Broken hearts and contrite spirits

 what the crap is up fam bam?? 

I suppose I should prob update yall on the recent changes heh

Im currently in the Columbia YSA ward serving with my MTC comp and legend: Sister Coltrin 😻😻 (not to be confused with John Coltrane🤓) its been incredibly blessed here in ysa, we have the USC campus in our area so we meet lots and lots of people everyday. When we whitewashed into this area (meaning we came in brand new together)(no previous missionary to show us around) they had been consistently finding between 3 and 5 new people to teach a week and this week we found 48 peeps interested and wanting to be taught🙏 

its def weird being in the city - everyone here is a tweaker 😻 

- we found a guy mid rap video recording so he featured us in the music video (its horrible dont worry) his name is Rich Gunna Big Unc Da OG (he'll be famous someday)

- met a guy today who speaks Arabic, Hebrew, and English - hes part of the Moroccan government, and joins government zoom calls from over here. he also doesnt have a phone. so not sure how the logistics work on all that but I believe anything Leo tells me😊

- met a guy named DJ Parks (shout out Parks Russell🤑) whos a christian dj and got personally invited to their next event 😻 (we're definitely going) 

- we meet at least 6 people a week named either Montrell, Daquan, or some variation of Emanuel, Immanuel, or Ammanuel. 

- also met some sorority girls who lived in Logan last summer and became besties with Brother Chang from institute and tried not to shoot my foot for 30 minutes as they tried to explain how the trinity makes sense and why we're going to hell for not believing in it😜 they hugged us afterwards so no hate🙏🙂‍↕️

- had SO many beautiful lessons and miracles and just inspired interactions. The amount of people we talk too who tell us we were an answer to a prayer, or brought them some light, or helped them to feel God's love makes all these insufferable sorority baptist girls worth it 🤞🙂‍↕️ nah I actually do really love to learn about all the religions out here. attended church of Christ this past Sunday on base, (ooh also I teach the soldiers about the gospel on base every Sunday up at Fort Jackson)(they're incredibly humble and cool the spirit is always so strong there)(its so blessed) 

 its cool how much more prone to feeling the spirit we are when we're in those low and desperate moments. Broken hearts and contrite spirits are open enough to cry out to God, to read scriptures, to seek wisdom and peace. To seek God and His Son! when I think back to some of my most spiritual experiences they all occurred when I was low and humble enough to reach out to God and rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

go read Galatians 2:20 its like top ten fav verses ever. 

ok anyway theres a phat info dump for you hope you all are doing so very well - send me some updates ay sorry its been forever since ive emailed heh. My bad 😜 but ya loving it here in ysa, we watched Lego bible videos during our last member meal if that explains what its like being in ysa, all the members are like 28 and either chill asfreak or autistic (or both😎) i love it.

and I love you! 🫵 stay blessed 

- bec 

old southern cutie lady

 holy forgive me its actually been too long since ive written an email... I swore I was gonna be better at writing emails than Jiggy was but idk if I have been heh... 

ok updateeee 

We got transfer news this past Wednesday! I officially had to leave Cedar Falls and my homegirl Sister Johnson 🙂‍↕️ left it in good hands tho☝️and very exciting things happening over there, we were able to get two investigators on date for baptism by the time i left😈 super mega hype. 

ok and my new area?! : Martinez, GEORGIA 😛😜🤑 pronounced (martin - ehz) ayy Rachel you guessed it right i am now serving in georgia ☝️🤓 holy hot mama tho it feels like im walking in steam its so humid hottie - I aint never sweat outta my knees until this past week 🙉 we good tho the area is fire, the ward is even more fire, and my new comp Sister Thayer is double fire. I got called to be a "sister training leader" 🤓 this transfer so im extra grateful to have such a good stl trainer - also the sister here before me was "sister Seifert" which im pretty sure multiple ancient temple workers have called me before so that def confuses the ward but its fine we chillin. 

the people down here are already more southern, lol Sunday school yesterday in the new ward was a lotta fun - some ancient guy introduced himself as Brother Walborn and made sure to clarify its walBORN not walBURN because "babies are born they dont burn" 🤓🤓 and then some old southern cutie lady ranted for 15 minutes about the new David and Goliath movie it was cutie :)

heres some pictures from the last however long to get you guys back up to speed on the mission 😜🤑 love youuuu

also happy father's day papa sorry I forgot to call last night heh...

