Well then, today is a beautiful day! I'm enjoying this emailing session from the beautiful lakeside home of the Isaksens. We got special permission from President to spend Mother's day weekend here because they live so far away and they volunteered to tour us around Abbeville. Abbeville was the first place in South Carolina to vote to Secede from the Union and the first to vote to end the civil war as well.

Not sure how missionaries were ever able to coordinate things before they had telephones-Danielle Allen’s phone bill hadn’t been paid yet so we couldn't call her. We were supposed to have dinner with her tonight at 5 w/ Ladaisha as well, but Ladaisha couldn't do it until 6. We knew Danielle would be fine with it, but we needed some way to contact her about the time change, without using all the miles to drive down there ourselves. Solution?=The Jamesons! They’re amazing, an acted as our impromptu carrier pigeons, they live down the street from the Allens and told us they’d get in contact with them. When we showed up at 6 with Ladaisha we felt horrible about how it had all worked out. The Allen s were gone most of the day, and the Jameson’s weren’t able to get ahold of them until right before 5. But she’s super sweet about it. We had a good time at dinner, she made us a feast of breakfast for dinner and afterwards when we were able to sit down for a little lesson, Ladaisha said that as she’s been learning more about the church and getting involved she’s felt peace, yup that’s the spirit.

We dropped by Mike’s for our lesson, and as we pulled into Mike's home he was fuuuuming mad. His mom’s ex-boyfriend had pulled in a little before we got here and had hit their car, he (the ex) was now crazy drunk inside, and Mike’s mom wasn’t even around. We timidly stood by our car surveying the scene before we walked over, and we heard Mike use some very choice language I never would've imagined him using around us. The old me would've just taken the easy way out, and tell him we’d be back at a better time, but Sis Hendrix and I both felt that Mike needed to know we were there for him, during convenient or not so convenient times. We of course asked it there was anything we could do to help, confidently knowing there wasn’t much we could do. The whole time we awkwardly stood around, not knowing what to do, but knowing we shouldn't leave. We chatted with Daniel and Joe a little bit. A proud parent moment, was when the drunk boyfriend staggered outside asking for cigarettes and Mike informed him multiple times that he didn’t have any! Yes! Before we finally left, we were talking with Mike and he just admitted that this was just another obstacle, and that he could be patient.

We pulled off next to a park to discern how to best spend the rest of our night, we weren’t sure if Joanne and Destini would be home because they hadn’t answered our calls, and we were hesitant to drive all the way out there because we’re trying to conserve miles. We prayed, listened, and were still a little stuck. We made a few phone calls and after it all sis Hendrix felt like we should still go out there, I wasn’t feeling inclined in any direction, but there was a family in the park. We decided to go with Sis Hendrix's prompting, but not before we reached out to this family. Turned out we both were inspired, the mother was pretty interested, and super nice as we had a little lesson with her, annnnd when we went out to Destini’s she was home! We had a lesson sitting in the car reading 3 nephi 11. I noticed something written in the front of her BofM that said “this is more than just a book, it is a record from God”-I asked Sis Hendrix if she’d written that and she said it wasn’t her, so neat! Destini had already started marking things and as we’d read she point out verses she liked and then we’d talk about it.

welp, that's all folks!

have a blessed day....love y'all so much!

sister smith:):)