Find a Mr. M.

I have recently started dating a really great guy. Mr. M, we'll call him, isn't great when it comes to the things of the world. He doesn't make buckets and buckets of money at his super fancy job. He doesn't wear designer clothes and is up on the latest trends. Mr. M. does have a nice car, but that's because he takes care of it. It's not a luxurious sports car, but rather something modest that fits his needs. Mr. M. doesn't have any of these things, but that is OK because he doesn't need any of those things. Mr. M. is great because of who he is. This is who Mr. M. is.

He is a great listener.
      I'm not much of a talker to begin with, but with Mr. M., I am so comfortable to ramble and say           anything and everything that comes to mind because I know he accepts me for who I am and               wants to hear what I have to say.
He fulfills his church calling.
      Mr. M. knows his duties and what needs to be done to fulfill his calling and serve the members of       the ward. He doesn't dillydally and he makes sure everything is complete.
He is respectful.
      Not once have I felt afraid in Mr. M's presence. I know that he will treat me as a daughter of God.
He is kind and caring.
He is funny.
He happy with who he is.
He encourages me.
He lifts me up and does things to make me smile.
He constantly serves me in the smallest of ways that make the biggest impacts.
     {stopping at Target and searching out the biggest bottle of water we could find.}
He sings along to the radio when we're driving in the car. And he car dances too!
He is passionate about life.

The Year Mark

Exactly one year ago today, I wrote this entry in my bright pink mission journal as I was preparing for bed:
                This marks the end of my first day in the MTC {Missionary Training Center}. Last night I was stressing out over coming in because I wasn't quite prepared. I didn't have all the things done that I needed. I really shouldn't have worried as much as I did. Today has been great.

I've come to realize that this is my learning process: to have things repeated over and over and over and over and over again. Those first few sentences capture the biggest lesson I learned on my mission, and the lesson that I am still learning in life. The whole moral of my life story is don't stress. God has it all under control. Worrying and stressing about it only makes it worse, and the result is always the same. The result is always His ending.

One of my little quirks is that I like to have control of everything that I can. I want things to go according to my plan, and if they don't, my little world sorta falls apart. As I write this, I'm reaching the conclusion that that is why Heavenly Father sent me on a mission. Serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was never part of my plan. Yet He planted the desire in my heart so that He could help me learn to trust His plan and His timing. I'm a long ways away from completely "putting off the natural man" {Mosiah chapter 3, verse 19, Book of Mormon} but, because of my mission, I am two steps closer to aligning my will to His.

Once I made the decision to serve the Lord with all of my heart, might, mind and strength, {Doctrine and Covenants section 4, verse 2} I thought that, in order to serve with all my heart, might, mind strength, I would need to serve the whole 18 months. But the Lord's timing is different for everyone. My 9 month mission was something that I did with all of my everything. I can say with a clear conscience that I gave the Lord my everything in Alabama. There may have been days that weren't as good as others, but it was a learning experience and I was a little bit better each day. I am eternally grateful for ALL the experiences, good and bad, that I had in Alabama. I am grateful for the people I met and the way that they individually shaped my life. If I had not served a mission, I would not be the woman I am today, and I would not be as close as I am to being the woman God would have me be.

With my AMAZING parents, being dropped off at the MTC.

 All of the missionaries flying to Alabama.

 

While Wearing Steel Boots and a Backpack Full of Rocks

"Sister Woodard, I wonder," there was a slight pause from the other end of the phone, "Have you ever thought about going home?" Thoughts raced through my mind as I stood with my back against the cupboards, facing the washing machine and dryer that sat by the back door of our little missionary apartment in Alexander City.

Had I thought about going home? Every day for the past several months. Several times a day. Every morning when I struggled to get up and out of bed. As I dreaded what the day might bring; thoughts of not being good enough, ideas that I would never be good enough for the work, that I would never be able to do what was expected of me.

Had I ever thought about going home? Only a thousand times since being transferred to Jasper in December and slipped into this vicious cycle of feeling unworthy and feeling guilty about feeling unworthy. Here I was in Alex City, in the month of March, and I still couldn't push through these feelings, and they were just getting worse.

I would never be able to admit all of this out loud, so I simply answered, "A little bit."

"Well, Sister Woodard," came Sister Hanks' sweet voice through my earpiece, "I wonder if that would be the best thing for you right now, to go home and get better."

Oh please, that's all I want. To feel better and be better. I want to be happy again.

Sister Hanks continued as I switched the phone from my left ear to my right ear. Her voice, as it always was, was calm and reassuring.

"Sister Woodard, you've been struggling with this for quite some time, and I want you to know that President Hanks and I are very proud of you. You have done a hard thing, and you have done it extremely well. You're doing a mission, which is hard enough already, buy you're doing it while wearing a backpack of rocks and steel boots and walking through mud. President and I couldn't be more proud."

And in that moment, I knew. I knew I didn't have to fight anymore. I knew I didn't have to keep walking uphill in the mud while wearing steel boots and a backpack full of rocks. I had truly done what I needed to do and the task was finished. Warmth and peace washed over me as I thought about going home nine months early from my mission in Alabama. I knew everything would be OK.

