Throwback to the Primary Days

Hey Everyone!

This week was....fine. I got pretty sick and so it's been a harder week. There's just no time to rest. You just take some pills and go out and work. Haha so that's been fun. I'm getting better now though so this next week should be better! Being sick is just the worst. Hopefully this will be the last time on the mission. But some fun stuff still did happen this week!

We went on exchanges with the other Hermanas and man do I want to be an Hermana! I love Spanish work! I was with Hermana Kump and she couldn't believe how much rejection we get. Haha she was like "Wow English work is so much harder. Everyone in the Hispanic culture is so nice!" She was so excited to get to knock some mansions though because that's something she never gets to do.  We actually had dinner at a Hispanic families house and they made arroz con leche. I want to be an Hermana so bad, but I couldn't do the food. That was their dessert and it was like drinking milk with mushy soggy rice in it. Haha no Bueno. The food would kill me and that's why I'll just stay in the English program. I'm still trying my best to learn Spanish though :) I can understand it pretty well, but really have a hard time speaking it. We have been practicing a lot lately though :) our ward has a Spanish group because the Spanish ward is so far away so we have a small group of Spanish speakers that come to our ward.  So Sister Labrum and I have been visiting them lately. They speak little to no English so our lessons are so funny. We do such small talk at the beginning, use some google translate, read a scripture in Spanish (very badly I might add) and then try to say why we like that scripture (using Google translate which doesn't work too well) and then leave. They just laugh at us most of the time and tell us our Spanish is "Good!" :) while laughing. Kills me. I love them so much. So that's been fun this week.

Another fun thing from the week was we had the primary program at church! Only the best day of the year! It's when all the little kids put on church and sing and give little talks. Anyway, it's just hilarious to watch all the kids start to lose it up front. But they sang a missionary song and they had asked us and the elders to sing with them! I never thought I would be a part of the Primary program again! So we sang all together and then for the second verse just the missionaries sang. Oh man. Sister Labrum was such a trooper. She basically soloed it. The elders didn't sing at all really and I've been so sick that I couldn't really sing. I tried my best, but I know it was bad. She sounded good though. The big joke of the day was that the sisters stole the show and the elders didn't even open their months. Haha it was fun though. The kids sang this song called 'Gethsemane' and it is my new favorite song. Oh man the spirit is so strong with that song. Go look it up if you haven't heard it! I love that song!

But that was my week. Just hanging out in good old Oakton. The weather is starting to get nice and fall is coming! I'm super excited for General Conference this week! Oh that's something else that happened. We had the General Women's session of conference Saturday night and the stake had a dessert party before and it was so fun! We even had an investigator come! She LOVED it! She took tons of notes! But Elder Uchtdorf talked about faith and it was such a good talk! I just love hearing from the general authorities! I'm super pumped for conference!

Well love you all! Have a great week!!
Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to Sister Zhenya Plumb, Grandma and Grandpa, Sister Jeppsen, Caitlin Rogers-Peckham, and Trevor Wilson for the letters!

Exchanges! Mansion knocking!

We found a praying mantis and talked to a man about it for like 30 minutes. 

He just really likes bugs. Haha the things we talk about....

This sums up the week. Just carrying my roll of toilet paper and snot bag. Haha

After our primary singing. We are as the armies of Helaman!

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Hey Everyone!

What a great week!! So much happened this week, but let's start with my birthday!! It was seriously the best birthday EVER! You couldn't ask for a better day as a missionary! Thanks to everyone who sent me cards and packages!! Love you all! So here's what I did for my birthday fun.  Sister Labrum had decorated the house so when I walked out of the bedroom everything was all set up :) the Vienna sisters (they live in our area and are super close by) came in the morning for breakfast! We made pancakes and they made me a pancake in the shape of a 21:) they had to leave shortly after eating and then I opened all my gifts! Best gift was from mom. She made me a scrapbook of all my birthdays up until now! Thanks mommy!!! I loved it! Then we went to the ward's "Day to Serve" where we sorted clothes and made kits for this company called "Days For Girls" that sends hygiene kits to girls in poor countries, and we sorted out this laundry detergent to give to homeless shelters so they could wash their clothes at laundry marts. It was so fun! Everyone was just talking and serving and I just loved it! I love doing service! After all the service projects were done we all went to a park for a ward picnic! That's as much as a party as you get as a missionary :) A member took us out for ice cream later to celebrate. At night we got to see Katrina and all her kids were finally there. Love that family! Then we had an amazing lesson with our investigator Ram and he is actually on date to be baptized! So yeah it was a killer day! Thanks to everyone who made it special!

