HALLO! 💕
Sorry this email is late
mom 😅 my P-day schedule kind of changes a bit!
Thank you SO much for
telling me about grandma! You never need to worry about telling me that kind of
stuff because I trust in what Bishop told me before I left that God would watch
over my family and that they are in his care. Bless her beautiful heart! I just
want to be there to hug her and plug in her tablet for her when it dies and
bring her a nice tall Mt. Dew with five pieces of ice! 😉
Nothing makes me happier than spending time with my beautiful queen of a
grandmother! Please hug her for me! I went to the temple today so she, Shawn,
Sadie, and my family should know that the saints in England are praying for
them!
The temple is so
amazing... honestly, I thought the night before I went to the temple as I was
going to bed, and during the sacrament on Sunday that I had been having a hard
time being able to let my body and heart relax. But, when I went into the
temple, I really truly exhaled. My muscles unclenched and my mind stopped
racing and pounding for the first time since before I left. It was amazing to
feel at peace again. I am so grateful for the temple...
This week has been a
roller coaster. (I feel like that is going to be my slogan for every email
though) 🤣 I have had my struggles,
but I have felt the spirit so strong this week. One of my favorite parts about
this week was an MTC broadcast devotional by Elder Holland. It was recorded
right after they came out with Preach My Gospel. He talked about the hastening
of the work and how we can't just memorize lessons. We have to be able to have
a testimony of the gospel, of our savior Jesus Christ and of his atonement and
be willing and able to share and teach based off of the needs of those we meet.
My favorite thing that he said is that Preach My Gospel is not a lesson plan
book... it was not created to be a lesson manual. The SOUL REASON they wrote
Preach My Gospel is so that missionaries (and members 😉 ) can
study it to gain a testimony about those principles for themselves and then be
able to close it and go out and teach with the spirit and the scriptures they
have engraved on their hearts. I testify that Preach My Gospel is not just for
missionaries! And so does Elder Holland! It is a tool to build your testimony
and love for the gospel! Read it. Study it. And I PROMISE you will love it and
see it for the treasure that it is.
So, you know how when you
learn new languages sometimes you are able to add new meanings to words because
of how they translate? Well my absolute favorite one is the invitation to be
baptized. The question "Werden Sie sich taufen lassen" literally
translates to "Will you let yourself be baptized"? I love it. That invitation
is so much sweeter in German. And I realized that it is so beautiful because
that is truly what we are inviting them to do. We are asking them to LET
themselves partake of such a beautiful and sacred ordinance. We are asking them
to LET themselves feel the peace that comes from repentance and forgiveness.
This has been running through my head since I first learned this. So, the
thought I want to leave with you today is will you LET yourself feel the peace
of the gospel? Will you let God's love crash down on you? Will you let his
atonement take your pains and dry your tears? Will you let yourself progress
towards the person God wants you to be? Let the Gospel into your heart. Let it
wash over you and run through you.
I promise that if you
will, you will find more happiness than you could have ever imagined for
yourself. God has so many beautiful invitations for us, but it is up to us to
accept them.
Random Thoughts from the
week:
-The absolute first
things I bought on P-day were tights and chocolate. I NEVER thought I would
ever wear those itchy annoying tights, but being a missionary really changes
you I guess because I could not wait to get some! And the chocolate is for
those days when the language is just a bit too much for my heart to handle.
-speaking of chocolate 🙃
Chels and mom, they have approximately a BILLION different types of Cadbury
chocolate things here... we have SERIOUSLY been missing out!
-I am so grateful for
this MTC. God knew I needed to be here. Where everyone knows everyone. We are
literally a big MTC family 😄
-enjoy the goofy picture
of me showing off the socks I won during Family Home Evening! I was so excited!
We play this game where sister Bunker reads a sentence from PMG or the White
Handbook and whoever finds it first gets a prize! The Greeks ALWAYS win because
they been here for a thousand years so I was DETERMINED to win 😊
-My companion was
listening to some music from her tablet and the song "Shine" came on
which was the theme song for the Phoenix temple cultural celebration and I just
cried! I hadn't heard it in YEARS and in an instant, all the emotions from that
night came flooding back!
-I know I said this last
week, but my companion is seriously the best. I am a tad bit afraid that I used
up all of my "good companion" coins on the very first one!
I am so grateful for the
love that everyone shows me! I love you all and miss you! But this place is
amazing... I love this MTC and all those inside of it.
Be safe! Laugh a lot! And
most of all, know that I love you 💕
Love,
Sister Reay
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