Heavenly Father likes to give us lovely sunsets

Sister Larrabee loves Christmas

18th Email: 18th Week in Salem

I love Salem so much. This week is transfers, and we know two of us are being transferred, but we won't know who exactly until Tuesday night. So we're all kind of freaking out! I know the Lord sends his missionaries wherever he needs them, and all I can say is I hope he still needs me in Salem! As of yesterday, I have been in Salem for exactly 4 months, and I have really come to LOVE the people here. I love the ward, I love our investigators, I love my companions...I just love everyone! I have loved watching people change for the better and progress in the gospel, and that's why I would love to stay in Salem. I want to keep being a part of their lives! I want to see R-- overcome his depression and anxiety with the help of the Lord and come to church. I want to see D-- read the Book of Mormon, rekindle his testimony, and realize that he can repent, and he can change. I want to see S-- find peace and comfort in the Book of Mormon as she is coping with the death of her husband. I want to see J-- come to realize that the Book of Mormon and the gospel can help her follow Jesus Christ more fully. I want to see V-- be baptized by her grandson and get to be sealed to her family in the temple! But I know that no matter where I am, that's where the Lord wants me to be, and I will come to love everyone I serve. It'll be hard to leave though, because the people here are seriously like family to me. It's crazy how you can come to love someone in such a short amount of time.

 

Anyways, this last week was great. I love Christmas! Don't worry, we had a wonderful Christmas and we were very well taken care of. We had 4 feasts throughout the week because the members are so sweet and so many wanted to feed us! It was so great to talk to my family on Christmas. I love you people so much! I am grateful for technology and whoever invented skype. Such a wonderful blessing!

 

Oh, so Saturday night was pretty exciting. It was 10:29, I was about to climb into bed, and there arose such a clatter. I went to where my companions were to see what was the matter. Turns out, the toilet was clogged, and while Sister Habibpour was trying to unclog it, it decided to overflow! Yup! Suddenly there was toilet water everywhere. We cleaned up the water with some towels...and then went to bed! Hopefully no one was too confused when they saw three Mormon missionaries at Walmart at 6:30 on a Sunday morning. We needed to use the restroom somewhere, and obviously, we can't handle our own indoor plumbing. Missions are full of fun adventures... :)

 

Well, I love you all, and I hope you have a great week. And a great new year! Sheesh...where in the world did 2013 go?

 

Love,

Sister Myers

17th Email: 17th Week in Salem

I love Christmas time! It's the most wonderful time of the year. For real though. Isn't it just the best? So joyful. Speaking of joy, we had an awesome meeting with just the sisters in the Roanoke Zone and one thing we talked about was having joy. This lady from the Vinton Ward came and talked about her "Joy Philosophy." It was really great. Happiness is a choice! One thing she encouraged us to do is to write 5 things in our journal at the end of the day that brought us joy. The more you look for and notice joyful moments, the happier you'll be! Makes sense, right? There is seriously so much to be happy for.

 

Next month Elder S. Gifford Nielsen will be coming to our mission and enlightening us with some great inspiration! Exclamation point! :D So that'll be pretty sweet. The whole mission will be meeting in Charleston, so it'll be nice to see my MTC buddies. I love them! I've seen a couple of them since I've been out, but not much.

 

We taught K-- on Saturday about the temple and family history, and soon she'll be on her way to the house of the Lord! So great! I think the youth of our ward are going in February, so that'll be good. Hopefull she can go sooner than that. There aren't any super close temples here. If you've got a temple near you, go! Take advantage of it! There are so many people who would love to go every week, but they just can't because it's too far away.

 

Well, I hope you all have a very merry Christmas! Christ is what Christmas is all about. Think about what He gave to the world. Think about what He gave YOU. What will you give to Christ this year? We are so blessed to have a knowledge of our Savior. He lives. He suffered and died for us that we might live. He is the Redeemer of the world! Let's share these good tidings of great joy with all people.

 

Love,

Sister Myers

16th Email: 16th Week in Salem

So this week has been wonderful. And long! And short. Missionary time is so weird. But I love it!

