March 25, 2019

Hello Ya'll!!!

wow so many things to write about. I wasn't able to write last week because I had just got into the mission and we didn't have time, but Sister Grayson let us all make a super quick phone call to make up for it. 

But anyways last week of the MTC was so fun, I was so anxious about out TRC Carrie but me and sister Lucas studied super hard, but at our next lesson we just decided to go off of the spirit and it went so well! our last lesson was the best because we pretty much just had a discussion about her questions and about her lesson, and it went so well! our last lesson was defiantly our best, although it was kind of sad to think that we're never going to teach her again. I got so close with my roommates the last week, I'm going to miss them so much :(  All of us had so much fun in our last week, the sisters in my zone got really into playing four square at gym time, and I got kind of almost good at it. Being an STL was really fun because we got to welcome the new district into our zone. I also saw Eva!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! aka sister Alveraz, she gave me the smarties and sewing kit, thank you so much for those!!!!! it was really cool to see her one last time. Saying goodbye to my district was so sad:( they're all going to be such good missionaries. 

The day we left it was just me, sister Lucas, Elder Miles and another elder. even though we left at 5 in the morning we were talked to a lot of people on the way to the airport. this is Salt Lake so pretty much everyone knew that we were leaving for our missions. haha fun story at the airport we had some time so we all went to get some lunch at cafe rio, i wasn't going to get anything because I wanted to save my money, but then this random guy gave us me and sister Lucas $20 to spend on our lunch, and I was like say what??? but then I remembered that this is salt lake. so we get our food, we get to the checkout and this lady (that we met earlier) paid for all of our food and I was like say whatttttt?? but then I remembered that this is salt lake. It was really nice though, then while we were eating this guy offered us a free meal voucher thing, but we declined because our flight was leaving soon. but I really liked this experiences because as we were eating I sorta realized that to others around me I'm not Megan,  I'm a missionary and it's my responsibility to always act like a missionary and to always try and be kind, polite and courteous to others. 

Before we knew it we were at the Georgia Atlanta Airport!!! President Grayson is super kind and Sister Grayson is the best. the mission home was really fun, I got to meet the AP's and hangout with sister Lucas and elders Miles one last time (both are from my MTC district) OH YEAH, we also met the first councilor from the mission presidency, president Fussell, he is SOUTHEREN and he is SO funnnnnnyy. He's got a really strong accent and tells really smart, but cheesy jokes. Also It is so beautiful here!!!!! I miss the mountains but  the trees here are enchanting. btw I'm in Savannah!!!!! which I hear is the coolest/super prettiest area. Me and my trainers are white-washing in the west-Chatham ward, which is a brand new ward! exciting! There's so much green here! flowers are blooming, the Spanish moss is hanging and the birds sound so happy to be here. 

MY TRAINERS ARE CRAZY and I love them. I'm in a trio with sister Maddox (she's from Utah and she's going home in 6 weeks) and sister Curtis (she's from queen creek arizona and has been out for 7ish months). both of them are so fun! We get along so well and we've already got so many inside jokes. The first day we planned and studied but we also visited the serbin family, and they've got the cutest kids!!!!! we were visiting with them and Olivia (who like 2 years old) kept giving me toys and stuffed animals, she is such a peach! 

hAAAAAAAAAAAAA we also went grocery shopping and I had to buy all my food for the next week and ya'll've LAUGHED so hard seeing me trying to figure out how much food I was gonna need. One of my favorite experiences happened the next day, we were out in the boonies because this guy ordered a bible and a Book of Mormon so we were out to deliver it, and its the boonies so we wern't sure where exactly he lived, but we tried a house that we thought was his and no one answered, but instead of leaving we felt prompted to wait in the car for 10 minutes and sure enough 10 minuets later we saw him walking up the road. He was so eager to learn and had some really deep questions about the gentiles and the promised land and about the world losing the way, and so we gave him the Book of Mormon and invited him to read 1 Nephi 13. It was so cool because as we drove away we could see him sitting on the porch and reading. so cool!!! HA we also met the sapps this week. 

