Tracting to Street Contacting

[Mom Shelli here: Due to the Columbus Day holiday last Monday (and the public libraries being closed), Katy had to send us a LETTER with her blog post. We finally got it today—oh, we're so spoiled to be able to email...] :)

This week was definitely a regular missionary week when it came to our plans. But, the miracles we see are unique to each day.

Earlier in the week we got to do a lot of street contacting. We had originally planned out our day to be all tracting & contacting less-active members we don't know or potential investigators. But, once we were outside walking we felt prompted to go against our original plan and street contact in a different part of our area. So, we started walking that way and we ran into 2-3 people that were so nice and interested in understanding what it is we were doing and sharing. No one has continued investigating from those interactions, but I know that if we keep following those promptings we can be led to find those searching for the truth.

Another cool thing that happened this week is that at District Meeting (when all the missionaries in a few close areas get together to practice teaching and find ways to help their areas and improve themselves) we had President Stoker join us. It was definitely a unique experience because he doesn't usually attend a district meeting anywhere in the mission unless he needed to to talk to a missionary afterwards. But, when our meeting was over, he said he had to run home for lunch. So, it was cool to just have him join us for a couple of hours.

"Comfort food really is comfort food."
"I love meal appointments with members."

One last fun moment of the week was when we had a meal appointment with a family in the ward. When we got there the mom said she totally forgot we were coming for some reason. Luckily she had asked her husband to pick up some pizza on the way home. She asked if that was okay and we said YES!  haha  It was nice to just have some regular pizza and lemonade after a long day. Comfort food really is comfort food. She kept apologizing for forgetting and just giving us pizza, but it was really nice to have that and plenty of time to get to know them and their family. I love meal appointments with members.

It really was a good week full of fun experiences and memories. I look forward to having more adventures this upcoming week. :)

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

General Conference: Superbowl weekend for missionaries

We found a cool lake by where we were out walking. :)

This has been an awesome week, with an even better weekend!

Something fun we got to do this week is we helped out at the mission office in forwarding all the letters to the missionaries that came to the office. It is cool to be able to send out those letters all across New England :).

This weekend was definitely the highlight of the week. We got to go to the chapel and watch all the sessions of general conference there and have lunch with all the other missionaries (and sometimes members) who went to that chapel to watch a session or two. General Conference is seriously one of the best weekends in missionary life because we get the opportunity to just soak in the spirit for 8 hours in one weekend. It is so much fun :)! It was really cool to hear that there are more than 88 thousand missionaries serving right now, and one of them is me! (haha) I am just so grateful to be serving.

I especially loved Elder Bednar's talk. It was funny how he said that we didn't receive bonus points as members or missionaries for inviting people to learn about the gospel because it is true. The reason we share the gospel with people isn't because we have to get in a certain number of hours or because we want extra points to help us get to heaven. I want to share the gospel so that everyone can experience the joy that comes from living a Christ-like life. I don't know where I would be without the gospel, and it doesn't really matter, because I know that I am blessed to have the gospel in my life since I was born and raised in such a wonderful and nurturing home. I know that I have been given the opportunity to learn these things since I was born so I could have the courage to go out and share what I know to be true even though it is really hard for me sometimes to simply open my mouth and talk.

I am so grateful that we can be baptized and have the Holy Spirit in our lives to help confirm to us that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's church restored again on the earth. Without this, we couldn't return to live with Him, our Heavenly Father, someday. I hope everyone will want to find this truth for themselves and once found they'll share it with as many people as they possibly can. You can experience your own joy of living the gospel, but sharing it is another joy in and of itself.

I can't wait for what this next week has in store.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Bedford, New Hampshire!

Here I am in a new area with a new companion! I got transferred to the Bedford Ward here in Manchester, NH! (I'm still learning to say I'm in NH and not VT haha) So far I have absolutely loved this place. I can tell this is going to be a great transfer with my new companion Sister Upton. :)

Sister Upton and Sister Tyler

Elder and Sister Pettingill (Mission office couple) are going home in 5 days! 

We got to say goodbye to them today :)

We started the week by volunteering at a horse ranch. It is kind of cool because this horse place is a place that people use for physical therapy and stuff like that. So, what we do to help is just help clean the building, guide horses back to their stalls, and other stuff like that :) It is definitely a new experience.

