Listen to Warnings and Be Grateful

Look Ma! It's like what I think the Brazilian rainforest would be like...

Hi family & friends! I swear it was yesterday that I was just here writing. Oh! Thank you for all the letters and packages!!! I got sweet envelopes from Sister Meise and the Olsons!!! So nice of them. Also of course I got a package from mom :) (Thanks Sis. Bayless for all the cute clothes!) Then lots of little letters from the family Memorial Day party! Needless to say I felt pretty loved this week and was so happy to hear from all of you! I will be responding shortly!!! 

I feel like I have nothing new to inform you of this week. We've just been doing what we normally do-- loving, serving, teaching, praying, committing and maybe stopping for a lunch break here and there. 

You know it's funny when I think about the little things that happened this week. I think God always has a way of warning us about things to come. Last week my dad wrote to me and told me not to do more than I can handle. That should've been a a sign! I didn't feel like I was overworking myself, but turns out I passed out eating ice cream the other day! No worries, mom, I was sitting down and I was out for less than a second and I'm totally fine. But that's the first time I've ever passed out before and it was so cool! I'm sad that I don't have a really cool story about it though... I was literally just eating ice cream in the car. Apparently my body can't handle it.... just can't hack it.(<---that's for my uncle Steve!)

It reminds me of the other month when I had an interview with President asking me over and over if I was safe... then later having a stalker at church! I think "Well, Heavenly Father!!! I couldn't have avoided either of these situations so what do you want me to do about it!?" Maybe it was for experience, but most always He wants us to learn something. I have taken the time to really ponder about the things that happen to me on my mission. I've learned that we're not always going to know God's intentions, but we can take what we've got and do something with it! 

We're not always going to know God's plans either. Like this week we were planning for our investigator Joe to be baptized Saturday. Everything went as planned until the very last minute on Friday night when we learned that we needed to postpone the baptism. You know at the time I thought, "Why would God not let someone get baptized??" But as we discussed postponing it, I felt the Spirit strongly. I knew what it meant- that we'd have to cancel all the plans and preparations but that it didn't even matter. What matters most is how ready and willing a person is in making these covenants with God. 

It always reminds me who is in control when things don't happen the way we plan for them. But God always has better plans anyways. Next weekend will be an amazing weekend here in the 3 wards that make up my district. Each set of missionaries will have a baptism! the plans as of now are that 14 people will be baptized next weekend- one of them being Joe. :) Now, how the Lord expects us to plan that one out...I don't know. We're gonna need His hand big time!!

So there is much to be grateful for! I'm grateful for my sight and hearing which I lost for a second...how I take these significant gifts for granted almost every day!!! I'm grateful for God's plans which are way bigger and better than mine are. I'm grateful for this mission and all it entails; my awesome mission president, companion, ward, etc! I could go on and on with all the things that I am so grateful to have but it might be more important for YOU do make your own list. What are YOU grateful for?

Hope you all have a wonderful week!! Till we meet again, monitor-to-monitor.

Love,

Sister Hawkins

Note from the Mom: "I passed out, but don't worry mom"...ahhh! Seriously? She assured me she really is ok. Which is fine, but all you awesome families in Douglasville, keep an eye on that girl for me, will you? I know you already do!

Also, I just wanted to share something she wrote in my personal letter. I had shared with her an article from the New Era called 28 Ways to Spread Sunshine. I told her I was pretty sure she already DID all those 28 things, so challenged her to give me two more things to get to 30. This was her response:

Aww I love the 28 things!!! hmmmm 2 more things to scatter sunshine. Well, I'm trying to think of other things that I do. Maybe one is to try saying hi to all those you walk by. It's ridiculous how unexpected it is to be greeted!! But sometimes people say that it makes their day that we came over even just to say hi. Also, another thing is something I learned from trevor. We were at a drive through once and trev said thanks, and the person responded "It's my pleasure to serve you!" They said it in a sincere way though, not like the rote dialogue that McDonalds or chick-Fil-A would make you say. And I remember trev being grateful and saying, "No! It's my pleasure to be served by YOU!" It was a funny little experience but I remember how saying that it was a pleasure to be helped by someone, even for a second or upon "forced" means, really made the difference. Another one could be, if you doubt or think negatively, think of 3 positive things to rid your doubt. Don't let it sit in your mind because negativity takes a physical toll on you! It brings down your perspective and you smile less, you think of others less, you worry about things that are not important...etc! 

So there's a few.. I think I may have given you 31, but the "pleasure to serve you one" kind of goes along with saying something nice to someone. Or maybe even being kind to someone lonely. But I think the point of this experience is more so to make the most out of your situations. If you hate working, well, be extra nice to people...it'll make it much more enjoyable!

