Sister Kyla Mayberry: 2014

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Week 70 #exchanges#iloveasians#campuslife

Tuesday and Wednesday I was out of the area on exchanges which was crazy. However, Sister McMillan and I had a really cool experience in Avon. We had gone to a neighborhood that was hit by the tornado last week and tried some potentials and no one was there. We were in a no soliciting neighborhood so supposedly we weren't allowed to tract. We found a little pathway that led to a park so I told Sister McMillan that we could try to it. We started down it and no one was out. I began to second think my decision. Soon we came across a pavilion and there was a guy sitting at a picnic table. We approached him and introduced who we were. He didn't seem all that interested especially when he told us he attends a church but doesn't claim it. However, as we got talking more he shared with us that he used to meet with a senior couple missionary in North Carolina and had attended church. I finally got the guts to ask him why he stopped. He told us the only reason was because he moved here to Indiana and lost contact with the church. At that very moment I asked him if we could teach him the Restoration. We taught the whole thing and he was telling us that everything made sense. We set up a return appointment for the sisters to go see him on Friday. And texted the sisters Friday night to see how it went. They said that there was some miscommunication because he told them he was unable to meet because he had an interview but they still showed up anyways. He told them that he believed the Book of Mormon to be true and they committed him to be baptized on August 2nd!!! I couldn't believe it!!! Avon has really struggled with baptisms, meaning they haven't had any since sisters got put in two years ago. I very, very excited for the sisters.

Wednesday I was in the Indy 3rd ward with Sister Richardson. In the afternoon we had planned to see about a billion less actives and we weren't able to visit with any of them. We still had about 20 minutes before our dinner appointment so we decided to just knock a few houses in the neighborhood that we were in. The last door that we knocked on a woman answered up. She wasn't too interested, but Sister Richardson and I were persistent. She still didn't invite us back, but there is nothing more powerful than bearing your testimony to someone and wanting them to listen.

Friday we taught Megan and Kiki together for the last time. Gosh I just can't get enough of these girls. Megan has already been contacted by the missionaries in Pennsylvania though and she'll be meeting with them tomorrow. Then we met with Kiki after church yesterday. Before we had a dessert social and I was talking with her and one of our members. Previously her baptism date was August 30th. Then somehow it got brought up that I would be leaving the 26th. She told me that she would need to get baptized before I left. Then when we had her lesson with her she said that she wanted to move her date up so that both Sister Gil and I could be there. We didn't have the heart to tell her about transfers though. She and Megan are both one of the many miracles that Sister Gil and I have seen in this area. She knows way more doctrine than either of us thought. I think we asked her what forgiveness was and the rattled off some definition that was literally perfect. Sister Gil and I just stare at each other in awe during her lessons.

Tho

Those were definitely the highlights from this week. We have our last exchange of the transfers starting tonight. I'm finally staying on campus for once! This week will be really great. I'm sad Sister Gil and I will be getting split up soon, and I'm VERY anxious about this next transfer:(

Week 70 #exchanges#iloveasians#campuslife

Tho

Week 69

Tuesday I went on exchanges with Sister Hunt. We went back and forth between areas because she LOVES campus. We started by teaching a couple of her investigators that are getting baptized in August. They are a mother and daughter and are SO prepared! The daughter is also getting married the week before to her fiance and then all three of them will be getting baptized the following week. After lunch we spent some time on campus pcing, not really any luck though. Afterwards we stopped by one of her less actives. We drive to this ghetto part of town and then pull up in front of her house. She's an older black lady and she was just sitting on her porch like Hoosiers do. Anyways, as we were sitting there on her porch I thought about THIS is why I love my mission. Those moments when I can just talk to people about the gospel.

So this week the missionary department came! On Wednesday we had a meeting up in Fishers with them that felt like it lasted a million years. However! I learned a ton about my purpose as a missionary. Sometimes I feel like everything I am learning now would have been really helpful a little sooner, but we have to learn one thing at a time. I guess what I took away from that meeting was that everything I learned there can be applied for the rest of my life, not as a full time missionary. They focused a lot on extending the baptismal commitment and how focused we need to be on baptism. Our purpose is to invite people, our goal is to baptize.

Thursday we ran into Iman on campus, the girl we went to church with last week. We introduced the Book of Mormon too her. We have to get members fellowshipping her because she is at the poitn where she trusts us and views us as her friends. There's definitely a lot of potential with her; we just have to help her understand the Restoration and she'll be golden! We had to get our car fixed that afternoon :( Then we ran and got some Mexican pizza from a member of the Spanish branch and headed over to help the White River sisters move out of their apartment.

Our topic for Book of Mormon reading class that night was confidence. The Spirit was so strong as we read stories from the Book of Mormon of people who were confident in their callings. I realized, that everyone is! My teacher in the MTC, Sister Metzger would also do an "I know" circle at the end of every class. Basically everyone in the class would go around the room and say "I know" and then something that the Spirit taught them. I remembered doing that right as class was wrapping up, so I suggested that we do it. I was amazed at the different responses of the members and investigators. There is nothing more powerful than people bearing their testimonies, because that is what we were doing.

Friday we had zone meeting. I was stressing about my training! Then we get a call from the assistants saying they were coming. It turned out my training got cut short so it ended up not being a big deal in the end. That afternoon we taught Megan and Kiki. They have the coolest story! They are friends we met on campus about three weeks ago. Megan came to a baptism a few days later and then we were able to teach her another time. In the mean time we didn't see Kiki. Then Megan left for Penn State and we didn't think we were going to see her anymore. So last week Kiki came to church and loved it and we set up to meet with her on Friday. On Thursday I had this thought to text Megan. She responded saying she was in town! And that she had ran into some missionaries and they gave her a Book of Mormon. We went to the church Thursday night and learned that the White River elders had pced into her along the canal on Tuesday and had taught her Wednesday and then that day as well. Crazy! So Megan said she wanted to come to the lesson on Friday with Kiki. Well....long story short. It was an short, simple, spiritual lesson. We taught some of the plan of salvation and then Megan prayed at the end. We had extended to both of them a baptismal date of August 2nd. When Megan prayed she asked that their faith be strengthened so they would be prepared for baptism!!!! NO ONE EVER SAYS THAT!!!

Saturday morning rolls around and we haven't heard from Elliot in 24 hours. We went to the church and our branch mission leaders begins to fill up the font. An hour and a half before the baptism Elliot calls and tells us he doesn't want to get baptized that day but that he still wants to come to the church and talk. We were devasted! I didn't think a baptism would fall through that close to the service. We tried to get the word out quick enough but it was so hard to tell the member that still showed up to the church. Luckily Elliot was totally fine with expressing how he felt. He just feels like he needs a stronger testimony of the gospel.

