Climb Every Mountain

climb everyyyyyyyy mountain!

Hellllllooooo family!!! 

What an awesome day it is today! I love waking up to the rain. On the mission, rain normally kinda sucks... your shoes get soaked, it's cold and not a whole lot of people are in the streets. Your umbrella most likely is broken because you bought the cheapest one. Days like this at home were perfect for napping, watching movies and drinking hot chocolate by the fireplace. BUT it just so happens that today is Pday! At least I CAN nap, watch the Restoration in 15 different languages AND heat up my chocolate milk. Gotta love pdays. 

Other than the rain this week not much is new. Just trying to get used to this new area. Have I told you already how mountainous it is?? Remember how in Muriae I wrote that I wanted to run through the hills singing, "the hills are alive with the sound of music"? Well.... now I should be singing, "climb every mountain"! I'm in the middle of gorgeous mountains. Everyone lives in the mountains and to get to them you either have to hike or climb lots of stairs. This week I've come to notice that most of our members live on the tops of the mountains. I'm also starting to hear the phrase that all the elects live on the tops of mountains.... Maria from 2 weeks back is proof of that!

Despite the hiking trips everyday and the aching knees, I really enjoy climbing these mountains. To me if feels like a little test... How far am I willing to go to help my neighbor? How many stairs am I willing to climb to spread the glad tidings of the Gospel...to help the Lord in His cause? 

In the end (or at the top!) it doesn't really seem like much of a sacrifice to climb. First, you have this amazing scenery of God's creation. Second, you can publish peace on the tops of mountains. It keeps reminding me of the scriptures which say, 

"Now what do we hear in the Gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things and say unto zion: Behold, they God reigneth!"

What an amazing message I get to share- and God, no matter how much I falter, continues to bless me immensely for being willing to share it. Goodness, with a happy and healthy family at home to the family I serve here, it's easy to count my many blessings. 

Have a good week! Sending lots of prayers 

Sister Hawkins

Note from the Mom: This was actually the song playing in my head the whole time I was posting, so I had to share!

Blessings...Oh So Many!

We had an exchange this week which means that I got to go to the other ward's area with another sister.
You basically trade companions for a day and sleepover...
Then you go back to your area after.
It was fun!!! I loved teaching new people and being in a new place for a day.

Hey there fam and friends!

 

I thought I'd kind of take you through my schedule this week since you may not know what it looks like. This is basically what my everyday life looks like.

 

The alarm goes off at 6:30 and sluggishly "work out". It's more like throwing a few kicks and punches until we decide to stretch... which to others might look like napping on the floor. This is why I had my mom send us insanity. We will pick up the pace.... maybe next week. Since our DVD player mysteriously broke.... ANYWAYS we then shower and get ready and whatnot. Then comes the studying. We study for a lonnnnnggg time. First hour is a personal study, second hour is a companionship study, third hour is my language study and then finally we do an hour of training since I'm a new missionary. SO MUCH STUDYING. But I love it. I have lots of cool epiphanies and learning experiences throughout my many studies and I always love sharing them with Sister Pribyl.

 

Then we head out! We go to appointments and make lots of phone calls. There's lots of finding by going to stores or the mall or neighborhoods. We'll visit all of our investigators or inactive members and then some other members too. We'll go to dinner almost every night (on good weeks) to a members house and get a nice meal. And Finally we'll go home at 9:00-30. So we're out of the apartment from about 12:30 to 9:30 every day! You really feel like you get so much done in a day since we go go go all the time. Seriously, I never realized you could do so many things in a day before coming on a mission. And I've been to college!

 

A little bit more about this week: it's been quite miraculous. From being led to certain people who need our help to finding a few extra bucks when we had no leftover money for groceries, the Lord completely blessed us this week! We really were so surprised at how well the Lord cared for us and His kingdom on Earth. This week Sister Pribyl and I were led to two inactive members of the church that are not in our records. The way we found them was so cool. One, we picked a number and the first house we saw with that number was the door we'd knock on. Turns out that this man had been an active member at a point in his life but hasn't been back in ages. The other lady we found was through a contact that we were looking for. We actually found this house and it was empty and for sale. Sister Pribyl and I decided to go ask the neighbors about it and came to find that she had been married in the temple and is now inactive. BOTH were not on the records here in Douglasville and it's so incredibly rare to find even just one person who isn't on our records! It's crazy how the Lord just completely leads you to the people you need to see and the places you need to be. We have been so blessed to find so many that are looking for our help!

As for those few extra bucks... this week was crazy! We were running out of money because with the week that we had a trio and with our messed up finances since I'm a visa waiter... we hardly had any money for the rest of this month. BUT. Heavenly Father really takes care of His missionaries!!!! First, I got a card from Dede (THANK YOU!!!)who sent me $30 which we used to buy some more food. So nice of her! Also, our RS president just absolutely spoils me and Sister Pribyl. She keeps trying to take us shopping hahahaha. She's older and lives with her non-member husband. All of her kids are out of the house so I guess she likes to mother us. She is making me go out and buy a warmer coat with the $50 she gave me. We're not even supposed to take money from other people. But seriously, no matter how many times we try to refuse money from Sister Prillaman (our RS pres) she insists and will even give us more...sometimes, it's better to just take it than to fight it. Either way, the Lord blessed us incredibly this week!

 

I'm sorry that this email is cut so short... unfortunately I've run out of time! Catch you all next week!! :)

 

Sister Hawkins

Sister Prillaman likes to overstuff us and buy us fast food.... unfortunately she orders all the unhealthy things for us since SHE can't eat them. I think she lives vicariously through us (even tho I never even eat this at home!) haha still, I love Sister Prillaman and she spoils us rotten!

Note from the Mom: So, so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who watches over His missionaries!  And for amazing friends (Dede!) and members He utilizes to make sure they're cared for. She told me to share anything from the personal letter she sent me.  I thought this was cute: "OH MY GOSH I FOUND MY FAMILY AWAY FROM HOME HERE. MOM. Last night we went to a members house for dinner and they are so incredibly funny. They're probably just as old as you and Dad but maybe a little younger. They have 3 boys and the oldest is a little younger than keeg. Actually he might be a sophomore. Either way they're AWESOME. THEY WATCH ALL OF OUR MOVIES. We quoted So I Married an Axe Murderer, Better off Dead and The Three Amigos for hours. Seriously. The older boy was like, "I need to drop something off at Beth's house" and Brother Evans (the dad) was like, "every time you say beth I just think of Better off Dead" AND I FLIPPED OUT. We started pulling out quotes all over the place. Oh gosh I love them, you guys would love them. They understand our humor. And they think you both are good parents."

*Glad the definition of a "good parent" is simply to make sure your kids go out into the world equipped with quotes from 80's (and early 90's) movies. Haha!