Sister Neel: 4/11/22

 

HEY GUYS 

What. A. Week. I've been waking up more and more exhausted everyday but that's just cause there's so much to be done down here! 

Transfers are this week...came so fast. This one is shorter since our mission president will be out of town at conferences so that means this next transfer will be a whole 7 weeks long. Wow! I'm staying here in Washington again!! I can't even begin to express to y'all how excited I am!! I'm training a new STL and receiving a new companion. The zone has a few elders leaving and one of them is one of the ZLs. On our accounting call with them last night, we kept singing John Bellions "good things fall apart song" at the top of our lungs haha. Then it made us reminisce in all the sad songs from home and we just laughed at all the things we had totally forgotten about music wise. Rip the quad squad but we're excited for Sister Johnson and Elder Yuen to go make some even greater memories and meet the new missionaries coming into join the G-Vegas zone!

Sister Johnson is going home this week which has provided all sorts of emotions and lots of goodbyes to all the people we've taught and our sweet branch. We've done a lot of packing and last minute runs to the post office to ship packages or download her mission files to a computer. Its put me in the feels for when my time comes to leave my mission and boy...if it's this hard now, it's gonna be super hard then...its never easy to send a companion home but it's always a privilege to end their mission on the best note ♡ Sister Johnson is such a strong missionary and such a joy to serve with. I'm going to miss her and our fun memories we made together in Washington but I'm sooo excited for her next chapter in life! She's going to love the land of never ending p days;))

HIGHLIGHTS:

☆ we had a super fun p day last week! We started it off with a zone sisters p day: pedicures, lunch at Panera and a downtown walk in Greenville. We met up with two other districts at the church, talked for a bit and split off with our own districts to go have fun. We went to a lake and played sand volleyball, spikeball and seeing who could do the longest handstand. It turned into an intense competition in spikeball with the two nets we had. We had winners, losers bracket and sifted our way to the big ending game. The last game was Elder Havell and I verse sister Johnson and Elder Yuen. STLs vs ZLs. And we won!! All because of a dive from Elder Havell and a spike on my end. The district went crazy! Ahh it was so fun!! Sister Johnson and I left to go meet up with the senior missionary couple in Chocowinity and play some golf. The course was absolutely stunning and I was told I had the best form and swing for a golf player! Haha let's go!! I think a highlight was driving the golf cart and watching the ball sail into the green zone on one of my first hits. We love Elder and Sister Johnson, they feel like grandparents to us and ending p day with them was SO FUN

☆ we had stake coordination with the zone leaders on Tuesday and after analyzing all the mission data with the stake presidency, we saw we are one of the leading zones in the mission when it comes to finding, getting people to church, baptismal dates and keeping the cycle going strong. It's an exciting feeling! We have some of the best missionaries in the whole mission and they are completely all in and know their purpose as to why they are here. Their devoted service proves that and each week we are in awe with the miracles that keep coming bigger and bigger. Hence the reason why we started miracle Friday with the zone so each missionary can share a miracle from the week. It's powerful and enhancing to see the Lord's hand at work here in the Greenville zone. After the meeting, we ate lunch and then split off to ECU campus to get a sweatshirt for Sister Johnson before she went home. The ZLs called us to say they had dessert waiting for us at the church if we could find 3 new people for them while in their area. So we did haha! We talked to every student on ECU campus and found 4 new people for them, all of which were enthusiastic and spiritually ready to hear the gospel message. When we walked into the church and showed them the list of names and numbers we got, they were shook and so hyped 

☆ we had zone council this week!! Sister Johnson and I gave a training on identity. We started off by playing a game with the zone regarding one person walking blind folded and having faith their guide would help them make it to the other end of the gym while all the rest of the missionaries were yelling and throwing pillows or distractions at them haha! It was such a fun activity! We related it back to our purpose to guide others to Christ. And opened their eyes to a new meaning I found while studying 1nephi 8. It was a powerful training and such an exciting thing to help the missionaries know WHO THEY ARE. The zone leaders then gave a training on commitments and when they played the video to kick off the spirit, the wrong one downloaded and a Kung Fu Panada scene came on when Po was opening the dragon scroll. They let it play so no one would know they messed up but after they hit the lights, they ran over to us and said they were now going to have to improvise and help link this video to their initial thoughts haha! It was hilarious but they did a good job! You wouldn't have even guessed and they gave a powerful training on the importance of setting a commitment and asking inspired questions. We went out for lunch as a zone afterwards and man these people are amazing!! We have the party zone, such good missionaries are here and it's always the funnest of times when we spend it all together 

☆ at mutual, the Petersons brought an entire buffet of food Jesus would have eaten back in His time to commemorate His birthday and experience a way of living He would have experienced. Everyone was able to share their favorite miracle of Christ and then we sang happy birthday to Jesus before we ate cake. It might have seemed sac religious but it was sooo fun to hear the branch singing, looking up to heaven and wishing our Savior the happiest of birthdays haha! I'm sure that was the highest of Jesus's day 

