A miracle that I never thought would happen

Sister Tyler and Sister Vanderhoef at the Joseph Smith Memorial.

Alright, I have to start with the silly miracle I experienced this week then talk about actual missionary work haha. So, as many people who know me know I am not the craziest about watermelon (I call it the “devil fruit” a lot because I despise it haha), I can't even eat it because my body simply rejects it and won't let me. But, on Saturday, we had lunch with the sweetest member of the ward and she brought out a few small slices of watermelon to have with lunch. I just felt so strongly that I shouldn't reject it but that I should try my best to force it down. So, I prayed, I knew the Lord would make anything possible, and I ate it. I ate the entire slice of watermelon!!! It was truly a miracle! I didn't dare try it again though with another slice haha. I am so grateful the Lord helps me with even my simplest and silliest concerns :).

Her dreaded "devil fruit!"  ;)

Onto the rest of the week. We had Zone Conference this past week, which means a few of the missionary zones (about a dozen or more missionaries to a zone) got together for a day-long meeting. The cool part though was that we had our meeting at the Joseph Smith Memorial in Sharon, VT (where our Prophet Joseph Smith was born). :D Before and after the meeting we got to walk around and just feel the uplifting spirit that comes with the memorial.

The small plot outline of Joseph Smith's home.

Then, on the way home from Zone Meeting, we got a voice-mail from a member in Missouri who said she has a non-LDS friend in Burlington that wants to learn more about the church after seeing the Hill Cumorah Pageant with her! So, we called the referral and set up an appointment. After meeting with her we could already tell she was really wanting to find the truth and that she would commit to anything that she found for herself was true. So, now she is a new investigator and she is excited to meet with us again and talk about her experience at church this past Sunday.

We wrapped up the week with seeing some members and we are excited to continue to work closely with the members as we continue in the work. :)

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Change of plans to make things awesome

This week was a little slow in the number of lessons, but we still had some amazing things happen with our time. This week we have been trying to contact as many “formers” (those who have previously met with the missionaries and taken some of the lessons but for various reasons stopped before finishing all the lessons/baptism) as we could in an attempt to find some new investigators. When we were doing this on Saturday we found one mom who was interested but said she was really busy right now with summer and watching the kids. So, she invited us to come back in about a month to check up on her because she really appreciated us thinking of her :).

Then on Sunday we had a last minute change of plans because we had originally planned on having dinner with an investigator and a member family, but at the last minute we were able to set up a dinner appointment with a less active member that we haven't been able to get in touch with in forever. So, we changed our plans to have a lesson with our investigator then have dinner with the less active family and things worked out even better than we could have hoped for. Especially with our investigator getting more interested in the gospel and starting to read the Book of Mormon and the less active family having family night each Monday now! It is so great to see people acting on their faith.

One more random note is something I've discovered during the week. I've taken a new interest in studying hymns and I've found that you can read the hymn book like you can the scriptures. So, I've started with the introduction and I am going through different hymns, making notes, highlighting lines, and making cross references. Just different things you can do with your scriptures, but with a hymn book :). I've really been enjoying it and I look forward to finding new favorites.

I hope all is going well with everyone!

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Funny Coincidence

This week went by so fast!

The biggest thing we've done is reorganize the list of our former investigators in one of our cities. We had a ton but we did it and we have planned to visit everyone on the list :). So far we have visited a few people, but something funny happened with one of them. The other day the elders in our area gave us a referral for someone who asked to meet with the missionaries. Since they lived in our side of the area they referred them to us. We didn't realize it at first, but after going through the list of our former investigators we found the referral was one of our former investigators! So, we went to see them and we set up a return appointment :).

Then later in the week we got to go to a member's house for dinner with one of our investigators. It was so much fun to be able to spend some time with members and get to know our investigator a little bit more before talking to her about baptism. She said not yet but she really enjoyed learning more about it.

This week has been great and I'm looking forward to another great week :)

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

ITLs Skittles

Every missionary has to have one of these pics ;)

It has been a good week :). We got to have dinner with some of our investigators on Wednesday. It was fun cause we got to be with all three of them because they hangout together and two of them live in the same building. It is great teaching them lessons because it is like teaching a small class about the gospel each week :).

