June 24, 2019

Hello!!!!!!!

This last week has been really good! We had good lessons with Christina, Rita and Betty this week. All of them have been taught by missionaries for a while, so we've been reading the Book of Mormon with them and explaining them. We also spent a lot of this week trying less-active members and people of the ward Roster. 

We also did a lot of service this week, he hosted Bingo again and helped our Neighbor Amy clean her house.

We also had our farewell Zone Conference to say goodbye to President Grayson and Sister Grayson. It was so good!!!! President talked about the talk 'The 4th Missionary'. It was so good and really inspiring. He challenged each of us to find ways we can 'raise the bar' in living our purpose. It was so sad shaking Presidents hand for the last time, and hugging Sister Grayson for the last time. I love them both so much and it's so sad to see them go, but I'm excited to meet President Wood and his wife.

Sunday was really cool!!!! I gave a talk this Sunday about why I wanted to serve a mission, and what I've learned since. Which was really convenient because I pretty much just re-used my farewell talk. Betty also came to church!!!! It was so sweet to have her there

I read a bunch of things this week, my top 2 favorites are "Endure it well" by Neal A Maxwell and this little snippet from Esther chapter 4 in verse 14:

"and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

God always has his reasons and there is a purpose for me being here in Nashville, and I know that God has a purpose and plan for everything and for each of his children.

I love you all

Sister Maller

June 17, 2019

Greetings From Nashville!!!!!!!!!!

Transfers were crazy!!! The whole time there I had no idea where I was going to go. And then before I knew it I was driving to Nashville with my new companion Sister Walling. We had Betty and Julie pick us up. They're both super sweet ladies, they're not members but they LOVE the missionaries. 

The members here are all super sweet and love feeding us. Some of the first people we met was the Farley family. They're converts who converted a little over a year ago and they're super southern. They're so sweet the first time I met them they looked at me and told me that when I'm with them I'm family. 

We also did service this week, we volunteered at an old folks home and we hosted bingo. It was fun chilling with all the seniors!!

We also met Christina, she's our most progressing person and she really wants to be baptized she just has to overcome some word of wisdom problems. 

Overall the week went by pretty fast It'll take me a while to get used to the area. 

My favorite thing I read this week was D&C section 100, I especially like verse12. I hope y'all are doing great and are seeing miracles.

Love you all!!!!!!!!

Sister Maller

June 3, 2019

Hola!!!!!

This week was crazy busy!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We taught Delon and Amanda again this week!!!! we taught them the plan of salvation and they both understood it really well and had really insightful questions!!! they're so fun to teach because they're so open to learn and because of their religious background a lot of what we teach makes sense to them.

This week was so busy because we had a blitz exchange with the STL's !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! man our STL's (Sister Lyons and Sister Wells) are so cool!! They both came to our area (the beautiful west Chatham) and me and Sister wells took the west side (best side) of our area and Sister Curtis and Sister Lyons took the east side. 

the rest of the exchange went pretty well we got in contact with Marcus! he was taught in the past and we set up a return appointment. lol then we were trying some houses close to him and UUUGGGH one of the people who answered the door UGh he opened the door and introduced ourselves and our message and he was like "i've already been saved" and he shut the door. uuuuggghhh being ''''''saved'''' is such a precept of men and really inspires a sense of spiritual complacency like what's described in 2Nephi 28:21. overall it just makes me feel >:(  

Sister Porterfields fed all four of us for dinner! we went over early and helped her cook, we made Fajitas!! it was so funny because at fist we thought that the meat we used in them was venicine , but as sister Porterfield was driving us back home, we found out it was MOOSE!!!!

Overall the Blitzs exchange was LIT we had a huge sleepover in out lil apartment, then we all drove to zone conference together!  I played the piano for Zone conference and did a role play for one of the training. I think I liked last zone conference better because we talked about the doctrine and how we can learn it better to teach it better. But this zone conference was more about planning and improving out teaching skills. which was still cool, but we were so tired during it because of exchanges. Sister Grayson gave a pretty cool training on the "why" "what" and "How" of teaching doctrine and principles.

Fast Forward to Sunday, Kristi came to Church again!!!!!!! Kristi's been doing better, we've been visiting her throughout the week and she's been praying like 2-3 times a day! we just need to get her reading the Book of Mormon again. This fast and Testimony meeting was one of my favorite and my mission so far, it was so spiritual, so many b=people in our ward shared stories about miracles and their connection with Heavenly Father and how it's helped them through the trials of life. it was just so spiritual! 

We got to help out in Primary again!!!!!! the pianist wasn't there so they had me play, it was so fun!!!!! I've really missed primary and having a small part in it is so fun for me. afterwards we got to visit the sunbeam class because they had a lesson on missionary work, so we got to help out and bear our testimonies. We went over to the Yate's house for dinner! they were showing us their garden and  chickens and their greenhouse. man their greenhouse is wacky, they've got this hydroponics thing set up, but they've been pumping in the water from this underground fish tank full of goldfish because they add nutrients to the water or something. it was really cool.

My favorite thing I read this week wasnt super missionary based but it was spiritually uplifting and wholesome, it's a talk by Thomas S. Monson called "yellow canaries with gray on their wings". I really liked it because it talks about everything were called to do, no matter how small it seems to us, plays important roles in Heavenly Fathers plans for each of his children. I especially like the poem at the end.

“‘Father, where shall I work today?’

And my love flowed warm and free.

Then he pointed out a tiny spot

And said, ‘Tend that for me.’

I answered quickly, ‘Oh no, not that!

Why, no one would ever see,

No matter how well my work was done.

Not that little place for me.’

And the word he spoke, it was not stern;

He answered me tenderly:

‘Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;

Art thou working for them or for me?

‘Nazareth was a little place,

And so was Galilee.’”

—Meade MacGuire

It's super ca'ute. here's the link to the whole talk:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1973/04/yellow-canaries-with-gray-on-their-wings?lang=eng  

I loved all the pictures y'all sent this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Y'all!!!!

Sister Maller