Sister Neel 4/26/21

 

 I'm obsessed with Burt's Bees and the main factory is in downtown Durham so we checked it out! So cool!

Ok wow you guys BIG BIG things have been happening here in Hillsborough!! Lets jump into the top 3 shall we? 

Miracle #1:

Last p day we were buying flash drives for our pictures and the Walmart worker, Darbs, happened to notice our apartment name on our keychain. He said he was from that same apartment complex which ended up getting us talking and we found ourselves on the topic of missionary work! Ha, imagine that ;)) he said he's an omnist (he believes all religions to be true) and we told him that he must believe in our church too! XD I guess he had heard a bit about us but never really took time to read the Book of Mormon. We offered to drop one off which he in turn accepted! We went over a few days later and he explained a lot of his beliefs which are very unique and unheard of. He does quite a bit of research with every religion he hears about so you could pretty much call him a gospel scholar. We came back for a recap of what he learned the following day we found him sitting outside his door reading the Book of Mormon! He said it intrigued him so much that he read all the way to 3 Nephi 18 and wants to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of this week! He had some questions about some specific verses that we covered and when we asked him if he believed the Book of Mormon to be true he said yes!! He told us that he kept hearing this little voice whisper to him thoughts and feelings and we gladly explained that those feelings were from the holy ghost!! Darbs let us know he wants to keep meeting with us, he said he feels something different than he ever has before with our religion and is very impressed with how anytime he would try to demean our religion we always brought his questions to the light and backed it up with scriptures. He said he feels light and hope from our presence and would love to continue reading and discussing with us. We meet back up with him this Wednesday!!

Miracle #2:

Funny enough we found Donna at Walmart too! Three weeks ago on our p day we ran into a woman who was talking to herself and when we approached her to say hi she was over ecstatic to see the 'Mormon sister missionaries.' She very loudly proclaimed that she loves Joseph Smith and knows Jim to be a prophet of God. We never got a chance to talk more about our religion because she took off after proclaiming her feelings. The next p day as we were pulling into the Walmart parking lot we saw her walking out and we knew it had to have been a sign. Well...last Friday we had done some store tracting and became really good friends with a lady named Wendy who owns a clothing boutique. We were able to share our work as missionaries and had a wonderful gospel discussion with her! A bunch of people came into the store so we left her to help them out and as we were pulling into our apartment complex road...there was Donna on the side of the road!! We rolled down our window and man was she excited to see us. She blew out a puff of smoke and ran up to the car and basically threw herself at us through the window XD turns out she lives in THE APARTMENT COMPLEX ACROSS THE STREET FROM US!! She invited us over and we were a little nervous cause it's a sketchy neighborhood, a shooting actually took place not too long ago there.  But we went anyway and ended up doing a restoration lesson on the spot. When we recited the first vision the spirit flooded our hearts and spoke profound truth. She sat, staring so intently at us while we spoke and couldn't help but not move. She began to cry and reiterated how strongly she feels about Joseph Smith and knows this gospel to be true. She asked for a copy of a Book of Mormon which we brought to her later and did another mini lesson. She asked us to come back the following day but when we did she was headed out the door for lunch but let us know she read the beginning of the Book of Mormon and wants to come to church next Sunday!!! She's absolutely amazing!! She already loves us so much and anytime we get into the car she won't go inside until we've driven away so she can wave and hold up a heart. So sweet!! 

Lastly, miracle #3:

Joe Parrish...anyone remember him? He's a less active who founded one of our YSA Chapelle Hill wards but left the church and hasn't been back for 30 years. He's been really hard to get in contact with but we felt prompted to send him out weekly Sunday Bible study zoom link that we do with the district. Everyone invites their progressing people or even members to join and we have a fun study! When we joined on the call he was there! And he participated the entire call!! He hasn't had a Bible or book of Mormon in his home for over 30 years so he wrote down any scripture or thought he liked. Man the spirit was so strong!! He thanked everyone afterwards for letting him join and told us he would be back next week! We texted him asking if he would like a bible and he said yes!! These are major steps he's taking!! He's held onto a lot of hurt that occurred long ago and hasn't been able to let it go which has caused a hindrance in his progression. The fact he's even coming to a bible study and wanting a bible in his home again is HUGE! Wow we are so pumped!! 

We were able to even find quite a few people through Facebook tracting and have lessons this week and even found a few people through cold calling which has never happened! God is truly showing us the fruits of our labors! After 8 weeks of continuous and daily work we are finally reaping our rewards. And oh how good it is! I can testify that God lives and He is in the details of our lives. He loves effort and when we do our part, He does his. Hillsborough is finally popping off and I'm so grateful to see the gospel taking place in so many of our friends' lives! Its the greatest privilege to sit front seat and watch the Lord shape and mold His people. Wow my heart is so full! I LOVE serving a mission, even on the hard days!! 

I love you all! 

♡♡♡

Sister Neel