"If you have faith you have hope and if you have hope you have everything."

Dear Family,

Love you!

This past week has been, as usual, an interesting one. I have decided that I am just not destined to have a normal mission, even compared to other Trail Center sisters. On Saturday morning, when we were doing our big long weekly planning, we looked back on our week, and realized that we had only taught 2 lessons so far in the week- both to the same less-active family. We looked back through our schedule and realized that all of our proselytizing time had been eaten up by serving in the Trail Center, p-day, district meeting, and Sister Askren's sinus infection symptoms returning. We had only had a few hours to be out in the area between Monday and Saturday. After having a great week last week, we were a little worried that our numbers had dropped so quickly. It was amazing to see, though, that Heavenly Father blessed us so much to be able to make up for the lessons that we had not been able to teach in the last week. On Saturday night, we were able to go out for about three hours and in that time, taught 3 lessons.

We went to visit a less-active family, the Medranos. The youngest daughter and her cousin, who is not a member, were both there. It was amazing because Heavenly Father needed us to be there right then so that we were able to talk to just these two girls and get them to open up to us in a way that would not have happen if their mom was at home. They are really great girls who sincerely want some guidance in their lives. Then, we were able to meet some of their neighbors and help them set up a speaker that they had purchased for their TV (we got it mostly set up, but we are going to try to find some ward members who are a little more knowledgeable to help them out :). We were also able to meet another less-active member of the ward, and she accepted an invitation to have us over once a week to help her rebuild her testimony and get ready to start coming back to church. Then, on Sunday, we were again able to teach several more lessons in only a few hours, even though our only appointment fell through. Heavenly Father has been blessing us so much lately to be able to find people to teach, even when we do not have a lot of time.

On Monday, again we were so blessed. We needed to see a couple that has not been to church in a while. The problem is that they live with their parents, who are very active and love us, so whenever we go over, we end up spending our time with the parents and not the kids. We prayed about when would be a good time to try them, and when we went, the son answered the door, let us right in, and his wife was right inside the door. We were able to talk to just them for a while and really get to know them and understand their concerns and goals and everything. We invited them to start meeting with us once a week (once they come back from Mexico. jealous). And they seemed really excited about it. After that, we were also able to teach a couple different lessons before we headed for the Trail Center for the evening shift.

I think what has changed to help us be so productive lately is just my attitude towards the work. In the scriptures, it says that we need to act and not be acted upon (by the Spirit). Instead of waiting for Heavenly Father to put people in our path and just assuming that good things will happen when good things are supposed to happen, I expect to see great things happen, then go out and make great things happen. I don't know that I would even say that we have been physically doing anything differently, other than way that we pray (with more faith), but I know that faith does amazing things. There is a quote that one of the sisters has that says "If you have faith you have hope and if you have hope you have everything." Having faith created a feeling of hope with in you, which hope feels like confidence. When we have confidence that what we are doing is good, and that Heavenly Father will bless us, we can do great things. That goes back again to acting and not being acted upon by the Spirit. We are to go and do until the Spirit tells us to stop, not sit around and wait until the Spirit tells us to do. We should not have to be commanded in all things- such is a slothful and unwise servant.

The only sad thing that happened this last week was that one of the sisters, Sister Ashby, went home because of medical issues. I only got to say goodbye to her because I was at the Trail Center right before she left. It was just so crazy because although she may have known/suspected that this was coming for a while now, no one else even knew that anything was going on. It is just a bit on a shock to see a sister that seems perfectly fine and still has half of her mission left and then the next day, they are at home. Many of the sisters did not eve know that she was leaving until she was already gone.

Love you!

Sister Lamb

Sister Melly is Off the Ground and Preparing to Soar

Dearest Family,

As always, I love you so much!

A few minutes ago, some of the elders showed up to the Trail Center to do their emailing because all of the libraries are closed to day for the holiday. They disappeared into the work room (where the computers are) for about 10 minutes and then returned, apparently done with their emailing. I just don't get it. It has already been 15 minutes for me and I have only written a couple of sentences. I guess that I just need to work on my emailing skills. Today it feels like everything is moving in slow motion, so maybe that is slowing me down a bit. Nothing to worry about, I just have a lot on my mind to day.
Let's see, last week was the end of sick week. Monday and Tuesday we were in the apartment all day. Wednesday, we had Zone Conference. It was awesome. I have been thinking about/working on having more faith recently and wow, this Zone Conference was exactly what I needed. The ward mission leader from the Bellevue 2nd Ward was there and President Kunz invited him to speak to us for as long as he needed. An hour and a half later, I can say that most of our lives had changed or were going to. He explained to us about faith. That each person had their own level of faith, just as different miracles occurred according to different levels of faith - the centurion with the sick servant vs the woman with the issue of blood needing to only touch Christ’s robes vs laying on of hands, etc. Christ is able to work miracles according to our level of faith. He also taught us that the Lord wants us to do great things and to act, to move forward and not to wait to be told or acted upon by the Spirit. If we believe that we can do marvelous things, we can! In order to do this, we must ponder, desire with pure intent, keep the laws of the blessing we receive, ask and bind the Lord to keep His promises, and then exercise faith by acting on the promptings we receive. We do this through great faith and powerful prayer and it takes obedience, diligence, and sacrifice. We are to expect marvelous things, to expect the best, unless we are told by the Spirit "no". I learned so powerfully how much we can each accomplish if we act in faith. It is faith that creates miracles and miracles are always possible. I thought that this also went really well with President Monson's ABC's to living an abundant life in the Ensign from January. A- attitude changes the outer aspects of our lives. B- believe in yourself and what you can achieve. C- courage, which is determination to act in spite of challenges.

