Sometimes when things are hard your companion chases you around the apartment trying to hug you.

To be completely honest with you guys, not much happened.....the same as every other week. 

But here were the highlights.

On Wednesday we had Zone training meeting in Monroe. That was fun! We learned a new way to introduce the Book of Mormon in a non pushy way that won't offend people. It also gets them to read it, which will be great here. I am way excited about it!!!

I also made new friends! I finally met Elder Hunt who is like Sister Olsen favorite Elder ever. He is a cool guy and super sweet. I also met Chelle. 

Chelle is a recent convert in Monroe. She is awesome! We were on exchanges when I met her. She used to be in a gang so she acts all tough but inside she is super sweet! 

She said that she has a friend who can put my hair into cornrows which is basically my dream! Chelle wants me to stay in Monroe. 

Chelle also gives nicknames to the missionaries. Like Sister Huffaker was grasshopper, Sister Harrison is Elsa, and Sister Bradshaw (the new sister training leader) is Lil' bit. Well guess what!

I GOT A CHELLE NICKNAME! I am Tinkerbell! :) Chelle is freaking sweet. She is hilarious and blunt!

We met with JP again and talked about the 2000 stripling warriors. He really likes the stories in the Book of Mormon. 

Then after we said a prayer and he invited a random McDonald's employee to join the prayer. 

Basically we had prayer with a homeless guy and a McDonald's employee in middle of McDonalds...

Crazy things happen sometimes....

Well those were the highlights of my week. 

Stay faithful my friends.

P.S. We have a new friend. It is a grumpy cat that sits on our neighbor's doormat.

We call him Smelly.

Smelly doesn't like us....probably because we call him Smelly. 

I will take a picture of him next time we see him. 

P.S.S Sister Olsen is a creepy creep and she takes pictures of me, but that is okay because I didn't take any pictures this week. sorry.

Markee sent this to me today as well and I thought it was too funny not to share.  Sister Loggins is the relief society president in the El Dorado Ward there in Arkansas who just happened to be in Utah the week of Mother's Day and came over to surprise Markee when we Skyped with her.  I gave her a book to give to Markee and Jared gave her . . . well, read for yourself . . . Hopefully you are familiar with the movie "A Knight's Tale". . . 

P.s. I had an "a knight's tale" moment yesterday. Sister Loggins was like I have something from your dad too (after she gave me the book) and then she hugged me. I felt like William after Wat gave him the kiss from the foxy lady. It was very touching and very surprising.

It was a better week

When you and your companion have been together for a long time and you are both nerds and end up both having matching Jedi braids because you are awesome!!

I know most of you just barely saw me, BUT you could never get too much me! Isn't that right, family?

......

Family says yes!

Well on Monday after P-day ended and stuff we went to try a couple of people, and guess what - we saw one of them!

It was Dakota.

We didn't teach him a full lesson because it had been awhile and Sister Olsen had never met any of them so we kind of talked a bit. We shared a quick message about charity and then left. 

They have been pretty busy lately with all of the marriage preparations that were happening. 

Tuesday was a better day! In the morning we went to the Agape house to do some service. They had us cleaning dishes and making beds. 

We got a call this morning from the director of the Agape house asking if we could have a scheduled day that we could go to the house and help the house parents out with whatever they need help with! 

Afterwards we went to visit with JP, we shared to story of Alma the younger with him and talked about repentance. He thought that Alma's experience was pretty cool and we told him where he could find it in the Book of Mormon. 

Next we went up to the Square and placed Book of Mormons in the book exchanges, then we went into PJs to wait for Matthew.

Matthew is the Pirate King. He is here for Teach for America but is originally from Washington. He is pretty active in his church but was so excited to talk to us because he grew up with good 'ol Mormon kids! 

He was a pretty cool guy and he called us "you guys" which was awesome! 

Wednesday was May the 4th! STAR WARS DAY!! 

Sadly we had to give up the car to the Elders though and that wasn't fun....

We walked some more. We tried to see some people that we have been working with but they were all either not home or just leaving. 

We have very bad timing....

Thursday! Revenge of the 5th!

Basically we went to lunch with Sister Nash and then tried everyone that we could possibly think of. It was a miserable day....

