Monday, May 19, 2014

Saturday was easily my favorite day this week! We met the coolest family! They're an inactive family in the ward named the Nottinghams, and they live on London Drive. Sounds like they should be British or something, right? (Or maybe that's just me) Well, they're not. They're actually Indian! And they're way cool! They're pretty much the only family on the whole ward roster we hadn't met yet so we finally got ahold of them and they invited us over for brunch. So after we ate they showed us around their property which was way cool! They're pretty much completely self sufficient. They built their own house entirely on their own. They even cut the wood and cleared the land and everything. And it looks really good! They also have their own herb garden, vegetable garden, and orchard. AND they raise chickens and turkeys for their own eggs, and cows for their own beef and milk. So...basically if all of society falls apart tomorrow and you can no longer go to the grocery store and pick stuff up, they're going to be just fine. 

 

What I thought was really neat about them was the way they mixed their Indian culture with their religion. Their kids have Indian names and they both went on what's called a vision quest when they were thirteen, which is where they go out into the woods by themselves for 24 hours with no food or water so it can be a time where it's "just you and your creator" as their dad put it. And they have a sweat lodge where they go to pray. So they've retained a lot of their heritage but it doesn't take away from what they believe. They're not active in the church, but you can tell they still have strong testimonies of the gospel. Marla, the mother, actually grew up on an Indian reservation in New York. So when she was first introduced to the Book of Mormon it meant a lot to her because if the final resting place of the golden plates was in New York, for all she knows the Lamanites that were there at that time could be her ancestors. How cool is that? Talking to them was definitely one of the most eye opening experiences of my mission.

This is a whale's "tooth"--actually part of their baleen plate. A friend of the Nottinghams who hunted himself the old fashioned way (with a spear) gave it to them. They said that's the only way you can legally have one; you can't just buy them anywhere.

Some arrowheads the Nottinghams had hung on their wall.

 A while back Sister Dailey and I discovered Johnny Lingo on Mormon Channel. We decided since we're surrounded by so many cows, we ought to see if we could get eight different pictures with eight different cows in eight different places during the week. I think I actually ended up getting nine. So--let it be known that I, Sister Glenn, am an eight cow woman! 

Also, it's looking like Sister Dailey and I may not be in Red Star much longer. So for any of you who are planning on sending me letters any time soon, please send them to this address (the mission office) until I know where I'm going to be living next! Thanks!

175 Burnham Rd

Brandon, MS 39042

Monday, May 12, 2014

Hello everyone! Hope everyone's Mother's Day was great! Mine was awesome. I'll probably never be that excited for Mother's Day again! It was so good to get to talk to my family. I even got to see my grandparents and my aunt and uncle so that was nice! 

So, this week our ward was hard at work putting together chicken on a stick. What is chicken on a stick, you ask? Well, quite simply, it's pieces of chicken, onion, and pickle all put together in a particular order on a stick, deep fried. The Red Star ward has been doing it as a fundraiser for the cub scouts every year so we felt quite privileged to help! And to eat them, too. :)

 

 

The unfinished product. Ew.

And voila! It's delicious!

 

I finally got to try a fried oreo! I've been wanting one of these ever since I heard of them. So unhealthy. Yet so good.

These are my newest investigators. I taught them the restoration and they all seemed very interested. I think they're going to be baptized. 

A family photo :)

Monday, May 5, 2014: Tornadoes, Bookcases, and the brothers of Ammon

Hello, friends and family!

So, guess what? The tornadoes didn't hit me and I'm still alive! Sorry to disappoint you! It wasn't really that exciting for us, actually. It looked one tornado was heading right to us but it ended up passing just north of us instead. We had already decided to stay the night at Teresa and Wade's house though, so we felt pretty silly when we got a little rain and lightning and then the rest of the night was still. Oh well, better safe than sorry, right? Not to mention I got to sleep on the softest mattress ever, so that was a plus. 

The rest of the week was pretty slow. We haven't really been able to teach any investigators the past couple weeks, so most of our time was spent organizing one of our favorite member's bookshelves! Her name is Amanda and she basically has her own library. I'm kind of jealous! 

Our ward was also asked to help with tornado cleanup in Louisville. We tried to go with them, but even though it's in our mission boundaries our zone leaders said it was too far. Lame! Instead we helped paint someone's house in Brookhaven. Yep, we did all the service this week! 

One of the best things about being a missionary is I read the scriptures in a completely different light than I did at home. So, here's a little scriptural thought for your brains to munch on. A few days ago I read the story of Ammon, and then the story of the brothers of Ammon. You probably already know both stories, but for a quick summary, all of these brothers went on missions to preach to the Lamanites. Ammon went to the people of King Lamoni and pretty much immediately found success there. Meanwhile, his brothers were thrown into prison and left suffering until Ammon was finally told to go and rescue them. As I was reading these stories this time, I couldn't help but wonder why that was--and why that is. Why is it that it's some missionaries' lot to "fall into the hands of a more hardened and a more stiffnecked" area and the lot of others to fall into thriving areas and find success relatively quickly? I'm sure Ammon's brothers had just as much of a desire to serve as Ammon did. 

And to be honest, I don't have an answer to this question. I don't know why Ammon's brothers had to be in prison the first part of their missions when everything was going smoothly for their brother. All I know is that from my experience out in the field, some missionaries are Ammons, and some are the brothers of Ammon. For the Ammons, the fruits of their labors are easily apparent and they are usually remembered for a very long time. For the brothers of Ammon, the fruits of their labors are harder to see at first, and they might be the quieter missionaries who people sometimes forget about--but we see from the scriptures that both kinds of missionaries find success in the end as long as they are diligent in the work, and that's all that really matters. And even if we can't understand why we're having to go through something, the Lord knows why, and someday we'll get to know the reason why too. Just something to think about!