Week 66 - "And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold!"

Here at the 66th week of my mission, I have to report that this was one of those weeks full to bursting of the tender mercies of the Lord. I am sitting at the same keyboard I sat at last week, but the woman wearing my clothes and typing these words is a different woman than she was last week. Since this is the last my family will hear from me until Easter, I have to begin with my uncompromising and unshakeable testimony that the Lord hears and answers all prayers, no matter how feeble. And He loves us all.

Now, onto the stuff that happened this week. Man, there's so many good things. 

MONDAY: We had a good, chill p-day. We just basically rested and recuperated. Those are the best. After that we ran into some difficulty because we weren't really sure what to do with ourselves until our dinner appointment with the Ps. We still hadn't heard from our dear sweet N, whom we usually see on Monday nights, so we just tried to knock and stuff but that was not a very good use of our time. Afterward, we went to the Ps. Sister P is a published author and her novels are for sale at Deseret Book!!! You should all buy them. They're romance novels. Yep. And Brother P is really cool. He is a convert and he and Sister P got engaged after dating a week. True story. We left them with a commitment to pray for a desire to do missionary work, live the commandments, and pray for what they can do specifically to be missionaries. AND, I challenge all y'all to do that.

TUESDAY: I went on exchanges with the beautiful and hilarious Sister Simons of SV3. She is from St. George and came out with Sister Larsen. We had such a great time. She is a fabulous person.

WEDNESDAY: We went and did service at Habitat for Humanity, we had house inspections, and then we went to teach R (ASL). That was really fun and I was pretty excited that I could understand most of what was being said. She was really excited because a couple of members in our ward had invited her to come over for her birthday. ADORABLE. OUR WARD IS ADORABLE. After that we went and had a fun mutual activity with the youths about missionary work. We had them do a roleplay about using the Book of Mormon to help people with their challenges. It was a good time had by all. After that we finally got to see our dear sweet N, who has unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) slipped up on some of her pre-Word of Wisdom habits. The fortunate part is that she recognizes that this happened as a direct result of her not meeting with us or attending church on Sunday, and told us that she has felt an absolute lack of the Spirit of the Lord in her life. She said she felt like she'd been on a high until she committed those sins. SO, she committed herself to be baptized on April 7th so she can have the Spirit with her always and have protection against and forgiveness from those sins. She came up with all that on her own, too. So that was special.

THURSDAY: We had a messenger lesson with one of Sister Hamilton's investigators from Spartanburg. It was pretty good. We also ended up seeing K when we went back to see A from last week. Incidentally, A wasn't even home. But we had a good conversation with K and got to watch her son K dance around like a maniac, which is a really fun time. We then practiced ASL in the park, much to the alarm of passersby. After that we saw a member of our ward in a nursing home, who is the sweetest. Then I got a blessing from Brother G, who has to be one of my favoritest of favorites. He is so tall! And so kind! And when he gave me a blessing, he sort of opened up my future for me. That was really special. He blessed that I would know the path I am to take in life. That was very comforting. And then we did our Facebook Live, which was as usual very fun even though we are not very eloquent and wise.

FRIDAY: We planned for our week and also saw N. We actually had a discussion about our previous discussion about the Law of Chastity. She said she was now willing to live it, and that it's not so important to her anymore. That was really great. It was a super spiritual time for us. That night we began fasting so we could be spiritually prepared to listen to our visiting general authority friend Elder Jorg Klebingat. 

SATURDAY: I know I will never be able to put into words all my emotions that I felt. It was absolutely wonderful to see all the Upstate crew again, those folks are so special to my heart and always will be. It felt so good to talk to Sister Larsen and see how much she has grown. She has so much confidence and strength about her. I know that it comes from her remarkable faith, and it was so wonderful to see that it's still growing. #proud And of course my dear hermanas - it was so fun to see them too. And then, add that joy to the joy of hearing a general authority literally address everything you wonder and worry about. OH MAN. Not only is Elder Klebingat a fireball who very lovingly roasted us into the Second Coming, he is also so, so funny. He is sharp and German and awesome. He did a couple things that were just so good - anytime he was telling us about someone who was saying something dumb, he used an American accent. He kept getting after the elders and he'd just be like, "Elders, are you kidding me?" Let me give you some quotes from him to help you see how the day went. 

