Weeklyyyyyyy

Okay friends,

This week was much more disappointing than last week in the sense that not much really happened.

Monday: We made Nigerian food with a woman in the ward and sister russell and I have come to the conclusion that Nigerian food is actually disgusting. I don't know why people keep trying to feed it to us.

Tuesday: same old, same old

Wednesday: TEMPLE TRIPPPPPP. #holla. Sister Russell and I had been focusing a lot leading up to this trip on how we could make it more of a spiritual experience. Sad thing: As missionaries, we are very used to feeling the spirit all the time, so to be honest, the first time going to the temple as a missionary really wasn't all that much of a spiritual experience and i feel awful about that! So this time around, I wanted to do everything I could to set this temple trip apart from every day life as a missionary and make it more spiritual. We decided to read our patriarchal blessings the night before and fasted the day before as well. It's amazing the difference that hardcore preparation does for you when you're going to the temple. I'd encourage all of you to try it out next time you go! 

Also this day was Zone Training and we recieved the dreaded TIWI on the car which basically tells you how much you stink at driving and then reports it to your mission president! :) AWESOME. I was also made to be the new designated driver on this EXACT day. #hollaaa

Thursday: Went and chalked up the park once again with the Plan of Salvation and met a partially crazy man who loves the gospel and really wanted to hug us so we'll probably not be talking to him again haha. He was sweet though!

Friday: Best day EVER because we were hardcore bashed by a crazy 7th Day Adventist woman who locked us in her house so she could tell us that prophets don't exist and the Bible is the ONLY word of God. That was a good time. :) Also had 3 appointments fall through one after the other. #MissionaryLyfe

Saturday: regular day...

Sunday: Okay earlier in the week, i read a talk by Dallin H. Oaks called "Sacrament Meeting and the Sacrament" that everybody HAS TO READ as soon as possible. It completely changed my life when it comes to Sacrament observance and i put the counsel he gives into action this sunday. (Also read "The Sabbath is a Delight" by Russell M. Nelson afterward to make you feel better about yourself and help yourself improve after reading the first haha). Elder Oaks is VERY very blunt and kind of singes your eyebrows and you feel like you're the worst person on earth after you read it, but seriously guys, you've just gotta read it. This is the quote that hit me the most: 

      "During sacrament meeting--and especially during the sacrament service--we should concentrate on worship and refrain from all other activities, especially from behavior that could interfere with the worship of others. Even person who slips into quiet slumber does not interfere with others. Sacrament meeting is not a time for reading books or magazines. Young people, it is not a time for whispered conversations on cell phones or for texting persons at other locations. When we partake of the sacrament, we make a sacred covenant that we will always remember the Savior. How sad to see persons obviously violating that covenant in the very meeting where they are making it."

Ooooh, OUCH. That hit me like a dagger to the heart. When i read that, i remembered every time i had ever sat on my phone during sacrament, or whispered and goofed off with my sisters or just completely zoned out. We are so BLESSED to have the chance to partake of the Sacrament every week and we really cannot afford to NOT have His spirit to be with us always, especially during these wicked, perilous times we are living in. We are ONLY qualified to have his spirit with us when we truly do 'always remember Him', especially while partaking of the sacrament. We desperately need the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to guide us and help us make decisions that will affect our eternal destiny. I invite all of you to remember this quote the next time you take the sacrament and do everything you can to remember the Savior for ALL of the sacrament service. i'm probably going to remember it for the rest of my life. 

Okay, that's about it! Hope you all have a WONDERFUL thanksgiving! I love you!

xoxo,

Sistah Lawson

"It was like, a miracle!"

Well since I'm 20 now (barf), and since this week was AWESOME, I decided to try to share with you 20 miracles that happened this week.

1. We went on exchanges this week! FAVORITE

2. Remember me my second day in Georgia talking about Lunjua and how she fell off the face of the planet? SHE CALLED US THIS WEEK AND WANTED TO SET UP ANOTHER APPOINTMENT. And then...... we found out she moved 100 FEET OUTSIDE OF OUR BOUNDARY. :( But still, it was a huge deal!

3. Since we were on exchanges, I FINALLY got a turn to drive the car. #blessin's

4. Tuesday we were all out of lunch food so we decided to go to Waffle House and I was a dingus and missed the turn for the first one, so we drove to the next closest one instead. But it was a BLESSING because we ended up getting a new investigator out of it! His name is JT... he was the cashier who is in college. He was quite the character and had a gnarly Valley Girl voice mixed with a Southern drawl. In high school, he had a Mormon teacher who gave him extra credit for going to seminary hahaha. favorite quotes from JT: "So yeah, like we went to this class thing early in the morning and read out of y'alls weird book and it was just like weird". also, "Don't mormons like, wear that weird underwear or something?". *we invited JT to church* "Oh yeah, totally! I'll bring my roommate Jeffrey, he's a little older than me. He's like 65." (also JT is probably 21... is anyone else concerned about this?)

