This. Is. Sparta!!!!!!

Awkward but I keep on quoting, "This. Is. Sparta!!!" and I actually have no idea what it's even from...so yeah that's a little bit awko taco.

Sparta Tennessee is the most country ghetto town I have ever seen! Okay not really. Actually really. But there are probably worse towns. There's a Walmart here so it must not be THAT small. There are a lot of people with no front teeth and the accents are way more prevalant here. Haha it's great. I've been working on my southern.

No more full time car! We have a part time car - so every other day. We share with the other sisters that are in Sparta (well the Sparta area...we cover more than just Sparta, hence more than 1 set of missionaries) and it's actually quite fun to walk around and stuff. And we actually don't do that much walking because members come out with us a lot. Also the car we have is BRAND NEW!!! We drove it home from transfer meeting and it literally only had 30 miles on it! I don't think I've ever been in a car that's so new! It's a 2015 Toyota Corolla and it's so nice! It even has a little back-up camera which is so nice! One of us still has to get out and back the car but it makes it a lot easier for the person backing! Also we can hook up our phone, well connect it so that we can feel all cool and make calls in the car. Haha I was surprised that our phone connected because it is so up to date on technology that we thought it would be too good for the car. #wehaveaflipphone #soghetto #notsurewhyiamusinghashtagsbecauseithinktheyarereallydumb Yeah so that's cool.

This is random and will probably only make sense for my family or members of my ward back home but there is this member that comes out with us a bit that reminds me so much of Lori Newbold! Ah it's crazy! She just has a similar voice (with the exception of having a southern accent) she plays/coaches basketball..or something like that..something to do with basketball and she's just so awesome - she could pretty much be a seminary teacher! Yeah anyway that was random but when I met her I was like, "Wow! It's Lori Newbold!" Anyway....

Ha! I lost my voice this week! That was an adventure! Okay it wasn't totally lost but I definitely couldn't talk much! Haha and it was on Wednesday and so like, I was meeting so many people and I couldn't talk! Then we had a relief society activity on Wednesday night and we were supposed to sing. Yeah I didn't sing. But all the missionaries did sing on Sunday! There are 6 of us. It's us, the other sisters, and then a set of Elders. Oh yeah, in a branch! But it's a huge branch! It needs to be a ward now because it's too big! We meet in a strip mall. But they have done a lot and so when you get inside it still just seems like a normal church building. But it's going to become a ward soon. They just signed a contract and are fixin to build a church. I think they are starting it soon...March is the latest they will start it. So we won't get to see it but that's still cool!

Also in this branch there is this one family that is huge. Pretty much the whole family goes to this branch because they all live so close. Haha it reminds me of how like half the ward back home is related! :) Yeha if you look in my LDS tools you just see like 12 families all under the same name. It's so funny. Also don't worry I know what you're probably thinking - and no, there are no interfamily relationships! They are normal people. They just have a big family and they are mostly boys and so the kept the family name.

Okay here is a pretty funny story. So we are teaching this family - well this couple really - Charles and Dewanna and they are just so great. Charles is like super protective of us and he's always telling us to be safe. Then he gave Sister Sumbot some pepper spray...well a mix of pepper spray and mace that's supposed to be more powerful. So then the other night we were walking down this one road and all of the sudden this dog comes out of nowhere and comes running and barking at us. I was so scared. I really thought it was going to bite us. Anyway, Sister Sumbot is like deathly afraid of dogs. I guess she tried to slightly spray the dog with the new spray stuff Charles gave us - but she didn't really hit it or anything. Then it walked away. Then later, we were actually at Charles and Dewanna's and we were sitting there and all of the sudden Sister Sumbot gasps and starts sort of freaking out and she's like, "Ah! I just rubbed my eye and I think my finger had the spray on it!" So I'm like, "Uh...don't just sit there! Go wash it out or something!" So she goes over to the sink and they give her a washcloth and she starts splashing water on her eye and then Charles gets out milk and dumps it on her washcloth and she uses that (I guess it neutralizes it) and then she was okay. She said it just stung. And it wasn't bad since there was just a tiny bit on her finger. It was just a really funny situation. People really should keep their dogs tied up or fenced or something. Around here they just hang around and aren't even tied up or anything! It's crazy!!!

We are teaching this girl that like never talks! She's like Jay! Except she's actually interested. And her dad is the best! He just got baptized and he comes out with us a lot and he's just on fire! Like one of the best recent converts I've ever seen! His name is Clem. They are a great family.

