Well Done...

 

Welcome home!

 

Best 1½ Years FOR My Life!

 I cannot believe this is my last email to yall! Thanks for your year and a half subscription to my missionary experiences! I am beyond grateful and blessed for this time i had the opportunity to gain a deeper and closer relationship and understanding of my Savior! Even more grateful for those I've seen accept the gospel and find joy! Most people say your mission is the best 1½ or 2 years of your life but there is so much growth and experiences I will have after my mission, it's not going to stop now.  That's why my mission is the best 1½ FOR my life! I have learned so many new habits about scripture study and prayer and how to apply the gospel of Jesus Christ. These are essential skills to endure to end and my mission has taught me how to use them. And the best part, each of these habits or skills bring me closer to Jesus Christ each time! 

This last week was amazing! We had a huge conference on Wednesday in Charleston, South Carolina! We had to wake up at 4:50am to drive there and we hit really bad traffic so we arrived barely on time. I learned so much from Elder and Sister Bowen! Sister Bowen shared how important the book of Mormon is to protect us from personal Apostasy or falling away. Spending time daily in the book of Mormon keeps your testimony strong and a testimony doesn't have a long shelf life. It needs constant nourishment! 

We were able to be apart of Dale's baptism interview! There are seven questions to this interview asked by an elder in our district to know that the missionaries did their job in teaching all of the principles someone needs to know and believe to be baptized! It was a wonderful experience! Dale was bearing testimony of question! At the end he told us, "God has you here for a reason, i am one of your reasons. Thank you, thank you! I am so grateful to be baptized tomorrow!" He got us all crying with that one. Dales baptism was the next day and it went smoothly! Besides the fact that the font was filling up during the whole beginning of the baptism no one turned the water off so it was overflowing a little bit. It worked out though because dale is tall, so he needed to extra water. They walked into the font and dale goes, "the water is COLD!" oopsies. All I have to say is we were not in charge of the font. Despite the hiccups though, it was a great service. Dale shared his testimony at the end and he said, "This baptism was great and all but what I really want to do is- and the missionaries know what I'm about to say [we did not know what he was going to say and we were scared what was coming next haha] what I really want to do is get to that temple!!" Wow, that was amazing to hear his strong testimony of the restored gospel and to hear that he's not ending with baptism, his goal is to go to the temple! 

We found more people to teach this week! That was a blessing! We went to visit the Evans family then went a little down the road (this is all in a heavily wooded forest btw) looking for a member. There was a guy who was outside and he let us know she had moved a few years ago. We kept talking and he asked us if we knew the Evans family. We just visited them before we went there! So crazy! 

We had crazy rainstorm and thunder yesterday and I learned why this area is called Pooler. It's because it's where all the water pools! Roads were flooded! We were in west Savannah and we kept getting road blocked by rivers of water and we couldn't get where we were trying to go! So crazy, we stayed safe though and didn't drive through super deep water. 

The end. See y'all on Sunday :) 

Please pray for 

Dale

Robbie

Willie

Kathy

Angel + fam

.... me to fly home safely 

Pictures 

Members from west Chatham surprised me

We got permission to go to downtown Savannah for my last Pday! 

Museum we saw downtown 

Flooded roads 

All my previous companions! 

The transfer of fiascos 😵‍💫

Hey yall! Welcome back to another email! This week was packed and busy so I don't remember too much! I spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday and we taught young women's! I spent all week studying and preparing for my talk more because I had to speak for 15 minutes! I can barely come up with 8 min of material and then I speak so fast because I'm nervous that I finish in 5 minutes haha! However, I was able to deliver a full 15 minute talk! I also found out my dad was speaking the same day, all on mother's day! That was special! 

This transfer we have ran into so many fiascos! The first one we were trying to put gas in the car but every gas station we went to the pump was being weird or our card didn't fit and we had to go inside to pay! The second was trying to find a decent bathroom in garden city. That was more difficult than we expected! Then we tried to grab a quick treat during dinner at McDonald's drive through and sister Austin drove just past the window we were supposed to stop at. In her defense, the window we went to had the "pick up here" sign. We were there for 10 min and no one came so we had to go inside and explain we drove passed the window haha! 

