June 27, 2011 - Covington, LA

Hi family and friends!

We had one crazy week!  On Monday we saw Bettie and then we went and saw Suzanne.  It was crazy.  Ha, on Monday we asked Bettie how her smoking was going, and she said, "If you ask me one more time, I'm going to go and buy a pack of cigarettes."  Ha, she was really grumpy and still kind of is, but she has been smoke free for 8 days, and guess what!  She was baptized Saturday!  Yep.  Bettie was baptized on June 25th.  I never thought that it would happen.  I sent some pictures, and one of them is a picture of her eating bacon.  She once told us that she just LOVED bacon.  So we bought her a package of bacon, cooked it, and gave it to her for her baptismal present!  She loved it, especially since she didn't eat breakfast.  

The other pictures are ones of us with her by the river.  She is so funny.  Later that day, she called us and left a message saying "I feel wonderful."  She said other stuff too, but I can't remember what it is right now.  After she received the gift of the Holy Ghost, it was the same thing.  At her baptism I sang "Walk Tall You're a Daughter of God".  She wanted me to sing that because when we were teaching her in the past, I wrote down the words for her, sang it, and she has loved that song ever since.  She just thinks it is a beautiful song!  And it is.  It was just a really good service.

On Tuesday there was a Relief Society, and guess what!  I learned how to make bows for little girls.  It was fun.  But, on Wednesday we had a really great busy day.  We went and saw Bettie and finalized things for her baptism.  After that we went to see a less active member named Sammie, and wooeee!  That was crazy.  She talks a lot.  There's more too, but I just won't say it.  Later we went to see Stormi, Dillan, Nadilee and Geric.  They are such awesome kids!  They are really excited for their baptism this Saturday, and tonight we are doing a review game at a members home.  It will be fun.  After that, we went to go see a woman named Farrah.  Oh my goodness...she is like the nicest sweetest lady, but she has a lot of anti.  She gave me meringue cookies :D...anyway.  Yeah we went over there, and she took off work that day to do research on the church from the Internet and from this cult book she has.  Yes...we are in there, but we all know that we are not a cult.  That is one of the biggest anti things that I hate the most.   Argh!  But yeah.  We sit down and start with a prayer, and she pulls out a 10 page typed report on questions and concerns she had about the church.  I felt the Spirit a lot in that lesson when we would testify, but she just kept bringing up things about the church that were not true, and she was very nice about it, but it wasn't going anywhere.  It was sad, but hopefully she'll be able to figure out what is true about the church and what isn't and look at it in context...she was awesome.

On Thursday we had a lesson with Charles, and it was a good lesson.  A lot of time when we teach him we have to stand outside, and there are a lot of mosquitoes out at this time of year.  Luckily they all flock to Sister Smith, but unfortunately, some still like me.  So while we were standing outside in Mosquito city out in the country, we taught a wonderful lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He came to church this Sunday, and it was really neat to see the ward just take him in.  Charles is kind of living like an indentured servant, and he is having a hard time getting out of it.  The ward just reached out to him, and hopefully we will be able to figure out how to help him.  He is very sincere in his search, and he definitely feels the Spirit in our lessons.  At church yesterday we had a lesson on Repentance, and also the talks in Sacrament were on Prayer, and it was really neat to see how he felt about them, and how they touched him.  We will be seeing him tomorrow night, and we are really excited for that lesson.

On Friday we saw Suzanne, and man she was mean that night.  We had a member with us, and Suzanne like lashed out at the member because she was married and would never understand her situation.  It was kind of annoying.  Man.  She frustrates me a bit.  We were about ready to drop her, but she called yesterday and left a message about what she is doing now and that she apologizes, and I guess that was Heavenly Father's way of saying...Nope!  You are not done with her yet.  So we will continue to move forward.

On Saturday we had the baptism, and later that day we met with Dustin.  Man he is still the same.  You can just feel that he knows it is true.  He just doesn't want to tell his mom because he knows it will disappoint her.  She has a lot of anti feelings towards the church...but yeah.  We don't know how to help him get past that. 

But yeah.  Church was amazing.  I love being in this ward and how awesome it is.  I am so grateful for wards that function properly and listen to the prophets counsel.  Man!  It is awesome.  I just want y'all to know that I am so grateful for you.  I am grateful that I have the best family ever, and that you all love and support me.  Thank you for being the best family ever.  I am grateful that I am a missionary and I am grateful to see that mighty change in peoples heart when they accept the gospel and come closer to their Savior Jesus Christ.  I love you all so much.  I hope you have a good rest of your week!

Love,

Sister Stacy Jo Earl