Jessie in Georgia: Ashley's a MEMBER and Whimsy Galore 😻💕🌈🪩🍒🧚‍♀️🐟-Lilburn, Georgia

Hello my very special peopleee! I just love yall so much and am so grateful to have each and every one of you in my life!! If you're on this email list, I have personally seen the light of Christ in you! You are all beloved sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father. Don't you ever forget your divine identity!!

Here's how my week went!

Monday we played volleyball TWICE which iykyk I was thrilled to do so. We also thrifted as a district so that was fun! We had dinner with the Ellisons and they made us the yummiest sweet potato apple candied pecan fall salad thing and holy I need that recipe STAT! I didn't take any pics on Monday so here's me and a cat I named Pumpkin

Tuesday morning we had the brilliant idea to go finding at the park in the morning but surely after three hours of being there not a SOUL was interested. We had a church tour fall through so of course we still had the member there while we called some people who were interested in the past and found one. Live laugh love Peter Baron. We cooked up Ashley's baptismal program and heart attacked her door. We received the cutest most sweetest text from her and her husband Yi Ming afterward thanking us for everything. We had an amazing lesson with Keyon about the restoration and we invited him to pray to know if it was true and he just goes "I already know it's all true but the whole concept is just crazzyyy hahahaha" My gem. I love him. We went to the Fosters for dinner and had a spooky themed dinner of course. Everything was either dyed orange, purple, red, or green. We heart attacked Aria and found a baby gecko!

Wednesday we tried park finding again and found someone this time! Yippee! I took a nap during lunch face down on my pile of laundry just like old times. ;) We went knocking with one of the youth in the Tucker ward for her first time so she was pretty nervous but her testimony is so strong! We had dinner with the Palmers! We exchanged with the Lawrenceville Sisters after their Book of Mormon study!

Thursday I had a great exchange with Sister Marble who is in her first transfer! We went to her DC and DC lunch yay! We washed their car because zone conference was the next day! We had a lesson with their friends Caylin and Steve and talked about service! They showed us their new and improved fish tank setup and fed us cookies. Caylin's story is so interesting. She's had a pretty hard life. Her fiancé died in february of this year and now she's engaged to his dad's best friend. I skipped a lot but that's the short of it. We had a lesson with a fella named John that Sister Empey and I had met in a Wendy's and needed to pass him off because he didn't live in our area. After talking with him for a while I went to shake his hand and he kissed my hand instead. Oh! We went to stop by a referral but as soon as we pull into the driveway (it was on a busy street) we get blocked in by two massive trucks coming to cut down a tree for the fella that lived there. Once we talked to the guy and the men in the truck saw that we needed to leave, they kindly moved their trucks and backed us all the way out into the busy street and held up traffic for us. So kind. We had dinner with a cute family whose mom was baptized a year after they were married and the husband finally caved 18 years later. He had callings in the ward before his baptism. Then we found two frogs :)

Friday we had zone conference! Pres went really in depth with the sacrament and the STLTs and spanish APs went in depth with weekly and daily planning. It was really a banger zone conference. I learned a lot. We basically prepped for the baptism the rest of the day Friday. We cleaned the font (killed so many bugs that I didn't even know existed on earth), printed programs, hyped up Ashley, etc. My gem of a sister Leah mailed me a light that makes it look like the northern lights are on my ceiling and I found myself staring at them for a WHILE. I even brushed my teeth laying down so I could watch them longer. So freaking baller thanks breadstick. I sewed Ashley's jumpsuit with my sewing kit because it had a giant rip in the back. Grandma Susie ratatouille style helped me sew it. :)

Saturday was Ashley's big day!!!! She got to the church at 10:15 and her baptism wasn't until 11. She said she could barely sleep because she was so excited! The ward clutched UP and made her feel so incredibly loved. (Imagine the following in a Vietnamese accent) She kept saying things like "I'm feel so warm!" and "I'm feel so special!" YES ASHLEY YOU ARE SPECIAL! Gosh I just love her so much. She had the best day. She was glowing. After the baptism, while we were stopping by all of our friends to remind them about church, we accidentally knocked into an inactive member who was baptized forever ago and one of the spanish sisters' friends Shiela who they stopped teaching for a few reasons. When Shiela saw us she said "Are you from Jesus Christ?" When we said "Yes!!! Are you Shiela??" She started bawling and ran to hug us. We gave her a pep talk about the INFINITE atonement of Jesus Christ and she was so grateful that she gave us a bag of apples. She is wrought with guilt and wants to come back to church so bad. She is in a really tough spot and needs some prayers! So pray for Shiela! Little did she know I was STARVING and needed those apples. Thanks God HOW CUTE IS ASHLEY

Sunday we sustained Ashley a member of the church (I was cheesing so hard) and had an awesome lesson with our new friend Adrianna! During our personal studies, the same John that we passed off to the sisters on Thursday called to thank ME for shaking his hand and said he missed us at church today! He explained that he kissed my hand out of pure gratitude because he hadn't been that respected by someone since his wife died????? He asked to be on our email lists so he could remember the people who turned his life around and put him on the right path. MY HEART . We had an awesome lesson with our friend Emmanuel!!!! We met a French fella named Presnel, and he promised to come to church. Idk if he's coming but we can pray. We finally weekly planned 🧎‍♀️ . I LOVE MY COMPY!

I hope yall have just the best week ever!! Remember, no effort is wasted and you are SEEN and LOVED by God!

I love yall, the Lord loves yall!

xoxo, Sister Anderson