Drop the Toothpaste

Okay so there are like 5372 things that I want to say but I can't say it all. Also, my brain is so packed full of stuff that I hope I make sense...

First of all...I am great! Besides the fact that I am literally being eaten alive. Seriously! No matter what time of day...you get eaten! Yesterday we went to this person's house for a follow up and they weren't home but in the time that we walked to their door and then walked back to the car I got like 16 mosquito bites! Okay not really...actually just 2 but still! It's insane! Also, the weather here so far is fantastic! Everyone keeps telling me how lucky I am because apparently it's NEVER like this at this time of year. I'm just bracing myself for the million degree weather that's coming. Also, everyone here is SO nice. Seriously...like, not to be rude or anything but people in Utah are rude! At least compared to these people! Also, I'm in this place called Murfreesboro and it's like...in the country and even in the suburby areas, houses are so much further apart! I mean, the space between 2 houses here could fit 2 more houses in Utah! I don't know if that made any sense.....

I SAW FIREFLIES!!! They are seriously the most amazing thing on the entire earth. Yeah...I'm pretty weird...but they were cool.

Okay so now about the subject line. So in the MTC, Bro. Mills told this story about faith and he told about how every year he would get toothpaste from his mom in his stocking and so when he was on his mission, it was Christmas eve and he only had a little bit of toothpaste left and he had enough for another day, but instead of keeping it for one more day just in case, he threw it away, knowing that there would be some in the stocking his mom had sent him. And he then he talked about how that is faith. He had no doubt that his mom had sent him toothpaste.

So, our district in the MTC really took this story to heart when we were flying to Tennessee on Monday. So we were supposed to fly out at 7:30 from SLC to Atlanta Georgia, and then have a 2 hour layover and catch a connecting flight to Nashville. However, the flight to Georgia kept getting delayed and delayed and we were starting to worry that we would miss our connecting flight. So then we started saying to each other when we would start to worry, "Drop the toothpaste." So, the plane didn't leave until 9:30. Well, we got on at 9:30 so it didn't leave until 10. So, we missed our connecting flight. Great. So now what? So we ask when the next available flight is (Also, keep in mind that there are 22 of us) and they said that there were seats available...the next morning! But they told us to get on stand by. So, we kept on getting on standby over and over for like 6 hours....seriously. And of course...no such luck...I mean how are you going to get 22 people on a plane on standby! Throughout the day we just kept saying, "Drop the toothpaste."

So finally, that night the airport gives us a hotel for the night and we got up the next morning and got on our flight and got to Nashville without a hitch. But, something amazing happened that morning. So all night I kept asking myself, "Okay, what are we supposed to learn from this. We dropped the toothpaste...so now what?" Well, the 4 Elders in our district had to go to the airport early because they didn't get a ticket printed and so they go up to...I don't know...wherever you go and they run into this lady and she's like, "Oh the Jesus people!" and she takes them to the front of the line and helps them and one of the Elders was telling her how worried he was that he wasn't going to get a ticket and that he wasn't going to get there and she pointed to his name tag and said, "Remember who is on your side." And right after she left the Elder decided to give her a Book of Mormon but she had disappeared. They could not find her. When the Elder's told us that I thought, "Wow. What if all God wanted us to learn is that He is on our side and so we just need to drop the toothpaste."

So...after we finally got to Tennessee we met President and Sister Anderson right away! Man were they a sight for sore eyes! It was pretty awful to meet him when we were wearing the same clothes from  the day before and had spent the entire day in the airport. So we went straight to the transfer meeting right after that and I met my trainers Sister Carson and Sister Oldroyd. They are seriously the best!

Okay quick small world moments: Sister Oldroyd knows Kate Hadley! They did SBO stuff together. Also, she was like best friends with Ryan and Lyndie's roommates at BYU! What?Also, Sister Carson is from St. George and she knows Uncle Dave! Well, she knows him from being a teacher, not personally but still!

We got to got to the temple this week because we got special permission because a recent convert was going for the first time! It is so small. Like as small as a church building almost. There are like...2 changing stalls. Not even kidding. It is so pretty though.

So...Miracle/amazing story #2: We were teaching this guy named Allen that we've been talking to for a while and some time during the lesson he pointed across the street and said we should go talk to the girl that lives there and so were like, "Alright." So when we left we were saying, "Should we go now or later?" And we had this thought that we should go now. So we knock on the door and this girl answers and she is crying and she told us that she just heard that her best friend's Dad passed away and we so we talked to her about the Plan of Salvation a little bit and gave her a Book of Mormon and she was like, "Yeah, I need to go to church. I think I'll show this to my friend too." And then I had this impression to share Alma 7:11-12 (Atonement) and so I did she just cried and cried and told us thank you. Then we left and as we were driving away we saw her on the porch looking at the Book of Mormon. Amazing. We actually haven't heard from her since but we will definitely go back don't you worry. I know that we were prompted by the Spirit to go talk to her because if we hadn't right then...it might have been too late. 

Okay random but is it really weird that I really like tracting? I don't know why, there's just something so fun about it. Yeah, I'm a weirdo.

There are so many great people here. One of the families that we talked to that were recent converts are the Minters and they are so amazing! I love them so much already. It's taken me a while to warm up to some of the (many) people that we go see because I'm new and so I don't know them like my trainers do but the Minters were great. I felt like I had known them forever!

So we're teaching this girl named Sadie who's 15 and she's awesome! She really wants to get baptized and she came to church on Sunday! We have a baptismal date for August 2 but she hesitant because she doesn't know if she should do it in our church or hers. We just explained to her about priesthood authority and stuff and told her to pray about it. I think she is going to do it in our church but her pastor is really trying to convince her to do it there so it's hard.

Garrett dies in a month! What? I'm still a baby! RIP Elder Myers...well almost.

Okay, well I will talk to y'all later. I love you so much. Everything here is so great. Everyone here is so great. Sorry this was so long. There is more to say but I gotta email the mission president so yeah. Have an awesome week!

Love, Sister Myers