Sister Hannah Walker

Helloooooo to the family and friends that I count as family :)  Hope all is well wherever you are, whether it be at home, at school, at work, or in the mission field...(I think that's everyone)...Man there's lotsa love being sent yall's way! :) This week was a great one, like always.  Taught more, which was great :) haha There are a few highlights that I'd like to share :)

Tuesday morning we were getting ready after having run around the block a couple times (man this weather's been great for running :) ).  I was eating oatmeal when I hear a really loud meowing at the door...Now, the neighbors downstairs and to the right of us have a couple litters of kittens and a couple moms, and just a bunch of cats.  Typical Georgian family right?  So I thought it was one of their outdoor cats.  I opened the door a crack and a little white paw shot in!  haha next, I see a little white nose try to push it's way into the apartment!  Well, it wasn't any of their outdoor cats, so I thought it might've been one of their little kittens that found a way out.  So we go downstairs and this little kitten (it was more like pre-teen) follows us.  The lights were off and they weren't awake yet, but we couldn't leave the kitten outside alone!! ....so we might've had a little friend accompany us into our apartment...haha I always say that it doesn't count as a pet unless you keep it for more than two meals! ;) this little friend happened to be very curious and insisted on telling us all about his explorations.  His meowing didn't stop the entire three hours that we had him in our apartment.  Haha this normally wouldn't bother me...except that these three hours were during our study time.  And I had a training to prepare for District Meeting.  After a while he quieted down a bit, but goodness...by the end of those hours, we were slightly frustrated with his little voice box.  It's a good thing he was super cute..
except I'm pretty sure he had fleas...haha oh well :) Our apartment is fighting off plenty of bugs anyway...so then the neighbors wake up and we find out that it wasn't there cat...whoops!  Well, we head off to district meeting and come back at the end of the day to find him still there!  He stayed up on our landing for a good three days!!  We didn't know where he came from, but every day he tried to come into our apartment and whenever he knew we were there, he'd meow.  Eventually at the end of the week, he followed us out to the car and as we were getting in, a neighbor girl runs over and says "Muffin!!!" haha I had never been so happy to hear the word muffin..  anyway, his home is found and he's safe and happy :)

Wednesday was an interesting day as well...so we had had someone named Stan call to tell us that his mother had been taking lessons from the missionaries a while back, but that she was going in a home now.  She had mentioned to him that we helped out with cleaning and service and stuff so he called wondering if we'd be interested in helping him and his sister clean their mom's home.  uhh DUH!!! that was the first service we had been asked to give since being here! and I loved it :)  The home was big and very southern and beautiful...but with very tiny doorways...haha but it was awesome :)  These people weren't members, but they wanted to pay us.  They insisted on buying us lunch the two days we helped them out...they were just so happy and the sister wanted to write President Cottle asking to keep us. haha I was just so grateful for the opportunity to serve these people...They were super nice and great :) Wednesday night was also interesting...so we went to dinner at this member's house and were taking their daughter out with us after...well we were going to go see this one guy that had potential, but we felt really uneasy when we got to his place. So we decided to stop at this gas station and give the woman working there a pass-along card....well this gas station had on the counter three huge pickle jars...but they weren't filled with pickles.  The brand was "Hannah's" (haha cool right?:P).  One had pickled pig's feet, another had pickles eggs, and the third had pickles sausage.  The woman working had us smell the pickled pig's feet and it. was. disgusting.  nasty..  gross. haha but even better...I decided to try a pickled egg.  Now, I am a big texture person...if something doesn't feel right in my mouth, it's not going back in.  haha and I knew that a pickled egg would probably have a funky texture, so you might ask, why did I do it?  well the answer is simple..  to say that I did ;) hahaha The member that was out with us sent my mom and dad some pics and a vid.  I'll have them attatch it to the email because I don't have any pics. haha man though!  it was super nasty.  It felt like a hard boiled egg that had been left out on the counter in utah and turned stale (things don't turn stale here no matter how long you leave them out.  we left out a brownie once for a week and it was still nice and soft.  gross) haha so now I can say that I've tasted a pickled egg :)

haha now how about our investigators...because we finally have some that are keeping return appointments!! :) they're doing awesome.  We had many in church yesterday which was great...haha but more will come about them as they continue to progress.....I feel like the reason we got most of them to come to church though was because Sister Anderson spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday.  She did awesomely too :)  Haha guess what else!?  The organist happens to be our old Ward Mission Leader's wife, and they were out of town for the weekend...so guess who she got to sub for her?  This little one right here :) me! haha goodness, I have never played an organ before in church in my life!  haha I am so grateful for the talents that God has given me...haha soo it was really funny because I turn it on and everything before the meeting starts and the young man who was assigned to do prelude just played on the piano.  So you know, the meeting starts, all is well, then I go up to play the opening hymn.  Well, my fingers are playing the keys, but there is no sound coming out.  The switch is on, the volume up, and still no sound.  Haha my first thought was "great.  just great"  I look up to see that none of the stops were down (that means that the buttons you push down to give the organ it's different sounds were all up).  Now, remember how I said that I had never played an organ in my life?  Well, that also means that I have NO IDEA which stops make what noise!  I had enough common sense not to push the trumpet ones...haha can you imagine?  oh goodness... anyway I push six random ones down and said a big huge prayer with all my heart, might, mind, and strength.  haha the ward had already been waiting a good 30 seconds.  It's a good thing God answers prayers! haha the sound came out!  It didn't sound the way I wanted it to, but it worked so I wasn't going to mess with it!  Haha that whole experience resulted in me blushin like a fool all the way through the Sacrament. haha it was hilarious though :) I think everyone forgot about it by now...but yeah!  I can now say that I have played an organ in church :) awesome.

Soo that's pretty much all that happened this week.  At least the highlights :) So how'd yall's week go?  Hope it went great :) Oh!! one more picture for y'alls entertainment this week.....this is what the elders found this morning when they opened the door:

​this is a better view of what they had in store. haha and that was filled with water.  ohhh yeah. haha prank war started ;) gotta love being on a mission :) haha these people are amazing...I promise that we are teaching some awesome people...  we gave a church tour and had some awesome lessons.  More to come on them :) Lovin life, lovin the work, lovin this Gospel :)  It blesses lives! :) I promise :)

Love
Sister Hannah Walker