Sister Raquel Douglas: Oh Boy... Good Times At the Ranch!

A happy missionary!
Taking pics to send to Sis Hokafonu's sister as a thank you for sending them matching shirts.

There's a crazy funny lady, Sis. T, in our ward. She's from Panama (I mentioned her last week) and is just amazing and has been helping us out so much this week. On Sunday she brought her neighbor to church which was awesome! We were able to meet with him this Saturday and give him a lesson with Sister T on Heavenly Father, families, and a little bit on the Book of Mormon. We invited him to read and pray about 1 Nephi 11, which is all about the Savior. We really wanted to establish that everything we do in our church is centered on Jesus Christ and how we can come closer to him. He's Catholic and has a strong relationship with God, which is really cool! We are going to see him again next week which is super exciting! Sister T also told us she wanted us to meet this lady and her 5 kids that she gave a ride to the other day. Sister T is very open about her beliefs to everyone she talks to and always invites #goldenmember, she talked to the lady who said she was looking for a church! We went over and she wasn't there, but we did get in contact with two of her kids and her boyfriend who was very nice. Hopefully we'll set up a time to meet them next week!

The ranch was... a hoot! Boy let me tell ya, them horses know how to poop! Basically we cleaned out the horse stalls, which consisted of a lot of poop scooping! Then we stacked hay down in the lower half of the ranch. Let me try and explain this situation to you... So there is an upper level of the barn that has all of the hay stacked up like 30-40 ft high, then below that is where the horses are all in their stalls. But there is a little hatch that they put the hay down so they don't have to walk up and around the barn to bring it to the horses. So D (a christian missionary we work with) was up at the top of the hay stack and was throwing those 50lb suckers of hay down this little hatch door. They would come zooming down and Sister Hokafonu and I would have to run so we didn't get nailed by one. It was pretty funny though we would take turns each time D said, "In coming" and then it came crashing to the floor and we would run and stack it then run away! It was quite the party and I got hay in places I didn't know hay could go! Oh boy... good times at the ranch!

This Sunday was awesome. After church we went to have lunch with the less-active family we always eat with on Sundays! We had the Elders quorum president come with us which went really well. He was really bold with them, but in a loving way and basically just said, you guys need to be at church. The dad has a hard time with church because he hears voices and it intensifies when he's at church. But we were each able to testify of the power of the sacrament and how important that is. The spirit was so strong and I hope we'll start seeing some progress with that amazing family:)

We went to a Why I Believe fireside down in Pittsburgh on Sunday night! Seriously I have the most AMAZING Mission President. We first heard from his wife, Sister Johnson, who I just adore. My goal in life is to be as happy and humble as that woman one day! She bore the strongest testimony of the gospel I think I'd ever heard, there is no way you could deny the spirit I felt as I listened to her. President Johnson also bore witness of the truthfulness of the gospel and how important it is to know why we believe something. We heard amazing songs by very talented missionaries and watched a few mormon messages. Along with my favorite one, Because of Him. It always brings tears to my eyes to watch that video. All the missionaries sang the opening and closing songs, and we closed with the Sisters in Zion and Armies of Helamen medley. There is power in music. I feel the spirit touch my heart every time we sing that together as missionaries!

I Love you all an hope you're doing well! I'm always praying for you:)

Love - Sister Douglas❤