Megan's letter Jan. 25, 2016

This week was so good! And busy. 

  

The Worldwide Missionary Broadcast was on Wednesday. It was so cool to be watching the same thing as all the other missionaries in the world! My favorite part was a discussion by Elder Bednar. He taught us how we can bring the gospel UNTO the hearts of our investigators, but only they can bring it INTO their hearts. He also talked about the Holy Ghost and how we have to be obedient and worthy if we want the spirit to work through us as missionaries. I know obedience is sooo important and that miracles happen here when we are following the ALL of the rules and staying worthy.

Interviews were on Thursday in Tupelo, Mississippi! I love President and Sister Hanks. He trained us on having a strong presence as missionaries and it's something I'm excited to work on.

We have been teaching this cute couple lately! They are so sweet and open to our message. We had an amazing lesson where we answered a lot of questions they have had their whole lives! They will be at church next week hopefully. At one of the lessons the wife shared with us a scripture from the Book of Mormon that helped her on a hard night.... SO COOL! Alma 37:45

We have also been seeing an investigator named Maurice a lot! We met him at the library. He is very humble and receptive. He is homeless but has a job and is just waiting for an apartment complex to accept his application! He came with us to a baptism in Russellville and he loved it. The spirit was so strong. We kept saying "Maurice this is exactly what your baptism will look like!" Haha I guess it worked because we set a baptismal date with him yesterday. He is going to be baptized on February 12th which is actually his birthday! Obviously we will have a birthday party for him afterwards (:

Also, the whole state shuts down at the sight of snow! So funny because it didn't even stick! They even have snow days for school if the forecast says it might snow hahaha. 

The work is going so great! I love my comp, I love Florence, I love the gospel. Life is good! I love y'all, have a good week!

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 1/19/2016

First off... ROLL TIDE. I'm just sayin. National Championship 2016!! Alabama is pumped right now guys.

     We've been working with this girl named Alexus who we met while she was working at walmart! We started a conversation with her by complimenting her hair. She is so cute and sweet! We made an appointment with her and she told us she would teach us how to do that hair style.... well she definitely did... worst part was that we brought her to the relief society activity after and had to leave our hair in so we wouldn't offend her. Jaws dropped as we walked in!! So worth it. #doitfortheinvestigator

    We had another exchange in Corinth this week! It was a lot of fun and we stopped by some fun places on the way back. There is this bus that says "Jesus is the real life saver!" in front of a Pentecostal church so we just had to stop! 

     The regional stake broadcast was on Sunday! So so cool. We got to hear from Elder Rasband and Elder Hales. Elder Rasband spoke on the importance of temples and it made me wish I could go more often! Elder Hales spoke on families and it was very sweet. Our investigator Erik came. He was really sad when he saw that "Thomas" wasn't going to be speaking though. We are fixin to set a baptismal date with him sometime this week (: 

     I love you all so much! I know this gospel is true because it is changing me. I know that this is the way to true happiness in this life and in the life to come! Have a good week!

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 1/11/2016

Week 5! 

This week has gone by SO fast!

     Can't believe how fast Pday came around. This week has kind of been a blur but it's also been really good! We have been meeting with Erik a few more times and he even came to church again yesterday. We feel like he is really progressing. He is so excited for the broadcast on Sunday! He is hoping that "Thomas" is going to speak but we told him he probably won't because of his health. 

     We also started teaching this girl named Baylee! She is 21 and she has a little two year old boy who is a little rascal. She also just got engaged, is trying to quit smoking, and has been wanting to be re-baptized! Golden investigator right!? We sure hope so. She took the restoration really well and has a strong belief in the Holy Ghost which has been helpful in us teaching her. I had a cool experience where I had this Book of Mormon with another missionaries testimony in it, and was supposed to wait till I was prompted to give it to someone. Well as I introduced the book to her, I didn't notice that was the one I was holding! I then got the feeling that it was right and I needed to give it to her. She was so honored that I would give her the one I had been saving for someone special. She cried, it was adorable. She wasn't able to make it to church but she is coming to a relief society activity tomorrow! She is so so nice but also very stubborn in some things she believes so we will see.

     Oh something sad happened this week! So in this mission we do transfer meetings. Everyone who is getting transferred comes to Birmingham and we have this really cool and spiritual meeting. President Hanks usually speaks and trains, and we all find out who our new companions are and where we're headed! Well Elder Oaks from the quorum of the twelve apostles is on the Missionary board for the church and he very strongly dislikes transfer meetings, and has made a church wide rule that no missions can have transfer meetings from now on ): This is a bummer because I won't have as many opportunities to meet all the people in my mission, or see past companions. All of the missionaries here were pretty upset about it! Goes to show we don't always understand the decisions made in the church, but we can always have faith that our leaders are called of God and know what He wants for us! At our zone training the STLs and zone leaders brought a gravestone and set it up outside. It was way funny. One of the Elders stood up front and said: "We are gathered here today in memory of our dear friend Transfer meetings... who was killed by Elder Oaks.." We all died laughing.

