3 Baptisms and a Potluck

The movie is called "3 weddings and a funeral" right? I can't Google stuff to verify but I was trying to be funny... Holy cow this week! I don't even know what happened. They aren't joking when they say the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days.

Let's start off with some miracles shall we?? 

▪R-, D- and J- got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm honestly honored and blown away by God's mercy and goodness in letting me participate in their journey. God truly prepares people and although R-'s seed took 20 years to grow I'm grateful I got to be here to see it bloom. And get this?? Their family got a 24 hour notice to leave their home on the day of their baptism. I think that's a pretty good excuse to call it off but their faith is so strong and nothing was going to stop them this time. It was a very special occasion.

▪S- and A- (the 2 middle daughters)  have decided they want to get baptized too!! We've set April 14th as their date. And it would be even cooler if J- can receive the priesthood because he could baptize his daughters. Super cool. We're hoping to get them all to the temple.

▪So one day we were volunteering at Habitat for Humanity and this guy comes in and sees us and goes "sister missionaries?..." and were like "have you seen missionaries before?" And he's like "of course, I'm kind of a prodigal son" and he said he'd really been having a rough go of it lately and was debating just packing up and buying a one way plane ticket to Salt Lake and start over. He felt he should go to Habitat and donate all his stuff and he saw us and was just awestruck. He couldn't get over it. The elders gave him a priesthood blessing. Just a cool experience of being in the right place at the right time. 

▪So somehow every time Sister Hunsaker and I try to visit someone who lives a gated community, a car somehow passes by and we can follow behind them and get through the gate. EVERY TIME. Like how often do cars drive into private communities? Moral of the story: gated communities aren't that gated.  Nothing stops the missionaries. 

▪We had another awesome contact due to the rescheduling of appointments. Often times I'm disappointed when people flake out or aren't punctual to appointments but then I'm always reminded that the Lord is constantly guiding us. If we hadn't gone to this house when we did we probably wouldn't have met K-. We shared with her about the plan of salvation on the doorstep and about how the gospel could answer all her questions. She almost got emotional. We felt the spirit so strong. 

▪The Book of Mormon is a miracle people!!! We had a contact with this sister of a less active and she was Methodist and had a few misconceptions about it. When we told her that it was translated from an ancient record of the people in America everything changed. She was so intrigued and when we gave her the Book of Mormon she was so grateful. And that's not the first time I've seen that happen. There's something different about the Book of Mormon. If you haven't read it recently. DO IT. 

I'm looking forward to this next week! It's going to be crazy but I like it when it's busy. We have Zone Conference tomorrow which we're giving a training at. Wednesday we're going on exchanges. Friday is our temple trip and then we have General Conference!! Everyone write down 3 questions you have and bring them to conference. I promise they'll be answered. Don't forget to see the hand of the Lord in your life. It's there everyday. 

I ate dinner with dolls!!!!

Wowza kazowza it was a crazy week. We did a ton and I can't even remember half of it. One of the best parts was we got fed every day and got into a lot of members homes. Nearly every house of a former/less active we tried to visit, someone answered the door. So that was crazy. The Lord's timing is perfect. Also, I tried a bite of an okra pod. Straight from the vine. Super slimy. Not my fave. I also met an Irish guy on St Patrick's day.

Investigator miracles:

So R- didn't get baptized this last week because J- decided he wanted to get baptized too so we pushed it back a week so they could all do it together. We had a lesson with 7 out of 9 of them and that was a little insane ( I have toys in my bag to keep the kids occupied) but we felt the spirit really strong. There was a moment when everyone was quiet and we paused and Sis Hunsaker was like "this is real" and R- and J- looked at each other and said "we know". Also their 6 year old said the prayer at the end of the lesson and even D- was quiet. It was incredible with everyone kneeling and feeling that love between them. I know they must've felt it.

We had one of the most powerful restoration lessons I've ever had with our new investigator A-. It's been kinda tricky meeting with him because he works, and we haven't had success with the other billion people that live at his house haha so we weren't sure what to expect or if he'd flake again. But we went and asked him what he was searching for and he said he's always searching for knowledge and he loves the Bible and has studied lots of religions and it's never really "clicked". (I wonder why..) Sister Hunsaker straight out told him it was because he hadnt met us yet haha. He really related to Joseph Smith, he's only 20, and genuinely wanted to discover if what we were teaching was true. We gave him a Book of Mormon and I took it from him and was explaining that it was a record of the people in ancient America the ancestors of the Mayans, Aztecs and the Native Americans and he was like "woah.... lemme see that back." I asked him after what he was feeling and he was like "it's warm, it feels good" so a lot of potential!! 