Thursday and Friday were sort of starter days getting back into the work. I was feeling mostly better, but would get exhausted pretty easily, so we had some hours in our area, but not too much. Sunday, though was a fantastic day. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. When we prayed at the end of companionship study, we prayed that we would be able to find someone to come church today and that we would be able to find a new investigator and teach a lesson. With all that, we had a little over an hour to be in the area before we needed to head for church. But, we acted in faith and optimistically headed out for the area. We tried a couple different investigators and potentials, but no luck. As we were pulling up to the last place we wanted to stop before heading to church, someone else pulled into the circle we were parked in and dropped someone off outside their home. Turns out, it was a 20ish year old guy named Tom. His mom is a less-active member of our ward, but we have never met her. We were able to teach him a lesson right there on his driveway and give him a copy of the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. We are excited to meet with him and his mom again later this week. Even though we had still not found anyone to come to church, we were not discouraged. When we got to church, Sister Gill ran into us and introduced us to her son, who returned this week from a mission in Brazil. He was giving his mission report in Sacrament Meeting. His old girlfriend, Sarah, who is not a member, but has taken several of the discussions before was there as well as Carol, who we were teaching about a month ago but whose parents were not happy with her investigating the church, so she has been on hold for a little while. It was awesome! We acted in faith and we were able to see all of our prayer answered. It was also really good to be able to see Carol again. She is great. Hopefully things will work out for her soon.

So, yeah. That's pretty much been my week. It took a little while to get off the ground, but I think that it ended up being a pretty great one. Even though being stuck inside has not been the most exciting part of my mission so far, I have learned a lot from it. As they say, everything happens for a reason.

Love you!
Sister Melly

Sister Lamb is Down with the Flu

Hello Family!
I love you so much!
I know that this email is going to be a little unexpected today, but it is just kind of the way that things turned out this week. I should have had p-day on Tuesday, but instead it is today. You will understand shortly.

This week has been an interesting week, as usual. On Tuesday, we were in the Trail Center in the morning. Only a couple tours came into the Trail Center, so I spent most of the day studying. A little while ago, President Kunz gave us all a challenge to memorize all of the lesson summaries in Preach My Gospel, which includes 3 lessons, each with roughly 6-8 main points, 4-6 sub points for each main point, then a scripture, inspired question, and example or personal experience for each of the main points. Like my typical self, I had procrastinated until the very end. I should have had to pass it all off last week in district meeting, but we ran out of time, so I very mercifully was given an extra week to memorize. Again, it seemed like I never could find time to do all of it and had to keep reviewing what I had already learned. I was so grateful to have Tuesday morning at the TC to be able to finish up my memorization. But, at the end of 6 hours, I still was not quite finished. Here is where the Lord's mercy stepped in once again. After dinner and comp study, it had started to snow and Sister Askren was starting to feel sick. We decided that it was best for us to stay at the Trail Center and for her to rest, especially because the cars being grounded seemed imminent. This gave me several more hours to be able to finish memorizing the lesson plans so that I was able to pass everything off on Wednesday morning with flying colors. I know that I have already learned this at least once before on my mission, but it reminded me once more of how merciful the Lord is. No matter how many times we fail, he will continue giving us more opportunities to try one more time.

In the Trail Center, we tend to have talk fads that come up every one to two weeks. One person will find or be given a really awesome talk which then slowly makes it way through all the sisters at the Trail Center until we all have read it. It gives us something to talk about during the slow hours at the Trail Center. The current talk in the spotlight is a talk given by Brad Wilcox at a BYU devotional and was printed in the Winter 2012 BYU magazine. It is called "His Grace is Sufficient". It is an excellent talk. I bet that you have the magazine sitting somewhere around the house, so if you have not read it yet, go read it! It is so insightful.

