Love You Appropriately

I am obv a mermaid ;)

So the elders in my district decided they want to be part of my journal/blog lyfe so they borrowed my alphasmart3000 and apparently have some things to say...

#nofilter

out the night that covers me black is the pit from pole to pole i thank the god that made me for my unconqurable soul

in the felt clutch of circomstance i have not winced nor cried aloud, under the bludgenings of chance my head is bloody yet unbowed

beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade and yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid 

it matters not how strait the gate how with punishments the scroll, 

I am the Master of My Fate

I am the Captain of my Soul

sister whites bike got tooken and now has the sad.   (to be continued...)

-- Elder Wall

Once upon a time there was a young man named Joey, he was the coolest and best lookin guy ever, but that has nothing to do with this story.  Anyways, once Joey was super bored so him and his friend hopped on their longboards to ride around, but forgot that they lived on a big mountain with really steep hills, so they started riding down a hill and started going faster and faster and before they knew it they were flying down the mountain!!  They had no control over their boards so they knew that their only option was to leap for their lives!!  And so our brave young Joey dove for the grass, but alas it was in vain for he slammed into the pavement, rolling down the hill, and watched his poor skateboard fly into a curb and exploid into millions of pieces!! THE END

              --Elder Hollinger

Sorry I didn'T GET THE TIME!!!!! Had to go to Dinner

-Elder Ellsworth

There you go ladies and gents. 

Here are some actual factuals about the life I'm currently living.

I am 35 pages away from finishing the BOM (Book of Mormon)

I started this one July 4th so I'm excited to have it finished by 3 months. I've never read it that fast.

(also let me tell you how hard that even was.. life is so busy as a missionary and there is so much to prepare for, you're lucky if you have more than 20 min a day to read the good book)

but of course speed is not the most important thing, thank goodness.

I started reading the Book of Mormon separately at the beginning of this year, and I have been studying it like never before. It has taken me this long to get to Mosiah and I have LOVED every moment. The Book Of Mormon is amazing.

It doesnt matter how long you spend trying to figure out one verse, or if you read the whole thing in two months. YOU ARE GOING TO 

1. Learn something new.

2. Feel something familiar.

3. Understand something better.

I promise.

Moroni Promises.

God promises.

Read the Book Of Mormon. Even if it's one wimpy verse a day, read daily.

Two fit humans walked up to a bunch of very overweight humans and said

"Hey we know a great weightloss program. over 15 million people say it has worked for them and we love it so much, and 80,000 of us well, we just walk around everyday telling people about it for free. We actually pay money to be able to tell people about it because of how good it makes all of us feel about ourselves. We are happy, confident, and we know you will be too. The program is actually free itself and all it really takes is some time out of your busy schedule to try it out"

The overweight people don't pay it much mind.

Over 15 million fit, and in the process of becoming fit people tell one of their friends about this same program that is free, takes some time, but has amazing, perfect results.

These people try it out and 15 million more are converted to the program.

30 million people tell one friend about the program.

and so on and so forth.

The key is member missionary work. 

Does that make you sick or scared thinking about it? Those are the only two options.

Circle which is yours

a. Scared

b. Sick

c. I don't want to read this anymore.

That's satan, tell him to go to hell.

Buck up.

Hand out a Book of Mormon.

Pray for the strength to be an instrument in God's hands.

Invite the missionaries over and another family to have Family Home Evening.

We can do it people. I know it's hard to go  the extra mile, but it's only hard because we sometimes listen to the wrong voices.

Basically, the most uncomfortable thing as a missionary is just talking to strangers. There's no magical switch that makes you feel comfortable about talking to people about what helped them through the roughest point of their life, or how they felt when they held their child for the first time. These are personal things that require us to be personable and loving when we approach these topics that lead into the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

but here's a crazy secret about it:

the hard part is not actually doing it.

 It's the build up. Getting the courage to walk up to the guy fixing his car. Getting over the justifications in my head 

"he's busy"

Too busy for eternal life?!? So busy that God doesn't love Him? NAY.

I see over and over again that after we just walk over and open our mouth the Spirit accompanies us and the Lord makes up for our weaknesses, and get this. IT FEELS GOOD. It feels great. Talking to a sibling under God about what has brought us close to Him feels wonderful. NaturalHighsOfLife

#GetLitWithTheSpirit2kEternity

Now I know that if you aren't a certified missionary it's illegal to talk to strangers about the gospel.

