Five Sisters Proselyting

This week was definitely a unique one. On Tuesday Sister Danner and I got our new companion, Sister Cannell. She just left Burlington, VT (having replaced me) and was trained by Sister Burton. It is so fun to get to know her while she updates me on people I miss from my first area! haha :)

After getting our new companion, we also got a new investigator! We've stopped by her house a few times now to invite her to learn more, and each time she would say to stop by in about a week. But this time she let us in and we began teaching her. She is such a sweet person and she likes the idea of a loving Heavenly Father, so we hope to continue to build on that idea.

Sisters Danner, Cannell and Tyler

Then, on Friday, there was a big leadership missionary meeting, which meant that we got to have two sisters who are companions with a Sister Training Leader (but a regular sister like ourselves) join us for a few hours. So, Sister Gilles and Sister Danner went together to one members house for service while Sister Cannell, Sister Pankratz, and I went to help another member. While Sister Danner and Sister Gilles were helping the member they were with, Sister Danner passed out (which she has done before in her life, but this is the first time she has fainted on her mission). So, they called us and we immediately drove over to pick them up and get Sister Danner home to rest. I wish I was better at describing the situation, but it turned out to be really funny with all the different events that put it together :). Now, she is doing much better and the five of us had a wonderful day getting to know each other and doing the Lord's work.

BEDFORD DISTRICT

Back: Elders Quinn, Erekson, Hansen, Butters

Middle: Elders Chisholm, Lynn, Porter, Pace

Front: Sisters Harper, Craig, Danner, Cannell, Tyler

Something else that made this week awesome was that we taught Seminary this morning! The Bedford Ward youth who go to Bedford High school have Seminary (youth scripture study class) each morning before school, so we drove over there at 6am and taught a short Christmas lesson :). It was a lot of fun because we got to know the youth a bit more and talk about all the gifts that God and Christ have given us.

Well, I am very excited for Christmas and getting to Facetime home to see my family :) I hope everyone enjoys the special day to celebrate Christ's birth with their families.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

**Shelli here: Katy quickly wrote this on a Christmas package before she mailed it out--

the same day she learned who was going to be their new companion.

It was such a fun surprise to find out before we normally would have.

Caroling with the Spirit

BEDFORD DISTRICT

Standing: Elders Lund, Harrington, Harper, Erekson, Vaughn, Hannig and Pace

In front (l-r): Sisters Tyler, Danner, Smedley and Craig

This was an amazing week and I can't wait to see what this next transfer has in store :).

After getting our weekly planning done and setting new goals for this upcoming transfer, we got to go and visit a less active sister that we found a couple months ago. She is so sweet and usually she gets nervous when talking about the gospel, but this time we shared with her Alma 32:28 and we showed her a mustard seed and explained how our faith in Christ is just like that seed, and once we nourish it and allow it to grow within us, it will become a huge tree. This is how you develop a testimony after all. Once you're given the seed (the Gospel) you have to nourish it (scripture study, church attendance, and prayer) and allow it to grow (acting on your faith in order to receive a witness of its truth) then it can become a big tree (a strong testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ). It truly is amazing to me how the Lord doesn't expect us to have a tree as soon as we are given a seed. The Lord allows us to take our time and carefully tend to it in order to develop the faith we need to stand strong in the Gospel.

SURVIVED TRANSFERS!

Sister Tyler and Sister Danner get to spend

Christmas together!

We also had a great opportunity this week to go caroling with our ward mission leader, the elders, and our ward missionaries. It was such a spiritual experience because we got to stop by and surprise a bunch of our investigators/less-active members. Everyone we sang to said they were just overjoyed by this surprise and that we made their day so much brighter. It was amazing to have the spirit so strongly with us when all we were doing from the world's perspective is singing songs to people we know. But, I know that we had angels with us and that the spirit was able to testify to the people we sang to that Jesus Christ can be in their lives if they allow him in. I pray that everyone who heard those songs (including the neighbors of those we stopped by) were able to come just a bit closer to Christ through that experience.

