Mom the detective

23 May 2016

I don't love the new policy of the Mississippi Jackson Mission to NOT tell the missionary who is getting transferred where they are going until Tuesday morning.  Because of that policy we don't know where our missionary is until the following Monday.  Fortunately there is Facebook and the wonderful MJM Moms and Missionary Moms page and fabulously helpful members who aid us in tracking our missionaries.  By last Monday (5/23) evening I knew that Markee had been transferred to the Petal Ward outside of Hattiesburg, Mississippi and this picture was posted by a sweet girl named Doodle Ishee.  Totally set this mom's heart at rest.  I sure love this mission that Markee landed in!

Petal, Mississippi!

Sister Williams and I!

Well I left the City of Gold and after a long long day of traveling I arrived in Petal!

My new companion is, get this, she is Sister Williams. Sister Williams was Sister Olsen's companion before Sister Olsen came to me!!

She is pretty awesome and I love her already! 

I did get to see a lot of old friends during transfers! I saw Elder Hill, Sister Marble, and Sister Greenghalgh. I also met a new friend, Sister Barney. 

Sister Barney was one of Sister Olsen's companion, and is her companion now. Sister Olsen LOVES Sister Barney and used to talk about her a lot because they spent a long long time together! Well anyway I saw her at the Jackson, she is kind of hard to miss because of her height, and I went straight up to her and we were instant friends! 

Sadly, I will never be her companion because she will most likely end her mission in El Dorado. 

Petal is pretty awesome! The ward is super helpful and nice, even after you make a fool of yourself in front of all of them which I did. 

I am really excited to be here and I am hoping that I will be able to learn the area quickly....and better than I did El Dorado. It is much bigger than El Dorado so.....

I am still in a car share but that is okay since we actually live in our area! NO MORE WALKS TO MORDOR AND BACK! 

I love you all and hopefully I will have all my thoughts together next time and be able to tell you all the great things that are happening here in Petal! 

BTW, my new address is 

335 Old Corinth Rd # 3 

Petal, MS 39465

Sister Barney and I

I am turning Japanese...I really think so. There is a really good Japanese restaurant by the place where I live. (ps Peter I tried Wasabi. It is very hot.)

Transfers......

Well today we got transfer calls and I am leaving. So now I have a day to pack, which for those of you who know me will be quite a challenge. 

Because of a new policy I don't know where I will be going. 

The whole thing is quite stressful. 

It has been an okay week, we had a good District Meeting where we talked a lot about finding new people to teach, which has been a struggle lately. 

We got back into contact with Katherine! Yay! 

She has been having a hard time. She has decided to leave her husband because he is not a very kind person to her. She said that he told her to leave anyway and that he would buy her bus ticket to Alabama. 

Not sure if that is actually going to happen though.... 

He didn't seem like that kind of guy that would do that for anyone. 

I hope that she does get to go though. Even though that would mean we wouldn't be able to see her anymore, at least she would be away from that guy. She would be in a better place and closer to her children.

On Friday we saw that the Ramirez family signed up to have us over for dinner. This was quite odd because neither of us had even met them before! They have the Elders over frequently but we hadn't been over. So when we saw their name we thought that they might have meant for the Elder, which later they admitted that they did but they were still glad they had us, we called them in advance to see if they were good with us coming over. 

Yeah that was an awkward phone call....Bro Ramirez speaks very little English. 

All he said was, "My wife said you come to my house tonight" 

So we decided that we would go and that it might be awkward because at that point we didn't know any of them. We were worried that they all spoke Spanish.

Fast forward to dinner time. We had no idea how to get to their house so we were wandering. 

We sat down at one point and texted the Elders to ask where the Ramirez's live, and a vulture must have thought we were dead because it started circling above us and then....and then it SWOOPED TOWARD US!

For those of you who don't know this, I am terrified of all winged creatures.

Needless to say that wasn't a fun experience for me. Lucky it was just going down to eat some road kill on the side of the road and not us but it was still a close call. 

That's right I am a Disney Princess. I have birds flocking to me. They may be vultures but they are still birds!

The Evil One

Anyway, we finally get the the Ramirez's home and it turned out to be really fun and we had a great time! Also we had a lot of hot spicy food. Dad would enjoy it. 

Sister Ramirez spoke English and so does her son and her grandchildren so it wasn't super awkward. In fact we had a Fiesta! 

Yesterday we got to go and have dinner with the Loggins family! I am going to miss those people but I guess they know where I live now so I will probably see them again. 

Welcome to Smackover

I have loved the ward here and I hope that I can come back in the future because they are my family now. Everyone is so friendly and funny. I love them all!! 

I am looking forward to my new area though. I know that I am needed elsewhere now. I don't want to leave Sister Olsen....I am contemplating how in trouble I would be if I abducted her....and if it is worth it.

The Last Goodbye from El Dorado!

P.s. Smelly came back! He was trying to avoid us. One time we even saw him and so we yelled "Smelly!" and he fast walked away from us! 

But he came back and wanted more love. 

He loves us he just doesn't want to admit it.

Smelly!! He wouldn't stop moving.

Pictures

My district. Me, Sister Olsen, Elder Rigby, and Elder Bingham

Elder Rigby is a weirdo

I drew this picture for Sister Olsen. It is fabulous.

Almedia's dog Mackenzie. She loves us!

Smackover's traffic light

We are freaks

Jesus lives

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.