TRANSFER 2, CHECK.

Hey! Wow, am I really starting my third transfer this week?! WOAH. Time doesn't exist out here I swear, this is nuts! After this transfer I'll be 1/4 done. I can't believe it, it seems like I just blinked and it's been 4 months (almost). I'm not a fan of this at all. Never coming home. 

So, transfer week!!  As far as transfers go, sister Kohler and I are both... *drumroll*.... LEAVING! They're whitewashing our area! Which is pretty scary! They're taking one of the elders out too so only one of the 4 of us are staying with the ward. Ah! Sister Kohler is going back full-pros, so we haven't figured out where she's going. I will either be going to White Oak with sister Griffin (not my mtc comp sis Griffin, the other one, we're like best friends so YAY), or Chevy Chase with Sister Williams (yes, as in Eden Williams :D). 50/50 and I'm super excited for either one!! It is pretty hard to leave, I'm in love with these people! 

As far as this week goes, it's been so great!! Sam gave me the idea of doing a 40 Day Fast (#shoutout), and we've seen miracles from it already! Basically, you prayerfully make a list of 10 things that "poke" at the spirit, some things that you do that keep you from being as good as you can be. Then, for the next 40 days, you (again prayerfully) don't do the things on your list. And BOOM MIRACLES! I actually don't officially start mine until Wednesday, but I've kinda started and we've had some really cool experiences from it. One of which being findings he Weaver family! This week I think the only actual investigator we've seen is Betty, everything else fell through haha. So we did a lot of finding people! And it's amazing what the Lord can do when we set goals and prayerfully seek them out. We ended up tracting, and only had about 30 minutes before we had to be in. We made a goal to give out 2 BOM's and set up return appointments for them. About 10 minutes before we had to go, we knocked into Miss Weavers house! We ended up teaching her and her 26 year old daughter (who was super interested!) about the BOM, giving them the copies, and they asked us to come back and teach the whole family (13 kids and 6 grandkids!)! It was so cool!! Sadly we won't be here to teach them but we're positive that they just need the new missionaries coming in so its ok :) Then, the next night our plans once again fell through so we were checking on people, and tracting around their houses. We met a young couple, set up an appointment with them (also for after transfers agh!)! We found our 4th new investigator (again tracting) when we were about to head in but decided to knock one more complex next to us. No success there, but knocked one more door! BOOM, met Maxeline, gave her a BOM, set up return appointment for tonight! It's been a great week! Prayers+goals+prayers=miracles!

We had a member meal this week with a super inactive lady that's coming back to church with her son! She's from the Philippines, and made us the BEST Filipino food. I ate like 18 lumpia (a little Filipino egg roll thing) Oops. Lol. Betty has fallen in love with us and has started giving us all of her super nice china from London. I love her so. much. Also, sister Edwards goes home on Wednesday! ACK. MY HEART. She is by far one of the funniest people I've ever met. And most definitely one of the strongest. She has been through SO much, but she gives everything she has to the work, and it's incredible.  

Anyways, not much else to say this week! It's been an incredible transfer and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve! I've learned SO much, and I'm excited to do better this coming transfer and forever! I love my savior, and there's nothing I love more than being able to testify of him every day! I know that He LIVES! I have never been more certain of His reality and divinity. His love for us is eternal. It is the most incredible experience watching people change everything as they come to know Him. I am so blessed to be able to serve in a Visitors Center and be near the Christus every day, to be able to watch Because He Lives daily, to be so near to the temple. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. 

 

 BROTHER WARD <3 <3 #NASA

 Carrolton District

 My favorite Jamacian fambam <3

 We love our temple!

 Lunch with Michelle Wall (used to be in our ward in Phx!)

 

Went to a southern chicken place (have I ever told y'all how much I love being the only white people in a restaurant? Btw southern food is MM. That cornbread? I'd die for it.)

 Ria & Levi <3

 Got to teach a lesson in primary!

 Walking Tina's dog because her son broke his leg

 Sis Kohler & Wilson

Men's Bathrooms

This week has been a long one! It feels like ages ago we Skyped home! It's been pretty good though, Bola got back in town a few days ago so we're seeing her tonight! YAY. Last night we had Why I Believe, and the former senator of Oregon came and spoke. We ushered the first half, so we didn't get to hear him speak, but apparently it was good haha. It's been HOT. If any of you were wondering, it's hotter here right now than it is in Phoenix or Jersey. WHY MARYLAND. Holy goodness it's been warm. And with the yummy warm, humid weather comes mosquitos and other darling bugs. I have about 16 bites currently, including 2 on the bottom of my foot. Gotta love Maryland. Lol. It's been fun.