The Christmas season truly is a great one :)

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

Santa meets the sister missionaries! ;)

 

Tons of Mini Miracles

Sister Tyler got to help put Christmas packages

together for the missionaries in the mission.

This week was awesome :). We got to start our week with a fun dinner at a member's home. We had a burrito night and it was just really fun to get to know the members better and to create a better trust and bond with them. It truly is so vital to be close to the members in each of our wards because it gives us a better opportunity to help them grow, help ourselves grow, and even help this area grow because of the amazing strength of member missionary work.

Then, later in the week, we got to see a woman in our area who said she may be interested in learning about the gospel again (because she had been taught in the past and even has an active sister and a niece serving a mission!). So, we stopped by her house and she invited us right in. She was so sweet and sincere, and even more she was receptive to the spirit! She immediately recognized the peaceful feeling she got when we were talking about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She recognized that she really wanted this in her life. It was then that we committed her to be baptized if she learned for herself that these things were true, and she said yes. :) She is truly such a sweet spirit and we can't wait to see her again this week.

One last miracle that we saw this week was when we had our car broken into overnight. Luckily, all they took was a GPS and a few LDS CDs (we are hoping they listen to the CDs and become converted someday haha). But, from this experience I've gained such a strong testimony of the Lord's ability to comfort us through prayers and priesthood blessings. I am so grateful for these opportunities I have to learn and grow. :)

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

She also was able to help

decorate the Mission Home Christmas tree!  :)

Thanksgiving at the Mission Home

This week was so fun but we barely followed any of our original plans haha.

Thanksgiving Snowstorm!

It all started when we got a call from President Stoker early in the week and he asked us if we would be willing to take in an extra sister missionary for a week, we said we would so we went and picked her up the next day. Her name is Sister Frame and she is so fun! We seriously just had a blast from the first minute we were all together. The first thing we did as a trio was go to district meeting, but right when we got there is started to snow really hard! By the time district meeting was over there were already a few inches on the ground, so we went and had fun taking pictures and throwing snowballs ^_^. Once we got home from district meeting though, we found out that our cars were grounded (which means we can't drive them because the roads are too dangerous), so we picked up three shovels and went out to serve. It was so fun because we got to meet a ton of people and just help everyone around us. Later in the day we thought it'd be a good idea to stop by one of our old investigators and see if she needed help shoveling her long driveway. When we got there we saw it completely covered by half a foot of snow, so we went straight to work. The Elders called and asked if they could join us wherever we were, so we invited them over. But, once they got there, we were heading inside to share a message with our investigator, so the Elders said they had something they wanted to do. Once we were leaving we found the elders outside putting their finishing touches on a ten foot tall snowman! It was amazing and really impressive haha.

The next day was Thanksgiving, but since half of Bedford lost power, our original meal appointment for Thanksgiving had to cancel because they couldn't cook anything without power :/. So, we called around to check on others in the area to make sure they were all doing alright without power. We were kind of sad because we weren't going to have a Thanksgiving, but then we had the idea to call the Stokers! As soon as they found out we had our Thanksgiving cancel, they invited us over and were so sweet! It was such a fun experience to have Thanksgiving in the Mission Home with the office missionaries, some other missionaries in the area, and a convert couple from a nearby ward. It was such a spiritually uplifting and fun dinner, definitely a Thanksgiving I'll always remember.

I look forward to another great week, especially with the start of the Christmas season. What better time is there to talk about Christ and the joy that He brings. :)

Love, Sister Tyler

Another temporary trio! Sisters Danner, Frame, Tyler

Awesome Birthday Present

This past week has been really amazing. It started with a fun P-day where we got to go to the church and have a Nerf war with some of the kids in the community/church and some other missionaries. It was tons of fun to set up some crazy forts and play capture the flag with Nerf stuff :).

Then, we had my birthday. It was really good because we got a new investigator! She used to work with the elders a little while ago, but now she is working with us and it is really nice. Both because she really does want to find the truth, and because we now have someone to teach about the restored Gospel. I am just so grateful the Lord has blessed us this week to begin making some new progress in this area :).

