5 more weeks!

Week of Feb 29 to Mar 7: the weirdest week ever in which I got food poisoning and died

JK. but a little bit.

This was the most random week of my whole life!! Probably not but it was pretty weird.

On Monday, we started the week by going to TARGET. I haven't been to Target since I was Ocean Springs!!! I LOVE TARGET. We looked at and touched EVERYTHING. I was so happy. I think all I got was toothpaste though. Baby steps.

That night, all of our Monday evening lessons cancelled so we called a brother in the ward to see if he had anyone at his house for us to teach!   He is the best member missionary I have ever seen.  Apparently he has a standing invitation for us to call and see if he has any friends over for us to teach. And it works! We taught 2 of his friends (referrals he had given us!) and he had already told them like all about the Book of Mormon. THAT was fun. 

On Tuesday we got a text from some of our sisters that a sister's grandpa died. These sisters have been having a ROUGH time anyway, so we went out and took them dinner and ice cream! Being an STL is going to make me fat. But it was good to see them!   We tried to give them a pick-me-up to help them both feel better. They live way out in Ruston (like an hour away) so it was like a mini roadtrip! 

On Wednesday we had district meeting! It was good!   Our district leader, proclaims to know everything, and he kinda does.. haha   Afterwards we had a potluck lunch with the other district that meets in the same building. Missionary potlucks are the worst. We searched our cupboards the night before for ANYTHING we could bring for a group and what we ended up bringing was the green jello. haha

Right after that, we had a lesson with a lady who has been taught the plan of salvation for the last like month or so because she keeps having questions about it and it's starting to really click with her. Like REALLY click with her.   Not only had she read the whole pamphlet (her commitment) but she looked up all the scriptures in the back and had questions on them and understood them! AND she announced that she is going to quit smoking. Completely on her own! Apparently that was something that she said she was never going to do. At the end of the lesson, she was like "BUT Y’ALL WON'T GET ME IN CHURCH" and we were just like "yeah." Oh man. Suddenly she's progressing like mad. It was awesome. 

Then we tracted for a while! We were trying to find a potential but we couldn't find them ‘cause only 1/2 of the house number was written in the area book, so we ended up tracting! We were going to leave and it was the last house (it's always the last house) and we met someone! He said that he saw us walking around from his window and was sad that he wasn't going to get to come out and talk with us (he was doing something inside) but then we knocked on his door and we taught him the whole Restoration! 

On Thursday we drove to Jackson with the zone leaders for MLC! It was so weird to pack to go out of town. haha it was fun to see people at the mission home! I haven't been to the mission home since I got there last February. WEIRD. We spent that evening talking about changing policies.  I don't know what I expected MLC to be, but it was a lot of discussion. I guess I thought President would say "hey we're doing this" but instead it was him saying "what do you think of this?" and then he sat down and let people talk. That was interesting. Then we ate pizza. I think being an STL involves eating a lot of pizza, but my companion said that's just a thing that our area does. We eat a lot of pizza. haha

On Friday we got up (the sisters slept in the mission home) and literally raced over to the Brandon building to continue MLC-ing.  I'm trying to think of what to say about MLC itself…a lot of discussion...a lot of sitting. We talked a lot about planning.  I don't have a lot to compare it to because it was my first! But it was good. :)  The whole drive home, we talked to the zone leaders about what we thought and how we can help our zone implement what we learned.

On Saturday, we were planning on just weekly planning all morning but they made a big deal about planning in a clean apartment and we were having the Sandhill sisters sleep over between sessions of stake conference and for specialized training so we spent a lot of the morning cleaning so we could feel the Spirit in the apartment to plan. That took a while.

Then we had a really awesome lesson on the Book of Mormon even though the couple was very distracted.   It's like they heard the question they WANTED us to ask but not the one we actually asked. Whatever. We can be persistent. 

Then we did service at the thrift store!

After that we weekly planned and then had dinner with a recent convert and her returning member husband.  She was asked if she could MAYBE share her testimony in stake conference that night and she was SO pumped! She ended up sharing and she did so great!! Stake conference was really good  and I really liked it!

