Blog post: Little Teachers and Lightning Bugs

Well, the weeks are totally zooming past. I've been out 4 months now. That's 22% of my mission! (Yes, I used a calculator.)

Tender Mercy: Little Teachers

Sister Wagner and I were walking down the street to an investigator's house one day. We spotted some people sitting in front of their house and, like the good little missionaries we are, we walked up to them. There were a bunch of little kids playing around outside, and they swarmed us as we introduced ourselves. Turns out, these were the same kids that Sister Hale and I had given Jesus cards (Book of Mormon cards) to a few weeks before. (For future missionaries, always give Jesus cards to little kids. It's so genius.)

The people on the porch were a black couple. They introduced themselves as Duke and Cookie ("Our real names are John and Natalie, but we go by Duke and Cookie"). We started talking about how we believe Christ's church was lost but has been restored (i.e., the Restoration!) and were giving Restoration pamphlets to them when all five of the little kids started asking for Resto pamphlets too.

Sister McKay (to self): We're almost out of Restoration pamphlets, what are you doing?!

Sister McKay: Everyone deserves the gospel!!

Sister McKay: Well, there goes our supplies. Oh, well. You're right. Everyone deserves the gospel. We'll make it!

The little kids were all over us. Apparently, because of the Jesus cards and pamphlets, we had become some sort of idols to them. We asked them what their names were and how old they were. Two of them were neighbor kids named TJ and Jaliyah Goodwin. I think Jaliyah was around 8 or 9 and TJ was probably 7-ish. Their three kids were 9-year-old twins named Ja'Layia and Ja'Koby and Zaden, who's around 6. Okay, so. We have TJ, Jaliyah, Ja'Layia, Ja'Koby, and Zaden. You know how hard it is to keep those names straight? But hey, I remembered them all! The only reason I know how to spell them is because, as we were leaving, we were trying to get their names down, and one of them suggested that they could write them down for us somewhere. Of course, out came our planners. We gave them our pencils and let them write their names. Now I have the handwriting of 5 little kids in my planner. It's adorable.

We set up a return appointment (we're seeing them on Wednesday!) and kept walking towards our investigator's place. She couldn't meet with us right then, so we turned around and headed for the car. On our way back, we passed Duke and Cookie and the kids again, and you'll never guess what we saw. 4 of these kids were sitting on a bench in front of the house, their backs facing us, and one of them (I think it was Jaliyah or Ja'Layia) was reading from the Resto pamphlet while the rest of them followed along! Yeah, our hearts melted. They spotted us and called out, "Heeeeyyy!! We're reading your books!!" Of course, we called back, "Good job!! Keep reading!" It was totally adorable, and that was a tender mercy that lasted about the whole week.

Bucket List: Lightning Bugs

Ever since I was little, I've wanted to see/catch a lightning bug. It made it to the bucket list a while ago. Well, there aren't really lightning bugs in California (where I was born) or Utah, but when I got called to the South, that dream was suddenly made possible! What I didn't know was that lightning bugs only come during lightning bug season (a.k.a. summer). I had kinda forgotten about them until a few nights ago.

We were on our way home from bible study at the church when Sister Wagner said something. The sky had been overcast all day, so I thought she said, "Oh, I just saw lightning!"

Me: "Lightning? Where?"

Sister Wagner: "No, a lightning bug! OH I JUST SAW ANOTHER ONE!"

Me: *almost dies* "WHERE?!"

Sister Wagner: "They just fly around and light up sometimes- OH LOOK RIGHT THERE!"

Me: *GASP* "I SAW THAT!! WOW!"

I think I had a spaz attack. It was hilarious. I haven't seen one since, but they were everywhere that night! It was so. Cool.

We're hopefully teaching Millie again this week, along with Duke, Cookie, and the gang, and hopefully another investigator named Nikki and maybe a guy named Rayvis. Whoo! The members have been a lot better about helping us out lately too, which is totally awesome! I'm really excited!

Love y'all!

