December 16th, 2013

Dear All,

  It has been a roller coaster of a week but through God's love shown through my companion and others, I ended my week leveled out and happy.  I was stressed about driving, being in charge of the area, not being able to do 'this' or not being able to do 'that'. Thursday and Friday were the rough days. I got a blessing on Friday after DTM and talked and cried and talked and cried to Sister Christiansen. I am grateful to her. She lovingly threatened to call the Sister Training Leaders if I didn't get better. I know she loves me, just as Christ loves me. I also went through "the Adjusting to Missionary Life" and determined that in order to manage the stress I felt I was going to: 1. Pray fervently, alone and with my companion 2. Sing 3. Recognize God's hand 4. Make sure I exercise every morning that is appropriate and 5.Befriend my companion. I focused on these 5 simple things and they helped immensely!

Sister Christiansen is from Los Angeles area California. She is 20, been out for 9 months, loves horses, and has two of her own, and likes the smell of pines/Christmas tree like me :D

  Our weekly planning was a bit crazy because we have done it a bit differently from one another and we didn't find quite a balance between both of our ideas. I am one to nod my head at suggestions but wonder if what I have done should still be implemented. Every third Sunday we meet with the Stake President or one of his counselors and yesterday 1st Counselor Ipson told me to not forget what I have done because it has been doing well. I have concluded that the best way to sift through what I have to offer, and what Sister Christiansen has to offer, is to bring up my thoughts and to ask the why behind her thoughts so I understand. It seems at time she was annoyed by my lack of understanding but I tried to humbly give her the benefit of the doubt. After all, I told myself, she is in a new area, new companion and such and may feel a stressed as well. She told me though the other day that she doesn't mean to sound that way and I believe her. She is awesome! We are both morphing to each other so we can be unified. Sister Christiansen has gone through a lot and I am grateful that we are companions. She has taught me things that I needed to learn from the very second we were companions.

  One other thing that helped this week was a prompting from the Spirit when listening to a talk at church yesterday. It was about hope. I realized I had lost hope for a bit, but through God, was gaining it back. I wrote down my hopes and recommitted myself to focus. 

Sister Christiansen is going to help me recognize the Spirit better by this route this week: After every lesson she will tell me when she felt the Spirit when I was talking and I will tell her when I felt the Spirit when she was talking. It has worked well so far!

We also have had a lot of laughs like when we  rushed out to the hall because my Ipad glitched up and started playing a hymn in the middle of sacrament and wouldn't stop! :) 

I am grateful for the hope that we have through Christ. I am grateful that I am happy and ready to be better and work better this week. I could go on forever, I know my Redeemer lives,

Sister Sarah Meldrom

December 9th, 2013

Dear All,
It has been a wonderful week. Busy, sad at times, but Sister Hedley didn't let me mope :) The wisest thing she said to me is that my mother won't always be there to celebrate my birthday and take me out to lunch as she has almost always did. It was that tough love that caused me to cry a bit more then move on. It was hard and I think I need to pray from now until Christmas that I can handle Christmas a little better. But I agree with what my mother said before I left, "This is the best way for you to leave the house for the first time. God will support you when you are sad, and He has through other people. I like to be busy in this work, it causes me to focus outward a lot better :)

My Birthday was good. I went to the temple and did a session(service) and then the Vernal Sisters and Sister Hedley surprised me to ice cream. We had dinner at a members home and she made chicken enchiladas and we had chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and MOOSE TRACKS! No one liked the moose tracks besides me so I have nearly a whole quart to myself :P They also gave me a missionary journal and a 2 dollar bill :P I got my b-day packages from my family and from my Aunt Michelle. I loved them! I also got a b-day package from my Aunt Rachel back in November and realized it was for my b-day after I opened it :P  Plenty of chocolate and cupcakes(Michelle :D) STAMPS, cards, b-day party stuff, subway gift card to just name a few things :) Thank you for making it wonderful all of you!  

We had several last new member discussions this week. No one wants to see us go but they know we have other people to help. I am grateful I have been able to see and feel their newly developed testimony and it has strengthened mine.

I am working on praying with more gratitude. But more specifically. I have my planner from the MTC that I have decided to write the needs of others as I hear them so that I do not forget what they need my help with. One new investigator this week told us she made a promise at the request of her dying husband that she would remain in the Church of Christ and keep their grown children in it as well. She was very emotional when she told us. She wants to obey his wishes out of respect and love. We encouraged her to ponder and pray and God will lead her in the right direction because He knows her. I wrote this down so I could remember her in my prayers. She also has had trouble with her eyes and I have grown in appreciation that we have the Book of Mormon on CD so even .." the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness." Isaiah 29:18 We plan on giving her the CD our next meeting.

I was looking at my emails and it looks like Sister Hedley is being transferred :( Like I said in my last email, she has been a good friend and trainer. I am a bit anxious about what I do now but I have faith that Christ will not give me anything I can't handle with Him.

Happy Transfers! May God bless and keep you, 
Sister Meldrom

December 1st, 2013

Dear All,

It has been a good week despite the slow down from the Holidays and almost everyone to busy to meet with us. 

I am having a bit of a struggle overcoming the natural man of thinking of myself these past couple of days. I try not to think about myself and focus on the people we are teaching but I leave almost every lesson lately feeling like I didn't do very well and I mentally beat myself up. Perhaps I should just ignore such feelings because I am trying to be well prepared and to follow the Spirit but I always wonder if I have done enough to prepare or am I good enough to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost. All of that is just thinking of myself but how do I make sure I am doing all I can. I worry about this constantly. 'Have I done my part?' 'What can I do better?' I know Jesus Christ will help me figure it out but for now I am on a roller coaster of trying to fight against feeling of being unprepared and to stop thinking of myself. Is the cure to this fluctuation of feelings just losing myself? Probably. I just make it so much more complicated then it needs to be.

 Every day there are miracles.One of the attributes of Christ in Preach My Gospel is, 'I have enough faith in Christ to accomplish anything He wants me to do- even miracles if necessary.'  I have added this to my list of Christlike attributes to work on. It seems a bit bold to me to expect miracles but even when I don't expect miracles they still happen. Every person we teach is a miracle, every member is a miracle and the ability to do the work that we all do to contribute to the Lord's kingdom is a miracle. How amazing that we have God's help behind our work. We could never do it without Him.

 

Transfers are next week - ALREADY! I am excited but also sad because there is only a 20% possibility Sister Hedley and I will remain together. Sister Hedley has been a wonderful trainer and friend to me. I will be sad to part with her one of these days. God knows exactly who we need, when we need them and what they will teach us. Sister Hedley has got me off to a great start as a missionary, been patient, counseled and love me. With the Lord as both of our guides we have learned to work together and got along well. I am forever grateful for her and to God for allowing me to work right beside her.

We helped with a charity on Wednesday, "Trees for Charity", where you decorate a Christmas tree according to a theme and for a certain cause of the decorators choice. The Sister we helped did a Cowboy Christmas theme and did it for a girl with mental disabilities. So today they auction off the trees and give the money and sometimes the buyer give the tree to the family/cause.

We ended up with 5 Thanksgiving appointments! Needless to say we ate light at each place and still ended up stuffed. Sister Hedley isn't a pie fan so I think she had a lot less dessert then me. :P I couldn't resist the apple, cherry and pumpkin pie. 

Happy December,

Sister Meldrom