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.

Week 55 Double Transfer???

Saying goodbye was so hard!!! I felt like I was leaving my family. Luckily, I was pretty proud of myself and I didn't shed too many tears on Monday and Tuesday. I didn't get any sleep those two nights! I would have thought by now I would have gotten used to transfers...but I guess I never will. Tuesday night was probably the best last night I could have had. A member in the branch has the really really good family friend that isn't a member that was quite upset when she found out I was leaving. She wanted to have us over for dinner. After dinner we taught her about the Book of Mormon using the pictures in the front. It was a good lesson, I had each family member share with her why they love reading the Book of Mormon. On our way down to Indy Wednesday morning, we got this text from the member

"Good morning sisters! What a beautiful day. Wanted to thank you for the wonderful message you share with us and especially Kathy last night. She was really appreciate of it. She called me last night to tell me that she really loved what you shared. I stopped by this morning at her house and she was reading the Book of Mormon. I hope we can continue to share the lessons with her. I am not sure she will ever join but she will have been given the chance. And because of you two I had the courage to share with her. Love you both!"

I absolutely love getting texts like this (and yes I write them down in my journal). Tuesday night I lay wide awake in bed so I got up to write some lessons I had learned in Plymouth in my journal. This was my first area where people have asked me to keep in contact. I've learned how to develop family like relationships, how serving people leads to love. I didn't know what it meant to strengthen the ward/branch members. I've learned what it means to truly care for people. President Kelly played a huge role in teaching me that. I don't think I was supposed to learn how to teach investigators in Plymouth, but I learned some other incredible lessons. At the end of our lessons with Kathy asked us if we were a Mary or a Martha. I didn't really know how to respond, probably because I've never thought of it. She looked at me and said I was a Mary. I I was deeply touched because I feel like that's a very meaningful compliment although I'm pretty sure I don't live up to it.

We stopped by the Indy temple and took pictures! I was so nervous that morning I couldn't eat! Since transfer calls I had been feeling I would be going to one of the Lafayette wards. Right before transfer meeting an elder came up to me and said I was getting double transferred into Lafayette 1st ward because the sister training leader had told me. First, I was a little mad because he took away the suspense! Well...he was right. I LOVE MY COMPANION!!! Sister Hales...she's from Spanish Fork Utah and has spent her first six months on ISU campus. I love it because we come from the same mission genealogy (haha cheesy...I know). Her great grandmother is Sister Donaldson...so we do things the same :) So the ward is probably 80% graduate students going to Purdue...lots of babies! We live just a couple of miles from campus and right next to three other sets of missionaries. I'm so excited to be around other missionaries! I think there are about 11 sets of missionaries in Lafayette/West Lafayette.

Obviously the first couple of days were a bit rough...always are in a DT. We helped two different people move on Friday and Saturday. Luckily, we have some pretty awesome investigators. I think every nationality is represented here. We went tracting and we only talked to one white person. Obviously I need to learn how to talk to people without a Christian background which I'm glad because it will push me more.

The broadcast Saturday night was wonderful and I'm even more excited for General Conference this week. Church was awesome. No one in the ward knew they were putting sisters in but there's been a rumor for a couple transfers now. The ward is definitely different compared to Plymouth. The one good thing was a didn't feel overwhelmed with not knowing anyone! In all my past areas I've just gotten a little bit anxious the first Sunday, but that didn't happen this time! After church we went out walking to try potentials. Oh....we only have a car part time. We are sharing with the elders in the ward until the mission can get more cars. Anyways, luckily it was about 60 degrees yesterday so I was totally fine with being outside. Last night we went to Why I Believe. I always love hearing the testimonies of recent converts.

I'M SO STOKED ABOUT THIS TRANSFER!!!! Seriously, Sister Hales and I are already best friends. We both think we should be companions for the next four transfers. It will be interesting helping her adjust to tracting and a family ward. She was getting discouraged because no one wants to talk to us. I definitely miss Plymouth, but I feel like this was a good area to come into.