Serving a mission with depression and anxiety really was like Sister Hanks said: Like walking in mud wearing steel boots and a backpack full of rocks. At the beginning, it was even worse because I didn't realize that that was what I was doing. Slowly, the steel boots came on and heavy rocks were placed in my bag. It was a slow process, because at first I was able to shake the boots off and dump out the rocks. But then they kept coming back faster and it became tiring to get them off. I didn't know where this extra weight had come from, and I desperately wanted to give up. But I knew I couldn't. I knew I couldn't because of a life lesson I learned from my parents.

When I was about 11, I decided I wanted to play softball. When I discovered that being on a softball team wasn't for me, I wanted to quite. But my parents wouldn't let me. They told me that I had committed to the team and that I would need to finish out the season so I didn't let them down. That lesson has stayed with me my whole life, and I was determined to stay until the end of my mission and not let anybody down. That might have made things a little worse for me, because then I started to feel that, even though I was staying, I was letting people down, that I wasn't good enough to be a missionary. I know now without a shadow of a doubt that that was Satan tearing me down. Our Heavenly Father knows my worth and he would never tell me I'm not good enough for Him. Despite all of my flaws and shortcomings, I know that Father loves me as I am. With His help, I will become even greater.

Leaving my mission early was the hardest decision I have ever made, but I know it was what was best for me. Those nine months were hard, but so very very worth it. I learned things I never would have learned at home. I grew in ways I never even imagined. And I was able to touch people's lives in ways that I most likely don't even realize. I don't have to preach the gospel like other missionaries. I have a different song to sing, and a different way to sing it. There are different people to hear my song, and they aren't in Alabama. AND THAT IS OK.

I'm coming closer to being alright with this situation. My trust is in God the Almighty, and I know I will never be led astray.

Tornadoes and Chicken Liver

This week was a pretty good week for us. Busy as usual, but full of learning and growth. Last Monday we had a little bit of exciting weather that Sister Salmond and I enjoyed, although maybe we shouldn't have. The day started out cloudy but I didn't think much of it as we went out to Russellville to learn how to cook chicken and sausage gumbo. Then the rain came down hard and the Causey's weather radio went off with a tornado watch, meaning that the conditions are right for tornadoes to form. It moved from a watch to a warning, meaning a tornado had been spotted. We got a phone call from our Sister Training Leaders telling us we were on lock down and we couldn't go outside for safety reasons. We were happy we had picked last week to spend at a members' home because we had stuff to do while we were on lock down. And it was a super huge blessing because although the tornadoes were small, we were away from the excitement. The Lord protects His missionaries with simple ideas to get out of the tri-cities. There was only minor damage done to the area and nobody was seriously harmed, thank goodness.  

The pictures you received were from the Red Bay elders' baptism. We never personally taught Mary, but we love her anyways. We helped with the details at the baptism that the elders really couldn't. You should have been there in the bathroom with us when she came out of the font. Mary was so happy and couldn't stop giggling and telling us this was the best decision she has ever made. She is letting the gospel change her life and I can see the difference it has made with her. We are so proud of her and I know that Heavenly Father is proud of her. It reminded me a lot of Josie's baptism; there was the same Spirit and joy here as there was in Queen Creek. It's amazing the things the Lord shows me.

We had one of our awesome ward missionaries pick us up from a team up and take us to Mary's baptism. She had stopped at KFC and picked up some food and was so shocked that I had never had fried chicken liver. She made sure that I couldn't say that again and shared some of hers with me. Now I can say I've had some of the delicacies of the South: Fried Chicken Liver. It actually wasn't that bad, but I certainly won't be going out of my way to order it.

Sunday is a Special Day

So first off, wasn't General Conference the BEST! There's something about being on a mission that just makes it like ten times greater. If you weren't able to watch it, or missed a session, go back and watch/listen/read it. The Lord is trying to talk to us, we just have to listen. So much peace, comfort and guidance comes from participating in General Conference.

I love Sundays. Sundays were always my favorite days back home because I had three solid hours without outside distractions to feel of Heavenly Father's love for me. Then when we came home, I decided to choose to keep that feeling by listening to Church songs on Pandora or doing some Personal Progress goals. There's just a feeling on Sunday that's kinda hard to recreate on the other days. I love them.

Our baptism for this weekend is going to be pushed back, but they are still committed to the gospel. They are solid people and love the things they are learning. We did an FHE activity with their grandkids and a family from the ward and they loved it. Lynn wants to start planning her own FHE lessons. Amber is another of our investigators progressing towards baptism and is so sweet. She's a YSA so we've had her going to the YSA FHE activities on Sunday night. They're small, only three other people besides the six missionaries that are invited along to fill the room. She's got some challenges to overcome, but who doesn't in this life. I can already see the difference the gospel has made in her life and I'm excited to see how else she lets it change her. 

I can see the difference a mission has made in my life already. It really is preparing me to be a better wife and mother and I feel like I'm a better person already. My mission has brought closer to my Savior and I understand the Atonement so much more. I can testify to you that His suffering covers everything, not just our sins. He felt our bad days when we feel like we can't go any further, when we feel alone in our afflictions, when it feels like nobody wants to listen to what we have to say. I've been through all those things in high school. Those were the days I had to turn to the Savior. I didn't understand it then like I understand it now, though. I want to be "Steadfast in Christ" for the rest of my life. 

So much love,

Sister Woodard

Working Hard

There isn't a whole lot to say about this week. We've been working hard, going from appointment to appointment and trying to use our time as effectively as possible. We have been meeting with Amber, and that's pretty exciting. We met Amber at the park last Sunday and {shame on me} I didn't think she would be interested. I really shouldn't judge that quickly and let others decide for themselves if they want the gospel. The Lord has taught me this simple yet powerful lesson through Amber. She is truly amazing and is already aligning herself with the Lord. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in bringing others closer to Him. 

