#BecauseHeLives - March 30, 2015

Sooo, I'm just gonna start this off with a big ol' HALLELUJAH IT'S P-DAY. 

I'm so glad you're wearing the proper attire.  I hope UK keep up with their undefeated streak. That would be awesome! Another reason I am so blessed to not be in Lexington right now. 

I haven't been using the rubber band because I can't find one, but replacing the negative with positive thoughts helps. :) 

Tell Grandma I love her and that I'm writing a reply to both her letters today! 

AW! I want to watch Joshua's play!  Do they sell videos of it afterward? 

We'll probably watch Conference at our home with Sister Gosnell. We'll also be feeding ourselves on Easter. Neither of us are excellent chefs so it should be interesting what we come up with. 

Don't be sad Sam! We get to talk on Mother's Day! Which, by the way, is in two months. Yo holla! 

Sister Wayland, the RS president makes Snicker Salad. She gave me a tub of it to eat at home. It was not the same as yours, but it was nice. *sob*

OK, onto this week. 

It has been BRUTAL. Spiritually, physically, you name it. 

We are so low on miles. We have only 36.8 left for two days. Luckily, we are going to be in Buckner all day Tuesday and we have turned it into our bike area. Goshen is most definitely NOT a bike area. So, earlier in the week we biked to Goshen to save 28.8 miles on our car. Kentucky is not famous for it's rolling hills for nothing. We biked about 14.4 miles to get there in the rain. Sister Bush's bike started to not catch on the chain so it made an annoying clicking sound the whole way because the gears were out of whack and made it difficult for her to bike. Halfway, I offered to ride it, but her legs are a lot longer than mine and I couldn't lower the seat any farther. So, she had to suffer the rest of the way. I had her ride in front so that I could keep a better eye on her. It took us a lot longer than we thought it would, but we made it in time to do everything that we planned. Sister McCall, after we had dinner, refused to let us bike back and she stuffed our bikes into her Escalade and drove us home. My handle bars are now off-set, but I am grateful she did that for us. It became dark a lot faster than I thought it would. So, we will not be biking there or Prospect...ever. Buckner is only five miles away so it's all good. The second day we biked to Buckner it was pouring down rain and the day after was when we discovered the short-cut. 

My legs are rock solid though! Best work-out ever! 

On Monday we were crunched for time because D took us to lunch at...wait for it...Sisters Tea Parlour and Boutique. Apparently, it's a tourist hot-spot for our area. Despite my apprehension at coming to the girliest place on earth I actually had fun. The Hermanas were there as well and we had a really good time. It was really fancy and nice. Nobody wanted to wear the fancy gloves and hats, which was disappointing. I'm not a big tea person because I find it bland, but I had the blackberry and raspberry tea which was good, but I added five cubes of sugar, two lumps of honey, and some cream until it was basically hot Kool-Aid. Delicious. The food was awesome! Seriously. I'm taking y'all there, 

The best part about our area is that every time we come home from Prospect we get to pass the temple. Great motivation! 

We got a referral for a man who lives in a barn. Took us minute to find his place, but I had to smile at the scenery. It was a small door with his name painted on a little wooden sign and the door was closed with a knife. There were also knifes sticking out from under the lip of the roof. He didn't answer, but we left him a card and our church address and time. He didn't come and I was extremely disappointed. 

The Women's Conference was pretty awesome! I liked it. Except that the whole thing was on FAMILIES. Sigh. At least I got some good notes anyway.

The K's are doing great! V's cancer has stabilized. It's not gone, but at least it's not spreading. The bad news is that they won't be able to come to church until April 30th. So, V's parent's visas expired last week and they left back to India. So, until Kh's parents come, she has total responsibility for the house, meals, morning rituals, ect. And Indian meals take all day to prepare. So, we will wait very, very patiently. -_- 

My faith has been seriously tried this week. We have been pedaling and working so hard and...nothing has happened. Sister Bush is still trying to adjust to how slow the work is out here. It almost makes me jealous of all the missionaries who get the humbler areas. The Zone Leaders started this thing where a companionship in the Zone sends a miracle story through voice mail to the whole Zone. It's supposed to help our confidence and drive, but it has made me pretty sad when everyone else has all these miracle stories and we have none. But, Sister Bush noticed my frustration and recommended that I use my Tender Mercy jar more often. I have a jar on my desk that I used to place a miracle in every day. I haven't put one in since February. So, she told me to read one and write one every day.  

So, Dallyn told me to read this talk by Elder David A. Bednar and when I read it I felt like I was being punched in the face. 

"The natural man tendency in all of us is to demand impatiently and insist incessantly on the blessings we want and believe we deserve." -Bednar 

"Partaking of a bitter cup without becoming bitter is likewise part of the emulation of Jesus." -Neal A. Maxwell. 

"Do you have the faith to accept God's will to not be healed?" - Bednar 

And, I realized that I was refusing to have faith in our work unless I saw a miracle. I would walk out every day and not expect anything to happen...and nothing did. I would talk to everyone I saw, knock on doors twice, and still not be surprised if nothing came out of it. So, this next week I will be working on my faith, because otherwise I am standing in my own way.  

Testimony meeting was yesterday and for some reason I decided to write down notes from people's testimonies. 

"It's never too late to be who you might have been." 

"We're not perfect. We make a lot of mistakes. But, we're still undefeated." 

"Everyday there is hope through Christ." 

"He knows exactly how it feels."

It's going to be hard, but I'm going to be relying so much on the Atonement this next week to help with my faith and hope. Without it I am going to be an awful missionary.  

So, pray for me please. 

Other than that the sun is shining and spring is coming! Woohoo! 

Also, #BecauseHeLives has started! Jump on that bandwagon! This is the best missionary opportunity ever! We are so excited to see the miracles from this Easter initiative. 

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! 

LOVE the pictures! I miss you all! Can't wait for my package! 

All my love forever! 

Raye :) 

#becausehelives

#uk

#blessings

#generalconf