Yall Aint Goin To Believe Dis!

Hey Yall! Hope everyone is having a great summer! I sure am......drowning in sweat over here in this heat! I cannot believe that it is almost July....like where did June go???? Really I still am mentally in April haha.

So remember the dog that almost attacked us a couple weeks back???? Well we were like we are NOT going back to his house....so we called him and told him that we were hoping we could meet up because it seemed like his dog didn't like people very much. He said, " Oh RUSTY! NO he is so nice! He never bites any one" Well Sister Tucker's skirt says otherwise hahaha. Anyway so he was totally on board at meeting up at Walmart.....this guy ends up being only like 22 but he sounded like 70 on the phone....so we passed him off to the young single adult missionaries and GUESS WHAT?!?!? He is on date to be baptized this next month!!! Your welcome Allen for risking our lives to give you a Bible! Now this guys got the restored gospel and is loving life! 

Also don't know if yall know this or not but we added a sister to our companionship this last week. Some sisters were getting moved around and so now we are a trio. Her name is Sister Christensen and she has been out the same amount of time as Sister Tucker. She is from Fresno, California. It has been fun being in a trio again and we are staying busy and working really hard!

Well I hope each of you are enjoying your summer and I hope that you guys are doing things that bring you closer to the Savior. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and what He has done for all of us and I love that I get to wear His name on my name tag every day and share my testimony of the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ every day! 

Love,

Sister Rice

"Where dey frm?"

Hey Yall! 

I am so sorry that it has been so long since I sent out a weekly email! Finally got a library card to have a computer to email on instead of on my little phone....but lets be honest here....we all know that maybe grandma and mom read the whole email and everyone else skims or just scrolls down right to the pictures! 

Really though its been about a month since I wrote and I hope everyone is doing well. I am doing good. I am still here in Simpsonville and absolutely love it! It is getting ridiculously hot and humid here! We get to experience lighting bugs every night which are amazing to look at! And we are staying incredibly busy! 

A couple weeks ago we stopped and got some peaches from a local farm...while we were there this guy came up and was looking at all the baskets of peaches, smelling them, asking how much they were and asked, "where dey frm?" We got a good laugh at it because he was acting like he was some type of peach expert looking for the most perfect peaches. Probably only funny if you were there haha. Sorry.

Then two weeks ago we almost got mauled by a dog!!!!!! This is not a joke. It was terrifying.....

We have an elder in our mission that got mauled by a dog and had to go home to take care of the injury and is now back...he is serving in our district right now and when he first told the story we totally didn't believe him. So we have tried to be pretty cautious around dogs. We had this guy request a bible and we pulled into the driveway and the dogs were outside chained up. When we got out of the car one started growling...so we started trying to walk around it because we gotta get this man his bible! Well we guess wrong on how long his chain was and he started running full force at Sister Tucker! She started running away and I watched the dog try to bite her....luckily missed her leg but had her skirt in his mouth....I have no idea how her skirt wasn't ripped off! Then he came running at me and the keys were in my purse and I was trying to unlock the car and couldn't get it unlocked!!! I ditched the car and just ran as far out from the house as I could. I was too scared to go up to the car again because I watched the dog almost attack sister Tucker so she had to walk slowly back to the car and crawl through the passenger side to get to the driver side while I backed her out of the driveway...we laughed out of fear for a good hour after that...right after that we went to another house that had a bunch of dogs out front and I was like nope...not today....We will go try to see that person another day.....I dont know why dogs hate missionaries so much! hahah

The other day I was on exchanges and we knocked on this door and it is so humid here that the paint on the door came off...it was like powdery so we knew it wasn't wet paint...but just from the humidity....see picture below!

Last week we got to go the temple and it was so amazing! I am so grateful for the knowledge that families can be together forever as they live the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and make covenants with Heavenly Father. The temple is the place where we can make promises to God and He makes promises back to us on how we can return to live with Him and our family for the rest of eternity. How I look forward to the day to be an eternal family!

I love getting to teach people every day how they can be with their family forever and how much joy it brings into their lives. 

Well I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Love ya!

-Sister Rice

Como Manzanas! Hermana Arroz coming your way😂

Hey y'all! Sorry it has been a few weeks since I sent out an email. I have run into some technical difficulties and lost my email list. 

