I Finished the Book of Mormon!

Hey y'all!

Thanks for all the great emails this week! It really made my day! This week was a little hard!  Its the week before Christmas and people don't really want to see us right now and all the college kids went home for Christmas and thinking about not being home for Christmas is kinda sad! I really can't wait till i get to Skype home! Its going to be awesome! Well exciting news this week I finished the Book of Mormon! I really have only read it once before and it was all in one night with Jackie so this is the first time I really have read it and understood it! I love the book of Mormon so much.  It is an inspired book of God and it is amazing the things I have learned from it! Today I am a little late emailing because we went out to the swamp today to look for gators! It was so cool and we saw one! It was a lot of fun that was much needed! I love y'all so much!  Thank you for all your support and love! A big thank you to the Elg family for the cute package I got this week!  It made my day!! I hope to hear from y'all soon and don't forget the reason for the season! 

Love

Sister Randall

Pictures 3-5:
Searching for Alligators!

Exchanges This Week

What a week!  It was kinda a hard one but it went okay! We had exchanges this week so I was in Albany with 
Sister Barber. So that was a good break from the usual routine.  Yesterday was the best day of the week though.  So we had 9 people at church this week and there was a older lady and a younger daughter that came and sat on the front row. They where like the poster children for backwoods hicks South Georgia. So they go to bless the sacrament and the daughter lets out the biggest fart I ever heard. So we played it off continued with the meeting and then it just keeps coming!  Mind you its fast and testimony meeting so she gets up to give her testimony and she tells us she found a boyfriend who finally isn't a butt hole. Then she sits down and a counselor in the presidency gets up to talk and she farts again but this time she yells out GOSH DANG IT!  But she used other words I just filtered that. So it was a great spirit filled meeting yesterday!  Turns out they are from a different stake; they where asked not to come back to so they came to our branch. That night we went out to knock doors so we just got into the car and drove over to a place kinda close to us. It is a really nice neighborhood and typically we don't get much luck in the nice parts of town.  So I was not really excited to knock there, but the first house we knocked the family was really nice and we shared the Christmas message with them.  They said they would watch it and for us to come back in a couple days so that was really surprising. Then I saw a house down the street with awesome christmas lights so I was like "Lets go there."  So we walked up and they are all out side and the man said, "Hey how are you and waved us over and we went over and he was like "I know who you are!  Your missionaries and I know about the celestial kingdom and I have read your book! That was a little shocking! So they invited us in and we had sugar cookies and talked a little more! Turns out missionaries had come by his house 3 years ago and taught him but then he said they went home! They are so cool and they invited us back for Christmas to talk with their family as well. The husband said to his wife "I was going to ask you to join their church but then you would get stuck with me forever! HAHA  After a hards week it was good to end it meeting awesome people like that! Well I love y'all so much! Don't forget to keep the Savior the focus this season!

Love 
Sister Randall

This is the only picture she sent home this week!  I think she wanted us to see the moss hanging from the tree! Very Beautiful!

