Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas! I don't have much time to email today but I wanted y'all to know I'm still alive. This is a wonderful time of year. I am so thankful for the birth of our Savior. 

Love,

Sister Reay 

Our district picture

You better bee-lieve it

Hello everyone from good ol' Gastonia! We're having zone activity today for Christmas and it is super fun. I'll attach some pictures after. 

This week was really good! We got on bike week halfway through but we are doing well. It is much nicer to bike in cold weather than in hot, especially since we get to wear leggings. 

This week we had a combined district meeting/zone meeting in Gastonia and had a grand time. This is actually the first time we had a district meeting here so it was fun to get to know everyone! We also announced that we would be changing our name from the Gastonia Gas-tank to the Gastonia Hive. Pretty exciting and also that will explain the bee-themed clothing. 

Something really hard happened in the area this week and while I was looking up things in connection with it I found this really powerful quote from Joseph B. Wirthlin that I wanted to share:

"I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross...
I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest.
But the doom of that day did not endure.
The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind...
Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.
But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. 

No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come." 

We had a pretty crazy miracle this week! We had just finished companion study and we were scheduled to do 12 week training and then go visit a Bible referral we had recently recieved. But as we sat down, I felt really antsy, like we should go out NOW. So we got our bikes all ready and went down to visit the referral. She opened the door, and we had practiced with me introducing the Book of Mormon, but at the last moment it just felt wrong and I quickly introduced #lighttheworld instead. She thanked us, and we left and went around the corner to look up any people nearby. I was doubting myself and wondering if I was just a bad trainer or something when we saw this sort of sketchy-looking person walking down the street. Well, we're missionaries, so Sister Heywood says hello. The woman says hi back, and then says, "I know you!" She tells us her name and we were like "What!" She was a Bible referral that we had met with before and we had dropped literally two days before because we couldn't contact her! And there she was, just walking down this little side street at just the right time. Miracles do happen. 

That's about it! Love y'all! 

Love,

Sister Reay 

I thought it was supposed to be WARMER down south

Gooooood morning everyone... from Rock Hill, South Carolina! What a fun place to be on a crisp winter morning. As you may expect a lot happened this week!

On Tuesday after Book of Mormon class our investigator S had his baptismal interview. Unsurprisingly it went great! He is just golden. We also waited up that night for transfer calls, since transfers will be on Thursday instead of Tuesday from now on. Sadly, as we expected, the Provington trio was split up.  Such a sad day, but also happy because we get to try new things! Sister Berthelson was sent up to Summerfield, and Weddington was whitewashed with elders (!). 

To make a long story short, I am now in Rock Hill with the talented and lovely Sister Heywood from San Bernadino, California! To make a short story long, we packed up on Thursday and somehow managed to fit three people and two sets of luggage into one car. We had a little moment of panic when we were all ready and got in the car only to get a low battery notification. After a few tries, though, we got it started, and our car supervisor told us to just drive up and leave the car running so they could take it in for a new battery. So we made it to the Hilliard building just barely late. 

Finally we are at the Hilliard building and I meet Sister Heywood. We are chatting a little with the senior missionaries when Sis. Heywood sees a picture of the new missionaries coming in and says, "Aw, that was just me!" I was a little startled and asked how long she had been out, and it turns out she has only been out one transfer, which means she is still in training! So, surprise! I am split-training! And no one remembered to tell me haha. Oh well. I will try to be a good step-mother. And Sister Heywood is great. 

Rock Hill is a great place! We have just been whizzing around this week trying to get everything done. The members are great. The area is great. But boy was it COLD this week! We had highs in the forties and lows below freezing. For a couple of days it was pretty drizzly outside and it got cold enough that the rain turned into something like snow, even though it didn't stick. But on Sunday we went out to go to ward council and the car was all frozen over. That is a time when it does NOT pay to have an Arizonian and Californian as companions, because we had no idea what to do. But finally we got most of the ice off the windshield and there was almost no ice on the road, so we were only a couple minutes late. 

But I can't forget Saturday because S was baptized!!!!! I don't have any pictures because Sis. Hardy took them but believe me it was great. We got to go because I had helped teach him and we weren't too far away. It was weird to see everyone in the Providence ward again though. 

South Carolina is a great place. I have definitely gained a testimony that the Lord puts us in places we need to be, so I am looking forward to a great transfer!

My new address is:

139 E Main St. Apt. 49

Rock Hill, SC 29730

Love y'all!

Sister Reay

Last sisters' call in Charlotte South

Sister Heywood 

New Address!

I have been transferred to Rock Hill! 

My new address is:

139 East Main St Apt. 49

Rock Hill SC 29730

Love,

Sister Reay 

Spreading Christmas Cheer and Pine Needles

Hello everyone! What a festive and fun-filled week I have had! 

Tuesday night we hoped to go over to the mission home to have a lesson with S (who is getting baptized on Saturday!) but he wasn't able to make it last-minute. We still were able to see President and Sister Alexander though, which is always nice.

On Wednesday our zone all met at the stake center and had our district meetings there. Afterward we stayed for a couple hours to help set up for the Nativity Festival, which is a huge event they put on at the church every year with a live nativity, a bunch of international nativity sets, and musical performances. Mostly we just set up chairs. Every padded chair in the whole building had to be moved to the cultural hall. And there were a lot of them. Then we helped set up Christmas trees and string lights. It took a while but it would have taken way longer if all the missionaries hadn't been there to help. 

On Thursday we ended up setting up Chriistmas decorations again, this time at the mission home! The Alexanders were going to have some neighbors over for Light the World but with transfers coming up they had pretty much zero time to decorate. Provington to the rescue. It was super fun to set everything up and decorate the tree with Sister Alexander. We didn't see President Alexander much, but he did come out to say hello and goodbye. 

Friday and Saturday were the days of the Nativity Festival, though we only got to go on Saturday night. It was PACKED. Later on someone told us there were about 600 people the first night and 1600 the second, and about half of them weren't members. Our zone did the last musical performance. We sang "Away ina Manger," "Oh Come all ye Faithful," and "Angels We have Heard on High." Sister Hardy rocked it on the violin. It went a lot better than our first practice would have suggested.

Soooo I accidentally pressed send instead of attach so here I am now again. 

Sunday was another crazy day of running in between meetings and two church services, though this is the last time we will do it probably. We also had the adventure of subbing for a primary class of five-year-olds. There were only five of them and three of us but there was still a lot of "reining in" to do. To quote an actual conversation. 

Me: We show respect for Heavenly Father by speaking his name reverently. 

Child: *raises hand*

Me: Yes? 

Child:....... Sometimes, I eat a salad with carrots! 

Well, not sure how much we taught them, but it was fun anyway. 

That was about our week! Hope everyone is having a great Christmas season! And don't forget to #lighttheworld!

Love,

Sister Reay

Singing in the festival

The sisters