My cute Cristian, growing up. I asked him if we could take a picture and he said, in a very suave voice "con gusto". Too funny.
This is my posterity, my hija, and her hija. They are too cute.
Elba and Karina.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
email 9.22.14
This week has been insane. In the best way, por supuesto. But just out of control all at the same time.
I am not even sure where to start. So first of all we are having a baptism this Friday
or Maria, Keyla, and Ester, and they are just progressing like crazy.
They are so excited for their baptism, loving church, and eating up
every lesson. It is just fun. They are such sweet girls and we are so
so so happy for them.
We have a cute pregnant
investigator, Cinthia, and her nine year old daughter, Nicole, who are
just awesome. Cinthia is super cute, but opinionated, sassy, strong,
you know, my kind of person, and just gets it. They had missed a couple
weeks of church, so we taught them about the Sabbath day, and bam there
they were Sunday.
We
met a serious, black, Dominican man, named Nino this week when we were
looking for a former that I taught last year. He is super intelligent,
and we teach him one principal, and hes like ohh yes that makes sense.
He came to church this week and afterwards he said "that was really
positive, and I will be coming next week". He is sweet.
The
cute branch here is doing so well, they are all just started to get
excited, and starting to figure it out. We even meet in the chapel
now. It is just so fun to see all of my gente and to see how they have
progressed over time. The Chavez family is doing wonderful, I just get
emotional thinking about them. My cute cute cute people.
So the area is rocks.
So now for the Richmond Adventures. First on Wednesday
we had sisters meeting, with all the sisters in the mission. It is
always the best meeting, because we get to talk about feelings and also
eat salad together. Me and Hermana Rosen trained on Faith and Esther.
It was a real tear jerker. We taught about "self talk", and having
faith in God and faith in our potential as divine daughters of him. It
is just so important to me that ever sister understands her worth, and
how much our father in Heaven loves them. So this self talk thing is
cool. What you do it you read your patriarchal blessings and create a
list of "I am statements", por ejemplo, "I am patient". So then you
make a list of 5-8 I am statements. Then everyday you make small goals
of how you can be each of those things, and as you act, those I am
statements literally become who you are. It is sweet. Anyways the
meeting was awesome, and afterwards all the Sister Training Leaders went
back to presidents house to have dinner before we went out on splits
with sisters in the area. Then we stayed over the night in the mission
home because the next day we had a Sister Training Leader training
meeting. We had way way way too much fun. We got up early to play
sports with president, and just had a big sleepover, followed by another
amazing meeting the next day. We were spiritually and physically
exhausted, but happy, so that was good. Then we spent that evening in
our own area, but then Friday
we turned right back around to go to Richmond again, more specifically
Chesterfield, because our cute cute precious Elba was getting baptized!
She is a dear investigator, that Hermana Rosen and I taught together,
and I taught for the whole 6 months I was there. She had a few
challenges before she could get baptized, but she always knew it was
true, and now she gets to have the blessings. We were just thrilled,
and there were a ton of missionaries there who had all taught her, it
was a sweet experience. Our member dropped us off at the baptism, so we
spent the night again at the mission home...but on our way to the
mission home the member let us take a stop to see our cute favorite
Cristian, and Ruben! We were about in tears, and they were just as
happy to see us. We were very blessed. The next morning President and
Sister Wilson drove us back up to Harrisonburg, because they were
conducting interviews.
I just have to
talk about President and Sister Wilson for a sec. They are my heroes.
We have spent a ton of time with them recently, and I just try and soak
up every bit of advice from them that I can. Sister Wilson just does
her own thing, and President Wilson loves her to death. I really feel
like President has helped me to grow my desires to be good, to follow
the commandments, just because it is the right thing to do, and for no
other reason. He just makes me want to be better. I love and respect
them both so much. On Saturday after the interviews they took us out to dinner, and we had a wee of a time. I love them dearly.
Sunday
was awesome, like I said, everyone came to church, so we were happy.
This morning we also got the privilege to see the movie "Meet the
Mormons". It was awesome. Apparently 70% of people that watch the
movie want to talk to the missionaries. So I don't know if it is
playing at home, but get people there. It is just very informational,
really helps you see who we are, and how diverse we are, even with the
same beliefs.
I am happy here in the
Harrisonburg, really really loving it. I am just so happy to be a
missionary, so have such a great purpose, and I know that through the
Lord that I can accomplish all he wants me to. My Heavenly Father in my
best friend, and I know he will never let me down. Isn't that just
fun. I love love love you!