BUT 

At least the humidity was down! It's been pretty low this week which is pretty awesome!

Brother Anthony went to the temple on Saturday!!!! I am so happy because of that!! I doesn't even matter that we didn't get to meet with anyone! As long as that happened, I am happy! Now he is wanting to talk to church headquarters about sending missionaries to Trinidad so that they can join the church too!

Oh Brother Anthony!  You little missionary you!

You guys know what happened on Sunday! It was Mother's day so I got to talk to my fam! 

I must say that I was pretty surprised to see Sister Loggins there! I mean I knew that she was going out of town but I didn't know she was going into MY town!! 

Yesterday was fun guys; we should do it again sometime. Maybe Christmas?!  What do you say?

Grandma Mary, I hope that you are doing better and I want you to know that I am praying for you and I love you! 

Now for some pictures.....maybe.

My new favorite book

My favorite picture from my favorite book. Look at it! It's so funny!

My new 2nd favorite book

This is the face you make when all your appointments fall though and you need a swinging break for a pick me up

Isn't Sister Olsen just so adorable!

Next week will be better!

This week has been a very slow week. Um and I may have not written in my journal at all this week so I will apologize in advance.

On Monday, after emailing we just stayed in the apartment to avoid the killer heat! Summer is settling in. DUN DUN DUN! 

Then at 6 we left and we were still walking at this point.

Basically it is a mile to just get to our area and another couple of miles to get to where people actually live! 

And when we finally got there no one was home or they didn't want to hear our message. *sigh*

On Tuesday, Sister Nash took us grocery shopping because she is nice, and also she insisted. We tried some people after that but no one was home. *sigh* 

Even our scheduled appointments fell through...

We had dinner with the Andersons and then that was our day. 

LUCKILY we got the car the next day after we had district meeting! 

Hooray!!

We visited Almedia and she gave us candy. :) It was yummy. 

The rest of our appointments didn't work so we tracted and tracted. 

But thankfully we were able to see the Aguiluz family. They are less-active and also recent converts. They have 9 children I think, I don't think I have had the pleasure of meeting them all. The oldest is 17 and the youngest is a newborn. 

Because they have a small army for a family, it is sometimes really hard to go over and visit them. It is like a miracle when we can visit with them! Monday was one of those days! We talked and got to know them a little bit more. 

Their dog attacked my face. He was very excited and jump all over us! I LOVED it! 

Thursday was probably the hardest day because, no joke, NOTHING HAPPENED! 

We knocked and knocked on doors and nothing.....

We tried potentials that we found in the area book. Nothing.

We tried less-actives. Nothing.

And so we cried. Not really, but we felt like it. 

We had dinner with the Singleton's and that is always fun. We talked about the 2,000 stripling warriors with the boys and they liked that!

On Friday, we weekly planned, after that was done we went tracting. 

We had dinner with the Woods and then we saw Sherry.

Sherry has been really sick lately but she said that she was on the up and up! We just read the Book of Mormon with her and talked about being content and having faith in the Lord. 

We talked about how we BELIEVE in Christ, but do we BELIEVE Him? We have faith that He is there but do you really believe that He will help us. 

It turned out to be a really good lesson!

Yay!

Saturday was my 4 month mark! That is not acceptable! Time should just SLOW DOWN! 

We got to see Tora again but that was very brief because her power was out. A really big storm hit that morning and a lot of people were without power. Our power kept on going off and then going back on. Crazy southern weather...

We also got to see Sister Carle. The nursing home that she is in is renovating so it has been hard to catch her in her room, but we got to see her and talk to her for a bit. 

Yesterday, we went to try a potential we found in the area book but when we got there they must have moved or something because the guy who answered was not the person. We tried to talk to him anyway.

We asked him "Hey are you Corey Cox?"

"No I am only Spanish."

"OK, well we are missionaries and we are sharing a message that can strengthen our faith in Christ."

"OK bye."

Then we went tracting and this guy told us he couldn't talk to us because he is crippled. People come up with the strangest excuses....

Then we went home to take a break out of the heat and get some water. 

