December 15, 2014

Howdy everybody!

 Can you believe that it has been almost 6 weeks since Strickland left? Goodness So this week was great! Monday we just did the same stuff. e then went to see a potential named K.. That was well just really, awkward. #righton. That is all he said  and we found out that it is just him and his dad that live there. We told the Elders to go see him.  He was pretty receptive to the Book of Mormon. 

 Tuesday we went to the Zoo! That was so much Fun. I have never seen a 27 year old Elder so excited about birds. We had a lot of fun.We went with our whole District. That lasted until about 1:30 then we had a church tour planned for 2 but they cancelled. We then practiced out District introductions for half mission.  That  was  really fun.  Then we went to a members for dinner.  We saw R. and E. she was sick  we then went to see the sisters and practiced  for Half mission. We did a pageant for our District intros.

Wednesday we worked at the thrift shop and saw V. and A. We  saw and a few other people as well. Thursday was Half Mission Conference. That was so much fun! We did musical performances that lasted about 2 hours. We then had lunch which was catered by Sunny's  BBQ that was really great! We then did our district intro's and ours was great! Everyone now thinks I breed Jelly Fish in my free time! Haha. We did our stocking exchange. I got Sister Rohwer. I got her a bunch of random stuff. I think she liked it. The sister who had me was a senior sister. She made me a ton of homemade candy. Which was so good! She also made me a scarf and a few other things. I loved it. We then got to watch Meet the Mormons! That was so good! It really was a great movie! After Half mission we came home and went to the Relief Society Progressive Dinner. That was good. That lasted the rest of the night.

Friday we saw our usual people, and  we talked to a lot of people. We saw R. and E. We also had dinner with a member.  Then we did our missionary movie night. That was a lot of fun!

Saturday we tried to see miss K. but she wasn't home. We then went to the thrift store. We then saw V. After that we did weekly planning. We then had a big dinner with some ward members. They cooked us Ribs and BBQ Chicken, it was really good. We then had missionary Volleyball. That was a lot of fun!  Sunday we did a lot of contacting after church. We talked to 10 people in 45 mins. We then had dinner and saw C. That was all really good! So, I'm sorry this letter is really boring this week, nothing too exciting happening here. E. is still doing well. She is done drinking now. She has come so far. I cant believe when we met her she was drinking an 18 pack of beer a week and now she is off completely. It is crazy what Heavenly Father can do when you put your trust in him. I know that he really does help us in whatever way we need. He really does answer our prayers when and how they need to be answered. He loves us so much. He wants what is best for us. I hope y'all have a great week and remember why we celebrate Christmas. I love each one of you!  Thanks for everything you do!

Love, Sister Hannah Seegrist

December 08, 2014 - Lessons, Movie Nights and Service

Hey everyone!

 This week was just another fast one. Can y'all believe that I have been out for 4 months! Time really does just fly by! I don't really know what happened this week.

On Monday we just filled out Christmas Cards. 

Tuesday we had District Meeting, that was good. Then we went to see some less actives, also we went to visit with R. and E.  E. is doing so well! She even wanted to move her Baptismal date up. But she has wait a bit longer :) 

Wednesday  we worked at the thrift store, we saw C. We then saw J.. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon. We then set up an appointment with her then we had dinner. We also tried to visit some more less actives, but nobody was home. We did get in to see the C's. They really are so nice to us. Every time we go over there they give us some kind of food or money to buy food, it is ridiculously nice of them.. 

Thursday was really long.  We saw R. and E. tried to visit with some of our investigators, contacted some referrals, had dinner and a lesson with V. and A. That went so well! Then we had correlation meeting. 

Friday was another long day. We tried to see a less active but she was sick. We then finished weekly planning. We saw another less active and had another great lesson with Vi. We made some candy pretzels with her. We then saw Va. She is doing good.  :) We also had dinner and another lesson with R. and E. with Sister C.. That was really great!  Then we had movie night, gotta love MMN ( Missionary Movie Night). It is great! We watched The Testaments. #Churchfilms 

Saturday was full of service. We helped Sister K. move. We then worked at the thrift store. Then we helped clean Sister K. house. Then we tried to see another less active but the wife wasn't home so we couldn't go inside. We walked around and talked to some people. We then had dinner and went to volleyball. We do volleyball every Saturday night! I love it! 

