February 10th, 2014

Dear All,

We were able to witness the baptism of an excommunicated member on Saturday. The Spirit was so strong during the baptism program! This amazing event just started with a prayer offered from his wife, "God, we need something more in our life.." A sequence of amazing events transpired. The Bishop stopped by, we stopped by, their active friends who were at the time also ward missionaries came with us to lessons, they quit smoking, drinking coffee and wine and were reading the scriptures an hour a night together! This experience reminds me of two scriptures:"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelations 3:20 and "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." Alma 32:27 I know God is ever waiting for us, we just need to desire and exercise our faith.

We have an investigator that we had an appointment with this week and we had the Primary President(a Sister who directs the children's portion of church) from the ward she lives in to come also. About part way through our lesson, the Primary President invited our investigator to church.  She did it through a concern our investigator had expressed; that her daughter be able to have a religious choice unlike what she had as a child. Our investigator, who previously was not comfortable at all with the thought of church, turned to us and said, 'Are you guys going?' We couldn't this week due to an already booked day but we promised to go next week. We told her that she didn't have to answer us until our next appointment what she would like to do. She also shared with us that missionaries(we are thinking it was an elderly couple??) went to her daughters school/day care and taught a simple lesson about Jesus. She said her daughter came home with shining eyes and said to her, Mom, did you know Jesus loves me? This touched our investigator.These experiences built my testimony on having ward support and responding to need or righteous desire people already have. Building on their good foundation, not demolishing it. 

I am gradually learning how to balance talk giving though trial and error. I always go over accidentally and yesterday I really hurt Sister Christensen feelings by doing so because I cut into her time and threw her off. I get frustrated with myself with such instances because I can't really show how sorry I am till next week when we have another talk. I just hope God will doubly bless Sister Christiansen for putting up with my learning experiences that annoy her :\ and that I will be able to some day have the right balance :)

 :) God bless you!

Sister Sarah Meldrom

I know that my Redeemer lives.What comfort this sweet sentence gives!

He lives, he lives, who once was dead.He lives, my ever-living Head.

He lives to bless me with his love.He lives to plead for me above.

He lives my hungry soul to feed.He lives to bless in time of need.

He lives to grant me rich supply.He lives to guide me with his eye.

He lives to comfort me when faint.He lives to hear my soul's complaint.

He lives to silence all my fears.He lives to wipe away my tears.

He lives to calm my troubled heart.He lives all blessings to impart.

He lives! All glory to his name!He lives, my Savior, still the same.

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:"I know that my Redeemer lives!" :' )

LDS Hymn number 136

February 2nd, 2014

It has been a good week beside our phones not working since Tuesday/Wednesday. Sister Christiansen and I found a spot with service on the side of the highway between Vernal and Jensen and we have been going to that spot each day to get our texts, voice mails and to call/text back with a lot of apologies. It definitely helps you appreciate what you have been given. It helps God's work so much by simply having a cell phone for people to tell you they have canceled or opportunities to meet new investigators. Long story short we are trying to patiently wait for the phones to work again.

We had a  potential investigator we had met with once before and taught the Plan of Salvation because she had a lot of questions about life after death. She stopped meeting with us back in December because of her 7th miscarriage and not feeling like God was answering her prayers. This week we brought some information a member had given us about why a lot of women are miscarrying in the area, listened to the events in her life that have concerned or excited her and then we ended up sharing part of the Restoration with her. We scheduled another appointment and as we were ending she said, "It gives me peace to know I have you Sisters to help me and turn to if I need it." I was pretty surprised by this comment. We had only been in her home once before but yet she was expressing complete trust in us. I believe this comments stems from her feeling the Spirit and that we listen to her. We also discovered that she wants to get into her family history work and so we will be going to the family history center with her and probably her sister! I love Family History- I am a bit of a nut about it. I miss exploring familysearch(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints free family history website) and ancestory.com once in a while on my mission but I just tell myself I am doing work for mostly the living at this point in my life AND that i can get others to be as enthused as I and do their own families! :) I know searching out and learning about our ancestors helps us 'to turn [our] hearts to our fathers and the fathers hearts to turn to [us](Malachi 4:5-6).

On Sunday Sister Christiansen bore her testimony then I went up and shared a scripture and then bore my testimony, adding my testimony to Sister Christiansen by saying, "Like my companion, I too have a testimony....." After I sat down a Brother came up and praised us for establishing each others testimony like he learned in the Missionary Training Center. He continued that each person in the congregation should trust us more because we trust and respect each other. We both were rather surprised. Sister Christiansen told me later, "Maybe they WILL trust us more with their friends. I think God has blessed us." I agree.

