The Adventures of Sister Pew(ny): Week 59 - "It's time to turn up the music."

Welcome to the new recipients of Sister Pew's weekly emails, including Elder Shumate and my Inman family <3

It's been a pretty great week!

Monday was a good day. We mostly just took care of some stuff. Buying groceries was rough because transfers always deplete your missionary savings fund, and also it was the very tail-end of the month, so that was stressful. But $5 of personal funds later, we had some (not lots, but some) food in the fridge, which is much better than when I first arrived. This week we have enjoyed chicken and broccoli, plus some much-needed member meals :) Anyways, so after we went shopping I made cupcakes and Sister Hamilton did something else. I really actually don't know what she was doing. And then I real quick cleaned the apartment while she showered, and then we made the long trek up to Columbia so we could stay the night before our morning session of Missionary Leadership Council! We spent the night with the Columbia sisters, Sister Mock and Hermana Chappell, and the Florence sisters, Sister Ranada and Sister Janke (who was my MTC companion, yoohellooo!). It was lots of fun, except that we had to sleep together on an absolutely atrocious air mattress, and so anytime either Sister Hamilton or I moved, we both woke up because it made a very loud noise that sounded like an elephant having a bowel movement. I'm serious. It was terrible. Also the Columbia apartment is pretty old, and it gets FREEZING in the nighttime. And all I brought was a little thin blanket. *siiigggh* so neither of us slept super great, but that is okay!

Because MLC was so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MAN it just was a really awesome experience for me. I learned a couple things there:

1. Obedience is important. Like super duper important. But also, it is not part of God's plan that we are commanded in all things. We should be in tune with the Spirit enough to know what God would ask us to do.

2. PRESIDENT INNES IS AN INSPIRED MAN AND WORKS SO HARD TO HELP US GROW AS MISSIONARIES AND I LOVE HIM.

3. We as missionaries are too focused on the little technicalities of the gospel (the dance steps) and not focused enough on the beautiful doctrines and applications thereof (the music). President Innes said that it's time for us to "turn up the music". And I couldn't agree more.

Man, it was just such a good meeting. Halfway through we roleplayed a couple different finding scenarios, and we were supposed to just sit down randomly in groups of 3, and my companion and I were the first two in the room, so I just sat down in a chair. And who decides to come sit by me? Why, Elder B of course. Elder B, formerly of Boiling Springs, who is now in West Columbia, who is the greatest ever in the whole world. And then who joined us? Why, Elder P of course. Elder P, formerly of the Ridge Rage district, AKA the ringleader of the KungPao Buckaroos, AKA ALSO the greatest ever in the whole world. So I got to roleplay with 2 of my favorite people in the mission and that was lovely. I felt the Spirit super strong. It's just so nice to get to learn from other (better) missionaries and take their teaching skills into my area. After MLC we went to the mission office to pick up mail and stuff. We also saw the Shumates (who are my absolute favorites) and I was confronted by Elder Shumate about why he was not added to my email list. Right as I responded, "because I'm a fetchhead!" the whole room went silent. Like all of MLC was there. And they heard me tell Elder Shumate that I'm a fetchhead. It was pretty awkward, but Elder B and Elder E thought it was really funny. After that we went out to eat at a place called Groucho's. It was pretty good.

