lesson SHE said the prayer and prayed to know the truth. It was amazing. We walked out and were like what just happened. SO GOOD. 

Then I packed for 4 years and it was great.   I think the transfer van is here now and I have to go. :) 

LOVE
Sister Coastal Sarah 

Week of Nov 30 – Dec 6: Hello from Louisiana!

I'm in Louisiana! Woo! It's weird cause I spent so long wanting to go to Louisiana and now I'm here and I'm missing Mississippi! haha  Also I keep forgetting to put the "i" before the "s."

The biggest thing about Slidell is that it's BIG! Well not really. It's a suburb of New Orleans and it is like an actual city! I learned Clinton in like 2.5 days cause it was so tiny! There are like 3 malls here!!! It's so crazy! I am not at all used to being in an actual city! And it's not even that big of a city!! 

My companion is from all over but she claims Reno, Nevada. Two Nevada girls! She served in Clinton a little before me so it's fun for her to ask, "Did you know so and so?" and find out that we know the same people! That's fun. She's the first companion I've had since my trainer who's been out longer than me! Which is weird.

I got to Louisiana super late on Tuesday night and we somehow crammed all of our belongings in 2 cars!   Last transfer, the zone leaders had a car full-time so the sisters shared a car with the other elders BUT, this transfer, all the elders share a car and we have a car full time!! WOO! Which is good cause my comp hurt her back somehow and she can't even bike!

On Wednesday we went to district meeting and then went to Red Robin for lunch (YUM).  Then we tracted and met a lot of Catholics. That's something that I forgot about the coast. In Clinton everyone was Baptist but, on the coast, everyone seems to be Catholic! It was weird for me to get to Clinton and meet Baptists, but now I've gotten out of practice teaching Catholic people! 

Then we went and visited with a recent convert who is in her 20s and is SUPER cool! She is like the perfect convert.

Then we met a member family that has a super fluffy ADORABLE Shiz Tzu. 

On Thursday we were driving around trying people when we got a phone call from a sister who doesn't speak any English!!! Somehow it was communicated that she wanted us to come to lunch. She is about 4 feet tall, from Guetamala, and 93 years old! My 3 years of high school/middle school Spanish were somewhat but really not at all helpful. haha I found out about her family and the name of her dog but that's about it haha then we mopped her floors and read a scripture from El Libro de Mormon.   She's nice and it was fun. J  (Any Spanish words/tips/phrases that you could pass along would be nice!  Apparently there are about 15 active members here who don't speak any English and NO ONE speaks both English and Spanish to translate at church. YIKES.)

Then we went to the church and helped set up for the Christmas party! The theme was the Polar Express so we made a giant train out of construction paper to tape on the front door! It was fun! And I got to meet a bunch of ward members. 

On Friday we were visiting an investigator who was really having a hard time.  When she went to let the plumber in, my comp pulled out her mini hymn book and was like "I think we should sing a hymn but I don't know which one" while I felt "If you can't think of a hymn, maybe that means we shouldn't do that" but then the investigator came back and we asked her HER favorite hymn.  She pulled out her phone and had to ask her mom (point for team mom!) Then we sang a whole bunch of hymns and that helped her feel better! Woo! Then the plumber came out and asked what we were singing and he sang a couple of his favs too. #random #singingwiththeplumber haha 

On Saturday we tracted!

On Sunday we spent like 6 hours at the church!  But church was good! Then we tracted until my comp's back went out and we had to go back to the car so she could recline the seat and lie down. Then we watched the Christmas devotional at the church and it was SO GOOD. 

This coming Wednesday we're being visited by a general authority!! It's Elder Kopischke of the 70!  We're going to Hattiesburg for zone conference!   We were worried about driving to Hattiesburg because of the miles (it's 2.5 hours away) and because my comp can't drive that long without her back hurting BUT one of the senior sisters who works in the employment office offered us a ride!! Woo! We'll probably be one of the few companionships that doesn't go over miles this month.

There aren't as many church signs here in Slidell but here’s one:

                                               Mary wrapped the first Christmas present

Love,

Sister Nash