So talk to friends and family instead:)

When someone asks you today, tomorrow, or next week this very question:

"How was your weekend?"

(you know they will)

Simply bring up the fact that you went to church and it helped you to

(fill in the blank)

find peace

feel focused

feel God's love for you

whatever

That's literally all it takes to share a seed with someone.

Whether or not they plant it in their hearts and let it grow that minute, the next day, or years down the road, that's up to them.

God does not ask us to baptize everyone but He does command us to invite every creature to come unto Him.

INVITE

When you Invite you do your job. When you accept invitations to help Him bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His children, you in turn are furthering your own conversion and dedication to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of yourself.

Plus it makes you feel good.

 It makes you feel

great.

So that is my invitation. Think of the Savior, your family, and church when someone asks you

"How was your weekend?"

When you open your mouth with a prayer in your heart, please recognize how you feel.

Good. Great. Happy. 

"Well done."

simple as that.

Fun stuff this week. 

***transfers***

I want to share an insight my mission president shared with us during our conference call it was awesome.

When Lehi left Jerusalem, he traveled three days then built an altar to sacrifice something for God. 

We read this every time we read the BoM or first Nephi (let's be honest we all have read 1st Nephi way more than we have the rest of the BoM)

but we have no idea the significance of it.

Keep in mind Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon in the 1820's

and in the 1940's research discovered that in Lehi's times, if you wanted to make a sacrifice to God on an altar you had to go to the temple in the city to do so. UNLESS you were three days travel or more away from the temple. In which case it was okay by spiritual law, to build your own altar and have your own sacrificial ceremony.

Lehi was commanded to leave Jerusalem. But he waited three days to build the altar. Exactly the amount of time as was custom. Which customs were not commonly known on our continent until the 40's. (Actually they're still not commonly known)

but somehow Joseph Smith was able to mention the random fact that Lehi waited three days traveling to built that altar. 

How is that possible? The Book Of Mormon was not written by Joseph Smith it was translated by the power of God and brought to pass at His hand. Joseph was the instrument in work he didn't even fully understand. We don't understand it, not even close but as time goes on the proof is there.

The Book of Mormon is it's own proof. But just like you'd never know if a weight loss program works even if their are 15 million saying it does unless you try it out yourself, you can never know the Book of Mormon is true even though 15 million members testify that it is, unless you READ IT pray over it ponder how you feel and ACT.

Okay next item of business. Sister White had to get a.. procedure done for the comfort of her foot. The doctors appointment was in PENSACOLA

so guess what.

We drove through GULF BREEZE on the way to it and scared the heck out of pypsy and my "grandaughter", Sister Corbett.

They were doing studies and I knew a secret way into the apartment that I will not disclose for safety reasons. 

Long story short Pyper poked her head out of the study to find me standing in the living room unlocking the door to let sister white in and she screamed bloody murder.

And laughed at the same time and freaked thinking I was a ghost because I was back to haunt our apartment.

I LOVE THEM

And gulf breeze

for lunch I called Paula and she made us some corn dogs, we pulled up and Paula didn't tell Paul we were coming.

He was out in his driveway and we pulled up, he saw me and dropped the stuff in his hands, his jaw dropped, and he just about had a heart attack.

later with tear filled eyes he said 

"I can't believe this. I have been praying you would come. I knew you wouldn't step foot in this house as a missionary ever again. But I still prayed for it. I don't know why God answers my prayers so well.. but He sure does."

yeah... I am blessed.

WAY UP I FEEL BLESSED.

painted some stuff for my fave Deloris

Me and Deloris

I also love you all so much.

(appropriately) 

After transfers one of my favorite Elders, Elder Delamar yelled

"LOVE YOU APPROPRIATELY"

He's a homie. We have many of those, but we still have boundaries people. 

So we love each other in a friendly brotherly sisterly and appropriately way. 

MAKE IT A GREAT DAY

Honorary Giraffe

-SeeesterSaunders 

Huge rainstorm...

ps

my birthday is coming up

I REPEAT

MY BIRTHDAY IS COMING UP

DO YA'LL COPY?!?!?!?!?!?!

OCTOBER 9th!

I will accept cards, small gifts, thoughtful notes, and even hatemail. 

For my address ask my mom :)) ;)

Happy General Conference Weekend, remember to write down questions you have because if you prepare, and ponder, listen to the prophet and pray, they will all be answered it's super legit. 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng&_r=1

<3

Crestview Coming In Clutch

CRESTVIEW LYFE

updates

Look what we found....

