"What are you all about?"

Monday we met with Freida for the second time. 

Did I already talk about Freida? I don't think I did so let me retrace some steps

I am pretty positive I mentioned the fact that my bike tire has a puncture in it 

and the day that happened we saw some miracles. 

Well here is one to add to the list of reasons why my bike tire was flat.

Here we are walking home and I am whining in my head about having to push a flat tired bike all the way home after riding so easily to our destination...

later I would find out that as I was murmuring, Sister Fast was pushing her bike right next to me, because of me, praying in her head that we would turn this into an opportunity to find the prepared. 

Just as she finished her prayer, we heard loud laughing down the street then silence. If we would have just zipped by there we probably couldn't have seen or heard them the way we did as we were walking, but because we just so happened to walk by at that exact time, they were laughing loud enough to reach us and instantly my comp said, let's go!

We walked over there, and met Freida, her husband, her in law, and her sister.

We talked about God and Jesus Christ because that's what we do, then we set up an appointment to come back and meet with Freida because the others were not really interested, and they were just visiting from another state.

Well that appointment with Freida was this last Monday and it went super great. 

The Spirit was there as it always is without fail when we testify of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and how those things help us have a relationship that is STRONG with Jesus Christ. She is such a sweet 42 year old woman. She is going through a lot, her husband has a lot of seizures and can't work, she just lost her job, and times are hard. But she thanked us and invited us back, she also agreed to be baptized even if it meant taking her eyelashes off so that they won't get messed up in the water :)

We also met with Corine.

Corine just cried. She confided in us that she just doesn't know if she has the kind of faith she needs to be able to endure the things she is enduring, what with the recent loss of her husband. On top of that she just found out she has some cancer in her body, and permanant pnemonia in one of her lungs. 

She cried, and we testified of Gods plan, then she thanked us for all we do. She is so incredibly strong and wonderful.

Later Monday there was an INSANE storm, like wow, and a tornado touched down pretty dang close to us in Flomaton, one of the neighboring tiny towns. 

It apparently wrecked the place. So sad.

Tuesday, we had District meeting, had to have an oil change, and I got to go on exchanges with Sister Shank who was in the Missionary Training Center with me. I sure love her. 

Anyway, we got to drive to the Gulf Breeze church to meet them there for the exchange and I was able to go in that building that I love and have not seen for 8 months. 

It was such a wave of emotion walking into the chapel.

The Spirit was very strong as memories flooded in of the beginning of my time as a missionary, so much has happened since then.

 I've heard you can never step foot in the same place twice, the place never changes, but it's because you're a different person, that it will never be the same. 

#nostalgic

 It was wonderful. 

Thursday was an especially facinating day. 

At one point Sister Fast and I were a mile down a dirt road at a farmhouse walking with six dogs and a cat that followed us to our car, then they all chased us down the road as we drove away. 

We also named the horses and donkeys taco, paco, pico, and moonlight.

Not too long afterwards I threw something in some bushes up the road. I don't want to go into specifics with this part of the story.. so sorry ya'll are left to wonder what it was and how I acquired it.

Next we bought some boiled peanuts because Sister Fast had never had any, and you aren't truly initiated to the South until you have eaten...

1. boiled peanuts preferably Cajun seasoned

2. at Waffle House

3. Whataburger.. even though you seriously regret it because it's crap. Straight nasty.

4. collard greens, turnip greens, and other kinds of greens with hog double chin bits 

floating around in them

5. Deep fried catfish

6. Cheesegrits

7. Crawfish

8. Fried Chicken

9. Pound cake

add in a few items of roadkill and you're golden.

We saw some of the cutest houses I've ever seen, met a lot of people, showed a lot of people the new Prince of Peace video on their devices, committed people to give their friends and family our card that says mormon.org #princeofpeace with a beautiful picture of Christ on it.

We were also told by our neighbor that a very large tree in our yard was struck by lightning, and not IF but WHEN it falls it's natural path will be straight on our house because of the way the other trees are planted. Awesome.

So we called the owner of our house.. hopefuly we don't wake up with a bunch of branches sticking in our faces like Pinocchio

fun fact:

You should deep fry just about everything with peanut oil, and add a bullion cube instead of butter.

-Sister Stone

A miracle of the day was having interviews with President Smith. 

First of all, it's such a pleasure to see Sister Smith at interviews, we get to just hang out with her while we wait for our turn to have interviews with president.

 I love her.

 I got to pray with, be taught, counciled, and comforted by one of the most wonderful incredible people I know: my mission president. 

