Well time flies out here! Monday was so much fun! We cleaned the apartment and did a little shopping then got together with a set of sisters and a set of elders at the park for some Ultimate Frisbee and wiffleball. It was warm and the bugs attacked! Dinner was at the Flamm's home. they have 3 boys and a girl and she was very very prego! we were surprised to see her name on the list because she was so pregnant but it was good food... and Jello haha. her 6 year old son Eric has a tradition to race the new missionaries in the back yard. well I had a skirt and dress shoes on so I was very glad that it was dark out! When we left I left with a new companion in a different car. MY FIRST EXCHANGE! Sister McGrath is one of the sister training leaders so she came home with me while sister Schulthies went to Jackson East with sister Devenport. I'm so glad that I already knew the Sister training leaders so well as they are in our ward:) Sister McGrath went right over to a members home so I could get some more practicing in. I'm starting to get the hang of it better!
Tuesday sister McGrath and I decided to take a walk around the pond behind our apartments and saw an opossum! it was like 5 feet away from us. They aren't very pretty creatures. Sister McGrath is so sweet! We went to the Home Place and talked with the ladies while they knitted then we went to see Miss Alice because we heard that it was a proud day for her. She was so happy to see us and showed us the newspaper article that showed 2 of her children in one of the first mixed race graduating classes! There is a lot of history here and so much to learn! We only got 20 minutes of tracting in but it is so fun to see how sister McGrath does it. I learn a lot from her! Since dinner was cancelled we went to a little sandwich shop with the STLs to get some dinner (I got a potato!) Then I went back with my companion! We headed over to Charles home to meet his wife but they were all sick:( So we went to a less active/non member family and set up an appointment with them for this week.
Wednesday was FANTASTIC! Sister Brimhall picked us up with her mother so we could go teach Chris. They got along well with Chris and we finally found her concern! Chris says she really enjoyed church and we are hoping she will come again. Sister martin bore her testimony and the spirit was so strong. Chris says that she knows she needs to pray to know if Joseph smith was a prophet. Everything hinges on that. then we went to sister Akers home to go visit teaching with sister Brimhall. Sister aker is so sweet and can talk ALOT! we really love her. They took us to lunch then we went to the apt to get our car and head off to Brandon for interviews and district development meeting. In our meeting we talked about cortez saying burn the ships so that they wouldn't turn back when times got hard. We wrote down one of our fears and made them into paper boats so that we could burn them so our fears wouldn't hold us back. since we cant use fire we put them in the paper shredder. Sister McDonough brought me a goodie bag for my birthday! so sweet . my birthday just keeps on going! Interviews were great with president McDonough.
Thursday we finally got to E-mail! yay!!! I called Jim one of the men we taught but didn't know if he was really interested. When I talked to him he said he had been thinking of us and wanted to meet with us again!!!!! yay! so we have an appointment with him tomorrow.
On Saturday we helped sister myers pack up some things and then we went out to meet with john and Eva. John is a returning member and we were able to answer some questions he had. While we were out we stopped at jackies house. I'd never met her but we stopped by and knew that was where we were supposed to be. she was having a hard time with some family things and was so glad to see us. The clements had us for dinner and we had a BBQ out back! It was so much fun then we roasted marsh mallows and made smores!
Sunday was great! Unfortunately none of our investigators made it to church. Last minute we got asked to teach a little part of YW so that was fun! The porters (who knew dad growing up) are moving so they brought us tons of frozen meat. We were getting ready to tract when we got a call from bro aker asking us to please come for lunch. his wife had cancer and has hard days because of her medication. we weren't sure why we were going but we did. when we got there she said My sunshine is here! That is what we were there for. they had a huge lunch for us (some good black lady food!) and told us lots of stories! we finished up our 7 hours of tracting (we did it all in only 4 days) and met some neat people.
A lot of people want to know about "works" out here. I read that works is really repentance. Today as I was studying I was reading about faith and one question is how much faith is needed for salvation. All we need is faith unto repentance. Faith with out works is dead. As we have faith unto repentance we can grow closer to Christ and better understand the atonement. Plant the seed. if it is good, it will grow. So if we have faith and it continues to grow, we will have that desire to repent.
I love y'all so much and I am so glad to be here serving in Madision, MS
Tuesday sister McGrath and I decided to take a walk around the pond behind our apartments and saw an opossum! it was like 5 feet away from us. They aren't very pretty creatures. Sister McGrath is so sweet! We went to the Home Place and talked with the ladies while they knitted then we went to see Miss Alice because we heard that it was a proud day for her. She was so happy to see us and showed us the newspaper article that showed 2 of her children in one of the first mixed race graduating classes! There is a lot of history here and so much to learn! We only got 20 minutes of tracting in but it is so fun to see how sister McGrath does it. I learn a lot from her! Since dinner was cancelled we went to a little sandwich shop with the STLs to get some dinner (I got a potato!) Then I went back with my companion! We headed over to Charles home to meet his wife but they were all sick:( So we went to a less active/non member family and set up an appointment with them for this week.
Wednesday was FANTASTIC! Sister Brimhall picked us up with her mother so we could go teach Chris. They got along well with Chris and we finally found her concern! Chris says she really enjoyed church and we are hoping she will come again. Sister martin bore her testimony and the spirit was so strong. Chris says that she knows she needs to pray to know if Joseph smith was a prophet. Everything hinges on that. then we went to sister Akers home to go visit teaching with sister Brimhall. Sister aker is so sweet and can talk ALOT! we really love her. They took us to lunch then we went to the apt to get our car and head off to Brandon for interviews and district development meeting. In our meeting we talked about cortez saying burn the ships so that they wouldn't turn back when times got hard. We wrote down one of our fears and made them into paper boats so that we could burn them so our fears wouldn't hold us back. since we cant use fire we put them in the paper shredder. Sister McDonough brought me a goodie bag for my birthday! so sweet . my birthday just keeps on going! Interviews were great with president McDonough.
Thursday we finally got to E-mail! yay!!! I called Jim one of the men we taught but didn't know if he was really interested. When I talked to him he said he had been thinking of us and wanted to meet with us again!!!!! yay! so we have an appointment with him tomorrow.
On Saturday we helped sister myers pack up some things and then we went out to meet with john and Eva. John is a returning member and we were able to answer some questions he had. While we were out we stopped at jackies house. I'd never met her but we stopped by and knew that was where we were supposed to be. she was having a hard time with some family things and was so glad to see us. The clements had us for dinner and we had a BBQ out back! It was so much fun then we roasted marsh mallows and made smores!
Sunday was great! Unfortunately none of our investigators made it to church. Last minute we got asked to teach a little part of YW so that was fun! The porters (who knew dad growing up) are moving so they brought us tons of frozen meat. We were getting ready to tract when we got a call from bro aker asking us to please come for lunch. his wife had cancer and has hard days because of her medication. we weren't sure why we were going but we did. when we got there she said My sunshine is here! That is what we were there for. they had a huge lunch for us (some good black lady food!) and told us lots of stories! we finished up our 7 hours of tracting (we did it all in only 4 days) and met some neat people.
A lot of people want to know about "works" out here. I read that works is really repentance. Today as I was studying I was reading about faith and one question is how much faith is needed for salvation. All we need is faith unto repentance. Faith with out works is dead. As we have faith unto repentance we can grow closer to Christ and better understand the atonement. Plant the seed. if it is good, it will grow. So if we have faith and it continues to grow, we will have that desire to repent.
I love y'all so much and I am so glad to be here serving in Madision, MS