Love is in the air; the love of the gospel, that is

Hello friends and family! Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and didn't eat TOO much chocolate (if that is at all possible). We've had a great week sharing the love of God and Jesus Christ, so it was a fantastic week for us! It was also super warm, which was weird. We got over 80 degrees on Thursday and have been going between high 50s and low 70s most of the week. Spring is just around the corner! 

Things mostly picked up on Thursday, when we had zone conference! Zone conference is honestly one of my favorite parts of the whole transfer. It's a whole day for learning and training with other missionaries and I get so many great insights. Plus they feed us lunch, and that's pretty good too. We talked a lot about how to help members do their own missionary work. It's not just about getting members to hand us people to teach; there's a lot of focus on helping people introduce the gospel naturally and simply on theor own. It's pretty neat. One thing President Alexander mentioned is that when we're sharing the gospel woth our friends, we aren't necessarily looking for a home run; we can start with just a single. It's those little steps that get things going. 

We are also continuing our focus on teaching shorter, simpler, and more frequent lessons. As one missionary put it: "You can't just put a lot of extra toothpaste on the brush once a week and hope your teeth will be clean the rest of the week." I think that applies to a lot of the gospel. We can't put in a lot of prayer and study on, say, Sunday, and then do nothing for the rest of the week. One of the great blessings of being a missionary is that we get an hour of personal gospel study every morning! It's something I'll miss someday, but I know there is ALWAYS time for scripture study and prayer. 

After zone conference I went on exchanges with Sister Hofer in Mountain Island! Our schedule was packed after a whole day of meetings so we mostly just zipped around. It was really good. I always enjoy seeing new areas and meeting new people, but still , there's no place like home- Rock Hill, South Carolina! 

Habe a good week everyone! Keep up the faith! 

Love,

Sister Reay 

More pictures of flowers to prove that, yes, winter does end. 

"...Like a fire is burning"

Hello all you good people out there! It has been a beautiful week. Wet but very beautiful. South Carolina is starting to look a lot like North Carolina did when I first got here, so that has me reminiscing about the good ole days. Luckily all the days on a mission turn into the good ole days, but Shelby days are still the oldest. 

We had a great time this week! We had a special Book of Mormon class this week. Instead of going to a church, we went to a member's house in York and had a little fireside in the backyard. Like an actual fireside; they had a little fire pit that we all sat around it on camp chairs. It was really fun and at the end we all had a little testimony meeting. It was super spiritual to the point that we hardly cared about the s'mores afterwards. M was there, and she bore her testimony too. She is not even baptized yet and her testimony is so strong! It's amazing. 

Wednesday before we gave the car to the elders we decided to stop by a Bible referral that was pretty far out into our area. It was raining pretty good when we set out but we didn't think much of it. By the time we got there it was coming down in sheets and the wind was blowing good, so raincoats and umbrellas could only do so much. Luckily we could shield it enough to keep the Bible from getting wet. The people weren't super interested, but they sure were surprised ro see us out there!

Friday was the next exciting thing, which was interviews. They were really good! I love getting to see President and Sister Alexander. It always lifts my spirits. 

My spiritual thought of the week came during the testimony meeting. I realized that a testimony is like a fire. Once it gets going, you can't just leave it alone and expect it to keep going. You have to tend to it, stoke it, add more logs. It's the same with our testimonies. We have to keep strengthening them with study and experience, or they'll vanish altogether. 

Hope everyone else stays dry this week! And have a happy Valentine's Day!

Love,

Sister Reay 

Campfire night (if you can see it at all)

The daffodils are blooming! 

There can never be too much toilet paper

Hello friends and family! It has been a beautiful week down here in South Carolina! We've had some good times and met some great people. Tuesday was pretty slow because Sister Laney had  to get her brake pads replaced and they kept the bike in the shop most of the day. Luckily the bike shop is literally right across the street from us so we didn't have to stick around. We also had Book of Mormon class with an investigator, M. She is pretty much our favorite person and is looking forward to getting baptized soon! (She is in a different ward, but she comes to our Book of Mormon class anyway.)  Plus she brought her two-year-old son and he is just the cutest. 

The highlight of Wednesday was unloading pallets of frozen blueberries at the food pantry. We filled three frezers with them. I think we were all craving smoothies by the end. We had exchanges on Thursday and Friday, and boy was that fun! I stayed in Rock Hill with Sister Erickson. She is actually from Peoria too but she lived in a different stake so I never knew it. She is super fun! We ended up leaving our plans that day because the shelter/food pantry we volunteer for got a giant shipment of toilet paper and paper towels that was four times the size they were expecting. We helped organize things and make room. It's always nice to see where donations get put to use. 

We exchanged back on Friday and kept working hard. On Saturday we had ward coordination in a hospital room because our assistant ward mission leader had an infection. That was a first for me. We also went to the stake Relief Society talent night with M and the York sisters. It was very entertaining and we had a good time with all the sisters. 

