Happy Graduation Jace!!! My little
sister is growing up!! :) I hope it wasn't too boring and that you had
lots of fun celebrating, you deserve it! :)
This
week was so good! I just have to say, we are on fire over here. We are
just so happy and doing awesome! :) I got a letter from a member in
Hazlehurst this past week, our investigator Josh got baptized!!!
YEAAHHHHHH!!! He was the one who reached out to a stranger over a video
game and that guy was a member of the Church and got us in touch with
him and now look!! His whole life has changed!!! See what we are capable
of doing?! Oh my goodness! I wish y'all could meet Josh, he has changed
so much and I am so happy just to have had the opportunity to know and
teach him for a short time. One day I'm going to meet this guy in
Tennessee and thank him in person!
We got
invited to dinner last week to be with the activity day girls. We did a
lesson on the Holy Ghost and we had different items in a bag that they
had to feel and describe it. Two were fairly soft, one was really soft,
and then one was a harder sponge. With how all the girls described the
items, they all sounded like the soft/warm feelings of the Holy
Ghost-except for the sponge. They described that as being more rough and
Sister Walker is so clever, haha. She connected it saying that they all
felt like the Holy Ghost--sometimes it's a warm feeling, but sometimes
it's more of an uncomfortable feeling-like a gut feeling that warns us
of danger. I thought that was such a cool way to think of it! It turned
out to be a pretty cool lesson and I think (or at least hope) it will
stick with the girls.
On Friday we got
permission to go to the library and watch the funeral service for Elder
L. Tom Perry, and that was really cool. I was grateful for that
opportunity. Although it was sad, I think I definitely had more peace
and happiness throughout the whole thing with the knowledge I have now
and the experience of being on my mission right now. The Apostles are
such good friends and I loved seeing the love that they have for each
other. I've been listening to talks by Elder Perry and I really do miss
him, but I know he's happy where he is and that he's doing the same work
we all are here :)
So, Brother Ramsey works Monday-Saturday and we've still been calling him on those days at 3:55 am. He was getting to get off a little early on Saturday, so around 3:45
I think instead of 4ish. However it happened, his wife thought that he
was going into work later on Saturday so she texted us Friday night
saying we could sleep in because he would be. "Sleep in". Hahaha. That's
funny. She didn't know me when I was at home ;) We actually didn't look
at the phone before going to sleep so we woke up anyway, but we read
that and thought he was sleeping in so we went back to bed without
calling. Turns out that he wasn't actually going in to work later, but
he still let his wife try and sleep in and us too. So after that alarm
went off we just went back to bed and I can't even tell you how great we
felt that day. We really felt like we had rested so well. We were sad
when we found out we probably should've still called, but it was such a
blessing I think. "Sacrifice brings blessings" :) We've been calling him
today on his breaks and he is off to a great start. He is giving the
Stop Smoking Program we have another try and as of now he's still goin'
strong! We're so proud! :)
Also on Saturday we
taught Rhonda and her sons Eric and Carlos about the Word of Wisdom. I
meant to take pictures so y'all could see, but I totally forgot. For a
visual we get two bowls of vanilla ice cream and the ice cream
represents our pure bodies. Then as we teach about the things we don't
put into our bodies, (tobacco, alcohol, tea, coffee, and illegal drugs)
we put gross toppings on like ketchup, garlic, soy sauce, mustard, etc.
Things like that. Oh my goodness it was so gross it smelled so nasty!!!
Hahahaha. I think they got the point though :) Then when we teach about
what we should do, (exercise, eat healthy, get enough rest, etc) we top
the ice cream with hot fudge, sprinkles, cookies, gummy worms, and all
that kind of stuff. Ironic I know, but it works!! :) I love teaching the
Word of Wisdom that way. Eric and Carlos are super shy and this lesson,
I've never seen so much expression from Eric! He's 12 but looks 17 and
his face just dropped when we said no tea. Rhonda said between the two
of them they go through a gallon of sweet tea a day. Gross.... but, they
committed to pray about it and live it so I'm excited!!! Their baptism
date is coming up!! Whoohoo!!!
Rhonda, Eric,
Carlos and four other people came to church! SEVEN! Never in my life
have I had that many people come! At least investigator-wise on my
mission, haha. Plus there were some kids so we had like ten. It's been
so awesome. This is setting records for me. Our district leader is super
funny and he told me I'm setting Sister Walker up for failure for the
rest of our mission because we're doing so well right now and she won't
be able to keep it up forever, hahaha. We really feel like the more we
sacrifice and work hard and are diligent though, the blessings will
always come through. Of course there will be hard days, and there
definitely are, but there are also many miracles in each day. When the
Southern people pray many pray and thank Heavenly Father for waking them
up in the morning and for the blood that runs through their bodies.
I've liked that that has been pointed out because that truly is
something to be grateful for each and every day.
I
hope for all of you your week is HAPPY!! Y'all deserve it anyway, make
it happen! I love you lots and I will talk to you soon!!
All my love,
Sister Applegate
A weird house we saw. Looks like it's gonna fall over to me....
I
wish you could see what this sign says, I'll have to try and get a
better one maybe. Anyway, it says "SAVED". You know, because everyone in
Georgia is already saved. They have a different definition than I do.
In
District Meeting our District Leader talked about the importance of the
Restoration lesson and how it is the foundation for everything else we
teach. So we built foundations, houses of pass-along cards :) I think in
order it would be E. Ludeman, E. Broderick, E. Burgess, E. Call and in
the last pic there is E. Burgess, E. Jones (standing), E. Call and E.
Shelton raising his hand. Or doing something, I'm not really sure. I was
the photographer because mine... got ruined. Hahaha. Didn't stand as
long :)
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