Wednesday we had a great district leader meeting in the morning. We basically caught the district leaders up to speed on what went down at MLC. It went really well. Then we had DDM. My new district leader is Elder W and he's a real homie. We basically talked about why numbers are important and the core of missionary work, which is Christlike love spreading to our brothers and sisters everywhere. After DDM we went to see a member named C. She's active but her husband is not a member. She is super sweet though and has 3 young boys. The oldest, M, is 6 and he is HILARIOUS. He's one of those kids who knows waaaaay too much for his age. Like, he asked his mom if their neighbors attended the Church of Christ. It was just cute. And then N, the second oldest, spent the duration of our visit in a Chewbacca suit, so I knew we were going to get along just fine. He was really sweet. And the youngest is R and he was wearing Christmas pants with a Minions shirt. So that was wonderful. We had a short lesson with the boys about how we can follow Jesus better, but they don't have the largest attention span so we mainly just talked to their mom about her experiences in the church. That evening we had a bomb.com lesson with our investigator K. She is so beautiful! We taught her the Restoration and after we talked about living prophets, she asked, "Well, how do you know that this Nelson guy is a prophet?" Sister Hamilton and I were able to just bear our testimonies to her about how the Spirit confirmed to us that he is a prophet of God. She was super impressed and said something like, "That's a really good answer because no one can tell you differently if the Spirit told you it was true." She wants to know for herself. After that we had ward coord and we were super hyped up about our lesson so it went pretty well.

Thursday was one of those days where you work super hard and nothing happens. HAHAHAHAHAHA. But it's okay. We started our day by singing at a nursing home, which was my favorite. Then we went out to the middle of nowhere and tried to see some people. But everywhere we tried was a dead end, literally like there was no houses there. It was just crazy! Luckily we had a great member meal that night with a family named the Gs. They are super sweet. Brother G is a convert and his wife brought him into the church. Both had opportunities to bear their testimonies to us about the Restoration, and they wept. It strengthened my faith in a latter-day prophet and that God directs His church.

Friday we did some service at Habitat for Humanity. We hung up some very stylish clothes and stuff and put them on the racks for people to look at. We also got to plan Zone Conference, which is next week, over Messenger with the zone leaders, Elder E and Elder H. For your information, those two have long been said to be the sweetest elders that have ever walked on planet earth, and it is not a lie. They are probably 2 of the most Christlike people I've ever met. And now they're companions and it is wonderful. I'm serious. We asked Elder H if anything makes him angry, and he thought for a minute, and then just goes, very seriously, "sin." I just really am not worthy. Anyways, so that was an experience from start to finish. They are both very concerned with making sure the Spirit is with us at all times, so it was really good and we got a lot done. We then planned for our week. After that we went to see the V, a family whom I actually visited multiple times when I was in Moncks Corner and would come here on exchanges. So that was super awesome. WE ARE GONNA GET THEM BACK TO CHURCH. Mark my words.

Saturday we started out the day serving one of our members, the Bs. Brother B is less active, Sister B is active, and their daughter E just got her mission call to Vietnam! They are in the midst of redoing their house so we were mainly packing up a lot of kitchen stuff. The elders came with and helped out, and afterwards they fed us really good sandwiches. Except I may have spilled avocado all down my front. But hey, they were good. I'm just happy we had avocado to spill on my front. After that we went and sang for a bedridden member in the ward, and then we went and tried to do some finding with no success, but possibly I did one of the most awkward door approaches ever my whole life. We were like, "Okay sweet have a nice day" and then got in the car and laughed our heads off. We also had a great lesson with K, the investigator who drove us down to our area. Basically she told us that if she were to be baptized now it would be for other people and not because she has a testimony of what we're teaching her. She also doesn't know why we would ever need to know all the things that we know about the Plan of Salvation. She just trusts that God will work it out. Which is good, but it does answer some major faith questions like "What happens to people who never get the chance to hear the gospel" and "what is our personal responsibility as God's children". Anyways, we were able to just discuss stuff. I'm pretty sure K and I would have hung out with each other in high school. She is my type of person.

Yesterday we fasted for the finding efforts of the missionaries here. We are all struggling to find people to teach. K came to church all by herself, and the ward is so good about being welcoming and kind. They treat her like a member, and that's great. We did a lot of study, practiced an upcoming zone conference musical number and coordinated our stuff for zone conference with President and the ZLs.

I just love being a missionary! I love it so much! There is literally nothing better.

I LOVE YOU!!!

Don't let the muggles get you down!

Love,

Sister Pew