22nd Email: 4th Week in Morgantown

What a beautiful day! The sun is shining, the snow is melting, and the church is true. I'm so grateful to be a missionary, because I knew the church was true before I came here, but out here it's all I think about all day, every day. I love thinking and talking about the gospel all day. Recently, the words to a primary hymn have been stuck in my head, and they have meant a lot more to me now than when I sang them for fun in primary. "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know who I am. I know God's plan. I'll follow Him in faith! I believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ. I'll honor His name! I'll do what is right. I'll follow His light. His truth I will proclaim!"

 

So we had a great lesson the other day with T-. We watched the three mormon messages with Elder Bednar called "Patterns of Light," and we discussed each video. They talk about the light of Christ and the Holy Ghost, and how we are guided. We talked about how sometimes God doesn't lead us by the hand as much as we'd like Him to because He trusts us and wants us to make our own decisions. At one point, we were talking about the atonement, and I drew an analogy on the white board that I learned from a great mission prep teacher once upon a time... I drew a pit that represented physical death and a pit that represented spiritual death. It is only because of Jesus Christ that we will not be stuck in these pits forever. I drew a bridge over the physical death pit, and explained that because of Christ's resurrection, we will all be resurrected, no matter what. We don't have to do anything to deserve this. It'll just happen. Then I drew 5 stairs leading out of the spiritual death pit. These stairs represent faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Christ has provided a way for us to overcome spiritual death. It's called the gospel of Jesus Christ. The lesson went really well. Later that night, she texted us and said, "It seems like every night that I read it's about something we talked about, 2 Corinthians 7:10 is what Sister Myers said about the stairs, and 7:16 is the part about God trusting me to choose..." It was so sweet! I was thinking about it, and if Heavenly Father wanted T- to read those verses, He totally could have inspired us to find them during our personal study and share them with her, but how much more meaningful was it for her to find them on her own?? Ah. Heavenly Father is so cool.

 

Whelp! Have a great week everybody! I love you! :)

 

Love,

Sister Myers

21st Email: 3rd Week in Morgantown

Hello everyone!

 

Sorry this update is a little late...The library was closed on Monday because of the holiday, and then it was closed Tuesday and Wednesday due to "increment weather"....haha I'm not used to things shutting down because of a little snow. But it's open today!

 

Everything is going pretty good. We had an awesome lesson with T- the other day. She is so awesome! We met her at the opening social for institute a couple of weeks ago. She came with her boyfriend, who is a member, and it turns out she's been meeting with missionaries for a while and wants us to keep teaching her! So we've had a couple lessons, and she's great. She is such an honest seeker of truth. She loves God, and she just wants to do what He wants her to do. She's a little uneasy because she's worried that she'll make her decision based on her feelings for her boyfriend, and that's not what she wants. So in our last lesson, she told us something she's doing to make sure that she's putting God first in her life. Every night before she goes to bed, she calls her boyfriend, but before she calls him, she writes a letter to God. How sweet is that? She writes Him a letter because she feels like her prayers aren't as sincere as she wants them to be because her thoughts wander and she gets lazy, she now she writes Him a letter to keep her mind focused and to make it more meaningful. I love it! Basically Tara knows all the doctrine, because the other missionaries taught her everything, and now she just needs to find her answer on her own. Which she's doing! She's reading from the Book of Mormon every night, coming to church, and even institute! Yeah. I'm excited for her. When people are honestly looking for truth, they will find it.

 

I'm enjoying being a Sister Training Leader. It's different, and sometimes stressful, but it's good stress. When Elder Nielsen came, he told us to make a list of things we will change so that we can be better. I thought about it a lot, and one thing I decided I want to do is to stop focusing so much on myself, and my problems, and start focusing more on others, especially the other missionaries. I want to worry less about how I can be a better missionary and more about how I can help others be better missionaries. Being a Sister Training Leader is the perfect opportunity. The other day Sister Larkin and I were talking with the Zone Leaders for a good hour about the sisters in our zone and the problems their having, and it just felt so good and right to be focusing on them. I really want to help them, and I don't really know how to help them, but I know the Lord called me here for a reason, so all I can do is do my best and He will make up the rest.

 

Love,

Sister Myers

 

P.S. I love President and Sister Pitt

20th Email: 2nd Week in Morgantown

Ah! This week was so good! So many good things are going on, and I love it here in Morgantown. I've heard that this is the coveted area to serve in the mission, and now I'm starting to understand why. It's so fun.

So the week started out a little slow, just because the students weren't back yet from the break. Also, it was super cold. The high on Tuesday was probably around 5 degrees. And...our pipes froze! No indoor plumbing for us! Haha that was an adventure. It wasn't too bad though. They were only frozen for a couple of days. It was funny though, because the last night they were frozen, we decided to just spend the night at the other sisters' place so we could shower over there in the morning, and guess whose pipes froze that night? Yup! So the four of us had to go to the OTHER sisters' apartment in Morgantown (There are a lot of missionaries in Morgantown) and use their shower.

