Teaching with another Elder at Zone Meeting

Exeter North Zone Meeting

I just have to say I am so grateful that Heavenly Father answers prayers.

It was so fun to go to the temple this past week and to have a good time just feeling peaceful while there. I know the temple is the house of the Lord everywhere one is built and dedicated.

This past week we also got to teach at Zone Meeting, but President Stoker wanted to make sure there was a Sister Training Leader at every Zone Meeting, which meant Sister Olsen and I had to teach at the same time but at different meetings. So, we worked it out that I would be in a trio with the Somersworth Sisters while she would be in a trio with the Georgetown Sisters so that we were never alone but we were at the place we needed to be for our different meetings at the same time. Teaching without Sister Olsen also meant that I taught by myself with a Zone Leader who is training, which meant he had to teach by himself with me. It was such an interesting experience to coordinate with an Elder so closely in preparing notes and receiving inspiration for what the missionaries in our Zone might need. But, it was such a spiritually uplifting day as we did our best to prepare and simply followed the Spirit when actually teaching. In the end it all worked out and we had a great time :).

Then, later in the week, Sister Olsen and I were tracting one day and we met a sweet lady with Southern hospitality. She wasn't interested in our message, but she offered us some homemade banana ice cream, and of course we couldn't say no to that! She invited us in and we met her son who is studying to be a minister and everyone was very kind. We were sad that no one was interested that day, but we were so grateful for the sweet family who gave us a moment to spend some time getting to know them and eating some banana ice cream :).

This work is a marvelous one.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Sisters Olsen and Tyler with a moose....?

Exchanges with Sister Evans

Another Boston Temple Trip!

Boston Massachusetts Temple

{Sister Tyler's mom here}  Her P-day was Tuesday this week (instead of the regular Monday) because she had the opportunity to go to the Boston Temple again. We are so grateful she was able to do that! On Tuesday we were able to have some very brief messaging back and forth for about 30 min. or so and she is doing well.

One tender mercy though: On Monday we found out for sure that Katy was attending the temple because we were blessed to get a very kind email from one of the sisters in her Zone that works with her (Just thought it was a fun thing to share) :)

** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Hello!

I am the lucky sister that gets to let you know that your amazing daughter is having her Pday tomorrow, so she can attend the temple with her companion. She loves you so much!

I feel very lucky to serve with your daughter. She cares SO much about everyone, and does everything she can to help them out. She is also doing amazing with all the dogs here! I went on exchange with her a few weeks ago and couldn't believe she was afraid of dogs!

I know it's hard being the mom of a missionary, but Heavenly Father is so proud of you for sacrificing so your daughter can serve Him.

Thank you for raising such an amazing woman!

** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Sisters Dickson, Bee,

Olsen and Tyler

"You're great, we're great, it's great!"

(back, l-r): Sisters Bee, Payne, Tyler, Olsen

(front) two Elders :)

It is now the first week of my first transfer of being with the same one companion two transfers in a row since I was being trained. It is kind of crazy but we didn't get a transfer call this time around. I guess the Lord needs us to work more in this part of the vineyard :).

We had a great week starting with MLC (Mission Leadership Council). I was excited for this one because it was here we got the training we needed to be able to put together our training for Zone Conference on the 22nd. The part that makes me most nervous about giving this upcoming training is that we (as sister training leaders) have to teach alone because one of us has to attend and teach at each of the two zone meetings and all of the zone meetings happen on the same day! And even more, this transfer President is trying something new with the two zones in our stake where the zone leaders won't be in a zone leader companionship, it will be single zone leaders. This means that there will only be one sister training leader and one zone leader to teach each zone of missionaries. It seems so simple, but it is kind of crazy :P :). But, I know it will be great.

Sister Tyler just loves Minions :)

As far as our area goes, we are still working towards finding those who are interested in learning. It has been a difficult area to find investigators in, but I know that it is possible. And, if nothing else, we get great stories together haha. For example, this past week, we were following up with a potential that missionaries in the past had found but they didn't list an apartment number in the records, so we did our best to follow the Spirit and we started knocking on doors looking for them. When we knocked on one door the guy that answered just looked at us and said "Oh no, no no! Well, you're great, you're great, I'm great, we're great, it's great...bye!" and closed the door. We couldn't help but smile to ourselves because it was so funny how he did respect us but didn't really want to talk and didn't know how to do it, but I think he did it well since he made our day haha.

Then, later in the week, we were walking to the beach to go beach contacting and this guy stops us after we say hi to him and he asks where we are from because people around there don't usually just say hi to random people. So we introduced ourselves and he told us about how he works at the Catholic church down the street and he was just talking to Father Aurelius about missionaries! So, he told us we would give us his card to give to Father Aurelius if we would go to Mass the next morning so we could meet him and talk about missionary work. Of course we take up this opportunity, so he then proceeds to give us a white t-shirt that says "The Tomato" on it and he told us that was his card... So, we went to Mass and went on a hunt for Father Aurelius and eventually met 4 Fathers in the process, and got George's, “The Tomato” shirt back to Father Aurelius only by leaving our card with the shirt on his desk. So sadly, nothing came of it but a fun story and adventure. It was also great because we learned a lot about what Catholics believe and do during their worshiping. It was definitely a beneficial, unexpected experience.

This looks like a tropical location!

(She's in Maine...right?!)

It was a great but definitely strange week, and I'm excited to start this new transfer off and find those who want to hear about the gospel.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

4th of July at Kennebunk Beach

Sisters Olsen and Tyler at Kennebunk Beach

It was a wonderful and fun week with new experiences. We started the week by doing a new "Finding Idea" that is listed in one of the beginning pages of our planner. Sister Olsen and I decided we wanted to try as many finding ideas as we could before the end of our transfer. So, we decided to first try the finding idea "Put your name on lists at hospitals or funeral homes as clergy who will talk to people in crisis." We thought it was perfect because we live down the street from a funeral home! We set aside some time one morning to go over and ask someone if that is something we could do. It was so nerve-wracking because there were practically three front doors and it was a huge house. :P But, we went up to a door we thought would be right and rang the buzzer. Immediately someone let us in and we introduced ourselves and explained what our purpose was in coming. They said that was very sweet but they don't have a list like that. So, our finding idea didn't work, but hey it was fun to try it! And now we can say we've done it haha.

We got happy meals

because they had minion toys ^_^

Then, as the week went on, we felt like it could be a good idea to use more family oriented stuff in our finding (since that is something the world is really focused on right now and also focusing on Family History during 4th of July could spark interest by those with ancestors who served in wars). So, we have offered a lot of Family Proclamation documents to people as well as showing them how to do their family history work. No one has taken us up on the offer yet, but it has been fun talking to people about their families this past week.

Finally we ended our week full of finding by going beach contacting at Kennebunk Beach, starting a couple of hours before the fireworks went off for the 4th of July. It was overwhelming at first by how many people were there, but after a while we would just talk to people as we walked and take a break and sit next to different people sometimes. We didn't do any crazy short lessons or find any potential investigators. But we did help people to know who we are and that we are just regular people.

This is Frankie.

Frankie sheds like crazy,

but he is cute and he likes to

bury his face in things

like my skirt or our hands :)

The work isn't always easy, and we don't always see our success, but it is so fulfilling.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

In Derry, NH while I was on exchange with

Sister Cox :)

Kennebunk Beach on the 4^th of July