Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Transfers are here! Right after Christmas!! How crazy is that?!!! Me and Sister Sumbot are being whitewashed!!! How crazy is that! It's actually quite stressful because we have to make sure everything is super well organized and stuff for the next missionaries that follow us. And we have to pack in the process and just all this crazy stuff. I'm going to Green Hills to be in the YSA! That's a little bit intense. My new companion is Sister Thatcher. I've heard a little bit about her because she actually served here a long time ago and she sound nice. But yeah today is crazy.

This week was good though! But before I go on to talk about the week I just have to say JK!!!!!! We are both staying!! No one is getting transferred!! Haha I'm soooo funny. In fact, our district will be almost exactly the same except the other sisters that serve around us - one of them is leaving - which is really sad. So there will only be one new person in the whole district! Crazy! It'll be a good transfer.

Yeah so this week was so good. Christmas time is the best! On Christmas Eve we had district meeting and pretty much just did a bunch of random activities. Each companionship got 10-15 minutes to do something and we combine with the other sisters and we all reenacted the Nativity and we brought costume stuff and it was just soooo funny. I'll attach a picture. Haha I was Joseph because my hair is long enough that I could put it up over my face and tuck it behind my ear so that it would look like a beard....sort of. Sister Sumbot was Mary, Sister Hess was baby Jesus and Sister Evans was the angel. And then the Elders were everyone else. It was just soooo funny. And we got the whole thing on video. Oh it was just classic.

On Christmas Eve we got to go in at 6 and we made homemade Chinese food for dinner and then we played games and did other random things. It was a really fun night.

Christmas morning we got to sleep in! That was just a joke though because we planned to only sleep in half an hour (although we were allowed to sleep in later than that but we wanted more time to do Christmas activities) but we woke up at the normal time we have to get up - 6:30 and kind of just ended up laying there for half an hour till we got up. We had Christmas breakfast at the other sisters and then we had our studies. Then Jaleta picked us up and we went to her house and SKYPED OUR FAMILIES!! Oh that was so much fun. Except it was the fastest 40 minutes of my entire life and I don't even really know what we talked about. All I really remember is my dad holding up a poinsettia in the background....what a weirdo. Also I was wearing an ugly Christmas sweater because we wore them on Christmas Eve and Christmas (we washed them don't worry) and wow....they were turtlenecks and it was sooo hot. We didn't wear coats all day and then my family showed me the backyard and they got a white Christmas! Weird!! I haven't seen snow yet! :) Lots of rain though.

Anyway so then we went to Jaleta's family Christmas party...which we knew pretty much everyone because they are all in the branch. We played this way fun game were everyone has a piece of paper and there is one pen in the middle of the table and you role a pair of dice and when you role doubles you get to pick up the pen and start writing from 1-100 and then everyone else keeps rolling and when they get doubles they get to take the pen from you and then you just keep going until someone gets to 100! Oh it is so intense but so fun.

Then after that we went to the Tuckers and opened presents (they are this old couple that do everything for the missionaries and they don't have any kids and so we decided to bring our presents there and open them there) and that was a lot of fun. Then we went caroling at an old folks home - which we also did on Christmas Eve, then we saw a couple of people. Then we had dinner at the Tuckers - that was so good. Then we visited a few members and shared our Christmas message and then we got to go in at 8. We caught up on our journals that whole time because we had fallen behind.

So you wanna know something? Prayer works! Haha I already knew that but we sort of forgot that for a bit this week. So whenever we get gas we have to turn in our receipt to the mission office and we had taken it out of our car to send it and somehow it had gotten misplaced. Whenever we thought about it we would search for it but we could never find it. Finally on Friday we were thinking about it during weekly planning and we were both like, "Uh maybe we should pray to find it." So we did and then that night while we were in a lesson Sister Sumbot opened up her scriptures and there it was!! Wow God answers prayers! But you've gotta ask!!! And then it happened again on Saturday....so there's this investigator that I had never met named Minor that we would call a lot but he would almost never answer and like, never had the time to see us. So then during weekly planning we decided to pray that we would be able to meet with him. So then when we were out finding on Saturday he called us back!!!! He said he was in town and that he could meet us and so we did!! Wow!!!! Also, here's another crazy miracle from Saturday: so like I said, we had gone finding and first before we knocked some doors we decided to follow up with this guy we met a few weeks ago. He was busy but we hadn't knocked some of the houses on his street and so we went all the way to the top of the street (not sure why) and knocked on the house and this lady answers and we talk to her about our purpose and stuff and Sister Sumbot asked her if she wanted to learn more and without hesitation she just said yes!! What?!! Crazy!!! And then we set up a return appointment with her - and also something that's awesome is that she's only available in the evenings like after 7 - which is the hardest time for us to fill because everyone goes to bed soooo early here!!! Crazy!! God is good.

