A New Adventure

Hey Everyone!

So lots of big news this week!!!  As many of you probably guessed... I'm being transferred :(  I have to leave wonderful Bon Air and even worse I have to leave Sister Olson :(  So many tears this weekend.  It's been really hard.  During sacrament meeting I got to go to the front and speak for a few minutes.  It was so hard to say goodbye to this ward.  I've been here for five months now and have seen so many miracles and truly love this area and ward.  It's been so much harder to say bye to Sister Olson though.  We have been crying so much.  My hope is that we can be companions at the end of my mission.  Sometimes for your last transfer the President will put you back with an old companion so I'm hoping! We have interviews with President next transfer so I might just let that idea slip..haha, but it really has been a good couple of transfers here.  I'm really going to miss it, but I have other places and people to meet.  I knew it would happen eventually.  Doesn't make it any easier though. :( 

On a happier note, DeMarco got baptized!!!  It was such a good baptism.  The spirit was so strong during it.  Really the youth put on the baptism.  They gave talks for it and a young man actually preformed the baptism.  It was cool to see DeMarco be so fellow-shipped into the ward.  I just love that family so much but I knew that I would be leaving this area after his baptism.  I came to baptize all those kids and then head out.  There is one more kid though.  She is 9 months old... so it looks like I will be coming back to Virginia in 7 years for her baptism :) 

In other news Kendall is getting baptized this Saturday! Bummer that I won't actually get to be there for it, but I am still super excited for her! It will be a great baptism and I'm sure that I will get pictures from it :) 

Also, I'm not actually just getting transferred this time around.  I am actually going to be a Sister Training Leader (STL) now.  What that means is I'm going to help with all the sisters in the zone and go on exchanges with them and I have lots more meetings and have to give more trainings. haha It will be a new adventure!  

Well I love you all!!! have a good week!!

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa (X2), Dad and Amanda Outlaw for the letters this week! 

They changed the words to a bunch of Disney songs.  

Here is their version of "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from the movie Mulan.

Really cool Coke's we got.

DeMarco!

Cleaning the font for DeMarco's baptism.

We got SOAKING WET!  Nothing like tracting in the rain!

Harrell family picture (plus some random kid).

And then we'll knock and knock and knock and knock some more!

Hey Everyone!

I really don't have much to say this week.  So it will be a short one.  We literally spent the week tracting.  We knocked, and knocked, and knocked. and no one answered. hahaha But really on Friday we tracted from 11:30-4:45 and we talked to 5 people. hahaha and they wouldn't even let us share a message with them.  They all said no.  Saturday and Sunday were pretty much the same.  We've been seeing so many miracles lately, that we have to go through some no finding for a bit.  I think the Lord is just preparing someone crazy awesome that we just haven't found yet.  So really we have just been doing that.  It's been so nice outside and it's starting to warm up though so thats enjoyable.  I'm getting a sweet tan line from my shoes. haha  

We have been changing words to Disney songs to stuff about missionary work and singing as we walk.  They are so funny.  We will be laughing so hard as we are walking and then have to get serious once we ring the door bell. Haha its a good time.  When we are home we are going to make music videos to our songs.  We just need to write down the lyrics that we have written first....

So that was really my week.  DeMarco is getting baptized this Wednesday night!!!!  I'm so excited!!!!  The whole Harrell family will be baptized :)  It's going to be great!  And Kendall had her interview and is getting baptized on the 30th!!  Unfortunately that is after transfers... so we probably won't both be here.  I love Bon Air and I love being with Sister Olson, but I don't think we are going to make it through another transfer calls together :(  It will be sad if one of us has to leave :(  We will find out Saturday night!

Well, that's really all I have to say!  Three of our investigators are out of town this week (not sure why) so we will be doing more tracting! Yay!  It will be a fun week though!  We had stake conference this weekend and it was all about the temple and how we all need to go to the temple.  I want to go so bad!!  We talk about it all the time to people and I just want to go.  I wish there was a temple in Virginia so that we could go!  The temple is just such a wonderful place.  It is literally heaven on Earth and you can find ultimate peace there.  I can't wait until I get to go!  We get to go to the DC temple two weeks before we go home so I'm excited to do that... but I also don't want that day to come.  It's coming fast though.  I hit 10 months yesterday!! AHHHH  

Love you all!!!!

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S.  Thanks dad for the letter!

10 months today!

We tracted Abbey Road!

Only in Virginia, trees coming out of the roofs.

Before we start tracting.

Sock monkey love.

Good vs. Bad

Hey Everyone!

I can't believe that another week has gone by!  Today was sisters P-day and we went to Belle Isle. which is just this little island that you have to walk across a cool bridge that is under the highway to get to.  We walked around the island a bit and then went to the capital building and had lunch in the lawn.  It was fun.  It was finally warm today so it was nice to just be out in the sun.

