8-26-13

Hola Familia!

Life here in Royal City is going good.Happy Birthday MOM!!!!!!! You are the best!

Life is full of adventure. Last night we were eating dinner and when we left the house it was pouring! turns out they get crazy random rain storms just like we do.

Some fun facts I have learned since being here:

1. I live with one of the Pioneers of Royal City. She was one of the first five families to move up here to farm. Her name is Doreen Iverson and she is just the sweetest lady there ever was. Grandma, she actually reminds me quite a bit of you!

2. We know we have found the right street when we realize it as we are passing it.... Everytime. This is the conversation between me and my companion the other day.

Me: "Oh, i think that was it."

Comp: "Of course it is, i just passed it."

It is very fun and exciting and we are slowly but surely becoming masters of the area. My favorite thing is that almost every road we turn on say warning: primitive road no warning signs.

3. The value of writing in Pencil. Learning to roll with the punches and the changes thrown our way. Writing in pencil just makes our lives so much easier.

4. I am learning all about different crops. Yesterday my directions to dinner said pass the bean field and then turn right. (luckily he described what a bean field would look like)

5. It is Harvest season/Apple picking season = very busy people in Royal city and... wait for it.... FRESH FRUIT AND VEGIES!

Overall we are having some pretty good success here. I really like it. THe members here are nothing but helpful and encouraging in every way. They have showed me what i want to be like toward the missionary effort after my mission.

This week was pretty solid. We are teaching some great people. We are working with a girl who is really awesome. She was baptized a number of years ago and we are there to be her support in the church. So the other day we asked her to read the intro to the Book of Mormon. When we came back she summarized paragraph for paragraph for what she read and told us that before we came over that she had set a goal for reading the Book of Mormon all the way through and that she wanted a stronger testimony. She is 13, what an example it is to me that she was able to find the truth so early in her life and want to be strong in it. Being a great example to everyone else in her family.

Also we will be having a baptism next week! His name is Owen, he is from Jamaica and i think i talked about him last week. He is such a good example and basically follows everything that will make him a good person. He calls everyone younger than him his children and so to us, and Darwin (his friend). He is just a crack up. But he really does know that this is what he should be doing and everyone in the ward here already loves him and have been more involved with his conversion than any missionaries. I am excited to see him make this step in his life.

As well as with investigators, we spend lots of time right now getting to know members and i have had the opportunity to learn so much from them. This week i learned a lot about having compassion for other people and how we can learn to know and serve other people better. Everyone has a different background story and that leads everyone down different paths and we need to learn to help those people in whichever way we may need.  I also am learning everyday about following the spirit and trying to be more and more in-tune everyday so i can fully be an instrument in the Lords hands. Right now i am reading the chapters in the Book of Mormon about Moroni and the wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites. Almost to the Stripling Warriors but not quite yet. And I never ceased to be amazed at the difference of having the Lord on your side. He is never failing . Everything we do with him happens for a purpose. Moroni cared about his people and did everything in his power to protect them and help them be prepared for what was coming. That is what President Monson does too. Last conference his talk was on obedience, and right before that he gave thousands of more young people the opportunity to serve a mission. And obedience plays a huge role in missionary work. Let me just say i am glad to have the Lord on my side, and i will work everyday of my life to keep him there.

Yesterday and today so far have just been pretty awesome. Yesterday we had a huge chunk of time where there we didn't have a specific plan and we were knocking doors in one of the three place there is to knock here and we ended up both finding people who were interested in the gospel as well as having an opportunity to share the message of Jesus Christ with them and bear testimony of him. It was huge proof that the Lord is on my side and i am so grateful for that experience.

Last little spiritual pick me up for the day. we were getting gas at the station in town and as i am washing the windows a car pulls up by our car, rolls down the window and asks us if we are from a church. We of course smiled at the opportunity and shared with him who we were. He told us that he had just moved from California and was looking for a Christian church to go to. Luckily we happened to know of just a place. He was from a neighboring town, but it was a short and simple way that i could do my part in sharing the gospel with him.

The Church is true. I love you all and hope that this email is finding you happy and healthy. Until next week, hope you will join me in finding joy in our journeys where ever they may be.

Con Amor,

Hermana Ray