Sunday we went to church. None of our investigators showed up. E. was sick. Then  after church we went to see a less active on the Island. Then we talked to a few people. We also tried to see some potentials but they were not home. Then we had dinner with Sister L. She is great! Then we watched The Christmas Devotional, which was really good! I hope y'all got to watch it, if not I would encourage you to watch it.

Today we went to the beach! I saw some dead Jelly Fish. The beaches here are so pretty! The sand is just so soft and bright,  also did you know that Navarre has the longest pier in the Gulf of Mexico? At least it was before the last hurricane wiped it out. I still think it's the longest though. 

So this next week should be really great. We have  a district activity tomorrow. We are going to the Zoo. That should be fun,  that is what my district wants to do. Hopefully I will get y'all some pictures next week. On Thursday we have Half Mission Conference! We get to watch "Meet The Mormons" I am super excited! I am pretty sure we are the only mission that hasn't seen it yet. haha We also are doing a gift exchange. I got Sister R. to buy gifts for. I'm glad it was her. She is the only Sister I really know on this half of the mission. haha. On Sunday is Sister C. half birthday so we are celebrating. Well I hope you have a great week. I love you!! Thanks for the support. You all are awesome! Remember that God loves you. I love y'all. Have a great week! 

Love, Sister Hannah Seegrist 

December 1, 2014 Condemned to _ _ _ _.

 

Hey everyone!

I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was good!

 I had my first bashing and condemned to h_ _ _. I have never been told that I was going to h_ _ _ _ for what I was doing. We were walking around this neighborhood and we saw these two guys outside, the one guy had just  pulled up as we were walking.  I was like "lets not talked to them".  I was just kind was drawn to them, then it was too late!  I tried to give them a family history card and the one guy (basher) asked if we were Mormon. We said yes, then that is when it all started. He  was tearing apart Joseph Smith and calling him a liar saying that anyone who believes in him and what he said is a liar. We tried to leave and he was like " No, I'm almost done, then he would talk for another 10 minutes. We finally were like "We really have to go!" We shook his hand and walked away after 30 minutes of him just telling us we were going to H_ _ _.  The funny thing was that the brother that was outside was standing up for us. He was saying all this stuff to prove his brother wrong.  The basher was from California #weirdcalifornians! haha...  He also told us that God lead us to talk to him and his brother. That they were placed right there at the time so he could "Help" us. I just don't understand how people think they are being Christ like when they are just ripping down other peoples faith! Even though for me it was actually a testimony builder. 

      Tuesday we had District meeting which was really good! It was about obedience. We then saw some investigators and less actives and had dinner at a members house. 

     Wednesday we followed the promptings of the spirit and went back like half a mile just to talk to this person we had passed while biking.  I don't know if anything will come about from it but it was cool. We saw this girl sitting on the porch, the house was a ways set back in the yard. We had just passed them then Sister Cooper and I both felt like we should have talked to them. We both tried to justify it but we couldn't.  So after biking about half a mile up the road, we turned around. She was still outside so we walked up to her and come to find out she is only in middle school. (We had previously planned to talk to them about the Plan of Salvation.) We asked her if her parents were home. She went and got her dad. When he came out 2 more kids came out. They were super nice. We gave them a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and our phone number. I Don't know if anything will come out of it but at least we talked to them. 

    On Thanksgiving we had 3 meals. I felt so fat, the last house we went to was a non member in gulf breeze. We work at the thrift store with her.  I had to drive the 15 minutes home.  I have never had a big creepy fire truck come up behind me blaring it's horns!! 

    On Friday we went and visited some less active members,  that was good! Then we had movie night and went on exchanges. Sister Dyches came with me here in Navarre! That was a lot of fun! She is a great missionary. She is super fun as well! 

    On Saturday we still were on exchanges.  This lady asked if I was pregnant this week!  I was like "NO!"  it was because the skirt I was wearing was pulled up over my belly while we were biking and it was kind of tight so I pulled it down.  She was like " oh my gosh, I'm sorry you don't look pregnant it was just  the way the skirt was.  I haven't eaten anything since then.. jk.  me not eating? PSH Bahaha, that's like saying Santa isn't fat!

