We made it!

email 11.10.14

Well this week has been quite the tormento!  But life would not be quite as fun without the craziness.  Also we would not be able to learn how to rely on the Lord quite as well. 

So we did spend almost all last week in the hospital with cute hermana Rosen.  She really went through the ringer.  With her blood clotting disorder, everything got more complicated.  She saw a hundred doctors and about a thousand nurses.  We took turns staying overnight in the hospital with her, and the other one would go out with one of the other hermanas in our branch (we have 2 trios), to get some sleep and teach some lessons, the usual.  The whole ordeal was quite exhausting, but I think we all learned alot through the whole thing.  First I had a ton of time to study and think and also watch church movies, so all very conducive to learning.  I took the time to reflect on my mission, the things that I have learned, and set some firm goals for when I go home.  I did some in depth study of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  I just want so badly to be an emissary of love for the Lord to his children.  I just want to do what is right and follow my savior.  I have been so blessed to see so many people make that choice to follow their Savior and witnessed how it has changed them, and everything about their lives too.  I am grateful for this past week because it gave me so many opportunities to serve, and to show my love for my Savior by loving others.  The good news is that Hermana Rosen is doing much much better.  She just has to be careful and not lift anything at all...but she should have a full recovery.  God is good, he protects us. 

The other highlight was our cute cute cute Maggie got baptized.  That was our main focus this week, getting her all prepared for Saturday.  She is the biggest gem, she was just so prepared.  I have never met anyone to so easily accept all of the principals and commandments.  She just gets it.  We had an awesome family in the English ward that were her main fellow shippers, the Walton family.  They are just amazing.  They wanted to have all of the lessons at their house and do everything.  We had the sweetest baptismal service for her.  There were so many wonderful members willing to help out, give talks, make cookies, you know the drill.  But it really was beautiful.  She is a wonderful woman.  I am so grateful that we had the chance to teach her and help her make her way onto the path, she is just fabulous. 

Other than that I am just grateful to be a missionary this week, grateful that I still have time to help others come unto Christ, not to mention the rest of my life.  But I am happy that my mind set has changed about life, about what is important, about what I need to do, and who I need to be.  I feel like I have a clearer outlook on life.  Anywho mostly I am grateful to have the best family ever, who I know I can always rely on.  Thank you for being the best.  I love love love love love love you the most! 

besitos, Hermana Myer

busy busy busy

It was Hermana McRae's birthday!

Also my cute cute cute perfect Genesis at the Halloween Party!

email 10.27.14

This week was out of control!  And it also felt like a month long, but the good news is that we made it, and things are starting to calm down. 

So transfers were on Tuesday, and Hermana Rosen went down for a couple of days to go to the temple with the departing missionaries, so I was missing my right hand man for a few days.  I stayed up here with Sister Armstrong, and we took care of business.  Two sets of our sisters had to move, so we were running around like crazy.  Later on Tuesday night, Hermana McRae joined us (our new compy) and we continued to run around like crazy.  Wednesday we helped the sisters get settled, cleaned a disgusting used-to-be elders apartment, and taught some lessons.  Thursday we got word that we are not allowed to have 6 girls in our apartment...so as soon as hermana Rosen got home we got ready to move ourselves out...still teaching lessons....Saturday we spent running around collecting furniture for all said new apartment changes, and moving ourselves in.  Then we went out to dinner and taught some more lessons.  It was all very eventful and by Sunday morning my cuerpo was sore in all the ways...but surprisingly still feeling upbeat!  We just did work.  And we were really tired.  But we are all feeling much better this morning. 

 We taught Cinthia again this week, and she is preparing to be baptized on November 8th!  We had so much drama with her a couple of weeks ago, when she was supposed to be baptized and we gave her a brake last week, but she still wants to be baptized, and knows she needs to.  We took our new, awesome member Claudia with us to the lesson and she bore a sweet testimony about how her siblings have all joined the church over the last 20 years...and Cinthia just got it.  She and her daughter Nicole came to church on Sunday, and everything is going great with them.  I am so grateful for awesome members for their testimonies, we really do need them. 

Yesterday we dropped in Church attendance by 30 people, it was sad sad sad.  So we devoted the rest of the day to seeing our semi-active families.  It was such a blessing.  First of all we did not have one appointment, and we saw people from 2:30-9:00 straight through.  I have been so humbled by the trials that people go though.  These cute members are my family, and I have been with them for 7.5 months now, and I just love them.  They make me so happy, and they trust me and share with me and care about me.  I just want to help them in anyway I can, sometimes I feel a little hopeless, because really I cant fix their problems, but then I remember, DUH, the atonement is real, and God is there for them, and I just have to do all I can to help them strengthen their relationship with him.  I am so grateful to be here with my cute cute cute hispanics. 

I am happy and trying to live up every second of my mission.  I am eager to become who God wants me to become, but I know that I need to be patient and endure what he wants me to endure.  I am so grateful for the happiness and peace the gospel brings into my life, and especially the eternal perspective that I have been able to gain. 

I love love love you all! 

Besitos, Hermana Myer

One more transfer!

