Transfers!

Hello 

I hope all have you had a wonderful week this past week, and that all the dad's out there had a fantastic Father's day :) 

This past week was transfer week, and I am training!

Monday I took cute Sister Bair to Mt. Pleasant so she can go to Saginaw and I met up with Sister Dehl who is serving in Petowsky We are both training, so we came back to Cadillac and worked here until Wednesday and drove down to East Lansing. We spent the night with the STL's so we were ready to go in the morning to meet our new companions!

My greenie's name is Sister Hughes. She is from Alpine/Highland, Utah. Graduated in 2016 from Lone Peak. I already asked her if she knows the Peterson's and she said that she doesn't. However, she did go play tennis at Ivory Ridge and took classes there at one point. She is great, I just love her to death and know she is going to be a fantastic missionary! She is 19 years old and has 2 brothers and 1 sister. All of which are a bit older than her (26, 28, 31). She is lactose-intolerant and allergic to dogs and cats.. I told her that the animals part might eat her alive here in Michigan because EVERYONE has animals and they don't clean up the dog/cat hair so hopefully she wont die. (No worries I won't let her). 

Missionary work around here has been great! We have picked up a new investigator named Jess. She was a referral from a member here in Cadillac. We have only met with her once but she seems very excited about it and we are meeting with her again on Wednesday. The member and her read scriptures for a couple hours after we left this past week. So keep her in your prayers!

Dana is doing okay. We are still working with her trying to figure out the best way to help her. She actually texted up on Saturday night asking about baptism again. We are going to put her back on date tonight for August 19th. I know that if she really buckles down and stays focused that she will be prepared for that day. Our plan is to continue to teach her and strengthen her testimony of the gospel and help her understand the doctrine more. She wants it, but isn't sure if she can handle all of the work. 

We also have been working with so many less active members. It makes me so so happy, on Sunday there were 4 different Less active families that we have been working with at church!. It has been great to see that the branch is slowly growing and people are gaining their testimonies back. Right now we are working with about 11 different families. So we are making that 250 less active list go down slowly but surely! 

This week when I was studying I came across an article and I absolutely loved it. So I want to share a little bit with each of you: 

Whenever we are tried with doubts, let us ponder our spiritual experiences. Doing so will help us to erase the doubts. This is particularly true for those who have returned from full-time missionary service and then allowed doubts to creep in, for longtime members who have grown tired of enduring, and for recent converts who initially felt great joy but have not nourished their faith.

If such is your case, I would like to say: If the gospel was true when you sent in your missionary application (and it was!), if it was true when you entered the temple (and it was!), if it was true when you were converted and baptized or when you converted and baptized others (and it was!), if it was true when you were sealed (and it was!), then it is equally true today!

Jesus showed by example that we can receive strength from the scriptures. Joseph Smith showed that asking in prayer will bring relief. Those who have given their lives, nothing doubting, have shown that even when faced with death, we have hope.

We must not succumb to desperation, for trials and temptations are temporary. We can all find hope in the Savior’s declaration: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (D&C 6:36).

I love this last scripture in D&C 6:36. I know that the Lord will help us through everything and that as we depend on him he will guide us, strengthen us and provide us with the tools we need to continue on through out life. I know that God lives and loves all of you. Keep being wonderful disciples of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Love Always and Forever,

Sister Milar

P.S. Funny Thought:  The Bishop was visiting homes in the ward, and he stopped at one home. It seemed obvious someone was home, but no answer came to his repeated knocks at the door. 

He took out his business card and wrote: Revelations 3:20 (look it up) and stuck it in the door.

The next day at church the bishop got to his office and found a note under his door. He picked it up and there was a scripture written on it. Genesis 3:10.

I hope this gives you all a good laugh! I love you!!

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Revelations 3:20 

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Genesis 3:10

So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Happy Fathers Day to all the Daddy's!

I hope that all of you have a wonderful day and that your wive's spoil you like crazy :)

This week in the MLM has been pretty fantastic.

First off, we had a farewell for President and Sister Jacobsen. Their last day serving is June 30. We were able to have a last meeting with them and hear from them. President made sure that he told us all to go home and get married haha The best part is that he brought up the "Birds and the Bee's"! I think all the Elders were so embarrassed as they all turned bright red and quietly chuckling to themselves. I was dying, I thought it was hilarious. 