Then we were going to go teach Dakota but he told us that he was really busy and that he had to reschedule. *sigh* 

So we visited the Bishop's family instead, and played with their new kittens. 

Then the heavens opened up and rained. It rain really hard too! 

We had a bad storm last night that kept Sister Olsen and I awake. The thunder is so loud and strong, and the lightning is so bright! Thunderstorms here are the mother of all thunderstorms. Storms in Utah are weak compared to this craziness!

I saw this lizard just chillin' on the side of the house.

Our investigator is the Pirate King

Well this week was quite the adventure. Lets just say that this week has been good training for when I join the Fellowship and walk all the way to Mordor. 

Last Monday, after we conversed Sister Olsen and I met up with the Elders and we engaged in a fun game of no-rules-whatsoever tennis. Marin would probably cringe at how bad we all did. 

We had dinner with the Redford's and we played with some of the puppies that they were taking care of. I MISS MY MEEKO! 

Tuesday, we went down to Ruston for interviews with President. That took up a lot of our day but when we got home we went to visit Katherine. She really opened up to us and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon with a couple of scriptures that we know will help her. 

The girl Stephanie that we tracted into told us that we wasn't interested which was quite depressing. But she did talk about us to her friend, Matthew! He wants to meet with us and ask some questions!

We ran into a group of girls while we were walking around and they stopped us and told us the we looked like Anna and Elsa. Mostly because Sister Olsen has a blonde streak in her hair and my hair is all blonde and was in a braid. Sister Olsen said that she gets that a lot. 

Wednesday, we handed the car over to the Elders and started our LOTR [Lord of the Ring] training. WE WALKED FOREVER! We walked and then we tracted. 

We did meet a lady who is also named Catherine. She was really nice! She invited us in and started asking questions. Mostly about Joseph Smith. 

For some reason a lot of people think that John Smith had a magic hat that helped him to write the Book of Mormon. There are so many things wrong with that!

We then have to explain that it is JOSEPH  Smith.

That there was no magic hat or whatever.

And that he did not WRITE the Book of Mormon.

Catherine was really open though and we were able to clear up a lot of things for her. Also she invited us to lunch with her the next day. Yeah that doesn't happen very often.

Thursday, we did some more LOTR training. We walked all the way to Catherine's house to have lunch with her. We chatted with her for a little while and answered more of her questions. 

After her we saw JP and chatted with him a bit. He didn't have a lot of time though. 

Then we had dinner with the Nash's! We also got some ice cream with them. 

Friday, we have now walked the distance between the Shire and Mordor. Twice. 

We didn't have ANYTHING happen during the day! 

We did see a lot of roadkill though. gross.

We had dinner with Jason and Cristy though. They had a rough week. :( Their cat miscarried all 5 of her kittens because she had a broken hip. 

Someone hand Marin, Megyn, and Tamsyn a tissue.

Saturday, we did some more walking. Seriously sometimes I wish I was in a video game so I could walk forever and not get tired. Sadly I am not. So we took naps. 

Then we did some more. 

We had correlation. Okay so I braided my hair so that it wrapped around my head. You know I do that sometimes. Anyway, after we do our correlating and whatnot. Bro Redford turned to my and gave my his "I'm about to say something funny that will make everyone laugh and it will be at your expense" look and this is what he said. 

"Your hair makes you look like you are about to be sacrificed to a Titan."

What??

He then explained to me that in the old Clash of the Titans movie the sacrificial woman's hair was done the same way.

Thank you Bro Redford! That was what I was going for....

After Correlation we had dinner with the Bishop and his family at La Piazza.

Okay so remember when I told you up there ^ that Stephanie gave us a referral well we got in contact with him. He told us that he was busy at the moment because he was in a play that was going on. He invited us to it! We weren't sure if we could go but he said that he would put us on the list anyways. 

Fast forward to that afternoon, the Elders call us and tell us the Brother Singleton got us tickets for the play that he was in, it was the same play as Matthew!

They called the assistants to the president and got permission to for all of us to go!

So we went to a play.

It was the Pirates of Penzance. 

Matthew turned out to be the Pirate King. 

It was really good. I enjoyed it.

