11 Black Cats and a Black Companion

Happy One-Week-Till-Halloween-ish!

Basically all the black cats of the world decided to show their faces this week in preparation for halloween, hence the title. Seriously, we saw so many. #spooky

So many things happened this week. Hopefully I can tell you only the important ones...

Monday: Sister Russell's fro is officially gone. #BRAIDZ5EVER

Tuesday: Nothing too fancy. Just doin' work. Also we recieved 4 large pizzas from an unknown source for dinner this day...? huh?

Wednesday: Normal missionary work.

Thursday: ELDER ZWICK from the quorum of the 70 came for ZONE CONFERENCE. It was a really long day, but so spiritually empowering. Sister Russell and I were asked to sing a musical number for the conference in front of 150 people and I literally think I pee'd my pants... It was terrifying and I never want to do that ever again in my life. But cool story because we can say that we've sung for a general authority. We were taught all about the power of a pure, simple and intense testimony and it was awesome to be able to hear from a man called by god testify plainly of things he knows to be true. We also learned about how to apply the atonement more fully into our lives and in our work. The atonement should completely change us DAILY. I'd encourage everyone to go read through Alma 5 this week and study and answer each question asked in those verses and then ask yourself "What can I change to help me progress and become changed daily through the power of the atonement?" and I promise you that the holy ghost will reveal to you what you should do. :)

Also on this day, we were told there was a Cafe Rio in Jonesboro so we trekked far and wide to find it. Nothing. Is it too much to ask for some CAFE RIO DRESSING?!??!? That's literally all we want. So instead I had my first real life experience eating at Bojangles and ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. But turns out that in Georgia, "grilled" actually means quadruple deep fried with a side of more deep fried chicken. So that was a good time.

Also headed out on exchanges after the meeting! 

Friday: Exchanges in Conyers! So many good times. Here are the highlights from exchanges:

1. Touched/petted/played profusely with a flea-ridden dog and probs have fleas myself now.

2. A baby peed all over my lap. Literally ALL over my lap. #mothermaterial

3. Ate the most delicious, real life japanese food at a member's home. SO YUMMY.

4. Learned lessons from my temporary companion about how to love finding and knocking on doors which has been a real struggle for me. She is so good at knocking and getting people to talk to her for 15 or 20 minutes on their doorstep. She also helped me realize that being myself and having confidence is absolutely essential. To be completely honest, these first few weeks have been somewhat difficult, just trying to figure out where I fit in and how i can still be myself, but also be a good representative of Jesus Christ. Sister Welch, you are awesome! Thank you for the lessons you taught me in 2 short days!

Saturday: Had a baptism for Caelyn! She's 9, and has been taught by Sister Russell for the last few months and was finally baptized on saturday! It was awesome and she was SO ready! We also had a fall festival for the ward which was a HOOT. Probably my favorite day in Snellville so far. So many non-members and less actives came! They all said that it was probably the biggest event the ward has ever had. Some highlights:

1. Our ghetto trunk for trunk-or-treating. Hilarious because we thought it would be so cool to use some dry ice for the back of it, but it was definitely the biggest fail of all time. Also we are cool and inventive because we handed out pass a long cards instead of candy hahaha. 

2. Straight-thuggin' it with Sister Youngblood and her light saber. 

3. Sister Russell and I switching name tags because that's about as crazy as we can get when it comes to halloween costumes.

4. Brother Samuel screaming his head off in the 'haunted forest'. (not even scary)

Sunday: PRIMARY PROGRAM. Enough said. the best part about it was that we had an investigator named Frank come to church! It really is something different to hear children bear pure and simple testimonies of the principles of the gospel we teach regularly! The spirit was stronger there than in any lesson I've ever taught. Honestly, 5 year olds should be the ones with the name tags on and not us. They teach it better than 20 year old kids can! But yeah, we were PUMPED to see Frank walk in. At the end of church, he said "You know what? This is the church for me." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?? We should just have primary programs every week. I dont think anyone would complain. 