We dropped Charles and Dewanna yesterday. We were going to tell them and let them know why and stuff but the way it turned out we just decided not to tell them because they don't make us a priority anyway. Charles was watching his football game the entire time we were there and would not listen to us at all unless it was a commercial break. It was rather disrespectful. Also neither of them have been reading pretty much at all so we just decided that we just won't got back for a while because they don't seem to care much anyway. They are super awesome though. We love them so much but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Bennie is doing good :) He came to church again yesterday and we've just been trying to continue to teach him. It's a little bit of a struggle though because he loves to talk!! Haha last time we were teaching him he had a couple of questions and he would ask it and then he would go off onto a totally different subject and so we couldn't even answer his question!! Finally I had to just be like, "Bennie wait we are going to answer your question!" He's funny.

This week is SUPER P-DAY!!! Wahoo!!!!!! So normally on P-day we only get from 10-6 off. But on Thursday - New Years Day we get the whole day off (we still have to do studies though and be in at 8) and we get to watch a movie!!!! We all voted on movies and then they gave us a list of the top movies we chose (after making sure they were approved). I hope we watch Frozen. That was definitely on the list. I think like everyone wants to watch that one since it's so popular. I'm super stoked. Even if we don't get to watch Frozen any movie will be fun.

Yep....so that's my week. Nothing too exciting :)

I love you all so much and I hope the start of 2015 is awesome!! :)

Love,

Sister Myers

 

 

Tis the Season for.....crazy guys, poems, exchanges, and of course - Jesus! :)

Want to hear the craziest story of your entire life? Well I'm going to tell you anyway....and it's rather long, so brace yourself.

So on Saturday we went to talk to these people that work at this bike shop and they were busy helping someone so we decided to come back later. So we walked past and looped around back to our car so it didn't look like we were just going there to talk to them (oh the life of a missionary). As we were looping back around we saw this guy working on this house and we waved and said hello and he pulled out some earplugs and was like, "What?" So we went and talked to him and talked about He is the Gift and the restoration and invited him to church the next day (especially since we were having a church potluck after and it was the Christmas program). He was like, "Okay I'll try." And it was so funny because he kept on trying to talk to us about how meat was the cause of war or something and how we need to bless meat because God says "Thou shalt not kill." And then we would talk about the gospel for a minute and he would be like, "Did I finish the meat story?" And we would be like, "Yes you did." And then he was like, "Let me finish the meat story." He was a little bit crazy haha. But then guess what? He just showed up at church! But it was after the sacrament and so he didn't see us but this family talked to him and invited him to sit by them. So then when we went up to sing (haha all the missionaries sang "Silent Night" and I totally did a solo....oh wow....then I played the piano...it was interesting) and after we sang I went and sat by him. Then afterwards we went to Gospel Principles and we talked about the Book of Mormon (perfect lesson) and at one point he commented and was like, "Well one way you can come to know something is true is by living it." Or something to that effect and me and Sister Sumbot just looked at each other and we were like, "Who is this guy?" And then afterwards Clem fellowshipped him and took him to Priesthood and then we didn't even talk to him until after the potluck because he was so busy talking to everyone else! Then we were talking to him and he was talking about how he was a good person or something and he was like, "The only thing I do that's not good for my body is drink coffee and I'm trying to quit." We were just like, "WHAT?" And then he stayed and helped clean everything up before he left. Crazy......