also send prayers we're getting a new mission president like tomorrow?!?!?!

also congrats on the upcoming wedding Jiggy and Emory 😻😻 cant wait to see the pictures 🙉🙉🙉🙉🤑🙏

peace in knowing you are living the life that God has planned for you

 hola friends and family 😃 

Made it to my third transfer yayaya! Officially outta training 👏 🙌  We still have extra training time everyday tho because my new companion is a greenie 🤑 her name is Sister Johnson she's a queen, pro missionary already. Also shes a tall queen, got me looking even shorter than I already am 🤧 we have good times tho so I forgive her 😌 

Last transfer was super hype, definitely gonna miss cutie Sister Price but we're having a good time so far - this is second transfer here in Cedar Falls Simpsonville we have actually the best ward ever... it feels very Utah vibe, prolly cause everyone is like 32 with four kids each. There's a constant flow of baby noise in our church meetings :)

But ya mission life is lit - we had some BARS meetings this past weekend because it was Stake Conference, got to hear from area seventy Elder Boddain? (i would look up how to spell it but thats a LOTTA work) he was awesome tho, talked a lot about having greater love as disciples of Christ. A line I loved from conference was "the only surrender that leads to victory is when we surrender our will to God's" and I know with all my heart that its true! There is peace in knowing you are living the life that God has planned for you - fighting against it leaves us constantly searching for something more, and that aint no way to live ☝️

Anyway, hope everyone's doing well (I hear gas prices are going up again) (sucks for you guys, all my gas is paid for🤑) haha love you all so much :3

also let's start a tally, how many of my siblings will get engaged as soon as I leave on my mission: II (CONGRATS ASHLEY AND JOHNNY😻😻)

heres a link to like every pic ive ever taken: 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/j9j9cozGuZKQib2G8

Without a living prophet there's no accountability

 ok what the crap is up fam ?!

wow my motivation to write emails is rapidly decreasing 😻 but dont worry I'll keep up the updates because I love you all and wanna hear updates on life back home (when I call the kids all they give me updates on are brain rot and stranger things)

aight random fun things that happened this week: 

• gloria serenaded us again ANDDDD she let me record this time 😜

its moments like these that I thank the Lord for sending me to South Carolina (no one asked Gloria to sing us a song she just started singing) 

• met Frederick - this guy looks EXACTLY like Grandma Belnap, like exact same face like could easily be siblings. So if Grandma happens to mention a long lost brother - I found him. We pulled up on Frederick and interrupted a convo he was having to share a scripture and chat. He told us later that he prayed that God would "cut out his tongue" if he were to say anything hurtful that day - and APPARENTLY the convo we interrupted was headed there... "yall were the knife" ok thanks Frederick glad to be of service 

☝️😛 he also told us (tearfully) that he prayed that God would speak to him today and that was the day we showed up 😻 then he didnt show up at church on Sunday🔫😐

this is what he texted me during church lol

holy most southern thing ive ever read. dont worry Frederick I wont give up on you😖🤧

Let's seeeeee what else happened... not too much crazy, just living the good life over here in simpsonville, its becoming more and more BEAUTIFUL everyday - holy greenest place i ever seen. 

here's a bar I heard this week about prophets: (lots of people ask why we need prophets or leaders like we have today, why cant we just believe in Jesus and be good people) and I always think about a line from Holmes talk in conference,  he said that (paraphrasing) without a prophet Jesus Christ becomes whatever we want him to be. AND ITS SO TRUE😻 without a living prophet there's no accountability or validity to keep His church ESTABLISHED ☝️ people can basically interpret the scriptures however they want and there's nothing to prove whether they're right or wrong according to God's teachings. In our district testimony meeting last night an Elder shared a quote "when we choose to neglect prophets in our own lives we find ourselves in a personal apostacy." BARS 😻 God calls his prophets☝️ all we have to do is listen to their council and do our best to faithfully apply it to our lives, just another way to trust in God no matter what 😌

oh also this last week we sheared alpacas for this random chill guy named Rob- he thought it was so hilarious to make me collect the poop they use to test for parasites. bro holy most rated r thing ive ever seen what the crap. the Shearer guy put on gloves and then reached up into the alpacas ah and grabbed the poop out of it (all while I stood there like a retard with the zip lock bag ready) wow holy trauma 😛

also we found an abandoned ancient school for lil black kids from the early 1900s - there was a sign but besides that it was basically just sitting there abandoned, no gate no nun. pretty cool😃

