First, let me breakdown some missionary lingo:
Area: a collection of zones, or places where missionaries serve. For instance, I am currently in the Jackson Area.
Zone: a collection of districts in an Area headed by Zone Leaders (who are just Elders serving in that Zone).
District: a group of missionaries from different parts of the same place. For instance, my district is made up of missionaries from Flowood, Forrest, Pearl, and Brandon.
My first day here was exhausting, but also a testament of why I wanted to be here. Whenever the Mississippi Jackson Mission is doing transfers, all of the missionaries going to new areas meet at the church building in Brandon. They come in busloads, put their luggage in the room that has the name of their new area on it, and leave with their respective companions and buses and go change lives elsewhere. Since I was remaining in the Jackson area, I hung out at the church building for a rather extensive period of time since Flowood was maybe a half hour drive away. HOWEVER, while I was waiting, I saw Sister Hill! If y'all don't know who she is, I roommed with her in college a few semesters ago. I was there when she opened her mission call, and at the time I wasn't even considering serving. It's crazy that we ended up in the exact same mission! She's such a sweetheart. It was good to see a familiar face after being thrown into something so new and unfamiliar. I wish her well finishing out her mission in Hattiesburg!
After we met one another and the other Mississippi Sisters, Sister Harrison took me grocery shopping! Which I was so excited to do, especially once we found out we eat the same way! Meaning, we both eat copious amounts of kale and spinach, chicken, fish, broccoli, brussel sprouts, avocados...all of the green things, basically. She and I are very like-minded, and she's such a sweetheart. Even as I'm typing this now, I know that the Lord answered my prayers for a good first companion. Sister Harrison is better than good -- she's amazing!
While we were checking out, the cashier noticed our name tags and asked if we were nuns! We smiled and said no, and explained that we were missionaries. We ended up giving him a pass-along card (which is a little card that has our phone number and the address of the church on it) and inviting him to church!
The following day, I met my district! Sister Harrison and I are the only sisters in the whole district, so they treasure us. We got a new district leader the same day I came into the district, though! So I wasn't the only one who was new (although, he's been serving for fourteen months...). I don't see the Elders much, but they're a fun group to be with when we're all together!
I've learned that I love tracting, even after lessons and appointments fall through. Around here, people ask you to come back, but don't usually answer the door. This has been a hard area to work, according to Sister Harrison, but every soul is worth so much in God's eyes, and I know He wants everyone to have a chance to hear about the fullness of the restored gospel. So, I'm going to share and spread it as far as I can.
There are a couple of instances while tracting I feel impressed to share. The first isn't very fun. We knocked on a door, and this old woman answered. She poked her head out, and zeroed in on me. Without a hello, she asked what we wanted. Something inside me twisted, and I felt a little sick to my stomach all of a sudden, but I pushed up a smile and told her we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We simply shared that we wanted to talk to her and her family about a message of the restored gospel through the Book of Mormon, but she didn't seem to be having any of it. Sister Harrison tried to pitch in and talk, especially when the woman kept giving us short answers. There was another woman behind her, maybe her daughter, who opened the door some more and said, "We appreciate what y'all do, but we're Baptist here." And turned around, throwing her arms up in the air like we had ruined her day (and some part of me feels like maybe we had).
Sister Harrison was trying to touch on the Atonement, and I vividly the remember the old woman looking at her and saying, "Yes. Through Jesus Christ." And right in the middle of Sister Harrison's sentence, slammed the door and left us standing there on her porch in stunned silence.
I knew door slams were going to happen. It was just odd to see it happening in real life. Sister Harrison said that that hadn't happened to her yet, but that it wasn't unheard of, and she'd felt like the Spirit hadn't wanted us to be at that door at all. I agreed, and I still do. There are some doors that we knock on that immediately I get a feeling of, "No. Not here. Not yet."
That experience had me a little down for the rest of the day. And as we continued through the neighborhood, I kept wondering how on earth I was going to do this. Our lessons from earlier in the week hadn't gone too well, and so far everyone who had answered the door had simply said, "No. I'm not interested." Or they told us a run-down of their faith, what they like about their church, and so on. Most of the time people are kind, but it was starting to get to me when I was so ready to start sharing.
