Week 50

Dear family,

This week was the same as last pretty much. We are still constantly trying to find people to teach. Monday we went to a members house for dinner and they live kind of out in the country. They have a lot of property and we got to go walking through the woods. It was pretty fun. It does not really sound like it is but it was cool. They have a swamp/bayou in the middle of it. They also have baby chicks. They were so cute and a day old so I got to hold them and i was not even afraid of them haha.

Tuesday we went to Hattiesburg for interviews with P-Tuck. I found out it was my last interview with him seeing as I get a new mission president at the end of June. It was funny because in interviews p-tuck sets a timer and you are supposed to be done when it goes off (like 7 minutes or something), so i sit down and he sets it and starts talking about random things and why I was transfered to Meridian ( turns out i was never supposed to come here but supposed to stay with findels but some stuff happened so that did not work out.) Then the timer goes off....he then was like well i guess we better start your interview then... He is a funny man. He also pulled up my profile on his ipad and said sister harding  this is your return date and showed me where it said Oct 31. It is subject to change upon the new mission president but still. I did not really want him to show me that. I have not ridden in a car for the past 4 months. I dont like it. Especially because we are in the car ALOT. But it is ok. I am lucky I am able to drive.

Wednesday not much happened. We got to teach Shavanka and talk about eternal families. Her kids sat in on the lesson again and they love the idea of it. We taught how they really can be with their families forever and the sealing authority. They LOVED it so hopefully she will start clicking everything together soon. We also got to teach another girl. I am not sure if I have mentioned her...maybe I have if not well here it is..we found her a few weeks ago looking for potentials and we have been able to teach her twice. She is 15 and has a baby :( and her mom listens to us too. This time we taught her and her boyfriend's brother. We taught about prophets of the old testament and the pattern of them. We asked her what she knew about prophets and she said she connected it with money. I love teaching her because it is all new and she really does like it. I am hoping she will change and continue to meet with us.

Thursday- still more finding. We have been meeting with this other girl. She is awesome. She is a dietitian at the hospital so we eat there alot with her. She is awesome but she is kind of the elders investigator so we just kind of take turns with her. But she came to church so that was exciting. We also went to this place called TISBA- not sure what it means but the missionaries go once a month with a member and it is like a place to meet and sing old country songs. We got a lot of contacts though so that was nice. It was kind of lame though. These people got really into it. One of our members sings there.

Friday- the same. We went to the hospital again and tried to find more people. Still not a ton of luck but that is ok.

Saturday I cant remember really what we did other than visit this awesome girl named who is a member and her husband is not but he goes sometimes. I am not sure why he is not baptized yet be we were going to talk about it haha. He even came to church yesterday by himself. that was cool. We saw another family in the ward. They have three girls living with them. They are so nice. They also have a daughter in WA on a mission. She goes home around the same time as me.

Sunday- church was good. It was nice to have investigators in church for once. All the lessons were on trials and challenges. I really like it a lot. And for once we got to go to gospel doctrine instead of principles because no one was in our class. I have missed that class a lot. The teacher asked me as a missionary and all the trials you face what keeps you going?  I told her that no matter how many doors get slammed in our faces that Heavenly Father always provides one nice person right when you need it and you forget the rest of the bad that happened. In relief society it was on President Eyrings talk "mountains to climb" from general conference. It was good. It just helped me remember that no matter how many trials you go through there are many blessings in store for you. 

Have a great week.

Week 49

Dear family..

This week was pretty good. We have gotten to know a few ward members better and have done tons of finding...

