Monday, March 3, 2014, Rocky Mount, NC, LDS Sister Missionaries

Good morning!

A few minutes to e-mail home...

This week seemed to fly by!  Just as fast as the first 2 months of this year.

Does time seem to go faster when you get older, or is it just a mission thing?  I don't know.  But I seem to be going on a really fast train, and I feel like when it's finally time for me to get off I'll have to take a jump, and the fall will be a little rough.  That scares me, but I think that it's the right feeling to have because it means that I'm finally becoming aligned with a greater understanding of my purpose here.

I caught myself thinking for a small moment this week about how totally devastated I would be if I had to leave this area in a few weeks.  I would be thrilled if I could spend the rest of my mission here.  Rocky Mount has become such an amazing miraculous chapter in my life, and I literally cannot see myself in any other place or in any other calling.  So I guess that's another way of Heavenly Father reminding me that I'm in the right place.

I think that I forgot to share the cool news!  Sister Jasperson is serving in an area that borders mine.  :)  She's in the boundaries of the other stake, but it's good to know that we'll at least see each other again. :)

I've definitely gained a new appreciation for her, and for the experiences that we had in Jamestown together.  At the time some of it seemed difficult, but I look back at it now and think (This is how my brain speaks...) "Man!  That was like the easiest time in my whole mission!" 

But I don't really want to go back and do it again, because then I think that it would be the hardest time.  

The point is:  I think that this has turned into a joyous experience becasue I have the reassurance from the Spirit that I will remember the fulfillment, and the joy, and the good things that happened.  So that makes me happy!!!!

IIIII CANNNNNNNNNN BEEEEEEEEEEE SOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

This is a good email.  Not a bad one.  :)

We had a miraculous week, and I've learned that members of the church are awesome.  A small testimony can open a door, and soften a heart.  Christ can change a heart. And "the church is still true contrary to popular belief". :)

Also.  I'm definitely going to cry when I come home.  Definitely..... 

Because I don't want to leave SOOOO bad!!  But I want to be with all of you SOOOOOO bad!  But I love the people SOOOOO much! And I will not know how to be a regular person probably.

This is a really extreme slew of things that I know are going to happen.  I'm not going to dwell on it, but I thought it a little.

Let me just say this!

I add my word to the testimony of Elder Uchtdorf "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."

And when you say you "can't" do something that is a choice.... And it makes it harder on you when you actually CAN do it, and you are fighting the whole way because you are telling yourself that you can't.

Yeah.  I've grown in wisdom.  That's what's up.

I recognize that sometimes I cover up deep stuff with humor, and irony.  I've had extensive talks with my companion(s) about it.  But just know that from the depth of my soul I know that this is Christ's church restored to the earth.  I know that the Book of Mormon contains the fulness of the gospel as does the Bible.  And I love this church.  I love my Savior.  I know that I am loved by both He, and Heavenly Father.  And I love you.

From the depth of my soul I love you all!  And it doesn't get better than family. :) 

(Except for when we are all a glorified, and exalted family.  Then it might be a little better.)

Sending love from North Carolina! 

(I love it here!  And SPRING IS COMING!  Along with an Easter Egg hunt I hope!)

Love,

Sister Amber in NC.

Had to send this '5,555' miles.  :)

and this…..'big tractor'

Gabby did our hair like hers!  :)

Sister Felt in 'Conetoe'

Also...my favorite City.....pronounced Koe-Nee-Tah.  :)

Tuesday, February 18, 2014, LDS Sister Missionaries, Rocky Mount, North Carolina

Hint, Hint!!!

Good morning family!

I know that you all hang off of my every word, so I'm sorry about the delay in my letter this week. ;)  Just kidding about the hanging.... not so much about the delay.

There were more snow days last week.  Everything shut down because it was an "ice storm" which is mostly just really wet snow....  School was cancelled from Tuesday-Friday, and so they had to go to school on Pres. Day as a make-up day, and they're supposedly having to shorten Spring Break because of all the snow days. SO SAD!

Good news:

Sister Felt and I get along really, really well.  I just really feel like we are equally-yoked in this companionship.  We have a lot of similarities character wise, but some really different strengths.  She is going to help me plan better since that is not one of my strengths.  So Heavenly Father did answer my prayer, because I prayed that I would get a companion that could help me improve my planning.  Yay.