Well said, my sunny girl.

Learning to Recognize the Warnings

Off to the mission wide conference with Quentin L Cook. IT WAS SO INCREDIBLY AWESOME!!!

Well. This week started off with a bang... or a burn?

 

Tuesday morning, Sister Pribyl and I decided it would be a great day for some banana bread in honor of our rotten bananas in the kitchen. First we had to eat breakfast though and things were normal just like every other morning. As I peaceably cooked my bacon and eggs, Sister Pribyl swept in and said, "I want that too OMGosh" She slaps two pieces next to mine and proceeds to perform a marvelous work and a wonder by doing the dishes all by herself. It was quite the peak in our companionship actually. What an act of love! Until she turned the kitchen into a swimming pool and burned her bacon. How you burn bacon in a swimming pool is beyond me. In her mad chaos she endeavored to flip her burning egg so artistically that half of it poured on to the burner...

 

Even throughout the mess, the temptation of delightful birthday cake banana bread was still strong. I began to put together the mix and smash the bananas. Then it just got awkward. The bananas wouldn't mash, the egg was neon green and the space was limited by the two previous happenings. But cake baking went forth and I impatiently waited. All was calm. The aroma of vanilla/banana cake finally overpowered all burned scents and it was done. I pulled out the perfectly browned cake setting it to cool on the stovetop.

 

Well. It didn't cool. In fact, I left the kitchen for 5 minutes and returned to a smoking cake and an even worse burnt smell. SOMEONE (....cough cough Sister Pribyl cough coughjkfdsa;) had one more ace up her sleeve....she left the burner on!! I swear this girl is bound and determined to burn the house down. Man I don't know what it is about me having all these experiences with burning food but I promise it doesn't always happen... it wasn't nearly as bad as the seminary-burnt-microwave-bacon-wafting-through-the-entire-church smell. The sad thing was the top of the cake couldn't even be saved because it had a touch of burnt flavor. So the whole cake was rendered inedible.. unless you have a taste for charcoal.. "yumm wood-fire grilled banana cake! Sounds so tasty!" Needless to say the expected delightful experience became one of much distress. It was then that we banned ourselves from the kitchen for the rest of the day.

 

Cake anyone?

Sure you don't want any?

This experience really does relate to so many things that happen in life... whether it's missionary-related or not. We face things that we don't expect almost every single day! Sometimes, not always, but sometimes your day just so happens to begin with a tiny Poltergeist-like thing where all your efforts are plagued by the adversary. But you know, God never hesitates to give you some red flags. We're just not always good at seeing them! We probably should have and absolutely could have taken the warnings that this morning was not a baking day. In doing so, there would've been a  possibility of preventing a perfectly good cake from being murdered.

 

I've noticed recently though from this experience and many others, that you can't neglect the little things. Often times the little things build up until you feel overwhelmed or even like you've failed. Really, the only thing we fail is recognizing all the warnings that God places in our lives to keep us from winding up in the deep end of the pool (haha literally our kitchen). It could have been so simple to double check the burners or be more cautious! And it's just as important to see the small things for what they are and embrace them! Small warnings are much easier to manage than big trials. Who knows, had we continued to explore the kitchen, maybe the kitchen could have caught fire...maybe even the whole apartment complex! Good thing we finally got the hint, got out of the kitchen and took a burned cake over a burned apartment!

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we can't do this work or go through life without trusting the Lord. He doesn't always wave huge flags in your face to let you know what you're doing isn't His will...but He WILL tell you!! I like what Nephi says about trusting the Lord right after his father dies and he goes to confide in the Lord. He says " Oh Lord I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man (or bacon..) or maketh flesh his arm" I love that. That is my testimony and hope that I can put my trust and faith in Christ as much as Nephi has and demonstrated so beautifully!

 

Thank you all for your love and support! :)

 

Love Sister Hawkins

Car Selfies!

PS: I love Sister Pribyl with all my heart... She's awesome and she has "endorsed and approved" of this message.

 

PPS: Does anyone know if this pan is still usable?

Err...the perfect circle of a burner left on.  Hmmm.

Since it was fat tuesday we decided to celebrate. We knew we had till tuesday to get fat... so we bought a king cake....

 ....and the biggest chick fil a sandwich.....

....and "borrowed" a bowl of candy from our investigator and stuffed it in Pribby's purse hahaha!
Sorry it's blurry.  I was laughing!

Here's a pic of me, my trainer, and my trainer's trainer haha. I call my trainers trainer my grandma..
oh missionary terms.

Sis P and I with our old District Leader.
Mission conferences are awesome because you can reunite with
other missionaries that were transferred. It's sad to say goodbye to missionaries!!!