I Am a Child of God 🎶😊

HEEYY YA'LL!!! How is everyone doing this fine Monday? I hope you're swell :) It's just peaches and cream out here! Sis Liv and I had a way cool time today, we went to Arlington National Cemetery and oh my lands. COOLEST and most POWERFUL thing Ever. But I'll tell you more about it next week... ;) Stay tuned. :)

Monday we had the COOLEST zone activity!! We went to a yacht club! Fancy, right?! It was right on the Potomac. Like RIGHT THERR. A Ward member let us come and use it. There were a gazillion yachts and it was SUPER humid and hot. But it was super fun!! I'll send pics :) we also played that minute to win it game where you put a cookie on your forehead and you have to get it in your mouth... Yeah I lost. But I wasn't last! ;) haha. We also had a family history lesson with Amber at the Parsons home! It was SUWEET! Amber found so many names to take to the temple it was awesome. Sister Parsons helped me understand more about family history too! I didn't know we had so many pioneer ancestors?! It shows on family search that we have like 20 or something. That is awesome! The Parsons were amazed at it. Later we had a lesson with the French family. We answered their questions about how apostles got killed and why people killed them and who saw Joseph Smith receive the priesthood authority. Next time we are answering why we have the Book of Mormon when the bible says that no one should add to the bible... La di da. Yes so we hope it goes well :) We love those people! They are so so kind. I love them. The dad really wants to understand more about the gospel.

Tuesday was quite a different day. To start it all off, I woke up to  he stiffest neck I've ever had in my life. Haha I felt like my neck was broken, it was a super bad kink. I literally couldn't move! Haha so we worked out in our apartment and I tried to do a sit up... Yeah.Didn't happen. Stiff as a brick! After studies, I had a thought to try calling Diane, because we haven't been able to get a hold of her since she moved because her phone broke and we didn't have her address.. Last time we saw her she didn't know her address, and she wasn'tresponding to our Facebook messages. So we have been trying to contact her for a long time!! Well, I had that thought just to try calling, (totally the spirit) because it rang twice, when all of a sudden in the happiest voice "Hello!?" My jaw dropped. It was a completemiracle!! Anyway we were able to figure out her new Ward and address and everything. She said she missed us and was always praying for us. How cute is she!? I love her!!! Miss her happy spirit. Later, We went to district meeting at the Torgersens.

We went to lunch at Supollo!! :) MM MMM good. Then we were headed to grandmas when...we noticed the bug bite I had on my leg had turned into a huge red circle, like the size of an orange and was swollen and itchy. So we drove back to the Torgersens to see what wise words they had to say. We called the mission nurse and she said to ice it, take Benadryl and continue to put cortisone cream on it. So we went and got Bendryl. I sat on the couch, iced my leg, did some lesson reports, and put a rice bag on my kinked neck, all while trying not to fall asleep because fun fact! Benadryl knocks ya out. haha, didn't know that! I was knocked out for an hour and a half!  When I woke up the ice bag tipped over and leaked water all over me. That wasn't fun to wake up to haha. Then we went and checked on a referral and went tracting. We stopped by and were able to see Vivian! The spirit totally prompted me to do so. It was a miracle we caught her! She is doing better than before and we set up a time for Saturday. We had dinner at the Koughs, we were all talking and got on the subject of brown recluse spiders. They started talking about what it looks like when ya get bit and it sounded just like how my leg looked! I showed them and they were like freaking out, which was freaking me out, besides I thought I was going to lose my leg haha it was terrible! But she gave me some stuff to put on it to see if it helped. AH! I hope I don't get bit by one. Then we went and checked on some people when it started to thunder and lightning. MY FAVEEE. Haha P.S. My favorite line of the day Sis Liv said when we were looking at pictures, "I look like I got sucked up in a tornado and you look like a wind swept model." So false. Hahaha. Love her.


