April 15, 2019

Hi ya'll!!!

Thank ya'll so much for the cards you sent me!!! I really loved each of them they brightened my day so much!

This week went by really fast because we had conference (which I super loved) and we had zone conference and we had 3 week training, so most of this week was meetings. It was so fun to get to know other missionaries from the zone  there's an Elder from Canada in our zone, I forget what his name is though. Zone Conference was fun, Haha word has gotten out that I play the piano so they had me play the opening and closing hymns. We talked about Elder Holland's talk called 'missionary work and the atonement'. It was probably one of my favorite things I read this week.

Three week training was pretty fun too, I got to see sister Lucas again!!! It was awesome to see her and Elder Miles and talk about our old days in the MTC. For three week we pretty much just talked about safety and how well we've been adjusting and how training is going. I think it's been going really great, I'm getting pretty used to the schedule, and even though our area has been kinda crazy with the ward being new I'm excited to do what ever I can while I am here. Three week was especially fun because sister McPhie gave us a ride there and she's so fun! She's an RM so we just talked about our cool mission experiences the whole 3 hour car ride there and back 

Even though we had tons of meetings this week we were able to find some new people and we taught a lesson on the restoration. And that lesson went so well!!!! The spirit was so strong, especially when I gave an account of the first vision, it was so powerful. It was probably my favorite lessons yet. 

LOL this last Sunday they asked us to sub for singing time in primary!!!! Hahahaha! It was so funny because I thought that calling was far behind me, but it was so so fun to teach singing time in primary again! My companions loved it too it was a great way to build trust with the primary president in our ward. That's something we've been really trying to focus on because it's a new ward and we're trying to help the members as much as we can.

LOL also I'll probably have to use money from my own debit card for the rest of this month cause I used my mission card to but a new dress Haha lol but it was worth it, cause I bought it last Monday when we went to down town Savannah. Savannah is so beautiful we went to river street and broughton street and visited a bunch of shops and markets, it was really even cool. And today we're going to Tybee Island!!! Also bad news we've found 5 roaches in our apartment so far and one was in our silverware drawer :( ew. Hahahahahha we also had a surprise apartment inspection, we had an hour to clean before the senior missionaries came and inspected it lol. Haha also our area had a tornado warning lol

My companions are so great, both of them are great missionaries. My favorite scripture this week is D&C 88:6, I really liked it because our companionship was really focusing on the atonement this week. 

I love ya'll
Sister Maller

April 8, 2019

Hi Ya'll

Conference was so amazing! we watched 3/4 of the sessions in member's homes, it was so fun and a good way to bond with the members more. I loved listening to all the talks. My favorites were Mathias Held's, Andersen's, Kyle McKay's, Holland's and President Nelson's. One of my favorite quotes from Conferences that I absolutely loved was in Eyring's talk. "The family that prays together is together, even when they are far apart" I loved that because it made me think of all of you! and I thought how even though we're in different countries we're hearing the same gospel preached through the leaders of the church. So in a way we all watched conference together It was really nice to watch and I took a lot of good notes! I also loved that one speakers story about how he met his brother while he was on his mission and did missionary work even though he wasn't a member yet. It was so funny!!

In between sessions we visited the Porterfield's land, and we got to hold their new baby goats!!!!!!! and we got to hold their bees!!!!!!!! they have their own bee hives it's so cool! their family is also big into the military so their son showed us a bunch of drills. it was really cool!
We also had a funeral for John 'Pete' Cawley this week. I didn't know him but sister Maddox know him a little bit because she served in Savannah for her first transfer. His Funeral was on the same day that we had interviews with President Grayson, so we were pretty much at the church that whole day helping out and being interviewed. President Grayson, he's great to talk to and he's really smart. 