Then the Sandhill sisters came to stay the night with us to save miles because there was a special sisters meeting as a part of specialized training on Sunday. Well in MLC President said he didn't want anyone to do sleepovers anymore, but we asked, so it was the LAST sleepover of the mission! And did I make it special: I was up all night with food poisoning!  My companion and I didn't go to anything yesterday and I felt bad about that but we heard how all the meetings went from everyone else. And we watched the Testaments movie #party. Even though I spent all day sleeping yesterday, I slept alll night and I am feeling better! Just kinda tired. Boo.   We decided that nothing but miracles are going to happen because of this.

Because we drove out to Sandhill and all the way to Jackson this week, I got SO MANY church signs:

"God's grace wins every time"

"We can really live when we're ready to die"

"An idol is anything that takes the place of God"

"No love is greater than the love of God"

"Pray for America"  

"What is wrong with living right?"

"Christ is Lord"

"We love Him because He first loved us"

"They should know we are Christians by our love"

"TGIF thank God I'm free in Christ"

"Firefighters rescue but Jesus saves"  personal fav haha

"Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord"

"God's love never fails and He will never let you down"

"To dust you will return. Hope given here"

"Life is hard. Pray hard"

"God's greatest gift His beloved Son Jesus"

Love,

Sister Nash

Week of Feb 7 – 14: The week of all weeks

Hey y’all, this week was crazy to the extreme. And I forgot my planner and did not bring my journal but that probably won't affect the weekly report because of how CRAZY this week was. Serious. It was cray. 

We'll start with Monday when I last wrote to y’all. I was still recovering from food poisoning. I don't know how long that was supposed to take, but it took me a WHILE. We emailed and grocery shopped and then I pretty much just slept the rest of the day. Like literally. I slept SO much last weekend! It was glorious.   I had NO energy so we talked a lot and I slept. Also all I was eating was like applesauce so that didn't really help fuel me. I'M GOOD NOW THOUGH.

Tuesday was rough because I was still sooo tired. We went visiting teaching with the YW President and we saw a sister who just went through the temple! It was fun talking to them.

On Tuesday night we met with the zone leaders and talked about what we would each teach for the zone training meeting the next day! For zone training meeting (ZTM) all the zone came together but President wasn't there so we were responsible for teaching to our whole zone what we were taught in MLC. Not excited for that. Luckily the zone leaders take a lot of responsibility on themselves so they did all the hard parts. We had to decide WHAT from our whole 2 days of MLC we would share and who would share what and how. Being an STL requires a lot more additional things that I thought.. I never had to schedule time to plan what to teach in ZTM before! 

On Wednesday we had our zone meeting! I hope it went well! It was kinda rough. The district leaders were supposed to meet early but not all of them were on time so that pushed everything back. A lot of what we taught was on planning. There have been a lot of companionships having issues with the new method of weekly planning. Now we weekly plan in terms of our vision for our investigators and then we make plans on how to help them achieve that vision and then schedule when the plans will happen. People have been having a lot of issues with that. So we talked a lot about that and hope it helped! It was weird teaching the whole zone something! #scare

Wednesday was when the real excitement began! We went to lunch and then I went on my first exchange as a STL! I went with another sister to her area in another town.  Well okay I guess I should say that that was the plan.

Remember the last sleepover of the mission? Well my food poisoning wasn't the only excitement. On Sunday morning, one of the sisters came downstairs and said that she stepped on something poky. Well she went back to where it was and she said she found a broken sewing needle! So fast forward to Wednesday (the day of our exchange) and her foot was still hurting. She called the mission nurse who told her to go get it checked out. So that left us sitting in the urgent care in Hattiesburg.   (The other sister's area is a town so small it has literally HALF of a main street. Literally. Main street is only on one side of the street.) 

So we had to go to the Urgent care in Hattiesburg before we left for her area.  We waited for like 2 hours before we were called back to see the doctor.   After another hour of waiting, she got an xray which showed that the poor girl had part of the sewing needle STUCK in her FOOT!!! It was still in there!! They said that she would need surgery to get it removed! It would be a simple surgery where they wouldn't need to put her under though.

