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!