Now here comes the major factor in this past week. On Wednesday, after district meeting, I started feeling a little sick again. We prayed about what we should do and decided that we would go out for the afternoon and head back to the apartments after dinnertime. I was feeling OK, but as soon as we got in the car to leave the area at dinner time, I immediately started to get a headache. It was crazy how the Lord was holding it back until exactly when we were done doing what we needed to accomplish that afternoon. After that, we talked to Sister Kunz, who said that both Sister Graham and I have the flu. We have been quarantined in our apartment since Wednesday. Today, our companions let us go grocery shopping and to email right now, But other than that, we have just been studying, sleeping, and eating for the last few days. They told us that we would be better again on Thursday, so only a couple more days and we will be free! Both of us are feeling basically completely better at this point, but they want us to spend a couple more days indoors to make sure that we are completely better. So that is why I am emailing you today. It is Sister Graham's P-day, so therefore it is both of our P-days today. At the beginning, we watched all of the Church movies we could find at least twice, sometimes 3 times. But, we soon realized that we needed to figure out something else, so we made some goals. Here are a few of them:
1. Don't go insane
2. Sleep for at least 12 hours a day
3. Memorize all the scripture mastery lessons
4. Listen to the whole Dallyn Bayles CD every day
5. Make mission and monthly goals
6. Build a rocket and go to outer space
7. Find a million dollars and give to charity after tithing
8. Shower every day
9. Read 20 pages of the BOM every day
10. Read all of Jesus the Christ
etc.

We will see how many of them we get through. Time actually goes surprisingly fast on the mission, even when you are sick. But, what I think what I have learned from all of this is that I keep being reminded of the scripture "being willing to submit to ALL things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon you." For a while, I was pretty whiny about being stuck indoors all day, especially when I did not feel sick enough to not be doing the work. I was just really annoyed. But, every time we prayed about what we should do, I always came up with the answer that we needed to stay home. I finally realized that it doesn’t matter what I want. It matters what the Lord wants and if He needs me to stay in my apartment for half my mission and get healthy, then that is what I need to do. (I really hope that done not happen though.) Huh, that's funny. I think that I have learned that lesson before, just now in a slightly different way. Before, it was from the perspective of having to stay in with Sister Askren, now it is with the perspective of having to stay in with myself. Exactly the same situation, but for some reason it was a lot easier for me to stay inside and not be sick that it is to stay inside when I am sick.

Well, there it is. Not much has happened. Not much has changed. It snowed here again last night, but not too bad. We are still OK to drive.
Love you!
Sister Lamb

Some Random Pictures of Sister Lamb

Sister Melly and her First Companion, Sister Kusnerik

Sister Melly and her birthday cake - Oct 24

I am a Mormon Billboard in Omaha

Sister Lamb - I am a Mormon

Sister Lamb and Sister Kusnerik - We are Mormons

Sister Lamb gives us her Famous Tour of the Trail Center

 

We received an envelope from Sister Melly with a flash drive containing a lot of pictures (over 700). I will post some of them with the dates the pictures were taken and I still recognize Sister Melly but most of the others in the pictures will have to wait a while to be identified. Sister Askren and Sister Lamb are still companions and have the same assignment in the Oakview Ward!

More pictures to come.

Sister Melon is Serving in a White Cornfield Again!

Dearest Family,

Ok. Here we go. Oh, love you! Love you, love you!

Statue Outside Trail Center

This past week has gone by very fast, but I feel like I say that a lot. Things are going pretty well right now. Sister Askren is feeling better, so we are getting ready to go at it! We have been teaching a couple named Kevin and Joan for a little while now. It has always seemed like Joan was not really interested, but was more just sitting in as we taught Kevin just because we were there and she had nothing better to do at the moment. She is a very nice lady, but just seemed like she was content going to church with her mother. Kevin has figured out a lot of things on his own (he has never been religious) and just sits there and tells us exactly what we believe, but he doesn’t realize it. It has gotten a bit frustrating at times because it feels like we are not getting anywhere, but that is only because he already knows everything that we are telling him. On Tuesday evening, we were able to teach them. It turned out to be a very interesting lesson. We had a long discussion about temptation. Kevin likes to go to Hooters, but says he is not interested in the women, just the food. Joan jumped in on our side and we talked about staying out of the “gray area” and then were able to relate that to several other parts of the gospel. Not exactly your typical missionary discussion, but it felt like we were finally getting somewhere. Then, the big question - Joan asked us “How do you build faith in God?” That was interesting. The question itself, not so big a deal, but the fact that she trusted us enough to ask and trusted our response. This also opened up a big discussion about her previous baptism. She had been attending a church in Omaha called Trinity and had decided to be baptized there. What the baptism consisted of was the stage that the preacher stood on opened up and had a font underneath and people just lined up like an assembly line and walked through the font to where the preached was standing, he would hit them on the head, and most people would pass out so there was two men standing there to keep them from drowning. This totally freaked her out and she stopped going to that church, but apparently Kevin had a good time taking pictures of the whole thing.

