Hidden Forest Camps and Military "Plo-ece!" 😳

Hey HEY HEYYY!! Sister Livingston had her 2nd time to go to the temple so we switched our p day. And no one got back to us saying that I could go with their companionship for the day so sister liv could go with some other sisters to the temple... So one of the APs gave me permission to go again! BLESSINGS!! So I got to go to the temple today with the hermanas and sister Liechty again! LOVE HER. AH. it was so wonderful. The temple closes next Monday and opens up again the end of September. So grateful and happy I was able to go again! :) I LOVE THE TEMPLE. I wish I could stay there forever. Anyway...

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. 

Then we spent the majority of our day at Arlington National Cemetery. That place is beautiful!! And absolutely incredible. It has a special spirit there. It was amazing to see the tomb of the unknown soldier, and the changing of the guard. We saw the Kennedy's graves. We saw historical houses and so forth. But something so cool is we had the opportunity to watch part of a military funeral. My heart was so touched, I am so grateful for the military!! Man it was super powerful to watch. There were a ton of guards dressed all in white marching to the grave site. There were horses pulling the casket along. Then the did the 21 gun solute. It was super powerful and touching. It was an AMAZING DAY!! P.S. It was one million degrees too and I sweat so much it was disgusting. The evening was awesome too! I'm really trying to be better at talking to everyone that we see, and Heavenly Father is definitely helping me out!! We found two new investigators! :0 miracles!!! We have to pass one, but all is well! :) the other missionaries will love em :) it was a grand day. One I won't ever forget.

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.

We found 7 new people that want us to come back!! ISN'T THAT AMAZINGGG?!? We were like WHAAATT?Yes so so miraculous. Heavenly Father blesses us so much and helps us everyday with this work. We are guided by His spirit. I seriously just love missionary work. And I LOVE people!! I just love em :) cool story. Sis Liv was awesome and walked up to this lady who was smoking in her suburban with the window down. She put out her cigarette and we had an awesome conversation with her!! Sis liv shared ether 12:27 and Jamie whipped out her phone and took a picture of the scripture and everything. We ended up getting a picture with her! She is so cute I love her! Unfortunately she lives in Springfield. Darn. But she had talked to the elders before so we will get in contact with them about her. :)


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! 

BEAUTIFUL SABBATH DAYYY! :) it was wonderful weather, a wonderful day, wonderful people, wonderful spirit. It was just simply WONDERFUL :) I will miss this place SO SO MUCH. I cant stand to think about it. We stopped by Grammas after church. She had us cut her some onions and then she threw a huge thing of frozen chicken in some water to thaw itout. HAHA she cracks me up. Gramma also told us the story about how she thought I was in her closet. HAHAHA she said, "I was in my closet and I saw something that looked like you. I said, hey that looks like my daughta." And sister Jakeman said, "hey! Who you talkin to in there?" And I said, "no one!" When reallys I was talking to you!" HAHA and then she starts busting up laughing. She is so funny. I love gramma. We had a fantastic dinner with my second family, the Hales! Haha they are the BEST. They are going to Utah in September. Caleigh might be living in West Jordan till she leaves on her mission, and I told her she should stop by good ol Herriman and say hi. She said she might ;) we saw Miriam that night and had an awesome quick lesson about the three kingdoms of glory. We read scriptures in the bible because she had questions about it, and she said she never realized that before. Miriam is so awesome. She is the most kind hearted, soft spoken and loving person. And she gave us some homemade tamales one time!! She is an amazing example to me. Then we checked on some people. While doing so, we met a ton of people! All so kind, friendly,and respectful. We found 4 people to pass to the Spanish missionaries. Woot woot! We literally talked with everyone. Even those sitting in their cars! Something new I hadn't done before. Sis liv and I were talking about how It's so satisfying at the end of a day to know thatyou talked with every single person you saw. It makes me feel sad and guilty if we knowingly pass someone without talking with them. It makes me realize over and over again that EVERY person counts. No matter who ya are, we are all important. We are all loved. We are all in need of the gospel. We are ALL children of an almighty being, our Father in Heaven. Every soul is great in the sight of God. Every soul matters. Especially to Him. I love you all SO much. "The love is unreal" as sister Langford would say. ;)

Keep on, keepin on. :)


TALK TO YA'LL ON MONDAY!!! :)

LOVE,
SISTA HYMAS 💕

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 :)

BA DUH DA DA DAA, I'm LOVIN' it! 🎶

Roses are red,Violets are blue,I'm slowly melting away because of the 102 degree weather + 1100% humidity,How are you? :)

THIS WEEK WAS SOO GOOD!! It was SO hot. And so humid! But SO good nonetheless. :) Virginia is so beautiful I love it here. Seriously contemplating whether to move out here some time in my life. We will see. :)

We found 3 new investigators on Monday!! Three!! I couldn't even believe it. They were referrals from the church! We are so humbled, grateful and happy! Seriously miracles are happening left and right. Heavenly Father is leading us in everything we do out here. He is there always!! I'm so so grateful to be the Lord's missionary. I'm so excited to be working with these three new investigators! One is named Matthew, and the other two are a mom and daughter, Christine and Karen. Unfortunately, we had to pass Christine to the elders because we apparently aren't allowed to go to the area she lives in. Oops. Haha. But the gospel is so awesome!! I love it. 


