Safely Home

Hermana Myers is returning on an Honorable Medical Release

We just receive Hermana Myers flight plans for Thursday along with a short note from her mission president that said she was a good and obedient missionary. If you have kept up with her letters you know that the pace of a missionary has reeked havoc on Hermana Myers in many physical ways.   We made a joke and told her she was just serving a senior mission of a year.  She will being arriving home one year to the day she entered the MTC. We are proud of her and all she has done to serve the Lord while she was out and expect that she will continue to serve in many ways when she gets home. This was her last email from the field:

Jacob 7:26-27

"26 And it came to pass that I, Hermana Myers, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore, I conclued this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonseome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions, wherefore, we did mourn out our days.

27 And I, Hermana Myers, saw that I must soon go down to my grave; wherefore, I said unto my companion, Hermana Stevenson: Take these plates. And I told her the things which my brother Nephi had commanded me, and she promised obedience unto the commands. And I made an end of my writing upon these plates, which writing has been small: and to the read I bid farewell, hoping that many of my brethren may read my words. Brethren, adieu."

Couldn't help it :). See you in a few days!

Thank you to everyone for your love and support of Hermana Myers.

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith

2 Timothy 4:7

A Big Decision

Hello Family!                                                                                                                        March 17, 2014

For starters, my scale is from 1 to 10, 1 being I just want to curl up into a little ball and cry for days and days and a 10 being take THAT Satan! *punch in face*. I hope that made you all smile, it made me chuckle a little. This week I was probably a little more on the 6ish low 7 range.

This week was actually pretty good on my part. A lot of things happened, highs and way lows. This is my letter to President today: 

"We had a pretty interesting experience this week with a family involving following the Spirit in asking questions, things happening for a reason, and prayers answered.

We're teaching a family  They were one of the families we watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with and it went really well. The daughter is a recent convert of about six months, I believe, and from spending time with her and hearing her comments about some things, we were a little alarmed and wanted to make sure she understood everything the Elders had been teaching her. So we decided to go for a walk with her to get her away from her family so she could talk openly and not get distracted. We brought a sheet and just sat in the park and talked. We asked her questions about her testimony, helped her understand that a testimony isn't some long, boring story that people tell for fun, and we talked about her past experiences to help her realize that she does have a testimony to some truths. It was awesome. The Spirit was super strong and our relationship was strengthened greatly. So that was awesome.

Then we went and visited on Saturday after the conference.  We ended up talking about forgiveness and the Atonement. . . We explained the situation (too personal to post) and Bishop instructed us in what he wanted us to do he wants us to continue visiting. . .He then went on to explain that us being in this area has been an answer to a lot of prayers because they knew something must be going on with this family but they didn't really have a way to get in because the Elders didn't have any kind of relationship with the family. He then went on to say that this is just the tip of the iceberg in our area they're extremely grateful that we're here."

So that explains that. Thank you for the pictures, by the way. And as much as getting a mani or pedi sounds, I think I'm going to pass. I do need flat socks because the ones I bought before I left had died so I hope it's okay  that I go to Target today and buy some. 

So now for the happy part of the week. I stinkin' shook Elder Neil L. Andersen's hand. And he stood like, 3 feet away from me during the conference and made eye contact with me like, 4 times. Super intimidating but not because he's super humble... really mixed feelings during those few seconds. It was actually kind of funny, we were sitting at the back of the chapel, the front row of the overflow. We were joking around before the conference started that "we couldn't see". Pf. Little did we know he'd be having a traveling mic on his tie. There was an elder that was making a comment in the back, so naturally I turned around to see him (the elder) while he was talking. Then he was done, and I turned around and was startled to see Elder Andersen staring at me from 3 feet away. Well, hello there. He then stood in the little isle there for a few minutes and talked. We joked around on the way home that it must have been comical to see all 4 (the Hermanas we drove with) of our faces of awe as he stood so close. It was funny. 

I unfortunately, again, forgot my notes. But he talked a lot about the Atonement. He didn't talk at all about teaching, which was interesting because I learned more about teaching hearing him talk about the Atonement then I would've if he talked about teaching. He talked about how the Atonement isn't something that's just physically experienced, it's spiritually experienced. You have to feel like you've been forgiven of your sins in order to really feeling the Atonement in your life. He also talked about how they make mission calls. Speaking of that, has Rhina gotten her call yet? The other thing he mentioned that struck me was that if we don't know what else to talk about, talk about Christ. We are his representatives, after all.

Hopefully I'll remember my notes next week and I can do a little more explaining about what I learned because my mind is a little fuzzy right now. I didn't really have time to let it all sink in. 

Here are the answers to your questions:

What is it about teaching that you don’t like?

I feel really hypocritical because half the time if I'm teaching something, I struggle with it myself (faith, enduring to the end, etc.) or I just feel like I don't know enough (I know you'll counsel me on how that doesn't matter, I know enough, blah blah blah. Yeah. Heard that all before. Doesn't help. Still feel that way.) 

Do you not like sharing the principles of the gospel? 

No, I just don't like feeling pressured like every single conversation I have with someone has to be Gospel related. I got annoyed when people did that to me before my mission and I've met plenty of people here that have said the same thing.

 Is it because you feel limited in sharing your feelings and knowledge of the gospel in Spanish? 

I don't even care about Spanish at this point. I still struggle, but I've stopped caring. I have bigger fish to fry. I can't even express myself in English.

Is it the fear of rejection when inviting people to make commitments?

Nope.

And how often are you sleep deprived?

I feel like every day.

Do you know what caused the sleep deprivation? 

Nope. I just never feel rested when I wake up in the morning, no matter how well I sleep.

Is it something you have control over?

I don't think so.

 Is it something that just happened once or happens often? 

Happens a lot. Probably 5 out of 7 nights. And that's being generous because I'm in a good mood.

Do you like studying the gospel?

I love studying the Gospel. Half the time I just want to stay in our apartment and keep reading. If anything, that's what's gotten me this far. 

Who have you uplifted this week and how? 

I feel I have already answered that question with my stories from this week.

How many tender mercies have you felt and in what ways did they come?

I've had a lot of support this week of people encouraging me. Even people that don't know I want to go home.

Did you enjoy your pictures? 

Very much. 

Does it help to see the those pictures, to remember you have a cheering section? 

Yes

And here's what's coming up this week. My therapist wants me to make a definite decision by a due date. I gave myself until Thursday of this week. I feel like I have one of two options: Stay and start taking medication or go home and don't take medication. I don't really want to tell what I'm thinking about right now because I want to make sure it is my decision and not what every one else thinks. But yeah. That's where I'm at at this point.