Wednesday, we got our calls for transfers. Of course, Sister Askren and I are staying together for her last transfer, but she is no longer a Trail Center Leader. Maybe I will get a normal transfer this time! Ha ha. Sister Askren says she has never had a “normal” transfer in her whole mission. Something always seems to happen. On Thursday, We theoretically had a full day in our area, for the first day in a long time. Unfortunately, both Sister Askren and I were feeling a little sick (upset stomach, headache) and after a couple hours in the area, we felt like we needed to go home because we were both struggling a little with our headaches. We went home and slept for about 15 hours straight. Yikes. Then we woke up for a couple of hours and back to sleep for another 3. I don’t think I would blame that all on being sick though. I guess my body was just ready for a rest, and it sure got it! Saturday it snowed all day long for a total of 11 inches. It is much colder now than it was a few days ago (from about 70 degrees to the 30’s) but it sure it beautiful out there and I really can’t complain. I spent the whole day indoors with Sister Graham watching all of the church movies we could get our hands on.

Yesterday, Sunday, we both were feeling all better and ready to go out and get back to work. (Although I feel like I keep saying that and then something else pops up.) We were at the Trail Center in the morning. We only one tour in the 3 ½ hours we were there, but it gave me some good time to prepare for the Gospel Principles lesson we taught. After church, we went to see Beth and Sam. We have been teaching them for several months now, but it has been a couple of weeks since we saw them last. It was a very depressing lesson. Beth has so much need for the gospel and so much potential to do great things, but she just won’t act. She knows that life is not going well for her right now, she knows what great things have been promised to her, but she has no faith and no desire for any. We both cried during the lesson. I know that this gospel can help her. I know that it can, but she won’t let it. That is one of the hardest things to see on a mission, especially with someone I love so much and have grown so close to. When we left, it was with the understanding that we would not see each other again. It was really hard to leave. I gave her a big, long hug and that’s it. We have to keep moving. There are other people who need us and one day when she is ready, I am sure some other missionaries will show up on her door.

Statue in the Cemetery and lots of Snow

We also were able to teach a man named Zamari and his son last night. That was an interesting experience. He is from Afghanistan and his family just joined him here about 6 months ago. The whole family greeted us at the front door. Zamari was very worried about us because we were about 10 minutes late- he thought we were in trouble somewhere. His daughter served us fruit on china plates and then disappeared. His wife sat quietly in the corner the whole time we were there (she does not speak English) and Zamari and his son sat on the couch across from us. Zamari did most of the talking and his son occasionally added something and did some interpreting because his English is better than Zamari’s. They told us a lot about Muslims and Afghanistan. It was very interesting. He wasn’t much interested in hearing what we had to say, he just talked and talked and we listened. We told him we would try to find him a Bible in Persian, but other than that we probably won’t be seeing them much in the future.

So, yeah! That’s pretty much been my week so far. I got the package in the mail yesterday. Thanks! It looks like some good stuff.

Thanks for your letters and love and support!

Love you all so much!

Sister Lamb

Inside the Trail Center looking out



Winter Quarters Temple Spire



Sister Askren and Sister Lamb Decorating
for the Elder Watson, theTrail Center Director's Birthday

Sister Melanie Joins with the Catholics and Competes with the Liberty Sisters

Dearest Family,

This week, it really hit me how fast my mission is passing by (at least to me, I hope that it is the same for you). As I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting this Sunday, I realized that in not too long, I will only have a year left of my mission. I think back to how fast the last 2 transfers (3 months) have gone and realized that that period of time times four more and I will be on my way home. That is not very much time! I haven't even gotten anything done yet! I hardly feel like I am even starting to develop as a missionary yet. I still have a lot to learn, a lot to do, a lot to experience, a lot of people to help before I am done, so I better get to work!

Last Tuesday evening, two men came into the Trail Center. Of course, we all started talking to them (we had only had a couple visitors so far that afternoon, so we were excited to see some new faces). They proceeded to tell us that they were traveling from the East Coast to Arizona, where they are from, and were stopping at all the Church History Sites on their way (a fairly common occurrence). The problem came when they explained to us that while they were in Liberty, the sisters there had sung to them before taking them on a tour and expected that we would do the same for them. Sister Baker, Coats, Askren, and I were trapped. We took them back to the Memorial Room to sing for them. Keep in mind that none of us are very excellent singers. After we were done, one of the men told us that we sounded great, but we might want to invest in a pitch pipe for future performances. We had some good laughs after that. It was true though, we were really low, really low. Don't worry, no more musical performances planned in the near future.

On Thursday, I spent most of the day on mormon.org chat with Sister Askren and then with Sister Bown because Sister Askren was getting really tired and needed to get some rest. While Sister Bown and I were on chat, a man named Eric came on to chat with us. He lives in London, which made both of us pretty excited (Sister Bown also went on a study abroad to London this last summer). We were able to answer a lot of his questions, resolve some serious concerns, and set him for baptism right there on chat. It was crazy because both of us felt so connected to him as we messaged each other over the internet. It really showed me how important it is to be patient when trying to understand other people because at the very beginning, based on what he was saying, I thought that he was a troller. (Someone who gets on to just waste our time by asking questions like "How do magnets work?" and pretending to be interested in learning about the truth and then arguing with us, etc). But, because we just went ahead and chatted with him, trusting that he was sincere, we were able to share a really awesome experience with him. We were able to set him for baptism, send the missionaries to meet him, and told him that we would keep in touch through the mail. I am excited to see what happens.

