Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places: Week 79 - Florence, SC

Hey y'all!

Let me tell you this... This has been one of the busiest weeks of my mission! So many things have been going on that's kind of stressful but wonderful!

First off, I went to my first MLC (Mission Leadership Council). It was awesome! We basically discussed the needs of the mission as Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. It was really neat! I'm sad I only had one but on the flip side, I'm happy I even got one at all!

So I have great news! My physical therapist, Cathy, has promoted me! I went from that hand/wrist splint to a finger splint! Hurrah for Israel! Seriously though. I was so happy! I was grinning the whole time and I kept telling Cathy, "This is the best day of my life!" Ha ha. It's the little things that make me happy :)

Here's where all the crazy stuff comes into play – we went on double exchanges this week. From Wednesday to Thursday, Sister Gardner and I were in Florence with Sister Hathaway from Conway then Thursday to Friday, Sister Gardner and I went to Myrtle Beach with Sister McNeece. We saw some really cool miracles in both exchanges!

In Florence, we felt really prompted to knock this street the night before in planning. We had no clue why we were there until we decided to knock one more house. This man, Dean opened the door and let us in right away. We found out that he was a less-active who had moved and we didn't have his new information! We talked a bit to him and he's very open to us coming over and helping him get back to church! Yay! If that's not cool enough, we talked about it in Ward Coordination that night and one of the Elders said that he worked with Dean's family in his last area. Dean's family gave him Dean's information wanted the missionaries to visit him to help him get back to church but the Elder forgot to give us that information. So cool, right? It shows that when the Lord needs someone to be found, He will lead us through the Spirit!

In Myrtle Beach, we saw a media referral, Scott, who wanted a Book of Mormon. When we showed up, Scott was there and he was very warm and welcoming to us - especially because he is an atheist! He likes to learn up on the different religions and his best friend is Mormon! His best friend did so much missionary work with Scott because Scott thinks the world of missionaries! He kept telling us that he appreciates what we do for the community! It was awesome! He's going to start letting the Myrtle Beach Sisters teach him. So cool.

I also had the opportunity to train in ZTM this week on something we discussed in MLC about getting referrals from members. I think it went pretty well other than the fact I was a little nervous to get up in front of 30ish missionaries to teach them how to do missionary work by myself!

If that's not enough, I was also asked to give a talk on missionary work in Sacrament meeting yesterday and we were asked to sing as well. Ha ha. It went really well though! The life of a missionary...

Now the moment that y'all have been waiting for, Brother Owens was interviewed yesterday... And he's good to be baptized on Saturday! Wahoo! We are so excited for him! I'll let y'all know how that goes next week!

Well, that's all I've got for you! It's been a pretty busy week but I've enjoyed it! I love y'all! Have a blessed week!

- Sister Amy Christensen