We got the job!

Hello everyone! Hope you're all swell today. So it's was the last week of the transfers so you guessed it transfer calls were this morning! Drum roll please....*distant drumming* ME AND DEUEL ARE IN! So that means I'll be sending deuel home after these next six weeks 💔 nooooo. At the end of this transfer we will have been together a total of nine months together. Half our missions people! Good thing I like her ;) 

Well some exciting stuff happened this week people! First off our investigator Jessica got a job at forever 21! Whoo hoo! We helped her fill out some paperwork this morning and she's all set to go. She even has Sundays off 😭💕 miracles. Secondly we got three new asl missionaries to our branch this week. One is in our mission and he seems pretty cool, pretty tired after the MTC but aren't we all? We have another deaf one in the north mission and a third who is training English. The next generation of ASL missionaries are here and it's super weird..... 

So Jessica brought up a few concerns this week about being nervous and also had a huge problem with Halloween and no matter what we said she didn't seem to understand. But then yesterday after stake conference we pulled a recent convert into our lesson and it was seriously the best lesson ever. He was able to share his conversion story and helped Jess solve ALL her concerns. And at the end of the lesson she was talking about her journey with the missionaries and started saying how she is looking for the truth but as she kept talking she was basically teaching herself and helped herself realize she found the truth! Like what?! She just solved her own concern. Crazy I know. She's still nervous for baptism because she's never done it before but it's understandable. She's still going strong! Thanks for your prayers everyone. Members are the key and my testimony of fasting certainly has grown stronger. Also another crazy story with her is that on Sunday she was coming to church but when she got to the train station the trains were closed due to a bomb going off in Manhattan but she was determined to come to stake conference so she WALKED (at least till she found a running subway), let me just say our strongest members didn't even come to stake conference....gosh she's a champion. 

As you heard it was stake conference this week and it was amazing. The Manhattan stake is the best stake ever. Mostly because their stake choir is all Juilliard students but it was just an overall amazing meeting. The theme was "Things that matter most" and it was just cool to see all the different topics that were spoken about. They had so many testimonies and the spirit was wonderful. And we had two investigators there so that was the cherry on top of it all. :) I'm sad another transfer is over but this next transfer will be a good one, I'll be sure to make Deuels last one the best one ;) haha. Well that's all for now till next week! Love and miss you all so much ❤️ 

Love, Sister Seay 

How did we get in Brazil?

Hello friends and family! ❤️ 

Alright so last week was Labor Day and our district was invited to participate in the Labor Day parade on a Jesus float so we could pass out our cards and pamphlets. Little did we know that it was much of a bigger event than we anticipated. It was seriously like carnival in Brazil. They had crazy costumes and everything. Pretty sure me and sister Deuel were the only two white girls in the entire parade. Our district was able to contact over 1000 people though and we got some amazing memories out of it. 

We've been seeing Jess almost everyday and she's grown so much. We've also been helping her find a job so hopefully we hears back from a few people this week. She's so cute though because she specifically asked for Sunday's off and talks about her baptism all the time. Jess is stronger than our members most of the time, in fact she told us a story about how one of her member friends was saying bad things about the church and she told them they need to shape up and help themselves. She didn't come to church yesterday though because she's been really sick and is going to the doctor today, keep her in your prayers please. We hope she gets better soon. 

This week we've seen our investigators do some amazing things. We found out one of our investigators shared the Book of Mormon on Facebook and has family members and friends that want to learn more about it! Miracles! Another one of our new investigators started reading the Book of Mormon 2 minutes after we finished our lesson and texted us saying how wonderful it is. Holy cow! Beyond blessed. 

Also we had exchanges with the sister training leaders and zone training meeting. Both were good, nothing crazy to report. We get a new ASL elder today and I'm stoked! Then the two new sisters enter the MTC in 4 weeks. Can you tell I'm excited? 

