MUCH JOY

Hello friends and family!
The transfer news is in... I will be staying here in Snellville and Sister Russell will be heading out to go bless some lives somewhere else! Also funny story: I have been called to be a Sister Training Leader so that adds a whole lot more stress and puke into my life, but it's fine. I didn't find out through the traditional way of getting a phone call but rather through an email i recieved this morning with instructions hahahaha. NO BUENO

The happiest news of it all is that SHENELLE WAS BAPTIZED THIS WEEK. 

Sister Russell and I both spoke (her on Baptism, me on Holy Ghost) and IT WAS AWESOME. Sister Russell shared some cute thoughts about how baptism is the first step on our "path back home to our Father" and i shared a little analogy of someone going through a cave with a broken flashlight--when she stayed on the path, it worked continuously, and when she got distracted by the sparkly things on the walls, it would stop working. But yeah, she did awesome! Shenelle is super super SUPER shy, so she was terrified of being in front of everyone for the baptism, and also in church the next day when she had to go in front of people to get the Holy Ghost. So we went up with her and everything to make her less scared haha. But yeah, it was good! It's really hard to put into words the spirit that was felt there, but just know that it was SO STRONG. And the house was packed with support from the Youth so that was AWESOME. 

Okay here is some hilarious fun facts about the South:

Earlier this week, we received a "severe storm warning" saying that there would be an ice storm and major snow. Whenever this happens, the South goes nuts and on lock-down and raid the grocery stores of all their bread and milk to prepare for said-lock down. LITERALLY ALL THE BREAD AND MILK. Nothing else. This is something I don't understand because if you get stuck in your house, who wants to eat bread and milk all day erry day? Not me. But here's the most hilarious part... the storm came annddd.....1 INCH OF SNOW FOR 3 HOURS. Hahahaha Georgians be cray.

Other exciting news is that our car got SUPER stuck in the mud. Like so so stuck. So we had to be towed out by a nice man who pulled over named Bradford. 

On Sunday, us and the Elders sang "Abide with me, 'tis even tide" in sacrament meeting.. that was........a train wreck to say the least. Favorite quotes afterwards..."Oh that was a mess, it's okay though, the spirit was there. He fills in the gaps." YIKES.

MIRACLE OF THE WEEK:

Okay this is the coolest thing. Our investigator John called us this week and relayed the following:
"Sisters, i just wanted to tell you that I've been doing what you said--trying to pray more often myself and together with my family. And i read some more of the Book of Mormon like you asked me to. But mostly i called to tell you about something cool that happened that let me know that God loves me. My wife came home with a check for $1000 from her boss because the boss just wanted to help us out and felt inspired to give us this money. So we should be able to save up enough for the next few months so we don't lose our house." 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?? It was so cool, we got to bear our testimonies to him that God is blessing him because he's trying to change his life around and making the best choices!! JOHN IS SO COOL.  Sorry, that's the sweetened condensed version of that story... but still, so cool.

Awkward moment of the week:

*Going to see an Inactive member of the ward in her 70s who hasn't been to church since the 80s when she was baptized*

*Chewing and spitting tobacco the entirety of our visit*

*Doesn't "do" the Book of Mormon*

*Denchers (Dentures) fall out*

*Cries*

*We leave*

Okay that's about all...sorry i ran out of time!
I LOVE YOU ALL

STAY SASSYYYY 

Love,

Sister Lawson

1. It was a bit windy, but that's how much snow we got hahahaha

2. Cake in the face from Shenelle last week.

3. Photos with our fave elders (Far left, DL and comp, middle guys are Zone leaders)

 

 

Writing weekly emails. . . .

I am really sorry but I honestly just don't have the energy to write a huge email this week haha. Also I don't really have too much time.... but ill try.

Not much happened, but we did have to make a last minute trip to Conyers to fix our car because it was recalled this week. So I guess that was exciting. But it was really unproductive and kind of threw off the rest of the week.

Most exciting things:

-SHENELLE IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS WEEKEND! Shes all ready to go and we are so pumped for her.

-We had an awesome awesome AWESOME lesson with john this week! Teaching John has been very slow.. we just teach him simply, almost like a primary lesson haha. But this week we had a BREAKTHROUGH. We brought over our awesome, go-to team up Sister Austin and the spirit was just so so so strong. We didn't know it at the time, but our team-up has a son who really struggles to read, just like John and so they got to have a tender moment talking about how reading the scriptures came easier to him as he read more and more. And it was so cool because John has officially started to understand how much God loves him and how the scriptures are helping him. Sorry this isn't explained very well but just know that it was awesome and John is my best friend.

-Got to eat Chick-Fil-A TWICE this week. Georgia Chick-Fil-A is the best Chick-Fil-A.

