Last of the pictures from the MTC

She couldn't send these until this week so they from before getting to South Carolina. Her district having fun with snow and at the temple.

Her note was this is a district in her zone of all elders no sisters.

This pretty bush at the temple.

Her district at the temple

Their name tags

Her and her companions name tags.

More sisters from their zone.

Waiting for something

Being goofy in class

This is Elder Pugh (pronounced Pew) they were friends.

Elders showing where they are going to serve.

One of her MTC teachers.

Week 5 ...lots of pictures!

Hello, my dear ones!
Here's a new thing I decided that I'm going to do in these here emails. I'm going to include a ''just southern things'' segment every week where I will detail things that happen to me in good ol' SCCM. 
So, for this week's installment of ''just southern things'' I:
-Tried grits and I really liked them!
-learned about the law in Winnsboro where it's a $25 fine to sag your pants
-learnt that everyone here is related, but they don't say ''related'' here, they're all ''kin''.
-Taught a guy named Booger (not a lie or joke, that is his name) and he kept calling the Book of Mormon the Book of Norman.
-had a dude tell us all about cussing out his Mormon boss's wife
-along with many other interesting experiences  


Mooooooving right along.
This week was really crazy! Monday we got to play tennis, because one of our ward members is really rich and has a tennis court and the elders have tennis things. We also were supposed to see V, but she was having a bad day and told us to come on Tuesday, which thing we did.
Tuesday we had my first ever District Meeting! I got to meet the Ridgeway elders, Elder O and Elder D, and Sister Hansen gave a training on teaching by the spirit. It was really good. Also, a side note - Elder O is straight up, word for word, everything he says and does and in every way JUST EXACTLY LIKE Jacob Arnold. It freaks me out every time he does anything. He was pretty offended when I told him he was just like my little brother's friend, but less offended when I told him he was a cool kid. Another side note - Izak, you looked beautiful at Preference. Later that night we saw V and talked to her. A miracle occurred, as miracles so often do. F her boyfriend marched in and said that he is quitting smoking. Outta nowhere. It was awesome.
Wednesday we had no appointments planned at all. BUUUUUUT that is totally okay because we spent all day finding people to teach. We got zero return appointments, but we taught like 10 lessons, and a seed was planted in every single one. Also, we got six referrals because Sister Hansen followed the Spirit. We were on our way to C's house to drop him because he's not making any progress, mostly probably because he doesn't understand our English and refuses to be taught in Spanish. We were headed down one road and Sister Hansen just happened to turn down a road she'd never been. We passed a lady raking leaves and stopped to ask if we should help, and she said we could. Sister Hansen had gloves and we borrowed a rake from her neighbor. Her name was M and she was super not interested because her husband is a pastor, but we helped her rake leaves for like 1.5 hours and she was really impressed with our honest desire to follow God, especially given that we are so young. (Most people here think I am 16. *sigh*) So we asked if there was anyone else we could go help and she told us like 4 of her neighbors and their addresses, including the one we borrowed the rake from. All in all, it was a fun day full of hard work.
Thursday we were meant to see V again, but she rescheduled again...because she was looking for A BABYSITTER SO SHE COULD GO BACK TO WORK!!!! I am serious, fam, this woman is so ready to be baptized. ALERT: IF YOU ARE READING THIS, SAY A QUICK PRAYER THAT V WILL BE ABLE TO BE BAPTIZED FEB. 4TH. We taught D and her kids and she prayed and expressed a desire to come to church in her prayer. It was sweet. We also saw a member, who basically told us he's going inactive because he doesn't get invited to things. Pray for him though. He was not at church yesterday.
Friday we went to V's again!!! We taught her about prophets. She was a little skeptical at first about living prophets today, but then we showed her a video about Thomas S Monson and she said, ''there's something about his voice when he talks. I like that.'' Ugh, I have never seen someone so willing to just believe and change and do things. PLEASE PRAY FOR HER. She's the best. We also had ward coordination and Brother T wanted me to let my parents know that he is looking out for us with his NEW ATTACK DOG, Dieks. He's *huge*.
Saturday we also did not have anything planned so we went and found people all day. No return appointments, but 4 referrals. Again. 
Yesterday V didn't come to church because she was laid up with a toothache, so again, PRAYERS because SATAN KNOWS THAT IF V GOES TO CHURCH SHE WILL LITERALLY HOP INTO THE BAPTISMAL FONT IN HER STREET CLOTHES. It was really good though. We had ward council before church and the bishop is so awesome. He is doing great work with us.