Then, later in the week we got to go to the General Women's broadcast! Holy cow it was amazing haha. I especially loved it because I love temples and everything about them. I think hearing everything the speakers said just helped remind me why the temple has always been so important to me in my life.

Oh and a quick miracle we saw this week was when we were confirming plans for our day yesterday, Sister Upton said we should definitely stop by to see someone (a potential investigator) who we hadn't originally planned for. When we stopped by she said it was the perfect time because she had her son's friend die a few days ago and she had just gotten back from his funeral. She was very intent on wanting to learn about what we believe when it comes to life after death and we told her about prayer as well and she really liked how we could just talk to God instead of reciting a prayer. So, she said to stop by again soon to check on her, and we are very excited to do that :).

I definitely miss Burlington, but I am so excited to serve here in Bedford.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Covered Bridge in Shelburne, VT 

[Shelli here: Just found this picture Katy sent 2 weeks ago

(before she left Vermont) that I didn't post]

JSM again and transfers!

First off, I'm getting transferred! I'll be leaving my first area and finding a new home somewhere in New England, but I won't find out until tomorrow at transfer meeting exactly where I'm going! And the best part about all of this is that Sister Burton is getting a brand new missionary to train! So, Burlington is just really good at training new missionaries I guess ;) haha :).

Smoothie #2 in the “Will it blend??” challenge = 

Brownies, buffalo cheese, mac and cheese, 

pickle juice, and a few other things! 

haha :P

Back to the regular schedule of things, for p-day, we decided to do a challenge with our district called "will it blend??" A bunch of us had some left overs in our fridge that we'd never really eat, so we decided to bring them all together to blend random foods together and challenge one another to drink it... not our brightest idea haha. I didn't participate due to the fact I still had my mouth healing from surgery :P but Sister Burton totally won by the fourth smoothie of quiche, brownies, pickle juice, and a few other random stuff :P So Gross!!! but it was super funny.

Then on Wednesday we got to go down to the Joseph Smith Memorial again for Zone Conference, and a member of the seventy, Elder Wilson, came to teach us all about the Book of Mormon and how to use it in teaching. It was so amazing. And it came at the perfect time because we recently challenged one of our investigators to read through the Book of Mormon to know for herself the truth it holds. She committed to doing so and now she is interested in reading it with us. She started last week and she is already in 2 Nephi! I am so excited to hear more from her someday.

I just have to say that I know the Book of Mormon is true. The quickest way to gain a testimony of it (really the only way to build a strong foundation of a testimony of it) is to read it and pray about it. I have never loved the Book of Mormon more than I do now.

I hope everything is going well with everyone else!

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Visiting the JSM and a great challenge!

We had some pretty fun experiences this week, especially being able to attend the Joseph Smith Memorial with one of our investigators and a less-active member we recently met! It was so uplifting to be around the spirit so strongly that day. It was especially fun because we got to go through and explain things simply through the spirit with our investigator. It is amazing how just visiting Joseph Smith's birthplace can bring the spirit so strongly and reaffirm my personal testimony that he is a prophet of God. I am so grateful to be serving in the state of Vermont!

We also got to contact nearly half of the ward members that we didn't know this week. Since I haven't met very many people, we decided to go and contact as many less active members as we could. A couple of highlights came from it. When we went to visit one sister we found she wasn't home, but her mother was. While getting to know her she joked around with us and she said she really liked her name (Mary) because she can only remember names that have 3 letters or less. haha She was just super funny and we are hoping to get back to see her again soon. We also got to stop by someone's last night and when they met us they noticed Sister Burton's name, and the husband of that less active family works for Burton Snowboards! So, he asked if she wanted any free stuff and she just said "yeah!" haha. So, she got a cool Burton hat and some stickers. Now we just need to find a cool company with the name Tyler ;).

Oh! and the best part of this past week we had a challenge come from our mission president. He told every missionary in our mission to stop where we are in the Book of Mormon and start over! And he told us to read 12 pages a day so we will finish as a mission before our next zone conference meeting in October! It isn't too often when we get to do things like this as a mission. So far we are in 2 Nephi and it has been so spiritually inspiring that I can't wait to continue!

I hope things are going well with everyone else!

