Laurel's Missionary Journey

Hello Loved Ones!! If you didn't notice the pun in the subject line, I would like to point it out to you. I am now in Pace Florida. And I am Pacing myself. It's dumb, I know. But it is the little things in life <3 This week has been insane!! On Monday Sister Kitchen and I prepped like crazy for the new Sisters that are in Fox Run now. In the middle of all the frantic packing, we went to the beach for the last time with our crazy wonderful district and we went and got Sushi with Autumn. She took us to a memorial in Pensacola for lost and abused children. It was overlooking the water, and being there with Her and Sister Kitchen is a memory I will always treasure. Those two girls are my Sisters, no doubt about it. We are going to have some wonderful reunions after our missions are over and then again in Heaven. On Tuesday we went out to lunch with some of the members in the ward, the Soresons. I had mentioned to them that I had never had raw oysters before and I would...

SO I have some news friends!!! But first, some highlights from the week. This week in the Fox Run Ward, two people were baptized, entering into a covenant with Heavenly Father. One is a man named Kenny Pedicord, who recently has been being taught by the Elders. However, he started his journey with Sister Adams and I all the way back in October. He is a great man and a diligent disciple of the savior. If there was ever a man who loved God, it was Kenny. He walked out of the font and got changed in a brand new suit, and I felt like there was no place in the universe I would rather be than there, seeing the Atonement of Christ work in Kenny's life. Autumn Herndon was also baptized. She truly is, I believe, the reason I was here in Fox Run for so long. The Lord knew I needed her. She had become one of my best and closest friends, and I know that that will last for this life and for eternity. After she was baptized she came out of the font dripping wet, and Sister Kitchen and I just...

This week has been insane. So many things have happened I do not even know what the most important things are!!! On Tuesday we went on exchanges, so I spent the day in Gulf Breeze with Sister Call and Sister Kitchen led out the area here in Fox Run for the first time. She did great!! I loved working with Sister Call as well. She is a great person and I great leader, and I learned a lot from her. It was also nice to go to another place for a while. I love Fox Run with all my heart, but I have been here 7 months now and I realized I basically know at least one person that lives on most of the streets here. So it was good to go somewhere and see some new things for a while. On Wednesday we had interviews with our Mission President. It was amazing, like it always is. Everything President Smith says is always so inspired from God. I am so grateful for him and for his council. When we were talking I mentioned that I have been in my area for 7 months, and he told me that I was about due for...

Hey All!!! OKAY so I am so grateful to God for this week!!!! Autumn is doing so so well, and she is beyond excited for her baptism. We went and tried on white jumpsuits for her baptism, and when I saw her in it I just started crying. (And it wasn't even her actual baptism yet!!!) She is so amazing and just makes my heart so happy and I am so grateful that we are going to get to be friends for all eternity. I truly believe with all my heart that I needed to serve in Fox Run for 7 months so that I would get to be here to help Autumn on her journey, and she would be able to help me on mine. In fact, this week I have been thinking so much about the specific people I have been called to serve. Since we are a Facebook mission now, I was able to reach out to many of the members from the Madison Branch, where I served when I was just a new missionary. I realized that since coming here to the Florida Tallahassee mission, there are so many people that have become a part of who I am, investi...

So! This week has been one of the most influential weeks of my life up to this point! The highlight was certainly this Saturday, which will take up most of my email. :D So on Friday night we drove down to Fort Walton Beach, and then on Saturday morning we got up at about 5 in the morning to drive all the way to Panama City Beach for the full-mission conference with Elder Parker of the Quorum of the 70, Elder Costa of the Quorum of the 70, and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. There were so many amazing things said, but I will share a few highlights. Elder Parker talked a lot about what we are doing, and that as missionaries, we do the work that Peter and Paul were killed for. He told us that when he was called as a mission president, he brought all of his family together and explained that he was going to be gone for three years. Many of his family members were not members of the church, and they asked him if he was, perhaps, taking this whole Mormon thing ...