We've also had some small changes in the regular mission stuff. We are now trying to get what we call ITLs (like skittles without the sk) and that stands for Inviting To Learn. President Stoker wants us to invite more people in an effort to find those who are truly ready to learn. And we need more investigators so this will help :). And the fun part about these is we are having a competition. Whatever district gets the most ITLs will win a lunch with President Stoker. So far we are doing pretty well with over 100 ITLs in just a few days :).

We also got to have a last minute exchange with the sister training leaders this weekend. It was fun cause I got to go to their area and experience a new area for the first time! It was amazing to me how small the towns there are! I am so grateful to be in Burlington! haha. But, it was a wonderful experience to see a new area and learn what the majority of our mission is like. :)

Wrapping up, I was just so grateful for the package I got from my Papa Tyler. He included an inspirational letter and some lesson outlines that he put together. I don't have a ton of time to read them but I enjoy reading a bit at night about Faith and how to better develop it.

I hope all is going well with the rest of the world, cause things are pretty awesome here in Vermont :).

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Our Sister Training Leader's area (1)

Our Sister Training Leader's area (2)

A New Transfer – A New Investigator

First week of a new transfer and we've already done a lot of walking haha. We started out the week by doing the regular things. Did service at the library, read the Book of Mormon with an investigator, and reorganized plans after some schedule changes. Then on Thursday we got to meet the new members of our district. We got a new Elder in the St Albans area (just north of us) and a new Zone leader. It was cool getting to know them, but we went out to eat for lunch after district meeting so it was harder to talk. :/ But luckily we will see them again this upcoming Thursday when we can get to know their mission stories more.

This weekend we had some exciting things happen. We contacted a member of our ward who is going out with a nonmember and asked if he knew if she, the nonmember, would like to learn more abo

ut the church. After he asked and talked to her for a bit, she said she would! So, we had our first lesson with her on Sunday and it was so good. We taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and her boyfriend was very supportive in everything we talked about. He kept bearing his testimony and supporting her in saying he would help her keep all of the commitments we extended (like reading the Book of Mormon and seeing her again next week). It was such a wonderful experience to have a member there that was so supportive and into the lesson. It's situations like that that make things so much easier for everyone.

Overall it has been a good but quick week :)

Sincerely,

Sister Tyler

[This was a fun drawing she sent for David's birthday. She knows how busy our life has been recently... We love the little details--like the "Meow." ;) ]

One Transfer Done!

I can't believe I'm already one transfer into my mission! I still want to tell people I've only been out for a couple of weeks haha.

Sister Tyler in Vermont June 2014

The work is progressing so much! Our numbers have nearly quadrupled since my first week here :D. We got another new investigator this week, too! It was really cool, we were at a bus stop just waiting for the bus to come when a lady came and stood by us. After we rode together (didn't say anything to one another yet) and got off, she mentioned to us how she saw our commercials on TV. So, we asked if she wanted to learn more and she said yes! We had our first appointment with her yesterday and we are excited to give her a church tour and bring her to church soon :). Our other investigators have been really good, too. We had a lesson with one of our investigators (who has been investigating for a good amount of time) and we focused on baptism for this lesson. We had a member with us and she just explained her conversion and testimony to our investigator and it was amazing! It was exactly what the investigator needed to hear. I am so grateful for members who are so willing to help us in inviting people to come unto Christ. I've learned from that experience how important members are in missionary work.

We also had the opportunity to have the 3rd hour lesson during church focus on missionary work yesterday. Our ward mission leader taught the entire lesson instead of us missionaries though because he wanted to emphasize how it is the ward's job to find people for us to teach instead of the ward just taking over when we get someone converted (we have to work together throughout a person's conversion process). The lesson focused on mormon.org and how easy it is to be a member missionary using that website. I'm so grateful we all have the opportunity to invite everyone we know to come unto Christ and find joy and happiness in this life and forever. I know that the gospel can change someone's life, and all we need to do is introduce them to it.

