More stuffed than a turkey!

Hey Everyone!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!! I hope you ate a lot, because let me tell you...I did! Haha I don't know how I did it, but we ate THREE full course thanksgiving dinners on Thursday. I have never eaten so much in one day in my whole life. I literally didn't eat anything the next day. Haha I don't think I will ever want to eat Thanksgiving food again. We have all these left overs in the fridge and I have no desire to eat any turkey ever again. But besides being stuffed, Thanksgiving was so fun!  It was so sweet that so many people wanted us over and wanted to celebrate with us. The kindness of others just amazes me.  It was so sweet and so fun spending the day with people I love out here. I love Thanksgiving and just having a day to be grateful for everything. I have been blessed with so much in my life and I've seen that more since coming on a mission.

But nothing else too exciting happened this week. I'm trying to think about things to write about....  Last night we got a referral for this lady who ordered a Bible. We went to try and give it to her, but she lives in a lock out building. Like ALL the buildings here are lock outs so it's super hard to see people because you have to check in with the front desk and typically the people we want to see aren't expecting us so they don't let us in...but we have gotten super good at sneaking in! Haha so bad. So we got in and tried finding her room which was hard, but we knocked on her door and she is the sweetest lady ever! She let us right in and accepted a Book of Mormon and wants to come to church. Her nephew is actually a member so it was just so cool! I'm so excited to get to keep working with her. I love meeting new people! It's the best!

In other news Kim came to church yesterday so that was awesome! We also had so many other new people at church. With the new ward boundaries we have lots of new people to work with and new members to meet. It's fun. We really spent a lot of the week just trying to get to know all the new people and new area we cover. It's been fun.

Well I'm excited for another week and I'm excited for the Christmas season! The new Christmas video is out so go check it out on Mormon.org! For the 25 days of Christmas they are doing 25 small acts of service that you can do to be more like Christ. It's cute. It's a fun time of year and King Street has their big Christmas tree up at the town square so that's been super fun! Makes contacting people easier! We offer to take your picture and then share the gospel :)

Well I love you all so much! Have a good week!

Love,
Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks dad, grandma and grandpa, and the plumb family for the cards this week!

Thanksgiving dinner with our investigator Emily and her friend Tiki!

The Owens family from Quantico in Woodbridge came and saw me! Oh I

just love his family! So sweet of them to come visit me one last time

before I go home.

Playing ping pong. We really aren't good. Haha

A family the other sisters were working with, but with the change they are now in our ward boundaries so we had a little pass off and get to know you lesson. The girls had all these dolls so we each got one that looked like us. Mine has ice skates ;)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

One Wild Week!

Hey Everyone!

Can't believe another week has gone by! This week was transfer week! But nothing changed here! So, I'm not sure what will happen to Sister West mid-transfer when I leave! Oh! I don't think I ever explained that. So due to transfers being changed from the MTC changing (that happened back in March I think?) and the fact that the transfer is after Christmas now and because I switched missions so that mixed everything up, I am going home in the middle of this transfer. I'm going home with 4 other sisters who also decided to switch so they could be home for Christmas. Lots of craziness, but there you have it! I'll be home December 16th! But what's so weird is all of us going home mid transfer aren't in trios like we thought, so who knows what will be happening with our companions! But some changes might be happening this week because on Sunday they announced all new ward boundaries for the northern Virginia area! So new wards have been created and some have been combined. Currently we don't even know what ward we are in, because our ward was split in half! We are just waiting to hear and will just stick with the area we have been working in until we hear what ward we are actually a part of. We are going to have to pass half our people either way though. Crazy things here in Virginia!

But, in other news, on Thursday I got to go to the temple again! I went with the group from DC South! We went with the group that left this transfer date (that included Sister Styler. Can't believe she is already gone!) and the group I'm going home with. It was a lot of fun! I love going to the temple! It's so beautiful and the spirit is just so strong. It felt so good to be there and I am just so grateful for temples on this earth and that there are so many! My new dream is to travel the world and see all 150 of them! That would be so cool! 

But this week was a good one. Pretty crazy with two temple trips and transfers and then new boundaries, but it's been fun. Things are going well with our people and we had some great lessons! We had a lesson in a members home and if you want to do something that will really help the missionaries, host a lesson! It makes such a difference and the spirit is so much more present. We also had a family home evening with the Dillards (recent convert family) in a member's home and that was so fun! Everyone had a good time!

Well, I love being here and am SO happy that I get to stay in Alexandria! It's so fun here! They put Christmas lights up in all the trees on King Street in old town and it looks magical now! I just love it! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Such an exciting time of year! Well I love you all and have a GREAT Thanksgiving! We already have three dinners we are going too and I'm sure more will invite us. Bring on he food! Haha pray for me ;) 

Love you!

Sister Lawson 

The zone!

The district.

He completed his mission...so we had to kill him off.  Haha.

What?!  17 months!  One more month to go!

Love this girl! Can't believe it was over a year ago that we were comps! 

Goodbye Sister Styler.  :(

It's cold here.  We are FREEZING!

Celebrating Sister West's one year mark!

Pictures don't do it justice!  King Street is so magical looking at night.

Double the mission, Double the fun!

Hey Everyone!