Unfortunately, our other investigators have been less into it lately... we've hardly heard from the Hispanic ones, and O- just dropped us. :( but that's ok. Just a little weeding. 

Finding has been promising though! We got a few from the sisters who just left that we've been trying to meet with. We have two cool black ladies who were super into the Book of Mormon and we're gonna meet with this week. And 2 other ladies that were not confident about but have potential and we'll put in our best efforts. 

Less actives: 

We have been visiting lots of less actives and new converts because retention is so important! We teach 5ish less active households weekly and it's been going pretty well it's just hard getting them all to church!! And we're teaching 2 new converts. 

The most hilarious lesson was with the S- family. It's just a mom and a daughter and they're African American and they're the funniest people. The only sad part is she said she's content with going to the terrestrial kingdom. She's like yeah it's going to be a lot more fun there! And they'll be partying and rapping! And Sis Hunsaker was like "you think we won't rap?" And like busts out the restoration rap by James the Mormon. It was hilarious. Then Sis Sah- said that she'll be Sis Hunsaker's hype man when she comes down from the celestial kingdom for her tour. I was dying.  But also.... We want her in the celestial kingdom.

We've become besties with Sister Sol-. She's native American and is the coolest lady. She grew up on a reservation where her parents found the church. She has the coolest stories. But she made us authentic Navajo tacos last week and they were the bomb. 

It was M-'s birthday this week and she took us all out to bbq. It was so yummy. She's so funny. She had kinda a rough week and wasn't sure she wanted to go out but we told her we would take pictures and that made her day. She always has me take pictures of her and sends them to her family. 

New apartment

I learned something super cool! So I guess I always envisioned the final judgement would just be God judging us and Christ is our advocate right? We apparently God has entrusted all of the final judgement to Christ. John 5:22. So he's not only our advocate, our savior and our friend, but he's also our judge! And idk why but that was a lot more relieving. Not that I think Heavenly Father would be a bad judge but Christ understands where I'm coming from 100%. So that was a cool moment for me. Think about it. 

Oh yes... my subject line. We had dinner with this lady from the other Palm Bay ward and we'd never met her before but she's an older lady and let me tell you, she's very eccentric. She had porcelein dolls EVERYWHERE. Like probably 20 of them. I like dolls, but 20 of them. Staring at you while you eat??? It was a little freaky. She also gave us a painting she had done. Which was nice. She's very interesting.... It was funny. 

I hope everyone is having a good week!! Never forget how much God loves you!! 

Sister Grant 

I have a bubbly personality because I drink lots of soda!!!!!

Our new apartment

Hello friends and family! Today has been a little crazy so I'll try to fill you in. So I made it through my first transfer!!!!!! YAAAAYYYYY!! I'm a real missionary!! And I've been one for 2 months now! Oh also I am not transferring but we did move from our house to an apartment out of our area. So our house got sold and we didn't have a place to go and our housing elder has been searching everywhere for a place to go but No one would accept our corporate lease. So they decided to close the north Palm Bay sisters area and put us in their apartment. So we had to haul everything out of our house today! It was insane. We had our elders come and a few ward members. But I like our new place! It smells funny but the fung shui is much better. And the natural lighting is much better too. And that means we're a full car area!!! I guess they thought we were good enough to be the solo Palm Bay sisters. Now we'll only have 2 sets in our zone. 🤤

This week has been pretty hoppin'. We taught 15ish lessons to investigators/less actives/members. It was insane!! We're still going strong with the R- family. J-, R-' s partner expressed interest in getting baptized! He has stopped sleeping at their house so R- can live the law of chastity, he's reading the Book of Mormon and he hasn't smoked for 2 weeks. And they are planning on getting married this week so they can get baptized together! And her 2 middle daughters (both young women age) said they are thinking about being baptized too. Ahhh!! 7 down 2 to go!! ( ok the 2 youngest aren't accountable yet but they want to be baptized too) so please pray for their family that nothing crazy happens. They need some good luck in their life . 

