Home Of The Green Wave!

I know not knowing where I am and who I’m with is killing my mother, so first off…..Hello from Summerville, South Carolina!!! I LOVE this place! It’s about an hour west of Charleston (I think? Geography was never my strong suit…) and so, so busy. There’s Spanish moss everywhere, and it rains all the time.  It’s fantastic.  My new companion is Sister Jessica Lamb.  You’ll never guess where she’s from…….. Queen creek! That’s like, 15 minutes away from my house. It’s been so fun being companions, because she knows a lot of my friends, and went to EA a semester before I did…. Small world! Our entire 1st day was full of “hey do you know……?” “Yeah! We went to High School together!” and the like. We get along great, and are so excited that we live so close (we are already planning on starting a band when we get back ;)) I also live in an apartment with Sister Stolworthy from Vegas, and Sister Robinson from Hawaii. Those two are way funny. J

The work here in Summerville 1st ward is rolling forward at a crazy, breakneck pace. I love it! We have had 4 baptisms in 30 days, and have another one on Saturday! The sweetest little old lady named Paula is SO. Excited to be baptized. She has been on date before, and fell off because she got really sick and all kinds of crazy stuff started happening… so we were pretty worried when she told us Saturday that her husband had to get a hip replacement, and she was starting to get sick again, and…. All kinds of ridiculousness. But then, she followed right up with “but I know that it’s because I’m getting baptized this weekend, and Satan doesn’t want me to. We’re just gonna outsmart him, now aren’t we?” J She is so cool!

We are also teaching a Deaf family. This makes for a really interesting lesson, because neither Sister Lamb or I know hardly any ASL (I knew Kami and I shoulda stuck to those sign language videos…. ;)) and there aren’t any members nearby that know any either.  But we make it work with the little we know, and President is getting us a book we can study. (I’m pretty stoked about that…. It’s almost like I got to go to a foreign speaking mission, without leaving the states! ;)). They came to church yesterday, so I wrote out a transcript of what was going on. When we got to the hymns, Kitt (the dad) did them in sign, and it was way cool to watch. I can almost hear my testimony in sign now! Way cool! Our first lesson was one of the most spiritual lessons I’ve ever had the privilege to teach. They are honestly seeking the truth, and are willing to go through a lot to find it. They have read lots of the scriptures, and are intently praying to know if it’s true. It’s cool how the Lord truly makes us able to do things that would be completely impossible otherwise.

So, Thanksgiving was SO. FUN. Our ward mission leader, Bro. Cicon, had us over for a food network style dinner (seriously…. Way fancy….) and  a few church produced 90’s videos. Haha. His kids are so cute, and love us! It was almost like being home J

A few random side things-

Real quick, shout out to the former Elder Kerr for getting a member on the other side of the country to drive down to transfers to say hey to me…. Kudos.

One thing that comes with being close to the coast…. Storms. We got sent in early my first night because of a tornado watch! Crazy!

Sister Simmons and Sister Mumford are companions now! I’m so excited for them! Those are two of my very favorite missionaries, right there.

Well, I hope y'all have a blessed week!

Sister Derrick