Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Thanksgiving was great! We went to the Morrisey's, a family in our ward. Sister Morrisey was planning on being there but she had to make an emergency trip to her daughter's in Salt Lake, so we went over early to help Brother Morrisey and their other daughter cook the food. It was so much fun! All of us missionaries were there, including the senior missionaries, and the Demers, another family in our ward came as well.

Monday, November 25, 2013: Baptism Pictures

Anita was baptized by her husband on Thursday, November 21st. She only wanted her family and the missionaries there and I think it was perfect for her that way. 

 

I've already seen the gospel change the lives of many people. I admire their faith so much. If someone were to come knock on my door and start telling me about the gospel, I don't know if I'd let them in, but people here to it every day and that's amazing to me. I have a testimony now more than ever that this church is true.

Monday, November 18, 2013

What an amazing week it's been! We have truly been blessed here in Picayune. We had the Sister Training Leaders over (they're kind of like the zone leaders for sister missionaries--they come visit us and we go on splits with them) which mean we were able to get twice the amount of work done on Thursday! It also meant that we were both making appointments, so we accidentally triple booked ourselves for Saturday and Tuesday! Whoops. Fortunately the ward is very helpful and with three of us we can make it work. 
 

We had a ward Thanksgiving Dinner on Friday. It was so good! The Magallenes family was able to come, and they brought along their daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. I think they enjoyed themselves. I love that this ward does so much together. It's like one big family. 
 

We invited Anita Magallenes to be baptized several weeks ago. She said she would but she wouldn't set a goal date. During the dinner she surprised us by telling us she wanted to be baptized on the 21st, on her and Andres' one year anniversary. We were so excited! We've been working this weekend to put the program together. Andres is going to be able to baptize her. I love this family so much! It's been so amazing to see a change in them, just in the past month and a half. 
 

We've started the stop smoking program with Clint on Tuesday. He was afraid he wouldn't be able to do it for a long time but we taught him about faith again and promised that God would be helping him through it. When we came back on Thursday I asked him how he was doing with it, and if he was following the steps we'd given him (there are 15 steps to the stop smoking program to go through every day). He said, "Oh, I don't need those steps! I'm doing fine!" It made me laugh. I love that guy. Last I checked he's still going strong. 

Well, that's all for today! Oh, but for anyone who may have missed it last time, here's my address...I thought I'd better put it up again in case someone was just dying to write me letters or something... (Hint hint)

413 Bay Street

Picayune, MS 39466

Monday, November 4, 2014

 This is a banana spider. Super huge, super nasty, and they are everywhere. I wish I could have gotten a better picture.

 The swamp. Pretty water, huh? Nice and brown.

Me and my ward mission leader, Brother Gill! No, I wasn't actually fishing.. But I was posing with the rod, so that's a start. This, by the way, is probably the only time you'll see me in basketball shorts. My jeans hadn't arrived yet.

Things are going pretty good! My companion's getting transferred. That's not so good >:( I was supposed to have her her for another six weeks! At least that means I get to sleep on an actual bed now and not an air mattress. And I get my own closet! :D So I suppose there are some good things about it.

Snow is gross! It's only just starting to get chilly here. Lucky for me I bought myself a super cute blue peacoat at Dirt Cheap for... well, dirt cheap! Along with a dress I found for seven dollars. It was awesome.

Speaking of money, I had to return the bike I bought a couple of weeks ago. I had decided to buy a cheap one to save myself some money but it just wasn't going to cut it. But when I got to Walmart I found out they don't take bikes back unless you have a receipt, and I'd thrown away all my receipts the week before! Just to be safe though, I opened my wallet, and guess what? There was one receipt that had somehow managed not to get thrown away, and it was exactly the one I needed :) That was a miracle to me!

It's Fall, Y'all!

Despite the title, I have so far managed not to say the word "y'all" a single time since I've gotten here! That's my goal for my mission, to go the full eighteen months without saying that word.

