Shhhhh! It's a secret!

Marissa's birthday is November 24th - Black Friday this year.  I am sure she would love to get some mail.  Right now she is in a suburb of Charlotte and two sets of Elders are in her ward.  She told us that she can get packages easily if they are sent to the mission office.  The address is  Sister Marissa Reay NC Charlotte Mission 3020 Hilliard Dr Charlotte NC 28205  or you can send them to her apartment on Royce - address above. Her letter address is the Salvia address.  o or you or r you can

Surprise! It's scarf weather

So just yesterday we had a high of 58 and it got to about freezing last night. We're glad we turned the heater on. It's a little funny for an Arizonian like myself because this pretty much feels like Christmas weather to me, and it's not quite Halloween yet! Haha, I will be breaking out the long sleeves and sweaters anyway. 

This week was pretty much wonderful because I got to meet the amazing and talented Sister Rohde, my new companion! She is so great and her testimony is so deep. We will be doing great things together. We're back at it again in Weddington!

This week was a little crazy but good. On Thursday Sister Rohde had a doctor's appointment back up in Hickory (whoops) so we got to drive up there. Good bonding time. And Sister Reay didn't die driving on the freeway for the first time in forever, which is an extra blessing. 

On Friday we got to meet the new district at district meeting, which is always fun. Two of the elders from out district went home this last transfer and we sish them the best!

Saturday was the ward Trunk-or-Treat, which we used for our dinner that night. So fun and so cute. A couple of the senior couples in the office live in Weddington so they came too. One of them came up to us and said, "Guess what I came dressed up as?" *pause* "A cupholder." (He was holding his grandsons' drinks haha ). On Sunday there were some great talks, as always! They all centered on having an eternal perspective, and it ended up being neat because all the talks were so different, yet on the same subject. One of the youth speakers shared a story I'd like to share too:

There once was a wise old man that lived in a little house with an acre of land and one son and one horse who helped him work it, and that was how they made their living. One day the corral got left open, and the horse escaped and ran away. All his friends and neighbors came and said, "Oh, that's awful. Your only horse ran away!"

The wise man said, "Well, I don't know if it's bad, or if it's good." But his neighbors all assured him it was bad. 

Within a few days the horse got tired and came back to the corral- along with nine other wild horses that followed it. "Isn't that wonderful!" the neighbors said now. "You have ten horses!"

"Well," the old man said, "I don't know if it's good, or bad." But they all insisted it was good. 

The next day his son was in the corral trying to tame one of the wild horses. It reared up and came down hard, breaking the young man's leg. "Oh, isn't it terrible!" their neighbors lamented. "Your only son can't help you with the farm."

"Well," the old man said, "I don't know if it's bad, or if it's good." But everyone else said it was bad. 

Soon a war broke out in the land, and their country gathered up all the able-bodied young men and sent them to battle, where many died. But because of his broken leg, the man's son was left at home. 

The story could go on and on, probably, but the point is we can't just look at things from our limited, "here-and-now" perspective. Heavenly Father has a plan for us, and it will all work out in the end. 

That's all for now! Hope y'all have a blessed week!

Love,

Sister Reay 

Pictures:

Road trippin'

#bookofmormonchallenge 

"Me gustan tus pajaritos"

Hello hello everyone!

Anyway, due to some pre-transfer madness and a lot of different things going on that are too long to explain, I spent this last week in a trio with the Sister Training Leaders in Sharon! There were some crazy times for sure, but I am so glad I got to be here and learn from them. Good stuff. 

Tuesday started off with zone conference!!! So exciting. We talked a lot about the new planning guidelines that came out last transfer. Planning is now more focused on the people we teach and what their individual needs are. It's a bit of a change but it's so good! Also we got our SMART PHONES! It is so exciting. It's especially great because we can use the internet while we're out and about, so we can Skype members into lessons, download videos to show people, and sync Areabook on the road. Also we can use emojis 

This week was just crazy with exchanges, since I'm with the STLs. I stayed in Sharon the whole time, but they went on three exchanges! What a wild life. They were all super fun. We went with Sister Hardy for the first one. She is just the sweetest. Then we exchanged with the Gastonia STLs, and I got to meet Sister Payne! She is great and also hilarious! Finally we went with Sister Vonasek, who is going home tomorrow  She is such a powerful missionary. It was great to learn from her. 

We had so many good lessons this week. My favorites were with M and her kids, W and P. They are an adorable family and so eager to learn. Their lessons are completely in Spanish, though, since M doesn't speak much English. I wish I had studied  Spanish more now. I could understand most of what they talked about, but I could only say things like "Hello," "Nice to meet you," and, "I like your birds." Not super useful things, but oh well. We have Sister Garcia.