     Sunday was really good! We found a new investigator her name is Virginia. She is super sweet, she is about 25 maybe. Her boyfriend is a Mormon but isn't active. His records aren't in the ward. We met her through a less active that we see every week! She said we should go and see them sometime. Then about 10 minutes after talking about it she came over to her house. We met yesterday, we started talking to her and she said we could come over sometime and see them. We went to see her yesterday and chatted for an hour and then we set up two return appointments with them. They are feeding us dinner on Thursday! 

On Friday we will do something else with her! She has the cutest puppy ever! Those Teacup Pomeranians are so cute! It looks like a big gerbil. She only weighs one pound. I wanted to just stuff it into my backpack. Then we had dinner and a interesting rest of the night.  If y'all haven't already you should watch the "He is the Gift" Video,  it is super good!

 I love y'all so much! I hope you have a wonderful week! Sorry if some of this letter is all over the place.  Here is a picture of our crazy pyramid of all the sisters in our zone.

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Love, Sister Hannah Seegrist

November 24, 2014 "The Giraffe was Creeping!"

So to start off, this was THE FASTED WEEK EVER!

Time just flies by like you wouldn't believe! It doesn't seem like it was last week when I emailed y'all..

It really has just been a CrAzY week!! We got dumbed by our "Investigator." She told us to  "Google the Momentum]Church, it's awesome Rock and Role" They teach mega anti-Mormon stuff and I'm pretty sure people only go because it's on the beach sometimes. Oh well, she has still been nice to us. She texted us and told us Happy Thanksgiving. Her heart will be softened someday, I'm sure! We also had some less actives that we have been working with tell us not to come over right now. Which is fine, I guess. In their own time, I suppose. So other then that roughness of the week. We had Zone Training in P-Cola. We then had Zone Activity. We played Football. That was a lot of fun! (kind of..) I looked like a dancing chicken, haha...We also had some lessons that day! :) We also had a great dinner with M. and V. They made us steak! We saw some less actives, we went tracting for the first time for me! It's so scary going up to doors.. it was fun though. So Friday marked my 3 months here in Navarre! It has been so great! I absolutely love it! I love the ward here and I love everyone we meet! We have met some pretty interesting souls.'
 We went to the Island yesterday! It was stormy all yesterday but when it cleared up a little we drove to the Island and saw a less active lady that lives over there. We also walked and looked at the water. It was so creepy looking! I have never seen the Gulf so angry! It looked like a bad day at the California beaches. It was dark and waves were crashing like there was a hurricane a'comin. Sketchy! haha, it was cool though. So today we are going out to lunch with the B. They are the senior couple in Brewton, AL. They are coming to take us to this BBQ place. #Carnivore.  I can't believe that this week is Thanksgiving! This year went by so fast! I remember what I did last Thanksgiving. It is going to be weird not being with family over the holidays, but I hear that it just doesn't feel like they happened, haha. 

 So I heard a quote this week that is so true! It goes "95% of missionary work is awkward the other 5% is extremely awkward" So true! haha... I have come to the conclusion that I really just don't care anymore if it is awkward, it's fun!

Oh, there is this little girl in our ward, who is the cutest little thang. We were telling her about how we went to the zoo and she was like "the giraffe was creepin'" She is 2 years old, haha...man  ya gotta love little E.

Sorry this letter is just all over the place. Oh, did I mention it rained for like 2 days straight? I love the rain! haha umm lets see.... If any of y'all have any questions, feel free to ask. That may make the letters more exciting to read. Well, I love y'all so much and I hope y'all have a wonderful week! Remember to stay happy and that GOD LOVES YOU NO MATTER WHAT! I love knowing that my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ love me!! Knowing that brings me so much peace. Knowing that they are always there for me.  I hope y'all can remember that! Also remember the things y'all are grateful for this week and fellow weeks to come! Something to always remember is to be grateful for is the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ! I know that, and  I truly am so grateful for that! I am also so grateful for all of you! Y'all have impacted me in some way or another! Thanks for all that y'all do! I love you! Have a AMAZING THANKSGIVING~

LOVE, SISTER HANNAH SEEGRIST

November 17, 2014 - Red next to Black a friend of Jack

Hey there everyone, How was all y'alls week?

 My week went my so fast! Can y'all believe that I have been out for 3 and a half months! So cray, cray to me!

Monday, I had my first really rude rejection.. and it was of a less active ladies husband, haha... it wasn't even bad though.

