Spiritual: At first, our lesson with Robin was kind of on shaky ground. We weren't sure what to ask her about and we had gotten kind off topic and were now talking about Christmas. I have a goal to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon in every lesson so I decided to share the scriptures in 1 Nephi 11 where Nephi sees Mary in his vision. After we shared that verse with Robin, she asked if we happened to have an extra copy of the Book of Mormon. Yes! We were so excited! Then she told us that she is really interested in religion and religious groups because of the Native Americans and their ..read more

Funny: We wanted to show one of the families we are ministering to that we love them so we made hearts for a heart attack, but we knew we had to be sneaky about it because every other time we had gone to their house, at least one of their kids was outside and alerted everyone there to our presence. So, we plan this out. We parked where they couldn't really see us, sneak up to the house, put the hearts on their door quietly and carefully, and then run back to the car as soon as we her a suspicious noise. All while we had been doing this, there were two bright pairs of headlights in front of us ..read more

Funny: Zone Conference was on Wednesday and it was so fantastic! We learned about Satan and about the awesome blessings of keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. President Hansen was helping us learn about how to help people come to church and so he did a role play for us, it was so impressive! He's just very bold, but very sincere so I just watch him in awe. At one point in the role play, he said "and as we talked about last time, church is only two hours long". He then turned to us and winked ?We all really appreciated the opportunity to laugh and see that practicing teaching can be funny. Plus, I'm ..read more

Spiritual: We had a really fantastic lesson with Lisa this week, she just made our day! We started out unsure of what to talk about, but then Sister Taylor asked a whole bunch of inspired questions and Lisa really opened up and we were able to teach a really brief Restoration lesson and connect it to her. She's been taught by missionaries a whole bunch of years ago and is really wanting to find out more about what God has in store for her and how she can truly be happy. Plus! She gave us Capri-Sun and Oreos! Funny: Sister Jackson spoiled us rotten this week. She made us deep-fried catfish wi ..read more

Spiritual: This week I got to go to Searcy for a day for exchanges. While we were there we met a man named Sammy who was formerly a member of the reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (otherwise known as the Community of Christ). The crazy part of that experience was that Sister Taylor and I had been discussing break-off groups of the church just the day before and I had even brought up on the car ride to Searcy that I had wondered what differences there were between our church and the reorganized church. The Church History Topics on Gospel Library gives you just enough deta ..read more

Funny: On Thursday we had a lesson with Madison and Nay Nay. They are sisters, but they have very different attention spans and learning styles. So one reason we serve in companionships was shown when I basically taught Nay Nay the Plan of Salvation by watching "What happens after we die" about 6 times and by Sister Taylor fielding Madison's deep questions about the Atonement. It truly is necessary that we "go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God" (D&C 42 ..read more

Funny: We taught Madison and NaeNae today and it was so fun! We got through the first half of the Restoration. Madison said her favorite prophet was Moses because he had super powers and if she had a super power she would control lightning. NaeNae just said she was bored… Spiritual: Gelacio was a referral from the Elders in Jonesboro and we went to bring him an El Libro de Mormon. He is a very spiritual individual who believes in miracles and faith. We learned a lot about enduring from him and will teach him again this Saturday with Sean. Where I am at: This week was really good, especially ..read more

Funny: This week we ate dinner with some members who had just joined the church a couple of years ago. They fed us delicious fried food (fried eggplant is really good) and told us some awesome stories! Once, while she was at the store she left her kids with another relative and he dared them to run to a specific tree. The kids said they weren't allowed to go near that tree because there was poison ivy there and the relative (who was in a lot of trouble once the mom got home) told the kids that if they ate some poison ivy, they would be immune to it ?? Her kids were sick for a long while ..read more

Spiritual: Zoey is in 9th grade, but is a very spiritual individual. She told us that she knows that God loves her because he answered her prayer when she was really feeling down.  We actually met her when she ordered a Bible from Mormon.org and now we get to start teaching her! Funny:  There is a lady that we've been teaching named Lora and we planned to go teach her this week with a member. We felt like they would get along really well because they have similar religious backgrounds. We bring this member with us and lo and behold they already know each other! In fact, they were r ..read more

Funny: We serve at the senior center a few days a week helping prepare lunch. One of the other workers, Becky, always asks me what my joke is for that day. The one from this week is one of my favorite ones so far so i thought i would share it here :)  A man was driving down the road when a policeman stopped him. The officer looked in the back of the man's truck and said, "Why are these penguins in your truck?" The man replied, "These are my penguins. They belong to me." "You need to take them to the zoo," the policeman said. The next day, the officer saw the same guy driving down the roa ..read more