Sister Neel: 2/21/22

 

After

Before...

(My ZL cut off my hair??)

Hey all!!

This week was a slower one unfortunately with a lot of our people canceling lessons or plans shifting but I honestly can't complain! It provided us with a lot of time to grind on finding and we saw miracles from being in the right place at the right time. Lots of new people were found and we were able to talk to soooo many people and find those who were really in need of the gospel message. It was like God was placing them in our path one after the other and the inspiration kept flowing which street we needed to be on or which neighborhood we could knock the most doors. Honestly it's such a highlight of the mission to be led and guided by the Lord and literally see His hand in the work. The happiness that comes from it is so hard to explain but I can testify that spiritual highs are my favorite thing haha! 

All right now for yalls favorite part of my email ;)) HIGHLIGHTS:

* every Tuesday we go give service at eagles wings which is a food pantry! We prep the carts, stock the shelves, put together necessity kits and bring in the orders that the semi delivers. We've become really close with the volunteers and our friend Dan who we've been teaching actually is the head manager! He would take breaks and come ask us questions about his studies in Joseph Smith, it was so great! They always end the work day with a local pastor singing his southern praises to Jesus and everyone waving their hands in the air as he rocks his lungs out. I've always loved the culture here and the way people speak so openly about Jesus. Southerners and their music will always hold such a special place in my heart 

* We have now started attending youth nights for our branch and last Wednesday president Peterson asked us to come up with the activity. We played chair soccer and once your chair got hit you had to answer a gospel question. It was such a great turnout! 10 people came and 8 of them were friends of the youth!!! The member missionary work here is insane! 6 of them are family members and we are working on teaching the missionary discussions with them. All of the kids have expressed interest in being baptized and now we are just working with the parents. Pray so hard for the hale family!! 

* our senior couple of the zone was coming down for dinner and totally got lost. I was able to know exactly where they were and direct them with specific street names to our home. I was so proud of myself!! Google maps got nothin on me ;))

* we were walking through a neighborhood doing street contacting and a guy who had pulled up in a truck jumped out and waved at us. We went over and began talking with him and then I jumped into the basic missionary question of asking if he had ever seen us around before and wondering if he wanted to hear messages about Jesus Christ. He grinned real big, walked up to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Sista, I'm already a memba. I'm in yo branch." Yep...super embarrassing for me and now its a huge joke. Love that for me haha

* an elder sister Nichols and I served with came back to visit with a bunch of his elder friends who also served here, came and surprised us and the zone leaders by taking us out to lunch. Fun reunion!

* we had a pretty bad storm hit and the wind was insane. It blew off a lot of people's roofs, tore out trees and junk was all over the streets. It got so loud at one point I couldn't even hear my companions talking. Unfortunately our power went out for a while so we hunkered down at the church to stay warm and use the limited wifi it had haha!

* on Sunday we did another mini road trip out to Williamston and spent a few hours there contacting and finding. It was a miracle day let me just put it this way! We were stopping people left and right and one guy was bringing Mac and cheese to his son at his apartment and he was so cheerful to see us. He immediately wanted to learn more about what made us glow and shouted GOD BLESS multiple times as we walked away. As he was getting back into his car and we were taking a different guy's number down, he shouted to the man that he should listen to us and that he was in good hands haha! 

One lady saw us coming up to her door and so we waved but she scowled and slammed her screen door quickly. We knocked and saw her peeking out of her window but she never answered. When we walked away she came out after we were a good way down the road and began yelling at us to never come back haha. Oh gotta love missionary work sometimes 

This last lady we visited had an apartment number that was impossible to find. My comps wanted to give up but I refused and went and knocked on a random door, asking them if they knew where apt 16 was. This sweet old guy took us exactly where we needed to go and we even got him set up for lessons in the future. We went to talk to this lady who had recently done bible studies with previous missionaries. She was interested and asked if we could share a scripture. I pulled out the book of mormon, gave some background of what it was about and how it came to be. I read ether 12:4 and before we could even discuss the verse, she asked if it was from the Bible and I was like "no, it's from this book I just told you all about." And she's like, "well if it ain't from the bible then I want no part of it. All I stick to is what comes from this book here." And she patted her bible real hard. And then she kicked us out! She yelled at us to leave her home and pointed at the door until we could grab our stuff and run out. That was interesting...love those instant turn arounds haha 

* and lastly...the moment yall have been waiting for :))) sooo last p day my district was hanging out at the church after having played some basketball, spike ball, baseball and chair soccer, and we were eating our valentines day desserts when my ZL asked if he could cut my hair. I needed a haircut anyways and decided to full send and let him do it. So the district gathered around and got super hyped as he literally chopped off my hair to my shoulders. It honestly didn't look too bad and I ended up getting it professionally fixed but...ya! What a party that was! My full sendy side can always be fun to deal with but that made for some awesome memories and great laughs! Peep the next little Washington recap post on Facebook and you can see the videos;)) 

This week we got to meet with Billy, a father who is the most mountain man kind of guy I have ever seen. He has a man cave that's bigger than a barn and it's stocked with heads of animals his brother's have shot as well as all the tools and machinery you could ever imagine. He has a low southern voice, bald head and thickest beard but the friendliest guy you'll ever meet. He loves the missionaries and has loved the decisions so far. Just to give a little context on him so you can see how funny he is: so he was hunting with his family and absolutely DESPISES killing animals because his heart can't take that kind of pain haha. He went anyway to support his fam and then raised his gun to playfully shoot a deer and then ACCIDENTALLY SHOT IT HAHA! He ran over hollering and crying to the deer and began giving it CPR to bring it back to life, mouth to mouth and everything. When he realized the deer was gone he felt so guilty and cried himself to sleep for weeks. AHAHA ohhhh man when he was telling us that story I was laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face. I told him if God ever let us request a flashback in time, I would ask for that specific moment haha! 

Anyway we focused our lesson on the sabbath day and the importance of the sacrament. His wife Tanya never joins us but today she came out and totally interacted with us like we were best friends!! The lesson was powerful and we learned they don't attend church due to past judgment they have received from other religions but they have such a strong faith in God and preach that to their children on a daily basis. The spirit in their home is incredible. Their son Levi even came out and showed us his stuffed animal Jesus and told us when he died, how long he stayed in the tomb and what day he arose. I was brought to tears as this little innocent 5 year old stood there and bore testimony on the Savior's life better than I ever could. It spoke to my heart and yet again bore testimony of the power little children have when it comes KNOWING who they are. The lesson concluded with an invite to church, which they ended up not coming but we have high hopes for them this week as we continue meeting! Keep Billy and Tanya in your prayers as we continue teaching them! 

Man oh man I absolutely love my time here! I never want this to end. Some days it feels like this will be forever and missionary life is now just what I'm meant to be doing until the day I die. It never sits right with me knowing one day the tag will be coming off. In fact just the thought of it makes me ugly cry. It motivates and pushes me to be the best version of myself I can be and never waste a minute of the Lord's time. When people say you get lost in the work, I can testify that it is the most beautiful thing. Every care of worldly desires or habits disappear and the people around you become your biggest priority. I adjusted completely at my 8 month mark but have fallen more and more in love with the work since I've gotten to North Carolina. Which speaking of which, this Wednesday marks a year of the day I flew in here and officially got to the NCRM! I never knew how much a specific place could mean to me until I arrived in this sacred land and now my heart is tied here forever. My roots are established as a southerner. I'll always love the west but the south is home. The spirit it contains here is tangible and has rooted my upbringing in the gospel more than I could ever want. You guys I am SO SO happy!! This gospel means the world to me :)

I love yall!! 

♡♡♡

Sister Neel