Six more weeks!

Week of April 4 – 11:  I thought this transfer would never end!

This week y’all. THIS WEEK.  It was pretty stellar.

Monday afternoon, we had a mini crawfish boil with all the leftover crawfish from Saturday.   A lot of the missionaries were there! Then we took funny pictures on an Elder's camera because he left it out in the open and so he was asking for it. 

That afternoon, we went out to see our investigator! She was going to watch conference with us, but she really wasn't feeling well. We were talking to her about her day and our day and when she learned that it was our pday, she said "you mean y’all came to see me on the one day y’all could take a nap?" She was touched.

After our lesson, we walked around her trailer park to see our next appointment. This appointment came in the most interesting way. Last week, when another sister was backing me out of a driveway, I saw in my mirrors that she was talking to a little girl. So I got out and talked with both of them. Well the kiddo is probably about 9 and she said "The missionaries said they'd come back and they never did. Will you come teach my family?" YES. Why, yes we will. So Monday night we went over and had a good lesson. The little girl said the closing prayer and asked Heavenly Father to "Bless the Mormons." So dang cute. 

On Tuesday we did a lot of prep for our zone training meeting the next day! We wanted to talk about chalk talk with the sisters so we tried to talk to people while doing it (but no one talked to us) and then we planned what we would teach! We tried really hard to figure out how present the transfer changes without a revolt.

That night at dinner, as we were talking with the family about General Conference, they just randomly started volunteering referrals.  "I went with the sisters a year ago to see this investigator... here's her number."  "Have you ever met this less active?"  "What about this part member family?" It was amazing. This ward is so great at helping us.  We don't really tract because literally all of the people we teach are member referrals! It's gold. 

On Wednesday we had our big zone training meeting (ZTM)! It was scary. Haha it was good but it was hard to teach. After it ended, we had a lot of hind sight "oh I wish we did this" "I wish we did this differently" but that's okay! It went okay :) right after ZTM, we went on an exchange! We went on our planned exchange with the Hattiesburg sisters and we double worked our area. It was our second exchange with them this transfer so we each went with the other sister.. I went with a new sister! :) It was a fun day. Her area is downtown, so we tracted a really rich neighborhood. I thought it'd be fun for her to see how missionary work is done in different types of areas!

That night dinner was awesome.  What made it such an awesome dinner was that the members invited their non-member neighbor! After dinner, we sat down and taught the Restoration and it was wonderful. He hasn't been to any church in a loonng time and was really really receptive and took a Book of Mormon and said he'd be baptized! It was great because the brother said "you can sit with us!" I love member missionary work. :) 

Thursday was a weird day because we had to clean! We had apartment checks and now we have a very clean apartment. haha

On Thursday night we booked it over to the church! President Olson and our stake president have been making a big deal about church tours so we gave one a try!  We invited some of the young men to help us give the tour! There aren't elders in this ward and it's kinda awkward/hard for us to take the young men out to lessons.. so we decided to have them help with church tours instead! Well, despite inviting everyone we had ever met in our entire lives, no one but the young men showed up. So we gave them a tour! One of them pretended to be an investigator and the rest helped us show him around! They were giggly and goofy but they were serious in the chapel and at the baptismal font. It was really fun. haha

Friday we spent a good bit weekly planning! We also made a "plan-cake." Which was not in fact pancakes.. which I realize now that's what it sounds like. haha we made a cake! Because why not treat yourself to cake? #we’readults

Saturday we had an exciting day!!! We learned that the Columbia elders were having a baptism for someone my companion had taught on exchanges! The new rule is that you can't go to a baptism unless you take a less active or investigator! So we pretty much made our investigator go! We knew it'd be good for her. Plus we really wanted to go.  We got there on time and I was asked to play the piano (yay) and we enjoyed the baptism! We just spent all day smiling. :) 

Sunday we had correlation and ward council and then church!   The man we had taught on Wednesday came!  It was so great because he spent all day following his (member) neighbor around and getting to know people! The longer I spent on my mission, the more I see the importance of MEMBERS really doing all the dirty work. We just teach. The members are responsible for being the friend! It was great to see :) 

That night we had dinner with the Bishop and his family and they invited our investigator and her family! It was so good because they knew a lot of the same people! We had a great lesson on families :) It was a really good lesson! 

Tomorrow's excitement is TRANSFERS! A lot is happening with our zone! It's going to be the biggest zone in the mission! We're getting another set of sisters too!

Church signs:

"who do you say Jesus is?"

