I love being a MISSIONARY!!

I love being a missionary for a plethora of different reasons. First off, I love seeing all the miracles that happen. Second, you have to expect the unexpected. Third, things that would normally surprise someone, don’t surprise us in the slightest. Fourth, WE ARE SO AWKWARD! Okay the last one… I’m not sure that I really love that as a missionary, but it brings a lot of good laughs.

 

Lots of wonderful things have happened this past week. To start off, we got a call last Monday from President Brennan. This took us a bit by surprise as it was early P-day morning. He said, “Sisters, I have a favor to ask. I am wondering if it would be okay if I gave you a third companion? Her name is Sister Larsen and I think WMU would do great things for her.” We told him “of course we would love to have her as a new companion”. He asked us what we would need in order to make this possible. We told him “Honestly, nothing. We have four beds and two blow up beds at our apartment and we have something that would work as a desk etc.” He said, “Perfect, I will let you know when she will be coming your way.”

 

So we continued on with our day preparing her to come. The week started off great. We had a fantastic lesson with Jaylen. Michael came with us again. I love when he comes because he shares so many wonderful personal stories. Jaylen is still improving but it is slow. The best part of the lesson was near the end. He asked a question about why bad things happened to good people. I had the perfect answer. I told him I had a little story to share with him. That morning while I was in my studies a talk came to mind. It is called the Grandeur of God, by Elder Bednar. I hadn’t read the talk for a really long time. I opened it up and read it. It is a very good talk but it is kind of hard to understand for someone who isn’t very well versed in the scriptures. But I kept it in mind. That day we had to print a couple of things off so I decided to just print an extra copy of the talk just in case. That night when he asked the question I knew why I printed off the talk. It answered his question perfectly. I told him this and handed him the talk and invited him to read it. After that I look over and Michael is just chuckling to himself. Jaylen said what’s so funny and Michael said. Don’t you feel that? That’s the spirit and it just makes me laugh because here is God’s proof to you right now that he is real and the gospel is true. I love when Michael comes because you can truly see how much it helps his testimony to grow. To realize that this kid didn’t know God about 6 months ago would just blow your mind.

 

Wednesday, we went on trade-offs’ after district meeting. I was Sister Rhead. I love her, we were in the MTC together. She is training Sister Ott right now. We had a wonderful trade-off. That is when the first miracle happened. We were sitting and teaching our investigator Wiley, when the girl came over and sat down kind of close to us. Sister Rhead and I both noticed her listening in. Then as we kept talking to Wiley, she leaned over and said, “I am so sorry to interrupt, but is this a religion on campus here.” I went over to talk to her and left Sister Rhead to teach for a minute.  Thank goodness she knows how to teach!! I talked to her for a few minutes. Her name is Justice, and she loved what she was hearing. I set up an appointment for the next day with her. Such a wonderful blessing.

 

The day continued and that night at 10:00 we got a phone call from a 989 number, which only meant one thing. Someone from Midland area! I answered the phone and Sister Bair answered! She called because we were getting one of her companions, Sister Larsen, as a companion. I talked to them for a while and we figured out that Sister Larsen was coming in the morning from Saginaw.

 

Sister Larsen got here and we ran to lesson after lesson. Poor sister didn’t even have time to settle in for the first couple of days. We were just so busy. That night, Sister Eisert and I, while on trade-offs’ accidently double booked appointments, so we went on blitz’s with a girl named Nicole in the branch and Sister Larsen and I went to the lesson with Justice.  Justice brought her friend Donnea (say it like da nay a) we had a wonderful lesson with them and I am so excited to meet with them again.

 

Friday continued to bring miracles. We had a lesson with a girl named Emily. Emily is from Michigan and we ran into her a couple of days ago. We asked her why she wanted to meet with us and her reason was, you seemed nice and I think I could learn a lot more about God. We taught her about Joseph Smith and how we can receive personal revelation for ourselves. Then we invited her to come to Frisbee night and she said YES! We were so excited, the best part was she actually came and LOVED IT! We had tons of fun. She got along great with everyone. We are excited to see where the gospel takes her in life.

 

Sunday I realized something. I AM SO AWKWARD! Ha I just can’t help it. I talk like a missionary and it is kind of hilarious. I use words that “normal” people don’t use. Like unto or behold haha I realized that I truly have immersed myself if the gospel. Literally.

 

Also some exciting news. WE found out about a month ago that someone was coming to our mission. We just had a visit from Elder Snow. We knew that this new someone wasn't just any ole apostle but someone big. A few weeks back President Brennan at MLC told all the leadership to make sure to keep President Monson in our prayers because it will greatly affect our full mission conference if he were to pass. Well today we got notification that President. Russell M. Nelson will be coming to Michigan on November 11th. We will have a special meeting with him that morning for a couple of hours. Then the state of Michigan will all hear from him and his wife for 3 hours and 4 hours. He will be accompanied by a few other individuals as well. What a privilege this is. I am so excited to hear from him. :)

 

A quote I would like each of you to think about this week was given in a talk by Carole M. Stephens. I love this quote so much, it helps me see a larger perspective. She says, “God NEVER loses sight of our eternal potential, even when we do.” There is an analogy that I really enjoy. Picture a string, it goes on forever in both directions. Then you get a separate string and tie it in a knot around the forever string. If you look at the knot on the forever string it is minuscule. It is so small in comparison with everything else.

 

That small string that is tied in a knot is our perspective here in life. The forever string is God’s perspective. We truly have to turn to God in order to see the larger picture or as Sister Stephens says, “Our eternal potential.” I know this to be true. As I have served I have learned that I truly know nothing and in order to succeed in life I have to turn to God for everything.  He truly is our light house that guides us through the night. He is constant and never changing. Remember never lose sight of God, because he knows what YOU are capable of.

 

I love you all so much. I hope that you know how much each of you mean to me. Keep being wonderful examples. Thank you for the time you take to write me and to reach out to me. I truly appreciate it. I LOVE YOU!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND EAT LOTS OF CANDY FOR MEE!!!! 

Love Always,
Sister Milar