Our zone Leaders are getting white-washed, sad sad day :(  This is the quality selfie we tool on self timer in the church parking lot.  Classic.  Always raising the bars here in Harrisonburg.

Hermana Wilkins and Tolman are getting transfered :(, Ward, is staying!  She is the one is the red

email 10.20.14

Okay folks, here it is, I will be spending my last transfer here in the Harrisonburg!  And I am just too happy.  I didn't think I was going to be transfer and I was right!  So we are happy happy happy here.  We are getting a new companion too, which is always exciting.  Hermana Rosen is going home in the middle of the transfer, so for a few weeks we will be in a trio. The going home thing is starting to feel real, which is scary, but I am trying to sort things out so that i am not scared!  I keep telling myself that it will be good to be able to come home and be a better human, and help others be better humans too.  But it is still sad, and i think it will be hard. 

Anyway...we had another great week!  We are still on the hunt for those elect, but meeting great people along the way.  We have done some good quality knocking this week, and the good news is, it still works!  We found this cute cute lady named Lucia, who struggles with a ton of health problems.  She is older and just so fragile, and so so so excited to learn, so we jumped right on that.  We found some other fun hispanics, and I remember every time how much I love them, and how they are my gente. 

We have a new couple that just moved into our ward, and they are awesome.  The wife, Claudia, just gets it.  This week I have been so grateful for all the members that we have up here.  This new couple included.  I have just seen how many sacrifices these people make to help this cute branch.  And it really stems from their love for the Lord.  They love the lord more than anything else, and so they are willing to help, willing to give their whole hearts, might, mind and strength to him.  I want to always have a clear head about who I am serving, and spending my time efficiently doing the will of God.  I am so grateful for all of the amazing examples that i have in my life. 

This week I have been studying about the Natural man, about putting off our "natural man" desires and feeding our spiritual desires.  I feel like the temptations from satan are so real and so subtle, and it is too easy to act like the "natural man".  I have learned that we cannot even take one day a break to strengthen our spiritual man, because any slight chance he gets he will snake his way in.  I am trying hard to have enough self control to just do what God wants me to do, and not what I want to do.  To react to situations the way he wants me too, to love people the way he wants me to, to be the human he wants me to.  I am so grateful for my mission and for all of the things that I have learned.  Living the gospel protects me.  And I will never not live it, because without that protection scary scary things happen. 

Funny: yesterday before sacrament meeting, the presedente's son, Amulek, who is 7, squeezed himself through everyone's pew to shake everyone's hand and say "hola".  It was hilarious, his mom didn't think so!  We died. 

Love love love being a missionary the most!  I love you all, you are the best family ever!  Don't forget to share the gospel today, and just keep being great!  Have a happy week!

besitos, Hermana myer
  

good hard missionary work

email 10.13.14

This week has been filled of some good hard missionary work.  We have come to a little bit of a dry spell with the investigators, so it is time to find some new people!  Hurray!  Just some quality time knocking doors.  I actually really really really enjoy knocking the doors, everyone is just another surprise, and you never know who is waiting for you!  Also it really helped me gain appreciation for English missionaries, they knock way more than we do! 

We did find some new gems to start teaching this week, which is just fun.  One of them is actually a former that I taught last year, his name is Cesar.  Not sure if you all remember, but he was actually the first person I ever contacted in Spanish.  We met him in the Wendy's the first day of the mission, and he came to church the first week.  He is hilarious, and a little bit flaky, but wants to learn, so we are excited. 

We also started teaching a 15 year old boy names Juan, which is right up our alley, so that is fun fun fun.  He is a soccer fanatic and actually really good (we think). 

We had two exchanges this week, which i love love love!  Sister Taylor (who is a temple square sister and served with Anna Banana in the office) came to Harrisonburg with me, which is always an adventure, especially when said knocking is done literally ALL day, but it was fun.  She is hilarious, and loves being a missionary, and just made me happy.  She made me feel so confident and light and we had a wee of a time sharing the gospel together. 

I also ventured down to the Waynesboro, which is a funny little place.  It is filled of REDNECKS, and 2 Hispanics, which you know i found, and taught.  We also found this gem of a new investigator named David, who was cracking all kinds of redneck jokes.  Too much fun. 

Any way.  We are blessed and happy here in the Harrisonburg.  This week has been awesome, I have started working on my goals based on the conference talks.  I am just so happy to be here and  I never want to leave!  As you know, Hermana Stapley came back to visit and we got to see her!  It was joyous, but also sad, she cried a few times.  I think going home is hard, but hey!  I am not doing that!  so hurray!

Funny: Me and sister Taylor were sitting in the car discussing plans, when a 8 year-old GORDITO (little fatty, male), wearing only spidey whitey-thighties ran across the apartment complex right into his tiny dads arms, who then carried him back across the complex.  We died.  I love my hispanics. 

Les quiro mucho! 

beitos, Hermana riley jane

Spiritual Fiesta

Just some after conference noms with my most favorite hermanas. Flor is the one with the cutest cutest more perfect child Genesis who I saw be birthed. VIII she is my hija.

After MLC lunch at the chicken fiesta, with sister Rose! yay!

email 10.6.14

Well I am not even sure where to start, but we had a good, very long week! 