Week we mainly focused on visiting the members of the new ward and building trust. We met the new Bishop, Bishop Checketts. He's got a big southern family,  and great is excited about the new ward, he's very missionary minded which is great! we also met with the Weller family, they're all super artistic and big marvel fans so visiting with them was really fun! Sister Wellers and her daughter Kylea have a balloon animal making business and they're pretty good, they made me a jellyfish! (i'll have to send a picture) Overall I'm really loving all the people here. Being here has been pretty overwhelming with new information and new people, but I know that I'm not going to know everything now, my biggest resource in learning how to be a good missionary is the spirit. 

My apartment is really NICE it's BIG it's NEW and it's kinda close to this pond that's got a gator in it. we've also got a nice car. For my first meal here my trainers took me to waffle house, and we clicked right away we have to many common interests and our personalities really compliment each other. apparently they knew that they were going to be training me before I was assigned to them. They've been really good teachers and great friends. The music situation is awesome! I'm allowed to listen to anything as long as it is spiritually uplifting and abides by the rules of the missionary handbook. My favorite song to listen to is called "The Call" by Regina Specktor, I recommend ya'll give it all a listen. HEH also sister Curtis dropped sister Maddox's phone into some water, which was a blessing in disguise because we went to Verizon after to see if we could get it fixed  and we met Jeff. He's a sales person there and he was really interested in what we do as missionaries, he asked a bunch of questions and we gave him a book of mormon! 

Sunday was Funday. all of the talks were by the Wellers family. all of them. Relief society was so sos sosososososo funnnnn. after church we had a linger longer which was awesome. Bishop Checketts had this cool 'get to know all the families' activity where we had to organize our familes alphabetically in a line, our trio went to the 'm' space for missionaries heh. but yeah he's gonna be such a good bishop, he's got great energy. I also got a tomato plant from the Serbin family!! I named her Savannah :) 

Overall it's been a great blur of a first week. We met lots of members and we've had out first dinner appointment with the McPhee family (they live on the military base cool cool) Lots of good people here, lots of churches, lots of beautiful trees. I hope ya'll are doing goo back home! it's so cool to hear what ya'll are up to. I hope everything's going great with work and school.
I love ya'll so much!
Sister Maller

