Sister Marli MacLay: Sister Lloyds Birthday week

Sister Lloyd and I in our matching granny suits, crocheting.

Hey, so apparently the group email I sent last week didn't go through (again

). So here it is:

This week was pretty great! We had a birthday party for Sister Lloyd after district meeting Tuesday, complete with ice cream cake, martinellis, and party favors.

We went on a nice drive through the country, about 20 miles on dirt and mud roads, to get to a potentials house...but he wasn't there. Dang Jesse.

Sister Lloyd's actual birthday was quite eventful. We were planning on just a normal day with lessons and riding our bikes. But we had so many close calls; cars do not care about us here. I swear people were purposely trying to hit us. We for real almost got hit 10 times. And then there were the dogs. Dogs are a huge problem in Brady, I think I've mentioned it before. Nobody really has fences or chains up their crazy dogs. We had so many dogs chase after us Thursday. The scariest was when we were coming home from Mac's BBQ for her birthday dinner. When we were leaving, our waitress asked us if we wanted to go Dr. Peppers and Sister Lloyd panicked and said yes, even though we were on our bikes. So, we had to carry our leftovers and to go drinks on our bikes home lol. When we were coming up to our apartment, this stupid pit bull started chasing after us (the same one that tried attacking me in the alley). He was about to get sister Lloyd, like inches away from biting her when she chucked her Dr. Pepper at him, which made him go away. Hahaha...he was out to freaking kill her...Dr. Pepper saves lives y'all. We also got super sick when we got home from Mac's BBQ. Happy birthday Sister Lloyd! Lol

On Saturday we had an awesome lesson with Don Menefield and Brother Mudre. Brother Mudre is the New Yorker who used to be an Italian Mafia leader. He's legit the coolest ever, and his story has been shared at conferences and whatnot. But yeah, we were definitely inspired to bring Brother Mudre with us...they had so much in common. Both of their wives passed away at young ages when their daughters were 11. They both lived in Atlanta, etc. It was an amazing, spirit filled lesson about the hope of Christ's light.

Saturday we also got to go to the volunteer fire departments fundraiser. It was a fish fry and an auction. One of our member's husband is a volunteer firefighter and invited us. He isn't a member and we're hopefully going to start teaching their family the lesson slyly. So many people told us before the auction to not bid on the cakes. We were just like...okay...but the cakes auctioned off for up to $800. Just normal sheet cakes lol. BUT MIRACLE we met the guy, Jesse, who we went on the country road drive for! And he said we could come and teach him anytime (:

Sunday was awesome too! There was a picnic at the park that several churches in town organized. Brother Mudre invited us and we went after church with him. Later that day, we also got to go to another community church music event at the Epicostal church. One of our members was playing as well as one of our less active members, Miguel. They both did awesome and we got to hear a lot of good gospel music by different denominations. The awesome part though was we have been to Miguel's house many times and talked to his nonmember wife and his kids, but he never would come and meet us. We saw the back of his head once, and that was it. After the thingy was done, we got to talk to him and he told us to "Come by the house anytime" !!!! So yeah, heart. softened. Him and his band went so hard when they were playing. And he sung all in Spanish to this crowd of old white people and us. Haha.

So yeah, Brady is the best, even though it's definitely one of the hardest areas in the mission. The faith of the branch members here is amazing. Every single one of them is a convert. Even my comp is a convert so I'm the only one there who isnt lol. They never cease to amaze me with their faith and diligence. Even though being a member of the church is really hard here, they have built their foundations on Christ.

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (Helaman 5:12)