100 degrees and counting...

Family and Friends---all the people who lovingly put up with me,

I hope and pray this week went WONDERFULLY for y'all! I hope you are seeing the many blessings that our loving Heavenly Father continues to pour down on us :) Along with all the rain He pours down as well. I don't know about your parts of the country, but here in Georgia it rains randomly all the time and makes the humidity uncomfortable. 

I made my first tie. My first district leader's (from back in Chamblee) birthday was a week ago so I figured out how to sew a tie with no pattern with the help of a sweet member in our Branch. We had a fun time lining things up and trying to cut pieces out, sometimes twice. But it turned out legit. Sorry folks, forgot to take a pic. 

Sports night. Volleyball and soccer with latinos makes for a great loud time :) 

We had exchanges with the Marietta/Mableton sisters! I claimed Sister Vunipola (the 3 week old Greenie) and we planned a really fun/slightly random day. I asked her if there was anything yet she has always wanted to try and she supplied some ideas. We attempted to contact a lot of Bible referrals (people that request an item from the Church) but no one was home for their scheduled appointment. Nothing new :) So we went and did all sorts of ways to find and talk to people. We did a survey as we knocked doors to talk to people about their religious beliefs and introduce the Book of Mormon. We did store contacting and talked to people as we shopped--buying sidewalk chalk while at the Kmart. Visited a member who is in an assisted living center, a spunky lady. Stopped by a referral the Cunningham Spanish Elders had sent to me since they knew Sister Vunipola and I would be in the area. I was praying the referral would speak at least a little English when we stopped by. She speaks Spanglish... So for Sister Vunipola who speaks no Spanish it was still confusing for Nancy (the referrals name) to switch between languages so much. I will talk about Nancy a little later :) We then went SIDE WALK CHALK FINDING. So we take over a large part of the sidewalk in a park and draw out some gospel topic. We chose the Plan of Happiness-- God's plan that answers life's greatest ?'s Where did we come from? Why are we here? and Where are we going? People would stop and talk to us to see what on earth we were doing. SO COOL. And a sweet lady named Lana went around the trail 3 times and each time we explained another part of the Plan to her. She WANTS TO LEARN MORE!! Let me tell you. Miracles my friends. Miracles. Sister Vunipola was so excited :) So awesome to see :)  We then went to Young Womens and taught about making goals and setting plans for Personal Progress. Didn't know almost the entire time of the meeting would be ours until they said that in the opening exercises.... thank you for FFA and training me to give workshops on goal setting :) Turned out really great and the Young Women leaders said they thought the girls got a lot out of it. And we got pizza :) 

INTERVIEWS with President Foote. Always so much fun :) Mainly because I love my mission president and the counsel he gives. Our trainings for the other districts (we give trainings to each District of missionaries as Sister Training Leaders) went well! 

So Nancy. She is a wild one. Has two cute boys and a PUPPY. She wants to finally get her life on track "I'm 35 and struggling like a 20 year old" She was planning on coming to church this week until... her hair dye went wrong sunday morning and wouldn't come off her forehead. So she didn't come. Oh goodness.

We have been teaching Jonathan as often as we can. a) trying to help him not be nervous about English---he starts school in two weeks and only knows Hi. Literally. "Jonathan, cuanto ingles habla?" "Hi." He is reading the Book of Mormon and understanding it! We had a lesson yesterday evening about his progression. He is constantly comparing his progress to how it was for his cousin Juan Carlos to get baptized (3 weeks) and getting down on himself because his testimony is taking more time to grow. We spent the entire lesson on Faith and in Alma 32. Love that kid. 

So Isela... our lady who was set for a baptismal date... dropped us. She said she'd let us know when she wants to meet with us again... But wouldn't look at us as she said this. No eye contact. Nada. So sad. 

Finally met with Aracely again! Her phone got robbed and she couldn't contact us for a while. But she is so excited to keep progressing in the gospel. Literally a night and day switch from when I first got here :)

MARIA CAME TO CHURCH. After all of the people that were lined up to go to church fell through. Part way through sacrament meeting Maria walks in. I almost burst into tears of joy. She loved it and felt so welcome. The members made me so proud and talked with her and got to know her!!! 

Yo se que podemos progresar y mejorarnos cada dia. El camino es dificil pero si se puede :) Con nuestro amigo fiel, Jesucristo, podemos superar cualquier cosa :) YO SE QUE ESTA IGLESIA ES VERDADERA

I love you all so much. Keep the faith.

Con Amor,

Hermana Draper