March 9th, 2015

Dear All,

Monday we went to our first lesson to a Sister Smith in one of our wards who wanted us to come to teach her granddaughter before her baptism because of her limited knowledge of the gospel. Turns out that the grandparents(Sister that called and set everything up and her husband) were in my Branch Presidency in the MTC and the Brother is actually the one I had an interview with when I was at the MTC. It was fun to see them and yet again another experience of 'small world!'.

Tuesday we went to a special mobile device training meeting. Brother Lee Donaldson from the Preach My Gospel videos, District 2 (who is now in the Missionary Department in Salt Lake) and Elder Don Clark (whom we had tour our mission back in December) were present and led the Training. This meeting officially kicked off the Utah Provo Mission as a now 'Implimenting' Mission for the Mobile Devices. For the past 18 months the UPM has had missionaries on Ipads where they have kept records of those whom they are teaching, been on Facebook and everything in between. The Missionary Department has learned a lot from the 30 some missions that tested the Ipads with missionaries. They have seen the great and the ugly. From what they have learned they are starting all 30 missions over as if we didn't have Ipads and starting a hundred or so others in the United States and Canada. The Ipad will have protections against most inappropriate usage but I loved that through out the training they stressed that the most important filter of all is our own personal testimonies of the Savior and the Gospel. The very first reason missionaries even have the Ipads in the first place is so that we can learn the correct usage of the Internet and technology. The Brethren said they are going to keep working with the missionaries until they understand that they need to seek after the good, not the bad. No more taking Ipads away from disobedience missionaries, but patient and hopefully progressive help in the right direction. "There is no other way to raise a generation of sin depeling young people." By how the next period of time will go they will keep learning and growing until like they said, "We get it right." They said this whole thing is riding on a lot of faith! They also said that God trusts in us! What an exciting time to be alive!

I know that my Savior loves me.I know He lives! I can not count the many times I have cried unto Him and He has helped me. He doesn't take our burdens away but lightens them. He died for all of us. He suffered all of our pain that He might have mercy and understand what we are going through. As it says at the end of a document called The Living Christ" God be thanked for the matchless gift of His Divine Son."

God is good,

Sister Sarah Meldrom