Deo Gratiam Habeamus (Let Us Be Grateful to God): Greetings from the Rolling Hills!

Hello! Surprise, I am in the Rolling Hills area in Louisville, Kentucky. It covers Lyndon and Middletown and I LOVE IT. This is the promised land. I made a note to myself to instantly fall in love with this are and golly gee whiz I have! And Elder Black is still my Zone Leader, hahaha. Oh, before I forget...

Here's my new address:

8809 Furlong Dr. #7

Louisville, KY

40204

Our apartment used to belong to the Elders so we have a bunch of weird stuff and some heavy weights with a bar. Don't know what to do with that. But, there are boxes of stuff that was left here that we need to send to the mission office. I found a few articles of clothing that I liked in one of them.

MOTHERS DAY IS COMING!

Spring is in the air! There is so much green here. Like, more than Washington to give you a visual. I will send a picture for more visual. The trees are blooming beautiful purple, pink, and white flowers. It rains every few days and it just dumps. Luckily, I'm still in a car area. His name is Vincent. He's a Toyota Corrolla. The sun is gorgeous and we hit 80 degrees the other day. The spring weather has almost no humidity so, it wasn't too awful. But, I forgot to wear sunscreen...now I have a gorgeous farmers tan (I figured out I can tan after I burn) because I wore the one short sleeve shirt that is a tad longer than my other ones. Now, every time I wear the shorter ones it's um...yeah. Also, this is the funny part, as Sisters we aren't allowed to wear boots until October General Conference (which is good because I would be dying). So, my feet are developing this weird tan. Whenever I take my shoes off I can see the lines where the straps were. Haha.

Anyway, I'm forgetting to introduce someone! My new companion is Sister Rammell (rah-mul) and she is the best! I love her so much. We are basically the same person. We like the same things and say some of the same things. It's really weird. She's 21 and is from California. She's got this cute Mexican waiting for her at home. They're going to get married and I'll be invited. :)

Sister Rammell is so sweet. She is not afraid to talk to anyone and is really helping me with this courage stuff I'm trying to have. Even if someone doesn't want to talk to us she still feels that the biggest miracle we do is leaving people feeling the love of Christ. She is very inspiring and adorable. She has made it a point every night to have a companionship hug. We make breakfast for each other when one of us is the shower first and leave sticky notes of niceness everywhere. It's kind of strange how fast we developed a really good unity with each other. Nevertheless, our teaching styles are a bit different and we're working on teaching together in unity.

Okie dokie, here's what's up in the Rolling Hills. It's not a rich place! Well, there are some really nice houses and nice subdivisions, but it's mostly apartments and small houses. I love it! Some of the apartments are ghetto, but not I-might-get-shot ghetto. It's perfect. Also, some of the black people I've met are my favorite. Just saying.

W and A are a young married couple and they have a little girl named De. They are both ex-heroine addicts. A has been clean for a few months and W started getting off two weeks ago. They want to become clean for their family. They were found when W was outside talking to her dad on the phone. Just before the missionaries talked to her, her dad told her that he was giving up on her and leaving it up to God. She instantly wanted to hear from the missionaries. I met her this week and she is so sweet and cute. She is really slow due to the years of heroine damage, but is seeing and feeling the difference the gospel is bringing to her life. We taught Whitney part of the first lesson and she ate it up. Don't know how much she remembers, but we'll be seeing them again soon. She expressed desires to be baptized and feels like this is what's going to turn her life around. Squee!

D is an 83 year old man who looks like he's only 50. The secret: He walks...a lot. I met him on Wednesday maybe and we talked about the priesthood. He is so awesome. He read all of the chapter headings in the Book of Mormon to get a feel for what it was about and read the Restoration pamphlet. He said that he has no intention of getting baptized, but he is progressing more than any of our investigators. He just loves learning from us. Cool story time! So, during the lesson there were many points where D and Sister Rammell would hold eye contact for a very long time and then both would smirk and laugh, because they both seemed to know what the other was thinking. Honestly, it was quite awkward for me. Then D said, "I feel like we've met before." And after a moment Sister Rammell replied, "Probably, before this life." D nodded and got this distant look in his eyes. It was so quiet and so Spirit filled. Gah! Normally, I thought that people said that we are out here to find certain people, but I never thought it was so literal.

E is 13 years old and is the only member of his family who wants to have a belief in God. The rest are either atheist of agnostic. He is friends with a members son and became VERY interested in the church. We dropped by on Thursday (the member sent us a text to come over) and taught him the first lesson VERY simply and VERY slowly. He has no religious background so we used a lot of video game analogies. He learned about prayer from Assassins Creed and had a little knowledge on prophets based on Halo. We didn't use the Halo prophets as an example for what real prophets are like. When we talked about the priesthood his eyes just lit up. He was extremely interested in Joseph Smith, especially since they were so close in age during the first vision. E is eager to learn more and has a desire to be baptized. I love that kid so much.

Al is from Nigeria and has scars on his arms from being tied captive as a prisoner of war. He is hard core. He is divorced and his two daughters are still in Africa. His biggest desire is to have them be with him and to be sealed in the temple. Al has investigated many churches, but every time he was about to be baptized it didn't feel right, but when Sister Rammell and her companion invited him to be baptized in the first lesson he was touched by the Spirit and has such a tremendous desire to be baptized. When I met him, we reviewed the first lesson an dread the introduction of the Book of Mormon. As the lesson went on, Al exclaimed, "This is the word of God!"

