We are Thankful

Hola Familia!

It snowed in the mountains the other day. Does that count? It also got down to 49 degrees. Cold. I am enjoying my holidays so far. Me and Hermana Harris has some pretty fun/awesome plans for the Christmas season so fingers crossed we stay together for another transfer. I'm super looking forward to Skyping! Can you believe that's like, a month away? Whoa. And it's been 8 months.(I had said 7months in my email, oops) But who's counting?

Way to be a trouper Dad. I'm proud of you.(Ken had three teeth pulled on Wednesday, two of them wisdom teeth)

Yeah the Redlands temple isn't in my area but that's awesome that they were here!(Our friends from Shelbyville, IN, The Balls.  Brother Ball put in the security systems at the Redlands Temple) I think we're going sometime in December, if the math adds up correctly, but we haven't gotten the date yet so I'm not sure. It should be this next transfer though.

Is it weird that I did a little dance in the library when I read that Kara's ordering her garments and stuff today? (Another sister missionary from our branch getting ready to go out)I'm so darn excited for her.

I've been reading the Conference Ensign these last couple of weeks. I really liked Bishop Causse's talk from the Priesthood session. He actually spoke to us in the MTC. Anywho, I kind of laughed because everything he said about unity is what Hermana Harris and I said needed to happen when we started making our game plan for this area. I really just want to make copies and send them all to the members in the Relief Society.

Funny story: Last night we went over to the Ortiz's. Alex is a senior and is applying to colleges and everything so we've been telling him he needs to check out the BYUs because they'll be cheaper than anywhere he wants to go now. He hadn't yet and because his mom or dad weren't there to teach the lesson we had planned orginally, we decided to show him BYU and BYU-Idaho on the internet. It was fun!

Sorry this email and last were kind of lame sauce. I don't really know why I'm so bleh all of a sudden. I promise I'm still working hard and stuffs. :).

Mucho amor!

Hermana Myers

Her email came while I was on the computer so I sent this back:

Hey,

Notice it came now!  Love you bunches and we love your letters even if we don’t hear every detail.  We can tell by what and how you write that you are working hard! Keep going strong!

Love, Mama

Then she sent a quick note back:

Thanks Mom!

AH BEFORE I FORGET!!! Can you send the recipe for puppy chow and chex mix? I'm such a loving person and shared my puppy chow and chex mix with my companion and roommates so those two little bags(a quart size and gallon size) weren't enough for four girls. We want more!

I sent the recipes, grateful they were all typed on my recipe blog, and said this:
That might be a great things to make to give to members and nonmembers for a little holiday gift!  Just a thought!

This is what I got back:

I'm not that loving...

Just kidding! We'll see what we can do!

Who Could Ask For More?

As her mom I am overwhelmed with the gratitude I feel for all she is becoming and especially how she is not afraid to follow the Spirit, including her little "input to her dad."  Hermana Myers knows nothing of the going ons in our branch her, she is in a branch in CA and felt inclined by the Spirit to add that for her dad.  For me it shows the Lord's love for Hermana Myers, in being the instrument in the Lord's hands, and His love for Ken and our branch in the advice.  "By small and simple things comes that which is great."

 

Dear Family,

 

That's what I was planning on doing (Fast Grad, that is) but I think I need 60 credits first. I don't know if because I'll be going right back in the fall which is my track anyway if I can still go to the winter semester, but I'd like to do that if at all possible. Do we know what we're doing for that Christmas trip yet? I think skiing could be interesting... but I might die, being used to warm and all that. I'm good with the beach too. Or just whatever we decide to do will be fun, let's be honest here.

 

Congrats Carter! You're just one away from being an Eagle Scout now, right?

 

My little input to Dad: Please don't give any of the members a reason to blame you for stop coming to church. We have less-actives in our Branch that say that they don't come to church because they feel like the branch president doesn't love them or because something the branch president did. I understand that sometimes you have to go against what people want because it's not really in line with what the Church teaches, but outside of that please do all you can so they don't have you as an excuse. Talk to everyone, make them feel loved, invite them over for dinner. Take Carter with you to go visit them. I don't know if you're already doing that, and if so, good job! But yeah. Just be awesome.