I got pretty discouraged today. I feel like we're doing a lot, but nothing's happening. Satan is real! He keeps trying to tell me that I'm not making any difference with the people here. But in reality, I am learning so much. I am learning to surrender my will to God's, and give everything I have to Him. I am exhausted every night when I go to bed. But this work is so worth it. These people are incredible - they are so stubborn, but they love so fiercely and feel everything so deeply. They are funny and loud and sweet. They are honest and kind to their very bones; they protect each other. I love them more and more every day and can only hope to shed a little light into their lives. There's nothing like hearing their stories, colorful though they may be, and coming to understand them. Missionary work is a little like being a mom, or a shepherd, and these cute people are my little flock. I adore them, and I hope the Lord blesses me to be able to keep them safe.
I love y'all! Don't let the muggles get you down!
All my love,
Sister Pew

When they had mission conference some sisters stayed with them so Sister Pew made them do mud masks, of course!

They actually got snow.

They live with members here.

Sister Pew and Sister Hansen

Her note on this was: I am still a dork.

One month on the mission celebratory dinner!

Her note on this was: Shout out to the Rice Family!

Week 4 Baby's One Month Old

Hello dear ones!
This week was pretty crazyyyyyy.
Um. Monday was good. We went shopping! It was pretty fun. We also wrote emails and it took me 5ever. That night we taught V the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She's the best ever. More on her later. 
Tuesday was the hardest day of my whole mission. Nobody answered the door all day. We talked to this very nice Baptist man on a street corner who was so genuinely worried about us because we're Mormon girls and Mormons believe in polygamy...and he wouldn't listen to us when we told him that we ARE Mormon and I GREW UP IN UTAH AND I have never met a polygamist in my lifetime...and so, and I quote, he said, "it just hurts my heart to know that anybody so nice as you ladies is going to hell." !!! It happened. I hadn't even been in South Carolina for a week, and some guy is telling me I'm going to hell. But that's not even the best part of it. He was so kind, truly. So genuinely concerned and sad. And he looked right into my eyes and asked me why he couldn't enter the temple as an unbaptized member. He didn't really let me answer, but I knew it didn't really matter what I told him about the sacredness of temples. He wasn't going to believe me. We didn't bash with him; Sister Hansen testified of Christ and His love, and he agreed with us there. Then...I may or may not have thanked him for his concern for us, even though he barely knew us, and I may or may not have also started crying. As in, I was bawling. Sister Hansen was dying. She thought it was so funny. My tears are just not shy at all. But anyways, that experience definitely taught me a lot about the South. The people here in the bible belt love Jesus, and love talking about Him, and believe what they believe just as strongly as we believe what we do. They don't think that they need to change. It's a challenge for sure, but that's okay.
Wednesday was so great. We tried to visit lots of people who didn't answer, and I was on edge all day because we were going to teach V the Word of Wisdom in the evening. But guess what? She swanned on by. Without a whisper. Without a second glance. Just, "I wouldn't have ever thought coffee and tea!" But she accepted it so quick, and is working on quitting smoking. ALSO she has been having a lot of tooth pain so we brought over Brother T and Brother A to give her a blessing. She said that it was the best thing ever, and that she felt it in her whole body. Brother T gave the blessing to her and she didn't even tell him what was up. He just knew.  And Brother A said that everything he said was in his mind before Brother T said it. The priesthood is the power of God.
Thursday was a pretty slow day - we did weekly planning and cleaned our car and met a ne2 investigator. 
Friday we had ZTM (zone training meeting), and I had to play the piano last minute...which was kinda fun. We were committed by our zone leaders to do 3 things- 1) don't leave an area until you figure out why you're there,  2) teach toward a commitment, and 3) replace unfocused thoughts with something meaningful. Solid advice. Then we went and taught V the law of Chastity,  and....she's willing to live that too. She wants to get baptized so bad. The problem is, she lives with her boyfriend and doesn't have a job, so he supports her and her daughter. He's totally willing to "let her" get baptized, but he won't marry her until they've been dating 3 years, and they've been dating for 1. So...she has to move out and find a job. She's willing to work and to live in separate houses from him, and has received job offers, but needs a babysitter and a place to live. So EVERYONE: IF YOU ARE READING THIS, PLEASE OFFER A PRAYER FOR THINGS TO WORK OUT FOR her SO THAT SHE CAN BE BAPTIZED FEBRUARY 4TH. We fasted yesterday to see a miracle as well. 
Saturday was a weird day, because the South, that's why. We scheduled like 4 appointments and they all fell through so we tried to contact for awhile. We met this woman S and she gave me a calancho plant because she's super nice. We said a prayer with her and it made her cry. Also, Sister Hansen miraculously healed a butterfly in her garage. Also, it was my 1 month mark! I have officially been gone a month! What the heck? Where'd the time go? I swear it was but 6 hours ago I was entering the MTC.
Yesterday, V couldn't come to church because her daughter and boyfriend were sick. But all the missionaries were called upon to give impromptu talks and I was drafted as the Relief Society pianist. Busy day. Elder M and Elder L had their investigator L come, and she's getting baptized the 28th of this month! We were also fasting for a miracle for V. 
That's really all that I can remember. It was busy and a little frustrating, but we are working and praying hard.
Some other things about the south:
-everyone is actually obsessed with grits.
-mostly everyone smokes.