-"Whatever DNA strand involves beating around the bush, I wasn't born with it. I don't have it."

-"My highest degree of depression comes when I pull my toast out of the toaster and I realize my Nutella is gone."

-*Looking directly at Sister Hamilton and I* "That is a boatload of...untruth."

-"I don't care if you only move one inch, but move."

-"The least the Lord can expect is your best effort."

-"You don't earn respect by trying to earn respect. You earn respect by leading."

-"Well, hello!"

-(After saying some "insensitive" things about mental health, AKA missionaries who use bad mental health as an excuse not to do missionary work) "Some people tell me, (reverts to American accent) 'you can't say things like that, you're in America!' And I'm like, 'well, the Lord called me here, so...'"

-"Heavenly Father, I am dying 1000 deaths right now..."

-"Why are you laughing? That was profound, what I just said."

-"You cannot be perfect but you can easily be consecrated. If you're not willing to do that, you would be better off at home."

The day was split into 2 sessions. The first session, Elder Klebingat opened at least my eyes to who I was before this life. Also my tear ducts. I basically cried the whole time. I premortally covenanted to gather Israel and I am a royal personage. That really doesn't do the feelings I felt any justice, but missionary work and life in general is just so much bigger than I even thought or imagined. YOU ALL HAVE INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL. Literally, so much, you don't even know. God sent you here because you have so much ability to change lives and bless people. Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. It was so beautiful. Since then a lot of things have clicked in my brain, one of which is that I am more powerful than Satan. Sometimes he will try and make me feel like crap about myself and my abilities. That is lame sauce. I can tell him to quit it, and it's so much easier to handle the hard times when I'm just like, "I don't even like feeling like this. This is just Satan." The feelings of sadness and sorrow still come, but they don't last as long and I find it's easier to continue to be good and work hard despite the hard times. And so, my testimony from first session: If you come to understand better who you are, Satan will have no power over you.

Also, in between the 2 sessions of mission conference, I had a burning feeling to talk to President about some stuff I had going on in my life. It was not an easy conversation to have with him, but he offered some really perfect words of comfort, and then offered to continue to work through some of the things after our mini MLC with Elder Klebingat. Then we went into the second session and Elder Klebingat opened it up to questions. AND LITERALLY EVERY DOUBT I HAD WAS DECIMATED BY THE POWER OF ELDER KLEBINGATS TESTIMONY AND THE SPIRIT. It was so cool. YOU GUYS. IT WAS THE BEST. And then I had a question for him. I stood up and looked this six-foot-something German intimidating general authority and said, "How do I fully trust the Lord?" And he spoke directly but with power: "By putting yourself consistently in situations where if the Lord doesn't come through for you, you'll crash and burn." My own personal words of advice from an anointed servant of God. Cool as fetch. And also true as fetch. And after all was said and done, Elder Klebingat shook all of our hands, and he thanked me. And I was like, "why?" And he was like, "For serving a mission." And it...was cool...really cool. So, Saturday, March 24th will go down in my personal history as the day I cannot ever walk away from thinking that God is not real and that He doesn't love me. I challenge y'all, again, to find that out for yourself. I promise you will be forever changed.