We saw some truly amazing miracles this past week, and were able to contact some people that we haven't been able to before and share short messages with them.  We are trying to help strengthen the ward members by being purpose-driven missionaries, and to this point we have seen great improvement-- some within ourselves.  I love being purposeful!!!

I tell so many people this because I think that is is profound: "Purpose doesn't evolve from friendship-- friendship evolves from purpose."  That is something that the sister Training Leaders in Newport News really helped me to understand.  Our purpose is to "invite others to come unto Christ" and when we are driven by that we develop stronger and deeper relationships and friendships with people than we would if we just chit-chatted with them for 5 hours.  A purposeful 15 minute lesson is much more effective than an hour lesson where you just get to know someone. Hark!  There is wisdom in these my words.

I've just had a good week.  Also, I realize that sometimes I complain a lot-- and I don't always know that I'm doing it, and I really have no reason to-- so if that comes through my letters, I give you permission to call me out.  Help me do better, because I can't always do it myself. :)

Life is good. 

Maybe not always ideal, but there is always good to be found to combat the bad if we but look for it.

I love the scriptures.  They are a constant source of good.

I also love dessert.

And when I get a solid 8 hours of sleep.

And when people allow their testimony and faith in Jesus Christ change their lives. 

And shoe shopping.  But I don't do that very often because I don't need more shoes right now.  I sometimes just like the way my feet look in shoes.  Oh!  I found out that I can fit in little girls sizes 5/6 shoes.  My horizons have been expanded.

Oh again!  I LOVE letters, and when I come home and see letters on my bed from people that I love.  It makes
my day. 

Toodle-ooooh!

Love,

Sister Amber

Valentine's Cookies -- "Thanks Mom!"

Monday, January 13, 2014, Rocky Mount, North Carolina - LDS Sister Missionaries

Life has peaks and valleys….

"Peaks and Valleys"

Sometimes I think that I should look back over the things that I wrote last week so that I don't repeat the same things over and over again, but then I think "hmmmm..... that takes time....." And I don't do it.

So I might repeat the same things over and over again.

Someone once compared life to peaks and valleys.  I'm really glad that they did that because it is a good description. And it helps me to express myself better.

This week was mostly a valley.

Besides the normal things that are thought of as discouraging to missionaries-- like all your investigators dropping you in one week, and having nobody answer their doors after you spend 3 hours trying to contact people, and hitting a half-way milestone in your mission life and feeling like I'd not made much of a difference to anyone or anything anyplace--I was having a little bit of an emotional melt down too.

Don't take this the wrong way.  I'm not complaining. Merely explaining, and expounding.  And also-- when I write emails home I always learn something from having to form the jumble of thoughts I have into words.

SO, anyways, I was seriously low, and depressed.  That's not really fun if you know what I mean.

Ugh..... sometimes being a person is hard because there is all this emotional stuff.  I think that it's sometimes easier to just smash something and be done with it.  (that's an aside, and definitely just a fleeting opinion.... I don't really want to be a gorilla or anything.)

I read Elder Christofferson's talk on the 'Moral Force of Women' from Oct 2013 General Conference (this may be repeated from last week) and he said basically that the most important thing to remember is our relationship with Heavenly Father and the Savior.

It has been impressed upon me that that is something that I haven't been as focused on for a little while.  I need to improve on that.  I realized that if my relationship with Them is suffering then all the relationships I have with other people are suffering as well.

So okay, I got it.

I've really been praying more fervently than this email explains - and that I can do better at that.

I've also been going to all my church meetings and missionary meetings with a question.  Elder Perkins of the seventy who spoke to us last month encouraged us to change the attitue of "going to a meeting" to "going to have a revelatory experience". So, that has been helping as I've been working through the things mentioned above.

Without many details, because I'm running low on time, there is a principle that I learned this week while walking in the valley -- that I wanted to share.

The Lord always sends rescuers.

I'm part of a team of rescuers, but this week I needed rescuing.

The Lord sent me rescuers in many forms this week.  Leaders in the mission and in the ward.

Can I express the depth of my gratitude to those who listened to the Spirit to ask after me? Can I express my gratitute that the Spirit prompted me to answer with courage, and honesty-  something other than the rote reply of "good" or "well"? Well, no actually, because gratitute is a really overwhelming feeling and I don't do well to express it in words.  Just know that I'm realy grateful to the Lord for sending me rescuers, and for reminding me to look for the answers to my prayers that came through other people, and for the encouragement to act on the answers to those prayers.

