An Email Of Many Lists! :)

So, Spartanburg. This place is SO. FUN. I have never been in a ward that is so completely southern! My first Sunday was so fun:

- This Sunday the speaker was a convert from Louisiana, and I swear, I was sitting in the middle of a Baptist sermon. She was preachin' up there like there was no tomorrow! It was so great!

-Our ward council is nuts! There are at least 6 conversations going on at all times, and when we would pause to let an auxiliary member comment on something, the RS president would urge us onward, so we could get through it in time. not super productive, but kind of fun none the less :) (Don’t worry dad, we still get our investigators needs met... it’s just not quite as organized :))

-Everyone is related. The ward is made up of 2 main families, and you can ask someone to identify their third cousin twice removed, and they'll just point to the pew across the aisle. So funny.

-we have a sweet sister who brings her dog to church....

So, More about S. McNeese:

-She's from Utah, but spent most of her life in Wisconsin

-She's an avid journal writer

-She is super quiet, and reminds me a lot of me when I first came out.

- She lets me sing in the car. (She deserves to be sainted for that...)

-She's super organized (a very good thing!)

 

Sister McNeese and Bryndee study time!

 



 

Sister McNeese and Bryndee having fun with contact paper.

 

-Our (potential) Investigator (we don’t have many at the moment...):

-Ryder: someone we knocked into. She's had a very hard life, with lots of traumatic experiences, but has miraculously maintained her faith in Jesus Christ through it all. We taught her the restoration of the gospel, and she wasn’t too sure about all of it, but accepted the challenge to read and pray about the book of Mormon, so we'll see :)

Kind of slim pickings this week, but we're fixin' to find more :) Opening Spartanburg has been slow, but the cool thing is that this is the Lord's work, and he sent me here for a reason. He doesn’t want me to fail..... We’re just in the trial of our faith part right now :)

One last note about why I love this area: WE GET BIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so stinkin' excited about that one :)

Well, Y’all have a blessed week, and go make some friends to share the gospel with!

S. Derrick

 

P.S.  It's funny how much Ive changed in the last 6 months... I don't even feel like the same person sometimes. President describes a mission as a pressure cooker.... it makes us cook faster than we would in normal life :) Its going by too fast!!!