Besitos, Hermana Myer
email 9.15.14
Riley Jane is back to first address if you have a hankering to send her
some snail mail. Thank you all for loving this amazing girl! Have a
great week!
Hermana Myer
228-D Rocco Ave
Harrisonburg, VA 22801
There
are just so many things to say, I have no idea where to start. First
of all could not be more thrilled to be back in the Harrisonburg, with
my Hermana Rosen. Just too good to be true. Cried sitting on the pew
by myself in transfer meeting (because she had to stay up here). Mostly
just too too good.
So I guess first things
first, I got to see my cute Darlene and Yuleli! They are just cute as
ever and just ecstatic to see me, which is always fun. They have been
doing great, when they got baptized their dad was reactivated, but there
mom was a different story. She started warming up to us, but told us
that she promised God she would never go back to church, not even go in
the building, besides for her girls baptism. But a month ago Darlene
went to the temple for the first time to do baptisms with the ward, so
the whole family went along to go into the visitors center, and even
their mom went! Then the next Sunday she came to church. MIRACLE. She
didn't come for a few weeks, but she came yesterday, and we shared a
hug and a cry right there in the middle of the chapel. That is gong to
be an eternal family, and I couldn't be more thrilled. It has taken
them a while, but how blessed am I to be able to be here again with them
to help them get to the temple. God is just too good to me.
I
got to see my cute Flor (favorite member whose childbirth I witnessed)
and she has been having a rough past year. I was devastated because
they moved earlier in the year to Texas and some sketchy things where
happening, and they had to some back to Harrisonburg because her husband
had to go to jail here for a few months. So that was really sad. But
she was also so happy to see me and we had an awesome lesson with her,
and she just gets it. She has not lost her testimony through all of the
hardest times. And the kids are as cute as ever, and Genesis is huge!
Just darling. She is just so fuerte and such a good example.
The
branch is doing great, it is growing, and they even meet in the Chapel
now. They are just so cute. I am just so excited to be back and
actually speak Spanish now, and I know that there are a ton of reasons
why I am here.
As for being a Sister training
leader, it seems pretty much the same! We are over 4 sets of sisters
who we do exchanges with each 1 time a transfer. So not too much
English work! Hurray! But we are here to help them be better, set
visions for them and their areas, and mostly just love them. We have
another set of hermanas in the ward, my bff from the CCM, Hermana
Wilkins, so that is fun. I don't really know the other sisters, so I am
excited. Mostly we just are supposed to be good examples and love
them, and teach them! This week we have a training meeting in Richmond
so I will get more of an idea.
As for
being with Hermana Rosen it has been amazing. The first night we got
together we talked forever and we are both just at the best time in our
missions to do work and to have faith. We are teaching a lady named
Maria and her two cute daughters Keyla and Ester. Last week, when I got
here, they where not feeling sure about getting baptized, saying they
were going to go back to the Catholic church etc...but that first night
Hermana Rosen and I talked about having faith in God that he can work
through he and just making him our best friend through prayer...and then
we just worked like crazy. They all had their little hold ups, but
after much fasting and prayer and talking, they all knew it was they
needed to and wanted to do. We saw them last night after church and
they all three committed to be baptized on September 26th.
It was a miracle. I just saw God working so hard, and us trying
everything we could, and it worked. Faith is real. He listens to us.
He loves us, and he is just good.
I am so so
so happy to be here, there is just so much goodness. We have been doing
a lot of contacting and talking to people, but we are not wasting time,
the people who are ready are the ones we are teaching. I know that
Heavenly Father loves us very much, he cares about us individually. My
Heavenly Father is my best friend, and I know I can trust him with my
life, and I know that when I have faith in the Savior, everything will
turn out just fine. I love love love you all so much! Have the best
week!
Besitos, Hermana Myer
email 9.8.14
Well I am sad to report and I leaving my cute hija,
it was a day of tears that is for sure. We have some really good work
going on up here in the woodhood. I am leaving, and becoming a sister
training leaders, and she is staying here and training! A little loco,
but it should be good. Mostly Hermana Collins is really nervous, but
she is going to be great! Hurray!
Last p-day
we found the only Jamba Juice in Virginia for Hermana Collins, Me and
the STLs surprised her. It is on the Marine base. We were very sneaky,
and she cried. So fun.
