The Adventures of Sister Pew(ny): Week 15 - "Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon"

HELLO EVERYONE!

Transfer calls are in and Sister Julander is leaving the #threeternity companionship to half-train in an undisclosed location. I AM SO IN LOVE WITH SISTER JULANDER AND I AM SO SAD AND so the subject of the email is something that she said when someone asked her how she could be standing outside in the 85 degree weather IN A SWEATER and it was hilarious because she is hilarious. So there. BUT, I am staying in M. But more on that later...

Monday, we moved into our new apartments! That took pretty much all day. At around 1 U showed up and hunted us down and took us to get ice cream. Apparently, Sister Julander saw a lady taking pictures of our car, and didn't say anything, and then when we got back our car was being towed. We jumped out of the car and were like "WHAT THE HECK WE LIVE HERE STOP TOWING OUR CAR" and the guy took one look at our nametags and went, "y'all with the church? Imma drop this." and dropped our car and drove away. That was crazy, and we were pretty shaken. Luckily, at 6 PM a huge group of priesthood holders showed up to help us. I have never been more grateful for the priesthood than when I witnessed Elder D carrying our dryer up the stairs and thought, "I couldn't physically do that on my own..." Yep. It was a great time. Also, that night, Sister C (a member) bought us pizza even though we told her we'd already eaten AND it's against the rules, so we made the elders eat it.

Tuesday we were basically still moving. We unpacked and cleaned a lot of our apartment. That night we traveled to Summerville so Sister Julander and I could do an exchange with our STL, Sister Irwin. She's the GOAT.

Wednesday we spent in Summerville. We volunteered at Habitat for Humanity. It was really fun. We taught a family.

Thursday! President came to M! It was so fun! Miss U pretty much thought he was in charge of ALL Mormons, not just us, so basically the prophet, and it was waaaaaaay fun. Also, I just love U. That night we had Book of Mormon class.

Friday is where the craziness starts. We got a leadership call -- Sister Julander was half training! And so Sister Goettsche and I thought we were leaving. Sister Goettsche was really sad because she's been in Moncks Corner her whole mission. I was okay. We got to see the church's Easter initiative, #PrinceofPeace see here. All y'all should watch the heck out of that, because it's incredible. Also, we played volleyball again and someone who actually knew how to play showed up to help. Also, after we played basketball. It was really fun. I made a couple of good passes and scored some points because the elders aren't allowed to guard us.

Saturday we tried to say some goodbyes and also watched CONFERENCE AND IT WAS AMAZING AND I SAW DADDDDDDDDD and so many people tried to text us photos of him and it was hilarious. Also, Sister Hansen actually emailed me a photo of him which was cute. Also, Conference itself was incredible. Don't take the prophets and apostles for granted, team. The fact that we have them is super great.

Sunday was ALSO great. Guys. Conference. Elder Palmer's talk was easily my favorite as a missionary. I loved it.

Today we went to Magnolia! It's a plantation in Charleston with freakin' huuuuuge gardens and they're amazing. There will be photos (see below). Also, this morning the official transfer news was sent to all of us and to our great surprise, Sister Goettsche and I are actually staying here in Moncks Corner and Sister Julander is leaving!!! It was cray.

Here's the quotes for today!

"You're the Beyonce of roleplays." -Sister Pew
"You have to talk louder. The toilet is making Satan noises." -Sister Pew
"Does this potato bring out my eyes?" -Sister Julander
"If I could, I would just be a dog so I could marry a dog." -Sister Goettsche
"You're like, the Uncomfortable Hulk." -Sister Pew
"I'd dab for David." -Sister Pew
I love y'all! Don't let the muggles get you down!

-Sister Pew

Preparation Day morning mist

The first Magnolia photo. The Biblical garden. They looked up every plant in the Bible and planted it in this garden. References are included. ALSO, you can grow basically ANYTHING in South Carolina and it's brilliant. Also, all the rest are Magnolia Manor photos. The history behind this manor is that the original owner gifted it to his son in law in the 1600s and it's stayed in that family forever. It was established 100 years before America was even a country. The actual house has been burned twice, once by lightning and once by the Union army in the Civil War. It was owned by, most famously, Reverend John Grimke Drayton, nephew of the famous abolitionists and suffragettes, the Grimke sisters. The gardens are a top tourist attraction in the United States and Magnolia was once just below the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls for most photographed places in the world. The little white houses were slave cabins. There would've been 2 slave families per cabin. They were tiny. Reverend Drayton taught his slaves to read and write and from what I can tell seemed to be a pretty decent fellow. We went on a tram tour of the whole gardens and then walked through the parts that were free. There's also the Audobon Swamp Gardens on the property, and you can do a house tour, but we didn't do those because $$$ Also, we saw lots of pretty flowers and bridges and a FREAKING HUUUUGE GATOR HOLY COW. It was a really fun day.