President Hanks has challenged us to get 500 baptisms as a mission by the end of the year. Right now we are at 365! In Zone Training last week we set a goal as a zone to get 8 baptisms this month. Florence District {my district} has 7 baptismal dates set at the moment. If all goes according to plan, we will succeed our goal for our zone consisting of three districts with just are district. The Lord is working mighty miracles through us!!

We watched all four sessions of Conference at the church building with our investigators. I'm appreciating General Conference more and more each year, but it was so special this year. Saturday we had Lynn for both sessions and it was so great to feel the Spirit and to see her reaction. She absolutely loved it. Sunday morning we had Lynn and her husband Joe as well as Amber, who also stayed for the second session. We told all of them to come with a question in mind and promised that it would be answered. It was so sweet because we could tell when Amber received her answer. I can tell that she already notices the difference the gospel brings into our lives. I haven't seen any baptisms yet, but we have three coming up. Lynn and Joe are set for the 18th of October and Amber has decided on the 25th. We're so excited for the changes they want to make in their lives. 

Sister Woodard

Perspective and Team Ups

It's amazing how much my perspective has changed in these past {almost} four months. The thing that really stuck out to me was the competing priorities. Before the mission, all I wanted to do was watch Netflix and browse Pinterest. Now when I get home, I never want to touch a T.V. remote again. There really is so much I could be doing that would be so much better for me. I always said it before, but now I really mean it. I really have the desire to read my scriptures and serve others. I want to be involved with community and with life. I don't want to watch my life pass me by anymore, I want to be a part of it. I'm not sure if I'm making any sense, but it's whatever.

So, funny story...The aunt told her less active daughter, the cousin of the lady we were teaching, that she was going to call the Apostles and report us because her niece had told us to leave her alone and we weren't. Well the niece never told us that. It sounded like she wanted to join but her aunt was stopping her. Needless to say, we aren't welcome back. But that's okay. We have two baptism dates coming up and it looks like a few more will follow {from the same family}. Sandi was baptized 4 years ago and just recently moved to be close to her daughter and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She invited her daughter Lynn to church and wanted the missionaries to start teaching them. So far we've been teaching Lynn and her husband Joe and Sandi's husband/Lynn's father Coy. Lynn and Joe's kids have been around when we teach lessons but they haven't shown much interest in learning more. The daughter-in-law Ashley did come to the church building for Women's Conference, though. We had some technical difficulties but it seems like Lynn and Ashley enjoyed the evening anyways. Hopefully Ashley will have some questions for us soon. 

This ward is amazing at doing team-ups with the sisters as well as with the elders. The whole Relief Society is on the team up calendar and it is awesome to be able to take people to our investigators so they have familiar faces at church. It also really helps with working with less active members in our ward because it builds friendships among the members. The women are always so happy to go with us wherever we have planned that day. I can tell they see the blessings that come from missionary work. {In case it's too subtle, I'm saying get involved with missionary work! It's the best! Hahaha.} Performing service really is the best way show you love others and it's the best way to grow closer to someone. I love our investigators and everyone in the ward and my companion so much because I'm serving all the time. I guess as a missionary you can't not serve. It's the best. 

Russellville is such a cute little town. I'm actually living in what they call the "Tri-cities" because it is basically three cities on top of each other. I never know when one city ends and the other begins! It reminds me a lot of Queen Creek. I love driving to the church in Russellville because it's a half hour drive with trees on all sides and a stretch of it has open fields on both sides of the highway. It's so pretty! I didn't realize how much I missed the farm fields until I saw them again. 

Time is going way too fast for me. It was just June, and now it's October. I'm hitting four months on October 11th. Crazy!! 

Sister Salmond is amazing!! We are basically the same exact person. We love pink and princesses. We have the same personality. She bursts out in song and I dance around all the time. I am so grateful to be with her this transfer. She works really hard and is such a great example to me. I'm learning so much already. Because of her pushing us to be better, we were able to reach all of our goals this week! Yay Sister Salmond!!!

We have two baptism dates coming up and it looks like a few more will follow {from the same family}. Sandi was baptized 4 years ago and just recently moved to be close to her daughter and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She invited her daughter Lynn to church and wanted the missionaries to start teaching them. So far we've been teaching Lynn and her husband Joe and Sandi's husband/Lynn's father Coy. Lynn and Joe's kids have been around when we teach lessons but they haven't shown much interest in learning more. The daughter-in-law Ashley did come to the church building for Women's Conference, though. We had some technical difficulties but it seems like Lynn and Ashley enjoyed the evening anyways. Hopefully Ashley will have some questions for us soon. 

This ward is amazing at doing team-ups with the sisters as well as with the elders. The whole Relief Society is on the team up calendar and it is awesome to be able to take people to our investigators so they have familiar faces at church. It also really helps with working with less active members in our ward because it builds friendships among the members. The women are always so happy to go with us wherever we have planned that day. I can tell they see the blessings that come from missionary work. {In case it's too subtle, I'm saying get involved with missionary work! It's the best! Hahaha.} Performing service really is the best way show you love others and it's the best way to grow closer to someone. I love our investigators and everyone in the ward and my companion so much because I'm serving all the time. I guess as a missionary you can't not serve. It's the best. 