-I lived my Georgia dream of driving on Highway 20, just like that one Zac Brown Band song. SO EXCITING

-Shenelle threw cake in my face for her birthday. It made me feel like I was back at Oakcrest haha.

-Sister Russell and I will be singing in church next sunday. Send major prayers my way please.

-One of the members gave me a Mockingjay pin so I've been rocking that all week.

Despite the lack of emotion in this email, I just feel so overwhelmed with love and gratitude for what my mission has given me. In just 4 months, I've seen myself progress in ways I never thought I would, my family has grown closer, their testimonies have been strengthened, and I have just an overall understanding of the love God has for me, the people of Georgia and the people of the world in general. He really is so mindful of each of us and our situations and wants to bless us so much! Its so hard for me to put into words but just know that my heart is so full today. I LOVE YOU ALL!

 

Love,

Sister Lawson

$4months$wag$$$$$$

Yep, i've been out 4 months! IT'S FLOWN BYYyyyyyyy.........

I also learned some new Southern slang...

Purple Drank (n): "purple" flavored Koolaid. A classic beverage served alongside fried chicken, grits, baked beans, and canned green beans.

Also something i just noticed this week... literally everyone who feeds us ALWAYS gives us green beans from a can that have been cooked in water filled with bacon fat and bits. Yep, it's strange. 

To be completely honest, this week was insanely eventful, but for reasons i can't explain through email because ward/member confidentiality rules haha... So other than that, it was pretty uneventful. Sister Russell may say otherwise, but i thought it was relatively boring.

Updates on current investigators:

Shenelle: She's getting baptized January 23rd!!! :) super pumped about that.

Barbara: fell off the face of the earth...

Lunjua: still off the face of the earth....

John: AWESOME. Definitely progressing!

This week we picked up a lot of new people that we are hoping to follow up with next week! For whatever reason, the whole world decided to be nice and talk to us. it was strange. One day, almost every door we knocked at opened and they were all really nice and really "I love Jesus"-y so that's good news. But yeah, hopefully something good comes out of that so i'll keep ya posted. :) 

Other miracles:

-At the EXACT moment when Sister Russell and i were about to die from starvation, the DL and comp came in clutch with some Taco Bell for us. Shout out to Elder Solomon and Elder Roper!

-One night we had planned to go see a less-active family in the ward and at the exact same time, the Snellville Elders felt inspired to go see them both as well! So we pull up, the elders pull up, we have some awkward conversation about who gets to go talk to them, and then the family pulls up in the driveway as well! CRAZY. For whatever reason, someone needed to go see this family and the spirit guided us both to go. :) Heavenly Father is awesome!

-Within the course of 2 days, we had 4 team-ups with members scheduled and they all came through. this is huge because we can almost NEVER find people from the ward to come out with us.

-We met the Regional Manager for Krispy Kreme donuts this week and he had the COOLEST dreads. Also he wanted to meet with us again! #DonutsfromHeaven

-One of the recent converts we've been working with a TON got her temple recommend for baptisms on sunday! She's also planning on going through the temple for her endowment in March and we are possibly going to get to go to that. :) we are so excited!!!!!

 

Other than that, that's about all that happened... It's been so so SO rainy and cold. Literally the humidity makes it 109435x worse than Utah cold... i haven't felt warm once in 3 days!

Despite the quiet week, this week i just felt so so grateful that I get to be a missionary. As hard as it sometimes is to set apart these 18 months from life back at home, there really is nothing more rewarding to me. I get to bless a few lives along the way, but more than anything my OWN life is being blessed--present and future. I'm so so thankful for everything God has given me and for the testimony I have that Jesus Christ's full gospel has been restored back onto the earth. The gospel of Jesus Christ truly does fix anything. 

My wise friend Kimber wrote me a letter this week about how understanding the gospel has increased her "spiritual recovery" time. I think that's so cool! Understanding the doctrine of Christ really does change everything--we understand that we must have faith in the plan God has for us, repent so we can become better every day, and remember the covenants we've made and the things we are promised from our Heavenly Father when we hold up our end of the deal. When we understand this, we are able to get back onto our feet faster when something hard comes into our path. I know that to be so true! I feel myself getting stronger and stronger everyday. Things that once bothered me or upset me no longer have the power to tear me down, and getting back on my feet is easier now that I understand how the gospel truly works. I have a purpose in this life, I know who I am, I know the potential I have, and nothing will ever stop me from progressing! I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the membership I have in His church!

Be good, be safe, don't do dumb things and REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!

Sistah Lawson

 

1. our matching christmas shirts <3

2. chowin'

3. Taco Bell (lifesaver) Crunchwrappppppp

4. Sister Coble! The cutest old lady of all time. Eatin' some Cheeseburger pringles.

 

Oxtails and Google Cardboard

It's freakin' chilly!

