On Pday we went to a huge bass pro shop with our district! After we walked around downtown Memphis, got lunch and played pickleball. My district is super fun and they r all really good at pickle! It's weird because they are just normal teenage kids but then the second someone asks us who we are they have a switch they can flip in one second. It's definitely weird seeing the Elders flip their switch because they are immature teenage boys then they can turn into these spiritual men in 1 second haha. 

Tuesday night we went to dinner at a members house. It was a grandma and grandpa and they said they've fostered 79 children. So crazy and they've adopted 12 of those kids. They are white but they adopted all black kids and half of them are drug babies. At dinner the grandparents were telling us that both of their parents were very racists and if they knew they had adopted black children they would be disgusted. Then they started ranting to us about how black people are so lazy and that none of them want to work and they just rely on the government for everything. They kept saying "that's what black people do!!!" The grandma also told us she never saw "the blacks" until she was 30 years old. My companion and I were literally in shock because all their black kids were around the dinner table and it was so awkward we didn't know what to say. Member meals can be so awkward 

Wednesday we got to go visit our friend Steve! He LOVES us and he loves our lessons. He asked us to sign his book of Mormon next to our favorite verses. Towards the end of the lesson he started going off topic saying how pretty we were and that we were beautiful without makeup. Then he asked us if he wanted to date someone in our church could he if he wasn't a member? We told him yes then he told us if he had to pick one of us to date he wouldn't be able to choose because he likes us both and we were like uhhhhhhhhh Steve you're 50 years old !! Idk if he was just being nice or what but. He says he's wanting to get married in the temple but he doesn't want to go to church because "He hates buildings because he was in a prison building for 29 years". He told us the only fights he got in prison were when someone tried to interrupt his Bible study haha.

We went to the doctor again to get my companions cast off and doc told us she needs to get surgery? We are meeting with the surgeon next week and I'm hoping she doesn't have to get surgery because that means I'll be spending a lot of time at the hospital with nothing to do...

 

A member refered us to this lady who rents a house from him. He said she has a hard life and was let go from her job so she isn't working and we could stop by whenever! He told us he tried to send elders over a while ago and she opened the door and cussed them out. We were pretty scared but we decided that we have "sister privilege" and that won't happen to us. She told us to come inside- her house was filled with cigarette smoke, I was trying not to choke when i walked in. It also burned my eyes. I had just washed my hair and now my hair/everything I was wearing was covered in smoke. She told us she didn't like Mormons but she thought we were sweet and she would meet with us again. She also dropped the f bomb a couple times but then kept saying "excuse my french". Man she was pretty weird. Everyone we teach has some sort of trauma and we just have to listen to their life stories and it's so hard to focus and pay attention because we want to act like we care but also it's hard to cut them off and start talking about the gospel because they just want to trama dump on you. So basically 2/3 of our lessons are usually people trauma dumping

We had a lesson with Caraletus! He loves meeting with us and told us he knows he's supposed to be here right now meeting with us and that the Lord put us in his path. We taught him repentance and baptism. By the end of the lesson he told us we make him feel so good inside and that he can feel the spirit. He told us he wants to get baptized and that he found a church that will baptize him. We kept saying noooooo and we tried to bring up being baptized into our church and he didn't like the idea of "being baptized into a church" which is totally valid. We tried to explain you need to be baptized by proper authority and I don't think he really got it. Other than that it was a great lesson and the member we brought with us shared a powerful testimony! Having members in lessons is seriously so powerful because they can share their conversion stories and bare their testimony.

Every week we meet up with the Elders and Sister in our district. There are 6 of us here. We talk about our friends and any problems we are having and we all work together to figure out the best solution. We got lucky with our district the Elders are the zone leaders & the sisters are our Sister Training Leaders! They are such awesome missionarys. At the end of out meeting Elder Peugero the zone leader asked if anyone wanted a preistood blessing. My heart starting beating so fast and I felt prompted to ask for one. I didn't need one or anything but I felt like I should ask. The Elders put their hands on my head and Elder Peugero said everything I needed to hear. I've received many preistood blessing throughout my life but this was the most powerful one I've had. Elder Peugero was so inspired with what he was saying. I think the blessing was so special because I've been studying alot on preistood blessings and it is really cool that we have it on the Earth once again. The Elders take the blessings so seriously and hold the preistood so humbly because they know it's the Lord's power. Anyways super cool I didn't realize I needed one until he asked. I was scared to speak up but I'm so glad I did because it brought me so much peace and comfort.