Yesterday was another miracle day. We were able to teach all four of our investigators that came to church. What a blessing! Yolanda we taught before church. I absolutely love teaching her. She told us she wants to prepare for baptism!!!!!!!!!!! It will probably still be a ways down the road, but that's the complete opposite mindset she had when I first met her. Then we taught Megan and Kiki after sacrament meeting because they wanted to leave to watch the world cup haha. You know someone is prepared by the questions they ask during lessons. And they are both prepared! We followed up with them about getting baptized on August 2nd and they both felt like that we too soon. They asked to be baptized on August 30th instead. Sister Gil and I are both pretty confident that that date will get moved up :)

We've been teaching Michael for quite a while now and we both have felt like he hasn't been able to recognize the Spirit. We feel like we are just sharing knowledge with him during our lesson. On Saturday during weekly planning we talked about what we could change to invite the Spirit. After church we met with him and read part of Alma 32 with him and talked about faith. Then he totally opened up! I asked him if he had been specifically praying about the things we had been teaching him. He said that at first he wasn't, but that now he was. And that everytime he prayed about it he felt good. Then he said he's been thinking about the first time we met. He said he saw us walk past the first time and he felt a connection, that there was something different about us. Then we walked around the corner and t hen came back and sat at the computer next to him. He thought it was a bit weird when we started talking to him and asked if he wanted to watch a video (we shared with him Because of Him). While he's telling us this Sister Gil and I are just looking at each other, completely dumbfounded. He's nervous because everything we shared with him is different from what he was taught and he's also concerned about his family. All I know is that the Spirit was present in that lesson. I bore my testimony much more powerfully then I have in a very long time. There is so much joy that comes from being used as an instrument of the Spirit. Sometimes I wish I could remember exactly what I said, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is the feeling that was in the room.

Last night was Why I Believe. I'm very grateful that I get to attend these wonderful fireside. President Cleveland had the departing missionaries stand up and bear their testimonies. It's hard to believe that Sister Clark and Sister Carroll will be going home in just a couple weeks. I love both these sisters very dearly and they've been a part of my mission since day one. Luckily Sister Carroll and I have already planned our sleepover for this fall :) Afterwards I saw the family that I had taught with Sister Hunt on Tuesday. I went over their to meet the fiance. When I shook his hands he said "I've heard so much about you!" and then Hope chimmed in and said that she really wanted me to meet him. It's crazy that kind of bonds we can develop out here. As I was going around shaking hands last night I realized that I really do know a lot of people out here. At my first Why I Believe I'm pretty sure I followed my companions around the entire night haha.

Please pray for Sister Gil and I. We got a new phone this week and we hate it!!!! We will probably lose our patience this week because it takes both of us twice as long to do anything on the thing. However, I just remind myself that I'm grateful we have a phone because our life would be much more difficult with out it. In fast, the night after we got it I had a dream I bought an Iphone when I got home. Sister Gil told me it was a revelation and that I should do it :) I was freaking out in the dream though because of how much money it was.

I definitely went to sleep with a smile on my face last night. There is an unexplanable joy that comes from feeling the Spirit.

Sister Mayberry

Week 68 #4thofJulyOlympics#fireworks#conversion#reachforthestars

THIS WEEK WAS CRAZY!!!!

So Tuesday I went on exchanges with Sister Francis. It was way fun to be back with a previous companion! My favorite part of the exchange was being able to see Desi. Just a refresher, I taught her when I was here last time and then she got baptized in February. She attends the Plainfield family ward. She has since moved in with a member family. We taught them about Elder Bednar's talk "Bear Up our Burdens with Ease". At the end of the lessons I asked the family if there was anything we could do for them. The father of the household said yes, I ahve a question that maybe you can help answer. He asked how he could get ride of the burdens in his life that weren't providing the necessary spiritual traction. I didn't really know what to say. I gave some long answer that probably didn't make any sense. But what I took away from that was his humility. He said she since we had been set apart to teach maybe we could help answer his question. Members never cease to amaze me. I'm grateful for what he taught me that day.

So basically Wednesday was our last proselyting day of the week. Sister Gil and I set ridiculously high goals for the day, teaching 15 lessons to be exact. We didn't have single appointment scheduled so we would spend the entire day pcing campus. I was definitely exhausted by the end of the day. We didn't reach 15, but we did get 10. A new record for me!

Then on Thursday we had MLC at the mission home. I learned so much! First off both President Cleveland and the assistants trained on key indicators and there purpose. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite other to come unto Christ. How do we do that? Through finding investigators and teaching lessons, both of which are reflected in key indicators. He also talked about goals. We have a goal as a mission to baptize 121 people in two transfers which ends at the end of the month. I think we are at about 70 people. President explained that it doesn't matter if we reach it our not. What matters is that we push ourselves to meet it. Even if we don't meet the goal, we will probably have had more baptisms than if we hadn't set the goal. I applied it to my experience the previous day. We didn't reach our goal, but I know we taught a lot more than we would have if we had set a lower goal. We set goals not so we can reach them 100% of the time, but so we can push ourselves and grow from it. In the afternoon President spoke on conversion. It was really just what I needed. One of the scriptures that he shared was 2 Corinthians 13:5

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"

He talked about the importance of taking time to examine ourselves and waht we are doing to show conversion. What I personally got out of the scriptures was the importance of proving to ourselves what we are capable of doing. Heavenly Father knows exactly what each of us are capable of doing, but we often don't see the potential in ourselves. I remember at a youth fireside long ago the speaker said that we aren't here on earth to prove Heavenly Father that we can make it back to the Celestial Kingdom, but we are here to prove it to ourselves. I also love our Jesus Christ is in all of us. This made me think of grace. We are capable of doing anything with the help of our Savior. I loved being able to sit in the basement of the mission home and be taught by President Cleveland. It's such a blessing to be around him more often.

Friday was a lot of fun! In the afternoon most of the zone got together and we had a picnice and did some "olympic" stuff. Like sack races, stick pull, water balloon tosses and the limbo. That evening we went downtown and got some food and sat on the circle center steps. That was a very interesting experience. As I sat there I just people watched and that hundreds of people around me. I could actually feel how I was set apart from the world. I started talking to one of the elders and he said he felt the same way. That night we got to stay out until 10:30 to watch fireworks! We sat along the White River and watched them shoot them off from downtown. I have to admit, they were quite disappointing compared to the Celebration of Lights.

Saturday night a girl we had met on Monday texted us and invited us to come to church with her. On Friday I had been telling Sister Gil how I've always wanted to attend another church. We didn't have any of our early morning meetings on Sunday so we decided to go! It was just a non-denominational church. It was crazy! We get out of the car and I can already hear the band playing. We walk in and there's people dancing in the front of the church. Iman goes up and Sister Gil and I just sit in the back and watch. After about a half hour the service finally begins. They take communion, we didn't. The preacher didn't actually speak, but just a member of the congregation. Afterwards the guy sitting next to me knew it was our first time and after I introduced myself he asked if we were Catholic. I explained that we were Mormon missionaries. I think he was quite taken back. He admitted that they service was pretty crazy but that we should come back again. He was definitely working hard. Then I whipped out my mormon.org cards and started explaining more about who were were.