 

We taught V-- on Tuesday, and set her on date for the 22nd of this month. It was so sweet! She's great. She's the one who her grandson gave her a Book of Mormon in January, and she was a referral from a lady in the ward. She lives with her daughter, who is a member. For the past couple weeks she has been a little hesitant about baptism. She said she knew it was all true and she felt good about it, but for some reason there was just a nagging in the back of her mind, and she wasn't even sure what it was. They went out of town for Thanksgiving, and I guess she found peace while she was gone, because when she got back she was ready. It was so cute when we asked her how she felt about baptism because she said, "Well, I want to, but I don't know when I want to. I don't think I want to do it while the weather's so cold." We assured her that the water in the font would be warm, so the weather wouldn't be a problem. She said, "Oh, okay," and thought for a second and said, "Well maybe it could be Troy's Christmas present." (Troy is the grandson that gave her the Book of Mormon. He's in his late 20s.) How perfect is that? What could be a better Christmas present than to bring someone into the waters of baptism so they can covenant with God and commit the rest of their lives to following Christ? What could be a better Christmas present for Christ?? So anyways, her baptism will be on the 22nd, and we are so excited.

 

We had a meeting/Christmas Devotional with the Pitts on Wednesday, and it was awesome. I love the Pitts. Some of the missionaries did musical numbers, and since Sister Larrabee and Habibpour are waiting to go to Brazil, we decided to sing a Christmas hymn in Portugese! It was great! We sang Silent Night, and I have no idea what the words meant that we sang, but it was a lot of fun! I've been picking up on some words here and there from their language study. Who knows? Maybe they'll just ship me off to Brazil too!

 

One of this week's highlights was the fact that church was NOT canceled. It's crazy the things we take for granted without realizing it. Church has been such a constant in my life, and going two weeks without it was rough! So yeah. I love church. Ya'll better go to church every Sunday, because it's so great. And I'm so glad we had church because K-- and F-- were both waiting to be confirmed! I'm so happy for them. And for F--'s wife. She has been married to F-- for over 20 years, and hasn't pressured him at all about the church, and now he's finally come around! In his confirmation, it was mentioned that they would go to the temple. How beautiful is that? That's what this work is all about. Bringing families to Christ. Families. Together. The church is true. Go out and tell the world! Shout it on the rooftops! The world needs the light of the gospel.

 

Love,

Sister Myers

15th Email: 15th Week in Salem

Well hello everyone. I hope you have had a great week. I hear the weather is a bit chilly over there! Today I didn't even wear my coat to the library. It's been raining a little, and it is kind of cold, but not too bad. Apparently there was supposed to be some huge ice storm yesterday, and so Saturday night the Stake Presidency decided to cancel church on Sunday. So we haven't had church for two weeks in a row! Crazy stuff! Pretty much there's a famine in the land. Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. And it's too bad because the weather wasn't that bad yesterday! It was pretty much the same as today. Also, R--, our investigator who has been progressing really well but has been nervous to come to church, was going to come yesterday! Bah! As Sister Vest from the ward says, the devil's in the details.

 

So remember how one time Sister Habibpour raked leaves for this lady and she invited us in? We've basically become really good friends with her, even though she's super active in a Methodist church. And when we saw her this week, our goal was to invite her to learn more about the church. I was super nervous to ask her, but I really felt I needed to, so I just did it, and it was great! I told her how there are three basic lessons we teach that give people a basic understanding of our church and what we believe, and how we'd love to share it with her because it will strengthen her faith in Christ. And she just said sure! It was awesome. And it all started with service! That's how we do things here in Salem--Ammon Style. I'm excited to share the lessons with her. I know she's not looking for a church and isn't planning on leaving her church, but I hope the spirit will just touch her heart and she can realize that there's a hole in her heart that she didn't know was there.