Pretty much I'm going to just skip to Thursday because that's where all the important stuff happens. 

First off, rewind:

Probably in my first month here in Georgia, Sister Russell and I were out tracting and we ran into this lady named Barbara. She was the coolest! She instantly accepted the apostasy and restoration of the gospel and we actually put her on date for baptism November 7th the day we met her. Literally she is so golden. The only thing is that she's been incredibly hard to meet with because she is ALWAYS working. Like always. So whenever we were in her neighborhood, we would drop by to see if she was there and we had either just missed her, or caught her as she was leaving. So yeah, she's a busy lady. But every time we talked to her she said "yeah I've been reading the Book of Mormon!" SO COOL. Then for a while we kind of stopped trying to pursue her because it wasn't going anywhere. 

Okay so fast forward to now:

Wednesday night, we are planning for Thursday and we get this HUGE impression that we needed to go drop by Barbara's house. So we did. BARBARA HAD THE DAY OFF. this is huge. We actually got in to have a real life lesson with Barbara and it was probably one of the most powerful lessons we've had yet here in Snellville! She told us that all of her life, she's felt spiritually empty. She's always read the bible but just has never felt like she's going anywhere or that she's getting her fix, especially when she goes to church. Her exact words: "I've been to a lot of churches and I don't mean to sound rude but none of them feel right. There's a lot of foolishness going on in those churches and i never feel like i come out having learned something or come out wanting to be better. I come out feeling just as empty as i did when i entered. I want to go somewhere where my questions about life get answered and where i feel like my relationship with God is being strengthened every time i go. I want something that makes me feel whole and i just haven't found it yet. What is your advice about how i can feel whole?" DING DING DING DING!!!!!! I'm tellin ya, she's golden. So we got to just sit and listen to her talk to us about all these things she has going on in her life and how she feels like if she had a better relationship with God, she would feel happier, but she just didn't know how to make it happen. We got to testify to her boldly that she has found what she's looking for! That the gospel of Jesus Christ is the thing that can help her to progress and become truly happy in this life, amidst all the struggles she is going through. We relayed the story of planning the night before to her and testified to her that the Spirit led us to her at that exact moment for a reason! She was so pumped, and so were we! The spirit was so strong and I know that God was so mindful of Barbara at that very moment. We put her on date for baptism on January 30th!!!!!!! WOOOOO BLESSIN'S. Such a miracle! Man, i love being a missionary.

Thursday we were also talking to a man who was originally very scaryish and rough around the edges at the park--i'll call him B. B has been involved in some crazy stuff throughout his life. While we were talking to him, B told us that he doesn't think there's a purpose to life, and that's why he lives life to it's fullest everyday--doing drugs, drinking, immorality, breaking the law, the whole 9 yards. (He was very open and honest haha.) But it was cool to be able to talk to him about the Plan of Salvation! When we first started talking to him, he was very standoffish and closed off, but the more we talked to him, we saw his whole countenance change and he became very interested. it was the coolest thing! He was totally floored when he found out we didn't do drugs or anything that he does and we were STILL so happy! Seriously, he couldn't figure it out. We talked together for 45 minutes about the purpose of life and how we are here to prepare to meet God. He told us he was going to come to church (he didn't). Although nothing really came of it, it was cool to be able to put some new questions into his head about why we are here and where we are going when we die. Woo!

Thursday night also involved an appointment with Rainy and her family. I'm still confused about what happened... An Indian man opened the door, we explained we were there to see Rainy and her family, he allowed us in, sat us on the couch and left us there for 45 minutes while we tried to avoid watching Indian soap operas with an older Indian woman on the other couch. It's Monday and I'm still really confused about what happened. #LanguageBarriers

As for the title of this email, my new favorite food is Jamaican oxtails. Also, Dad--I need you to buy me 12 Google Cardboards for when I come home because they are the coolest and I just found out what those were this week. 

My goals for this year/for the end of my mission (cliche but oh well):

1. Finish Personal Progress!

2. Begin reading the bible from the beginning daily.

3. Write my testimony down every fast Sunday. (life long goal actually)

So yeah, in case you can't tell already, this week was AWESOME. everything is awesome. Life is awesome, missionary work is awesome, the gospel is awesome and YOU are awesome.

Love y'all.

BYE

-Sistah Lawson

Real life quotes from this week:

"You know, Bob Marley was a prophet."

*us talking to B about how weed doesn't help us focus on Jesus* B-"No actually, have you ever tried weed? It helps me to focus MORE."

 

1. Us with Shenelle and family!

2. Objects that we stole from the zone leaders ... don't ask

3. Selfie of the week

4. Us with cute sister McWilliams (also rockin' the new skirt)