"the only way out is through"

"that love thy neighbor thing. I mean it. -God"

"Jesus said: I am the way"

"the key to heaven was hung on a nail"

LOVE,

Sister Nash

Sometimes the zone leaders leave us friends...
Our friend Kermit was promptly returned to his OWN home

Week of April 11 – 18: this week's theme: SERVICE

I GOT A HAIRCUT! It's so short and I'm so glad and I love it.

Tuesday was TRANSFER DAY! Woo! I have gone to every single transfer day of my whole mission! We have like 5 different transfer points (churches) that missionaries come to and get on the vans to get to their new area.  It was so fun because I got to see two of my former companions! WOO!   One of them is an STL so I'll get to see her once a month now!  

Once all the transfer vans left, we went and got breakfast at IHOP. It was kinda a weird day because it wasn't pday so we couldn't just hang out and do whatever until the vans came. We went back to the church and had personal study (that was nice! we don't normally get study time on transfer day) and then watched part of Meet the Mormons and then cleaned the church until the vans came! Then we sent people back to their areas to work! It was a really smooth day! Normally transfer day is wild but it all went a lot faster and smoother! #score

Wednesday we had district meeting! We switched districts! We are no longer a part of the Columbia district and are now a part of the Purvis district. It was pretty easy to switch because we're the only missionaries in our ward so no one else had to switch too :) Well the Purvis district started an experiment last transfer of being a "consecrated district." That means the whole district strives to be exactly obedient! AND they have district meeting in the afternoon instead of in the morning. I think the point of it is to break up the day and keep it more reverent. Districts normally go out to lunch after district meeting but not when it's in the afternoon! So we spent the morning volunteering at the thrift store and then ate lunch at home. It was really nice to not go out to lunch! Then we went to the Purvis district meeting! It was fun! I like being in a bigger district :)

On Thursday we had a lesson with the sweetest less active sister about the temple and how it really is possible for us to GET there. We talked about HOW we get there. It was a really good lesson. :)  Then we walked out of her house and met her brother, who showed us his catfish farm.  (His sister lives in a little house on his property). He told us how he missed the Elders coming and visiting him and how they would fish on his pond. I was like "We will come!!”  haha 

That afternoon we put on our jeans and helped our investigator lay a wood floor.... It was really fun! I like doing stuff like that. It's fun to not wear a skirt and get to DO something that you can see the results of.  Before working on the floor, we started with the lesson.   The commitment we left with her in the last lesson was for HER to find her favorite scripture and share it with us.   So she had us read a good chunk out of 3 Nephi 27. She told us how touched she felt while she read it.

On Friday we went and helped at the Bishop's storehouse! It was really fun! I like helping at the bishop's storehouse :)  

That afternoon we went out to Sumrall and tracted! We haven't been doing a lot of tracting because we don't have to, but we've been trying to tract in Sumrall more. Sumrall is just the cutest small town :) we met a cute little 96 year old woman who said "Everyone in Sumrall knows me!" and I 100% believe her. 

That night we went out to the boonies for a lesson with an unmarried couple.  We just read through the Family Proclamation and talked about WHY family is important. We want them to commit themselves to getting married because otherwise they won't want to do it. People don't like being told what to do. Unless the Spirit tells them. That was our goal :) 

Saturday morning we woke up and put on jeans AGAIN. It was a week full of jeans-wearing! From JustServe.org, we heard about a county-wide service project. It was Lamar County Against Litter so we went and helped pick up litter! We started at a community center and were probably the only people there over the age of 17 who didn't come with a large group of 17 year olds. There were the Boy Scouts, the football team and the Beta club... and us. Well we got put in a group with 1/2 the football team and got some grabbers and plastic bags and split up to pick up garbage along some major roads in Lamar county. It was actually so fun! It was nice to do something for the community. All the missionaries had to sign up for justserve.org (it's free) and our service hours got increased but this was the first time that I really felt like I was doing something for the community by using the website. It was awesome :) 

 Sunday morning started bright and early! We had a 6:30 meeting for stake correlation.   It was at the stake president, President Holm's, house and he provided breakfast! It was nice. There will be a new Spanish branch and a new YSA branch starting in the stake soon! That was exciting to hear about! There will be full time missionaries serving in the YSA branch once it starts! That sounds fun! 

Then church!  The couple we taught on Friday night came!  When they picked up their 3 year old, the dad told him to tell everyone that they'd be back next week! yay! :) It was a good day at church. 