We had exchanges! I went with Sister Lunt to their area in Rincon! It was a very fun day, we talked to lots of people and saw some cute kitties! 

Had a wonderful lesson with one of the recent converts here! We discussed how we experience our faith in Jesus Christ. I think that's a big question that has lots of answers that fit our personal needs! Recently I've been focusing on Christlike attributes and relying on Him to help me develop and practice these habits! As I've done that I've seen myself grow closer to Christ! 

Please pray for 

Robbie

Dale

Angel

Pat Paige 

Pictures 

Went strawberry picking today!! 🌧🍓🧺

Went to a family's soccer game and a little girl put stickers on sis Austin 

I pet an emu!

Fish Ice Cream

 Hey yall! We're back to Monday!! We've been enjoying our P-days here in Pooler! Last week we went to a nature preserve drive through thing and it was amazing! Saw some gators👀 today we went to Hilton Head island! It's super touristy here so it felt like we were on vacation!! 

This week felt pretty long with lessons falling through and knocking doors all day. The first door we knocked, the guy said no thank and went to slam the door in our faces. But what he wasn't aware of was his dog that went to go outside, so he literally closed the door on his dog and had to open it again to let his dog back in. 

Overall though, it was a good week! We had fast and testimony meeting yesterday, where anyone can share their testimony to the congregation. We all know, some people can say things that are... random haha. Well, someone went up to share their testimony and she pulled up a video on her phone, turned the volume all the way up, and put it to the microphone and shared an interview clip of her son who plays football! She has a testimony of eternal families and I do too!! 

A member had us over for dinner and Sister Austin told me she gives us fish ice cream! She told me it's ice cream with fish in it. So dinner comes to a close and I was so confused and a little concerned I was going to have to eat that (I'm not fond of any kind of seafood). They pull out the packaged ice cream and I discovered its an ice cream sandwich in the shape of a fish! It was actually so good!! They pranked me! 

Please pray for 

Robbie

Pat Paige

Dale

Angel + fam

Pictures!!

All of our adventures! 

There was a gator so close to us!!

Who thinks we needed more of these kind of updates throughout the mission?

 

Spiritual Overflow

 First, I just want to thank everyone for your prayers! We had a lesson with our friend Dale who has been taught for over a year. In that lesson, we talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost and how we receive that after we're baptized. Dale said he's not ready for baptism and is waiting until the Spirit tells him he's ready. While he was saying that, he was getting a little emotional. The Spirit was definitely confirming to him that this is something he needs to do. He recognized that and said, "baptism is coming, I feel it." Not even a few hours later he texted us saying he's ready for baptism! We called him and talked over a few things and he asked us when the soonest date is he can be baptized. He set his own baptismal date for may 18th! It's such a blessing to see God soften hearts and im grateful for all the missionaries who taught him in the past!

We had a lesson with Pat Paige the other day and we told her our purpose is to help her be baptized with proper authority. She was talking about baptism and how she knows God will help her with that. When we invited her to be baptized she was like, "that's what I was talking about! Of course I'll be baptized" haha!! We have a member who joins our lessons with her and they are best friends!! She told us God led her to this church and He's telling her to be baptized! 

Angel came to church and brought his two sons! He's been progressing well! We actually discovered he met with missionaries in Arizona before he moved here and they were talking about baptism with him! So exciting! 

We had an apostle come to our mission and speak to us!! Elder Renlund is amazing! We got to shake his hand and tell him our name and where we're from. He and his wife gave  us lots of tips for missionary work and answered our questions. Something I took away from him was making Jesus real in our lives and helping others do the same. We can do this by studying his words and actions in the scriptures. So I invited all of yall to intentionally take time and study the scriptures, seeking Jesus. 

We've been focusing on bringing members to all of our lessons with those we're teaching. We seriously could not do this work with out them! Their testimonies and friendships are game changers! We've seen a lot of our friends coming to church and feeling welcomed!

Please pray for 

Dale 

Pat Paige 

Willie 

Rainey 

Robbie 

Pictures

--> We were way out in the furthest part of our area and we drove past a house that had EMUs! I told Sister Austin to pull over because we were going to knock on their door and ask for a picture with their emus.

 --> Sister Austin was stood on an ant hill and they were all over her shoes!!