Food Drive Service

Wow what a week! This week was a struggle, not very many people want to meet with us because of Thanksgiving.. but we got to go and help out at this food drive thing the day before Thanksgiving. So basically people just drive up and we put food in their car.  It was really humbling to see some people who lived in their car with their kids coming to get food for Thanksgiving. After that we went to a lady in our wards house, her name is Sister Paterson and we helped her clean her kitchen so she could have a good Thanksgiving.. well she has 12 cats and they can go to the bathroom where ever they feel like it and every thing has an inch of hair all over it mixed in with dirt and who knows what.. the cabinets where brown when we finished cleaning they where white.. Any ways haha I enjoy going over there she is so funny!  Thanksgiving was great! That morning we got up to go to a feed the homeless event (a lady told the elders about it).  We showed up at this parking lot and no one was there and every one we asked never heard of it,  so this lady made up feeding the homeless hahahah! We went to the Neffs for Thanksgiving dinner and it was really great!  They have an awesome family and the sweet potatoes where amazing! We got to see some cool people this week!  We met with a lady named Leslie she was so awesome! She showed us her AA chips and told us her story and just cried and cried!  She is so strong we talked a lot about the gospel and I gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet and she was so excited.  She gave an amazingly powerful prayer! It was awesome! Then Friday night we had dinner with a member in our ward and Megan their young woman age daughter wanted to go knock with us on her street.  So we went down to this house and knocked and the younger lady was like come in!  They where having a birthday party for their 3 year old and they where like "want cake or chilly?"  They where like "tell us what you are doing?" So we started talking and every one was really awesome and into it. And then the couple that let us in was like "we have to go to a work party,  but y'all stay as long as you want and if you get too tired to go home there is two extra rooms!" We stayed and talked to the brother who lives with them and the mom who is from Florida. He was really interested and told us he feels like something is missing in his life so he wants to get baptized! He is so cool like I would be his friend at home! haha!  So I asked him if he would read the pamphlet we gave? He said "no not unless I long board!  So we went outside and I long boarded in my skirt!  Hahaha!  This week was really great! Don't forget to check out christmas.mormon.org its awesome! Speaking of Christmas I made a pretty sweet christmas tree! Love y'all!

Sister Randall

Pictures:

Food Drive Service

Thanksgiving In Valdosta, Georgia

Sister Randall & Sister Platt

Sister Randalls Zone!

YIKES!

Shelby's Christmas Tree

This sign was posted in Hamilton Georgia, Sister Randall's first area!  

Another week down in V-town!

This week was good! Another week down in V-town! We were able to go to VSU campus and do our booth.  Its a little hard cause we have to be up on this platform and we are not aloud to come off of it and we have to try and get people to come over and talk to us. Most people just look at us! But we all sang some songs and it got people to stop! It probably just sounded really bad haha! But we are working hard to get more people to stop and talk with us and to get more young people interested! Who knew they could be so hard headed! It's ridiculous! But we did have one girl named Jackie get confirmed this week! She was baptized before I got here she is really amazing.  I love meeting with her and talking about life with her she is great! We also help out with the family ward so we are working with a lady Sherine.  She  is so strong and amazing! She is a Muslim and her dad is really upset that she is thinking about joining a christian church! But she knows that she can't go back. We also had a great district pday last week and an amazing district meeting! We have a senior couple in our district and I love them so much!!! Also there is this cool thing that they do here! So this tracker came into our apartment complex with a bunch of bails and I was like why?  So then we came out and there was all this stuff around the trees and stuff and I was like why did they put all this hay around the trees? This is stupid! So we went to dinner that night at a members house and I asked them about it and apparently its called pine straw and they put it around the trees for looks! They thought I was so funny cause I thought it was old hay.. So that's the funny story for the week! Well I love being a missionary!  I hope y'all have a great Thanksgiving! I am so grateful for the Gospel and the blessing it is in my life and I am extremely thankful for the temple and the amazing opportunity we have to be together as families!

Pictures:
The Pine Straw around the trees.
District!!

  

Amazing Week

Hey y'all! This week was amazing! So on Monday night we where in charge of the empty nesters,  so we went and sang with them. It was really awesome to sing old baptist songs! Haha,  but we did sing "I am a child of god" with jesse and that was so cute! Tuesday was so funny so we have this investigator and she came out side her apartment and was like "I got to tell y'all something bad!  I got to confess and we where like oh great she had an abortion, but then she was like so I accidentally flushed my keys down the toilet.  She was so upset about it and freaking out that someone was going to find her keys and come in her house hahaha! Wednesday was awesome! I got to go over to Auburn Alabama on splits.  I went to the institute and the college and all that fun stuff.  It was really awesome! Thursday we had zone training meeting in the morning so that was fun! The best part was Tamisha! So we met her a couple weeks ago and she wasn't interested but we saw her at one of our other investigators house and she was like "I will just sit in on the lesson. So we taught about the restoration and she asked a lot of questions and she started crying when we talked about the preistood. I said how do you feel and she started dancing and saying "I finally found it! She was so excited about the message she was dancing! So we challenged her to be baptized on October 17th  with her kids and she accepted!!  She is so amazing!  We are working with her every day! Saturday was fun too we went to the ranch and worked and all the Elders came with us and helped! We had a blast!! Well love y'all.  Hope to hear from you soon! 

