Mission Newsletter #3

Our zone after the zone meeting and activity, today!

Ok, I know you all have been waiting to hear from me ALL day! Sorry, we had a zone meeting today so our whole schedule is wack-O. But here I am!  I don't even know where to begin. Good thing I have my handy-dandy notebook! (I jotted down some things I wanted to make sure to tell you.)

So, I forgot to tell you in the last email, but last week at church something horrible happened! Like I am talking ABSOLUTELY horrible! Let me share. So, it was my first Sunday at church. I wanted to look cute because this is going to be first impressions for a lot of people. I wore my cute country dress that has all the fall colors spotted. I love that dress. For my hair, I wore my light dusty pink headband with the cloth flower. I looked adorbs. We got to church a half an hour early to greet the members as they arrived.  Things were going well until about 5 minutes before church when a cute older sister came in. I said hi, introducing myself. She then grabbed my face and said, as though I were a baby, "You look like an itty bitty little girl." There we go! Confidence shot! For the rest of the day I was 5 years old. 5 YEARS OLD! That's ok. It's whatever.

The scarves and hats Sister White made for us!

This week we said goodbye to one of our progressive investigators, Jose. He is moved to Washington. :( Don't worry, we passed on his name to church headquarters, so the missionaries there will get him! Anyways, after we ate and went out to say goodbye, he surprised us with a gift! Presents! (I love presents.) We took a pic, said our goodbyes and opened the big, heavy box.  We ripped the paper off to discover... Diapers?? That obviously can't be right. We dug further. Oh my goodness! It was everything we could ever need!  He got us:
      - 2 packs of 6 bars of Dove soap

Jose and the GIANT gift!

The present, about to open it!

      - 2 large dove body washes
      - 2 double packs of toothpaste
      - 2 mouth washes
      - 4 toothbrushes
      - 2 laundry soaps & softeners
      - 2 boxes of granola bars
Holy Cow, right?! I think he was maybe dropping a hint or something... Maybe we stink. Well, if so, I guess I am immune to our smells. Hallelujah to that! In all seriousness though, that was so sweet of him and we wish Jose the best of luck in Washington.

In the mission field, things are going great. I have my first baptism this week on Saturday!  It's Tywanna's. I only missed teaching her the first lesson, so I think it counts. At least, I count it! I love her though. She has been dealing with so much. Her family has been really hard on her. They don't want her to be baptized. They want her to come to the Methodist church with them, but she says that she doesn't want anyone to stop her. I felt prompted to ask her if she would like a priesthood blessing. (Love those) She accepted. A day later the elders came and gave her one. Everything worked out perfectly. She came to the church, so down. Worse than I have ever seen. Satan is really beating down on her. The elders were running late. That gave us time to talk to her. She opened up about everything she was feeling. I had her read Matt 11:28-30. Sister Senior gave her a CTR ring we just got a few of the day before. Everything fell into place and the blessing topped it all off. She said she felt peace. I hope this will give her the strength she needs to keep pushing and moving forward. Could you keep her in your prayers? The more the better.

Cool stairway in a member's home.

We got several new investigators this week! Juliet, who was a mormon.org referral. We taught her the restoration and got her to start reading the Book of Mormon. We hope to start teaching her husband soon, too. Also, there is Brandon: Amber's fiance. Amber was a convert about a year ago, but went inactive shortly after. She just started coming back to church. She wants to be married in the temple and Brandon is aware. He wants to learn for her because he knows it matters to her, but is hesitant because of his strong Baptist background. He has been told so many things, so I don't blame him. Sister Senior and I both agree that he is going to be a great investigator because of this skepticism. He really wants to know and therefore, he'll do the research and find his answer. We are really excited for the two of them. Also, Amber asked us to start teaching her. She wants to know more about the church. She feels like she is not as knowledgeable as she should be. Lastly, we ran into Antawn. He is a friend of Kenny and Essex. He wants us to start teaching him, so we'll probably have our first lesson this next week.

Religious Alabama

The beautiful Greenery out here

There is so much going on here. The work is rolling forward. I really love teaching people and seeing their good desires. I feel like I am learning so much every day. I really have the best companion/trainer. She and I make a good team. Everyone says it seems like I've been out for 8 months, including our Sister Training Leaders we had splits with this Friday, so I take that as a good sign. I still feel brand new though. There is so much to learn. I want to be the best missionary I can though cause this isn't my work, it's the Lord's. I need to get good at this fast for Him, to help the work move forward.

With our sister training leaders, after splits :)

Thank you everyone for all the support and sweet lovin'! I appreciate all the prayers I know that are heading my way. I love you all so, so much!

-Sister Salmond