March 12, 2019

HOW DY
Wow this week was a blur, we had a bunch of TRC's and they've taught me so much! the first TRC me and sister Lucas taught was with this girl named Emerald (who I TOTALLY think was a member pretending to be an investigator, like it was really obvious at times but ya know what ever she was really fun to teach because she was just super eager to learn. our second TRC was one of my favorites, her name is Atenas and she was so fun to talk with, she's been taking English classes at BYU and was interested in the church, we were able to teach her about prayer and about the restoration. but Oh man our last TRC (the one that we got yesterday) is going to be really challenging, her name is Carrie and she's a psychology major, and teaching her was really tricky because she was super skeptical about like what the spirit was and how one could tell the difference between the spirit and our own thoughts, so we pretty much just tried to explain the spirit to her in our TRC when our original lesson was to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but yeah I think It'll be a good experience teaching someone like that, because right after that lesson I felt pretty discouraged, but I also felt like I wanted to learn more. It'll be a good challenge.
Classes this week were really fun, we got to do a lot of role playing and a lot of lesson planning. Sister Lucas got sick so we got to take a little field trip to the clinic down the road and pick up some medicine, so she's been doing better, but then I got sick and oh wow my voice sounded so scratchy, but I've been feeling a lot better today and it's probably because of all the free orange juice I've been drinking. I got to know my district a little better this week, we've been doing district activities after companion study and those have been so fun!! we mostly play pictionary or hang-man, I even introduced them to chicken taco, Sister Togisala is so fun to hang out with, like every time we're together we're either quoting nacho or causing shenanigans. But I think it's a good thing we're not companions because we'd probably get no work done.  also we checked on family search and she's my 7th cousin!!!!!!!!!! how crazy is that?
I've also been getting to know sister Lucas better this week and I really like having her as my companion. Hanging out with her is fun though we both like similar movies and songs and we both like hanging out with sister mittens!!! we see her so much now just chilling outside. Oh yeah I also most forgot me and sister Lucas were called to be STL's (sister training leaders) and that's been cool! it's a lot of responsibility but I'm just going to have to role with it. I don't think it'll be too hard though, we're only getting 1 new district in our zone this week, and the sisters in our zone are pretty chill, so I don't think there will be too many problems, and after all we're only going to be STL's until the 18th so hopefully it's smooth sailing untill then.
This last Sunday was amazing!! it was probably one of my favorite days of the week. Me and Sister Lucas both decided to join choir and that was so so fun!!!!! it was great to sing again, but the director was so good. The song we're working on is 'more holiness give me' it's such a beautiful song. But during choir we would sing through a section once or twice and then the conductor would talk about the composer Phillip Paul Bliss. He was such a cool person he basically left everything to travel with this preacher and write hymns, and one of the hymns he wrote was 'more holiness give me' but he titled it 'My Prayer'. One story I liked in particular is one day Phillip was was in a church meeting and someone asked him to go p and sing 'My Prayer' and so he got up, but he hesitated before he sang and he said "I don't think I will ever be able to sing this song truthfully again" and everyone was like wait what? you had such great faith why would you say that ect ect, but then he answered and told them that the 7th line "more joy in his service" was the one he could never sing truthfully again, because he had received so much joy from serving the Lord and writing hymns that he didn't believe he could ever find more joy that that which the Lord had already filled his life with, and I Thought that was really cool because the gospel has brought me so much joy, and I know that that Joy will only multiply while I'm on mu mission. For the Sunday Devotional the BYU men's choir came and sang, they sounded so good!!! my favorite songs they sang were 'You raise me up', 'master the tempest is raging' and ;He ain't heavy, he's my brother'. I think ya'll would really like these songs and I invite you to listen to them, they really brought the spirit to me. And then the evening went from good to great! because we got to watch the characters of Christ and I LOVED it, the whole talk was phenomenal and it really inspired me to be more like Christ and to forget myself and turn outward and do all that I can to serve and be kind to others. So yeah Sunday was really great.
There were also so many miracles this week. This one night I was trying to fall asleep when all of the sudden my stomach started really hurting and I thought I was going to throw up, I was like nooooooooo cause throwing up it the WORST. so I got out of bed and I just started pacing up and down the halls and stretching. I also started praying hard that my stomach would feel normal again so I could go back to sleep, and after a while all of the sudden it just stopped and I was able to go back to bed and my stomach hasn't hurt since. But yeah just being at the MTC I've seen so many small miracles its crazy how many we miss.
I bet Eva's talk was great, I'm sad I couldn't be there to see it, but I'm excite to see her soon
Thanks so much for sending smarties with Eva!!!!! would you be able to send a little sewing kit as well? one of my skirts ripped at the seam :( Also before I forget one thing I wanted to ask was who got to eat my left overs from chianti's and BP? also , what was captin Marvel like???? i need spoilers!!! lol anways this week has been really really great The sisters in my zone are so fun to be with and sister mittens is my unofficial senior companion. I cant wait to learn even more this coming week, and it's so crazy to think that this time next week I'll be in Georgia, I hope you guys are doing well and having a fun time in Calgary.
I LOVE YOU