SUNDAY: Okay, Sunday was also really great. At church we had a great sacrament meeting. After working with the Primary for 2 weeks it was wonderful to hear them sing Gethsemane in church. They are the cutest little bunch and I was crying with the rest of the moms in the audience. Also, this guy in our ward gave the BEST talk on the Resurrection of the Savior that I have ever heard. We had a great gospel principles class in which Nora was hilarious, as usual. We had a wonderful time in Relief Society and R was welcomed and felt like everyone loved her (which they did because our ward is the best). Also K was there, also A who we taught last week. So funny story about THAT, we went to birthday lunch for R at they Gs, and it took 5ever (which is perfectly okay because they fed us shrimp and scallops and also they have the cutest grandbaby on planet earth) so we weren't sure what we'd have time to do before we had call-ins with President. We thought we wouldn't be able to teach A, but then, last minute, the Bs invited us over, so we went. And oh my goodness. That has got to have made the top ten for most spiritual lessons of my mission. It was one of those aforementioned situations where without the help of the Lord, we'd have crashed and burned. A missionary who used to serve here (who trained Sister Hamilton and used to be my STL and whose dad works with my dad) named Sister Flinders, and her parents, and Brother C, and the Bs, and us, were all just there to answer A's questions. And whenever my mouth opened, I found that it was being filled with the words I needed to discern what he needed. And it happened the same for Sister Hamilton. MAN, it was so cool. We talked about prayer and recognizing the Spirit. OH, MAN. I just can't even. We told President about it and he was like, "could you be a little more enthusiastic, Sister Pew?" And I was like, "Probably, President, but it'd probably bust your eardrums."

So anyways.

This week.

Was the literal.

Best.

Week.

Ever.

I also want to close with my witness that God doesn't abandon anyone. Satan wants you to feel like you are wasting your time and efforts. Don't listen to him. And don't listen to anyone that tells you you aren't enough, including you. You are always enough because Christ atoned for you. Tell Satan to take a walk off a hike. That is what I mean when I say

Don't let the muggles get you down!

Love,

Sister Pew

Sister Pew singing with a returned missionary sister

If you look close it says they are ASL missionaries on their tags

grandchildren of a friend

Exchanges

Week 65 - We are going to be baptized by fire.

Hello, everybody. South Carolina is fixin' to get roasted by Elder Jorg Klebingat. By next week I won't have eyebrows because they'll have burnt off in the flames. Saturday is the lucky day!!! Pray for us...;)

Anyways, this week was really, really great. Monday we really kinda did nothing except we did go on a little excursion to colonial Dorchester in the rain, which was really cool. I sent the pictures home so that was great. And then after that we drove to Columbia to stay the night before MLC AND WE GOT TO SEE THE TEMPLE before we got to the other sisters' apartment. It was really great. It is a tiny little baby temple, but it is still a temple and it is beautiful and the Spirit was really strong. I'm excited to go in like 2.5 months...flip. And then we got to the Columbia sisters' apartment and it was a fun little sleepover with Sister Recor, Sister Ranada, Sister Mock, and Sister Dalley. 

The next day was MLC and it was a jam-packed spiritual waterfall of ideas and inspiration. We got trained on how to effectively use social media to spread the good news of the gospel, did a roleplay, and talked A LOT about the BOOK OF MORMON. In all caps, because YOU GUYS. HAVE YOU EVER READ THE BOOK OF MORMON??? IT IS THE ACTUAL BEST BOOK ON PLANET EARTH. Like, oh my stars, everyone. We have been reading it as a mission and highlighting any reference to any principle in the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, missionary work basically). It has changed. my. life. period. And especially as I have tried to apply it to myself, golly gee willickers I can hardly say enough about how wonderful this book truly is. If you aren't reading it every single day, please repent and start doing that immediately. Also, I got a sweet note from Sister L of Inman, and that was great. Also got to see some of my missionary friends and I appreciated that. It was Sister Hamilton's last MLC and that was weird... Also my mom sent us a package which included lots of useful and important things. The most important of which is definitely little devices called Chicken Flingerz. They are little chicken slingshots. I will send a video because they are incredible.

Wednesday we had exchanges with the Moncks Corner sisters, and it was a day of tender mercies. I was with the adorable Sister Landon again, and we had companionship study real quick and then made plans to go do some service. However, we were standing at the door of our apartment in our service clothes preparing to leave, and the Spirit whispered, "Hey, actually, go see this lady A who may or may not have owned a quad???" And we were like, "Okay." So we got back into our proselyting clothes and went to see A. A answered the door and let us right in, proceeding to tell us a miraculous story. It went a little bit like this:

A: So, remember how last time y'all was here, I told you about how my son is in prison and my neighbors were not being nice to me?

