Hey Y'all!

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter, filled with miracles and love :) I Miss you all!

 Easter as a missionary is kind of weird. We go to church, eat dinner with a member family (If we're lucky! we have like eleven members in our area, because we split the ward with a pair of elders, and all the members live in their area.) and then the rest of the day is tracting, just like a regular day. We were blessed to be able to eat at our ward mission leader's home, Brother Trover. He's this super nice Italian man, who cooks like Emeril, and uses at least two forks at every meal (they're a country club type family, super proper). We had pork with jalapeno apricot jelly, and it was stinkin' delicious. (mom.... you would love that jelly. Seriously.) We then spent the rest of the day in Gibson, the very south part of our area. Gibson is a town we don't make it out to very often, because we have very limited miles, and its a good 40 Min. away. It was a kinda fun drive though, because we listened to our only CD, Motab Christmas songs, and try to relate them to Easter (these are the things you do for fun as a missionary... :)) Sister Gardner and I were trying to get in contact with a less active in our ward named Brother Kent. We felt really strongly that our father in heaven needed us to get in touch with him, and so we used a good chunk of our miles to go visit We were so sad to find him not home, but we got to contact a guy walking by as we were leaving a note on the door, and it turns our he knew the Kents very well! So, we gave him an additional message to give Bro. Kent. We then continued on with our appointments for the day, and as we were winding up to head home, we saw a truck on the side of the road with the hood up. Sister Gardner and I felt impressed to stop and help, even though neither of us know anything about cars. We stopped and asked if he needed a jump (the only thing we actually knew how to do) and he said no, his friend was on his way to help him out. As we talked to the man, we found out that the friend was Brother Kent! So, we stayed for a few minutes, and got to see Brother Kent, get a working phone number for him, and set up a teaching appointment For later this week. I now know that the lord never asks us to do anything without providing a way for it to happen! We also got to meet lots of cute old people, who never get visited because they live so far away. all in all, it was a fantastic Easter.

 This week we spent a good chunk of time at the mission home in Irmo, SC, because it was our tri-annual Sister's Conference/ Leadership Training Meeting. Right now there are 30 or so sisters in our mission, but by the summer its going to grow to over 100!!! They really emphasized that there are going to be 80 or so newbies, and even though we feel totally inexperienced, they are going to be looking to us. no pressure right? so, I guess we are all supposed to be called as trainers in as little as a month. So. Scary.

 A few random, Inspirational quotes from the LTM:

 "Be like a Rhino! Do you know how thick a rhino's skin is? Two whole inches! Be thick skinned! never take offence, whether its intended or not."

 "Casual people become Casualties. The gospel is NOT casual."

 "Does the lord have favorites? Yeah, He favors those who keep his commandments."

 "We need to eradicate rumors and gossip. I want you to kill it, and kill it at the speed of thought."

 "Beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing."

 "Elders are adequate, but Sisters are perfect" ;D

 President Holm is an amazing, Inspired man!

 A Piece of advise:

Porter, If you go on a mission with a car, BRING A GPS! I'm buying one today at Walmart... It'll save your life.

 An amazing talk/ devotional:

"that we might not shrink" by Elder Bednar. Seriously, It's changed my Mission (the whole month of it Ive been on, anyways... :)) go watch it!

 People I'm Teaching:

Right now, in addition to all of the less actives We're trying to reactivate, we have 2 Progressing Investigators.

The first is Wanda, who found Christ while she was in jail. Shes such a funny lady! she told us a story about how she used to sing hymns in her cell, and all of the other ladies in neighboring cells were yelling for her to stop, but she'd just keep on singing, and eventually they just gave up and joined in with her. That lady has spunk! Right now, we are trying to help her quit smoking, and get her to church. (the hard part about working in Thomson, its entirely made up of trailer parks, gov't housing, and old people homes.... so nobody has a car! we coordinate lots and lots of rides every week, but its hard getting people to the church, which is half an hour away. be thankful that Gilbert has a church so close!!!) Our other investigator is named Terry Berry (yes, that's his real name, and he is very proud of it!). He's had missionaries before, but they must have been transferred or dropped him, because he said that they just randomly stopped coming. He is on date for baptism, but he is also car-less, so its hard to get him to church.

 Well, my time is about up, but I hope you all have a really wonderful week. Don't forget about the opportunity y'all have to listen to a living prophet this weekend! Its a great opportunity to share the gospel with someone you care about. Be BOLD! INVITE! :)

 Have a blessed day!

Sister Derrick :)

 p.s. WRITE ME LETTERS! ;)

 

 

Bryndee's first mission bedroom. 

 

 

Happy Easter ya'll!

 

 

Isn't she cute in her hat...a true "Southern Bell"!

 

 

Our MTC group at sisters confrence. I MISS SISTER MUMFORD!

 

 

People love South Carolina so much, they paint the flag on their porch....

 

 

Bryndee and her first companion, Sister Gardner.

Cute girls!

 

 

The Story family... one of the less actives we teach. They're making changes in their lives so they can do their son's temple work! 

 

 

Washing the Car on P-Day...Fun Times!