Anywho, the seasons are most definitely changing! We've had a few chilly days and I feel like half of our appointments were cancelled this week because people were sick. Somehow, though, we taught more lessons this week than we have so far! This week our goal is to hit 30 lessons. We were only four off last week so I think we can do it! 

Gary didn't end up getting baptized this Sunday. He just barely started a new job so he's really stressed financially and he was busy the two days before Sunday so he never got an interview done. But it WILL be getting done this week! We're probably going to have his daughter Alexis baptized the same day since we're finished with the lessons and she's more than ready. 

Last week a lady in the ward asked us to meet with a family who recently moved to Picayune. I was so excited! I've been wanting to teach a full family so badly! For the most part we've only been teaching one person at a time so far and I just really wanted to see the gospel change an entire family's lives. The Greenes seem really nice. They have three little girls who are full of energy and they're currently living in a trailer park. They lost everything they had in a fire so this is all kind of a new start for them. I really think they have a lot of potential. They've already come to church twice and they're very open to what we have to say. 

So, I didn't expect what people eat down here to be much different from back home, but a lot of it is! If anyone's curious, here are a few things I've gotten to try:

Boiled peanuts-My uncle mentioned these to me a few days before I left. You can find them in a lot of gas stations here but my ward mission leader made a batch himself. To me they kind of have the texture of potatoes. They're a little weird but pretty good. 

Gritz-I only just recently got to try gritz and still don't know how I feel about it. I sort of feel like I'm eating baby food. It's not too bad though, if you can get over the weird texture. 

Hush puppies-The best thing I've been able to try so far! Basically all they are is fried pieces of bread with jalapenos in them. They're so good! I need to learn how to make them so I can still have them when I go home. 

Crawfish-No. Just...no. I'll admit, I haven't actually tried this one. I refuse to eat anything that still has legs and a tail. 

Fortunately for me, I haven't had to eat anything too bizarre yet. A lot of the missionaries here have eaten alligator though, so that's bound to happen eventually.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Just pictures from Sister Glenn this week:

 We caught a lizard in our apartment the other day. His name is Nigel. I wanted to keep him, by my mom (Sister Diehl) wouldn't let me.

 My companions, the elders, and I at our ward mission leader's farm. This is what happened to this farm as a result of Katrina.

A  swamp at Brother Gill's farm. There used to be a ton of catfish in it, by Hurricane Katrina washed them all out.

Another picture of the swamp.

Monday, October 14, 2013

We have a new opportunity for service here! There's a senior citizens' center nearby that needs piano teachers, and since my companions and I play we're going to help teach them! I'm excited about that. I hope I know enough to teach it. 

We've had a lot of really great moments this week! We set to more baptismal dates, one for a boy named Cory and one for Clint. I can't remember if I've talked about Clint already or not but he's one of my favorite investigators right now. He's in a wheelchair right now because of a stroke and is relearning how to walk. In ways this is nice because that means we have to send someone to pick him up for church...which means he has to go no matter what! :P He loves it there. Whenever I see him at church he's always smiling so big. He knows the church is true and he's ready to be baptized. His only problem is he's afraid he won't be able to stop smoking but I know he can do it!

I thought being in the Bible belt would make missionary work hard, but in many ways it doesn't. Everybody we talk to already believes in God and Jesus Christ. To them it's just a fact that they are there, not a question, so the foundation has already been laid for many of the people we teach! Many people are happy to listen to our message "and any message having to do with Jesus". We do get the occasional purpose who tell us they've found Jesus and we should go bother some of the nonbelievers, but for the most part people are very open and even if they don't want to listen they tell us how much they respect us for doing what we do. 

Last week we went fishing with the elders and our ward mission leader. Well, everyone else went fishing and I watched. When they asked why I wasn't fishing I said, "I'm afraid I might catch one." It was a lot of fun anyway, though.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Not too much to say this week. Things tend to get pretty routine out here. I'm starting to get into the rhythm of things which is good. One more week and I think I'll be pretty comfortable with being a missionary. 