Unfortunately we were late for church so we didn't get to take the sacrament. But we had four people at church! After that experience I had just had I knew I needed to bear my testimony. As I was sitting at that non-dem church I realized that we have the entire truth. Those people love God, but they are missing so much. If anything that experience gave me a clearer perspective of my purpose. But I've never been so grateful to walk into a chapel in my life! I coudl feel the Spirit immediately as I walked in and I was very glad to be able to listen to people share their testimonies. One of the investigators that came was Kiki. She's from China and we met her a couple weeks ago but haven't seen her since. She even brought her boyfriend! After sacrament meeting they always have visiting/new people stand and introduce themselves. I told Kiki that if she didn't feel comfortable doing it that I could do it for her. She was just fine with it! She got up, said her name, that she was going to school at IUPUI, and wants to learn more about Jesus Christ. The members SWARMED her afterwards to introduce themselves to her. I was a very happy missionary :) The rest of church was great, members were very nice to all our investigators at our break the fast after church.

Elliot should be getting baptized this Saturday. We are very, very excited! This week is also going to be crazy, but good. The time keeps going by faster and faster.

Week 67 #baptizethenations#tornado#thematriarch

So Monday for preparation day we went minigolfing because the church was being cleaned. It was so fun!!!

Yep Tuesday we certainly had a tornado, however nothing exciting. We were at the church eating lunch when they told us to stay inside and not leave. The clouds didn't even look any different, a very big disappointed. Apparently the funnel cloud was by the race track, which is only about a mile from where we live. Definitely not the tornado I wanted to experience. I didn't even hear the sirens! Once we got released from the church we drove up to Carmel to the mission office to pick up some copies of the Book of Mormon and then headed to our dinner appointment in Fishers. I love the mission office! Also the member was filling us in the Ordained Woman stuff. Both Sister Gil and I came to the same conclusion, both of us are just fine with not knowing about what is happening in the world. There is definitely a different feeling when you know you are set apart from the things of the world.

I wanted to share what I learned in institute on Wednesday. We talked about the story of the talents. Obviously, each person starts out with different amounts of talents. Our responsbility is to not worry about what we started out with, but allow out talents to increase. We each are given a different amount in different areas at life. Say someone is given a lot of talents to be a missionary, but maybe they struggle with going to school, or vice versa. It doesn't matter what we start out with, but how we allow it to grow. Hopefully that makes sense! I hate explaining things over typing. Before institute the elders had a baptism. We had met Megan on campus the week before but hadn't actually taught her. She came to the baptism! The crazy thing is she's only in Indiana for a few weeks visiting her sister before she heads to Penn State for grad school. During the service she asked Sister Gil how long it takes for someone to get baptized. So we had a lesson with her on Friday. The minute we said the opening prayer she asked if she could get baptized!!!!!!!!! We were both really excited for that whole lesson. She was raised in China but has converted to Christianity since coming to the US. We committed her to baptism and he said yes. We thought for sure she would be coming to church yesterday but then she said she couldn't because she's moving this Friday! We're kind of freaking out and really want to teach her before she goes. Luckily we already have the number for the institute teacher at Penn State. It was such a miracle lesson though.

I have officially become the "matriarch" of the missionaries. The elders are kind enough to refer to me as "mom". haha I guess that's what I get when you clean up after dinner at the church.

Saturday night we had NOTHING to do. Pretty typical for a campus missionary. That morning I had the thought to text all our investigators and invite them to play volleyball that night. They actually came! We had a lot of fun with them. So I have no idea what I've told you before because I can never remember, but Yolanda has changed completely since I've come. We've been meeting with her regularly and she's been coming to institute and church! Yesterday she was even joking around with me! Before she didn't even smile. I think my favorite part was when we were teaching her on Friday and she was laughing and smiling about what she had learned from her Book of Momron reading. At first I wasn't sure where she was going to go, but we've definitely seen a miracle happen right before out eyes with her.

I got waffles last night!!! Fancy Norwegian ones even. The Larsen's (senior couple serving in White River Ward) usually have the missionaries over on Sunday evenings.

This week is going to be a bit crazy. We don't have a full preparation day today because we are going to take the rest of it on the 4th. We also have MLC, interviews, and exchanges!! But I'm excited to work on campus on a Monday! I look back and the end of my mission is definitely a lot different from the first, even though I'm even in the same area! It's been fun to see how I've changed over the last year or so.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Week 66 #teachingtheworld#you'redead#mycompjustlaughsatme#thebookistrue

This week we taught someone from Russia, Africa, Vietnam and multiple people from China. I've also taught people from India since being on campus. So basically, I didn't have to go to a foreign country because they are all right here! I absolutely love it! Teaching people without a Christian background is kind of hard, but usually I target the foreigners on campus because they are much nicer to talk to.

My favorite was teaching Yang and Yibing. We met Yang last week on campus and he told us that his girlfriend wanted to learn more about Christianity so he invited us over to their apartment. They made Chinese food for us! It was so sweet. Yang definitely has the mindset that because he was raised not to believe in God it's hard for him to believe suddenly. Yibing shut him up pretty quick and told him she wanted to learn more. She worked for a Christian when she was living in China and she taught her how to pray and she really liked it. Yibing prayed at the end of the lesson! And we get to see them this week again :)

We've been having a lot of rain lately....the Indiana kind. We were pcing with a member on Wednesday and we were talking to someone and then it just started raining and we got soaked. We ran inside looking for a blow dryer of something. It cleared up about five minutes later so we went out again. Well we started talking to someone and it started DUMPING!!! None of us wanted to give up but finally he said we could go inside. My clothes were completely wet! It was fun though. Then I was shivering in institute that night because my clothes were still wet. I'll definitely attach a picture haha.

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. I woke up yesterday just very excited for the day. Oh! Saturday night this guy named Abdullah texted us asking what time mass started. I've talked him him twice on campus but he never really answers our texts. I texted him back Sunday morning to see if he needed the address. He came to church! I was quite surpised. He had never attended a Christian service because he was raised Muslim. I wasn't sure what he was going to think because we haven't been able to actually teach him. He only stayed for sacrament but I think he liked it!

After sacrament one of the summer boys came up to me and asked if I was the sister from Washington. He's from Lake Chelan so we talked for a little bit. Then he asked me how long I had been out. When I told him about 16 months his response was "oh you're dead!". Sister Gil just stood there laughing at me! I was quite offended by his comment. The elders kindly remind me that I'm going home in like two weeks. LIARS!! Anyways, that's just what happens to old missionaries I guess.

We finally have some progressing investigators! We still struggle because on campus usually what happens is you teach someone once and then they just disappear. It's so sad! But this week really was great.

Friday night we got this call from a guy who just wanted to bash with us. He told us that the Book of Mormon doesn't agree with anything the church teaches and that it was written by a Baptist. He asked us why it doesn't mention anything about baptisms for the dead, three degrees of glory, etc. Sister Gil studied about it and received this revelation. The Book of Mormon isn't a guideline to Mormonism. It's sole purpose is to testify of Jesus Christ. Once an individual comes to know the Book of Mormon is true then they will recognize that there is a prophet on the earth today who receives that specific revelation of the gospel of Christ. Think on that! I'm grateful that I continue to learn new things every single day. I'm coming to love campus more and more each day.

