Sisters Thunder and Lightning

January 8, 2018

Well, it has been a great week! A busy week, but a great week! I forgot my planner at home so I don't have it with me but I will try to remember as much as I can of what we did.

Monday- On Monday we had a surprise P Day that none of us were ready for (it's usually on Wednesday the week of transfers) So that was a little bit of a surprise. But we washed the car and did the laundry and got groceries and it was a good P Day

Tuesday- On Tuesday we did service at the Retirement Village and it was so sweet because they took Sister Fife out and all the little old people thanked her for her volunteer work there. It was really sweet. After that we played the piano for them and then left. I truly can't remember anything else about Tuesday... it was too long ago. Sorry.

Wednesday- On Wednesday Sister Fife still had to pack for transfers so she spent most of the day packing. We got a knock on our door and it was Sister O'Brien! She just came because she figured Sister Fife would be packing and she wanted to take us to lunch to say goodbye. So she did. She's such a sweet lady. After that Sister Fife finished packing and then we headed to a lesson that evening. We met with Ethan and we talked about family history and we worked some more on his family tree. By the time we left he had 32 ordinances reserved to take to the temple! It was amazing! After that we went and visited a few of the members in the ward so that Sister Fife could say goodbye. 

Thursday- On Thursday it was transfer day. We drove up to Branson, Missouri and dropped Sister Fife got on transfer loop. After that I waited for two hours for Sister Garner to get to Branson. We loaded all of her stuff into the truck, and drove back home. By the time we got to our apartment it was time for dinner. So we ate and then I took her to go meet Ethan and have another lesson. When we were about half way through our lesson, Sister Garner was talking and when she finished Ethan explained that he nicknamed me "Lightning Lloyd" because I "strike him with doctrine" and then he said "But you're really good too.... So I'm going to call you Thunder." So now Sister Garner is Sister Thunder and I'm Sister Lightning. So basically... don't mess with us. ;) After that we went to go see the Fox's and they gave us cookies (yes, they made me gluten free cookies) and then they gave us a bunch of names that they thought we could go visit. We were so excited! 

Friday- On Friday we worked on visiting some of the names that the Fox's gave us and we also tried to give Sister Garner a chance to meet a few more of the families in the ward. It was really good! One of the people we visited with was Brother Orin! He was super nice and told us all about how we can make money collecting pennies. Who knew it was such a worthwhile pursuit! That evening we called Brother Arndt in our ward who is trying to clean up the ward list and make sure that we have the right addresses for people and the missionaries manage to find out a lot of the people who have moved so he just told us to come over for dinner and we could talk about it! So we gave him a lot of information for that and he gave us some more names of people he thought we should try to visit... so we started trying to visit them and NOBODY WAS HOME. Like, it was a little ridiculous. Finally I was tired of people not answering so I decided to go visit a sweet little lady in the ward who we hadn't seen for a while. So we went and had a good conversation with her and she ended up telling us that she wanted to start being active again and about how happy she was when she was active and about how much of a difference the gospel made in her life! We invited her to retake the lessons that we teach and her non member friend who was there said she wanted to listen to them too! It was the best and when Sister Garner and I left we both felt like that was the reason no one had been answering! It was so neat! 

Saturday- On Saturday we did service at Baxter, the Retirement Village and it was great as always. I played the piano for the old folks and Sister Garner doesn't play piano BUT she promised to bring her MANDOLIN for them next time! My companion is too cool. after that we tried to visit some more of the names, we had a few people answer but not many and no one that was incredibly interested in talking to us. That's about all I can remember from Saturday. Sorry!

Sunday- On Sunday we had church and that was great as always. We had a great fast and testimony meeting and then we taught Gospel Principles. We talked about fasting and fast offerings and something interesting I read that I had never heard before is that "When we pay fast offerings we become partners with the Lord in caring for our less fortunate brothers and sisters." I loved that and it kind of shed a new light on things. I loved that. After that we went and visited one of the names we were given and we had such a good conversation with her! She was so kind and fun! After that some of our favorite people, the Jones's, had us over for dinner and a lesson and we had a great lesson about reading the Book of Mormon. When we left they gave us both these little glass flowers that are beautiful and told us they love us. It was so sweet! I adore them.

Well, this week I have been thinking about how much I loved President Monson and how sad I am that he passed away. I am so grateful to know that there is a prophet on the Earth who leads and guides us and who can be a mouthpiece for Heavenly Father to tell us what we need to know. How blessed are we to know that God loves His children, us, enough to never let us be without guidance if we will just listen and act. I know prophets are called of God and that they lead us down the path that leads to Heavenly Father. 

I hope yawl have a great week! I love yawl and so does Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

~Sister Madisen Lloyd

Pictures!

Picture 1: Sister Garner and I!

Picture 2: Sister Garner makin brownies