Chapter 4: Glory To God!

 Y'all! I've only been in SC for 4 days! What??? 

I'm in the Charleston area, and I'm in a trio! I seriously love my comps! Sister Harris and Sister Jones. This is Sister Harris' last transfer, so she's dying in a few weeks, RIP. And Sister Jones only has two transfers left. But I'll get to spend Christmas with them and I'm so thankful for that. I'm learning so much from them. They are super helpful and sooooo good at talking to everyone. The first day they asked me what my main love language was, (words of affirmation btdubbs), and they seriously have taken that to heart. Like wow, I honestly feel so loved and needed. Which is great, was lowkey having a but of a rough time feeling like my voice needed to be heard. Just didn't feel like I was going to do a good enough job. But y'all! The Holy Spirit is legit!! And the message I am sharing needs to be heard. 

Dah trio!

Sis Jones, Sis Ray, Sis Harris

Thursday was kinda a weird day, we had an early and relatively short training in the morning, then by noon I was heading to Charleston with my comps. We had a dinner with a member family and a visited with a recent convert. 

But part of our training was watching a video about recognizing the Holy Spirit and its promptings. The speaker talked about how every good thought is of God. (Moroni 7:13). And how we need to act on every little "bing" or thought we get. No matter if it makes sense or not, because God has a plan and everything is in His timing.

Friday and Saturday were GRIND TIME. We did soooo much! We had lots of lessons, some fell through, but we always were in the right time at the right place. I got lots of "bings". The best way I can describe it is playing eye spy with God. I get the thought that I need to look around, so I do and think "okay God, what am I looking for?" Then something or someone catches my eye and I'm drawn to them. I can't not think about them. So I tell my comps and we go knock on their door. We've met a handful if people this way!! We met a man named Randy who said him and his wife have been looking for a church for 5 years and would love for us to come back and talk with them both. We also met this Awesome lady named Yolanda, who had a member friend years ago. We also met this lady named Charlene who told us she had been "sprinkled" before, but wants to grow closer to Jesus and be baptized. There were a few others, but I'll leave it at that. We also have 3 people on date for baptism!! Two of which were already on date when I got here and one who we just put on date yesterday! I'm literally so pumped for them!! 

One of the people is this lady named Flossie. I TOTALLY LOVE HER. She's legit awesome sauce. She came to church on Sunday and is just sooooo excited to get baptized and cannot wait to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

The person we just put on date is an unbaptized youth. She's this sweet 9 year old. I felt so in my element getting to teach her about the Plan of Salvation. She wants rainbow and white cupcakes for her baptism.

Also we had 58 baptisms in the month of November! We're shooting for 100 by the end of Christmas.🤞🤞

After my first bing!!

Kaitlin on baptism date

Sunday was actually really hard for me. Church was good. We sang Christmas songs!! We had seven of our friends come! I'm so so grateful for the Sacrament and for Christ's Atonement so that I can renew my Covenants and continue to Endure to the End. I gave the closing prayer, super glad it wasn't a last minute talk tho, I would've died. But the rest of Sunday felt like all the other busy, crazy days as a missionary. I knew coming in it would be different, it was just so hard. Especially coming from MTC Sundays, which I absolutely love. We did have a Lot of good lessons and were able to actually meet a few new people. I just felt so Spiritually drained and exhausted.

Sunday night though we went to go visit this lady named Sandy. Sandy is this short and small retired NYPD officer. She's got some maaad ADHD. She cooked us dinner, which we weren't expecting so we had to message our district and tell them we were going to miss our district study, but honestly I'm not too sorry. Listening to Sandy and visit with her was soooo good. She's so fun! I absolutely adore her!! I felt a bit more energized and happy after our visit with her. Can't wait to talk with her again. (By talk I mean listen, that lady can talk for.ev.er). Cool story about Sandy. This guy named David was getting robbed and beat up and Sandy jumped on the attacker and started like punching his head. Then she took David to her place and helped him out, then introduced him to the missionaries and he got baptized! Sandy is awesome.

Sandy

Oh! One last thing, we tried to visit this one lady, she didn't answer, but the neighbor across the street was playing suuuuuuper loud music so we had a little jam session. It was great. Highly recommend dancing like a dork to some loud tunes.

Anyways, this is already suuuper long so I'll finish with this. Heavenly Father loves all His children. He loves you. I know that He has a plan for me and for everyone I meet, and I am filled with His love for them and for all of you. 

I pray you have a blessed week and I invite you to pray to feel God's love for you, and let His love fill Trio!.

Love y'all!

-Sister Ray

Brunch at the Waffle House

I held a frog!

Plane. Bye Bye Utah

Last pic with Sis Harvey. I LOVE YOU

P.S.

One last thing!!

We just went on a lil walk in the dark in the forest. Don't worry we were on a gravel trail. It was kinda cool at one point though. Totally felt like we were in 1 Nephi when Nephi was retelling Lehi's dream. 

We were walking in the dark, on this slightly spooky path and up ahead of us was a tree lit up by a lamp. 

So my peeps, Elders and Sisters, partake if you will of this parting wisdom. First, maybe don't do forest walks in the dark. Second always look to the Light. Third, Carry that light with you and trust in it. Trust in the Light of Christ.

Anyways, Love Y'all, be safe!

-Sis Ray