October 6

So many miracles the last couple of days....

Wednesday night we went and taught Summer. Her grandpa is a less active. The first couple times we went we didn't even see him. Then we actually got to talk to him for a few minutes. Well we were teaching about tithing, follow the prophet, etc and he came downstairs and sat with us! Then he started teaching with us! I was pretty shocked. Then Summer asked him to say the closing prayer. I didn't think he would. Buuuuuuut...HE DID! I'm really hoping that Summer getting baptized is softening him up.

Thursday we did exchanges. Sister Allen came with me. It was an interesting day. President called and I figured he wanted to talk to Sister Allen, but no he wanted to talk to me. I was driving at the moment so I couldn't, and it took about three hours before I could actually talk to him again. So the entire time I was wondering what he wanted to talk to me about, yes I was quite nervous. More on that later!

We had zone meeting Friday morning. We talked all about working with members. I was way pumped! Unfortunately it's really easy to get full time missionaries pumped up about missionary work, but the members not so much. President Cleveland also wants us to work on using the pamphlets in finding. SO! We went finding afterwards and I actually had a lot of fun. It's pretty easy to get rote in finding, but we mixed it up!

Friday night was girls night! haha...a little different as a missionary. The Lykins had invited us over for dinner, but all her kids at a cross country banquet and her husband when flying, so she just took us out to dinner. Oh yeah!...tender mercy. Right when we walked in "Crush" by David Archuleta started playing. AND the elders are teaching this girl named Giselle. She's 20 and David's sister's friend. She's actually moving out to Murray in November...after she gets baptized. Anyways, yeah hearing that song made my day. We talked a lot about missionary work with her. In preparation for zone meeting we were asked to think of a creative way to work with members. Every ward has a ward mission plan, at least they are supposed. So I thought, why not family missionary plans! Then I was looking in PMG and found out it actually takes about them in there! So we talked with Sis Lykins about creating a mission plan for her family, since they are all about missionary work.

THEN! The day just got even better. We had a lesson with Don and Leah Ann. Jeremy and Carrie were both there. We asked how the reading was, Don is in 4 Nephi and Leah Ann was in Ether! Yes we've been teaching them for only a month. Anyways, then Leah Ann starts a 10 minute monologue about how there is no way a 14 year old boy could have wrote this book on his own, that 3 Nephi was full of "gold nuggets" that answered a ton of her questions. Don told us he didn't sleep because he couldn't put it down. Finally I just clearly asked them if they believed the Book of Mormon was true, they both said yes. Leah Ann told us she felt chills as she was reading. Jeremy then shared that whenever he has doubts about the church, he always goes back to that feeling. Their phone and internet hadn't been working the last couple of days and someone was coming to fix it on Saturday. Don told them they had to come after 2 or not mess with the tv because nothing was going to prevent them from watching conference (we found BYUTV when we were over there on Tuesday). He also said that they were going to turn it up loud and if they neighbors complained he didn't care.
They were pretty excited. I couldn't sleep that night because I was so excited!

The miracles continued. Saturday morning we got to help a non-member move! Ok it's dumb because the elders ALWAYS get asked to do manual service and the sisters never do because they think we wear skirts all the time or something. But the elders weren't available (YES!) A member in our ward as been friends with the family for a long time. They are looking for a church right now and it's between ours and another. So while we were packing up the kitchen we were getting to know her a bit more. She knows a ton of members in town and definitely has raised her family with good morals. We gave her our phone number and told her to call us if she needs anymore help. If she doesn't well call her haha. Anyways I love giving service. Oh and Aaron (the dad) said he has seen us walking around before and thought we were high school students! But we think that was a little sign.

