Sister Melly Emails and Answers Questions

Before you get to Sister Melly's Letter - just a word from the Blogger-Mom:

Sister Melly's birthday is on the 24th - less that two weeks. If you can please send her a card and if you have any suggestions or recipes (as discribed below) please send them too. Her address right now is 3110 Willit #5, Omaha, Nebraska 68112 and she will be there at least to the next transfer. It is usually safer to send mail to the Mission Office. Thanks!

Hello family!

Our P-day switches between Mondays and Tuesdays each week, so this week P-day is on Tuesday and next week it will be on Monday again.

This week has been absolutely amazing! We have seen so many miracles happen. I can't really remember exactly what has happened since last Monday, so I will try not to repeat myself. - the days all kind of blend together.

Last week, we met a 25 yr old woman named Megan. We had an amazing first lesson with her on her doorstep and she committed to be baptized on the first Saturday in November. We are going back to teach her again tonight, but she has already cancelled on us twice, so Sister Kusnerik says that if she does not show up tonight, we will have to drop her. That seems a little depressing.

We have also been spending a lot of time visiting less-actives, getting to know a few of the ward members, and just talking to people on the street. There was one man that we tried to talk to that was just like "ah! Why me? Why don't you go talk to my neighbors instead? They are home!" So, we did. We told the neighbor that his neighbor had referred him as someone that he thought would be interested in our message. Sister Kusnerik thought it was hilarious. I was just nervous.

On Saturday, I went on splits with Sister Proctor in her area while our companions went to the temple to see a man they helped baptize be endowed. Sister Proctor knew Jordan Roper in high school and when we were talking, I remembered that Jordan had actually told me about her right before she went in to the MTC. Ha-ha! We taught one lesson with a member and then had her give us a ride to the next appointment. After we had spent a couple of hours in that area, we needed to get back to our car, but could not find a ride, so we ended up walking back. We had to walk about two miles along a busy road and then along a dirt path. No big deal. But then, it started raining. I kept hoping someone would stop and offer us a ride so we could share the gospel with them, but no one did. The only person we saw the whole time was a man who had been trail running in the rain and was about to get in his car. We talked to him and gave him a pass-along card. Hopefully something happens there because that is the only reason that I can think of for why we had to walk all that distance in the rain.

The amazing thing though is what happened that night. As we were leaving an appointment to go do our weekly planning, Sister Kusnerik had a distinct impression that we needed go to Grover St, where we had planned to go, but had run out of time. When we got there, we prayed for help in finding whoever it was that we were there for and then specifically asked who it was we were looking for. Sister Kusnerik felt that we would find two people walking out to their car and I felt that we would find a woman who would be standing out on her front porch. As we got out of the car and started walking across the street, two people were walking straight towards, out of their garage, and towards a car that was parked in the front driveway. We talked to them and bore our testimonies and invited them to look at mormon.org and gave them our phone number. One down. We continued walking down Grover St. and after a little bit, though we saw a woman standing out on her front porch. As we walked towards her, we realized that it was actually a boy, but we talked to him anyways. He went inside and brought out his cousin who was there watching the game and we ended up getting a self-referral from him to give to some of the other sisters, so I am going to count it. One amazing thing about this experience is that it happened during a Huskers football game. You usually can't even find anyone during the Huskers’ game.

So, I am definitely learning a lot. Sometimes, I can't wait to get back to the Trail Center because I feel more comfortable giving tours than I do talking to every person we see on the street, and other times I can't wait to get out in our area and actually teach people. My favorite thing to do though is still mormon.org chat. I love it so much! They just told us that that all of the sisters serving in the trail center will be spending one shift of 6 hours on chat each week. I am so excited! I love it! In just a couple of hours last week, we were able to chat with several different people and share the gospel with them and send the missionaries to their home to teach them more. We even have two investigators that we are just teaching on chat. It is so awesome.

Well, I love you so much! Really really. I am sorry that I don't have more time to write everyone a personal letter each week, but there seriously is just no time. I will try to write at least a couple of letters each week in addition to email, but I just can't promise a lot. Love you! Love you! Love you! Love love love!

Love, Sister Melly

How many missionaries live in your apartment?

There are 10 sisters that live in our apartment building. There are four in my apartment, four below us, and two in a different section of the building. We have a senior couple living next door to us and there is at least one set of Elders living somewhere in the building. The senior couples are so great. They take good care of us.

Where are your roommates from the MTC?

Sister Bown is one of the two missionaries that live in the other section of the building. I see her pretty often because we all share cars, so we always have to go over to either take  keys or give them keys. Sister Wilson and Sister Pinchak both live other places, but I see them at the Trail Center at least occasionally.

Are all the Sisters in the mission also in the Visitor Center?

All the sisters in the mission eventually serve at some time in the Trail Center, although some of them are called as full proselytizing. President Kunz has everyone serve in the trail center no matter what.

Have you made it back to the young woman with the newborn?

No, she is in the West maple area, so the other sisters are teaching her now. She told them that she usually would not have opened the door to missionaries, but for some reason felt that she should let the two of us in and that there was something special about us.

Where is your companion from?

Chicago, but her mom was in the navy so she has lived all over.

Do you eat at home most of the time?

So far, pasta and sandwiches and salads and stuff that is really quick. We usually don't take the full hour for meals.

What recipes do you want?

Recipes that I can make on p-day and keep in the fridge to eat through the rest of the week. Also, stuff that doesn't need any preparation right before it is eaten because we lots of times just have to take our food with us and eat in the car.