Another transfer...just not me!

Sounds like everybody had a great Thanksgiving in Mesa. It was really great here in Richmond! We went to Misty Gholson's house with her and her 5 kids. I will have to email pics later...running short on time. Her kids are 13, 9, 6, 5, and 2. It was soooo fun! We had some different foods for Thanksgiving than I am used to and it was all really good. We had collard greens, mac & cheese, macaroni salad, lil smokies, sweet potato pie and then a lot of the traditional foods. In the evening we went to the Thompson's house and they had over the elders and a bunch of other young families who didn't go home for Thanksgiving. We had banana pudding there...they had a lot of food left by the time we got there. We went late just for games! The banana pudding sucked me in. It's so good. How did I never have it before VA?!?! And then after that we went to Sis. Campbell's with the elders and we watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. It was another P-Day, so I took a nap! Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and my VA family took good care of us!

So yep, transfer calls last night. I am staying in Richmond and Sis. Stoehr (steer) is coming here. She has been with Sis. Dickson in the Manchester Ward the last few transfers. She has been out 9 months. Sis. Adaniya is replacing elders in Charlottesville with Sis. Cooper. That should be a lot of fun! I don't really know much about Sis. Stoehr, but everytime I see her she is really positive and upbeat and I do know she is a hard worker. That is so good because Richmond needs a serious overhaul, so it's good that we are both new to the area and have no bias about members or areas of the city. She was trained by Sis. Cox during her last 2 transfers in the mission.

We have recently been talking a lot in meetings about how important the Sacrament is.  Getting people to church in the areas I have served has been a struggle, but it is "the most important meeting to the salvation of our souls."  I can't remember where that quote came from, but I like it.  What I've learned in a nutshell about the Sacrament on my mission: The sacrament itself is more than just remembering Christ.  We should remember Him always as we covenant to do.  The important part about sacrament is receiving the remission of our sins.  It's like we are being rebaptized each Sunday.  The remembering is just a fraction.  We should think throughout the sacrament about the covenants we made at baptism and repent and think of how we can be more like Christ.  It's in D&C 20:77 and Moroni 4:3 where we can read the prayer for the bread where the covenants we make are listed.  It's the renewing of our covenants (done in mind and heart) which makes the sacrament so important...more important than even General Conference.  As we promise to keep those covenants each Sunday, the Lord promises us a remission of our sins and His Spirit.  So it really is like baptism! 

We had a really funny experience last week. We were tracting on this street and one lady comes up to the door and says "one minute" and she was on the phone. And suddenly she says on the phone, "let's pray". So she starts with the Lord's Prayer and then keeps going on. After a minute or two she starts getting louder and her voice has a rythm to it and then she started stomping eventually and raising her arm. She was getting really into it. At close to 10 minutes of us waiting and laughing (inside and out! we couldn't help it!-she had her back to us!) I said "ma'am" and got no response. She was so into her prayer! We finally had to leave for a lesson and so we just left a card. I wanted to talk to her so bad! It really puts into perspective what Christ means when He says to pray in our closets and secret places. Hahaha we are still laughing about her. Here are some quotes: "And we pray for those in the institutions. We know you died for them too." "And we love everyone, even if they're gay." I would have to say this was the highlight of last week because it was so unreal and soooo funny. I love Virginia! Oh and Sis. Ibrahim made us some good African food too. She made this spicy spinach tilapia dish with mashed white yams and fried plantains. I love my life!