Yep. Pretty much this was my favorite week ever. The last few weeks have been a struggle for me, not gonna lie. Adjusting to missionary life is a tough thing, but I'm here to tell you that PRAYER TRULY DOES WORK and Heavenly Father does hear us and wants to help us when we are in need of help. All we have to do is put the effort in on our part and His grace will be sufficient to take over whatever things we can't handle ourselves. Jesus Christ's atonement is infinite and unlimited to any challenge we may be going through. I love my Savior and I KNOW that He lives and loves us all individually and unconditionally and will always be there to help us get through the tough times.
I love you all and appreciate the prayers and love you send me daily!

Also, ponderize scripture of the week: Mormon 9:34. THINK ABOUT IT.

Always,

Sistah Lawson

#SnellvilleIsLyfe

Welp I guess this week was actually awesome.
Sister Russell is currently in the process of getting her hair BRAIDED. No mo' fro. Pics coming next week...

Monday: P-day adventures feat. Goodwill, Snellville style. Our purchases included a semi-fugly Hawaiian skirt, and a mug that says "I love you like Kanye loves Kanye" so that rules.

Tuesday: I was volun-told to teach the Bible Study this week for the ward. Just me. I had no idea what I was doing. I taught about the Plan of Salvation and thankfully only one other person showed up besides the missionaries, but this one other person happened to be Santana, and somehow the lesson got SO DEEP and I was so concerned that Santana would be so confused and lose her testimony hahaha. It was a hot mess but I guess it turned out alright.

Wednesday: missionary work. (i.e. tracting, finding, eating pizza, etc.)

Thursday: Okay cool/weird stuff happened. Things weren't really working out and plans kept falling through so for whatever reason, we were prompted to go visit this really random less active member in the ward. So we go to her house: not home (shocker), and decide to tract it out. Across the street, we see these 2 women outside talking and go to start talking to them--Barbara and Ashley. They were super sweet and as we were telling them about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, you could literally see the wheels turning in their heads and things were clicking for them. They were so interested and wanted to read it themselves! We even put them on date for baptism on the 7th of November and hope to meet with them next week! I think that's one of my favorite things about being on a mission--that first initial moment when the spirit testifies to people and when they feel how it can change their lives for themselves, that's incredible. It's such an addicting feeling honestly, and I'm stoked that I get to keep having experiences like that for another 17 months.

Friday: We had new missionary training and i got to see SISTER BRUME!!!!!!!!!!! It was such a happy reunion <3 and I got to see a bunch of my friends from the MTC like Elder Jenkins and Elder Delahunty and Carnahan..man, it was the best. Also we found out there is a CAFE RIO in Jonesboro?!??!? Can anyone confirm or deny this for me? WE NEED TO KNOW. All Sis Russell and I want is some Café Rio :( Remember that woman Carrie we've been meeting with? Yeah, she's fallen off the face of the earth. I don't think she's super interested anymore because she basically thinks we are telling her that her baptism is completely invalid. So that's a bummer. Updates coming next week... Also this night, we went to see a less active named Sis C that we go see very regularly. Sis Russell says that she's come a LONG way since she met her and she is working really hard to be able to go through the temple to marry her non-member fiancé Franklin who is blind. So we met with her and ended up teaching a phone lesson to Franklin and answered his super tough questions. He's a major scriptorian and knows so much about the Bible, so he has tons of questions, but he is VERY sincere about wanting to change and be BAPTIZED so he can marry Sis C!! So we are working with him right now and it's so awesome. Everyone please pray for Franklin! Saturday: was crazy. We went to the most stressful dinner I've ever had. This family has tons of little kids and they were all jumping on the table and throwing food and breaking plates and screaming the whole time... I wanted to cry. I also ate a delicious European meat pie of some sort from a euro-mart down the road, and later that night ate food from the Ivory Coast. #culture. Sunday: Spoke in church. yay. Sorry these emails are always all over the place... it's super hard to just narrow it down to a few things, or telling you everything. Also I'm still getting the hang of it. An hour and half is not a lot of time OKAY?!? Okay bye y'all. <3 Sister Lawson. 1. Caught in the pouring rain 2. Actually being cute with Sis Brume 3. NEW WHIP

CULTURAL EXPERIENCES

Hey friends and family!
I'm sorry, but I didn't use my time very wisely today and I also am typing on an iPad in a member's home, so that's extremely difficult.