At the Trail Center, two of the sisters on shift go every morning to the Catholic Retirement Community/former Convent down the road from us for an hour to do service for them. On Thursday, they were having a ribbon cutting for a new wing that was just completed, so Elder Watson sent us over to represent the Trail Center. What we weren’t expecting was the number of people that were there - lots of politicians and various people that had helped with the project, which makes sense. Afterwards, they invited everyone to go into their lunchroom for treats. What we weren't expecting when we got there was that they were expecting us to help serve. Of course, we jumped right in and started refilling platters and taking orders. They gave us big sticky nametags that said "Mormon Sister" on them. It was pretty funny. It was probably a very uncommon sight to see a bunch of LDS missionaries serving coffee to priests and politicians at the opening of a Catholic function, but we had a good time. The residents and staff there love us and tell us that between the Trail Center, the cemetery, and the Convent, we are a historic "stronghold" for Florence.

Yesterday, Monday, we were again serving in the Trail Center. It was about 70 degrees outside, a beautiful day. Right as we got there at 3, four couples came in all within about 1 hour of each other, so all four of us that were on shift were able to take one of them. The couple that I took was a couple in their twenties, not married, one a member and the other not. Their names were Mia and Jarem. They were visiting from Florida. When we were in front of the Nauvoo temple, I felt impressed to talk about baptism. I shared Mosiah 18:8-10 and bore my testimony about the purpose of baptism, then asked Mia to share about her baptism. The whole time, she kept staring at Jarem, the non-member, intently. When I stopped talking, he asked to hold my copy of the Book of Mormon. As I handed to him my very worn, marked copy, he carefully took it from my hands and held is softly, resting on his palms and just stared at it for a few moments, then carefully handed back to me. He didn't even know what it was, but he could feel the importance of the book. Later, I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon to take with him. He asked me what it was. After I explained, he asked me how much it cost. I told him it was free and Mia added "Christ already paid for that with his blood." He promised to read it and Mia told me that they were going to have the missionaries over to their house when they got back to Florida. Wow! It was such an amazing experience for me to remember the importance of the Book of Mormon. It is such a treasure.

Ok well love you so much!

I hope you are doing fantastic! And have nice weather like we are having here!

Love you!

Sister Melly

Sister Melly emails about Humility, Exchanges and Day Care

Dearest Family,

I always think of the primary song that goes "dearest children, God is near you, watching o'er you day by day. . . whenever I begin writing my emails, except I replace children with "dearest family". . .

I LOVE YOU! I love you so much.

Well, look at that, another week gone by. This one has been fairly busy. Last p-day, Sister Askren went to the doctor and found out that her sinus infection has gotten worse and had now spread into her eye. They gave her heavier antibiotics and said she should be all better in 2 weeks (now 1 week). She looks and is feeling much better, but she gets tired very easily. I spent most of last p-day being carted around by different missionaries so that I could get all of my p-day things done without my companion. I did laundry with Sister Arnold, emailed with Sister Graham sitting next to me, and took Sister Bergeson and Sister Monson grocery shopping with me. It was an interesting experience, especially for the missionaries that were with me, because it was not any of their p-days. (They had had p-day on Monday.) Then, I spent the rest of the night in the Trail Center writing letters and things and trying to take a nice p-day nap, although that didn't work out too well because everyone kept coming and talking to me. (I think that they were in cahoots.)

Wednesday morning, we had district meeting. Sister Runyon and Sister Askren dropped me off at the Martha Street building (in view of the other sisters, of course) and then headed back for the apartment to sleep for the rest of the day. I felt like a kid being dropped off at day-care. I feel like I compare being with a companion like being in day care a lot, but that is what it feels like sometimes.

District meeting was about humility. As we talked, I was reminded of an experience that I had towards the beginning of my mission (which I guess you could still call now the beginning of my mission, but I feel a whole lot more grown up than then, so I am going to pretend that that is not true). I was having a tough time and Sister Kusnerik and I went to opposite sides of the apartment to pray and then come back together and talk about what changes we needed to make. As I kneeled down to pray, I could not begin. I knew that I was not ready to ask for help because I was not willing to do what would be asked in order for me to receive that help. I knew that I was being stubborn and that I needed to make some changes, but I did not want to admit that to the Lord and certainly not to my companion. I sat there for 15 or 20 minutes, just fighting with myself. I feel like I know what Enos was talking about when he says that he wrestled before God. It took me a long time and it was some serious hard work, but I had to humble myself before I was ready to move ahead. That is when the true power of the Atonement is felt, when we go from feeling completely justified in our sins and then turn completely away from the person we were before and truly become a new being in Christ. It was a very powerful experience. I also realized that humility is not losing faith in yourself. It is understanding that through Christ, you can do all things. The key phrase there is "through Christ".

