Starting out on a Journey.

Hey Everyone!

Happy Valentines Day!!!  I hope you all had a good one! I just ate lots of chocolate :)

Well this week was a fast one!  The weeks have just been going faster and faster.  It's snowing here once again and I'm not all to happy about it.  The snow really messes up missionary work, but I think it's starting to stop and hopeful will be our last snow for the year.  I'm just happy that I am here for two summers and not two winters :)

Anyway, usually when I write I have one main story that happened to me during the week, but this week I have none of those.  So here are a few fun little things that happened:

We were tracting the other day and met this man named Demetri.  He sounded like he was from Russia and he told us that his wife wasn't there, but that we could come back tomorrow.  So we left and were obviously making jokes about the movie Anastasia and singing the songs.  We come back the next day and his wife answers the door and lets us in.  We start talking to her and ask her her name and she says that she is ANASTASIA!!! Uhhhh.... What?!?!  Haha my first thought was, "These people are crazy! They changed their names and are going to kill us."  Haha but they were the nicest old couple I have ever met.  Unfortunately when we were leaving they said they just wanted to meet with us for informational purposes.  :( Bummer.  But I just want you to know that I found the lost princess and that Anastasia and Demetri are currently living in Virginia.  Haha, man I have never wanted to watch that movie so bad before.  I'll just have to watch it in December :)

This week we also had a Relief Society activity.  We learned about the five love languages (1.Quality time, 2. Words of affirmation, 3. Acts of service, 4. Physical touch, 5. Receiving gifts.) and then took a little test about which one we were.  No surprise I was quality time.  I pretty much already knew that.  But it was fun to do.  I think the whole idea of the five love languages is fascinating. 

We also had a fun dinner this week. And by fun I mean nasty.  Haha a less active member invited us over for dinner but we had already had a dinner that night.  We of course said yes that we would come over and it was just bad.  We were already full but we just shoved more in.  The worst part was this household had cats EVERYWHERE!!!  They were walking ALL over the dinner table and sniffing our food and I think I ate more cat hair than food.  Oh goodness the missionary life.

Well those are all the fun stories that I can think of right now.  The week really has just been filled with finding and teaching.  We have been having lots of lessons and have found lots of cool people so hopefully it will all work out.  Sister Olson and I have just been working hard and having lots of fun.  It's been a good week.  

Well, I love you all!!!! 

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to Aunt Taryn, Aunt Sarah and Uncle John, Grandma and Grandpa, and Dad for the letters this week! And thanks Dad for the Rose on Valentines Day :)

We bought these ugly sweaters for $3!

She's 97!

We went out to dinner at Chicken Fiesta! the coolest place ever.  Haha it's good Mexican food.  We went with Richard (our investigator) and Bill (the cutest old man ever.  He gives us M&Ms every time we see him).

We are Eskimos!  SO COLD!

Valentine's cupcakes!

We "heart attacked" a member's door.

"My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!"

Sister Olson drew this!  I was dying!

There can be Miracles when you Believe!

Hey Everyone!

GO BRONCOS!!!!!  I'm so happy that they won! :)  I was supporting them here!  I wore blue and sister Olson wore orange.  Colorado for the win! hahaha

Anyway, this week was great!  We had a BAPTISM!!! YAY!!!!!  So here's the story of the baptism.  Belinda was baptized!!!  But the whole thing was a bit of a disaster.  Haha so here is the story of the day.  There was a baptism at the church that morning so we told the Elders to just leave the font filled and we would just show up and add some hot water and all would be well.  Well, we show up and ALL the doors to get into the font room are locked.  We couldn't get in.  We open up the little petition that allows you to see into the font and it's EMPTY!  We didn't have enough time to fill it up!  Sister Olson ended up climbing over the little glass wall into the font and then went around and unlocked the door.  We started filling the font, but unfortunately we didn't have enough time to make it hot...so...it was a cold baptism.  Then apparently no one knew the baptism was changed to Saturday so only maybe 10 people came.  Then Belinda got baptized, but one of the young men did it and he didn't do it right so she had to be dunked twice and then the person who was supposed to do a musical number while Belinda was changing wasn't there so me and Sister Olson just stood up front and started singing. Hahaha it was just a mess, and to top it all off President Wilson decided to come to this baptism.  Hahah oh #AbbyLuck.  But it all worked out. And when we started singing everyone slowly started joining in and the spirit was so strong and I realized that it didn't matter.  None of these things mattered because Belinda got baptized and made that decision to follow Christ and she said that she felt so good and felt the spirit and thats all that matters! So all is well! :)