Week 54

Some highlights from this week. We were tracting out in Walkerton earlier in the week and this woman named Ocatavia let us in right away. We taught her the Restoration, she asked to keep the pamphlet and we got a return appointment. Those kind of things don't happen very often, but when they do they are the best!

Thursday we had appointments almost all day but most of them fell through. So what we'd do??? TRACTED! I can officially smell a Mexican house, I'm pretty proud of myself being able to do that. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning I'm really tired and don't super excited and happy. However, it's been a long time since I haven't gone to bed happy. As we have experiences throughout the day and see miracles I can't help but go to bed with a smile on my face. 

Saturday was quite the day! That morning we went out tracting in a "town" called Donaldson! I had to before I left. No one was interested, sometimes I think country folk are a little....less open to talking with missionaries. Brother Schieber was baptized last May and was deployed four days later. His wife was then baptized the following month. Well he flew in on Saturday and we got permission from President Cleveland to go up to South Bend and be part of the welcoming home party. Sister Schieber wanted as many people there as possible. There was quite a group and even a couple of tv stations showed up. We kept joking around about holding up our tags in front of the cameras. They have three little boys and it was such a precious thing to watch! When he came around the corner, Brother Schieber broke into a run and then they all huddled together in a hug for several minutes. One of the elders said you couldn't help but get a little trunky watching it. The best was seeing complete strangers start clapping along with us. We went out to eat afterwards and then to the church to have a welcome home/birthday party for two of the boys. 

President Cleveland told me six weeks ago that I would be getting transferred this time. So members knew and they kind of guessed it since I've been here a little while. President Kelly asked both Elder Oram and I to bear our testimonies. I only got a little tiered eyed! However the closing song was "Count Your Many Blessings" and I had been asked to give the closing prayer. I was doing everything I could to not break down. Sister Kelly was leading the music and we made eye contact and we both started crying. I just felt sick knowing this was probably the last time I was going to be in this branch....as a missionary. I've made promises to several individuals that I will come back and visit though. After sacrament meeting was over a sister came up to me. She lives here in the Plymouth and is lesser active. Over the months we've stopped by her house several times but have never been able to go in and teach her. She said that as I was bearing my testimony she started to cry and that she was going to miss me. I've always been frustrated because I didn't think those brief visits outside just checking up were doing anything. Well, I guess I was wrong!

We had dinner with the Richhart's....again haha. It was hard to say goodbye to them as well. Luckily we didn't have to wait long for the call. One of the assistants called at 9:20 while we were still planning. I'll be leaving, luckily I didn't start crying last night. I haven't slept the past two days. I call it week 6 week 1 syndrome. I'm very relieved to not be in a leadership position. This area will always be the place I consider when I became a missionary. I still have so much to learn, but I feel like I've become much more diligent and I want to be here. I keep having what I call nightmares, dreams of me going home. In one of them this week I refused to call President Pringle once I got home because I didn't want to be released. When dad handed me the phone I just started crying. I haven't seen a lot of success here as far as investigators go. We've found some and then they just fall off. I'm leaving the area with no progressing investigators, but I've seen a change in the branch. They didn't know what to do with sisters when I first got here. That's starting to change. I feel like I'm going to be leaving home. I'm VERY nervous for next transfer. I don't think that will ever go away. You finally get to the point where you feel like you have an idea of what you are doing and then you get snatched away. I wish I could adequately describe all the lessons that I have learned in this area, but I can't. All I know is that the Plymouth Branch has helped me to become a missionary. 

Welcoming home Brother Schieber and the district! 

Week 53: I'm officially a Hoosier

Hoosier: someone who has lived in Indiana for over a year

Tuesday we went tracting out in this place called Teegarden. I think 100 people live there. We had parked our car and then were heading to the street we had picked out to tract. As we were walking by this lady and her daughter were getting out of the car. She asked if we were new (obviously it's small enough that everyone knows everyone) and we told her we were missionaries. She kind of brushed us off and instead of being persistent I moved on. Then as we were heading back to the car later I had this feeling to go knock on her door. I fought it hard. But I knew I would feel so guilty about it if I didn't. So just as we were walking by I told Sister Bunnell I was going to knock on it. It probably wasn't the most effective door, I didn't ask inspired questions or anything, but I simply told her how much the gospel has blessed by life and I wanted her to have the opportunity to learn about the church. I left her a mormon.org card and was on my way. 

