He Lives!

Hey Everyone!

I hope you all had a great Easter!  It was a fun day here.  Celebrating holidays that are centered on Christ while being on a mission is just so cool! Each morning we get an hour to study on our own so yesterday I spent the whole morning studying from the four gospels about Christ's Atonement, death, and resurrection.  I liked reading from all four of them because they all have different details and you are able to just get more out of it.  I love the scriptures!  You can find so much knowledge and help in them and I know that by reading from them daily you will become more Christ-like and  feel of God's love at all times :)

Anyway, we had a crazy week this week.  We spent a lot of it tracting and we found 7 new people to teach! It was so good!!  We have become pro at tracting and teaching the Restoration on the doorstep.  Haha it's so fun.  It's cool to see who is prepared and ready for the gospel.  In our mission we invite people to be baptized in the first lesson so it's funny when you tract and teach the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then ask if they will be baptized when they know our message is true.  The really prepared people say yes right away and the others who need more time look at us like we are crazy.  Haha it's great.  LOTS of people look at us like we are crazy here.

But this week I learned that God doesn't forget about anyone.  A few weeks ago we were tracting and this family yelled over to us and said that they were members and just moved in and were wondering where the church was.  We gave them the address and our number but stupidly we didn't ask them where they lived. Luckily she had mentioned that they lived on Olympic Road.  The family never came to church and we knew that we had to find them somehow.  So we drove to Olympic and it was SUCH a long road! We picked one end and just went for it.  No joke - no one answered the door.  As we neared the end of the street we started panicking that we had already knocked on it and that they didn't answer so we would have to knock again to find them.  Then at the fourth to last house on the street they answered the door! It was a miracle! Even though we had made a mistake the Lord made sure that they weren't forgotten.  We were able to talk to them again and now we can help them get back to church.

Another cool miracle is we have been teaching a young girl who comes every week to church with her friend.  We have been teaching her at her friend's house so we had no idea where she lived either.  She hasn't been at church the last few weeks and she wasn't answering our texts.  We basically lost contact with her, but then we were just out tracting in an apartment complex and she answered the door!! She was so excited to see us!  She said her mom has been really sick, but that she wants to start meeting again.  She is really great and is already so involved in the young women's program that she will be baptized really soon.

There are so many other miracles that happened this week.  We see them daily here.  Robin is doing amazing and still preparing to be baptized.  She shared with us how she feels the spirit at church and knows this is where God wants her to be.  I love helping people learn for themself that this is the true church.  I love being a missionary :)  It was a really good eventful week and I love you all so much!!!  

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S.  Thanks to Aunt Sarah and Uncle John for the letter and mom for the Easter package!

OH WE'RE HALFWAY THERE!! OOOOOOHHHH LIVIN' ON A PRAYER!!!

Hey Everyone!

That's right! I'm halfway there! Can you believe it?! It feels like just yesterday that I was getting on a plane to go to the MTC.  Now, here I am 9 months later... hard to accept.

Anyway, this week was an exciting one! So on my 9 month mark I went to mid-mission.  Mid-mission is when all the missionaries who are at their halfway mark go to a big meeting that pumps you up for the rest of your mission.  For this time around they took the 16 sisters that I came out with and the 11 sisters that came out the transfer after me for a meeting with a total of 27 sisters!  It was so fun!  Like I said it started with being just a meeting.  We talked about how we have to give the second half of our mission our all and be the best missionaries we can be.  It was like a locker room talk. Haha we set goals and just had lots of fun.  I got to see Sister Bray and Sister Styler again too so that was super fun! I love those girls!  We went to VCU campus and went street contacting that night and I just love being on campus.  Then we spent the night in the mission home and I slept in the same top bunk that I slept in when I came to Virginia that first night :) Oh memories :)  The next day we had some more trainings and then had a testimony meeting that was just a wave of emotions.  All in all it was a great time!  I loved it!  