Life is just awesome right now. If you can be a missionary, do it. It will change your life for the better!

I hope all is well!

Sister Woodard

Hello from Russelville!

Good morning from sweet little Russelville area. I love this place already. It's actually several small towns close together that we get to work in. We were driving around yesterday and I totally had some flash back moments to Queen Creek. It's perfect out here!

What a crazy week we've had! Wednesday was spent at transfer meeting then driving two hours to get to my new home and unpacking. Thursday is always Weekly Planning and Sister Salmond was so sweet in explaining things in detail to me. I think I will do alright in this area with Sister Salmond helping me out. After weekly planning, one of the ward members named Becky picked us up and we helped her do her visiting teaching since she didn't have a companion. We got to visit a less active sister and meet some members. Becky is so sweet and so dedicated to her calling as a ward missionary. With her help I was able to meet several members of the ward before Sunday even rolled around. And this ward is so awesome. We have team-ups with the Relief Society sisters lined up for almost everyday of the week. We went out with Sister Perkins on Friday to visit investigators and less active members. Sister Perkins is so awesome. Her little family lives right around the corner from us and they are so cute. Already her and her husband have done so much to help us out, with the team up and being willing to pick up investigators and recent converts. This family is awesome. Saturday we went to the State Fair and just contacted like crazy so we could reach our goal of 70 unplanned contacts. We didn't go on any of the rides, but I still had so much fun. Sister Salmond is a rock star and so dedicated to this work. I can already tell I'm going to learn a lot from her example. 

I just jumped into the ward head first because they asked me to say the opening prayer in sacrament meeting and I agreed. It's crazy the courage a mission gives ya. We were going to meet with a referral that has a connection to an investigator we are teaching. The referral is the aunt that is keeping her niece from getting baptized even though she is a grown woman and she has that desire. One of our ward members had told us we should go visit this lady and yesterday during lunch Sister Salmond made the connection that our investigator is related to this lady. She wanted to go see her and see if we could fix the problem and she told me she wasn't sure what was going to happen but I really didn't worry about what this lady might do {yell at us, slam the door in our face, call us mean things, etc.} and I was game to meeting with her. But, she wasn't home for her to do any of those things to us. We're still going to try to get in contact with her and see if we can answer some of her questions and straighten out some misconceptions. 

One of my friends from college is in the next town over, right outside of my area. She found out that I was in Russellville and came up to visit our ward. It was so fun to see a familiar face. Speaking of familiar faces, I am serving with two elders that were in the MTC with me. We had several of our MTC group at the transfer meeting and it was so fun to see these missionaries again. 

I love you all and hope this week is amazing for ya!!

It's That Time Again: Transfers

To start off this post, I'll let ya'll know the news about transfers that are this week. We all thought that Sister Thorup would transfer and Sister Haslam and I would stay. We were so wrong. They are taking ALL THREE of us out. They are white washing our area for sisters. Crazy! So I've been scrambling trying to figure out how to move for transfers. This will be my first one where I'm actually moving so I'm trying to understand how it all works. I'm sad to be leaving but excited to go. I'm just getting names and faces of the ward members and starting to connect with them. We actually went to a dinner party last night with several members from the ward. Sister Haslam's cousin is in our ward and she invited us over for a pot luck that they were having. The topic of me loving dance came up and how I love to do it all. And guess what?? One of the ladies used to clog and she was hanging onto her clogging shoes. She brought out her clogging shoes to show me. We tried to get her to do a little number for us, but she wouldn't. I tried on her shoes just to see how they fit and everyone wanted to see some moves, so how could I say no? That's right, I clogged at a members house. They flipped their coffee table upside down so I could dance on that. It was super fun. I'm sad to be leaving such a great ward. Hopefully I'll be able to connect quickly with my next area. I feel like I'm finally getting the swing of missionary life and all the things that go with it. I'm nervous to leave Wayne and Tiffany and Adriese and all of our other investigators, but I just keep reminding myself that the Lord is mindful of His children and He will take care of them through the next missionaries.

I love what my Dad wrote me today and I thought I would share it with you. "One of my favorite perspectives came from tracting. As we would keep a record of those people whose doors we knocked on, if they were not interested we would put "NR" for "not ready." I loved the optimism. Its not that they didn't need to hear our message or that they didn't want to hear our message. They simply were "not ready" to hear the message. Some day they will be ready to hear and accept the Gospel. That day just wasn't their day. Go find someone whose day it is." My Dad is awesome. I have heard somewhere that it takes about 17 positive encounters with the Church before someone is ready to hear the discussions. So I try to not be discouraged when someone turns me down. I just hope I left them with a positive experience that they will remember later on in life and will finally want to know more. 

I'm so happy for the opportunity I had to serve in Vestavia Hills and so grateful for all the things I was able to learn. I'm excited and ready for whatever comes next!

Change is Good, Right?

