Chapter 24: The Princess and the Pea

April 17, 2023

Chapter 24: The Princess and the Pea

Heyooo!! How y'all doin?? I was thinking a lot about y'all this week. I hope y'all are well, and buckle up, we have lots to talk about.

Last pday, I did something I've never done before..... I went to Costco! Basically a Sam's Club. We got lunch there as a district and did a lil bit of shopping and free samples sampling. Then we went and played pickleball! For almost 3 hours!!! Haha, it was a lot of fun. Another district from our Zone had the same idea, and we all ended up at the same court. That was a lot of fun. It was nice and toasty outside so our district went and got ice cream afterwards.

Wednesday we went out to Holly Hill. Holly Hill is the boonies of the Nexton area. So we spent most the day out there. We had a lesson with is amazing lady in Holly Hill! She was a yellow dot we hadn't contacted yet, (slackers), so a few days prior we called her and set up a time to visit her. The Spirit was so strong during her lesson. We sat and got to know her; she asked some questions and we answered; introduced the Book of Mormon to her and read a scripture that answered one of her questions. This was seriously one of my favorite first interactions with someone. I love being able to answer questions with the scriptures. It's so much more powerful than anything I could say. Which is crazy, because I can say the same thing as a scripture, but something about reading directly from the Book of Mormon has that added power to it. It was kinda funny too. When she felt the Spirit she would say, "shut up" or "get out". Haha, it's fun seeing all the different ways people react to feeling the Spirit. Before leaving we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, and this awesome bookmark we've started using with all our friends. And she tried to give us money. We refused, told her can't take money. We're not paid to come and do this, she said "shut up, I know these books don't pay for themselves." We said again we don't take money, but she didn't want to hear it. She told us we couldn't come back if we didn't take it and that we'd be disrespecting her. So she shoved the money into my pants and shooed us out the door..

Anyways, we have a return appointment with her on Wednesday again.

Thursday was Zone Conference!!! It was so good! I love Zone Conference!! We talked a lot about inspired questions and obedience. President Monson talked about how Obedience is a blessed and happy state. He talked about King Benjamin's remarks to his people in Mosiah 2. God's commandments are not restrictions. They are structure, and through that structure we can have true and lasting happiness. He talked about why missionaries have so many "rules". Because we are in a stressful and draining environment, we need even more structure so that we can have even more happiness. I like to think about it with our Covenants as well. We first start with Baptism and the Covenants that go along with. As a missionary I've been able to see just how much happiness that promise brings into our friends lives. And when we go to the Temple, we receive even more Covenants and even more blessings. I've noticed it in my life here as a missionary too. The times when I'm most happy, and have the best outlook is when I am being exactly obedient. It makes me sad that there's a negative connotation around being obedient. You're labeled as a "goody two shoes" or "uptight". But I disagree whole heartedly. Being exactly obedient shows my love for God, and allows me to be filled with true and lasting joy.

This is already suuuuper long, but bare with me, or not, you do you boo. I just have a couple more things to share.

Saturday we had two really wonderful lessons where we knew God was guiding us. Not so much in the lessons themselves, but leading us to those situations. The first one was with a less active in the ward. We were visiting with her, another member came with us, and we sat and chatted for a good long while. I kept looking at my watch, and I knew we had already gone over our time, but I felt like we needed to stay. I got that feeling almost each time I looked at my watch. Then a friend of the less active showed up and we got to talk with her too!! She said she could see this light and happiness about us, and wanted to have it as well. We gave her our phone number and invited her to church. Only after doing that did Sister Noel and I feel good about leaving.

Then later that evening we had a lesson with a lady who had met with missionaries about 20 years ago in Goose Creek! She even still had the Book of Mormon that they gave her! We had a very powerful Restoration lesson with her and we're excited to go back.

Okay! Last thing! I gave a talk in church on Sunday! The Bishop called me last week and said one of the speakers had to change to the next week and he asked if I could speak instead. My talk was on learning to recognize and follow the promptings of the Spirit. I centered most of what I said off of Elder Rasbands' talk "Let the Holy Spirit Guide". It's a really good one. Go read it. In his talk there's a part where he talks about making sure we don't become complacent in our worship or desensitized by the world. And a fun lil analogy I thought of went perfectly with the fairytale the Princess and the Pea.

In that story, a princess comes to the king and asks for a place to stay. The king gives her a test. And despite all the mattresses stacked on top of each other, she is still able to feel the little pea. The pea is like the Holy Spirit. It's a small voice that still has the power to "pierce [us] to the very soul", (3 Nephi 11:3). The mattresses are the distractions we have in our life. The things that make it hard to recognize that still small voice. But just like the princess, we can still feel the Spirit even with the distractions. We just need to know our divine nature, Children of God, and be in tune with how the Spirit speaks to us.

I invite each of you to think of one "mattress", one distraction, you have in your life right now; and to make a plan to remove it so that you can better feel the Spirit guide your life.

-Sis Ray stressing abt her talk ✌️