Rain, Rain, Rain and a Banjo

"Well, we are very similar in weather patterns this week...it has rained almost every day. And southern rain isn't like western rain. It rains and rains and rains, and then stops after an hour, and then rains again for another 45 minutes. It's sticky and hot until it rains, and then it's just way humid. The last sister that served here left her black rubber rain boots...and they have been my friend for the week."

"Things are getting a little more organized. We have one lady, a non member who runs a UK clothing store in town and we go help her with service every week. She's young, single, and a lot of fun to be around. The sisters have tried to teach her, but she doesn't want it right now. I know she will later though, when the time is right. She is the one who sent Daddy a video of me playing her dad's banjo. She told her dad to bring out his banjo, and he plopped it in my lap, handed me the book and said "go to town!" and he started kind of teaching me how to strum and how to use the little finger picks and such. It was super fun! It's actually a pretty easy instrument."  

"So we have several really promising investigators! We have one on date for September 27th. She was super strong in her church and then when the sisters started teaching her husband, she decided that she was interested, and ended up being more interested in the gospel than her husband was. We had a cool experience with her this week. We went to her house to teach her. She had expressed her desire to quit smoking several weeks before I got there. So we go to her house and the lessons we felt impressed to teach were tithing and fasting. So we started our lesson and all of a sudden she was like, "God told me I needed to tithe my cigarettes on August 12th, and he also told me that I need to stop drinking coffee." My companion and I were FLOORED. We hadn't even taught the Word of Wisdom yet!! So we taught her about tithing and about how when she payed her fast offerings, tithing, and fasted, she would be able to quit smoking. So next time we taught her the Word of Wisdom lesson...and SHE was floored that the Word of Wisdom required us to not drink coffee or cigarettes. It was her 2nd witness that she was being taught from on high and that God was really watching out for her and leading in the right direction. We are so excited to see her continue to progress."

"The other investigators we are working with are an engaged couple. They are adorable, and so prepared!! They are young, my age I believe. They are living together, but engaged to be married in October. We are going to try and get a wedd-ism out of this hahah...But all in God's timing of course. She always has these amazing questions. Yesterday after church we asked them if they had any questions for us, and I believe it was the 2nd question she asked was about how we do baptism, and she expressed that she had been deeply and seriously considering that she needed to be baptized, and wanted to know how to do it. It was incredible. We are going to try and set them on date this week."

"I am so grateful for you all. I am so excited to be a part of this marvelous work for another 5ish weeks. And then, once a missionary always a missionary! yay (: "