Washington DC South Mission: 'Tis the Season of Gratitude & Delicious Food 🍗🍰

AH. I LOVE NOVEMBER. I just love the fall. I love the changing leaves and the sweaters and the hot chocolate and the pumpkin pie and the gratitude and the fact that Christmas is in less than 7 WEEKS!!! Just a fun fact for ya. 😉

Monday I studied something very fitting for Halloween, in Alma 44 about Moroni and his soldier cutting off Zerahemnah's Scalp and sticking it on his sword. I was like gagging it was so gory and gruesome! Haha I love the scriptures so much though. They are my favorite book! We went to an old cemetery Monday morning and took some cool pics. You know me and my cemeteries... I just love them! They are peaceful and serene and just awesome. We went shopping and wrote emails. Then we had a zone activity that night because we aren't supposed to go out. So we played volleyball, mafia and had a grand ol time. It was a super fun day! I really love serving with these missionaries. There are really great missionaries in this mission and I feel very blessed to serve with them. We have a good time! 😉

Tuesday we had district meeting and took some more classic-awkward-district-pictures with mustaches. Haha we had lunch and then stopped by Alverna and had a good chat about doing our best and then relying on the savior for the rest. We had to drop her though because she wasn't keeping commitments. Then My body got super sick and I felt nauseous and my head wasn't doing good, it was so weird it came all at once. I went home and slept for an hour or so and felt much better. We had dinner with the hilarious sister Cuesta!! She made us Colombian food! It was SOO good! She is from Columbia and is the sweetest lady you'll ever meet. She gave us a few referrals! We went finding in this one neighborhood and had some crazy experiences. All in like 45 minutes. MOST AWKWARD MOMENT OF MY WHOLE MISSION: First door we knock on:

Me- "Hello! How are you doing sir?"

"I'm fine, can I help you?" (As he steps outside his screen door)

"We are the sister missionaries in the area! Have you met the missionaries before?"

"Oh I've met plenty of missionaries!!"

(I go in for a handshake) "My name is Sister Hymas by the way, it's great to meet you!"

(He completely denies my handshake. Seriously my hand is there for like a solid 8 seconds. He doesn't even look down. I put my hand back down after the awkward silence. I felt like there were crickets chirping in the background... He keeps staring me in the eye and says) "nice to meet you too. I have to eat. Goodbye." And walks inside his house. HAHAH TALK ABOUT AWKA-AWKWARD!! Then a little while later, we were knocking on this one door, when this car drove super slow past the house we were at and then stops. In the middle of the road. We were both like, WHATT the.... and totally walked super fast down the street in the opposite direction. Sista B gotta hold on her pepper spray (apparently you can have it MA, sorry!!?). And then ran for our lives to our car. Hahah it was intense.

Wednesday we raked a TON of leaves in our front yard, and mowed part of it. I'm becoming a mowing queen. 😎 we went to lunch with sweet mama lodge!! We went findin around town. We met some very kind people, some who weren't interested at all, witnessed miracles, God led us to a sweet woman who had just moved here from LA and who's so willing to have the missionaries come over. We have to pass her though because she lives in Warrenton. We had dinner with the Kanouse family AKA cutest family in town! They have two little kids. Their little girl is adorable and we just became best friends! She is like one year old. Apparently she doesn't bond with people, but she did with me! We bonded over our earrings and her superhero cape haha. We had a miracle lesson with Josephine! We finally got to see her again. Her sister got in a bad accident so she has been taking care of her, but guess what! So last time we saw her we talked about overcoming our weaknesses and being humble and relying on God. We shared Ether 12:27. Guess what. She was stressing real bad before a test she was taking at school, and she just said God please help me out here, and so she opened up the Book of Mormon and read that scripture! She said yep, I opened it up right there and read it! MIRACLES!!! It was so rewarding and made me so happy and proud that she did that. I was so grateful :) she is solid and is searching for the gospel and doesn't even know it, her schedule is crazy busy though so trying to meet with her is hard.

Thursday we finished mowing the huge lawn and raked leaves on our back patio. Haha MAN IT WAS A WORKOUT. Sister Bennett and I were talking about how we are learning so much about housey things. Like raking leaves, mowing, cleaning, catching mice and just taking care of a house! It's really good. We had a lesson with sister Wilson and read 3 Nephi 11 with her. I LOVE that chapter! The spirit always fills my heart and I feel Him so strong when reading that chapter, I know Christ came to the Americas after His resurrection and established His church. We visited a member, sister Taylor and she has the cutest kids ever. Their names are Rex and Adelaide. Haha Rex is three and was chattin it away with me with chomping on an Apple. It was so funny he came up to me real close and was like, "I like your ponytail." (Starts playing with my ponytail) "It's not like my moms" hahah little kids are the best. We had a delish dinner with the Hafleys! They feel like my family. Mom and dad, you would totally love them. I can see you being BFFs with them. Sister Hafley made mashed potatoes for me because I said I was craving them! I love her! :') tender mercies. We had a lesson with herman and the Browns came. Herman is doing well! The lesson was going well too, he said he had been reading and he started reading the Book of Mormon over again. Unfortunately, he pretty much dropped us that lesson. It was so sad. But I know he just isn't ready yet, and that it's alright. All in God's timing. :) Herman will always be my elderly BFF. After the lesson, Brother Brown commented on how missionaries are set apart and given the authority to teach and there is a lot of power behind that and a lot of times missionaries don't recognize that.