We started off the week by finishing out our Book of Mormon read-a-thon, which was too much fun.  I had never sat down and read the Book of Mormon like that all the way through, and it was awesome.  You just get so much of the story line when you sit down and read it straight through.  I decided to highlight everything about Christ and the Atonement and to really try and focus on that, it was amazing.  I just know with all my heart that Christ is my Savior, this is his book, and he wants to help me in every moment.  I also recognized how much the Book of Mormon pleads with us to plead with our Father in Heaven.  And so many do, and are blessed.  How silly of us to neglect praying, I will never to that again, well I am going to try.  We are so lucky to have the Book of Mormon, it is just true true true. 

Mid week we went down to Richmond to go to Mission Leadership Council.  It is an all day meeting with sister training leaders and zone leaders.  They train us and then a couple days later we have our own zone meetings and train all the missionaries in our zone.  It was neat to be in that meeting, and partake of the information in a little different way, and then adapt it specifically to the needs of our zone.  We did have a scary chat about how to stay active when we go home, which was specifically for the leaders because a ton of us are going home soon, but it was surprisingly, upbeat.  I am just excited to be better. 

This weekend was the best!  I just love conference so much more.  It was powerful to have just finished reading the Book of Mormon, re-asking if is was true, then re-asking if Joseph Smith was a prophet, and also if Thomas S. Monson is a prophet.  And getting an over-whelming answer of yes yes yes, these are all the best things, and don't ever forget it.  I loved how focused conference was on Sustaining our prophet and following their direction.  The gospel is just so simple, and if we live it we can be more like our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, which is what we want.  After all was said and done I had an overwhelming feeling that I just need to focus on being a little better, being a little kinder, loving a little more, dedicating myself a little more, and be constantly converting to the Gospel.  I love the prophet so much, his guidance, his clarity, and mostly his love.  I know that God loves me, I trust in the atonement of my Savior, and I know that everything is going to be just great.  I know that this is the true church, and I am so excited to share that with simply everyone. 

We met finally had a lesson last night with our Miracle find, Franklin, and he wants to be baptized!  His wifey is very Pentecostal, and not so hip on the idea, but we are going to work with them.  I know that Heavenly Father will provide a way for the gospel to reach their home.  I love them so much! 

I am so happy to be here in Virginia, I love learning and growing and changing.  I love love love you all so much!  Have the best week! 

love, Hermana Myer 

Best mission ever.

email 9.29.14

Mi familia!

Well life is great, and mission life is even better.  And that is real.  I am never coming home.  We had another amazing week, and I am just too happy. 

Maria, Keyla, and Ester got baptized on Friday! And after much preparation everything went relatively smoothly, and it ended up being beautiful.  They are just so prepared, and excited and happy, and it was just perfect.  They were only a little bit nervous, but mostly just so happy.  It is just so fun to be a missionary and watch people change, watch them become happy, watch them to become more like Christ.  I am so lucky.  We also had a ton of support from the ward, they fit right in.  Afterwards we had to have a fiesta, claro, and everyone had a great time.  Sunday we did have a little scare when they were 10 mins late and almost missed getting the Holy Ghost, but all is well, they have been confirmed! 

We had a couple of exchanges this week which was all kinds of fun.  I felt like I learned so much from working with all kinds of different sisters.  I just felt like I had no reservations, and just helped them do work, and we saw all kinds of miracles.  I stayed here with an English sister and all day we just had miracle after miracle, and I kept having to translate for the cute sister so she could see how awesome God is!  We knocked into this guy who was almost baptized a couple years ago in New Jersey, but they had to suddenly move and lost contact with the missionaries.  I asked him if he wanted to be baptized now and he said yes, so sweet. 

This weekend we started out Book of Mormon read-a-thon, and things are going great!  We decided to read out loud together to avoid falling asleep, which proved to be a great idea.  It is fun too because then we can discuss what is going on and figure everything out.  There is a lot of things that I did not know about the Book of Mormon!  I am learning so much.  It is neat to be able to read is really fluidly, just going straight through, I have been able to make a lot more connections.  I have been marking all of the scriptures that refer to Christ, his atonement, his qualities, ect., and it has been an amazing experience.  The Book of Mormon really is just another testament of Jesus Christ, of his divinity, and the Plan that God has for us.  The idea is that after the whole mission reads the whole Book of Mormon that missionary work will just explode, and I think it will.  I am just so grateful for this opportunity that I have to grow my testimony and to keep learning. 

ALSO huge miracle.  We have been visiting Darlin and Yuleli's family, my cute recent converts, and they are really coming around.  When the girls got baptized last year Jose, their dad started coming back to church, and now their mom is starting to come back too!  They told us last night that they are preparing to go to the temple.  They know that it is a huge commitment, but they are getting excited!  We had the best family home evening with them.

So all in all I am happy, and being a missionary is the best thing that I ever decided to do.  But seriously, whoa.  Me and the Mana Rosen are just having the best time, working hard, and laughing every day until we die.  So life is great.  ALSO the women's broadcast was my favorite, we have the best church/leaders ever.  I love you all, have the best week! 

xoxo Hermana Myer