Wednesday and Thursday I spent in Ralston with Sister Ford. Her companion, Sister Unice is sick, so we left her with Sister Runyon, Askren, and all the other sickies and headed out. There is something about missionary work that if something is going to happen, it happens in the last five minutes of the day. When we were in Ralston, we had five minutes before we were going to go home, so we tried one last potential (someone who the missionaries had met before and was willing to learn, but they had not actually taught her a lesson). Sister Ford said afterwards that she was sure that no one would be home. But, surprise! She was home and we were able to teach one last lesson. The only problem was that by the time we were done teaching, it had gotten too late for us to be able to drive back to North Omaha before curfew, so we ended up staying the night at their apartment in Ralston. I borrowed some PJs and everything turned out fine. Then, on Friday, when I was able to spend the day in Oakview with Sister Arnold, the same thing happened again. The last door that we tried, a woman who had told us to try back after Christmas, and who we had tried several times before, answered her door and we were able to teach one more lesson for the day.

The amazing thing that I have noticed recently is that even though we have so little time in our area recently, we are still able to produce the same % of the weekly standard that Sister Kusnerik and I were producing at times during my first couple of transfers. Granted, we had just opened the area then, but I still feel OK about it.

Sunday, we had probably the best Sacrament Meeting I have ever been in. I learned a very vital difference between our church and other churches. Like it says in the scriptures, the greatest leaders are the ones who are the servants of the people. Everything in the church is set up to support the members of the ward. The bishop, missionaries, auxiliaries, programs, etc. are there to support the people, not the people there to support the leaders and programs of the church. The people exist first and the leaders and programs step in when there is a need, whereas in other congregations you may see a church set up and a pastor hired who then invites people to attend. Of course, we do do some degree of inviting, but it is only for the benefit of the people being invited.

Things are starting to look up. Sister Askren and spent 3 hours in Oakview earlier today. She is pretty worn out, but it is a good start. I just pray that we are still companions next transfer so that we can do some serious work together (transfers are next week!). Who knows what could happen! Pretty scary.

Alrighty, the good thing about not a lot going on right now is that instead of running out of time to finish up my emails, I am more likely to run out of things to say! Ha ha

Love you so much!
Sister Melly

Sister Lamb Learns a Little Bit about Patience and Blowing Snow While Blowing in the Wind in Nebraska

Dear Family,

Look at that! I actually put a subject in the subject line this week. Pretty impressive, I know. The email system always asks me before I send an email if I want to put anything in the subject line and I always decline, but I thought I would try something new this week.

I usually bring my planner or journal with me when I email so that I can look through it so I know what to write, but I don’t have either this week, so I am just doing this off the top of my head. Hopefully I don’t forget anything very important.

Last week, I walked into Saturday morning training at the Trail Center and one of the senior elders told me an interesting story. His brother, I think, had died and he and his wife had gone back to Utah for the funeral. While they were in the church building, they were looking around while there was nothing going on and found themselves looking at the missionary plaques. Guess whose they found? Mine! How crazy is that? Out of all the buildings in Utah, even in Sandy, Utah, they were at our ward building, looking at my missionary plaque. It was kind of funny, a little weird.

I have learned a little something in the last little bit about snow. Out here, the snow is very different. When it first starts snowing, it doesn’t stick or melt, it just blows around on the ground. It’s very pretty, until it eventually sticks to the roads and is ice. Even just a 1/4 inch of snow on the ground can mean some serious ice. Last week, the cars were grounded by the snow. In Utah, we would hardly think it was anything, but here the roads were very slick. We had about an hour warning before the cars would be grounded, so we quickly started for our apartment so we would not be stuck in the area for the night. The normally 20 minute drive to our apartment took over an hour. We saw several slide offs and accidents. The nice part was that we got to drive through a very pretty part of town because we were avoiding the highways. We drove past UNO campus. In the neighborhoods around the campus, the houses are gorgeous. They are all old and cozy looking. It was great. We also listened to several conference talks.

Sister Askren has still been sick this week. We are doing the best we can with the situation, but we are just confused about why this is taking so long to resolve. It looks like she now has an eye infection. The Watsons are taking her to the doctor's office today. The difficult part is that we just don’t understand what we are supposed to be doing. Anything we are supposed to be learning from this, we feel like we have learned. The work needs to go forward, but it is moving pretty slowly under the circumstances. I keep looking at the calendar and noticing how far into this transfer we are getting. Then I look back at how little we have been able to accomplish, and almost panic a little. At the same time, it is what it is. We can't change the situation; we can only do as much as we can with what we have right now. I have been doing my best lately to make things happen and to be out doing missionary work, even if it is not in our area or I am in a threesome. It is what it is. I have a feeling that the reason that Sister Askren and I are companions is because anyone else would be going crazy if they were in the situation right now. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing that it seems I am the one for the job.