Us: (mainly me because I was the only one of the 2 of us that was there) Yeah.

A: Remember how I asked you to pray that my son would get out of jail, and also that my neighbors would stop having issues?

Us: Yeah.

Alice: Well, THAT VERY NIGHT the neighbors solved their problems. And the next morning I got a call from my son saying that he'd been released.

Us: .... *Hallelujah Chorus plays triumphantly in background*

So basically she was like, "Please teach me about the gospel" and we were happy to oblige her. Which, my dear friends, is a miracle. And then we went and saw some other folks and drove out to the middle of nowhere to deliver a Bible. We ended up having a really good conversation with the lady and told her we'd love to come back, and she said "okay!" So, two return appointments in one day, which is basically more than we got all last transfer combined. I'm telling you, MLC is like a protein shake for your soul.

Thursday I got to go volunteer at Mepkin again!!! It was really fun. It was freezing though. However, the earth is beautiful. I will send pictures also. After this even we went to the chiropractor again because I suffered a long and treacherous fall at a trampoline park previously mentioned in a past email. That night we went to the Relief Society party, which was white elephant themed. It was pretty fun! I brought a plant and ended up with a book entitled "Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul 2". People were really sad I opened that one because I am not yet a mother, but I love it! It'll be a good read when I'm older. And I think I'm going to have the ladies in the ward write their mom advice for me so I can stick in in an envelope in the back, so it'll be useful anyways.

Friday we planned for our week. If you watched our live video, then you also know that it was the day of the Big Mac fiasco. Oh, friends. Big Macs hurt your insides if it's been a year or two or three since the last time you had one. But I really actually don't regret it that much because it was Sister Hamilton's first one and that is an experience she MUST have before leaving the South. Anyways, after we planned for our week we had dinner with the Gs again. We had ribs and we gave them each a copy of the Book of Mormon to write their testimonies in. They are another pair of South Carolina parents for me...I have like a hoard of those. But I wouldn't have it any other way:)

Saturday it was St. Patricks day but we did literally nothing about it. Actually, I wore green, but on accident both times. LOL. In the morning, we went to an investigator's house to do service. Her name is T and you who have been reading these things from the beginning may recall that 52 weeks ago (A WHOLE ENTIRE YEAR AGO FOLKS. A WHOLE YEAR), the 13th email I ever sent, I mentioned going to do service at a barn with ponies and how watching ponies run is really funny. Toby is the owner of the very same barn at which I (whilst still in training!!!) volunteered my time. It was a weird deja-vu moment being back there. Oh, so odd. But we helped T out with some cleaning and heavy lifting (because I am swoll) and also got to play with puppies and pet horses. Also, she fed us pizza. And that my friends, is just one more testimony that when we serve others, we are blessed far more than any sacrifice we make to serve. Definitely we got the better end of the deal. After that we went to see K, who was very open with some challenges she's experiencing with her faith. Please pray for her! She doesn't understand why she needs the Book of Mormon. She did give us cake afterward, so it was all fine. Anyways, after that we did our live event. I messed up with the words on my song (Amazing Grace) (I said "when we've been there 8000 years" instead of 10,000 years. DON'T SAY 8.) and it made it really hard to not laugh through the rest of the song and so I just busted up the minute I finished. Oh my gosh. It was really funny. After Sister Hamilton was like, "isn't it 10,000?" and I was like, "yes." And she was like, "Why did you say 8000?" And I was like, "Because I'm an idiot." And it was really funny. Ohhhh, the joys. But we are excited to do it again this Thursday at 8!

