Driving on the edge

Hi everyone!

This week was great! It went by so fast!  I can hardly believe that its Monday once again!  My mission is going to fast. It needs to slow down! This week is transfers again! I don't think I'm going to be leaving, but you never know.  I sure hope I don't go anywhere. I love it here!  But I will be going into my 4th transfer and I only go through 13. So crazy!

Well, lately it has been GORGEOUS here!  The leaves are changing and driving around is the best.  I just love it!  I try to take pictures of it, but the camera can't capture it.  You just have to see it in person.  I could live here just for the fall, but I'm sure winter will be very cold.

This week was Sister Styler's birthday! We decorated the house and then went out to lunch. We went to this little Mexican Restaurant called Don Pepes.  It was So good! they have this white sauce here and it's the best thing ever. You dip chips into it and I have no idea whats in it, but I am addicted.

We also had zone conference this week. So we drove down to Richmond and had training's from President and Sister Wilson. It was so good.  I say this a lot, but I just love them. I have the best mission president. We also got these black boxes installed in our cars.  Each time you get in the car you have to log in and then it like tracts your driving.  If you speed, or don't wear a seat belt, or accelerate too fast, or take a turn to hard, it beeps at you and sends a report to Salt Lake and if you receive too many driving violations then you can't drive the rest of your mission. Haha so that's fun.... we haven't set ours off yet and I currently am not driving, so I don't have to worry about it now.  It's to keep us safe, but it gives me stress.  Every time we hit a pot hole we are like "please don't go off" haha but we're good.  Haven't had any problems.  

This week we also found some new people to teach and had great lessons!  Our most progressing investigator is Patricia.  She is just my favorite person.  She had us over for dinner the other day and keeps telling us how we were an answer to her prayers.  We had a great lesson with her and the Spirit was definitely there.  She does all that we ask, but she won't come to church! Ah! No one ever comes to church.  That is the hardest thing to get people to do I've found.  Since coming to Swift Creek I haven't had one investigator come to church.  It's frustrating and makes Sundays sad.  But this week is our ward Halloween party and everyone says that they are coming to that and once you get them to the church for an event its easier to get them to come back for church so this week should be a good one!  I'm really excited!

I love you all so much!!  Have a great week!  

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to Mom and Dad for the package, Grandma and Grandpa for the card, the Westridge Ward primary for all the letters, and Tyler, Graham, Josh, Alec, Tanner, Drew, and Mike for the card!

Zone Conference.  Everyone wore pink because Sister Wilson 

was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Don Pepes

So in our area we work in neighborhoods with beautiful HUGE I mean
HUGE houses and then we also have two trailer parks.  What's so funny
is we spend most of our time in the trailer parks because people are
just nicer and more willing to accept the gospel there.  It all comes
down to humility. But what's so funny is we went to find a house the
other day, but they had moved. Hahaha literally took up their house
and moved. We were dying it was so funny.

Sister Styler's birthday!

Livin' Large

Hi everyone!

Birthday shout out to Dad! Hope you had a good one! 

So this week really nothing happened. haha I honestly have nothing to report on.  Sister Styler and I both got sick so we spent a couple of days just resting.  We really didn't teach many lessons and we werent able to go out much. It was a slow, boring week.  We are both all better now though and are excited for a new week! 

This week was my 4 month anniversary! Can you believe it?!?!  I sure can't!  Once the holidays are over I'll only have a year left which is really crazy! I'll be home in no time!  

Today we had sisters P-day and we went to Maymont Park.  It was SO pretty!! It's this big mansion and estate with all these animals and gardens.  We walked around and just got to see everything and had a little picnic. It was seriously so gorgeous there.  The leaves are starting to change and I love it!  I wish I lived in the 1800s on an estate. haha These people must have been so rich once upon a time.  It would be cool to be in that era... but only if I was rich. haha. Otherwise it would stink. It was a Downton Abbey type place.  Very cool.  But that's about it.  I have lots of pictures that I will attach.  

