Zone Conference with Fruit AND Going to Ogunquit, Maine

(Sister Tyler's mom here: This blog post will have 2 weeks worth!)

[ Due to my being gone to Young Women Camp last week... ;) ]

June 29, 2015--ZONE CONFERENCE WITH FRUIT

Historic Mural in

Georgetown, Massachusetts

Why does each week fly by so fast?! This week was great, we got to go to Zone Conference to teach and be taught. It was amazing to be so spiritually uplifted while President Stoker shared with us his thoughts on repentance for two hours. That seriously may sound so draining, but it was so uplifting. I guess that is what happens when you feast upon the word.

After we were taught and had lunch, it was our turn to teach. So we split up into our different zones and we taught about a few topics, but we especially focused on what it means to go after the "low-hanging fruit." We thought it would be fun to have a visual for this topic, so Sister Olsen and I took fruit and tied strings to them so we could hang them around the rooms we were doing our training in. We also made a green leaf for each fruit out of duct-tape and wrote what each fruit symbolized (like member referrals, friends of recently converted members, youth of less active members, etc.). We really felt like we should emphasize these things because often times missionaries, when they aren't teaching as much and have a lot of finding time (as our missionaries are doing right now), we feel we have to tract a lot to try and find those who are seeking the gospel. But, we have to remember the counsel given to us in Luke 8:15 that we have a better way to find those who are prepared.

This is also something that my area is doing, so it was great to teach about something that I really needed to learn. We've had to go through a lot of changes recently in making decisions of how to best use our time wisely, which sometimes means taking a break from some things that may be fun, like service projects, but that don't help us much with our purpose as missionaries and can even distract from our purpose at times. Basically, we've been doing a lot of inventory in our area, and as we've made room for progress, we know progress will happen.

I also got to go on exchange to Georgetown, Massachusetts this week and I had a great time with Sister Harman. While we were there we got to street contact and we passed by some really cool historical stuff (like the mural painting along a building's wall next to a river). It was so cool to get to know the history of our country as we talked to people about how we believe that understanding our family's history is also important.

This has been a great week, and I know this next week will be wonderful, too.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

June 22, 2015--GOING TO OGUNQUIT, MAINE

Sister Tyler and Sister Olsen

in Ogunquit Maine

There is always something fun to do here in Maine. We even get to go to the beach and meet people around the world. We decided during our weekly planning last week that we haven't done any work in our small town of Ogunquit. So, we set aside all of Saturday this past week to go explore the area and beach contact, street contact, and helping everyone around us.

Honestly, when we first got there we were both completely overwhelmed. We had never seen so many people in one spot before! But we gave ourselves a bit of time just to walk around and get comfortable with our surroundings and we got to work. We mostly walked around and stopped to talk to people when we were inspired to, but the most effective things we did were just being friendly to those we met.

While walking we found a nice beach-side path that was for anyone to take a hike by the beach. We felt like that could be good to just walk and talk to people along the way. So, we went on our adventure and before we knew it there were people saying hi to us and asking us where we were from. We had a few groups from Idaho and Wyoming who already knew who we were, and then we had quite a few people ask us to take pictures for them. Each of the people we talked to though said they felt comfortable asking us simply because we looked friendly.

Ogunquit Beach Coastline

Although we didn't have any miracles happen where we got a new investigator or found someone who would be interested someday, I know we planted seeds and softened hearts. We plan on going back in a couple more weeks to continually visit the beach where thousands of people can have the opportunity to be uplifted by the good news of the gospel.

We will have an exciting week this next week, too, because we are doing a training during Zone Conference for our two zones. It is nerve-wracking to prepare for, but it is so fulfilling.

I hope all is well with everyone, family and friends, and that this is a good week.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

We found a snail with barnacles on its shell!

Sister Olsen decided to hold it...

but I told her we couldn't keep it as a pet haha

We decided to play the game

“Sorry!” one night during call-ins

with some of our sisters

...I won by the way haha :)

Us with Sister Minks, a sweet sister

who is moving down south

later this week.

We will miss her so much!