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.