This week we got to see our only real investigator. Her children listen in too because they were the original contacts. They are awesome. The only problem is that they dont want to be just one religion. So we taught her about the restoration and authority. She said it made more sense and we committed her to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. She was scared at first because she knows that she will need to act on her answer but hopefully she does it. On another lesson we taught her we read from Alma 7 about repentance and baptism and her daughter asked why we needed to be baptized and have the Holy Ghost. We told her why and that baptism makes you clean and must be done with the proper authority. It really helped her mom out with her concerns. If they don't keep our commitments these next few visits we unfortunately are going to have to drop them:(

We have found quite a few other people to teach. We teach great lessons or they act really interested and then they ignore us at the return appointment. That has happened 6 times this week. And then we continue to try them over the course of the week and nothing. So basically we work really hard and teach a lot and then nothing. But it is ok because we give out a lot of copies of the Book of Mormon so even if they ignore us they at least have something to keep and maybe eventually look at.

We got to go to young womens this week and talk about missionary work. And help them come up with simple answers to the crazy questions people ask and help them talk about things that people make up about what we believe. They were all really receptive and they want to do missionary work more than the adults. They love my hairbows too and want me to teach them how to make them so maybe I will get to do that soon.

One of the less actives we are working with has started reading the book of mormon again and she has come to church the past two weeks. She is really nice. She is older and has been a member since 2004 but mostly less active. She reads true to the faith a lot too so at least some work we are doing is paying off here.

On saturday we got together with the Elders to do a "chalk talk", where you go to a park and draw out basic beliefs and principles in sidewalk chalk and then go and bring people over to see. It actually worked. Kind of. We got a lot of contacts but only one who gave us their address to come see them next week. It was fun though and we are going to do it at a different park. This park was pretty sweet because it has a carousel. It is a national historic landmark or something like that. It was built in 1910 or something and you can pay 50 cents to ride it. So we of course had to ride it just to see. It was fun. It was an old crank one so it goes really fast. Meridian has carousel horses all around town and I never really knew why until we went to the park here. We had to leave pretty early because the park becomes a red zone after 5:00 because a lot of crime happens there..such as shootings and drug deals and stuff. We are not allowed in a lot of places here because of that haha.

That was pretty much the week.. I dont really know what else exciting happened. Write more letters!!

Week 48

Dear family,

This week was so different. It is always hard to get used to a new area and have to relearn things but I think I am getting the hang of it. I know how to get to the church building so that is good. First I will tell you all about Meridian...Population is about 40,000 I think. It is close to the Alabama boarder. It is about 80% black people. The ward is a good size so that is nice. The building is a phase building in its second phase so it is pretty good size. It is like a giant fish bowl of hoarders...ok not all houses are like that but a lot. I am glad to be back in an apartment though. I actually have room and can see the things I own. Each morning there is usually a big roach outside on its back because it is stupid and got stuck there and it cant turn itself over so it struggles until it dies, it is kinda gross and sad but there is no way in heck I am touching it. There is also a neighborhood stray cat. It is orange and kind of gross because it is stray. It caught a baby squirrel and was just carrying it around in its mouth. Kinda gross I know.