☆ We spent a lot of time with Brother Noe at the beach this week. We found a new species of turtle apparently! It's smaller than my finger tip and charcoal black. It was so so strange to see a turtle that small! We all got to hold it and marvel at the fact we could be famous one day lol ;)) we were walking back to our cars when Brother Noe went on a rant that his sister left the church because we didn't worship Joseph Smith. I laughed and said, "that's super strange. I hate when people think we worship him." And then Brother Noe stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide and yelled, "we don't?!!" I looked at sister Johnson and back to Brother Noe, not even knowing what to say. He had been a member for

55 years and didn't know that?? I laughed faintly and then Brother Noe began chuckling, put his hand on my shoulder and whispered, "got ya." Ah it was so rude haha

☆ Matthew asked us to drop off some pass along cards with our number on it so he could pass them out. We could only come after 9 pm and by the time we pulled into the parking lot, the weather was horrible. A few hours earlier, the wind had picked up and these enormous black clouds were headed our way. Everyone in Washington goes home for storms here cause they're not good. It let up some when we met with Matthew but the sky was an eerie black and all of our phones kept going off with a potential tornado. We were talking when a lightning bolt flashed and we looked over to see a funnel forming in the sky above the waterfront. Matthew yelled, "HOLY CRAP! GET INSIDE!" It was intense, haha. We ran to grab our bags but when we looked back up the funnel had dispersed back into a cloud. We zoomed home and got inside to enjoy the spectacular flash of lightning and thunder. Luckily our windows didn't leak but our pipe above the water heater did...man gotta love coastal storms 

☆ at church on Sunday, 4 out of the 7 Hale kids came to church! Sister Peterson asked if they could sit with us so she could play the organ. We sat on the bench in front of them and kept tabs on them for the first 5 minutes of the meeting before president Peterson asked sister Johnson to come sit on the stand and bear her testimony. All 4 kids got up to leave and go to the bathroom and while they were gone, a family came in and stole their bench without knowing haha. I looked up to see president Peterson giggling on the stand, so I put our bags on the floor and made room for all 4 of them to come back and squish next to me on this tiny bench. When they came back in, they were a little rowdy and confused why someone had taken their seat haha. They came next to me and man let me tell ya...trying to keep kids quiet during a sacrament meeting is TOUGH. I'm a missionary, I'm not equipped with snacks or distractions to keep them settled. I looked at my bag and found sticky notes and a pen which kept them busy and then of course the only 'snack' I had was gum, which I passed down the row. They would laugh loud, or hit one another, ya know basic kid things, and I kept whispering for them to be quiet. The branch thought it was the funniest thing ever to see a missionary handling this and I'll admit it was goofy but I was tired by the end of the meeting haha! Sister Johnson came up to me and said "now I know what it feels like for a husband to sit on the stand and watch his kids be rowdy." We both died laughing 

Okie dokie well there's the fun times of the week. Here's a few spiritual ones!

SIDDERIAN IS ON DATE!!!! We taught him the plan of salvation and felt strongly to extend a baptismal invitation! And he accepted!!! He's read to Jacob in the Book of Mormon in just a week, knows it's the word of God and believes Russell M Nelson to be the prophet after watching conference. He kept pointing to the celestial kingdom in the block layout we used and saying he wanted to end up there. We talked on baptism and priesthood authority, all of which Sidderian wants and desires. His smile was SO big when we were wrapping up our lesson and he kept thanking us for finding him. April 23 couldn't come soon enough!!

After mutual, we taught the restoration to the Hale family and Lala. It was so sweet to see their hearts light up in knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, someone who is only a few years older than they are. We had Lala help teach her mom the restoration when we went over the next day but Brandy was super distracted and didn't get the full message. It was a bummer but we'll definitely keep working with them :)) we even flew kites after the lesson which her 2 year old daughter loved 

Matthew got his mission presidency interview yesterday in preparation for baptism!! President Despain drove in from Raleigh and it was such a treat to spend a few hours with him!! It was so powerful to hear Matthew answer the baptismal questions and elaborate on what He knows to be true about the principles we've taught. President Despain is such an inspired man and spoke in a way where the spirit utilized him as an instrument in this process and struck things Matthew needed to hear. We were excused for a portion of the interview and came back in for the closing prayer. Matthew looked like a burden had been lifted off of him. Rather than close with a prayer, President Despain asked if he could give Matthew a priesthood blessing. It was interesting he felt prompted to do that because Matthew had wanted a priesthood blessing from his fellow shipper but he was out of town. Matthew was really bummed and didn't like that he would have to wait a week to receive one. But President Despain was so inspired and helped Matthew get one. Hearing what God wanted Matthew to hear at that time was so powerful. The room didn't feel empty, it felt like other people were there. Not a dry eye was left in that room and we could feel such an immense power of support from heaven, as if Christ was right there letting Matthew know He had accomplished the impossible and was about to make a huge step, something He had been preparing him for since he was a child. 