We got a new investigator this last week, and the word I would use to describe her is interesting. Tiffany is really sweet, but definitely interesting. She's 25 years old and dresses like a school girl. Button up shirt, sweater vest, skirt and stockings. She rocks the look, which is pretty impressive. We walk into her apartment for the first time and there are Anime posters on the walls, little dragon statues on the book shelf and her husband has World of Warcraft up on the computer. Didn't think I would see this down in Alabama, but I love Tiffany anyways. She's studied with missionaries before she just has a hard time retaining everything. It's cool because she has a lot of the same beliefs and viewpoints that we do and she's excited to learn more. She hasn't ever been to church because she works every Sunday, but we're hoping that will change pretty soon. Wayne is still progressing in his usual way, but he's gotten more involved in the lessons. We've figured out that we have to start our questions with "Brother Chappell, what do you think...." or "How do you feel, Brother Chappell?" The question has to be pointed at Brother Chappell or else Sister Chappell starts to tell us what she thinks and we are on that topic for 10 minutes, and then 20 other ones before we can bring it back without her getting upset that we're interrupting.

Our ward was just combined with the branch on Sunday. It's exciting but a little nerve wracking for me. I was just barely getting names and faces down for the people already there, and now I need to work on the people who just joined. How will I be able to remember everyone's names?? I guess if I just greet them enthusiastically every time, maybe they won't notice that I don't know their name? I hope that this idea works for a little bit while I adjust myself. Sometimes I don't think it's fair that we have name tags and other people don't. I feel like I'm at such a disadvantage. We're still working with less actives and the members. We're going over tonight to visit J.P. and Crystal with Sister May. They just had a baby and sweet Sister May agreed to make them dinner. We arranged this before we found out that the Mays are no longer in our ward, so we're going to try to get other members from the newly combined Vestavia Hills ward to come with us to meet this AWESOME family. J.P. really wants to come back to church but I haven't been able to figure out what's holding him back. Hopefully some encouragement from the ward members is all he needs.

Cat Hair and Rental Cars

This week we did service a couple of different times for April Cook. She moved apartments so we helped her set up her bed in her new apartment and clean out her old one. April wanted her bed up high so she could have some storage underneath it. It turned out pretty cool, actually. At her old apartment, Sister Thorup and I had to take apart her vacuum cleaner to see why it wasn't working properly. She has two cats and her vacuum was so full of cat hair that the hose was clogged and wouldn't suck even when we dumped out the canister. It's funny because we literally just had a training about cleaning the day before and we were able to apply that to our service. We also found some fun toys in one of her closets, so Sister Thorup and I decided to have a "companionship inventory" with them.

Holidays just kind of sneak up on me now. I didn't even think about Labor Day until Sunday afternoon when missionaries were talking about libraries being closed. I hope ya'll got to enjoy the three day weekend. We got enjoy it a little differently. Our recent convert Kathie is so tight with President Hanks. He gave her permission to take the three of us {Thorup, Haslam, and Woodard} out of our area and up to Huntsville to visit her family. So we had a nice little road trip yesterday that kept us busy the whole day. The sad thing is that my batteries for my camera died and I wasn't able to get any pictures of our adventure.  Oh well.....

We had to take our car in today because the axles are being recalled for some reason or other. They looked at our car and decided it needed new axles. Because of some deal, we were supposed to get a rental car free of charge while our car is in the shop. We didn't have all the details to share with Enterprise because the Church set up that policy so we didn't have all the answers. We spent about and hour or more at the rental car place trying to get the payment figured out {who's insurance was going to pay for it, the Church's or the dealership}. We went in to the dealership around 9:30 and didn't get a rental car until almost 1. But the person helping us was super nice and it wasn't really that bad. It would have been worse if someone on either side became frustrated or impatient. It just goes to show that our reactions really matter. 

IF I were to have a favorite part of missionary work, it would definitely be working with the members, whether they are active, less active or recent converts. One of our lessons this week was a new member lesson with the Black family {formerly the Bells until Yolanda and Lawrence were married.} Sister Thorup came up with this great activity to illustrate the concept of faith. In Sandpiper Apartments there is this open grass field with trees around it and that's where we set up a maze with string. We tied string to the trees and to chairs, leading to one particular tree that had pictures of Jesus Christ. We blind folded this family, gave them an egg in their left hand that symbolized something they held dear, told them to hold onto the string with their right hand and let them go along the "path of life." We had the elders helping us and it worked out so each person had a guide. If anyone ever ran into trouble, they simply raised their egg to ask for help. The purpose of the activity was to show them that life is crazy and you never know where you are going, but so long as you have faith in Jesus Christ and listen to the Holy Ghost, you will be able to make it back to live with Him. It was a big hit and the family really enjoyed participating in it. 

I also love love love the youth, in general and in our ward. I'm hoping to work with them more as we try to get Kionnee Bell and Jordan Cross fellowship and get to know the girls. I talked to the Crowley twins on Sunday and they seemed more than willing to help make sure these two girls are included. I'm excited to see what they do.
Life is still good in Vestavia Hills. We're adapting to being in a trio and we work pretty well together. Sister Thorup, Sister Haslam and I wore red dresses on Sunday, our first official one together since last week was stake conference. It was a big hit with the ward members. We got lots of comments and it was a good way to get their attention for them to see who their missionaries were. I think it might be a little tradition for us the next two Sundays before transfers to match each other. Store contacting is not as awkward for me anymore; I actually kind of enjoy it. It's fun to talk to people and get to know them. I try and lead the conversation so that they ask what we are doing here in Alabama. {"I'm not from here, can you explain....." "Where's that at? I'm not familiar with this area."} I feel like I'm not forcing anything onto them when they bring up religion and what we as missionaries do.

I'm trying to push myself to be better every day {I'm not sure if it's working, but I'm definitely trying}. It's hard, but I would encourage ya'll to push yourselves to be a little bit better than you were the day before. There's no point in staying the same when this whole world was created with the purpose of changing and becoming better. 