-the slang is contagious.

So, I've got an accent now. Badly. I am southern. It's hilarious. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and needed to use the bathroom, and I couldn't find the light switch in there. So I was feeling around the wall trying to find it and knocked something down. And instead of exclaiming a normal "what was that?" I muttered to myself, "aww, shucks, where'm I at?" I am not lying. This actually happened. I am going native.

Some cute moments:
-we taught a 7 year old and her parents. She loves us. She wants to be a sister missionary when she grows up. Unfortunately, her parents do not like us.
-I got to use my floral skills! We went to a member's house and did a Book of Mormon read with them, and his wife had a vase of roses that were wilting. So I asked if I could trim and revase them, and she told me at church that they are still alive. They were so grateful for that, and it felt good to do things with flowers again.

No pictures this week - the library is closed for MLK Jr. Day.
Pray for these sweet, God-fearing, loving people.
Don't let the muggles get you down!
All my love,
Sister Pew 

Week 3? Week 3.5? Man I don't know...

Oooookay tons happened in between last email and this one, so I'll just sum up.
Last few days at the MTC were so great! I forgot to mention in emails/previous phone calls about gym time...so basically let me tell you about it, because it's great.
So my district in the MTC loved volleyball. I, however, am so bad at volleyball. So I would play basketball by myself, which is fine, and I did not feel left out at all - it was actually kinda nice. But after the first couple days of PE, I think all these elders must have thought that I was feeling forlorn or something, because they would come shoot around on my court. The first group of elders just started playing and they were like not good at all. So I had been drilling in a corner spot that was giving me trouble, and I'd gotten pretty darn good at draining shots from that spot. So I just stayed there and kept shooting, making a good 75% of the shots I took, and those elders left real fast. The next day, however, I was shooting around when this very nice elder dribbled over and struck up a conversation. His name is Elder S and he and some of the elders in his district came to my court and talked with me while they shot. They are going to Korea but none of them has Brother Reynolds (our hometeacher who goes to BYU) as their teacher, so darn it. But anyways, Elder S and his buddies were also impressed with the amount of shots I was making. One of them, Elder S2, even told the rest of them that he usually plays four square and he'd occasionally look over at me while I was shooting by myself and see me just draining shots. He's all like, "you are super good!" I felt pretty good about that!
Soooooooo, after that, they invited me to play speed with them, and I got quite a few of them out. It was so much fun. I didn't win, but I was in the top 2 at least once.
And apparently the news spread. I went to gym next day and there were like 7 elders wanting to play speed again. And the next day. Fast forward to the 29th or so, and there's like 10 elders and 3 sisters who play with me. I was almost always in the top 3. Later on that week, the new years package in that huge box arrived. I was carrying it to my room when I passed an elder I'd gotten out in speed. His companion started elbowing him and goes, "she plays ball and carries huge boxes!" So I apparently have a reputation now, because his companion wasn't playing with us. So that's the story of how I became a legend in gym. ¡Que va!
That took a long time to explain. So, last week before I left I:
-Committed 2 investigators to baptism
-sang for one
-was asked to whip out an arrangement of God Be With You Til We Meet Again for my MTC district & district 36b to sing, which I did, and played the piano for it
-bore my testimony and cried
-went on a temple walk with my zone
-got to know the new district
-fell in love with alllllll of them
-said goodbye to my district
-said goodbye to the best teachers in the MTC, Brother Elg and Sister Jacobsmeyer
-cried a lot

And then I left the MTC, and
-talked to everyone in the airport, and told them all that God loves them

A stewardess texted this picture to parents from the Atlanta airport.

-gave away 5 ish passalong cards
-ARRIVED IN SOUTH CAROLINA!!!!!!

Made it to the mission!

and that's as far as I can sum up because I haaaaave to tell you everything about it. It's been less than a week in and I have already seen so many miracles.
Some information about the South:
▪nobody has teeth and a lot of people don't have hair
▪everyone calls you "baby" or "honey"
▪everyone has an accent, not just some people
▪everyone has been married more than once
▪everyone loves Jesus, which is great because they are super open to letting us come into their homes just to talk about Him.

*the basketball courts are carpeted (?????)

*Everyone loves Clemson or HATES Clemson but the entire state is freaking out today

It's just a super weird place, but I love it. The people are very kind and open.

