Sister Gray's Mission: Decatur.... land of the 9 towns

Hello my friends!

How are y'all doing? I hope everyone has enjoyed this past week. I know I have. I guess I will give further explanation on my new area haha. I have been transferred to the second biggest area in the mission. Decatur! Decatur is a super country area that is frankly ENORMOUS. Oh my goodness. I don't even know how to explain it to you. I will draw it out on a map and send it. Let me give you an example... our appartment complex is in the middle of the area. One of our less active members lives an hour and 45 minutes away. With no traffic. And that is from the middle of the area. Man oh man it's big. Decatur covers 9 towns, and is filled with true blue Texans. It's hilarious. There are also a bunch of old people and not too many people my age. It's a totally different crowd than what I have dealt with in the past.

My "new" companion is sister Bowes. Fun story... shortly after I had received my call, I saw on Instagram that sister Bowes was called to the same mission, departing on the same day. I decided it would be fun to message her and say hi. We started messaging and became close friends three months prior to our departure as missionaries. Not only did we talk before our missions, but we also served in the same MTC district. I was pretty pumped when I found out we would be serving together again. We received transfers news Sunday night (when you are called to a leadership position you find out on Sunday) and Sister Booth has been called to serve as a trainer which meant that I was being moved. The zone leaders called shortly after President did and asked if we had heard anything. When we told of the news, they asked where I thought I would go. I told them "Decatur seems like it would be fun, plus I would get to see sister Bowes again!". Later that night I had a dream that I would serve here. The next morning the elders called to confirm my dream. When they asked how I knew I told them I had a dream. There was a long pause and elder Adams (being the sarcastic booger he is) simply said "woah, Lehi". It was a funny experience.

I spent the rest of Sunday night packing. Monday we spent one last day together as a zone. The Alliance zone has by far been my favorite zone. It was all fun and games and we all got along great. We played volleyball, told jokes, and ate pizza. Overall it was a great time.

Tuesday we spent most of the day providing service at an orchard in Roanoke. We loved doing service there. We were able to interact with other people, get our hands dirty, and do hard work. I'm surprised by how much I miss hard physical labor. We never get to do that as sister missionaries. My task for that day was loading and unloading long wooden beams onto an old tractor. Little fun fact about texas... We have fire ants. Another fun fact... fire ants like long wooden beams. I didn't know that. The beams that we were moving were quite heavy and awkwardly long. In order to move them I would prop them over my shoulder and walk the short distance to the tractor and throw them on. Half way through the job was the first series of bites (several ants will wait and bite all at the same time, they are little Satan's I tell ya) The bites hurt but I only had a few more beams to load so I continued on. After I had finished the job I looked at my legs to see them COVERED in bites. Fire ant bites are interesting, they bubble up and form a yellow welt that will stay anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months.

If any of you have ever seen the movie ratatouille, there is a scene where Remi bites the other dude (I can't remember his name) all of over the back and stomach. That's basically what I look like haha. Little ant bites all over my back and tummy. Pray they don't scar:) it was a good experience.
Wednesday was transfer day. I spent all morning at a church in Hurst waiting for my ride to show up. It was fun to see all of the transferring missionaries and also the departing missionaries. It's sad to think that I knew a lot of the departing missionaries. It makes me feel like an old missionary.

I made my way to Decatur and spent the first day learning about the area. We went contacting and had dinner back at the apartment. There wasn't much food here when I came (the sisters didn't have time to go shopping on monday) so we basically played iron chef with the limited items we had. It was a fun experience.

I have really started to connect with the members here in Decatur. We attended mutual Wednesday night to meet the youth and we played games with them. On Sunday a sister came up and said "ohhh you are the new Sister! My daughter came home Wednesday and said that she really likes you! She wants me to sign up to feed y'all!" It totally made my day. This ward is really small (even though we cover half of Texas) so our youth program is dwindling. It's almost as if we are serving in a branch. So to build that relationship with the youth will be extremely productive.

I have really enjoyed my time here. I am still adjusting. This area is a new breed of people and I am trying to get used to it. I have served in some if the richest parts of the mission and now I am in a very humble area. The atmosphere is different but good. We had dinner with a lady on Friday and she had 11 cats. 11. Cats. My allergies are literally dying here. It's really fun. I'm learning a lot. I am adjusting well I guess.

I want to close with a cool story. In this area we have A LOT of less active members. We are currently working with a man who has a desire to go back to the temple. Glen is having some problems though. He has started to smoke again. We met with him yesterday and talked about the things we can do to help him. He expressed that he wants us to continue to check up on him and he said anytime he had a desire to smoke he would call us. As we were leaving our meeting, he saw that I was wearing 3 rings. My CTR ring and 2 rings from home. He asked me if I liked rings and I told him that I love them. He said to sit down and wait. He came back and measured one of my fingers and walked away. He came back 3 minutes later with a ring that he made me out of a spoon. He was so excited to give me it. I put it on my finger and told him that I was super excited. He looked happy and I told him I would wear it every day. He said "if you wear that ring everyday, I will stop smoking". I told him he had a deal.

The members here are generous and love to help. They love missionaries and love to help us in anything we do. I am thankful for the chance I have to serve here.
Well, I love y'all and will talk to you soon:)

Love,
Sister Gray

PICTURES:
What an ant bite looks like after 1 week ( I have about 30 more on my torso....dont freak mom, they are just bites!)
Free ice cream day at dairy queen
Matching comp shirts
Best zone ever
Me and Sister Bowes:) we found "y'all need Jesus" shirts and couldn't resist
Glens ring