Missionary work is great! (D&C 4)

Sincerely,

Sister Tyler

[We (her mom and dad) decided to share this picture she sent because of the GREAT message it has!]  Sister Tyler made a cover for her daily planner using some pictures from an old church magazine.

3 New Investigators!

This has been an amazing week :). It started out awesome when we got to help stain a non-member's deck again and we got to have lunch with them afterwards. We didn't talk too much about the gospel, but we got to know them and they became comfortable with us. So, the next day we came back to say hi and we taught them about the Restoration. They seemed to really accept it and they supported a lot of what we said. It was so wonderful and they are so sweet! So, from that we got 2 new investigators!

Fun truck we saw while driving home  ;)

Then, on Sunday, we came to another investigator's house for an appointment and we found out that our investigator had invited someone to attend this lesson with her! So, we taught them both about the Restoration using the pamphlet as well and they both seemed to receive it well. And, the man that our investigator invited seemed really interested in what we were saying so we left him with a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment for the both of them.

It's amazing how we find these people through means other than the traditional tracting that most people see missionaries doing. :)

Both are still alive and well!

Funny story, we taught an older less active member this week and she told us about her headstone that she has in the cemetery nearby. So, obviously we had to go check it out (see picture--->).

One other highlight this week was that an 8 year old boy in our ward got baptized on Saturday! We came to support him and his family and it was such a wonderful experience to be able to see him be baptized. I know that the spirit was felt very strongly by everyone in the room, and I know that it was important to the young boy's life and to his family's.

Not too many big things happened this week, but I am still so excited to continue in the work. The Lord has so much in store for this area!

Sincerely,

Sister Tyler

Plan of Salvation drawing done by the four awesome kids of the family we taught after dinner on Thursday – the father said the Plan of Salvation made so much more sense with the diagram! haha

Tender Mercies

I cannot believe I'm already past week 4 of my mission! It feels like I just got here a couple of days ago haha. But, it has been a wonderful experience so far with an amazing week this past week. We had to start our week without a car because there was a small dent in the back from some past missionaries getting hit by someone else, so we left the car at a body shop for a couple of day (Elder and Sister Poll, the senior couple that lives in our district, gave us a ride home from the shop, but before leaving Elder Poll told the owner that we needed that car back quickly, so he should try to get it done sooner than a week [which he had originally told us would be how long it would take], and because of that we got our car back on Wednesday! It was awesome, and we are so grateful for Elder and Sister Poll). Since we didn't have the car for a couple days, my companion and I thought we should figure out the bus system. So, we got a couple maps and tried it out! We walked over to a bus stop and we knew we had to talk to someone, but we didn't know how to start since we are both kinda new/rusty at street contacting (you can't street contact during the winter here, so every summer missionaries have to relearn how to do it haha >.<). But, after standing there for a second, we actually had a guy come up to us and look at our name tags before striking up a conversation about Christianity! Gotta love how the Lord looks out for us ;).

Later on in the week we had the opportunity to give a church tour to one of our investigators. We came a bit early to clean everything up and know what we wanted to say and where to go for it. It was easy to do until we found that we didn't have a key to the baptismal font! So, we thought we would just find a picture later to show her. Once she got there everything went really well. We went through the building and when we got to the baptismal font my companion had the idea of going through the side door from the bathroom to show her the font. Luckily the door was unlocked (tender mercy) and we got to show her the baptismal font. She said she really liked seeing it and it was nice to be able to clear up some questions that she had about baptism that we never even knew she had until then. After that we moved to the chapel, where we explained a bit about Sacrament meeting to her, where we again got the chance to clear up some confusion that she had never brought up before. It was such a wonderful experience to be able to explain everything and comfort her in any nervousness that she had about church. So, later this next week we will be inviting her to church for our Sunday services.