Valdosta

Wow what a week! So I have been transferred down south to Valdosta! We cover the ysa ward for Valdosta State and only one person came to church on Sunday so we got a lot of work to do! My new comp is amazing! She is so funny we get along so great! This area is so big so its goin to take some time to get used to! But thats all right! I talked to the missionaries in Pine Mountain, Tamisha is doing so great and she got a job! I miss all the people in that area so much! I cried more leaving there than I did leaving home! I love this mission so much and for the opportunity we have to grow and learn.  There is so much work to be done and I love it! This area has a Walmart so that's good! And we get to go on campus and teach and meet people! Well I love yall so much! Keep on choosing the right! PS congrats to rhett on his mission call.  You are going to be amazing!!!!

Pictures:
Sister Platt is Shelby's new companion
Silly goofy girls!

Sister Vicki, Transfer to Valdosta

Sister Randall with Sister Vicki Talley!  I like to call her Sister Vicki.  She has been my saving grace with Shelby only being out for 3 months.  We have had phone calls and many text and emails let last 3 months.  Shelby was transferred today to Valdosta, GA.  She was sad to leave the great people in the Hamilton area!  I know she will miss them all so much!  Thank you so much to Sister Vicki, Sister Jennifer Reeves, & Sister Tamisha for taking care of my daughter!  We will forever be sisters in Christ!

Tamisha and the Kids Got Baptized!

Hey y'all! Wow what a week! So this week was finally the week for Tamisha and the kids to be baptized! So Saturday morning we got up to go to the church to get the font ready to go and we opened it up and there was waist high with green filthy water with worms crawling around and mold and bugs! And it was two hours before the baptism was going to start so we called the elders who always help us out and  Brother Pitts the branch mission leader and they both said they where about 45 minutes away and they would be right there so don't do any thing! Well, I couldn't just stand there so I hiked up my skirt and got in the font and tried to unstop the drain! It wasn't workin to well so we called the elders asked what we should do and they said get the plunger and plunge the drain do that's what i did haha! When brother pitts got there he said "my oh my you must have pioneer ancestors your tough kid!" haha So the elders showed up and we decided that we would get buckets and fill them up with the water and dump them down the toilets to get the font cleaned out so we could at least fill it. So we got down in there and started filling and poring it down the toilets and we realized that when you poor it down the toilet it comes up the drain in the font... so all that yummy stuff in the font was coming straight from the toilets. So Brother Pitts told us we are not having the baptism.. but I said I have worked to hard and these people have come to far not to be baptized! So I told the Elders to go back up to there building 45 minutes away and fill the font. but then we had another problem the confirmations are done in church the next day but due to the septic tank we would not be having church the next day so we needed permission to confirm font side. I called the APs and they wouldn't give me an answer so I called President and asked the guy at the top and he said Its a go! So we all drove 45 minutes to get them baptized and so many people came it was amazing! It was the best moment of my life!  I love them so much! But then that night we got transfer calls and I got word that I would be transfered... so tomorrow I leave the most amazing place on earth and I am going who knows where and I'm training! So this should be interesting! I know the Lord has a plan and I know that this is his work and I am here for a reason.  I love these people so much! Hope to hear from ya'll soon!  Love ya! 

Pictures:
Sister Randall is not going to give up on getting this baptism done!  She loves Tamisha and was so excited for her! 
Sister Randall, Sister Girvin, Tamisha & girls!  Shelby loves these sweet people!

Visiting Sis. Walker

Visiting with Sister Walker!  Catching up on each other!

Sister Walker's post:
Soooo excited for this woman to make one of the best decisions of her life tomorrow!!! Tamisha has chosen to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by the priesthood authority of God!!! I am so blessed to know her and to have been able to be there for part of her spiritual journey. I know that we are all meant to be in each other's lives for a reason and these three wonderful women have blessed mine beyond anything I could ever repay!