Ya'll are amazing and I thank you for your examples. As they say in the South, have a blessed week!

Hastening the Work and Eyebrows on Dogs

We got to go to the temple this weekend with 5 recent converts while they did baptisms for the dead. It really got me thinking about family history work. It's pretty great that the temple provides names and the ordinances get done for people on the other side of the veil, but wouldn't it be cooler to be able to take your own family to the temple? There is this lady named April Cook who is preparing to be endowed in a couple weeks, when she hits her year mark of being baptized. She came up with this really awesome idea to give her family names to all those that would be accompanying her that day. So on Friday she was baptized for several women in her family and one of her guy friends was baptized for some men, including her grandfather who had passed away a couple years ago. You could just see the difference family history made in April's life. She was bouncing up and down with the BIGGEST smile on her face and afterwards she told us how amazing she felt while both the men and women's ordinances were being completed. I miss being able to perform baptisms for the dead, and I've decided that once I get home from my mission that I'm only going to take personal family names when I go to the temple. I can see the difference it's made in April's life and I want that for myself and for my family on the other side.

Along with temple night we also had stake conference this weekend. Elder Parker of the Area Seventy came out to speak to us and that was pretty cool. Saturday evening's session was really cool because it was all about hastening the work, every talk. Stake President Slezak talked about the stake goals regarding missionary work and I really like the four things that they are trying to do. First they have asked everyone to pray daily for missionary experiences. A missionary experience doesn't have to be teaching your neighbor or your friend a discussion about one of the gospel principles. A missionary experience can be simple and short, like inviting someone to attend a church activity. The second thing the stake is doing is trying to have a gospel conversation every week. They are going for a simple conversation, simply talking about why they do what they do in their life. Why they go to church for three hours every Sunday. Why they're buying so many boxes of ice cream sandwiches for the youth activity they're helping with. They try to talk about WHY they do what they do. Third, they want to have missionaries teaching discussions in members homes. I really like this one because it helps a lot with retention of recent converts. When people have others that they know in the ward, it's easier for them to go to church and to become involved in conversations and in activities. There are so many blessings for everyone when ward members get involved with the full time missionaries. The last thing that the stake leaders are encouraging is people attending convert baptisms. This shows the convert support and love and there is nothing greater than someone covenanting with God to be a better person and seeing the happiness that the gospel brings into someone's life that didn't have it before. If you're looking for ways to get more involved with missionary work, I would strongly encourage starting with these four things.

I think all this talk about working with the full time missionaries and inviting them into your house really stuck with Betsy Crowley because Sunday afternoon after stake conference was over she invited us and the elders over to her house for lunch. That was a really good experience because her boyfriend who is not a member was there with his two boys and we were able to show him that Mormons aren't weird, that missionaries are regular people. Betsy didn't want us to be too bold or pushy with him because he is content with his faith and isn't looking to change. She was asking us lots of questions about our missions, though, and I'm pretty sure it was half curiosity and half wanting to show Scott that we are all about serving others and not forcing our religion down other people's throats. It was also a good opportunity for us to get to know Betsy's three kids, her twin girls Ashley and Catherine and her son Jeffery. Gosh I love the youth. I swear Catherine is my twin, even though she already has one. Catherine loves dance and theater, reading, being creative, serving others and the gospel. She's already planning on going on a mission because she wants to help others and do all the things that you do on missions. She and her siblings are amazing. I'm definitely planning on using them to help us with missionary work. Hopefully they will click with Kionnee Bell, who just got baptized in April and is having a rough time with coming to church and doing good things. Being a teenager can be rough if you don't have the right friends to help you make good decisions.

The Crowleys' have this cute fluffy dog named Jake. Sister Thorup was reminded of her dog and she told this story of how she would draw eyebrows on him back home and it was really funny. After hearing this story the kids insisted that Sister Thorup draw eyebrows on Jake. 

Exciting Times

Exciting times are happening in Vestavia Hills. Last night the Assistants to the President called us to tell us that we would be getting another companion, Sister Haslam, and would become a trio. We're here now in the computer lab so Sister Haslam can email her folks and get them her new address. So ya'll get to hear from me again! Woo hoo! 

It was kind of a crazy night last night as we prepared the apartment for Sister Haslam's arrival. Since Sister Thorup has been here forever, she's spread her stuff all over the apartment and had turned the second bedroom into her second closet. We had to clean that bedroom up so that Sister Haslam had somewhere to put her stuff since our walk in closet was full. We also sat in the hall while the elders came in and moved the bunk bed from the spare room into our room. I'm now on the top bunk, so that's pretty fun. I think it's kind of funny, because earlier that morning we had decided to move our desks and rearrange the front room so we could have a change of scenery, and then we ended up rearranging the rest of the apartment, so our whole place has been re-done. 

I'm excited to be working in a trio. I've never met Sister Haslam before, but she seems really sweet and I think we're going to get along just fine. At least that is my hope. This is definitely going to be an interesting rest of the transfer

Member Missionaries and Groceries

I love working with the members and I think everyone should do it. See if the missionaries have any investigators and invite them to do lessons in your home. That's always awesome when we can get investigators into members homes so that the investigators have familiar faces on Sunday when they go to church. If you see someone new in the ward, go up to them and talk to them. Our biggest thing is having fellowship for our investigators and recent converts. Ask your missionaries what they need, even if it's just something small to you, it's huge to them. Member missionaries are my favorite people ever!! We went to a dinner appointment last night and just in casual conversation the mom was telling us about two families that she wants to share the gospel with and thinks would love to have the missionaries over. It was awesome, because we hadn't even asked for referrals and she was giving us people to go see. This lady is amazing!