Just like every interview I've had with both him, and my first President Smith.

He said some very kind things to me, I wrote them down in my journal. 

It was seriously a fantastic day. 

Besides the part where Sister Fast was choking on watermelon whilst driving, had to pull off on the side of the highway, and I almost punched her in the stomach as hard as I could to get it out but just in time, she could breathe again so I didn't have to beat her up ;)

One of my fave contacts this week:

Man sitting on his porch, giving us a leery eye as we approach him

he said

"What are you all about"

me: "Jesus Christ"

I thought he would relate and brighten up/take the lessons/get baptized 

nay:(

 He then proceeded to tell us something along the lines of this:

"You better be careful who you talk to about that. 

You should know better who you are approachin' when you approach'n in the name of Christ. I know who I am. 

I am Christ. 

There was one main Christ, but there are many others over generations.

 Did you know I have been white before? Just as white as you. I have been Asian 28 million times and just about every race.

 I was crucified in a courthouse in Brewton decades ago. I know who I am. If you ask most people how old they are they will say an age lower than one hundred. Not so, I know that I am billions of years old. I have been white millions of times and mostly black the rest. I am a male. You are a female and unless you are willing to see me through anything, now I'm not coming on to you, but color is just color. I don't see color. So when you approach'n people in the name of Jesus you better be careful, you should know who you talking to.

 Now there's really nothing for you to say to me. Have a good day, and good bye."

Then he folded his arms, leaned back in his chair, and looked away as if we were not still standing their in shock and awe.

I said, "Thank you, do you mind telling us more about your belief and where it comes from-"

"No I do not, goodbye."

"Well we are sorry if we offended you in any way, we just wanted to talk about the person we love. We hope you have a wonderful night, can we leave you with a card?"

"No you can not."

"Okay good bye! Have a nice day."

Then we left.

We walked about half a mile down the road and mutually agreed that we were both definitely still in the category of mind boggled in the mental department. 

Now here is a picture I would like to paint for everyone.

 Not to make any sort of fun, not to be sarcastic or excited about, but to really get a 

different perspective perhaps. 

We are so. lucky. to. have. what. we. have.

family wise, saftey wise, shelter wise, food wise.

So. So. Lucky.

There is a family we work with, I will keep some things vague to avoid any privacey barriers being broken, but it is very heart breaking to go over there.

There have been families like that in all of my areas.

In my first area, the family was not lacking monetarily, but there was a major lack of love. verbal abuse, and probably physical. Even in front of the missionaries, children were mocked as young as four years old. 

The kids were yelled at an inch from their faces, screamed at, and embarrassed by adults/their mom. 

In my second area, the family had fleas, bed bugs, nowhere to sleep, animal feces, they were not taught heigiene and the children lived off of McDonalds and what little they could find in the cupboards if anything at all.

Here, this family suffers from having just lost their father, mom is considerably older and falling apart from stress that she takes out on her young child. 

The young child caters to the mother, has no childhood, and has no father anymore.

They have sixteen dogs, cats, little food, and occasionally nieces, sisters, and their children living there. Smoking, drinking, fleas, little food, little to no income, so no gas for the car.

So when you look around, think about what you have. 

Even if you had nothing, at least you would still have love. 

I feel that that is the saddest common denominator throughout these families, it's not that they are struggling to feed themselves or that they wake up without bug bites and health hazardous homes to live in, it's that they have a lack of love. 

The large supply of any love that they do have, comes from the missionaries and God when the spirit is brought into their homes.

Be thankful today, for love, and your ability to show love towards your fellow man.

You don't have to go to a third world country to find starvation, and poverty, and homes made of materials that should be condemed. 

You don't have to leave the USA to find crime (speaking of- I've woken up to gun shots twice this week.. mom please forget that you just read that:)

It might be right outside our front door at times, and others in our own homes.

 So how do we combat these things that are in and of the world we live in whether they are down the street or fifteen miles away?

Cling to the gospel teachings.

save money, stay out of debt, serve thy neighbor and love him too, look for opportunities to work hard and publish peace by sharing the love of the Prince Of Peace.

