El evangelio en español

Hola everyone! This week was pretty exciting. We were kind of all over the place. On Wednesday we went up to Sharon with the Sister training leaders to hwlp them film these little Book of Mormon videos which turned out to be pretty neat. We also went out finding with them while we were up there and randomly found a woman whose best friend was LDS and who had visited the church before! She spoke mostly Spanish, so when at first it was just me and Sister Johnson, things were a little slow going. Luckily Sister Garcia came in clutch with her bilingual talents. It was a huge miracle. 

Friday we had interviews with President and Sister Alexander. It was wonderful. Also we recieved positive confirmation that at zone conferences this transfer we will be recieving.... smartphones! We are a little excited, especially since the current weddington phone is a flip phone. We get to keep our tablets for now, too. 

We also went on exchanges just after that, so I stayed in Weddington with Sister Garcia. We had a great time. We got to celebrate the end of the Stop Smoking problem with the member we met with last week, and he has successfully quit! We are so happy for him.

Saturday we did a lot of finding and exchanged back before going to... WOMEN'S CONFERENCE! If anyone didn't get the chance to listen, I would strongly encourage that you did. The speakers talked a lot about how we should realize our worth as children of an all-powerful God. It was so uplifting!

On Sunday we had the chance to go with the youth to a little program called Prepare the Way that they've been doing in a few different areas. Basically the youth go around with a survey that asks if people are interested in gospel topics and whether they want the missionaries from. We did it in Waxhaw to get our youth trained and got like 7 referrals for the missionaries there! Though, as one of the leaders mentioned, we might have done better if we hadn't gone while the Panthers were losing. We are super excited to try it in our area!

I am looking forward to watching general conference this next weekend! Stay tuned!

Love,

Sister Reay

Pictures: Sisters' activity at the mall today!

Charlotte or Bust

Hello everyone, from the Weddington area!!!

This week started off with a bang. Sister Lowry and I had to get the apartment completely empty of all food, trash, and personal items before we left in the morning, so we were pretty much in a mad rush. It was also raining pretty good all morning, which didn't exactly help. Luckily the elders came by to take some of the food and also took our bags upon bags of trash to the dumpster. Such blessings. We got off all right and made it to Charlotte in time, where happily the skies were clear while we unloaded. 

I saw Sister Lowry off and met my new companion, Sister Vincent! She is amazing and a wonderful missionary. I love her already!

So here I am in Weddington! It is a beautiful area. It is especially nice because it has a lot of sidewalks to bike on, which is great, since we are in a carshare now. Luckily this area is smaller than any of my other areas have been. 

We knocked a lot of doors this week. We had a great night on Saturday. Sister Alexander texted us out of the blue and asked if she could come out with us. She is an amazing and sweet woman. We got to visit so many places and meet a few people that we wouldn't be able to otherwise. We are so blessed to have her. 

We had a lot of member dinners and on Sunday I got to meet the ward. They are great! It is about as big as my ward back home, which is different, but also wonderful. We sort of got roped into teaching the deacons, which was so fun! They are a good bunch.  

Weddington is an exciting place. I am so blessed to be serving here. 

My new address is:

10410 Salvia St #102

Charlotte, NC 28277

My address for packages is:

7000 Royce Ct

Charlotte, NC 28277

I hope to hear from y'all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Reay

Pictures:

Sis. Lowry and I packing out

Sunday breakfast after an early ward council. We are such healthy eaters. :)

9-11-2017 Hurricanes and Other Freak Accidents

So this might be just a tad bit short. I am in a rush, for reasons to follow. 

This week was good and fun. We did some good work. I saw some great missionary work when Sister Lowry literally flagged someone down on the street and struck up a conversation, and we got a new investigator. 

On Thursday a new investigator stood us up at the park where we were supposed to meet. But we met some members there from out of the area, and they gave us popcorn. So that was a blessing. 

We finally got to meet again with M and D, the investigators with the puppies. The lesson was great. The puppies were fat. 

Transfer calls were delayed from their usual time Saturday night to what ended up being Monday morning, probably in part because of the hurricane that just barely dodged us and how that would affect the incoming missionaries. So, as it turns out, our sisters area is being closed. So we have to get our apartment ready to be emptied and we have to get ready to leave to Charlotte tomorrow. Sister Lowry will be "pinkwashing" Albemarle (sisters taking over an elders area). She will do great!

I will be going to... Weddington! It is in Charlotte. I've heard it's a great area and I am so excited!

Thanks for all the Book of Mormon scriptures! Here in our mission we know the word of God is more powerful than anything else!

I will give y'all my address as soon as possible!

Love,

Sister Reay

9-4-2017 Time To Stock Up On Bread and Milk

Dearest fam,

The rain we got this week was apparently from the tail end of Harvey. That looked pretty wicked. Also apparently we may or may not be nearish to another hurricane, which means everyone will buy out bread, milk, and eggs from the stores. They were running pretty low on gallons of water when we went today. They tell us it shouldn't be too bad, though. Just rainy. Anyway, if y'all could tell us a little more about that, it would be great. 

We tried to follow up with a dude we met by the library and his address was literally the sketchiest place I have been yet. Luckily Sister Lowry gave me one of her pepper sprays so we felt safe. He wasn't home and we definitely were not going back, so we called the elders to ask if they would take him. They asked where he was, and when we told them, they said, "Yeah, never go there again." So we will avoid it from now on. 

