All The Way to Raleigh: Hello Holly Springs!

Well, I'm in Holly Springs/Swift Creek now! My address (for any of y'all that randomly want to write me

) is 1133 Vine St, Holly Springs NC 27540. I cover two wards and my companion is the lovely Sister Wall! She was trained in D2 when I was still in D1, so we were in the same district for 2 transfers. She left D2 when I came in, so it's been fun to talk about the people we both taught and how they're doing. Also, fun story! Sister Wall's first exchange was with me! Her first transfer, my companion was the sister training leader so we went on exchanges! Now we are companions and both sister training leaders! This is going to be such a good transfer!

My first week here has been so amazing! There are so many wonderful. prepared people here!

Person #1: Chad. OH MY GOODNESS HE IS AMAZING!! So, Chad is the boss of one of our (teenage) members. She felt prompted to invite him to church a few weeks ago and he actually came!! We were able to teach him in their home this week and it was so powerful. The lesson on Sunday when he was there was about the temple and he had some questions. He has had some family members pass away fairly recently and is interested in family history. We taught him the Restoration and he totally accepted it. He didn't want to set a baptismal date right then, but he texted us a couple days later asking for scriptures about baptism because he wanted to learn more. How cool is that?!?! Members are the best!!

Person #2: Zac. Zac was also found through a member (noticing a theme yet??) His stepbrother and sister-in-law are members. Zac is YSA age but wants to meet with us instead of the YSA elders :) We had dinner with his family this past week and before dinner he told us he had an announcement. He stands up and says "I have decided I want to get baptized" and sits down. !!!!!!! What? He is so great! He is already thinking about going on a mission and what he would have to do to get there!! He is going to South Carolina for a week or so, but he is going to get baptized when he gets back.

Person #3: Travis. Travis is a little different, he just got baptized on Saturday. Well, rebaptized. He got excommunicated a couple years ago and the missionaries were meeting with him as he tried to come back. His baptism was so special! It was so powerful to see how far he has come. Even though the first time I met him was at his baptism, I felt how strong his testimony is. I am so grateful for the Atonement and the gift f repentance. Travis' road to baptism has been long and very rocky, but the Savior was by his side every single step of the way.

If the people weren't enough, NC decided that my first week in Holly Springs needed snow :) We only got maybe 2 inches of snow, but everything shut down. To all of y'all who think that's ridiculous, it's not. It gets so icy here when it snows and no one can get anywhere. NC drivers are crazy to begin with, and adding snow just makes it worse. Then it warms up just enough to start melting and then it freezes. The roads end up covered in ice and it makes tracting an adventure :) That's why this email is a day late, we weren't able to drive until this morning. Weirdly enough, the roads were dry yesterday....except of course the parking lot right around our car. We did a lot of walking this past week. The neighborhood right by us apparently was complaining on Facebook that we were waking babies up, but we're going to keep tracting there. We just might stop ringing doorbells :)

Something I have seen here more than I thought I would is how incredibly hard some people's lives are. I think I have met more people here in the past week that are facing awful tragedies than I ever did in Durham. So many people are dealing with things I have never even dreamed of, but they are still so strong. That is the power of the Atonement. Because of Jesus Christ, they can still find peace and happiness. I am so lucky to be able to teach people how to find the comfort they are looking for!

Love y'all

Sister Pyper

Bye Sister Ruske, Hello Sister Wall

Awwww, look how cute!! I'll miss my 'daughter' but I know she will be just fine :) D2 is in good hands with this one <3

LOOK! I get to be with Sister Wall now!!

Tracting in a Winter Wonderland

Yep! We went out tracting in this! We couldn't drive so we spent this whole weekend tracting places we could walk to. Only one fall (Sister Wall) and a few slides (me), overall not too bad

Ice, Ice, Baby

Yep, those are icicles hanging from a bush. That's what most of our neighborhood looked like this weekend. This was the worst of it, but pretty much everything was coated in ice.

Guess what? I got saved this week :)