The elders had a pretty good idea that we helped them execute. We chose a place to draw out the Plan of Salvation in chalk and wrote "Mormon.org" at the bottom of it. It was really fun to do and I feel like it was a pretty creative way to share the gospel and let people know our beliefs. Hopefully at least one person logged onto Mormon.org because of this.

So my favorite story from this week includes a new born, a mom and two other kids. Sister Thorup got permission to go down to her first area, Greenville, for a baptism. She took her old companion because they are the ones who found this guy and taught him. We did an exchange and I stayed here in Vestavia Hills with another sister. Sister Gustafson and I were walking the aisles of Wal-Mart looking for people to talk to and we turned the corner {into the cookie aisle} and saw this huge MOUNTAIN of food right in the middle of it. Turns out, this mountain was actually in a cart and a little mother holding a new born with two other children around her legs was trying to push it. So of course we ask her if she would like us to push it for her around the store. I wish we had found her sooner because she had just finished and was heading to checkout. We had to start loading another cart while the first one was unloaded onto the conveyor belt. This little momma spent $636 on groceries for her kiddos. Long back story short, after living with her brother, they were all evicted, they haven't had much food the past several weeks and her car is acting up so she's worried it won't start again and she won't make it to the store to get food. This sweet little woman was doing all she knew how to provide for her three little ones. She doesn't want them to go hungry so she loaded that cart as full as she could possibly get it. We've set up a teaching appointment for this Wednesday and I can't wait!

Movings and Weddings

We had a really good week last week, aside from us spending two hours in the Urgent Care for Sister Thorup's arm. We're working with a lot of less actives in our ward and a few investigators. Brother Chappell might be getting baptized in September. Sister Thorup is guilt tripping him a little bit since we are pretty positive that she will be leaving next transfer. Speaking of transfers, we just had them on Wednesday. Elder Posadas went to Decator and we got Elder Veenker, a new missionary from Utah. He is pretty cool and seems so prepared to be serving a mission. He seems to be doing a lot better than I did my first week in the field. Elder Arnold is adjusting to being a trainer but seems to be doing fairly well. He's a good example for Elder Veenker to follow.
 

We helped someone move out and attended a wedding on Thursday. I feel like we are losing all of our solid ward members who aren't crazy. We've had around 70 people move out of our ward, most of them to Utah. Brother Hintze was one of our ward missionaries that helped us out a lot and Sister Hintze was in Young Women's. Our ward is a turnover ward so we get all the students that are attending UAB and they move out once they are done with school. But we also get lots of new people once school starts up again. The wedding we attended on Thursday really didn't feel like a wedding. It was two of our recent converts, Yolanda and Lawrence. Yolanda was baptized in February and Lawrence was baptized in May. Yolanda and her two girls and her dad have been living in Lawrence's one bedroom apartment for the past few weeks because Yolanda's lease was up and they had bed bugs and they didn't want to sign a new lease if they were going to move in with Lawrence when they got married a month later. So it's kind of a complicated story but everything is good now. Bishop May performed the service in the Relief Society room and it was a pretty quite affair. Yolanda told us the wedding was going to start at 7, but she didn't even show up till 6:50 and it didn't start till 7:15. We assumed they would be bringing something to decorate with, but when they didn't, the Georges and Sister Thorup and I searched in the Relief Society and Young Women's closet for stuff so it wasn't so plain for them. Afterwards, they invited us out to dinner to celebrate with them. Take a guess as to where we went with this black family. Golden Corral is the best way to celebrate a wedding, obviously. I'm not complaining, though because Sister Thorup and I were paid for. I love this family so much because they are so funny and love to be happy. They may not have it all together, but together, they have it all.

 

On a more spiritual note, here are some of my favorite quotes from Sunday's Relief Society lesson.

"We ALL have trials. It's just a matter of how we handle those trials."

"If you just have a spiritual shell, you will crumble under pressure."

"Just because we do all the right things doesn't mean everything is automatically peachy keen."

"There's a positive  for every negative ."

"Be thankful for the weeds. They teach us that when we pull them out, we can be beautiful."

Bug Bites and Transfers

Sister Thorup and I sat for two hours in the doctor's office waiting for someone to come look at her bug bite. We noticed it on Saturday and it grew on Sunday and there was a line going up her arm towards her heart. Kathie {who is a recent convert and works at the UAB hospital} was concerned about the trail going towards Sister Thoroup's heart so she had us go to another member's house where they are both head ER people. They said it's called cellulitis and we should get it checked out so we went this morning. The service at the Urgent Care wasn't very urgent. We sat in the room for about a half hour before the doctor even came in, and then another twenty minutes for someone to give her a shot and send us on our way. So that's how I've spent most of my P-Day today. Sister Thorup just Google'd it and apparently if it's not treated it could become life threatening, so I am so thankful that we took those two hours to get it taken care of.