So since the last time I emailed I have been transferred yet again. Transfers happened April 12th and I got news that I would be whitewashing into my new area. That is when two missionaries leave and two new ones come in who know nothing about the area. On top of that I was asked to train a new missionary. We are serving in Simpsonville. I went and picked up my companion in Irmo and then we got dropped off at a church building where our car was and then had to drive to our apartment and find out where we would be living. It was an adventure.

My companions name is sister Tucker and she is this cute little fiery red head. She has been a member for only a year and loves being a missionary. It's been funny because when I first met her she told me about how she didn't want to ever take off her name tag. There have been several times though that we have left the apartment and when we get to where we are going she realizes she forgot her name tag.

The ward here is great and we are trying to get to know everyone. 

We have been able to find a lot of people that are interested and we are excited to keep working with them.

About 1/3 of our investigators speak Spanish so we are very slowly trying to learn Spanish using the duo lingo app. Well that explains my subject title now because the extent of my Spanish is about "como manazanas" and a few other phrases. Como manzanas means I eat apples. Just in case you were wondering

So we have been working with this lady who requested a Book of Mormon. She said she knows there is a lot of false info out there which is why she decided reading the book of Mormon was the best way to find out about it. (We wish everyone made that connection) we went back this week and she told us how she is struggling to find her purpose anymore and has felt like there has always been something missing and how she has remebered seeing ads for the Book of Mormon throughout her life and the thought came to her maybe this is the something she is missing. We were all teary eyed during that lesson and could feel the Spirit so strong! We testified that we know this is exactly what she has been missing and shared how it's changed our lives.

We are working hard and trying to find those who are ready for the fullness of the gospel. I love being a missionary and am so grateful for sweet moments like that throughout the week that make the hard times so worth it! I hope each of you keep pushing through the hard times and rely on those sweet tender moments when the Spirit testifies that this gospel is true and what ultimately brings the most happiness. It's not always easy, but it will all be worth it.

Love y'all!

- Sister Rice

"What number of wife are you?"

Hey yall!

I hope each of you had an amazing Easter Weekend!

Mine was pretty good except I was hit with a pretty bad cold. I am doing much better though.

We are starting to find a few solid people that are interested in learning more. 

We are teaching this awesome couple named Laura and Sonny. They really have such a strong faith in Christ and want to do what is best. We have been able to invite them to pray during our lessons with them and they just have the most humble sincere prayers. It has been a great example to me as I have learned how to really be sincere in prayer to my Heavenly Father.

Sonny is also a part of a Gospel music group. It is him and three other guys that are all over the age of 70. They are so good and lately we have been going to their rehearsals because they like Sister Callahan playing her Mandolin along with them. It is so much fun. We bought one of their CD's and it is a nice taste of the Southern Baptist culture here. We might be going to a Christian Music Festival on Saturday with them to hopefully use that as a way to find more people.

We go to the Flea Market on Wednesdays to do a family history booth and last week I had an older fella come up to me and ask me what church I belonged to. I told him the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and he said "Oh the mormons, what number of wife are you?" I laughed and said I am not married and that we don't practice polygamy. He was just like alright well that is nice to know but I have already been saved. The funny thing about all this was that he wasn't joking...he really was being serious and wanted to know how many sister-wives I have. Even though he wasn't interested in hearing more about the gospel, I am glad I was able to correct his view on mormons a little bit.

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be out here in South Carolina and teach about Jesus Christ every day. Even the days where no one wants to listen to us can still be viewed as good days if you do something as small as changing the stereo type of what they believe mormons believe or are about.

I am grateful for the experiences I have to learn from others, especially those who have such a strong faith in Jesus Christ. I have definitely learned lately that our faith is enough to accomplish great things. Stop doubting your faith. It is enough. Our faith in Christ can help us overcome anything that happens in this life. I hope each of you remember that and work on not doubting yourself and the ability you have to do great things. I have really realized that you shouldn't put limits on the Savior's Atonement, and by thinking you don't have enough faith is one way of limiting that healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I love yall and miss yall and hope it is a great week!