 Tuesday, we found a new investigator. Her name is J. We met her while we where out street contacting. She was sitting in a wheelchair. We asked her what she was doing and she was like " I'm actually praying" We then got talking with her, she told us that she was having a really hard time. She told us that her son has a brain injury. He was shot twice at point blank. He was in a coma for awhile, but he lived. She also told us how her husband died in June, she invited us in to meet her son. He is so nice, he told us his whole story. (The wheelchair belongs to her son) He asked if we had any pamphlets or anything. We were like "Oh do we" he seemed pretty normal considering what happened. He was able to talk to us normally. J. asked us what made us go down her street. We just said it must have been the Holy Ghost. She was so amazed how we leave our homes for that long to go and talk about Jesus Christ. While we were talking to her outside she started crying when we told her that we were missionaries and that we wanted to just talk to her and listen. We went over the Restoration with her and her son. We have another appointment with them tomorrow. That was so great! His name is Roin. (Ryan) and he is 27. So after that we just did the same old stuff.

Wed., we did the usual, we tried some less actives, we visited some investigators etc.

Thursday, we did weekly planning and saw some investigators.

Friday, I made my companion crash her bike, it was actually sad but funny... actually not really funny. We were biking back from seeing a less active recent convert. I was in the lead. I saw a HUGE snake on the side walk. I didn't know if it was dead or alive, so I slammed on my brakes. She tried to stop but was going to fast. She hit into the back of me and her bike landed almost right on top of the snake, thank goodness it was dead! She just scrapped up her knee a little, nothing too bad. The snake was CREEPY looking! It was black with red diamonds on its back! It didn't look like it had been hit but there was blood out the mouth. I should have taken a picture, it was gross! We then had a movie night at the church. It's a great way to get members to bring non-members to activities. We watched some movies. The missionaries do a missionary movie night every Friday night. Last week the Elders were in charge and this week it's Sister Cooper and my turn!  It's really great!

Saturday, we had a lot of people cancel on us, hopefully we will be able to see them sometime this week.

Sunday, we just went to church and did the usual. We had dinner with the W. family. They are really friendly.  We also had a lesson with L. our recent convert! We are doing the new member lessons with her! She is 17 and so awesome! I think I already told you about her!

Today we went to the Gulf Breeze Zoo!!! It was really cool! I got to feed the lamas and the giraffes. They ate out of my hand, the goat bit me haha... but it wasn't hard at all. It was really cool though! I also saw a huge alligator. He wouldn't come out of the water so I couldn't get a picture of him. We also got to feed the birds They landed all over my hands and arms, it was really neat! A member took us, she is really nice!

 I hope y'all had a wonderful week! I love y'all so much and miss y'all too! I am so looking forward to talking to the family on Christmas!

Love, Sister Hannah Seegrist 

 

November 10, 2014 - New Companion Sister Cooper

Hey Y'all!

 How was everyone's week? I hope good. My week was good! Even though it was sad to see Sister Strickland, leave it was still good!

 Monday we just packed and enjoyed our p-day. Tuesday Sister Strickland said goodbye to a lot of people. That was fun! We also had District Meeting which was fun. Sister Alder and Elder Young got transferred. We will miss them. Elder Young went to Pascagoula, Mississippi and Sister Alder went to Bristle, Florida.

 Wed. we had transfers . I got my new companion her name is Sister Cooper she is from Vacaville, California. She goes home in 2 transfers as well. I feel I will be In Navarre for a while. It was actually really funny. Sister Strickland and I where talking before we left to Crestview (transfer spots) and she said that Sister Cooper was going to be my new companion. Sister Cooper had a dream a few months ago that we were companions, lol... and we where sitting right next to each other. 

Thursday we just visited some less actives and did weekly planning then we had correlation meeting. Same old stuff. 

 Friday we saw R. and E. She is getting baptized!!!!! On January 10th. Yay! She is so great!!! We also went and saw V. The Elder's came and gave her a blessing! That was really neat! She was really grateful for it!

