Jessie in Georgia: UR 20??? It's ok bbg no one has to know

FOR ANYONE THAT DOESN'T ALREADY KNOW: Our mission just enforced a rule that makes it so we can't communicate with friends through Facebook Messenger anymore. Please email me instead!!!

Weeeeeelcome back to your weekly newsletter of what goes down in Lilburn, GA!!! In this week's letter, we see miracles, changes in age, and the best supportive most loving district there ever was.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SENT BIRTHDAY WISHES!!! I FELT SO LOVED AND APPRECIATED ️

This week was seriously so nuts but when is it not so idk here's how it went:

Monday: Birthday P-day! (The p-day before my birthday when we celebrated) So. FUN! We made banana bread and cookies together as a district and they sang to me! We played uno (my fav game ever, also the name of Andrew Dearhart's dog who only has one testicle) and also paranoia. We were laughing our heads off. We went to the Ellisons for dinner (basically every week these days) while the elders were next door at the Barons. They left us a note on our car. Then, Sister Ellison and Bishop Duffield joined us for a lesson with Aria about the priesthood! We moved her baptism to August 2nd so the ward would be able to support her better.

Tuesday: We worked at the co-op in the kids section for 2 hours! I love tiny baby clothesssss!! We ended up back at Sister Braum's house cleaning up more legos and toys and makeup. We had dinner with Delirio Juarez and Brother Cook (she didn't take his last name). We went whiteboarding at Lilburn City Park with the elders with the question "What brings you hope?" on the board. We ended up finding two people!! They're best friends who go to church together and are also the only people in their families who go to church at all. We're excited to meet with them again! We studied at our local wendy's and discovered that it had put under new management and actually thank heaven for that. Now, it has music, lights, and the workers aren't mean!!!!!!

Wednesday: I had my last new missionary mentor meeting EVER! I'll officially be out of training next thursday! Yippee! We had a whatsapp lesson with an older gal named Revonda! She's a gem and already loves the Book of Mormon. We had a lesson at the church with a gal Amelia who is already friends with like 3 families in the ward and was taught by some sisters during covid. She's ALSO a gem and has some really good questions. We had a lesson with Marri and Malaisia for the first time in a month because they were on vacay! They came to the ward mingle!!!!! Their mom is a member and wants her kids to grow up in the church so we're teaching them! We had a member message with Patriarch Kotter and we talked all about the ways he's seen his patriarchal blessing guide his life. He's served 5 different missions and loved each of them. We dropped off a Book of Mormon to Revonda so she could read the intro and she was reading it on the front porch as we drove away! A. GEM. We meal prepped cinnamon rolls for my BIRTHDAY!

Thursday: UR 20?? BIRTHDAY BIRTHDAY! We had our cinnamon rolls at district council along with Elder Hogan's chocolate pie! Shoutout Elder Hogan's amazing baking/cooking skills. We went to Chick Fil A for lunch! We did some stopbys and the Lord led us right where we needed to be. We found a gal named Liz and she practically threw her info at us because she thought we were just the cutest and wanted to study the scriptures with us lol. We had dinner with the Palmers. While walking up to their apartment, we walked by an active police-enforced eviction with yelling and a door being broken down. These cops were legit 7 feet tall and BUILT. They were so kind to us as we walked past them lol. At the Palmers, we ate gyoza and cheesecake with dirty frescas. Are you kidding me rn. Happy birthday to ME GUHH! I felt loved. We had a great lesson with Aria and the Palmers afterward. Then, I got to call my family and they all had party hats on! Best birthday ever.

Friday: We studied the baptismal interview questions in preparation for Aria's interview the following morning. We weekly planned for ages in the DUUUUUUMPING rain and the lawn mower fella was hiding under the church porch so I gave him some leftover birthday cheesecake lol. We tried passing this one guy over to the elders so we called him but he ended up bashing them for an hour and then tried to set up a time to "talk" irl... so we hung up. We felt unsafe lol. We stopped by a referral from a girl named Angelica and ended up finding her! She is from Haiti and speaks Haitian creole, french, and english. She was so emotional hearing about the peace she could find at church! She was really sweet and like disney princess gorgeous holy moly! We had the most amazing lesson with Aria and we heard her BEAR HER TESTIMONY for the FIRST TIME!!! I cried. She said she finally found what she's been looking for for YEARS. Guys what SHE'S 100% TAUGHT.

Saturday: Aria passed her baptismal interview YAYAYAYAY!!!! We are so over the moon. We met her at another church building so we could shop at the clothing drive there beforehand for an outfit she can change into after her baptism! All she found was jeans lol she loves her jeans. We stopped at Starbucks for cakepops for our monthaversaries!!! We had dinner with the Alarcons and ate their yummy peruvian food. So. Freaking. Good. I got to use some of my duolingo level 7 spanish. All I said was hielo. Lolll anyway then we went to the park for some studies and saw a train!!!!!!! I love trains so much.

Sunday: We went to church!!!!! Oh how I love relief society! We have such a good ward. Like suuuuch a good ward. We had lunch with the Ellisons (same fam as monday yes) and they made me a late birthday lunch!!!! We ate yakisoba and cookies with glitter on them. We made Aria's baptismal program which took ages but we got it done! I never knew the amount of work that goes into a baptism until now. Respect to those who have done it!!!! We did a billion member stopbys and nobody was home but that's alright. No effort is wasted. We called Aria to finalize some baptism details!! She's sooo excited. Our hearts are full!

I love yall, the Lord loves yall! Email me! (Don't text me on messenger rip)