After dinner, we tried a potential and then hit the streets! A week or so ago, we did what is called inspired tracting. We prayed about where to go, then I looked at the map and picked 10 streets, then my companion picked 5 from that list and I picked 5 from that list and the ones that were the same we decided to tract! So last night we met someone! She was actually in her car in the driveway when we walked up but she invited us right in and we shared a super brief Restoration lesson and she was like "Something has been bugging me recently to get my family into a church. Do y’all have any materials I could read?" I love finding golden investigators. She was the nicest!! We gave her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and agreed to come back next Sunday. We walked down her driveway and were like "YES!  Now we know why we needed to tract that street." 

After that, a less active sister called and asked us if we could come over.  She's been trying to come back to church but she's having a tough time. We read the psalm of Nephi and sang Count Your Blessings together and she seemed just a little happier than when we got there! I really like being a missionary because it lets me be in these situations! It lets me help people and get to know them and share the Spirit with them! 

Church signs:

"Is anything impossible for God? NO"

"If you are thirsty, God's love will quench! Drink deeply!"

"For every Goliath, there is a stone"

"Aspire to inspire before you expire"

"God's glory shines through His creations"

"Whoso findeth Me findeth life Proverbs 8:35"

"Spring is in the air.  God is everywhere"

I think that's the week!

Love,

Sister Nash

Week of April 18 – 25:  Happy Confederate Memorial Day!

Did you know this was a holiday? ME NEITHER.   It's an actual holiday but schools are in session and mail trucks are driving around!  Anywho... 

Last week, we had a zone P-day! Almost all the zone met up at the zone leader's apartment complex and we had a barbecue! Their complex is right by the Hattiesburg church building and it has a field and a pavilion and a pool!  (The pool was not used.) It was fun to see people!   After the BBQ, we went to the church to play sports!   Like the whole zone played handball! I don't know if that's a general missionary thing or just something this mission came up with.. it's ultimate frisbee and kinda soccer with a volleyball. I like it so much better than ultimate frisbee. It's also a great way to earn respect from elders when you score on other elders. SO FUN. 

Tuesday morning we had Tennis Tuesday!!! We went and played tennis with a couple of sets of missionaries for exercise!! It was so fun! I haven't played tennis since before I left!   It was so fun :) Tennis Tuesday is going to be a thing and I'm so excited!

Tuesday night we went to Relief Society activity, but y’all already knew that right?? The whole activity was on missionary work. The sisters in our ward who served missions got up and talked about them and then we got up and said "hey we want to have a good mission too!" so we talked about sharing the gospel with your friends and then telling the missionaries about it!   The sister who put the whole thing together had goodie boxes to send to the missionaries serving from the ward and then had goodie boxes for us too!!  This ward spoils us rotten!   Then she read sweet letters from the missionaries serving from the ward and a cute one for me from Amy.  :) IT WAS SO CUTE. 

Tuesday night and Wednesday morning can all be summed up with 2 words: STOMACH FLU. I don't think y’all want more details. We didn't even go to district meeting and I was bummed because we had a FULL day planned Wednesday. 

Friday we weekly planned and then headed out to Sumrall for the first time all week!  We had another great lesson about the family proclamation.

On Saturday we helped at the Hattiesburg ward YW pancake breakfast fundraiser! AKA we made pancakes for like 4 hours. SO MANY pancakes. I perfected my Mickey Mouse pancake skills. We also set up a lot of tables and chairs.  We did a lot of work but they really needed it so I was glad to help! And I got some pancakes. :) 

Sunday was our day of meetings! We had correlation and then ward council and church! It was nice to learn in ward council that a lot of ward members we've been seeing on our own have been people the ward is worried about. #missionariesareonit 

Our excitement after church was a baptism! We were asked to teach the restoration during the in-between changing time at an 8 year old's baptism because his dad invited his co-workers! That was great! Kids are so stinkin cute. I also played prelude because the mom was playing the piano and she was missing being in the pictures! I can struggle through a couple of primary songs so momma can be in the pictures, cmon! :) that was cute :) 

This week's excitement is interviews and exchanges! Because we were sick, we got behind on exchanges so we will do 2 this week! I get to spend even more time in Sandhill! Hopefully this time without surgery... :) AND we have interviews and I'm so excited! I like to make a list of things to talk about with President in interviews. I have a captive audience. I'm gonna ask my questions. 

Church signs! Not too many new ones this week...