Oh I forgot to tell you last week, that it is Transfers this week. So I am emailing today.  Good news I am straying Cadillac again :) Sister Bair is leaving me and going to Saginaw.Which is about an hour and a half away. I am going to miss her as we have loved serving together, but she will do wonderful things there.  I will also be training a new missionary! I am not sure how I feel about it, but I know that it is in the Lord's plan and that he will qualify me for the work as it talks about in D&C 4.  So all you that have trained in the past I would love to hear you advice on how to be the best trainer :)

We have been working with so many members lately. Trying to help them build a testimony in the Savior, Jesus Christ. I love to see the desire and the progress here. One lady we have been working a lot with is Dawn Berg. She has been meeting with missionaries since before I got here. She has been inactive since she was about 14 (now 28). This past week she kept all of her commitments and is studying. We have been able to see a true desire in her. I love to see the Light of Christ as we talk to her. I know that as we continue to share she will be able to be reactivated. That she will find her Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Why would he have gone through so much if it weren't true. His family was attacked from every angle. He lost children and had many heartaches. Yet, he knew and could not deny God. I encourage you to all pray and study the Book of Mormon to learn more about the truthfulness of the gospel to pray and learn for yourself. If you have done that I encourage you to do it again. :)

We are still meeting with Dana. Please keep her in your prayers as she is studying! We have been able to talk to her a lot about the creation lately. She isn't sure how God would be able to organize everything and is trying to develop a testimony on that. She is struggling a little bit but again is still striving to be better and better. 

This week my thought is nice and short but I think it is so profound. It says "Thoughts lead to words, words lead to actions, actions lead to habits, and habits lead to character and character determines your destiny." Remember that as you go through out this week. Strive to be the best that you can possibly be this week.

I love you all so so much! Have a wonderful week and Happy Birthday to one and all last week as well as this week!!

Love Always and Forever,

Sister Milar

Oh we went door knocking this past week. As we were walking up to the door I saw this little friend peaking at us. I thought it was the cutest thing!!

This past week has been great!

What a Happy Day! This past week has been great!

To start off a funny story. So here it is Friday, Car fast day. Which means we don't drive our car all day and we get to walk. It was a beautiful day and I love to walk! We walked all around and talked to some wonderful people, sadly none of them wanted to learn more but we kept trudging. We met up with the Rosenberg's and Sister Judson for lunch.  We had a nice discussion with them and then the Rosenberg's took us to our first appointment and then the next. On the third appointment of the day we go in with the Rosenberg's. It is with Katie and Dana. There are no words to describe these two. They are cousins and feed off of each other. Sister Bair and I have no idea how to help them. They say they know the Book of Mormon is true and that President Monson is the Prophet but then they come up with some bizarre ideas.  So after a long lesson with them we were just going to do companionship study and walk up to our next appointment and take a bit of a breather and see if we could find anyway to help them. Before we know it Katie volunteers to come with us. We didn't know what to say to her so we just let her. We do companionship study and in the middle of it she starts asking us all sorts of questions. So we talked to her. Then the Rosenbergs show up to join us at the lesson and before we know it Dana shows up... Then our appointment shows up. So we stand up to go in the building with him and they all stand up and follow! Sister Bair and I were dying. This pour kid that we had never met up with before had 6 people at his lesson. He probably felt so intimidated. Mind you Brother Rosenberg, Dana and Katie all love to talk. Sister Bair and I hardly were able to say a thing.Oh and the guy we were meeting with loves to talk and talks about a million miles a minute. We were able to start the first vision and in the middle of Sister Bair reciting Joseph Smiths own words. Katie stands up and says, sorry I have to get going. Makes this huge scene and the spirit was gone. So we try to get the spirit back and  then Katie comes back and says never mind, my mom is going to come pick me up because it is raining. So we decided to end the lesson. The best part, at the end Katie gives the boy her number and says if you have any questions call me. I can help. We were dying!!! If he has questions he needs to call us. Not an Investigator who doesn't believe completely in the faith!!  All in all it was a disaster. It was a lesson we surely wont forget hahaha.

 

Then we got to go to the temple with Tina! It was such a wonderful experience. The Spirit was so very strong. It is about a 3 hour drive from Cadillac so It took most of the day, we were so grateful to go with her though. She was able to be baptized for her mother who died awhile back and it brought tears to everyone's eyes. We were listening to a talk and I loved what Elder Holland had to say and I think it relates to all of us. He said, "If God has told you that SOMETHING is right, if something is indeed true for you he will provide the way for you to accomplish it." For Tina she had the confirmation that the gospel is truth and has been able to provide many ways for her to live it and be involved with it.  On the drive home Brother Harring just kept talking and then said. Oh my light just came on. Well actually it has been on for some time. We need to find a gas station. Well the wind was very strong and was using gas like crazy. Finally we rolled into the gas station on fumes. I know that the lord blessed us with that one because we had been driving on 0 gallons left for about 3 miles haha

I hope that all is doing well and that you all have a wonderful week. You all are in my prayers.
Love,
Sister Milar

 

 

Happy June!

What an eventful week this past week :) Taking it from the beginning of the exciting events.

We had the Last Zone Conference with President and Sister Jacobsen. It was just lovely. They usually last till about four o'clock but for some reason, President Jacobsen Skipped over about half of his talk and said you don't need to hear all of this because you are already doing this and it would be a waste of our time. So we ended up being able to talk with them for awhile. Oh how I have grown to love them. They are truly an inspiration to me.