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Her current district (everyone doing the "squat" pose to fit in the picture) ;) (l-r: Elder Crockett, Sis. Burton, Sis. Tyler, Elders Porter, Jardine, Walker, Flake and Keller)

 

Some elders in her district re-enacting the George Washington "Crossing the Delaware" painting. =D

Investigator in Sacrament meeting!

For the first time on my mission, I had an investigator come to Sacrament Meeting this past Sunday! It was so exciting but it was so hard cause I had no idea what to do or say! haha. Luckily, she got there as soon as we were walking out to the car to drop something off so we were able to meet her right outside and walk in with her. She told me she was really nervous and everything, but we were able to reassure her and we sat in the back and didn't make a huge deal out of it. It was great that she came on this Sunday, too, because it was fast and testimony meeting, so we had some amazing members go up and share how they came into the church and how they've built their testimonies. It was absolutely wonderful.

Another major part of the week was my minor dental surgery :P (I found I had a receding gum-line about two months ago and it wasn't healing on it's own). So, on Friday I went under for an hour and a half to get that fixed and now I have chipmunk cheeks again (like when I got my wisdom teeth out :P so fun haha). I was kind of stuck at our apartment for a couple of days before going to church and getting back in the swing of things on Sunday. I am just so grateful for getting a priesthood blessing to help me with that because it has helped me recover so much quicker :). I've just really found that I am just so grateful for the Priesthood in general.

New England is cooling off, too, so hopefully we will just keep some nice cool weather and skip the snow for a bit haha ;D.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Malletts Bay in Colchester, VT

September full moon in Vermont

Shelli (Mom) here: I had to add this special picture gift that we received from a kind member from Utah who--when she travels--will take pictures of missionaries and send the surprise pic to their family. This was such a blessing for us to see Katy looking great after her surgery just 2 days earlier. Our Heavenly Father blesses us in so many ways. :)

 

 

Backup Plans are Life Savers

New companion Sister Burton with Sister Tyler

This was an interesting week. Almost all of our investigators and less active members we regularly teach were out of town on vacation. So, when we had some plans set to teach people, they would last minute change on us and we had everything fall through nearly each day. This meant that we ended up doing a lot of finding and tracting this week.

We started by looking for less active members that we haven't met yet in our area. After meeting with one, we decided to go to the next neighborhood over and tract until we talked to nearly everyone! Before we were about to finish, we passed by a man sitting outside of his house with his dog. We introduced ourselves and he said he knew the Mormons because he went to Salt Lake City for the Genealogy center. He was fascinated with how much of an emphasis our religion put on families. So, he invited us back to teach his family in a week. We are excited to teach him in a couple of days :).

Then, something similar happened later when we were going to meet with a less active member but then she canceled so we went with our back up plans to go and contact some former investigators in the area. When we talked with one he said he would be interested and his wife would probably be interested, too. So he invited us to come back when she would be there. Hopefully we will start teaching them again soon.

Good things are going to happen!

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

I believe in miracles

This past week was really uplifting and inspirational. It started with an exchange on Tuesday where Sister Burton went to Montpelier and I stayed here and our new sister training leader (who trained one of my MTC sisters [Sister Boyce]) came to spend the day with me! It was so good to talk to her and learn how one of the sisters I came out with is doing :).

Richmond Vermont (on our way to Bolton VT, it was too beautiful to not take a pic)

We had a regular Tuesday until the day was about to close and we had set aside time to go and find some people in Bolton (a town in our area that doesn't have any members, investigators, or even potentials!). We decided to simply stop at the first house we thought someone would be home at (because there were very few houses and they were spread apart). We knocked on the first house we saw and we talked to a sweet guy who told us a story about how he got stranded on the side of the road in Maine while he was on vacation once and these two elders came by to help him! Then he said he would listen to our message! So, I quickly relayed the first vision and my testimony of the truth of the gospel and he said we could come back anytime! So, we don't get to go to Bolton often since it is so far away, but we definitely plan to visit him again :).

Then, on Thursday, we were surprised by a call from one of our investigators. She hasn't ever come to church before, but she said she would try to go this past week and she didn't make it. So, when she called us, she said she was so sorry for not going and she committed herself to going to church in a couple of weeks after her vacation! She hasn't ever committed to church before, so this is a huge miracle for us! We are so excited to have her come to church for the first time!