Alrighty. Well. I think this is the longest email I've ever sent.

I love ya!

Hermana Myers

Update

Our ecclesiastical leader here in the Quad Cities was able to check in with Hermana Myers and her mission president.  I am grateful Hermana Myers is comfortable telling things as they are and as she feels even if that means the rest of us may worry. Sometimes ignorance can be bliss.

We are grateful that Chloe has a wonderfully caring mission president and that he allowed President Cropper, our stake president, a chance to talk to Chloe and let her know she can do it and that everyday may not be the euphoria she had planned as her mission but she can recognize the good that is around her like we all have to do on the learning curve of life.

One great thing is that President Cropper asked her to quantify her week on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being over the moon, so we know better how she is feeling.  When they talked she was a 5, so we are happy with that.

She knows she can do it and President Cropper encouraged her to look for those fellow children of God she can touch and reach out to.

Ken and I feel much more at ease about the situation and appreciate the concern and support we have felt from everyone.  I really do think we learn from working through what seems difficult at the time with help from those who love us.  Isn't that what it means to comfort those who stand in need of comfort?  Thanks! Let us all press on in the work of the Lord!

Alma 17:11

And the Lord said: Go forth . . . and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.

I Love Hermana Myers and Couldn't Be More Proud

The letter I sent to her had one paragraph of questions to help us better understand what she is going through.  The questions are in italics at the beginning of each paragraph and then she goes on to answer it. I think she did a wonderful job explaining and I have happy that as her mother I thought this was close to what was happening.  I am grateful for all the prays and fasting on her behalf.  She still has her sense of humor in tack and I think she is aware of the many people who love her.  I am very encouraged by this letter and would ask that everyone not forget her with emails, letters in the mail, prays and uplifting thoughts.

Dear Family,

Thanks for making me cry in the library... ;). But seriously, I appreciate all the love and support. I'm going to try to express my feelings the best I can but who knows if they make sense... my thoughts are all over the place right now. . .

Are you mad?  

I wouldn't say mad, just frustrated. With everything. Other people, myself, my lack of wanting to stay, my lack of ability to put all my trust in the Lord to help me through this hard time. Then I go to church which is supposed to make me feel better, and it does to an extent, but then it also includes lessons of enduring to the end and instead of inspiring me to do more, it just makes me feel worse because I want to quit.

Are you still doing missionary work most of the week but run out of steam?

I'm doing as much missionary work as I can. We usually leave the apartment around noon and work until 9. Sometimes we take little "breaks" and do things like make cards for people or bake or yesterday we went to the park for dinner because a member gave us food to take so we just had a little picnic and watched the clouds for a little bit. So I'm trying really hard to forget myself and do missionary work, but then we get into lessons and I disengage. I try not to, I really do, but half the time I either have no clue what to say or I feel hypocritical because why should I have any right telling them what faith is or how to endure to the end or how much the Gospel will bless their family if I can't even serve the Lord for 18 whole months and put my faith in him to help me make it through that, endure the 18 months, and when I'm doing this service I'm miserable. I don't always think that, but that's what goes through my head usually around the end of the week when I'm at my lowest.

Why/How do you think coming home is going to make the anxiety and depression improve? 

I think coming home would help the anxiety. I don't know so much about the depression. I think it would be hard for the first few days, but after I've had some serious self reflecting, time to spend with the family, and just time alone, I think I'll be able to move on. I think my main think as far as this goes, is I feel like I don't have time to do anything that I want to anymore. I can't even get my life figured out in time to help other people. I have no time to do some self searching because all of my study time is focused on the people I'm teaching. And if I take time to study for myself, I feel bad because I have absolutely nothing to contribute in our comp. study. I really don't think coming home will solve all my problems. Either way, at this point both staying and going home have major consequences, both good and bad. As of right now, I don't want to go home and I think I can make this whole mission thing works. The problem is, I can't keep that for the whole week or even the whole day.

We know that missions are tough and hard work but it sounded like you were enjoying the work for the most part.  When did that change?  

I enjoy the people. I've always enjoyed the people. I like just spending time with the people, the part I struggle with is when it comes to sharing the Gospel with them and trying to do this whole missionary work like everyone says I need to. You're probably thinking, "Oh, well just do it your way then." Yeah, I tried that and no one agrees that that's how missionary work should be done because that's not what Preach My Gospel (the missionary training manual) says and that came from the First Presidency and I'm just a little prideful missionary that wants to do things my way because I don't want to be pushed out of my comfort zone. Not that I'm staying in the comfort zone, but that's what I feel like any time we have any sort of meeting or training or even do planning. And all of my companions have known this is how I feel and they always pull out the "Well, this is what the leaders say." Okay. Fine. I'll try. And try. and TRY. Still fail. Merh. I just don't know how to connect at all because I feel like when we do it the PMG(Preach My Gospel,the missionary training manual) way, it's really insincere and I hate insincere people. I don't want to be a cookie-cutter missionary, but I want to be obedient. So many confusings! I've even talked to President Van Cott about it, and he agrees on my side, but then trying to get that to everyone else doesn't work. And I don't want to change what kind of a missionary Hermana Stevenson is because that's selfish.

What actually triggered the full blown panic attack?

So the panic attack was caused by pretty much everything I just said, plus I was on my period and sleep deprived and all that was just working against me. 

I really do want to start being more open with you during this time so if you have any more questions just let me know and I'll try to answer them the best I can. I would love to hear from President Cropper(our ecclesiastical leader for the Quad Cities area), I hope he gets that approved with President Van Cott. I don't see why he wouldn't other than the fact that President is probably running all over the place with Neil L. Anderson(member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) coming this weekend. I'm also anxiously awaiting my pictures :). And I finally got my translator! Thank you so much! It's been super helpful this last week!

Much love,

Hermana Myers

The Little Hermana Who Could!

Hello family!

I think this week was harder than the last. I'm trying so hard to work and to put out of my mind any thoughts of going home and just forget myself, but half the time it just makes it worse. I'm working on my perfectionist modules and my automatic thought record that my therapist gave me but again, I feel like they just make things worse. I'm praying as hard as I can and I even stopped praying in Spanish so I feel like I can properly express myself. I feel a little bit stronger today though. I'm hoping this "second wind" lasts for a few more days.