Well, I honestly can't think of anything else to say. Sorry for the boring email. Next week will be better I promise!  Oh! I finally saw my little cat buddy.  No worries he survived the storm. Well, until next week!! 

Love you all!!!

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to.... no letters this week. I guess it takes 4 months to be forgotten. Hahaha just kidding I love you guys!

The first few pics are of the grounds at Maymont Park:

Sister's selfie!!

Four months up, fourteen down?

Yo no hablo espanol

Hi everyone!

Another week down. I can't believe it! This week just flew by! I really don't even know what I did this week. We really spent this week trying a bunch of potential people, but no one really answered the door. It's hard here because everything is so far away so it takes like 15 minutes to get anywhere. We spend a lot of time in the car which is a bummer, but we have fun with it.

Anyway, this week I got to be a Hermana for the day! Haha it was So fun! I think that I am actually supposed to be a Spanish sister. It was way cool! So we had exchanges with the sister training leaders this week. Well in this area the STLs are Spanish sisters and they are in a trio. So two stayed in their area and I joined them, and one came here to be with Sister Styler for the day. Anyway it was such a fun day. I didn't know what was going on all day. Haha. We went to this place called La Mancha by the locals which in Spanish means "The Stain." It's literally the most ghetto apartment complex ever. I wish I took a picture of it, but I didn't want to pull out my camera... Hahaha. Don't worry mom we were safe! There were three of us and we brought a man from the ward with us. So all is well! But anyway we talked... Well, they talked to lots of people there and I would just smile and stand next to them. I could pick up on some words here and there, but I honestly had no idea what was going on like all day. During lessons I would sing a hymn in Spanish with them, I was really more humming the tune because I kept pronouncing the words wrong, and then I would sit there and listen. It was so cool to hear them talk. Then at the end of the lesson the Hermanas would turn to me and ask me to bear my testimony and then they translated it. It was just so cool because even though I didn't speak Spanish and I had no idea what they were talking about I was still able to bear powerful testimonies. I really just felt the spirit working through me and it was just so cool!! I loved it! I loved practicing my Spanish the whole day too. It's so cool how much you can remember when you are completely immersed in a language. It was like everything I have learned how to say from Spanish class was coming back to me. I really wish that I was fluent. It would have been cool to learn a language on my mission, but it's probably the best that I'm not an Hermana. I don't think I could spend everyday in La Moncha. Haha but it was just such a great day.

That was kind of my highlight of the week. Honestly not much happened. We had zone workshops so we met as a zone and President and Sister Wilson came and talked to us. That was fun. I really just love them so much! This week I also learned how to crochet from this lady and realized that I'm becoming a crazy old cat lady! Haha I love to crochet and have been doing it during lunch times and at night before bed and I always want to help the stray cats that are around. Hahaha my little black cat I still haven't seen since the storm and I'm very sad about it. Poor little guy. But yeah..I'm going to be crazy when I'm old. You better all watch out! haha.

Well I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to dad, grandma and grandpa for the cards!

Me crocheting with my long hair! Time really is going! 

My hair was at my chin when I left and now it's to my shoulders!

The book is blue, the church is true.

Hi everyone!

I have survived hurricane Joaquin! Haha it didn't even hit us. All week everyone has been freaking out over this hurricane. We obviously can't watch the news so we just had to rely on others to tell us what was happening. Everyone was saying it was going to be so bad and that our power would go out and all this stuff, but all it did was be cold and rain a lot. Haha so either the news was way off, or people were exaggerating and I'm assuming both was happening. But hey. I survived. We have had so much rain though. Literally I think I've seen more rain fall this week than I've seen in my whole life. Our parking lot was like flooding. I see why everyone was so scared of the hurricane because with all this rain the ground is so mushy and you add some winds and there will be trees falling everywhere and that's scary. But it's all good and I'm safe :)

Anyway this week we read the Whole Book of Mormon! All 531 pages with its two columns on each page and tiny print. It was actually the perfect week for it. We had to stay inside and read and I was fine with that because I had no desire to go out in the rain. But that's really all I did this week. It was so cool to read the Book of Mormon straight through though because it made so much more sense and it was just great to stay really focused and follow the story. I just love this book so much and I know it is so true. It really is another testament of Jesus Christ. We read the Book of Mormon to prepare for General conference and that was really good too. It's so great that we can listen to the leaders of our church twice a year and that they can give us such great revelation from God.