Anyway theres some lovely moments from my life recently, here's some more random pictures 

southern testimony meetings are my favorite

 what is up mi familia ?!?!

let's seeeeee this week was slightly slow but still good come on now, im tryna think if anything funny happened... 

we knocked on a door this week (only like three people answered their doors this day) and a guy answered!😻 we told him we were looking for Robert and he said roberts out rn but his name was JC and we said oh ok well do you have a church jc? and he said ya I go to the church down the road but you ladies are very gorgeous.🧍‍♂️... we were like well thank you jc thats very kind of you☺️😜 and then we left. 😻🐒😅🔫

this week we met our girl Gloria in person, wed done a phone call lesson before but never irl... we get to her house and she let's us in, and immediately get punched in the face by the aroma of incense in her house lol it was like going into one of those salt lake city antique stores, like full to the brim with stuff. but its chill she made a lil walkway to the couch for us 😛 so we go sit down, were talkin about personal revelation and the spirit confirming truth to us, shes like imma sing yall my lil song. oh um ok sweet let's hear it Gloria: (shes 72 btw) (she looks 42) she immediately starts BELTING the most beautiful soul gospel bars ive ever heard in my life i was fighting the urge to record her the entire time. she sang "my god is real" theres a good Johnny Cash version but her version is the best ive ever heard holy bars. and then boom just went right back to the lesson lol. like girl we gonna act like we didnt all just start levitating up to heaven just now??? holy amazing?!?!?! Anyway good times 😛

but ya besides that its been a chill week, southern testimony meetings are my favorite thing in the world now they just be so entertaining and bars. especially in our new ward there are infinite babies so its basically constant background noise of babies crying its kinda funny - the speakers be up there YELLING tryna speak over all the babies💀

but ya mega good week, remember jesus loves you so much much dont forget to pray☝️heres some pictures to show you how random life is in sc😛

pic explanations: 

• me and sis price at zone conference - it was so good, talked about the Book of mormon of course 😻

• me and brigger have been together for 1 whole year?!?! everyone go give him a kiss for me for sending flowers from 2000 miles away😻

• sister gilbert haircut 😻 she made me put my used toilet paper in a walmart bag because her trailer toilet cant handle it... she also made us FIRE caramel brownies🐒

• various random dogs

• 14 year old autistic recent convert drew me a beautiful picture😻 he calls me sister becca cuz he cant remember seffker lol

• our random member came up to us at church and was like hey I think ill take a picture of you guys in front of this jesus picture we were like oh ok sweet - then he tried to airdrop it to our Samsungs and eventually realized it wasn't finna work... so his wife texting it to us lol

• random emu ostrich thing 😛

and here's this picture of what it casually looks like here everyday holy most gorgeous state ever wtfreak

celestial marriage and elijah returning

 yo yo yo made it through first couple weeks in Simpsonville🤓

its been good I been liking it, not much crazy eventful happened this week just a bunch of cornball interactions haha its good times tho

saw lots of miracles, ive noticed that as I pray for specific things God blesses me with them - shoulda figured that out years ago😾😼 jk its prob cuz now I pray for things that directly pertain to His work hehe. so align your will with God's and your life will be mega blessed😻 

also conference was sooo mega good hopefully everyone could listen to at least a lil bit, im hyped for the published versions of all the talks I know theyre boutta be so fire - also I aint never paid more attention in conference than when we watched it with an investigator and they started mentioning celestial marriage and elijah returning to the earth and the pearl of great price and every bit of doctrine that we haven't got to yet😻

Anyway love you guys a bunch hopefully you all had a good easter 😻 ill drop some pics to give you a good idea of how LIT this past week has been😌

also go read 1 nephi 13 its a banger chapter that we've read with like 4 different friends this week haha its very bars