Mission Rocks

Dear everyone,

 

Go. On. A. Mission.

 

Love, Sister Lawrence

 

Another great week in the life of Hermana Lawrence! Napa is still beautiful and amazing and the people are as prepared as ever! It just stinks that I'm human and can't be a perfect missionary! Ha.  But the Lord knows I'm trying and we are receiving blessings for that! We didn't see a whole lot of success this week, but I know the miracles are coming! They come every day in small ways, but BIG ones are coming soon!!!!

 

Answers to your questions: I'm sleeping sooooo good. No problems there! I'm eating better! I didn't buy any Twinkies these last two weeks and I've been eating salads this week for lunch! Weird huh? We have dinner with members every night.. so a llllllooooootttt of tortillas.  As for teaching, we have been averaging as a companionship about 10 teaching appointments a week, except this last week we had 4.. But this week will be better because we set some new goals and are going to press forward with more faith than ever! In our apartment is Me, Sister Vance, Sister Lemmon, and Sister Hooton (from Mesa yay!) And yes we have many grapes :) It has actually been super hot here! You think it would start to cool down in August, but it keeps getting hotter! And it's supposed to get hotter in September! Gross. But it's good because now we have AC in our apartment! I didn't get to see Sister Palmer again, but my last companion is her new one! So in mission terms, my mom is now her dad :) ha! I am learning the area ok.. my gps still tells us where to go, so if you asked me I wouldn't know where anything is. ha. But I do memorize addresses, so that's helpful! My companion is still amazing and humbles me every day with her awesome example. We are doing great! :)

 

Some funnies of the week: I don't know if I've told you about the marching band yet, but we live across the street from a high school and there is this marching band that practices every day untill10:30pm.. trust me, they need it. They aren't that great but we can hear some progress! We're planning to make t-shirts and be their groupies.. We feel like they need some fans. ha. This isn't super funny, kinda sad actually, but you might laugh at me.. Something is wrong with our washer and all of our clothes were sopping wet today! So we wrung them out a ton and now we have clothes draped on every window and chair in the house. Welcome to Argentina. Oh wait.. haha. Also, I got bit by a dog this week! Not bad, don't worry, I don't have rabies and I didn't even bleed! But I may have almost peed my pants! We were visiting a member who hasn't been to church in a while, and we forgot that she was known for her viscious chiuahua.. We were outside talking with her husband when it escaped somehow through the garage and ran right towards me! I was the farthest from it too, so I don't even know how it had time to pick me as a target! But it jumped on me and bit my leg and then the husband came and kicked it and it went back inside. ha. It was sad. And my companion still imitates the scream that I let out. haha.

 

That is so crazy we have so many missionaries leaving every week! How many do we have out in our Stake right now? Yay for missionaries!

 

This week was a little bit discouraging number-wise, but numbers don't matter and we helped a lot of people this week! Take that Satan! We had some investigators tell us they don't want us to come back and some that we haven't been able to get a hold of in a while.. but this week we are planning to clean up our area book a little and really focusing on finding the ones who are prepared! I know the Lord will place them in our paths and place us in their paths and that we will see success this week!

 

My mission really is the best thing I've ever chosen to do in my whole life! I know the Lord needs me here and every day I am reminded why! Every day I get to meet more of His sons and daughters that He loves so much! Every day my love for them and for Him grows and I feel myself and my testimony growing. The Book of Mormon is becoming my best friend and I feel weird going anywhere without one in my hands! It's true. It's all true. And I have the opportunity to tell the world about it! Satan tries really hard to stop us and to get us down, but with the Lord on our side we can never fail! If we go with faith in Him, we will have His strength and his power to not get discouraged and to testify of the truth! We are as the army of Helaman and there is nothing we can't do with faith. This is the Lord's kingdom on the earth restored through a prophet, Joseph Smith, and it will not fall! I testify that this work is true. And that the Lord is preparing the hearts of everyone to hear it! 

 

Yesterday, in Relief Society, all of the sisters shared their conversion stories, because they were all converted by missionaries! It was interesting because in every single one of their stories, they had all had interactions with the missionaries before they even started taking the discussions, but told them they were busy or weren't interested! Even though not everyone responds well to our message, we are planting seeds! You are planting seeds! At school, at work, at church, and at the store! Invite people to come unto Christ by being like Jesus Christ "in all times, and in all things, and in all places." I promise the Lord will bless you as you become a missionary now. 

 

The Lord loves you and can't wait to bless you! Thank you so much for all the prayers and support!

Love love love, 

Hermana McKenna Lawrence 

Alma 54:14