"the heart is happiest when it beats for others"

"you don't need a reason to help people"

"this is the day the Lord has made"

"God believes in you"

"ignoring God doesn't mean He's not there"

AND because it was so good.. this is my ponderize verse this week: 1 Peter 2:20.. I feel like it's the perfect patience scripture. :)

I LOVE Y’ALL!!

Love,

Sister Nash

PS: it's starting to get hot. YIKES.

    Can you see the catfish?? We may or may not go fishing today.

                       

                    

#SouthernPayless #jesuslovesyou

                

A DISTRICT OF MINIONARIES!

So stinkin' cute! I love it.

Week of April 25 – May 2:  Happy (early) Cinco de Mayo!

This week, y'all!!

Last Monday night, we had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon and about being HAPPY because he really wants it! He's just the nicest guy. He has a lot of health issues and just wants to know that God loves him.

Tuesday was BUSY! We volunteered at the thrift store for a couple hours and talked about Mormons! Cause we are ones!! Haha it's a weird situation because we're there to just do service at the store (all the donations support their church) but we're friends with the people who work there so we don't want to be preachy.   But I don't know how to not be preachy anymore. Okay not really but we don't just start with prayer and teach doctrine. haha it's fun going there though! Also it was only literally LAST night that I thought of the song "Thrift Store" by macklemore. It may not be appropriate but I've been going there for like 3 months and I only just now thought of it. haha

Tuesday we ran around a lot helping our sisters who had interviews! Some of our sisters were at the church until like 8 and didn't get dinner! So we brought them some. We nice sometimes. We had a dinner appointment and the family had been to Las Vegas and I felt like they were quizzing me on if I'm REALLY from Las Vegas..  "We went to that one casino with that one thing.. dang.. what's the name of it? do you remember? it's on the south side.. by this one thing... " and I was like "I haven't thought of the physical layout of the strip in WAY too long for this conversation" and it was funny. Haha

Then we waited at the church for people to come for a church tour but no one came. :( we're trying to get church tours started but the start is just a leeeeetle bit rough. haha it's okay! People will start coming eventually. In the meantime, my comp gets piano practice time and I mess around pretending I know how to play the organ. :) 

Wednesday's excitement was interviews! We went first thing in the morning! We actually got to both talk to President together and ask him what we can do for our sisters. That was good to sit down and talk to him about it. Then I had my interview! He read what my bishop and stake president wrote about me in their recommendation! That was super nice. I feel like President knows "I just need to be super nice to Sister Nash in interviews" and he is and it's great! haha

       
               

Selfie with President Olson!

Selfie with Sister Olson!

On Thursday my comp was full on sick so we didn't do anything.   Actually, I organized all of the pass along cards and pamphlets in the whole apartment! That's a feat. Our apartment combined 2 areas so we have a TON of everything. And I organized it all while she slept! We did go to an appointment later and then we went back home.  A member had to cancel dinner so they had pizza delivered to us :) we also watched Meet the Mormons with the commentary on because I could probably quote the whole movie without the commentary going. :) 

Friday started slow but then it really picked up! We helped at the bishop's storehouse and that was always good fun. :) I don't know WHAT has been going on with our streak of unsolicited referrals but a member of the Hattiesburg ward came up to us and was like "I didn't know y’all covered Sumrall! My friend lives there!" and then told us to go see him. I don't know what we're doing right but it's been great.

Then we hunted down paintbrushes and headed out to Sumrall to help our investigator paint her son’s room! It's BYU blue! Or, if you ask the 2 year old, it's Thomas the Tank blue :) He LOVES Thomas. It's so cute.   I did not realize that painting is really a physical activity, but I was the tallest and could reach up to the ceiling so I painted like 3/4 of the room with the roller. MAN I might have been a little bit sweaty but it was fun. The room wasn't really well lit so I didn't realize it, but I got a nice sprinkling of blue paint! It took me all weekend to get it off!

I guess I don't look too blue but it was splattered all over me!

 Then we drove over to the Hattiesburg building and picked up the Sandhill sisters! They had been stuck at the church all day because they were told that they could pick up their car from the body shop but they didn't have the check so they couldn't get it! So they got a ride to Hattiesburg but then were stuck! SO we picked them up and drove to their little house in Richton and dropped me and one of them off for exchanges! It was perfect because we already had exchanges planned! 

