When in the South...

...do as the Southern's do. An original quote from one of the sister missionaries serving in our congregation right now. Love it, love her.

Anyways, I took that saying to heart this weekend and went to Stone Mountain with Megan! (and then grabbed Chickfila after. of course.) I've lived in Georgia for 9.5 years and honestly have been to Stone Mountain probably less than 20 times, which is sad because Megan basically grew up there. All of this growing up and moving out jazz has me feeling all sorts of nostalgic, so a hike up the mountain was in order.

Megan is a jewel of a friend, someone I always want to have around. I really love that girl. I love that we can be goofy and silly one minute, singing along to that song "Happy" with some people on the mountain and trying our best to take selfies without falling off the edge, and serious the next, sharing our opinions on feminism and racism and equality and all of that good stuff. I love it because I can tell her absolutely anything. Even though our religions are different, we love hearing each other talk about church. Probably my most favorite compliment ever was when Megan told me she loved watching me talk about my faith because I just lit up and you could tell I just really truly loved it. And it's true! I love being Mormon!

Megan and I sat at the top of the mountain for a long time, just soaking up the view. We found a spot right above the Stone Mountain lake, and we could see the restaurant where she had sophomore homecoming dinner and the plantation where her brother's best man got engaged. At one point Megan looked over at me and said, "do you realize that this is just a giant rock? And that there is even MORE rock under the earth that we can't see?" It really puts life into perspective. I mean, sitting on top of a glorified boulder really makes one feel small. You realize that you are just this tiny speck on this planet called earth, and that you are even tinier in the whole wide universe. Yet that doesn't scare me like it used to. I may be small in a huge outer space, but in my life, in my small little community, I can make a difference and have an impact and make friends and poems and my life matters. It's a neat feeling.

Then I got to go out with the sister missionaries! Sister missionaries are girls who are at least 19 years old who choose to leave their families for 18 months in order to go on a mission for our church. They wear name badges and carry around Book of Mormons and teach others about Jesus Christ. They walk around and knock on doors, and that's called tracting. How do you like that for another mini lesson about Mormons? Two posts in a row! I promise, I'm not trying to convert anyone. It's just, the church is a huge part of my life, so sometimes background information is needed. Anyways, the sisters asked me to go tracting with them, and as usual it was so fun. In case you were wondering, Sister Blaylock has a killer ghetto impression. I really love the missionaries, especially right now. I haven't mentioned this, but the whole reason for our family trip out to Utah last week was because my grandpa was getting baptized! Although my grandma was raised a member of the church, my grandpa never joined. A few months ago though, some missionaries knocked on my grandparent's door and for the first time, my grandpa wanted to listen to them, and it ended up leading to his baptism! See why I love missionaries? This June will be my grandparent's forty-fifth wedding anniversary, so basically our family has been waiting for forty-four and a half years for this. And let me tell you, it was worth it. Although my grandpa has always been a happy man, I have never seen him as talkative and smiley and happy as I saw him last weekend. I guess that is one of the main reasons why I love the gospel- it makes people happy!

How do you like that for an essay of a post? But really, it was just a great weekend. 

Sincerely, mad