2 Attachments

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Week 65-June 9, 2014

We had our last exchanges for the transfer on Tuesday. I'm glad those are done! haha. My exchange with Sister Crandall went really well. We went on campus for most of the day. Sister Gil and I have been trying something new to get more member present lessons. We bring members with us on campus to go contact people. The members are so great at it! Two times this week I went out with a girl in our ward who is working on her papers. She did so awesome! I definitely never would have done something like this before the mission.

So Wednesday I kind of exploded.....The rest of the day was pretty miserable. Sister Gil told me that I needed to get a blessing and I wanted to but for whatever reason I wasn't rushing it. I had told the ZL about two weeks ago that I didn't really like being on campus because I just felt like I didn't have the personality for a campus missionary. Well on Thursday one of them asked me how I was doing. I kind of told him what I was going through. The issue I've been having is the way to contact people on a campus is to just strike up a casual conversation with them and then gradually start teaching doctrine. Well I just stink at doing that. This elders knows that I'm pretty quite and reserved. However, I explained to him that I'm no longer afraid to go up and talk to people, I worry about not making it super awkward and weird. I have no problem approaching people and immediately beginning to teach people doctrine. He helped me see that that is a strength. Because he can talk to anyone but sometime he has a difficult time teaching doctrine. Thursday evening we had Book of Mormon class and we read different versus about prayer. Someone said something along the lines of we have to give specific prayers if we want specific answers. I thought about that as I was saying my personal prayers. A luckily, a specific answer came. I thought about Ether 12:27 "I will make weak things become strong". For the last 21 years of my life I thought that my personality (being more reserved) was always a weakness and that I needed to change in order to become a stronger person. However, that's not true. Being reserved, quite, shy, whatever you want to say is a quality that I have. I've always thought of it as a weakness. This scriptures isn't saying to change completely who we are, rather we have to learn how to make those innate qualities that may seem like weaknesses become strengths. What that elder told me on Wednesday helped me see that. I realized I still needed a blessing, but not for the same reason. I needed direction from my Heavenly Father of what I needed to do to help my qualities become strengths.

I was originally going to have the ZL do it but Friday morning Sister Gil gave me another suggestion. We had Mission Leadership Council up in Fishers that day. So instead I called an elder who I've only met once and asked him to give me a blessing. That reason I felt like this was what I needed was because this elder had no idea what I had been thinking the last couple days. The blessing was perfect. It was more evidence to me that the priesthood is very real. He told me everything that I needed to here. I'm in this area for a very specific reason.

MLC was great! President Cleveland gave a wonderful training on revelation through prayer. Yep! I definitely need to work on saying more sincere prayers. Being in a leadership position is providing me opportunities to learn things that I wouldn't have learned another wise. Once a month we meet with President Cleveland, the stake president, and the ZL's and discuss missionary work on the stake level. That meeting was yesterday. I'm learning how important coordination between the missionaries and the stake is. Our stake president truly cares about the work and I've never known how involved they actually are.

As a campus missionary we usually don't prayer as a companionship very often during the day. Basically we jsut pray before we leave and that's it. However, Sister Gil and I are trying to change that! Thursday we were walking outside and there wasn't many people outside. We decided to sit on some steps for a moment and just pray and ask Heavenly Father to help us find someone to baptize. We did that, the elders walked up and we talked to them for a moment and then we were off! We saw a guy and a girl not too far apart from each other. Sister Gil asked me which one I wanted to talk to. My first thought was the girl, because I don't like talking to guys. But then I changed my mind and said we should talk to the guy. Right as I said that the girl got up and walked away. The guy it was! We definitely frightened as we approached him. He's pretty shy. We talked to him for about 10 minutes. He claims he's an atheist, but I don't really believe that. We set up a return appointment but he said himself he said yes just because he was looking for more friends. We text-ed him on Saturday just to get to know him a little better. Then! We had stake conference yesterday so church started at 10 am instead of 1. We were teaching another investigator right after conference. When we were wrapping up the lesson the Spanish elders kept peaking in the window and being really obnoxious. We got out and they told us a guy named Timmy had shown up for church at 1. Yep, I forgot to tell him! We ran outside to catch him. We brought him back in the church and started introducing him to some of the members that were still there and took him on a little church tour. IT WAS SUCH A MIRACLE!!!! No one shows up to church after talking to us on campus for 10 minutes. We walked him out to the car and he expressed to us that he doesn't want to waste our time because he's an atheist, etc. I definitely don't believe him. He wouldn't show up to church and look up the church on the Internet if there wasn't something there. I'm really excited to meet with him on Tuesday.

Last night was Why I Believe. Once again I tried to learn a song 15 minutes before and accompany a sister who played the violin. It was a train wreck!!! Oh well. The cool thing was a sister who got baptized in the Franklin ward last week. When I was there I got a HQ referral to drop off a Restoration dvd and Nauvoo pageant. We dropped it off and she didn't want us to come back. I was so disappointed. Well I guess about six weeks ago her son called the mission office asking to send missionaries to see her and she got baptized within five weeks. Unfortunately I missed her testimony because I was too busy practicing the song! But President Hilton introduced me to her afterwards and she gave me a huge hug! It's all about the timing sometimes.

We aren't here on earth to change, but to become refined. I guess one reason I came to this area is to be able to learn that. Something else that Sister Gil has helped me see is that someone can be outgoing but also quiet at the same time. I didn't think that was ever possible. Because things ALWAYS come up we didn't get to companionship inventory until this morning. She told me that being reserved is one of my strengths because I'm able to be sincere in one on one situations. So now I'm learning how to make the qualities I have become strengths instead of trying to change. I think that has been a common theme throughout my mission. So this week is going to be good! I can't believe it's already week six again!!!

Love, Kyla

The district

Week 64-June 3, 2014

Wednesday I stayed on campus for exchanges with Sister Christensen! We had a lot of fun. So I'm still super terrified to contact guys, but I got up enough courage to do it with Sister Christensen. Turns out the guy's mom was raised Mormon but has since fallen away. Then on Thursday almost all of our lessons fell through so we spent a ton of time pcing. I contacted a guy by myself! He's a non-practiciting Muslim. I mentioned prophets and he got really interested! I probably talked to him for about 20 minutes, all by myself :) Sister Gil was close by talking to other people. Anyways, fingers crossed he keeps our appointment for tomorrow. With three sets of missionaries on campus we are beginning to talk to the same people; it stinks. Later on Thursday I met a girl who the elders had already talked to, but I taught her anyways. She's totally all about playing a prank on them when she meets with them this week.