And shoot dang was it an exchange. Since their car was still stuck in Hattiesburg, we biked it up! It's been a while. haha I haven't biked since January. Wooo. We pretty much tried potentials and tracted all day, but we met some cool people! There was a 100% chance of rain so alll morning it was sticky and gross and then all afternoon it POURED. But that doesn't stop us!! At least it didn't stop her and I had to follow her because I didn't know where we were going. haha it was fun though! We biked up an impossible hill to invite a less active to church and then she wasn't home so we bought a huge burrito at a Mexican place instead. Since their car has been in the shop all week, they didn't grocery shop so they didn't have hardly any food! We went into the restaurant and didn't know if they would give us a table because we were SOAKING wet. But the girl didn't say anything! SO we split a huge burrito and then biked home. haha it was warm rain all day but once we were wet and then went inside and then went BACK outside and biked in the rain again, it was FREEZING. So we went back to their place and put on our jammies until our companions came and got us. haha we all drove back to Hattiesburg and they got their car and drove home! It worked out pretty well! besides the biking in the rain. haha

Sunday!  We were just sitting there in the chapel after the sacrament and the 1st counselor was bearing his testimony and I just HAPPENED to glance over my shoulder and saw our investigator walking into church and sitting on the last row of the chairs in the very back! So we went back and sat with her! SHE LOVED CHURCH. She was answering all sorts of questions in gospel principles about the second coming (a topic everyone here knows about).  Then we had a combined 3rd hour to watch Brad Wilcox's "His Grace is Sufficient" talk.  The 1st counselor was conducting (we were all in the chapel) and was like "Sisters, y’all have a visitor with you, would you like to introduce her?" She JUMPED up and said something like "I'm going to be baptized and all y’all are invited and I'm gonna need someone to do it for me if one of y’all wants to step up and volunteer cause the girls here can't do it!"

And then yesterday we gave her and her brother a tour of the church! It was super short because they had to go but she was just BEAMING showing her brother her church! She kept saying stuff like "this is MY church" "this is where I go to church" "I feel so at home here" "I feel the Spirit when I come in here" and I couldn't help thinking "you've come ONCE and you LOVE it so much!!!" I have a new testimony of progression from church attendance. She just felt so much love from the ward yesterday! Also, when we showed them the font, she said "Is this where I'm going to be baptized?!" which is kind of a relief because she originally wanted to be baptized in a river but as I quote her "the rivers are too high right now so we'd have to wait for them to go do so this would be safer." I swear, my day was made at like 10 am this morning.   Man I love her.

WHEW. I think that was my week. 

Church signs:

"come and worship the Lord with us"

"now is the time to worship the Lord"

"it wasn't nails that held Him to the cross, but His love for you and me"

"God can turn around any situation Romans 8:28"

"now is the time to trust in the Lord"

"rejoice be patient be persistent in prayer"

"you can't be wrong by doing right and you can't be right by doing wrong"

"Jesus is not one way to God. He is the only way"

"come and see the Lord is good"

"Jesus: don't leave earth without Him"

"Godly mothers are a blessing"

"Lord, help us to keep our focus on You"

Love,

Sister Nash

Week of May 2 – May 8: Happy Mother's Day!

Since I got to see your faces yesterday, I guess I already told you a lot of what's been going on.. but this week was sure exciting so I still got lots to say! whew!

On Monday, we went fishing! We were only there for like 1/2 hour.  We just watched the elders fillet the fish and we fished for like 2 minutes. haha it was fun!

                                    

That night we stopped to see an investigator who used to come to church all the time but I'd only met her like once before! She came outside and was holding her baby and said we could talk with her. After we prayed, we didn't talk to her long but we got a return appointment to see her on Tuesday.

On Tuesday we had exchanges!!  I got left in Hattiesburg and my comp went to Oak Grove! It was so fun being in Hattiesburg.  The sister I was with is pretty much the most exactly obedient, hardest working, humblest missionary I have ever met in my whole life. It was great. We spent all day going around teaching! The sisters have USM in their area, so we went on campus and had a lesson with some of their investigators who are college students! MAN they had really hard questions. "Could you show me in the Bible where it talks specifically about the priesthood like you mentioned?" They weren't bashing.. they just had really hard questions. haha it was fun! For lunch we got these MASSIVE burgers that were SO good but the elders teased us for not finishing. They were so huge and delicious. YUM.