Love,

Sister Rice

My companion drew cartoons of each of the missionaries in our district that we serve around...they are all pretty accurate! It is kind of weird haha. The Binghams weren't too happy about how she made them look so old, but they are like 75 so it is pretty accurate. hahaha.

"What was his name??? Elder Klinglebat???"

Hey yall!!! Hope you all have had an amazing week! I sure did! It has been an interesting one that is for sure!

We had a mission conference on Saturday where all the missionaries in South Carolina gathered to hear one of our church leaders...his name is Elder Klebingat...but one of the senior missionaries I serve with called him Elder Klinglebat haha we all got a good laugh at that one and just grateful she didn't say that to his face!

It was an awesome conference though and I learned a lot on what I can do to improve as a missionary. I will go back to the conference in a second.

Earlier this week we have had quite a few interesting experiences. On Tuesday we were on exchanges where we switch companions for 24 hours with one of our Sister Training Leaders. I stayed here in my area and we went to go check on this women who had requested a Book of Mormon. Right after I got done introducing the Book of Mormon to her and inviting her to read from it and scheduling a time to return, her neighbor came up to me(meanwhile my companion is playing with the kids to keep them busy) and asked what are the requirements to be mormon. I knew that was a loaded question.....I started trying to explain having faith in Jesus Christ and trying to explain the priesthood(the authority of God), when she kept cutting me off and saying that she was just watching a video the night before about how mormons are a cult. I was like oh no.....she was saying I was saying a lot of things they did and she kept getting more angry and saying how she doesn't believe that there should be people higher in status in church which is why she chose the church she goes to where they don't refer to their preacher as preacher or pastor. They are all equal. I was trying to explain to here that we are all equal and we are given assignments at different times to help strengthen each other but we are all of equal importance. She kept cutting me off and started getting in my face...literally like an inch away from my face...I was for sure she was going to push me or something. So I just stopped trying to answer her questions and just started testifying of how I know that this is true and how God has revealed it to me as I have come to Him in prayer to ask these things. It took about five minutes for me to be testifying before she finally stopped getting in my face and then she just sat there and you could tell she was feeling the Spirit. She finally got up and gave me a hug and told me that she is glad that I have some wisdom and find out for myself and not just believe what is said to me. I told her that there is a lot of skewed information and next time she should go to the missionaries or one of the church websites if she has questions. It was such a neat experience to see when her heart was finally softened and she knew and felt that I was speaking truth.

That was a terrifying yet amazing experience that strengthened my testimony in trusting that the Lord provides for His missinoaries and helps them know what to say.

Elder Klebingat said at the conference that a person with a spiritual experience adn testimony is never at the mercy of someone with merely an opinion. That is so true so never back down from sharing your testimony of the Savior! May you all remember what He has done for us and that He helps those who have faith in Him. Hope yall have an amazing week and Easter Sunday!

Love,

Sister Rice

See if you can find me in this picture of the whole mission:)

Short update about this week

First off this new area is difficult but I am getting along great with my new companion. That makes the hard days easier.

Second we are super excited because we are doing a mission conference on Saturday where the whole mission will get together and we will get to here from a general authority(and I will get to see Sister Robins)!

Monday night we went over to a family in our ward for dinner and FHE. Their little kids were so cute and are so excited to be missionaries. Their youngest daughter went and made her own name tag and came and sat next to us. I will send a picture. Then their little boy kept showing us all these cool magic tricks and also was teaching Elder Bingham(a senior missionary in our ward) the missionary discussions.

Tuesday we were talking to this girl in the library and were sharing a scripture with her when this other girl turned around and said "Amen" so we went and talked to her afterwards. But weird thing was she quickly cut us off and told us how she is strong in her faith and doesn't agree with how we don't think Christ is Lord or Deity. So we tried to explain to her that we do but she wouldn't listen so sister Callahan just handed her a copy of the Living Christ and said that this is who we believe Jesus Christ is. A few hours later we got a call from her and she left a message saying that she had some questions. We thought for sure she just wanted to bash us, so we said a quick prayer and called but she didn't answer. Then two days later we got another call from her and missed it again but this time the message said that she wanted to apologize for how she came off and that she was hoping we could meet up and discuss what we believe and what she believes and see how they are different or if there really isn't any differences. We were super surprised and super excited. We meet with her Thursday so pray that goes well and that she ends up wanting to continue to learn more!

