Florence, MS - Week #79

McKennah and her new comp Sister Williams

Hey y'all! 
This week has been crazy! It has been one of learning, and scheduling and lots of planning! Sister Williams is my new comp! She is from Monroe,UT and was just barely my STL while I was in wake village! She is so awesome and we have been having a ball together! 

So on Sunday, I got a phone call from President. He told me that I was going to be transferred. He said I would be living in Florence, MS and traveling to Brandon MS everyday to work in the mission office! He also said that he had several assignments he wanted us to do and that one of those things we would be doing is traveling the whole mission and taking pictures of all the missionaries in this mission! He said that he was looking forward to seeing me in a couple days to start my new calling. It was actually a really cool experience because I just prayed on Saturday morning that I would have opportunities when I return home to practice taking pictures. I want to be a photographer and so I was praying that the Lord would give me a chance to do that. it was soo cool! I know that the Lord answers my prayers. He always does! 

Monday, Sister Steadman and I got transfer calls this morning! She will be staying in good ole Wake Village. I had to say goodbye to lots of people, it was super sad! I will miss them! 

Tuesday,We had to wake up super early in the morning to be a T-point. We spent the night with the Brownlee Sisters.When we got there,  Sister Williams and I found out that we will be new companions! We were so PUMPED! Once we got to Brandon, MS we met with President Olson and he took us out to lunch! He explained to us some of the things he wants us to do these next 5 weeks. It was a good conversation!  

Wednesday, 

We unpacked and worked in the mission office! It was a bit stressful because we were new and had no idea what we were doing! But thankfully we were able to go to President's Olson's house that night and he explained more things of what he wanted us to do. We also transferred pictures from their cell phones to the computer for them. hahah they aren't the most tech savy people in the world! 

Thursday,

I attended my first MLC meeting (Missionary Leadership Conference)! I got to see some old comps! Sister Abril ( one of my trainees) and Sister Saunders! I was soo happy to see them again! They are such awesome missionaries! 

Friday,

We did some weekly planning and worked in the office again!

Saturday,

We worked in Jackson, MS. We were finding Recent converts and some less actives to visit! We also met some members. I got to meet the branch president and his wife, they are so awesome!

Sunday,

We attended church and had a potluck afterwards! And then after that we drove to Shreveport,LA and visited some old members that Sister Williams worked with and spent the night with the Bossier Sisters. It was soo fun! 

We had a very busy week and got a lot done.I just know that this is where I am supposed to be. This is truly the Lord's mission. It is about what he wants and what he would have me do. I love my savior. He is truly amazing and has done so much for me. He really does love us soo much! He knows what is best! I love y'all! Have a blessed week! (:To my dearest family and friends! 

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Thank you for the encouragement and support that I have received this past week with being transferred and all, it means a lot to me! Like I said in my last email, I was going to be transferred and I left y'all on a cliff hanger..sorry! my mission president asked me to not tell anybody where I was going or what I was doing. SO! Now I can tell what has been going on in my life this past week and what I will be doing for the rest of the transfer.

 It is kinda complicated to explain..but I will do my best! As of right now, I live in Florence, MS (which is 15 minutes away from the mission office) But I work in Brandon, MS and I attend the Jackson, MS branch! YES!! I AM BACK IN A BRANCH!! (:  I was soo excited! Many of y'all will probably remember that I served in Sandhill, MS a few months back, and that was the best branch ever! The Jackson branch is a bit different but I love it!  hahah. The Sandhill Branch is full of white people and the Jackson Branch is full of black people! The sass is REAL! I will miss it so much when I go home! I am so excited to work with all of them! 

So, before I tell y'all everything that happened this week I figured y'all would want to know what my days and weeks will be like for the rest of my mission! I will be waking up @ 6:30 everyday, still have studies from 8-10 and then from 10-5 I will be working in the mission office!  After that from 5-8:30 we do as much preselyting and less active visits as we can. 

We have a few projects that we are working on in the office. Sister Williams and I will be helping President Olson get a timeline of every baptism that has taken place in this mission and what leads those people to be baptized! It is kinda weird because we do a lot of the work in THE President's Office. That is the place where he receives revelation where to place missionaries for transfers! He has a board in his office of where all of the missionaries are serving along with their comps. When transfers comes around he has the assistants to president help him move around the other missionaries on the board to where they need to be for the upcoming transfer! It was cool to see where it all started! 

 We also help the senior couples with their callings in the office, I have been helping Sister Edwards with media! She is such an awesome lady, I love her soo much! In fact! She served in Sandhill with her husband about a year ago! So, it has been fun to catch up and talk about some of my favorite people!  I help put together her packages to send off media around the mission and I take phone calls from missionaries to place orders, and so I get to talk to all my friends wherever they are serving. It is awesome! We also take phone calls from people who call the mission office as well. President Olson has a number of things that he wants us to do and so it is kinda hard to explain everything that we have been asked to do! Sister Williams likes to call us the "first sister AP's" (Assistants to President) but I don't really like calling us that, haha because we aren't any different than any other missionary! We also will be traveling around the whole mission to help President Olson on some special assignments. Right now we are in Shreveport,LA to help with some zone training and take new headshots of every single missionary! We will start here and then make our way down to Gulfport, MS. We wont be home at all this week but we will be home next Monday to work in the office again. It is soo fun and been very exciting to be a part of this!  We are pretty excited about it all! 

That is just a little idea about what my new calling is. I love it! It has been a blast and I am excited to work with Sister Williams and president Olson this transfer. I know that this is where I am supposed to be! I am excited to see what is in store these next 4 weeks!