Jessie in Georgia: Exchanges and Even More Frogs (and a Baby Snake)

Guys this week felt so long and so short at the same time. We are FRIED but like in a good way trust.

Here's about how it went:

Monday: P-day! I ate a lot of pickles because I love pickles and also have free will. As a missionary, free will is limited so I do the best I can. We went on a hike (walk) as a district! It was so fun and Sister Emp and I ran half the trail lol. We played chair soccer at the church and I almost won but Elder Alder is a genius and tired me out by kicking the ball to the wall ten billion times and tiring me out so I'd lose. How could I not see that coming. Don't know. We went to dinner with Andrew Dearhart and he brought his dog Uno!

Tuesday: We found a baby snake at the gym! We started the day at the co-op and created a new $2 rack which was so fun because all the old ladies there trust our judgement like we run the place. So, the thrift store looks about how my dream thrift store would. We stopped by this one lady and a guy just looked out the blinds and said "there's some crazy a** white people outside" so we left a kind note and dipped. We had a lesson fall through that we brought a member to so we took our member knocking with us and had no success but it was fun lol. Our member couldn't knock on her mission because it was too dangerous so she likes going out with us! We had a lesson with our friend, Ashley who is on date for the 26th! She is just glowing. She's so excited! We taught her the ten commandments and she loved the hand signs :)

Wednesday: We realized we were genuinely swamped juggling 35 friends that we were teaching, so with some wise counsel from our DL, we turned half of them grey. Don't worry, most of them we could barely get in contact with. We were just holding on for no reason, apparently. We found a cool fella named Jonathan at panda express. We stopped by our friend Miss May and she flat out told us "I'm not gonna join your church" but guess what... we downloaded the Book of Mormon app on her phone and she promised to read every single day because she wants to know why we're so passionate ;) Just you wait, Miss May.

Thursday: We had District Council and Creature brought his carrots of course. We went to Village Burger in Tucker and holy crud guys it was so goooooood. While we were doing studies in Zaxby's a worker came up to us and told us her sister was a member so of COURSE we tried to get her info but she caught on too quick so all we could do was leave her with a pamphlet. Anna from Zaxby's will join the fold someday. We had dinner with the Noahs at chick-fil-a and it literally started hurricaning outside and the power went out for a little bit. Ohhhh Georgia. We went to institute after dinner and had a great lesson about divine identities! It was really good. Shoutout Kim Hall for teaching a great lesson. We called Aria on the way home and guys UGHHHHH I just love calling her because I love hearing her testimony especially after baptism. I remember when she was scared of God a few months ago and now she is just a bright ball of sunshine who knows she is being carried by Him. YES!

(The hermanas friend is pregnant (whoops))

Friday: WOW cooked day. We had a 6 hour Mission Leadership Council meeting then had dinner with sweet Sister Burke! We had the yummiest tacos ever and dairy free ice cream and flour-free cookies. HOW SWEET ARE OUR MEMBERS. Guys. They genuinely don't care that we have dietary restrictions, they just want to make sure we're fed. We exchanged with the Lawrenceville sisters and I headed there with Sister POSVAR! She's from Queen Creek so we bonded <3

Saturday: My first exchange as STL and let me say it went a lot better than I thought it would. I was so scared and for whatttt? Apparently we both woke up in the night to each other sleep talking. We had an awesome lesson with their friend Suze and their new member Astrid! They're both from Haiti and speak french so Astrid helps with translation. We built a chair for her after Suze left lol. We did some stopbys and at this one door, a little girl answered and as we got talking with her, she told us she was named after the River Jordan! How cute. After I told her my mom was there recently she told us she had to go practice her trombone. You go girl. We went to another lesson and she didn't answer the door so we called her and she told us she was in the shower so we waited on her porch for 30 minutes. We took advantage of the fact that we had a member with us and called some people who had been taught in the past to invite them to Sacrament meeting. It was so awesome. We got let inside eventually and had a great lesson sitting on 5 gallon buckets only to find out she's already a member. WHAT. Guys that never happens here. (This actually happened last week too lol) We found another lost sheep! I see this a lot, where people will get baptized in another country, move to America, then their records get left behind in their country with nowhere to go. It's fun reactivating people :) They get to be converted AGAIN! We went to another lesson with a gal who called to say she was stuck in traffic and would be home in 20 minutes. An hour and 40 minutes later, she arrived home and told us she didn't want to be baptized. Rip. For dinner, Sister Posvar took a nap and I ate a salad and granola out on the porch and watched the rain. Talked to God some, too. It was truly an experience. We exchanged back and reunited with our goats.

Sunday: I'll be honest. Sundays as a missionary can be so uplifting but also are some of the hardest days. I love Sundays because of Church, but the rest is brutal. They aren't as restful as it feels like they should be, and I know that's probably just me complaining, but we don't have much time to just sit and enjoy life. We're always running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Amelia came to church and said we could start meeting again soon yay! We had the new schedule start today and I actually like it a lot! It's fun to have both classes in a day. Aria always takes so many notes in our lessons and in class at church. I love it. She loves it. After church, we had a lesson at the park with our friend, Eshetu from Ethiopia! His first language is Amharic, and HALLELUJAH they have that on the Book of Mormon app and he's been reading every day! He is truly a gem and wants to get baptized. We finally weekly planned since our Friday was cooked, had a meeting with the Zone Leaders about a meeting we have later this week, and came home for an 8-9 dinner before another meeting until 10pm. I don't know if I can take anymore meetings yall. Pray for me.

🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

I love yall, the Lord loves yall!

xoxo, Sister Anderson