Remember 'Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal'(2 Nephi 9:39) and SMILE :)

Sister Sarah Meldrom

January 26th, 2014

Dear All,

It has been a good week because I haven't beaten myself quite as much as usual :P I read a wonderful CES Devotional President Faust gave in 2007(The Value of Self Esteem) which has helped, along with combating negative thoughts with my, now 6 things. I added I know the scriptures pretty well thanks to attending seminary(Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants studies we have every morning, unless you live where they have it as part of your school classes, for all four years of High School.) 

We taught a new investigator this week who ended up being a Sister that Sister Hedley and I had testified to about the beginning of my mission. At the time she took the Restoration pamphlet and our card with apprehension and when we would stop by she wasn't home. We eventually didn't stop by unfortunately. Now she is interested in taking the discussions because of a co worker whom has been a good example and answered any questions she has had. We invited her to baptism and she accepted with the comment  that she wants to pray about it also. Of course, we told her! We wouldn't want it any other way! My favorite part of the people I meet are the preparation that has happened, gradually and almost imperceptible which leads them to be prepared.Truly Alma 13:24 is true!  I like this scripture because everyone that is sharing the gospel are 'angels' or are  'coming in his glory'! We have his name upon us, we have his image in our countenances! This is God's work, no doubt!

We also went with a Sister to visit a friend of hers whom is less active. This dear less active Sister's 8 year old daughter wants to be baptized. We promised to come teach her with the hopes we can help the whole family back. If it is their time, it will happen accordingly as they have been prepared and will be prepared by the Spirit. All things are possible through Christ Philippians 4:13

Thank you for all you do. Remember, we are yoked to Christ!

With love from a fellow servant of the vineyard,

Sister Meldrom 

January 20th, 2014

Hello All,

Trying to think of what to say besides this was a good week. The weeks are always good. Exchanges(where we exchange companions for 24 hours) were good, it gave me a good time to cry :P Sister Nielsen is a superb Sister Training Leader(a sister missionary that is called to help and guide all the other sisters). She had me make a list of 5 of my strength and to repeat them whenever I feel like beating myself up. 

1.I have been able to look back and see how the things that have been hard for me were just times God was strengthening and teaching me. 

2. I am very patient with others and don't hold a grudge 

3.I LOVE to serve 

4. I have the Spirit of Elijah ( I personalized my phone number card by adding "Ask us about Family History") 

5. I have a testimony that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His church restored on the earth.

I need to remember that I really need to not beat myself up because it gets me stuck in muck and no progress is made. At least if I am not doing so good, and I don't beat myself up, I don't get stuck. :)

Well, we have had simple miracles this week. We learned that an excommunicated(where they are released from the promises they made at baptism and their name is taken off the church record till they are ready to come back) member we have been working with will be baptized in February! 

We were able to finally get up with and teach the first lesson to an investigator who has been in Colorado for the past 2 to 3 weeks. She asks a lot of good questions and we can see she has a real desire to learn and follow the best that she is able. 

We had dinner with a family whose three teenagers ended up being friends with two teenagers we are trying to work with. So of course we invited them to help us teach. They were thrilled! 

We have had pretty good practice with knocking and testifying (sharing our testimonies) this week, there was no one that was interested and it was a bit sad to see the less actives that were hardened against the church but we resolved to work through the auxiliaries (which of course we should do anyway :)) like if the daughter goes to Young Women or such we will serve and try to help that way.

I am grateful that I get to stay here in Vernal for at least another 6 weeks! All that I have learned in the past 6 weeks will help me propel and and excel! All glory to God! I am grateful for my ever patient Savior.

Thank you for all you do,

Sister Sarah Meldrom

January 13th, 2014

Dear All,

I have learned this week that if you are diligent about receiving a list of less actives, part member and unbaptized members over 9 from wards it will be given you. We have enough people to testify to for quite a while.

This week we were able to meet two amazing women that live in the Jensen area. 

The first is married to a less active member, and they have two daughters. This wonderful lady welcomed us in after we began to testified at her door. We were able to share the first two points of the Restoration but mostly ended up listening to what this sister had to say to us. I believe we establish trust from listening and finding similarities in our experiences. She was open to us teaching her and her daughters. We set up our next appointment for Wednesday.