Yesterday I was able to speak in church (which still freaks me out by the way) and it was really special because it was 9/11 yesterday. Being able to serve here in New York City and hearing the people's experiences with it truly helps me understand what truly happened on that day. It's amazing to see that even though it was one of the darkest days our nation has seen we were all brought together in faith and hope. Heavenly fathers plan of salvation is so important to teach to the world, especially because we no that no goodbye is forever. I love this gospel and I love New York. Have a great week everyone! ❤️ love you all :) 

Love, Sister Seay 

My ongoing bad luck with cars...

Hey everyone! This week was pretty good some unfortunate things happened but oh well! Good memories right? Today we're going to a Labor Day parade to be in a Christian float and pass out restoration pamphlets and stuff. I will have to tell you all how it goes next week. We're headed out right now.

Well on Tuesday we were walking out to our car for district meeting and we walked up and we saw glass all over the seat and it turns out someone broke into our car!!! Ugh. They stole our GPS and all our CD, honestly I'm mostly mad about our CDs haha I hope they enjoy those Jeffery R. holland talks because right now they really need Jesus. Thankfully by some miracle I had our mission credit card in my bag so they weren't able to get ahold of that, honestly we have the worst car to break into haha all we have is book of Mormons and apples to apples in our car! But oh well that just adds my total of six tickets, two tows, and one robbery. And that's only from the mission people, let's not even bring up pre-mission bad luck with cars. We all know I have TERRIBLE luck with cars haha.  I hate this demon city car. We also got a parking ticket the next day, honestly I think these cops personally attack the church vehicles..... I'm about to beg president Reynolds to take this car off our hands hahaha

Our Investigator Jessica is fabulous! She's now preparing for baptism on October 8th so her grandma from the Dominican Republic can be here to watch it :) but she's a champion. Even if my day is awful she is my saving grace and brightens my day. We reviewed the restoration with her just to make sure she really understood and she did and also remembered her primary days when her grandparents would take her to church and color pictures of President Hinkley. It just goes to show how much kids remember, so teach your children! Have family home evening, family scripture study and prayer, etc! It's so important. We also taught her tithing yesterday and she was hesitant at first to pay it but one of our members helped her and by the end she saw it as a huge blessing and privilege to pay tithing. Another lesson I've learned here on my mission is that members truly are the key to missionary work, we can't do it without them and they can't do it without us. We were made to work hand in hand.

Crazy New York story of the week! We were going to go teach with one of our members and there was a bomb threat on the train! First time that's ever happened, it was so weird how everyone was so calm about it. I don't know about you but I would have been a little more panicked if a train conductor came in and asked if we've seen a bag with wires coming out of it ha it was just a false alarm and couldn't even find a bag. But super crazy right?!

That's about it for the week, nothing super exciting happened but all in all I still love New York, the people, and being a missionary. Me and sister Deuel also had our one year companion anniversary haha on September 1st we became companions for the first time. So tender. So now I need to get spiritual (because I swear I'm never spiritual in my weeklys) and share something with you from my studies...

🔹Alma 36🔹

Alma the younger was sharing his conversion story with his son Helaman and he went from THIS,

14"..that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror"

To THIS,

28"And I know that he will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; yea, and I will praise him forever"

How in the world brought this change? From fearing the very thought of seeing God and pains of a dammed soul to a firm knowledge he would live with God in glory. It's simple, the atonement of Jesus Christ. Alma had truly experienced the atonement and once he had this experience he "was filled with joy as exceeding my pains" and "could remember his sins no more". How amazing it truly is to have the atonement and knowledge that Christ loves us so much he was willing to experience everything so that we can have everlasting joy, which in return when Christ sees our happiness it gives him everlasting happiness.

This is our purpose as missionaries, to help people access the atonement and learn how to apply it. For I want to be like Alma in saying "I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste...." We know this gospel and we know the blessings
and joy it gives us everyday so why not share it? Yes I know we're all not full time missionaries but we're all member missionaries at any age. Try and seek opportunities to share the gospel and pray for opportunities! I know it's true and this gospel is true. I love and miss you all :) I'll talk to you all next week!

Love, Sister Seay