Monthaversary!

Hey everyone!!!

That's right I've been gone a whole month! Can you believe it?!?!?
Because I sure can't! Only 17 more months to go! I'm going to be home
before you know it! The time is just flying here! I'm still loving it
and everyday I'm becoming a better missionary.

So this week we met with T. She's the lady that I told you about
last week who was yelling and wanted to talk about Jesus with us. Haha
so she is a crazy lady, but so fun. I love talking to her. She told us
she didn't know if she could come to our church because we don't have
a choir that sings songs with soul. She said our songs are all to
boring for her and that the best way to show god you love him is to
sing praises to him. She wants to keep meeting with us though and says
that she will come to our church if we go to hers. I'm going to get to
experience a real southern baptist church and I'm pumped!! Not sure
when we will make that trade but it will probably happen in the next
couple of weeks.

Also this week we set one of our investigators for baptism! Been out
only a month and already have a baptism scheduled! The gospel is
moving fast here! I'm so happy to be apart of it! It's so cool to see
someone want to get baptized. When I first got here she didn't think
she would ever get baptized, but now she is excited about it.
Hopefully all goes well with that!

So I officially hate my iPad. Haha it's really handy to have, but
because of them we have to input our whole area book into an app. That
means we have to enter all the information (name, address, lessons
taught, notes on how people receive the lesson, etc) on every person
that has ever had a lesson with the missionaries that lives in this
area. Our area book is a Hugh binder. It sucks. Once it's all entered
it will be awesome, but right now I'm hating transitioning everything
online. It's totally #FirstWorldProblems haha but it's a pain believe
me.

So funny story time! We have a door in our apartment that leads to a
little balcony. Well we have never opened it so one night we decided
to. The door was jammed shut so us being stupid decided we should push
it open. Well it opened, but we couldn't get it to shut again. The
office was already closed so we couldn't tell anyone. So we dowsed the
door in bug spray and prayed that no bugs would get in.  (We are high up
so no one could break in.)  In the morning the bug situation wasn't
that bad and when we told the front desk our problem they said that
the door swelled from the humidity! Only in the east can your door
grow!

Another story is that I got chased down by a dog this week. We were
walking into this neighborhood and this dog runs out of the front
yard. I step into the street thinking that the dog was on a leash and
would stop, but it charged after me. Sister Kellogg ran to the car and
I ran to the other side of the street. The dog started chasing me down
and was about to bite me. I was terrified. But then the dog just
walked away. Weirdest thing ever. The lord protects is all I can
say... And that I am never going down that street again. But the dog
situation here is crazy. Everyone has dogs and they all jump on us and
bark at us.

So the last two days have been pretty bad. Sister Kellogg is crazy
sick so we can't leave the apartment. So I am deathly bored. I have
literally cleaned and organized every inch of our apartment. I have
even played card games with myself. There is nothing to do. I'm
supposed to just read scriptures, but there is only so long that I can
do that. That's why this email is going to be so late today. I'm
typing it on my iPad, but have no wifi to send it. Hopefully she will
feel better soon so I can at least send this. When you aren't staying
busy and have no one to talk to you start thinking of home and it gets
hard. I love the mission, but that's just it. I love doing mission
work. Being trapped inside for two days now is making me start to go
crazy. I didn't think it was possible to miss knocking on doors in 90
degree weather, but I really do. I would give anything to be in the
heat right now. I also have never missed TV/Internet so much in my
life. What did people do before it? I would just die if I had to live
like this all the time.

But this is good for me. It's helped me realize why I'm out here. I
have had a lot of time to think and even though I'm crazy bored, I
don't want to come home. I'm not ready to. I still have 17 more months
of teaching and I still have a lot I need to accomplish. It's been a
real wake up call. I'm ready to give my mission everything I've got. I
don't want to be lazy. I want to do work. hopefully my companion gets
better and we can go out preaching tomorrow.
Sorry this email is so long! I always hated when missionaries wrote a
ton. But there is just so much to say. If you made it through this
long email just know that I love and miss you all!!

Love,
Sister Lawson

P.s. Thank you to grandma for the package and Dad for the letter!!

UPDATE FROM MOM:  Abby's companion was sick enough that Abby finally convinced her to go to the hospital.  That's where she accessed wifi and was able to email me and send a few pictures that were on her iPad.  (A month and still no pictures from her camera!!)  After waiting all day and having many tests, they found out Sister Kellogg's appendix had burst!  The last I heard the poor girl was headed into surgery and Abby was required to spend the night in the hospital with her.  I'm sure there will be plenty more boring days for Abby ahead as her companion recovers.

Transferring the area book on to the iPad.