Peaches and Frogs everywhere 06/27/22

Hey Everyone! This week was another week of being comps with Sister Case for only 3 days again!  

The miracle guy Timmy from last week is so awesome. We had 2 lessons with him this past week and he told us that he is ready to let God prevail in his life. Pretty cool! We talked about the Restoration and we invited him to pray to know if it is true and he told us that he already knows that it is true and how the missionaries in the past asked him to also and that's when he revieved his answer!

This week Sister Reber came to Macon with me and it was so much fun. She and I are pretty similar! Sister Clawson also came here and we celebrated my 16th month mark! We went to Your Pie, its a yummy pizza place! 

One of the little towns in our area is Forsyth, it's about 20 minutes away and there is a member Sister Sinclair who is the only memeber in her family. Well she signed up to feed us and she ended up taking us to Dickies!! It's a really cool peach orchard. We got Peach icecream for dinner and it took almost all of our dinner hour getting there but it was so worth it! Afterwards we went over to her home and taught her 2 granddaughters, they are 7 and 9. It was so much fun!!!

Pics:

1- matching for churchhhh

2- us with our peaches from Dickies

3- Sister Clawson and I at the end of the night finishing our calls

4- baby frogs are ALLLLL over our apt. complex 

GEORGIA HEAT 06/20/22

This week I only had 3 full days with Sister Case! There are 5 sets of Sisters in this zone so we go on exchanges (switch out companions for the day) twice a week pretty much. I was on Warner Robbins from Tuesday to Wednesday and it was pretty fun. I was with Sister Maloy. I was training Sister Johnson in Summer Grove when she was being trained by Sister Burch in Newnan! We actually did a lot of finding people to teach while there and we found 5 people to teach!! We were visiting 2 people who were taught the gospel in the past that reside in a trailer park and they both answered the door when we knocked and said they wanted to continue being taught. Also when we were walking back we talked to more people and found 3 more people to teach! 

This week I really forgot what GA heat feels like. Last summer it was hot, but not as hot as Macon. It was over the 100s and mix it with humidity....no bueno! (don't worry mom yes I am applying sunscreen every few hours)

MEGA MIRACLE! On Saturday night we got a RANDOM call from a man named Timmy. We looked up his number in our area book and he had been taught all the lessons (even on date to be baptized) but for some reason the missionaries stopped teaching him like 7 months ago. He told us he had a dream recently that he needed to call us because he has been struggling. We shared a spiritual message and he is so ready to learn more!! I love GA! Everyone wants to learn about God!

Some things really cannot be described in an email. Half of the people we are teaching or that were taught in the past live on Vineville Ave. We don't go there after dark. We wanted to visit some previously taught people and talk to people in the neighborhood. Well, the first address took us to a house that was burned and covered in vines, nice. After knocking on other doors, we drove past a couple sitting on their porch so we decided to go say hi. We parked down the street and we were walking up towards the house when a guy with a HUGE gun in his hand started walking towards the same house, so we decided we'd better turn around... We were almost to the car when we saw an old lady going up the steps to her house. We stopped her and ended up sitting on her porch and teaching some highlights about the Restoration of the Gospel. She told us her story and we gave her a Book of Mormon. She began reading it immediately and we are setting up another lesson! 

This week in during one of my personal studies I found a talk about Charity and it is so good. It is called Charity Never Faileth by Silvia H. Allred in October 2011. She says, "Speaking to the sisters, the Prophet Joseph said: “Don’t be limited in your views with regard to your neighbors’ virtues. … You must enlarge your souls toward others if you [would] do like Jesus. … As you increase in innocence and virtue, as you increase in goodness, let your hearts expand—let them be enlarged towards others—you must be longsuffering and bear with the faults and errors of mankind. How precious are the souls of men!” I love this! We are meant to love one another just like Jesus Christ did! I think that it can be sad that sometimes people mis-treat someone because of different views. Let's have Charity for everyone. We are all here on earth trying our best, we CAN have Charity for everyone, just like the Savior did! 

