Views from Morgantown

Me and Sister Christensen

WVU campus is so beautiful in Spring!

34th Email: 17th Week in Morgantown

I love being a missionary. My testimony grows every day, and I'm constantly learning new things. I know that this church is true. I have no doubt. Granted, there is a lot that I don't fully understand, but that's okay! God has told me enough. He is my loving, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ is my Savior and most constant friend, the Book of Mormon is truly God's word, Joseph Smith really did restore the true Church of Jesus Christ, which is a living, breathing church, and this knowledge is all we need to return and live with God again. The gospel is so simple and beautiful! Like Nephi, I glory in plainness. I glory in truth. I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.

If you know these things are true, go tell somebody about it! There are so many people in the world who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. The world so desperately needs the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What are you waiting for! Get off the computer or put your phone down, and go spread the good news! Don't know what to say? Just open your mouth. It'll be filled. "Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men; For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say. But a commandment I give unto you, that ye shall declare whatsoever thing ye declare in my name in solemnity of heart, in the spirit of meekness, in all things. And I give unto you this promise, that inasmuch as ye do this the Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record unto all things whatsoever ye shall say."

Love,

Sister Myers

33rd Email: 16th Week in Morgantown

We had our last interviews with President Pitt this week. He'll be going home before we get another one! :( President and Sister Pitt are incredible, and I love them so much. President has such a great love for all the missionaries here, it's almost unreal. I'm going to miss them.

So, we've got this pretty awesome investigator named 'Bobby'. He came to a baptism this week, and he stayed up late thinking about it that night. We saw him yesterday and asked him how his Book of Mormon reading has been going, and he said it's been going great! He's read the first book of Nephi three times! He said when something stands out to you, you should read it several times because then your understanding gets deeper and deeper. The part that really stood out to him was Lehi's vision of the tree of life. Seven years ago, 'Bobby' had a dream that he was up kind of in the mountains, and he was holding tightly to this rod. An iron rod. There was a bit of cliff in front of him that apparently had something behind it everyone wanted to see. He knew that in order to see what was on the other side he would have to let go of the rod and jump, and he just couldn't do it. He felt so ashamed. Other people around him were letting go of the rod, but he couldn't! Then there was a river of water with a bunch of dead bodies floating in it, just like in Lehi's dream! He realized from reading Lehi's vision that he doesn't need to be ashamed for holding to the rod. He's supposed to hold to the rod! Pretty cool.

Well, we had a lot of appointments fall through this week, but that's okay! We're still going strong! It's easy to get discouraged because we're constantly being told that if we are diligent, obedient, and have faith, we will see success. So when we are doing all those things and don't see success, it's natural to feel as if we must be doing something wrong, or something just isn't right. This morning I was reading in John 15, and Christ talks about how he is the vine and we are the branches. We can't produce fruit without his help. But if we do have his help, he promises that we will have success. "I am the vine, and ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." So where is our fruit? Sister Christensen and I talked about it for a while this morning, and maybe we are bringing forth much fruit, but we just can't see it because we're looking for a different kind of fruit. Maybe we think we should be teaching more lessons, or bringing more people to the waters of baptism, but Heavenly Father just wants us to plant seeds, or strengthen the members, or even just learn things and grow in a way that will help our future families. Whatever the case may be, I trust Heavenly Father. I just hope I'm doing all that I need to be and should be doing. I hope I'm abiding in Christ and he is abiding in me.

32nd Email: 15th Week in Morgantown

What a great week! I am completely exhausted! Sister Christensen and I have been working super hard, trying to fine-tune all of our missionary efforts, and it's been awesome. We've seen a lot of miracles this week, and the Lord is blessing us with success. We found 5 people to teach this week, and they are all really awesome. On Monday we left the institute and were just going to go street contact for an hour, but before we could even get past the sidewalk to leave, we ran into this guy named 'Billy'. We ended up talking to him for about 45 minutes about God, and the purpose of this life. Apparently about a month ago he had what he called a "come to Jesus moment" and decided he needed to start making some changes in his life. He quit drinking, and started to pray more, and then he met us! Perfect timing! We had two lessons with him this week, and he's awesome. During our lesson on Saturday, he showed us a picture of some sharks he had drawn, and then he said, "Ya know how sharks can smell blood? Well you sisters are like sharks. That's why you talked to me that first day! It's like you could tell I needed it." So yeah, 'Billy' is really great. Then we had another super crazy miracle on Wednesday. I was on exchanges with Sister Simmons, and we were walking past the institute and stopped to talk to this guy named 'Marco'. He just moved to Morgantown about a month ago to get away from a bad relationship and to just start fresh. He seemed interested in what we had to say, but the only problem was he said he was too busy to learn more because he needed to focus on getting a job to pay for rent. And...he has a track phone with limited minutes, so we can't text him until he get's back on his feet. We gave him a quick tour of the building, and he thought it was pretty cool and he noticed the good feeling inside. So he continues on with his job hunt, and about two hours later, we're walking past the institute again, and there he is again! We ask him how everything's going, and he says it's going great! After we talked to him he got three phone calls from places he had applied and they wanted to interview him! Now he had nothing to do for the rest of the day, so we invited him in the institute for a quick game of pool (we had a lesson in about 15 minutes so we didn't have much time to talk to him) He hadn't taken a Book of Mormon the first time we met him because he didn't want to carry it around, but this time he took one and said he'd read it. He still doesn't want us to text him yet, and he didn't know what his schedule was like, but two days later the Elders were walking downtown and ran into him and said, "Hey, do you want to have a lesson with the Sisters right now?" And conveniently our plans had fallen through and we were right by the institute! So we taught him the Restoration and it went really well. He almost committed to be baptized, and it was just great. I love being a missionary!

Love,

Sister Myers

"Lily's" Baptism

31st Email: 14th Week in Morgantown

What a wonderful week! We weren't able to teach much, but we met a lot of great people and were able to set up a bunch of appointments for the coming week. We saw miracle after miracle, and I can gladly say that this last week completely exhausted me! I am so tired!! But I'm so happy. I love being a missionary. We had a great MLC (Mission Leadership Council) on Tuesday, and Lily's baptism on Friday was perfect. She is so full of light and excited to be doing what the Lord wants her to do. I have loved watching Lily gradually come to accept and love the gospel.

General Conference is wonderful. How blessed are we to hear from the Lord's servants (or in other words, hear from the Lord) every 6 months! I love it. God is constantly reaching out to us! So on Friday we met a guy on the street who bought a Book of Mormon at Good Will just because he felt like it! We talked about the Book of Mormon a little bit, and then we told him about how we have a modern prophet. He thought that was pretty cool, and so we were like, "hey, conveniently...our prophet is speaking to us tomorrow, and it's going to be broadcast to the whole world! Wanna come??" And he totally did! He came to the Sunday morning session, and afterwards he said it was pretty interesting, had a couple of questions, and we set up a time to meet with him on Tuesday! Pretty cool. Pretty cool.

Well, I don't have much else to say, except that I just feel really excited right now. Sister Christensen and I both feel like we are just on the brink of a bunch of success. The work has been a little slow for quite a while, but I know that if we are diligent the Lord will bless us (Alma 26:27). I love the gospel, and I love being a missionary.

Love,

Sister Myers