Roll With the Tide Roll

August 24, 2015

Hey Ya'll!!

We had transfers this past Wednesday, also my hump day, so I've officially been out for 9 months, and I've been called as a new Sister Training Leader and am serving in Tuscaloosa, Alabama! I am IN LOVE with this area, and this is the perfect time to come because football season's about to start!!! My new companion is Sister Young, she is absolutely amazing! So hilarious and a stellar missionary, she knows what she's doing! We're the missionaries that cover the YSA branch, so we're mostly out working with the students here at the UA and single adults. One of the investigators we're teaching is Shadrach. He's awesome! The sisters met him at walmart, he really likes the Book of Mormon, and came to church yesterday and brought his friend, Brandon.
Since we're working with the students, we do a lot of on campus contacting. One of my favorites is bus contacting. It's easy to talk to people, get to know them and share a message, and they have to listen cuz they're stuck on the bus!
Saturday we went out to Bessemer to help with a Roots Tech family history convention. Sister Young and I were in charge of the photo booth, so we got to dress up like pioneers, and take pictures of cute little kids. There were a lot of non members there, so we had some great teaching opportunities.
Saturday we went tracting in some apartment complexes close to campus and found some pretty promising potentials. Sister Young is really good at sharing scriptures with everyone we meet, by asking them if they've had their spiritual thought for the day. It's a pretty great way to contact. We've been able to bare our testimonies to almost every person we talk to, which is such an essential way to help others feel the Spirit and come closer to Christ. We were store contacting in a cute little southern boutique and asked a girl, who plays tennis for the UA, if she knew anyone who would be interested in hearing a message we have to share. She enthusiastically said "Ya! I want to hear your message!" Awesome! It is so amazing to see the Spirit working through you to touch the hearts and lives of those that this Gospel will help bless. I love this sacred and amazing work! I love being a missionary for this area!
Funny story to wrap this up, we were walking home to make curfew after having a lesson with a recent convert and saw a huge party/cook out going on, made up mostly of black people. As we were walking past a black guy yells at us from the porch "Hey ya'll! Roll tide! Say it! Say it with me, Roll tide!!" So we yell back at him "Roll Tide" He continues to yell at us "Roll tide!" So we say it at least 5 or 6 times till we realize he's drunk and we should probably just walk away. Well, the whole walk home, as long as he could see us, he starts yelling this little chant/song "Hey you white girls, roll with the tide, roll, roll with the tide!" Haha, so funny! I love the south.
Ya'll are amazing, be blessed, and God be with you this week.
Love, Sister Mason