Tuesday: we met this AWESOME woman named Carrie! She has had MS for 18 years, she's been a breast cancer survivor for the last three years, has lived in Germany, and is also the most hilarious person of all time. When we went over to teach her, her friend Cynthia (who we totally thought was anti) was actually listening in the other room and has decided she also wants to be nice and take the lessons from us, haha. So that rules! PRAY FOR CARRIE. Also on this day, I because best friends with a 4 year old named Mia. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. She literally gave me a picture she colored and acted out animals for me. She slithered like a snake for me for 10 minutes. #theatricality

Wednesday: found a woman who said "the bible ees sufficient" (she had an indeterminable accent) approximately 9 times to us in a conversation that lasted 30 seconds. Not an exaggeration. Also, received 14 bug bites on my already-hobo-looking legs. <3

Thursday: #missionarywork

Friday: *HERE IS WHERE THE SUBJECT LINE COMES FROM*. So this was the most exciting day for me yet here in Snellville. The family in our ward from South Africa had us over for dinner and fed us REAL LIFE SOUTH AFRICAN FOOD. We had sausage rolls (not what you think it is), kidney pie (definitely what you think it is), and bull tongue gravy (WAAAAT). I was courageous and ate the kidney pie and it was actually really delicious!...until I smelled a very distinct urine smell coming from the pie and then I decided to barf for a second. Still exciting to say I tried it though. Also, bull tongue gravy is very gross. #ImCultural. Also, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE please go find a recipe for "Malva Cake" and make it ASAP because that's probably my new favorite dessert. Also, I'm incredibly sorry that half of this email is about food. But who else can say that they've tried South Africa food?!? Answer: only South Africans and Sister Lawson can.

Saturday: Santana was baptized!!! That was super exciting. Sister Russell and I sang "I Am a Child of God" on the ukulele and it was a hot mess but that's fine, haha. We are so excited for her!
Also another cultural experience of the week: Sister Russell is in the process of getting twists in her hair so we went into a black hair store to buy the fake hair and that was a very "only in Hotlanta" cultural experience. So go me!

Ponderize scripture of the week: Alma 26:12. CHECK IT OUT!

Anyway, I love you all! PEACE

Love,
Sister Lawson

It's All Good in the Hood

Hey friends and family!

Yep, I am definitely still alive.

The work has been a little bit slow but that's okay. We spend a lot of our time tracting and finding.
BUT ARE WE ALL STOKED THAT WE GOT TO HEAR FROM A PROPHET THIS WEEKEND??!??!
Here are my thoughts on conference:
Every day this week, we've been inviting people to come listen to a prophet of God. And it literally never hit me until coming out here that other religions don't really have something like that. Like the Baptists have their preachers, but every preacher teaches something different, and the Catholics have the Pope... but the Prophet literally gives us modern day revelation that applies to us and is directly from God. FATHOM THAT FOR A SECOND! We are so blessed to have a prophet here on the earth today! I feel like such a dingus for taking it for granted all my life. There were so many times where I would listen, but be on my phone most of the time, or fall asleep, or not even watch a session because I was "busy." Being out here really makes me realize what a blessing and privilege it is to hear the counsel Heavenly Father wants us to receive. I pray that when I come home, I won't forget how special that is, and that the rest of us can remember as well because...well, it's awesome! (Also SHOUTOUT to the Riverton youth choir! That ruled. Also, I think I saw Kimber's sister..???)

Anyway... conference ruled. We watched it at the church and invited tons of people to come, so naturally, no one came :) YAY. It was just us all by ourselves in the church with the other missionaries who also got no one to show up hahaha. I got a ton of new things out of it that I'm going to try using to help me become better and improve! My companion and I really loved the idea of "PONDERIZING", so we have taken the challenge: we will be ponderizing one scripture a week for the duration of our mission and even after we come home. The first scripture I chose this week (and you are totally welcome to do the same with me this week if you would like) is 2 Nephi 27:23.

"For behold, I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today and forever; and work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith."