On Wednesday we switched back and my comp told me the exciting news:  we are going to get a new car at MLC!!! So we cleaned out and washed and vacuumed our old car, Sailor! We called her Sailor ‘cause she was a BOAT! Then we had district meeting and then ran around getting stuff to teach the stop smoking workshop!  (there's this whole program we teach.. it involves unsweetened grapefruit juice after every meal and healthy snacks and vitamin c and stuff. It's good)

On Thursday we headed to Jackson for MLC! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Thursday we talked about policies and what rules we should change in the mission and how rule changes have gone and stuff like that. The APs lead the discussion (or quelled the argument) and President called companionships out one by one to talk about our zones/sisters in the zone. That was cool! It was cool to sit down with President and say "alright what are you concerned about with these sisters that we see all the time?" That's when I saw the transfer board with a 2 on my name for 2 transfers left! AH!

Then we ate pizza and then all drove over to the mission home where we presented the policy changes to President and we talked about them more. Then all the elders left and we sisters set up the ping pong table and then President told us stories from his mission as a bedtime story and we went to bed. It was so cute. haha 

Friday morning we got up and headed over to the mission office for more MLCing. It was more like zone conference because the APs taught and President taught and Sister Olson taught. We talked a lot about the culture of our mission and what is and how we can change it to make it better! The one who shapes your mission the absolute most is your companion, according to a study from the church. I can testify that this is true. haha We also learned about a new finding tool.. it's super old but this guy came up with this idea to ask nonmembers a few questions to lead to a gospel discussion.. "has anyone ever told you why Mormons are called Mormons?" and then "would you be offended if I offered to tell you why?" and then you teach them about the Book of Mormon!  It'd be a great way to start a conversation without people just saying "I'm not interested" right away! :) 

AND the best part. We got a new car!! Like it had like 10 miles on it when we got it. And what kind of car is it?? A NISSAN ALTIMA. A 2016 NISSAN ALTIMA. It is a nice car. It has a button to start it! You just push a button and it starts! It is the nicest car that I will ever in my life get to drive. haha it is so fun. that has been our fun this past weekend. I can't believe I forgot to tell yall yesterday. I was so excited to tell you!! haha it's so fun :) 

I got to experience driving this awesome car all day Saturday because we went on exchanges! I drove out to Petal, dropped off my comp and picked up another sister and drove back! MAN it was a fun day driving that super nice car. We might name it Peanut Butter just because it's so dang smooth. But it came with a TIWI. That little white box that goes in the corner that yells at you when you go like 5 over the speed limit. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It just says "check your speed" and it didn't yell at me nearly as much as I thought it would!

But we had a good day on Saturday! We wrote/drew scriptures about mothers at the park with chalk and talked to one of our investigators we hadn't seen in a while! After we volunteered at the thrift store, I had been feeling all morning like we needed to see a woman whose 10 year old son requested a Bible through  mormon.org.  We delivered it and got a return appointment with her but she didn't keep it. So we went back and knocked on her door and she wasn't there so we knocked on a couple of doors down to the right of her house and then were just going to knock on a couple of doors across the street and then head out. Well as we were knocking on a door, we saw a guy walk by up the street. We waved and said hi but then I kinda surprised myself and was like "can we give you a card?" and he was like sure. So we walked over and gave him a card that had the church address on it and he said "I always meant to go to this church!" and I asked him if he would come if someone invited him and he said maybe so we invited him! Then I pulled out a Book of Mormon and was like "have you ever seen this?" and he was like "yeah do you want me to get my copy?" haha so we followed him to his porch and he got his copy and we taught him the whole restoration! We asked him again if he'd come to church and he kept saying "yeah I'll try" and saying all the other stuff he might do instead BUT then I used my favorite line "As a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can promise you..." and then he said he'd come to church. That was probably my favorite part of the day. 

Sunday was Mother's Day!! We had plans for like 4 people coming to church but as the sacrament meeting started, none of them were there. After the sacrament, we got a call from the man we met on Saturday! He had been walking to church and he couldn't find it!! We told him where it was and then he came right in!

Then we had lunch with a family and tried to convince their 5 boys to do something nice for their mom every day this week! They're such sweet funny boys.

Church signs: (got a whole ton!)

-"one day every knee will bow before God. Limber up"

-"thank God for mothers!"

-"to get rid of inner peace, judge others"

-"happy mother's day and God bless"

-"what we teach our children today will influence tomorrow's world"

-"how much money did prince leave? all of it"

-"it is a joy serving the Lord"

-"the farm isn't heaven but I'll bet its in the same zip code"

-"if the donkey and the elephant let you down, try the Lamb"

-"Christ is risen. Come hear Him"

-"unless a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God"

-"sign broken. come inside for message"

-"knowledge speaks but wisdom listens"

-"God please bless our nation. We're a mess"

it was good week for church signs!! 