 

This week we had a "comp. inventory" except is wasn't the normal kind where we talk about our strengths as a companionship then talk about our weaknesses and blah blah blah. We sat down and talked about what we wanted to happen in this area and what we needed to do so it would happen. We decided the best way to approach it is to get the branch unified through reactivation. Our plan is to go to all the members in our area and make sure that they have a Preach My Gospel, then talk to them about how missionary work is simply inviting. Then commit them to go and talk to someone who they don't know very well at church or go to someone's house who lives by and invite them over for lunch or something. Just try to get to know them. Then, the people who say that no one comes to visit them, when they come to church, they'll see all their friends there. There will be a sence of community and not a sense of coldness. We're excited!

 

We also had a huge mission conference on Saturday. It was awesome! I got to see all my favorite missionaries! I talked to Hermana Fogg and Bates. They're getting along really well so that's awesome! Anywho, I wish I remembered more about the conference but all my notes are at home. :(. It was cool though because President Van Cott invited all the stake presidents to come. 4 of them did, and Elder Hiam (sp?) (he's the area 70) came and talked to us about missionary work. It was great!

 

Confession: With all this excitement about missionary work going on, I'm a little scared to go home. I feel like I'll have more pressure to do missionary work when I'm not a full time missionary than when I am. We'll see how well I do :).

 

I hope everything's awesome in Iowa! Can you believe Thanksgiving is in a little over a week? Here's another mind blowing fact: the day before Thanksgiving is my 8 months in the field. I can't believe how quickly this is going!

 

Mucho amor!

 

Hermana Myers

What an Amazing Woman She Has Become

Hello Family!

I did have an awesome week! I got lots of birthday letters and two packages that were greatly appreciated! The Elders that live in our apartment complex also wrote me happy birthday/Batman notes on our windows. It was awesome!

Thanks for clarifying about Carter being the cutie and not President Cropper. ;).I am adding the part of my letter she is alluding to:

"Carter gave his talk today and did a great job delivering it.  Not that it bothered him but President Cropper was there. He is such a cutie pants, Carter not President Cropper."

So what my plan was for coming home, and I already talked to President about it a little bit (we're planning on ironing out the details at the end of the month so it can all be figured out by the time we Skype in December) but my plan was to just come home a little early, like the beginning of September instead of end. I really want to just because as much as I would love staying home for a semester with the family, I know that not being and working in Rexburg will drive me crazy. I want to use that fall semester as a catch-up semester and take all the classes I've dropped since I've been there (American Foundations, D&C, Public Speaking, and Math 108). As much as I want to, I'm going to try to not completely immerse myself in theatre like I have been. Maybe get my job back as an electrician, possibly assistant stage manage for a show and have that be it. Not take 3 theatre classes, be in a show, an electrician, and an assistant stage manager again. But that's what I was kind of thinking. I've also been thinking (and this is totally just a thought) about trying to test out of the Math 108 class so I don't even have to take it in the first place but can take more fun math like Algebra and Pre-Calc. I've found that when I do math I can think more clearly so I'd like to be able to take some of those classes. Or just get a Math book... Also, BYU-I now has 4 theatre majors. What I'd like to do is keep my Theatre and Speech Education major with my minor in TESOL and either double major in Technical Theatre or minor in Technical Theatre. I've haven't been able to do any research on what either one of those requires, but that's the path I want to go down. Also, President says it's okay to think about after mission things like school, just because it's bad to go through your whole mission not making plans and then when you're done you have no purpose in life. Anywho, that's just what I was thinking for my life.

I'm okay with just getting the $50. Or you can send me a stalking(think she is trying to be funny with stocking not that she can't spell) . I don't really mind either way. Which ever you think will be more fun for you.

A lot of funny things happened this week but really the only thing that is in my mind right now is the fact that the Ortiz family and Hno. Curiel all came to sacrament on Sunday! And Hno. Curiel stayed for all three hours! Highlight of my mission! I seriously feel like I just had four baptisms. And when we went and talked to all of them after, they all realized how much they missed it! Especially Hno. Curiel. He hasn't been in 14 years. That's longer than Carter has been alive. It was such a good week! I just really hope they continue to come.

There's also this kid named Kevin. He came to church on Sunday and asked us to come over and start teaching him. He was baptized when he was 10 but then stop coming to church. He's having a hard life. He's 16 now and is really turning his life around. He wants us to start from square one basically and teach him and get him ready for a mission. We're super excited! I've come to realize that if I don't see a single baptism while I'm out here, at least I've helped remind people of their testimonies. Who needs converts? ;)

I love you all! Thanks for the love and support you show!

