What to say, what to say!!

I will start off with the obvious! I got to see Sister R from Durham on Monday and it was the BEST!!! :) I was so excited and so happy that everything went as planned. We went to Dairy Queen (realizing now that i haven't been there in soooooo long!) and it was so good. I got a mint Oreo blizzard. It was sooooooo good. Anyway, I loved seeing her and we just chatted and it was a blast. I loved talking about my last area and how her family is doing and how the ward's doing and all of that good stuff. I really miss the people out there! Shout out for anyone else who wants to come visit me ;) cough cough (DIGI's- even though I don't think they read this... maybe someone could tell them I gave them a shout out haha... MOM)

Ummm... what else?!

Sister Kriz 3rd from the right, sitting :)

We had zone conference and that was really good. We talked a lot about our teaching abilities and helping people come to conclusions for themselves vs. us over explaining things. I am definitely not a master at that!!! :) Lawlz. Anyway, I got to sit by my good friend from my district in Durham and that was a lot of fun. Awhhhh to missionary life! :) haha

We met a fantastic new investigator, Ms. D. I do not particularly enjoy knocking doors aka tracting (everyone who knows missionary work knows there is a better way, right President Hinckley? ;D). But my district leader is obsessed with and I'm training a new missionary so she wants to do it and so we do it when we don't have anything more productive to do. Anyway, we met this AMAZING woman! I love her so much. When we knocked, it was the not-too-uncommon SCREAM... "WHO IS IT?!?!" haha We yelled, "missionaries!" back. Repeat that about 3 more times and then we tried the prayer approach and got in no problem. ;) She was watching some movie with Korean subtitles... lawlz. Anyway... we sat down and did our thing and we were talking about how the gospel blesses our families. She said, "How does the gospel bless your family?" Sister Z started to answer and she cut her off (ouch haha) and said that she wanted me to answer (I'll get to the description of why). So we were both taken a little aback and were like uhhhh.... and so then I answered to the best of my ability. Later, she told us why she wanted me to answer it, alongside a diagnosis/assessment of my personality. (I always love those whether I think they are accurate or not... haha) So she said I was the more serious one in the companionship and that I had a "harder" face and that Sister Z was all smiles and all that and that and I was more inquisitive and intellectual. Idk. It was weird haha. She's amazing though! And I love her soooo much and we can't wait to go back on Wednesday!

We found another great couple this week too, B and Chief. Yes, Chief is Native American! They are wonderful. We found them outside getting their car ready and cleaned when we were biking home. So, we do what missionaries do, and stopped and talked with them. Sister Z did a great job connecting the Book of Mormon to Chief and his ancestry. Gotta love her. She's great. Sometimes I get sleepy in contacts. SERIOUSLY. It's a thing. And it's the worst. You think I could stay focused for a1-5-10-15 min talk with someone. haha Anyway, this was one of those times. But she carried it and it worked out. It worked out so well that not only did they become our new investigators, but when we asked for referrals, they referred us to our former investigators. Lol. And referred us to go and eat dinner with them. THAT NIGHT. haha They said there was plenty of food and that we were welcome to join. SOUTHERN FOOD. haha. Corn on the cob. Squash in vinegar (did not know that was a thing). Chicken and Pastry. Watermelon. YUPP. It was way good but we had been biking for like two hours and then still had to bike home and it was just a mess at the end of the day. hahaha jk jk it was great. Sister Z doesn't like icing on her cake. Just a side note.

Umm... then our return appointment with B and Chief was supposed to be at their place on the fourth of July. They weren't home, but it led us to meet their neighbor and give him a copy of the Book of Mormon. We called B and she was actually at the house not to far from there, at the former investigator's house. She said we could join again. LITTLE DID WE KNOW WHAT WOULD AWAIT US! Corn! CORN! CORN! haha lots of corn! So we schucked them (and yes, Dad, I did think of you saying "Awh shucks...") and "silked" them, and then did all that good stuff. Haha So we did that for a good while and then had to go to another appointment haha. IT WAS SO FUN! Happy 4th y'all! ;)))))

We also had a church tour with a 90 year old man. He is so great. He first received a Book of Mormon in Wallace, NC about 60 years ago. He has visited temple square and he changes the light fixtures at his church, so he was super interested about how we change our lights. We invited him to baptism about 3 times... and no response. It was really funny. Like uhhh..... hahaha. Don't worry though.. We will go "sizzle his socks" (Elder Holland's suggestion) with the Restoration soon so that he can come to the truth as well.

Something interesting also happened. I got to bond with a part member family over my love for the city of Durham! It really connected us and I knew what Parkwood was and he used to be a firefighter there and it was just magical haha. I LOVE DURHAM! (Also, someone asked me if I liked the city of Durham or Knightdale better and it totally threw me off because I wasn't expecting it from them and whoopsss........ sorry Knightdale ;)))))) 

Okay. But continued on that note. I LOVE BOTH. The Knightdale ward is seriously amazing. Okay maybe I'd never live in the city of Knightdale, but I would totally live in the Knightdale ward! Just in the Raleigh part of it! haha City girl for life (shout out to citygirlgrace for instilling "good" principles in me ;D).

BUT... Sister Z brought my enthusiasm for Durham to the table and she posed the thought of, "What if I had that much enthusiasm for the Book of Mormon when I talked about it?" So that's my gauge now. That's my part level. I have got to be more excited to spread the gospel! I obviously love my calling but I have got to show it!!!! :) So we are working on being more exciting and engaging! :)

LOL I'm trying to not be a bad companion and read over Sister Z's email right now but I just saw "Sister Ray is NOT an animal person." hahahhahahahhaha SOOOOOOO TRUE! LIKE it's unreal! It's not time for me to really love animals... not now... maybe not ever....

Anyway, I'm going to reply to everyone's emails now. HAVE A GREAT WEEK.

STRENGTHEN YOUR relationships. and strengthen your testimony. That's really all you need to do! :)))) ;)