We are NEVER forgotten. My favorite scripture was brought to my mind again "For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. " (3 Ne. 22:7)

Don't give up the opportunity to take the help of the rescuers, or to search them out. 

I also read the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:3-7.  We each deal with times that we feel lost, or are lost, but our Shepherd will never give up the rescue efforts.  He is always searching, always calling, and always true to his role as our Savior.

I hope that if anyone who reads this is struggling with any challenges similar, feeling lost, forsaken, or forgotten that something here will strike them with a remembrance of the deep-rooted truths that are in our hearts.  We are never so lost that we can be found by our loving Father in Heaven, His Son--our Savior-- and the Heavenly Rescue squad that covers the whole earth.  We are never as alone as we think we are, and we are NEVER EVER beyond being rescued.

You are greatly loved!

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

(I felt that was a better close than anything)

-Sister Garvin

--------------------------------------------------------

P.S. (the following was written to my Mom as we emailed this morning -  but I told her she could share it on the blog if she wanted to.)

My Mom writes:  I'm grateful for these words of wisdom that helped me this morning as we are making some major decisions in our family and seeking the Lord's guidance.  It's been such a great blessing to have a missionary daughter who is serving the Lord, and who offers us strength, encouragement and guidance we we travel life's pathway together.)

Even when he was 90 years old Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith prayed that he'd stay faithful, and be able to keep his covenants.  We can't afford to lose the faith to pray for those things all the time.

There really isn't a rest from the tests that we are asked to go through in this life.  The "world" and the things of the world are incredibly wicked and people who turn a blind eye will not learn from it.  They will lose the opportunity to become discerning. 

I pray that now more than ever our home will compare to the temple as a refuge, sanctuary; holy House of the Lord; where there can be strength received as we strengthen each other.

I'm often discouraged and depressed, but it never diminishes the faith that I have the the Lord is watching.  Nor does it diminish the faith that I have that the gospel is true, nor that I can be happy. 

Sometimes I want to hide under a rock.  So I'm grateful that my spiritual self has the courage to ask on the promptings to keep going, even when my natural self wants to do nothing except hide and be by myself.  :)

I'm still learning, and there are just peaks an valleys all the time every day.

And if I'm in a valley and things aren't okay, the Lord doesn't let me stay there without offering some way to get to a peak. Then every thing is okay.

Monday, December 23, 2013, Rocky Mount, North Carolina - LDS Sister Missionaries

Wow!  Can you believe it's Christmas?! Also..... it was 80 degrees yesterday. It's muggy and rainy, and hot.  It's a new experience for sure-- not to have cold weather on Christmas! :)  But I really am so so excited to be able to spend Christmas with some of the people here!  They have made such an impression on me and I love them!

 

We had a wonderful Christmas program in Church yesterday.  The chapel was PACKED! There were a lot of visitors as well as people that haven't been to church in a long time that were able to make it.

 

We sang in the Ward Choir as well as sang a song with some members called In the Bleak Midwinter.  It is a hymn that isn't in our hymnbook, but is in many others. President Monson quoted the last verse of it in the Devotional on December 8th.  There was a really sweet spirit in the room, and I think that combined with the otherr music and the Primary children there must have been at least one person in the congretation that learned and felt something that they needed to.

 

I love our ward!  They are so good to us!

 

This is another short email.

 

I'm just really excited for Christmas, and to see your beautiful faces, and hear your angelic voices (Andrew can be a Bass angel. :)

 

I love you!

 

Thank you all for taking the initiative to help others feel of the love of their Savior during this time of year!  I know that there are many all over the world that have need to feel it, and I hope that as any you have reached out you have been able to feel the Savior's love for you as well and what the true meaning and spirit of Christmas are.

 

I learned an important lesson this week.

 

We have each been blessed with unique capabilities and gifts, and Heavenly Father will provide a way that we can use those capabilities and gifts within our means to build His kingdom.  There is no one "right" way that everybody does it.

 

If there is a specific plan and purpose for our lives, as I know there to be, then there must also be a specific plan for how we can build God's way. 

 

I don't know if this makes sense or if it's just redundant.  We'll just say that it makes sense to me, and I'm working on figuring out how to use what I've got to build the way that I need to build.

 

(Maybe we won't include this in the book of wisdom that I know someone has got to be compiling. :)

 

Oh, P.S. We got a new Elder to work with!  One of our other ones finished his mission and went home.  We're really excited to keep the work moving forward, and there is a lot of new energy and excitement since our new Elder has just been out since our mission was created.  It's going to be "Excellent!"