Here is what I've 'ponderized' so far about this:
God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. Something that we talk to people about down here a lot is the idea of Prophets. They are familiar with prophets in the Bible like Moses and Noah, but they think prophets ended when Christ died. So our favorite thing to tell these people in the South is that God has again reached out to us in love and provided us with a prophet, just like He did in the days of old. He doesn't love this dispensation any less than he loved the people in the Bible, so why wouldn't he give us a way to receive direct revelation and help from him, just like those in the Bible? So going back to the idea that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only church on the earth with a prophet called of God, exactly like those in the Bible, GOD LOVES US ENOUGH TO RESTORE THE FULLNESS OF THE GOSPEL BACK ONTO THE EARTH THROUGH A PROPHET OF GOD SO THAT WE MAY RECEIVE THE FULLNESS OF HIS BLESSINGS. Bam! I hope that all made sense, because I was so mind-blown during personal study about this idea today. Also, cross reference this verse with Mormon 9 if you are wanting to do some more studying. PROPHETS ARE AWESOME!

Other things that happened this week:
1. Santana is getting baptized this weekend! October 10th to be exact. Sister Russell and I are singing a song and stuff so that'll be cute. She had her baptismal interview and is so excited! Everyone keep her in your prayers, she needs it!

2. We were able to go to the temple on Friday! I LOVE THE ATLANTA TEMPLE. It reminded me of the Jordan River one on the outside, but the inside had been completely redone. It made me excited to see the JR temple when I come back. When are they starting construction on that by the way?

3. Sadly, Lunjua has fallen off the face of the planet and is no longer on date. We have been trying to meet with her so many times, but she's in the process of moving so she's hard to catch at a good time :( please pray for her too. She is so ready for baptism, but we are worried that Satan is getting a hold of her and causing her to doubt. UGH.

4. We helped 2 different people move this week. The first was the Womble family and here's a hilarious story: After we helped them unpack, they bought us wings to eat and forgot to mention that they were ATLANTA INFERNO hot wings. So naturally, I took a huge bite, and cried my eyes out because such lava in my mouth. Definitely that was the most painful experience of my life.

The second person we helped move was this cute old woman who said "can you come help me move a few boxes?" So we go to help her in our dresses and skirts and it turns out she actually had 2 GIANT storage units full to the brim with boxes and large furniture. And she needed it all out. Shockingly, it only took us 2 1/2 hours to do. But right before we went to move the couch, Sis. Russell and I were super nervous because it was seriously HUGE, so we decided to say a prayer for #strength before coming up to the unit to move it. When we came up, we saw that the 2 old women with broken backs and canes had somehow moved the couch out of the unit and onto the carts to push it down the hall without our help. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Prayer works guys.

5. Hilarious story of the week: Sister Y. (a woman from the ward) called us one day and started going off about her toe being infected with a staph infection and how she couldn't leave the house or do anything because of it. She ranted about it for 5 or 10 minutes and it totally reminded us of that episode of The Office when Michael shuts his foot in the George Foreman grill and can't do anything for the rest of the day. We laughed for hours haha.

6. I HAD MY FIRST "PRAYER TALK" EXPERIENCE THIS WEEK and it was magical. We knocked on this door and this Mexican woman pulls us in to say a prayer for her. She spoke mad Spanglish and asked me to say a prayer for her health (P.S.--the best thing about the south is that you can knock on a random door, ask if they want you to say a prayer for them, and it's totally not even weird.) And she starts this crazy, mighty Spanish prayer-talk while I’m praying for her. It was so bizarre. And it was so hard to say the prayer without laughing. I am horrible :(

Welp, I think that's it for this week! Talk to you next week! :)

I LOVE YOU ALL.

1. Atlanta Temple!
2. Typical #DayInTheLyfeOfSisterLawson
3. Photo/text from the Samuels Family in the Snellville Ward

HOTLANTAAAAA (actually Smellville)

Hello family!

I AM ACTUALLY OFFICIALLY IN GEORGIA.
There are a billion things to say about this place so I really hope I don't forget anything too important. Also, just like the last few emails, this will be all over the place and complete brain vomit so please forgive me.