We had transfer calls on Saturday.  Sister Thorup and I are staying together! Yay!! She has mixed feelings because she has already been here for four transfers {six months} and she knows this will make it a thousand times harder to say goodbye to the people here. She loves this area and we make a great team, but she also wants to see other areas of the mission. We are both excited for this transfer because we have a lot of potential with several people. Elder Posadas is leaving this transfer, so we had a dinner at Kathie's to say goodbye. Kathie got baptized in May because of Sister Thorup so they have a really tight bond. Kathie loves having the missionaries over and all four of us have grown close to Kathie and her husband Mike and their grandson who has been staying with them. Elder Posadas made plantain and green banana chips, Elder Arnold made sticky rice and Sister Thorup and I made brownies. It was a good dinner. We're sad to see Elder Posadas go, but he's going to do great wherever they send him. Both Elder Posadas and Elder Arnold will be training this transfer.

No baptismal dates yet but we are working towards a couple. Our favorite family is a part member family. The husband JP is less active but wants to start coming back and the wife Crystal is interested in learning more. They have two little girls, Ember and Jade. Crystal is about to have another baby, she hopes within the next two weeks. There is a recent convert who kinda went less active but has started coming back to church and the elders have started teaching her husband, so we're hoping he will get baptized soon as well. He likes to meet with the missionaries and seemed to enjoy church yesterday. Brother Chappell is still slowly progressing in his way but we are going to get him baptized this transfer since Sister Thorup is staying but this will most likely be her last transfer here in Vestavia Hills.

Civil Rights and New Best Friends

It poured last Monday and we got caught in it. It was super fun though cause we were walking around this park that is across from the Civil Rights museum in downtown Birmingham. There were statues and signs that told a little bit of the history of the area. We saw the statue of the four little girls who were killed when someone bombed the Baptist church. It was really interesting to learn new things about the Civil Rights movement.

My interesting story for this week includes my companion getting a new best friend. We got dropped off at an appointment by a member in what's called "Southside" about a half hour drive from our apartment. We couldn't get anyone to come out and get us, so we were hanging out on a street corner waiting for the bus. Everyone is so friendly here in the south, some even a little too friendly. We simply said hello to a guy across the street and we ended up hearing his whole life story about crawling in some bushes and getting poison oak and how he writes Christian rap songs. Sister Thorup wanted a picture just in case he "got famous one day." We were not expecting him to put his arm around her, which explains her expression in the picture. Luckily for us, we met an inactive member of the Church down in Southside. He approached us and talked about how three of his siblings served missions and he likes to talk to missionaries whenever he sees them on the streets. He found out we were stuck without a ride, so he insisted on driving us home. We had to walk to his house to get his car, so we got his address. You know we will be visiting his family soon with cookies and a lesson about the gospel. Jimmy Stout is so cool and I hope he starts coming back to church soon.

We got a revised ward roster this week since we had 68 people move out of the ward. It used to be 4 pages and now we're down to 2. Sister Thorup went through and highlighted all the active members in pink and the inactive/less active members in blue. There is wayyyy too much blue on these 2 pages, so we've decided to clean up a bit in the Vestavia Hills Ward. We're going to be focusing on those members who haven't been to church in awhile. We met with one family already last night, J.P. and Crystal. J.P. is a member, but his wife and two girls aren't. He has expressed interest in coming back to church and loved the idea of us going back this week and teaching a lesson. I'm way excited to meet with this awesome family again. It reminded me a bit of home when we were there visiting. It was about 7 in the evening when we went over, and they were all in their pajamas. The girls were watching a movie and doing dishes and the house looked lived in, like ours is. J.P. is in the middle of a work project, so there was paperwork everywhere and Crystal was helping him. It was a bit chaotic, but there was a feeling of love and family, something I haven't felt in other homes that I've been in out here where there's only a mom and kids or where someone smokes and everything is just covered with the smell. It was so nice to be in a family friendly environment where the Spirit could dwell even among the paper work. I'm excited for this family.

Adventures of Week 3

I cannot believe I'm starting my fourth week here in Alabama. I've been here for a month already! The time sure does fly by so fast.

This week was another good week. It rained so Sister Thorup and I decided to walk in it and go store contacting. We put on jackets and boots and just enjoyed the walk. We passed one other person out in the rain, a man named David. He seems pretty cool and he seemed to like the Mormon.org card we gave him. Maybe something will come of this contact, maybe not. At least we tried! That's sometimes all we can do is try and let people use their agency to accept.

I went on my very first exchange with the Sister Training Leaders. It was an interesting experience because they are the Spanish sisters in our area. I went to a new apartment for the night but I was still in my area speaking Spanish. I know enough Spanish to know what's going on but not enough to communicate back. I just stood there while Sister Pickett contacted or taught a lesson. The Spirit was still strong in the lessons, though. It showed me that it doesn't matter what language you speak, you can still feel the Spirit. 

We had a baptism this week, but I had no part in it. We went because Sister Thorup had taught him a few of the lessons. It was cool to be able to feel the Spirit even though I didn't know him personally.

 

I'm including a picture of how creative the elders have gotten when it comes to making food. We were over outside their apartment trying to correlate our investigators and their investigators for ward council. Elder Arnold being a typical boy and looking for food wanted a hot dog but they were out of buns, but not tortillas. They made me try it too and it was actually pretty decent. Elders are funny.

That's about as exciting as it gets around here. We're still teaching Wayne, hoping he'll stop smoking soon so he can be baptized. Here's a picture of him and his wife. These two are my favorite people. Hope ya'll have a blessed week!