Happy Mardi Gras!!

So I went to my first ever Mardi Gras Parade. Totally not a good finding tool, but it was quite fun! Sister Lamb and I went with the Meline family from the ward. We danced and shouted and got a plethora of beads. Honestly, it was really fun. And I love the Meline's! Who'd have thought that I'd ever celebrate a Mardi Gras?

Mardi Grad with the Meline family

We got a plethora of beads

We went on exchanges this week, so Sister Abril came to hang out with me again and we had a grand time! I love her, she's so sweet. She also goes home in 2 weeks. Missions are the worst. You come to love people and then they leave or you leave! But I was glad to have Sister Lamb back so she didn't miss anything here :) 

Sister Lamb and me

Bonnie is amazing. She's now on day 27 of not drinking! She came to church again, and LOVES it when we come over. She's excited to be baptized, reads the Book of Mormon, and always thanks us for helping to put Jesus in her heart. But really it's all her and the spirit doing that. We're hopeful that she'll actually be baptized in March not April!

And we finally got to see Sam again last night!! It had been two weeks, and we seriously thought he was blocking and avoiding us. We were so sad. But then at church his mom said that he wanted us to write down things for him to study and read up on, so naturally we went out to pay him a visit instead! We would have gone sooner, but our schedule just wasn't working, but we were blessed with time and miles and were already planning to go see him. So we did! And we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and talked to him about being baptized and he definitely has the desire. He's praying about it. And reading the Book of Mormon has become a habit for him!! Ah. He's too awesome. Here's to hoping that things work out so that he can be baptized soon. 

Josh re-broke his foot. He's doing pretty well spiritually! He's still pretty on-track to be baptized, but he has some temporal needs that have to be addressed first. And well...we don't know how long that will take. But he should have a super solid testimony by the time he is baptized! He really wants to go to the temple. So as long as he keeps that goal in mind, we're good! 

We got to do family history work at the library on Saturday, and I helped a guy look for some Hawkins! Perhaps we were related. But Sister Lamb and I had to pose like the statue outside. 

We did family history at the library

Also, I think Sister Nolting (SUPER cute lady in our ward) looks like BriAnne. It kind of weirds me out every time I see her because it's like BriAnne just walked into our church building!

Sister Nolting looks like BriAnne

Today Sister Lamb and I spent our morning window shopping in the super cute, Downtown Ocean Springs! We got gourmet popsicles, and had fun looking through the shops and taking pictures. 

Super Cute Downtown Ocean Springs

Gourmet Popsicles

Last night we also got to have dinner with our Ward Mission Leader and his family. The Bahr's are great. (I think I say that about everyone here, but I seriously love them all). It felt like home. They are loud and fun and then we got to read "The Living Christ" with them. We've been trying to do that with a lot of families recently and it's been amazing how different it is every time. But this time was by far the most spiritual. And the spirit that was there reminded me of home too. 

How grateful I am to have grown up with the gospel in my home, and I can't wait to someday build my own home just like that. 

Missions are the best. 

Now, don't party too hard for Mardi Gras tomorrow. ​

Oh, and it was Elder Clark's birthday!! We're party animals!!!

Elder Clark's birthday

Birthday Wishes and Valentine Kisses

Good heavens. SO much happens in one week that I have the hardest time trying to write it all out. But this week was sugar-filled! 

On Valentine's Day we had interviews with President Olson. He's really a hard-working, dedicated missionary who cares a lot about us and the work we do. After we dropped off the Elders, we stopped by Krispy Kreme and I had my first ever Kripsy Kreme donut! And they were delicious! Then we were off to Paul and Janice's where we ate crawfish. Let me explain how you eat a crawfish: First you pull the entire tail off, then you scoop out the fat with your finger and eat it. Then you pinch the head and suck out the juices. Then you peel off the shell on the tail and eat the little piece of meat. And that's it! It's actually quite delicious, and I was pleasantly surprised. And then we skinned another squirrel. 

My first Krispy Kreme donut!

Crawfish for Valentine's Day

We skinned another squirrel.

Then we took some donuts to Bonnie. Bonnie is the best y'all. She came to church again, and this past week we finally got to teach her all of the Restoration. We asked her if she thought that what we shared could be true, to which she just looked at us and replied, "Oh. I already know it is." AH! We set her with a baptismal date, and she got excited and pulled out her calendar to make sure she wrote it down. She hasn't drank since the day we met her. She's golden, y'all. 