Baptism of Tamisha

Well, yesterday was full of emotions I am sure from Sister Randall.  She was able to attend the baptism for her dear Sister Tamisha.  I have not gotten pictures of this yet. I will post later.  Sister Randall got her first transfer call last night.  Not sure where she is headed but I know she is going to be great!  This is a post from a sweet Sister Reeves!

"I'm going to miss this sister so freaking much thank u for everything that u have done for us."

Braided Hair

Here is a link to Sister Randall getting her hair braided by Tamisha!  It was so good to hear her voice of the video!  I love and miss her so much but she is having a wonderful time.

https://www.facebook.com/jennifercourtneyjessica/videos/1125010717533218/

A Hurricane!

Wow well there is a hurricane going on outside right now! LOL. I just walked to the library up to my ankles in water! And it's not letting up soon! Well, this week was good, kinda a slow one with Halloween and all that but Tamisha got a new place! She hasn't had water heat or electric for over a year and she finally got a new place so we have been helping her out a lot with painting and trying to get donations from the branch.  She has nothing but beds right now. But this is going to be so great for them to get into a place that they can call home!  I'm so happy for them. Halloween was fun we went to the ranch and Brother Monte had a party. It was cool some other missionaries got to come for a bit.  We went on hay rides and night fishing and they had a big ol' fire! 
But Sunday was the best! We had fast and testimony meeting and we had 10 investigators there!!!! 
& 4 of them got up to give their testimonies! It was great Tamisha got up and i just cried! I love her so much! Next time you hear from me there will be 3 new members of the pine mountain branch! I cant wait for it they are so ready and I am so ready to see them progress! Well I love y'all hope to hear from you soon!

Love, 
Sister Randall

Pictures:
Shelby loving the Georgia Rain!!
Tamisha holding her key to her new house!  Shelby has really grown to love this sweet lady!

Focusing on our Investigators

Well another week goes by! This week was kinda laid back, we have really been focusing on our investigators that are getting baptized in two weeks!!!! So we spent most of our time with them making sure they are all ready for the baptism and we get all the lessons in for them. At church they talked all about temples and family history work and Tamisha was just crying and told every one she cant wait until she is baptized so she can go to the temple and get baptized for her mom! It was the sweetest thing in the world. So i think we are going to find some one to take her down to the family history center in Columbus so she can get started she just is so excited about it all it really is amazing! Saturday we went and did service at the ranch all day that is always fun i love helping out there and we have jasmine and robert who live there they are like 15 and 16 and they are so fun! robbert gave me a snapping turtle shell its so cool its like the coolest thing any one has ever given me lol! i have really been trying to read the book of mormon all the way threw i started mosiah friday and i finished it last night i love it so much it is an amazing book i just cant stop reading it!!! haha but i encourage y'all to ready the book of mormon cover to cover and make a little highlighting key of things you want to get out of it. its amazing all the little things you will find well i love y'all have a good week hear from ya soon!

Well another week goes by! This week was kinda laid back, we have really been focusing on our investigators that are getting baptized in two weeks!!!! So we spent most of our time with them making sure they are all ready for the baptism and we get all the lessons in for them. At church they talked all about temples and family history work and Tamisha was just crying and told every one she cant wait until she is baptized so she can go to the temple and get baptized for her mom! It was the sweetest thing in the world. So i think we are going to find some one to take her down to the family history center in Columbus so she can get started she just is so excited about it all it really is amazing! Saturday we went and did service at the ranch all day that is always fun i love helping out there and we have Jasmine and Robert who live there they are like 15 and 16 and they are so fun! Robert gave me a snapping turtle shell its so cool its like the coolest thing any one has ever given me lol! I have really been trying to read the Book of Mormon all the way threw.  I started Mosiah Friday and I finished it last night! I love it so much it is an amazing book.  I just cant stop reading it!!! haha But I encourage y'all to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover and make a little highlighting key of things you want to get out of it. Its amazing all the little things you will find!  Well I love y'all have a good week hear from ya soon!