Wednesday was so great! We helped Sis Beautler unpack some boxes and then we got our car cleaned during lunch for zone conference. We got to see sweet Athina :) Sis Liv helped dye her hair. She's so cute. She is the most Christlike person I have ever met. She will forever be my "Greek mother!" "OH CUTIESMO!" ;) Hahah. We also got to see Barb andDarlene too. We were really bold when teaching the Restoration. Darlene says she wants to be baptized but she needs to fix some things first. We are working with her. :) she will get there. We then drove down to see good ol Michelle! We baked cookies with her and herdaughter, Darielle. We watched the new Mormon message called a shower of heavenly blessings. It's super good! Don't put your umbrellas up everyone, let Heavenly Father pour his blessings upon you :) We then headed over to the Torgersens for dinner!! LOVE those people!! I had a weird feeling about my leg too, because my bug bite or whatever started to turn purple so we went to the urgent care. The doctor said she thinks it's an allergic reaction to a bug bite. She gave me a bunch of antibiotics as well as some hydrocortisone cream to put on it. It's like super weird and swollen, it was freaking me out! I was afraid my leg was gonna fall off. Jk, but I was nervous I got bit by a brown recluse spider. And my leg was rotting away or something! Ha! The crazy killing creatures here in Virginia eh!? We then went to the church to pick up some things and practiced singing our song for the baptism. We dropped off a note to a member and went finding. It was a swell day for sure :)

Thursday=ZONE CONFERENCE TIMMMEEE!! Woot woot! I love zone conference. It's like my all time fave. I learn so much each time! I was asked to lead the music. Oh-YEAH. :) plus, I love President and Sister Huntsman! They are seriously the best people. Love them. They crack me up too. We checked on a lot of people and were able to contact a ton of them! Shirley being one of them, the elderly lady. Yeah well she ain't interested anymore. Dropped us like a hot potato. But we were able to contact Jonathan! Remember him? He's the one that wanted to feed us dinner but he got super busy. We were able to stop by and see him and he is doing so well! And oh my goodness he has the cutest baby. Plus, he's hilarious. He teases me all time. Haha. When he answered the door and saw Sister Liv, he was like, "WHAttt where's the other girl?! Where she go?" Me messing with him, "she's been here the whole time!!" "NO SHE HASN'T, I KNOW THAT FO SURE! So where she go? How she doing?" "Manasses! And I don't know I haven't talked to her!" "WHAT. You don't talk to your own friends?! You just like, oh yeah okay this is my new roommate ba-bye! You need to call her! Well obviously you don't like her and she ain't your friend if you don't call her!" HAHAHAHAH. I was laughing so hard. Ya gotta meet him someday!!! He. Is. A. Riot. We were also able to meet a less active member from Cambodia. She hasn't been to church in awhile. We had a great conversation with her! She has had a hard, hard life. She's beenthrough a ton. I felt prompted to share the video mountains to climb, seriously love that one! She said at the end, "beautiful." I was really touched when talking with her.  A real sense of sorrow and heaviness overcame my heart and I felt like crying when she explained what has happened in her life. I just gain a greater appreciation and love for Jesus Christ and His atonement each day. It's so simply amazing. You can learn something new about Him all the time!! I was taught by the spirit in that visit that we all have mountains to climb. Some bigger than others. We're all on different paths and come from different walks of life. No matter what it is though, Christ has felt it all. I am eternally grateful for that knowledge.

Friday was a beautiful day! Beautiful day full of PLANNING! WOOP WOOP! It was so good. I love Sister Livingston. She totally is a missionary rockstar. Couldn't do it without her. hahah We were cracking up real good during weekly planning, we went back and forth quoting Nacho Libre. Hahahah. So FUN. We had an awesome time at dinner with the Hunsakers. Sheesh I LOVE Virginia. Seriously the drive back from the Hunsakers was beautiful. The sun was setting, drove past pasture after pasture Full of horses. Windows down. 7:30 pm. SUMMER NIGHTS. LOVEEE IT. All our appointments fell through but we were able to do some finding and meet some really kind people. I love people. That's something new that I haven't ever really felt before. I know we're God's children. It's cool to see that when I first came out, I was way nervous just to go up to some one and talk with them. But now, it's really easy. We are all of God's children, no need to be scared of them. Plus, God sure helps you reach your goals if you follow Him. Keep that in mind folks. ;) OH MY MIRACLES. 