Yesterday was a very busy day. It was crazy. We had a wonderful service at church and 3 investigators came, one of whom was deaf R! We went to pick her up with a member and it was really quite a miracle how much better my sign language has gotten. Shoutout to Brother Elg for sending us videos and stuff. I could understand her a lot more than I could before. In general, I've just been noticing more and more and more how merciful God is, and how much He really does help us! Annnnd... we got another new investigator that night! His name is A and he's friends with a girl in our ward who's leaving on a mission soon. He is really sincere and loves theater and is very honest which is cool. So he's a fun guy to teach. Our members just keep bringing us people and so that's the coolest. #bestwaytodomissionarywork

You may have noticed I said nothing about N. She wasn't feeling well and went to visit her sister, neither of which are probably good things. So that's discouraging, but I have faith she will figure this out and be able to make good decisions. If you could pray for her too, that'd be wonderful.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

K bye

Don't let the muggles get you down!

Love, Sister Pew

Link to chicken flingers

Stopped by the temple on the way to MLC

Cool find on the way to MLC

MLC (Mission Leadership Conference)

Goofy picture

Lunch at MLC

Sister Hamilton makes Sister Pew laugh, all the time

Exchanges with Mepkin

Mepkin plants

Mepkin looks like a fantasy

Service with horses!

Week 64 - "money can't buy happiness, but it can fake your death."

The subject of this email would be because N said that. Referring to how Elvis faked his death.

Well folks, this was a great week. I'm going to try and make this email not as lame as my motivation to write it is. Just know that I am doing this for YOU. Because my desire to write is at a low.

Monday was a good day. We had a district PDay because Elder W was being transferred. We played volleyball and I am happy to report that I am not as terrible at it as I once was. Definitely not ready to spike it down anyone's throat yet, but I am slowly improving. Also, the elders are pretty hilarious. We also made some gluten-free brownies for Sister I and N because Sister I has celiac disease. Sister Hamilton made peanut butter frosting for them and they weren't even bad. When we went over there, we went for a walk with N and talked about some things, and I sang a song for her. It was a good little get-together for us, because she had been feeling pretty overwhelmed with all the requirements for baptism.

Tuesday was also good. We had a mini-DDM that morning to sign Elder W's airplane journal and get things squared away for the new guy, Elder B. Who happened to be coming from Boiling Springs which is right next to Inman. So that has been exciting for me, because he knows all the people there and I can talk to him about them and it's bomb. After the mini-DDM we went out to eat with Sister T & Sister S. I realized this day that I was still feeling pretty depressed from the week before, since probably N's lesson the previous Saturday, so that was hard. I decided to ask for a priesthood blessing from Brother G in the ward. We went to see the Vs and then went to ASL class, which is going pretty well by the way. I'm understanding a lot better now. And then we went to the Gs and he gave me a really good blessing that brought a lot of comfort to my heart. The priesthood is real. Straight up.

Wednesday we did service at Habitat for Humanity for a really long time. They have lots of very interesting things there. Lots of really awesome sewing patterns that I might need to buy and learn how to make. :) But anyways, the lady we work with is this super grumpy hilarious lady named K. We are pretty sure that if we were allowed to swear at Habitat, she'd light the place on fire with the heat of her language. Anyways, after we did that, we actually tried finding on Facebook, with some pretty good results. Our mission is about to roll out a new way to actually initiate gospel conversations online, and it has worked pretty well for us so far! So that has been really good. And then we taught N again. She took herself off date and was pretty sad about it, but we believe it's for the best because we want her to be baptized because she is really committed. We taught her a little bit about the Plan of Salvation and it went pretty well.

Thursday morning we got to have sign language lessons from my MTC teacher Brother Elg! It was way good to see him again and meet his wife and also to learn how we can better teach R. We weren't able to go see her this week but we want to this week. We also went to the old folks home. We also went to the chiropractor to fix my injuries from Gravitopia that I sustained so long ago. I feel lots better now! :) And then we went to this member lady's house for dinner. She is so funny and has a pet Siberian lynx. It's basically a cat that I'm not allergic to so you can bet I was all about that. AAAAAND she fed us steak, so that was a wonderful time. She is really really funny. Did I already mention that? She's hilarious. And then that night we watched the Testaments with N. I laughed and cried. Following are some of my favorite lines: "You should savor the good things in life" -Kohor "You are a specter from the gods" -Kohor "When I return I would speak to you of..." *smooches the lady and then leaves* -Jacob But in all seriousness, when the Savior comes at the end, we could all just feel the Spirit so powerfully. It was just like, "YES, YES, this is all true, this really happened! Jesus Christ REALLY came and He is coming again!" N was crying, I was crying, Sister Hamilton was crying, Sister I was crying. When the movie finished N was quiet (which she really isn't very often). Then she softly said, "That is a very important movie." I know the Spirit bore witness to her spirit that what we had been teaching her was true. I can't wait until she fully comprehends how true her statement is.