Well that was my week. Not a whole ton to report on. It was a good week though. Oh! I have a new pet!  It's this little black cat that lives outside. When we go workout in the morning (usually just running in the parking lot) he runs with us.  He is my buddy.  I haven't seen him since the rain though and I'm a little worried. Poor little guy.  I'll attach a pic of me with him.  Haha But anyway that's what's been happening with me! Now it's time to get back to regular missionary work! Here we go! Love you all and miss you!!

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.s Thanks to grandma and grandpa, Dylan, Zhenya, and the Tenney girls for the letters!

Olive oil tasting last week for Sister's p-day.

I'm scared he has flees so I don't touch him. His name is Eric

because we were teaching this guy named Eric and then the cat walked

out and the guy started freaking out because he is scared of black

cats. Haha

Lunch with the sisters in my zone - much smaller group here!

Rain, rain, go away!

Hi everyone!

So I am no longer in Woodbridge! I am in the countryside that is Chester, Virginia! It is way different here. In Woodbridge there was always traffic, there were always people out and about, and stuff was just happening. Here there is no one. Haha it's more country. There are lots of just little roads and railroad tracks and the houses are farther apart. There is no library in the area so I can't send home pics from my camera :( I have to email on my iPad, but I'll try to figure out somewhere else that has computers. Our ward boundaries are HUGE! I'm in the Swift Creek ward and my area is two counties. Chester and Colonial Heights. The area I'm in is how I pictured Virginia though. More country and way more peaceful and calm. I like it! 

But this week was full of excitements! On Monday we had sisters Pday and we went to this little waterfront restaurant. Not sure what river we were by, but it was pretty there. It was a little town and we went olive oil tasting and got fudge. It was a good day. Then Tuesday was transfer meeting and I packed up and headed down south. My companion's name is Sister Styler and she is from Delta, Utah. We came out together actually so it's too newbies running the place. Haha we don't know what we are supposed to be doing sometimes. It's funny, but we are figuring it out together. I'm just happy to finally be done with training! I hated 12 week! (That's the training program here.) It's just weird here because we are the only English sisters in this whole area. In my zone there is a set of Hermanas and then our Sister Training Leaders are also Hermanas. It's just crazy because in Woodbridge there were 14 sisters and here there are 7 ( one set is a trio). Much smaller group, but I'm loving the country. 

When I got to this area we had a baptism right away. That was pretty cool! The guy that got baptized is so awesome and I'm so happy that I get to work with him as a new member. This week I have really just been trying to get to know the area. It's so much more confusing, but I'm doing my best. I feel like I am starting over. I just figured out Woodbridge and now I'm lost again. Haha I don't know the people or where I am, but I'm a fast learner. I'll get it. This week has also been crazy rainy and cloudy. I haven't seen the sun in a week and I miss it. It has just been raining constantly. But that's ok maybe the sun will come out this week! Here's to hoping!

This week we are starting a Book of Mormon read-a-thon. We have to finish the whole Book of Mormon before conference on Saturday. So I hope the sun comes out so we can read outside. I'm excited to do this though and I invite everyone to read from the Book of Mormon this week. It should be good!

Well I'm doing great in my new area and I love and miss you all!! Please send me letters to my new address! It's:  3855 Creek Way Chester, VA 23831

Love, 

Sister Lawson

 

P.S. Thanks to Amanda Outlaw, the Scott family, and the Evans family for the birthday cards! 

Transfer day!

Waterfront restaurant.

Baptism for Brother Jackson.

We've been out for 100 days now!

Selfie on our first day together.