Week 39

Hello everyone. It has been another crazy week. 

So we have a bunch of missionaries that are having to be sent home due to health concerns. We thought they were going to be leaving on April 1st with the rest of the missionaries but they got a call on Wednesday at 11 that they needed to pack and be at the airport by 12. It was a crazy stressful day. It was so sad seeing so many of these missionaries I love go home. Luckily we were able to go and say bye to them the day before.

We had a mission wide call again this week to talk about transfers. We are going to find out about those tonight. But we were also told to prepare to receive around 70-100 missionaries coming in from other countries. We have already received some and so it is going to be interesting these next few weeks. 

A tender mercy this week was we got a call from a guy named Jibri. He was taught by the missionaries about a year ago and he still had the number and called to see how we were doing. So we were able to start teaching him this week!

To keep us busy this week we finished a 1000 piece puzzle, did color by numbers, played some card games, and DEEP cleaned our apartment. And taught lessons of course. 

Sunday we got to have sacrament with the other KSU missionaries and one of the sisters investigators. It was such a nice little meeting. We watched President Nelson's message of hope. It was so cute and uplifting. I'm very excited for general conference to see what other messages of hope and peace they will share. 

This whole Corona situation has been crazy and as a missionary it has been hard but I've been able to see so many blessings that have come from it. I'm able to have more time to study and prepare myself for general conference, I have felt peace from Heavenly Father even through it all, and through the world there is more time for people to spend with their families. What a unique time to be a missionary. 

I hope yall have a great week and dont go too crazy here in quarantine. Catch me back outside sometime in May maybe. 

Sister Coleman

Pic 1 Sister Davis

Pic 2 Sister Vargas

Week 38 - first week of quarantine

 Hey everyone it's me again. Remember last week when I said that we were doing fine and not being quarantined? I spoke too soon. So welcome to the life of isolation. It sucks. 

I don't have much to report because we cant go out anymore but we got to do a few fun things before this happened.

This week was Sister Cook and Wilcox's birthdays so we got to party hard and eat lots of cake. Our friend Donna had us over for a delicious birthday lunch. We love her. 

We were told on Wednesday that we are going into isolation so we have been in the apartment basically all day since then. At least we aren't on total lockdown so we can still go to the store and go out on runs. but its rough sitting in the apartment all day. I've been coloring, going on a ton of runs,doing puzzles, playing card games, and studying. Developing new talents or whatever. 

We also found put about 40 or more missionaries are being sent home for health reasons and they reached the 21 month mark. I'm heart broken that all of my good friends are going to be going home. But it's all going to work out eventually. 

Tender mercy this week: we had two 80 degree days! Getting some vitamin D to fend off the Corona. 

We also were able to go to our branch first counselors house for sacrament and it was so fun. She made us southern biscuits and gravy with grits and man was it good. We are being taken care of out here and I'm grateful. 

D&C 121:7-8

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes."

Have a great week!

Sister Coleman

Pic 1 always staying safe

Pic 2 Clara my BFF

Pic 3 Hecka party

Pic 4 wash that Corona away 

Pic 5 birthday lunch 

Week 37 - Corona

Hey everyone. I'm alive and fine. Not quarantined. Things are good. We still have toilet paper left in the apartment so I'd say we are doing well.

It's been a crazy week to say the least. We started this week with getting our friend Brandon a baptismal date! And then we had zone conference. I got to see all the old KSU homies. Love them. 

The training at zone conference were so good! Sister Marsh talked about how we are commanded to love our neighbor as thyself. So are we keeping the commandment to love ourselves? She also talked about how the Spirit can help us to be able to see those spiritual gifts that we have that we sometimes can't see ourselves. 

But as you all probably know, Corona has gone wild. Campus is now shut down as well as church and all YSA activities for at least 3 weeks maybe more. So that has really changed a lot for our missionary work. We are still able to go out and proselyte but we just have to do things a little differently now. We are sad because our friends we are teaching have all gone home until this is over. We miss them. Especially Brandon. We love him so much. 

But thankfully, we were able to go to the temple this week. Just before it closed. It was a very good day. We got to do a session, sealings, and baptisms. It was definitely the most calm I've been in a while with all the virus panic. And I was able to read in Hebrews 13 about not fearing what man will do but trusting in God. That has really helped me through this week and will probably carry me through these next 3 or more weeks. 

Since we cant have church on Sunday, a few of us got together with our friend Terrance at a park and got to take the sacrament and listened to a conference talk. How blessed we are to have the priesthood all throughout the world so we can still take the sacrament. And how inspired President Nelson is to have implemented Come Follow Me at this time. Like you can't even tell me he's not a prophet. 