First of all: Being on a mission is honestly super weird. Sometimes I don't even realize that I’m actually here doing this and it all feels like a dream. I'm just thrown into a completely new place with new people I’ve never met before with some stranger I’m forced to be around 24/7 and just expected to be okay with it. Several times a day, I stop myself and say "um k I'm literally in Georgia talking to someone with no teeth and the thickest accent of all time talking about Jesus" and it's super weird but I'm okay with it.

Other things about Georgia: there is this constant mist all of the time. It's like it's almost about to rain all the time but it never does or it does for a little bit and then keeps misting. So that's really weird. I’ve been wearing a jacket everyday shockingly ha-ha--the humidity has not been that bad. Also there are TREES EVERYWHERE. Every single inch that doesn't have a building or a road is covered in super tall trees. I'll send a picture. It’s so beautiful! Also there are armadillos smashed all over the road. I have yet to see a live one hahaha.

Other important things: I'm currently in a town called Snellville (yes that is really what it's called). It’s the cutest little town of all time! I actually almost always feel very safe (my companion laughs at me because yesterday we were sitting in the car and I saw these guys walk past us staring and smiling creepily so I hurried and locked the doors and she said to me, "You are never going to survive if you serve in Atlanta." #rude. So from then on, I’ve been fine because I’ve realized that Snellville is nice) and the people here are AWESOME. My companion is Sister Russell from Gilbert, AZ. She's half-black so that really makes things A LOT easier hahaha. People are more open to talking with her than they are with talking to me, a white Utah girl. She's been out 6 months and spent 4 1/2 of those months in the Atlanta Ward where the Bishop from Meet the Mormons serves! COOL. She’s seriously an awesome trainer. All day long I hear "you are learning from the best!" so that's good news. She's quickly whipping me into shape and helping me with my weaknesses (which I have a lot of).

The thing I love about the Snellville ward is the people there. THERE IS SO MUCH DIVERSITY. We have people from Nigeria, South Africa (Johannesburg actually...they have super cool accents), Ethiopia, the Middle East, Haiti... you name it, and we probably have it. Also there is an abundance of old people in the ward too. But the best part is THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN MISSIONARY WORK WITH US. People are always asking if they can do team-ups with us or give us referrals or just even feed us. They are seriously so involved--it makes things so much better.

The first day was actually awful. We had transfer-meeting, drove an hour and half to Snellville, and I just sat there in complete silence the whole time. I'll be totally honest--it was bad. At the end of the day I just cried in front of my companion and she laughed and stared at me. It was just hard because I LITERALLY HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING OR WHAT WAS GOING ON AT ALL. We were just meeting with random people and walking around getting doors slammed in our face and walking around trying to find things to do--the day wasn't planned out very well.
Good news though--the next day was INCREDIBLE.

We met with an investigator named Lunjua (lun-yay). She sounded exactly like Mamma Odie from Princess and the Frog, had teeth missing, and was the happiest person of all time. She had previously been meeting with the Jehovah's witnesses until she ran into the Snellville Elders one day who turned us over to her. The whole lesson with her was seriously like all the miracle stories you ever hear about missionary work: We started teaching her; she said, "I feel exactly like Joseph Smith! I felt confused! But I really think this is the right place for me to be!" then she started sobbing and we set her on a date for baptism for October 17th, and she goes "OH MY GOSH. THAT'S MY HUSBAND'S BIRTHDAY. This is a sign from God!" so yeah, that was my first lesson here. For a second day, I was super shocked for something to happen like that. That is the sweetened condensed version of that story.

Then we went to meet with an investigator named Santana that Sister Russell has been meeting with for the last few weeks who is getting baptized on October 10th. She is seriously the most amazing person I’ve ever met. She just glows with the spirit and she's not even baptized yet! I was amazed with the amount of faith she has...she already has so much knowledge and just keeps wanting more. SHE IS SO COOL. Something that the mission really focuses on is getting converts to the temple doing baptisms within the first 30 days after they are baptized so we've been getting Santana really excited about the temple and I'm going to be able to use my family history knowledge to find her some family names to take with her! She's really excited and I’m stoked that I’m getting to use my talents. (Speaking of talents: tell Bailey and Ellie to move over--my comp and I sing hymns every single lesson so I’m #cool and #talented too)

While we were waiting for Santana to come home, we were talking with her neighbors who were outside smoking and started talking about prophets and the book of Mormon. They were some guys in there 20's and they LOVED what we were talking about. We gave them some book of Mormons and invited them to church on Sunday (they didn't come sadly) but we are planning on meeting with them this week! YAY.