Transfers are today! I'm staying in Fontana with Sister Stevenson! Nothing is really changing in our ward except Elder Torgersen is leaving the trio. Hermana Rosales (I don't know if you remember her but she was my companion with Hermana Fogg in the desert for a bit...) is going to Redlands to be companions with Hermana Harris. So that'll be interesting. I'm pretty excited for this transfer. We have a lot of exciting things coming up. First, ELDER NEIL A. ANDERSEN IS COMING TO SPEAK TO US!!!(He is one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) Woot woot! Just found that out today. So that'll be pretty sweet. We (Hna. Stevenson, Elder Twitchell and I) hit 1 year! In case you forgot ;). Then General Conference! So I have little victories to look forward to to keep me going during this transfer. 

Some cool things did happen this week though. Mostly yesterday. The whole Cuevas family came to church! Do you know how many people that is? 8. 7 of which are investigators! It was so cool! And they all loved it and are excited to come back! One of the kids, Sam, is deaf so he was a little frustrated. We're trying to get in contact with the ASL missionaries from the Riverside mission to come up here and help us out. Hopefully it'll all work out. Hermana Stevenson and I got to learn some sign language though. I now know how to sign, "How are you?" "What is your name?" "My name is Hermana Myers." "what" "who" "flower" "English" "Spanish" and "taco". Super random but it was fun. One of the Cueva's, Lupe, signs and she's been teaching us. It's fun. We're going over tonight and showing her "As I have Loved You" so she can tell us exactly how to do it so we can do it for Sam. I think he'll enjoy it a lot.

As far as other needs go, I think I'm good for now. Thank you so much for my surprise! I kind of laughed when you said that there was a surprise in the package because the package itself was a surprise. but yeah. I'm a happy camper now, at least when I'm sleeping :). (Sent her the baby blanket that I have recovered 4 times in 21 years)

I do think I had a lot of tender mercies this week. We went on exchanges on Friday and I was with Sister McCoy in our area. She was very patient with me (that was one of my lower days this week) and we just talked a lot. We only had two lessons but she helped me out a bunch. Hurrah for Sister Training Leaders! All things considered we had some pretty ground breaking lessons too. We invited Cassandra to be baptized and she's all for it, she just wants to learn more. That's pretty exciting too!

Well, I think that's all for the week! I love you all and I really appreciate your love and support!

Much love,

Hermana Myers

Hermana Myers, Making Diamonds Out of Coal!

These were our pep talks:

Chris:

Dad and I felt it was important to contact the mission for further details and confirmation that we shouldn’t worry.  You sounded great in your letter and as if the panic attack was a little blip in the road but we wanted a second opinion. Our only concern now is that you feel you are not having “success” on your mission. We are thrilled with all your successes on you mission, because bringing souls unto Christ is so much more than just the outward ordinance of baptism. Everyone who reads your blog is inspired by you and grows from your attitude and outlook. Remember Moro 7:16,19 about how we can judge if a thing is of God, 

"wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for everything which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is set forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God . . . wherefore I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that you may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ."

Don’t condemn the good you have done because it doesn’t measure up to someone else’s definition of successful missionary work. The Lord uses everyone’s talents in different ways for the good of his kingdom.  I know sometimes it feels bad to not be able to visually have other’s see your successes but really there are many people that do.

Ken:

Hey sweetie! I wanted to address some of your concerns and possible causes of stress. Although I’m taking a stab in the dark at them, I’m thinking that some of it comes from the weekly reports you have to turn in and I can imagine the District Leaders and Zone Leaders badgering you for not having any baptisms. “If we are obedient and have more faith, then the baptisms will naturally follow." I heard these and similar attempts to motivate missionaries that while well intentioned, somehow miss the mark and inadvertently put pressure where it should not be. It is true that obedience and faith will bring miracles, we are not to define when or how those miracles are manifest. You may not have any baptisms yet in California, but I can assure you that you are having a very positive effect here in Iowa and throughout the country as people read your blog and share in your journey. 

Your success as a missionary has nothing to do with the number of baptisms you have and more to do with the lives that you affect and the internal growth that you experience. If your DLs or ZLs are somehow making you feel less than capable, remind them that Spencer W. Kimball only had one baptism his entire mission! I don’t think that they would dare call him anything less than a spiritual giant and successful missionary.

Also don’t let anyone else have the power to tell you that you are anything less than exceptional. There will always be people who will try and tear you down and mock or make fun of you (remember the great and spacious building?). Well press onward, holding fast to the iron rod with both hands. Don’t let go with one hand to wave, keep both hands firmly grasped on and forge ahead through the mists of darkness. The reward at the end is worth any and every sacrifice and difficulty that we face. You are my beloved daughter and I couldn’t be more proud of you. Especially in admitting your weaknesses and dealing with them head on. Remember Ether 12: 26-28  26 And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness;

 27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my  grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make  weak things become strong unto them.

 28 Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteous.

I love you,

Dad

Hello!

Thanks for the pep talk, fam! I really appreciate your readiness to help! I don't really think there is anything you can do different at this point. Just keep praying for me and keep your covenants.

I know this is probably really bad timing with all the loving notes about how baptisms don't mark the success of a missionary, but JORGE GOT BAPTIZED!!! And I got to go! Here's a picture! This is the Cueva's (those that found him) and all the missionaries that taught him and Hno. Rodgriguez who baptized him. 

Saturday was an interesting day... Hermana Stevenson had a baptism in Yucaipa and I had one in Redlands... so we found our two member rides and left within an hour of each other. I had to kind of find two rides... because my ride (Cynthia) didn't have a car... so her cousin Danny took us. He got home a half an hour later than he was supposed to so Cythia and I ran out the door. I got into the car and almost suffocated from the smell of cologne in the car. Then he had to get gas... Merh. So Cythia and I ran into the gas station because it was a pay first gas station. We proceeded to make fun of Danny while we were in there because of the cologne. Then we got to the baptism. No one was there. It ended up starting an hour late because Jorge's family wasn't there. So that was funny. All went well though. I had to leave a little early so I could get home in time. Oh yeah! I got to see the Ruiz's (family from the desert that fed us every Monday) because they gave Hermana Bates a ride. It was fun! 

I really enjoyed this week though. Throughout the week I had been thinking a lot about my situation and everything. The thing that was hardest for me was that I wasn't sure if this was my "enough's enough" moment or if this was just another tial to make me strong (obviously either way it's a trial to make me stronger... but I mean a trial that I would over come and stay on my mission, ya know?) I was really worried about whether or not I should stay and if it really would be worth it.(to clarify, the initial stress was not about whether or not to come home, that thought was something that came from her therapist and something she worked through just this week.) I was reading my patriarchal blessing today during my personal study and a line really stuck out to me. It said something along the lines of, "You will be of great courage in doing what He (Heavenly Father) asks of you knowing that as you please Heavenly Father, you will have no need to fear the temporal consequences of the things that you do." That hit me like a ton of bricks. My patriarchal blessing has been a huge strength for me and I'm all ready now to keep truckin' on!