Friday was fun. We got to take out this young women for a few hours and answer her questions about missionary work and then go back and teach her family a lesson. They are kind of less active and her dad isn't a member. We were hoping the dad would sit in but he was doing yard work. We scheduled a follow up visit and hope that he will be sitting in next week. After that we went and helped out the other missionaries in another ward with a root beer float stand at the ward's Sock Hop. We got to dress up and it was fun seeing all the dancing going on and the activities they were doing. They did a great job with it. While we were cleaning up sister Callahan was dared to eat a handful of salt left at the bottom of the bowl of pretzels for $5 so she did it.....it ended up making her sick and she ended puking. She said that that was the worst $5 she ever earned.

Saturday we got to go to a kid's Blue grass music festival at an old mill that is actually still running. It was super fun and the kids were so cute with their banjos and mandolins. We also got to try boiled peanuts. They are good except they don't taste like peanuts they actually are so soft that it taste like beans. 

Last night Sister Callahan made me fried chicken. I made her take a picture so I could show everyone how awesome of a cook she is!

Today we got to go over to a lady's house in the ward and do a step by step painting. It was super fun and it turned out a lot better than I thought it would haha.

Anyways these are just some random updates from this last week. Hope all is well!!!! 

Love,

Sister Rice

"Can you guys come back. We forgot to give you LAMB HATS."

Well guys I have been transferred! We had transfers last week and they decided to take me and both my companions and have us all transferred, and brought in two new missionaries. They call that whitewashing. I was really sad to leave Charleston so soon. I felt like I still hadn't done a whole lot there, so it was a hard goodbye. But change is good and missions are full of change. I am now back in the upstate! I am in the Greenville 3rd ward which is the very north part of South Carolina and on the West side of the state. Some of the cities that are in my area are Travelers Rest, Easley, and Pickens....then a bunch of small cities in between. Our area is pretty big so it is hard to cover all of it. Everything is very spread out, but it makes the drives really nice. It is covered with trees here and very pretty! Way different weather than what I was experiencing on the coast. It has been rainy and cold all week. My companion is Sister Callahan. She has been out for 3 months. She is very sweet and hard working. The ward is on the smaller side of things, but from the people I have met they are all very sweet. We also have a set of Elders in our ward and a senior couple. We will see what this transfer holds for me! I am excited to try to figure out what my purpose is here and who I am here for. 

So knowing we were getting transferred we were saying a lot of goodbyes. The day before transfers we went and said goodbye to our zone leaders. After we said bye we got a text asking us to come back because they wanted to give us lamb hats .We were like what the heck are lamb hats, but we went back anyways because we were really curious. Turns out one of the elders worked with sheep back home and his family made a bunch of hats with their brand on it. This elder gives these hats out to only his favorite missionaries. It only took us 6 weeks to earn a lamb hat. At transfers everyone was like what you got a lamb hat! or they would laugh and say this elder's name. So it was pretty funny and cool and we felt pretty honored. haha. I will attach a picture of us in them!

Our mission has been doing a read the Book of Mormon in 90 days challenge and we are highlighting anything that pertains to the gospel of Jesus Christ such as faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end. Then in a different color we are highlighting anything that speaks on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It has been so neat to see that on everything single page the Book of Mormon teaches about Jesus Christ and what He has done for us and what we can do to follow His example. Being about half way through now, my testimony in the Book of Mormon has grown tremendously. In the introduction to the Book of Mormon Joseph Smith says, "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." I have this same testimony and witness of the Book of Mormon. I know that by reading it myself and following the principles taught in it such as faith, repentance, forgiveness, charity, and so on, I have truly come to know who my Heavenly Father is and who my Savior is. I invite each of you to read from the Book of Mormon and receive your own testimony and witness of it's truthfulness. I know that if you do so with a sincere desire to know if it is true, the Spirit will confirm to you that it is true and that by following the things taught in the Book of Mormon, you will have more peace in your life and understand your purpose here more fully and who your Creator is and Savior. I hope each of you take the time to study the pages and I know that it will bless your lives, just like it has blessed mine and millions of other people around the world. 

I hope yall have a blessed week and keep being awesome!!

Love,

Sister Rice