We've got several investigators we're teaching right now which I feel grateful for. We don't tract much because we're usually teaching a lesson! That's lucky, because other people in our district talk about how they can tract all day and never be let in. Meanwhile when we do tract we're usually let in by at least one person. 

There's one new investigator I wanted to talk about, and for the sake of her privacy we'll call her Sara. We've been teaching Sara's father for quite some time; he was supposed to be baptized several weeks ago but due to some family circumstances that's been postponed. Anyway, when we taught him last he asked if he could bring his ten year old daughter along, so we pulled out our Plan of Salvation diagram and explained that to her. She loved it. At the end she said, "I want to go to this church now. You just answered a lot of questions I've had that no other church I've been to has been able to answer." We offered her a Book of Mormon to read, and by the way she looked at it, it might as well have been a bowl full of candy. That was such an awesome thing to see, someone wanting to know the truth of the gospel so badly, especially at such a young age. I think my favorite part of being out here so far is being able to see that what we teach is familiar to people. They get this look on their face almost as if they've heard what we're saying before. 

Also, I've had a few people asking me how biking in a skirt works (we share a car with the elders, so we're biking every other week). My answer? It doesn't. I think I've flashed every person in Picayune. But I do have a bit of advice for soon-to-be sister missionaries who are headed for a biking mission. Get skirts made of heavy material that isn't too flowy so it doesn't fly up. I did the exact opposite and got lightweight, flowy skirts, because I didn't want to be too hot down here! Oh well. I'll just have to made do with what I have and hope other people can learn from my mistakes.

I think that's it for today! Have a wonderful week!

Monday, September 30, 2013

Pictures!

 My MTC District! I love these guys!

Me with my mission president and his wife.

My first week in my first area is already over! It went by so fast! We headed out to Picayune Tuesday afternoon and it was raining for the entire four hour drive. And I'm not talking rain. I'm talking heavy, pouring, can-barely-see-the-road-in-front-of-you rain. You never see rain like that in Utah! It was kind of cool (and a little scary). Since then it's been pretty sunny though. 

I am currently in a tripanionship, so that means I have two companions instead of one. There are so many sisters coming out right now that there aren't enough sisters to train them all so this is how we're making it work! Sister Nielson has been out for about four months and Sister Diehl, who is technically my trainer, has been out six weeks and isn't completely trained herself! We make it work, though. 

 
There are about 500 people in our ward but only 150 of them are active, so we've got our work cut out for us there! The people who do come to church are very friendly. Many of them supply us missionaries with bottled water (the water from the tap is a little questionable here) and food and we get fed meals pretty often. Lots of the members are very willing to be involved in missionary work which is great because since there's three of us that means we can go on splits with a member and get twice the work done! I really had no idea how vital members are to missionary work until I got out here. Seriously, there's so much you can do to help the missionaries. 

So, what are my thoughts about Picayune? It's very backwards from what I'm used to. People down here are SO southern. There's no other way to describe it. Many people in Picayune are very willing to listen to what we have to say though! We have a lot more success tracting than missionaries in some other areas. We're currently teaching several people and three of them already have baptism dates. 

Being down here has definitely been a humbling experience. Half the people in Mississippi are living off the government and most of them are high school dropouts. They're just not in very good situations. Many of the people we've taught can hardly read. It makes me so grateful for the education I've had because so many people down here didn't have that opportunity. 

I'm learning that this mission is definitely going to test my patience. Sometimes when we're teaching people I just want to shake them and say, "Why don't you understand how important this message is?!" They appreciate our religion and what we stand for but they don't think it matters what church you're baptized into as long as your baptized, even when we explain to them about having the proper authority. 
 