I LOVE YOU ALL 

Love,

Sister Nash

                                  This is from our drive back from MLC! 

Not sure why there's a giant watermelon along the side of the road but there is. haha

Week of May 8 – 16: how many miles did our new car go this week?

many. that is the answer. quite a few. 

This week was CRAZY! We had 2 exchanges, taught 2 zone training meetings and drove all the way to Philadelphia. Philadelphia, Mississippi that is. haha

Monday's excitement was a car wash! It is pure joy to wash and vacuum a brand new car. It also takes like 10 minutes. haha we have a sticker that we transferred from our old car that gets us free car washes at this one place! It's fun. :) we also met up with the zone leaders to plan our zone training meeting!

On Tuesday, I got dropped off in Purvis! It was so fun. We taught this guy and reviewed the restoration with him.  He was getting it but you could tell he was trying to find something he didn't like about it. haha we offered him a Book of Mormon but he didn't want it.  The other sister had already told me he doesn't want to read it even though he's interested in learning more but I was like "hey I'm new! I'm just asking here!" and he was like "not YET" and then he called me fiesty like 4 times. "This sister is FIESTY" "you brought a FIESTY one today!" And I was like "I'm sorry if I offended you" and he was like "nah you didn't. You're just fiesty!" and it was so funny. haha

On Tuesday we got picked up by our companions for a ride to our zone meeting! They hadn't sent their mileage report in on time so their car couldn't be driven until it got to the mission office.. great for saving miles this month though! My comp and I and the zone leaders taught what we learned in MLC! It was fun. It went wayyy better than last time! We planned more involvement in our lessons! We talked about finding (do what works for your area!) and talked about how for the next 2 transfers, the whole mission will be reading the Book of Mormon! We're going to do the activity on pg 114 (or something) of PMG where you mark all the references to Christ and all the words He says! I'm so excited because I wanted to finish the Book of Mormon this transfer (I'm in Ether!) and then reread it all before I go home (which is the next 2 transfers) so it works out perfectly! I'm excited. :) 

Then we read the Book of Mormon with our investigator and it went really well!

Then we picked up the zone leaders and got on the open road and headed for Meridian!   We got to Meridian around 6 and were going to just drop off the zone leaders at the elders' apartment there BUT they had to go to the church. There was a big confusion over whether the bishop or the zone leaders had to give a baptism interview an 8 year old who was just adopted. SO we were waiting around in Meridian forever until we could leave and drive the hour to Philadelphia!  So much driving this week!

Once we got to Philadelphia, we met a sister for the first time! She's in training and we do her training calls once a week but we hadn't met her yet because she's so far away and brand new! We didn't do much that night but plan and go to bed and then wake up the next morning and drive back to Meridian for the zone meeting! Lots of driving. We just taught the same exact thing to their district and then headed to lunch. By the time we finished lunch and got back to Philadelphia for the actual exchange, we only had like an hour before we had to do the exchange evaluation and drive BACK to Meridian to pick up the elders and drive home. WHOA. Lots of driving.  We spent our whole hour tracting. WOO. We tracted on the Choctaw Indian reservation! IT was really fun! I've heard a lot about the Choctaw reservation so it was cool to see it! And casinos. Home sweet home.

IT was fun getting to know the new sister.  She kept saying stuff like "I still don't really know what I'm doing yet" and I was like "dude me neither." it was great. 

Then we drove home! 

Welcome to Hattiesburg!!
Look at those blooming magnolias!

We made a pit stop to silly string the Spanish elders because they pranked one of the Elders and he wanted revenge. I did not participate because if you dish it out you have to take it and I do not want to be involved in a prank war! I did stand there and giggle. I told the silly string victim: "remember that I just stood here and laughed." haha it was funny to witness. 

OH and then we got home and we were sooo tired and we were unloading all our junk and checking the mail and all that jazz and one of our neighbors yells to us! He's like "did yall just get back from church?" and we were like "no we dress like this all the time." haha but we went over and talked to him and he was saying how he wants to get back into church! He just moved here from Texas and he wants to change his life around. We were like "well we go to that church RIGHT THERE (the church is literally on the other side of the fence from our apt complex)  do you want to come?" and so we set up an appointment to give him a tour the next day. WHAT. Heavenly Father literally HANDED us someone to teach. 4 doors down. Who wants the gospel. HE talked to US. IT was great. Blessings when you're tired from driving home. 