Friday we weekly planned, we went and did service for the Ms, and we delivered cookies to Elder B because he had surgery. We also went to see a family in the ward and they're the best. 

Saturday we went out with Sister G, a saint and an angel, who took us to the far reaches of our huge area to try and find some folks. We ended up at a former investigator's house. She wasn't home, but the whole county 4H was there, so that was great! Everyone was really nice and they offered to let us come back and work on their farm...which we may take them up on, because I miss the Ws'. :) After that Sister G drove us to a member no one's ever even heard of. Turns out no one knows her because she hasn't lived in the house for 15 years, but the lady who was there told us she was going to shoot us until she realized we were church people. Her name was J and she talked our ears off, which is pretty standard, but she was telling us some wack-o stories and Sister G literally was like, "OKAY WELL WE HAVE TO GO BYE" and drove away. Bless her. Afterwards she took us to Taco Bell, and I tried Cinnabon Delights for the first time, which ruined my life. They are so good. SO good. I'm tearing up thinking about them. ALSO, Sister Hamilton saw an alligator in the wild for the first time. It was very exciting for her. That night we had our Facebook live event, which will continue because of how positive the response was. So next week, everyone, Sister Hamilton and I will be coming back live to talk about something else. If you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them!

Yesterday was great. We had a wonderful discussion on the Spirit, led by Brother T, and we had a meeting about our MLC tomorrow with the Zone Leaders.

Today we went to Colonial Dorchester -- settled in like the 1630s!! I took a couple pictures. Tonight we drive to Columbia and tomorrow is my second MLC! It should be a wondrous time. I am excited.

I know that the Book of Mormon makes the mission of the Savior more clear for us to understand. I know it testifies of the Atonement of the Savior and the love God has for all His children. It is for that reason that a man will get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book. Jesus Christ is the only way we could make it back to live with God again, and I love Him so dearly. I know this is all true.

I love y'all!

Don't let the muggles get you down!

Love, Sister Pew

OOOOH I also forgot to mention that last night I found out that my good friend T from Inman got baptized into the YSA-Young Single Adult branch and I am SO PROUD and SO HAPPY. :) Just wanted to let y'all know that.

YouTube videos that she sent: Sister Pew singing time in Primary

Sister Pew ASL

Colonial Dorchester 

Someone they taught that was baptized, her last companion (her greenie)

Week 63 - 3 Months Until Life Begins

Friends, Romans, countrymen,

Well, I just entered my second to last transfer on my mission. That is really, really weird. I only have 11 group emails after this one. Wow. Time literally has gone by so fast!

This week was a harder week for us. There's a lot of reasons for that. But this letter might be a little brief because I don't really want to relive the entirety of it.

Monday: We went to Charleston! That was really fun. I filmed some stuff that I'll send to y'all, but it might have to be next week because it'll take 5ever to upload. We went with the other S sisters and the Charleston sisters. We ate pizza and walked around the city. I finally got to swing on the Battery (pictures included) and I got a whole bunch of crap for my family. That night we took Nora to the singles FHE AND I GOT TO SEE MY MOM V. She adopted me while I was serving in Moncks Corner and then moved to the Summerville 2nd ward. We haven't seen each other in 6 months so it was really wonderful to be able to see her.

