Week 63: BRANDON GOT BAPTIZED 🌊😇

Bestest week EVER!

Odds and Ends

●This story is the funniest story ever, but you must bear with me. So pday last week, we were driving back from our fun bonfire pday. It was dark, long stretches of driving 60mph. I saw that we were coming up something dark in the road, maybe a bag or something? So I straddled the car over it in hopes to miss it. Then we hit it. But we kept going and the tire was fine, so I figured it had just hit the bottom. Then we kept going and a bunny jutted out from the side. Gonzo. Front right tire. Wow I had tears welling up in my eyes. Well I went to sleep that night feeling the loss of the bunny. We got up to leave for MLC. Got up, ready to go, in the car. I jump in the front seat and Sister Mickelson walks in front of the car and SCREAMS. I panic. What should I do? Should I flee? She then tells me "Pom pom don't get out of the car." I'm like OH NO WHATS WRONG...well I get out of the car anyways. I come around the front of the car and see... a massacre. There's this poor hawk that literally ATE it in the front bottom part of the car that I wish I knew what it was called. Yeah I killed it... but we didn't have any extra time to get it off. So we drove 30 minutes to Graniteville going 70 on the freeway and I had a prayer in my heart that the bird would hang on so I could at least get a picture. And he stayed! Snap. Got the picture. Then we have to go to MLC where the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders and President Monson all attend. And we have a corpse clinging to our Rav4. Well we pulled in and the pointing began. I tried hiding my face, to no avail. I got out of the car, and a fellow missionary said "wow Sister Palmer... Aiken Zone's changed you..." we hurried fast inside to flee our portable crime scene. We get to hug all the sisters, and we sit down to start. President Monson stands up to the pulpit. He asks "So... who hit the hawk?" I raise my hand sheepishly. He says, "How did it happen?" So I told the whole MLC how I killed it on accident. Wow. I got a few comments after that. There was a glorious man that was doing landscaping during lunch, and he used his mighty leaf blower and blew him off, then disposed of the body. I could've kissed that guy. Anywho, my first and second road kill everyone! 😅

●I got to go to Georgia on an exchange for 24hrs! Georgia peach finallyyyyy! AND I got go an exchange with the one and only Sister Lee! She's an AZ gal too! AZ gals together! Eeeee! And she used to serve in Gilbert ward! I learned a lot from her example about the importance of the Book of Mormon. She also does Olympian weightlifting!😱

●There's a keyboard in the Augusta apartment. I may have spent 2 hours on that bad boy!

●We were waiting for a member to pull up to one of our lessons so in the meantime Sister Bruce and I did 100 jumping Jackson in a Presbyterian church parking lot haha!

●We went to Knead pizza w/ the Smiths!

●We also had dinner w Fabio and had calamari!!!

Miracles

★Brandon got baptized on May 6th. I've felt so privileged to watch his journey to the waters of baptism. He truly is the most changed child of God I've met. He made it a whole month without smoking to prepare for this day. He was wearing his WWJD bracelet that I gave him when he got baptized 🤧 it was beautiful! Brandon is a chosen vessel who will go and do the work of the Lord. He has so much fellowship, he even bought new shoes because he plans on going to the basketball nights every week! Sister Hoyal got to come back and support him too. I'm proud of Brandon. His New Years Resolution was to turn his life around. From January 25th-May 6th, he made it happen. And then he received the Holy Ghost on Sunday to keep his momentum going and to be his guide. He's participating in Sunday school (he shared that being baptized was one of the greatest moments of his life), praying often and has the purest desire I've ever seen. To watch the Atonement of Christ work in Brandon's life has been one of the crowning memories of my mission, and quite frankly, the story I'll always hold most dear.