I wish I could just walk around with a go-pro and just record my whole mission because MAN. HAHA. What a good life this is. So Monday night. A recent convert in the ward had us over for dinner, which was pretty good, it was Mexican so MMM. Yum. Anyways. Have you ever had those moments when you've maybe kind of had to go to the bathroom, but not super bad? Then, out of stinking nowhere disaster strikes, and you're about to go to the bathroom whether you want to or not? Well, disaster struck when we left their house. We got in the car, and almost simultaneously it hit us. Sister Kohler and I looked at each other with panicked faces, and immediately started yelling "GO GO GO GO GO". Pedal to the floor, we squealed away (because in our panic if didn't occur to us to just go ask the girl that fed us if we could use her bathroom). The closest public facility to us was a Taco Bell about a half mile away, so off we flew! 30 long seconds later we were bolting into the Taco Bell. But wait, the women's bathroom was occupied?? PANIC. Without a second thought I busted into the men's bathroom (which thankfully was NOT occupied). RELIEF. Sister Kohler runs in after me. While she was thus relieving herself, I was standing down the little hallway a bit waiting. After a minute or so, a big, tattooed, angry looking New York man walked in. He kinda shuffled to the bathroom, you could tell he had to go too. But wait, it was occupied! I started to giggle realizing sister Kohler was in there. Angry New Yorker was waiting outside the door. As time passed it just got funnier and funnier, sister Kohler was going to walk out of this bathroom to face this angry man that had to pee. I pulled out my iPad at this point and pretended I was looking at something funny because I was just having fits of laughter. Time moved on. Situation got funnier. Hid around the corner because I couldn't get myself under control. Hear the door unlock. Laugh harder. Peek around corner to see her little foot and skirt emerge from bathroom. Almost pee my pants (again) laughing. Angry New York man looks at her, looks at me, looks back at her, looks back at me, makes the NASTIEST face, and says "oh. THATS nice." Then shoves past her into the bathroom. We. Were. Dying. We ran out of there faster than we ran in. HAHAHAHA.

After that ordeal we decided to stop by Betty's house to see how she was doing. We get there just in time to see her driving up to the house. We get talking to her, and she shows us her latest buy. She had just gone out and bought a little tin foil cake pan looking charcoal dish thing. She also bought charcoal and lighter fluid. She had just gotten it in her head that today she was going to make hamburgers. So we stayed to help her out, and ended up having a little BBQ with her (good thing we did cuz she was about to pour the whole thing of lighter fluid on top of these pre-soaked coals). Come to find out Betty had never had a s'more, so we run to grocery store behind Taco Bell to get some stuff for it. In the less than 10 minutes we were gone, she had chopped the hamburger meat into squares and put it on the grill. They looked like little black meatballs by the time we got back lol. She has also "toasted" (lit on fire then extinguished) the bread she owned. So basically we had charcoal for dinner. Charcoal and ketchup. BUT Betty had her first s'more, and loved it! She ended up eating 12 marshmallows lol. She was SO excited about this BBQ we had, I've never seen her so lit up! So she invited us back the next night and we did it all again (except we took charge of making the burgers and left the marshmallows in the car lol). It was so good. I LOVE Betty. She wants me to come back and live with her for a while when I get home, and I agreed! She actually said she was going to give me her house when she passes away because she has no other friends or family and her son isn't the greatest. LOVE HER. She's absolutely nuts but man. Lol. 

The rest of our week has been pretty good, we saw Jusu a couple times, had some great lessons there. He won't be getting baptized until at least October, he's going back to Sierra Leone in September so he can settle some stuff there first. He was in parliament there. He's a big deal apparently! :O But he's super bomb. Love him. I'm really scared I'm going to go serve in Potomac or Kensington with a bunch of rich white people because they're tough haha. I love my little Africa! Some pretty exciting news, they're starting an Amharic branch in the next couple months! Woo! SO COOL. I really want to be in that program, but we'll see what happens haha. 