Well, I think that's just about everything for today, minus a few pictures! Oh, and here's my current address. Everyone feel free to send me letters and stuff! I like emails but I love letters. They're like candy out here. 

Sister Michelle Glenn

413 Bay Street

Picayune, MS 39466

A few pictures of our two story townhouse. We have lots of room! It's way nice!

Pictures From the Mission President's Wife

These are pictures that Sister Glenn's mission president's wife, Sister McDonough, sent shortly after her arrival in Mississippi. She says that Sister Glenn is currently serving in Picayune, Mississippi with her mission companions, Sister Diehl and Sister Nielson.

September 19, 2013

Well, everything's going great here in the MTC! I managed to survive my first week! It's been really hard. I think by the end of my first day I was dumber than I had been when I arrived! But they have since crammed me with much knowledge so I don't feel quite as unintelligent. I think I've learned more about the gospel this week than I have in my entire life! I don't think I've ever felt more exhausted--or humbled, for that matter. And yet I feel great! 

I was at the actual MTC for a total of about five minutes, and then I was immediately taken to the west campus located at BYU's Wyview apartments. We were told in our orientation that we had to swear never to tell the missionaries at the main campus how nice our rooms are. We get one companionship to a room rather than three, and we have a bathroom in our apartment instead of down the hall. I'd been told Wyview wasn't very nice before but if that's true the church has really cleaned it up. 

My companion, Sister Dailey, is simply wonderful. We're alike in many ways. She's also attending Utah State and is thinking about majoring in deaf education so we may see each other again when all of this is over! I also have an awesome district. I think people always say that but I truly stuck gold with these guys (I mean, Sisters and Elders--I'm working hard to break the habit of saying "guys"!) We hit it off with each other immediately. All of us sisters are going to Mississippi but the Elders are headed for Las Vegas so we'll probably never see them again! Kind of sad. 

So, the church is pretty smart. They've got everything so organized. There is, however, one thing that I think needs to be changed. I think mothers should be able to go with their daughters on their missions. Why? Well, to protect silly sister missionaries from ruining their entire wardrobe! Yep, that happened. 

Okay, not really. But, I did manage to ruin my skirt trying to iron it! I didn't recognize the material this particular skirt was made of so I just put the iron on medium and...yep. I definitely melted the material. I almost cried. If my dear mother would have been here to iron it for me that never would have happened! 

Well, I would have liked to say more, but my hour is up! I love you all! Sorry to those who sent me emails that I didn't have time to respond to today. Please know that I appreciate you keeping in contact with me and will do my best to message you back as soon as I can!

A Few Thoughts About Being Committed

For those of you who were able to come to see me speak in church yesterday, you've already heard most of this. While I was working on getting my papers in, I had a lot of people ask me what made me decide I wanted to serve a mission. Most of them were other girls who were trying to decide whether or not they should serve a mission. I was never sure what to say because the real answer to that is a bit personal and I don't feel like I can share it with just anybody yet. But here's the basic story of what caused me to decide for certain what I wanted to do, cut out straight from my talk:

Although I announced to my family only a short while after last October’s general conference that it was what I was going to do, I admit that I spent several months wondering whether or not I would really be going on a mission, even while I was in the process of getting my papers in. I had good feelings about going on a mission from the start, but certain questions and prayers I had on my mind that had so far gone unanswered made me wonder if it was the best thing for me. It reached the point near the end of my first semester at BYU Idaho that I needed to make a decision: either to stay in Rexburg for another semester and continue my education, or go home and earn the money I would need to pay for a mission. My prayers at this time went something like this: “Lord, if you will tell me what I should do, I will do it. Tell me which path is the right one, and I’ll take it.”