Hermana Myers

Enjoying the Many Facets of Missionary Work

Hola Familia!

 

I have no idea how many Spanish sisters are in my mission. Sorry. I thought I knew most of them... but then I remember there's San Bernardino missionaries in the mix too. Yes. Sister Harris came out in August. She was a San B missionary...kind of. Her mission call said San Bernardino but as far as mission president and map it had President and Sister Van Cott and the Redlands mission. I don't really know why they didn't just call her to the Redlands mission, but oh well. She was roommates with Sister Stevenson in Banning though so we swap stories. It's great!

 

I'm more interested to see how it's going with Hermana Bates and Fogg than jealous. I think it'll be commical. I didn't really understand your taxes talk, but it sounds exciting! :)

 

So this week:

 

Monday- We pretty much ran around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to see everyone that Hermana Bates wanted to see and get her all packed and everything. We went over to the Rodriguez's and told Cassandra that I was leaving and not Hermana Bates. Cassandra almost cried. Oops.

 

Tuesday- We all (everyone getting transfered) met up at the mission office and switched cars/companions. I met up with Sister Harris and I also got to see Sister Mickelson and Davis, Elder Jex, Woolf, Darro, and Halloway so that was exciting. It was almost like an awesome zone reunion. We walked in to check mail and President came up to talk to us. Before I looked at him he asked if we liked his new look. When I turned to look I was surprised to see the whole left side of his face completely swollen. Apparently he had an absess tooth. Great first impression on those new missionaries. :). After that it was pretty much going around to all the important people in the branch so Sister Harris could meet them.

 

Wednesday- We talked pretty boldly to Hermana about church that day. I compared her to the mothers of the stripling warriors and how she needs to be the example. She has such a strong testimony and it's super sad that she's not doing everything she can to keep it. We also talked to another Hermana about testimonies. Hermana Cuevas the recient convert, not the branch president's wife. She's so sweet though. She's a little old lady we visit during the week. Anywho.

 

Thursday- We got broken up with. One of our investigators, Juana, decided she'd rather study with the Jehovah's Witnesses than us. A little sad but it's her choice. Sometimes agency is lame. We also tried to do some Family History with Josh. We met him at the FHC and tried to get him all registered and everything. It didn't quite go as planned... after he got registered and everything, he couldn't remember his user name and because we used his membership record number, we have to figure out that specific username. But when we did the "Can't remember your user name" thing, a different email popped up. Then, to make it even better, when we tried an alternate route, his membership number wasn't matching up with his birth date. Merh. But that's okay. We'll get it all figured out eventually. We also had a bit of an awkward Halloween experience. We planned to go a little early to go see all the Halloween houses we helped set up but ended up running a little behind. The place was packed. And people kept giving us weird looks and then would make some comment about how they couldn't tell if we were real missionaries or not. I guess I didn't realize how many people dress up as missionaries for Halloween. BUT on the way over there, we were walking and this guy was sitting out on his porch so we were good missionries and talked to him. We made jokes and light conversation then left. On the way back to our car after the already awkward Halloween tour he yelled to us that he had a question. He then asked if we were even over 18. We said yes and he said, "Oh, good. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't hitting on someone that was under age." We walked away as quickly/casually as possible.

 

Friday- Sad news. V moved to Arizona :(. That's really all that happened on Friday was we said goodbye to her. Sad, sad day.

 

Saturday- This morning we got to clean and be pioneers. We cleaned someone's house in the morning. I love this family to death. Saturday was also Redland's 125th Anniversary so they had this HUGE extravaganza. I was really surprised at how much community loyalty Redlands has. It kind of reminded me of Stars Hallow in Gilmore Girls, but at a larger scale. All of the Redlands area missionaries had to go and do service. Me and Sister Harris got to dress up as pioneers and teach people how they did laundry. It was super fun!

 

Sunday- We talked to Josh about a mission again. Sister Harris shared her experience with the mission and I think we've lit a spark. He's going to pray about it! I think he's still scared though, which is totally understandable. We then met his huskey, Shade, whom I had seen but never really played with or anything. SO pretty. I want a huskey.

 

Well, I think that's all! Keep up the missionary work! You're doing great!

 

Mucho amor,

 

Hermana Myers