The next lady is a less active Sister that lost their 2 hour old baby back in the spring. I felt strongly that we should visit her after the ward Mission Leader gave us her name. We ended up coming to her home just as she came home from work. She invited us in and we shared that God was our loving Heavenly Father. She cut us off with saying, "I don't know about that." We were silent for a bit and then I don't remember what we said. We just listened and looked at pictures of her infant son. She had a lot of questions and shared some personal experiences she had had recently. She is struggling to receive an answer to a prayer she has had and she felt like we were part of the answer. We asked her to talk to her less active husband about us coming over to teach the whole family.

I learned about the importance of listening to people and the Spirit. 

I stressed a bit over the two talks we had on the 12th. I felt negative and I felt I hadn't prepared them well. Long story short, we ended up missing out on a couple hours of time we could have been visiting the many people we have responsibility for on Saturday. I learned something from this experience and I hope that I can show God that I am sorry for the not-so-good use of his time by doing better this week. I learned that I had partially prepared my talks wrong. I was asking myself, "What should I say?" when I really should have asked, "What do they need to hear?" I am a bit irritated with myself it took me so long to figure that out. Next Saturday will not be like the 11th. Several people have come up to us and expressed with deep sincerity that they need both of our talks. I felt the Spirit as I talked, I felt it was good, I just make everything I do 100% harder because I have such high expectations for myself.

Something else I have learned this week is to delegate better; let Sister Christiansen call some people :P

I know God loves me! I just need to find my balance between humility and pride. I feel like if I beat myself up I am being humble but that isn't being humble and it doesn't help anything so it isn't good but I don't want to be prideful...it is a vicious circle. :P Every week I get little clues how I can manage this better and number one is to move on from mistakes with a determination to do better and not let myself wallow.

Remember that God love you!

God bless you,

Sister Meldrom

January 6th, 2014

Dear All,

I have a negative feeling that keeps nagging at me today. I don't feel like emailing and I don't know why. So I will try to shake off this feeling as I push through emails. 

We had a good week. The crowning event was the baptism of our 17 year old investigator. Her conversion started about a year ago with a couple of her good friends giving her a nice copy of the Book of Mormon with all of their individual testimonies for her birthday. At the time Kaylynn's mother was completely against her taking the discussions and being baptized, so Kaylynn waited and prayed patiently. About November one of her friends texted us and asked us to come to his house to teach her. We began the discussions and asked her to invite her mother to our appointments. When her mother didn't come we invited her by phone and by face to every lesson but she still didn't come. It was a bit concerning because we didn't know if her mother was truly open to it as Kaylynn had told us. We tried our best though to include her mom in everything. Before the baptism, we gave her the baptismal form to sign and she did. I internally breathed a sign of relief because I wasn't sure what her mothers take on it is and I don't want to do anything against her will. Kaylynn glowed the whole baptism. The room was filled with supportive members, as well as her mother and younger sister. The service was very spiritual and Sister Christiansen and I bore our testimony of the Restoration as Kaylynn changed after her baptism. The inspired part of the baptism, to bear testimony of the Restoration, is brilliant and we always have comments about it later. I love it because it does bring the Spirit all the more and everyone can feel it. Kaylynn's confirmation and testimony the next day was very spiritual. We did not have the opportunity to talk to Kaylynn's mom after but we will definitely keep including her and hopefully someday she will have the desire like her daughter. 

Also at church with us was another one of our investigators. I believe she felt the spirit much throughout the whole three hours and I know I gained a testimony of the importance of helping the investigators to church and helping them feel comfortable. Her attendance at church was a team effort of our invitations and members she knew invitations.

We have been more actively meeting up with ward leaders to try to receive referrals and other peoples names to visit. I have seen God blessing us, though our efforts are not perfect. It reminds me of Alma 32:27 "yeah if you no more then desire [to do better], let this desire work in you(action),even until ye believe in a manner that ye can.." I desired to do better, felt the weight of not-so-good use of the Lord's time in the past but through God's grace was able to just put one foot in front of the other this week. Now we are in no ways done with our labors(and I am thankful because Sister Christiansen and I both don't like to idle) but I pause for just a brief moment and express my sincere gratitude. I can do nothing of myself.

I feel a little better. Reflecting back on my week, I have realized that I have plenty of desire in the right direction. I just need to put a little more umph by proceeding with actions and remind myself that beating myself up is a step in the wrong directions .So thus I will try to combat my negative feeling. 

I look forward to what we can accomplish this week, one step at a time, and a whole lot of thrust and help from God's hands.

God bless you,

Sister Meldrom

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