Rawlins Letter #5

Sunrise Party on P-day!

Me and Sister Waite

The beautiful Wyoming landscape

Enjoying the sunrise

A quote from Relief Society I really like...

Working to fill sandbags in Saratoga

Preparing for the flood

We haven't been able to meet with R and S again yet. Simply due to scheduling conflicts. They invited us blowing though, haha! We explained to them that's not really what we do while we're on our missions. They are really cool, though, and hopefully we'll meet with them soon.

Wednesday morning we got a call requesting that we go to Saratoga as soon as possible to help with some flooding down there. We spent 7 hours straight filling sandbags and then went back the next day to help out again. Exhausting, but rewarding work. It was really neat working alongside inmates from up north, other members of the church, missionaries, Saratoga residents, and several Wyoming National Guard members. I wish bad things (like flooding) didn't happen, but I love seeing people all working together regardless of who you are, where you're from, or what you believe. We really enjoyed the opportunity to help out.

We helped out a less active member with some gardening when we saw her outside working. She is a delightful and interesting person to visit. We shared an Ensign article with her last time we visited with her that she read! How exciting. She also really likes Alphonse Mucha and, when I said he is one of my favorite artists, she gave me a few amazing pictures of his!!! They are already up on my wall. 

People continue to spoil us here and I just love the people we visit more and more (not because of the spoiling, but because they are so down to earth). Just great people out here. We had two really cool lessons with referrals that we invited the members to invite into their home. That makes such a big difference. We have 5 new investigators for this week alone thanks to the Spirit and member support - we couldn't do it without them.

So, while reading the Book of Mormon I recently discovered a new meaning to 1 Nephi 2:4. It says that Lehi and his family "departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents". This told me that the three most important things in the world (other than the Gospel, of course) are family, food, and camping. So make sure to prioritize those things ;)

This morning Sister Waite and I got up super early. We woke up the other sisters, told them to put on warm clothes, and to get into the truck as soon as possible. We drove out to this really cool spot to watch the sunrise and we supplied breakfast. It was delightful and Wyoming is soooooo pretty.  So much open space. It's peaceful and beautiful.

Love you all!!! Hope you have a great week.

Sister Rashauna Hoer