Since it was already after 5:00 by then, we got a pair of crutches, an appointment with a doctor the next day, a CD of her xray and were sent on our merry way. We drove all the way out to her area and, by the time we got there, we had like 20 minutes before we were going to go home and eat dinner.  So we stopped at the hospital to see an active member whose pelvis was crushed in a car accident!  We shared our favorite scriptures and that was about it, but it was JUST what she needed. It was amazing that, after our crazy, weird day full of discouraging news from the doctor, we were able to actually help someone. 

On Thursday morning, we went BACK to the doctor and what did we find? We found out that the sister was going to need REAL surgery. Like put-ya-under type of surgery! It was a rough night. We called President and got permission for yet another sleepover ‘cause the surgery was going to be the NEXT DAY.

Friday started with weekly planning and then we headed to the doctors!   When the surgery was all done, we picked up one loopy sister MINUS one sewing needle in her foot and loaded her in our car. It was so funny because she had this idea to call her district leader and convince him that she had to have her foot amputated!  So we called him and said that her foot had to be amputated. HE BELIEVED US. It was the funniest thing ever. Then we hung up and laughed and then we were worried that he would call President so she called him back and he tried to deny that he believed us. He totally did. :) 

Our night ended with driving them back to their area. LOTS of driving. We went 180 miles in 2 days. From what we've heard, she's doing just fine now! She has the needle that was in her foot and she wants to frame it with a saying like "a golden investigator is harder to find than a needle in a foot." Hilarious. 

THAT WAS OUR WEEK. 

On Saturday we had our first normal day all week.  We volunteered at the thrift store and had a great lesson on fasting!  Our investigator was worried about finding a ride to church, but we learned that he had already met the family in the ward who lives literally DOWN the STREET from him! It was struggle to get a hold of them, but they were glad to pick him up! 

Then we had a new member lesson!  We were planning on sharing keep the Sabbath day holy with her and her husband but, when we got there, her husband was talking alll about the flooring job he had for the next day (he got a lot of flooring work because of the flooding).   She was like "what's our lesson on today?" and we looked at each other awkwardly and then she asked "what did the Lord tell you to teach us today?" So we taught keep the Sabbath day holy anyways! It was good though. They decided to do more things together on Sunday. :)

Sunday was not only daylight savings, but we started with a 7am meeting! We had stake correlation with the stake president and the zone leaders and the high counselor over missionary work and a member of the mission presidency! It was early. 

THAT'S BEEN THE WEEK!

Church signs:

"Don't shine so others see you. Shine so others see Him through you" 

Southernisms: 

"I might can go and do that"

"I might could have tried to do that"
We had dinner with a member family yesterday and I said I don't have a middle name.  The reaction from the 18 year old daughter: "HOW DO YOU MONOGRAM?"

LOVE, 

Sister Nash

Week of Mar 14 – 21:  How is Week 4 already over??

Hey y’all! This week was an exciting one! I don't actually remember a lot of what happened, but I'll see what I remember as I go through my planner. Sometimes I try to challenge myself by remembering what I'm wearing without looking down at my outfit. It's a struggle. #thatmissiontiredlife haha 

Monday: PDAY! We got DQ ice cream and then sat outside and wrote letters because it was 86 degrees!!!! It already felt like summer! Sadly, after that, all of our evening appointments cancelled and so we were went around trying to find people we didn't know on the part member family list. We found a sister we’ve seen at church but didn't know her husband isn't a member. We talked to her for a while and then she gave us blue bell ice cream and showed us all her family pictures. So fun :) 

Tuesday was my companion's halfway mark and a recent convert made a cake for her.  Or rather, she made 1/2 a cake! It was really cute!  And delicious!  

She came out with us literally all day and, for lunch, we got Little Caesar's pizza and had a picnic! After lunch we taught her one of her new member lessons and she helped us plan a lesson for the next day! :) 

On Wednesday we had district meeting and our district leader had some exciting news!  He said, "I'm getting transferred!" And the rest of us were like "yeah right funny joke." BUT he wasn't kidding!   He and his MTC companion are going to spend the last month of their missions (this is their last transfer) traveling the mission giving training. WHAT! Literally no one knows what that means. It's so exciting.  He pulled out all the stops for his last district meeting lesson. It was so good. He talked all about how you have to have your own testimony before all the knowledge you have will help anyone. It was really powerful coming from him because I am convinced that there is nothing he doesn't know.  We had an impromptu Hebrew lesson on the chalkboard while we were deciding where to go to lunch and then he spent all of district meeting lunch explaining the facisimile 2 in the book of Abraham.

