Sunday, March 1, 2015

There's Always a Reason to Smile! :)

Hey Y'all!

Happy birthday to Parker on Wednesday! Woot woot! Someone's gettin' old! When I left on my mission you were 11 years old and now you're turning 13-holy smokes! I hope you have a great birthday bud! Good luck getting everything you put on your list but I hope you have a great day :) Maybe we'll make scotch-a-roos that day here to celebrate with ya :) 

We had a harder week but there were still some great things that happened! There's always miracles to highlight. On Wednesday there was a meeting for trainers and trainees in Macon so we spent the day driving there, at the meeting, and then driving back to Hazlehurst. We were set on going to Panda Express because I knew there was one somewhere near, but we just couldn't find it on the way to the mission home. Oh we were so sad. So we pulled off the freeway and got out the gps and just decided to go somewhere else. There were a bunch of food places just across the overpass thing so we crossed over and as we were driving, out of nowhere a Panda Express pops up! Yeeeaahhhhh!!!! Hahaha. Heavenly Father totally LOVES US! :) So we did get to eat there, and we were happy missionaries :) Sister Cottle said it's because we're living right that we're blessed like that :) 

Preston is doing really well, we found out this past week that with assistance, he stood for a couple minutes! Yahooooo!!!! Preston had his right leg amputated because of complications with diabetes. But his left leg is regaining strength and his back is as well (he's had problems with his back too) and he's making progress physically. He is expecting to have a prosthetic leg within this year. He doesn't know it yet, but as soon as he gets it he's also going to get baptized! Yippee! Haha, I'm stoked for him :D

We met with Marquis and Frances this week and they are so hilarious I love them. Marquis's sister came over and she had gotten fish at a restaurant and was asking their one year old if he wanted some and Frances was like "NO! No fish!!" I guess there's a potential allergy there and she's really scared of something happening to him and she doesn't want to expose him until he's older and can tell them if he doesn't feel right after eating it. But then Marquis is over there like "Give him some fish!" And Frances said no and so he was like "Rub some on his arm then and see if he breaks out, then we'll know." and Frances is giving him a look like "you are the dumbest person ever" and she was like "that's not how it works!" Haha. They just make me laugh :) They went to Atlanta this past weekend so they couldn't come to church but I hope they can come next week! I'm just praying they don't get antied because we found and taught two super awesome people this week and they both got antied super bad and we lost them. I hate when that happens.

We met with Rachelle this week and I don't think she'll make her baptismal date because she doesn't have a testimony yet. But I don't want to give up, because if there's any sort of potential I don't believe you should ever give up on anyone. I believe it was inspiration we received to teach them about Family Home Evening so that's what we did. I know Rachelle wants a better family life. We told her about what it is and she perked up--it's something she really wants to try. For her and the kids, but I think definitely for her husband. Every time we see him you can just tell he's doing drugs. He'll come out of the back room, grab something to help him with his addictions, and go back. The way he looks physically makes me so sad, I can't imagine being married to someone who never really even seems to be there. I'm hoping us doing a family night with them with help in some way and get the family working together, because if Rachelle is on her own for her conversion, it's going to be a lot harder than if she had her family team right beside her. Some people take longer to progress and you never know what part of the gospel will help them so perfectly with their testimony. Right now I think with Rachelle it is the family and family home evening so we're going to give that a try this week. Pray for us! 

The elders are teaching this really cool lady named Betty. They're about 20 miles outside of Hazlehurst but Betty was willing to come take a church tour when we offered so we got to show her around on Saturday. She said she was coming to church Sunday but for some reason didn't make it, so we're hoping for next week. Should be interesting, she claims to be a Prophetess and some of the things she says and does are quite interesting.. and the lesson in Sunday school next week is on Prophets. Hehe... our lives are so fun it's ridiculous. 

We also saw April and we really wanted to invite her to be baptized but we found out she's on probation so she can't get baptized until she's off probation, which will be another 2 1/2 years.. oh boy. Darn. More time to prepare I guess! It's just sad to me. Her youngest son's dad was in jail and is on probation for hitting their son and almost killing him and because when it happened she wouldn't tell authorities that he did it she got charged with the same thing. We're seeing her tonight and we're going to watch the Restoration dvd with her so I hope that helps. Maybe her boyfriend and cousin will sit down and watch too, they take away so much from the Spirit it's ridiculous... 

How about kind of a funny story to end on? So this lady in sacrament (I won't say her name), oh I just love her so much! She struggles sometimes with speech and to read but she gave a talk in sacrament yesterday. We've been working with her helping her with it in any way we could the last couple weeks. Her topic was charity. Every time we met with her she would always say 'chastity' instead of 'charity'. Different topics. So she gets up yesterday and said she was giving a talk on chastity and starts talking about the pure love of Christ. Oh boy.. haha. People's faces were funny, you could tell they were all a little confused. Then this lady directed the attention to us by saying "the sisters have so much chastity..." and continued on. Well I would hope people think that I do, but I know that's not what she meant to say! Haha. It was pretty funny. Hopefully most people figured out that her talk was on charity :) 

I wanted to end with a quote from President Monson--

"Dare to be a Mormon. Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm. Dare to make it known. May we ever be courageous to stand for what we believe." You don't have to be Mormon to stand for your good values. Just make sure you stand.

Love you lots and I hope y'all have a blessed week! Talk to you soon! I'll have news about transfers next week. 

All my love,
Sister Applegate
 
 
Elder Ditty gave me one of his ties!! Inside joke is apparently I eat like a man, especially when it comes to doughnuts so that's why he drew a doughnut on there. Haha. He's lucky he's funny. It really all started when he said I'm more like a man because he can tell I have brothers and wouldn't be afraid to beat someone if I needed to.  More physical like that than a normal girl. So deep down I think it's a compliment... but he always asks me if I'm eating or if the doughnuts are gone or something like that. :) Gotta admit he's got talent! 






PANNNDDAAAAA 

Meeting in Macon-Elder Davidsen (new elder) and our awesome APs who were once my Zone Leaders as well, Elder Poti and Elder Tracey

Best APs anyone could have! Jealous? You should be! :) 

A picture in the mission home I like. It was done by someone in the Macon ward, if I'm correct I think Sister Cottle said the lady's name is Sister Applebee. Close! I've been called that before :) 

Us and President and Sister Cottle again. They're going to get tired of taking pictures with us, haha
 





 
 
 

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