Then on Friday night we had Tina's baptism! Oh I am so very happy about her. This women has not had an easy life and yet she is so loving and kind. I was so very proud of her and know that she couldn't have been more prepared for us. Funny story: So we showed up at the church to fill up the font for the baptism. We had decided to delegate some of the things we had to do for the baptism to the branch as they are wanting us to make sure everyone can be involved. So we asked Sister Buda-Joy to make the programs. When we get to the church she is there doing family history and shows us the program. I almost died when I saw it. Oh I was so distraught. The front picture was so blurry you couldn't tell what it even was and then you opened it up and it was upside down and backward and misspelled words everywhere. IT wasn't even aligned (I am so OCD about things when it comes looking nice and presentable... i think I get that from mother). I had no idea what to do because I appreciated it so much but there was no way I could hand that out at a baptism, especially if President and Sister Jacobsen and President and Sister Hoover were there. So I knew I had to tell her we needed to reprint them.  I walked in and thanked her so much for the effort but that we couldn't hand them out. So we needed to reprint them and we could just use the format I have on my flash drive as she did it at home. Well she said just blame it on me and tell everyone it was my fault. I told her that it would still come back to us. We redid the programs and by that point I had so much anxiety about this stinking baptism. The baptism turned out just lovely though. We redid the programs and everything went very smoothly. Well after the baptism I was talking to Sister Jacobsen and she commented on how many people were there to support Tina and us as the missionaries as well as how much they love us. I decided to make a little side comment and said well probably not after today haha and I told her about the programs and she told me how grateful she was that I redid them because for some reason everyone thinks that just because it is Michigan things can be done only half way. It made me feel a lot better. Then after that President took us to Dairy Queen and we got some ice cream and visited.

Then Saturday and Sunday were district conference in Traverse City. It was lovely. A lot of talks were given about Missionary work and being truly converted to the gospel. How we need to study and ponder the scriptures each and everyday and how real the adversary truly is. I know how real he is. I seem it every single day. I pray that each of you can strengthen your own testimonies by baring them and study the materials that we have been blessed with.

Today I got to go back to Traverse City and we went to the Old Mission light house! Oh it was the cutest little light house! It has been there since about 1837. They even sold it in 1904 for $1 as the owners were done with it and the land and didn't want to run it anymore. Now the property and light house are worth over a million dollars!

I hope you all had/ have a wonderful week. I sure do love, pray and think of you often!!

Keep being wonderful!

Love Sister Milar

President Hoover and his wife

Sister Tina Kirby

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope that each of you had a good day and that you were able to enjoy the sunshine! This past week in Cadillac was great. 

I lost my voice most of the week. It is the strangest thing as I feel great. Just don't have much of a voice. Tina was so cute and told me that she almost went and bought me medicine and some soup, because she feels like she has to be my mother while I am out here as my mother is all the way in Utah (or Hawaii)!

We have had some great lessons. We officially have finished the lessons with Tina! She is moving along perfectly. We talked to her a bit about the temple and she just wants so bad to go and get married and sealed there. Well it is going to happen in a year and I told here I would be there :) Her baptism is Friday night and she is so excited, as are we. We are hoping that a good sized group will show up to show her support. She is just throwing herself into the gospel. Always willing to help with whatever and always coming and bringing people to church with her. I have truly loved to see how she has progressed over the past few months!

We also had our last interviews with President Jacobsen. He finishes his mission here in 3 weeks! We had a good chat about the wonderful people here in Cadillac. I also have a good feeling I will be staying here one more transfer. 

It has been pretty rainy here for the last few days but that means there are tons of beautiful pictures to take. We also have a funny picture that we took for a contest. So i will send those all your way. 

Oh I also got to brush and feed horses. We went out to a members home to visit and talk to them. We got there just in time for chores. So we went out to the barn with them and they let us help them! It was great fun. They have a colt that is about 3 weeks old now! She is so the cutest!!

This week I was reading about light. Light comes in so many different forms. Right now I am painting a picture that depicts light from a light house, other forms of light are candles, a light bulb,  the sun, stars, moon, light in your eyes and most importantly the light of Christ. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Each and everyone of you have the light of Christ. I have seen it. Continue to allow your light to grow brighter whether that is by praying more, studying the scriptures or reading conference talks. As you go through out this next week I pray and hope that you can be that light for someone who is searching for the light. Be that guide in the wilderness, in the storm and in their hearts. 

I met a stranger in the night

Whose lamp had ceased to shine.

I paused and let him light

His lamp from mine.

A tempest sprang up later on

And shook the world about.

And when the wind was gone

My lamp was out!

But back to me the stranger came—

His lamp was glowing fine!

He held the precious flame

And lighted mine!

I love you all and thank you for the wonderful example you have been to me and for the light you have shown me. I wouldn't be the person I am today with out you. 

Love Always and Forever,

Sister Milar