Then we ended the week with an awesome dinner with a less active family in the ward. It was so fun getting to spend time with them because the son loves Minecraft and the daughter loves My Little Pony haha. So, we had a wonderful dinner with everyone and we got to share a quick message with the mom afterwards. She expressed to us a few of her concerns about each of her children and we did our best to reassure her that the Lord can help with everything and that attending church can help strengthen anyone's family. She said she could see that as Sister Burton and I continually bore our testimonies of how the gospel has helped us in our lives. It was such an uplifting experience, and now we know how to better help that family :).

Things are going really well here in Vermont, and I can't wait for another week here in Burlington!

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Brother Carpenter (he is like our ward dad) He claims he is Porter Rockwell (Joseph Smith's bodyguard and childhood friend) so he won't cut his hair and he has some cool swords he wanted to show us haha :)

New Transfer, New companion

Things are awesome! My new companion is Sister Burton and she is a riot haha. She loves fun and laughing and it really makes things different and exciting. I think the best part though is that we really get along and we both have a strong drive to make a difference in this area, even more than ever before.

Starting with the week on Tuesday we had transfer day. We had to run out the door at 5:30am to get to Lamoille, VT to meet a couple of sisters where we would do a mini trade off. My past companion, Sister Vanderhoef, would go with Sister Blume's (Lamoille, VT area's sister) companion to go down to transfer meeting, where they would both go to a new area (confusing I know haha). So, I stayed in Lamoille for a few hours with Sister Blume just waiting to find out who our new companions would be. While there we went about the day like a normal mission day :). We went and did service at a thrift shop, ate lunch, and did street contacting. I think the best part about spending a day with Sister Blume was that I knew her from Zone Conference and I felt like I could really connect to her. So, we were able to grow a lot in one day and it really taught me that it's possible to connect with someone in a really short amount of time. It was almost hard to leave her when I got my real new companion haha! But, I was really excited after starting to get to know Sister Burton, my new companion!

Since Tuesday we have been keeping ourselves busy! We have been contacting a bunch of less active members, doing lightning (quick) visits with members, and trying to find new investigators. So far, Sister Burton says she really loves this area and the ward. I couldn't agree more :).

I think recently I've just really gained a testimony of how the spirit really is surrounding us when we don't even know it. I am seeing more and more how the spirit works when we are in lessons with investigators because we are finding ourselves saying things we don't think to say, but then it somehow really helps the person we are talking to. It is the little things like that that make missionary work so amazing. Being able to see the spirit in every activity of your day truly is a spectacular thing!

I hope all is going well with everyone else!

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

I'm done being trained!

It's crazy, I've been out for 3 months! Two transfers down and I am done being trained as a missionary. I'm now a regular junior companion :).

Even more crazy, I'm getting a new companion tomorrow! My Trainer is moving on to become a Sister Training Leader and I am staying here in Burlington and receiving a new companion tomorrow as my senior companion. I will miss Sister Vanderhoef so much! But I'm glad she can spend her last transfer on her mission as a sister training leader :).

This past week has been a great last week with her, too! We were able to spend a lot of time with members since we had 5 meal appointments with either a member, less-active member, or investigator. It was fun spending time with everyone during meals because it is so much easier to get to know people when you're just sitting down for dinner.

Lesson-wise we were able to focus a lot on the needs of those we teach as we taught the Restoration to one of our investigators and she said it answered a ton of her questions. Then, we committed her to go visit the JSM (Joseph Smith Memorial) with us in September and she accepted! So, we get to drive down with her and a member next month and visit the JSM! :D We are really excited to be able to do that. We were also able to teach about the Plan of Salvation to another investigator, which was nice because we were able to hear a lot of her concerns and help her understand how the gospel can help her through these things. She really opened up and said she wants to come to church with us! So we will be bringing her not this Sunday (she is out of town) but next Sunday, and we are so excited!

To wrap up the week we had an amazing day at church! When we told everyone that Sister Vanderhoef was getting transferred they started gushing over us and telling us how much they'll miss her and how grateful they are for the work we do and everything! It was amazing because it helped reassure us that the ward really does want to help us in every way they can and they care so much about us. We are so grateful to be in such a wonderful ward!

The work is definitely a marvelous one! (D&C 4:1)

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Her District after a pizza buffet lunch. They won 2nd place in the mission competition for ITLs! (see July 15, 2014 post)