sister
Time’s A-Flyin
Sorry for not having my emails done yesterday. It was Veterans Day yesterday so the library was closed. But yea! Here I am safe and sound. (:
So today(Nov 12) is so cold! It’s the coldest it’s been so far this season. Today and tomorrow is supposed to be the coldest so far. CRAZY!
Well everything is going good. More findin ha.
So yea that’s all really from me this week!
Love,
Sister Drummond
1 Month!
So as of last Saturday, I have been on my mission ‘officially’ for 1 month! Crazy how time flies. But in about a week and a half I will have been in the field for 1 month. Ha we have a joke with one the elders I work with… He came out in July and is always saying ‘Yes, 20 more months!’ Then I say, ‘Only 17 more months!’ He gets kinda bummed about that because I got here after him and I’m leaving before him! Poor Elder Hadley ha. It’s great though. I like the elders in my area.
So as I said, Time flies! I can not believe it’s November! Who would have thought! I know I wouldn’t have…
So for those of you who don’t know. When I got to the field I did not have a bike yet. I finally purchased one last week and it got here Friday! So Friday night me and Sister Carlson ha took like an hour and a half putting it together! It was so much fun and kinda frustrating, but hey! That’s life of a missionary. So anyways Saturday, we decided to go biking! Oh my goodness it was so much fun! As long as there isn’t too many hills. It made me want to bike more! But sadly, Sister Carlson’s pedal is falling off. So now we are back to walking and riding in the car. Not that it’s a bad thing but we have limited miles and we kinda have a big area…
So how was everyone’s Halloween? Mine was alright. We couldn’t do much…We studied ha. A lot. It didn’t feel like Halloween either. Here they don’t do a lot of trick or treating just because it’s not very safe I guess for the kids. Which I don’t understand if the parents are with them. But the library did a little trick or treating thing and the mall did one, and I guess even some stores! It was interesting to see.
So that’s about it really. I don’t have any cool stories this week expect just whenever we tell people we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints people just say not interested. Pretty normal though.
But I hope everyone is doing well! And remember I love hearing from everyone even if I can’t write to everyone each week!
I love you all and pray for all of you!
Love,
Sister Drummond
Bama!
This email isn’t going to be very long because not much happened…
We’ve been really struggling with trying to find people to teach. The zone I’m in is called the Bessemer East Zone and we call the ‘BEAST” zone because it’s so hard. Almost everyone in this zone has either none or close to no investigators.. I as a friend, family member, and missionary to pray for us. Remember us as you kneel down with your families. It will be greatly appreciated.
So I’ve actually gotten a lot of single emails from people asking what ‘tracting’ is. No worries my friends! It’s very understandable. Tracting is just when us as missionaries go out and knock of people doors and try to come in contact with people who will hopefully be willing to hear from us again. (:
It’s starting to get colder but still not too bad. It’s right in the mid area where sometimes it’s cold sometimes it’s still hot. Just depends on the day!
This past weekend we had a ward trunk or treat combined with another ward. There was a chili competition and of course, the missionaries were the judges. There was a lot of chili! I didn’t try all of them but I think the elders did. We let them give out the prizes haha.
Most of you should know that Halloween is coming up this week so HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! and for those of you who don’t know it’s also my dad’s birthday that day! (: So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA!! (: Everyone, wish him a happy birthday! I don’t know how old he’s turning, maybe 44? Something like that sure!
Oh yea! Church on Sunday was so great! It was the primary program! And whenever the primary sings it just brings tears to my eyes. It was so great! Then in Sunday School there was joke about how it’s a hassle to get the primary program to run and if they can get a bunch of children to work together why can’t the government do it? Then my thoughts went to home with the 500 kids in my ward ha. Not really but seems like it. I thought, if only they could see that cause it was my last Sunday before I left that it was the primary program there. Great stuff! (:
So anyways that’s really all I got. We’ve just been trying to find people or more tracting. (:
Thanks to all who have written me! I’m sorry if I couldn’t write back personally but it’s great appreciated! I love hearing about how ya’ll are doing!
With much love,
Sister Drummond
Alabama Bound
Hi ya’ll!
You have no idea how many times people say ya’ll! I love it! (:
Well to start out, my first area is Hoover, Alabama. I love it! And Alabama is very green with trees EVERYWHERE!!! It’s so great, but at the same time it’s kinda frustrating cause you get lost a lot easier. My companion is Sister Carlson who is from Provo, Utah and has been here since June. She is so great and I love her already. The ward that I’m serving in is a lot bigger than I was expecting, but that’s great! (: The members are all so kind and I’ve already eaten with three families.
So now let’s go through my my week.
Tuesday: I woke up at 2:30 AM and got ready to leave for the airport. It was cold! But I lasted. Everyone who was serving in Alabama had a change of plans and got to ride the tracks up to the airport instead of riding a bus all the way up. I kinda wished that we were on a bus, but that’s okay past and done. (: When we got to the airport I got to call my family and boy, did that sure make me cry, but it was so great to hear their voices and I sure do miss them but I know what I’m supposed to be doing. So we finally got to take off! It was fun but I was also very tired. I slept for about an hour and then wrote letters the other 2 haha. It was pretty cool to see we were flying over a GIANT stratus cloud that seemed to be over the entire south! But the first thing we saw when we went under the clouds, can you guess, I said it earlier, yes, THE TREES! We had flown into Atlanta, Georgia and again, they were everywhere! When we got off an landed in Atlanta it was kinda one of those Dorthy moments where it’s like “Well we are definitely not in Utah anymore.” The humidity really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but the people were all so kind! Crazy haha. Well we ate and then took off out of Atlanta to BIRMINGHAM!! and the pilot pronounced it ‘Burminham’ made us all laugh. (: So we were off and the flight from Atlanta to Birmingham was only 26 minutes ha. Very quick. Well we descended as soon as we were up in the air! Anyways, when we landed there was our Mission President and wife waiting for us as we came to the baggage claim. (: They were so great and kind! I love them! President Hanks, as I told him, reminded me of my bishop, Bishop Tippets and he laughed at that. It was great. So we went to this small little yellow building that was a church, for Hispanic wards, it was really cute but anyways, we ate there and got our paperwork stuff it was a long day, but guess what! All the new missionaries got to stay in a hotel that night! Pretty snazzy and I was not expecting that. (: So that’s Tuesday.