CONFERENCE!!! ahh! So excited, I want to just watch it again. Revelation. It hasn't been until my mission that I have realized how important it is. That's what most of my questions were regarding going into conference. I loved the talk by Elder Maynes about spiritual stamina. We do face difficulties everyday! We have to be spiritually strong in order to receive revelation. I was thinking of it in terms of lifting weights. If you give a weak person 100 pounds to bench, it's going to crush them. You've got to start out small. The same goes for revelation. Heavenly Father isn't going to tell me something that I'm not ready to know or not prepared to act on. Elder McConkie's talk on teaching the gospel was incredible. My favorite part is teaching by the Spirit, obviously. I know when the Spirit is present in lessons if I learn too. The best lessons are when I learn! I know that's not my purpose, but it's a nice little gift. Something I learned from Elder Vinson's talked: In order to use ALL my strength, I need the help of my Heavenly Father. I can't do it on my own. As he was talking the words of a primary song came to my head (I can't remember the name) "He is always near me, thought I may not see Him there". It's so crucial to always remember that and I don't. I also really liked Elder Nelson's; I was expecting him to talk on missionary work, so it did catch me a little off guard. The reason we desire to learn and change is because we are eternal beings; it's who we are. We will never stop being children of God. We have to learn to "bridle our passions" while we are here on earth. Going back to revelation, I won't ever receive revelation if my spirit is not stronger then my body. I could go on, Elder Scott, Elder Holland, President Monson, etc. Anyways, how grateful I am for conference. And mom you're right, how grateful I am for the Ensign.

So transfers are this week. Remember how President called me on Thursday? One of the biggest blessings of my mission have been the opportunity to serve with him. He's incredibly aware of each of his missionaries, at least me. When he first called Sister Allen and was talking to her he said "Sister Mayberry and I are good friends". When I finally was able to talk to him he told me that because of our past phone calls, etc he wanted to personally ask me how I felt about training again. He doesn't want me to feel overwhelmed at all and that he wanted to help me out in any way that he could. I told him I didn't think I was ready, but a missionary is never fully ready to train. We talked for about 10 minutes. He asked me if I wanted to stay in Franklin or train somewhere else. I told him I preferred to stay put. I think I talk about President every week, but it's because he has made a huge impact on my life. He's gotten a million things to do, but he felt like it was necessary to call me personally. The major miracle this weeks was President calling. So yes, I'm staying and training again. I'm glad he gave me a couple days notice because it's given me time to pray and study. I've trained once before and I learned a lot. It was hard acting surprised when we got the call last night. I didn't really say much because I didn't want Sister Francis finding out that I had known for three days what was happening.

I'm pretty nervous, still terrified actually. But I can do it. I don't know why President, or really Heavenly Father thinks I'm capable of fulfilling this assignment, but I know it will but me in a situation where I'll learn the lessons that I need to. I haven't slept much since Thursday. I've been thinking a lot about training and what I need to change about myself. Last time I recognized my weaknesses. I had no problem sharing them with my companion and my leaders. This time around I've got to learn how to overcome those weaknesses and that's going to be hard. Yay for challenges! Just kidding, if life weren't hard I wouldn't learn anything. If my mission was easy then I would come home the same person as when I left.

September 30

Don and Leah Ann! Oh my goodness. So we set a baptismal date for them last week and Don asked if Brother Dorsey could be the one to baptize him. So when we taught them on Tuesday, we brought Brother Dorsey! Right after saying the opening prayer Don turns to Brother Dorsey and asks if he would be the one to baptism him! I literally almost jumped out of my chair! I was so excited. Brother Dorsey is a convert and he shared with them how he came to know the church was true. We also had another awesome lesson with them on Friday. They are already in Helaman and we've been teaching them for like....3 weeks. So solid! Also, jumping ahead. Yesterday our gospel principles class was the best one yet. First, it was a full house. It was an eternal marriage and one of the elders was teaching....wasn't sure how that was going to go. On Friday we had taught Don and Leah Ann about the three degrees of glory and eternal marriage. So actually this lesson was perfect! A couple members of the ward were sharing their testimonies of eternal marriage (they are married). Anyways, then somehow Leah Ann brought up something about the Spirit. This has been the biggest struggle with her. She's reading like a maniac and has been learning a ton, but she wants that answer from the Holy Ghost. Which is awesome! So many people don't search for that enough. Anyways, then the members in the class were able to teach both Don and Leah Ann about recognizing the spirit. Most powerful gospel principles class I have ever been in. Leah Ann felt the Spirit. As we were waiting for third hour to start I could tell she was feeling something. I asked her how she was doing. I don't remember what she said exactly but....they are both moving well on the conversion path.

On Friday we went tracting in Sweetwater. It's a series of lakes about half an hour south of Franklin. I felt like we were hiking! In skirts of course. I loved it...Sister Francis wasn't such a huge fan. That night I also learned I have pretty good driving reflexes. The drive down there is pretty hilly and there are a lot of turns....kind of like driving up to Mt. Baker. Anyways, coming around a corner...BOOM three deer, slammed on the breaks...we were all good! Glad I now know how I can react in a situation like that.