March 5 - 2019

Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and happy p-day

The airport was good, I had a little trouble finding the immigration office but I just asked some worker and they showed me where (ask and ye shall receive heheheheh), I hung out in this store for a bit before my flight and proud Mary was playing and for some reason it really pumped me up for my mission. so anyways the flight there was really good, I started talking to the person sitting next to me cause I thought, hey I'm a missionary now, but it turns out she was a member (which I should have figured because hey this is a flight to salt lake) But anyways we talked for like the whole flight and she told me all these stories about her daughters who are both on missions and I told her about some of the crazy things that ward has done. but yeah I was kinda nervous about being super bored during the flight, but it totally flew by (hahah get it cause it's a plane heheh). Then I met up with Emily at the Airport and she introduced me to all her roommates (they're all so fun) and we pretty much stayed up till midnight just hanging out, it was so fun though cause this guy dropped by and he went to Georgia and so we talked for like a solid hour about his mission experiences. Also Grace and David stopped by!!!!  Hanging out with Mike Cherie and Barb was really fun I bought some cool jewelry at the BYU bookstore. and then boom I was at the MTC my first few days were a blur, I remember the first night I woke up like 12 times cause it was so cold, learning how to sleep without 11 blankets it going to be one of my personal el Guapo's in the MTC hehehe. but yeah by the next night I slept fine. I love my roomates by the way. I was so nervous that we wern' t going to get along but we clicked so well. My Roommates are Sister Campos, Sister Togisala and Sister Lucas. Sister Lucas is my companion she's a former BYU student. She is SO nice. Sister Campos is SUPER chill and a lil sassy and gets most of my vine references so she's  keeper. oh man tho sister Togisala is so funny!!! we both quote Nacho and Tommy Boy like every day. Overall They're all so fun to be with. I'll send you a bunch of pictures of them. I've seen Elder Belanger and Elder McMullen and sister Molner a bunch of times, it's nice to see some fellow Canadians. 

My MTC experience has been a wild blur all of our teachers and our branch president are so smart and insightful. I've learned so much about teaching and how to simply teach important doctrine. As far as the schedule goes it's pretty busy but nothing I didn't expect, I read the missionary handbook and there's a lot of rules but nothing i didn't expect. One of my favorite times of the day is exercise time. Me and sister Togisala usually lift eights and we'll motivate each other by saying "Ramses is number one, his muscles are number one ect ect" It's so funny. I also really liked last Sunday. It was fast Sunday so I was pretty hungry and a little slow that day, but one of the elders said something that really stuck with me, he said "Pain is universal, but suffering is optional" and I think That's so true, like the MTC is going to be full of hard things and the field is going t be full of hard things, but them bringing me down is optional. It reminds me of how in 'Primcess Diaries' That one guy said "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" and Like that's so true a huge part of perception and experience is in your attitude, so yeah I know that all my personal El Guapos  will be more bearable with the help pf the Lord and with a good attitude. We've had so many good lessons here, one that I'm really going to try and live on my mission is 'talk to everyone' #no child left behind

Also THERES A CAT HERE ON CAMPUS, her name is sister mittens and she is my senior companion, she is so cute!!! I'll send you pictures of her. We always see her chilling out and we've even snuck her into our dorm building a couple of times, she is just such a cutie. The food here is actually not too bad, I can eat all the ice cream sandwiches I want!!!!!!!! and there's no one here to stop me!!!!!!!!!!! but I don't like ice cream sandwiches so I haven't has any. But I have had my fair share of ice cream bars. And this one morning Sister Lucas dared me to mix all the juices together into one big mega Pangaea juice. so obviously I did that, and it disappointingly tasted mostly of orange :( :( :(. But yeah the food good, and my district is super funny, we always eat together and just yesterday and we stacked  a bunch of forks on this cup and then we stacked a bunch of plates on the forks and we made a tower of dishes and we dubbed it the Holy Grail.  It's pretty challenging just all the stuff I want to learn and the expectations I have for myself, it was pretty hard the first couple of days cause I was sooooooooo tired cause it would take me so long to fall asleep and them I'd get up right at 6:30, but after a week I'm pretty use to it.Me and Sister Lucas started teaching this girl named Emerald and we just had out first lesson yesterday where we talked about Faith, Prayer and God is our loving Heavenly Father, I think she really liked it, we invited her to pray after the lesson and she said yes, she also accepted our challenge to pray to know if God knows her personally. But yeah it's been a fun and spiritual week. I hope you all are doing well, tell Eva I cant wit to see her at the MTC and that she's going to love it and to just have a good attitude about every thing. One last thing we Had this really good speaker last Sunday, Brad Wilcox, you guys should check him out, he's a speaker kinda like Hank Smith I think. 

I've got all my thank you cards done, I'll probably mail them back along with my coat, speaking of mail, if you're able to could you send me a lil sewing kit with white, black and tan string por favor. also SOS (Send O-lot-of Smarties) I miss them. but not as much as I miss you guys.

I'll be able to answer emails until 6 today

Love ya'll