Friday we got up and helped at the bishop's storehouse! Then we went over to the church and helped them set up for the stake Relief Society activity on Saturday. IT was festive, let me tell you. The theme was "sunshine in my soul" and everything was yellow! One of the sisters had found yellow ribbon in her ribbon drawer (cough sound like mom? cough) and another sister was like "YES we can use this somehow!" and we got put in charge of tying bows around all the metal folding chairs with the yellow ribbon.

That afternoon, we went back and saw the man who came to church! I hadn't seen him since church but my comp taught him on Tuesday when I was in Purvis on exchanges. We retaught him the plan of salvation.  He's so quiet but he's so nice and then he just laughs at what we say. AND I finally got to follow up about church! He said it was fine on Sunday, but I asked if he noticed that his day went better because he went to church and he said that it was. OH so great. I really felt the Spirit in that lesson. 

Then we met our neighbor at the church! We didn't give him a tour because the whole church was decorated but we sat in the chapel and taught him the whole restoration and he LOVED it. He's from Burma and wanted a Book of Mormon in his language (chin) but he has great English. It was a great lesson! We're seeing him again tonight! 

Saturday we got up and went to the stake RS activity because our investigator was going!  She LOVED IT. There were a whole bunch of classes that we rotated between and she LOVED THEM ALL.   We left after lunch (free lunch!) to go out and see other people but we found out after how much she loved it!   She knows the gospel is true and she wants to get baptized, but she needs a little more social conversion to get the strength to make the changes she needs to!

Then we headed out to Sumrall for some lessons!   We saw a lady who is still the most perfect investigator and ready to be baptized. She was telling us that her less active husband was reading the Book of Mormon and she was so excited! The roles are so reversed with them! The nonmember wife is excited for the less active member husband to gain a testimony. What? haha she's so great though.

Sunday was a day of excitement! We had correlation and ward council! Then our new investigator came to church!   He's such a golden investigator! AND when we asked about church this week, he said it was good, not just fine. haha progress! :)

After lunch, we tracted for a bit and met a member family going for a Sunday walk! We were both like "aw Sunday walks are the best!" and then the sister was like "walk with us! OH have you met the less active family down the street whose 9 year old daughter wants to be baptized??" and so we walked with them to a golden referral. They weren't home but it was still a delightful walk. :) 

That night we taught another lesson.  She had been reading in the Doctrine and Covenants and had some great questions about the difference between prophets and apostles.   It was a great lesson!   We were outside and she was inviting everyone who walked by to join our lesson and she made her son's girlfriend CRY! "Baby this has changed my life. I know you're going through a hard time and I want you to sit and listen and feel close to Jesus and change. The Good Man Above's got you! I love you baby!" and she cried.  You can tell she is really becoming converted because she wants to tell everyone about the gospel!!!

AND THEN. MAN yesterday was exciting! We stopped to see the woman we haven't seen since we tracted into a few weeks ago. She was going to come to church if she made it back from Jackson in time and so we were going to stop by to see if she was there. We were SO NERVOUS because she has golden investigator stamped all over her forehead and we didn't want to mess it up by stopping by randomly at like 7:45 at night. But she invited us right in. And we sat at the kitchen table. And she said she had questions and wants to talk more. And we invited her to our church tour on Tuesday and she said she would be there and maybe the whole family but DEFINITELY her like 9 year old daughter who she made sit at the kitchen table with us because "she's been asking a lot about God." WHAT?  it was great. I asked her if she'd read the Book of Mormon we left with her like a month ago and she said not yet but she would before tomorrow because she has nothing stopping her now! We haven't been able to meet with her because of finals. MAN it was great.

WHEW. We ended the week on a high note. We are SO BOOKED this week. We're planning on staying in Sumrall for like 3 days to make it easier to work out there! We're staying at a member's studio that was once a house. It's on their property and it'll be great. So pumped.

CHURCH SIGNS:

"you're the only Jesus some may ever see! make it count!"

"cross training inside"

"1 cross + 3 nails = 4given"  I've seen this one before.. haha

"hearses do not pull Uhauls because u cannot take it with u" ironically, this was on a storage place marquee... haha bad advertising?

"pain is real but so is hope"

"the greater the storm, the brighter your rainbow"

"He is risen! Oh what a Savior!"

"keep looking up.  that's the secret to life"

"love God? keep His commandments love Jesus? live for HIm"

"Romans 10:13"

"1 John 4:10"

"this is the day the Lord has made"

"happy mother's day to all our moms"

"today's excuse is tomorrow's regret"

and a million variations on "congrats graduates!" 

LOVE Y’ALL!

Love,

Sister Nash