So onto my week... Transfer day-- I kind of already wrote about but that night we had dinner with a the members that drove us and they cooked us lobster. Crazy huh. It was good. I had to crack it myself and every thing (meghan you would have died). It was kinda of weird to touch haha.  I also got to meet the bishop that night. His family is funny. He has three daughters. They are funny. Turns out they do not really have any investigators here or anything really promising..so Wednesday we ended up tracting for little bit. We did not really find a whole lot of people. We saw this family who is kind of investigating so they were nice to meet. Sister Chai told me she does that all the time. Thursday we again went tracting and tried to see a ton of potential/ former investigators. Again no real major luck. We had dinner at the bishops and another family was there that is moving in to the ward. They have 4 kids that are moving in and they were all really nice. Friday we had breakfast at the hospital because this investigator from the branch that is about 30 minutes away is the director of it and he loves missionaries and the only reason he is not baptized is because he wants his mothers blessing and his mother lives in Venezuela. Anyway...he is really nice and so he invites us to go to the hospital to eat. It is actually not too bad haha. And it is free. Saturday we went to the ward easter egg hunt. We only stayed long enough to meet people. That night we had dinner with the ward mission leader. He is really nice and we got to color easter eggs with them. They also got me an easter basket. It was so nice because they did not even really know me. They are such a fun family though. Sunday was good. I love easter and with out all the easter hoopla it was nice to focus on what the holiday really is about. (even though the decorations and stuff are fun too). But we went to church and met tons of people and I really do like this ward a lot. They are so nice. We did not really have any plans for easter and no appointments so we were just going to go try and contact people but a family from the ward (they fed us the lobster) invited us for an easter lunch and then we got invited to this huge family get together that is in a town about 15 minutes away that we cover too. It was huge. There were alot of people there and we got to meet some new people we are going to try to teach. This property is huge and it is a castle. A member owns it and it is the coolest thing ever. They have a guard house and picnic area where we mostly hung out and then they had a huge easter egg hunt up at a cabin/creek waterfall thing (this is all on the same property). This easter egg hunt is huge. they hide money and its hard. The grand prize egg was in the water and the kids went nuts and jumped in to get it. It was quite funny to watch. I still prefer the easter egg hunt in grandmas backyard where you have to look in the grass for piles that have been dug up haha. Then the lady also owns this 1938 car that has been restored and they let us ride in it. It was pretty sweet. It was a good day. Then that night the rs president came to give us a treat at our apartment and we were talking to her and as she was about to leave the stupid stray ran into our apt. But i got it out pretty fast haha. That is about the funniest thing that has happened. Oh and one day we were talking to some guys that were on the street and we gave them mormon.org cards and one of them was like have you handed out a fro of those. And i was like what does that mean. He was like a fro. Have you handed out a fro. Like a handful. So there is your southernism for the week. Fro=handful. Well that is my week. We are looking for service but have yet to find any. Maybe this week.

I hope you all have a good week. Please write letters.

Week 47

Dear family,

This week was good...for the most part haha. I has been a crazy week. As you all know I am getting transferred, a turn of events has taken place...they shut Picayune down for sisters. We found out friday night and it was pretty sad. The work actually picked up quite a lot and we were teaching a lot and had a lot of contacts. It is ok though. I am going to Meridian Mississippi. I do not know a whole lot about it except I have been there one time when I went on an exchange my first transfer with Sister Findley. Sister Findley and I are so sad to leave each other. It is hard. I think that is what we are going to miss the most. But it is ok. 

We saw quite a few other people this week. It is hard explaining to people that you wont be back to teach them but others will. Hopefully the elders will keep up the good work and see those we have been teaching. We handed over our area book and it was kind of sad. But we are doing well and things will be good.

I am now in meridian...ward members brought us here. it is about 90 minutes from Clinton. We woke up this morning and drove to clinton to transfer and one of my fav clinton ward members came and saw me. We were so excited. I miss her so much. Sister Findley is going to Monroe LA. Maybe one day i will get to serve in LA. Maybe not. My new companions name is Sister Chai. She is from Malaysia but moved to Salt lake about 5 years ago i think. She is really nice and I am glad I get to serve with her. She has been out for 3 months. 

Conference was great this weekend. We loved it so much. President says conference on a mission is so different for missionaries. It really is. My favorite talk was my Uchtdorf-Stop it. I loved it a lot and I just loved how all of conference was about getting contention out of your home. It really is so important. The savior did not hold grudges against all those who mocked him and to all the unbelievers. The world is wicked. And it is only getting worse. And who is the advesary going for...families. I just love that was the focus.  

We met this awesome family who came to conference at the picayune church. Apparantly they are in a really small branch but our building is closer (they live in the country). Any way they were so nice and just loved missionaries and they dont have missionaries because i guess stuff has happened there before so they dont and anyway their little girls were obsessed with us and they invited us for lunch the next day. They are very humble and so nice and even though I will probably never see them again it was a huge blessing to meet them. Well I hope I do well here in Meridian. It is alot bigger than Picayune so that is nice. Wish me luck and please write letters.