Then yesterday was amazing! Dennis (our investigator that we have been working with for months) came to church! We have been trying to get him there forever, but it's really hard because he has had both of his legs amputated so it's a challenge for him to leave the house. He is the most positive happy man you will ever meet in your life though. It was so cool that he came to church. He loved it too! He is also on date for baptism. :)

Oakton is just awesome and I'm so happy to be here! We also had a super cool lesson with this guy named Chris. We just found his number in our area book and called to ask if we could meet and he said he would love to. We had a great lesson with him and he said that he is just confused which church is true. We taught the restoration and he loved it. Then at the end he said, "I have always had one question that I have never been able to answer. Why are we here in this life?" Sister Labrum and I started laughing and said we could answer that. So he is super excited for our next meeting, but he is YSA so we will have to pass him off to the YSA missionaries. Still, so cool though and such a miracle.

It was just a great week! Other little things that happened this week are we went on exchanges with the Vienna sisters and so that's always a ton of fun! I was with Sister Moore.  Love those exchanges! And we also had interviews with President. That was great! Always love those! Well, I love you all! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I can't believe I'm 21!!! Can't believe I also hit 15 months! That's just mind blowing! I remember last year at 3 months so clearly! How has a whole year gone by? Freaks me out! Just got to make the most of it while I can!

Love you all!
Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to Dad, Mom, Tyler, Grandma and Grandpa, Papooh, Aunt Dee, Aunt Sarah and Uncle John, The Jessens, and The Plumbs for the cards and gifts! 

Birthday pancakes.

My birthday was also my 15th month mark.

The bears partied too hard.

More decorations.

Party hardy!

Cool glasses.

Birthday ice cream with the Steck family. This is my buddy franny. So cute!

Cake Sister Labrum made me.

Birthday book from mom!  Best gift EVER!

When I woke up.

The missionaries for English class. All the students left but two before the pic was taken.

Just walking through the forest preaching the gospel.

Exchanges!

I did Sister Labrum's hair. She would go out with it though :(

Slumber party fun.

Birthday singing.

Opening presents.

Come Una Manzana

Hey Everyone!

Another week down! Can't believe it! I swear the weeks are just getting shorter! Just like the days are. It's getting so dark at night again so that's a bummer. Although I am grateful for the cooler weather. This summer has been HOT! But I'm sure I will be missing the warmth here soon when it's freezing. Still have time before that though :)

This week was a good one! We had zone meeting and Sister Labrum and I trained on how to get people to church. Oh man the struggle with that. Getting people to church is SO hard!! We made it a group discussion so we could all get different ideas. I think this is the hardest thing to do though. People just don't want to come to church. It's too long, or too early, or there are a thousand reasons not to go so it's hard to get them to come. But we all got some new ideas and are going to try and implement them. In other news though Sister Labrum and I won the Spring Lake squirrel for finding the coolest door knocker! Haha I will attach a pic. So now we have two trophies for the zone :) we haven't started the new competition yet so will let you know when we win that one ;)

We went on exchanges this week with Hermanas! Oh I just love Hermanas! Sometimes I wish that I could be Spanish speaking. I'm just so impressed with them and with their skill and how fast they learn the language! It's just crazy! They are like fluent after a couple of months. I was with Hermana Wright and she hasn't even been out for three months yet and she speaks the language great! Sister Labrum and I are now determined to learn Spanish. We got an app called "Duolingo" and do it every free chance we have (which is not very often). Haha. On exchanges I challenged Sister Labrum to somehow use the phrase "come una manzana" in a lesson and she actually did it!  Duolingo is just obsessed with apples and horses so I have those two words down! haha Kills me.  Now every time we meet a Spanish speaker we have to try and use a Spanish phrase we've learned (which are always really random and the people just laugh at us) but we now know how our English class students feel! It's really hard to learn a language!

Well today we went to D.C. We went to the American History museum and the Natural History museum. The American History Museum is weird. It's just full of random stuff! Like completely random, but the church made it in! We have a little shout out plaque that mentions Joseph Smith and says the early members of the church traveled west. #MadeTheMuseum. But the Natural History Museum was really cool. Lots of 'stuffed' animals. We just explored for a bit. It was a fun day and it was my birthday trip :) can't believe I turn 21 this week! I swear it was just my birthday and I was turning 20. Well, talk to you when I'm 21! Have a great week!

Love you!
Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks Sammy the dog for the card this week! Haha miss you puppy! Also thanks to those who have already sent me birthday cards! I haven't opened them yet, but will Saturday :)

Natural History Museum

This is a platypus egg.  For Perry the platypus obviously!

Bear!

It's like "Night at the Museum"

Shout out to the Mormons!

We are bike missionaries now :)

The Dillard family! That's Katrina on the end and then her sister Shannon who was baptized when she was younger. These kids are CRAZY! Wild children, but I love them! :)

Spring Lake Squirrel and door knocker we won for!

Our trophies #killinit

Exchanges with the Hermanas.

RUN!

You couldn't be more home right now

Hey Everyone!