Tuesday: Went on exchanges with Sister Clement from Charleston. We stayed in SV and went to see a man who is ill in our ward. Also we cleaned our car because we had inspections and the fabled "yellow snow" of Charleston is falling thick and fast. That's pollen, folks. My nose is pretty itchy like 24/7. We also went to ASL class and it's good because I'm understanding more than I was before. #grateful Also, Elder W our district leader is a punk and occasionally will do this thing at the end of our call ins where he'll be like, "Oh hey guess what?" And we'll be like, "What?" and he'll hang up on us. But Tuesday night he called us and I GOT HIM BACK. So, it was great.

Wednesday: We went to Habitat for Humanity, unexchanged with Charleston, and then I went on exchanges with the one and only SISTER TERRY!!!! Sister Terry was trained in Inman so it was really fun to be able to talk to someone about all my Inman family. The nostalgia was REAL tho. Hey, if you're in Inman right now and you're reading this, I LOVE YOU and I MISS YOU!!! But Sister Terry is a boss missionary. We did some finding and went to see a less active family. While I was gone, Sister Hamilton and Sister Simons went and taught R, the deaf lady. Apparently it went well and we have another lesson with her this Wednesday.

Thursday: We went to sing at the nursing home, and Sister Hamilton started My Plan...AHHHH. Also we did some Facebook contacting. We also walked around and tried to find people to teach for a good while. That night we had ward coordination and a Facebook messenger meeting with the West Columbia zone leaders, Elder E and my good friend Elder B, because Elder E is also an ASL missionary and he was giving us some tips. 

Friday: We went to see S, our less active buddy, and mainly he told us a pretty incomprehensible story, but it was still a pretty good visit. We also saw our bedridden friend Sister M and sang her some hymns. We planned for our week and went to see K that night. K is my BFF. It was a good spiritual discussion about lots of different things.

Saturday: What a wild day. We started with service at the United Methodist Church of Knightsville. They are renovating so we helped them paint their basement. It was pretty fun, except they tried to feed me hot dogs. Also, paint smell gives me migraines! So that was not my favorite. Afterward we taught N the law of chastity...which went about the way we anticipated it going. Which was not very good. Please pray for her!! After that we had a less active call us and ask us to come over. She was in a panic about a lot of pretty easy things, which we talked through with her. Her mom was pretty impressed with the advice we gave her, and her mom isn't a member, so maybe we can baptize her...ahahaha. But it was a pretty eventful day from start to finish.

Yesterday: N cried all the way through church. She said the Holy Spirit was working on her. So that was good! And, I got to be the chorister for Primary!!! That was basically the best thing of my life. My companion videoed me, thank heavens. Oh my gosh I love children. Anyways, yeah, really good day yesterday.

Our mission is doing a pushup challenge today, so I did 200 pushups this morning and I can no longer use my arms. But I feel pretty accomplished - and I think most people who know me understand why. My arms are little noodles.

Anyways, that's basically everything. The stuff I left out was the bad stuff:) But I do love being a missionary! I love the gospel! I love repenting! And I love church! Life is good, fam. Even when it's bad, it's good. Or it's for our good. :)

ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO IZAK WHO IS 18 AND THAT IS THE FETCHING WEIRDEST.

K bye!

Don't let the muggles get you down!

Love, Sister Pew

Trying Okra chips

P-day in Charleston

P-day in Charleston

Elders wore the ties they made them

Exchanges

Watching Sister Pew in the Face2Face she was in

Week 62-The Happy Hands Club

This week we actually became language missionaries, which is where the subject of today's email comes from. Yes, ladies and gents, you are talking to one of South Carolina's newest ASL missionaries! And I will tell you about it in a sec.

So last Monday, we went to Moncks Corner for P-day. We met U there and she took us to a Mexican restaurant, which was pretty fun because there was another whole district of missionaries that were there celebrating one of the elders' birthdays. AND THEN WE WENT TO MEPKIN. It was great to be there again. Sister Hamilton loved it! And so did I. And we went out for ice cream after. Just like old times. Afterwards, we went to Palmetto Moon which is a touristy shop and I got some souvenirs for mi familia! Which they should be excited about. After that we went and taught N, which was a little intense. We were talking about baptism and she was like, "wait. Do y'all want me to be baptized again?" and we were like..."well yeah." And she thought that was super lame and that we thought that her being baptized didn't mean anything. But we ended all on good terms and we're still friends and she wants to get baptized, so that's good.

