Hey everyone!

This week went so fast! I know I say that a lot, but this was really the fastest week I have ever been through. It was a great week too! We had 14 lessons with investigators, 7 with members, and found 6 new investigators. The work is going well here! We are just seeing so much success. I love it!

This week I hit my 5 month mark! Crazy!! My mission needs to slow down a bit. It's going too fast! We went on exchanges this week and I stayed in my area and two of the sister training leaders came with me. One of them gets sick from the smell of smoke and my apartment ALWAYS smells like smoke... So we got to go sleep at the mission home! It was so cool! That house is just great! The spirit is so strong there and I just love seeing President and Sister Wilson. It was weird being there though because five months ago I was there and was scared to be starting my mission. So much has changed since then. I have seen how much I have grown and changed. I'm happy that I have another year and a month to change a little more! I still have a lot to learn out here!

My time with the Hermanas was great. They don't mess around when it comes to talking to everyone. They were calling to everyone they saw.  I want to be better at that.  I like tracting and knocking on peoples doors, but street contacting scares me.  Funny that I'd rather go to a strangers house then talk to someone on the road, but I just think that walking up to people on the street is so weird.  I'm going to work on it though because we found two new investigators by walking up to people on the street.  so street contacting is what im going to work on this week.  I am going to talk to Everyone I see! No one should miss out on hearing about the gospel!  There is nothing better that we could be spreading!  

So some fun things from this week.  I got a flu shot all on my own and didnt cry :) haha, we got ice cream after to celebrate. A member gave us a Christmas tree and decorations so we put it up and its So PINK! haha All the decorations and lights are pink and purple.  We were laughing so hard at it.  Oh well.  It made me so happy to see a Christmas tree up!  I'm so excited for this time of year! We also met with some really cool less active members in the ward.  We met with this Hawaiian family and they taught us a hula.  It was way fun.  We also visited the oldest lady I have ever met.  She is like 90 something and was so cute and funny and old.  I love old people. haha they are the best.

I also had my most spiritual lesson ever this week.  It was with our investigator Jeremy.  He is the one that came to church the other week and he came again yesterday.  He is getting baptized on December 12th. He is so ready for it too.  We talked all about how God loves all of us and the spirit was just so strong.  We were all crying as we were talking.  Even Jeremy.  It was just so powerful.  I cant wait to see him be baptized!

Well I love you all so much!! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  I know I will be eating a lot of food!

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to the Plumb family for the card this week!!

Our pink and purple Christmas tree!

Flu shot and ice cream cones.

Celebrating Mickey Mouse's birthday with Mickey pancakes.

5 months out!

Donuts and planning meeting.

Hawaiian family that taught us to hula.

Cutest lady ever - Sister Worthen!

We found Mexico!

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Hey everyone!

This week went by fast! I really can't remember all that I did. I don't have one big event that happened this week, so here are a lot of little stories.

On Monday Sister Bray and I had a little tea party. We bought tea and mugs from the store and were pretending to be English.... Well, I guess just I was pretending to be English.... Haha but anyway, we wanted to make cookies for it, so Sister Bray was trying to figure out the oven but it wasn't turning on so she kept turning the heat up. Well there is a switch you have to turn to start the oven so I came over and turned it on without looking at the temperature. After 6 minutes all our fire alarms were going off and the cookies were black. Haha the oven was set for 500 degrees. So we didn't have cookies at our party. Why ovens can even be set for that high beats me. But since Monday we have set off the fire alarm two other times. Haha we aren't good cooks. Neighbors probably hate us. Oh well. Haha

So super cool story this week. Each night you are supposed to be in your house at 9pm. So we were out and thought it would take longer to come home, but we got home at 8:45pm.  We are trying to be exactly obedient so we can see miracles so we didn't want to go in the house quite yet.  We decided to say a prayer that we would find someone walking their dog in the parking lot so we didn't have to knock any doors so late. We saw a woman getting out of her car with all her kids and so we walked over to her and started talking and ended up having a lesson with her. Best part is is that she is totally interested in us teaching her more! It was so cool to see! Miracles do happen!

This week we also went to Sister Bray's old area because one of the people she was working with before was getting baptized!  It was so fun to go and witness a baptism. Baptisms are just the best.  I love them.  I hope to have another one soon :) I also got to see Sister Styler again because her and Sister Bray switched places. haha it was a fun day! 

This week was also stake conference so all the members in the Chesterfield area came together for church. Elder Arnold from the Quorum of the 70 spoke and he talked about Mark chapter 6 in the Bible and how we have a fourth watch God. That is my favorite story since being out here. It's when the disciples are in the ship rowing against the storm and are struggling and God is on the shore watching and he doesn't come to help until the 4th watch. Sometimes we go through hard times and we struggle and we feel like we aren't going to make up it, but once we've given it our all, that's when Christ comes. That's when he helps us in our trials. I just love that so much.