We ended the week with exchanges! I was really nervous because my companion was going to the sister training leader's area and the other sister training leader was coming to my area to spend the day with me! I still felt like I didn't know the area well enough to survive a day without my companion, but luckily we were able to do it. The sister that came here was Sister Waite. I was very grateful that we were exchanging on a Friday-Saturday because we had a bunch of meetings/activities that took up a lot of our time, so I felt more comfortable with knowing what to do when. It ended up being a wonderful learning experience and I loved being able to see what it is that I actually understood about the area by myself. I love exchanges now and can't wait to try them again in the future :).

Well, that has generally been my week :). The work truly is progressing here, and I am recognizing more and more ways to find those who are seeking for the truth brought through the gospel.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Sister Waite and I during the Ward building clean up (we helped to transplant a bush from one side of the building to another after trimming it and all that fancy stuff haha ;) )

Crazy Week!

Crazy week this week, and it probably won't get any calmer next week haha.

On Monday we had our district p-day where we got to hang out and play some sports as a district. It was tons of fun cause we got to play chair soccer and capture the flag. Chair soccer was tons of fun cause we just got to run around and relax for a bit in the gym, but then capture the flag was hard because we played using the entire building and my companion and I couldn't separate because we were the only sisters! So the other team won :P but that's okay we still had fun :).

Then, on Monday night, my companion and I started a long road-trip down to Manchester, New Hampshire for new missionary training. It was

fun getting about 3 hours each way to just relax and talk with my companion, and it was also fun because I got to see all of the girls in my MTC district again! So, we got to the mission home and slept there overnight before getting up and heading over to a church building to start off the day with some training. We didn't really learn any new information, but we got to review everything we've been doing and have a good time being with the other sisters for a few hours. After we finished up we dropped off some things at the mission office and headed home :).

The rest of the week wasn't too much crazier, but I did get to do some tracting for the first time :) It's about as scary as it sounds (to go door to door and just talk to strangers while introducing what we believe all within a few short minutes), but it is still fun because you meet some people that are very sweet and respectful. I think what I learned most from this is that our religion is actually very well known, so all we have to do is clarify what it is that we actually believe.

Speaking of what we believe, our mission president has challenged all the missionaries to try a new way of teaching where we use the pamphlets for our appointments and teaching opportunities, but even more we use only the pictures in the pamphlets with a "look at this, what do you see, discuss it" method. I didn't think it would actually work because it feels really awkward when you ask people what a bunch of pictures look like to them, but it is super effective in finding out what people understand/don't understand and just filling in the blanks to complete their knowledge :). So, I've found the system to be very useful and I look forward to finding more opportunities to teach with it.

My district in Vermont

To wrap up the week we had a special event going on through the weekend, where Friday-Sunday we had a media weekend. Basically we had a bunch of members go with us to different appointments and we took pictures wherever we go to share on social media sites to spread the word of the Lord through the use of technology and everything like that. It was a wonderful opportunity to both spread the gospel through social media, and to use the members more in our appointments and visits.

It has been a very good week and I look forward to what this week has to offer.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Time is flying!

I still can't believe that I have been here for 2 weeks! Better yet, every day I'm here I love it more.

The weather has been beautiful and I love everyone I meet. The people are so friendly here, too. If you get to know someone and you show mutual care and respect, they start treating you like family. It is wonderful. :)

This past week my companion and I have done a lot of walking. For our car, we are allotted a certain number of miles each month and the sisters that were in my area before me and my companion used up a ton of miles, so we had to make due without a car for the most part last week so we didn't go over our mile limit (it was hard, but we did it!). We really got to know the area of South Burlington by walking a lot, too (which will really help me with getting to know where everything is).

My area is progressing a ton since we've got here! We normally have one, maybe two, less actives come to church every week after we challenge them to come. But for the past two weeks we have had 4 investigators in sacrament meeting, and the majority staying for all three hours! It's amazing! My companion and I think it is because we are showing the members that we are excited to be here and we aren't going anywhere (this poor area has lost a lot of missionaries recently, it's a long story, but it is getting better don't worry). And honestly, we haven't challenged anyone to come to church yet, we have simply been teaching them about what it is that they are desiring to learn about and we teach with that about how God wants them to recognize His influence in their lives.

The work is wonderful and the area is blossoming. D&C 4:4

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Burlington, VT