Sister Neel: 2/7/22

 

What's up ya'll?!

Your girl's an official oldie in the mission now ;)) I HIT ONE WHOLE YEAR IN THE MISSION FIELD!!! 365 days of wearing Christ's name on my heart and 365 great life lessons were taught. Would I go back and do it over again? Absolutely. I am completely changed and riveted on my purpose not only as a missionary but a daughter of God. I seriously can't believe time is going by this fast! I'm soaking in every moment and setting big goals for these next 5 months! Only the best in the NCRM ;))

‼️ BIG UPDATE ‼️

Cole was baptized on Saturday!!!! Because I am on the other side of the mission I had to zoom in but wow was that special!! Seeing him dressed in white and anxiously waiting to get into the font really proved to me how important missionary work is. How much joy it brings to others and the unifying covenants that bind us with God. Cole taught me some amazing lessons and helped me come to know for myself specific principles in the gospel that awakened a new meaning to me. Our lessons with him were some of the most pivotal moments of my entire mission. Talk about an amazing life long friend!! So incredibly proud of his decision and the steps he's making in life. I'll never forget when I appeared on the TV screen at the baptism how excited he was to see me, the way he walked up, pointed his finger at me and said, "I know you!! LACE!!! So good to see you friend!! Thanks for being here with me." :') 

☆ Ok now for the highlights of the week: ☆

~ we met up with Brother Noe to go on our weekly walks again!! Turns out he stopped after Sister Crockett and I left because according to him it's because his favorite sisters left him and it wouldn't be the same without us :') I think he was more excited than I was to find out I was back XD. The first thing he says to me when he sees me again is, "Oh good you're not fat!" I was dead XD I guess most missionaries he knew gained weight over the mission and yet I had a glow up? Glad to hear haha! That's just Brother Noe for ya. We had some great catching up as we walked along the trails and down to the river banks. He kept saying how much he missed me and how glad he was that I was back

~ we were walking along the waterfront doing some street contacting and we ran into these 2 fishermen. One of them got a tug on the line and began reeling in fast but lost the bait at the dock. He began swearing and threw his fishing rod. I don't know what it is about old southern people swearing but it's hilarious XD. "Ma dangum fishin bait! That fish got a free meal! That ain't fair!" And then he stopped, and with the most serious look on his face he asked us, "do yall swim?" We looked at him funny and said we could and then he asked us if we could dive in the water and grab the bait. We all looked at our dresses and laughed and told him no. He was pretty butt hurt over that but was willing to listen to a scripture and a message which was cool

~ i love my companions but they can be a little embarrassing at times XD. Last night we were all writing in our journals and I was surprised we were not getting our Sunday accounting calls from our DL and ZLs. It hit 10:30 pm and we were low key confused. Then it hit 11 pm and we heard banging on our outside door. Keep in mind we have two front doors. One to our portion of the house and then the actual outside door. We ran down and saw Brother and Sister Wilson from our branch at the door. Turns out the mission was looking for us because Sister Johnson's phone died and she left her charger in the car, which then made her forget to do something about it. We all lost our wifi because she had the hot spot and when we weren't answering our accounting calls everyone got worried and notified president who in turn couldn't track us on our phones because they died so he sent members to come see what was wrong before they sent a searching party out...ya I wasn't the happiest person when I learned Sister Johnsons phone had died haha. Definitely a trial of patience but we had a good talk about never letting that happen so mistakes like this don't occur but all is well:)) we love trio life 

~ we ran into a friendly pastor at Little Ceasears and he totally recognized me from downtown when we took my one year pics haha. We had a cool gospel discussion and then he invited us to come check out his church worship that evening where people from all religions come to pray and support one another in their beliefs. We decided to go and when we walked in there were people speaking in tongues, girls performing the laying on of hands and blessing others, people waving their arms in the air as others prayed loudly. It was very interesting...a huge circle of very devoted Christians. They had 3 empty chairs for us in the middle and that's when another pastor came out and began speaking revelation he was receiving from God to all of us. He came up to us missionaries, looked us dead in the eye and prophesied about our futures. It was a very interesting situation. We didn't stay for long but it was very unique to see how other religions worship! Definitely different from what I know to be true but still good people! 

~we are teaching a 10 year old boy, Antwon and his aunt at their house yesterday and baptism came up. He said he didn't want to be baptized because he already did that everyday in the bath XD oh how funny little kids are 

As for our people, they are all doing great! We are preparing to put Faith, Billy, Tracy and Dan on date so keep them in your prayers! We called our friend Joe who is moving down to little Washington and it turns out our message we shared was everything he needed to hear and when he looked down to see us calling, his eyes welled with tears and he whispered thank you to God before he answered. Turns out the moving truck came a day early and he had no one there to help him pack up. We fixed that and went with the ZLs to get him all packed up. I love moments like this! 

Another interesting lesson this week was at Shamikas. When we walked up to the door there were a bunch of guys outside smoking and listening to loud rap. They offered to hold our stuff which we politely declined and walked in to find more than 50 people in it who were partying and swearing quite loudly. Not even her blankets for doors could push that noise out;) talk about an interesting Book of Mormon lesson for sure. She's a sweet lady but invites all of our family and friends over each day to keep her company since she has bad health. We walked out of the house a little frustrated and saw these 4 kids running up to us. One girl asked us if we could share a message about Jesus. We thought they were kidding at first but learned they were serious. We taught them a mini resto and then taught them how to pray. We stood in a circle and each kid was able to take turns praying to God. What a powerful moment that was!! They were beaming and asked us to come back for more lessons. We high fived them all, gave them a pass along card and promised we would be back. They all jumped up and down and excitedly ran alongside our car as we drove away. God places people in our paths when we are in the right places at the right time:))

Lastly we did a few road trips to our cities in our area that are 45 minutes away. We spent half the day in Plymouth and the next day in Williamston. Lots of former lessons, Book of Mormon drop offs and contacting in the cities. Having a huge area can be tricky but we love seeing new sites and building relationships with these sweet people along the way:)) 

We had an amazing zone council this week where the zone leaders helped us understand the importance of loving God perfectly. It spoke to me and really moved me to see what changes I could make in my life to prove my love for my Father in Heaven. What ways I could give back for all He's done for me. We each took a turn reading our mission call letters, one sentence at a time and the spirit blew up in that room. Reading over our purpose and the promised blessings that come with it while you are a missionary speaks differently. I'm grateful for the missionary and person I am becoming and for the experiences I've had along the way. I'm renewed. I'm changed. And I love who I'm becoming.

Love yall! Have a great week! 

♡♡♡

Sister Neel