Sister Reay Goes On An Adventure

Hello everyone and happy late Easter! 

It's been a great week, even though it was also a bike week. I spent the first part of it being a lobster because our zone activity at the park was a little sunnier than I anticipated and I forgot to put sunscreen on. This was pretty amusing to our bingo ladies on Tuesday. One of them said with surprise, "I didn't know the sun was that bright." Now my arms are a little bit tan-ish and my face is almost done peeling, so all is well. 

On Wednesday we went to zone meeting, which was great. Afterwards, we did exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders again. It was a little different than last time. For one thing, Sister Hill was the one to stay in Shelby, and I went with Sister Nunies to Mooresville. For another thing, the sister training leaders had just formed and emergency tri-panionship, so Sister Peterson was with us as well, and we were responsible for Mooresville and Cornelius. For another thing, neither Sister Nunies nor Sister Peterson have driving permission right now, so I had to drive. To keep my driving experiences brief: no one died. 

Exchanges were really fun. We got to visit quite a few people, now that there are two areas to cover instead of one. We ate dinner at a member's home in Mooresville, and I managed to become friends with their five little dogs, so that by the end of the message I had one dog on my left, one dog on my right, and two dogs going on and off my lap occasionally. And by little dogs, I mean the biggest dog was a pomeranian. We visited some more people after dinner and had a lot of trouble introducing ourselves because they had to explain the new trio and exchanges at the same time. 

On Thursday we exchanged back after a long, long drive. Sister H. took us out to visit a new Bible referral, T. She is great and super friendly. She wanted the Bible to give to her pastor to give to some youth in the congregation who don't have any... a Bible that has "A Gift from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" written on the inside. We'll see how that goes over. Anyway, when we introduced the Book of Mormon, she perked up and said, "Is it good?!? Have you read it???" We were happy to inform her that yes, it was, and yes, we had! We hopefully will be able to meet with her again this week. 

We did our weekly planning on Friday because of exchanges and then biked out to volunteer at ReStore. It is definitely getting warmer out here, and humidity definitely makes a difference, especially when it comes to "helmet hair." 

On Saturday we helped a member take down a yard sale and then went out looking for formers in the area. While we were looking for a man we had talked to only once, his mother was there babysitting, and she invited us right in to see the Prince of Peace video and loved it. We were also able to introduce the Book of Mormon and give her that and a Restoration pamphlet. Her eyesight isn't great, so she will need someone else to read it to her. Hopefully we can teach them, too. :)

Sunday was Easter, so of course it was wonderful! The bishop invited all the missionaries, including the Everys, our senior couple, over to his house for lunch. "Lunch" turned out to be "dinner in the afternoon," and it was delicious. It was pure Southern cooking: barbecue, hush puppies, baked beans, and apple pie. The bishop's wife was absolutely hilarious. She responded to Elder Every's request for a small piece of pie with a very-slightly-smaller-than-normal-sized piece and a "Honey, that's the smallest piece a Southern girl can cut." Their grandkids were there was well and they were very adorable. 

We have a great weeked planned ahead of us. Keep praying for missionary opportunites out there! 

Love, 

Sister Reay 

Pictures: A neat lizard and a neat plant