Week 36, 6/15/2021

We love these seniors get togethers...and so does Earnest

Whaaaaaat a weeeek! We had some really good lessons this week, and (thankfully) not as much exhausting service as last week!😅 But first off I wanted to follow up on something I talked about last week: I mentioned that our whole mission participated in a mission wide fast that the Orlando temple would open up. Well literally 2 days after the fast we got word that the Orlando temple is now in phase 2B! Which means its one step closer to being fully opened! This was such an answer to all our prayers and was a big testimony building experience for me in the power of fasting. 

Quotes of the week:

"They wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a butthole and a hole in the wall"

"Waycross: where men are men and the women are also"

"How do you work these Mormon chairs?!"

Back at St Simons Island on Pday

Anywho now to the rest of the week...

JAMES! We had the most amazing lesson with James on Tuesday. He's been coming to church for the past 3 weeks now and he's been making some friends as he's been coming. So we were able to have a lesson at the McCray's house, and they are just the sweetest people ever! We had some lasagna and then taught a lesson about the Atonement. We've taught James all the lessons but we had the thought to specifically go over the atonement with him, and it was definitely what he needed to hear. As we were teaching about how Jesus Christ went through the atonement for all of us so that we could use it everyday and be forgiven of our sins, big tears welled up in his eyes as he said, "it sounds like I could use that in my life". The spirit was so strong as the McCra's bore testimony of the power of the atonement in their lives, and you could tell that James was learning and growing a lot spiritually. They were also able to become good friends!  Definitely one of my favorite lessons on my mission so far. 

Meet James!

Connor came to Bible study! No he couldn't come to church AGAIN this week:/ but he came to Bible study where he met someone the Elders are teaching who is also super close to baptism. They were able to chat and become friends (this was totally our plan). We set up a baptismal date for Connor a while back but since then he decided he wants to finish reading the book of Mormon first. This would be a great idea....but he reads suuuuper slow 😅 and he has a testimony that the things we've taught him are true! So we explained that is the most important thing, and you don't have to know everything from the book of Mormon before baptism. I definitely didn't know much when I was baptized at 8! And I still don't know everything! Anyway we invited him to pray about it this week, so I'll keep y'all updated. 

We met Virginia this week! She's a friend of a very missionary minded member we have. He gave us her address and told her we'd be visiting. So we visited her and as we were walking up to the door we heard tons of screaming...we were kind of hesitant but we knocked on the door. She yelled for us to come in so we walked in and found 9 small black children sitting on the floor staring at us. 😳 They were all filthy and confused looking and she just started talking to us like it wasn't super bizarre that she had 9 children under the age of 5. Let me just say, trying to teach about the book of Mormon with 9 kids crying and screaming just does not work out 😅 and it turns out they are all her grandkids that she watches everyday. Anyway we scheduled a time to come back, but it was a pretty bizarre visit. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she seemed excited about it!

We had another seniors party on Friday. Ernest loves them and so do we haha! We had hot dogs and fresh vegetables straight from everyone's farms. The produce here is amaaaazing we've been living off of fresh watermelon this week :)

We're trying to get Phoebee and Desmond hyped about going to the temple because Phoebee is old enough to do baptisms! 

Coloring temples pictures with Phoebee and Des

This week honestly went by so fast it was crazy. I'm just trying to enjoy every minute of being a missionary because I realize that it won't last forever, and its such an amazing opportunity! Anyway, hope y'all have an awesome week, love and miss youuuu

- Sister Bonny ❤

Getting serious about hammer service