That afternoon we had a pretty good lesson about the plan of salvation.  It worked out great because our investigator’s 2-year-old was in the other room watching Thomas the Tank Engine and her baby was sleeping! perfect. But then the baby woke up and was fussy. He wasn't calming down and was getting loud.  We couldn't really keep going because she is a really devoted mom and wasn't going to just ignore him. BUT THEN the baby whisperer (our recent convert) started talking to him in a baby voice and he was CAPTIVATED by her. Eyes wide open starting straight at her!   She kept talking in her baby voice and started explaining final judgement. She explained all of the final judgement in a baby voice. It was amazing. She's so great. haha it was pretty funny too :) 

She was very helpful in our next lesson too!  The young man was really interested and he talked a lot about how he doesn't like feeling judged in churches.  So we taught him the First Vision and she bore her testimony of how she has never felt so loved and welcomed in a church.  He said, "wow! I think I need to come to y’all’s church!" It was great. The spirit was really there for that lesson and it felt GOOD! :)

Thursday was my first real exchange, since I don't count the 3 days I spent at the doctors as an exchange. Haha  On Wednesday night we drove to downtown Hattiesburg right by Southern Miss.  I dropped off my companion and picked up another sister and took her back to my area.  I was nervous because we had like no plans on Thursday but she had served in several parts of the zone and she practically knew the area better than me! That was awesome. :) 

Thursday we had a really spiritual lesson on the gospel and the direction our investigator wants her life to take and it was powerful!  Then we tracted until it rained and, when it REALLY started picking up, we looked at each other and BOLTED for the car - all without saying a word! haha 

The best part of the day was when we went to McDonalds, ordered small french fries and asked to sit by a lady watching her grandkids playing in the playground! It was awesome! We talked to her for like an hour and shared the Easter video.  Then she showed us one she found of little kids explaining the Easter story and then we talked about the Restoration and the members she knows! It was so awesome. It was funny because the other sister felt SO awkward but I didn't.  “Embrace the awkward” has proudly been my mission theme. 

On Friday we helped with the Bishop's storehouse! I've helped at the bishop's storehouse in every single one of my areas! Crazy. It was fun! Like the whole zone showed up.  Even the sisters who live like an hour away! 

That afternoon we taught the young mom again but this time the 2 year old was up and he wanted to PLAY! That kid has the most expressive face! He can move his eyebrows way more than anyone I've ever seen. It's hilarious. And very distracting because his mom was just focused on him the whole time. :/   He's cute but he wasn't at all interested in the gospel.

That night we went to the church because the stake was having a Mini MTC experience for the priests and laurels and we were asked to help! We didn’t really do anything for it on Friday night, but we were there for correlation anyways.  On Saturday morning we really helped with it!  We were asked to teach a 25 minute lesson on finding new investigators. So we made a practice for the "companionships!" We thought up different finding situations (someone raking leaves, tracting, in line at walmart, contacting a referral) and then wrote out the person's backstory for them to read first as a little cheat so they could have an idea of where to start. IT WAS SO FUN. We made the situations really realistic. There were only 2 people who were "golden." Then we had them practice on me and my companion and we were true to character. And kinda mean. Well, we were trying to be realistic! Walmart checkers don't usually want to say a prayer and have a lesson in their line! Or like being told that they look tired even if the little paper cheat said that she worked the night shift and is exhausted! It was so fun. We made up one person who was a golden referral but was too shy to ask questions. We had another who was an atheist but was really nice. We had an old lady raking her leaves but didn't want any help raking. We had a golden tracting experience. It was really fun!! :) It made me realize that I know a little bit more about missionary work than priests and laurels and that was a nice confidence booster. No offense to priests and laurels, but it's nice to know I've gained SOME skills over the last year. 

On Sunday we had ward council and it was fun! I've really liked being able to see so many different wards and ward councils and see how they work. A while ago in stake correlation, the stake president made a comment that, when we go home, we will be able to contribute in a ward council as a RS president or EQ president because we've seen how they work on our mission! So TRUE. I like that this is my 4th area so I have seen 4 ward councils now!