Oh yeah funny story. This less active had this cat outside her house that was being attacked. She asked us to take it over to this member's house that lived nearby so it wouldn't keep getting attacked and ask them if they could hold onto it or if they knew who's it was. So I picked up and we took it over to their house, but they said it belonged to this other place. It turns out it didn't, so we went back to that members house and she held the cat for a minute and then just let it go.....so we told the less active who was so worried about the cat that we had given it to the member...we just didn't say that she let it go. Haha it was just a really funny situation and I am going to attach a picture from that night. Haha we just keep laughing about it.

Here's an awko taco moment for you: We knocked on this one door yesterday and the lady was like "Oh come in!" and so we did and then she went and got her daughter. Her daughter came out and was like "Hold on just a sec" and then she left. Then the mom came back out and was like, "oh I'm sorry I thought you were some of my daughters friends." And then she pretty much just pushed us out the door. We didn't even get a chance to say like a thing except "Have a good night!" Oh man that was so awkward. We have many awkward moments as missionaries....haha :)

Okay sorry I have like nothing else to say for this week. It's been really warm. It's weird. It's been like in the 50's. I'm not complaining though! Sorry this is so short! I just don't have that much to say! Oh yeah! I forgot to tell about my new comp! Her name is Sister Sumbot and she's from Bountiful Utah and she's been out about 9 months and been in Sparta for about 3! We are so much alike! Just in lots of little things though - ike food, and we are both left handed...and stuff like that - so that's cool! :)

Well, hope y'all have a great week!

Love y'all!

Love,

Sister Myers

That awkward moment when you have to leave the 'boro

I'm leaving Murfreesboro! :( Sad day. Now I'm going to Sparta! I don't even really know where or what or anything about it but hopefully it will be great! :)

Miracle of the week!: So on Tuesday we went tracting and ran into this guy named Sean and he was busy at the time and so he said we could come back on Wednesday. So we took Sister Philburn out with us to his house and he invited us in and we taught him the Restoration and then *drum roll* I invited him to be baptized and he said Yes!!! What?!!! I have never done that on a first lesson and it was awesome!! Of course it was conditional upon whether he comes to know that it is true and we didn't set a date unfortunately but it was still cool! :) Also I totally forgot to invite him to church but he totally asked where our church was! Yes!!! He didn't come...but that's okay...because guess what? BOTH JIM AND SHEILA CAME TO CHURCH!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) And Sheila took the sacrament for the first time! She has come to church times before but never took it and so it was awesome to see her take it! And she seemed to enjoy the meeting! They thought about staying for Sunday School but Jim was super tired because he had had to get up early like 3 days in a row! We are just glad they came to sacrament though! 

Here is a funny story:

So on Monday we went shopping and couldn't go back to our apartment and so we left our milk at the YSA sisters apartment and so they brought it to district meeting for us and we never went back to our apartment after district meeting - until 9 and so we literally just carried our milk around all day. We would just go to our appointment and ask people if we could put the milk in their fridge. It was actually really funny. Luckily it was all people we knew so it worked out. :) haha then at the end of the night we had a lesson with Lisa and we forgot our milk and so we went back like right after we left and knock on the door and it's quiet for a second and then all the sudden we just hear her laughing. It was so funny. 

So this week our zone had a goal of 80 member present lessons this week (which can be really difficult) and so that meant 5 per companionship - and guess what? We didn't get 80 member presents this week. WE GOT 100!!! Record breaking!!! Sweet huh?! And our zone got a bomb dropped on it this transfer. Only 4 companionships stayed the same of the whole zone! So yeah it was a great way to end this transfer!! WAHOO!! :) 

Okay uh...I really don't have much to say now......just been saying lots of goodbyes. Jim and Sheila was definitely that hardest...and the Philburns. Mission grandparents and parents! :) But I'm sure I'll meet some great people in Sparta!!

Sorry that's all for now! Hope y'all have a blessed week! I'm fixin to go do some more missionary work! 

Welp, I would send pictures but there are too many to choose from so yeah... :) Some next week :)

Love you all!

Love,

More Spanish, Taboo on the missionaries, baptism, and so much learning :)

This letter should be an interesting read...haha Also y'all probably got so excited because you were like, "Baptism?! What?! They had a baptism?" Well, yes, we did a have a baptism but that was for an 8 year old :) Which is still great...if you're into that whole 'salvation' thing and living with you're family forever...you know...that stuff... :)

It's already week 6!! Ah!! What if I was transferred? Wowzers!! I really don't know what will happen! Also I've been here for 4 months now! Wow! Time flies! By the end of the year I will be 1/3 of the way through the mish! Insane! 