Here are some funny things that happened on Tuesday: I GOT IMPALED BY A STICK when we were walking along the sidewalk. It killed!! It seriously stabbed straight into the side of my foot. I also made a fool of myself walking out of our apartment. I saw a super cute dog with his head out the window in the back seat. I barked at him trying to get him to bark back. Well as I kept walking to our car I realized that there was a man in the front seat of the dog's car. So that was super embarrassing. He was probably thinking... WHATTA WEIRDOO! Hahaha. We went tracting and met a ton of kind people!! Prayed with this super sweet lady. Sister Livingston accidentally handed a Spanish pass along card to an English woman. Oops! Ha A lot of good things happened. However we got hit on by two mid 20 year old men. It was slightly terrifying but hilarious. They were walking toward us and I said "Hello!" and they start walking towards us and one tilts down his head to look over his sunglasses and says in a super deep creepy voice, "hey." HAHA EW. it was kind of super funny. We just turned around and walked super fast. No worries Ma, we lost em. ;) haha they seemed like they were just messin with us. BUT Miracles that happened: 


We were finally able to contact with Vivian again on Tuesday evening. COMPLETE MIRACLE sent from heaven!! We were able to see her friend Drea too! We retaught the restoration and invited her to set another baptismal date.... which she set for SEPTEMBER 10th EVERBODAYY!!! WOOP WOOP!!! We are so excited!! She wants to be baptized so bad. She just needs to quit smoking. We are so pumped for her. We also invited Drea to be baptized and she said she would think about it. Once she figures out what church to join and so forth. She is so sweet, we love them both so much! We also had an awesome dinner with Sister Sutton and her family. Sis Sutton is the sweetest human and takes such good care of us. We also saw Barb and had a quick lesson with her. I just love this place so much. God continues to bless us with so many miracles I can't even count how many. He is so good.

Wednesday was such a solid day. We started the day out by getting our apartment inspected by the sweet Torgersens. We passed ;) We then went and helped one of the new members in our ward build shelves for her house. Sis Liv and I busted them out in record timing. It reminded me of when Rach built that tv stand for someone on her mish! Twinners :) We had lunch at Subway and then had a lesson with Barbara and Sister Liechty came! AH I just love her. She is the best!!!

After we had a lesson with Athina. She is so good! She always says "oh cutie mo!! Sister Hymas, how are you cutie? I love you so much, how is the Mormon church doing? You want to have Mormon bible study today? You want me to pray? Okay I pray!!" Hahah I. LOVE. HERRR!! She is by far the most Christlike personI have ever met. She is a very special lady. After we went and checked on some potentials. While doing so, we met these kind men who were moving into an apartment. The one moving in is from Ghana and we have a return appointment to go back!! His name is Martin. Anyway, the other guy who was helping him move in was talking up the Latter Day Saints and was telling the guy that he should meet with us earlier so we can help him get involved with the church. We were like: SWEEEETTTT!! Miracles!! Funny story, I was setting up a time to come back and see Martin and he was like I will just give you a call, and I was like "well, we can come Sunday night if that works and you can give us a call if something else works better" or something like that. And the other guy was like, "She's like Donald Trump. Really good sales tactics!" HAHAHA. - thank you kind man from Richmond Virginia. Don't know his name. It was super funny! He also told us we have such royal names. He was a crack up. We had a pass off lesson with the colonial sisters with a man named Zac who is a less active. It was a super deep lesson and most of it went over my head because my brain couldn't think as deep as he was thinking! It was crazy. All I knew and wanted to say was that God loved Him. That's all that matters!!! Haha jk. But really. We had correlation and had an awesome day.

Thursday: best day. Sis Liv and I matched. Haha it was great!! Although there were a ton of people that were criticizing us because of it. ha. Welp, that's the last time I'm ever matching with my companion! Haha jk it was super fun :) We went and saw sweet Michelle and watched the video Refiners Fire. Man, I can't even imagine what it would be like to go through those trials that the woman went through. It makes me think of Christ and what He went through. The more I learn about Him and His Atonement, the more my love and gratitude for Him grows. My desire to become more like Him grows. And my desire to apply the atonement in my life daily grows. I am so grateful for my Savior who suffered for me individually. He and the Father are the ultimate examples of love. We had lunch and then helped a member with her home! We cleaned her bathrooms and living room and brought her a few things from the store. It was a super fun time :) I love cleaning for other people. Haha don't worry Ma, I clean our apartment too! Then we were able to meet with Kayla for a few minutes and talk about the Ten Commandments again. We emphasized keeping the sabbath day holy and why God has asked us to keep Sunday holy. She has to move and we are hoping she stays in the Ward boundaries!! Because she still wants to be baptized but if she's moving.. We will have to pass her. :( We saw our good ol' pal Ashley and also had a lesson with Ayoko! They are the SWEETEST people. They are so kind and always pray at the end of our lessons and ask for our safety and wellbeing, that we will be blessedas we go and share God's word with others. It is so cool to be able to teach and have their son translate and feel the spirit and talk about the gospel and testify...!! I LOVE IT. I love them! They are so good. I really hope and pray they accept the gospel. I want them to get sealed so bad!! AG. Patience is a virtue, haha. 