Saturday we did the usual, the thrift store, we did OYM (open your mouth) and it was super cold, so it wasn't super effective because no one was outside. Let me tell y'all less actives are the way in! We have worked some great miracles with them. We saw sister R. the other day and she was only active in the church for a year (she has been a member for like 15 years) . I asked her who she would like to say the pray and she thought I asked if she would say it. She was like "I guess I will try my best." she then said a wonderful prayer! Also the part member families are wonderful as well! I love this area and this great work!!! I hope you all are having a great week!! Oh yeah, Sunday we just did the usual, just the same old stuff.. . Except the dream to become a pro race car driver is still there!! I know what I want to do with my life after the mish.. I have connections now!you're laughing now, but when I'm rolling in the doe.. who will be the one laughing.. ;) well, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week! Thanks for everything! Your all super great!!

Love, Sister Hannah Seegrist.

November 3, 2014 - Sister Strickland is going home. Three Month Mark

Hey everyone,

So this week was pretty boring, lol.. just he same o'l same o'l. So this letter will be really short.

Monday, we had a district activity and we played Frisbee at the beach and also walked the pier. It's the longest pier in the Gulf of Mexico. That was a lot of fun! I saw so many jellyfish and some stingrays and little fishes.

 Tuesday, we had a great district meeting. It was a massive call to repentance, it was really good, the spirit was defiantly there! We had our ward trunk or treat which was really fun! We pimped out our bikes, lol... Well, actually we just had been biking and our bikes where still on the back of our car so we turned on all the flashy lights and a ward member gave us candy to hand out. That was a lot of fun!  Oh, Sister Strickland also took some pictures of us biking. We are trying to see what all we can do while we are biking, so far we have eaten snow cones.. the snow cone was in Sister Strickland's cup/bottle holder thing on her bike and I ate it while biking.  We have taken pictures and a few other things. I am getting pretty good at biking with no hands... lol. it's pretty fun! Also at the trunk or treat we talked with some people in our ward, their son who is 19 is going to Dixie in January. So J. keep an eye out for J.Y.  

Wednesday we just did the usual in the morning, then we had exchanges. Sister Nelson(the Sister trainer, one of them) came to Navarre. She was here before we came here. So we just had a pretty good exchange. It's funny the day she came all of our usually solid appointments fell through, but it was still good, also I have been driving now everyday, it is a fun little car to drive. 

 Thursday, we just did some missionary work as usual. We got a new investigator named A.. She has 6 kids. (She also came to church with 3 of her kids and her sons Girlfriend) so Thursday was good. We bike to the church and a ward member got so mad at us for biking in the dark. lol but we didn't have any miles, haha...so she drove us home. 

 Friday, we went to M.Y's for lunch. She made us pizza burgers they were pretty good then we had our district activity, we played broom hockey and bobbed for apples and ate donuts off of strings, haha... I won.. #immafatty.

 Saturday, we saw Miss K and worked at the thrift store, same old stuff. Then we had lunch with Sister A. She took us to the "Cactus Flower." That was good. Then we went and saw some inactives. Then we went to Taco bell with a Sister in the ward. #reallyafatty. 

Sunday, we had a lot of people come to church. We had less active come, our new investigator that I talked about and R, E, and R's grandson! It was really good. I think Gospel Doctrines scared A. a little bit lol...  Then we had a lesson with a recent convert L. She is 17 and super good at dancing. She is really sweet! She is the only member in her family. The mom sits in on every lesson. Hopefully she will join sometime. I think that is something L. would love if her whole family joined. Then we did some more missionary work and had dinner with the L's. They now tease me for liking brownies... #extrafat  So after dinner we went and saw V. She had to shave her head because her hair was falling out in clumps because of the Chemo. Poor lady, I think she is only in her 30's or 40's.. We met her son who is 10 years old, he lives with her sister. He is a cutie!

So that is about all that happened this week. Oh, and I am staying here in Navarre. Sister S's time is up and she is headed home on Friday! :( Well actually she leaves Navarre on Wednesday. I'm going to miss her! I guess it happens.  I love y'all. I want y'all to know that" I know the church is true. I love my mom and dad and my brothers and sisters too."

LOL...anyway's, I really do know that this church is true and that Jesus Christ died for us so we can returned to live with our loving Heavenly Father. I know that Joseph Smith restored this gospel on the earth and that we have a living Prophet today who really does lead and guide us. I know that we can be sealed to our families for time and all eternity. I also know how important it is! I love y'all and hope y'all have a very wonderful week!! #giveem'heaven #onlythebest #behappy!

Love, Sister Hannah Seegrist