In other news this week two people committed to be baptized!  We have two teenagers who are getting baptized in the upcoming weeks.  One is Demarco Harrell! The last Harrell kid!  I'm so happy! Once he is baptized I have done my job here in Bon Air.  I was sent to get all the Harrell kids in the church and that will be happening on the 20th! haha So that will be exciting!  The other person being baptized is Kendall.  She was a friend of one of the young women in the ward and has been coming to church for months.  She was unsure about being baptized, but then we taught her the plan of salvation and she started crying saying that years ago she had had a dream about this plan and the different kingdoms of glory and that now she knows that this is the true church.  It was such a powerful lesson and the spirit was so strong.  So we are really excited for both of them. 

So now for a bit of sad news. :(  I have been talking about Robin lately and she watched conference at a members home and she had been doing so well, but the other day we stopped by to ask her when we could set up her baptismal interview and she yelled at us through the door saying that she was no longer interested and not to come back.  It was heart breaking.  People drop us all the time and we drop people all the time, but it's so much harder when someone is so close and you have seen a change in them to all of a sudden they want nothing to do with you.  It's hard.  We are going to send the members that she is friends with over and see if they can figure out what happened to her.  Maybe she was just having a bad day or she heard something that's not true about us.  That's typically what happens to people.  I just want to clear up anything.

Other than that though this week was really spent tracting.  We had no luck at the beginning of the week and then Saturday we had no plans so of course we went knocking.  NO ONE answered their door all morning except for the really rude people who just slammed their doors on us.  Then that night we were still knocking and in a half an hour 3 people let us in and let us teach them!  They all set up return appointments too!  So that was super cool!  The Lord was testing us.  We had to stay diligent and just keep knocking and then the blessings and miracles came.  It was really great!  So there you have it.  That was my week! We had zone conference too. That's always fun.  Lots of cool trainings and things to try and improve on.

Well that's all folks! I love you all so much and miss you like crazy!!!  

Love,

Sister Lawson

So many trees in Virginia.....

Produce so many leaves!

I asked Abby why she didn't jump in the leaves first and she said, "Bugs."

Belle Isle

Virginia is for Lovers!

Zone Conference.

Run and Not Be Weary

Hey Everyone!

Well, today I ran the "Run and Not Be Weary" Virginia Richmond Mission 5K.  Haha oh man, second 5K on the mission.  But this time it was really funny and I did MUCH better.  I ran the race the whole time with Sister Olson and I actually RAN the whole time. Slow run, but still.  I was proud of that!  Sister Olson and I have been training in the morning and so we did really well today.  We were the first sisters to finish and we even beat some of the elders.  So that was cool.  So here is the funny part.  We ran the race and they said that we ran it in 24.19.  I was SHOCKED!!  I didn't believe that I had run it that fast.  There was no way.  (All you know that I am NOT a runner!)  So everyone finished the race and everyone was like, "Wow that was our best time yet.  We all PRed on our mission."  So then the zone leaders decided to drive out the course (why they didn't do that before beats me) and found out that we only ran about 2.5 miles. Hahaha so thats why my time was so good.  They made us all line up and finish the race and I finished that half in 4.28.  So I'm saying that I roughly ran a 5K in 30 minutes.  Still my new best :) haha but it was fun.  Maybe one day I'll be a runner, but today is not that day.

So other cool things this week was General Conference of course!!  I love Conference!  Especailly while being on a mission.  I get so much more out of it!  I know that those men are called of God and that we do have a prophet on this earth to lead and guide us today.  My favorite talk was the last one given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.  I went to conference with a question (as I invite all you to do for future conferences) and he answered it in his talk. He talked about how we just have to try and have the desire to improve but not to worry if we fail.  It was really good to hear.  I just love receiving council from the prophets and apostles!  Always so good.

The rest of this week was really spent tracting it up like usual.  We have been teaching a lot and as always see miracles daily.  We have been able to help give service to many people by doing lots of yard work.  It's starting to get nice outside again :) and pollen season has started!  Haha it's crazy here.  We come out in the morning and our car is literally yellow.  I'll have to take a picture of it this week.  But in other news we have many people progressing and we had lots of people come and watch conference!  So that was really good.  I know a lot more happened this week, but I just cant remember.  Sorry!  But I hope you all have a great week!! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to dad for the 2 letters and to the Jessen family for the card :)

My zone.

Our investigator gave us flowers!

We flipped this tire. Haha our investigator's husband flips the tire around 

for a workout so of course we had to try. It was HEAVY!

Our "Haukunna Matata" running shirts for motivation!

Before the race.

After the race.