We've mostly been meeting with less active members this week and inviting them to church and to watch General Conference. So far meeting with less active members has been going pretty week because we're white washing into a new ward and a new area so we're still figuring out our boundary and potentials in our area (which is mostly swamp) we also cant tract on the military base, BUT we did give a book of Mormon to one of the guards at the gate to get into the base HAHA 

We've started teaching Kristy, which has been kinda nice because she's had most of the lessons before so our lesson on the Restoration was more of a discussion lesson, which was fun! It was really cool because as we were pulling up to her house we saw her outside with a pack of cigarettes and we were like no !!! and we walked up to her and started talking to her and she pointed at the cigarette in her hand and told us that is was her last cigarette. She was going to quit because of her health problems, and she's had a desire to quit for a long time. It was kind of poetic that we showed up right at that time, because the whole lesson we talked about how through the atonement of Jesus Christ she doesn't have to be alone while she overcomes this addiction, it was a cool lesson, although I got a little freaked out because she passed out in the middle of the lesson and I was all like um what?? But Sister Maddox (who taught Kristy a little bit while in her first transfer in Savannah) told us that it was normal and sometimes because of her health problems she just passes out. We visited her 2 days later and she told us that she hadn't smoked at all since we last saw her, but she was really struggling with her cravings, so we visited with her and prayed with her and encouraged her to read the book of Mormon. We also told her that she could get baptized if she was able to quit smoking, and we committed her to be baptized before sister Maddox leaves. It was really cool, we're going to pray for her a lot to have the strength to quit for good! If ya'll can pray for her to that would be really great. 

My tomato plant (Savannah) has been really growing! I'll probably have to get a larger pot soon. It's been so nice here and the humidity is really starting to set in, oh yeah we've also seen a lot of lizards here! and chickens but only when we're in the boonies. My allergies and Asthma have all been really good, even though there's tones of pollen here and dogs here I haven't had a bad reaction. My favorite scripture that I liked, and probably used the most this week (especially for General Conference) is 1Corinthians 2:5, 9-11. 

I love you all so much and I hope ya'll continue to enjoy blessings of success and peace through our Savior's atonement
I love ya'll so much!
Sister Maller

April 1, 2019

Hi everyone!!!
Happy April Fools Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow this week was a huge blur, we did a lot of finding this week, we also had dinner a lot with the relief society president, and with the young woman's president, They are both so fun!!! We also visited some sisters in an old folks home. Sister Curtis and Sister Maddox are so fun!! We found 2 roaches in our apartment ( e w ). We've been trying to help this one lady we're teaching overcome her smoking addiction, she really loves the gospel and wants to be baptized but she's been smoking since she was 12. But we're planning on introducing her to the church's AR program. So hopefully that's able to help her.

My area only covers the west Chatham ward, but it's a great ward and its fun  getting to know all the members. I gave a talk this Sunday!!!! I thought it went really well considering I wrote it the morning of hehehehe. But my topic was on the atonement of Jesus Christ and Repentance. I began with Moses 1:39 and I defined immortality (living forever in a perfected state) and eternal life (living in the presence of God and becoming like him) and then I talked about how because of the atonement everyone will be resurrected and receive immortality. I also talked about how the atonement gives us the possibility to have eternal life, but it is through repentance that we can obtain eternal life by forsaking our sins and turning to God, ect ect. I thought it was pretty good

We had exchanges this week with the STLs! I was with sister Lyons, she is such a good missionary! And I got to see the Pooler area. We went finding and she was so bold with talking with everyone. It was a fun day! We both like movies and sign language! We found a couple of solid potentials. 

I hear its finally warming up a little bit in Calgary, it been really nice and sunny here.  I'm getting super excited for general conference, I wonder if they'll announce anymore temples. 

For my talk on Sunday I studied the talk 'his grace is sufficient' by Brad Wilcox. I loved reading it the whole way through, I'll leave the link down below ad I invite Ya'll to read it. I love his analogy on Piano practice. and how though grace we have the ability to transform our lives so that not only are we saved by grace, but we can be changed by grace. 

https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/2013/09/his-grace-is-sufficient?lang=eng 

I love ya'll so much!
Sister Maller