In other exciting news Sister Olson had to go to the doctors and had the same thing that I did two weeks ago so we had to stay inside for the day.  Our investigator Robin came to church again yesterday and is now progressing towards baptism!!  I'm so excited for her! And, we tracted "Mansion Row."  haha it was this random street that we came across that had all these mansions that backed up to the James River.  No one answered the door but the houses were fun to look at. That was my week summed up real fast. We just have been doing more finding :)

We got to start sharing the new #Hallelujah video too! If you haven't watched it go watch it now! It's so good! I love this time of year because people are so focused on Christ.  This time and Christmas are the best.  I wish people always remembered Christ because He did so much for us... He did everything for us really.  I love that this Easter season we get to celebrate that He Lives; that He still lives today. And because He lives we all have a chance to live again.  We will all get to be with our families for eternity and through Christ the Plan of Salvation was made possible.  I love my Savior and I love being in Virginia sharing the beautiful news that He lives!

Love you all! Happy Easter!

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S.  Thanks to Dad and Sister McKenna Weech for the letters, Grandma and Grandpa for the Easter package, and Mom for the St. Patrick's Day cookies! 

Mid-mission meeting

Awkward family photo.

Breakfast after the ultimate slumber party!

Me, Sister Hendrickson, Sister Hanson, Sister Bray, and Sister Styler.

A woman asked us to set up this doll house and take pictures of it so she could sell it.

"Mansion Row"

"I looked out the window and what did I see?  Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!"

We call these popcorn popping trees!

Whoohoo!  Half way mark!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring is coming! :)

Hey Everyone!

So this week.... haha I really can't think of anything to write.  We literally have spent the WHOLE week tracting.  We have been tracting up a storm! But it's been great!  The weather is warming up and spring is upon us! We have had lots of doorstep lessons and have given out multiple Books of Mormon.  We met one lady and invited her to church and she actually came!! We are seeing her again tomorrow so hopefully that will go well :)  We also had two of the women who were recently baptized bring their husbands to church yesterday!  That was so fun to see :)  We are teaching both of them and it will be so fun to bring the whole family into the gospel. I can't wait!

We also have a few people on date to be baptized :)  Marina is still going strong and has read so much from the Book of Mormon.  It's a bit tricky to teach her because her English isn't great, but she wants to come to the English ward because she wants to improve on her English and she is learning so much more this way. 

I really don't know what else to write about... Oh! My trainers Sister Kellogg and Sister Ngosha went home this week!  Since I am in the ward with the mission home I got to stop by and say goodbye to both of them.  It was so sad and crazy to believe that they are already going home.  I feel like they were just training me.  Time goes so fast.  Speaking of which, I hit my halfway mark this week.  I'm freaking out over that a bit.  I can't be at this point yet!

Well I love you all!! I am so grateful to be here in Virginia.  I am grateful and happy to be a missionary.  We have been seeing so many miracles.  I know there are miracles everyday and that we can see the Lord's hand in all things.  He is always there for us.  I know this church is true and I know that you can find happiness in the message that it contains.  I know there is a plan for all of us and since coming out here I have started to find out what that plan is for me.  

I love you all so much!!!

Love,

Sister Lawson

First trainer:  Sister Kellogg

Second trainer:  Sister Ngosha

Tracting, tracting, tracting!

The Curse Has Been Lifted!

Hey Everyone!

That's right! The curse has been lifted! I am FINALLY staying with my companion! I am SO happy!!!! I love Sister Olson and I am so grateful that I get to have another transfer with her!  We are going to see so many miracles.  This is a long transfer too.  Due to the MTC going back to having English speaking missionaries stay there for 3 weeks, all the English missions are getting messed up on their transfers so we have no English missionaries coming this transfer and this is a 7 week transfer.  I am so happy to be staying here in Bon Air with Sister Olson during the long transfer.  It will be great!!

So in other news this last week has honestly just been spent tracting.  We have been tracting morning, afternoon and evening.  It's been fun. :)  We made up a song while tracking.  It goes to "all i do is win":

All I do is tract, tract, tract no matter what,

Got the gospel on my mind and I can never get enough,

When I step into a building everybody's doors go shut!

And they stay there!

Hahaha so I hope that you enjoyed that song.  I love tracting actually.  It's really fun.  We get to meet so many people and be outside and it's just a good time.  It doesn't sound like it would be, but we have fun.  We see lots of miracles too.  We went to dinner one day and had the kids spiritually create someone.  They picked a street and said he was old and would be wearing red and had glasses.  So we went to that street and were having no luck, but then the last door we knocked an older man wearing a red sweatshirt and glasses answered the door.  It was so cool!!! He wasn't interested at all, but it was still such a testimony strengthener to me that if we put in the effort to find these people God will lead us to them.  Prepared people are out there!

