God Bless the South

7-5-16

God Bless the South

Happy 4th of July friends and familyyyyy!!!  Such an awesome time for the whole country to come together and celebrate this beautiful nation we live in! I am grateful to be in a mission that gets to celebrate it!!!

This week was cuhrazayyy!!  I felt like we have not been in our area in a very long time! We have just been running around this whole week going to meetings and going on exchanges left and right.

We went on Exchanges (switching companions with a set of sister in our zone for 24 hours. each in a different area)  with sisters in the Demopolis area!  I went with Sister Hintze in Demopolis. S. Hintze is from Clearfield, UT. Demopolis is the CUTEST tiniest little town with a small branch of members.  Only about 30 are active.  Their building is a teeny tiny little thing! With a normal Relief Society room as their chapel and very few classrooms. Such a muffin little Church building. I will just share a few highlights from our exchange! 

        -First,  we had Book of Mormon study with the cutest old member couple and a sassy black Less active lady who I later got to be best friends with!  As S. Hintze and I were tracting in the ghetto one time during the day, we got escorted by this nice man on a bicycle back to our car because he thought it was too dangerous for us to be there (it was 11am and we were fine but it was so cute!!) haha

        -We went all over Demopolis with the Senior Couple in the branch, Elder and Sister Jones to find Less Active Hispanic families in the branch, because both the Senior Couple and regular sisters in Demopolis are english, so we went all over so I could communicate with them and have a lesson! It was so fun!

        -  Getting to know S. Hintze was so awesome.  She is seriously an amazing person and missionary.  She has been through ALOT yet is still extremely  ARROWS OUT and has an awesome attitude.  It was so fun to work with her. 

Lately we have really been working with our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Corbridge, who is the BOMB! He is young with a wife, no kids, going to graduate school at Alabama. We love him so much. He has been such a blessing to all the missionaries that have served here.  He is by far the best WML I have ever had.  Our goal this transfer is to really work through the members and to do that we need to build trust with them and build strong relationship with them.  He really wants us to be a part of the ward family. 

Remember Miracle T___! We taught him this week about the Word of Wisdom and the blessings of being obedient to God.  The lesson was kinda all over the place but the point got acrossed and he understood.  He smokes and drinks coffee and tea but he agreed to live the Word of Wisdom and told us that quitting smoking will not be a problem for him so we will see! Keep him in your prayers! 

    I cant remember if I told you that he has narcolepsy pretty bad haha He falls asleep during our lessons quite often.....I was laughing alot during his first Sunday at church  when he was falling asleep but when we were teaching him you could really tell its hard for him! Its a real struggle.  He blinks alot, moves back and forth, pulses his hands for blood flow.  And so instead of laughing I got really sad for him!! haha this is really something he cant control and its really hard for him.

After that lesson I was really overcome with love for T___!!!  I really really care about him and just genuinely want this Gospel for him because of the blessings he can receive.  I knew that that was charity from Heavenly Father.  Ted is a wonderful person.  If more people were like T___, alot of the corruption in the world would be gone.  I cannot wait for his baptism coming up soon!

We got to meet President Sainsbury and his wife!!  I love them!  They are great and wonderful people, prepared and ready to serve the Lord.  They both spoke to us, introduced themselves and shared their story and testimony.  President Sainsbury laid down some expectations of his missionaries, He expects us to 1)Love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ 2) Be obedient. 3) Be Happy! 4) Follow the Spirit.  He said that their love is no performanced based.  And that Our companion is your best progressing investigator which I loved.  They are wonderful people.  They are not the Hanks! But I can feel that he is the right man for this job.  It is exactly what we as a mission need.

On the 4th of July all the leaders in the mission got together for MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) with President Sainsbury so we got to see him up close and personal! We set some goals for the mission for the next 3 years and talked about them and how we will achieve them(no biggie, just a little intimidating)  It was soooo wonderful.

Quick funny story hahahahaha

               After MLC we were driving to have a blitz with some Sisters in Hoover, AL and we were in stop and go traffic for a solid 3 hours. Unfortunately S. M had to go to the bathroom really bad and we were going literally -2 mph... it was awful. So we pulled off, hopped out, and ran into the woods (thank you AL for being so foresty everywhere) and Sister M peed in the woods!!!! hahahaha I went with her to keep a lookout.  Hahaha I was so proud of her.  It was a memorable time.  Anyways thought I would share that with ya’ll sorry if it was too much info but it was the best thing of my life.

R___ is doing so amazing! We had dinner and a lesson at their house this past week and he is so incredibly ready.  If there was anyone so ready for baptism its R___....He told me that he and V____ did a background check on the last name Moline because R___ has ancestors with the name Molina, and they found out that its French for Miller! And Molina is Spanish for Miller. Fun fact.  Who knew???

We taught a Hispanic family last week and it was so awesome.  I have forgotten how much I love the Hispanic people.  They make my heart melt with love!!!!!  They are so charitable, lovable , and HAPPY.  Its always a bit toasty at first but once you speak Spanish to them, BOOM you’re family. 

For Pday today we got together as a Zone and watched 17 Miracles.  There was not a dry eye in the Relief Society room!  With Pioneer day coming up we all thought it would be nice to get in the mood.  That was a wonderful film that brought so much emotion to us.  MISSIONS ARE NOTHING FOLKS. Those pioneers sacrificed everything to get to Zion.  How grateful are we to have the gospel now and in a time where religious freedom is on the earth. 

D&C 136:17 " Go thy way  and do as I have told you, and fear not thine enemies; for they shall not have power to stop my work" 

I love my mission!!!!! I love Alabama! I love my Savior.  I am so grateful to have this time to get to know Him better and who He is to me personally.  This is His church.  In the last days.  The gospel is perfect and true.

Have a great week! I love you all!!

love,

Sister Southern Squished Moline

rolllllllll tide roll