The General Relief Society broadcast was awesome! About two weeks ago or so I was telling Sister Francis that we don't talk about covenants enough in the church. Sure enough, two of the talks were about covenants! My favorite was the one sister (don't remember her name) who said keeping covenants brings us true happiness. Heavenly Father knows EXACTLY what is going to make us happy....even when we can't see it in the moment.

I love fast Sundays. So there's this family in the ward...best member missionaries ever. The dad got up and bore his testimony, then his daughter. She was visiting from college for the weekend and I actually met her back in Seymour because her dad is a member of the high council. Then their son who is a senior got up and share his testimony. Everything was about missionary work, which is a good thing because we asked the ward to fast to find new investigators. Anyways, so towards the end I felt prompted to go up as well. I just shared something quick, something about the miracles I get to see everyday as a missionary. Then after sacrament meeting this girl comes up and just gives me a hug! I asked her if she remembered who I was and she was like "I have never met you before", then I explained how we met. Anyways, this girl is SWEET! She's going to a Catholic private college and she started dating this boy recently. Well he isn't the first boyfriend she's introduced to the gospel. Anyways, he's getting baptized, going to church, etc. Anyways....even though this girl is younger than me, she's such an example! She came to gospel principles and she was talking about how we take celestial marriage for granted, so many people don't have that assurance! I was pretty bummed because we went to her family's house for dinner, but she had already left to go back to Kentucky. I wish I could have been like her when I was in high school....

Last night in my studies I was learning about accountability. It's necessary for everyone to learn this principle. So I continued to think about it this morning. First! Mormon 9:31 says "give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our (me my) imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise" . It goes along with the scripture in D&C that says the Lord chastens those He loves. As I recognize my weaknesses/imperfections I am able to become more wise as I overcome them. But! I wouldn't be able to overcome them if I didn't know what they were. That's why missions are so awesome! Ok going back to accountability. This morning I was thinking of scriptural examples of accountability and I thought of the Brother of Jared, actually I'm in Ether right now in my Book of Mormon reading. So this is what I learned...hopefully you can follow my thoughts. Ether 2:6 "directed continually by the hand of the Lord". From the very beginning the Lord was involved in this story...He didn't confound their language. Then after making the first part of the journey the Brother of Jared gets chastised because "he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord", he wasn't being accountable. So after repenting, the Lord tells him to "go to work...according to the instructions of the Lord" (v. 16). After he build the ships, he gives an accounting of His work (v. 18). Ok...the best part, v. 24-25. Christ tells the Brother of Jared this is going to be storms, waves, winds, etc as they are crossing the ocean. BUT, He says "I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea". We cannot make it through trials in life without being prepared by the Lord first. He's given us everything we need, scriptures, church, modern day prophets, covenants, etc. But the Brother of Jared still has a problem, how are they going to see? Christ doesn't give him an answer, He says "what will ye that I should prepare fro you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea"? When I read this...I wasn't thinking about oceans. Rather, the depths of trials. What can Heavenly Father and our Savior do to help us have light when we are in the darkness of tough times in our life? We must recognize specific help we need and then go to Heavenly Father and ask for it. Just like the Brother of Jared told Christ to touch the stones so they could provide light. It goes back to the imperfections. Recognizing our weaknesses so then we can ask for specific strength/guidance to overcome the difficulties in our life....I was pretty excited after studies, still am. Maybe this doesn't seem as revelatory to you as it did to me, hopefully it makes at least a little bit of sense. 

General conference.....so stoked! Man, I don't think I can wait five more days. Hopefully everyone watches it!

September 23rd

One year ago was when I first had the impression to serve a mission, two weeks before conference. Never would I have thought that Sunday night, that exactly a year from today I would already have almost seven months completed of a mission. I think this very easily could have been the fastest/most life changing year of my life. I look back at the person I was a year ago and in some ways I don't even recognize her. Little did I know that changes that would occur to me as embarked on the journey of a lifetime.

So...the primary program yesterday! I realized this was my first time in four years being able to see a primary program (yay for singles wards!). Anyways, I think they sang all of my favorite primary songs. Unfortunately  Don and Leah Ann didn't make it to church which I was really bummed about.

