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)
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