Saturday was seriously so amazing. First, we went to Jackie's! Love that sweet woman, I WILL come back to Virginia to visit her and help her in her yard. I'll stay a few weeks. Or for forever. ;) she made us cake and deviled eggs again! Love her!  Then to kick off our zone finding fest we had a testimony meeting. It was super funny because halfway through, our bishop came and kicked us out of the relief society room because there was going to be a funeral for a man who just passed away in the Ward. So we all recongregated to the primary room. After, we were about to leave, when we saw our Ward relief society setting up for the funeral service and they needed some help so we stayed to help out a little bit. We had a fabulous and fun dinner with Sister Jackson! She is a riot! She went to culinary school so she made us some gooooood grub. We're going to go over there again soon and she is going to teach us how to make mousse. Fancy right? :) That evening we had the privilege and blessing to go to a baptism! Her name is Nury. Sis Liv tracked into her with Sis Rich but had to pass her after a few lessons. Anyway, Nury is the most good, kind hearted woman ever. I love her so much and I just met her the day of her baptism! The baptism went so well. Sis Liv and I sang I Am a Child of God and the spirit was definitely there. Heavenly Father really helped me out too, haha I didn't get cotton mouth singing this time!! PHEW. straight miracles right there. OKAY NOW GET THIS. We went to go check on a few potentials that night back in Lorton. We were about to go home when I felt like we should knock on one more door. We walked over to the next apartment building, walked through the door, and knocked on the first one I saw. We met the coolest and kindest guy named Cameron. He and his wife are about to have a baby in two weeks! Super solid and genuinely interested in hearing about the gospel. PLUS- GET THIS! He was like, "oh yeah we're actually looking for a church to go to" WHAAAATTT!? HA MIRACLESSSS! Wow I couldn't stop smiling. He said they might not come for a few weeks because of the pregnancy and everything, but we set up a time to go back the 1st of September. I am so pumped. I KNOW God places prepared people in our paths if we have that faith to find them. I have never LOVED life so much! Being a missionary is the greatest thing I've ever had the privilege of doing. I seriously love it SO much. I Have never felt this happy in my life. Four words for ya- God is SO good. P.S. Caleigh Hales got her mission call to Brazil!!! Cool huh?! So excited for her she will kill it! She leaves in December!!

Sunday oh beautiful Sunday. I love the Fort Belvoir Ward!! There are such good people here. Man I love them! I don't ever want to leave. We had the privilege of teaching the young women today too!

The lesson was on how we take Christ's name upon us and what it means. It went well, I thought :) the girls were super sweet. There was also another linger longer! Always love those :) we had dinner with the Taggart family! Sweetest family ever. It felt like home! Later, we went and saw gramma. Grandma is doing well, she is still a spit-fire and full of love hahah. She stills makes me crack up so hard. We helped make her some food. She makes some different food, lemme tell ya!!hahah she threw some already made spaghetti and a chicken leg in a pot with some water in it and heated it up on the stove. I was so confused Hahah Our conversation went like this:


"Gramma, have you ever had spaghetti before?"
"NO! In Africa, we don't eat this nonsense!"
"Whaaat! It's so good, it's Italian!"
"I not Italian, I'm not from that country! I come from Africa!"

Hahaha. Love that sweet woman. She did indeed eat that spaghetti-watered-down soup. Mm MMM GOOD. :)  Later we sang I Am a Child of God. The version we sang at the baptism. And Sis Liv has a super good voice, so when we started singing gramma was like"OH! OH?! Wow, you have good voice!!...oh my you so good!.......you can sing! Ohhh Lord help meh." Hahah. We went and saw the Baileys, the family from Hawaii. NICEST PEOPLE. Makes me want to go back to Hawaii. Love those people!! We're going back Wednesday to help unpack their stuff from the move! Sis Liv had been thinking about them all day, so we stopped by and it was super cool because the day before Sister Bailey said she prayed and told the Lord she needed help. And then we showed up the next evening :) God answers prayers. I testify of that. Never ignore any prompting. Ya never know, you could be the answer to someone's prayer. :)

I am LOVIN it here in Virginia! The love I have for the place and people is SO REAL. My testimony grows day by day, week after week. This work is the Lord's work. He stands at the head. He watches over each of His missionaries. We are led by His spirit each day. I know He lives. He loves us. I know it's through Him that we can find true peace and everlasting happiness in our life and the life to come.

I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!

XOXOX

Sister Hymas :)