Also, we got transfer news! I am staying in Weddington and I'm getting Sister Rohde from Hickory! I am so excited for this transfer. It's going to be great!

Love,

Sister Reay 

Picture: El pajarito

Exchanges: Part II

Good afternoon everyone! The weather is beautiful and wet here in North Carolina, and we are enjoying it immensely. I am looking forward to fall. 

This week was wonderful, in part because it was ZONE WEEK! Nothing like getting a spiritual pump-up over Messenger every day.  It made me so excited for zone conference tomorrow!

We also had exchanges again this week! I got to stay in Weddington with the one and only Sister Johnson. She was a great teacher and we had so much fun together! We had a long night knocking, and just when we were getting exhausted, we had a wonderful part-member family let us in to share a message. Such a blessing!

District meeting was also phenomenal. We talked about general conference and ended up discussing President Nelson's talk about the Book of Mormon. The best takeaway I had was that we could SAY we could choose the Book of Mormon over rubies and diamonds, like Pres. Nelson said, but we only truly accept the worth of it if we open it, read it, and follow its teachings. Something to ponder. 

Also this week I found out that our nearest Walmart is in South Carolina! We had to stop by there, so I have now visited three states on my mission. If I ever serve in Tennessee I'll have hit all four. 

Yesterday Sister Vincent and I both got the opportunity to speak in church! Luckily they gave us a day's notice so we could prepare haha. We spoke about self-reliance, and I tied it in to how becoming self-reliant helps youth prepare for missionary work. It went really well! Such an important topic. 

Well, not much going on this wonderful P-day. I think I will take a nap after this :) Hope to hear from y'all!

Love, 

Sister Reay

It Feels Less Humid When It Rains

Hello everyone from the end of a triumphant bike week!

It was a pretty great week. On Tuesday we were a little cautious because we were still shaking off the stomach flu, but we were able to do our volunteer work. Wednesday was district meeting. It was pretty crazy because we ended up having the zone leaders, the assistants, and the zone leaders from Hickory all there with us, in addition to the five companionships we already have. It was a good time. 

We did pretty ordinary things on Thursday and Friday. We biked a lot of places. I am getting a lot better at it! The weather cooled down a little, but it still doesn't feel like fall quite yet. Saturday we started out biking to an old folk's home to do service. By the time we got out it was raining pretty hard, but we didn't really have any other options, so we just rode back. It was actually really fun, even though I couldn't wear my glesses so I was slightly less than half blind. Anyway, it cooled the weather down a little, which was a huge plus. We also got giant pizza with a member. 

Sunday was wonderful, as usual. It was fast and testimony meeting, so it was wonderful to hear all the strong testimonies from members of this ward! We got the last of our biking done and got to visit some members that just came back from the hospital. They were doing better! 

Today we had zone activity! We carved pumpkins and played Mafia. It was pretty fun. We have a great zone.

We have some errands to run, so I'll let y'all go for now. Love ya!

Love,

Sister Reay 

Our zone pumpkins! Ours is second from the left with the cardinal and mission initials

GIANT pizza 

"It's Like the Superbowl for Missionaries"

Happy Monday my friends!

It has been a marvelous week, as usual. Lots of missionary work got done. We did a lot in preparation for general conference this weekend! It was a good way to invite people to learn more. It's not every day that you get to hear from the prophet and apostles, after all!

We had a pretty powerful experience this week when we knocked on the door of a Catholic woman. She was very interested in what we do as missionaries and we talked for a while about that. She told us that she had been very firm in her faith in God in the past, but that her faith was now faltering a little. Of course we said, "The Book of Mormon can help with that!" And it really can! The Book of Mormon has always brought me great peace and comfort and amazing spiritual strength. I would highly reccommend it :)

We had so many fun dinners with members this week. It is so great to be in their homes.  Sister Vincent and I are really working on helping them invite their friends to church activities- because to invite is to succeed!

On Friday we were exploring new finding techniques and we decided to visit a park in the area we were visiting that day. It turned out to be a nice little nature preserve that was beautiful but unfortunately had no people in it. We did see a neat snake though. 

Saturday kicked off GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! We watched the first session at the church and the second at a member's house. It was a blast. We are so lucky to have the technology that allows us to see this, anywhere in the world!

Sunday would have been just as great except Sister Vincent and I both woke up with some sort of stomach bug and basically had to stay in bed all day. Not fun. Luckily we have our neighbor's wifi so we could listen to general conference from there. Those messages were so powerful! We will have to listen to them again because I was a little out of it haha. Don't worry, we are both feeling better today! 

Hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Reay