Okay so we went to the mission home right after we made it in. We met the APs, one of whom is from Springville and knows Elder C. He was very pleasantly surprised to hear that he was on a mission. That was a super awesome miracle because Sister Cordon and I were super missing District Kun Long. (Side note: people keep telling me I'll forget my MTC district but they're wrong. I won't. They're family.) That night we had dinner at the mission home with president. Elder H, one of the APs, took one look at me and said, "I bet you're super funny." And then the whole rest of the night he was like, waiting for me to be funny. That was way too much pressure, so I didn't talk pretty much the whole time. What a disappointment. There were 19 of us who arrived that night so we were a little squished. Sister Cordon, Miss Show No Emotion Ever, got really, really sad when we were going to bed. We were sleeping next to each other and she grabbed my hand and just held it for awhile. It was so tender. I was at peace though. I know through revelation that I will see them all again. Sister Cordon and Sister Janke especially, though. Those two are permanent parts of my life now. When President Arnold set me apart, he promised that I would make lifelong friends. He was so right and I know it because of those two. I can't wait to see who else I find.
Okay so the next day we went to training and transfers. Sister Janke got put with someone who knows Caden Lundquist, Sister Megan Baxter, and Sister Willmotte, so she's in another trio, and she's in S! Sister Cordon is with Sister Pickett in I. I am with Sister Hansen in B. I love it here. It's one of the most ghetto places in the mission, so that's awesome. I'm a little proud of the fact that my very first area, they stuck me right in the worst spot in the mission. The APs must think that I am super tough. So here I am in B. Everyone here is not white. We get lots of weird looks. Sister Hansen is the sweetest ever, though, so it's all good, because everyone who meets her loves her. That night I got acquainted with the area, and met our landlady Sister P who is cute and a member, and her husband K who is cute and not a member. Our apartment is cute, it's above a garage. I met P. She's in love with Joseph Smith. He apparently appears to her in visions and chastises her for being angry with her kids. At least he gives her good advice...Then we went to ward coordination at the ward mission leader's house, where I got to meet the ward mission leader, Brother T, and the district leader, Elder M, and his companion, Elder L.  So we talked about the ward and missionary work. Apparently the work is going slower than he would like (he's a convert and really loves missionaries). He's super blunt and vocal. He's awesome though. Love him. He promised to talk to the bishop, which apparently was very needed. Also, over the course of the day, Sister Hansen had me teach some lessons to real investigators! She's so great throwing me in the water and expecting me to swim. That wasn't sarcastic- I'm actually really grateful that she just wants me to learn by doing. She's wonderful.
Thursday. Miracles everywhere. One of our investigators ASKED US to be baptized...so that was incredible. Her name is V. She's been through a lot of things, especially with relationships. Please pray for her and her family. We invited them all to church, which thing they did.  She lives with her boyfriend, though,  and she has a word of wisdom issue, so please, please pray for her, her boyfriend F, and her daughter J. She's amazing though, she has such faith. We visited lots of less actives later that night..