So then we went and saw him that night with Jaleta. That is just a whole nother story. Haha it was one of the weirdest craziest nights ever. He is crazy. Well, he just has a lot of weird knowledge. Like he was telling us about how he had seen fish rain from the sky, talked about how it's a crazy miracle that clouds can hold so much water, about how he invented the cell phone but someone stole his idea, he said that Jesus could have been a woman. Wow he is crazy. And he would like...never stop talking. I finally had to be like, "Benny (oh yeah that's his name PS), we love to hear all of the things you have to say but we have an important message we need to share with you." And then every time he tried to interrupt with a "did you know" I would be like, "Benny. Save it for the end." Wow that was probably the boldest I have ever been in my life! Haha OH yeah and he said he would be baptized! He's praying about January 25th.

Charles and Dewanna didn't come to church and that's really unfortunate because now we know we need to drop them. They just aren't keeping commitments. yeah we are going to tell them tonight so yeah that's going to interesting.

Oh yeah we did exchanges this week so that was cool. And no I didn't got Spanish...darn it. Oh that reminds me! So I had this dream where I tracted into this Spanish person and I was able to talk to them a little bit (because I have been practicing very little Spanish so if I tract into someone Spanish I can at least tell them a little bit about our beliefs) and then I woke up.  I was like, "Darn! That didn't actually happen!" And now I just really want to tract into someone Spanish. yeah I'm a little weird. But yeah the exchange was good. I stayed in the area and Sister Hulme (pronounced Hume) came and wow she is awesome. We went and taught Ashlee and I don't think I've ever heard her talk so much in my life! She just knew all the right questions to ask Ashley! Also she is the most amazing singer ever. Well she pretty much could have been famous - she is in that group called "Bliss" and they had the opportunity to move to Nashville to pursue it but they chose not to and she went on a mission. She took voice lessons from the same person as David Archuleta and just all this crazy stuff. Wowie.

Well I can't even think of any other cool or interesting things from this week. You would be bored with the other details. But hey I wrote a poem this week to share with people for our Christmas message. Wanna hear it? Oh too bad I don't want to share it. Haha jk here it is....

ATTENTION: do not read the poem if you have any judgementalness in you because Sister Myers wrote this like...really fast so yeah....just skip it...Oh yeah and also she doesn't have a title right now...so too bad. Also it's long but whatevs.

"A quiet stillness had fallen over the land,

As I gripped the oak staff that lay in my hand.

Not a word was spoken among the men that stood near,

I thought they must be making sure they could hear.

Often there were wolves that were prowling around,

So we would wait and listen for a quiet warning sound.

A sudden commotion woke me from my daze,

And I saw many hands slowly begin to raise.

A brilliant light was piercing the darkness with ease,

And I was so much in awe, I fell to my knees.

Fear seemed to arise among the shepherds nearby,

But soon it was calmed when the radiant figure cried,

'Fear not...I bring you good tidings of great joy'

I was riveted, like the curiousness of a questioning young boy. 

He spoke of a baby, born in a land far away,

Who was born in a stable, and in a manger he lay.

And when I thought I had never seen something so bright,

A multitude of heavenly hosts were suddenly in my sight,

'Glory to God in the highest,' they praised,

Their incredible voices left me even more dazed.

After a time, the brilliant visitation faded into dark,

And I knew at that moment, the Angels voice I must hark.

With difficulty I stood, for most of my strength was gone,

I had seen Angels! And I knew what must be done. 

I packed a few things and started with haste,

I was seeing the Christ child: there was not a moment to waste. 

Though the travel was long and my shoes were well worn,

My mind could only think of this babe that had been born.

'What could I give him?' I suddenly thought,

Embarrassment filled me and I began to get hot.

'I have nothing to give Him!' I thought in despair,

I fell to the ground and ran my hands through my hair.

Tears began to fall as I looked to the sky,

And I started to pray as I continued to cry.

'Please God,' I said, 'I don't know what I can do'

'For this important little child that's come here so new.'

And then a suddenly a peace washed over me,

I didn't know what to give but I knew where I needed to be.

 

I jumped to my feet, and quickened my pace,

I looked to the star with a great smile on my face.

After some time, a small town came into view,

But whether this was where He was I had no clue.

My question was answered as I passed an old inn,

For near it I could see a stable, and people looking within.