Turtle shell given to Shelby by Robert

Tamisha's House

Helped the Red Cross

The Columbus Zone also had the opportunity to help the Red Cross with their Home Fire Prevention Campaign. They had a great turnout and installed many smoke alarms.

This Week was Good!

Wow this week was good! We had our first district meeting of the transfer and I had to give a training on prayer!  We also had exchanges this week so I got to go to Columbus with Sister Dayton! And if you have been keeping up with my letters you will know that putting us together was probably not the best idea we came out together and we are both crazy! It was so fun! We sang Josh Groban at the top of our lungs with the windows down and some guy tried to give us a pack of cigarettes so I gave him a picture of Jesus! lol We had a great time! It is so cold here in the mornings and at night.  I am wearing two sweat shirts and pants to bed and two blankets!  If someone wants to take pity on me a pair of fuzzy socks would be greatly appreciated! Tamisha and her kids are doing so great! A family in the ward invited her and her kids over for dinner with us and we had a great time and had a little testimony meeting after and Tamisha cried and bore her testimony it was so great! They also came to church on Sunday and she shared what she thought in sunday school so thats  really good! And then our investigator Lee who missionaries have been working with for two years because he has been waiting to get off parole passed me a note in sunday school that had October 20th written on it after sunday school he said that he is going down to meet with his parole officer.  So it looks like things are looking up for him so we might have 5 baptisms coming up! On saturday we went to the ranch with the elders to do service and Brother Monte let us go fishing so I caught  a couple baby fishes hahah! Well hope to hear from y'all soon!  Love, Sister Randall

"If I don't got nothin' nice to say don't say it at all"

Well this week was alright! I didn't send an email out last week cause my mom told me, "If I don't got nothin' nice to say don't say it at all" Hahah!  This week was better we have a family of 4 on date to be baptized on November 7! So that's exciting! We have been working hard this week! We made all of our goals except 1 so that is pretty good! This transfer has been kinda challenging so far but I guess I need to learn something. So we had a fall festival this week in Phoenix City Alabama and our investigators wanted to come and we set up a ride with a member and thirty minutes before the festival the member called and said I don't really feel like picking them up so I went on with out them... It took every thing I had not to swear at her! So I had to call the family and tell them she wasn't coming to get them.  She was so sad and upset. So me and my comp went and got stuff to make dinner and carve pumpkins for the next day to make it up to them. Later that night she texted us and said she doesn't think she wanted to be baptized any more but they would come to church the next day and see how it was. So she came to church and they loved it! Everyone was so nice to them! After church we took them dinner and pumpkins and they said they want to be baptized still and that they loved church! So things are still good here! I love them so much! They are so great & I can't wait to see them grow in the church!!!!!

Love, Sister Randall

Struggles

Well, our email today from Shelby was a little sad.  She is struggling with her new companion.  She told Shelby that she is not there to be her friend and that she hates to talk to people.  Well, if any of you know Shelby that is just opposite of her personality.  So Shane & I both counseled her serve this sweet sister and to be positive and uplifting to also seek the guidance of our Heavenly Father and He will help her to know how to handle and react to her companion.  As her mom I just want to jump on a plane and go to Georgia to help her, but I know I can't rescue her from this.  I hope that she diligently will pray and ask for help from our Father in Heaven.  It broke my heart today!

Here are a few pictures she sent us today!
A member's truck and we all know how much Shelby Loves trucks!
A Bug that shelby found!
This is Lee learning to tie  a tie!  He is waiting to get baptized.  He has to be off of parol first.  Shelby said that his testimony is so strong!
This is a quote that I sent to Shelby this morning.  I love it.  If we all just keep moving forward one step at a time we will succeed and Heavenly Father will rejoice.  

General Conference

Sister Shelby Randall & Sister Girvin, Conference Sunday 2015.  Watched Conference with Sister Vicky Talley and Family!  I love that my daughter is loved by so many members in Georgia!