Happy Turkey Week!

email 11.25.13

Mi Familia-

Estoy aqui, en Harrisonburg todavia, este semana era bien loco!  

Just thought I would remind you all that I love spanish.  Because I really really do!  It is just the most fun.  This week was nuts, as usual, but the very very best.  

For Thanksgiving we are going to a members house, at 7...she wont let us bring anything, but it should be a good time.  It is Hermana Delfin, she has the three Daughters, one of them is Sandy!  They are the best!  And all us missionaries (6) get to go together, so it should be good.  I am excited for your box!  

As far as Christmas goes, I don't know...my camera is braking, just my little one.  But other than that maybe a heated blanket?  I am freezing always!  or maybe just stamps.  Also just letters.  Also I lost my black bow and I am so sad, so if you could make me a new one.  It was not the one that you sewed, it was a big one with ribbon on a barrette.  Also maybe razor heads.  But mostly just to talk to you will be the best.  

I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT THE BABY!  HURRAY FOR BOYS! 

I will take a picture for you and send it to you this week!  

I have the best news ever!  Flor had her baby, she came early.  On Wednesday we got a call from Jose, her husband, he said that she was going to have an emergency C-section, but he was actually just getting in the car to drive home from Texas.  So he asked us if we would go over there and distract her while she waited.  So we did all kinds of fun things, and then she asked me to go in with her!  It was nuts...I saw all her organs and the baby as he just pulled her out.  It was crazy.  Mostly I was just holding Flors hands and we were both bawling and it was the neatest experience.  I kept thinking about how Dad always talks about how close to the veil you are when a baby is born, it was amazing.  And Flor told me that I am her mom too now because I was there when she was born, so that was probably the happiest moment of my life.  The baby's name is Genesis, and she is perfect.  

More good news.  We found this new investigator on Saturday, named Miguel.  He just moved in with some of our cute cuban investigators, and so naturally we started sharing the good word with him.  I think he might be golden,  He is 19 years old, has been here for 7 months and is just so funny.  We met him Saturday morning, taught him the first lesson, he gave us a referral, he came to our Thanksgiving activity that night, stayed late to clean up, came to church, accepted a baptismal date, and then to top it all off he came with us to visit Flor last night because, "the Pastor said we need to visit the lady who just had a baby, so when can we go?".  He is just this funny little guy, and a miracle, so pray for us!  

ALSO THE BEST NEWS EVER!  President called last night, and we get to have lunch on Wednesday with Grandma and Grandpa!  I am so excited!  I will fill you in on what happens!  

Mom, I am glad you are wearing my Jacket, it is a really good one.  Thank you for you love and support.  Thank you for your testimonies.  I love you all very much.  I hope you guys have fun this week.  I want pictures next week of all the festivities!  I love love love you!

xoxo Hermana Myer

email 11.18.13

subject: Gordita

Mi Familia!

HURRAY for staying in Harrisonburg!  I am so happy!  Mostly because I get to see Flor's baby and also all my cute investigators and also Christmas! Also someone tell Grandma and Grandpa to come and see me!   

This week we have been all over the place!  But it is always good to shake up the environment a little, not that I dont love Harrisonburg, because I do, but you know.  

We had another meeting down in Richmond that was just for Spanish speaking missionaries, it was the best!  I got to see all my cute missionary friends and we all talked about our feelings openly, and we understood.  Like how it feels when one of your investigators calls you a gordita...and how you just smile and give them a big hug after instead of crying later when you get home.  Essentially a gordita means "littly fatty", but in the hispanic culture it is endearing, and not rude, and every singly one of us Hermanas had been called a gordita, so we bonded.  It was the best.  We also got some good advice on finding and how to sneakly eat less food, just the basics of the spanish program.  

We had stake conference this weekend and all of us missionaries went down to Waynesboro for the Audult session to sing Called to Serve as a special musical number.  President Wilson and Sister Wilson spoke and the whole meeting was about missionary work.  How fun!  I love being a missionary, it is the very best ever.  I am just hoping that everyone is starting to catch the vision.  What is it like you your neck of the woods?  We are still working to get members motivated...any new ideas to try?  It was an awesome meeting.  Sister Wilson is one of my favorite humans on the planet, she just got up and said it like it was, called them to repentance a little, and told them to start finding!  