One thing I would appreciate though is if you could email me a copy of my mission call. Apparently that's a good thing to read while you're on your mission too.

Much love!

Hermana Myers

Also, I forgot to make a note for Dad. My district leader and zone leaders aren't baptism crazy. They've actually helped me out a lot in this time. They're all elders I've served with before and have become pretty good friends with so it's been nice having them here and serving with them again.

Bitter Sweet Concern

I have debated whether to share Hermana Myers entire letter because of the personal nature, but she has been careful in the past with a few things to mention when something is too personal to post. I also feel sometimes we only share the happy times of our missions which doesn't shed light on the numerous times you feel inadequate, frustrated and alone. I know many of you that read this already pray for the missionaries and for Chloe specifically but we would appreciate that even more at this time. Really it sounds like she is dealing with things in an appropriate and effective way and we shouldn't get worried or concerned, but as parents our hearts are draw out to her.

Here is her email:

So to start off, I have a bit of a confession to make.

I've been dealing a lot my whole mission with stress and it got to the point where this last week I had a full blown panic attack. I'm fine now, the zone leaders came over and gave me a blessing but I will be recieving counseling from LDS Family Services. Hopefully that'll help get me back into shape so I can finish these next 6 months.

Other than the panic attack, this week was pretty good! I did get the package of puppy chow. Uncle Rhod and Aunt Shannon sent me a Valentine's Day package too. I got a letter from Sister Meyer saying she went to a ward down in Phoenix, AZ and that a newsletter was passed around and on the bottom it said they had an Hermana Santiago out in the California Redlands mission. She asked me if I knew her. I lived with her for a few weeks. So much fun! Love her! Also, Mom, wasn't Marcy Zabriskie one of your mission companions?(yes she was) I know I've heard that name before but I don't remember why, I just know she's one of your friends. Anywho, I'm sure you know that she had an article published in the February Ensign, funny story about that... Hermana Stevenson was trying to find a good article in the Ensign for our English class to read and she found one that she really like (it was Marcy's). I started to read it and liked it, then I looked at who wrote it and yelled, "OH MY GOSH!!! MY MOM KNOWS HER!!!!" It was funny. P.S. This happened the same day that Sister Meyer wrote about Hermana Santiago. It was an interesting day.

Our new investigator Cassandra (formerly known as Angelica) came to church!! And funny story about that and the power of fellowshipping: So Cassandra came with Hermana Martinez (the member she lives with) and they stayed for sacrament and Gospel Principles. Then Hermana Martinez got up after Gospel Principles and started telling us that they had to leave for some reason or another... I don't really even remember what, but then one of the sisters, Hermana Rodriguez, came and interupted and said, "Hi Hermana! The Relief Society President specifically asked me to come and give you the Welcome to Relief Society and ask you to come sit with me, so would you mind coming and sitting with me over here?" Hermana Martinez didn't really know what else to do so she sat down next to her and Cassandra got to stay for Relief Society. Awesome! She really liked it! Yay!  We're going to try to get her on date this week!

Funny story from yesterday. We had both of the Fontana zones over to Brother Wilden's house (he's the high counselor over missionary work in our stake). There were probably 40 missionaries crammed into their living room, right by the front door. We were listening to President Seares (stake president) talk about how music brings the Spirit when there was a knock at the door. Guess who it was. If you guessed a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses, you'd be correct. Their worst nightmare, a room full of LDS full-time missionaries. Hilarious. President Seares jumped up and ran out the door and started asking them if they could come in so we could sing to them. They made excuses and got away, but we all had a good laugh about it after.

One last thing, the missionaries get to participate in "From The Hill Cumorah". I don't know if you've ever heard of that but it's kind of a reader's theatre about the Book of Mormon . Yup. We get to sing in the finale. Holla! I'm so happy! I think Heavenly Father knows I need some theatre release. I got to go help with Redlands, My Redlands and now this. I'm so grateful!

I think that's everything! Don't worry about the stress thing though, I am feeling better and I think the counseling will go a long way.

Much love!

Hermana Myers

A Miracle Grows

I love the picture! I want to frame it... but I can't.(I saw a picture with the saying "Sometimes you just have to put on your big girl panties and deal with it" and thought of Hermana Myers so I sent it, not because she needs to put them on but because she had mentioned it a few months back.)

I am anxiously awaiting the puppy chow and the translator. Thank you so much, by the way. I really do appreciate it. I was even thinking about asking Elder Christensen (who goes home at the end of this transfer) if I could buy his off of him, but I think he wants to keep it.

Did you know that apparently there are 3 new temple movies that rotate around? I have now seen two of them. I guess they did it that way so that if one of the actors does something stupid they can use the other one. All the actors have to be temple worthy or they can't show the video. Random facts I learned at the temple this week. Also, everyone loves my temple dress. I had 3 people tell me I need to get married in it (one being Sister Van Cott which was a little weird). All three occasions were followed by a,"Yeah, that was the idea when we were planning it out :).) Really what I learned in the temple this time was just that I really can do this whole mission thing. I thought of ways to kind of refocus myself. I've never been super distracted, but I have had little distractions here and there. Getting whitewashed into Fontana made it so I had no time at all to think about anything else, but now that I'm getting oriented I found the little ditractions coming back, so when I was in the temple I really focused on what I could do to get rid of those. I have a few scriptures I've been trying to memorize that will hopefully help. I also was thinking about the convants made in the temple and it made me think a lot about my role as a future mother and wife. It was an interesting temple trip for me. I really enjoyed it.

Miracle of the week! (An extension of a previously mentioned story. Wow, the Lord is really giving this family many opportunities to return to Him.  Happy that Hermana Myers and her companion can be instruments in His hands.)

One of the first few days that Hermana Stevenson and I were in this area, we were walking around, trying to get to know the area and just talk to some people. We saw a few people outside cleaning their cars. Before that we had seen about 3 other people cleaning their car and every time we would walk up to them and offer our service, they had just finished, so we were pretty excited when we saw that they had just started. We walked (jogged) over to help them and they didn't think we were being serious until Hermana Stevenson just picked up a rag and started washing. While she was washing, I talked to the guy (Christian) and the little boy (Jarbus) who were done with their car and Hermana Stevenson talked to the girl (Casandra) while they cleaned. It was a lot of fun. We tried to get a return appointment with them and they accepted. While we were washing, a woman from across the street came over to get her mail. We waved and were friendly and she just walked right back into her house.

