Its True- DAZIT!!!!

One month, One week and One DAY!!!Holaaaaaaaa!!!!!! Reporting live from Marvyille TN! I am alive and well and SO very happy to be here! Greeneville will always have a special place in my heart and saying see you later to the people there and Hermana McCune gave me a nice big heartache and yet I absolutely love it here. It was so crazy to go back to the same apartment I slept over at on exchanges when I was first on my mission, now I live there. The ward, investigators, and of course my companion have all been more than I could ever ask for. And there are more Spanish opportunties here than there have been my entire mission, so that has been exciting and challenging... hmm... excitng and challenging? I must still be a missionary! The roller coaster ride continues. 

Sooo here's the breakdown,

WARD: Oh the ward, the biggest ward I've been in yet, and the most missionary minded and willing to help people I have seen and been inspired by... seriously, they are somethin else. There one member in particular here who is an absolute legend... He is from Colombia, (which sidenote is where one of my favorite neighbors with a mission call is going on his mission! Woohoo congrats Nate, you will love it Colombians are the best:). But this guy... good grief, talk about a fighter he grew up in Colombia in an LDS family and served a mission in his same country. He baptized 8 people a month his entire mission, you do the math... the last 6 months of his mission he would travel and help other missionaries in their areas, living in the chapels and showering in baptismal fonts. This man has stories! He was asked to extend his mission by four months but was unable to because he needed to travel with his family to go get sealed in the WASHINGTON DC temple at the time the nearest choice (now they have two temples in Colombia... so amazing). His family sold half their property to make the trip and he said it was worth every sacrifice. Eventually he came here to work, got married, divorced, went back to Colombia and was kidnapped for a time... I could go on and on and talk about the madness and hardship that has been his life but really his testimony is what has effected me the most. He gets it. He is bold, he is daring, he doesn't beat around the bush. We met an excommunicated member and he looked her straight in the eye and said "It's time you open your heart and forgive and come to church. You come there or I come here. Will you come yes or no?!" (In order to say it in his amazing accent that I love SOOO much read it like this... it es time chuu opeen chour har an forgeeve an come to chourch. Chuu come der or I come here. Veel chuu come yes or no?)
That got a nice long "uhh well I uhhh." He didn't miss a beat, "WILL YOU COME? YES OR NO?!" And guess what... she committed. After this lesson we were walking down the street and he taught us a lesson he said "Sisters (Seesters) at no other time are you going to be serving the Lord for 24 hours every day. Enjoy it. Life is beautiful. Have no fear of people. People talk and use excuses and we say awww, awww, awww, NO!!!!! Jose Smith saw the Father and His Son Jesus Christ! It's true! Datzit! (That's it) We have the truth! You no like? I no care!" Oh how I love him!!! He is so right, this is a beautiful life we have a beautiful knowledge and message and it simply is true. IT'S TRUE! DATZIT! 


INVESTIGATORS: The past sisters have found some really prepared people that I am excited to work with. One guy I still haven't been able to meet but he is getting baptized this upcoming Saturday, it's a little bit of a complicated family situation (strange, I've never heard of one of those...) but from what I understand he is so ready and I am grateful for the chance to be here and a part of his family and his exciting day. We also were able to have a lesson with an investigator that the sisters had been working with for a couple of months but have lost contact with the past few weeks. We stopped by with a member that Sister Horman had never met. Wait... crazy story there... try to keep up with this because it's a little bit confusing. We went to a member's house for dinner and Sister Horman was like "I don't even know who this family is so this will be new for both of us." Perfect, no biggie! Well as we knock on the door we about got knocked over by two huge German shepherds and as I regained my footing I looked up and saw this kid that I knew in Greeneville! It's a divorce situation and so his mom lives in Greeneville and his dad lives in Maryville... Can somebody say "SMALL WORLD?!" So that was way way cool!!!! Ok but back to the original story at hand, we took this kid's step mom with us out to a lesson to try to find this investigator and after knocking not once, not twice, but three times, and then waiting like three minutes, they answered! At first she said that her mom was really depressed and they weren't taking visitors but after chatting with her for a few minutes the door flung open and her mom was standing there and said, "Well are you going to invite them in or not?" We proceeded to go and have a lesson with them and found out some concerns we weren't previously aware of. Sometimes people don't read the Book of Mormon because they have cataracts and can't see the small print... this older lady was one of those people. Luckily we have a cure for that... a large print copy!!! It was amazing to sit there and contribute in the lesson and have the reassurance that I am where I need to be, to be here to listen and teach and minister to a bunch of "ones" in Marvyille. Heavenly Father is so aware, He has a plan, IT'S TRUE! DATZIT!!!!

COMP: Oh Sister Horman! I so love her!!! I am so grateful to have known her earlier in our missions and now to be companions. She is from Ammon, Idaho, is the youngest of five and just has it together. We see eye to eye at least figuratively, since she is 7 inches taller than me. She is so great, we have laughed so so hard and are making some long coming and neccessary changes and goals in this area and ward. I have no doubt this last transfer will be full of hard work and miracles. But I wouldn't have it any other way, it's how we learn and grow... IT'S TRUE! DATZIT!!!!

SPANISH: Oh boy. Wow. Spanish people are just so kind. We have a little dual level apartment complex here filled with people who speak Spanish. It's amazing! We went there by ourselves and because Sister Horman doesn't speak any Spanish it was back to it being all me. Wowwww so although it was a struggle I was able to see how being with Hermana McCune helped me, I have improved a lot. I have a long way to go but I understand 1,000x better than I did a few months ago. So grateful. By some miracle we talked to this investigator the sisters had met (with our Colombian hero) who speaks only Spanish... I muddled through a basic conversation and invited him to church and miracle of miracles HE CAME!!!!!!!! Praise the heavens we have translation equipment and several ward members who translated and spoke Spanish and welcomed him right in. We really think he had a great experience even if we cringed when a speaker got up and said "today I am going to talk about the blessings of the celestial kingdom" and when the gospel principles lesson turned into gospel deep doctrine complete with a conversation on washings and annointings. Ay ay ay. But hey, no matter what happens with him in the future, the welcome and fellowship he received at church was ablsolutely unreal. This ward is fabulous. And above all IT'S TRUE! DATZIT!!!!!

OTHER DETAILS: Well to sum it up there's a Target here so we are really living large. Walmart is no longer classified as a "department store" when you look up shopping centers on Google maps. There is a pretty good mix of rural and neighbnorhoods and there is the absolutely gorgeous Tennessee River snaking its way through the area. The Knoxville airport is also in our area and that was a strange thing to see... definitely brought back a whole lot of memories and a crazy reality check. But you know what, until I find myself at that place I am going to continue to work continue to testify, to laugh, to be bold, to love, and to remember that IT'S TRUE! DATZIT!

It really is so true!!!!! The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, The Commandments, it's all true!!!! We are so blessed!

DATZIT!!!!


Love y'all have a fantastic week!!!!

Love,
Hermana Hall