I have been thinking this past week about what it means to be a "successful missionary"  and I have come to a conclusion, the only thing that really matters is love.  If I can honestly say I love everyone I meet/talk to/teach/whatever, I will be a successful missionary.  Baptisms are not everything.  I mean yes, when a soul joins the ranks, that is amazing, but there is so much more to this work!  

We told one of our investigators, Henry, that we were getting transfer calls and we might be leaving.  He was really scared that we would go and he wanted to take us out to eat.  We went to this really yummy mexican restaurant and had a lovely time.  Also we taught him the plan of salvation over some flan, it was the best.  When people start to understand why this is different, there is just a change in their eyes.  The good news is neither of us got transferred so we get to keep teaching him!  

Being a missionary is the best of times.  I love you all very very much!  Thank you for your love and support.  And don't forget to be missionaries too!  I love love love you!

con amor, Hermana Myer

the seed will grow!

It's beautiful here!

Tree of Life!

Me and my sweet Darlin.

Rita, Vladamir, Elder Gonzales

Cute sister Segmiller and our matching water bottles!

Our investigator Juan, he is always freezing, but we have to teach him outside always because there is not another woman.

email 11.12.13

Mi familia!  

As always this week has been crazy, but full of the best things ever!  

The week started out with the best district/zone meeting EVER.  We have the best leaders in the whole wide mission.  There were three different rooms, and we all rotated through and listened to the different lessons, and then ended with a testimony meeting.  Their goal was a faith building/atonement understanding boost, I guess, and boy did it work.  I have been learning what it means to really change, what it really means to accept the atonement.  We had an object lesson about the atonement.  We all had these weigh type things and one of the elders came around and asked us to give him our weights.  I gave mine away pretty willingly, but watching him sweat and shake as he took everybodys weights really got to me.  For a moment I felt bad, that I do that to the savior, but then I realized that really I should feel bad if I dont use the atonement, because he already suffered, so really I show my gratitude/respect/love for him, by using the gift he already gave me.  best.  We talked about replacing fear with faith, because the two cannot co-exist.  And about how we can openly give of our love the every one we meet.  It was the best.  

We started teaching this cuban couple (a referral from luis y merta), and they are the funniest ever.  Vladmir has a ginormous mustache, and is just this nice smily guy.  Rita is a little nuts, and talks our ears off, but they are both so prepared!  She is obsessed with the Book of Mormon, she made us write our testimonies on the inside and sign and date it for her.  She treats it like gold. 

Our investigator Juan, who is schizophrenic, went the hospital this weekend, so that was sad.  Mostly he is just crazy, and we are not sure what we are going to do about teaching him, but we went and visited him, and as far as I am concerned we will keep visiting him.  Because he knows that the things of God are good and he wants to be better, and when we are there he is happy.  He is one of my favorites!

We also started teaching this senor named Ricardo, he is the son of one of our investigators Maria.  We met him a couple of weeks ago when we went to visit Maria, but it was really awkward because he just started confessing his love for me and wanted me to go dancing with him and also told me I was too pretty to be a nun.  Mostly it was funny, but we were going to proceed with caution with him...but we ran into him one afternoon and started talking to him and ended up teaching him a lesson.  He is not very educated, cant read or write, and just got here from mexico a couple of weeks ago.  We also told him we would help him learn to read and write!  The lessons are going great, and he has really humbled himself and is asking the Lord for help, and he is helping him!  It is the coolest to see.  

We had an epic activity on Saturday night!  We set up a tree of life/lehi dream scenario, and had the members try and make it to the tree!  We had distractions complete with donuts, movies, and games.  It was so much fun.  We were trying to help get the missionary fire going, and also strengthen the members.  It went really well, I wish more people could have been there, but Rita and Vladamir came, so that was awesome.  

Also, Mom, in answer to your question, yes I LOVE the members here.  One of my favorites is Flor.  She has been a convert for just over a year and is the cutest ever.  Her husband is Jose, and she has the cutest little boy Joshua.  She is my inspiration.  She just understands the gospel.  She has the strongest testimony and always wants to help.  She is the one who taught me how to make poupusas and tortillas and tacos.  She is also pregnant and always lets me feel her baby, and I told her to name her after me, but she said she cant because her mom wont be able to pronounce "riley jane".  So that was hilarious.  We are having a baby shower for her soon, so I will send pictures! I am sure it will be very different than the jungle theme one for Sharon, send me pictures!  