And we finished our Valentine's Day with the Pettet family! When I grow up, I want to be just like the Pettets. So much love!

Wednesday we commemorated Elder Loader's missionary service. He went home for medical reasons and so we all wore black to district meeting. Hence the sweater I so classily tied around my shoulders. He will surely be missed. But this District is awesome!! Elder Neilsen put together a birthday lunch for me! It was seriously amazing. Elder Giblette made some killer peanut butter-chocolate pie. Yeah, it was another good day! 

And then I turned 20!! Wednesday night, Sister Lamb and I blew up balloons, baked a cake, and decorated. Then on my birthday morning, I invited her to jump on the bed with me. To which she kindly obliged. She also made me a delicious breakfast burrito and that, my friends is how you start off your birthday right!!! 

Swig cookies (definitely not peaches) for my birthday!!!

Started out my birthday right

A birthday breakfast burrito

It was all uphill from there. The Biloxi Spanish Elders (Elder Pierre-Louis and Elder Scoresby) came by and silly-stringed us! Then we went out to lunch with Sister Skiles and Josh. Then we taught Josh the law of chastity and it went surprisingly well. Not even awkward! Josh has been progressing so well. It's been pretty incredible to see how he's changed these past two months. He really just gets it! 

Silly-stringed by the Biloxi Spanish Elders

Lunch with Sister Skiles and Josh

After his lesson, we read the Book of Mormon with a less-active guy named Frank. Sister Thompson and I found him tracting and now he's starting to really trust us and it's been cool. We're working to get him back to church and I know he'll get there soon. 

Then we had burritos with Paul and Janice. And they had cake! They're too sweet. Love them!

Birthday cake with Paul and Janice

After that, we headed home and soon thereafter we went to Sister Maisch's for a steak dinner. And another cake!! And sweet Sister Vance gave me roses! Oh my goodness it was a food-filled day. 

Another cake at Sister Maisch's home 

Roses from Sister Vance

But wait. There's more. When we got home from dinner, Sister Schrepp brought me a candy bouquet and cupcakes! This ward is too, too good y'all.

Candy Bouquet from Sister Schrepp

 Then naturally I had to light 20 candles on my birthday cake that Sister Lamb and I made. 

And that is how you have a killer birthday on your mission. It was seriously awesome. Couldn't have asked for better. Loved every minute of it! I feel so blessed to be here and to be serving around such amazing people. 

Just to clarify, the only kisses I had on Valentine's Day were from a spicy crawfish. #Page33 #MyHeartIsLocked

​HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET MOMMA ON SUNDAY!! 

Love you, mom! And may your birthday be every bit as wonderful as mine was. 

Squirrel Stew, Oysters, and Tender Mercies

On Tuesday it poured rain, and lucky us we were on bikes! So we basically looked not too great all day, but it was fine. We went to Paul and Janice's and ate squirrel stew! And fried squirrel. And then we went outside and Paul shot a squirrel and we skinned it. Squirrel stew was actually pretty good! I quite liked it. Fried squirrel now...not really my favorite. But it was fun!

Squirrel Stew

Sister Lamb

Then on Thursday we went back to Paul and Janice's for oysters. Those were nasty. We ate one raw. SO gross. Then they fried some up and we had fried oyster sandwiches! Still pretty gross, but I ate the whole thing. I will not be bringing those recipes home.

But in the pouring rain on Tuesday we were truly blessed. We had appointments fall through but ended up seeing some awesome people anyway! And missed the bulk of the heavy rain. So it was a really great day. 

We taught Josh about prophets and the scriptures and he accepted it really well which was also awesome. He wants to meet President Monson. But don't we all ;) 

Sam is doing great! We read part of 3 Nephi 11 with him and he read almost all of it (big deal for him, since he wouldn't even read a verse when we first started reading) but he also stopped and explained every verse to us! It was so cool.  We taught all of Plan of Salvation and he literally LOVED it. He was SO happy. He explained it all to us, and we listed out ways he could feel the spirit. It was GOOD. 

And we met a drunk lady out tracting on Tuesday. Her name is Bonnie. She knows she needs to change and we told her that we can help her and that Heavenly Father can help her. She came to Addiction Recovery that night AND came to church yesterday! She's great. 

After church we went back to teach a guy we met earlier in the week. His name is Eric we answered his questions and shared the Restoration and set him with a baptismal date. He's so prepared. He's been looking for God to open his eyes. 

So things are popping here in Ocean Springs! And I love Sister Lamb. Here's to another week in the MJM!