So not to be dramatic but we are probably going to get Corona and get quarantined for a while. But we are fine. We made sure we had enough food today so that we can make it . If anyone wants to send doctor masks in the mail though feel free to do so. 

If you're over 60 please dont leave the house. 

Hopefully I'll talk to yall next week!

Sister Coleman

Pic 1 Sister Davis is our homie 

Pic 2 KSU 4ever

Pic 3 FRIENDS vibes

Pic 4 my beautiful comp

Pic 5 church life

Pic 6 Cartersville zone is the best

Pic 7 None of us are wearing our own dresses

Week 36 - Oscars night

Another great week out here in Georgia! Can I just say that miracles are real. We've seen plenty of them this week. 

We were able to get our friend Mark a date to be baptized last week and then this week our friend Terrance also accepted a date to be baptized. We are so excited! Our branch is doing a 40 day fast for missionary work and it has brought a lot of miracles to all us missionaries here already. 

We also were able to meet this guy Brandon this week. He is so cool. Very open to everything we teach him and just a homie! Hes like my best friend now.

Another miracle is that we were able to have 3 people come to church with us this week! That's the most I've ever had! We were so happy about it.  

Rain all week again. I've never seen it rain this much in my life. Like it literally doesnt stop. It is at the point now where we are always wet so we dont even notice that's it's raining anymore. But to be honest we always have the most success in bad weather so cant complain! 

The absolute highlight of this week was Oscar's night. It is something that our good friend Trent helps put on for all the YSAs in the area. Everyone gets all dressed up and we come and watch the videos that have been submitted and let me just say it lives up to the hype. So much fun and we got to meet so many people. A big group of people from UGA came so I got to see all my old friends from there! Not to be dramatic but it was the best night of my life. 

I just want to share this scripture that I read this week in my studies. I have been reading the Old Testament. (Weird I know) and the story of Moses has really impacted me this week. In Exodus 14:13-14 it says 

"And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ya have seen to day, ye shall see then again no more for ever. 

The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."

And it reminded me of the verse in D&C 123

"17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

Sometimes we need to do what we can and then just stand still and let God do the rest. I struggle with trying to do everything and feeling like I need to keep doing more to get answers or do be the best missionary but if we have done all that God has asked, we need to stand still and let God work miracles in us. 

I hope you all have a great week and know that God loves you all 

Sister Coleman 

Week 35 - drunk on campus

Hello everyone it's me again. Another great week here in Georgia. 

Some highlights:

On Monday we had FHE and we played dodgeball. And dude they were throwing those balls so fast. I got nailed in the leg and theres a FAT bruise now. It was a fun time though. 

We have set some pretty high goals this transfer for ourselves and it has really motivated us to go hard! We have been able to talk to a lot of people this week and find quite a few new people to teach which we are very excited about. 

We also got Mark on baptismal date! Pumped!

Had exchanges with Sister Wilcox. We were able to teach one of our friends Jack. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and he said that he knows that it is the word of God. We read a little bit with him and he said that The Book of Mormon is filling an emptiness inside him.  So he is going to pray about baptism. We love him. 

Tabling this week was wild. Met this guy that was just roasting Sister Cook about everything she said lol. And then these 2 guys that were drunk and the one guy kept running around yelling "this guys drunk on campus!!" Funniest moment of my life. 

We have a goal of trying to hand out at least 50 cards a week and so to celebrate reaching 50 we went out to Taco Bell. If you know me you know I love Taco Bell. 

Saturday we had service in the morning and Donna took us out to Cracker Barrel  after. That night we were able to be greeters for the saturday session of stake conference. 

Sunday was stake conference. It kind of freaked me out how loud it was in there. I'm used to the quiet little YSA. But it was very good. 

This week I read a talk by Elder Holland that I really liked. He talked about liberty jail and all of the hard times that were had there as well as all the lessons that were learned. He said, "He can turn the unfair and inhumane and debilitating prisons of our lives into temples -- or at least into a circumstance that can bring comfort and revelation, divine companionship and peace." Then later in the talk he says, " bad days come to an end, faith always triumphs, and heavenly promises are always kept." If any of yall have extra time, you should read D&C 121-123. It's the revelation received when Joseph Smith was in liberty jail and it teaches a lot about how to get through trying times. 

Anyways. Love you all. Have a great week

Sister Coleman 

Pic 1 the best dang greeters ever

Pic 2 Taco Bell celebration

Pic 3 tabling!

Pic 4 Mall celebration 

Pic 5 Sister Green loves soda as much as me #blessed

Pic 6 you already know how I feel about Cracker Barrel