(Also--the thing about tracting that I love the most is when you walk to someone's door, knock, ask them if they love Jesus, tell them there is a way to love Jesus even more and then they tell you all about their bachelor's and master's degrees in Jesus Loving and show their ministerial license and then slam the door in your face. THE BEST :))))

I LOVED WOMEN'S CONFERENCE. President Uchtdorf's talk was definitely my favorite. God didn't design us to be sad. Sometimes on a mission, you get sad--sad because you miss home, sad because you miss your family, sad because people don't want to listen... but the thing about sadness is that it's completely YOUR choice to get sad. You have been given every single resource to overcome sadness and it's entirely up to you to choose to be happy and get over it. I've been really working on my attitude this week and it's amazing how much faster the days go by when you just get over it and be happy that you're out serving the Lord. It really makes all the difference, even if there is a lot you could be sad about. Make your life a life full of MEANINGFUL "NOWS"--do good things, love yourself, love Christ, develop yourself, and develop an attitude of charity. So yeah, I love Uchtdorf a lot and that's all I have to say about that.

Ummmm there are a lot of other things to say but they're all meaningless facts and events.

Also, here is the apartment address:
Sister Brenna Lawson
2945 Rosebud Rd #305
Snellville, GA 30052

Okay! I love you all, keep sending the love and prayers, read your scriptures, do missionary work, be good people and know that I’m thinking about you always.

Love,
Sista Lawson

WEEK 2(ish)

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

Guess what??? I am most definitely alive. Also, BRAIN VOMIT this whole email. Really fast:
The MTC is probably my favorite place of all time.
Things about the MTC that are fun:
1. Creepy announcement voice that comes on every night at 10:15 and 10:30 to announce quiet time and bedtime. SUPER WEIRD!
2. The orange juice in the dining hall has laxatives. Straight up.
3. So many un-oak-approp. words, my ears are bleeding.

I guess I can start with a few things that happened on day one that I didn't already tell you about, but remember that there are way too many things going on each day to tell you every little detail.
First of all, ERIN OLDROYD was my happy little host as soon as I pulled up to the curb and that made everything so much happier and easier. She was the best host of all time and I actually see her all the time around here ;)
Umm, also on night one, we had this big teaching workshop thing for all the newbies and there was the most hilarious thing that happened during it: We were all introduced to this “investigator” named Tayla and she had tons of questions about the church. One of the elders in the room volunteered to stand up and try to teach her a little bit and started getting into the Pearl of Great Price on accident and she was all "Wait, what is the Pearl of Great Price? You have more scripture than just the Bible and BOM???'' and he was like "Well, ya see, it's a funny story... Joseph Smith bought this mummy and blah blah blah''....Moral of the story is this: don't bring up mummies in your very first discussion or bad things happen. Super hilarious.