We met Matthew afterwards and got to talk to him a little bit. He is a really nice guy. We are excited to talk with him. Sadly I forgot to get a picture with anyone but oh well. :(

Oh and one of the policemen looked EXACTLY like the elf in Rudolph. The one that is the boss of Herbie. I laughed.

Sunday, we had a missionary fireside. We have been doing those to help the members become even more involved with the work. 

Sister Olsen shows her love for me by threatening me with a fork, and also attacking me at random moments. She is fun.

Well anyway that was my week....

Sister Olsen makes funny faces.

We are so cute

Sometimes we swing and we take pictures while we swing

Sometimes we watch squirrels ninja crawl around. have you ever seen a squirrel go slow. I have.

A little bunny that we saved from being roadkill. We are heroes.

Ecclesiastes 2:2

Ecclesiastes 2:2
"I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?"

After we left the library last Monday we walked over to a Sports store because Sister Conder wanted to check it out. On the way there it started to rain, and there was lightning and thunder. The store was only a few blocks away but by the time we got there it was pouring rain. 

Before we were soaked, I did not get a picture of us soaked

We stayed in that store until Sister Singleton could come and pick us up because, let me tell you, it was raining very very hard. 

We ran from the store to her car, there is pretty much maybe 2ft of sidewalk in between, and we were soaked when we got into her car! We were literally soaked!

We had her take us back to our apartment and we decided to wait out the storm there. Sister Conder was packing and I was making an Old Testament reading chart. We were just minding our own business doing our normal p-day things when the sirens started going off. 

Naturally, I went straight to the balcony to see. Aren't you so proud of me? Tornado warnings are going off and I immediately go outside to see if I can see anything. 

I couldn't see anything. The rain was way too heavy to see anything. It was also green, the rain was green. 

So we were under Tornado Watch/warning for a couple hours. I don't think anything touched down. I don't even think that there was a funnel cloud but the conditions were right and there was a lot of rotation, and hail in some places of the city. 

We have matching hate shirts. They are the only matching shirts we have, and they are hate shirts. .....despicable

FYI, there is a legend here in El Dorado about such things. The legend is that an American Indian blessed El Dorado so that no tornado will ever touch down here. Thus earning the name the Golden Oval. Everything kind of goes around this place. That is the legend, kind of cool but nonsense because the weather can do what it wants. 

Tuesday morning was a very early morning. We got to Monroe by 8am and we just chilled there for a while because the transfer van wasn't there yet. I still didn't know who my new companion was going to be. The suspense was killing me.

Last picture all together, bye Elder Blair and Sister Conder!

Bye Sister Conder!

When the Transfer van came Sister Conder left and they finally announced new companions!

My new comp is Sister Olsen! She was in Winnsboro before here and this is her last stop before she goes home. She is super funny! We have been having a lot of fun and we pretty much laugh all day. We are good friends already!

Hello Sister Olsen!!

We are now in a very small district....

It is just the El Dorado Elders and us. The new District Leader is Elder Rigby. I don't know a whole lot about him but he has been fun. We don't really see them as often as we did last transfer though. 

We have had a very slow week! Everything has been falling through and nobody is home but that is to be expected for the first week of the transfer. The good thing is that Sister Olsen and I are having a great time! 

We did, however, tract into a new investigator! Her name is Stephanie and she is here as a teacher. She said that she has been looking for a new church to go to. She was super open to everything we had to say and she accepted a Book of Mormon and also a return appointment!

Church this week was canceled because the bathrooms flooded. It was after Sacrament meeting right in middle of class. So that happened.

Instead we tried to visit some people, we were able to visit Sherry Russell and read the Book of Mormon with her, and Jason and Cristy who we have been out of contact with for a long time. 

This transfer is going to be the best ever so far! I am excited!

Kelsey was baptized!

11 April 2016
(No chance to post this sooner)

Oh this week, let me tell you it was full of ups and downs.

This week we were focused on getting ready for Kelsey's baptism so on Tuesday we spent the day tracting and cleaning the baptismal font. 

On Wednesday we had another Zone Training Meeting and we talked about the new way they are going to do transfers. Now we get transfer calls Monday morning and we have that day to pack, if we are leaving, email, clean the apartment, and say goodbye to everyone! Very crazy!

