My favorite part about the name of this state is that there is a letter "a" every other letter. Kinda like banana haha!
In just two short days I will be headed to a new area with a new companera! It is always so sad to say goodbye to everyone but such is the mission life. And I know that I am going to be going where the Lord needs me to be.
Tuesday: We got some snow today! But this was nothing compared to what was to come! We weren't allowed to drive, so we just went out walking! We got to make snow ice cream!
4 cups of fresh snow
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of sugar
vanilla
mix together and enjoy! :)
It was awesome! But mostly all the snow was melted by that night.
Wednesday: It was pouring down rain all day and then around 4 o'clock, we had a snow day!!! It was probably the best thing ever! We had were at the church and then weren't allowed to drive anymore so we hurried to the Triggs to practice our song for Sunday. It was absolutely beautiful! And when the Elders got there, they just couldn't resist throwing some snowballs. So Sister McDowell and I go out there in our skirts and we built a snowman with the Elders and Eric and Chris, who is actually a less-active. Snowball fights = reactivation! It was so much fun and the snow just didn't stop coming! And all the boys were just ruthless! We were completely drenched. I'm pretty sure I looked like a drowned rat, but it was so much fun! And of course, we felt like we were right at home, because we had to take off our wet stuff at the door and Mama Trigg handed us towels, warm socks and had made us waffles, eggs, bacon, hot cocoa, and popcorn. It was a blast!!! We walked home since we couldn't drive and there was a good 5 inches. This never happens in Alabama. And of course it was documented by pictures and go pro videos :)
Thursday: We did some de-junking and de-cluttering in our apartment as part of our weekly planning this week. It's lookin' good! And then we went out and met a woman named Barbara. She was just the sweetest lady ever and was so confused why we were outside in the cold that night haha! Gotta love the southerners, they are always so worried about us being safe, warm, and fed :)
Anyways, she met missionaries a long time ago in Tennessee.
Short story:
Some Elders were biking and one of them had an accident right in front of her house! She went out to help him and then they became friends and they started teaching them! She even took them out to do fun things on p-day! And they are still in contact with them, but just like every other person I talked to this week, "she's baptist" and she really respects us and what we do but she says she's not going to change her beliefs haha! We'll see about that....
Friday: Happy Valentine's Day!♥ Sister McDowell and I started the day off right! We went and got a heartbaker pizza at Papa Murphy's and for dessert we had a red velvet chessecake molten cake. It was all divine and SO worth it!
After District Meeting I had the opportunity to go to Madison with Sister Kudlacek! We had an absolutely amazing exchange! I always love exchanges because you get to learn so much from other missionaries! We just went around talking to people and handing out lots of chocolate! It was so cool to talk about the love that our Heavenly Father has for each one of us on this special day of love. All the holidays take on a whole new meaning when you are a missionary. It was so great to actually go out and work and just be a real missionary! Nothing spectacular happened, but I can't tell you how much joy I felt just from being able to go out and talk to people. I felt pretty invincible. It was supposed to be warming up today but that didn't exactly happen. It started pouring down rain! And we had a few minutes before our dinner appointment so we went out and knocked on a few doors. Well, we ended up talking to this guy for a really long time on his front porch and by the time we showed up to dinner we were absolutely soaking wet. It seems to be a trend this week haha! But that didn't even phase me because either I was just being really blessed or I knew that I was on the Lord's errand and I was going to do whatever necessary to share the gospel with these people.
I was able to reflect a lot with Sister Kudlacek on our experience as missionaries and what we love about it. It is absolutely amazing to talk to someone who has the same drive and passion for the work that you do. There are so many aspects of being a missionary that are completely out of your control but it's up to you to take what is thrown at you and rise above the challenge and in the end, become more like your Savior for doing so. It really isn't easy, but it is so so worth it! We talked a lot about losing yourself in the work to find yourself.
{Luke 9:23-25}
We both are about halfway done and realized that we don't have time to waste. There is a great work to do and we were called to serve here in Alabama for a reason. We need to be using every minute of the day with great effectiveness so that we don't miss opportunities that Heavenly Father has put in our paths to bless the lives of the people here and offer them service in any way that we can.
Saturday: Today after we exchanged back Sister M surprised me with all of my mail! Valentine's Day mail is so much fun! Too cute! We had to go back to our apartment so Elder Tyler could install our new tiwi. Now Sister M has to make sure she's following all the rules since it actually works. But it will be ok because she's a really good driver!
[Charlotte] We are finally teaching her! Yay! We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she could just not wait until we got to the part about where we're going after this life. She probably asked us about it like 5 times throughout the lesson haha! She says that most of the stuff that she knows about the church makes sense but that she doesn't actually believe it. So I guess what it really comes down to is FAITH! So we talked a little bit about how we find truth and how we get answers from our Heavenly Father. She is going to get there!
[Brenda] This cute lady got her patriarchal blessing yesterday and she was seriously on cloud 9. It was the cutest thing ever! She was just describing to us exactly how she felt and what happened throughout the whole thing and you could just see the excitement through the phone! We had another movie night and we had mexican food this time. It was super yummy! And we just laughed and laughed and talked about everything. It was a blast! We watched the Emma Smith movie and I was thinking a lot about the persecution of the saints at that time. They were among some of the strongest people I know. It is absolutely amazing to see how they endured all the trials that were given them, especially to Joseph and Emma. Throughout the whole thing I was thinking a lot about why there is so much persecution against the church and I thought about something that President Hanks tells us a lot. He says that there is only so much anti because it's true. If it wasn't true, no one would care. And that's just really not fair at all! But I guess that none of us will have to suffer as much, or in the same way as those early saints or more importantly our Savior. As we are strong though and strengthen our faith each day and stand up for what we believe in, then I think those opposing parties will lose their power. There is nothing that can bring us down if we have the Lord on our side.
Sunday: Elder Leali'ie'e, Elder McMurtry, Sister McDowell and I sang "I Believe in Christ" yesterday in Sacrament Meeting. It brought a really nice spirit to the meeting and it was fun to see all of the wonderful ward members watching us with bright, smiling faces Ü
And the best part about church yesterday was the awesome investigators that the Elders brought and the wonderful less-active that came back to church yesterday after a good 10 years. She referred herself to mormon.org a few months ago so she could get in contact with the missionaries and we have re-taught her the lessons and then she was finally ready to come back! It made me so happy to see her there!!!! And afterwards when I asked her how it was she said that she felt right at home! Yes!!! So exciting :)
I started to say goodbye to people and got lots of pictures at church. I'm really going to miss this amazing ward! I have just grown to love them so much and am so grateful for their friendship and good examples!
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