Chapter 28: Boxes and Bruises

May 17, 2023

Chapter 28: Boxes and Bruises

Woooot! Another week gone by! This was also kinda dry, haha. We had a couple more lessons and activities than last week, but still not much progress. We've got lots of good plans set in place for this week, so I'm confident things will pick up in due time.

Tuesday was our last DCM of the transfer. It was good, kinda sad. I seriously loved this last District. We did airplane journal writing after lunch, and that was a lil sad. But I'll see 'em again.

Wednesday we got transfer news!! And guess what??! I'm staying in Charleston for another transfer!! Woooot! And even better, Sister Noel and I are staying together in Nexton! Tbh, we were both pretty confident that we were going to stay anyways. We also got a phone call from President Monson and he told us that we were the highest baptizing Sisters in the mission, then he hyped us up for this next transfer. So the stakes are high this round haha. But for reals tho, the baptisms we had were such a team effort by so many missionaries. One of them was basically a freebee for us. It was for a youth who's baptism record got submitted after she moved into our area. (We have no idea where she's at though, so now we're on a hunt to find her).

He also told us about a service project he wanted us to go to the next day.

Thursday was service day! We had nothing planned in our schedule for Thursday when President called us, and it's a good thing too, because service ended up talking literally all day. It was a food drive that a Baptist pastor puts on once a month, and this time our church donated a semi truck full of food. We got there at 8:30am because the truck was supposed to get there at 9am, but it ended up being almost 3 hours late. Big oof. But that's okay. We got to work right when it showed up. We unloaded all the pallets of nonparishable food items, which ended up being around 40,000lbs, and took us a long time. So by the time we got everything off the truck it's super hot in the day, but we gotta keep going. Then we helped distribute the food until the loooong line of cars all are given what they need. Doesn't end there though. We moved all the extra food into the church building, took multiple trips for that one, so that the pastor could take it out to Walterboro the next day and do it again. We didn't leave the service project until 7pm that night.... almost 11 hours of service! I got mega sunburnt, and have a ridiculous amount of bruises and scratches from all the cardboard boxes haha. It's all good though. We had a lot of fun and we got to hang out with a few other missionaries from the Zone. So all in all it was a good day. Full of hard work. But let me tell ya, imma be super buff now because of all the heavy boxes I lifted all day long. Also was suuuuuper sore for the next two days.

Sunburn and exhausted mid service

Day after service... we were ded

Friday we had a lesson with our new friend Mayra! She's amazing! We found her a couple weeks ago when we jumped out of our car in a downpour of rain to talk to this lady going into her garage. She told us we could come back on a Friday. So we went back and had such an amazing lesson! We found out that she had been taught by the missionaries before us in Nexton, and she remembered a decent amount about what they taught her. We started off going through the Restoration with her, asking lots of questions and ended up shifting focus to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and asking her about baptism and extending a baptism invitation! It was amazing to see the Spirit lead us to that moment! She declined the invitation in the moment, but we're confident we can help her along her path so that she will want to accept the invitation.

Our teaching pool is kinda small again right now. But it's kinda cool, because all the people we're actively teaching are people we have extended a baptismal invite to. None of them have excepted, yet, so we're working with each of them on the concerns/hold ups they have.

Sunday was Mothers day! I love my Momma and imma take a second here to hype her up! She's literally such an amazing woman. She's been such a good example to me and has helped me in countless ways. Also, she's fr gorgeous! I love you Ma!❤️

For my personal study in the mornings, I've been watching at least one talk on the Book of Mormon almost everyday. These talks, along with reading the Book of Mormon, have seriously helped me to realize the importance of this sacred book of scripture in my life. The Book of Mormon is literally amazing! If you haven't recently read the Book of Mormon or at all, start now. Make a plan to read a little bit everyday. The Book of Mormon can bring great spiritual power into our lives. It can bring us the peace, comfort, guidance, and strength we need. Please read it, and even before that, pray. Pray for understanding and guidance. Reading the Book of Mormon will increase the Saviors Light in your life and help you to feel His guiding hand.

Hope y'all have a fabulous week! Stay safe, and remember God loves you!

With love always,

Sister Ray

Pics:

Elders Twiss and Thayne