So for transfers, I am staying here in El Dorado, Sister Conder is going down to Gulfport and is going to be a Sister Training Leader. Elder Bingham is also staying, and Elder Blair is going to Hattiesburg and is going to be a Zone Leader. Sister May and Kendall are both leaving Magnolia and Magnolia is going to close. 

This was this last district (we like never had district meeting because of all of the zone meeting so this is the only picture we got of us all together) Sister Conder, Me, Elder Blair, Elder Bingham, Sister Kendall, and Sister May.

Me and my mission mommy :) and photo bomber Elder Ross

Me and Sister May

Me and Sister Kendall

After the meeting we went to a rebel store because we were told that it was super awesome. The lady there pretty much told us to get whatever we wanted. She told us that we could have as many postcards that we wanted and that everything else was going to be discounted. 

She was pretty cool!

AND guess who lives right across the street! 

Duck Dynasty! 

That's right I know where Duck Dynasty lives! Not that I really care because I never watched that show but I just thought I would tell you.

Thursday was the greatest day ever! It was the day that Kelsey got baptized! It was such a great day! The Spirit was so strong and you could just feel the love! Kelsey was so happy and even though she had to go under 3 times she was a little trooper. The Elders filled the font and they didn't fill it up high enough. Silly Elders.

Kelsey was baptized!

Kelsey and Nancy are the best!

Friday we just weekly planned. Nothing exciting. 

Saturday we went down to Monroe for the service project with Sister Smith! We worked with her and a couple other people I don't really remember. There was one house that a woman recently died, her son was taking care of her house, and she was a hoarder! There was one room that was FILLED with stuff! Like floor to ceiling from corner to corner. It was nasty! There was mold EVERYWHERE! If we waited one more week that house would have been condemned!

That was a super long and exhausting day! We got down to Monroe at 7 and didn't get back to El Dorado until 9pm! 

Us with Sister Smith tearing down moldy walls and what not!

....and a little treat afterwards

Sunday we went to church then we went to the Smith's for a Bishop Youth Discussion on Bullying. It was a really good meeting. They have really good youth here. All 8 of them....

Welp I guess I will hear from Y'ALL next Monday! I'll be here in El Dorado!

This is the place we ate at after emailing. I thought Marin would like it. It was really good.

We had a lot of fun

Wallace and Mabel Spencer and me

Here is my missionary collection!

And it came to pass that Sister Conder and Sister Jones tracted all day, everyday.

I just realized this morning that I didn't take any pictures this week SO here is me and sister Conder right now!

Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked and WALKED!

That's what we did this week...

We tracted all day ev'ry day! We didn't teach very many lessons either. HOWEVER we did meet a woman named Tora who is now a brand new Grandma. She looks like she is in her 30s. She is super awesome!

When we walked up to her house, there was a man washing his car and she was sitting on the porch I think that the man was her dad, I don't know. Anyway we walked up to him and he looked up and look very grumpy.

He asked straight away.

"Are y'all Jehovah Witness?"

Tora ran down the porch toward us.

"They aren't Jehovah Witnesses!"

We were able to explain who we were and we taught her a little about the Plan of Salvation and she told us she wanted us to come back. 

She is pretty chill and super sweet. 

Other then Tora we weren't able to teach anyone else. It has been a pretty slow week. 

BUT 

We did have General Conference!!!!!!

We watched it at the church with the Elders, Sister Pepper (she is the water lady), Bishop Watkins, and then Brother Novachek came to one session at the church, and so did Brother Deschutter.

Brother Deschutter is a less active member. He recently got divorced and so it is just him and his little girl London. London is super cute and NOT shy!

She is pretty hilarious. 

This is the last week of the transfer!! We will be getting calls this Saturday. DUN DUN DUN!!!

This is me and my new best friend! He was very thirsty so I gave him some water!

He was laying under a 4 wheeler when we went up to the house. He ran right up to me and laid down at my feet. I LOVE HIM! It was so sad. He had something wrong with his leg and I just wanted to love him forever. Can I take him and mail him home? I bet Meeko would love him!

 I was loving every minute of it!