So super cool miracle this week!  We "spiritually created" this guy last week.  We told ourselves that we were going to meet a guy who lives by the church who is a single dad in his 30s and would be wearing green when we met him.  So we went to contact a less active lady and her housemate answered the door.  We talked with him and he invited us back.  We came back a few days later and it wasn't good.  He was very drunk and wouldn't listen to us and kept telling us that we know nothing because we are only 19 and 20 and have no experience at all.  The spirit was not there so we just wanted to get out.  We told him we had to go (don't worry mom we had a member with us and are always safe :)) and as we walk out another housemate comes up the stairs.  He tells us that he is going to go visit his 8 year old daughter and he is 30 years old and was wearing green and we were right by the church!!! IT WAS SO COOL!!! We found our spiritual creation! He said that he wants to meet with us and that the guy we were talking to was crazy and so tomorrow we are going to have a lesson with him and he says that he wants to get his daughter into a church! Oh miracles.  So cool!

This week we also went on exchanges and I went to Richmond again! I was out on VCU campus again. That was fun.  I didn't actually get to contact anyone on the campus because we had so many lessons that day, but it was still fun to do.  I love being down there.  I want to serve down there sometime so bad! It's so fun and would be fun to be in a young single adult ward.

It was a pretty exciting week.  We have been working a lot with the members and have even found a couple of new investigators.  We have people progressing towards baptism and are seeing so many miracles each day.  I love it here and I love being in this area.  There are many more miracles to be seen!  

I love you all!!!  Happy Valentines Day!  

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, Papooh, Dad, The Jessens, Sister Jeppsen, Elder Enos for the letters this week and thanks Mom for the package!

Michelle's daughters.  We had FHE with them and made these little "I am

a child of God" crowns.

We went to the Waffle House!

Filling the font.

Baptism!

Bronco Fever!

Welcome, welcome, sabbath morning!

Hey Everyone!

This week was fun! I got my new companion! Her name is Sister Olson and I love her!  We are so similar and have been having so much fun together!  We have been tracting up a storm lately.  We have to bring our teaching pool up.  Got to find those prepared people :)

So here are some fun stories of the week.  First off, we were tracting and we decided to "spiritual create" someone.  Spiritual creating is when we pray and then pick out something about a person that we are going to find.  So you could say like a man wearing a red shirt with a beard or something like that.  Anyway, we prayed and I said "we are going to find a man named David" so we headed out and everyone we saw we talked to and asked them their names.  We met this super cool woman named Danielle who was really interested and we set up a return appointment with her for a few days later, but unfortunately, she missed it.  Anyway after meeting her we kept tracting and then had to leave soon.  I decided that Danielle was just the girl version of David and that I would just leave it at that, but then we knocked our second to last door and this guy answered the door and he said he was really busy, but that we could come back next week.  As he was closing the door I asked him what his name was and he said David!  Haha we found him!  It was so cool!  :)  Spiritually creating is so fun because the Lord always brings you to those people.  We just have to have the faith to find them.

Another cool thing from the week was yesterday we had FIVE investigators at church!  I have never had so many people there!  It was great!  Belinda came and she is getting baptized this Saturday!  And she brought her husband with her.  Then Jennifer Harrell (her daughters are Lauren and Sheridan who recently got baptized) brought her other daughter and her son!  Her other daughter, Charis, is going to be baptized on the 20th!  We want to start teaching her son too, but he is a 15 year old boy and isn't that interested.  He just came to church because he likes playing church basketball and you have to come to church every other week to be on the team.  Then the last person there was this man named Richard.  Missionaries have been working with Richard for SOO long! He just won't commit to be baptized.  He has read the whole Book of Mormon and has even said that he knows that its true, but he just doesn't want to be baptized.  It's a bit frustrating.  Sister Olson and I decided that this transfer he will finally commit. :)