You wanna know something that I did yesterday that is really embarrassing slash really funny? So we were walking down the hall at church yesterday and we came to a T and we were going to go right but I just looked left to see if anyone was in the hall and saw a couple Elders in the district sitting there....and so I waved at them. The problem was, at this point I had already started walking the other way and so I wasn't watching where I was going and I pretty much ran into some random guy. And the Elders and Sister Weeks were dying. Then I was dying slash apologizing. Luckily I didn't actually run into him but it was a close one! And now those Elders probably won't ever let me live that one down. Haha

We went on exchanges again this week and I went to the Spanish area again! It was so much fun! And they taught me how to say, "Hi we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" Haha and it was so funny because Hermana Holman - whenever we talked to someone...even if it was just some random person on the street or someone we tracted into. She would tell them that I didn't know Spanish and was just practicing it and then I would say it to them. So awkward but good I guess. I'll probably never forget how to say that. Also, I learned other random things like, "Nice to meet you", "Sorry, I don't speak Spanish", "I'm Sister Myers", oh yeah and my favorite: how to say "why". Okay there is a story behind this. So when we were in lessons - spanish lessons - I would just have to sit there and pretend I knew what was going on because I don't know a lick of Spanish. So would just listen to the words and one word that I kept hearing was por que and I thought that was so fun to say and so pretty much all the time now I just randomly keep saying "por que!" Even though it makes no sense because it just means "Why". Yeah I'm weird. 

We had zone meeting this week and that was sweet! Zone meeting is always the best! Then after that Lisa McIntyre's (our recent convert as of June) son Andrew's baptism, like I said at the beginning. Andrew is the cutest and it was just a great baptism! :)

Jim Rider came to church!!! Yay!!! Sheila didn't but that was because they slept through the alarm and Jim almost didn't even make it! But we were glad he was there at least. :) She said she would come next week though. 

Apparently there was like a taboo out for missionaries last night or something haha because last night from 6-8 we seriously just tried people...as in we went to their house...knocked...no answer...knocked again...no answer and then tried another investigator. Then we were even trying members and pretty much not a soul answered! Or if someone answered the person we were looking for wasn't even home! Haha we tried this one guy 3 times!!! We had tried him last week and he said that that day was just crazy so to come back next week and so there we were...yeah we tried him and 6, then at 7, and then again at 7:30 - and at 7:30 his car was even there and the lights were on that time and he still didn't answer - so that was a struggling situation slash interesting night because then at that point we literally had no one to see and so we did what we missionaries call the "obedience walk" because we can't go in until 9...until at like 8:20 this couple in our apartment complex texted us back and said we could come by...so we did. They are great back ups. Haha it was just a struggling night. But hey, it was still good. It was just funny. Oh yeah and then we were talking to Elder Nez (the district leader) when he called to get our numbers for the week and we told him about how we tried people for like 2 hours and he said that the same thing happened to them that night so there really was a taboo out for missionaries!!! ha! Is taboo even the right word? I don't even know. 

I have learned something this transfer...well this week... that I wanted to share with y'all. I've sort of alluded to this a little bit in past emails but pretty much - well this transfer has been extremely difficult - for a number of reasons. Just...so much. I won't bore you with the details. 

But anyway...last Saturday and Sunday - in particular I just found myself in this cloud of ....darkness, discouragement, sadness, etc...yeah...not good. 

I'm not sure what happened between Sunday and Monday but I woke up on Monday morning and just decided then and there that that day was going to be a great day! And every day there after! It was like night and day. As soon as I decided that I was going to stop wallowing in my own self pity of "woe is me" I was able to just be happy. I mean, it wasn't like we were being disobedient before and all of the sudden we were or something...the area was just not doing so well....and this week the area still wasn't doing so well but it was a great week!!! Our numbers were the lowest this week of the whole transfer. But I just thought, "I did my very best this week to try to invite others to come unto Christ." And you know, even though I obviously wasn't perfect, and I made plenty of mistakes, I still found comfort in knowing that I was still a successful missionary because I was committed to "find, teach, baptize and confirm people and...help them become faithful members of the Church who enjoy the presence of the Holy Ghost." (PMG 10 "A Successful Missionary") 

And the thing that is so amazing about this is that I know that I could not have learned this in any other way or circumstance! I needed to be in this area, with this companion, in this really difficult time, in order to learn this. Earlier in the transfer I just kept saying, "Why? Why? Why?" And I was just like, "Alright Heavenly Father! I know this is a test but when is it going to be over?" But the thing I was failing to ask myself was "What am I supposed to learn from this?" Something that I always ask myself... And guess what?! Now I have learned it!! But the thing that makes it even more interesting is that it wasn't like after I learned the lesson that miracles happened and we were taken out of our trial...it's still here - but now we can be happy about it! 