After still receiving no answers, I determined that I needed some extra help and received a blessing. I was told in that blessing that whichever decision I made was acceptable in the eyes of God. I admit that this was not the answer I wanted to hear. It did not make the decision I had to make any easier; in fact if anything it had made it harder. It was all well and good that both paths were alright, but I wanted to know which one was best, and I felt almost cheated that I wasn’t being told this, after being faithful and doing what I believed was everything I could do to be deserving of a proper answer. I think there are very few times in my life when I have ever felt more confused and afraid than I did during that time. I wanted to know what was ahead, and I didn’t want to make a firm decision until the tunnel was lit, so to speak, and I could see what was coming.

But as I continued on in finishing my papers and attending mission prep, I was blessed with an overwhelming feeling of love for those who were without the gospel. My mother has already told many people that when she asked what made me want to go on a mission, I told her, “Oh, I just love the people of Mississippi.” Even though I was joking, in a way this was the truth. When I began to think of the many people in the world who are in need of the light of the gospel, I knew that despite my doubts and fears, I had to serve a mission, even if the way remained unclear, even if I didn’t have all the answers or know what was going to happen. It was only after I made this commitment that answers to prayers I had been awaiting for many years finally started to come. The difference was like night and day. My doubts about serving a mission were gone. Where before the path ahead of me had seemed foggy and without direction, it was now clear.  

So I guess my best advice to those of you who aren't sure if you're supposed to serve a mission is that you just have to take the plunge. Girls, if God has something different in mind, he'll let you know before you go to far in the wrong direction. 

By the way, this is the last post I'll be writing from home! I'm headed for the MTC on Wednesday and I am SO excited! I know it's going to be hard but in a good way. A friend of mine was talking to me about his mission and he said, "I loved the downs because of the immense ups!" I really liked that. I believe if you have the right attitude and perspective the happy things will always outweigh the hard things. 

On Courage

I thought an awful lot about what I would name my blog before I put it up. “Stronger than Fear” actually comes from a story my older sisters and I used to listen to on cassette tapes when we were little (that’s right, I was alive when people actually used those) called “Alexander’s Amazing Adventures”. It tells the story of a young fellow named Alexander, who, through his adventures as the lost prince of Inland, learns new values that help him to handle difficult situations in the real world. Each episode is named after a different value. The episode on courage is the one that came to my mind as I was trying to find a good name for my blog. Alexander is asked to do many difficult and frightening things in this episode, and he really doesn’t believe in himself—he feels that he is too afraid to accomplish the task that has been given to him. But he learns that to be brave, he must be afraid. Courage is not doing something without fear; it’s being afraid, but having the strength to accomplish what we need to in spite of our fear.   

In the letter my mission president sent me he told me to think about the kind of missionary I wanted to be. I decided that I wanted to be a brave missionary. I’m not exactly the sort of person you would consider to be brave—anyone who knows me well enough can tell you I have worries about basically everything. But I knew that while I have allowed my fears to get in my way many times in the past, I could not afford to let them get in the way on my mission. For at least eighteen months of my life I want to be bold. I want to set my worries aside and trust God with every trial and struggle I face. I know that with His help I can be stronger than fear, and I can find the courage I need to accomplish the work that has been given to me.

Isaiah 41:13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

By the way, if you’re curious about Alexander’s Amazing Adventures, you can listen to the episode I mentioned here: http://powerofmoms.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/AAA-Courage-Children.mp3 The story is a little cheesy, but it really does have some great lessons. I’m pretty sure you can still buy them on CD or mp3 (sorry, no more cassette tapes).  

Time is Fast Approaching!

The time is nearly upon us, folks! In only 21 days (but who’s counting?) I will be serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Mississippi Jackson area! I truly couldn’t be more excited. This will actually be the farthest I’ve ever been from Utah (I know, I’m lame) so it’s certainly going to be an adventure! My dearest sister has agreed to keep up my blog while I’m away, so all of you will be able to stay updated on everything that happens to me down south! I can’t wait to get out there and start sharing the gospel with others. Up until last year I really couldn’t imagine myself serving a mission, but I’m so grateful that I’ve been given the opportunity!