January 4-Jacksonville, North Carolina

 Happy New Year!! I hope all y'all had a pretty great New Year!

Monday we met with the Donadio family. Krisi, the mom, is a member but fell away from the church a long time ago. She has a 10 year old and an 8 year old who are both investigating the church. This family is so great! I love working with them. The two kids are so smart and remember everything!

Tuesday we had exchanges! This was my first time exchanging! I was sent to Hampstead with Sister Macrum. It was a lot of fun. Hampstead is a little bit nicer than Jacksonville and it is right by the beach. In fact Sister Macrum and I went to find a less active who lives on the beach so I got to see the beach. It looked just like the beaches in the Nicholas Sparks movies (he bases all of his books in North Carolina). I have yet to see a lighthouse though! (North Carolina is famous for their light houses) That night, we taught one of their investigators who accepted to be baptized. I got to teach the first vision for my first time which was pretty great! I also taught about the Book of Mormon. It was a pretty great experience.

Wednesday, after we exchanged back, we just made a lot of stop bys with Brooke. The last house we stopped by was the Brooks. The Brooks family is amazing! The mom, Amy, is a less active and her husband and 3 kids are some of our newest investigators. We were able to sit down and talk with Amy and Bob (husband) for quite a while and teach them about the importance of teaching their children about Christ. We set up a return appointment with them this week so we look forward to that!

Thursday, we had an amazing lesson with Joyce. Elder and Sister Brooks came with us. Joyce talked for about an hour and a half! We didn't really have any time to teach a real lesson. Joyce has really been struggling with trying to quit drinking sweet tea so before the lesson, we asked Elder Brooks if he might be able to give her a blessing of comfort and guidance. After Joyce had finished talking, Elder Brooks talked about her problem and asked if he could give her a blessing and she said yes. The blessing was truly amazing. It addressed so many of her concerns! In the end, our meeting with her went exactly the way that it needed to.

Friday was one of my most favorite days this week. Elder and Sister Brooks invited us over for dinner that day. We had a lot of fun over at their house. I am really sad that they will be leaving us in just two weeks! After dinner, Sister Alldredge and I decided to go to the nursing home in Jacksonville. While we were there, we had the opportunity to go to every room and wish all of them a Happy New Year! It was so much fun! In one of the rooms, we found these two old men and one of them was a member! He was so kind! He talked about how he was trying to get the other one to go to church. He even told him while we were there that he needed to go so that he could see beautiful women like us! It was so funny and definitely a great way to begin 2016!

Saturday we gave our investigator Lester a church tour. At the end of the tour, we ended at the baptismal font and invited her to be baptized on March 26 and she said yes!! That was the first time that I had met her but she was the sweetest lady!! On Tuesday, while we were on exchanges, Sister Alldredge and Sister Golden went over to teach Lester and her husband Ricky answered! Lester wasn't there, so they asked if he would like to be taught and he said yes! It turned out that he was a former investigator and still remembered a lot about what the other missionaries taught him. In the end, he agreed to take the lessons again! I can't wait to meet with them again this week!

Sunday, we had a really great lesson with Robert that night. He was able to meet with the bishop and overcome a few of the fears that he had about being baptized. We also helped him to make the conclusion that no one is every perfectly ready to be baptized and that after baptism, the Lord will continue to help him to become perfect.

Overall, we ended the week on a great note! I miss all of you so much! I really have loved the work here in Jacksonville! Thank you all for your love and support!!

Love,

Sister Paynter

Sorry I have no pictures this week! I will try to get some for next week!