We were out Saturday evening and we were in the area of a Bible referral that we hadn't been able to contact yet. We wanted to stop by, but we hadn't restocked the Bibles in the car yet so we didn't have one to give her except one with a slightly bent cover. We decided to drive back home, grab a nicer Bible, and come back out, even though it would take up miles. We got to her house and were knocking on the door when a car pulled up in the driveway. As it turned out, she was only stopping at home for a few minutes and we would have missed her completely if we hadn't gone back to get the new Bible. But because we were there at that time, we were able to talk to her and introduce the Book of Mormon! What miracles. 

One thing we studied this week in our personal studies was humility. I always sort of though of humility as just not being full of yourself, but boy did I learn a lot! One of the things I learned is that when we are humble, we have confidence in the Lord and confidence that he can and will help you. I know a lot of times I'm guilty of trying to do things all by myself without asking for help, thinking that I don't want to ask the Lord for help. But that's part of humility. Jesus Christ always did the will of the Father and gave Him the glory in all things. It's something I can work on. 

That's just about the summary of my week. Hope February is treating everyone well! 

Love,

Sister Reay 

Zone activity last week! Good times

At least brussel sprouts are good for hacky sacks

Happy Monday everyone! It's been raining this weekend, not snowing, which is a bit of a bummer- but hey, we'll take what we can get! 

We were on bikes this week, but the weather was nice and moderate for most of it so that was a blessing! We did some really neat service on Wednesday. One of the food panties we volunteer for was having a huge event for the homeless in Rock Hill and we were there to put together boxes of food for anyone who showed up to get them. We got the food from these huge bulk pallets that companies had donated, and one of the things we had was brussel sprouts. Stacks and stacks of brussel sprouts. One of the boxes broke open, too, so there were brussel sprouts just rolling all over the floor by the time we got there. I found out they're pretty fun to kick around and play with, but I commented to one of the other volunteers that I didn't really like them as food. She laughed and said she didn't think anyone did. 

It was funny, but it got me thinking. One of the reasons I like volunteering at the food pantry is that I get to see where all those food drive donations I put in as a kid ended up. But the brussel sprouts brought the thought: When I donated something or did another kind of service, was I just giving away "brussel sprouts"? Was I proud to give up something that, really, I was all too happy to part with? Or did I think of the person I was giving to, and truly give them the things I would want to be given if I was in their place? Was I serving with my leftovers, or was I giving it my all? I guess you could say it was "food for thought." The good news is, there were plenty of other foods there, so we were not just handing out brussel sprouts.  

Anyway, we had fun biking this week. There are plenty of sidewalks in Rock Hill, which makes us feel a lot safer. Plus, the winter makes it very comfortable to wear leggings while we're biking, which is very comfortable. You tend to meet good people while you're out biking. I can't wait until the evenings start getting brighter, though. 

That's about it for this week. We wnt to a zone activity today. It was at the same park that I had my first ever zone activity, in Shelby *sniff* Good times. 

Y'all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Reay 

It's either winter or the apocalypse

Hello and good day my fine friends! It has been quite the eventful week here in the blessed land of South Carolina. 

Tuesday was your average Tuesday, but Wednesday morning we found out Sister Heywood was being TRANSFERRED.  It was a pretty sad day and it meant she had to get on packing. But the upside of Wednesday was that it SNOWED. Like actual snow that was big and flaky and stuck to things. It was a pretty good farewell and we had a lot of fun that morning. We ended up getting like two inches, which is not bad for this part of the country! 

Thursday was transfer day so it ended up being quite busy. Sister Heywood is now gracing the frozen north of Pilot Mountain with her beautiful presence. My new companion is Sister Laney from Oregon! She is super sweet and a great addition to our Rock Hill family. 

We got settled in and set back to work! Some highlights of the week: An older lady going out of her way to help us find our Bible referral in a giant confusing apartment complex; a sweet senior citizen asking what Sister Laney's name was three times in a five-minute conversation; and meeting a giant German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix that thought he was the perfect lapdog for me. All in all it was a very fun time! 

Spiritual thought of the week! Someone in sacrament meeting talked about when they reintroduced wolves into Yellowstone. All they did was let 14 wolves loose in the park. The wolves cut down on the deer population, which allowed small bushes and saplings to grow where they couldn't before without being eaten by deer. Because of the increased foliage, bird species that had long been absent began returning to the park. The wolves also cut down on coyotes, leading to more mice and rabbits, which led to more hawks, ravens, and even eagles. The new trees cut down on erosion, which stabilized the rivers for more beavers and otters. The entire ecosystem was improved. 

It's a pretty neat story by itself, but the point is, even small changes can lead to big results. None of us are perfect, and sometimes we feel like we have so far to go that it's hardly worth it to try. But if we make small changes, in faith, we can see great improvements. 

Hope everyone is staying warm and dry out west. Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Reay 

Having fun in the snow :)

New companion!