Boom. Those moments just make it all worthwhile.

We have a lot of investigators and our days are filled. The ones I mentioned are just a few that I've met and taught so far. We spend our days teaching, searching, serving, and talking with people. It is awesome.

But, there have been so many trials.

There was this less-active named J who had this weird and twisted view of the gospel and was really into the zen, meditation hippie thing. She reminded me of a talk by Elder Holland when he said that some people will create gods that will pat us on the head and tell us to run and pick marigolds. I have figured out what it feels like when the Spirit leaves or tells me that something is not true. I feel like I am going to throw up. J kept preaching her views and much of what she said hurt my feelings. She wouldn't listen to us, but we left her with a warm hug. That is something I learned from Sister Rammell is that we always show Christ-like love.

We contacted this guy named N who was eager to talk to us on his porch. It turned into him trying to bible bash us about prophets, and the bible, and the priesthood. We tried to explain it as best as we could, but he wouldn't listen and wouldn't let the Spirit enter his heart. What I have learned recently is that many of the bible bashers I talk to have memorized the exact same verses of scripture. Everything he said didn't make sense, but he wouldn't move. I recall him saying that we were going to hell. The only thing we could do was invite him to read and pray sincerely if the Book of Mormon was true. Then he invited us to pray. But, Sister Rammell said that the only people in our little circle that had prayed about the Book of Mormon was her and me. At first I thought that was super bold, but she did it out of love and it struck something in his heart, but he still didn't budge and said something about hell I think. For some weird reason I opened my mouth and the testimony tears began to flow. With all that I could muster poured out my testimony to him in hopes that somehow he could see just a sliver of how strongly I knew the gospel was true. Soon after that we left and gave him a Book of Mormon. That was it.

Sister Rammell somehow knows just the right thing to say at the right time to help me through those hard times. Must be the Spirit or something.

The day after, I decided to study the Adjusting to Missionary Life book in the Emotional section and I found a great scripture.

D&C 127:2

"And as for the perils which I am called to pass through, they seem but a small thing to me, as the envy and wrath of man have been my common lot all the days of my life; and for what cause it seems mysterious, unless I was ordained from before the foundation of the world for some good end, or bad, as you may choose to call it. Judge ye for yourselves. God knoweth all these things, whether it be good or bad. But nevertheless, deep water is what I am wont to swim in. It all has become a second nature to me; and I feel, like Paul, to glory in tribulation; for to this day has the God of my fathers delivered me out of them all, and will deliver me from henceforth; for behold, and lo, I shall triumph over all my enemies, for the Lord God hath spoken it." -Joseph Smith

Needless to say, I loved it.

This morning I decided that I needed to study the priesthood, because there were many times when talking with N, that I didn't know scripture references or could explain the priesthood and why we need it simply enough. To be honest, I didn't know the doctrine as well as I should have. It was the best study session I have had! It will take me probably a few more weeks to even scratch the surface of the priesthood. I just loved learning about it more and having my questions answered. Studying with prayer: it works.

Anyway, this was the longest letter of my life.

I love you all and miss you terribly!

Attached is my new planner I made. :) I used that picture quote you sent me, Emilee. Keep sending me some! I feel like you all should send me my planner quotes. They always help give me a boost when I look at it.

I LOVE YOU!!!

Raye :)

Another cool story:

This is a section of my President's letter.

"This past week I was reminded of the promises given to us regarding the ministering of angels. Mormon, in a letter to his son Moroni, asked this question: "...have miracles ceased? Then he answers the question with, "Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men." I testify that angels are with us. They are helping us. They watch over us and they go with us. Let me share with you a portion of a letter I received from a missionary last week.

"My companion and I approached a door in an unfamiliar area and before we even got to the porch the door opened. A cute chubby boy around 13 stepped out with the biggest grin and ran to me! He gave me the biggest hug! Which mind you, is against mission rules, and he says, 'Hermana, its been forever...I've been waiting for yall!' I didn't understand what he meant because I have never met the kid in my entire life, but just played along. We got into the home and was able to talk to his mom (a less-active member) and invite her to church. Then I heard a call from the kitchen, 'Hermana! I need your help please!' His mom says to me: 'I'm sorry my son has autism...I do not know where or how he knows you're an Hermana!' I told her not to worry because I thought it was cute and so I go to help him, while my companion talked to his mom.

I get to the kitchen and he says 'Hermana...remember me! I'm Al! :,) I've been waiting for you!' I played along more as I helped him open a can of tuna and he goes on to say, 'You're here to bring Jesus to my mama, right? I pray every day and every night that someone can come help mama and I know that He answered my prayer because he sent 3 of ya over here!!' I was confused so I asked 'What do you mean Al? Did someone else come and see yall before my companion and I?' kinda non nonchalantly and he says:
'No Hermana, God answered my prayers...He said that He was going to send you all here to help me, mama, sissy and dad. He told me to go open the door so I did.' My eyes got watery. I couldn't even hold back the tears...he then said "and when I opened the door I saw 3 angels...you, your companion, and the man in the white robe."

This is the Lord's work and we have the great privilege to be the instruments in his hands. He does not leave us alone. He is with us, especially when we keep ourselves worthy of the Holy Ghost's promptings. Keep up the good work and bind the Lord.

Gospel love,
President and Sister Brough"

#1- Really Elders?

#2- My companion: Sister Rammell :)

#3- Our area (Rolling Hills and Beckley)

#4- My study desk has two levels!

#5- Green!

#6- Another Kentucky sunset :)