★NORMALLY when a baptism happens, the baptizer unplugs the font before they get out and changed. We'll we forgot to do that. So I took a little swim and unplugged the font haha! Pic below! I'm just glad I was tall enough to reach it without getting my whole dress soaked! Bless up 🙌

★We invited Nichole Tolman came to Brandon's baptism. And afterwards, we got the announcement we've been waiting for. NICHOLE HAS DECIDED TO BE BAPTIZED ON JULY 1ST! She's been coming to church with her husband for years. She already has a calling in church haha! Wow we sure are excited for her! She used to tell the sisters "You can go anywhere with me, I am an investigator." Not for long 😁 AHHHH!

★Well SUNDAY was a little crazyyyy. Brother Fastnaught came up behind me while we were greeting and pointed a finger gun to my back and said "Your testimony or your life." Hahaha! Love him. And then we were getting to 5 minuted before sacrament meeting started and noooo Brandon. Sister Mickelson peeked outside and saw Fabio his ride, but NO BRANDON. We panicked. Then we looked again and he was there. PHEW! A member watched this all go down, our little SCARE haha! But God prepared a way for all to be made right and for Brandon to receive the Holy Ghost!

★Rayden is a youth in the ward and she was finally able to join our lesson with Debra! It was so awesome!

★Larry drove 300 miles home from a trip being gone for 3 weeks and we HAPPENED to pull up 5 seconds before he did. IS THAT GODS TIMING OR WHAT?! He also said we could come pick grapes in his yard in July!!!

★I was told by sweet Sister Robinson that my sweet Velma that I taught in Surfside and was later baptized...passed away. I sure do love that lady. The last time I saw her she gave me a huge kiss on the cheek goodbye. She smiled so wide when she was learning about the gospel. And she was so giving! I remember that she absolutely LOVED the Holy Ghost and always loved the comparison to a dove. I'm glad she's helping others learn the gospel now in the spirit world. Velma is a treasure and I'm glad I have our memories🕊

★Soooo we talked to this younger boy outside his house asking if Linda was home. He said that Linda passed away. Then another kid came out, he came to see who was talking to his brother in the car. He looked low-key scared. Then on his way back up to the porch, we saw he was holding a hand gun. Not sure what his plans were but we got outta there fast. Probably just scared the poor kid!

★We met Kyle and Liz! We actually saw David Ramsey, someone who used to be taught, at Walmart last week. We stopped by to try and catch him. But Kyle and Liz answered! They pulled out their Book of Mormon. And apparently they read it daily! Liz asked "I have one question... who's Alma?" Holyyyyy! And then they gave us 4 dozen eggs at the end haha!

★In our district chat, one thing we had been doing was praying for each others friends. On Sunday, i forgot to send it at the beginning of the day so I did it in between services. I asked in our chat if the missionaries would pray that the Benson family would come to church. Minutes later GUESS WHO SHOWED UP. The Bensons! Ahhh! GOD IS SO COOL WOW!

★I've been having dreams about waking up and being home and crying because I miss my mission so much. And then I wake up. It was so shocking. I sure do love my family and friends, but the thought of leaving this life of being a missionary hurts. But I know these feelings will drive me to make every moment count.

Spiritual Thought

The song "The Lord is My Shepherd" has stood out to me a lot lately. I've been humming it so much as we go about our day. This phrase isn't in the song, honestly I was just singing the lyrics incorrectly and had no clue haha! BUT. This phrase came to mind: the Lord is my Shepherd, so why shall I fear?

When we have God and Christ on our side, we really don't need to fear! He will work things out for our good. He will consecrate our efforts and multiply them. When the perfect Lamb is now your Shepherd, you should know you will be perfectly taken care of. And I know that to be true! Because the Savior isn't one who chooses to leave, you choose to leave Him. And when you just TURN back towards Him, He will run to you no matter how far you are from the rest of the flock. I have a strong testimony that Christ is my personal Savior, and yours. Let him shepherd you.

"The Lord is my Shepherd; no want shall I know.

I feed in green pastures; safe-folded I rest. He leadeth my soul where the still waters flow,

Restores me when wand’ring, redeems when oppressed,

Restores me when wand’ring, redeems when oppressed." Psalm 23

Birthdays

Elder Pugmire had a birthday, his first on his mission! My heritage buddy! Happy bday!!!

Pictures