Last Monday was so awesome. We went grocery shopping! WOOT WOOT! It's the best thing ever to get food. Haha, And as we were there, one of the workers said hi and started talking to us. His name is Philip. He said he had seen missionaries around, and he asked what we do. We explained and talked to him for a little bit. We gave him a restoration pamphlet and so forth. I bore my testimony on how the gospel has blessed my life in more ways than I can say. He seemed genuinely interested. It was a complete miracle!! Too bad we have to pass him because he lives in Woodbridge. Aw snap! We handed out a passalong card to the lady that checked us out. We got to our car and got in and then I had the feeling like I should get out and go give this random guy walking past a pass along card so I did! Hahah. I ran after him. In the parking lot. He was like, "oh, okay thank you!" Haha did Ilook like a crazy woman? Yes. But was it worth it? AW YEAAH! Haha.
Tuesday was quite the ride. It felt like 20 weeks all stuffed into 24 hours. I woke up with a pounding headache that lasted till dinner. So weird because I never get headaches?! We went to a place called Inverary Court to do some finding, literally 5 seconds after we stepped out of the car a lady named Robena, pulls up and says "Hey! Are you gals from the Latter Day Saints? I want to chat with you! Lemme go park!" We were both like say WHAAAT!? Haha. And then 2 seconds after that a member in our Ward that just got back from vacation in the UK pulled up and introduced himself. He told us that we should go talk to Robena, little did he know that she just told us to! HA! MIRACLESS! Well we started talking to her and she was telling us her story. She met with missionaries and came to church like multiple times but then she got really sick and things got crazy and she lost contact with the missionaries. But then she saw us! She is super solid and nice. Then she started talking to us about how she was working with the last sisters about helping people in the community, the homeless people here...and stuff like that. Then she asked us if we had time to walk a little bit. We were like "oh yeah! Totally!" Thinking she was going to show us some houses we could knock on....yeah nope. This is where it gets interesting! She takes us on a hike through the woods right off Lorton road. On the way, she is telling us about how she has been trying to work with Lorton community center to give more help to the homeless people around Lorton. She started telling us about how she met the homeless people and how they live in these woods! Right off Lorton road! WHO KNEW?! Neither sis Livingston or I knew what to do. I didn't feel weird about it or any spiritual warnings sooo... we just kept going. Haha! Well we're walking when WABAM, all of a sudden there's this camp! Made of tarps, and knick knacks, glass bottles, shopping carts....and it was nicely set up! This shirtless guy yells, "hey!" And Robena was like "oh heyy!! I know someone here...!" Anyway, we walk up, they invite us to sit down on their make-shift couch, and we talked with the homeless people. We met Joselito, the shirtless guy, and Michelle (I've seen her before), she was like "hey! I've seen you before!" It was a good time :) they were super nice, Robena talked to them about helping them out and so forth. We left Joselito a Book of Mormon and we prayed with them. It wasn't scary or anything, just kind of super surreal. I literally felt like I was in the show "Lost", do you remember that show? And like all the creepy people in it and everything!? Yeah total lost status. And super humbling experience. Yes, and that is only what happened that morning!!
Later, we saw Athina, Barb and Darlene, and Michelle. All the while, random people just kept popping out of their cars and wanted to talk to us. We made dinner that night which consisted of pancakes, Cinnamon rolls, eggs, and fruit = SUPER DELISH. then we made plans to go visit members who live on post, the army base. Here's another good story, one that I will NEVER forget. I almost lost my mind .... Background info about being on post: you have to get a post pass and be sponsored by people who live on post in order to get on each time. You CANNOT proselyte at all. You can check on members though. That's what we did! We parked in front of a members home and went and knocked on their door. Their neighbor was out and he kept giving us weird looks. Kinda scary. The members didn't answer, so we just left our car their in front of their house and walked down the street to check on another member. On our way back, I see the neighbor guy take a picture of our license plate. YEAH. I was like, "oh sister he just took a pic of our license plate! That is not good, I don't have a good feeling about this!!" So we get in and leave. A few minutes later, I'm trying to get off of post as quick as I can because I feel so nervous I felt sick. A few seconds later a cop passes us. OH NO. They don't turn around ..PHEW. few more seconds, ANOTHER cop passes us. OH NO. waiting waiting... They turn around. Here's how it went:
Me: "you've got to be kidding me."
Sis l: "okay uh lets just hurry and get off post..!!"*COPS TURN ON LIGHTS*All of a sudden I scream out a prayer like no ones business, it just blurted out of me!"HEAVENLY FATHER PLEASE HELP US NOT TO GET IN TROUBLE!!!!!"
Sheer panic. I was panicking hard core. My heart dropped to the ground, I felt like I was gonna puke. It was NO BUNEO!! the cop starts walking up on my side, and three military members start walking up on sis livs side!! All decked in their gear. THREE!? Come ON! Mythoughts: we are GONNA die. P.s. My worst fear: getting pulled over, LET ALONE on post!!! Anyway, he comes up and of course I keep my cool.