Online has definitely had its ups and downs this week haha. On Tuesday we got a really tough chat, it was this man, member of the church, served a mission, married in the temple, active temple recommend holder, has kids,and he is in the bishopric. And he's leaving the church. His whole chat was basically "hey, my sister is your age and I don't know how to tell her. How would you have your brother tell you?" It was really hard. I don't have a problem when people on the street reject the message, or just rejection in general, but that was really hard. It just breaks your heart. We went and got Costco pizza and ice cream after shift because we needed a little pick me up. But man, then Saturday evening happened!! WOW. We have the BEST new investigator. His name is Luke and he's from the UK. He came on chat asking about this Book of Mormon thing that his friend gave him. Turns out his friend is atheist and got a BOM from missionaries or something way back when and if just sat around his house. Luke (he's 18) said he had always been so interested by it, and finally asked if he could have it. He has no religious background, wasn't even sure what the bible was. But he said he just couldn't put the book down! We read the introduction with him, and he said his first prayer ever with us. Then he prayed 2 more times because he said he just felt so happy and peaceful! He's SO COOL. UGH. Moments like that make all the poopy days worth it. I love being a missionary and experiencing that with people. It's incredible to me how we can feel the spirit through the phone or computer. I absolutely love it.

This week has been long but definitely exciting. The weather is hot and humid and the bugs are killer, but I love it here. Never been anywhere more beautiful. I love being a missionary, and I love my savior. Have a blessed week! 

 Love you all. 

Sister Wilson

  BBQ with Betty

 

BBQ with Betty part 2

 

 Sis k and her "burger"

 I'M IN LOVE

 JUSUUUU

 Renita, Aminata, and her friend <3 I LOVE SIERRA LEONIANS <3 

(I wish they were wearing their pretty African dresses/headpieces)

 

too hot to sleep in our room D: 

(before they turned our AC on, it turned on Friday GLORY HALLELUJAH)

Do Rag

This morning we have our zone activity from 10-12, so this email probably won't be too long. We're playing capture the flag with a slip n slide in the middle and having a BBQ, so it should be pretty fun! Last night we had a sleepover! Sister Griffin (not my MTC comp, the other one) and Sister McArthur, Hermana Hansen and Hermana Plaizier all came over last night after shift and spent the night! It was so fun! We watched Johnny Lingo and ate popcorn and it was just super fun. We're all going to zone activity together so WOOP! Love them so much. It's going to be fun.

This week has been alright, not much happened. We got a new car! A 2015 Toyota Corolla, with 19 miles on it. Yeeeeep, 19 whole miles! It's got like 280 now but started out with 19 lol. SO. NICE. I'm in love. We named him Do Rag. Lol. So much better than our poopy Chevy Cruze. So that's awesome! Too bad I'm leaving Carrolton in a couple weeks haha. 

Our temple trip was on Friday, and it was so good! I've missed the temple so much, and it was just so good. Friday was another one if those days when we leave the apartment by 6am and get back after 9pm. Ah! It was super cute though, when we got to the celestial room there was a couple sitting in there all cute like. Turns out they were getting married, and waiting for the sealer. THEY WERE SO CUTE :') then a little temple worker came in and was like "the sealer is ready for you!" And they got all giddy and walked out. UGH SO CUTE. After the temple trip we had shift, and we saw the same couple taking pics outside. So. Cute. <3 Later some guy in their wedding party brought in some treat bags for all of us sisters on shift. They're our favorite wedding so far lol most people just use our bathrooms.

Fun fact, this past transfer the VC baptized more than the rest of the mission! WOO! Doing work in there. We have 2 new investigators now, one in Australia and the other in Michigan. Online teaching is so fun, but SO frustrating when you have an appointment and they don't pick up their phone. But it's incredible how you can feel the spirit through the phone. I LOVE online teaching! 

We didn't have much time in the area this week, so not a ton of teaching happened here. The time we did have none of our investigators could meet. Tina came on Saturday morning to clean the church building though! That was fun haha until she found out I was getting transferred in a couple weeks, then she kinda threw a fit lol. I LOVE TINA <3 

Well, that's about it haha not a ton to talk about this week! Skyping was BOMB, it was so good to see everybody! I love you all so much and I can't wait for Christmas! (Actually I can because I will have been out for almost 11 months by that point and I'm never coming home so Christmas can wait thanks). I LOVE YOU ALL <3

Have a great week!

Sister Wilson

 DO RAG

 Cake for sis edwards bday last Monday! Made it myself, can't you tell? ;P Also all our silver wear was dirty (literally every single dish/piece of silver wear we owned was dirty), so we had to get creative on how we ate it. Lol

Skype!

 

 SLEEPOVERRRRR (sister MacArthur and Griffin)

 Found a spider. NOPE. NOT IN MY HOUSE.