 

I love you!

 

Love,

Sister Amber

July 29, 2013 - Williamsburg, Virginia - Sister Missionaries

Dear Dearest Most Darlingest Most Wonderful Family in the ENTIRE world,

Hey.

So this week went by really slow, but really fast.  So fast, that I don't really remember everyday.  8 hours of sleep just seems like a really long nap these days, and so all of the days in the whole week really feel like just one really long day.  :)

But things went good!  We tracted a lot.  And I got exactly one letter at all. (hint hint)  I know that I never respond to letters but that does not give you an excuse to stop spending all day long composing me pages and pages of your lives which then end up in my very small mailbox.  That's just not a valid excuse.  It's just not.  I'm sorry I have to be so blunt with you here. ;)

FOR MOM:  There is a really cool missionary infographic that I would love to have you post on my blog.  go to this page http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/topic/missionary-program and click the view infographic and then there is a code at the bottom which you can embed.   If it doesn't work then no worries.  (note from mom:  I've posted it below)

Just as always there were many miracle this week, but the major one was I got through it.  Yup, truth revealed.  It was a rough week.  In all honesty that is usually how weeks are.  I didn't really understand that until I was living it, but being a missionary is hard.  There are days when you have to consistantly remind yourself why you made the decision to go on a mission. Not I ever question my desire to serve the Lord, but I do sometimes find myself questioning why I made the decision to serve in this way. Trying to teach simply, while teaching doctrine fully and completely AND following the Spirit to tell you what to say is not a simple task.  Sometimes I want to curl up in a ball and never speak again.

But along with the discouragement that occurs for at least a second everyday there comes great lessons.  

I have learned to talk to people.

I have learned to get past the first judgements that I frequently make.

I have learned about second chances.

I have learned about love.

I have learned to open my mouth.

I have learned to do things that are intimidating, and scary.

I am learning to teach with love always,

I am learning that every day is a mountain to climb, and it's worth climbing.

I am learning that Heavenly Father doesn't expect us to cross the finish line before he will bless us, but he will bless us as we take each labored step to get there.

I am learning that the only person that can hold me back is me.

I am learning about the person that God designed me to be, and am seeing more potential in myself, and the opportunity to do good than I have ever seen before.

This week was a mountain, but I reached a checkpoint in the race, and I it was worth it.  I am still here, and I still have faith.  I can still pray, I can have a second chance, and I can continue to open my mouth and speak.

I love you all so much, and will admit that last Monday I was a little bit homesick so I bought myself a box of Reese's Puff cereal because it reminded me of mom.  I know that is weird.

Also, I ate the whole thing. 

Shhhhh!  No telling. ;)

I hope y'all have a better day everyday. :)

Love forever, and past eternity,

Sister Garvin

Week 5:

Dear Mom (And everyone else),

(some personal things then,)

Also, I take missionary work very seriously.  So I hope that my letters home don't make it seem otherwise.  Please correct me if that is something that I need to improve on immediately rather then gradually.

This week has really been a tough one on me.  I am calling it a "Missionary Meltdown" and have likened it unto a candle.  I started out really strong, and slowly melted into a puddle at the bottom of the candle holder, and struggled to keep the light strong and steady.  

I am saying that I really was burned out, and I probably cried for reals for the first time since we sold the puppy in March (you know mom).  It was a huge blessing, and actually an amazingly spiritual experience to kneel down and pray feeling so completely discouraged and ask Heavenly Father if he really cared about me, and if he was still there.

I needed to be reassured that he was aware of me, and the feeling of comfort that I received was something that I can't ever really express adequately.

I know that if Heavenly Father is that aware of me, then he must be that aware of all of his other struggling children.  From this understanding, my love for the people that we are working with, searching for, my companion, and myself has grown even greater.

Ending on a slightly more adventurous note, this is what happened this week..........

We were helping to unload a storage unit full of really big trash, such as broken box springs, desks, and shelves.  We have a dumpster. There is only one way to get big things in that dumpster, and I am happy to say that missionaries such as Sister J. and myself, were that way.  We climbed into a dumpster.  Don't worry, we were wearing service clothes, we were being supervised, and we took showers very promptly afterward.

Thus is the life of a missionary.  Surprise!

You are my best friends, and I am glad that we are an eternal family.

Love,

Your Sister Garvin