Everything is just going great in Sandy Plains, Georgia! The weather has been good, kinda cold, but not nearly as cold as home by the way it sounds. Sorry you have to live through that. At least you have snow, we miss that a lot here. The mornings have been extremely cold, we sometimes go running in the morning up to the apartment gym. But i remind myself that it's not in the negatives and i'm not running through a snow storm. We have been getting crazy rainstorms though. Obviously, because last week we lost our phone in one. It's bad though because in the mornings it freezes and its really scary to drive. And people in georgia don't know how to drive anyways. They claim that this is the coldest winter they've had in awhile, maybe because us from out west brought it with us.
We have this family we are teaching, the parents are Fred and Pam and they are not married. They have three kids who are so cute, Asian, Lil' Fred, and Honesty. (Apparently all black males are named fred). We have been teaching and visiting them for a month now and things have been good but hard. THis tuesday we visited them and planned to teach them the plan of salvation, which i was in charge of. But we showed up at the wrong time.. Little did we know that we are also family counselors. THings sort of blew up between the parents and oldest child and we sat there not knowing what to do! The oldest child, Asian, has been a trouble maker and causing them so much grief. Quite a few words were said and some i wish to never hear again. I was ready to just stand up and tell my companions that we needed to leave because it wasn't good for us to be around contention.. yet i couldn't get myself to stand in the first place. Something told me to just stay. The dad, Fed, ended up marching off to his room like a little kid, which i was disappointed in him because he said the choicest of words. My companion eventually piped up and asked if we could say a prayer for the family and for some peace in the home. Pam was all for it, Asian on the other hand was sulking like a little punk but agreed. It was amazing by the time we had to leave though! The spirit changed dramatically and asian agreed to come to mutual next week with us. Who knows, if we hadn't stayed they could be fighting! Pam told her once that she had the choice of either walking to her grandma's or packing her stuff and finding somewhere else to go. I wanted to pipe up and tell her don't say that cause she will find somewhere else to go and it'll be the last place you'll want her to be! The next time we visited them was last night and they seemed to be enjoying their night. Pam was struggling with her reading which I wasn't happy with. But she committed to reading a quick couple of scriptures every morning for five minutes, or whenever she had the time. We're meeting with them tomorrow and we'll see how its been going for her so far. They are just a fun family. Last night Fred cooked us up some quick pancakes and breakfast stuff, even though we had no idea and we were not hungry in the least bit. They have so little yet they are always willing to give so much. I want to come back and visit them for sure after the mission.
On Friday we had exchanges, Sister anderson and I went to Woodstock with Sister Dunn, She's from Logan. We met one of their recent converts named Brother Henderson. He's in his seventy's but is the sweetest old man! He loves hunting and told us he bought some amazing night vision binoculars off of a black market. Haha He's a die hard. His backyard is chuck full of targets and looks like a shooting range. He told us his conversion story though. His wife died last June and she made him promise that he would get baptized, she didn't say which church but that he would just get baptized. Well the woodstock sisters tracted into him and soon afterwards he was baptized! He said that the book of mormon, the history, everything about our church makes sense. But moreover he has the strongest testimony i've heard about Joseph Smith. I'm so happy for him, and i can see how blessed he is for this gospel and the knowledge he's gained. The next morning we had a ward breakfast with santa that we went to and Brother Henderson came. Everyone was in their pj's except Him, He showed up in Slacks and a nice sweater.. I hardly recognized him from the day before when i met him! That time he was in the dirtiest of jeans and an old hunting sweatshirt, with a camo fishing hat. He was so cute though. The children just love him! Before we left the party i said to him, "It was such a pleasure to meet you Brother Henderson, I hope we see each other again!" ANd He just smiled his toothless grin and said "It's always such a treat to see you beautiful sisters and may God bless ya till we meet again." I wanted to cry cause it was so tender and sweet the way he said it!!! I miss that man already. I mentioned that i wish there were more people like him in Sandy plains, and he said there is.. we just have to find them. Ha He is right though, and find them we will!
We also have been teaching a girl named Karina who is a friend to a family in our ward named the Wagner's. She is getting baptized the 28 this month. WE are soooo excited and happy for her, she's our golden investigator. Everything has been so smooth and great with her. She's dating the family's son Grant and the mom told us that he's planning on proposing to her sometime soon. He is the one who is going to baptize and confirm her. Best love story ever! She's told us that she has been taking the discussions though and wants to be baptized for her, not him or the family, but because she truly wants to know. She sees how happy they are and wants to have a family like them. She's from ecuador and doesn't have much family here. She has found so much peace and belonging when she comes closer to Christ through the restored gospel. I love it, every bit! And i'm so grateful to have been a part of this and see the spirit convert her!
The Georgia Sunsets are Gorgeous!
Sister Debry and I were twins today. :)
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