 Waiting for charity to Skype or mom to call me back lol

 adventures through the woods 

(didn't get very far lol we need big boots or the snakes will get us)

3 Months

First and foremost, sleeping in on pdays is the best thing that's ever happened to this mission. Glory, glory, hallelujah. *praises*. I was super sick last night so we stayed in an weekly planned and called random numbers to get our 20 contacts in for the day. That's always fun. Lol. Second, can somebody please send me a news article or something about the whole Baltimore thing?? We've talked to a few people about it and had some of the senior couples in the VC google it so we could read something, so I know quite a bit about it... The high school students doing a purge, what's his face died and had the funeral, the bloods and the crypts and the black gorillas all teamed up.... We went out last Monday night with our roomies (didn't wanna go out alone... Plus we were going to Hyattesville in the evening so you can never have enough people lol), and one of the people we visited had her TV on and it was Baltimore on fire, which was super scary! The CVS on fire, people surrounding and attacking cars, pulling people out of them, beating cops... WOOOOO. I love being in on all this action. Luckily none of that spread to the city here, they'd have to be stupid to start something in the city, but we've all been on edge about Anacostia and the gangs there getting excited. It seems to have calmed down (then again we're missionaries and have zero idea what's going on lol somebody send an update?). This is the most exciting mission EVER. If any of you were wondering, the Bloods, the Crypts, AND the Black Gorillas are all stationed in Baltimore, 23 miles from my apartment. *applause* *tears* *prayers* #prayforBaltimore

So this week has gone by way fast. I'm already halfway through my second transfer. NO. NOOOPE. An RM came into the VC and told us all about how "your first transfer is the slowest, and every one after that gets faster. Then all of a sudden you hit 6 months, then you blink and it's been a year, and then you're home." Um excuse me, home? What's that? Hmmm... Nope... Not going there... Time needs to slow the crap down. ACK. 

This week we took Tina and Bola off date for baptism... Which was super sad but it's ok! Bola has just been in Nigeria for 3 weeks so contact with her has been pretty limited, but she'll be home this week I believe so we can teach her again. And Tina is still GOLDEN! She came to church again yesterday and she's seriously already a member. She loves it! Cried all through testimony meeting, although we didn't get to sit by her because she just sits by whoever she doesn't know. She's awesome!! We went over after church and helped her clean her house. Anyways, we had a lesson with her on Thursday and we talked about baptism, and Sis K and I were feeling it was rushed, and Tina was feeling the same way. She's SO busy with work and everything and she hasn't gotten a chance to read and pray, and she said she wants to wait until school gets out (she teaches) so she can really study and get a strong testimony. Gosh I LOVE HER. Unfortunately I'm getting transferred next transfer so I won't get to keep teaching her, but I'll come back for her baptism! So excited for her!! 

We also got to meet with Jusu twice, and we're seeing him again tonight! He came to Why I Believe a few weeks ago, and afterwards we talked to him about the temple and showed him the temple model (super rushed cuz the VC was closing). We thought we scared him away cuz it was so much information thrown at him and we didn't hear from him for over a week! We finally got to see him, and turns out he LOVED the idea of doing work for his ancestors, and eternal families! We had two lessons with him just talking about family. He's going back to Sierra Leone in a few months to visit all his family (he's the only one here in America) and we're hoping he find himself a nice Mormon girl. <3 lol. He also said that once he gets his answer about everything we've taught, he'll dive in completely to our services, baptism, everything. Praying he gets that soon too! 

Betty came to church!! After 8 months of investigating, she came to CHURCH!!! What the?!? We FLIPPED when she told us she was coming! Haha she totally hated it and grumbled to herself the whole time but she CAME!!! It's a miracle!! Hahaha. Betty is crazy. Love her to pieces. 

We had interviews this week, and President told me he's going to transfer me out of Carrolton next transfer. Which is more bitter than sweet. It's been a really tough couple transfers, but holy goodness I love these people. I don't want to leave Little Africa! I'm afraid I'll be disappointed with every other area because it won't hold a candle to this one. These people are the most incredible people on the planet. I'm taking a humanitarian trip when I get home to Africa. I would go to Sierra Leone, but Ebola there is nuts right now.. Soo.. Pass on that. I'll go to a different country. But holy goodness these people! <3 <3 <3 <3 :'))) it'll be super, super hard to leave.

Can't wait to Skype next week! Love you all sooo much!

Emily

 Fennell family. AHH MY HEART <3 <3 <3

 OH! I ate a habanero pepper this week. Ate it. Chewed it. Swallowed it. Regretted it. BUT I DID IT. Before and after pics. (That's sister Philips on the left, an ASL sister. Love her)

 Hair dye--HERE WE GOOOOO

 OH MY GOSH I HAVE DARK HAIRRR

 WE LOVE SPRING

 Literally living in the sacred grove. But prettier probably.