Friday, you know what we did ;) plan plan plan! I wasn't feeling too well, I had the chills then I was hot later, then I felt like throwing up... etc etc. I feel better now :) But anyways, when Sis Liv prayed it was so funny she was like, "Please help Sister Hymas not feel hot... or cold....or anything.. Just a normal temperature..." Haha I was cracking up. She is too funny. Love her! We also helped a member unpack some things in her new home! We had dinner with the Hales and ate super good cookies. They were peanut butter cookies with Nutella on them. SO GOOD. BEST idea anyone's ever had. In the evening we headed down to Alexandria and saw Agartha and her kids! We watched the restoration video and ate popcorn :) it was a blast. THEN we went to go check on a referral and he didn't answer, but we went and checked on a potential named Shirley. She is like almost 79 and loves God! She was so cute, we talked a little bit about the plan of salvation because she has lost her daughter. She enjoyed our visit and we're going to stop by next Thursday! We hope we catch her, she's a nice one :) all I can say is that I love this place! I love my comp. I love the people. I love my Savior. I love my Father in heaven. I love the Gospel! It's true!!

Saturday was a day full of straight miracles. We went and made cake and pulled weeds with Jackie! We taught our referral Matthew Bidgood and his kids about the restoration. He is a very kind man who never grew up in religion. He says he has a clean slate and we were like that's totally okay!! Haha, the spirit was so strong when we recited Joseph Smith's First Vision. We invited them to be baptized and BOOM they said yes!! As they come to know if it's true. And the cool thing is they all said yes at the same time, and sounded excited about it too! AMAZINGGG!! They are so awesome! We are so blessed to have met them. We also had our lesson with Margo about the restoration and she was so intrigued the whole time, which we invited her to be baptized too and she said yes when she comes to know if it's true!! MIRACLEEE!! We were able to meet so many cool potentials, who we had to pass to the elders but it was still super cool. We also had dinner with the Parsons!! LOVE em. It was super cool because Sis Parson is a nurse and I had mentioned I wanted to be a nurse and they asked what kind. I told them a neonatal nurse and apparently both Sister Parsons and her daughter were thinking the same thing!! Sis Parsons says I look like a neonatal nurse. I was just like "woah, answers to prayers!" Maybe that's what I gotta do :) Also, we were eating and talking when all of a sudden Sis Liv's face starts bleeding hahah in the middle of her talking about something spiritual it was so funny. haha I felt bad but she's awesome. Also, we met so many dudes throughout the day, and they all were not wearing shirts. Probably because it was a gazillion degrees outside haha. For real it was 102! CRAZY. Sister Livingston was like, "everyone keeps popping out of the forest, and none of them are wearing shirts!"HAHA. 

Then it was Sunday :) I love SUNDAYS. The sabbath day is seriously the best. My all time fave. Church was great! As always. :) We literally went all over the place Sunday!! Saw Gramma, ate lunch at the Hales, had dinner at the Curtis home, met SO MANY PEOPLE, we had a really nice visit with a lady named Rayna.  She offered to get us more water and we sat and talked with her for a bit. She has been going though a lot, and we talked about Christ and how we can always turn to him. Always. We showed pictures of you guys to her, she wanted to see our families! Anyway, she said we could stop by whenever we are in the area! I love her so much already, she is such a wonderful woman.

Sunday, I was thinking a lot about the atonement, specifically about how Jesus Christ literally felt everything we have felt. EVERY. THING. Every physical pain, mental, emotional, guilt, sadness, joy, love.... etc. It blows my mind. It's so interesting and amazing to me that as we study and learn more about Christ, new things always come up that you hadn't really thought about. There is ALWAYS something new you can learn about Christ. We can always be learning more about Him. When we learn more of Him we will desire to become like Him. We will have a greater desire to follow Him and help others draw closer to Him. He is our Savior and Redeemer and He lives. He is the source of my joy! He is the greatest joy I've ever known. I love Him and I know He loves us. I thought I knew Christ before I came out, but I have come to know Him far better than before. I invite us all to learn more about Him. Study his life and strive to be like Him. If we do this, we will come to know Him so much better. We will become more like Him. And when He comes again we will see Him as he truly is, because we will be like Him. I bear testimony that He lives. That His Gospel is true, and that there are always second chances because of Him.

LOVE,

Sister Hymas :)

P.s. It's crazy there's only one week left in July! Time FLIESSS. Love you all so much!