5. We got 2 referrals in the span of 1 hour! (we very rarely get referrals so this is definitely a miracle)

6. One referral was doing a project in her college class about Mormons and requested a Book of Mormon to PASS AROUND HER CLASS DURING THE PRESENTATION. What?!??! This is a huge deal. We were pumped, we gave her like 8 copies and a bunch of pamphlets and pass a long cards... everything. We hooked her up and even offered to come to her class and do a question-and-answer thing! The best part is that this girl has no idea how awesome of a missionary she is about to be. WE WILL BE PRAYING HARD THAT IT WILL BLESS MANY LIVES!

7. Got a new investigator named Donna! She's 68 and decided she's going to go to BYU to get a degree in Genealogy. She's really interested in religions and wants to know everything there is to know about Mormons, especially since she'll be around them all the time. We're pumped because she's the most open minded person I've met out here yet!

8. Franklin is praying about a specific date to be baptized!! YAY

9. Got some sushi this week. :)

10. Ate the BEST frozen custard of my life!

11. Sisters Training meeting... it was exactly what you'd expect: #feminism

12. WE WENT WITH SANTANA TO THE TEMPLE FOR BAPTISMS! The miracle here is that literally everything that could have gone wrong this night did go wrong. There was major miscommunication about how we were all getting there so Santana was almost to the temple while we were waiting at a member's house for her to come there so we could all ride down together... it was crazy. Also so much traffic. But #miracles because we made it and beat Satan and she had a WONDERFUL experience. Miracles happen, folks!

13. 3 LESS ACTIVES WHO HAVEN'T BEEN TO CHURCH IN 10+ YEARS WERE THERE ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We've been working so hard to get them there and it happened!

14. Found 3 new investigators one after another on the same street, and also handed out almost 20 book of mormons on my 20th birthday. #blessin's

15. Eating some of the best Fried Chicken of my life while birthday-dancing to Tamela Mann's "Take me to the king" was definitely a high light.

16. I am learning to love southern gospel music. 

17. um

18. I actually can't think of 20 miracles, but you get the picture. it was an awesome, awesome AWESOME week.

Some of my favorite gospel songs from the week:

Take Me to the King--Tamela Mann

Hosanna (LIVE VERSION ONLY)--Kirk Franklin

I smile--Kirk Franklin

OKAY BYE EVERYONE I LOVE YOU

1. Just a couple of the cute gifts sister russell gave me <3 (9 samuel L. jackson star wars pens, snowman salt and pepper shakers, some of her old braids.)

2. #ballin' it in our apartment

3. WAFFLE HOUSE

4. partyin' with sister welch on exchanges (we look high, it's fine)

2 MONTHS HOLLAHHHH

Kinda running out of time, but it's fine because this week was half-way super exciting.

Monday: nada

Tuesday: Taught Shenelle (she's 11) about the Plan of Salvation which was cute because we had visuals and everything. She's currently off-date just because we don't think she'll be ready for baptism by the 14th. But #Pray4Shenelle!

Wednesday: Taught Frank with the Shaffers, and he's awesome! He's all the way into Jacob in the Book of Mormon (still mind-boggling to me) and hasn't smoked for almost 3 or 4 days straight! (Keep in mind, this is INSANE because he's struggled for the last 50 years with this addiction). He's progressing so much! However, we invited him to baptism and he said "nah, maybe next year" so that's an issue. Stay tuned...

Thursday: Okay major miracles. For the last few weeks, we've been praying a lot to find people who are looking for "church homes" (because apparently that's a thing in Georgia). So Thursday, we went finding like mad and found 3 or 4 solid people LOOKING FOR CHURCH HOMES. Prayer works, folks. Also on this day, we attempted to get in contact with a referral named Brian who is actually the Senior Pastor for this HUGE baptist church in snellville (i'll include a picture of the "Great and Spacious Building" in which he worships.) But yeah, we gave him a BoM and are hoping he'll get back in contact with us so that he can either 1) Bible-Bash us to shreds, or 2) allow us to unfold to him the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ in it's restored simplicity. So we will let you know which happens later. :)

Friday: For dinner, we were fed Nigerian food by a real life Nigerian. So I was actually super excited about this, but it turns out that Nigerian food is an acquired taste that I'm not willing to 'acquire' to. Yep, Nigerian food is nasty. But I can say I tried it! Also I'm sorry that all I ever talk about in emails is food. 

Saturday: Saw Chika again! She's mad stressed out because she works full time, goes to school full time and has a family full time so it's going to be rough getting in contact with them. BUT THEY ARE SO PREPARED D*NG IT. THEY NEED THE GOSPEL. Also Chika gave us MORE Nigerian food so yay.... :/  

Also taught Frank again! We realized that our mistake last time was that we never explained WHY we were inviting him to be baptized. #dinguses. So we fixed our mistake and he's starting to understand more of why it's so important. YAY4PROGRESS. Also he loves Joseph Smith so much. 

Saturday night, we also went and visited Sister C and the hairless cats. and guess what??! I found out more neat-o facts about her! :) She loves to cook her food in....THE BATHROOM. She has a stove, mini fridge and everything in there. Neat-o, huh?! Also, she loves to use the word 'Neat-o'. Man, i love her.