Funny story about Richard.  We went and had a lesson with him and we brought Jennifer Harrell with us.  Jennifer is so funny! She is crazy and just the best, but anyway, we took her with us and had a lesson on the word of wisdom and Richard said that he would try and follow it and somehow we convinced him to give us his coffee maker.  So we get home and we have a missed call from Richard and the message says, "I can't believe that I just handed my coffee maker over to you.  Can you please bring it back at church tomorrow?"  Haha we just started laughing and then called him and told him no.  So he is progressing now. :)

Well that was my week.  It was a fun one.  Sister Olson and I have been having lots of fun and are excited about all the miracles we are going to see together.  Love you lots!!  Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the letter.

The lady that we dug her car out of the parking lot brought an edible arrangement to say thanks. 

Ate all the fruit during weekly planning. haha

The Harrells.  I love this family!

We got these weird Mexican sodas.  Cheers to a new transfer!

Area book is death! almost done transitioning all the records

New companion, Sister Olsen

Do you want to build a snowman?

Hey Everyone!

What a crazy week! Many of you probably heard, but it snowed here!  Hahaha - A LOT!!!!!!!  We got about a foot and a half of snow.  If that doesn't make missionary work interesting, I don't know what does. Haha so we were supposed to have a baptism this weekend.  Belinda was so ready and was excited for Saturday, but the snow cancelled it. :(  She is now scheduled for Feb. 6th because thats the next time all her family will be able to go.  Bummer that she has to wait two weeks to be baptized.  The snow came at the wrong time.  

But anyway here is the story of the snow.  On Friday it was clear until about 10:00 a.m. then it started snowing.  We kept doing our studies and it wasn't bad.  By the time our studies were done and we ate lunch and stuff the snow was coming down, but we decided to still go out.  We hadn't received a text saying otherwise and it really wasn't that bad.  We went to an appointment, but they told us that we were crazy and to go home and so we rescheduled with them.  We then went and visited my favorite family the Harrells (Lauren and Sheridan just got baptized).  We were there for a bit and had a lesson with the youngest sister Charis who is preparing for baptism now too!  Then we went up the street to visit a family from the ward (the Suarez family) to return the plates that they had given us.  We had a bit of a snowball fight with them and then went in and since our dinner cancelled on us they feed us dinner.  By then the snow was coming down hard and we got a text saying that is was time for all missionaries to go home.  So we decided to leave....but our car was stuck.  Luckily the Suarezes had a truck and a chain and after about an hour they got us out.  During that time the freezing rain came.  hahaha I have now lived through freezing rain!  Haha that's saying something.  If you have never experienced it... it's just how it sounds.  It's rain that freezes as it falls so its basically like rain hail.  So fun.  But we drove home (Brother Suarez drove right behind us to make sure we didn't get stuck again) and we then spent the rest of the night inside doing area book.  We still have to convert all our paper records to our iPads. 

The next day (Saturday) it was still snowing the whole day.  We were told that driving was off limits, but to try and give service where you see it.  We went around shoveling and knocking doors in our apartment complex.  Everyone just told us to go home.  We did make a mini snow missionary during lunch though :) haha but that night was again spent inside doing area book.  That brings us to yesterday! (Sunday) Church was cancelled, but the sun was out and it was hot.  We spent all day yesterday going around shoveling pathways and helping people dig out their cars.  We literally just had shovels on our shoulders and went around saving people :) haha it was fun and we met lots of people and were given hot chocolate, but I am SOOOOOO sore!!!!  I have never been in this kind of pain. Haha shoveling for a whole day and pushing cars hurts.  But the sun is out today and the main roads are completely dry and I hear that the neighborhoods are all being plowed today, so missionary work is back to normal!! 

Well you now have heard about my adventure in the snow.  This email was very long.  Sorry.  I will now sum up everything else from this week.  On Wednesday we were apart of the first ever all missionary conference.  It was basically like general conference for missionaries.  All missionaries all over the world got to hear from general authorities.  It was cool.  We received trainings on how to be better missionaries.  

