Summertime in Mississippi...

I haven't blogged very much since we left Houston...

it's been a more difficult transition than anticipated.

It has reminded me so much of how I felt after serving an 18 month mission in Poland.

I lost myself in a Polish world for a year and a half; serving and loving the people there.

Then my time was up, and I had to return to a world that I wasn't comfortable with. 

I left a piece of my heart there.

We spent five years in Houston.

I lost myself in a Texas world, and found myself serving and loving SO many people.

And just like that, our time was up and we moved on to yet another world that we weren't yet comfortable with. 

I left a HUGE piece of my heart there.

It's been hard.

Change is hard.

But I suppose that's how we progress and grow.

So... onward and upward.

Let me share with you some of our fun Mississippi moments from this summer.

We've picked blueberries several times...

 

And made some delightful blueberry concoctions!

 We've played some Rock Band...

 Celebrated our nation's birthday in downtown Vicksburg!

  

We've celebrated the arrival of mission calls...

 

 Taken advantage of our local Chick-Fil-A and free food!

We've spent lots of time in the sun!

 And taken many road trips down to Louisiana for football, Costco and temple!

 Oysters in New Orleans!

We love the late night half-priced shakes at Sonic!

 We've done some exploring of Civil War sites...

AND as the summer closes we are finally settling down...

and closed on our house!

Official adults.

So although life is full of changes,

life is still good.

Now bring on the baby!

Saying "Goodbye" to Sister Stone...

We said "goodbye" to Sister Stone on Wednesday...

she is going to be a wonderful missionary.

We stopped up by the Provo Temple to take some pics of her before the MTC claimed her.

 

 We did plenty of goofing off...

and definitely did some crying and hugging.

 

 

Dropping her off...

 

 Farewell Sister Stone!

Russia is SOO lucky to have you!

Another Missionary!

Another "Stone" is joining the ranks of missionary...

little Jessica Belle.

I can't believe she's old enough to serve!

Thanks to this announcement from General Conference- little Jay is living her dream.

She started her papers the day after the announcement... and although things didn't happen as fast as she'd hoped- the call came last night.

Opening the envelope...

 Jessica Stone- you are called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints...

 You are called to labor in the Russia, St. Petersburg mission!

 And can I get an "Amen, hallelujah!" for Google plus chat?

Hmmm...

I feel a trip to Russia coming on in oh, say September 2014

:)

The End of a Looooong Week...

It's raining outside...

It's been raining cats and dogs all day (who made up that expression anyway?)

I love the rain on two conditions:

1- I don't have to be out in it.

That was probably the worst part about the mission... walking around in the rain.... getting soaking wet and not being able to do anything about it. Oh you COULD try and use an umbrella- but the wind would tear it to shreds. Oh no- I gave up on that about month six. We walked through many a Polish rainstorms and I vowed I would never walk in the rain (if I didn't have to) EVER AGAIN.

In fact- I got so sick of the rain (and slugs... oh the slugs...) that I started carrying around salt with me and killing slugs as a way to get out my anger of walking in the rain... morbid I know.

Rain is just so much nicer and cozier from the inside of a house, don't ya think?

And number 2- As long as I have someone to be with.

Which I don't.

At the moment... he's on his way home as we speak.

BUT knowing my luck- his flight will be delayed... because of said rain.

Oh well... I'm just glad he's on his way home.

It's been a long week.

Life is harder when Jon isn't around.

I've decided that husband and wife are meant to be together.

Shocker I know.

It's not like the scriptures tell us that or anything ;)

Because I've been home alone- I've had a lot of time to read... and I finished this book.

I know it's wildly popular- and I kinda followed the crowd on this one...

but this book was amazing.

It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me re-evaluate the way I treat others, and definitely made me glad I didn't live in the 60's because I probably would have been lynched for speaking my mind.

I'm definitely planning on reading this book again...

and soon.

Speaking of the mission (from above)... I checked the Polish mission blog today and had a wonderful surprise.
They had a chapel open house at the Warsaw 2 branch in (you guessed it) Warsaw.
That was my first area of my mission and I don't remember a whole lot, but when I saw this picture- the lady in orange looked strangely familiar.
The caption on the picture talked about her and her two sons and how she has a baptismal date set in two weeks.

I clicked on the picture to make it bigger and I was sure of it-
I had taught her!
In fact- my trainer and I were her first contact with the missionaries!
I immediately rummaged through my mission pics...
and found this...

Same girl... 4 years earlier.
*Sigh*
It's just that sometimes as a missionary you wonder if you did any good.
I only saw a handful of people baptized...
a lot of them became inactive.
It just warmed my heart to see that a seed that Sister Brown and I planted 4 years ago-
will lead to her baptism in 2 weeks.
No matter what the situation- seeing someone come to Christ is a good feeling.
And seeing that picture made me feel good inside.