Tuesday we had DDM which was productive. We also went on exchanges with the YSA sisters. I stayed in my area with Sister Rice and Sister Hamilton went to the YSA. Sister Rice is a convert from Idaho and she served in this mission for 5 months 3 years ago but had to go home because of a foot issue, but she's back now. It was pretty fun -- we just happened to stumble upon a YSA-aged friend of a less active member in our ward, so that was really cool to see how God puts us where we need to be. Also we went to ASL class.

Wednesday after Sister Hamilton and I got back together, we went and taught N again. She was happier this time around and she just talked and talked and talked to us. It was really good. Really not much happened on Wednesday except that I just was reminded how grateful I am for my cute companion. She is super wonderful and I always miss her when she leaves. It's going to be hard when she goes home. :(

Thursday was a fun day! We went to an old folks home and had lunch with a recent convert named C. She is hilarious. One memorable quote from this excursion: "Sometimes you just have to be reminded that you're a jerk." HAHAHAHAHA it was great. Also we went to Staples with her because she drove us, and she needed to buy a printer, and so we just kind of wandered around in the store, and all of a sudden we hear her yell, "MADI, EMILY" and we were like, "what the heck???" she literally yelled our first names in the store. What the heck. after that we did a lot of finding. It has been so nice here! Like 80 degrees or more! And so there were people outside and we just did our best to walk around and talk to them. That night we saw K. That lady. I love her. She had a bunch of hard questions about sealings and stuff, and we felt bad we didn't really have definitive answers to them. But she said, "You may not know every single answer, but you bring what I need." And that means a lot coming from an investigator, people. I felt warm and fuzzy the whole rest of the day.

Friday we had interviews with President. It was great! I love that man. He is just hilarious and also so full of the spirit. Also we shoveled lots of dirt for this lady and we found a little mole. He was pretty weird looking and kind of cute and the lady wanted us to kill it. Nobody would though. So she threw it over the fence. Into the neighbor's yard. Welcome to South Carolina. We also went to see N that night and that was fun. It always is. That was also the day we found out we were becoming ASL missionaries. The Spanish elders found a deaf lady and our ward is the only ward with ASL interpreters because of our deaf member, so we are her missionaries. It's been a great time practicing every day and texting R, our new deaf friend who is investigating the church. She doesn't text in English grammar, she texts in ASL grammar, which is NOT the same at all. So we get to decipher that :) It is such an adventure to be a missionary, y'all. It just really is.

Saturday was a day full of service. First we went to a baptismal service, at which I was the pianist. Why does that always happen to me? Anyways, afterward we went to the Ms and cleaned their house for them and they fed us again. After that we went to help the Bs with our district leader Elder W and his companion Elder B. Those two are hysterical. They are so, so funny. The issue is, we were hauling a bunch of bricks, and that job requires muscles. Which they both had, and also Sister Hamilton. So then there's me. I don't have muscles like that. So I felt super useless the whole time. Luckily they all kept me laughing through the whole thing. Then we cleaned up and went to stake conference with N, which was awesome, except two of the speakers didn't show up so the stake president called us up on the fly to have us bear our testimonies. Brother R in our ward was kind enough to point out that I can safely go home because I correctly used the phrase "all y'all" in my testimony. But aside from that fiasco (it actually went really well, the Spirit definitely controlled my mouth and that is what we are after here, ladies and gents) it was great. It was wonderful to see some of my favorite people from the Moncks Corner ward. And N got to meet President Innes. So that was great.

Yesterday we had R, our deaf investigator, come to church with us. Afterward we had lunch at a member's house and had a great time trying to figure out ASL with her. We sort of taught her a little bit about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon but that's about all we got. 

Y'all, the church is true. I'm serious. I love it and I love the Lord.

Don't let the muggles get you down!

Love,

Sister Pew

Mexican food on P-day in Mepkin

Trees in Mepkin

In Mepkin, again

Cool street sign

Interesting yard art