Other great things:
1. My district and I all decided to join the choir and it is the BEST. Tonight we get to sing for the Tuesday night devotional where some general authority comes to speak. No idea who it will be yet, but please pray it's Elder Christofferson for me. :)
2. Our branch president (basically our bishop in the MTC) DESPISES the word 'guys' so the elders all decided to keep a tally of the number of times they say that and they have to do 10 push ups for each time. Elder Delahunty got up to 200 push ups one day and we're all very convinced that he said it on purpose just so he could show off to all the sisters and that's super weird of him to do.
3. Brother Farr (am) and Sister Stegelmeir (pm) are our teachers and they are THE MOST incredible people of all time. Sister Stegelmeir is basically just a surfer dude in woman form and also the biggest spiritual giant I've ever met. She's taught me so much about how to be a better teacher and lover of the people. Brother Farr is basically just husband goals. HE KNOWS EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT CHURCH DOCTRINE. I look up to him a lot. I'm super thankful for both of them!
4. So far, Sister Brume and I have 2 “investigators” that we teach, and we've taught a total of 4 lessons.
--Jessica: She's a pregnant mother who moved here from TN and wants to find a good church for her family. Out of the 3 lessons we've taught, there has only been one that we feel really good about. Teaching is super hard because you really never know what's going to happen or where the spirit is going to lead you. The other 2 lessons, we focused way too much on trying to teach them what we wanted to teach them, rather than listening to what they wanted to be taught. It's a confusing concept, hahaha.
--Lianna: We just met her yesterday at the training resource center (TRC). You know how sometimes they are just real members pretending to be fake? No, Lianna is a legit non-member/BYU student. She's really intelligent and has a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She doesn't really think it's inspired and she's heard a lot of weird things about Joseph Smith. I’m honestly really intimidated to teach her. She's pretty set on what she believes already. PRAY FOR US.
5. On Sunday night, we stayed after the devotional to watch a video called “Character of Christ." It's just a recording of a talk given by Elder Bednar about 5 years ago at the MTC and it's only shown at the MTC, which is the biggest bummer of all time because it is seriously a LIFE CHANGING talk. It's all about how Christ, during his hardest trials, is always, constantly turned outward, or thinking of others, rather than turned inwards, thinking of himself and how hard things are for him. I wish I could tell you all the specifics or that you could see it yourself because it honestly completely changed my life and my whole perspective on everything. This mission is not about what I want. It's not about how hard it is for me. It's not about what my natural man wants. Everything about this mission is about the Lord and serving His children. Bednar's biggest thing in this talk was that having a testimony of the gospel is not enough. I have to do and BECOME fully converted unto the Lord and everything He wants, and conversion is a continuing thing. In class, we've been really focusing on the difference between knowing something vs. doing something vs. becoming something. It's a really hard thing to do and it's incredibly hard to change your mindset completely. The only part of a mission that has every been about me was those 5 seconds I spent reading the words "Dear Sister Lawson, you are hereby called to serve..." and the rest has been completely focused on others. BEDNAR IS THE COOLEST. I really wish the whole world could see this movie--the world would be such a better place if that happened.
6. EVERY BODY PLEASE STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW AND GO TO HEBREWS 6:1. Brother Farr shared this scripture in class, and it literally is actual proof in the Bible of apostasy. It says something along the lines of "we must leave behind the doctrines of Christ because we don't need it anymore". SO CRAZY. In class, we've been studying a lot about how the word "gospel" has been changed so much in our church. In a nut shell, gospel means "the atonement" and when we say ''the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored'', we are really saying ''the knowledge/fullness of the ATONEMENT has been restored" and this is so important. When we teach, our teachers have told us to relate every single lesson in PMG back to Jesus Christ and his atonement. Sometimes it's super hard. I really hope some of this is making sense, haha. It's so hard to condense everything I've learned into one email!
7. We went to the temple today! I DON'T KNOW IF I'LL BE ABLE TO EMAIL PICTURES.

I promise that I'm learning so much and feeling the spirit all the time, AS WELL AS having lots of fun, haha. Okay, I have no time now.

Other things:
1. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY THIS WEEK. I LOVE YOU GUYS.
2. NEWS ON MARY POPPINS????
3. Flight info: our Flight from Utah leaves at 8:30am on TUESDAY (Sept 22) morning. We have to meet at the travel office at 3:30 am to hit the front runner down to the airport. I'll probably be calling you sometime between the hours of 5am-8am hahaha. I'm so sorry! But try super hard to be ready for it, hahaha. I LOVE YOU.
4. Stuff I would please love to have sent here:
-toiletry bag (you were right...)
-some more tissue bags. I forgot to tell you guys that I have caught the worst cold I think I’ve ever had. Today and yesterday were miserable. Don't worry though, I'm taking care of myself and bought some Day/Niquil.
-the blue shampoo in the shower downstairs... I don't like the kind I have right now. It's destroying my hair.
That's all I can think of right now.
5. THANK YOU FOR THE COOKIES AND NICE NOTES. My roomies and I LOVED them.

