September 16

Tuesday and Wednesday was about 98 degrees plus way humid. When we were outside Sister Francis and I would talk about how cold we were just to take our minds of the fact that we were actually dying of heat. All we ate that night for dinner were blizzards because we were too hot to eat anything  else. Tuesday night we taught Don and Leah Ann again. Luckily there daughter was also there (she's married to a returning less active). She even listened and commented as we were talking! We're hoping that since her parents are meeting with us she will be more likely to as well. So their grandson's name is Jonathon and he was also there. I think he's about 3 or 4. When we sat down on the couch he asked if he could sit on his laps, unfortunately we had to tell him no. Then as we were leaving he said "I love missionaries" and then processed to ask his mom if he could go home with the missionaries. At least someone loves us! haha. Don and Leah didn't come to church yesterday, they didn't make as much progress last week as they did the first week we met with them. So hopefully we'll be able to help them more out this week.

On Thursday we met Dale the hillbilly. We knocked on his door and he came out and we sat on his porch and talked to him. While trying to teach him about the Restoration, we also discussed how he had just gotten out of jail, aliens, big foot, and who knows what else. There are weird people here. But he seemed pretty interested in reading from the Book of Mormon. It was just probably one of the weirdest contacts I have ever had. Oh yeah Thursday morning it rained; my favorite thing to do is tract in the rain! Sister Francis thinks I'm crazy.

Sister Francis is officially attached to me, like she suffers from separation anxiety haha. Usually she finishes making her lunch before me and goes into our room to eat (we still don't have any tables in our apartment). Anyways, not even 30 seconds after being in there is hear "Sister Mayberry will you come in here?!" Then I tell her no haha. Anyways, we are getting along pretty good. There are some differences just because we were trained by different people.

Friday we had a sweet lesson! So Thursday we tracted into Katie, a young mother and she invited us back the next day so we could talk to her husband. Jim teaches religion at Franklin College here in town. I didn't really know what to expect because he's a religion teacher and all. AT first it started out a bit like Q&A but we ended up teaching most of the Restoration lesson. At one point he asked me what I felt like was the most attractive thing about our church. I told him about the importance of modern revelation. I've been studying revelation a lot this last week or so. It's so vital not only to be a successful missionary but also for eternal life. Somewhere in PMG it talks about how exaltation cannot be achieved with revelation. Sometimes I think revelation is this big, momentous action or something. In reality, it's simply communication with Heaven. Anyways, back to Jim. I think he was really impressed when we told him how important it was that anyone receive an answer about the Church. Currently he's trying to decide which religion he wants to join, so we caught him at a good time. No return appointment unfortunately, but he said we could stop by again sometime.

So this week....a lot of frustrating moments. Originally when we got here we decided we wouldn't geographically split the area and that both sets of us would just go for it. Unfortunately the elders got a call Saturday night from the ZLs saying we needed to split it. Bummer! So after church yesterday we spent about an hour talking with the Bishop, elders quorum president, etc. trying to figure out how to split the ward. There really was no good way to do it. The actual city of Franklin sits on the northern side of the borders and then there are a bunch of smaller communities down south. Because we have a full time car and the elders don't, they thought it would be best to give us a pretty small portion of Franklin and then everything else. I'm excited to be able to go and work in the other parts, but now we have a mileage issue. So who knows! It's just a tad frustrating because the work we were doing is now all in the elder's part. So it's almost like we've got to start from square one again. Opening areas is so hard! Luckily I just heard from Sister Jones and Seymour is doing awesome! They brought some new investigators that we found there at the end to church last week. I just have to remind myself that opening an area does take time. It took almost four months in Seymour before I felt like I was really doing anything. It's kind of hard when you here about success an area is having AFTER you have left, but that's part of missionary work.

We have a ward BBQ on Saturday. I hate being social haha. It's still so hard for me. Originally I was really excited because I knew it would be an opportunity to get to know more ward members, then once we arrived I remembered that in order to get to know people I have to actually talk to them! We did alright. This one guy in the ward calls us the sister chicks...I told Sister Francis we should get shirts. There are a lot of converts out here and some of them told us they were tracting stories, so not to give up! Sister Francis is having a hard time knocking because she personally hasn't seen anything come from it. I told her most of the investigators I had in Seymour were people we found on our own. So I just have to help her see that it can go somewhere.

This week I've really struggled with feeling successful. Unfortunately I still go back to my first transfer when we had 5 progressing investigators and 15 member presents each week. I get so frustrated because I just don't know if we are using our time effectively. In some ways I already feel like I'm running out of time, but I just don't know how to use it. Then it goes back to receiving revelation. Missions are completely ran on revelation. Successful missionaries know how to receive it and apply it. I'm still not there...yet. We are just going to have to get more creative because our area has changed now. Anyways, I'm also going to focus on having more effective studies in the morning. If my studies aren't effective then neither is my day.

To end on a more positive note, I love sharing my testimony. The best moments are when I bear my testimony because then I know I am being effective. I think I'm going to struggle for the rest of my mission, which is good because than I will never feel comfortable with myself. It will allow me to continue to grow each day.