Hattiesburg, MS- Week #29

Hey Ya'll! Happy early Thanksgiving!! I hope you all have a safe holiday! This week has been pretty good week! We had a lot of spiritual experiences and I am so excited to share them! I am going to try my best to include ya'll on what my day to day experiences are, I will just go through my week!

Monday: We had a dinner appointment with my FAVORITE family in the ward, the Holm's. They are awesome! They fed us all the time! They have 5 girls and then one boy. hahah that poor kid gets teased too much sometimes! They are the sweetest family though. Lizzie, one of the girls drew me a picture of her and me, it was so sweet.

Tuesday:We met a new investigator on our way to tracting! Hahaha it was crazy! (We were at an intersection right across from the University of Southern Mississippi), and this lady named Flo showed up out of no where! She was walking home from school and I introduced Sister Abril and I as missionaries and she was totally interested! So, we started walking home with her, and she happened to live in the place where we were about to tract. It was crazy! She invited us to come over again later that night for another lesson. It was awesome! And then we also saw Jonathan and Latifa that night and helped them move into their new apartment. They are still in our area so that is nice!

Wednesday: We met with Bob and talked with him about the priesthood, and as usual he wanted to know every detail about it! Of course, Sister Abril and I didn't really know what to say because we have never had the priesthood, or ever will. Thank goodness we had a member with us for that lesson and talked most of the time to help answer all of his questions. I learned a lot though! We also tracted into a lady named Sandra and that was a crazy experience. We did our whole missionary Schpiel and then she cut us off and said, "My husband is a priest, my son is a deacon, and I am a minister". And I said, " Oh that's great, so what role has religion played in your life" and from then on we just started talking about the gospel and it was awesome! She invited us in to talk more and then made a return appointment!

Thursday: We did service! We made holiday gift bags for our ward members, and then door bell ditched them! hahah it was awesome! Sister Abril couldn't stop laughing while we were hiding and one of the members came out and caught us. haha it was embarrassing. Hopefully the ward doesn't find out! Also, we cleaned Sister Holm's house for a bridal shower for one of the girls in our ward!

Friday: We met with some more potential investigators, did more service nothing to exciting really.

Saturday: We went to the Bridal Shower, delivered more gift bags, tracted that was about it.

Sunday: We have church at 11:00 and it is the best! We had ward council at 9:00 and that was really good. The bishop was looking for someone to perform a musical number at the end of december and I knew sister Abril could play the violin and so I volunterred her! hahah Bishop agreed and so now she is giving me the cold shoulder (; Sister Abril and I also taught primary, and I will tell you what these kids are some of the best, most hilarious, full of character kids! They are so sweet, I will miss them so much 

Well this is my week! I know a lot of you wanted more details, and here you go! Tell me what ya'll think about it! Thanks for all the support love you guys!! Have a safe holiday!

My dearest mother-

I just wanted to write you and thank you for everything you do for me.  I am so blessed to have you in my life.  I really wish I could explain my feelings to you in better details, but words really cannot describe my experience as a missionary.  It is incredible how the Lord does his work.  I get to see it everyday.  I am almost finished reading the "100 Favorite Scriptures in the Book of Mormon."  I LOVE it!  I always use it in my lessons I teach. I am currently doing the other study from the relief society and it is wonderful. They really did a great job with it!  My favorite one so far was "Spirit of Heaviness" I loved Isaiah 61:1-3 and how it talked about the "Garment of Praise." It made me think of the temple.  We go to the temple to receive strength.  It heals our heavy hearts.  It is pretty amazing that we have a place to go that is away from the world.  I have a favorite quote that has been hanging on my wall and in my heart.  It is from President Ezra Taft Benson.  I found it while doing Mormon.org time from the Piano Guys Face to Face (that was way good by the way.) And he said "Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that God can make a lot more with their lives than they can.  He will deepen their joys, expand their visions, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up their friends, and pour out peace.  He will keep your life in balance as you give it to him." If I have learned anything on my mission it would be this principle.  I am learning how to turn my life over to Him.  He is lifting me to a higher plane of knowledge, strength, patience and trust.  He is changing me into the person he wants me to be.  Sister Abril and I were reading our journals together and we looked back at all the things we had experienced.  I have a testimony of the atonement.  It has changed me, and is changing my investigators day by day.  I love my Savior.  I have come to know Him more personally.  He knows my weaknesses but he also knows my strengths! The Savior's atonement is REAL, it really does work!  I love you mom.  I miss you like CRAZY!  6 months has come and gone, I can't believe it!  Thanks for all your prayers, love and support. You are the BEST! One more month until I see ya'll face to face, through a screen.  I can't wait!

