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