Man I don't even know if that made sense but I just had to tell y'all because it was so awesome! And hopefully it will help someone who reads this in some aspect of their life! At least I pray that it will :)

Anyway, that's all for this week! Love you all!! :)

Love, 

Sister Myers

 

P.S. Here are some pictures from this week! ;) The first one is of me and Hermana Holman and the other is of me and Lisa and Andrew at the baptism :) Love them :)

BYU on Halloween :)

Hm...Weeeeelp.....this week has been rather uneventful. Just the basics of missionary work that nobody really wants to hear about. Especially if you are pretty much just knocking doors half the day to try to build up your teaching pool because you basically have no one to teach.

But hey! We had an awesome lesson with Renee this week! We met up with her at McDonald's so her kids could play while we talked (and that actually worked out good because she lives far away and so we didn't have to drive as far and so it saved us miles). We talked to her about how the scriptures are her window to personal revelation and getting answers to the questions that she has about what to do in her life. We shared scriptures with her and just had an awesome conversation. Lessons go so much better when you can get it to be a conversation, then it's not so preachy. so then she opened to a random page and we read that part of the Book of Mormon and just talked about it and it was just so awesome. Then she asked us if we could get together at least once a week and have a Book of Mormon study and just read and study it. And we're like, "Yeah!" Ha ha it's not every day your investigator asks you if you will meet with them once a week to read the Book of Mormon. So that was pretty cool. :) Unfortunately though she is still just going to be at kind of standstill because she can't come to church. Her work schedule was supposed to change so that she could come but, well, it did change but she still can't come to church. Bummer.

Friday was Halloween and it was freezing! Well, actually it wasn't bad. It was just really windy and it was blowing some rain too and so yeah. My hands were numb but the rest of my body was fine because I don't really get cold as long as I have a good jacket...which I did :) Anyway, so that was a rather uneventful day because we had weekly planning in the morning and so we basically were just inside our apartment until like 2, then we did facebook. Then we went knocking doors. Then we had dinner at 5 and then we had to be in at 6 since it was Halloween. But! There was a BYU Football Devotional that the BYU football team was having since it was the night before the BYU vs. MTSU game and President gave us permission to go if I member drove us and if we had an investigator there. So Jim and Sheila took us and that was perfect because Jim loves football. :) That was a good devotional. :) And it made it so we didn't have to just chill at our apartment for like 3 hours doing nothing so we were lucky. 

Also, me and Sister Weeks switched name tags and were each other for Halloween. Except while tracting. There are some pics that I am going to send of us on Halloween and if you look at the name tag...it's not mine! (evil laugh)....sometimes I'm so weird, just in case you didn't get the memo or already realize this from previous letters....

Oh yeah and so because of the game there were so many people at church on Sunday! The chapel is usually pretty spacey and then quite a few people are usually in the overflow. But yesterday the chapel was packed as well as the overflow and then they had to open up into the gym! Crazy!!! Also, they ran out of water for the sacrament and so they had to do a second blessing on the water so that they could pass out more! I mean, not that that's a bad thing, means more people are partaking of the sacrament so that's good :) It was just really funny. 

Today we went to the Opry Mills Mall by the Opryland Hotel in Nashville! It was so much fun! Michelle came with us, this other lady named Tammy York, and the assistant ward mission leader and his wife, the Hatchers (they are seriously the best) and the Hermanas. We all just split up and walked around the mall and it was HUGE!! Also, at one point we were walking through the mall and Michelle was like, "hey look! Missionaries!" Haha there were some Elders that are in Nashville that were at the mall and so we were just chatting with them for a minute. It was pretty funny. It reminded me of when Arielle told the story of when she was in the MTC and she looked out the window and saw some missionaries and was like, "Hey look! Missionaries!" *face palm* Ha ha and then I remembered that I did that in the MTC too....I don't know if I told you that. But yeah that happened. Must run in the family. 

Hm...well I wish I had more to say but there really isn't much. We already have 2 dinners on Thanksgiving so that's fine. Fall is definitely here. But I love it because it's actually really nice weather and I take to the cold pretty easy. 

Well, I'm running out of time because we were gone most of the day but I hope y'all have a great week!! :)

 See, I'm Sister Weeks!