So sorry I didn't email yesterday! But I switched my Pday to today so that I could go to the temple! I went up with Sister Bray, Styler, and West! So many of my companions :) and the best thing ever was We got to meet up with the missionaries from Richmond! The group I came out with went for their going home trip so I got to see them all! We knew they were going today, but weren't sure what time so we showed up and I thought we had missed them. I was so sad. I wanted to cry right there. But then we walked up the stairs and there they were! It was the happiest moment ever!  It was just so great to see them all! I love all those sisters! I got to sit right by Sister Prach and that was so fun. So many of my friends were there. It was great! Oh I was just so happy. I'm still just so happy that it all worked out. It was just such a fun reunion and what better place than in the temple! Unfortunately they went somewhere else and our ride was waiting outside so we didn't get to take any pictures, but it was so fun seeing them all! I have really missed them. What a great group of missionaries. So cool that I got to serve in two missions though because now I get to have double the friends! On Thursday I get to go to the temple again with my group from DC south! I'm so excited! I'm going home with another great group of missionaries here so that will be a fun time as well!

So that was the best part of my week. Haha but this week was really great! We have had some really good lessons this week. We saw Emily quite a bit and she is doing really well. She really wants to come to church, but she is still on bed rest. Hopefully she will get better soon though and can come. We also officially passed Caroline to the singles ward and she is doing amazing! She told us all about church and how much she loved it! I'm so excited for her. She should be getting baptized in the next two weeks :) We met a new family this week that I'm excited about and are just meeting lots of great people! Lots of work is happening here! Love that city life.

So crazy story. the other night we went to check on a referral and they didn't answer. It was cold out so we got in the car to see where we wanted to go next. Well, as we were in the car all of a sudden we saw a fire outside. We thought maybe someone was having a fire pit party so we went to check it out. We walked over and it wasn't a fire pit, it was a pile of leaves in someone's yard and it was on fire! We ran and did what missionaries do best and knocked on the neighbors doors. They came out and we helped put out the fire. They were so grateful and the older lady kept saying how god sent her two angels to protect her house. What's really cool is the lady's granddaughter is super interested in religion and actually called us the next day saying she wanted to meet up! So we are going to see her tomorrow. It was just such a crazy time because we didn't plan on being there that night, but god knew we needed to be there to warn that family. I'm just so grateful everyone was ok and it didn't burn anything down.

But it was a good week overall. I just can't believe that I had my temple trip though. That was always so far away in the future and something you do when you go home, but here I am. Just mind blowing. I've been doing this program called 'my plan' where you make goals for when you go home so you don't just waste time again. Haha but it's really got me thinking about all the good that I can do at home. I love Virginia and it's going to be so hard to leave next month, but that doesn't mean it's the end. There's always more work to do :) tonight we find out about transfers and I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I'm excited for my last little adventure! Bring it on! :) I love you all soooo much! Have a wonderful miracle filled week! I know I will ;) Love you!!

Love,

Sister Lawson

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

A member ordered us Chinese food and so we had a Chinese Thanksgiving!
Haha there was SO much food for just the two of us!

We met this guy out on King Street. He made this crazy instrument and it's basically guitar and base strings on a board that he hits with mallets. It sounded super cool. He was good at playing it.

These are all sisters from the DC south mission that happened to be up there at the same time as us. We ran into them as we were leaving.

I'm going to Uganda!

Hey Everyone!

What a great week! Last Monday was so fun! To celebrate Halloween the whole zone got together and we played games and then watched the movie "17 Miracles." The zone leaders had brought all the couches and chairs from around the church into the gym and then we watched it. Such a sad movie. It's about the pioneers and their trek out west. Let me just say I could NOT be a pioneer! It was so sad to see what they went through, but I'm grateful for them and their faith.

Ok now I just want to talk about my favorite person in the world: Caroline. She is the one from Uganda we met street contacting. Well, we saw her almost everyday this week and she is progressing like crazy! She is the sweetest person I have ever met! We went to the
temple visitor center with her and she LOVED it! She loved that families can be together forever and she told us that when she gets married in the temple we are invited :) oh I just love her! We got to take Caroline into the lobby of the temple and there is a painting of a girl praying and she was looking at it and then turned to us and said "I feel her spirit. I feel so warm here." It was just so amazing! Caroline is seriously the best! She even came to church yesterday! But the saddest news in the world is we will be passing her to the YSA ward. :( so depressed. We told her about the YSA ward and she was so excited about it. Then we told her that she would have to meet with other missionaries and she got so sad and wants to stay with us, but we all know that it would be better for her to go to a singles ward and make friends. She told us she doesn't know anyone here and has no one to be friends with so it will be better for her. Makes me so sad to say bye for now though. Luckily we can still be her friends and I told her I will visit Uganda with her sometime :)

Today we actually got to go to DC with Caroline! Yay! We went to the African art Smithsonian and searched the whole place for art from Uganda. Haha after searching forever we found a pot from there :) it was fun. We also went to the Washington monument and just walked around DC. It's always a fun time just being in the city. I love it!

But this week has been really good and we have had lots of good lessons with people.  We had members come out this week which was so fun! I love when members come out and just spend a few hours with us. I'm so very grateful for their help.  Also good news Kim is back living with Connie! We lost contact with her for a few days and that was sad, but then she called us up and she is back :) yay! We are finding new people and just trying to get people progressing. I'm so grateful to be here and to just be a missionary! Nothing is better! Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Lawson

P.S. Thank you to the Tenney family for the letter! Loved it! Can't believe how big you've all gotten!

Playing cards on Halloween before the movie!

Movie party.

The zone.

Temple

DC

Heart attack for days!

I love fall!

Meet me by the fountain to hear the first discussion.