Morning from Acworth, GA,

Before I forget, here is my apartment address:

1208 Park Bridge NW

Acworth, GA 30101

Weird and great week.

First of all, I'm in love with this family, the Hunts. I mentioned them last week. They are Tim and Holly, son Cameron (7), son Zain (2), and twin baby girls Penelope and Charlotte (2 months). They are the cutest, sweetest, most adorable family. We started teaching them two weeks ago and they are progressing quickly. They love everything we teach about families and how the gospel blesses families. They have started praying more by themselves and as a couple, they read anything we give them, and came to church on Sunday. 

Holly is so close to the Spirit that whenever we teach, even if Zain is going bonkers in the background, she feels the Spirit and just wants to know and learn more. She told us that she had been researching on the internet and watched a documentary on Mormons on Netflix (uh oh, we thought). Turns out, she keeps her research to Mormon.org and lds.org "because I want to go to the source and not read some weird stuff" and watched Meet the Mormons. (I guess that's on Netflix now? Still haven't seen it).

Tim is also very interested, but more thoughtful. He has lots of questions and likes to pause and ponder during lessons. We love that. Church was crazy for them. Holly spent most of her time in the mother's room nursing and changing diapers between the two babies and Zain put up the biggest fit after sacrament meeting that Tim had to take him out to the car and just sat with him in there during second hour. After church, we were so worried that they would never come back because it was too much work, but Tim boldly smiled and said, "We'll definitely be back. Probably next Sunday. And when are y'all coming back to teach? What homework do we have?"

I'm just like, who are these people? Tim even asked for a Book of Mormon before we gave him one. "Can y'all bring us a Book of Mormon so we can start reading?" were his words over the phone before our second meeting.

We also have Don Edwards, this sweet 83 year old man. His wife just passed and he's having a rough time of it. He says he just feels love and joy when we come over -- feelings he thought he would never feel again. He came to church and said, "It was better than I thought it would be. I am very impressed." We're working on getting him fellowshipped with other senior members of the ward and teaching him in slow increments. He can't comprehend too much at once. We gave him several parts of the Book of Mormon to read, including chapters 11-28 in 3 Nephi. He told us he read it all -- three times for better understanding -- and continued on. Miracle of miracles! We love him, but we need to be careful and smart and make sure that he truly understands what we teach. Neither of us want to trick an old man into baptism, which he'd totally do if we just asked sweetly. It has to be his decision.

Other than that, we've been seeing a lot of potential investigators, recent converts, and some less active families. They are all great people. Some of the recent converts are just so inspiring to me. I love having heart to hearts with them and teaching them something new. We are also tracting a lot in the hot heat and humidity. I have weirdly tan arms, not like a real people tan, but a tan for me. 

Last week a Baptist lady, super nice, allowed us to pray with her, we taught her some stuff, and then she asked if she could with us too. Yes, that's fine, she said. She laid her hands on her shoulders and prayed fervently that we would be led to the truth and saved. It was indeed kind of her. She's worried about us and our souls, but I wanted her so badly to understand that God is merciful and being one religion instead of another condemns no one. I wish I could teach her the Plan of Salvation, but I knew it would be fruitless. We thanked her and moved on.

I'm happy with the work, but broken up inside with the news that Grandpa Fechser died. I've prayed for strength and help to stay focused and enthusiastic. And I know the only way I got through these past days without breaking down in tears and just wanting to hole myself up in the bedroom is by the grace and strength of God. There is real power from high that can be bestowed upon those who ask.

I miss Grandpa. It's weird to think I won't be able to hug him when I get home. That I won't be able to call him and hear his random jokes about whatever. But there is comfort to know that he is an angel now. He's hanging out with his family and probably L. Tom Perry and Boyd K. Packer. Although I'm struggling with the news, I know he's still with us, he didn't blink out of existence, and I will see him again.

That's all for now.

Prayers and love is appreciated.

Love,

Sister Sutton

I've been in Georgia for almost a week now.

Hey y'all,

I've been in Georgia for almost a week now. I have eleven and a half mosquito bites, a weird sunburn on the back of my neck, and I have sweated in ways I thought I could never sweat before. Inside ear sweat is a thing.