 

The coolest thing happened with R-- the other day (he's the one who is nervous about coming to church). We were talking about how important it is to keep God's commandments, and the blessings that come from obedience. Then we talked about how church is something God wants R-- to do. It's also hard for him to come because he takes care of his 98-year-old mother with alzheimmers, and he can't leave her alone, so he would need to bring her with him. He looked at her and said, "What do you think? Do you want to come to church with me?" Normally, if his mom joins the conversation, she kind of mumbles something random and usually incoherent, but when R-- asked her that question, she said, cleary, "That depends. It depends on whether or not you want to. If you don't want to do something, you won't do it." She said, "If you want to do something, you've got to make sure the circumstances are right." It was incredible! even R-- was a bit flabbergasted. I asked him, "So...do you want to come to church?" He said yes, and I asked him if he was willing to do whatever it takes to get to church on Sunday, to which he also said yes. Ah. It was such a great lesson. It was incredible to see the Lord work on R-- through his mother! The church is true.

 

Love,

Sister Myers

14th Email: 14th Week in Salem

Dear Everyone,

 

This church is true and I love it. So much! Frank C-- was baptized yesterday, and it was great. It was actually a miracle! So church starts at 11:30, and the baptism was scheduled for 3:00. We went to the church at 9:30 so we could meet with our ward mission leader, and during our meeting, the power went out. Not a big deal, right? Wrong. The bishopric ended up canceling church, because I guess there are liability issues with having church services without power. Also, without electricity, the baptismal font can't be filled with warm water. So Brother Reynolds said, "Well, looks like we're going to have to postpone the baptism." Gah! Our hearts were crushed! But nothing can stop the hastening of the work. We prayed that the power would come back on, and right around the time Sacrament Meeting was supposed to start...it did! Too bad church was canceled and most people had already gone home! So here we are at the church with over 3 hours and nothing to do until the baptism. We decide we're going to go visit some people we had planned to visit later in the day, but when we're just about to leave, guess who shows up? Our investigator, G-- R--! This was the first time he had come to church, and of course, it's the week it gets canceled. But this was a blessing in disguise. Since church was canceled, we took G-- on a tour of the building, and a few of the brethren from the church who were still around joined in and we pretty much ended up having a sweet lesson/testimony-bearing discussion with him. It was sweet! So we ended up staying at the church until the baptism.

 

The baptism was awesome. Frank is awesome! 3 Nephi 9:22 describes him perfectly. He really has come unto Christ "as a little child." He has been married to a member of the church for over 20 years, but has never shown an interest in the church, and she has never pressed it on him. Over time, his heart has been softened, and he finally decided he wanted to take the discussions. And from day one he has really become as a child, willing to submit to the will of the Father. I don't think he fully understands why he is doing everything he is doing, but he does it anyway because he feels that it is right, and that is enough for him. What makes it even better, his decision inspired his two grandaughters, and they were baptized yesterday as well. Families can be together forever! Oh, another reason this baptism was a miracle is the fact that he was even able to physically get in and out of the font without difficulty. Frank had a stroke about a year ago, and he doesn't have much strength or mobility with his legs, so he is bound to a wheelchair. A wonderful brother in the ward built a little dolly/chair thing for him to sit in, and there were five men in white helping him into the font. It was a beautiful sight, and I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood. Seeing so much white reminded me of the temple. Anyways, it was just an all-around good day, and we were beat by the end of it, but I am grateful to be tired, because I know we're working hard. And that's what a mission is! Work!

 

Oh, something else exciting about this week...we have a new investigator named C--, and he only speaks spanish! Hah! Pretty much Sister Habibpour knows some Spanish, she and Sister Larrabee know Portugese, and I took a year and a half of Spanish in junior high! We were able to talk a little about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon, and to tell him how to get to the church. And when I say we, I mean Sister Larrabee and Sister Habibpour. I think I recognized a total of two words that he said, and I knew how to say muchas gracias and hasta luego when we left. It was actually pretty fun! Anyways, we got a Spanish copy of the Book of Mormon, and we are bringing a brother from the ward who knows Spanish to our next appointment. We'll see how it goes!

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you ate a lot of yummy food! I know I did! Besides, the scriptures say that we should delight in fatness (2 Ne 9:51). I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

 

Love,

Sister Myers