Church yesterday was incredible. After this week, I needed to be able to fast. Sister Gil and I have no progressing investigators and nobody with a date. It stinks. Luckily this week we were able to teach a lot of finding lessons and found new investigators. Also, I miss family wards. I've been struggling with being in this area because I feel very out of place. Anyways, I needed a spiritual experience to happen yesterday during church and it did. Fast and testimony meeting went 20 minutes over because so many people wanted to talk. Right now about half our branch is summer boys, basically guys from Utah who are selling this summer. One got up and spoke about how we aren't going to be in this branch for forever so we have to take advantage of the opportunity that we have to be here. Another talked about how we have to choose to be happy now. Heavenly Father doesn't expect us to be perfect tomorrow, only a little bit better than we were the previous day. Oh! Saturday we were doing some service for Sister Leonard (the member we live with). Sister Gil was expressing some of her frustrations with the area and Sister Leonard said "it sounds like something you are going to have to talk to Father about". The way she said it just touched me. Our Heavenly Father wants us to be happy because He loves us so much.

Exchanges and a YSA activity down in Bloomington. It was so pretty!!!!

Week 63

This is going to have to be SUPER quick. Last Monday we went to the zoo; We went with the spanish elders in our zone. It was so fun! I touched a shark!!!!!!!!

I had my second exchange on Tuesday. It was way exhausting and I was very happy to come back to campus afterwards. Exchanges make you miss your companion. We are doing another one tomorrow but I'm staying on campus this time.

President and Sister Cleveland came to our district meeting on Friday. The first time ever! An elder did a rap as part of his training, look for it on the Facebook page for sure! It's pretty good.

Being on campus has been pretty difficult, not going to lie. This area is a lot different from the last time I was here. There are also two sets of elders on campus so we seem them multiple times a day. I'm not used to being around missionaries so much! We have 0 progressing investigators right now so we are spending a lot of time talking to people on campus. Oddly enough, it's easier for me to talk to people on my own instead of with Sister Gil. I never thought I would say that. Just a few minutes ago we were downstairs (we are emailing on campus) and I saw this girl and I told Sister Gil I was going to go talk to her. There were definitely some awkward moments, but I got a return appointment! I love being able to teach so much. The advantage of being a campus missionary is that you feel like you are ALWAYS being a missionary.

A member came with us to a lesson today and then afterwards he took us out to lunch. I always find it interesting how the Lord uses people to help us find answers This member was telling us about an experience that happened last summer and what he said was exactly what I needed to hear. I actually told him that I started crying a bit as I talked, super embarrassing but whatever. Luckily we see this member all the time so hopefully he didn't think I was too weird. Anyways, moral of the story Heavenly Father uses other people to answer our prayers and to tell us the things we need to hear at exactly the right moment.

Week 62-May 19th

I never have time to write in my journal anymore. I was doing so good for my entire mission! Between exchanges and making phone calls at night it just doesn't happen.

Tuesday during he day we were able to meet with a few of our investigators. I love teaching! Since this was the second time I was meeting with them I felt way more comfortable and felt like I could actually talk. Then Tuesday evening I went on my first exchange. I was so nervous!!!! In the car I straight up told Sister Bulman I was nervous. Luckily she's a very sweet sister and definitely not intimidating at all. I had a lot of fun with her and the exchange felt very different being in the leadership position.

Thursday we had zone conference, which was obviously wonderful. Last Sunday I had met President Cowley, the stake president. President Cleveland had invited him to speak for part of the conference. He stood up and said how he had met Sister Mayberry the pervious week and told me to come up. I kind of started freaking out because I didn't know what he was going to do. He handed me a "Mayberry in the Midwest" festival guide that was happening that weekend. He said that the first thing he thought of when he met me was the Andy Griffith show (always happens) and that Danville IN was having a festival that weekend. He said that if he were President Cleveland he would let me go.

The afternoon session was all about how to become powerful missionaries. It helped me realize how I need to get back to some of the basics of missionary work. The key to being a powerful missionary is exercising faith. Also, being confident. Which honestly, I still struggle with every.single.stinkin.day. Friday night we went out to eat as part of a zone. An elder in our zone had to go home on Sunday because he's lost 50% of his blood and they don't know what's wrong. So it was kind of a farewell part. It was so sad even though I don't even know him. It's super hard to see missionaries go home early, especially when they don't want to.

President Cleveland let us go to the Mayberry festival! We didn't have as much luck PCing as we were hoping. But we did get to meet some members from that family ward! We also had a regional YSA activity that evening. We met at this sport complex and played games all night, well we left before 9:00. I learned that I'm definitely not very good at sand volleyball. I also realized that I'm still not a very social person haha. All the people just kind of overwhelmed me a little bit. It was fun to see YSA people from the Purdue ward that I had met though.

Church was great yesterday! The branch is huge with all the summer sales boys. But! I did meet a girl who is here for the summer who will be at BYUI this fall. I'm gonna have a friend!!!! We got to teach a lot. Fingers crossed we will be having a baptism next Saturday! We are very excited for Elliot and he's probably even more excited! We thought we were going to have to push his date back a week and he got very sad when we told him that. But we got everything worked out so now he's just got to keep living the commandments and he'll be good to go! I love teaching him. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ during part of Institute on Wednesday. It felt so perfect, like that's exactly where I wanted to be. Sister Gil and I were talking afterwards and we both thought it was probably one of the most perfect lessons ever. The member we brought with us was great, we were teaching in the church, Elliot understood what we were saying, etc. Watching people progress will never get old. Taking the sacrament never will either. Kind of a random switch but both Sister Gil and I couldn't wait for church yesterday.

It's funny how I morph into my companions. I've realized that I'm definitely a follower and will easily pick up habits from my companions. Yesterday we were talking to President Cleveland on the phone. Now I think Sister Gil's two favorite things to say are "I hate you" and "I'm going to kill you", but in a completely joking way. Well President asked how we were getting along and Sister Gil's response? "I hate her"....good thing we both just started laughing and he knew she was playing around. She helps me relax and just have fun. I'm excited for this week!!!!! I have another exchange starting tonight, we'll see how that goes. I love you all!!!

Week 61-May 12th

My last few days in West Lafayette were great; I miss my bike haha. When we went in Tuesday evening I kept riding around the parking lot because I didn't want to get off. Tuesday morning we got to pull more trees out of the ground, always super fun.

I was pretty nervous for transfers; I knew I would be going to a campus and that's why I was so nervous. I was talking to Sister Gill before transfer meeting and she said she was hoping I would go back to IUPUI with her. Well....that's what happened! I'm super excited to be back here. The branch has changed quite a bit. When I was here before we didn't go on campus very often. Now we go there everyday and are considered campus missionaries. It's been a crazy few days; I'm still not even unpacked. Getting to know the sisters in our stewardship has been pretty good. I'm way nervous to start doing exchanges this week though. We've been able to teach quite a few lessons already and have spent some time PCing campus. Working campus during the summer will be interesting because there will be a lot less people. These next two transfer I will really be able to nail down talking with everyone, some I really need to work on.