Sounds glamorous, right?

It's been a weird transition. I will be honest. The parts that have been hard are not the parts I was expecting to be hard.

To begin, I'll set the scene: I'm serving in a trio with Sister Stock (from Pasco, WA) and Sister Boyer (from St. George, UT). We cover two areas in Acworth and Kennesaw, GA. The wards are called Acworth and Mars Hill.

The people in Georgia (well, most of them) are friendly and warm and open to talking about Christ and praying with us. Although, we've had a couple of times when people have called their kids in and locked their front door when they see us coming down the street. I guess we're intimidating in our knee-length skirts and sweaty hair? And a lady who yelled at us to "just turn around" when we started up her driveway.

The people who we do talk to are mostly kind and already have great faith in God and Jesus Christ. While contacting we've been instructed to briefly get to know them, ask about any worries/concerns they have, and then ask to pray with them and ask "as representatives of Jesus Christ" for a specific blessing to be upon their family and concerns.

Like I said, people are fairly receptive to this. After finishing the prayer, the challenge is then how to share principles of the restored gospel and set up a return appointment. We often set up return appointments to actually teach a sit-down lesson, but when we arrive, they're not home. On Saturday, all four of our scheduled lessons feel through.

My companions are frustrated by this and so I am. However, they are not making any efforts to change our approach. We obviously need to change something. I've been making suggestions and brainstorming ideas. We need to find the people who are truly seeking for answers we have and then teach them what they want to learn. We are not here to tell people that the their religion that they hold dear is wrong. And too often it goes in that direction.

I've been telling them that we need to better understand our contacts and investigator as individuals so we discover their spiritual needs and then teach to that. We need primarily to teach to their hearts (via the Spirit), not their intellect. Easier said then done, of course. But I've been explaining this to my companions and I get the feeling that they don't like the "greenie" telling them that their methods are wrong.

We are learning together though. They are frustrated with the work because they've had no progressing investigators for a long time. They have felt discouraged and depressed for some time before I arrived. So slowly, but surely as I have built trust with them, they have started listening to me. They realize they need new ideas. We are setting new companionship and teaching goals this week -- as per my suggestions.

We have some great potentials that we're seeing this week, if they keep their appointments. Hopefully, I'll have some stories to tell soon.

Our new mission president arrives this week -- President Foote. He's from Las Vegas. I'm excited to see what changes he'll bring to the mission because President Harding is a businessman and our mission plans right now are laid out like a business trying to bring in sales. And... I kind of hate that.

Anyways, must go.

Have a blessed day,

Sister Sutton

Hello family and friends,

Greetings from the Missionary Training Center. It's only been two days since I arrived, but it feels like forever. I'm exhausted and I'm overwhelmed. But overall, things are going well.

My district -- or the class I'm in -- has 6 elders and 6 sisters. I'm all about gender equality so I was pretty excited about the parity in class. I'm the oldest missionary and the same age as the teachers, but I'm trying not to let that affect how I treat people. It's hard. Most of the elders are 18 years old and some of them are fresh out of high school. One, Elder Peterson, graduated last week! They act like the MTC is a big party and they goof off all the time. I'm trying, but usually failing, to hold my tongue when they do stupid stuff. Last night after our meeting with the Branch President, one elder looks at me, presses into the foamy hand sanitizer dispenser, and says to me: "Sister, this is like the Atonement... see it's white and foamy and it washes my hands." First of all, not clever. Second of all, please don't make light jokes about the most sacred event in history. I told him the latter. I told him that it is inappropriate to make jokes and analogies of sacred things so flippantly. He shrugged. Did I really need to say that to him? Probably not. But I did. I'm praying to have more love and more humility.

As a daughter of my parents, I'm also a big mouth in class. I answer too many questions and I ask too many questions. I ask some deep, challenging questions sincerely because I truly want to understand the details of our gospel before I go out and preach in the real world. One elder says that he appreciates me asking thought-provoking questions and another sister says that they are things that she never thought about. I guess that's good. I hope I'm not making my teachers sweat too much though. They are kind. And I like one better than the other because he seems more confident in his knowledge of doctrine. At the same time, I am correcting little things. For instance, we talked about New York City and the teacher said that there are 8 million people who live in New York. And I respond, "Well actually, there are 10 million." It didn't matter exactly how many people live in NYC for the point he was making, but I had to say it anyways. I think I need to stop this.

