Guess Who's Back, Back, Back....

Back again, 'gain, 'gain...

Sister Robins, Robins, Robins

And her friend, friend, friend( awkwardly dancing around pointing at myself with so much excitement I could explode!)

(FYI this is going to be a long one! But soooooo worth the read!)

That's right ladies and gentlemen! I am back with Sister Robins! I got transferred last week to a place called Lexington and am in the Lake Murray ward. When President called to tell me I would be leaving my beloved Simpsonville and Sister Ogden I was so sad, but  I could not help but to dance around and sing this in my head knowing I was coming back to a companion I admire and look up to so much! It is going to be a party! When I got dropped off at transfers we locked eyes and then came running towards each other and embraced in a big hug. Sister Innes came and took pictures of us and said, "It's like you two are excited or something." It was a great moment. 

It has already been a party! The ward here is great! We were over with this one family who has the cutest kids ever! One of their boys names is Harrison. He was a hoot! He wanted us to jump on the tramp with him so he went and got basketball shorts from his dads closet and gave them to us. Then after we got done with that we went inside to do our lesson and he had my name tag on and said, "Let me go put on my skirt!" He quickly ran upstairs to his sister's closet to go grab a skirt and match us for the lesson. He was cracking us up all evening! I have made a new best friend here in Lake Murray.

The last evening in Simpsonville I had I got to spend at a baptism. One of the greatest human beings I have ever met in my life enter into the waters of baptism Wednesday night and covenanted with God to live a new life. Marlon is by far my favorite human! Rewind back about four months...Sister Tucker(love you!) and I went to go meet Marlon. He was a former investigator and had been dropped due to not agreeing with the word of wisdom. When we went and saw him it was a Thursday afternoon around 3pm and him and his friends were drunk on his front porch. He sure enough told us about why he stopped meeting with the missionaries. So we said, "Well have you ever prayed about the word of wisdom and asked God if it is true??" He said no and so we invited him to spend the next week daily praying to know. We said we would come back and check what happened. We walked away from that thinking there is no way he is going to do that and this is going nowhere. Well a week late we stopped by to keep our word and when we got there he had actually spent the time praying about it! He said he hadn't gotten answer, but he actually did it so we started to teach him. A couple weeks later he was trying to quit smoking so we taught him about priesthood blessings and how that could help. He got one and ever since then he hasn't smoked and that made him realize that the word of wisdom is true and made him get his answer that this is Christ Church. He said one night laying in bed after praying to know, he just got this overwhelming feeling come to his chest and he just knew that this is true. So it took a few ups and downs and curve balls Satan threw at us but we got him to baptism! It was the most sweetest moment of my mission so far. After he was baptized we gave him a gift. He laughingly said no one ever gets me gifts and when he opened it up and pulled out the tie that we had signed on the back, he began to cry and said. "no one has ever gotten me a gift, no one has ever treated me like this." We all were crying and it was the most tender moment ever. As we said our goodbyes Marlon told me he would never forget me and I told him the same back. I have grown to love that man so much and I am so blessed for the Lord allowing me to be apart of his conversion process. I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that allows us to find peace and a fresh start in our life no matter what our past looks like. May we all find ways to come closer to the Savior this week and become better. That is what it is all about!

Love,

Sister Rice 

-Marlon's baptism

-last picture with Sister Ogden

- Reuniting with Sister Robins

-Yes! We drive a mini van! 

-My new best friend Harrison

"My Wife wants to buy an Amish kid for a day...."

Ok did yall know the Amish auction there kids off certain days of the year to raise money for their church??? Apparently they allow people to bid on their kids to come do labor for them at their house. We were in line at Walmart when this couple behind us started talking with us and they asked what kind of things we do as missionaries. We started listing off the things we can do and we mentioned service. The guy told us how his wife has been wanting to buy an Amish kid to come do work on their property.....we said we are free and there is two of us so we will see if they will pick us over the Amish kid hahaha.

Ok not going to lie this week has been rough! I mean like hours on end of knocking and NO ONE interested. We even had one guy walk to his door and without even opening it or us even getting to breathe he just said "NO" and walked away. What if we had an emergency man?!?!? Luckily this one guy though was definitely not interested in our message but was kind enough to offer us a sugar free grape Popsicle(see picture below). Oh and just in case you were wondering.....pouring rain and thunderstorms does NOT increase people's interest or charity. It just seems like all our people we have been teaching are dropping like flies! We have had 2 people call and drop us and 2 just stop responding....but I told Sister Ogden the Lord must be preparing us for some pretty amazing people to teach. 

Not that this email is supposed to be full of complaints....but one more! Our car had an ANT hill in it! We started seeing ants inside our car....and this happened a couple weeks ago but went away. Well we cleaned our car but it just doesn't make sense we aren't aloud to eat in the car....where are they coming from??? So we were driving and we just saw a ton of Ants outside of Sister Ogdens window so I pulled over and started to kill them so that they wouldn't get into our car....I opened up her door to get some that had crawled in the crack(sister Ogden doesn't kill bugs.....it took her 45 minutes to kill an earwig.....I have video for proof if you don't believe me). When I opened up the door there were HUNDREDS of ants!!!!! I am not exaggerating! And they were ALLLLLL carry eggs!!!! It was disgusting! We luckily were by this house that had some raid and gave us the stuff to kill them and wipe it away but man did I feel itchy the rest of the day. They had created their nest inside the door hinge....gross.

Okay but now for the tender mercy of the week! 

Like I said super slow....super hard week!

I was in church with no clue on what to do afterwards for the rest of the day. I was just praying that we would have just one person that would let us in or be interested in what we had to say. I literally was pleading with the Lord and even was fasting for it yesterday. While in Sunday school we received a referral of a man who ordered a book of Mormon. So right after church we drove out to him and when we pulled up he was outside just about ready to leave. We were able to give him the book of Mormon and he told us that he was excited and shocked how fast it came. He told us how he is a good christian man that has tried everything and still doesn't know what is right and he has had a few friends go this route so he finally decided to look into it to see if it is what he is still missing. We go back tomorrow to teach him and I am just so excited to have someone who is really interested in what we have to say. I am grateful for a Heavenly Father who listens to a pleading missionary's prayer. He is truly in the details of our lives! I hope each of you know that. Heavenly Father is aware of you and everything you are going through! Turn to Him and He will provide....after all that you can do.

I love yall!!!

-Sister Rice