-I love this crazy place. Yes I love Crestucky. I love these humans.

-If you can't already tell I am on cloud NINE today. SO happy about life and it's prospects.

-At Burger King the other day --having a meeting with our ward mission leader (who happens to be the most amazing human ever.. like he should win an award for all he does for us and does to help the work move along in Crestview)

and a homeless man approaches us and let's us know he is a pastor for a homeless community church. He asked us to pray with him, so we stood up held hands and he prayed for us. It was awesome. And interesting because one of the Elders had to hold his nub.. the guy was missing an arm.

Also, I opened my eyes for a minute to see one of the Elders holding hands with my companion and raising his eyebrows up and down because he was holding hands with a girl on his mission.  I died.

-We got pulled over. The cop tells us we don't have the right stickers on our bike rack and the only reason he's not giving us a ticket is because he is in the other ward in Crestview.

Later we found out from the Elders that had talked to him, that the stickers issue was completely and utterly bogus. The guy just wanted to "give the new missionaries a hard time and a good story"

perhaps he didn't anticipated giving us a hard time, a good story, and a heart attack.

but that wasn't the first time I had a heart attack this week.

The Elders had a baptism on Saturday, we show up, they hand me a program and say

"You might want to look at that"

I open the program and sit down and almost throw up because

"Talk on Baptism.........Sister Saunders"

is in the program.

awesome.

I can do this.. I was all pumped and trying to think of every scripture about baptism I know and they laughed at me the whole time so I realized.. they were completely bogus.

I was right, they printed a program especially to freak me right out.

-I had deep fried catfish with cheesy grits at an old family owned restaurant called Tropic Palm the other day. No one in there was younger than 45 and Sister White and I were the only people in there with more than two teeth.

-People give directions like this

"you turn right at the Tom Thumb.. you know the tom thumb?"

which one? (there's a tom thumb everywhere you look)

"the one next to the Waffle House"

......

"Aren't there three Waffle Houses on that road?"

-I went to a Methodist bible study group session last Tuesday and they argued with each other over one verse that would have made 100 percent sense to them right when we read it if they didn't believe in the trinity. But they believe in the trinity so naturally the whole bible study was absolutely confusing and the spirit was not there.

No offense to Methodists, they are so far my favorite religion and if I wasn't a member of the only true and living church of Jesus Christ on the Earth I'd probs be Buddhist

 but a close second to that would be the Methodist  :)

And yes we were told before the bible study to keep our Mormon lingo out of the discussion, but we did make some comments about our interpretations of the verses and left with peace and they invited us to come back again so SEEDS PEOPLE. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE SEEDS

plus an old lady there gave me a kiss on the cheek and a hug so I think our Mormon Lingo was acceptable after all!

-We got to sing at the old folks home with the youth Wednesday and meet some potential investigators

one is 102

that's right, she's 102

They absolutely loved the singing, and at Chill Frozen Yogurt afterwards some of the youth started playing

"I hope they call me on a mission" on the ukulele and sang it with us.

-This ward is the bomb.

The young women are having a party for Halloween and inviting their friends so that we can go and share the gospel with them.

-Just received an online referral to go teach a women in Crestview looking to convert:)

send prayers our way.

-I LOVE YOU ALL SO BIG

but especially Saul this week because it's his birthday, I will never forget the first time I saw a picture of my little brown brother and knew he was supposed to be my brother forever. I will never forget walking in the house to find balloons a year later and a sign telling us we were finally cleared to go pick him up in Guatemala. I will NEVER FORGET the feeling I had in the temple as a 12 year old being sealed to this little guy for all time and eternity.

    

I LOVE YOU SAUL happy tenth birthday you 

lil rascal <3 miss you bunches

Have a fab week ya'll

I love you

but I actually really mean that a lot, those words might be the most overused in the language of humans but don't just read that and let it go.

I LOVE YOU

-Sister Saunders <3

(ps transfers are Wednesday and I'm staying, so is Sister White so I will be killing her. Basically I am either killing or birthing companions apparently ;)

How to kill a guy in 10 seconds

Zone Conference

Hi there everyone. There is so much to say and not enough time to say it. 

(if only you had a dollar for every time you read that in a missionaries email)

Well here's the thing about life right now.