This week the work
slowed down a little bit. For whatever reason we didn't see all of our
progressing investigators until the weekend...so that was hard. BUT we
had some really really great lessons when we did see them!
We
saw our cute Hernandez family who have come to church a few times, but
are just still on the fence about really committing. We taught them
some of the commandments and they willingly accepted to live them. They
really are so great, just still a little unsure. They have a baptism
date for two weeks, pray for them. I had the opportunity to bare my
testimony to them, like the whole thing. I just felt right and like
what they needed to hear. It was kind of surreal, when I was talking it
just didn't seem like I was saying the words, it was almost like I was
listening to myself too, and top it off in Spanish. It was just cool. I
felt the spirit working directly through me. Fun.
We
had a super fun lesson with our ninos, noelia and Amilcar. They are
still coming to church a reading and all that jazz, but are lacking
support from their parents...We had a lessons about using the
scriptures, church, and prayer to conquer our doubts. So clearly we
filled up waterballoons with paint and water and pinned them to a foam
board and labeled them our doubts...and then we labeled darts with the
scriptures, church and prayer, and then we popped our doubts with the
darts. It was too fun. I love teaching kids, they are humble and happy
to learn. They are my favorite.
On Friday
night Mishel came out with us again. She just started community college
so she has been pretty busy and not able to come out with us, but
finally we found a time. She told us that she had been having a hard
week and was feeling a little depressed, and by the end of the night she
was just happy. Sharing the gospel makes us happy. That is real.
And how could anyone not be happy after a great lesson with Hector! He
is a real gem, I will attach a picture. He tried to give me a besito
when I said goodbye, but I intervened real quick. Too good.
Anyways
we spent some time saying goodbye to our favorite people, some tears
were shed, but I can rest easy knowing I am leaving Hermana Collins
here. She is the BEST!
ALSO we had zone
meeting and they told us that the week of the 27th the whole mission is
going to read the Book of Mormon all week. We will do normal studies,
and if we have any super super solid appointment we can leave to go to
those, but other than that everyone is just going to read the whole Book
of Mormon. We are super excited!
I love being a missionary. I love this gospel so much. I love being happy. Keep sharing the gospel. Love love love you!
xoxo Hermana Riley Jane
Gems
email 9.2.14
This week has been awesome. Por supuesto. Every week is the best week, really.
We
have some really awesome investigators right now, so we have turned our
focus to really caring for them. I mean we always really care for
them, but we are just so busy that there is not time for door knocking
or anything.
We have our two cute ninos that we have been teaching,
Noelia y Amilcar, who are just awesome. They come to church every week
and every baptism, and they love everything. They are just still not
feeling ready. We decided to have a really in depth study of the
scriptures with them, because we know that the Book of Mormon really is
the only thing that will convince them. So we did what we call a large
plate/small plate study. So you get a question and write it at the top
of the page...then you make two columns, one for the facts/story and one
for what you learn from the spirit. Then you read, essentially
anywhere in the LDM, and then you get answers. It is unreal. Everyone
needs to try it. The spirit was so strong, and I was even getting
personal revelation like crazy. It really is a personal study thing,
but we were just there guiding them, and studying ourselves. But moral
of the story is, the Book of Mormon answers our questions, and kind, and
its true. Pray for our cute kids, they are almost there!
On Wednesday we did an exchange with the Sister
Training Leaders, one of whom is my BFF from Harrisonburg, Sister
Seegmiller, so we had the time of our lives. She doesn't speak Spanish,
so it was an adventure for all of us. We did teach a lesson to the
children of the Hernandez family, who we have been working with, in
English so that was good. We needed to get them up to speed because
they understand way better in English. We also got our cute retuning
less active youth, Steven to come with us, and it was just good all
around. Sister Seegmiller is a really patient and simple teacher. She
is just so good, and so happy. I love serving around her, she just puts
others first and helps me be a better missionary. I am thinking life
long friends with that gem. Speaking of gems, not sure if you guys are
aware, but the scriptures refer to Joseph and Hyrum Smith as "gems for
the sanctified" DC 135:6, feast your eyes on that.
So we have this really hilarious investigator named
Hector, who is just the light of our lives right now, he never ceases to
amaze us, a real gem. We have been teaching him at our of our fuerte
members home every time. They are both older men, so its a little new
for us, but he is super interested and super excited always. So on
Friday night we get to the members house and he wasn't there, and Hector
was walking out and was like well hey Hermanas, I read the Libro de
Mormon, so we still have to meet without Jose! And we were like YES.
