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!