Friday we planned and planned and PLANNED!! Sister Bennett and I received some revelation that we need to focus more on the less active/part member families in our Ward and helping people come back to church. So we planned more for that. We had a delicious steak and potato meal with some of Sister lodges famous homemade desserts, pecan tarts and peanut butter balls! THEY WERE SO GOOD. Man. The food the Lodges make is always SO delicious! She's from the south. That probably explains it! Then we had a visit with sister Benge and talked about sincerely and earnestly praying to Heavenly Father. We shared some of my favorite verses in the Bible with her, in Luke 22:39-44. I love verse 44. It is so beautifully written. Christ humbly and EARNESTLY prayed to our father in Heaven as he suffered agonizing pain in the garden of Gethsemane. The more I study the Saviors life, the more real He becomes to me. The more the spirit fills my heart and tears fill my eyes. I know He suffered for each of us individually. I know He loves us deeply. I know He lives today.

Saturday we finally had the BLITZ in our area!! We blitzed it up in our Virginian rain forest. It's such a fun and completely different part of our area. The elders enjoyed it! We met a fellow named Joe. He said he knew of the Mormons and thought we were a cult. He said he's always had questions about what we believe and so forth. He asked questions about Joseph Smith and polygamy and apparently I had a good rebuttal to his question, sister Bennett said. I honestly don't really remember what I said just something along the lines of when God commands us to do something, he provides a way to do it. It was totally the spirit. Towards the end of the conversation he boldly stated "YOU'RE NOT GOING TO CONVERT US!" Hahah. Of course not Joe, only the Spirit can do that. You could definitely tell he was interested he just didn't want to say it. He also said something really kind and sincere. He said "I can tell by looking at you that you have good hearts." Aw! It made me want to cry! But it's just so cool to hear and see that people really do notice a difference about us. Not just missionaries, but everyone who has the spirit with them. Later, we were driving up in the rocky, hilly forest and our poor little Toyota Corolla almost got stuck, I had to push the car up this hill a little bit. Haha! Also, funny and embarrassing moment! We had to run home for something real quick, and our neighbors were outside. I hadn't talked with these neighbors before. I started walking over and yelled, "HELLO!! Y'all Waiting for the school bus?"

"No.. we don't have school!"

(I remembered the kids here had A long break from school) me: "ohh yeah! I forgot abo--..."

Then they yelled and said" it's Saturday!!" And all busted up laughing. Haha it was a mom and her two kids. Hahaha Oh my lands. So embarrassing. Whatevs. It lightened the mood and conversation! Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, even if that means bringing our your dumb blonde skillz haha jk that's just who I am. Later we met and saw the benders!! And they have this cute golden retriever. He's big! I was all loving him and he started jumping on me and then all off a sudden his nose caught the edge of my skirt and he started to jump and my skirt went with his nose....!! Hahaha it almost ended tragically, but good thing I hurried and grabbed my skirt and put it back down! The benders were laughing. Funny funny funny. 😂 we had a jam sesh with the guitar that night. We practiced a song for presidents birthday because we had the guitar! His birthday was Sunday, so we sent him a video. I'll send it to you! I seriously miss singing and playing the guitar. It felt so good to do it again.

Sunday was beautiful! We had a great day at church. A family brought their friends to church and I was able to talk with the mother, Marisol. They live in Maryland and they are really searching for a church right now. She said she loved church and felt so happy and comfortable! She is so solid guys, I can feel that she will get baptized. It was such a tender mercy and blessing to be able to talk with her and hear her testimony of the Savior and of Gods love. Dinner with the Hammonds was a treat! We had.... gourmet hot chocolate, orange juice, yogurt parfait, waffles, fruit, eggs, cinnamon rolls and pumpkin cookies. WOWZA. I felt not super hot after eating but it was SUPER GOOD!!

I love the sacrament. I have learned that the more we conscientiously prepare throughout the week for the sacrament, the more we get out of it. The more we can feel the spirit and focus on the Savior as we partake of those sacred emblems. I talked about this a little bit before, but some of my favorite scriptures right now are in Luke 22:41-44. The spirit touches my heart each time I read them. The more I study about Christ, the more real He becomes to me. Those verses are so beautiful to me, I love them. I love where it says he KNELT in prayer; He was willing to do according to Gods will; and in agony, He prayed more earnestly. This question comes to me: When we pray, do we do these things? The Saviors example humbles me and gives me the desire to want to be better and become more like Him. I am so grateful for Him and His atoning sacrifice. I know He is real and His love is real. I know He lives.

Because He lives, we can be Oh-SO HAPPY.

So go and be so happy!! Have a wondrous, gratitude filled week 😌

I love you guys! So much. ❤️

XOXOXO

SISTER HYMAS ☺️