On Sunday, I went to church with the West Maple Sisters. It was really bizarre not being in my ward. Then I spent the rest of Sunday and Monday morning with the Old Mill sisters in their area. I realized two things. One, I love talking to people. People are all so unique and each person has a story to tell. I could just sit and listen to people and learn about their experience all day. Unfortunately, while we do get to meet lots of people and learn about them, we aren't really able to do it to the extent that I would like. Second, I have spent enough time on exchanges that I am starting to feel comfortable in their areas. While I was with the Old Mill Sisters, I recognized many sections of their areas and I know many people in the West Maple Ward.

SO, such is life lately. I just kind of go wherever the wind blows me. (As long as I am with at least one other missionary). My plans can change on a moment’s notice, which makes it pretty difficult to plan ahead. But, we keep going. I don't know where the time goes, but it goes somewhere. I am trying to be patient and "cheerfully flexible" as Randy Boothe would say. There is a reason that this is the way that things are going right now, but I have no idea what that is. One day I will figure it out.

Love you! Love you Lots and lots!
Love, Sister Melly

Sister Melly Teams Up with Member Missionaries and a Fire Pit

Dear family,

Love you!

I received your letters and pictures from Christmas. It looks like you have been having a lot of fun!

This past week has gone by very quickly. The time is definitely starting to speed up. It is hard to believe that this transfer is almost 1/2 way over already! The time has gone by very quickly.

The biggest problem that we have been having lately is that I keep losing my planner! I think I lost it at least twice this week. After 3-4 days looking for it the first time, I found it in the bottom of my bag. I guess Heavenly Father didn't want me to find it because I am sure that I looked there at least a couple of times previous to that. The second time, I left it at an investigator's house and we had to go back and get it the next day. This normally wouldn't be a big problem because my companion should have all the same things written in her planner, but because we have been on exchanges so much, there is a lot of information that is only in my planner (including when we have scheduled appointments). The result of this is that we have accidentally missed a couple of appointments. Then, I feel terrible and make a whole long apology to whoever we missed the appointment with and then it ends up being not a big deal, but it still feel terrible afterwards.

On Wednesday, we saw James Joyner, a less active in our ward. He went to a Sacrament Meeting with his family in San Diego a couple of weeks ago and the topic was service. One of the things that they mentioned was feeding the missionaries so Brother Joyner, who loves to do service, decided to go with it. He called us a few days later and said he wants to come back to church and play basketball with the ward and invited us over for dinner. Turns out, he is the regional manager for Red Robin. Between him, the Farfans (regional manager for Panda Express), and another less-active we just found out about that is an area manager for Jimmy Johns, we should be getting fed pretty well. Brother Joyner fed us Red Robin for dinner and sent us home with a large bag full of leftovers that lasted the next few meals. Yes, please. He also told us that he flies airplanes in his spare time and offered to take us on an airplane ride, which would be so awesome, but the White Handbook specifically says that we are not to ride in private airplanes. Every time I have read that rule before, I just laugh and think "When would that ever happen?” Well, now I know. But, really the most important part was the lesson, silly. We brought Katelin Jensen (a 20-year old girl from the Oakview Ward who was home for Christmas from Snow College) and talked about prayer. It was so powerful and really had an affect on both Katelin and Brother Joyner, especially as she testified to him of the power of prayer. That is something that I have been learning this week, the importance of having ward members with us as team-ups. They are usually a little nervous, which means they really think about what they want to share in the lesson and in the end; all of us are edified and grow closer to Christ.

On Friday, I got to go on exchanges with Sister Arnold (one of the sisters that came to the mission the transfer after I first arrived in Omaha). We decided the night before that we were going to find someone during the first half of the day to baptize and then go to the California Street building (where they were having Zone Leader Council) during our dinner break and have one of the zone leaders interview them and then baptize them. But then we realized that we had a dinner appointment, so it didn't work out.

That morning two of the sisters were driving to the Trail Center when a ladder fell off a truck in front of them and landed in their lane. They did not have time to stop or swerve, so they drove right over the top of it and cracked their fender. When they called Elder Lund, the senior elder in charge of cars, to tell him what happened, he told them "Oh I know why that must have happened, it is because you are Ladder-day Saints." We all thought he was pretty clever.