In other news the streak continues!  Sister Garrigues is being transferred tomorrow. 6 transfers, 6 companions.  One day I will keep a companion. haha Well, I love you all! have a good week! Stay warm! I hope that I will! haha

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. thanks to Dad, Sister Zhenya Plumb, Sister McKenna Weech, Elyse, Myles, and Kaiya for the letters this week!!

Sister Snow-woman 

Tracking in the snow.

Temp says 22 degrees!

Shoveling people out.

Huge snowman we found while out.

Hot chocolate drinking Johnny!

Blizzard of 2016 - Snowzilla!

The cold never bothered me anyway!

This week was a fun one! Today I went ice skating!!!!! A member brought us and it was so fun! I had really bad skates (rental skates - what you gonna do?) so I couldn't do much, but it was still just great to be on the ice again. Man I missed it so much I wanted to start
crying. Going 7 months without it has been hard, but it's just like riding a bike and I picked it up again :)

So last Monday was sisters P-day and we went to the art museum in downtown Richmond. It was fun. We got to walk around and look at all the art and then we went and got really good donuts at this place called the Sugar shack. Downtown Richmond is just so cool. It would be fun to serve there someday.

We also had zone conference this week! We were combined with my last zone, so I got to see Sister Bray again and all the other sisters from my last zone. The trainings that we had were really great. We learned all about the best way to work with the ward council and how to use the Book of Mormon when teaching. We have started implementing what we
learned and already our investigators are reading from the Book of Mormon more! :)

Then yesterday was my 7 month mark! It's just so crazy. I can't believe I've been out so long. Church was good yesterday. We had two investigators there and one, Belinda, I think is going to be baptized soon! She is amazing! She readily accepts everything we teach her and she loves the church. She is just waiting on an answer as to when to
get baptized.  We are hoping for this weekend because transfers are next week and we don't know what will happen, but the decision is hers and we will just have to see. She is so ready though. She could be baptized right now. This area is just so fruitful! I don't want to go.

In other even more exciting news, it snowed yesterday!!!!! Everyone was freaking out and thinking that church was going to be canceled and it literally was just a dusting. Like the grass wasn't even fully covered. Haha Our ward mission leader called and was like "how are you driving in the snow?" And I just started laughing. Oh Virginians you
know nothing about snow:) it made me so happy to see it though. Made me feel at home. It's all melted now, but it was fun. Finally felt like winter with the snow.

Well that was my week! It's been fun! We have been finding a lot and all our recent converts are doing well! We are just building the teaching pool up again. I love you all and miss you!!!

Love,
Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to dad and grandma and grandpa for the letters, and thanks to papooh for the popcorn! And uncle John for the hot chocolate and the hot chocolate drinking Johnny. Haha so funny. Loved it!

Art museum visit for Sister's P-day

Namaste

Sister Bray!  I just love her!

Popcorn from Papooh!

ICE SKATING!!!

Finally!

I feel most at home here.

Zone conference

Zone buddies.

Still got it.....kind of.....haha

Back to School

Hey Everyone!

What a GREAT week!!  I loved it! So much happened!

So to start off with the most exciting news: Michelle Alfano, Lauren Harrell, and Sheridan Harrell all got baptized on Saturday!!!! It was truly an amazing baptism.  The spirit was so strong and I was just so happy to watch each of these wonderful daughters of God be baptized.  I love the work that I am a part of!  There were so many non-members at the baptism and all the missionaries who taught Michelle came, so I got to see Sister Kellogg.  It was just a really great day!  Unfortunately now that Michelle and the Harrell girls are all baptized, we don't really have any investigators. Hahaha so its back to finding!  Knocking on doors here we come!

Another fun thing this week was that we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and I went to their area.  They are in a Young Singles Adult ward and so it was way fun to be there.  All the people that they work with are my age and they are right by Virginia Commonwealth University campus so it was like being back at college.  It was weird to think that this time next year I will be at college.  It's strange to teach people my age, but its fun.  We walked around VCU campus, but school hasn't started yet so no one was really there.  It was fun to be downtown though and get to just street contact.  