As I drew near the crowd, I could see the young mother,

She seemed gentle and kind, unlike any other.

And then I saw with a small gasp of the air,

The small babe: the reason I was there.

He seemed to radiate, brighter than the angel's that night,

And I did not want to let Him leave my sight. 

I pushed passed the crowd and drew near the child,

I knelt in the hay as the mother looked at me and smiled.

Not a word was said as I silently began to pray,

'Thank you, God.' was all I could say.

Then, a little sad that I had nothing for Him,

I rose from my knees feeling rather dim.

As I walked in silence my mind began to wonder,

And that sacred night I couldn't help but ponder. 

And as I thought about that child so dear,

The solution to my quandary suddenly became clear. 

I suddenly knew of the gift I could give,

I could show Him I love Him in the way the way that I live.

And from that day on as I thought of that sacred night,

I found a new resolve to always choose right.

And one day I realized who that child really was to be,

He was my Savior, my Redeemer, the one who died me. 

I set down the paper and looked up with a sigh,

Sat back in my chair and just began to cry.

I thought of those I had hurt in my path,

I thought my anger, fear, rudeness and wrath.

I thought of my selfishness I had demonstrated that week,

I wished I was more humble, submissive, and meek.

For the first time in months I fell to my knees,

And through my quiet sobs came my many pleas.

"Please God," said, "from this I can see.

I don't think I'm the person you want me to be.

As I've read this humble poem my mind is clear,

The spirit of God just hasn't been here.

And now during this time of Santa, gifts, and trees,

All I seem to hear is 'me, me, me'.

 

And now I know I've been guilty of this,

And now I've seen those things that I miss.

I miss the humility that comes from giving,

And the blessings that come from the right way we're living.

I miss the sweet spirit that comes through song,

The songs about our Savior who had suffered so long.

He came to the earth as a gift from the above,

A gift from a Heavenly Father - to show us His love. 

He suffered in a garden for every wrong thing I've done,

He died on the cross so that death might be won.

He really is the only gift that I must come to know,

For when I know Him, His Spirit will start to show."

I stopped for minute and just had to ask,

How do I come to know Him? That seems a hard task.

And then I thought of the poem that I had just read,

And how He came to know God by the life that he led.

It was then that I knew the gift I could give, 

I could come to know my Savior by the way that I live. 

During this Christmas, and even after December,

Our Savior is the gift that we all must remember. 

He is the gift from our Heavenly Father above,

A simple, sacred gift of life, peace, hope and love. 

 

I hope y'all have a Merry Christmas and never forget that Christ is the gift of Christmas!

Also go look up "the Touch of the Master's Hand" by Boyd K. Packer in April 2001 General Conference. Wow it is so awesome. Especially the poem he quotes.

Love you all!!

Love,

Sister Myers

PS Attached is a picture of the missionaries that serve in this branch (Elder Tracy, Fenwick, me, Sister Sumbot, Hess and Evans.) And a pic of me and sister Hulme. I look a little crazy but whatever haha

 

The Nine Dogs of Doyle (pronounced "Dole")

Well I reckon y'all are wondering what the heck the 9 dogs of Doyle are! Welp, here's the story:

 

So there is this little town called Doyle that is part of our area. We went out there to knock some doors and contact some people. So we go to this one street and start knocking. All the of the sudden this dog comes out and is coming toward us. We were really apprehensive about it but it turned out to be really nice. So we kept walking and it started following us. It would follow us to each house and wouldn't leave! Yeah, turns out it would follow us for the next hour. But this is not the end of the story. So since it's following us we decided to try to find it's owner. So we keep walking and get to this one house where there are 2 puppies on the porch. So we knock on the door and the guy says that the dog following us is not his dog...and neither are the puppies. Then from the side of the house a little further away comes the mom, another puppy and another random dog. So now we are talking to this guy on the porch with 6 dogs around us, about 4 of them jumping on us. So then we leave, and guess what? All 6 of them follow! So just imagine us walking down the street with 3 dogs and 3 puppies following us. Wow. Sister Sumbot named the original dog following us Lucy.  So we keep going and we get to another house and there is this HUGE black dog - like really scary. And the mom decides to go up to it and they start fighting...so we are speed walking away. And then we see further down the street these other 2 scary looking dogs walking slowly toward us (hasn't anyone heard of leashes? Nope, not in the south). So we turn down a side street and by this time the mom has caught up to us but she and her puppies and the other dog get distracted by a cat and leave us. So we keep going with Lucy still right on our heels. So we loop by around to that original street where the scary dogs were because that's where our car was. When one of the dogs sees us all of the sudden it starts sprinting toward us. Oh my heck scariest thing of my life. But then all of the sudden it just stops. And barks and barks. So we get to the car....and Lucy is still with us. Oh my it was so sad. We got in the car and she just looked at us. Then we drove away (carefully so we wouldn't hit her) and we start driving, she starts chasing us! She was full on running after us!! Oh my it was the saddest thing ever! So yeah, there's the 9 dogs of Doyle.