Out-of-context quotes from Elder McRae of the week:
(DISCLAIMER: He's basically the biggest hick of all time, but also the funniest hick of all time)
-"Yeah, he mail ordered his bride. I'm like from Whoville or something."
-"If it floats your goat, then do it."
-"Bee keeping... that's where the real money's at."
-*Elder Goold sharing 1 Nephi 17:2 (please read this ASAP) with investigator during lesson on accident* "So how does that relate to you?"
Investigator: "Well, they like their raw meat I guess."
Elder McRae: "HOW DOES THAT RELATE TO ANYONE???"
-"I want a pregnancy massage"

Ummm, I really hope I got everything. THIS IS SO STRESSFUL.
I'll call you later :):)):):):):):):)::)):):L>O))::))::)):):):OO):)GFDII)FS:))::)

Love,
SISTER LAWSON

YOOOO....SUP Y'ALL.

*DISCLAIMER: THIS IS BRAIN VOMIT BC PRESSED FOR TIME AND ALL THE WONDERFUL THINGS TO TELL**** ALSO TODAY IS NOT MY P-DAY--we were given some time to learn how the computers work, write our branch prez and write a quick "hello!" to you. I LOVE YOU. So i don't mean to make you feel bad, but literally 20 seconds after curb drop off, i stopped crying bc so many happy people and happy things to do and happy missionary stuff was calling my name. PLS KNOW I STILL LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU ALL THE TIME, it's just that i've come to accept that i'm stuck here and might as well have fun with it hahaha. My comp's name is sister brume and she RULEZZZ. we are getting along great and she's such a hard worker and way on the ball. fun facts about Brume (broom): 1. She's a real-life ZOOBIE (that's a BYU student for all you uncultured swines) 2. She's a pre-nursing major 3. Loves movies and movie quotes (but sadly we can't quote movies bc "not missionary- apprope" 4. LOVES soccer more than life itself My district is as follows and where they are going: 1. Elder delahunty (BABE...probs gonna marry him after this.)--ATL, GA & Elder Whiting--WV, 2. Elder Goold & McCrae (WV) 3. Elder Atkin & Carahan (ATL, GA) 4. Sister Roberts & Farnsworth (WV) 5. me and sista brume. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. we literally have the best district and i love the sisters in the district to death. fun fact: me and sister brume have been called as the GREETERS. hahahah it's hilarious. basically our only job is to shake people's hands when they come into the chapel for church on sunday, but we have taken it upon ourselves to greet our entire district ALL THE TIME--all meals, all times we meet together in the classroom, everywhere. we are way enthusiastic and spazzy about it and it's super funny hahaha. Also let me just tell you that Oakcrest was the best decision of my life. I know that a lot of elders and sisters are super stressed out and overwhelmed but i feel so good. Almost everything about here reminds me of camp in some way, but literally, camp was the best mission prep of all time. I feel like such a dingus because i talk about camp all the time and my comp is probably way weirded out that i talk about it so much but IT RULED. I'll probably talk about some aspect of camp in every email but yeah, i just wanted to let you know that doing so well because of the prep i got there. quick funny stories: 1. yesterday for lunch, we were given a yellow cup of jello but it seriously looked like a cup of pee and all the elders were eating it and forcing each other to smell it or pretending to dump it on each other... yeah, they're weird. 2. one of my teacher's is sister stegelmeir and she is the coolest human being alive. I took it upon myself to count the number of times she says "cool" and "totally" in each lesson. I'M NOT KIDDING YOU, SHE SAID COOL 89 TIMES AND TOTALLY 57 IN THE COURSE OF 45 MINUTES. COMBINED. every time she says it, we all bust up laughing. 3. me and the other sisters have decided that every time we see a super cute elder, we'll say to each other " he reads the book of mormon". I know we aren't supposed to be thinking about things like that, but it's only my second day here and i'm stil working on it ahaha. but please know, the field is wide and ready to harvest. :) i have a billion more stories, but i'll write them more during P-day on TUESDAY. I'LL TALK TO YOU LATER. please dearelder.com me as soon as you get the cast list back for bailey about mary poppins! i wanna know how it goes! ells: tell gringa and meow hello and tell meow that the MTC is the greatest place on earth. also i love you. mom and dad: hopefully you've stopped crying by now ahahha. I LOVE YOU GUYS LOTS. talk to you tuesday! :) BYE