That night, we went to go check on a couple of referrals in an apartment building that were given to us by the Cold Springs sisters. While we were there, we went to go try to contact a less active member who I had tried to contact several times before, but had never found her at home. When we got near her apartment, I could not remember which door was hers and then could not even remember her name. We decided just not to worry about it and started walking away. We were just a few steps down the hall when we passed a woman. She looked at our nametags and said "Oh you must be looking for me". Sure were. It was Sister Kinkead on her way home from work. We were able to go in and get to know her and a teach her a lesson. That same night, we went to Beth and Sam's house with Sister Thomas. We went in and talked about their expectations for us and our expectations for them and then Sister Thomas just laid it down for them. I have never seen Beth so in tune with what was going on and paying attention and everything was fantastic. The Spirit was strong and the lesson could not have gone better. It was a serious turning point for Beth. So powerful. Sister Thomas just repeated over and over again and testified until what she was saying really sunk in. She said "The Gospel is beautifully simple and simply beautiful". I think that she must have said it 10 or 12 twelve times and then related it to other things and explained how much God loves us. Afterwards, she told us that she had been praying all day to know what she should say. Again, another example of how important members are in missionary work. Missionaries have a lot of responsibility in missionary work, but members do as well, and when they really go out and do it with focus and passion, it can be very powerful. I am so grateful for the spirit of missionary work that is spreading through the Oakview Ward and for awesome member missionaries.

On Saturday, we went to an appointment with a man that we had helped with a service project a little while ago, but this was our first time teaching him. When we got there, he led us to his backyard where he had a fire going in his fire pit. We sat around the fire and taught him the Restoration. The lesson went pretty well and we had a member team-up with us that was perfect for the people being taught, but the craziest part was that we were sitting in someone's backyard around a fire pit and perfectly warm in the middle of January! In Omaha! As soon as we left, it felt a lot colder outside all of a sudden. Maybe it was just the spirit keeping us warm.

Love you! Hope that any of my emails make any sense! I feel like I am just rambling on and on and not really coming to a conclusion!

Love you!

Sister Melly

Sister Lamb Gets a New Address and a New Calling - Nurse Maid

Dear Family,
Love you! As always! I hope that you had a great Christmas season! It hardly seems like Christmas here because we don't do a whole lot of celebrating and when we do, it is a bit different than what you would do at home. Christmas we spend just visiting people and eating lots of food (which is fairly typical missionary stuff) and I just now connected the pieces together of why things seemed a little strange  one night in the Oakview area (with Sister Baker) this last week. Surprise! It was New Years Eve. We were actually able to find most people home and teach a few lessons, which was great. That night, I got home and went to bed early. I didn’t even put things together until later as to why people were making comments about being home that night. Probably because it was New Years Eve and they felt like they should about doing something fun. But missionaries are fun! Right?

Sister Askren (my new companion) has been sick for almost two weeks now and every time she tries to get up and do something, she ends up feeling much worse. The general solution is that we find Sister Runyon (who has bronchitis and also needs to rest) and then I take them to our apartment and I find something else to do for the day (either studying or working at the Trail Center or going out with another sister who also has a sick companion). I have starting calling our apartment the sick ward and I am the nurse maid. Anyone who is sick comes to our apartment and I take care of them. My other major responsibility is making sure that Sister Runyon and Sister Askren actually rest. They are both Trail Center Trainers and are constantly convincing themselves to feel disobedient about getting the rest that they need, so convincing them to sleep is a constant struggle. Sister Askren told me that it is a good thing that I am her companion because she probably would not listen to what I tell her if it was coming from anyone else. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

I hope anything that I am saying right now makes any sense. I feel like I am rambling on and on and not getting anywhere.

We are starting to see some of the fruits of Sister Kusnerik and my work in Oakview. A couple of days ago, we got a call from a less active in our ward, James Joyner. In October, Sister Kusnerik and I went to visit him, but he lives in a locked apartment complex and we did not have a phone number for him. Right as we were trying to figure out what to do (and if he even still lived there because we were doubting it); a woman walked up and let us into the building. We went up to his door, but he was not home, so we left a note with our phone number. We have not done anything since to try to get into contact with him. A couple of days ago, he called us and said that he wants to come back to church. Because he will be out of town for the next couple of weeks, he invited us over for dinner with him tomorrow and asked if the ward has a basketball program. I don’t know what changed all of the sudden, but it sure seems like he wants to get involved, so that is great! I guess we will find out more of the story tomorrow.

This last week, I have gone to the Old Mill area twice with Sister Baker. Right now, they are teaching a woman named Mavis who is being baptized this Saturday. The sisters just started teaching her a couple of weeks ago. She was a referral from the Gingerbread Festival. Both nights I have been with Sister Baker, we have gone to see her. She is so amazing. Every time she brings up a concern, we just testify to her that everything will be alright, and she just believes it. She asked me to do something in her baptismal service, so Sister Askren and I are working on getting one of our investigators to attend the baptism so we can go too. I hope it works out!

Well, there goes the time again. I think that I am getting faster at typing. I don’t know if my emails are getting any longer though. Maybe you will have to compare them.

Love you sooo much!
Sister Lamb

New Mission Address:

Sister Melanie Alyse Lamb

Nebraska Omaha Mission

11027 Martha Street

Omaha, Nebraska 68144-3107