 

Guess what? I went to Kentucky this week!! We had a Zone Conference in Hopkinsville, KY. It was a 3 hour drive there. Wow. But it was fun. Zone Conference was soooo good. Elder Renlund of the Seventy came. He personally greeted all of us, along with his wife and President and Sister Andersen. He gave such great trainings! And so did his wife! It was only a 4 hour conference and we literally did not have a break. It was soooo good though. I learned so much. Then afterwards they gave us lunch and then we went home....4 1/2 hour drive back. Traffic. Wow. So much sitting for one day. We were so stiff when we were walking around that evening.  We only walked for about an hour because we got back at like 7:30 (....we got up at 4:30 because we had to leave by 5:30), but we were so exhausted  we didn't want to walk around. It was crazy. But a really good day.

 

So Ashlee came to mutual on Wednesday! That is a huge step for her! And she had a lot of fun! Also, there's this lady we have been teaching (....well actually we have just been starting to teach her) and we have been talking to her daughter (he daughter loves us!).  Her daughter came to mutual too and she brought her sister and they loved it! They would have come to church but they were out of town or something...I don't know but they are pretty awesome! And they are feeding us dinner on Wednesday so that's cool!

 

I've been working on being more bold. Sister Sumbot was telling me about this training about being bold and she said the saying for the training was "Be a little boulder" and they went and found little rocks that they could keep in their pockets to help them remember to be bolder. I decided I wanted to do that. But I found a marble on the ground and I thought it was sweet so now that's my boulder. Except now the saying doesn't really work. Be a little marbler....what? Oh well. It's working.

 

Oh yeah so something crazy awesome that happened this week: So on Friday for about 3 hours we went on exchanges with the other sisters that live right by us, just for a change of pace, and I went to their area (one side of Sparta) and they went to the other. So they tried to see this one lady named Marie that we have been teaching but she didn't answer. So that evening me and Sister Sumbot decided to go and try her again and when we went, her sister Dorothy was visiting and we had a super awesome lesson with her! We showed her He is the Gift and talked to her about the Book of Mormon and she seemed super interested! She used to go to a baptist church but she stopped (I don't know why) and she said she would come to church yesterday! She didn't but oh well. She gave us her address and said we could come and visit her any time - and the best news is that she lives in our area so we can continue to teach her! So that's sweet!

 

Yesterday we didn't wear jackets. Wow.

 

Oh yeah and I'm going to send a couple of pictures. So one of them is of us and the other sisters and the elders that all serve in the Sparta branch. We took the picture by the Jefferson Davies Monument or something like that and yeah so it's kind of a funny picture but whatevs. We had fun. I am also sending a picture of us and the 6 dogs...well we could only take a selfie managing to get 4 of the dogs in it. But the dog that you see the profile of, by my legs is Lucy and the mom is on the right and 2 of her puppies are in front of her. Haha classic picture. Oh yeah and I'm also sending a picture of the zone with Elder and Sister Renlund...and obviously President and Sister Andersen.

 

Well that's it for today!! Love y'all lots!!! :)

Love,

Sister Myers

 

 

"Shrek! I'm looking down! AH!!"

Wowie Kazowie it has been a crazy week! :)

 Last week we went hiking to this cool waterfall and then we went on a suspension bridge! It was sweet! Apparently it is the one that they use in the movie "The jungle Book" (the live one obviously). Haha it was awesome. When I was on it I just kept thinking about Shrek haha. "Shrek! I'm looking down! AHH!" Classic movie.