Matthew told us afterwards that as soon as President Despain put his hands on his head, it felt like electricity going through his fingers and he felt arms wrapped around him that he couldn't see. He said he felt something powerful and knew without a doubt this gospel was true, that priesthood power is sacred and God spoke to his heart that day. I've never seen Matthew cry until then but that experience impacted all of us. Matthew was glowing and was so enthusiastic. We will wait to get a call from President Maurer before we move forward with this process but man, things are headed in the right direction! It was sweet though because a young man his age from the branch came back to pick him up, and as Matthew was getting into the car we heard Eddie ask how he was doing and Matthew said, "oh I've never been better dude. I have so much to tell you." And then he shut the car door. I wish you could all meet Matthew. Hear his story. See what he was like when we met him a few months ago to now. Conversion is the most beautiful change to witness. Matthew's story is impacting me and I'm amazed at the gospels' effect on one's life. I've been a witness of that my entire mission but this story is sacred. Keep praying for Matthew!!

Brother Noe called us four times one day, all of which I missed cause we were in a lesson. When we called him back he said, "girls. I've come to the most interesting realization. I was speaking with a friend when he said he couldn't seem to find truth or feel happy with the knowledge he had. Almost instantly, without thinking, I offered him a copy of the Book of Mormon and promised the words inside would fill his empty cavity. We had a wonderful discussion about the teachings inside and now he's interested in learning more. I told him about you guys and promised he would get a book soon. So...do yall have an extra copy?" My mouth dropped...Brother Noe hasn't engaged in anything related to church since he left many years ago. But now he's out here testifying of the Book of Mormon and trying to get someone a copy?? My heart was so full!! He kept telling us how happy he felt and how much he missed this feeling. He said if this is the kind of happiness that we get to experience daily on the mission, then there was no way we weren't the most blessed individuals. We didn't have much room to complain. Brother Noe bore his testimony to us over the phone and he was a different man. I was brought to tears and marveled at the spiritual jumps he's taking. All because we're spending time with him and speaking on gospel terms. He asked us not to tell anyone because he didn't want the branch on his butt hahaha but he's such an amazing guy!! 

We had dinner with President Peterson and his family yesterday. Their daughter was visiting from college and was about to start mtc in 25 days!! We discussed things that would help her prepare for her mission and then president Peterson asked us to share what got us through our trials to help us love where we are. I was able to share my story, what I've been through and what I've accomplished with my mental health. President and Sister Peterson have heard my story before, they are a huge reason why I stayed out here, I've shared it with them personally and to the branch as well. And each time they ball like babies haha but what I've been through is super similar to what their daughter is going through now. She and I have the same story pre mission. The same concerns, same outlook, same worries. I felt like I was looking at my past self. So with tears in my eyes, I promised her that everything was going to be OK. That she would hit a point on her mission where everything clicked. Where she felt comfortable. And sooner than later she would find herself in my position. Begging God for more time because I can't imagine my mission coming to a close. I promised her the same promises Elder Bowen extended to me. I promised her that if she held onto her faith to serve and not let anything waver it, she would find herself in the work. I pulled her in for a hug and told her that because our stories were so similar, she now could see what she would end up like by looking at me haha! She was so grateful for what I shared, for opening up and realizing she wasn't alone. Not only with mental health but also other fears we both had with leaving on a mission and wishing time away at the beginning. I love that girl so much and promised her I would take her on splits while she was in mtc so she could see how a day in the life of a mission look like. We are so so excited for her and can't wait to watch the gospel change her, as it did us. I told her I better be at her homecoming haha

Oh also funny side note story with that Sabra has a boyfriend on a mission in Spain and he posts videos and pictures on a Google photo share throughout the week so his family and friends can see what he's doing. At that moment, he sent a video of a witch trial going on in the city haha (so weird) and flashed the camera to his companions. One of them was Elder Hawkes!! He recently left the North Carolina mission for his original call in Spain and he was a good friend of ours! I was so shook to see they were companions, so we all sent a video of us saying hi to Sabra's boyfriend and Elder Hawkes. And then we learned that Elder Hawkes's girlfriend is serving in Sabra's mission. What a small world!

Anyway this week was awesome!! We got 8 people to church, found 10 new people and had some awesome lessons! The work of the Lord is strong here in Washington and I love my time here! I'm excited for 7 more weeks in this blessed town and to see what the Lord has in store for us! 

I love you all!! 

♡♡♡

Sister Neel