Sunday: FRANKLIN CAME TO CHURCH. FRANKLIN, SISTER C'S BLIND FIANCE. HE CAME. Oh my goodness, it was so happy. And afterwords, we taught him a lesson with Brother Austin who is INCREDIBLE. He knows the scriptures so well and it was a blessing to have him there with us. We all just bore powerful testimonies to Franklin about the Book of Mormon and Prophets and the priesthood and I really think we got somewhere new with Franklin and answered a lot of the questions he had. The spirit was SO STRONG. I'm so thankful for the Book of Mormon and the convincing evidence it is that Joseph Smith truly is a prophet of God, and that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God STILL speaks to us through prophets, and he continues to give us more revelation every single day because of the love that he has for each of us. I love the chance i have to be able to share this good news with everyone each and every day. 

I LOVE THIS WORK. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL. AND I LOVE YOU GUYS.

Stay golden.

always,

Sister Lawson

1. Our cute friend Earl. He's had lots of strokes so he's extra cute and spells a lot of words for us.

2. Us out walking with Kate!

3. The cool hats Sister Youngblood gave us

4. The Great and Spacious building

Transfer news is in . . .

Transfer news is in... We are both staying here in Snellville! #hollaaaa

As exciting as it was that Halloween was this week, nothing all the exciting actually happened. The leaves are changing like mad here though so I guess that's good news.

This week we've been trying really hard to find some new investigators to teach because the less-actives we used to visit all the time are not-so-less-active anymore! :) but yeah, so there have been many finding activities this week which included drawing a giant "PLAN OF SALVATION" diagram all over the park in chalk and talking to old men walking their dogs who "don't speak the language of Jesus that i speak". Wut?

We also had a huge miracle: On Sunday, we were out finding, and feeling pretty low because it had been a slow day. But the spirit spoke to me saying, "go knock on that door". So we did. I asked if we could say a prayer with this happy woman who opens the door! (and this was another one of those awesome Georgia moments where people immediately invite you in if you're ever talking about Jesus.) Her name was Chika and her husband was Obi (they're from Nigeria). and immediately they bombard us with these questions like "What church are you from? what are your beliefs? What is the way to eternal life? You're telling us we can be together forever--how do we do that?" like seriously, it was crazy. They were eating it up. And then Sis Russell was all "Can i read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with you?" so we are reading with them and after, Chika is all "Wait, that sounds like something from the Bible.. are you sure that's not the bible?" And we are all "No it's not the Bible, but it sounds familiar to you because they testify of each other! We need both of them! Blah blah blah.." So yeah, that was nuts. They committed to reading the BoM every day and we are following up with them later this week! The only sucky part is that they have crazy work schedules and it's hard to catch them all together at the same time. But pretty much, they are the most prepared people I've met so far and we are really praying that they'll continue reading daily and progressing! #MiraclesAndStuff

So a week or so ago, Sister Russell ran into this guy named Frank while we were on exchanges, and we've been teaching him ever since! I can't remember if i've already talking about him, but he's this really sweet old puerto rican man who LOVES using his arms to talk. I think he's almost accidentally punched me in the face like 3 times. But anyway..he's come to church the last few weeks and has read SO MUCH of the Book of Mormon-like a good 2-3 books, which is unheard of to me so far on my mission. Most people only read like 3 pages or less, if any at all. He loves it and loves all the "characters" in the book haha. He says "This book is scary. Every time I read it, it freaks me out because it makes me want to change so badly. I'm such a sinner!" Haha it was cute. And the other day he was like (in his cute spanish accent) "So what's the um...code of behavior I would need follow to be of the church of the Latter-day saints?" UM LET US TELL YOU PLEASE. Basically, he's golden and he's totally ready for baptism. We are stoked! Moral of the story is: the Book of Mormon (along with the spirit) has more power to convert if people simply read it! #SCRIPTUREPOWER

Hilarious story: Sister Russell gets crazy bloody noses apparently. A few days ago we were about to go to a member's house for dinner and all of a sudden her nose starts GUSHING blood. I literally mean gushing. So she's hanging out the car door just dripping this blood for a good 20-30 minutes and I got it all on video. HOLLAAA

Another hilarious story: Sister C has TWELVE (12) HAIRLESS CATS. TWELVE. SHE HAS TWELVE OF THEM. She has 12 hairless cats. We had the lucky privelege of meeting 2 of them this week and they were the creepiest things. One of them almost jumped on me and i screamed for a sec. She's all "Yeah, i'm moving all 12 of them out of Franklin's house eventually to come live with me so you'll be able to see all of them soon! yay! :D:D:D:D:D" Wut. But Sister C is doing AWESOME. It's been incredible to watch the change she's gone through since I first met her and every time we go over there, it brightens my whole week to see how happy she has become. #ILOVESISTERC

Welp... I love you all I hope you're all reading your scriptures and praying daily. Make good choices, don't get fat on Halloween candy... don't be a dingus.

BYE

Love, Sista Lawson