The new convert and her husband spoke in sacrament and it was so good!   She was worried about it, so she prepared all week and then he wrote his in an hour the night before but they were both SO STINKIN good.  So proud of them. :)

Church signs: 

"Christ will give you power to walk the path that counts. His!" 

"If I walk with the world, I can't walk with God." 

"The best vitamin for a Christian is B1" this one was my favorite!!! :) say it out loud to get it.

"Celebrate the Resurrection. Jesus is alive!!"

"Believe you can and you're halfway there"

I hope y’all have a great week!  If you haven't yet, watch the Easter video at followhim.mormon.org  and share it with your friends! Take this opportunity to actually learn to spell hallelujah as you hashtag it! :) 

LOVE,

Sister Nash

Week of Mar 21 – 28:  14 Months! not that I'm keeping track..

I hope y’all had a Happy Easter! I feel like this was the first Easter where I've really focused on the true meaning of Easter and it really meant a lot to me! (Last Easter was General Conference!) I watched the Easter video with everyone and their dog and it never fails to bring the Spirit! I wish that the church had an initiative for every holiday.. "We have an April Fool’s Day video our church came out with that we're sharing with people!" But alas…

This week was CRAZY. We had 2 exchanges and zone conference!

Monday night, I got dropped off in Purvis! Woo! Purvis is only like 15 minutes away from Oak Grove. We meet in the same building and our areas border each other. That was funny to be so close on exchanges! And who was I with????   My MTC companion, that's who!   It was really fun to catch up!   We did a lot of tracting which I haven't done a lot of since I've been in Oak Grove. We met one of their investigators and had a GREAT lesson with her! The  funnest discovery (for me at least) was that she and I can actually teach together nowadays!!! We used to be really really bad at teaching together but I guess 8 months of practice does some good for ya.

We got lost while we were driving around
so I took advantage of the opportunity to take a lot of pictures of cows. #cows

That night we switched back and my companion and I went to the RS activity because one of our investigators came!  The activity was all about the RS birthday and it was super good!   She really enjoyed herself!

On Wednesday we didn't have district meeting because we were going to have zone conference on Thursday so we started out early and drove out to Sandhill for exchanges!  I got dropped off again so I was hardly home this week. haha that's okay though.

Thursday's excitement was zone conference! Woo!! It was a combined zone conference with the Gulfport zone because we got Tiwis installed in our cars! Tiwi stands for "teenage eyewitness" I think a dad invented it to monitor his teenage kids. haha it's a little box that goes on the windshield that monitors your driving and then tells you to drive better and reports it to the mission president. YIKES.   A guy from Salt Lake was there to explain them and he actually made it spiritual and hardcore guilted everyone into driving better anyways, so it turned out great. The funniest part of it that my companion and I didn't get a tiwi because our car is about to be sold :) #score. I think we'll get a new car with a tiwi in it when we drive to MLC. :)

Probably my favorite part of zone conference was seeing 2 of my former companions who are now companions!!!!! That was fun!   I asked them if they talk about me but they said no. haha.  It was also fun to see all the Gulfport people!

President taught a lot about the Atonement and it just blew my socks off. I've been studying this week out of Jesus the Christ about Easter week (like about the Crucifixion on Friday and the Resurrection on Sunday) and THAT was the exact topic President taught. It was so good. At the end, like at the end of every zone conference, all the missionaries who are going home in the next transfer or 2 share their testimony and it was so good. The spirit was so strong and then we sang "The Spirit of God" as the last song and everyone stood up in the last chorus and the Spirit was so strong that after the closing prayer and people were standing up and leaving,  my companion and I just stood there like "we don't even know what to do with ourselves." We wanted to say goodbye to people but the Spirit was so strong, we were just standing around soaking it in. SO GOOD. Then we left and preached the gospel.

On Friday everyone cancelled on us so we did a chalk talk!  

It was really fun writing chalk along a super long bike path! It was also hot. I don't know if I'm ready for summer! My watch tan and my shoe tan and my farmer's tan are coming back already! #bringitsummer 

  

On Saturday we volunteered at the thrift store and then were going to have a lesson but our investigator told us she really wanted to finish cleaning her yard and couldn't meet with us.  Our response? We'll help you! We changed and went over and helped.