Sister Lowry unfortunately got Dear Janed last week so her emotional state is not the greatest. I mean she has been doing great and hasn't cried or anything but it's a little distracting for her, understandably. So we are dealing with it. 

And yeah, send me your favorite/most effective Book of Mormon scriptures! I want to mark them so I can use them. 

Please pray for David, since he is pondering baptism. Also pray for the elders' investigator Vicki. As of Sunday she had gone three days without smoking. She is just so great. 

Hope yxall have a great week! We will try to stay dry haha. 

Love,

Sister Reay 

A few more selfies from our new friends

The boy I think was called Peanut. He was the one who tried to make off with the flashlight. 

8-28-2017 Adventures Near and Far

This week, as we come to the end of the month, we are trying to make the best use of our many miles, so we went on some fun long drives to the far parts of the area. We mostly ran into members who politely told us they no longer wanted anything to do with us, which was a little sad. But it was quite scenic. 

Things picked up later in the week. On Friday, we had zone conference, which is always excellent! We practiced a lot letting the Book of Mormon speak for itself. Because, well, no matter how eloquent we are, we can't quite match the prophets. It really reinforced my testimony that if some one reads the Book of Mormon, really reads it, there can be bo doubt that it is the word of God. 

After zone conference we went on exchanges, and I got to go to Greensboro with Sister Miller! They teach only young single adults, so their area is freakishly enormous. The first night we got to teach a young man from the Congo. He was in therocess of learning English as a third language, so it was a bit of a challenge to teach him, but he has amazing faith. The next morning we saw a young woman who had an amazing testimony. I almost wish I could stay to teach them!We exchanged back after lunch and went back to work. 

On Sunday we had a mission president's fireside, the first one I have been able to come to. The missionaries sang songs and gave short, powerful statements about the Restoration. Then some recent converts bore their testimonies, and President Alexander talkedd a lot about some of the same things we discussed in zone conference. It was very powerful. D also came to church that day, which is exciting!

Today we went to the Greensboro Science Center again, this time with oir district. Also super fun! The weather has been great this week. Unfortunately, summer is not done yet, but it's a start!

Love,

Sister Reay 

790 Boone Station Dr. Apt. A

Burlington NC 27215

The tiger took a swim

HUGE turtle

Our district

Singing at the fireside

It was a little humid earlier this week...

8-21-17 Finding Puppies .... And Also Investigators!

Happy Monday everyone!

This week was a pretty exciting one. We worked pretty hard at getting to know more of the members. On Tuesday we spent some time with a couple of older sisters in the ward that are best friends. One of them gave us a ton of fabric and the other offered to teach us to sew, so we really lucked out. 

The highlight of the week was when I snuggled an eight-day-old Akita mix puppy on my lap for about half an hour while we taught the Restoration to a Bible referral and her boyfriend. It was a little hard to stay focused, but oh my goodness. The puppies were so cute and fat and soft! We got to meet the momma, too (once we had put the puppies back). Also the lesson was great. We were able to clear up some misconceptions (the boyfriend thought we were a "nice cult") and teach the doctrine. We are excited to come back and see how the puppies (er... investigators) are progressing. 

On Sunday we had a church open house tour. Unfortunately, not many people came... If something like that ever happens in your own area, remember, inviting people never hurt anyone! It's the members that really have the best contact with people. A person is probably more willing to accept an invitation from a friend or even acquaintance than they are from a well-dressed pair of strangers :D

It was a good week of missionary work! We are very excited to keep working with our investigators and help them toward baptism. 

Love y'all! Hope to hear from you!

Love,

Sister Reay 

8-14-17 Crossin' the State Line

Hello everyone! Currently I'm writing this from the fancy lobby of a very fancy car fixed while we get a diagnostic run on the car's system. It makes me feel not-very-fancy. 

But this week was phenomenal! Sister Lowry and I are having a geat time and seeing miracles, including 5 new investigators, which was a huge blessing! 

We started off on Tuesday by goingmup to Danville, Virginia, to help the housing coordinators move the Danville elders. We think Sister Monteleone just likes to have other sisters for company. That took all day, but it was fun! It was a good thing, to, because their old place was a little nasty. Virginia was a nice place, though. 

On Wednesday we had district meeting with our temporary trio of zone leaders, which was super fun. We missionaried around quite a bit until Friday, when we finally had another lesson with our investigator D! It was a wonderful lesson, and we really got to know where he is. We are excited to see him continue to progress. We also met again with the Bible referrals from way back, H and G, who asked us a lot of questions comparing the Bible to the Book of Mormon. I think we got it all sorted out in the end. 

We started new member discussions with M on Saturday! He is so good and surprises us every day with how much he knows. He is such an inspiration. 

I studied humility for a training this week and learned some things. I've come to understand humility as an acknowledgement of our own inadequacies and a trust in God's power. Pride, on the other hand, is trust in our own powers and strength. It takes humility for God to bless us. Pride keeps us from accepting those blessings. 

Anyway, that's just a few random thoughts. Today we had game day as a zone and Sister Lowry and I went to the Greensboro Science Center as well. So much fun! 

Hope to hear from y'all!

Love,

Sister Reay 

Our stellar district

The Virginia state line

Dinner with a member

A two-headed turtle! What!