And then he mentioned it was Friday night, so we should probably go have
the lesson at Taco Bell, because you know we should go out...so that
was too good. He did all his reading about getting baptized and was
like okay "I am going to be baptized, but not on Sunday when I come to
church" we had to reassure him a few times that we weren't actually
just going to push him in the font if he came in the building...and
everything ended up going well. He loved church! Hurray! Also almost
every day since we have met him we see him riding his bike, just all
over town, and he is just always so happy to see us. He said he is
going to cry when we leave...so that will be hard because transfers
calls are on Saturday, and I think one of us is out...because we are
getting 7 new Hermanas! Anywho, church was great.
Virginia is filled with gems, and they mostly just
speak Spanish, but it is okay, one day you will meet them all! Mostly I
am just so grateful to be a missionary, I am learning so much,
especially about becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ and what that
really means. I have been studying about becoming pure in heart and
what that really means. I am still working on it, working on giving it
all over to the Lord. Still a work in progress, but I am happy. I love
love love being a missionary!
Love love love you all!
xoxo mana myer
ps Felicitaciones Luke! I really cant believe you drive. that is nuts. but fun!
also
check out this pictures of my basil plant, Hermana Collins is a tad bit
Jealous because mine are taller than hers...and yes she was crawling
across the table to attack me. Sometimes studies get long...
Fiesta Espiritual
Also we made pupusas with the familia Hernandez. This is Evelin, the mom, and Stefani, the daughter. SO CUTE.
My mana Heibert, she was at the zone conference with Elder Anderson :)
email 8.25.14
This week has been awesome. Seriously so unreal. I had no idea
that we could use our time so efficiently. I thought we were goners
this week for teaching lessons and such because we had two long
meetings, one in Richmond, but we killed it. And It was so much fun.
And we had a trillion "fiestas espiruituals", seriously people have been
saying that all week. So fun. I love being Hispanic.
So we started out the week with my FAVORITE meeting
ever, which is of coarse Spanish forum. We get to see all of our people
there, and talk about Spanish work and sing together real loud, and it
is always the most spiritual. I trained this time about helping new
members and recent converts get to the temple. Favorite subject
really. Then my cute mana Rosen trained about just having better
lessons, and a lot of other gem things about being a missionary and
trying to be better, and we had some good laughs and some good tears on
that one. She has just been such a good example to me, I have learned
so much from her and I am so grateful we ended up here together on the
Mission trip. I just left that meeting feeling revived and ready to get
back to work.
During the week we taught a zillion and a half
lessons. We have been so busy and the best kind of busy, the really
productive kind. Since our area is humongous now that the elders lost
their car, we only have time to teach people that are super prepared and
progressing. It is all very uplifting. We also had a member invite
his friend over to have the charlas in his house and asked us to come,
so that was sweet. The guys name is Hector and he was freaking out he
was so excited about the Restoration and the Prophet and got down on his
knees right there after we talked about the first vision and prayed
about Joseph Smith. We were like oh yeah yes lets do that, good idea.
It was rich.
Also we had another prayer miracle this week. I love these they are just so good. So we got home one night like riiiiight at 9:30
so we are hurrying in and then turns out the door to get into our
building is broken, someone had twisted the lock so the key didn't work,
so we start to panic a little because we have not phone number to call,
its past office hours...you know. So clearly we decide to pray, and
then nothing happened. So then we just thought that we should start
banging on the door, and then about one second later our cute Hispanic
neighbor pops right out and opens it up for us. It was a milagro.
On Saturday Elder Anderson of the seventy and his wife
came to talk to us, and that was another fiesta spiritual. They were so
great. They talked to us a lot about faith, how to grow it, what to do
with it. Elder Anderson said one thing that reminded me of Dad, he
said that we grow our faith when we keep commandments. He also talked
to us about communing with the Spirit, and how it is another language,
and we need to really study and pray and learn that language, because it
is vital. We are so lucky to be missionaries and receive all kinds of
direction and guidance from General Authorities.
Sunday was just another treat. First of all our cute
family, the Hernandez family, came to church again! We were just so
happy. And as a little surprise President and Sister Wilson came too!
They spoke in Sacrament meeting, then had a meeting with all the Youth,
and then we had combined Relief Society and Priesthood. It was so fun.