Tuesday we had zone conference in Martinsville. I learned so much. We talked about D&C 4:2. If I want to reach my full potential as a missionary I have to be socially (heart), physically (strength), spiritually (might), and mentally (mind) healthy. That's incredibly difficult, but not impossible. My favorite part of zone conference is the departing testimonies. Even know, I feel like I'm never going to be at the point of these elders going home. One of the elders told us that every decision we make should be based on love and that we should experience God's love each day.

Unfortunately, the end of this week was pretty hard. So instead of sharing stories that happened, I'm going to tell you about some of the things I've been learning.

From Alma 26:22 I learned that the purpose of revelation is to bring souls unto repentance. The Restoration of the gospel allowed us to perform saving ordinances, that's repentance. Personal revelation I receive allows me to recognize weaknesses and what I need to work on to become more like Heavenly Father.

Yesterday I was studying about faith and how it leads to miracles. I was lead to Alma 32: 41. Part of it says "looking forward to the fruit thereof". I've never noticed this before. There are fruits of conversion and we are able to look for them. Yes normally Alma 32 is thought of the faith or testimony chapter, but both of those lead to conversion. Some of the fruits of conversion are desired to do good, not rebelling against God, and being filled with love. These are attributes I must look for in investigators as I teach them, but I must also look for them in myself. I've also been thinking about D&C 97:8 "observe every covenants by sacrifice-yea, every sacrifice. Sacrifice. I wish I knew more about it. Covenants allow us to become more like Heavenly Father and our Savior. I was reading "The Challenge to Become" My Elder Oaks this morning. This was what I learned. God can give me everything He has, but in order to become like Him I must do it for myself. I must learn what He learned and live as He lives. "The gospel of Jesus Christ is the plan by which we can become what the children of God are supposed to become". We must make sacrifices in order to keep covenants. I've been listening to a lot of talks by Elder Holland. I've noticed a them in a lot of them. He talks about the trials and experiences we all must go through in order to become like Christ. We have to go through some suffering on this earth. There is no way we can ever become like God if we don't experience a degree of what He went through. Salvation isn't easy. I think I tell myself this everyday. I wish I could adequately write/describe what I've learned, but it's not coming out the way I think about it in my head. Brad Wilcox wrote an article in this months Ensign about grace. Read it. I've listened to the entire talk, and maybe I've already mentioned this before, but in it he says we aren't earning Heaven, but learning Heaven. Some people I meet think we are trying to earn Heaven by doing good works. No. We are becoming like Christ and that takes work. That's frustrating because people don't get it. In ward council we talk about less actives who have fallen away. Usually it's because they don't want to put in the work that it requires to be a disciple of Christ. The gospel challenges us to live and become like Christ.

I got a letter from Hermana Ashley Miller on Saturday. It was just what I needed. She talked about how if these are the best 18 months of my life, I have failed. Because  mission should be the best 18 months FOR my life. Yeah, I've heard that quote before. Honestly, I think thank goodness this isn't supposed to be the best 18 months of my life because then I really don't want to live the rest of my life haha! Anyways, so I feel like it's ok if I don't love every moment of my mission, or even every day. What's important is that I'm more on the road of conversion than I was before, and that will bring me happiness later in life.

Back in July when I called President Cleveland the first time, after talking to him for maybe 10 minutes or so he said "I sense you are a pretty sensitive person". My first though was to be a bit offended because when I think of a sensitive person I think of an emotional unstable girl who cries all the time....unfortunately that has been me a couple of days out here. Anyways, I think you may have told me that same thing more or dad. During lunch I read a couple of letters from July. I started crying. Before Sis Francis could noticed I went into the bathroom. So I knelt down and began to pray. I begged God that He would soften my heart. As I sat there kneeling on the bathroom floor...I realized I am sensitive. Maybe it was God telling me, I don't really know. But I am. I think back on certain times of my mission, especially my first transfer, and realize that yeah I am pretty sensitive. But instead of viewing it as a negative thing, I've got to figure out how to use it as a strength.

I sense this week is going to be pretty hard. So extra prayers would be much appreciated. I have a lot of weaknesses and sometimes they prevent me from being happy. Other people also have weaknesses and part of this life is learning to forgive.

I love you all a lot! Thank you so much for everything that you do!

Love, Kyla