Sister McKay

Hola! Somos Misioneras de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Días!

Try that in Google Translate! (Disclaimer: I can't use Google Translate out here, so I don't know how it'll show up.)

Miss Millie

We met Miss Millie in a somewhat round-about way. There was this kid with a baby in a stroller who was standing on the corner of the street.

Me: "Hi! How are you?"

Kid: *shocked look* "Good."

Me: "Is that your baby?"

Kid: *shakes head*

Me: "Oh, are you babysitting?"

Kid: *nod*

Me: "Oh, okay. Well, we're missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We go around sharing a message about Jesus Christ and how we can come closer to Him. Would you like to hear a message like that?"

Kid: *nod*

Sister Wagner: "What's your name?"

Kid: "Tyrique."

Sister Wagner: "How old are you?"

Tyrique: "15."

Me: "Do you think your parents would want to hear a message about Jesus Christ?"

Tyrique: *nod*

Me: "Okay. Do they live around here?"

Tyrique: "My gramma and my auntie do."

Me (not wanting to ask a shy 15-year-old boy, "Where do you live?"): "Doooo you know your address? We could go visit them."

Tyrique (said so quickly I blinked): "123-Clementine-Lane." (Note: address has been changed.)

Me (after a second of processing the inhumanly fast response): "Okay! We'll go talk to them."

Turns out, only Miss Millie was home. She ended up telling us her life story and how her grandkids were living with her because 7 or her 13 children had died. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, and her grandkids started filing in as we finished. They came in by twos and threes! Like, what?

At the end, we asked Miss Millie if her grandkids wanted to pray with us. She gave us a "look" and said, "We can axe 'em... Hey! Tylen!" A 6-year-old boy jumps up. "Go tell 'em to come out hee-ya an' pray wid us!"

Tylen (in the distance): "Hey! All y'all come out hee-ya an' pray!"

The grandkids slowly filed in. There must have been a dozen of them in the kitchen all at once. We all got in a circle and held hands, and I prayed. I've never said more heartfelt prayers than when I've been out on my mission.

If Miss Millie doesn't get baptized, maybe one of her grandkids will. Her family is amazing. All of them deserve the gospel, because we're all children of God!

A parody quote from Incredibles: "You are a CHILD OF GOD! Pull! Yourself! Togetha!!"

Love y'all!

#gogiveemheaven

Sister McKay

Greenie Busted

Same Area, New Comp

Oh man. Sister Wagner is incredible! She's 5'5" and from Duluth, Minnesota. (Not Utah?! *gasp*) She's 23 and loves Chick-fil-a just like me! We hit it off right away. On the way home from Macon, which is a 3.5 hour drive, we talked nonstop. I felt kinda bad for Brother and Sister Hammond, the members who drove us. But apparently they didn't mind! Sister Hammond called one of the sisters in our ward that we usually visit (Sister Keaton) and told her all about it, so when we visited Sister Keaton, she already knew all about Sister Wagner! It was kinda funny.

I have apparently been doing awesome at taking over the area. The hardest part is organizing everything so we don't use way too many miles! But we've had so many incredible experiences this week:

We taught one lady named Iris who says she "needs Jesus in her life" about the Plan of Salvation.

We taught another lady, named Nikki, about the Book of Mormon and asked her to read it. She said she would!

We got return appointments for both of them. And the Spirit was SO there!

We also met a lady named Rachel Daniels, who said she was baptized into our church a long time ago and stopped coming because one of the members accused her of stealing his wallet.

We talked to one of our potentials, a lady named Angel, who had asked for a Book of Mormon, and she said she'd been reading it. We're working on getting ourselves in to teach her!

We had a short chat with a guy named Heath who the elders met and gave a Book of Mormon to. He was surprised I remembered his name! Hopefully we'll run into him again.

And we got a return appointment with a potential named Shavette, and a lady named Brandy, and a lady named Rhonda who said she'll probably come to bible study!

So yeah. It's amazing.

