September 15, 2014

Well hello dearest family!

Quite the week we've had! I'm all settled in the adorable quaint land of North Brookfield. I tell ya, this ain't no Weston or Belmont. I though Ellington was in the boonies - boy was I wrong. What an unexpected...but happy change.
Sister Layton is my new companion and she's practically perfect in every way. She's only been there a transfer so it's been fun to still get to know a few things together for the first time. We are both really really excited about the area and the potential the branch has. They just built a building about 6-10 years ago and it is designed to have 2 wards in it. There is a very very special spirit here. I can't imagine what's in store for this land even just 5 years from now.

We cover a million towns...ok more like 15. But still. And it may or may not have taken us almost 2 hours to get to district meeting.

The people here are incredible though. President Dusty, the branch president, has all eyes on missionary work. The members are the best member missionaries i've seen my entire mission. Sharing the gospel isn't what they do - it's who they are. We've already seen so many miracles in the short time i've been here. The sisters last week asked the Branch mission leader to pray about his vision for the area and this week he said he did and that he got an answer. Sister Layton said this was very much an unexpected miracle coming from him. He said the branch needs to be more unified, that people are so incredibly friendly when they come to church but people feel disconnected when they go back to their homes. One of our main focuses will be to help with Home and Visiting teaching. The members love the missionaries and love to help in any way, so hopefully when they're out with us on more of a regular basis to both our teaching appts and those they ht/vt, even more miracles will unfold. Sister Layton and I are really excited.

This past week we saw our own miracle. President Dusty texted us and invited us to his home for lunch and correlation Saturday afternoon. Sister Layton said, "Hmm, we've never met with him at this time during the week, this is awesome!" We had most of our saturday empty, so it really was awesome in that regards. Then all the sudden she says, "Oh! I remember seeing a name on the potential investigators list that lives in that same city. We can stop by while we're over there." After an amazing correlation, we stop by this person's house. The dad was mowing the lawn outside. We go up to the house, sister layton reminds him of who they were from a couple weeks ago and he says, "actually, we're all set. sorry." We said, "well we love to be a resource to the community and help any way we can. Can we leave you a card with our number on it in case you change your  mind or need anything?" Very hesitantly he said, "mm, you can give it to my wife in the house." We ring the door bell - she answers with a very cute little girl at her side. We tell her that we had met her husband a couple weeks back. She said, "oh well what did he say? We're not very religious" We said, "He said we could come give you this card with our information on it." I thought No, no we're not letting this one go. She doesn't even know who we really are. The spirit was evidently there on the door step with us because we then said something to the effect that we share a message with people about Jesus Christ and how their families can become closer together, and that you probably think you're not interested but thats because you dont know what our message is. Is there a time this week that your family would be available that we could come share it with you? She looked at us and then said, "Well, the kids have a lot of activities after school during the week....but...we dont have anything on wednesday."

WE ARE SO EXCITED. PLEASE pray for this family. It was too much of a miracle for President Dusty's timing, S. Laytons remembrance, and te fact that they were home for it to be not meant to be.

It has been quite the adjustment. In a lot of aspects I feel like a brand new missionary again and surprisingly it hasn't been too frustrating...only a little frustrating :) Since this time they have a slightly adjusted reporting system. Last night for reporting I asked sister Layton how to do it. She laughed and said, "woa they changed that a long time ago." I said, "Yeah I know - I told you you're training a greenie!" She's been incredibly patient and fun about all the things i'm remembering. Im mostly just grateful because I know that the spirit has brought back loads to my remembrance. I may not have all the practice down of the missionary skill sets, but I think in this gap i've grown to have more trust in the Lord, more confidence in the Lord and the talents he's given us, and become even more excited about the work of the Lord - so in that way its probably a blessing I had a gap. Its also a blessing that I get to go to bed on time! :)

Love you all. I hope you are still doing and being the work of the Lord when you return home on Sundays. I hope you're reaching out before you reach in. I hope you listen before you talk. And most importantly, I hope you stay patient with God's timing and his unexpected plans...sometimes..very unexpected plans.

Love,
Sister Bell 

Keepin it real in the boonies

Pictures:
Red Sox game! My last gift of grace of being the spoiled missionary in grand weston before kicking it to the curb.