Marissa In Mississippi: No Regrets‏

Hello Everyone! I hope you are having a great week.

I have sad news for you all... We had Transfer week this week and Sister Dagupan got transferred to Gulfport, Mississippi. Right on the coast! She is going to love it, but MAN I will miss her.

So that means I will be staying here in Brownlee for at least another 6 weeks :)

Sister Holbrook and I are getting a new companion later today named Sister Matson! I will have to tell you more about her when I meet her!

Well this week has been awesome. We had a week of no regrets.

I finished up all my dental work... yay for happy teeth! I have invested in a large bottle of mouthwash and lots of yogurt because my mouth will probably be sore for a while.

#12cavitieslater

We got to go on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders this week and that was really great. I always learn so much from them, and it's so good to get to know other missionaries!

Sister Smith (The one on the Right) got transferred to Monroe this week and she said she is going to go convert the Duck Dynasty Crew!!!

The best thing that happened this week was we had a BAPTISM!

The Baptism of Miss Destany

We have been teaching Destany for about 3 months. Here is a picture of us. I feel like she actually looks a lot like my 14 year old sister Madison!

So here is Destany's story (with her permission):

Hang in there because this gets confusing!

There is a married couple in our ward - Brother and Sister Segura. Sister Segura has a daughter named Moriah! Brother Segura was married before to someone else... Destany's Mom. Destany's mom is her mom, but Brother Segura was her step dad when married to her mom. Brother Segura and Destany's mom got divorced a long time ago - but he kept being her step dad and loves her. Since then - Brother Segura married his wife he is married to currently. Read that twice or 3 times, most likely. Well, Destany was not in a good situation with her bio mom. Her home environment was not a good place for a 15 year old girl to be growing up. Her relationships with her mom at home and new step dad were toxic and without saying too much; drugs, alcohol, and other things tore her family apart. Her mom decided she couldn't take care of her anymore.

Brother and Sister Segura somewhere along the grapevine heard about the situation, and decided to take Destany in. After a while... they even adopted her!

Destany had never heard anything about the church. She used to think it was dumb and not something that she wanted to be a part of.

But as she met with the missionaries... she realized what brings true happiness.. and she wanted it!

She went through all the lessons.. was embraced by the Young Women in the ward, put in a safe home, and given a new family.

SHE IS THRIVING!

And she decided she wanted to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.... and get baptized :)

We have been preparing for her baptism but weren't exactly sure when we would be able to do it because she wanted Brother Segura to Baptize her.. and we weren't sure when he would be home! (he works in the oil field)

But she wanted to do it before Elder Taylor and Sister Dagupan left... so we did it last night! :)