     Anyway this week has been good and I'm looking forward to the meetings and lessons coming up this week! Also I've been reading that book called "The Continuous Atonement" by Brad Wilcox, the one Brandon sent me for Christmas. I love it so much. There is a poem in there that really stuck out to me! It says: 

"Time and time again He saves,

Forgiving my mistakes,

Seventy times seven times-

However long it takes"

-Steven Kapp Perry 

 

This is so real to me. The Savior has already paid the price for all of our sins. He is just waiting for us to take advantage of this incredible gift. I have been able to use this gift in my life and especially out here! I hope you will all turn to the Savior in good times and in bad.

Y'all have a good week, remember that I love you!

-Sister Merrill

Megan's Letter 1/4/2016 

Hey! Guys I hit my 1 month mark already.... it's going by way too fast!

I won't tell you too much about the beginning of the week because the first 3 days were spent quarantined in our apartment with strep throat. Yeah it put a huge dent in our goals for the week and it already wasn't looking like we would hit our numbers! Then we finally got to go out on Friday but the STLs wanted to do an exchange in our area that night! So we split up and afterward they told us we were doing a surprise mega exchange all of Saturday! So it wasn't looking good for our goals. But the mega exchange was cool because we were both in tripanionships for the day! Also super random but we were convinced our investigator Tina had.. passed on... for a couple days because we couldn't find her in the hospital or at her house! Turns out she is alive and well, she just got transferred to another hospital! Bad news is she isn't progressing so we have to drop her tonight ):

Yesterday was my favorite day of the mission so far (:

Our investigator Erik came to church!! We tracted into him my first Sunday here but we have only had the chance to give him one super short lesson. He had basically no prep for what church would be like! To top it all off it was fast Sunday... fast Sunday is sketchy her in Bama cause people say the WEIRDEST things hahaha. But most of the testimonies were normal for the most part which was a huge blessing! After the third hour we could tell Erik was way confused so we asked him if we could do a short lesson at the church before he went home! We taught him the restoration. My first time teaching it!!! Crazy huh? I think It went well though and he is really receptive. We talked to him about modern day prophets for a minute and he was so fascinated! He asked us "So does Thomas have a youtube channel?"

Hahahaha. He had a lot of hard questions too but he just loves how much we care about him enough to follow up. We are teaching him again on Wednesday (:

After church we went on splits with a couple of the young women! It went AMAZING. I have never felt so brave knocking doors before. We passed out seven BOMs and had eight bap invites in less than two hours! So many amazing people. I'm excited to follow up with them! Despite only working in our area two days this week, we ended up  hitting all of our numbers. This was just proof to me that when you work hard Heavenly Father helps you achieve your goals! I love it here so much and I think it's going by too fast. 

HAVE A BLESSED NEW YEAR!

Love you all (:

Megan's Letter 12/28/2015

Hey guys!!

     Hope everyone had a good Christmas. Mine was way good cause of you! Thank you for the packages. It was so good to talk to you even though it's been like three weeks haha. This week has been pretty good! We went tracting on Saturday and found two pretty solid people who wanted to come to church! We were so excited. We went with a member to pick them up but the first guy was asleep.. and the other lady was awake but didn't answer the door. So that was kind of a bummer but I know I'll need to get used to that happening! Today we had a zone activity in Florence. We played a lot of games and it was fun! We had a really cool devotional after about inviting people to baptism every time you hand out a BOM. It's safe to say I need to learn to be more brave when it comes to those things (: But I'm excited to try it!

    SO for all of you reading this that I didn't have the chance to tell. I ALMOST DIED IN A TORNADO. Okay, not really. But it was pretty scary! We were headed to a meal appointment at a members when we were told to do the tornado drill! (get in the bath tub with your bike helmets on and put the mattress over your heads.) But we figured the members house was safer since they had a basement, so we went there. A little while after that the tornado sirens outside started to go off! THEN President Hanks gave us a personal call telling us we needed to get in the basement now because the tornado was headed directly towards Florence! It was pretty funny cause the whole family was packed in the bathroom in the basement with us. Me and Sister Patten were crammed up against the toilet! I sent a few pics. Turns out the tornado passed right over us and we were fine! It did touch down in Corinth though which is where I had been earlier that day on an exchange. I think three kids died there so that was way sad. I was pretty nervous the entire time but I guess it made for an interesting first week in the field!