Later we came back to the same cul de sac to find out that the lady that came out to get her mail is actually a less active member. Perfect! We tried a few more times for Casandra but with little to no luck. Finally we tried again and this super nice lady (Ymelda) came and welcomed us into the house. We started talking to her and Casandra. We had a really good small talk session. I say really good because guess what, Ymelda is a member! Oh yeah, and her son is Christian... He's a member too. He just forgot to tell us. He's also extremely less active and thinks he's 7th Day because his wife is. Anywho, they're all living at this house together. We had an awesome how to begin teaching lesson with Casandra with Hna. Martinez (Ymelda) helping us out. Also, apparently Elder Halloway and Torgerson had ran into Christian earlier. He also forgot to tell them that he was a member. Anywho... Casandra is one of our new investigators for this week. She's super nice and very interested. She's already reading in the Book of Mormon and understanding a lot! We're super excited!

Let's see, what else. OH YEAH! Do you rememer who Arture Moreno is from Queretaro? I think I remember who he is but I'm not 100%. He sent me an email this week discribing who he was but none of the examples used rang a bell. Can you believe that was 10 years ago? Dang.

This week we have multi-zone conference so I'm pretty pumped for that!

Happy Lock-Your-Heart Day!

Much love,

Hermana Myers

Just kidding, the last name of the person who emailed me was Acereto. I think I know a little bit more who it is, but I'm still not 100%. 

Temple Day Quick Email

I was not worried that we hadn't heard from Hermana Myers but I missed the fact that we hadn't heard from her yet this week.  Knew there had to be an explanation. Today is Missionary Temple Day for her which means preparation day and a visit to the temple and little time to focus on emailing.

I know from other missionaries that I keep up with that after around the 10 month mark it gets harder to email.  Why? Because what used to be new to them has become second nature and so they don't think it is interesting or don't even think to share it with us.  I am ok with that. 

Here is her email:

So I'm just going to start this email off with a warning, it may be a little scatter brained because we don't have a whole lot of time and we're going to the temple today.

(In regards to her request for an electronic translator last week, we wrote:Oh, Dad said we shouldn’t buy you a translator.  He thinks when you don’t understand a word you should ask questions to find out what it means.  Well, so if you still really want/need one, you will have to state your case or just go buy one on your own with money from your personal account.  For me this one isn’t worth fighting for you with the limited information that I have on the need.)

First off: Sure, I could ask people for the information, and I do, but when it's just me and my companion and we're trying to figure something out, or teaching an English class (which we do), it's a little more difficult to translate from Spanish to English when the member is asking how to say it in English and you have no clue what it is in Spanish. Then they try to explain and you guess, then they accuse you later because you were wrong. But it's still up to you. It's just nicer, smaller, and faster than a dictionary.

 

So this week was an interesting one.

 

We picked up the daughter of a recent convert. Her name is Adriana. The whole family is super ready. They've experienced two deaths in the family within the two weeks we've been here and they're all looking for a little bit of comfort. We're teaching 5 members of the family and counting. Adriana is the only one on date though. We went over almost every day last week. It was awesome! We have to help Adriana read the Book of Mormon though because she doesn't read very well so that was some of the lessons. It's been awesome though!

 

We also had an awesome lesson with the Morales family. Apparently they're legendary in the mission because the kids are crazy (that is not an exageration... they turn off the lights when we pray and one of the daughters says she'll only get baptized if her cat can get baptized too. It's interesting, but we love them :)) and the mom rarely shows emotion. She's starting to smile a little more when we're there so that's good. We pretty much asked them why they aren't baptized yet because they've been coming to church for the last 6 months. The dad, second daughter, and youngest son are all baptized, just the mom, the oldest daughter and the youngest daughter aren't. Anywho, we found out a lot. Turns out Hermana Morales doesn't think that God answers her prayers and that she doesn't need to change, but she wants all her kids to get baptized in our church. Doesn't really make sense to me, but alright. S (the crazy cat daughter) doesn't think that God exists. So this is going to be awesome! We're interesting to see if maybe we can help them, or if (in Elder Holloway's words) "we end up in their boiling pot of missionaries that had failed to convert them." He's a strange kid... but he's great :).

 

We've also been doing a lot of Elder "damage control". We keep finding people in the area book that when we meet them, they don't really want to talk to us but when we explain that we're there to help them strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ and their relationship with their Heavenly Father, they soften up and say, "That's such a relief because all the Elders wanted to do was baptize me!" We then say, "Well, yeah, we want you to get baptized too, but only when you feel ready." And then we think, "And you'll get baptized when you do what we tell you too, like pray and read and go to church.(Because they will feel the Spirit and want to get baptized) You'll get baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... So we kind of are here to baptize you..."

 

So yeah! I think that's about it for this week. I hope I can add some more stuff next week about this week, maybe some new insights about the temple! (Hermana Myers loves the temple, I am sure this will be a huge uplift for her.)

 

Much love!

Hermana Myers

Fontana Fun

So this week was a bit of a roller coaster. Hermana Stevenson and I have been running around trying to get to know this area. We've met so many different people and families from all over the place. Before I forget, where did Dad live in Nicaragua? There's so many people from there, here it's ridiculous. Also, there's two girls from Queretaro. They knew all about JFK and Jurica and everything! Where was the church at, do you remember? Also, and you don't have to, but there are a few missionaries that have a handy-dandy pocket translator that they bought on Amazon. I would really appreciate one, but it's not necessary. I think they're $30-$50 if I'm remembering correctly from what Elder Christensen said.

 

Your weekend at the Greenhalgh's sounded like fun! I wish I could've been there to see Matthew give his talk, but I guess I'll be there for his homecoming. Plus I'll be closer to him while I'm on my mission than any of you will be. Muahaha.

 

So here's what went down this week:

 

We walked into our apartment on Wednesday, it's pretty nice considering elders lived in it before... then we opened the fridge. I don't even know what was caked onto the floor, but it resempled carmel. It took us a good 45 minutes to clean the fridge. (Okay, backstory quick. Elder Torgesen and Holloway have been here for a few transfers. I think this is their third? Anywho, they were in our area before and they lived in our apartment. They're now in a different part of Fontana but still in the ward) Elders Torgesen, Holloway and Richins (yup, they're in a trio) came over to pick up some of the stuff we brought home from the mission office for the elders on bikes. We asked them about the fridge and they said it had been like that when they got there. Gross.