So funny story slash adventure of the week: So on Monday we were out with Jaleta and we had to go back to the apartment to get something for someone we were teaching and we got back and all of the sudden Sister Sumbot is like, "I don't have the keys! I left them in the apartment!" Yeah she locked the keys in the apartment because she just locked the bottom lock which you can lock then just pull the door shut. So we still went out and taught and then came back and we were like, "So what now?" So we call the land lord...twice...no answer. So then we're like, "Welp, we'll just have to sleep at the other sisters apartment!" (They live next door) So we called president because you have to get permission...and he didn't answer and so I was in the middle of leaving a message and the phone died! Ah the struggle of our phone. Luckily we could just call from the other sisters phone. And even though our phone is so ghetto Jaleta just happened to have a charger that fit it and so we were able to charge it (also if we hadn't been able to charge it it would have been awful because for some reason our phone can't turn off and so it will just keep doing this little jingle telling you that the battery is low and then it tries to turn off, but can't so it turns back on and does the jingle again...its sooooo annoying...so yeah we were able to avoid that...)

So remember Keesha? That lady in Walmart with the crazy child? Well we went to go to her address today and it did not exist. Well, the street did but the house number didn't so we knocked all the houses on the street and this guy named Carol answered. He is a way old man and we told him about the church and gave him a restoration pamphlet and the Book of Mormon. When we went back to our car after checking the other houses he was sitting on his porch reading the pamphlet! Wahoo! Welp maybe we were supposed to meet Keesha so we could find him. Who knows. But we keep praying we will run into her at Walmart again. But yeah that day we were struggling with addresses. We tried contacting this new member in the branch that is less active and we went to the wrong address and ended up talking to this random old lady. Not sure how we even mixed up the address because we were supposed to go to 318 but we went to 328 and we even said, "Oh look here's 328". Boy we are dumb! She wasn't even interested but maybe we lifted her spirits or something.

So I got on Facebook this week...that was cool. :) I can be friends with whoever but I just can't follow you...unless you are another facebook missionary or are in my mission boundaries...but y'all can follow me and read my super deep doctrinal inspirational posts. Haha jk they will probably be really dumb and cheesy but whatevs. 

So there was this sweet Nativity Festival in McMinnville this week where our church and other churches got together and they have nativities from all over the world and artwork and stuff. And they had volunteers who did a live nativity. And wow it was awesome. We got to go there twice (we could go as long as we had investigators) and it was soooo pretty. Also we took a Christmas card photo...yeah watch for our Christmas card that I'm going to mail to y'all. It's the best Christmas card you will probably ever see. For reals though.

We watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional yesterday and oh wow it was awesome!! I loved D. Todd Christoffersons talk! Oh the story about the little boy just made me cry!! Also I loved the music!!! :) :) :) We get to sing in sacrament meeting on the Sunday before Christmas. That has nothing to do with anything but oh well, I was talking about music. Also Ashlee came to it!!! We have been trying to get her to church for forever and to no avail, but she came to this and that's a big step!!! Of course the only people watching it at the church were us, the other sisters, the elders, Clem and Ashlee, and the other sister's investigator. So really no one but still it was awesome that she came! And she didn't even come with Clem! Clem got there and we were like, "Where's Ashlee?" And he said that he tried to go get her from her Aunts but she didn't want to go because she wasn't dressed up. We were like, "No!" And then when we sat down we saved her spot...rather jokingly...and we were like, "We have faith that she will come!" And Clem was like, "She's not coming." Sister Sumbot was like, "I have faith!" "She's not coming." Haha. It started and then after the first speaker...here comes Ashlee!!!!! We pretty much died!! :) Her aunt dropped her off! Clem probably convinced her aunt to bring her or something. But wow it was crazy.