Our other investigators are coming a long. We've been teaching P- consistently. We gave her some dresses we found at a yard sale because she said she didn't have any. She doesn't really understand why we ask her to do things. I think she thinks she's just casually learning about God. But she said if she likes it she'll get baptized. 

O- and M- have been difficult because they both speak Spanish and are Catholic. We've had to have members help out a lot. O- has been kinda flaky and told us she couldn't meet with us this week because of a Catholic holiday. And M- is on date but told us she's going to New York for a few weeks and doesn't know when she'll be back. Ugh... 

We're teaching a new family. They're African American and have the cutest kids. The mom is super sweet and is actively searching for a relationship with God. She wants to read the Book of Mormon and learn more! 

Other cool things!!! I bore my testimony last week and the bishop told me afterwards that my enthusiasm and passion had inspired his older daughter to go on a mission. And through tears he said "even if you never do anything else on your mission, you'll always be the sister who helped my daughter realize she needed to serve. So that was happy! And then they had me give a talk on "Light" literally the only phrase they gave me was "how do we turn the light on?" It went well!! It was my first talk as an actual missionary and I wasn't even nervous! And I didn't practice it at all before. It was all the spirit. I am not a good public speaker. So I'm very grateful for that. Lots of people told me they liked it and almost all of them said "you're just so bubbly!" Hence my subject line. It must be because I drink so much soda. That's one habit I can't seem to ditch yet. 

1. Our Skype lesson with the Hermanas

3. #CompanionshipGoals

4. Sister Hunsaker is now the official elders hairstylist #sisterHairsaker

I saw my spirit animal....it's a peacock!!!!!!

Hey everyone!! Good week! We got R- officially on date this week and her son! It was so happy. D- is adorable. We taught them gospel of Christ this week and he said he wanted to be baptized to wash away all of the bad things in his life. R- brought 4 of her children to church yesterday so the numbers just keep going up. Her 2 oldest daughters will be tricky but they'll come around eventually. She's so excited. We asked her if we could move her date back a week so her friend could be there and she said she didn't want to wait any longer. So we're thrilled!

We also got M- on date too. The cute little Hispanic lady. We've been having a Spanish member come and help "translate" for her. The only tricky thing is coffee... she doesn't know about that yet.. It's kinda a cultural thing for Puerto Ricans. Also she likes going to the earlier ward.. So we have some things we need to explain better.

We're also slightly struggling with our other Spanish investigator O-. She's Catholic and doesn't really understand the difference. She came to church last week but then we found out she also went to mass beforehand. Then this week she said she'd come if she could get a taxi but then a ward member told us she went to a special mass for a holiday or something. Oh dear...

We went on exchanges this week, I was with Sister Padgett who I adore! She's the sweetest ever. We just talked the whole time and had a blast. I learned a ton from her. We went to eat at their bishop's house and it was crazy because the wife's brother lived 2 houses away from my childhood home. I grew up with their kids!! Crazy small world! Also she has a small clothing store and hit me up with skirts and shirts and a super cute dress. Which was a blessing because I needed some new clothes. It was a good day! 

The work zone!

Another random thing that happened is we helped out with a yard sale for this lady that passed away. Her daughter is a member so she recruited us. So we woke up at 5:30 and went over. We had a cold front so it was only 50 degrees out!! We froze.  (Sorry that's so pathetic for all of the missionaries and families in snow right now. I'm totally a Florida girl now. Anything below 70 is cold.) So I inherited a Miami dolphins jacket from a dead lady. And some shoes. Also a blessing in disguise hahaha. The lady said we could take what we wanted so we grabbed some dresses for our investigators that don't have any. Oh that's also where I saw the peacock!! It was in a tree and I guess he's just the neighborhood peacock. I didn't think they could fly though. He was pretty noisy so I talked back to him like a freak. I wanted to get a picture but it was dark.

If you return missionaries or anyone have any poppin' spiritual music PLEASE send it to me. I'm getting tired of listening to the same 4 albums. Anything. Please. Love you all!! God is good. He loves you all.  find someone to serve today. 

1. All the buildings in Florida are so cute and colorful! Look at the pink Wal-Mart

2. Me and sis Padgett found a coconut

3. We treated ourselves to pizza with a 20 this random guy gave us

4. Look at the huge moon! It's so big!!