 That night we went to the church for the Women's Broadcast!  IT WAS SO GOOD. I loved Sister Marriott's talk :) She's a southern belle! I loved how she said Louisiana and magnolia. That's proper pronunciation folks! It was all so good.   Click here for Sis. Marriott's talk

I also loved how President Eyring pretty much just summed up everyone's talks at the very end. :) It made so glad that I have this opportunity to SERVE!  A mission is a call to service and I am so glad that I can serve others! It also made me realize the importance of all the fleece blankets that I've tied for service projects. Every little bit helps. 

Sunday morning was Easter! I read in Jesus the Christ about the Resurrection and skipped over to read about the Resurrected Savior appearing to the Americas but then I thought, "I don't want to read the commentary, I want to read the real account!" So then I switched over to where I'm reading in 3 Nephi :)

Church was SO GOOD. There were 3 musical numbers! The primary sang "He sent His Son" and I don't know what arrangement it was but it was amazing and those kids were harmonizing like nobody's business!! It was amazing. The best part of church came during Relief Society, when our investigator (the one we helped on Saturday) came to church! She snuck in and sat on the back row but then came and sat in between me and my companion! She came to church! She thought that the last hour was the hour in the chapel and was sad that she missed the good part! After church (after we introduced her to everyone and their dog), she wanted to sit in the chapel.   We turned off some lights and closed the doors because people were being loud in the halls and she sat down and closed her eyes and prayed. After a while, we said a prayer together and had a lesson.  She told us how she wants to make changes and how we can't give up on her!! She tells us all the time how she needs her girls! That was definitely the best part of my Easter. 

That night, we saw a young mom that my companion had only met once but, when we were planning for our day today, she said "I've been thinking for a while that we need to see her" and so we did!  She told us that she was talking about us yesterday and, although she had to wrangle her kids a little bit while we were there, we watched the Easter video and she told us that she was really glad that we came! There's no better payday that when someone says something like that. :) We didn't stay very long (kids needed to be wrangled) but we have a return appointment and I know that she has a lot of potential. SO excited.

That's been the week! Time is really flying y’all.

Church signs:

"Up from the grave He arose!" (this is a line from a Baptist song) 

"What a day that will be when our Jesus we shall see"

"Jesus is alive. Easter egg hunt Saturday" that just sums up all the important facts..

"Ask for help with the jobs you don't like" I don't think this was from a church but it was wise so I thought it applied

"the tomb is empty"

"heaven bound"

Are y’all ready for a commitment?? Will y’all come up with a question to have going into General Conference? I will too! Every time I've done this, I've gotten an answer and I know y’all will too.

LOVE,

Sister Nash

Week of Mar 28 – Apr 4:  "there's nothing good unless you do it"

This last week had some adventures! 

Crawfish boil!

If we were having a normal transfer, last week would have been the end of it! Today is the beginning of week 7! That's weird. It doesn't feel like it's been 6 weeks already!

Monday night we drove out to Petal and did a little switch-a-roo! I dropped off my companion and drove our boat of a car home with another sister! (We named our car "Sailor" because it is the widest 4 door car I've ever been in.)

Tuesday was a fun day!  It was actually a pretty average day, I just happened to have a different companion.

On Wednesday we had district meeting and, afterwards, our ward mission leader treated us to lunch at a buffet! And when I say that, I mean BUFFET.  Like, eat until you die buffet.   How do you say no to peach cobbler?? I sure didn't.

That afternoon all of our appointments cancelled so we tracted!  I did a lot of tracting last week on exchanges in other areas but my companion and I have hardly tracted together at all.  So it might have been rough. But what do missionaries do if not practice?? We've been doing practices in companion study. Haha

That night, after a lesson, we had kool-aid pickles! Yup, y’all read that right. KOOL-AID PICKLES.   No Kool-aid was involved but, however they're made, it tastes like a cherry kool-aid pickle. THE SOUTH, Y’ALL.