Oh yeah and funny story: So we were watching the broadcast and it stopped at one point in the middle so we had to refresh the page. We ended up not watching it live anymore...and then at the very end...in the middle of the prayer it stopped again and we all just sat there with our heads bowed for literally 1 whole minute. That is a long time....then we all just kind of burst out laughing and we stopped it and said our own prayer. Oh technology....haha

Guess how many member present lessons we got this week?!! 14!!!! Ah! That's so good! That's the most I've gotten in one week my entire mission!!! Seriously!! :)

Welp, that's pretty much it for today! That was super scatterbrained but whatever. I'm over it. Something I learned this week is to read verses in the scriptures very carefully or otherwise you feel really dumb. This morning I read Moroni 8:12 (go read it for this to make sense) and I thought it was saying that God is a changeable God and a respecter of persons and I was like, "Nuh uh! I just read in D&C the other day that he isn't a respecter of persons! And of course he is not a changeable God!" And I was thoroughly confused and then I read it again and I was like, "Wow I am dumb." It was funny though. Haha

Well, love y'all! Have a blessed day!

Love,

Sister Myers

I'm Thankful for the Temple!

So the 2 big things of the week! Temple and Thanksgiving!! :)

Thanksgiving was really...well interesting!!! So, we sort of kind of had 3 Thanksgiving dinners....but not really. We had a Thanksgiving breakfast at the Relief Society president's: Sister Spears. The reason was because her son and his wife were going to be there for breakfast because they weren't going to make it to the main dinner (which we went to later) and they are very less active and so she wanted us to drop in have breakfast with them so they could have some church contact. :) So yeah that was so good. We had biscuits and chocolate gravy (oh my goodness...that was delicious), bacon, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, orange juice....oh goodness there was so much and it was so good. So anyway then we went and parked and did our studies in the car since we hadn't done them. Then we went to our first Thanksgiving dinner at 12. That was so good. Then we went and did some Facebook and tried to see some people. Then we went to our second Thanksgiving dinner at 4. Wow that was also so good. But guess what? I never over ate. I never got uncomfortably full. And I only ate 1 piece of pie and a small piece of coconut cake. Those were so good. The pie was caramel pie and the cake...oh man...heaven. But yeah I did so good. And in both dinners I probably ate the amount I would normally eat for 1 dinner in the past!

So, unfortunately for Sister Sumbot she got sick on Thanksgiving! She had like a 24 hour bug or something and so she woke up just feeling nauseous and stuff and that lasted the whole day. She would get a little bit of food and then just eat like a couple of bites then just stir it around on her plate. So sad! She says it's her favorite holiday and she couldn't even enjoy it! Oh yeah, and after our last Thanksgiving dinner Sister Sumbot was just not doing well and so we decided that we just needed to go in (it's like 6 at this point). So we texted the Mission doctor advisor and Sister Anderson and told them that we were going in. So one of Sister Spears relatives dropped us off at our apartment because the other sisters had taken the car....and when we walked up the steps we realized that the other sisters had our keys!!!! We had given them the car key and accidentally gave them our keys too and so we couldn't even get in our apartment! So now, it's like 31 degrees and we are stuck outside and Sister Sumbot is sick - and the Sister were too far away to come back. So we called up Sister Tucker (pretty much our mission mom) and she came and got us and took us to her house. So then for the next 2 hours, (because the Sisters were coming to pick us up at around 8 because we were allowed to go in at 8) Sister Sumbot slept in their guest bed and I watched some MOTAB Christmas concert thing with the Tuckers. It was good. :) Then when the Sister picked us up we went back to our apartment and hurried and planned. Then Sister Sumbot went to sleep - and she slept in until 8 (as prescribed by the mission doctor who called me while we were at the Tuckers). She slept for 13 hours total that night! And she was basically better in the morning!! But yeah it was a weird morning because I still got up and worked out...by myself...then I had breakfast and got ready and stuff....and then I started studies....by myself. It was bizarro.

Yeah so anyway, Thanksgiving was a great adventure! :) Oh yeah also, I don't know if it's just that my family doesn't have all the typical thanksgiving foods or what but southern thanksgiving is weird. They have turkey AND ham for one thing. They all have corn bread (that wasn't a surprise). Also deviled eggs...what? And some sort of corn concoction that I didn't even know what it was but it was good! Also like the only pie they have (at least of the 2 I went to) was pumpkin and caramel....what? And then lots of other random treats. It was very interesting....