This week I also had to give a training in district meeting (I've given 4 now I think) and I really enjoy doing those, and then I also had to give a talk in church.  I have spoken in every ward I've been in.  The wards are just so small on the east coast that they need people to speak each Sunday so anytime there is a new missionary in the ward they have them speak. I pretty much gave the same talk that I gave last time though. haha  

Last Monday we had zone Pday and we played Oompa again.  That's all we ever really do for zone Pday, but I made a basket..point...touchdown... not sure what to call it.  I made one though!  I try to make at least one point each time we play.  I try to be sporty, haha, but it doesn't always work out for me. :)  Today is Sisters Pday and we are going to Richmond and going to a museum I think.  Should be fun.  I voted for ice skating, but maybe next time.  I will get to the rink eventually! :)  I found one in the ward boundaries so I'm going to ask for permission to go next week.

Well I love all of you!  I miss you all a ton!  Have a great week!  Hopefully I will find some new people this week!  A week full of opportunities! 

Love,

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to Elder Kalani Enos and Sheiyenne Baloo for the letters!

Michelle and her daughter and us

Lauren and Sheridan Harrell

All the missionaries who baptized Michelle

You have now entered the twilight zone

Happy New Year!!!! 2016!!!!!! How is that even possible?!?!?!  I swear I'm in an alternate reality where time goes too fast.  I'm pumped though because this WHOLE year I get to spend it being a missionary!! I can't think of a better thing to do for a year!

So this week was pretty normal. We taught A LOT of lessons this week.  So that was really cool!  We taught 16 lessons and had 11 lessons with less actives.  Pretty crazy week.  There has been no time for tracting lately.  We didn't have to knock any doors this week.  We also have three people getting baptized this Saturday!  The first one is Michelle Elfano.  She contacted us a few weeks ago saying that she was taught by missionaries in the past and that she wasn't ready to be baptized then, but is ready now.  So we have been meeting with her a lot lately and she had her baptismal interview on Saturday and is getting baptized this weekend!  We literally have done nothing.  She has basically baptized herself, haha but what's so cool is Sister Kellogg had taught her last year!  She started her lessons and I'm ending them! So cool!  Hopefully Sister Kellogg will get to come to the baptism.

The other two people getting baptized are the daughters of a recent convert.  We see this family everyday.  I love them.  They had us over for dinner last night and we played basketball with them last Monday.  The girls (Lauren and Sheridan)  have their interview tomorrow and I hope all goes well!  I love these girls.  They are 14 and 12 and I know that if they get baptized now that it will only help them in their future lives.  It's so fun bringing whole families into the church.

So for my New Years Eve I partied hard! Hahaha just kidding.  I went to bed at 10:30 like usual.  :)  We were only allowed to go visit members that night so we stopped by a lot of older ladies.  We have a lot of ladies in the ward who are all alone so we went and spent New Years Eve with them.  On New Years Day we had a zone meeting and it was really good.  We had great trainings.  Then all the sisters in the zone went and got lunch together.  I love being with other missionaries.  That's always the most fun when you get to be with other missionaries and just talk about all your cool experiences and miracles

Oh, speaking of miracles! Here's one for the week.  So we were supposed to have an appointment with this lady and we showed up, but she wasn't there.  So we started driving down the road and on the side of the road we saw this car and people trying to push it.  So of course we pulled into the nearest parking lot and went to go help.  We helped this women and her uncle push the car into the parking lot.  Their car had just randomly broken down.  So they were stuck. We talked to them for a long time and then because they couldn't go anywhere we taught the restoration!! Haha I love when people can't shut the door on you :)  Well the women LOVED all that we said.  She took a Book of Mormon and said that she saw Christ in us.  She said that she usually panics in situations like this, but talking to us she felt completely at peace.  She said that she wants to know more and feel this great feeling (the Spirit) again.  We got her information and unfortunately she isn't in our area, but we sent her info off to the missionaries in her area and I know that she is going to be baptized.  It was just such a cool experience.  We were led to her and she was prepared to hear the gospel.  I just love it!

Well that's all for now folks! I love you all and have a great New Year!!!  Don't give up on those resolutions just yet :)  Try to make a goal of coming closer to Christ whether its reading in the scriptures or just trying to be more Christ-like in all your doings.  Make this year a great one!!  Love you!

Sister Lawson

P.S. Thanks to the Jensens for the card!

Sister's lunch.

My candy drawer!  It's full!