4-28-14

Familia!!

To start off i can't believe i forgot to tell everyone about the amazing dinner we had last week! Sis. Swapp in Quincy cooked every single one of the 4 missionaries who came to eat their favorite meal! And i have to say I was really impressed! her homemade chicken noodle soup over potatoes was like perfect. it tasted like being at home. Everyone had to try it because apparently it isn't normal to eat homemade noodle soup over potatoes, but not a single one of them was disappointed. It was fun and adventurous and a nice suprise. Thanks for the Easter basket! I love it :)

Life is great! The new area is showing to be a fun whirlwind of adventure! :) Just the way i like it. My last few days in Quincy were super busy! And then I was on the road again. I am now in Manson. So I told you i was getting transfered to Chelan, which is kind of true. We are in the Chelan ward and teach some people there, but we are actually living and serving mostly in Manson. We share the 2 areas with the Elders here. Any who i serve mostly in Manson, but they are right next to each other. It is a smaller town, but still bigger than the last 2 places i have been. The population during most of the year is like 6,000 people but in the summer the population is like 45,000!! We live very close to Lake Chelan, which is huge! Other than that, there are orchards. Like in other small towns there are some big families that everyone is related to. So back to learning names and faces! But as soon as i got here i found out we would be moving houses in a few short weeks. I feel like this transfer is going to fly by!

My new companion is Hermana Jett from North Wildwood, New Jersey. She is super amazing and such a good missionary. I am serving back in a Spanish area. We work in an English ward and then Spanish is a group. Hopefully we can find some people to teach and turn it into a branch. We are really shaking things up in the area. We are setting goals and trying to talk to as many people as we can to bring the Lord's promised blessings. So far we have met some really cool people.

We are working on member missionary a lot here and here is why: We got two referrals from members this week on who we should go visit. So we went to see them and ended up teaching both of them and they were both super prepared to hear the message! It was awesome! The Lord has really been helping us lately to work hard and hope that good things will happen. And well, he always comes through for us. The coolest experiences was after teaching Patty, she asked her member friend if we were all that special and then told her that we were radiating with light. It was so amazing! We are super excited for all the work that is to be done here and the potential, we are seeing miracles daily and are able to count our blessings. Plus the Weather is warm enough that you hardly need a jacket during the day! Life is Good!

We also had another email worthy dinner the other day. We got there and well, they live in a lake front house. SO what did we do? Naturally we roasted our hot dogs over a fire on the beach :) Heaven! And then we got to have smores!

I truly am having amazing experiences here in Chelan/Manson right now. We are being blessed in so many ways. There truly is no reason to not be happy. My reading of the Book of Mormon is going good. I am reading about the conversions of Lamoni and Lamoni's father right now and i love how you can see the desires of people change as the truly become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. i strive to teach in a way that i can aid people to have those experiences. Also this week i read an amazing promise from Presidetn Hinkely in Preach My Gospel. Lots of new things have been jumping out at me lately, which is weird for how often i read it. But it is in the Chapter on the Book of Mormon, it says:

“Those who have read [the Book of Mormon] prayerfully, be th ey rich or poor, learned or un learned, have grown under its power. … Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of M ormon, regardless of how many times you previously have read it, there will come into your hearts … the Spirit of the Lo rd. There will come a strength ened resolution to walk in obe dience to his commandments, an d there will come a stronger t estimony of the living reality of the Son of God” (“The Powe r of the Book of Mormon,” Ensign, June 1988, 6).

What an awesome promise! I challenge you all to take that promise because when we have that knowledge we are happier people. Thank you for all you do to support me. I love being a missionary and am enjoying every moment on this incredible journey. I know Christ lives and loves us! Have a great week!

Hermana Ray

Not the best picture but i guess i will get a better one next time. The docks are still down the lake hasn't reached full level yet. this is the view at Lakeview, an awesome burger place