Charity Never Faileth by Silvia H. Allred link; 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2011/10/charity-never-faileth?lang=eng

- When maps took us to the wrong house

- a leaf I sent home!!

- Du-rags from dollar world

- GOOOOD BBQ

- a cool church building 

Last Interview with P. Needs!

What a wild week! I got to meet some of the people that the other missionaries have been teaching and they are all super awesome. There was a lady that Sister Case and I found our first day together in Atlanta and we had a lesson with her...STELLAR!!! We talked with her about the Atonement and what that really means for each of us. The whole time she was connecting dots in her head. Even though she lives in Atlanta, we are super excited to do another call with her over the phone. 

On Friday we had a combined zone conference with the missionaries located in Fayetteville zone and they even came to Macon! Which means I had my last interview with President and Sister Needs (sad days) We have our new mission president, President and Sister Farrias coming July 1st. I am excited to get to know them. They are from Brazil! 

There is a recent convert Freddie who is a sweet old man. He has been struggling a little bit though so keep him in your prayers! Funny story though, on Saturday night we made cookies to give to members on Sunday. I gave them to Freddie and he was so excited and goes, "Just so you know for next week, chocolate chip is my favorite!" Haha he is so awesome.

This week I was reading a talk given in October 2013 by Richard J. Maynes. A quote I like says, "A testimony, like your body, needs to be in shape if you want it to endure. So how do we keep our testimonies in shape? We cannot get our bodies into good basketball shape by simply watching basketball on television. Similarly, we won’t be able to get our testimonies in shape by simply watching general conference on television." I love this because our testimonies are so important. Our mission really emphasizes being truly converted disciples of the Lord. Gaining that testimony is what takes work. I know that God wants the best for us and wants us to feel joy and the way we can, is through Him and His gospel! So don't give up because I know that you will receive the most joy by Him in your life!

Below are some pictures (from last week I didn't send too)

- President and Sister Needs! (I got a hug from them both:) )

- A cathedral in Downtown Macon!

- A legal art wall with the District 

- Krystal (go there if you wanna die. It's a franchise in GA and it was an experience)

- the Sun Set from our apartment

- Macon art

- zone conference 

- we JUST got pics back from Elder Christofferson so enjoy a late photo 

SISTER CASE 06/06/22

MACON! I am in Macon GA with Sister Case! Funny enough I wrote to President Needs last transfer that I want a dramatic change in areas (wishing Auburn or Macon) and I am here! Haha Macon is a HUGE zone/Stake. It even use to be its own mission a few years back yet was closed and then combined with the Atlanta mission. Macon is pretty much in the middle of GA/no where, but it's a city with sketchy town vibes (has its really nice parts too) We just moved into a boujee apartment a few months back because our old apartment had a lot of crime and stuff going on so I'm glad to be here haha. 

I don't really know the area too well because on transfer day after transferring with Sister Case, she had someone getting baptized from her old area, Freedom Park. So we got to have a fun day in ATL and we got to do studies in Piedmont Park. We also ended up finding someone there to teach. Then on Friday we went to Peachtree GA for a big meeting that we have weekly. So I am still getting to know the area and the people but I am so excited to be here. We are also in a Spanish area but in an English ward. There are 6 other missionaries in the Macon ward so it's super fun. 

Miracle story: we were trying to visit people in the past who were taught and so we went over to a lady's home and we started talking. Her mom (the lady we went to go see was sleeping) so we started talking and standing there, and I was like this is super random and felt that we need to share the scripture John 3:16. We pull it out to read it and after, the lady we were taking with, tells us that she was reading that scripture THAT morning. The Spirit was super strong and she gave us her number and we are going to set up a lesson to continue teaching about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Picture:

- Sister Case and I not planning on twinning on Sunday

- the district

- at the temple (the baptism was in the church building behind the temple)

- Sister Case and I at transfers

- Saying bye to Sister Rhea 

- Saying bye to the Vaughns

- Baby Cat we found knocking some houses