Hurricanes and Earthquakes and more! Oh No!

Hello!

Well, this week has been a crazy one! Hurricanes, earthquakes, and oh so much more!

Monday was a great day. We met with Kia to finalize everything with her baptism. It was so much fun to see how excited she was! Sis. Joseph and I had a fun time as well. We decided to to go to a barbeque restaurant and we had some "real southern barbeque." It was pretty good. They use vinegar and 'slaw' (coleslaw) for EVERYTHING. We went to a little store that was kind of like the DI and I found a really cute orange cardigan for a buck.(woot!) Then, we had a missionary fireside with the branch that evening. I love the branch. They are fantastic. A few of them brought some friends that weren't members and we were able to talk with one of them and he has great potential. The other two left before we had time to talk with them. The branch likes to call on me for piano stuff. I think I'll be a professional sight-reader when I get home. They asked me to play 2 different vocal/piano accompiaments and then to play to solo pieces for this fireside. I had 12 hours notice for one of the vocal accompiaments. It turned out really well though! I'm 100% confident that Heavenly Father was guiding my fingers the whole time. I had no idea what I was playing. The fireside itself was fantastic. We did a brief overview of the restoration and the spirit was very strong and it was just a wonderful way to end the day.

Tuesday we met with Fabiola and Scott. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went really well. We also gave them a frame with the proclamation to the family in it. Fabiola was super excited about that and said she was going to hang it up on her wall. It pretty much made her day. We met with Matthew (the referral from the Elders) later in the evening. He is fantastic! We had a good lesson about following the prophet and tithing and it went really well. We had a couple of members come with us and they did a great job too. Matthew is probably the most converted individual (besides Kia) that I have met. He is incredible. There is a bit of contention with the parents and that is causing some problems. Parents....

I guess there was an earthquake in Virginia that everyone felt here except for us missionaries.

Everyone was going all paranoid about the hurricane and asking us if we had bought our bread and milk yet. We told them no. Sis. Poaletti is one of the funniest ladies I have ever met. Her thoughts about buying bread and milk were, "Forget the bread and milk. I'm thinking chips, dip, and soda!"

Wednesday we had a really good district meeting about hope. Read 2 Nephi 31:20. We talked about having a perfect brightness of hope and what that means. A perfect brightness of hope to Sis. Johnson means that even when the going gets rough, you can still see the sun through the rain clouds. We also talked about the importance of having the Holy Ghost and what a blessing it is. It really is a great blessing. Sometimes I think we take it for granted until we see others who don't have it. I'm sure thankful to have been born and raised in the gospel. Elder Cahoon told us that for him having a perfect brightness of hope means that he expects to go out and teach. Sis. Joseph and I took that to heart and we ended up teaching 3 other lessons on Wednesday. It's amazing how if you really hope for something, then you have faith and then it all works out. We taught a lady named Miranda who had two little girls that were 4 an 2. We showed the 4 year old the picture of Moroni burying the gold plates and Sis. Joseph asked her what she thought Moroni was holding in his hands. She looked at it, squinted and then said, "um...well it looks like...um...it kind of looks like a lunchbox." I was dying of laughter inside. I think there is a good chance that I am just an easily entertained individual.

Thursday we did weekly planning and it actually went really well and it was great! We taught Loraine that evening about the restoration. Sis. Carman was so excited to invite Loraine over that she a made a "Hurricane cake" for us to eat after we finished the lesson. It was pretty hilarious. I'll have to send home a picture. :) The wind started blowing in the afternoon that day so we helped Sis. Carman take down all of her stuff on the porch. That night we recieved a call from Sis. Cotterell and she to

(This is where the email ended....sorry, not my fault!)