Saturday we went and got Guanajautos!!!! I was so excited and my burrito tasted as good as it did a year ago. Talking to you guys was great! Sorry about the craziness since I was doing it at the church. We also got to go to a member's house and have a cookout. I haven't eaten a smore over a fire in almost two years. Yesterday was full of a ton of meetings it felt like. That's what happens when you are in a leadership position I guess.

Summer is definitely here. It's been warm and humid these past couple of days :(. Sorry for the brief e-mail, I haven't been able to write in my journal so I don't have very many stories to share. All I know is I'm going to get a lot more experience teaching in this area which I am very excited for!

Week 60-May 6th

Tuesday I went on exchanges with Sister Blacker on Purdue campus. It was fun to be able to teach, I got overwhelmed with talking to people on campus though. Unfortunately it's dead week here so a lot of the people we talked to aren't going to be around for the summer.

Tuesday night we went to a part member's house for dinner. We walked in and we asked what we could help with. He told us he would teach us how to make sushi....Sister Hales and I just about died haha. It wasn't so bad especially since it was just crap meat. The egg rolls were good!

Wednesday morning we got to rip trees out of the ground at a member's house in the 2nd ward. Mom you should have gotten pictures e-mailed to you. Most of the missionaries in the zone were there and we are going back tomorrow morning. It's fun to do physical labor like that since it doesn't happen too often. That afternoon we went to Delphi to contact some less actives that are now in our ward from the ward realignment. We got a pretty positive response. It always makes me sad to meet people who have made covenants but no longer want to keep them :(

Friday we dressed up as nerds for zone meeting. We also blitzed campus for a little bit afterward. From zone meeting I learned that I need to step up my game with leaving commitments with people. If we don't leave commitments then we aren't helping investigators repent.

Saturday was sweet! That morning we went to breakfast with all the sisters in the stake at a member's house. Then we had a ward pitch in at the park. Luckily it finally warmed up! It was fun to continue to get to know members more. The elders started a game of soccer with some of the kids in the ward. We were dragged into playing too. Playing soccer in a skirt is a bit interesting, but we figured if we could ride bikes we could do that too. I kind of felt like I was in a foreign county playing soccer with kids in the dirt. The best part was when Sister Hales kicked the ball and her shoe went into the goal and the ball didn't :)

Afterwards we had an incredible lesson with new investigators we found last week, the sister and brother. We taught them the Restoration and committed them to baptism and the read the Book of Mormon. They were a little hesitant about the baptism but more than willing to read. They also told us they would be at church for sure. I'm grateful because I was totally focused during that lesson. Often time I find my mind wandering during lessons, but not this one! I was fulling my purpose to the end.

Saturday night we helped out at a Cinco de Mayo dinner at the church. It was a youth fundraiser for the Spanish branch in the stake. Never leave it up to missionaries to serve dinner; it was complete chaos. But it was a lot of fun and we got authentic Mexican food.

9:05 Sunday rolls around and Audrey and Arthur weren't at church. We texted them to see what had happened. Audrey texted us at about 9:20 saying they were on their way! They only got the end of sacrament but then stayed for the next two hours. She said that they had accidentally slept in. I was impressed because usually when that happens people just give up and don't come at all. I think they really enjoyed themselves though. Audrey is coming to play volleyball with us tonight at the church!

I'm getting transferred.....I'm pretty upset about it. Sister Hales will be staying and training and I'll be a sister training leader. We were planning last night and our phone lit up and it was President Cleveland calling. You don't want President to call you for transfers because it means one (or both) of you is getting a leadership position. I made Sister Hales take the call because I didn't want to. I had heard rumors all week I would becoming a STL so it wasn't a huge surprise, but still. President even apologized for taking me out right when we were getting settled into the area. I don't want to leave and I still want to be companions with Sister Hales.

Week 59: 14 months!!-April 28th

We survived our first week on bikes! We probably averaged at least 10 miles a day. Luckily we get the car back this week so my legs will get a break. If we continue this much longer my legs will be ripped!

Tuesday I got offered alcohol for the first time ever haha. We were riding our bikes home from Lafayette and these college kids (we were by Purdue) started yelling at us to take a shot. I just had to shake my head and laugh because of how ridiculous they were.

This week we had many finding and first lessons. My brain hurts because of all the deep questions asked. Seriously, these people are way too smart and think of things that I have never thought of. On Saturday we taught these lady named Oneyka. She's from Ghana and is currently going to school. She's an active 7th day Adventist. We showed her some versus from the Book of Mormon and she started asking us about places where it talks about the law of Moses and sacrifices. Luckily the Spirit reminded me Nephi going back to get the brass plates so they could have the law when they came to America. Thank goodness! I was beginning to have a freak out moment. But really, I do like her and I really hope she'll continue to meet with us. As she was leaving she told us next time she wants to talk about heaven...plan of salvation! On Saturday we also found boy who is a senior in high school and his older sister who is in college. They were meeting with missionaries and going to church when they lived in South Dakota. He was interested in getting a copy of the Book of Mormon. We'll be teaching them again this week as well.

After meeting with both of those people Sister Hales and I talked about how much Heavenly Father is blessing us right now. We taught 17 lessons this week! That's been the most I have taught in a really long time. We still don't have any progressing investigators with dates, but we have many potentials who we've taught a lesson or two with. My attitude this week was a little bit down. I think it's because we were asked so many things that I didn't know how to answer this weeks. Feelings of discouragement and inadequacy just overcame me. It's hard to want to find people to teach when you feel like you aren't going to be able to answer their questions. Good thing this wasn't my first area! I know that these investigators are just helping me to grow even more and really strengthen my testimony of the Book of Mormon.

Picture One: Day one of bikes and matching helmets!

Picture Two: We ended up having our district meeting at 8:30 in the morning because one of the elders had gotten sick...this is our "breakfast"

Week 58-April 26th

The sisters specialized training on Wednesday was incredible! President Connolly (member of the mission presidency) gave a training on women and the priesthood that completely change my perspective. To summarize, the priesthood allows men to develop the qualities that are innately given to women. We got Cafe Rio for lunch! And then the afternoon session was about taking care of our bodies. We did a workout and zumba! Or mostly we just danced around because none of us actually knew what we were doing.

On Tuesday we found this lady named Maricia. She's a single mom when an autistic four year old son. She recently moved here and is looking for a church to attend. We left her with a Restoration pamphlet and a return appointment for Thursday. When we went back she had read the pamphlet and had several questions. It was a pretty quick lessons but we introduced the Book of Mormon and left her with a copy. I have VERY high hopes for her. We'll be seeing her again this week. We also taught Hongtao again. We said the opening prayer and then her immediately said the Book of Mormon couldn't be true because he had watched a video on it. We taught him the Restoration lesson and then committed him to read at the end of it. If he progresses, it will be very slow. This week has had more teaching opportunities then I've experience in a very very long time. I loved every minute of it. I've been able to study the Restoration a lot which has been such a blessing.

