Sarah Missionary Letter: September 29, 2014, from Vicksburg, Mississippi---Mom has long since lost track of which Number Letter. . .

 

So to start off, let me teach y'all some trailer park etiquette:

• If they have tire tracks in their yard: it is free reign, you can turn around there anytime you want and nobody will mind in the least.

• Now if they don't have tire tracks--BUT their cars are parked in the yard then you can turn on the edge of their lawn but don't pull  a U-turn.

(This has been confirmed to me by MANY trailer park dwellers.)

         SOOOOOO it was 8:00 at night and it was dark and they had three cars parked in their yard AND TIRE TRACKS!! So I turned a little bit onto this yard, so that way after Allison's lesson we could go home without backing up (because if we do, Sister Forbes has to be eaten alive by mosquitoes while she stands behind the car while I reverse. We turn around and park in front of Allison's trailer which is kitty-corner from the one we turned around in.). We got out of the car and this HUGE guy, he was probably 6'5 and 400 pounds, comes speedy-walking towards us and is just running his mouth!! He was cussing up a storm! He looked me in the eye and said if I ever touched his lawn again to expect a bullet through my window! BUT!! HEAVEN BLESS MY ABILITY TO BURST INTO TEARS! I just started bawling (to be honest I really wasn’t that upset. People threaten us all the time).  But anyway, it was pretty hilarious to see the shock and embarrassment on his face when I could barely talk because I got the hiccups at the same time--which just added to the drama. As I was apologizing profusely through my tears he realized we are missionaries! He never apologized for being rude but HE FELT SO BAD! I am not even a little bit sorry for how bad he felt! Sister Forbes went over and shook his hand and in her special way said, "I hope you will forgive us". He started making excuses as to why he was so rude and told us to "Keep doing your good deeds!" and walked back over to his yard. It was kind of perfect because Allison’s mom (who apparently thinks we are robots) got to see a softer side of the Sister Missionaries....I am almost 99% sure I am always soft....just saying...

This week was not productive! WE TRIED SO MANY PEOPLE AND NO ONE WOULD LET US TEACH THEM!! AHHHHHHHH!!!! We had 0 new investigators and we tracted for 8 hours...8 HOURS!! We taught the priest quorum (Young men aged 16-19 yrs.) and they paid REALLY good attention! They let us teach them!! Why is no one else charmed by our good looks and charisma!! ??

     We taught Patience this week twice which is awesome, it is hard because she can't progress due to the fact that she has a premature baby girl! Her baby's heart will just stop....and she preforms baby CPR and she is fine!! Crazy, huh! ? Once they figure out what is wrong with her baby and she can be around large groups of people Patience will be coming to church! And getting baptized hopefully in the middle of November! She is really awesome and is VERY prepared for the gospel. At the beginning we will ask her what she believes about a certain principle of the gospel and it almost always goes like this: 

Sister Forbes: “Patience, will you tell us what you believe the story of Adam and Eve is?”

Patience: *tells basic story of adam and eve* “Yeah, and then because they ruined God’s plan and they committed the worst sin ever, they got kicked out of the Garden of Eden and Eve was cursed with child birth....Sometimes I feel bad because I feel like that isn't true and I know I should have more faith...But Alaina and Emery are not a curse! Childbirth hurt really bad but it made me closer to them!”

Sister White: “Well, let me tell you something that will blow your mind! Lets flip to 2 Nephi chapter 25!!”

Patience  is pretty awesome! I feel pretty lucky to teach the people we are actually able to teach right now. We have some elect spirits in Vicksburg south!

The womens’ conference was AWESOME! I loved all the talks. I am sure they talked about stuff other than temples, but that is all I heard...Just so you know we are going straight from the airport to the temple. Okay? I am not kidding!!! I mean it! We can adopt a baby so that way Grace can come with us and we can all get sealed! Just kidding...Being on a mission you meet a lot of "power couples" people who are really compatible but most of all you look at them and you can just tell they have a celestial marriage. Looking at my mission president and his wife at first made me want to marry somebody who will be a mission president, BUT I have decided through much prayer and study that...I am going to marry a temple president. It’s okay if we are just temple workers. But either way, I plan on spending my last years in the temple. 

So on Thursday the Bishop's wife called and told us she was coming to pick us up so we could help her out with something. We didn't have any set appointments so we just went with it. We drove up to the house down on Campbell Swamp Road (a 10 mile long dirt road) it was super nice for being on Campbell Swamp. Sister Johnson was this lady’s neighbor, but she was being evicted for hoarding!!! AHH HOARDERS ARE SO GROSS! But let me tell you this was the weirdest hoarder experience I have had my whole mission! She was apparently super rich and had a big inheritance because she is related somehow to the people who have shares in Walmart, or something....So we sorted through what could be given away and what had to be thrown away. Colin I threw away a box of imported Italian leather gloves that had been infested with cockroaches!! I was throwing away thousands of dollars of REALLY nice stuff every ten minutes. Everything that was worth saving was up for grabs. SO GUESS WHAT!! I got a Burberry trench coat!! AHHH It is so nice! It smells like cat urine so I need to get it dry cleaned. We each got so much stuff! (I promise that I am not being a pack rat!) Sister Forbes ruined her shoes while tracting and she got a brand new pair of designer shoes in her size. We found stashes of brand new clothes! It was crazy! I was freaking out the whole time because everything was so nice but the house was SO GROSS! I was very proud of myself when I got into my made bed with clean sheets: Did you hear that Mama? 

Well I love you all SO MUCH!!!

Next week is transfers! SO I will talk to you on Tuesday! And we will find out if I stay or if I go!