Zone Conference was nerve rackingly scary and an insane adrenaline rush but also more importantly it was a spiritual overload and it was exactly what we all needed.

Easily one of the most important things ever is member missionary work.

Music is one of the quickest, most powerful ways to feel the Spirit 

(or send it out the window) Be careful what you listen to.

https://www.lds.org/youth/for-the-strength-of-youth/music-and-dancing?lang=eng

Be yourself. Be real. Be like the Savior. Keys to success right there.

Change is part of life, but if we repent daily and follow the Savior 

we will be changing with life for the better instead of the bitter.

those are some tidbits I was taught

Met an awesome hippie alcoholic that invited us over to help him get his life in order.

"I was googling and lookin for some salvation and came across your religion which seemed pretty cool and thought I'd check it out."

He's in a band. His mom and him have committed to baptism, pray for them because we are meeting with them tomorrow for the second time.

super cool moment with them after the opening prayer 

His mom was in tears and said "I want you girls to come back."

The Spirit was so strong. 

Were there billows of cigarette smoke? Yes. (that was a bit dramatic but it did smell that way)

Was the hippie guy sober? no

Was the Spirit there to bring him and his mom and us to tears and testify that they both can repent and change and come unto Christ? 

that my friends and family, is an unequivocal and nonnegotiable

YES

In wally world today some guy walked up and asked me what I want to be the rest of my life

I said an elementary teacher

he said now that would be extremely difficult.

then he said something along the lines of this:

"I was in the military 20 ish years. I killed people for a living."

"Thank you so much for all you have done for this country and-"

"No don't thank me. I didn't do it for America. I actually got to the point where I enjoyed it. Don't worry, I had counseling many years and I'm completely normal now. But I have had human skin stuck in my teeth, can you imagine that?"

"No."

"Sorry didn't mean to scare you. I learned how to kill someone in ten seconds let me explain.."

Then he explained -but shockingly enough it's a bit too graphic for me to even repeat. 

Then he asked me where I got my pretty eyes from and told me that he wanted to take them from me.....and we ran away because... no... not cool.

REMINDER TO EVERYONE

don't judge a book by it's cover but you can never be too careful.

this dude was an old, clean cut, nicely dressed man that looks like your neighborhood friend.

Nay. 

But we did get his number and address to send the ELDERS over because everyone needs Jesus.

"Ya'll need Jesus"  

Don't worry, we have a member in our ward who is a sniper (actually we have a few) and he will accompany the Elders just in case this guy isn't quite as normal as he thinks.

But on the real, this old man was very kind (in a kind of creepy way of course) but he still fought and went through so much for what? Think about it.

Why did he do that if we aren't going to live up to the standards this country was first established upon?

These brave men and women are risking their lives and their sanity and emotional stability for US.

Let us always retain the right to LIFE LIBERTY and the PURSUIT of happiness and remember that PURSUIT is an ACTION word that equals what?

WORK

"This Work Is Gonna Fix What Don't Work Anymore"

diligence

work

prayers

"He died to make men holy let us LIVE to make men FREE while TRUTH is marching on."

Keep marching on and pursuing what you love 

and pursuing the things that bring life to the life you live.

SHOUT OUT TO TWO PEOPLE

both named Madison/syn

Madison Corbin

 I love your guts and I'm so happy I was able to come here to Crestview and meet you. You're stuck with me forever, have fun at BYU. I wish you could stay, but I know you will have amazing adventures there<3

(side note: Before I came on the mission I posted a picture on an insta page telling where I was going so people that are there/also going there could see and we could connect. Madison messaged me and made me feel so welcomed to Florida even before I set foot here. She told me she lived in Crestview and gave me advice about the mission. Low and behold, I got transferred to her ward and got to go on splits with her. What are the odds? I love her so much even though she's leaving me;)

Shout out to Taylor Corbin for this skirt and Sister White for capturing this face;)

Madisyn Stevens (Steve)

Holy Cow

You are getting set apart tonight. I couldn't be more proud or excited for you as you take this huge step into the rest of forever. My mission president told me as soon as I got here, that the MTC (Missionary Training Center) prepares you for the mission and the mission is the MTC for the rest of your life.. and then some. There are so many eternal principles that you already know and understand that I can't even imagine how amazing of a missionary you will be and become. I LOVE YOU so incredibly much.

Please know that<3! Now go give them Heaven Sister Stevens. I know you will.

#SwagInTheSisterhood

Make it a great day!

Sister Saunders