Hola y'all!
Look at me go! Here's another email for yall. T'was a pretty fun week
Monday was another pretty chill pday. But this time I only took a nap until 7:45 jaja then got up and ready for the day. Basically I just called my family, went to Walmart, called my family again at the church and then it was over. As a quad we went out to McAlister's for dinner which was super good and I decided to splurge on a cheesecake and it was SO GOOD! Then we came home and went on a walk around Flint Creek, this lake near our house. Then we came back and contacted some people and went to sleep.
On Tuesday literally all of our plans fell through except for our service at the library...but they even had 2 whole carts of books for us to shelf AND the library ladies are starting to really like us and they gave us little sac lunches today! It was so cute. We came home and did some Facebook stuff then we were supposed to have lunch with Tracy, the recent convert, but something came up so he bought us pizza and we had it delivered so we could have a mini quad pizza party. We decided to visit one of the less active older ladies in the branch, named Donnie, who was super sick. We went to Dollar General and got a bunch of cute little things that were all yellow to make a "happy basket" for her. We got to deliver it and meet her and talk with her. She was hilarious and told us how she just got new boobs but she really appreciated our visit and we prayed with her cuz PRAYER IS POWERFUL man. Then we went knocking on member's doors in what seemed like woods where all the houses looked abandoned...that's where the bugs found me...after we got home I counted 20 bug bites from just being outside for a little bit...13 on 1 leg!!! That's the South for ya I guess
Wednesday morning was pretty normal...until personal study at 9am...I was about to kneel down and pray into my personal study when I looked at my chair and saw a GIANT COCKROACH! I basically died,like oh my goodness and y'all know how I am with bugs...I flipped out!! Sister Smart had to get it and kill it outside for me and then I quarantined my seat and had to spray the apartment with reach stuff. This is the 3rd cockroach we've found since I got to Wiggins and I have found all of them! Not ok man...not ok...after that I had a hard time focusing during my personal study, but really can ya blame me?! Then we went to District Council in Gulfport and the Elders gave us gift cards for Chick-fil-A for lunch which was the best thing ever. Then we went to the beach which was only like 5 minutes away to do our companionship study. It was really nice to see the water again...even though the Gulf Coast is nasty water...we sat on the pier and did our studies, met this cute family from Utah (who pulled up to us in their car and demanded to know where we were from) and then I drove us home as everyone took a nap in the car for the 45 minute drive back. Being out in the sun on the beach really tires you out man. When we got back to Wiggins we helped this member, Sister Kilgore, try to find her hearing aid and then went on a walk with her. I also got to call my dad for his 50th birthday so that was fun! That night we went to a Wednesday night Bible study at Word Alive Revival Center...little did we know, they were Pentecostals. We found that out real quick when the pastor started speaking in tongues. Poor Sister Cropper whispers "are they speaking another language?" oof it was hilarious and at one point I think the entire congregation was speaking in tongues (which sounds like jibberish to me), jumping and throwing their hands in the air praising Jesus. It was so much fun especially when the pastor was yelling at us about PEACE. But the people were SO NICE. I think the entire congregation came up to us afterwards to shake our hands and invite us to church. It was awesome! We even got coffee mugs (which is also hilarious because members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints don't drink coffee) but I assured them I'd be using it for some hot chocolate.
On Thursday we went to a funeral. Sister Quick and Sister Cropper were asked to prepare spiritual thoughts for the grave dedication. None of us knew the person that had passed but one of her family members is in our branch. Something that Sister Quick said that I really liked and hadn't thought about before was just how excited family on the other side is when they get to see those who have passed. It made me think of them having a big family reunion, just on the other side of the veil. Then we helped clean up and grabbed Popeye's for lunch, yum. We were all so tired we took a fat quad nap during the last part of lunch and it was really nice cuz I've been heckin' tired this whole week. Then we did our studies, planned for the week, ate pizza with a fancy salad by Sister Quick (the chef of the apartment).
