A lot has happened this past week. I took a lovely flight across the U.S to Sweet Home Alabama! I got to meet my mission president, President Hanks. He is awesome! Sister Layton and I stayed in a hotel in Birmingham that night, and then we parted ways at transfers. That was especially hard to say goodbye, BUT, guess who the first person was that I saw at transfers Mom!! Sister Jane Wittwer!!!! It was so good to see her! And, Elder Connor Hamblin, from Chamber choir/Musical/Bountiful High in general- is not only serving the same mission, but is in my district!! What are the odds of that!
My training leader, Sister Robison, is AMAZING!! She's from Mesquite, Nevada, gorgeous, darling, so sweet, pretty much the older sister I never had. And, surprise, surprise, I'm not even serving in Bama. I've been sent to a sweet little town called Amory in good ol' Mississippi! Sister Robison and I have a house all to ourselves that is infested, luckily, with lady bugs (thank heavens it's not cockroaches or I'd be sleeping outside). We have bikes, but the roads here are so narrow it's hard enough to walk without almost getting hit, so...no to the bikes for now. We do have a car, we're limited on our mileage, but we'll still drive out to Walmart to talk to people. But, we mostly walk everywhere, which is awesome! They don't have any sidewalks here, instead they've been replaced with ditches. So, Sister Robison and I do a lot of ditch jumping to get to someones house while we're out tracting.
That's what this past week has been full of really. Tracting. But, everyone here in MS is so friendly, talkative, and genuinely nice! People will let you right into their home and talk to you for an hour about their life story. Not everyone is so inviting, we have had a couple of doors shut on us, but they always turn us down with their "southern charm" ex. "Oh goodness honey, I do appreciate you for droppin' by but, I am not interested. Ya'll are beautiful girls, but I just don't have time." Stubborn southerners!! Listen to us!! We've got a message that will change your life!
Despite the turn downs, we've had a lot of success. We've been teaching a guy named Ken. He is really involved in his church, but he agrees and likes a lot of what we've been teaching him. He's read most of the Book of Mormon and says he hasn't found anything wrong with it and generally likes talking to us about Jesus. He's a great guy, we've just gotta get him to our church!
We've also been visiting a less active girl named Jennifer. She's got a lot of really hard family problems. But she is so full of faith in her Savior. She promised she'd go to church this past and didn't show. So, Sister Robison and I stopped by to see what's up and ended up meeting a friend of hers named Sarah. Sarah said she just moved in two weeks ago from Arkansas. She said she doesn't know why she moved but God told her she needed to go to Amory, MS and that she's still trying to figure out why she's here. We asked her if she wanted us to visit with her at Jennifer's house and have us teach her what we believe in and she said yes!! Wonder of Wonder- Miracles of Miracles!!
We met a lady and her kids while we were at Walmart. Her name's Dana. She saw our name tags and started talking to us about our church and what we do as missionaries. She invited us to eat Christmas dinner with her and her family! Sweetest lady ever and best opportunity for us to teach the gospel to her and her family!! So, Mom, we'll be spending Christmas Eve and morning with the sister that sent you all the pictures of our house and that's where I'll skype home!! And then the evening will be spent at Dana's!
We also met a lady on main street, she owns this really cool art shop. Her name is Missihippie Belle (pretty legit) We call her Miss Belle. She'd heard of missionaries before and really admired that we are willing to leave our families and teach people about Jesus.
We met a lot of people this past week while tracting that want us to come back. I am so excited to start teaching them.
We stayed with the Tupelo sisters last night cuz we're all going out to Decatur for our missions Christmas party, I'll be singing 'O Come All Ye Faithful' celtic style. The Tupelo sisters have Celtic Woman's Christmas album!!! I just about died when they turned it on! I miss listening to my Celtic Ladies!
Well, this truly is the best thing I've ever decided to do EVER!! I've never been so happy in my life, and to be serving the children of our Heavenly Father here in Amory and at Christmas time is such a blessing. Know that you all mean the world to me and I am so happy to have this gospel and that I get to share it with others. I love you all!!
Love, Sister Michaela Mason
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