First off - shout out to my mamma! Happy Birthday! Love you!

This week was good! We have been following up with lots of potential investigators lately. It's just funny because we knock on these doors and their garage doors are open with two cars and toys everywhere and yet no one ever answers. Haha I mean we know you are home! It just kills me. The things people do to avoid us. Anyway, on Monday we had a zone activity at presidents house. We had a BBQ and played volleyball. It was such a nice day and it was fun to just hang out. We were there with another zone so I got to meet some new people :) that was fun.

We also had MLC this week! We now have a set of STLs per zone so we talked a lot about leadership and how we need to be examples and good leaders. We played speed during lunch and I was the first one out. Haha my dream is to be good at that game....but it will never happen...bummer. After MLC we went on exchanges with the Herndon sisters. I was with Sister Green! We finally got in contact with this less active lady and she was so nice, but she gave us this weird rice stuff that was in banana leaves and you ate it like a banana and it was just really weird and gross. Haha I have become so adventurous with the food I eat these days. I've eaten some interesting things since being here. I think I'll just stay with my chicken nuggets and pizza :)

Anyway, we had this crazy lesson with a new investigator. His name is Vuk and he is from Montenegro. Sister labrum met him on exchanges and he is either the most golden investigator ever...or he is already a member...haha. He read 270 pages in the Book of Mormon and remembered everything about it and already knows so much! He says that he is just curious so he has been studying a lot, but he just knows WAY to much! Haha I think he is a member pranking us. But it doesn't make a difference either way because he was only here for the summer and is going back to his country next week. I mean maybe he is just a super prepared soul. We are going to get his address to send missionaries either way so that will be fun. Haha

Another amazing family we are teaching is from India. They want to know about Christianity and just really want a church that they can be a part of and go to each week. We have had some amazing lessons with them and they really want to know if this is all true. We have quite a few other families that we are working with to. I just want to help a
whole family come into the church so that they can be sealed in the temple! How cool would that be! Families are forever and I just want that for everyone!

Well I love you all!! Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks Grandma for the card and new dresses!! I love them!!

Giving a Book of Mormon to the deer.

Zone activity and BBQ.

Trying to throw petals in the air. Kind of failed. Haha

We made a crock pot meal :) it was tasty too! Working on my cooking skills!

Exchanges in Herdon.

Going for Gold!

Hey Everyone!

So in the news for this week: Sister Labrum and I are staying in Oakton! I can't believe a whole transfer has gone by already! That went fast! The transfers just keep getting shorter I swear! It's freaking me out a bit! But I'm excited for this next transfer :) we are going to see miracles!

This week was a little slow. Really don't have much to report on. The last week was just crazy with all the finding that this week just felt slow. We didn't really find anyone and didn't have too many lessons. Sometimes that happens though. Every week can't be crazy exciting. Some highlights from this week would be:

Our lesson with Rich. We found him during the finding fest and then had a lesson with him this week. We went with a plan of teaching the restoration, but it turned into a whole lesson on prayer. We taught him how to pray and the importance of prayer. At the end we asked him to say a prayer. He asked if all prayers had to be said out loud and we told him that when we are alone we say them silently. He said he would say it, but he ended up saying a silent prayer. He said "Dear God" and then just went silent for like five minutes and the said "amen." It's something that has never happened to me, but while he was saying that silent prayer, his first prayer, the spirit was just so strong. I sat there and silently prayed for him and it was just such a powerful moment. I love when people pray.  It's such a spiritual moment.  Then after the lesson he taught us how to make candles out of dinner napkins. Haha so I now have a new talent for dinner parties!

Well I honestly don't know what else to report on. Oh, we painted for a family in the ward! That was fun.  I love doing service! I love just mixing things up a bit.  But other than that this week was really just spent tracting.  It's been HOT!!!  Oh here's something fun!  During the finding fest week our zone decided to have a little competition.  We wanted to see who could find the scariest dog, because EVERYONE in Virginia has a dog.  I think it might be a state law.  And WE WON! haha We won the "Herndon Hound"!  As a zone we made up all these trophies for each ward in the zone.  So now we are in a competition for the "Spring Lake Squirrel." You have to find the coolest door knocker to win.  Sister Labrum and I want to win all the animals :)  But we did already lose the "Reston Rooster." :(  That was for whoever won the zone pday scavenger hunt.  So that's been fun.  There are more competitions to come :)  The zone leaders just buy these weird animal statues at thrift stores and paint them gold for the trophies. It's funny.

Well, I love you all SOOOO much!!!! I'm excited for a new week!  I'm excited to find prepared people!  We have a lot planned for this next week so that should be fun :)  

Love you!

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks Westridge Ward Primary for the letters!

The "Herndon Hound" trophy!  He's just so cute!

Our crazy last district meeting.

Painting for service hours.

14 months!  The finish line approaches.....