Chapter 33: Hope again (June 12-18)

 Hi!! 

(Totally ignore the fact that I'm sending this a week late....)

It's been a pretty good and bust week! We actually had lessons! So let's just jump right into it!

Last Monday was district pday! We went bowling and got some food and shakes at the Come Back Shack. Sooo good. Bowling and the food. Also I just love my district. 

Tuesday we had an EPIC district council meeting! We usually do teaching roleplays where a companionship will plan a lesson to teach and two other missionaries will act as the person being taught and a member in the lesson while the others watch and give feedback. But this time we did something special! Our District Leader received some pretty cool inspiration to invite an actual member to participate. It was literally so awesome! It really helped us as missionaries and helped the members get a little sneak peak into what we do and how we work to improve. 

Wednesday we had double service. We power washed an inactive members porch and side of his house to prep it for painting, then we went and helped one of our friends do things around their house. 

Also! We had a miracle lesson!! Our friend Jason, who used to be on date for baptism but we hadn't talked to for almost two months, reached out to us! He said he missed us coming over and asked if we could meet again! So we met with him! The Spirit has been working on him. He was continuing to read the Book of Mormon on his own and made it to 3 Nephi! We had a good little first visit and set up a time to go back a couple days later.

Thursday was a mix of lessons and some big contacts. It's been really cool how even though lots of our lessons canceled on us this week, we've been able to still see miracles for the lessons and contacts we did have! Our day wasn't filled with just empty contacting with no one answering their doors. A majority of the contacts we did have were of high quality and helped us to figure things out with each of our friends. 

Friday! Holly Hill day! We had such a good lesson with our friend Leroy. We had assigned him to read Enos in the Book of Mormon on our last visit and our plan was to start the plan of salvation. But he hadn't read Enos, so we switched it up and read through Enos with him. And wow. I love Leroy. He's so thoughtful and takes his time to understand what he's reading. 

We also met with Ms Dena again. She's a sweet older lady who lives in Holly Hill too. Last week when we met with her she told us she wants us to meet her 18 year old granddaughter so she can have some good influences. We got there before the granddaughter on Friday, so Ms Dena pulled out some photo albums and looked through them with us. It was a bit awkward at first when the granddaughter got there. You could tell she was kinda uncomfortable and was there to be polite to grandma. But she warmed up as we were talking with her. And right before we were about to start wrapping up, Ms Dena's husband walks in with a pizza. So we stayed for pizza. The granddaughters favorite pizza is pineapple, we didn't have pineapple pizza. But Ms Dena comes into the room with a jar of fresh cut pineapple and plops a big ol' chunk on each of our pizzas haha. 

Saturday during a lesson with our friend Barbara, she asked us to sing for her. I haven't ever been asked to do that before, haha. We sang "a child's prayer", one of our favorites. In turn she sang to us a song. This woman has such a beautiful, gentle voice. I could listen to her sing all day long. 

Sunday! We had another lesson with Jason! It was sooooo good! We had a member come with us and we focused all on the Book of Mormon and recognizing the Spirit. Jason was literally barring his testimony to us on how he knows the Book is true and how he has seen it help him. I love Jason. He's literally so amazing. He said he wants to take us out to lunch so we're going out next Wednesday with him. 

This week Sister Noel and I have been doing a lot of study on Hope. It's amazing what a difference even just a little bit of Hope can make. For me, Hope in Christ is the Light that gets me through the tunnel, not just the light at the end. We studies a conference talk as a Zone called "The Infinite Power of Hope" by Elder Uchtdorf. He talked about the difference of "hope for" and "hope in" and the strength that comes from hoping in Christ. I invite you to read this talk and to take note of the ways that your " Hope in Christ" has carried you through your tunnels. 

With Love Always, 

Sister Ray

Pics! 

Beach again

Untangling the wind chime

Sleepy sis Ray

Service