Friday, we visited more less actives. We had a pretty great day. We found new investigators...we did lots of thingggssss...we did weekly planning which was so long....I met Brother W who is the cutest old man ever. He greets us with a verrry slow, "hey, lady" which is adorable. He was reactivated after 60 years of being inactive. We also visited an investigator, D, with him. She lives wayyyy out in the country. We also saw E, a recent convert working to go to the temple in 6 months. We read the Book of Mormon with him, which was awesome. It rained, which was nice, but the whoLE ENTIRE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA was in a state of UPROAR because apparently it was supposed to SNOW. *gasp* Which it did, later that night. Because of the weather, we had a couple of sisters stay over in our apartment, and I made them put mud on their faces. It was great. But they stayed over becauuuuuse....

SATURDAY WAS THE BEST DAY EVER IN THE WHOLE HISTORY OF MY LIFE.

We had a mission conference with Elder Stevenson of the Apostles! It was so great and basically life changing. We also got to be with the whole mission, which a) never happens and b) meant that I got to see Sister Janke, Sister Cordon and Elders P and C again. What a time to be alive. I actually got to sit next to Sister Cordon during the talks which was awesome.

Sister Pew and fellow missionaries with Elder Stevenson. She is in the green jacket, 3rd row, right side.

Elder Stevenson gave us an apostolic blessing, SO THAT WAS EXCELLENT. He blessed us to have the spirit with us and to teach with the power and authority from God. That night when we went out proselyting, *everyone was home*. EVERYONE. The power of God is so real, oh my heck.

Sunday, we had 4 investigators at church, V and her boyfriend F (and their 3yo daughter J), C, a dude from Honduras who refuses to be taught in Spanish, and S, the nonmember wife of a less active member. We also had ward council, which was great, because Elder Stevenson had also met with all the bishops and stake presidents in the whole state of South Carolina, so Bishop  told us that he basically called out bishops for not being more involved in missionary work (!!!!) and Bishop  apologized and told us he would be more willing to help us, which made Brother T almost pass out. Those two have a very interesting relationship. Bishop also decided that he will be making assignments for people to go on splits with us (hallelujah!!!). He also invited us to dinner with one of the Elders' investigators, L. His wife made tacos, which I still do not like, but which I ate with no complaint because I have been living off of naan bread and craisins.

Overall, this week has been great. We got 10 new investigators, which is a miracle (usually we get 3 or 4). I am working hard, I am having fun, and I am growing (not physically, lol). 

Don't let the muggles get you down!

I love you all!

Sister Pew

Extra stuff from other emails she sent me:

Where is your companion from? Arizona, Glendale. She's super familiar...it's freaky.

It's COOOOLD right now. Very cold. Humidity is no fun!

I love my trainer! I love this place! I'm staying safe, although I know you're not worried about me. 

Oh! Also! I sing all the time for people, and I already have an accent. After being around southern people all the time especially.