Another fun experience on my birthday was when Sister Danner and I came in to do our nightly planning session and as soon as we put down our bags we heard a knock at the door. We were a bit confused since we don't usually have people knocking on our door (it's ironic cause that is something we missionaries do a lot haha). But, we opened it, and to our surprise we found our district standing there holding a cake out to us while singing happy birthday! It was so fun to get surprised like that and so sweet of them to do that!

Later in the week we had another fun experience helping a less active member in our ward decorate cookies for a fall fair bake-sale. It was fun to get to know her and help her out with decorating pumpkin cookies. We get to go back this next week and help her decorate trees, too! This really is a great ward.

I hope everyone's week went well.

Love, Sister Tyler

Sister Tyler and Sister Danner

Temporary Trio

Sometimes in mission life it feels like it should be later than it actually is, but then we you look back just a small amount you then feel like you should have a ton more time! This week Sister Danner and I kept thinking we had been companions for a lot longer than just two weeks, but we really have only had two weeks together, it has been so fun!

On Monday night last week we got another sister missionary from Maine to come down and join us for a day because her companion was a sister training leader who had a meeting to attend all day. So, Sister Gillies joined us for a day and it was really fun because she got to join us for our service activities. We first had the regular service with UpReach where we guided horses out and cleaned the stalls. Then we got to go over to the mission office and help them put together and send out the monthly newsletter. I love helping out at the office because it is just so fun to get to know the office couples more and spend time with them.

We also had a really cool experience later on with one of our members. We had an appointment set up one night and we were finishing up a busy day with it. To preface, we usually check our phone before appointments because we are either prompted to or we check to make sure the sound is turned off. But, for some reason neither of us remembered to check the phone before going in to visit with this member. When we got there we found out she had tried to cancel just a few minutes before but ended up letting us in anyways. Because of that, we were able to share a very inspired message that she said she really needed to hear. I am truly so grateful that the Lord will send the Spirit to help us remember things, but then he will sometimes make it so we don't remember things. The Lord really is in this work and He truly does care about all of his children.

I hope everyone has a great week :)

~Sister Tyler

No, this wasn't her "temporary trio" ;)

This was sent from a wonderful member family

that Sister Tyler had dinner with :)

6 Month Celebration!

Sister Danner and Sister Tyler

were in the same MTC district!

First off, I still can't believe I have hit six months already on my mission! I feel like it is still May and I am fresh out of the MTC. Which I guess is really easy to feel when my new companion is Sister Danner (one of the sisters that came out of the MTC with me). It has been so fun to be her companion and celebrate 6 months out together! So, that night we duct taped a broke chair to fix it so we can use it, and we decided to let all the future missionaries know who fixed the chair and made it look awesome ;). We also went out to eat at the finest restaurant we could find (Wendy's) and we just had a blast :). [see pictures below]

Something else awesome about this week is that Sister Danner and I agree that we have never felt more in tune with the spirit than we do now. So, we are acting on all of the promptings that come and we are cleaning up this area to get it going again :). We have gone through the area book and made a list of people in there that we need to contact and we went through the ward list with our ward mission leader and others to know who we need to focus on and who we can best help. I can't wait to get this week started :).

One extra thing that was fun this week was that we got to teach Primary for a sister in the ward who was gone for the weekend (fun story, Sister Danner knew this sister we substituted for, they met at BYU-I and now Sister Danner is serving in her ward!). It was just fun to teach the kids about worshiping at church because they really understood that coming to church is truly all about showing Jesus Christ that we love him and worship him. It was a testimony builder for me that even the little children can know that Christ is their Savior and He loves when we pray, listen to our church leaders, take the sacrament, and sing songs to worship Him.

I hope all is going well with everyone.

Love Sister Tyler

 

Trunk-or-Treat!

"Sister Minionaries!"

This past week just flew by. It was especially fun on Wednesday when we had our ward's annual Trunk-or-Treat, but this year we had the two congregations in our building combine for the activity and we were just amazed at how many people came! It was also fun because Sister Upton and I decided to dress up as “Sister Minionaries” (minions from Despicable Me + combined with missionaries). A lot of the kids recognized who we were, which was really fun. It was also really cool because we had some nonmembers show up to the party who none of the missionaries from either ward knew! Which means some awesome members were inviting their friends to join in the fun! :)

Sis. Upton and Sis. Tyler sharing a gospel message.