Friday morning we went outside for our usual exercise, Sister Cropper running and me on my bike. We were just finishing up when I hit a patch of sand while turning around and completely fell off my bike, landing on my stomach while my hands caught me (I bent my elbows in an attempt not to break anything though). My hands and knees got super scraped up. My pants covered up my knees so they were just scratched but my hands were bleeding and got a bunch of little rocks shoved in them...oof. We decided to walk down the street back home and while we were walking a dog came in front of this house on the corner barking at us. And this was a big like boxer pitbull mix! Not a good combo with a companion who's almost been eaten by dogs like a million times already. We walked really slowly by the dog and it just kept getting closer...we decided to turn around when the lady in the house came out and said the dog wouldn't leave the yard. Luckily we survived! Since it was our Poplarville day we loaded up all our bikes (well just 3 this time, we decided to borrow one of the Francis' bikes when we got there), stopped by the library to help shelf books then drove to Poplarville. The Francis' (branch president's family) were like our home base where we parked the car. We biked to Subway for lunch and then made a plan. We went to the Poplarville library looking for service opportunities and wrote notes to people previously taught by missionaries so we could drop them off. As we were dropping off notes to people Sister Smart crashed into a ditch and broke her bike from the Francis' (so Sister Francis picked them up and gave us snowballs (Southern version of snow cones)), my companion almost got attacked by another dog (literally ran at her in front of me and then stopped at the last second) and our appointment fell through. Quite an interesting day to say the least. After everything fell through and seemed to be going wrong we went to a small cafe to call some people. Across the street we met this lady named Julisha selling shrimp who asked what made us mormons. We ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and she asked us a bunch of awesome questions! We even got her phone number and she wants to talk to us again!! MIRACLE! After that we went to dinner with the Hughes (member family) at this Mexican restaurant before driving back home. By the end of the day we were all exhausted!
On Saturday we went to the animal shelter and got to socialize the kittens. Half of them were crazy and the other half just hissed at us. I got a little scratched up but it was fun. That afternoon we set up another stand from our car in the Walmart parking lot. We saw one of our members and handed out several Bibles.
Sunday we had a nice time at church with everyone in their red, white and blue for the 4th of July. They're were also definitely some fun testimonies and drama to say the least. Oh how I love our branch. Then after church we went to the Word Alive Revival Center since they all invited us to lunch. When we walked in everyone came up to us to say hi and make sure that we got food since they were kinda cleaning up when we got there. They were just so nice and welcoming, everyone needs to pick up some Southern Pentecostal Fellowshipping tips cuz MAN they're good! They even gave us a whole watermelon! Yall know that's what really got me. Then we went to Sister Kilgore's house (where we ate our Pentecostal food since they just gave it to us in some nice styrofoam containers) because she's been going through some stuff and needed some company. Then we came home and did all our studies, attempted to have our own 4th of July BBQ with our little grill from Tracy until we realized none of us knew how to grill and it wasn't working so we brought the burger patties inside to put in the oven so it still worked out. Then that night we went to Flint Creek in an attempt to see some fireworks but it didn't really work so we came home and watched the Disneyworld fireworks on Google.
To end this email I wanted to talk about how God answers prayers. This is probably like my favorite thing ever and the foundation of my testimony. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and will always hear and answer our prayers. Sometimes those answers come in mysterious ways. On Sunday one of the things I was fasting for was to better love others, then after church I saw Sister Kilgore crying and wanted to just look away like I didn't see anything since I don't know her that well. Then the spirit was like you should talk to her, so I did and she cried some more as we hugged but it was good and I felt like I was able to provide just a little comfort to someone in need. I know that we can also be the answer to someone else's prayer and we gotta be ready for that. But I know that Jesus will always be there to carry us through the hard times and the Holy Ghost will lead and guide us to what we need to do
Have a blessed week!
Smile because God loves you and I love, love, love y'all too!!
Oh and remember that "we did not come this far only to come this far"!
Love,
Sister Johnson
July Bike Mileage: 7.7 miles
Pictures!!!
1. We took a quad walk on pday to Flint Creek Lake near our house
2. Sister Smart and I at Flint Creek
3. We found a turtle in our yard (a pretty common thing) and I grabbed him!
4. Tracy couldn't meet us for lunch but sent us pizza for a quad pizza party
5. District picture
6. We went to the beach and walked through this cute little market
7. Sister Smart and I at the beach
8. Quad beach selfie
9. Me, in my happy place at the beach (even though it's gross and has no waves
10. This cool looking wall in Poplarville
11. The quad back at Subway in Poplarville
12. I was just finding all the animals this week! Cool frog I was lowkey squishing a little (but by the end of the week I think I caught like 4 frogs!)
13. Lunch with the Pentecostals and this lady, Lycel, who wanted to take a picture with us
14. Comp pic on the way to Flint Creek to watch fireworks
15. Me and this cool sign near Flint Creek