Saturday morning we helped the ward clean the building in preparation for stake conference. Then we went and go Mary Kay facials haha. We met this lady last week who invited us over to talk about Jesus and do facials. We asked President for permission and said "if you get a free facial, go for it!". She also invited us back to talk more about the church. We explained to her a lot about mission life and she was pretty impressed.

The Saturday night session of stake conference was a very revelatory experience. One of my favorite quotes:

"When we see our true potential we rise to greater heights." President Ellis

Bishop Dean A. Davies came for conference. He told the story behind acquiring the land for the Vancouver temple. He said that not every temple has a unique story, but that some do and you can't help but realize the hand of the Lord is in it. Afterwards, I went up and told Bishop Davies that I appreciated the story because that temple is my temple. He is one of the kindest people ever. He used to be a mission president in Puerto Rico and one of his sisters is now in this stake. He had her come up and bear her testimony. She said something that really struck me; missionary work causes feelings that you wouldn't experience otherwise. It's true both in the positive and negative sense. I've never experienced more frustration and sorrow then I have this last year and I've never experience greater joy. I recognize that these feelings are helping me to become the person that I need to be.

Easter was wonderful, much better than last year. For lunch we went to a member's house with like 20 people. It felt like going to a family reunion. We went to another family's house for dinner. This family has changed me more in the last few weeks then any other family. They have a daughter who is nine years old who was diagnosed with a brain tumor three years ago. She had to learn everything over again and still has many challenges. I have never seen a family act in such a patient and loving way. The Spirit is so strong in their home because they know what family means. They asked us about all of our investigators and opened up their home for us to teach them there. They are excited to help the missionaries in any way. We had made cookies to deliver to members of the ward since tracting on a holiday isn't really productive. However, we weren't able to deliver many of them because we got caught up chatting with people.

What I learned this week: I have the tendency to prevent the Atonement from working in my life. I'm not relying on Christ to make my weaknesses become strengths. Rather, I just make excuses and say that's the way I am. Which is exactly what Satan wants us to think. So instead I've set the goal and determination to become the best me I can be and recognize that I have the infinite ability to change :)

Sister Mayberry

Easter Sunday

Long day of missionary work!

Week 57

Wednesday morning President Cleveland and the assistants came and gave a training on how to do church tours. We will now spend a half hour everyday practicing so we will be prepared to take investigators and members in a couple months. The previous week we had gotten a couple referrals from a member of people who live in their same complex. I wasn't super hopeful about the first one. The quickly told us her and her husband attend the Methodist church but let us in to talk anyways. At first it was just small talk; she asked questions about missionary life and so on. Then she asked us the golden question "how did you come to know that your church is true?" Both Sister Hales and I shared what you could call our conversion story. She began to ask validity questions about the Book of Mormon (ex. the verse in Revelations and there being no more prophets). I was nervous because it had been awhile since I had gotten these kinds of questions. But we handled them like a champ and she definitely felt the Spirit. She even said we could come back! The next was this Brazilian woman. She let us in right away and we found out that the elders had been over there before and left her with a Restoration pamphlet. We explained to her more about the Book of Mormon and committed her to read in 3 Nephi. I felt like I was in a foreign place talking to her. Unfortunately she is going back to Brazil for the summer and won't be back until August. We are hoping to get her a Book of Mormon in Portuguese this week. Both of those teaching moments were such tender mercies. I felt like we hadn't had many opportunities to teach since coming here, or in the last five months.

On Friday we went to teach Hongtao. We met him last week while tracting and he shared with us that he believes in Dao. Basically it's like there needs to be a balance in life. He told us that he had Jehovah Witness come for a year and they couldn't convert him but that we could come back. We did not know what we were getting ourselves into! He is probably one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. He doesn't deny there is a God, but has just never had an personal experience with Him. There Spirit wasn't there at first because we were trying to get a feel for his background. However as we taught doctrine the room changed. The member we brought with us bore a powerful testimony! We taught about the role of prayer and committed him to say the closing prayer. I didn't know how it was going to go at all. What he said was beautiful and I could tell was heartfelt. The only thing is, and he knows this because he told us, is that he isn't looking for anything so it's going to be hard for him to change.

We went tracting in this apartment complex for over two hours afterwards. We found more potentials than I have ever found! Since coming here to West Lafayette I feel like people of another ethnicity are WAY kinder than Americans haha. Most of the people were at least open to talking to us for a few minutes. We have high hopes that we will get some new investigators from this potential pool.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling sick. I barely survived personal study and then went back to bed for an hour. At 10 the ZL's knocked on our door and asked us if we wanted to go practice church tours at the church with them. So we went. I have the weirdest ZL in the mission, but you can't help but love them. You just never know what is going to come out of there mouths. They told me to go back to bed too but we had an appointment to teach a member lesson afterwards. I came home and also slept during our lunch break and then we tried a potential. I knew I wasn't feeling good because I didn't have an appetite at all and the only thing that sounded good was saltine crackers and popsicles. Sister Hales told me that we just needed to go home. We ran to Walmart real quick and got the food and then I went home and laid in bed the rest of the day. I think that sometimes my body just doesn't get enough rest and just kind of has these freak out moments were it can't take it anymore. While I was in bed I was watching Mormon messages. One of them that I watched was about the man whose wife and two kids were killed in a car accident in 2007. Something he said really stood out. He said that I can't prevent Christ from working in the lives of people. Sometimes I know that I am being a hindrance to the Atonement from working whether it be in my own life or the life of another. We have to be quick to forgive to allow the Atonement to permeate everyone.

Sunday the ward boundaries of Lafayette 1st and 2nd ward and the Logansport branch were realigned. President Ellis told us about two weeks ago and it was hard to keep it a secret the entire time. No one is leaving our ward but we are getting people from both units. Now I'm even more overwhelmed because we have even more people to learn. However, I really enjoyed the Easter program (next week is Stake conference). A couple members approached us in the hall and told us of people they are working with who they hope to introduce us to soon! I don't think that has ever happened before. Both Sister Hales and I were really excited.