Love y'all! Don't forget who you are! You are children of a heavenly King.

Go give 'em heaven!

Sister McKay

Transfers! And One New

One New

When we do call-ins with the district leader on Sunday, he asks for our numbers for the week. Lately it sounds like this:

"Zero baptized and confirmed, zero on date, one at church, one new."

"New" stands for "new investigator." That's actually the number that fluctuates the most. We've gotten 4 before, but they drop us, or they don't keep commitments, so we have to drop them. You just can't try to teach them the gospel if they don't want to accept it. You save that for later, when they'll be ready.

We have a couple progressing investigators that we're waiting on to get back in town. They're the ones coming to church. It's a small family. The dad's name is Eric and the mom's name is Tram. They have two boys under 8 named Ethan and Dylan. Brother Gleason, our ward clerk, is Eric's coworker. Eric started asking him why he didn't drink coffee, and it all happened from there! We haven't been able to meet with them much because Eric has been out of town a lot, but they come to church every week that they can, which is most weeks, so that is totally awesome! We're working on helping Tram gain a testimony. Eric says he probably would have been baptized already except that he's waiting on Tram. They want it to be a family thing. Prayers!

Our "one new" this week is a black lady named Sabria. She's 22 and lives in a trailer near our place with her 4 brothers. We had a good lesson with her and talked to her about coming to church. She said she could come if she had a ride, so we're working on getting a member to drive her and hopefully come to our appointment with her Saturday evening. Umm, more prayers!

Transfers

Ahh!! Sister Hale is leaving me!

I do believe I included a definition in one of my "Language" sections for the phrase "greenie busted," but I'll explain again anyway. When you get "greenie busted," you leave your trainer and get a new comp. This companion is then called your "greenie buster."

I'm gettin' greenie busted, baby!

(I know, that was so cheesy.)

Tomorrow we drive to mission headquarters to find out where Sister Hale is going and to find out who my new companion is and pick her up. I'm so nervous and so excited! I'm taking over the area here in Aiken, so that'll be an adventure.

#Miracle

Speaking of driving to Macon... So, it's 3.5 hours away. That's a 300 mile round trip. And we only have 1200 miles a month, which we use. We can make due if it's absolutely necessary. But really we have to find a ride. So, Sunday afternoon on Mothers' Day looked like this:

We talked to some ward members at church who said they could maybe give us a ride.

We visited a whole bunch of people so Sister Hale could say bye.

We skyped!!

We visited some more people and called some more ward members between visits.

All said ward members were unable to drive.

Sister Hale and I start to get juuust a liiiittle stressed.

Then Monday morning goes like this:

We call the ward member who might be able to drive us. Turns out, there was a misunderstanding, and we can't get a ride with him because his wife can't be there. We end up setting him up to drive the elders in our district. It worked out!

One of the sisters from our ward calls us back and we figure out that she can't give us a ride because it's really far and she wouldn't quite be comfortable without her husband, who has to work. But then she calls us later.

"Hi, so I was praying that I could help y'all out, because I felt bad about not being able to drive, and then I thought to ask my husband if he could get off work. I never ask him that, but he sent me one word back: 'Yes.' So I can drive you!"

We were so relieved! Prayer works, y'all. Don't forget it.

Love you appropriately (as the missionaries say)!

Sister McKay

Look up! Open your mouth! DRINK IT!

If you watched Conference back in April, you probably heard the talk by Elder Choi. It has become the elders' favorite thing. Every time it rains, the elders tell us, "Look up! Open your mouth! Drrrink it!" Click to see the talk HERE.

And it rains all the time.

All in all, it's been a pretty legit week. We've been trying really hard to find lots of people and get in the habit of talking to literally everyone and their dog! We're working on getting some solid investigators, though, so for now it's funny stories.

Yesterday we knocked on someone's door. There was a kind of garbage can thing near the door and I bumped into it, but I didn't know it had an open can of beer sitting precariously on it, and I knocked it over. It splattered on the concrete next to us and got on our ankles. Fun experiences!