Bake some cookies, smile, wave to the car passing you, meet your neighbors, call a friend, make a friend, post the new Prince of Peace video all over social media, pray, pay your tithing and give to the Humanitarian Aide around the world, fast offerings for those struggling right in your own community, soup kitchen, donate clothes to the Deseret Industries or a thrift store, have your child randomly bring apples or bags of gold fish to share with their class for no reason-

 other than the underlying reason which is that some of their class mates will go home to families that cannot provide dinner. 

volunteer at the school so that you can help their teachers-

 but more for the underlying reason that many of your kids classmates never hear the words "I love you" or "You are talented and kind" 

-in short-

Spread the love of Christ you so abundantly enjoy in your life, but don't do it because you will feel guilty if you don't, do it because you will feel closer to Him and love His children more if you do. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday was one of the best days ever of my entire livelihood 

We taught some lessons in the morning, and on the way to the Sisters apartment in GULF BREEZE Paul and Paula who met us half way from 

Brewton to help us save miles, took us to the beach so that Sister Fast could feel like she was home in Cali for a moment. Little did she know, how much she still would feel in a whole new world because.....

Gulf beaches>>>>>>>>>>>>the west coast

(no offense.. hashtag YOCO)

It was beautiful.

 

 We then took our dinner hour by going to an all you can eat sushi place I used to love going to A YEAR AGO it was such a trip down memory lane.

We walked from the Horizon restaurant, tummies happy, talking to everyone we saw about the gospel and I felt right at home again in my "birth town." 

We then headed over to the church where I was able to see so many of my favorite humans in the entire world. 

In pulled the Bradburys and I was so pumped I had to walk outside, the only thing that has changed about them is the mustache on dads face. LOL they are still so wonderful and happy and always reading the best books.

Then pulled in the Baxters. Oh my heart. They piled out of the car and I basically knocked over Sister Baxter and squeezed her to death. I absolutely love this family. It was SO good to see them. I want to be Jen when I grow up. 

I turned around and saw the famous Lexi Raspberry and all kinds of craziness happened because we were screaming and crying and reuniting and jumping like a couple of high school girls. :) The best lol.

  

 We took plenty of pictures with the twins, Matt got there and they all looked so happy to be completing what was started a year ago as they started coming to church and spoiler, now they are all baptized and confirmed active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

OH HOW MY CUP RUNNETH OVER

The baptism was such a sweet humbling heart exploding with happiness kind of occasion.

The Spirit was very strong as it always is, and I just felt like I was on cloud 19 because cloud 9 just doesn't do it justice.

The Pich/Raspberry family asked me to do a musical number, share my testimony, and say the closing prayer so I rounded up some missionaries to sing while I played "Sunshine in my soul" they did beautifully.

For the words of my testimony, I prepared by looking back in my journal from the lessons teaching Matt and Lexi and the kids and I couldn't believe what I read:

The first day we knocked on their door, was almost exactly to the week, one year ago. It was the third week of April.

Lexi opened the door with a kitchen knife in her hand and we thought we were finna get stabbed ;)

jk. but later we came back, and she went from saying

"You can come back, but I don't want you to feel like failures" to "I will do whatever it takes. Baby steps of course, but yes. I will bring my mom and we will come to church Sunday" to now. 

Here I was relating this to this precious ward of Gulf Breeze almost exactly one year older tears welling up in my eyes looking at the people I love. Paul and Paula, Baxters, Bradburys, Sister Caree, Matt, Lexi, Emma Tyler, and more. 

I couldn't explain how I felt if I tried to use three different languages and every word in the dictionary.

But I felt for sure

LOVE

the love of Christ for these people

the love I have for these people

and the love I felt from these brothers and sisters of mine.

"You see, the names “brother” and “sister” are not just friendly greetings or terms of endearment for us. They are an expression of an eternal truth: God is the literal Father of all mankind; we are each part of His eternal family."
President Eyring 
Gathering the Family of God~April 2017 General Conference talk

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/04/gathering-the-family-of-god?lang=eng

What a special experience. I thank my Father in Heaven for blessing me with it. 

After the baptism I had a few minutes to catch up with everyone and hug Sister Caree who tried to tell me she's excited to get my future wedding announcement in the mail "soon" and I just about had a heart attack and died so that was interesting.  She must know something I don't:)

Paul and Paula stopped at their house quickly before heading back to Brewton so that I could eat a slice of pie for Pauls birthday and dip into his birthday cake that was made for a five year old lol. 
SO GOOD TO BE HOME

Happy birthday Paul, and Jesus Christ, and to the Church on April 6th

I will have to tell ya'll about Felecia next week, we are preparing for her and Diannes baptisms and ask that you pray for them. I love you all to the moon and back and around the world twice.

Remember Him 
as you remember your loved ones that have passed away. 
He overcame the grave. This weekend, many years ago. 

Happy Easter

I love my savior Jesus Christ. 

Risen Lord by Ryan Saunders aka my dad:)

-Sister Saunders <3

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
Psalms 139:17-18