Sense of Familiarity

Hello wonderful people!
It was such an AMAZING week! Crazy busy, and crazy fun! Let's take it day by day....

Monday:
-Sister Owusu wanted to look super fly for our mission conference on Saturday, so we went to get her hair done by a lady in our ward. When we got there, the lady didn't quite like the hair that Sister Owusu brought, and wanted to use the kind that she had. Unfortunately, the kind that she had was... well... gold. And I really thought it was going to be fine, but it turned out to be just too far along the hootchie-mama spectrum. We ended up taking it out a few days later after Sis Owusu could handle it no longer. However, halfway through the 4 hour long process, the lady ran out of hair and we had to go buy more from the super sketchy hair store down the road. Oh man, that place was the best. Hair EVERYWHERE. Wigs EVERYWHERE. (Pictures will come next week). We walked in there, and I stood out like the whitest white thumb you ever did see. I mean, the girl working there turned to look at me when we walked in, did a double take, and then turned and stared as I walked by. Yepppp.... Hey, what if I wanted some hair too, hmmmm??

Tuesday:
-We taught President and Sister Cottle, which was a little nerve-racking, but it went well.
-We had a cool moment when we stopped by an investigators house and found out that she is going to finally go to an addiction-recovery program to help her with her drinking.
-We had the most wonderful lesson with M (who is getting baptized this Saturday). Oh man, this girl. She just turned 9, and has slight Autism, and is the cutest thing on planet earth. So we get there for the lesson, and she answers the door with the pamphlet we asked her to read in her hand. We walk in and she asks her auntie to leave the room because "This is private." hahah. Everything we cover in the lesson and ask her about, she understands perfectly. And at the end of the lesson, we ask her if that night, she would pray and ask Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith was really a prophet of God, and we tell her that she should sit and listen for a response. She looks at us and says that she can ask right now. So she bows her head: "Jesus? Was Joseph Smith a prophet?" *long pause and a few giggles* She then opened her eyes, looks at us and says, "He says yes." The cuteness. Oh man. We decided that teaching her that she is actually praying to God and not Jesus could wait.
-One of the sisters in the relief society presidency was having a really rough time after hearing something someone had said to her, and she was questioning whether or not she should continue serving in that capacity. We were able to help her see the eternal perspective and how amazing she is. We love her SO MUCH.
-We had a rather dramatic lesson with K, where he tried to drop us, but he ended up really feeling the spirit and agreeing to keep praying and reading and studying with us. I love that man.

Wednesday:
-We went on exchanges in Swainsboro, and that was the first big long drive of the week. It was very fun, and Sister Woodard and I experienced TONS of miracles. Back in Grovetown, Sis Owusu and Sis Price found an awesome new investigator, and had a great time. While on exchanges, one of the Swainsboro sisters' investigators, D, made us dinner. It was such a beautiful expression to me of how much she loves these sisters. We sat in her trailer, on a couch, her children sitting at the "dinner table", which was a folding card table in the corner with lawn chairs, and listened to D share stories of her family. This woman, who has very little, shared what she had with us. Perfect example of being Christ-like.

Thursday:
-We had Zone Training Meeting in Augusta the following morning where Sister Owusu and I both trained. It was an... interesting meeting. Sometimes you have to restrain yourself from hitting elders. Sorry, but it's the truth.
-We received multiple text messages about Sis H, who we love so much, and who has been bringing her family back to church. She was going through a rough patch, wondering why God was punishing her when she was following his commandments more closely than ever. We rushed over there, and tried to help her see that God wasn't punishing her, he was allowing her to grow. Nothing we said helped until Brother S and Brother J from the ward came by to give her a blessing. Brother J had tried to call Brother S earlier in the day, and his phone wasn't working. Well he was on his way over when he saw Brother S driving home from work and waved him down. Heavenly Father provides many ways for his work to get done. It was a beautiful blessing and afterwards, H's countenance had completely changed. She felt immediately better, and the miracles that are happening in that family are out of this world!
-The cherry on top of the day was learning how to make fried chicken and field peas with T, while she made fun of me.

Friday:
-We had a sisters' sleepover Friday night in Swainsboro so that we wouldn't have to leave so early in the morning to make it on time to the mission conference Saturday morning, which brings us to.....

Saturday:
-Eight very sleepy, but very excited, sisters arrived at 8:00 am at the Macon church building to prepare to meet Elder Neil L. Anderson, Elder Giddens, and Elder Soares. It was SUCH an amazing experience. I'm not sure why, but I was expecting something very different from what I experienced on Saturday. When Elder Anderson came into that gym, and as I watched him sit on the stand and speak, I was struck with the most interesting sense of familiarity. You know the feeling where you see someone, and you just can't remember how you know them? Sort of like that. I don't know what I was expecting, maybe lightning bolts and overwhelming emotions from an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ, but that just wasn't coming. I was sitting there, trying to understand my emotions. And as I was sitting, I realized that I was watching a perfectly humble, pure vessel. A disciple of Christ in every sense. And it was a beautiful thing. I loved it. I had the realization that when we see Christ again, it will be like that. If we have lived righteously, and if we have done all that we can, when we see Him, He will be familiar to us, an old friend that we have not seen in a while. A perfect mixture of strength and humility. It was an eye-opening experience. I loved it.
-After the conference, most of the mission went to the Macon Mall food court, where we made those restaurant workers' day. It looked like the army of Helaman up in there. We even decided to sing a few songs. iPhones captured our hymns. No fear of public humiliation? Yes, I'm a missionary.
-Ate some boiled peanuts from "Mikey's Boiled Peanuts" stand. Mikey gave us a missionary discount. By the way, it's pronounced "bowled" here in the south. Enough said.

Sunday:
-We had seven investigators come to church. It was a happy happy day.

So this week was wonderful. And I feel so blessed. Folks, this is week #6 of transfer #5 in Grovetown, GA, which means that come next Tuesday, the 20th, this sister missionary will probably be calling a new city home. Love you all so much!

Sister Szilagyi

P.S. I just sneezed in the library and about 5 people said "bless you" in unison. The south is so polite.