Wednesday: Woke up and got ready, got picked up from the hotel at 8:15 and drove to an actual church building about a half hour away and started our transfer meeting. We had some talks and then we got transferred around where I lost my old companion, Sister Zackrison. ): But gained my new companion, my trainer, Sister Carlson. (: We had to wait forever for me to get my interview with President Hanks cause I was the last on the list. But it was all good! Turns out though, we get a car, and it’s great, even if it is a Chevy…. but his name is Lewis and he’s pretty. (: After we got all that done we went back to our apartment where I got to look around a bit, but then we had to go to our appointment!!! This appointment was with a member who had been converted a little while back, but the bishop wanted us to check up on her. Her name is Mary Jane and she is Filipino…no idea how to spell that, but she’s from those island down below us, hopefully ya’ll know what I’m talking about! (: Anyways, she fed us and it was delicious! Had a great lesson and left. After we started to tract! Oh boy was I scared out of my mind because I was brand new and I had no idea what to say or do and just AH! But luckily my companion told me to just watch. We met a few people but we didn’t know how we felt about them and if they were really interested. Crazy. And that’s pretty much all we did Wednesday.
Thursday: My days are already jumbled together….but I think this is the day where we met with the Hoover Elders and talked about the investigators we were teaching. Well sadly neither of us have actual investigators… We’ve been tracting so much lately! But it’s okay. Well I don’t remember much about this day but this is probably the day we found Anastasia! We knocked on her door and asked if we could pray with her, she invited us in and asked if we could also add in the prayer for her to stop smoking. We did so. After we asked if there was a time we could come back and she allowed us to the next day! So great! (: I was really excited haha. After I’m sure we did more tracting…I’m terrible ha.
Friday: Friday we started out with studies as we do every morning and we got to meet with Anastasia after we had lunch. I think the lesson went very well even though she had a friend over who didn’t want to join in and was watching tv in the other room. But all in all, I still felt the spirit in our lesson about the Restoration! After we had gone and done more tracting! We were walking around and a boy yelled out his window at us “SATAN” it made me laugh really hard and made my day! I just think it was funny cause it was the first like real dislike towards us that I’ve seen. Later we had correlation with the ward missionaries. It was interesting because I had no idea what was going on at first and then we didn’t really have any investigators to talk about… Well afterwards I bet ya’ll can guess what we did. Yes! Tracting…
Sister Drummond
She Arrived Safe and Sound
Sister Drummond has reached Alabama safe and sound. She’s happy, healthy, and ready to begin. Here is her first letter.
It is so amazingly great here! Everything is so green, and the TREES!!! Holy dang! It’s still pretty warm but it’s starting to get chilly now, mostly in the mornings and at night. During the day it gets hot and in the shade its cool. Not bad though.
Everyone says I got here at just the right time. Where it’s not to hot anymore and the season is just beginning. Everyone also says it doesn’t get too cold until middle December and then January and February. 2 and 1/2 months. Not too bad.
My new companion’s name is Sister Carlson. She is so cute! She’s from Provo, Utah and she’s been out since June. She’s been in Hoover the entire time. She says she wants to stay in Hoover till after the holidays because she knows everyone. I don’t remember where Sister Zackrison went. But we are going to stay in contact! which is great!
I’ve only gotten homesick twice and both times I have prayed for comfort and reassurance and both times, I have gotten it. I love this gospel and how much it helps me in my life.
Right after we had our transfer meeting we got right into business! We had an appointment with a recent convert and at first I was a little intimidated because well I was brand new! Crazy, but it wasn’t bad. I was really scared for later that day when we went out tracting because I didn’t know how or where to begin. But it’s okay now, I’m starting to get a feel for it. (:
Well that’s about it. I’ll be giving more details in my weekly email. And I have PICTURES!!! 😀
Well I love you!
Love
Sister Drummond
Week Two!
Crazy! My second week of being a missionary and I’m already about to leave the MTC! I’m so thankful for my opportunity to be here and serve the Lord!
Something very tragic happened Wednesday night. A Sister in my district who I love oh so much! Had gotten a call and found out she had a family member pass away. She had 2 of the Elders give her a blessing and when they came back we didn’t know what was going on. But they shut the door and said we needed to have a prayer for Sister Greeley. They explained why and without hesitation we all knelt down in a circle in our classroom and said a prayer for her and her family. Our teacher had walked in on us and was in shock. She explained after that she had never walked in on something like that and was very moved. She thanked us for being the missionaries we were.
One Week! MTC Arrival!
So I have arrived at the MTC and I am so excited! To be honest I was scared but soon realized, I didn’t have to be. Everyone is so friendly and tries to help. The spirit here is so powerful I get filled no matter which building I walk into!
Sister Jesselyn Drummond 