     Oh one funny thing that happened this week was with a former investigator named Tina. She had previously agreed to be baptized but then her family convinced her that the Word of Wisdom was crazy. She is 60 but she is super unhealthy and has a paralyzed vocal cord so she looks and acts like shes 80! We got a call from her the other night at 2:45 am!!! She was trying to leave us a voicemail telling us she was back in the hospital and wants us to visit but it woke us up. It was pretty funny though because I was so tired that I told her we were already awake. We went and visited her yesterday but her sister (who we've never met) was there. the first thing she told us was that she's Methodist! A couple minutes later she left. We started talking to Tina when the nurse came in with her food! There was also a glass of ice tea but since she doesn't want to be baptized we didn't say anything. Before we know it her sister marches back in the room, picks up the tea, and puts it right in front of Tina. Then she said: "Tina honey you eat everything on this plate. You drink all this sweet tea, it is holy and blessed by the Lord." Then she walked back out. So that was pretty awkward hahahaha.

     Well anyway it was a pretty crazy week and I can't wait for things to calm down so we can be more focused on tracting and teaching! I love it here and I couldn't be happier (: LOVE Y'ALL! Have a good week!

Megan's Letter 12/21/2015

MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL

Okay I'm still getting used to y'all, but I figured it's easier to just accept it now.

I am IN LOVE with Florence, Alabama. It's crazy how big this mission is and how far apart we are from other areas! I'm supposed to do exchanges tomorrow with an STL in Corinth which is an hour and a half away! It should be interesting. Can't say I'm super excited to sleep in another sisters bed though hahaha.

 I thought the first week was supposed to be hard!? Guess I just got super lucky with the best companion and the best area. My comps name is Sister Maddie Patten. She only has two transfers left!! She is from Springville, Utah. I love her so much! We get along so well and I'm learning so much from her! Sadly she was sick on Friday and some of Saturday so we spent a lot of time in the apartment and never went tracting until yesterday! We are in a car basically all the time unless the Elders need to borrow it. Knocking doors was scary at first but I'm already learning to be more comfortable being uncomfortable if that makes sense haha. 

This is such an incredible time of year to be spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ! We get to share the Christmas video ( A Savior is Born) with basically everyone we meet! It's perfect because everyone here is just super open about talking about Jesus haha! So we tell them we have a Christmas message about Christ and they usually love it! We got three new investigators yestrerday! So much can happen in an hour of knocking doors. 

Okay so I have a weird story to tell! When we were tracting yesterday we had an... interesting.. experience. This lady let us in and she was pretty Old and super ghetto southern. She had black hair with white grown out roots! She invited us in and introduced us to her daughter and her daughters partner haha. We shared the video and she responded really well! We thought it was going great. All of the sudden she started telling us about how she has been like basically possessed by the spirit when praying and possessed by 37 demons. Then she talked to us about how she was a stripper and how she calls her nipple her third eye.... We all basically had the same feeling to get out of there ASAP so we did! So yeah that's Alabama! HAH. Just kidding there are also a lot of normal nice people. Southern Hospitality is the greatest. Also we met the CUTEST couple last night that we are obsessed with. They do the worship service (church music) at a church called The Arc here. They are the most hipster couple I've ever met hahaha we adore them. They don't have much potential since the husbands Dad is the pastor but they want to be friends with us which is cute.(:

I'm excited for Christmas and to talk to you guys! I'll try to get that all figured out ASAP and let you know. We may have to call later in the day since our appointment is at the Bishops for dinner that day. Well I love you all and I hope you have the best Christmas! Don't forget who it's about (: Go watch the video I mentioned earlier if you haven't seen it yet! MERRY CHRISTMAS I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
PS I saw  Chase Evenson a ton my last few days in the MTC! He's the best.

Megan's Letter- 12/10/2015

FAITH overcomes FEAR

This week as been a little overwhelming to say the least. I started off my first day with a lot of fears! Fear I wouldn't like my companion. Fear I would hate it here. Fear I couldn't be a good missionary. Fear of waking up at 6:30!!!! But as the week has gone on I have learned SO much! My companion is the best I could ask for. We get along so well and we also are good at teaching together. I have made so many friends here and weirdly enough I actually like the MTC. EVERYONE IS SO NICE! You cant walk anywhere without people saying hi or complimenting you! Class time is long but I've found that is where I learn the most as long as I'm paying attention! We get to work with some "investigators" ( actors) and it's crazy how real those experiences are! The Lord really does know what he's doing when he trains his missionaries! I want you all to know how much my testimony has grown even in such a small amount of time. I love this gospel more than ever! I leave the MTC at 3:30am Tuesday morning to head to the airport! My companion and a few Elders in my zone are headed to Birmingham too! My flight isn't until around 7am ish though. We have one layover in atlanta! Fam stay by your phones cause I can't wait to talk to you! I love you all so much and you're all in my prayers! Thank you to everyone who has sent me letters and packages you don't know how helpful it has been! I would make this longer but they give us no time. LOVE YOU GUYS!

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