Sunday afternoon was probably one of the hardest experiences I've had in awhile. We had planned to PC this park for an hour or so until our dinner appointment. We saw this guy sitting under a pavilion and we walked over and started talking to him. He immediately invited us to sit down and we began to talk about his experience with coming to know Christ. He shared with us that he was a student at Purdue and had even been to the YSA ward before. It made a quick turn for the worse. He began to tell us reasons why the Book of Mormon was false and kept showing us scriptures out of the Bible (he had been reading it when we walked up). A sick feeling overcome me and I immediately shut down. I didn't know what to do. Luckily, Sister Hales is a champ and just kept bearing her testimony. I still don't know how to get out of these types of situations. We probably ended up talking to him for about 40 minutes and when we finally walked away and I had absolutely no desire to talk to anyone else. As we were walking back to the car I told Sister Hales I just felt like crying, and that's what I did for probably the next hour. I've been told anti stuff before but it never hit me like it did yesterday. We shared with each other experiences of feeling the Spirit through tears. I didn't want to go to the member's house for dinner because I knew we would be teaching a short lessons afterwards and I felt like I just couldn't do it. I made it through the dinner appointment. Afterwards we came in to do studies. I still felt sick. I didn't want to read the Book of Mormon. I made the mistake of looking up scriptures in the Bible, searching for verses that proved that man wrong. When we were in the car earlier we texted the ZLs to see if they could give us blessings. They weren't available until that night. They came over and asked us what was going on and we explained the whole story. They are so sweet. They just told us there was no way the Book of Mormon couldn't be true. They blessing helped but everything wasn't magically gone. My favorite was as they were leaving one of the elders said "you know how I know blessings are real? Because I am terrible at giving advice." Sister Hales and I did our daily planning and the STLs came over and we chatted for a minute. They had gotten bashed that day too. Earlier at church I had had this thought that the reason I had come on a mission was to learn to rely on Christ. I recognized that this was another opportunity to experience the Atonement in a different way then I had ever experience before. This morning I still felt rotten, I had some pretty weird dreams last night that I won't go into detail about. I told Sister Hales this morning and she told me that Satan knows when we are at our weakest point and will work hard on us. I felt better when we went on a run after our studies, adrenaline helps with everything. Yesterday hurt, really bad. But with time I know I'll be able to overcome it. It's normal to question things. I kept thinking about Elder Holland's talk "Lord, I Believe" and Elder Uchtdorf's "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith". I'll be fine, really. It's just so important that my testimony is my own.

Week 56

First off....because it is really important. I just got my eyebrows waxed for the first time. It was fun! There's a sister in Lafayette 2nd the cuts hairs and does waxing for the missionaries on the first Monday of every month. Also....last haircut before you can do it again Mom!

This week was the first time ever we haven't had a car. My feet definitely paid for it. But Tuesday morning we played a prank on the elders. The STL's and ZL's live in the same apartment complex as us. We got a couple of guys from the YSA ward to dress up in morph suits. We had them playing weird Indian music and knocked on their door and started to awkwardly dance while the one elder just stood there. After about a minute we came around the corner and started through water balloons at them. We got it all one video! You can watch it once I get home. We thought we were pretty creative haha. All day Tuesday and Wednesday was spent walking and finding without much success. Wednesday we did get to see this cute 89 lady in our ward. She hasn't been to church all winter because going out in the cold isn't good for her. She showed us some of the crafts she's working on and fed us German chocolate cake. She has such a strong testimony of the gospel and LOVES family history. Wednesday night we had the craziest thunderstorm! Definitely the hardest rain I have ever seen and it lasted for hours. I was worried we were going to have to be outside in it, but luckily it all cleared up by the time we went outside.

Friday morning we had zone meeting. We all dressed up as warriors, pictures to follow. One of the elders gave a training on the Lion King and being a successful missionary! I wish I could write everything down that he said. He's a pretty animated guy so it worked. Basically the gist of it was that as missionaries we are here to help people find their way to understand their divine potential. Just like how Rifikki helped Simba find out what his divine potential was. Ask me about it when I get home, I can probably explain more about it in person. Friday night the Purdue sisters had a baptism and we had been asked to help out with the musical number. Then the Purdue elders had a baptism Saturday between sessions.

I have to admit, conference was a bit bittersweet. Sweet because I love conference and have been looking forward to it for the last six months. Bitter because it was my last as a missionary. Like usual, I had a few questions in mind that I wanted answers for. After the two sessions on Saturday I recognized that there was definitely a theme of love and the importance of serving those around us. However, the answer came with Elder Bednar's talk. I love talks that have a little story because then I am able to remember them so much better. Of coarse, I recognized that the current load I am carrying is that of being a full time missionary. And obviously it is providing spiritual traction for me. A mission is the best thing to help me return home to my Heavenly Father. I loved when he said an absence of a load doesn't mean happiness and that covenants yolk us to Christ. When we've made covenants it allows Christ to be right there with us because we've committed to being part of that yolk. When we haven't made that committed, He can't always be there. Then he began to talk about the enabling power of the Atonement, probably one of my favorite subjects. The Atonement enables us to become better than our mortal minds can imagine. But a question came to mind. What can the enabling power of the Atonement help me become? I've listened to several talks on this subject but then realized that I hadn't learned any specific examples of what we are to become. Looking back, the answer is really quite simple. After conference we had dinner with the Ellis', the stake president and his wife. It's tradition for President Ellis to ask a doctrinal question and you only get dessert if you answer correctly. This time we did it a little bit differently. The Ellis' would ask a question and then we would answer. the missionaries would then ask a question and the Ellis' would have to answer. We went back and forth until we had asked about 10 questions. But then President Ellis' asked us to share what our favorite talk was, why, and what step of action we were going to take. I explained that mine was Elder Bednar's and why. I told them that I was going to study what the enabling power of the Atonement can help me with. President Ellis said I'll give you one right now, "love". That was it. The combination of the talk and President Ellis' comment answered all of my questions. I immediately thought of the Christlike attributes, specifically the chapter in Preach My Gospel. That was a big part of my studies this morning. It is the Christlike attributes that the enabling power of the Atonement helps us become who we need to be. The redeeming power is still required, but I need to learn how to rely on the Atonement to BECOME those Christlike attributes. Sister Hales and I were talking about obedience earlier this week. When we are disobedient it is because of a lack of love. I still don't always want to talk to people. Is it because I'm shy? Nervous? Don't know what to say? Yes, but the deeper problem is that I don't love them enough. Think of Christ. He loved us so much He was willing to go through anything for each one of us. I'm definitely not at the point where I'm willing to go through anything for the people I meet each day. And I need to fix that. It won't happen today, or tomorrow, but over a lifetime of being diligent. We helped serve dinner Friday night before the baptism. I think it's a cooperation of churches here in the community and we are a part of it. Anyways, the lady was kind of....using a firm voice with us and some of the elders started overreacting and getting made. One of the elders said "Sister Mayberry, I wish I had some of your patience right now". I really didn't say anything but this experience can back to mind this morning. We pray to be given the Christlike attributes, but then must choose to develop them in our daily choices. I can pray for patience and then turn around and choose to get upset and mad in every situation. I won't ever develop patience that way. I can pray for love and then choose to notice all the qualities I don't like in a person and I won't ever come to love them. Praying is essential but then I have to use my agency correctly to become an answer to those prayers. Heavenly Father won't force me to become anything.

That's what I learned this week. Unfortunately, we didn't teach hardly at all this week. We talked to the assistants on Saturday and they gave us a few pointers on how to find (they both served on Purdue campus). Luckily Sister Hales and I's relationship is just about perfect! We were talking one night about why sometimes we feel like we can't be ourselves all the time. We decided it's because we feel like we have to put on this face and be perfect all the time in front of the members. In Plymouth I got past that when I broke down that one Sunday and some members realized how stressed out I get about being out here. And that right there is why it was so hard to leave because I had developed true friends there.