I love and miss you all!!  Things are going great and we are seeing so much success!  Sister Bray is just awesome and we are having fun, but getting the work done! I just love being a missionary! :)

Love,
Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks Elder Kalani Enos and dad for the letters!

Tea time!

Burnt cookies :(

Evening planning.

Baptism.

Ello Gov'ner!

Hey Everyone!

This week was great! So I got a new companion and I LOVE HER!  She is from England! ;)  Her name is Sister Bray and she is really awesome and so funny.  She's fun just to listen to.  She also came out with me just like Sister Styler did.  There were a lot of us on that plane (17) so we are bound to serve with each other.  I'm sure most of my companions will be from my plane ride. It's cool being with people who have the same amount of experience as you.  It's also so cool that even though I'm not serving a foreign mission, I still get to be with foreign companions.  It's fun!  I like it better this way actually. Haha I get to learn about other cultures all in the safety of the good old U.S.A. :)

Anyway, this week has been really great.  We have seen so many miracles already together.  We have found quite a few new families to teach and have had great lessons.  Sister Bray is great about being exactly obedient and President always says that "obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles."  I have seen that this week.  I just really love being here and being a missionary!

When I was waiting for Sister Bray to come I got to be Spanish for a few hours again.  It's so fun.  I love doing that. We had a few lessons in Spanish and then we saw Michelle.  Her daughter now wants to be baptized which is so cool.  I love bringing families together!  It's so fun to watch people grow and families be strengthened from the gospel. 

I had to give a talk in church this week on missionary work.  I think it went well.  I mean I'm a missionary talking about missionary work.  It's not that hard to do. haha  One of the miracles we had this week was at church. We had an investigator finally come to church!!  His name is Jeremy and we literally just met him on the street and invited him to church.  He said that he would come but I really didn't think much of it.  Lots of people tell us they will be there, but then on Sunday he walked in!  Not only did we have an investigator come, but a less active family that we have been working with for awhile finally came!  They came for my talk! It was such a great day! Miracles do happen. :)

Since I took over the area I am now the driver.  haha I have had the box tell me twice to "check my speed."  Oh man this black box.  I swear I'm a good driver. haha Anyway, it's started to get VERY cold here.  Winter is going to be rough, but I'll survive.  I have to wear lots of layers and when we are out at night it's very cold and dark, but I love being here and the work is coming along.  We are just seeing so much success.  I am so excited for a new week!

I love you all!

Sister Lawson

P.S - Thanks to Amanda Outlaw for the letter!

Patricia and her boys. Love them!

Literally, no food in the fridge - good thing it's Monday!

Freezing cold and raining.

Selfie with Sister Bray!

This is Halloween, This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween....

Hi everyone!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! I hope you all had a great Halloween and got lots of candy! My Halloween was spent waiting for transfer calls...and.... I didn't get one so I am staying here! But sister styler is leaving :( I'm happy that I'm staying. We have a lot of people close to baptism and I really just love this area, I just wish Sister Styler was staying too. I just can't seem to keep companions. I'm going into my fourth transfer with my fourth companion. That doesn't happen very often. Usually you stay with your companions longer, but I'm sure I'll love my next companion and we will get all these people baptized! :)

Anyways this week was really good! Friday especially was a great day.  We had zone meeting that morning and I learned a lot.  We went through a bunch of scriptures that bring peace and motivate you for missionary work and it was really great.  I just love the scriptures so much!  After the meeting we went on daytime splits with the Sister Training Leaders and I found two new investigators which is always a good time!

Then that night we had our ward Halloween trunk or treat! It was so fun. I dressed up as Rapunzel (with her hair cut off) and Sister Styler dressed up as Snow White. We were the judges for the little costume contest.  But what made the night so awesome was that TWO of our investigators came with their families!!!!! It was so great! Patricia came with her two little boys and Michelle came with her whole family! It was so awesome. I talked a bit about Patricia last week and Michelle has three daughters and is tiny! She wears a size 1 in kid shoes and an 8 in kid pants. She is so little! I feel like a giant when I hug her. That's not normal for me. haha But she is really cool and is so excited to get baptized. She told us this week that she sees no point of waiting to get baptized and asked when we were holding our next baptismal service. So awesome!  She is just so prepared and wants to learn about Christ.  I love it! We just have to get through all the lessons and then hopefully in the next few weeks she will be baptized. :)

The rest of this week was pretty normal.  We've just been teaching and finding.  We had zone P-day last Monday, but it wasn't that fun.  We played Oompa which is always fun, but no one really seemed to be into it that day, so it was lame.  I get a new companion tomorrow and I'm a little scared, but I'm also excited. It's fun to meet and learn from new people.  I'm looking forward to a new week and a new transfer!  I'm officially 1/4 of the way done with my mission.  CRAZY!! Well, I love you all!!!

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S.  Thanks to Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, the Jessens and Elyse, and Aunt Sarah and Uncle John for the Halloween cards!

Coming in out of the rain!

Rapunzel and Snow White!

This is for you Mom!

I don't want Sister Styler to leave!!!