Stake Conference was this weekend! We got to go to Saturday & Sunday session. The Saturday session was SO good. Every single person that spoke had the Spirit speaking through them. My companion and I were seriously bawling. The members here have such strong testimonies because most of them are converts. The spirit was so strong in the chapel. This moms story really stood out to me- she mentioned that shes been battling cancer for the past couple of years. She said that instead of praying for her circumstances to change, she prayed to have strength through them. She wasnt worried about herself, only worried about not being able to give her kids 100%. She said she prayed for specific things, such as healthy kids while she went through chemo so she didnt have to take care of sick kids. She also prayed that her 1 year old would be ok not needing as much attention from his mother. She told us her entire family got Covid and that no one had any syptoms! Also, her 1 year old was so mellow and never had tantrums and just wanted to snuggle his sick mom which was something she could give him. It was the sweetest story and really shows the love a mom has for her kids. I looked over at my companion and she was just SOBBING because she lost her mom to cancer. The last guy that spoke was an African American from Louisiana. The chapel was calm and quiet and he stood up and starting preaching !! He was yelling and screaming Amen and calling people out in the crowd. He definitely used to be a Baptist or something. We were trying not to laugh because it felt like we weren't at an LDS church anymore. He looked at me in the crowd and made me stand up in front of everyone and they handed me the microphone and I was seriously shaking. Anyways when the meeting ended we were talking to an investigator who came and that preacher came up to us and told her to stay close to us because 28 years ago the missionaries changed his life. It was really cool I think all the members thought his way of teaching was weird but all the investigators that came loved how he was teaching because that is what they are used to. He was a mission president in Louisanna which is super cool because he got to teach the missionaries how to "teach his kinda people."

We had a really good lesson with our friend Fabe. He's a 49 year old man who is recently divorced and is filled with guilt and reached out to us. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and really focused on faith and repentance. We were so unsure about what we were going to teach him we were leaning towards the Restoration. We prayed that the spirit would guide us with what to say. We started teaching and he told us we were touching him so much and he asked how we knew what to say to him because it was exactly what he needed to hear. The lesson was only supposed to be 30 minutes but it ended up being an hour long! He said HE KNOWS God led him to talk to us. My companion and I both said it was the most we have ever felt the spirit during a lesson Fabe is SO prepared to hear the gospel and I know he was feeling the Spirit. He told us he was baptized into the Catholic church at 1 years old but he keeps getting the impression that he needs to be baptized again. He's out of town so the lesson was over the phone but it's cool how the Spirit can speak even through the phone. This was also my first experience of having the spirit put words into my mouth! During our lesson I kept remembering scriptures I had read through out the week and quotes I had written down from stake Conference. He loved everything I was saying and kept saying we were speaking words that he needed to hear. In D & C 11:21 "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men."

This scriptures came true for me during this lesson and it was so cool to have my tongue be loosed.

That night we had a lesson with a 17 year old boy named Justin. His best friend is a member of the church and gave him a book of Mormon. He goes to seminary with his friend every morning at 6AM. He's really close with his best friends family. They invited us over for family home evening so we could teach Justin. Justin was super timid and nervous but by the end of the lesson he opened up. He told us his family raised him atheist and he said "I feel like a part of my life that has never been touched before is being touched." I wanted to cry !! We are going to go over every Sunday night to teach him little by little. I'm so impressed with this young boy reading the Book of Mormon. He marks his scriptures and writes down questions. He's a very mature 17 year old boy and I admire his friend for sharing his testimony with his friend. I also love the family that hosts us they are awesome! The mom and dad are so much fun and sitting in the living room with a family makes us feel a lot less home sick.

Guess who's waking up at 6AM tomorrow to go play pickleball  it's hard to get competitive that early in the morning but I'm glad we fit some time in to play haha. Elder Peugero and I are undefeated as of now!

I love you all !! Miss you guys so much !