I started saying a silent prayer that we'd find someone, just one person. We were nearing the end of our tracting time since storm clouds were starting to move in, and as we were heading back to the car, I said, "Let's try one more door." Sister Harrison liked that idea, and suggested we try some potential investigators she and her last companion had found on one street over. I had agreed, but as we were walking, I was looking at the houses we were passing and everything in me was drawn to one particular house. It was smaller than the rest, and the bricks were a little different. Leaves were scattered all over the lawn and the driveway, and there didn't seem to be any lights on, but something inside me said, "There. Go there."
I told Sister Harrison that, and she and I went to the door. We rang the door bell, no answer. We knocked four times and nobody came to the door. My heart was just breaking! I felt so guilty, like maybe I had completely misinterpreted a prompting and embarrassed my trainer, and like I didn't know what I was doing all of a sudden.
Reluctantly, we left the front door. But as we reached the end of the lawn, Sister Harrison suggested we pray. So we stopped, folded our arms, and did just that.
Right as she ended it, rain started falling on half the street in front of us (yes, just half!) and I immediately began fishing for my umbrella. Sister Harrison turned back to me to help, and right as she did, she saw a truck pull into the driveway of the house we'd just knocked on. Umbrella over our heads, we hurried over and began talking to man named John, who's a physical trainer and very, very kind. He didn't know anything about the Book of Mormon, but he said he'd happily try to read it, and we said we'd come back and see him.
That, my friends, was a miracle.
Things like this happened sporadically throughout the week. Sometimes our day wouldn't have a miracle like it, but we're planting seeds, and that in itself is a miracle.
I want to tell y'all that your Heavenly Father hears your prayers, and completely understands the desires of your heart. As I have prayed to find people to talk to, they have come, even just in the first week. When I don't feel like I can do this, I can, but only because my Heavenly Father listens and cares and gives me the guidance I need to help those people who are missing the love and blessings that come from the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is getting pretty long, so I'm going to try and keep everything after this short-ish. While we were out tracting yesterday, this car drove by us and came to an immediate halt. We thought they were going to stop and talk to us, but instead they turned around and zoomed the other way. Thinking nothing of it, Sister Harrison and I kept knocking on doors and walking as planned, until that same car came back and met us at the bottom of someone's driveway. Out of the car stepped a boy who was maybe sixteen, and he was wearing a cross necklace. With a smile, he handed us two water bottles and said, "Thank you for doing the Lord's work. We really appreciate what y'all do!" I wanted to cry! That was so kind and so selfless! Oh man! Miracles, my friends! MIRACLES!
We met with a family Sister Harrison has previously taught, just to see how they're doing. We gave them a children's Book of Mormon, which their seven year-old daughter immediately ate up. She sat down in her little chair, opened it up, and after Sister Harrison shared a scripture, began reading how the Book of Mormon came to be.
Never before have I felt such a sweet Spirit enter the room. Even as this little girl tripped over words like "Moroni" and "Urim and Thummim" the Spirit drifted around the room like a gentle blanket, offering a quiet sense of peace and joy, like Christ was sitting on the couch beside me with a grin of pride on His face, listening to a child read about His gospel being restored to the earth.
Don't underestimate the small testimony children have. Children are closer to our Heavenly Father than we are right now. He has such a pure love and gentleness for little ones, and I saw that in another family that we found while tracting. They're the Griffins, we found out. When we first knocked, a little girl squinted at us through the blinds and shouted for her dad, who then asked who was at the door, which got a, "IT'S TWO WOMEN?!" from the little girl. Sister Harrison and I just about died laughing! It was so funny!
They answered the door and introduced themselves. They're a Catholic family, and they were cleaning out toys to either sell or give away. Their little girl shouted, "I want to give it to charity!" when her mom told us that. We then met their little boy, who is the sweetest little thing on this earth. He has a muscular condition that I cannot spell for the life of me, but it's rare and he's having surgery for it in a couple of weeks. Keep him in your prayers please!
This family was so sweet as they listened to us talk. I felt impressed to talk about how the Book of Mormon helps us understand and feel more of Christ's love, and that we want to share that with everyone we see. They agreed to take a copy of the book, and we're going to check in on them in a couple of weeks.
I have had such an amazing first week here in Flowood. I wish I could tell you more, but that would be a novel! The Lord is watching out for me and my companion, but He is especially watching out for the people we teach and talk to. Everyone is a child of God and deserves to know how much He loves them, and I can't wait to keep sharing that.
Have a good week, y'all!
(Photos up next!)
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