We thank the members for sharing

these "action" shots with us!! :)

Then, later in the week we got our transfer calls to find out what our new callings will be for this upcoming transfer. So, President Stoker called us and first told Sister Upton that she will be transferred to a new area and be training a new missionary (we call it shot-gun training). So she gets to figure out a new area and be training someone about how to be a missionary! Then, President Stoker told me I'd be remaining in Bedford and I will be serving as a “CO-Senior” companion with another sister. So, we are both excited for our new callings :).

I love you all!

Sincerely, Sister Tyler

BEDFORD DISTRICT

back (left to right): Elders Pemberton, Plyler, Pace, Harrington, Vaughn, Jensen, and Hannig

front (left to right): Sisters Smedley, Craig, Tyler, Upton

 

Autumn afternoon in Manchester, NH

Service! Service!

This week has been a really random and different week compared to last week. I was so excited to go to Zone Conference and feel uplifted after finishing the Book of Mormon and praying to confirm it's truth again. It really is amazing to me that the Lord will always confirm it's truthfulness to us, no matter how many times we ask. I'm so grateful we can do that.

And then getting to watch Meet the Mormons was such a treat I can't even begin to express how happy it made me! I loved how uplifting and inspiring the movie was to me and I look forward to continuing in the work and helping people understand who we are and what we believe.

Then, later on in the week we got to do some last-minute service for an investigator that moved here from Salt Lake City, Utah! It was really cool to get a text from the elders that morning telling us about this guy that needs some help moving in and how he has been investigating the church for a bit and his wife is now getting interested! We quickly got over there and helped him move with the elders and our bishop. It took us a few hours, and his apartment was very full when we left. But, he was so grateful and we really connected well with them. So, we are hoping to get to know them more soon and maybe even teach them.

Getting to help him with the move and then getting to an extra day of service at the horse therapy center was so fun. It is actually really cool that we got to do two days of service with the horses because the second day, Sister Upton decided to buy these custom necklaces that they sell there. They are really special because they are made with a hair from your favorite horse! They look so cool and I'll probably invest in one next week :).

So, I love service and can't wait to continue doing as much as I can this next week. :)

Love, Sister Tyler

We received a wonderful picture of Sister Tyler and her companion 

as they shared a message with a family in the ward. :) Thank you!!

Pray and Pick

This past week, Sister Upton and I decided to take a new approach to finding people. We have contacted nearly every potential investigator and former investigator we know of, so we decided to start praying and picking roads to tract. From this experience we have met so many people, and we invited 84 people this week alone to learn about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! That's more than I've ever done before in my mission! During this experience of tracting each day, we have one solid potential investigator.

Sister Tyler and Sister Upton

After a long day of talking to everyone we meet, we decided to start driving back home. We realized once we got in the car that we had about twenty minutes left of the day. So, we could either contact a less active member, work on some things for our records, or we could tract one more small street. We didn't know exactly what to do, so we said a quick prayer and I knew we had to tract one more street, but didn't know where. Luckily, Sister Upton knew of a small street that would take about 20min. So, we drove there and started knocking doors. We were having no luck until we got to the end of the street and met a man who said he would be interested in taking lessons that we promised would bring him closer to Jesus Christ. He also said he knew his wife would be interested! So, we will go back in a couple of weeks to see them.

I have really learned that tracting isn't as scary as I thought it was. All it is is inviting people to learn about Jesus Christ. I love getting to invite people to learn every day :).

Another small note is that we had our ward's Primary program last Sunday. It was so fun and adorable! Even more fun we got to help some of the kids memorize their parts during the practice on Saturday. It was definitely a great opportunity for us to get to know some of the kids and their parents better :). I know that Primary programs can really change lives. After all, it was a Primary program that helped me find and memorize my favorite scripture (D&C 84:45). I can't wait for the Primary program next year :D.

Sincerely, Sister Tyler