BUG BITES AND TAN LINES

HELLO Y'ALL!!! 

it has been another wonderful week here in the good ole' south! every monday makes me realize how fast the weeks go by and how little time left i have as a missionary! i am in constant awe of how much i learn and grow every single day & how lucky i am to be here serving my Father in Heaven. 

this week was kinda of all over the place. we are still struggling to find people to teach, so we have been knocking on a lot of doors and talking to so many strangers! it definitely makes me get out of my comfort zone. (i really hate finding, it's just so awkward) but anyway... after a few days of no luck we decided we needed to call down the powers of heaven for help. so we decided to start praying specifically to find a family that we could teach the gospel to. & sure enough, with enough trust and faith in God, we found 4 families that want us to come back this week and teach them! sometimes we just have to ask and be patient, but Heavenly Father will take us to those people that need what has blessed my life so much. 

we did have an awesome lesson with our investigator johnathon. he has had a pretty rough life. he grew up in foster care, had a baby when he was 23, got in some trouble with the police and went into the army because of it, got PTSD when he was in Afghanistan, and is now on disability and is trying to get custody of his son. and he is only 29. we met him while we were looking for someone in the ward about 4 weeks ago, and we have had some good lessons with him since then. but this week we knew that he needed something more. so we brought brother maddox with us! they ended up being exactly the same and having a similar background, you could tell that they really connected. it was a powerful lesson and johnathon came to church for the first time this week! we were so happy!! he needs the gospel so much. pray for him!!!! 

besides that, we have just been up to a lot of nonsense! we are still causing a ruckus here in thomaston & being crazy! ALSO DYING OF THE HEAT AND BUGS. my legs are COVERED in bites. sick. this upcoming week we have a meeting with elder cardon from the 70 so we will be traveling a lot! it will be awesome! 

i love you all and hope each of you are enjoying your summer! choose the right & pray for missionary experiences! we need them here! 

OH YA, miracle: we went to chick-fil-a and someone bought our food for us. i cried. BEST DAY EVER!!!! love you RAOK person!! 

love, 

sister bell 

pictures: johnathon hanging out on his porch, classic. me being super happy because someone just bought us food. & sister mckee and i while we were tracting!!! 

HALF-WAY FINISHED!

hey y'all! 

it has been another marvelous week here in thomaston! i continue to love my area, the people, and my companion here more and more every week. i am so lucky to be able to have so many wonderful experiences that help me grow and become more of who Heavenly Father wants me to be. 

we hit another transfer here in the mission! i will be staying here with my companion and we will be the new sister training leaders for our zone. i am so grateful for this new opportunity to serve other sisters around me and be taught by them! we are so blessed to be able to get to know them and learn how they are doing missionary work in their areas! we are excited! :) i also hit my nine month mark this week on the 9th! it is so crazy to think that i have been out for that long. time is flying by! 

our miracle this week stemmed from a less active that we have been working with! his name is Ron and he joined the church about 7 years ago & was on fire for awhile! then he had some experiences that were really hard for him and he slowly fell away. we had an appointment with him on wednesday and right when we got there he said he was going to text his neighbor to see if she wanted to come by and meet us. he told us that they had been talking about the church and that she has this awesome knowledge. so sure enough, she came by! her name is Megan and she is 16. we asked her about the after-life and she basically knew the entire doctrine that we believe. we were astonished. we had a lesson right there about the restoration & she was so interested! it was such a cool experience. we have kept in touch and she keeps wanting to talk and know more. i am so excited! 

one night this week Sister McKee and i talked about what we have learned and gained from our missions so far. it was so great to be able to reflect on the power that comes from God to help us change as we are serving Him. i know that i will forever be in debt to Him for all that He has given me. how thankful I am for this experience! 

i love you all and hope you each have a great week! 

love, 

sister bell 

I love Pday with Sis McKee!

Still remodeling!

Ron's house with his wolf dog. I was not okay..

IT'S A GREAT DAY TO BE ALIVE!

May 30, 2016

hey y'all- 

hope everyone has had a great weekend and enjoyed celebrating those that have sacrificed so much so that we can live freely. it was a wonderful weekend, and the spirit of gratitude was all around me, it felt so good! 

this week was crazy! as you know, the house that we live in was turned into a duplex and the members that we live next to bought and fixed up (okay, totally gutted) our side & then now they have been working on the other side for this little old lady to come move into! well she is coming to move in on saturday.. yeah, pretty soon. so we spent a lot of our time this week helping them paint, put up cabinets, clean, fix windows, the whole nine yards really! it was a bunch of fun & i am excited for this lady to move in! 

i want to tell you about the success the Lord had this week. there were 5 less active members who we are working with that came to church this sunday. some of them were semi-active. & a for a few this was their first time back in YEARS! everyone in the ward kept on mentioning how exciting it was to have our gospel principles class so full! it was incredible and i am so excited for those who made a commitment and came to church. this leads to my highlight of the week: meeting this less-active member, larry. we do SO much less active work it is insane. i think that is why i came here to georgia, there is just something about these members that i am drawn to! anyway, he is like the ONE person here that doesn't have a deep southern accent. he was actually born in england & moved around a lot as a kid. he joined the church about 10 years ago, but hasn't been in two years! recently, the man that he sits with passed away & when we showed up to see him he instantly recognized that it was his time to come back because he has lost so many responsibilities. we had a powerful lesson on what charity is & how the thomaston ward needs him! well sure enough, he came to church on sunday & said after "you bet i'll be back here next week" :) I AM SO HAPPY! he is such an awesome and loving person, i know how much he has to offer to the people here, i can't wait to keep working with him! 

other than that, it was lots of hustle and bustle this week! & SURVIVING THE HEAT AND HUMIDITY... SEND HELP PLZ. or send a fan & some chocolate, its all the same ;-) i am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me this week! it will be great! 

love you all! 

sister bell 

picture: me being a really big dork in front of our cute little house!