 

Turns out, from asking around, we're about the first sisters that have been in this ward in 8 years. No pressure.

 

Apparently we teach English classes on Wednesdays and Fridays too.

 

We did a boatload of walking this week to try to get to know our area. Whilest walking we came across these people that were washing their car. We went over and were helping them out. Her name was Angelika and his is Christian. We were talking and having a good time, then this lady came out to get her mail from across the street. We waved and were nice. The next day we were trying to find a less active. Low and behold, it was the same lady that came out to get her mail. It was awesome!

 

We also talked to a less active who's name is Danny. Turns out he's only a year older than me, which is wierd because he looks like he's 30. I just can't gage ages, apparently. Anywho, he's super nice and we're really excited to work with him to get him back to church.

 

On Sunday, Hermana Stevenson and I got to talk. And I don't mean go up, introduce ourselves, bare our testimonies and sit down, no. This was a thought out, written down, had time to plan talk. I pretty much did an info-mercial on Preach My Gospel. It went really well! Then after church we had a huge meeting with all the leadership and their counselors to talk about this plan to reactivate people. We split up by three groups (there's three groups of missionaries) and each one of us got one of the leaders from each auxilary. We went through the ward list and picked out the people in our area, then talked about their level of activity, then set up times to go with members on Tuesday for the next three weeks to go visit them. We're pretty excited!

 

Everyone's super excited to have sisters. And you can tell that they're not really used to it because everyone only shakes our hands. It's funny!

 

Well. I think that's all.

 

Mucho Amor!

 

Hermana Myers

Another Week, Another Growing Experience

So this week was pretty awesome full of major ups and downs.

I want to explain to those of you who may think the LDS church is too strict that I hope you can see the mercy and love that was shown to this missionary.  Discipline comes from the word disciple and is done out of love and concern to help and individual become a disciple/follower of Christ, not just in word but in deed.

First off, we found out on last Saturday that one of our zone leaders(a district of missionaries is about 6-8 with a district leader, and a zone is made up of 2-4 districts and has two zone leaders who report to the assistants to the president who report to the mission president) was going home early. It was a huge shock to a lot of us. We ended up having a meeting about it on Tuesday. We talked a lot about obedience. It was interesting to hear President's and Elder B's (our other zone leader) take on the whole matter. Apparently the elder had been breaking small, little rules that didn't seem very significant but then it got so bad to the point where he couldn't even sustain President as a leader. However, after many interviews and President trying his hardest to get him to stay and the elder himself making huge changes and going through a major repentance process to where he saw the wrong in his thinking, the elder decided he couldn't trust himself and went home. It just emphasized to me how important exact obedience is and how awesome it is to have the Atonement.

There was an earthquake too. Just a little one Tuesday night. That was exciting.(Glad I didn't know that!)

We had interviews with President on Wednesday. They usually last about 15 minutes... mine was 45. Oops. I had a lot of questions and received a mission father's blessing. It was really nice. Basically what I got out of it is that I do have enough faith and the fact that I started my papers (mission papers to be called on a mission), finished the process of filling out my papers, came on a mission, and am still here are evidence that I have faith. He explained to me a little bit more about Alma 32 and how if we so much as feel that something is true, we have a knowledge of it because we know that it's a good seed. He also told me that he wanted to send me to Borrego Springs (which is a little town in the middle of nowhere-ville) and be a Sister Training Leader. I have no clue what he was thinking. (See PS. below, this didn't happen this transfer) The blessing was really nice too. He talked a lot about the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues. And the blessings my family will receive from me serving. It was awesome.

We had stake conference too! It was piped in from Salt Lake. And our area 70 has asked all of the state of California to do a special fast in February for the drought. Conference was awesome though, a lot about missionary work. A story came up twice about two friends that have been working all day in one of their yards and they go in for a break, the owner of the house pulls out a nice cold glass of orange juice and starts drinking but doesn't offer any to his friend. The friend gets a little annoyed and asks for some and the other replies, "Oh, sorry! I didn't think you'd like it." or "I didn't want to offend you." Our stake president likes object lessons...

I think that was really all that happened this week. It was pretty intense!

Well, I love you all!

Hermana Myers

P.S. I'm getting whitewashed  into the Randal ward in Fontana with Hermana Stevenson. No STL for me!(this is missionary lingo for both missionaries in the companionship to leave the area and Hermana Myers and her companion Hermana Stevenson, one of her companions from the MTC, will both be new to the area.  Usually only one missionary from a companionship moves so that one missionary knows the area and the other can learn it but when you "whitewash" an area two new missionaries start a fresh and clean slate.)

Recharged the Batteries

Dear Family,

 

It's funny that you saw Dianne the other day because the other day I got a letter from Mallory and have been thinking about the Operahouse a lot. I even told Hermana Harris some stories. I miss everything about the Operahouse, especially the people.

 

Before I forget, yes, transfers are next week. I don't know what's going to happen though, because next week is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day so all the libraries will be closed and that's how our zone leaders find out where we're going... So we will see. I guess my zone leader is the office elder so I may find out on Saturday or Sunday. Who knows.

 

This week was an interesting one. Hermana Harris and I have been struggling a little bit with getting motivated and whatnot so this week was us trying really hard to get back on the horse. Some pretty interesting things came from it. We've been trying really hard to apply the things we learned at the mission conference we had this transfer, teaching simply and whatnot and finding out what people really want in life and helping them to realize that no matter what they want to aspire to, the Gospel can help them. We had a lesson with our investigator, Claudia, and we worked really hard to get ready for this lesson. First off, Claudia is awesome. She doesn't have a whole lot of religious background, doesn't know a whole lot about God, but prays and reads the Book of Mormon with her daughter. She wants to come to church but we have to work around her husband that won't let her. Anyway, we had left the Book of Mormon with her, honestly as a comfort tool because she's been going through a really rough time. Hermana Harris bore her testimony about how when she's going through a hard time, reading the Book of Mormon really helps. It was great! But Claudia seemed to take it the wrong way and that it was going to solve all her problems and if she read it then she wouldn't be distracted ever again. Oops. So this lesson we wanted to clear that up with her. We did, and then we started talking to her about what we as missionaries do. We flat out said that we're not here to sell our church or convince her that this is the only true Church, but we did tell her that we're here to help her make changes in her life so her life will be more in harmony with the teachings of Jesus Christ and when we do that, she'll want to follow those teachings and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority (How to Begin Teaching point. Yup). She took it like a champ! She told us that she will only get baptized if she feels it in her heart. We told her that we're here to help in any way we can and she got all excited. Yay!!