On Tuesday Sister Larkin and I taught at our Zone meeting with the Zone Leaders. It was so good! We talked about the sons of Mosiah and why they were so successful and happy as missionaries, and then the Zone Leaders talked about the army of Helaman. Then we went into the gym and played a sweet game of toilet paper dodgeball! One team was the stripling warriors and the other was the Lamanites. Before the game started, we gave everyone on the Lamanite team a handicap that represented some form of disobedience (i.e. one missionary slept in late, so he had to be blind folded for the whole game. He wanted to keep his eyes closed anyway!). After the game, we sat in a circle, had a couple missionaries share their testimonies, and Sister Larkin and I sang a hymn to invite the Spirit. Then Sister Larkin and I taught from a talk called "The Fourth Missionary." It was so great! It talks about how there are four kinds of missionaries. The first two are disobedient; the first goes home early, but the second stays for the full 2 years or 18 months. The third and fourth missionaries are both obedient, but the difference is the third missionary hasn't given the Lord his heart. He has only given the Lord his might and strength. The fourth missionary has given the Lord his heart, might, mind, and strength. We talked about how the only missionary who is truly happy is the fourth missionary. The second, third, and fourth missionary all give up 2 years of their lives, but only the fourth missionary is happy about it. We need to want what the Lord wants. The talk says, "you can't be happy unless you WANT to do the things that lead to happiness, even if you do those very things." Let that really sink in. Being an obedient missionary is something that leads to happiness, but third missionary doesn't really want to be obedient, so how can he be happy doing it? It just makes sense! Anyway, that talk is really, really good, and I can't do it justice by summarizing a few points, so go read it!

On Friday the whole mission gathered in Sissonville, WV to hear from Elder S. Gifford Nielsen. Exclamation point! (Normally we would have gone to Charleston, but the Charleston church building is under renovation). It was so good! It was really cool to have the whole mission together and to see all the friends I've made so far. (There are around 225 missionaries in my mission). Anyways, Elder Nielsen was great. He's really funny too. He talked about a lot of really great things, and I wish I had time to talk about it all, but just know that it was great! He went into a little more depth about the story of the missionary who worked so hard and had really tattered shoes at the end of his mission, and his stake president had the shoes bronzed as a memorial. He ended his talk by challenging us to look at our lives, and if there is anything amiss, fix it now! My time as a missionary is precious, and I can't waste a minute of it. When else will my life ever be so simple? Right now it's just me and the Savior. It was really cool because Elder Nielsen talked about a lot of the same things that we taught at our zone meeting. Man, this was just the perfect way to start the new year. Awesome zone meeting, awesome general authority address... It hit me the other day that, this year is pretty much it for me. After 2014 is over, I only have about a month before I go home. This is it! I need to make 2014 the best year, because it's all I have. Kinda crazy to think about. 18 months really is not very much time at all. Tomorrow is my 5 month mark! Ah. So anyways, I just want to do my best for the Lord. This is His time, not mine, and I don't want to waste it.

Love,

Sister Melissa Myers

19th Email: 1st Week in Morgantown, West Virginia

Whelp! Hello to the new year, a new transfer, a new companion, and a new area! On Thursday I was transfered to the one and only Morgantown, West Virginia. And I'm so excited! So my companion's name is Sister Larkin, and she is fantastic. She's been out a transfer longer than me, and she's just great! We're serving in the Morgantown University ward, so we'll just be teaching the students here. Oh, I've also been called to be a Sister Training Leader with Sister Larkin. An STL is pretty much like a Zone Leader, I guess, so I'll be doing things like going on exchanges with the sisters in our zone (which I did during my first transfer because Sister Tuckett was an STL), going to MLC (Missionary Leadership Conference), helping teach in zone meetings, and I don't really know what else! I'm glad Sister Larkin was an STL last transfer, so at least one of us knows what she's doing. But anyways, I'm super excited, and I love it here already.

 

We have a zone meeting tomorrow, and it should be awesome. We're going to talk about the army of Helaman, the sons of Mosiah, and this really sweet talk called "Be the Fourth Missionary." If you ever get the chance to read it, do it! It's super good for missionaries, but it can really apply to everyone in any stage of life. But yeah, it should be really good. I'm a little nervous to be an STL, because it's a lot of responsibility, and I just hope I can step up to the plate and be the leader I need to be. I was thinking about it the other day, and I feel pretty good, pretty comfortable about being a missionary, teaching about the gospel, helping investigators....but...I don't know how to help the other missionaries! I know how to teach about the restoration, I know how to be a good missionary, but how do I teach others how to be a good missionary?? I know the Lord will qualify me though, and I'm excited to see what happens this transfer. We haven't taught much since I got here because most of the students have been gone for Christmas break, but they'll all be coming back this week, and Sister Larkin has a whole list of people who said we could come teach them after the break. So it should start picking up soon! It's gonna be a party!

 

It snowed the first day I got here, and I'm so glad. I usually like snow for the first few weeks of winter, and this is pretty much the first time I've seen it since I've been out! It reminds me of Utah. :) "Utah! People working together! Utah! What a great place to be!" Anyway, it's been pretty chilly here, but it's alright. Oh, and did I mention that there are only two walking areas for sisters in this mission....and I'm in one of them! I'm so glad I bought good walking shoes. I'm actually really excited to be walking. Sitting in the car all the time gets pretty old, and it's easier to talk to more people when you're on foot.

 

Well, I love you all, and I hope you have a great 2014. It's gonna be a great year.

 

Love,

Sister Myers