He was like, "hey you guys! You two doing missionary work around here?""Nope, we were checking on members of our congregation!""Ohh okay, yep that okay. We just got a call that you were handing out religious material (which we weren't carrying any of it haha don't know what that guy saw), but yeah you guys are good. Have a good night!""Thanks, you too! Bye!"
We drive away, and I just let out a terrifying scream haha I was in shock. Hahah it was pretty intense! I thought we were gonna go to jail, get fined, or they were gonna shoot us down. One of those three if not all of them. Nonetheless, God is good. Once again, he poured miracles upon me! He has saved me in so many situations haha.
Wednesday was great! We had an awesome district meeting about the Book of Mormon. Then we had lunch and went finding. We gave out two Books of Mormon and bore our testimonies about it. Met a lot of kind people!! And some really interesting ones too... We met a guy named Jimeal and he was very kind. When we walked up to his house he hadsome nice tunes blasting. He came out and I have never seen anyone like him before with his style! Haha, he had lots of jewelry and piercings.. A headdress looking thing and rings and necklaces galore... It was fun :) But we bore our testimonies of the restored gospel and gave him a Book of Mormon and pamphlet, and the APs are going back on Sunday! WOOP WOOP! He wanted to hear more about it. He said he welcomed all the gospel messages! Haha yes sir. Well, I know Everyone needs the gospel, no matter who you are. We did a lot of finding and had dinner with sister jones. Love her!! We then were invited to help at the young women's activity! The lesson was on modesty. We talked about modesty and how we dress sends a message to others before they even meet us. It was super fun. I love the Ward and the young women! It takes me back to my young women days with you ma ;) those were the best. Miss em. Also funny story, one day, I can't remember which one, but we came back to our apartment for lunch and we opened the door.... And we walk into to find a guy standing in our kitchen! And he was like, "HI! I'm Mike. I'm the exterminator!!"Slightly terrified, I was like "HA..HA HAAA...NICE TO MEET YA MIKE!" (Thinking. Uh please leave so I can eat some food. I was hangry.) haha it was funny and frightening.
Thursday we had a super fun service project with our good ol friend miss Jackie! We helped her weed the gardens at the Pohick Church, where she attends church each Sunday. The one that George Washington attended! It was super cool! Sis liv caught a frog. #funfact. They have a cemetery there and we got to see some really old tombstones! I think cemetery's are SO cool! In the daytime. Haha kinda scary in the nighttime! But anyways.... We checked on a lot of people. We had a little visit with Bona, the member from Cambodia! She is so stinkin cute. And so sweet! She is going to teach us how to cook Cambodian food next time! SUWEET! So cool. And GUESS WHAT. We have been really working on talking with EVERYONE. like anyone we see. Especially me, sometimes I'm like, "oh they're way down there, nah" or something. But we have been helping each other talk with any person we see no matter how far away! And guess what.
Friday was SUPER DOOPER!!! We planned. All of our lessons cancelled. Although we had some killer unplanned lessons! We were able to have one with Kayla over the phone, about the sacrament. We also had one at Agartha's home! And she gave us "Bomfrit" or something like that. They are basically like African doughnuts. They were super GOOD!! She gave me like 3. YUMMAY. And we read the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. The spirit was strong and everyone was calm and it was just such a blessing :) sister liv and I ate a whole pan of muffin-cake mix stuff. Ain't NEVER DOIN that again! I felt so sick the rest of the night! Haha. We also had an awesome dinner with a new family that just moved into our Ward. Their names are the Raeolina family, from Texas. The dad was born in London, England (shout out to rachie! Told him you served there, he was super excited about it;)). Okay but that family is seriously the most kind, loving, charitable, respectful family EVER! They were so NICE to each other I was amazed! I felt the spirit of love so strong there. They are such great examples. Brother raeolina shared a quote tonight with us that I really loved. It went something like this, "when things get hard, and times get dark, the one thing the Lord expects of us is to keep pressing forward." (By an apostle or prophet I can't remember). I LOVE that. Things aren't easy. But we can keep pressing forward. Especially because Christ is with US. He is always there. Never forget that.
Saturday we helped Jackie with her yard. Planted some flowers and picked up sticks. We ate crackers and cheeses and had tomato soup and blueberry muffins that we made for her :) SO FUN!! I love love LOVE Saturday mornings with Jackie. I'm going to miss that a lot when I leave. We then went finding!! WOOT WOOT! We found lots of potential investigators, met lots of kind people. 4 of our 6 lessons fell through so that was a bust. But it was an awesome day! Had dinner with the Torgersens! Sweet people. I'm going to miss them so much!! We stopped by Brother McConnell's house when we were doing some finding and talked with him a few minutes. I really loved when he told us as we were walking away, "Sisters, ALWAYS keep that smile on your face!" In his English accent. I loved that. Remember, always keep the smile on your face. Ya never know who needs it! A lot of good things happened that day but sad thing is I can never remember them at the end of the day. I need to write stuff down throughout the day. Hah *NEW GOAL!
Keep on, keepin on. :)
TALK TO YA'LL ON MONDAY!!! :)
LOVE,
SISTA HYMAS 💕
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