 

Another thing that I've learned in the last few weeks is to just be people's friend and don't always jump right into being a missionary.

 

This last Saturday we were heading over to see a less-active family (This family is huge and has three households that we know of. Hermana Bates, Harris and I refer to them as the Mora Clan. In one of the households there's a member that's semi-active, but everyone else is either less-active or not a member. Lots of potential that Hermana Bates and I have been trying to work with since I got here. We had this awesome plan to do an FHE(Family Home Evening - a night set aside to spend with your family teaching or living a gospel principle, usually Mondays) with the whole family that never when through because when we mentioned it to Hermana Mora (the semi-active member) she started avoiding us. Anywho, we drove up to one of the houses on Saturday and saw that everyone was outside, having a family get-together. We sat in the car down the street for a few minutes debating on whether or not we should go and be awkward and crash the party, or just try another day. We decided prayer would be the best way to find out. After a short prayer, we sat and thought for a little bit, trying to see how we were feeling. After a few minutes we realized that we really should go and at least try to talk to them, if they let us in we can make new friends! If it's awkward, well, we'll have an funny story to tell later. We also made sure that both of us knew that we had to be confident, even if they tried to make it awkward. So we walked up to them, our heads held high and with big smiles on our faces. We were there for about an hour and a half, just talking and laughing with them all. It was really fun and a really good experience! We tapped into the Mora Clan!

The best part about this is (first off, Hermana Harris and I usually divide up during Relief Society and try to sit by different people every week.) Hermana Harris sat by Hermana Mora in Relief Society yesterday, Hermana Mora flat out told Hermana Harris that she wanted us to come to their FHE today: we were to give the lesson, she was to provide the treats. Alrighty, Hermana Mora. We're on it! We're super excited!

This week has been a good one and we're hoping to have an awesome last week of the transfer! Pray for us!

 

I think that's really all I wanted to say...

 

Much love!

 

Hermana Myers

 

P.S. Don't worry, we're getting fed plenty. It's actually really nice eating with two sets of elders, each having a HUGE elder in the companionship. People are a lot more satisfied with how much they eat, then the pressure's off us to eat everything. I don't explode every day. Yay!

Making Friends

Dear Family,

 

Based on the temperatures I just read(let her know how cold it is in Iowa -16 with wind chill of -45), I've decided to stay in California for forever. But not really.

 

Hurray for no more debt! Hurrah for Chloe having a car in Rexburg! Would you like me to start making payments on it like Polly and Dan did for the Corolla? Eh, cross that bridge when I get there.

 

Last I heard from Kara was she emailed me the day she went through the temple. I wasn't able to write her because I didn't have anything to write with or on... but I'll write her this week.

That's awesome that the new missionary knows Chandler! I haven't gotten those letters with encouraging words yet, but that's okay. I also was looking through an old Liahona the other day and President Condi was in it. I laughed and took a picture. (the new missionary serving in our branch came from serving in the same ward as a guy-friend of Chloe's from BYUI.  We always chuckle because Chandler went to the temple with Chloe, for friendly support not to marry and the temple president, Spencer Condie, thought they were an item and told Chandler "no mushy letters, just ones filled with encouraging words")

 

Really my personal goal for missionary work for this year is to make as many friends as I can. I had talked to President a little about the area after the mission conference and he told me that I'm here to make friends. Alrighty, President, I shall make friends. So that's really my only goal right now. Or the general goal, I guess. We have our own individual and companionship goals that we come up with during comp inventory. 

 

Before I forget, I'm planning on sending some boxes home of stuff I don't really need right now (extra clothes, Christmas stuff, souvenirs) all that jazz that I don't want to carry around from transfer to transfer.

 

Hermana Ortiz came to church!! and Hermano Curiel tried to come... but he accidentally went to the Pioneer ward instead because of the time change. Oops. Didn't understand a word. Our bad for not telling him.

 

Other than that this was a pretty ordinary week.

 

Love you all!

 

Hermana Myers

Her Bucket is Full to Go Out and Serve!

Hola familia!

First thing:

La Familia Rodriguez

(They were the ones who let her Skype and we are sending a Thank you but their address didn't need to be on the web)

Second:

I just sent Kara an email. I don't know if I can use Dear Elder... But I'll send her a note when I get home.

Third: The reason I'm emailing today is because we had an out-of-the-blue mission conference yesterday. Elder Richards of the second quorum of the 70 came and talked to us about teaching simply. Sounds easy to do, right? Well, it's not. It was really good though. We also talked about how important it is to teach truths with the Spirit. Bruce R. McConkie said something along the lines of "You can speak words that are true, but without the Spirit they aren't truth." I thought that was pretty cool. It was mentioned how the Holy Ghost is the only true teacher and if we don't have the Spirit with us, well, the people we're teaching will only listen, they won't learn. And if we start mixing truths with our own understanding/opinions the Spirit can't testify to that. There was a lot more we talked about, I'm just having trouble remembering it. President talked to us for a little bit about faith, hope and charity. He drew a parallel between those and the definition of repentance in the Bible Dictionary that roughly says that when we repent, we receive "a fresh view of God, ourselves, and the world." So when we have faith, that's our fresh view of God, hope is our fresh view of ourselves, and charity is the fresh view of the world, or others. Hmm... What else. Dang it. I knew I should've brought my notes...

Sister Richards talked a lot about our posterity. We keep having these odd little tid-bits about our future spouses and our posterity. It's funny. I think it makes some people a little uncomfortable. But she talked about how Nephi (I just typed Nefi, then corrected it. merh. Spanish) was thinking of his posterity chapters before he even got married. Apparently in President Eyring's biography he talks about when he got his patriarchal blessing. In his blessing it talks about the redheaded children he would have, so whenever he was about to make a decision, he would think about the redheads. Sister Richards talked about how in hers, it talked about her sons, so she would always think about them. In my blessing it says that I'll be blessed to become a mother of special spirits who will come into the world to be taught the gospel and to become warriors against the forces of evil. Or something along those lines. Either way, I've got some pretty epic children waiting for me so I better rise to the occasion. I'll think of my warriors.