Hattiesburg, MS- Week #28

	Hey ya'll! I hope you guys had a fantastic week! The holidays are coming up! Shout out to my family! I can't wait to skype in like a month from now!! I cannot believe it is already thanksgiving! Another shout out to my Brother Logan! He turns 18 tomorrow! He is such a stud! If any of you see him today or tomorrow please tell him happy birthday! Please tell him I said HAPPY BIRTHDAY! This week was okay, it wasn't our best week. We didn't have the car this week and so sister Abril and I had to bike! I don't mind biking, it is beautiful here! However, my bike is not working. We were about to do some missionary work and then my back tire was super flat! hahah I thought it was pretty funny. So, I am pretty positive that Sister Abril and I walked 5 miles that day! We had some far out appointments. It gave us an opportunity to talk to so many people along the way though. We met some pretty cool potentials. We hope they accept our message! So, update on Mississippi weather, We just had daylight savings a couple of weeks ago, and so now it gets dark outside right at 5:30! Not a minute earlier or not a minute later! It is pretty crazy! We used to be outside until 8:30, but not anymore! It looks like midnight at about 6:00 pm! It is so funny, when it gets dark here a lot of people just go to sleep, so they don't like to talk with us at night much, but its okay! We understand! Anyways, so today Jonathan and Latifa will be moving so we are going to be spending a lot of our time today helping them move. They will still be in Hattiesburg! We get to keep them thankfully! We decided to post pone their baptism not because they aren't ready, but because we want to make the best out of their experience, and they agreed with us to wait! I will keep ya'll posted! Thanks for all the prayers we really appreciate it! I hope I can be here for their baptism, I could be transferred right after thanksgiving! I will keep ya'll posted with that! Thanks for all you do! You are all amazing (:   Wow, this has been probably one of my favorite emails that you have sent me so far!! I am dying of laughter because of Logan, and in tears because I got CAUGHT! Oh my goodness, that is so FUNNY! hahaha. I feel bad Logan couldn't go with Sophie, dang! At least he found a date! good for him! I hope he is loving senior year, it flies by way quick! And please tell him HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I am sending him a little surprise in the mail and I think he will like it! Little Woggie is 18 :( WHAT THE HECK! I totally miss that guy and I am really sad I am missing his birthday. I am pretty sure I am bugging the crap out of my companion about it. I can't stop talking about my family! I hope you guys know that I bring ya'll up probably 3,000 times a day. To everyone I talk to really! You guys are a huge part of my heart and I have been really missing you. In fact I sent a couple letters this past week, I hope you got them. I am so bad at writing letters, but I am determined to make the time to do it! I thought the Grinch thing was hilarious! Of course they make a freaking twitter page about it! While they make that page, I am writing my testimony on an anonymous instagram page! hahahhah. That is SO FUNNY! Man, reading your emails are the best. They make me so happy! This week has been okay, not our best week. Sister Abril has pretty severe depression and anxiety, and so she is prone to be angry way easily.The sad thing about it too is everything that she says is so negative. I really feel awful for anyone who goes through anxiety and depression. Please pray with me for Sister Abril, and please pray for me as I continue to work with her. I pray that I will continue to be patient and loving to her, I pray to serve her. And I am the complete opposite of that! You know me very well, You know I would be very loving and patient with her. I have been the past 12 weeks but this last week has been pretty hard. I feel so bad for feeling this way and not understanding fully what she is going through. I have never had friends that went through anything like this, this is pretty new and hard for me. Maybe I am being a little too hard on myself, and maybe a bit hard on her because she says it is really hard to control it. I am trying to help her change her thoughts. I have tried to help her by replacing the words "I can't, I wont, I am done, this is stupid ect, and instead say, " I can, I will, I can do this a little bit longer even though it is hard". It is hard to help her if she doesn't want to try. Her self-confidence is very sensitive. I remember a time where I struggled with that too so I would try to share my personal experiences to help her. Other than that everything is great! Latifa and Jonathan are moving today, tomorrow, and on wednesday so we will be helping them out! We have a dinner appointment tonight with my favorite family in the ward! I am super excited! They are awesome. I will try to get pictures with them! That is how our P-day will go this week! I am trying to remember last week, so we had an appointment with Shirley and we met with her and she actually DROPPED us.:( I was SUPER upset. I had been meeting with this women for 5 months now, and she decided that this is not what she wanted and asked us to not come back for a while. I balled. I don't know which is worse, to drop them? Or them to drop us? They are both pretty sad. This week we were on bikes the elders had the car and when we went to go bike, we found out that my back tire was flat. And there is actually a hole in the tire so I may have to add some slime in the tube or get a new tire. But that didn't stop us from doing missionary work! We WALKED 5 miles. And it was awesome! Sister Abril didn't like it but the weather was nice and we were able to meet more people! we will get the car back on wednesday though so we are pretty excited! I have some pictures of my converts, and investigators! So now I feel more prepared to leave Hattiesburg:( I am super nervous but I am excited to see a new area and meet my new companion! It should be fun! Well that was my week. I have some letters that I sent to ya'll! I hope you get them soon. I will be sending Logan's gift today. I love you guys! Thanks for everything you do! Just a few more week then I get to see your FACES! AH! I AM SO EXCITED! I can't wait to hear from you next week! - love sister scott (:

Hattiesburg, MS - Week #27

This week has been a very fun, but slower week. We were very busy and was able to get a lot of work done! nothing super huge happened, um..We went to dinner with Jonathan and Latifa! We talked with them about Eternal Marriage and the temple! 

That was super fun! They really do want to be together forever. I feel a super strong connection with them and I will miss them with all of my heart! They said that they would fly to Utah for my wedding in the future! HAHAHA. They are seriously so awesome and are ready for baptism. We decided to set the baptism date for the 20th of November so PLEASE pray that it will go through! I will probably be leaving Hattiesburg at the end of this transfer :( I am pretty sad because I have learned so much!! This area is like home to me. I will have to come back and visit it soon. I am so excited to see your faces! It will be here before you know it!! Thanksgiving comes first though, and thankfully sister Hinton invited us over to feed us. I am super stoked! The stores have already started to decorate christmas and it makes me so excited! I failed to mention that we had our fall festival, and there was food, games, and great company! I will miss this ward. They are so awesome! Sister Abril and I had an opportunity to perform in the Primary Program on sunday. There are maybe 12 kids total in both junior and senior primary. We also got to go on exchanges on saturday with our STL's (Sister Training Leader) And a lot of the sisters don't like them! I actually LOVE them! Not to get away from the companion I am with, but it is so cool to learn from other sisters, and how they do missionary work! I was able to go with Sister Hill once again! She is an awesome missionary. I learned a lot from her and tried to apply it in my missionary service. Exchanges are great, I love them! they usually have them once a transfer, so it doesn't happen very often. Speaking of Transfers, they will be November 30th! So, I have a couple weeks left! Well, that was my week. It wasn't anything to special, but I am excited to hear what Ya'll did this week. Hope everything is going great! here is more pictures of Latifa and Jonathan! Love you!! (: 

Hattiesburg, MS - Week #26

Playing in the storm.  

A little nerve racking to see Facebook posts of members in McKennahs area hunkering down waiting for tornados to pass.  Monday mail was too long of a wait today!

Good morning mom! Yes, it is true. I have experienced my very first tornado and it was super duper scary. I was pretty stressed out when the sirens went off and I didn't know what to do because I have never been in a tornado before but it was insane! I have some pictures I will have to send. Apparently, there were 3 tornado's surrounded the street on which we lived. We live right by the college stadium, and that is where one of the tornado's were, and then the other one was right on hardy street which is way close to us too. Sister Abril and I are safe and well. While this was happening, we decided to use the power we had left and make some food that we could eat before the power went out, so we made quesidilla's and pizza. It was probably the best part about the whole experience. I was pretty stressed but we are doing great! I do want to let you know that I completely agree about what you said about budgeting. I want to forward my transactions to you, and show you what I have been spending my money on and how you can help me budget. I know it is something that I really suck at, but I am going to budget the best I can. I am sorry you felt like you had to talk with me about it yet again, but I just want to let you know  I am working on it. Thanks for all you do for me. I love you so much! I hope ya'll have a great week. I had a really awesome week. I had a really cool spiritual experience. When I first came here to Hattiesburg Sister Kendall and I always passed by this sweet lady who lived on this street, we would pass by at the same time, the same day and she would be right there ready to wave at us when we would pass by. Sister Kendall and I never thought to talk to her. We just knew her as the lady who waved at us everyday. So, fast forward to 4 months and here I am receiving a prompting to go talk to her. We were on our way to a lesson and I thought to myself "We will stop by on our way back from the lesson". When we arrived at our lesson the investigator cancelled on us and we were not able to teach her anymore. So then I was like, "well now we can stop by and see that lady". We rode our bikes by her house and she was not outside, so then I was like "the one time I stop by she is not there, I hope I didn't miss my opportunity", so then the next day sister abril and I decided to stop by and see her again and she was outside but we were headed somewhere again. This time I decided to listen to the prompting and we turned back and talked with her, she ended up taking a Book of Mormon, and believed everything that we shared with her. She wants us to stop by again tomorrow. Isn't that so cool? I thought it was awesome. Well, I love you! I can't wait to hear from you soon! (:

     McKennah and her investigator Lias