Wednesday marked my one year in Indiana. To celebrate I read through my journal entries from a year ago. That first day in the field was absolutely wonderful. Every day I thank my Heavenly Father for placing me in each of the position of have been in and the people I have met. 

Vocal Point is a wonderful CD to listen to after a stressful day. I was jamming out Friday night. During district meeting that morning we talked about the Atonement and turning the day over to the Lord. I realized I don't teach about the Atonement enough. We had some rough days with our investigators this week, I won't go into detail but long story short we didn't have any progressing investigators this week. By Friday night I was REALLY looking forward to going to the temple. I had a hard time sleeping that night because I was so excited haha. 

The car ride to Chicago was a lot of fun. Sister Kelly had fun pointing things out because she lived there for awhile. WE DROVE THROUGH GARY!!! Obviously I've been there before, but I don't remember it! The coolest part was that all my giddy excitement was gone the minute we walked into the temple. We got there pretty early for our session and it was really busy. A temple worker told me 80 missionaries had already been there. Sister Clark was there! There was also another set of elders from our mission. There was a girl in our session that was going through for the first time and she leaves in two weeks for her mission. We had fun talking to her for a minute after the session. I didn't want to leave the Celestial room. There was an opening sealing room and Sister Kelly told me to go stand in there. That was a neat experience. Hopefully it will still be a little while until I'm there for myself ;)

Afterwards we took a lot of pictures. I just didn't want to leave but I recognize that right now my calling is to teach people so they can experience the same joy that the temple brings. I'm definitely excited to be able to attend a temple weekly once I got back to school. That night we were walking around town trying a few potentials. In the distance I saw this lady walking around this park thing. I decided we were going to go hunt her down. We got up to her and found out she was visiting from Mishawaka for the evening and had some time to kill before dinner. She had talked with missionaries briefly before. We ended up walking with her for about 20 minutes around town and teaching her about the Restoration. I loved it because the conversation was so natural and it just flowed out. 

At church yesterday I had to play the piano during sacrament because the pianist couldn't come. I was super nervous. I was also doing accompanying Sister Bunnell and Elder Van Shaar singing. After the musical number I was just sitting in the congregation I got a bit teary eyed. Feelings of inadequacy and self doubt began to creep in. In gospel principles we talked about repentance. All I could think about was everything I was doing wrong. I was stressed about Jeremy's baptism after church and the current situation with one of our investigators. We were about to go into Relief Society when we stopped and talked to a sister. She told me how she didn't know there was a baptism and I started to apologize and then just burst into tears right there in the middle of the hall. I felt pretty foolish but I was just so overwhelmed. Of course she asked me to explain what was wrong and I told her how I just felt like I wasn't doing enough for the area and I was just emotional stressed out. After talking for a few minutes we headed into the room but I realized I needed another tissue. So we went to bathroom and two other woman were in there (one was also crying haha). Sister Richhart took one look at me and asked what was wrong. It started all over again! We had a bit of a crying session in the bathroom and we said we all felt like high school girls again. I recognize how dangerous it is to let feelings of doubt creep in. Sometimes I just feel like I get too emotionally involved in this work and I so desperately want to fulfill everything that my Heavenly Father wants me to do. But oftentimes I feel like I don't know how to listen to the Spirit so I don't understand what He wants me to do. At the end of Relief Society President Kelly pulled us aside and reminded me about the role of agency in salvation. To count the miracles that I have seen and remember my experience at the temple the previous day. I can't control the decisions that other people make. It's just hard because I want to help people and I hate it when they don't think that I'm helping them. Luckily, today I'm feeling much better. Usually I just need a good night's sleep and some interaction with wonderful branch members. 

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