So there you go, my biggest weakness right now: being a snobbish know-it-all. I'm working on it, guys. Just because I'm five years older than someone, doesn't make me smarter, right?

My companion is wonderful! Her name is Sister walker and she is from Rexburg, Idaho. She's 19 and did one year at BYU before coming on the mission. She is kind and sincere and has great faith. She is helping me to not get caught up on little details of doctrine that don't matter in the scheme of living the gospel. I like her a lot.

I'm in a room with 5 other girls. We're all English speakers. Four of us are going to Atlanta and two are going to the West Indies. (um, jealous.) They're excited, but also worried about diseases and things. Understandably. One sister, Sister Jones going to ATL, 19 as of two weeks, is remarkable. She's from Missouri and joined the church when she was 14. She is strong faith and sacrificed much to be here. 

In our district, there are two elders going to Atlanta, three going to the West Indies, and one going to Papua New Guinea! He's all alone. He's great, he's half Tongan, half Samoan and from Hawaii. I told him that I'm fascinated by what he'll learn in Papua New Guinea and I want to hear all about the social and political and cultural dynamics of PNG. He said he will email me and tell me everything. He gets me. The other elder was like, "Wow, I wish I cared about that stuff."

First miracle: Upon arriving, I was nervous for several reasons. For one, I was nervous about feeling out of place with all these 19 year old sisters. I was nervous about dealing with immaturity and homesickness with my companions and roommates. Well, when Mom and Dad dropped me off, there was a line of hosts to greet us. The hosts are missionaries who have been at the MTC for a few weeks and they direct you to checking in and to your room. It's all random. When you pull up, the next available host greets you and takes you to get in check-in information. The sister who greeted me was a short (my height) Vietnamese American sister from Colorado headed to Cambodia. As she directed me about we talked and I eventually found out that she is 23 and recently graduated from college! We both immediately felt an affinity for each other. It was a special moment. Meeting her calmed me and she was excited to meet someone who understands her situation. It was a relief.

Beth, you'll like to hear this! The MTC is now very aware of dietary needs and has a special "diet room." Each meal, they provide one "hot meal" of meat, vegetable, and starch -- sometimes decent even -- and they tons of gluten-free breads, rolls, cookies, etc. I'm doing okay food wise. Although my stomach has felt weird for the past two days from stress and all that.

The days are long and it feels like there's never a moment to stop and breathe. We're at 6:30 and we go all day from class, to activities, to meals until 9:30. I'm tired, but happy.

I have worries about the mission field, but I am also anxious to get out and work with real people instead of just talking about it.

Miss you all,

--

Sister Deborah Sutton

Georgia Atlanta Mission

112 Governors Square Suite A

Peachtree City, GA 30269

How I plan to live a Gone with the Wind life on my mission in 12 steps:

It's only fitting to make as many the Gone with the Wind references as possible when one is about to leave on a mission to Georgia. Here's to hoping that I am as glamorous, but not nearly as obnoxious and selfish as Scarlett O'Hara while I'm there.

Thank you Beth for helping me compile this.

1. Me the last few months with no job, just waiting and waiting and waiting to leave:

2. While I'm proselytizing:

3. When I score a "new" outfit from a sister who is going home:

4. When my companion tells me about her boyfriend back home every day:

5. When my mom, and no one else, emails me that week:

6. On the really bad, discouraging days:

7. But staying hopeful despite the bewilderment:

8. My companion when I get too excited over knowing that the only hot elder will be at Zone Conference:

9. When I want to get hot Elder Ashley's attention at Zone Conference:

10. The other sisters at Zone Conference:

11. Me after my mission president gives me a stern talking-to about my choice of clothing:

12. What I wish will really be happening, but isn't because a) I'm on a mission so I'm a nun for 18 months and b) men like Clark Gable don't exist anymore.

(Just kidding on those last ones guys, I promise to never wear a scandalous red, feathery dress ever.)