Richton, MS- Week #56

(Posting a week late, email didn't come through originally...had McKennah resend it this week!)

Hey Y'all!

 This week has been really crazy! I hope y'all have had an amazing week! This week we have been on the go! Every single night this week we have been going to bed at about 11:00! It has been a while since I have done that, we love being busy! 

Monday: We had P-day and dinner with Sister B! We love her to death she is super sweet to feed us every week! 

Tuesday: We were went to the nursing home again! We haven't been able to go the week before and so everybody was happy to see us again! We love getting to know them and to sing them songs. This time Sister Saunder's "Boyfriend or should I say Wanna be Boyfriend" didn't hit on her this time! Phew, we were safe this time! I got to talk to a sweet lady who is kinda new to the Nursing Home, I unfortunately cannot remember her name for the life of me! She doesn't have any family that come to visit her and so, she was just telling me about how much she wished that her siblings just loved her enough to visit her. It was SO sad, please pray for her! Even though I can't remember her name! 

Wednesday: We went to Hattiesburg for a doctors appointment, and I had been experiencing pain in my right ear earlier that week and we got it checked out to see what was going on, and come to find out I had a ear infection! It is all good though because the Lord blessed me with having that ear infection on my right ear instead of my left ear! If the infection was on my left ear I would have been completely deaf and so God's hand was definitely involved! However, a little part of me wishes that did happen because it would have been SO hilarious to see Sister Saunder's attempt to communicate through charades for that whole week, just sayin'! Later that night all of our plans fell through and so we decided to go tracting instead! There were a few houses on Cedar Ave that Sister Saunders hasn't been to yet and so we figured we would give it a shot! The first house we knocked on there was a lady named Gina. She was pretty open, and her friend Aj was there and he listened to the message too, and they both took BOM's and committed to read and pray about it! THEN, a couple houses later we met Billy Kelly. Okay you have to know what this guy looks like to get the full picture of this experience! He is a tall 6'4 white guy with tatooes all over his body and he was bald and pretty macho looking! He also had a friend with him, his name is Mule. He was like 5'8 White guy full beard, with a headband on his head with a knife in his left side pocket. Yeah you could say it was pretty sketchy! We asked if they would like to hear a message from us, and they both said yes! We started to teach them the Restoration and as we are teaching, I look over at Billy kelly and he was leaning against the wall holding a KNIFE in his hand listening to us teach! I looked over at Sister Saunders and she didn't seem weirded out about the situation at all! The lesson turned out to be good. We found out that Billy was part of a motorcycle gang, and had been diagnoised with brain cancer, and he just prayed to God that he would take away the cancer, and the Lord did. He decided to turn his life around and wanted to change and had a great desire to serve the Lord. Now Billy is spending his life helping troubled teenagers and young adults who have drug addiction problems, pornagraphy, lying, stealing cheating ect, and help them to be useful assests to the world. He decided to start a band and help give those guys something to do instead of making the same choices they had been making their whole lives. It was pretty cool to hear this story! Of course he eventually found out that Sister Saunders and I were musically inclined and he invited us to be a part of the band! Well, we actually had to turn down that offer, but it was still pretty cool! We were able to set a return appointment to teach them again!

Thursday: We taught the Roger's family again! They have been coming to church consistently over a month now, and are still taking missionary discussions. Mandy and Bristol still want to be baptized on June 18th and so we are hoping that everything is still good to go for that date! Charles has been such a huge help to the Rogers. He really has been an example to them! We found out that Charles really really REALLY likes Mandy! He told us that he wants it to be "hush,hush" but everybody already knows about it! They seem to be happy, we just hope it wont interfere with the missionary lessons. We also had another lesson with April and Pleze and they seemed pretty open. Hopefully we will be able to see them progress! 

Friday: We weekly planned as usual, and then we had a lesson with our Investigator Shyra! She has kinda been going through a lot. She thinks that her husband has been cheating on her for a while now, but he still hasn't admitted to her that it is true. Apparently from what she tells us he never tells her he loves her unless he is leaving, and then he would be gone for long period of time, and tell her that he is somewhere when really he has been somewhere else. She has been really stressed about it and so it has been hard to teach her recently! We are thinking about dropping her because she hasn't really been progressing or keeping any commitments :( Please pray for her! We also had another lesson with Mule and Billy, kinda. They invited us to their band meeting to hear some of their music and then teach them at the end. Well! That didn't really go as planned, but we heard Billy play us the Guitar! It was cool. We had stewardship calls with Elder Molmstrom. Those are always entertaining! He is so freaking funny. 

Saturday: We had a meal appointment planned with the Price's and they invited the Roger's family to come over! They had a blast!! Mandy and Bristol were pretty nervous to come over, but they made it and loved it so much! We had planned to play the Restoration video with them that night and they loved it! After the movie was over we all just sat in silence for a good couple minutes. The spirit was SO strong! Everyone then bore their testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and of the divinity of the BOM. It was probably one of the most powerful lessons I have ever had on my mission. Mandy and Bristol said at the very end that they felt Joseph Smith was a true prophet and that they understand him a lot better. It was amazing! Bristol made a comment about church, and how every single time she comes to our church she feels peace. She said that she has been to a lot of churches before, but none compared to the Mormon church. Not a single church she has been to had as much peace than this church. It was so cool! The spirit was definitely there, and they said again they wanted to be baptized. It was amazing! After this blessed experience we had an appointment planned with Jake who is Billy kelly's son! He wanted to meet with us too.His friends Jonathan and Owen came too. We taught them the Restoration and it went pretty well! After the lesson Jake told us that he wanted to come to church on Sunday! It was so cool because our branch mission leader came with us to the lesson and said that he would be more than happy to give him a ride! He agreed to go with him! After we said the closing prayer we all got up and shook hands and Jake shook my hand and said "Ya know, Ever since y'all have talked with my dad he has been acting differently. He seems happier and nicer to me than usual. I figured it was because of y'all and wanted to know what made him different because I want to be different". It was soo cool! I just told him we would be more than happy to show him! It was super amazing experience. 

Sunday: Jake came to church! We had our linger longer and he got to know the whole branch! It was awesome! He said he would love to come again next Sunday it was awesome! He said he felt really good about it! 

Sorry this is so long y'all. As you can see it has been a crazy week! Despite how crazy it has been, it was full of tender mercies. I am so grateful for the power of prayer. I am grateful that God hears our cries when we need help. He is aware of each one of us. I know that to be true! The Lord's hand is definitely here in Sandhill. Well that is all I have for this week! I hope y'all have a great week! I love y'all! (: