Georgia is a literal jungle 07/18/22

This week was really awesome. There was transfers on Wednesday and Sister Case and I are staying together. Just us and the sisters we live with are the only one's in the Zone that are staying so that's hype. Sister Case and I saw so many cool things back to back to back that happened from Tuesday to Thursday. It showed to me that there really is a reason for everything and there is a reason why we are staying together!

We were in Forsyth on Wednesday about to go into a lesson with Debby and Renae when a lady drove past us and stopped. She rolled down her window and waved at us so we came up to the car and said how she will be off on Friday this week and how she would like us to come do studies again. Sister Case and I were SO confused. She told us that sisters in the past would come over and study with her from the Bible and she couldn't remember the other book so we said the Book of Mormon and she said yes! Her name is Brenda and she gave us her number and her address then told us to call her. Sister Case and I were so shocked what had just happened, super cool miracle! 

My mission does a lot of missionary Facebook work. Sister Case and I help run the local Facebook and run ads for it. Every day there is a different companionship who watches it and the messages that comes in. Well on Friday we were on the page and I saw an old message and opened it. Well I reached back out and within 10 minutes we were on the phone talking! She even lives in OUR specific area in the stake. It is super cool to see the positive influence media can have.

Darrell! He has been taught for a few months and Sister Case but I haven't been able to teach too much recently. Well on Sunday we were standing by the door greeting with Freddie (he does it every week) and Freddie goes, "Hey Darrell is here!" Sister Case and I were like WHAT! We looked over and Brother Chase went and picked him up! Freddie then said "I saw him before yall did!" Then we laughed and it was really cool seeing Darrell at church. We haven't been able to see too many of our friends at church.

MACON STAKE SPANISH GROUP? SAY LESS! A few days ago Hermano Villanova had a meeting with all 8 of us missionaries and told us that the stake is going to do a Spanish group starting the 1st week of August. It's going to be after the Macon ward! We are all so excited! It will be really cool to see a start of a Spanish group here. Plus, now I get 3 hour church again lol!

I have been reflecting a lot lately on my growth from the beginning of the mission to towards the end and it has been really cool. Seeing where the Lord has needed me and how it has helped me grow and gain a deeper conversion. The biggest thing that has helped me to gain this conversion is reading the scriptures daily, specifically the Book of Mormon. It is something so simple that many people don't do daily. If we read the scriptures every single day we would have so much more peace and guidance. I hope everyone can make Christ a high priority in every day and open the scriptures because it truly does give us strength. There have been so many times where I read something that morning and the spirit told me someone needed to hear it. I love you all and so does God! Thanks for the emails throughout the week!

Pics: 

- our hike as a district from last week (I'm pretty sure GA is a jungle) AND there were MASSIVE spiders

- the sky from this week

- last district pday lunch as a district before the transfer

- us outside after the meet and greet from last week

The Macon Funk and Frog Frisbee 07/11/22

Our tire EXPLODED on the freeway on the way to our meeting... our minivan SWERVED like crazy and was bouncing while we were on a sky ramp because there was some metal bar on the road that we couldn't avoid without wrecking. We slowed down to 7 mph with a fat line of cars behind us and pulled over on the bridge/ramp only partly out of the lane because there was no more room. We evaluated and got back in the car to call the elders on their way to the meeting too and right then- MIRACLE. Two cars of elders were passing and pulled over when they saw us! The dang spare was underneath the seats on the bottom of the car. We couldn't even find it for a while, then we couldn't get it out because we didn't have the right wrench. Our seats were just chilling on the side of the freeway. A policeman pulled over and helped us, he didn't know how to get the tire out either. Poor decisions were made, and the elders put a Chevy Equinox tire on our Sienna minivan. It was pretty dumb, they followed us for SEVEN MILES going 10 mph on the freeway and we made it to the church an hour late for the meeting we were leading haha. After the meeting, we put the right spare on and had to get a new tire! It was crazy. 

We got transfer news and we thought that Sister Case was leaving because she has been here for 3 but we get to stay together! I'm super excited! We were trying to convince president Needs and Farias to put us in a trio because I have to leave a week early but no trio (sad days). The sisters we live with also are staying!!!

Eric! Eric is someone that has been taught for a SUPER long time and we have been a little confused how interested he is. Well on Saturday he signed up to feed us dinner and after we had a lesson. We asked him what he believes and he told us some of his concerns. We ended up inviting him to pray to know if the Book of Mormon isn't true and to read it every day this week and promised him that he would get an answer. The Spirit was super strong!

We are finding a lot of people up in Forsyth which is about 30 min from the church. It's been super cool being able to find in a place that hasn't had much finding in the past. Really cool story: we were driving down a little road in Forsyth and there were a few houses and we passed one that has a women and a little girl outside on their porch. We drive past and I keep thinking we need to stop. So we turn around and walk to them and she was so sweet. We shared that God loves her and talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon. She said that she needed to hear that and we set up a time to go back when we go up to Forsyth this week!

-also I learned what frog Frisbee is...our apt complex gets so many frogs and every morning they are sadly ran over and on top of it the "Macon Funk" was so bad this week. Macon has a nasty funky smells it smells like chicken guts. 

Pics:

- hike from last pday along a a river

- when we found out all 4 of us are staying together 

- us in the car as our tire is FLAT on the freeway

-our car with the Elders spare tire because ours was under our car and couldn't get it out(we are the only area in the mission that has a van)

- dinner with Yvonne 

- zlc of the transfer 

New Mission President! 07/04/22

Sorry for the short email but here are some good pictures!

- little peach stand in Forsyth!

- LOVE IS NEEDED

- on last Monday we went to Okmulgee National Park as a district!

-we have a new mission president! President and Sister Farias! They are so sweet. They are from Brazil and have been in the U.S. for about 2 years so far. President Farias English is decent and he translates a lot for Sister Farias.

- last week was the half way mark to Christmas so we had to match as a district!

- Saying bye to the Needs!

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