Week 69

This week had a lot of highs, and the lowest of lows. So we will start with the highs!

We had a mission wide devotional with Neil L Anderson in Knoxville! This is the 3rd and final time on my mission that we have gathered as an entire mission in one Chapel!! There is something really special about being the all the missionaries in the whole mission. But obviously the best part was meeting one of the 12 apostles, getting to shake his hand, and then getting spiritually fed by him for a few hours. I recivied so much revelation (almost to the point where it is overwhelming), so I'm just looking back at little segments of my notes at a time, or else I will not know where to start, so I won't start 😂 so I'm doing one thing at a time. I wish I could summarize all the thought I had into one paragraph, but that would be impossible. But boy was it cool!

Before the devotional while we were in Knoxville we went and visited claire!!! She is that cute little Filipino that I taught and baptized like 8 months ago. It was so much fun to see her again!! 

We walked around this neighborhood one day and I told myself that I would knock every house that had a Subaru, so I did and we actually met some super cool people!! So that was neat. #subarusaregodgiven

I got to spend a lot of time with some of my favorite members this week and that is always a highlight for me. I just feel so refreshed after spending time in their home. I even got to use a rainbow loom at the adams house😂😂😂 it's been since 5th grade since I used one, and I remembered how to use it!!!! I was amazed with myself haha.

We also picked a bunch of wild flowers and took them to this old lady that we knocked into the other day and she was so touched! She talked to us on her porch for over an hour about all her political philosophies, and boy, I thought I had heard crazy things, but you don't hear crazy political ideas until you are sitting on an 89 year old southern lady's porch for an hour. I was intrigued to say the least😂

We also went WAYYYYYY up into the woods of our area this week which was beautiful!! It is so green and lush. On friday we were in the car for almost 4 hours driving from place to place cuz each house is so far apart. There was one holler that was a dirt road that went for miles, and when Google said we had arrived, there was no house 😂 this happened several times. it was a day of hide and seek, but with houses. Can't say I've ever done that before.

Sam Hancock got his endowments!!! He's in the picture with the mustache and long Grey goatee. Man it made me so happy, even tho I wasn't able to go with him. Thank you to everyone who prayed for him!!

Ok. Now the low. The low of all lows..... I'm being transfered out of Cookeville for my very last and final transfer😔😢🥺😣 I am unexplainably sad about this because it was totally unexpected. I'm having a pretty hard time with it, and in all honestly it is really really hard to even pretend to be excited. I know these next 6 weeks will go by so fast, so I don't want to not enjoy it. Ugh. I'll figure it out! I know it will all work out. I think it's the anticipation that's the worst part. I'm sure that when I actually get to my new area I'll say "oh, this isn't that bad." But yeah, that's the bad news.

I'm just grateful for the time that I've had here in Cookeville. I've learned a lot and I've become very close to these people. We had a meeting with our bishop after church and he teared up when he told me how much of a difference I had made and that he is genuinely so sad that I have to leave. I was stunned to hear that I was in his top 3, it was really sweet. I don't know what I did right, but i owe it all to God. I am a representative of jesus christ, not a representative of myself. Its a real honor, and I have to remember that. Being a missionary is hard, but awesome and I'm looking forward to the next 6 weeks!