Sister Hannah Walker

Another transfer come and gone, as well as another area.  Man.  Time flies when you're serving the Lord!  SO much happened this week, I don't know where to begin!  I pretty much knew that this was going to be the last week, so we made an extra hard push.  Wanna know something sad though?  This week, I took TONS of pictures and was so excited to send them to all yall.....but I have already packed my camera cord :( I completely forgot!  So you'll all have to just imagine the fantastic wonderful events that have taken place :)

Memorable event #1: So the elders in Thomson have been teaching this woman named Becky ever since Elder Godwin and I got here to this area three transfers ago.  She has grown to love the church and us and just everything, but her husband is a deep baptist and won't change.  So she's been continuing to learn more from the elders and she really enjoys coming to church with her friend Margaret.  They'll take us out to lunch sometimes :)  Well on wednesday, they invited us to come to their church's bible study.  Flash back to a couple weeks ago.  They invited the elders to their church service on Sunday and the preacher spent the entire time just bashing on mormons and stuff.  So we were a little nervous to go, but we weren't going to let that stop us!  There are so many different churches here in the south, but we aren't allowed to visit them unless invited by an investigator.  So we jumped on this chance :) We show up and are slightly terrified for our lives, but we walk in with Becky and her husband anyway.  The people there were super nice, but we expected that.  All baptists are nice up front, but you never really know what they're thinking on the inside especially about mormons. The study was out of Revelations 4 and it was interesting to say the least.  We did get bashed a little bit, but not as openly as it was with the elders.  It was just a cool opportunity to see the difference in beliefs.  I tried getting things out of it and learning things from the preacher, but the only things I learned were from our footnotes haha...  It was just a testament that the Spirit won't support things that aren't all the way true :)  I love that the south is so big on starting so young with teaching the kids about the bible.  True Christians :) most of them....

Memorable event #2:  All of Friday was just amazing :) We went and had lunch with Becky for the last time and were lucky enough to sit in on a lesson with her.  We also got a call from Tony!!  Tony has been kind of off the grid for a while, but he called us and wanted to see us.  So we went over there and apparently he had lost his job to someone else who had been with the boss for a long time.  Tony was distraught. :(  He is looking for light in his life and every time we go over there, he always talks about how happy we make him and about how we bring God with us whenever we come.  He is amazing :) That night, we had an awesome lesson with him where we pretty much just let the Spirit guide our words.  We do that anyway, but this time was even more.  We really had no idea what he needed.  We had to rely purely on God to tell us :) It resulted in many tears (by him of course...i don't cry ;) haha) and in him coming to church again yesterday.  He really wants to change and come closer to God and Christ :)  After that, we went to the Lights of the South with a member and his son.  This is pretty much the COOLEST thing ever! :) I know I say that about a lot...but this is one of the top ones!  They pretty much took one of the many woodsy areas on the outskirts of Harlem and decorated it with different light designs :) You walk through (or you can take a hay ride through) and there are all sorts of little displays.  It starts off with the nativity of course, then moves to movie characters, dinosaurs,  castles, and all sorts of things :) all winding through the bare trees.  I'll have to send some pictures next week.  It's kind of hard to explain.  But it was so great being able to go out and enjoy the festivities while representing Christ.  We had people come up to us and ask why we're dressed so professional, and that opened up a conversation :) Man...loving this work!

Memorable event #3:  Saturday was also awesome!  Apparently, it's a thing to do Christmas parades?  haha I have never heard of those before in my life!! I'd always watch movies and see santa in a parade and wonder what wierdos put santa in parades.  Well....apparently the ones in the south. haha There were three parades on saturday and one on sunday.  We went to the one in Harlem (also will send pictures next week) and then the one in Grovetown.  The Grovetown one was lots bigger, so we called the zone together to go caroling :) it was awesome!  haha we all looked so good dressed up in red white and black and singing praises to our King :) Everyone was really appreciatvie and it was a great opportunity to remind people about the greatest gift of all.  Even though it was raining... :P speaking of the weather!  This week has stayed in the low 60s and high 50s!  Haha I've been able to pull off not wearing scarves this week because it's been so nice!  It's definitely NOT december weather!  Goodness, it's tripping me out...  Well, Saturday night was the conference call to tell us who's getting transferred.  We have the option to go to a member's home during this call and we went to Brother Phillips.  He was the Ward Mission Leader when I got to this area, and he and his wife have been amazing friends ever since :) We played a couple games with them and Brother Phillips put up the challenge to one of the elders to wash the winner's feet.  Well, guess who won?  guess who always wins games at Brother Phillips's house ;) haha yeah... me and his wife.  We're always a great team :) After the game and the call, we sit down to have this elder wash our feet.  Haha now, he's an awesome missionary, but sometimes he can let his head get in the way a bit ;) as we all can.  It was truly a cool experience having him wash our feet.  If you've ever washed someone's feet before, you can relate.  It's a humbling experience.  My feet weren't too dirty because they had been washed by the rain a lot that day, but still I felt kind of bad for him haha.  It was cool :)

Well, those were the biggest highlights of the week.  Next week, I will be coming to you from a new area :) woot woot!  Hope the holiday season is going well for all of you!  Quote of the week is from Sister Elaine S. Dalton (I met her! :) ): "Be loyal to the royal within you."

Love yall lots! :)

Sister Walker