Something that happened this last conference and the conference before it was a little surprising to me. I've always been the person that goes and looks for people when in large groups like that. No one ever needs to look for me because I find them first. At these last two conferences, I haven't had to go find people because they would come find me first. It's all the elders and sisters from my second transfer in the desert. We all were really good friends and it's just awesome to me to know that they care about me just as much as I care about them. That usually doesn't happen to me. Usually I'm the one that cares more or too much. Anywho, I thought it was cool. I think that was really all that happened at the conference.

Fourth: I miss the Operahouse. I'm still awaiting a reply from Mallory...

Fifth: I finally found my Christmas present! And guess what, I actually got a little more than planned because I found my sweatshirt in a store that was super cheap, so I got two more! The other two aren't California related, and they're thinner and more t-shirt like, but I love them!

Sixth: Sooo does the smoker mean I'm getting jerky soon? Or even the oven cooked jerky? Either one would be fine ;).

Seventh: Do they have the "Polly" soundtrack on CD? For some reason I've had the songs stuck in my head all day and I kind of want it. If not, no biggy. (Polly: A One-Woman Musical-The video adaptation of Steven and Janice Kapp Perry's stage musical based on the life of Utah settler Polly Matilda Merrill Colton (1816-1891). Many connections to family beside it being the name of her sister. It is a cute show too. And I found out I can get an MP3 file of the soundtrack for her) 

Well family, you all sound like you're doing great! I know I am.

Love ya!

Hermana Myers

Guess We Will Hear All About Her Week On Wednesday!

Hola Familia!

So... sorry, this email is going to be alittle short because I didn't do very well with writing all the stuff down that happened this week like I usually do, but I'll talk to you on Wednesday so I don't feel too terrible :).

I did get both my packages! The stockings are adorable! Sister Harris really loves all her gifts. Some of the stuff fell out of the stockings (mugs, Martinelli's, one of the wrapped gifts) but we just put them under our tree. We're having a big zone breakfast Christmas morning and opening presents together!

I knew Carter was smarter than me...

I am growing my hair out. I thought I told you that... Me and Hermana Fogg have been in competition to see who can grow it out the longest since July. I'm thinking it may just last 'till the end of my mission, though. I miss my short hair.

My memory card isn't full yet, but I'll probably send a package home before transfers just in case I do get transfered. I think I may start sending a little bit home every now and then of stuff I want to keep but don't necessarily need while I'm on my mission so packing for transfers is a little easier.

I actually got a Christmas card from the Mullers! It made me super happy! I'm excited to write them back today!

I think that's all...

Look who I saw at church on Sunday. Funny how I ended up in her hometown, serving in the same building as her home ward. I miss this girl.(Mel her former roommate at BYUI)

Mel and Hermana Myers in Redlands

And all of you!

See you on Wednesday! Oh, we moved Skype time to 2:00 our time. I hope that's okay. I'll be going first but I'll call right before just in case. See you then!

Love

Hermana Myers

Can't wait for Christmas at 4 our time!

Putting the Faith in Christmas

Hello Family!

 Buisness before I forget:

 

We're planning on going to a member's house to Skype at 3 on Christmas. We figured that would work best so it's not too late for those in VA (Thanks Polly and Dan ;)).

 

Also I have a few requests, and I'm really sorry that they're coming now because I know you just sent out the package (which I'll probably get today because I haven't gotten it yet) but can you send out my big coat (I'm getting used to warm weather so 30 degrees is freezing... bah dum chh), a new laundry bag (preferably something not mesh. The hooks in my skirts snag it all the time and rips big holes), and our Canciones Para Los Ninos book (I actually don't remember if we have one... but I want it for Christmas). And if you could send this package directly to my apartment, I need it soon!

 

Okay. Now on to the fun.

 

We're super duper excited for Christmas! We decided to try to make the most out of Christmas, we're going to go carolling (which is why I need the song book soon.. more Christmas songs to sing). We are going to try to visit every person in our area, member, investigator, former investigator. Everyone. And we're going to sing a song, tell them how much we love them, see if there's any kind of service we can give, sing another and leave. Flor (one of the young women) wants to come with us. Speaking of young women, Hna. Cuevas said she was going to send the letters today... But that's our plans for the holiday, besides Skyping. We're really excited! That way we're not invading too much on everyone's family time. We're slowly getting a little group to come with us.

 

The big story for the week:

 

We went to go visit our family of investigators, Jorge (53), Jenny (17), Gabi (15), and Katy (13). We were all ready to teach a lesson on faith with Jorge, using Elder Bednar's talk from a CES Fireside this last year about having faith to not be healed. We knocked on the door and Jenny answered. We could tell something was up right away so we asked what was going on and if we needed to come back at a better time. This is when we found out that Katy had ran away. Erm... Alright... So now what do we do? So Jorge came out and started talking to us about what was going on and we could tell he was super emotional so we just let him say what he needed to say. At the end of it he asked me what I thought. I asked him if he had prayed. He said he does morning and night. I asked if he prayed since Katy ran away and he said he didn't have time to yet. I asked him if it was okay if we said a prayer with him right then and if it'd be okay if I said it. We got Jenny to come in and sit with us but Gabi wouldn't. Okay. I felt a strong impression to do something along the lines of a harvest blessing (I don't know if I ever told you about those, but it's something we did in the Riverside mission) so I did. As soon as I said, "By the virtue of our calling as missionaries and representatives of Jesus Christ, the Spirit filled the room. It was super cool. There was nothing spectacular about the prayer, but the Spirit was really strong. I prayed that we would be able to find Katy and that the family would see Heavenly Father's love. As soon as I closed the prayer, the phone rang. It was a woman named Guadalupe. Her daughter was friends with Katy and Katy was at their house. Miracle!

The saddest part about this story is the fact that Jenny and Jorge didn't realize what just happened. Hermana Harris even explained to them what just happened and they still didn't think it was a miracle. Jorge just focused on how bad his girls were, then proceeded to drop us.

We know he was mostly acting out of high emotions, so we weren't too insulted by him dropping us, we were just completely shocked. We figure we're going to give them some time to cool down and then check back up in a week or so. It just amazed us on how oblivious they were. We realized that moments like that are why Heavenly Father doesn't always perform miracles at the drop of a hat.

The moral of this story is, even if it didn't for them, this experience was a huge testimony builder for me on prayer, how Heavenly Father answers the prayers of the faithful, and just how sacred our calling is.

 

Tell me about it on the whole halfway through the mission thing. My brain wants to explode every time I think about it. I really think the main reason I won't want to go home is because I'll still feel like I just got here.

 

Well! I love you all!

 

Hermana Myers