But anyways.  It was a great lesson! We wanted to know if she was really getting anything out of what we were teaching her.  She wasn't really talkative and she's always so very distracted with her babies.  It was kind of an all-over-the-place lesson but then, at the end, she just started saying how much she loves us coming over and that, when she has a hard time, she hears our voices telling her to pray and that it'll be okay! whoa. that was pretty great! It was so encouraging to hear that she really is progressing! She got really excited for conference, once we explained to her what it actually is!  I'm glad that the Spirit reminded me that she had no idea what we were talking about: "It’s conference!" "Whut?" "Oh it's in a big building where the leaders of our church will talk for about 20 minutes each.." :) 

On Thursday morning we had a lesson with our investigator that came to church.  We sat at her kitchen table and she had us write out our favorite scriptures on the note cards we gave her so she could tape them to her wall (the RS lesson was on ponderizing and she took it seriously).

That afternoon, we picked up the zone leaders and drove off to Jackson for MLC!  I drove through like a POURING rain storm for like 30 minutes but we made it in one piece!  We spent so much time during MLC talking about being more dedicated missionaries and going the extra mile and being just as obedient as we can and RAISING the vision of our mission that, by the time we got back to our area, we were like "let's go DO something instead of just going home."   So, even though we were both starving and had all of our stuff still in the car, we just hit the ground running. It's hard to plan for the Friday after MLC because we never know when we'll be home so it was one of those nights where maybe I didn't do a whole lot, but I did what I could and I felt good about that!

On Saturday morning, we also hit the ground running! Before conference, we taught a lesson on the Restoration and read the intro of the Book of Mormon with them so we just emphasized prophets and they thanked us like 3 times for telling them about the prophet speaking that day! That was pretty cool! It also felt pretty accomplished to sit in the chapel of the church watching conference at 11am having already taught a lesson that day! #score

General Conference:  The satellite at the church was having issues and the first like 20 minutes were in Spanish and THAT was a bummer. Seriously, I thought I would cry.  I was so looking forward to conference and then I couldn't even understand it. The Spanish elders were there too but they were no help in translating…especially when it turned to French! There was a brother at the church trying to fix it and he got it after a little bit :)

After conference, my companion and I had to weekly plan because we literally had not yet had time in the week to do it.  MAN was it the best weekly planning session just about ever. We were riding the Spirit of conference AND we've been together for 6 weeks so we both know the area and people AND we were applying things we talked about in MLC right and left and boy did we make some plans. The ward has been worried about the young men and we can't REALLY do as much with them as we could with the young women but in MLC we talked a lot about doing church tours so my companion had the idea "invite young men to help us with church tours!!" We're going to invite less actives as well as investigators and heck even active members! We already have 2 church tours planned and man are we excited. The more people in the church feeling the Spirit of it, the better!! It was an exciting weekly planning!

What was y’alls favorite part of conference?? I think my favorite talk was Sister Oscarson's!  She just killed it with the Restoration. I love picking out when people subtly teach the entire Restoration lesson in talks.   I also loved President Utchdorf's talk because I was THERE in Dresden! Mom found a picture of me and that church! 

May 2014 - Sarah in Dresden, Germany, with the Church of Our Lady in the background

I love how his talk, and a LOT of others, were centered on the fact that God loves us and we are His children. I know how easy it is to forget that sometimes and I'm glad that we have prophets to remind us.   

Did y’all get an answer to your questions? I did!

I got a LOT of church signs this week!! 

"If my people will? If?" okay I won't lie I really didn't get this one

"He is Risen! He is coming back. Are you ready?"

"Jesus our eternal hope"

"The world is changed by our actions not our opinions"

"praise the name of Jesus"

"Easter is all about Jesus?" don't know why there was a question mark..

"Jesus can't forget us. We're graven on the palms of His hands"

"Christ is risen. Come near Him"

"Get off the devil's payroll"

"It's time to march for Christ! Happy Easter!"

"God grades on the cross not on the curve"

"How often do you say 'Father, Thy will be done?'" 

"there is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience"

"Truth makes us free"

"God's toll free number: 1-800-Jeremiah 33:3" look it up :)

"happy are those who don't see and yet believe John 20:29"

I hope that y’all can find the little things that remind you not only that you're a child of God but how much He loves you!

LOVE,

Sister Nash