We were out eating dinner with some members. They're a bit older, and the husband has been affectionately nicknamed Santa Claus by the whole ward. His wife is naturally Mrs. Claus. They really fit their roles, too. He's a hilarious, jovial old guy, and she's really sweet. So when theis happened, Sister Hale and I laughed really hard. Santa splattered lime juice in his eye at the restaurant. He was whimpering and Mrs. Claus offered him something to help. He said, "No, no, I'm okay." Mrs. Claus sarcastically said, "Fine, suffer!" Sister Hale and I had a good laugh over that.

Language

Trunkie. What you try not to be. Trunkie means you wish you were somewhere else. If you miss home a lot, you're probably trunkie for home. If something makes you trunkie, you say, "Stop, that's making me trunkie," and you change the subject. Fun times!

I love all y'all, and you're in my prayers!

Until next time!

Sister McKay

Do you smoke weed?

No, I do not smoke weed.

It was hilarious. Sister Hale and I were doing some walking before heading in so we could see if there was anyone out that we could talk to. Well, there was one guy.

This guy was across the street from us, but there were a bunch of cars, so we called out to him while we waited for the cars to pass so we could cross.

"Hi!! How are you?"

"I'm good, thanks!" He keeps walking, then turns around. "Hey, do you smoke weed?"

Sister Hale: "Nope!"

Me (according to Sister Hale): "No!...?" (With a tone that sounded like I was thinking, "Why are you asking me this?")

Guy across the street: "Oh, nevermind then!"

Sister Hale looked at me and asked, "That was the first time anyone's ever asked you that, wasn't it."

Me: "Yep."

We burst out laughing. It's a joke between us that I grew up under a rock (because I did) and that Sister Hale has "ruined me" (because she has). And that whole story really showed our personalities.

People

Well, Mary and Joseph have agreed to meet with us after a bump in the road called the Word of Wisdom almost shook them off course. Hopefully we'll get 'em back up and going. Prayers are appreciated!

That's all I have time for! Love y'all!

Sister McKay

Tender Mercies

Prayers

One uponce a time, we were contacting (talking to everyone we saw), and we came up to these three younger girls. Their names were Adrianna, Jasmine, and Precious. We come up and tell them we're missionaries, and suddenly Precious (the oldest) says, "Oh, Jesus! I need a prayer! I'm so angry! I'm so mad! Y'all pray for me! Right now, let's pray!"

Sister Hale and I look at each other, hesitating slightly.

"Okay, we can say a prayer," I respond, trying not to look dumbfounded. We fold our arms.

"Alright, thank you! Hurry, let's say it right now! I'm so mad! Here, I'll kneel!" Precious suddenly kneels on the concrete right in front of us, her afro nearly touching my arms.

Sister Hale and I look at each other, astonished. I say to her, "Uuuuhhhh... I'll say it?"

Sister Hale nods. "Sure!"

I say a prayer and ask that she'll be calm and be peaceful. I'm sure I sounded like I was judging her hardcore. My voice was probably so high pitched. But it wasn't too bad! And no, I wasn't really judging. I was just completely bewildered.

Language

Zebra. A companionship where one comp speaks Spanish and the other speaks English. It makes for some interesting stories, as I've been hearing from Elder Fuelling, who came here this transfer.

The Site. This is the radioactive site called "The Savannah River Site" that nearly everyone around here works at. Look it up!

Metha-bapta-costal. A non-denominational Christian. Sorta. Add any other religions you want to it! try this one: Metha-bapta-costal-terian-Mormon.

Sister-naries. Sister Missionaries, thank you very much.

Tiffany

We finally got to meet with Tiffany! We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she said she would read it! Yay!

And I'm out of time. I love y'all and I'm praying for you!!!

The church is true, the Book is blue, and Moroni's on the ball.

Christ loves you. I know it, and He knows it.

Love,

Sister McKay

Amory & her companion did a yard work service project this week.