In other news we helped a recent convert rip up her carpet and lay laminate floors, and we helped one of our investigators (Marina) put up wallpaper this week.  Let me just say that I should NOT go into a construction business. Haha I was so bad at it. Especially at putting up the wallpaper.  But Marina is such a sweet lady and she didn't care that we were so bad at it.  She will hopefully be baptized soon.  We met her while tracting and she let us right in.  She is from Guatemala and said that she grew up seeing missionaries all the time so thats pretty cool.  You never know the seeds that you are planting in other people for missionaries later to teach. :)

This week was also Cinco de Marcho!  Haha so we were trying to set a temple date with a family and we said, "How about the 5th of March?"  And then Sister Olson got so excited and was like, "That would be so cool! You could be up there for Cinco de Mayo!"  Then of course we all made fun of her and informed her that that was in May, so we made up a holiday and it's Cinco de Marcho.  On that day you have to wear purple and eat TONS of candy and read from the Book of Mormon.  We went over and celebrated with them. Haha so fun.

Well thats all folks!  I just want you all to know that I know this church is true.  I see miracles everyday and am so grateful to be a missionary here in Virginia.

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to Dad and Grandma and Grandpa for the mail this week!

New holiday - Cinco de Marcho!

Happy Leap Day!

Ripping up the floors.

Night tracting.

Looking for people to teach among the bamboo trees.

Our mustache's for Mustache March.

Being 5 years old again and enjoying the tire swing.

Oh, this is a disaster!

Hey Everyone!

So this week was full of adventures!

To start off the week I got crazy sick so that was fun!  Haha I had to go to the doctors and I got the wonderful joys of getting the strep test.  Yay.... luckily I didnt have strep, but I did have Tonsillitis and am on meds :)  but I feel much better now.  But for that day we mostly stayed inside because I felt so bad.  

Then we were part of a tornado!  Since I have been living in Virginia I have been through a hurricane, a blizzard, and now a tornado.  Oh man #AbbyLuck is real.  Don't worry Virginia you will be rid of me in about 10 months.  The natural disasters have been crazy here lately.  So on the day of the tornado members were texting us saying that a storm was coming, but we didn't think much of it because it was perfectly clear.  We had just ended dinner and the members said that we should go home because we just entered a tornado warning.  We didn't think much of it because it was so calm outside so we just left.  Well the calmness ended quickly.  As we were driving we got hit by rain.  The winds were pushing the car and we got a text from the mission president that we needed to get inside.  We luckily were right next to a recent convert's house so we parked the car and ran as fast as we could to the house.  I have never gotten more wet in so short of a time before.  In the two minutes it took us to run to the house we were drenched!  It was like we had jumped in a pool.  We helped the recent convert clean out a room in the basement while we waited for a few hours for the wind and rain to stop and then we went home.  There was a tornado about 40 minutes from me, but we were ok.  Just lots of wind and rain.  When we did get home though there was a tree blocking the entrance to our apartment complex so we had to take the long way back.  Haha stupid trees always falling everywhere. So that was the adventure with the tornado :)

In other and even more exciting news Charis Harrell got baptized!!!  It was SO good!!  I think this was the best baptism that I have been to on my mission.  The spirit was so strong and we had lots of investigators come and Charis was so cute and happy.  Everything went smoothly with the baptism and it was just so wonderful.  Now all the girls in the Harrell household have been baptized :) All we have left is the 15 year old brother.  He will get baptized soon I'm sure of it.  

So that was pretty much the week!  It was a good one! It's always good when you get to feel the spirit that is always so present at baptisms.  I just love them.  I just know that this church is true and I love watching people change their lives to follow Christ.  Makes me so happy to see.  I love you all lots!!!  This week is transfers.  I REALLY hope that we don't get a call.  I dont want to leave Bon Air and I love being with Sister Olson.  We have lots more work to do here so hopefully we aren't going anywhere.  

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. thanks to Sister Zhenya Plumb for the letter this week :)

At the Mission home

Best restaurant!

Charis!

Filling up the font again.

Someone gave us Girl Scout cookies!

It felt like days at the doctor's office - 4 hours of waiting!