Okay so now to the second big thing: We got to go to the Temple!!! :) :) :) So remember Clem? Well he went to go do baptisms at the temple for the first time and so we got permission to go since Sister Sumbot was involved with his baptism! Also this other family she taught (well the dad and son - the dad was always a member but inactive and the son just got baptized at 14) went too, and so that was so cool!!! I'll send some pics - if I remember! So yeah that was way fun. I just love the temple! :)

Okay can I just say that I LOVE small town Christmas decorations!! Oh my goodness it looks SOOO cool! They have lit up snowflakes on all the light poles and telephone poles and then the wires or whatever that go across the street have these cool snowflake and light things on the them....so you like drive under lights....oh my heck it's so pretty!! :) :) "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" Also we helped this one investigator that we have and we helped her put up her Christmas decorations and lights and stuff and that was sooo much fun! She hurt her back and so she couldn't do it by herself! We were a big help! :) Oh yeah her name is Deb and she is so awesome! She is pretty much already a member! She always says, "Our church" when she talks about the church. Except
something just hasn't clicked with her. She has been meeting with the missionaries for almost 2 years!!! What?! I guess she was going to get baptized but then all of the sudden she went and got baptized in her grandpa's church in a river in Ohio because that's where her mom got baptized...we were like, "Uh you know....you could've gotten baptized in that creek by the proper priesthood authority." And she was like, "Really?" Anyway we are going to go through all the lesson with her again - really slow to see if it catches a little better!

So here's a random miracle for you: so the Sister were going to pick us up one night this week and so we were texting them to tell them where we were and then our phone died! It does that a lot. We really need to get a new one. It always tells us that it's charging when it's not and it dies a lot and it's just bizarre. So anyway, we were like, "Okay what do we do?" Luckily, we were close to the church so we decided to walk to the church and use that phone to call a member who could give us the Sisters number and then call them. Okay but here's the miracle: We had a key to the church!! We don't ever have the key to the church - the other sisters just hold onto it - but a few days before we had had to go there to get something and so the sisters had given us the key. And when we were done we were like, "oh we should give you the key back" And they were like, "Oh just hold on to it for now." So then...we had it! And so we could go in and call them! Crazy!!! :)

Here's another sweet miracle for y'all: So we didn't get all of our power hour (tracting) in for the day and so we went to Walmart in the evening and we can't really bother people or we could get kicked out so we just have to pray that someone talks to us. So we were just walking around and praying we could teach someone or find someone. Then we were walking past this mom and her 8 year old and as we walked past the 8 year old pretty much yelled at Sister Sumbot, "That's like Emily's necklace!!" And he went up and was looking at her necklace. He was so hyper. And he was singing his name and
hugging us and stuff. Then we gave him a pass along card that had a picture of Jesus....so he gave me a feather out of his pocket that he found on the ground (slightly gross) and then he just kept on talking to us. We were also talking to the mom too. And she kept apologizing for his crazy behavior. Then we told her what we do as missionaries and stuff and gave her a pamphlet. Then we asked if we could come visit her and she was just like, "Oh yeah sure! Here's my address." And then we asked her when the best time would be for us to come back and she was like, "Oh any time! I work from home so stop by any time!" Wow!! Crazy miracle!!! :)

Okay can I just say that the "He is the Gift" initiative is SOOO cool?! Have you heard that they purchased time of Times Square in New York and it's playing there?! Also on December 7th the church purchased the Banner on Youtube and so everyone who visits Youtube on that day will see the advertisement for it and they can watched the shortened version of the video!!! SO cool!!! The missionaries are all being given enough to give out 10 of those pass along cards (that everyone got in the Ensign) to give out and invited people to hear about the gospel. It's just so cool. Also I just love the video!!

Anyway that's it from today!! I love y'all so much!!! :) Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Myers

P.S. So yesterday we started caroling (all 4 of us sisters) to Less actives and investigators and inviting this nativity festivals thing and it was so funny because yesterday it was 62 degrees!! We were like, "Yeah let's tell our families about how we went caroling on Nov 30 with no jackets!" Yeah that was the weirdest caroling experience I've ever had!! Oh haha Tennessee....

Today is very warm also. It's like 63 right now. Wowzers!!!