They talked about the restoration and of coarse missionary work. We
even did role plays with all the members to help them practice talking
to people. It was just too much fun.
We are so blessed, and happy, and tired from all of the
spiritual parties we have been attending. But it is just the best! I
love you all. Have the best week. Talk to strangers and tell them to
come to church, or even better yet people you already know. Wouldn't
that just be fun? Love love love you all!
besitos, Hermana Riley Jane
email 8.18.14
Mi Familia!
As always this week was very
eventful. I love being a missionary. We just have so many
adventures. Very rarely do things work out the way we think/want, but
it is always SO GOOD.
So we started out the week with an awesome Zone
Workshop. Mostly just trainings and such. But one that was
particularly cool was about working with the Ward leaders, and how we
can do that better. We have such a unique opportunity right now to be
learning all about what kind of leaders we need to be, what our
responsibilities will be, and of coarse helping the leaders that we work
with be the very best! That was good. After the meeting we had a
little exchange with the other hermanas because we were passing an
investigator off to them. They have been having problems with their car
not starting and after we were done with our lesson we had to go save
our cute companions. So we get there, and we decide we need to jump the
car, but then we realize that we all don't really know exactly how to
do it, so we call a member. Cesar comes with his little brother
Emmanuel to help us, well to teach us how to jump the car. So its not
working and we have been there for a good 40 mins, when we FINALLY
decide to pray...DUH. So Cesar is working on the car and us
missionaries and Emmanuel decide to huddle up and say a prayer, and
after we said "Dear Heavenly Father" the car started. After the prayer
Emmanuel was like hey we didn't even need to pray! So we took that
little teaching opportunity, and learned a lesson ourselves as well.
Prayer is real, always use it, silly missionaries.
Also Tuesday night we had an awesome lesson with our
family investigators about the Temple and Eternal Marriage, and it was
just the happiest. I just love that really that is what our goal is
here as missionaries, not just to baptize people but help them have an
eternal family, and inherit all the blessings of the celestial kingdom.
And also I want all my cute Hispanics to be with me up there, so that's
why we gotta work hard to help them. There are just so many blessings
to be shared.
Our cute investigator Veronica told us this week
that she is going to be baptized. She has not been able to come to
church yet because her parents don't let her leave the house (we are
working on them), but she just bore her testimony to how happy she is
with all the things that we have been teaching her, and she wants it so
bad. That was a good day.
We found some new investigators this week, a
Guatemalan family. After the lesson I was saying that one day I have to
go to Guatemala, to see my people...you know...and then the mom started
freaking out and got super excited...and said oh well you just need to
marry a Guatemalan, and he can take you there...IN FACT here you should
marry my son (19 year old boy sitting in the room), he would love that,
then you two can go to Guatemala together. So that was fun, second
marriage proposal...but this time from the mother! COOL.
Our best friend in the ward, Mishel wanted to make
us lunch this week and she was so excited planning this big
surprise...and when we got there she was making pancakes. She was just
so happy as to how American she had become in the last four years that
she even knows how to make pancakes. She is a real gem. Then of coarse
we spent the hour answering all her questions about going on a mission,
she turns 19 in January and is SO excited. Best.
Also I don't know if I talked about Jhonny last
week, but we met with him two more times this week, and is was awesome.
He is the one who has been mixed up in all kinds of trouble in his
life, in and out of jail, ect...and he just wants to change so bad. It
is definitely a process, but the atonement is real, and he wants it. I
have been so grateful for my new way of looking at people, being able to
see them the way God sees them, every single human has the potential to
be good. We are all Children of God, and we can all make it back. I
love being a missionary.
Yesterday was of coarse filled of Milagros we met 4
super super super prepared people. YES. One of them, Rudy was asking
us about what he has to do before he can get baptized, then our member
started on a rant about the Word of Wisdom, and I was freaking out a
little inside...but then he was like oh what a coincidence, I just
decided to stop drinking coffee because I think it is bad for my
health...and we were like yeah no, not a coincidence! We met a guy
named Lazaro, we taught him on his doorstep...and then we gave him a
pamphlet to read, and he was like oh okay I will read it, but I am going
to have all my questions ready, and we were like oh okay. YES.
Anyways, the mission life is just the best. I love
it. God blesses us every single second. Mostly it is just good to be
alive. Love you all!
Besitos, Hermana Myer
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