Yesterday we had the best/most inspirational meeting I have ever been to! (we did have to get up at 4 to go to Richmond, but it was worth it!)  Elder Sitati from the 70 came and talked to us.  He is awesome, he is from Kenya and he and his wife are rocks in the gospel.  We essentially broke down "our purpose" as missionaries, and applied to our real lives as well.  He taught us a new way to study the scriptures/gospel.  He had us find scriptures that explained the "how" and "why", of certain gospel principals.  It was very eye opening.  He talked alot about receiving revelation.  He said that receiving revelation is like planting a garden.  We have to first prepare the soil, we have to be trying to live a righteous life, following the commandment.  Then we plant the seed, ask a question.  Help the plant to grow, give it water and sunlight, read the scriptures, pray, go to church.  And then we have the faith that the seed will grow, every morning we check the plant and if it hasn't sprouted yet, if we haven't received the answer yet, check back tomorrow.  It will grow!    He said that the spirit is what changes us, through the power of the atonement.  The spirit is what leads us to truth, to do the good things, and we can do every good thing with Christ's help!  

The area is great!  I love being a missionary.  I think I failed to mention that is is freezing here, every day I think I am going to die, and its a different kind of cold than utah, it's really penetrating.  It is also supposed to snow this week so that should be all kinds of fun adventures.  Also I have been sleeping all through the night all week!  YAY! We have transfers next week, so I won't know what is happening for thanksgiving until after then!  I am happy!  Keep being missionaries, I love you!

con amor, Hermana Riley Jane

email 11.4.13

Mi familia-

It is always so good to hear from you!  The gospel is still true, and we are all still alive, and mostly that is what is important.  

We had another emotional week, I guess every week is probably going to be like this...I feel like life is more concentrated on my mission.  There are lots of things that I do not have to worry about, but there are a lot of things that I have to face, work on, improve...etc.  It is the best!  

Last p-day we had a zone p-day, which was the best of times.  We played capture the flag, kickball, and tag ALL day long.  We were all exhausted after, literally we were all sore the next day.  Mostly I just love to have time to run around outside, be normal for a second.  We have some really awesome missionaries here, just really good little guys.  

Halloween was good times.  We had to come in at 6, so we got all of our treats together, colored (I, Mom,  had sent her a Disney Princess coloring book in Spanish so they could have a Halloween coloring contest!), made pumpkin bread, and watched Legacy!  Hurray! We also had a visit from our district leader, which was a lovely suprise.  They brought us candy!  We have SO MUCH candy!  

On Friday Hermana Sevilla and I gave a training at zone meeting.  I was really nervous about it, but we were prepared to give it.  We talked about patience and motivation.  The few days before the training we had been having a rough time.  Things just weren't working out, we weren't getting along, just rough.  But our experiences helped us to be able to train.  It was a really neat experience.  I shared a little analogy that I came up with.  So the few days before were just weird.  We got dropped by an investigator, told we were condemned, told that God only forgives 7x70, we got chased by a dog, everything was just out of control.  We got into the car and I asked Hermana Sevilla what we should do next, and without hesitation she said "get ice cream, the only option is to get ice cream".  So we went downtown to Klines!  As I was sitting there eating my pumpkin ice cream, the sun was shinning, there were pretty flowers, and butterflies, and we were just happy.  I realized, there is always ice cream, Klines is always just down town.  The ice cream is like the savior, like his atonement.  Our lives may be crazy, but there is always goodness in the world, we just need to recognize it, seek it.  Much like the atonement, Christ is always waiting for us, all we have to do it decide that enough is enough, and we are going to drive down town, and partake of his goodness.  Life is hard, we have trials, but Christ is always good, we choose to accept his atonement.  

I have learned so much this past week, this past five months really, sometimes is makes my head hurt.  But I am so grateful to be here, to be learning, to be growing.  I love love love every thing about being a missionary.  Also I am really starting to understand spanish now, and it is the BEST!  I love my Savior, and all of you!

xoxo mana myer