Sister Melly Battles Cold - Germs and Cooler Weather in the Cornfield

Hello family!

Love you!

Now I am a little confused. I am guessing that this means that Ryan is with you in Minnesota. For some reason I had thought he was not. But, I hope that you are having a wonderful time in Minnesota! I hope that the weather has not cooled down there as much as it has here, but from what I heard so far, it sounds like we do things a lot the same weather wise. I can't help but laugh at myself talking about the weather.

Anyways, this last week has been not too exciting. Last Tuesday (p-day) when I woke up, I was feeling a little like I had a sore throat and by the next day, I was feeling pretty sick. So I spent most of Wednesday in bed at the Trail Center and Sister Brown went with one of the other sisters to our area. That right there is one reason that I am very grateful for the trail center. It makes it much easier for us to take care of ourselves when we are sick because it is usually pretty easy to just borrow someone for the evening. Otherwise, I probably would have just gone. Thursday morning, I was feeling worse, so we had district meeting over the phone while sitting in our living room, which was actually pretty nice. It was interesting because I was not feeling good at all, so I went to sleep about an hour before district meeting and then woke up right as it was starting and thought that I was feeling fine. As soon as I stood up, I was not feeling that great again, but it was enough to get me out to the living room so that I could listen in to district meeting, which was on our purpose. We talked about how the more we are able to understand and use the atonement, the greater our desire to share the gospel will be. That is why recent converts tot he church are more excited to share the gospel, because they have recently felt the powerful effects of the atonement in their lives.

Sister Brown went out again that evening with another sister. It funny, sometimes seeing someone else being sick and getting to sleep can make a missionary jealous because we are always tired, but really being sick is not as much fun as it looks like.

By Friday, I was feeling mostly better, which was good because it was temple day! Hooray for the temple! Sister Brown and Sister Coats and I did initiatory and then got to sit in the Celestial Room for about a half an hour before the other missionaries were done. When we walked in, it was just the three of us in there for a minute and it was a neat feeling because as we walked in, whispering to each other about what we had learned today, it really felt like we were walking into Heavenly Father's living room. It just at home, which is neat to think that we could feel at home in a place that is so fancy looking. :)

On Thursday, Sister Kusnerik (Kate) who was my trainer, moved back to Omaha and was staying with the Watsons for a few days. It was so weird to see her but she is so excited to help with the missionary work. She will be a good resource to have, especially because she wants to help out in West Maple because that was one of the areas she served in (for something like 9 months!). So that will be nice, although I will admit that I am still a little bit intimidated by her. I am sure that will dissipate once she comes on a few team ups with us.

So, I am doing just great! 99% not sick anymore. And I hope that you are doing great too!

Love you!

Sister Melly

Sister Lamb Slips into Iowa and the Cornfield Gets Golden

Hello Family!

Love you!

This has been a great week :) So many good things are happening!

Today, we had a Watson Wagon and went to the Joslyn Museum and the Walking Bridge in downtown Omaha, which connects Nebraska and Iowa. It was fun. I don't know what else to say other than that.

 

Now to the really exciting stuff. Last Tuesday, we had a mission tour with Elder Nash of the 70. The Omaha and Papillion zones met together to hear from him. (President has been packing a lot of missionaries into these zones lately, so there were a lot of us there- probably around 60 missionaries covering 2 stakes. That might be a little low). We were in the chapel. The first thing that we did was Elder Nash, his wife, and the Westons stood at the back of the room and one row at a time, we went to greet them. I shook Elder Nash's hand and he complimented me on my strong handshake, ha-ha, and then looked at me for a second and said "You have a beautiful spirit." I thought that was pretty nice compliment from a General Authority. After we all greeted them, the meeting started. Previous to the meeting, President had all the missionaries prepare 3-five minute talks on subjects that he had assigned. Then, 3 missionaries (one for each subject) were asked to present their talks. I was called up to give the first talk, on working with members. When the assistants announced my name, my heart didn't skip a beat and I calmly walked up to the stand, gave my talk like there was nothing to it, and then went to sit back down. For me, it was just a neat reminder of how much I had changed. Giving a talk in front of a group of fellow missionaries and a member of the 70 was no big deal, even if I didn't think that I knew very much on the subject. The rest of the meeting was great. Elder Nash spoke about the atonement and gave us a couple of hours at the end to ask him questions.

The little girl is Julie’s granddaughter, Madison. I mentioned her a couple of weeks ago. We still haven’t been able to see her again.

 

Let’s see, other really awesome thing that happened this week was that Madison was baptized on Saturday! Sister Belka and I left our companions at the TC and headed out together, just like old times :) The baptism was good. A priest in the ward was able to baptize her, which I am sure her family thought was really weird. Our bishop boldly invited all of Madison's extended family members to come to church next Sunday for her confirmation and to look more into the church. Madison was excited to see us and we were really glad to be able to go. What was really amazing was all of the miracles that happened surrounding the baptism. Madison's mom, Kate was there. I talked to her afterwards and she talked about how much Madison has changed in the last few months since she has been coming to church (Madison struggled with depression and bipolar disorder) now, she is no longer taking any medication or having any therapy. I reminded Kate that those same blessings are available to her as well and she said that she and Madison have been talking about that. I think that Kate will get baptized within the next few years, at least. But Kate wasn't the only one who has noticed the difference in Madison. One of her grandmas was there and slipped in to the chapel after the service, where she sat in the dark for half an hour. When she came out, she was crying and overcome with emotion. She is not religious, but Sister Belka and I talked to her and shared scriptures from the Book of Mormon and she gave sister Belka her phone number so that she can stay in contact with her. Another set of Madison’s grandparents were also there and it turns out that they know the bishop, who is a patient in the medical clinic where she works. They talked to both Bishop Applegarth and Brother Jensen for quite a while. Madison's best friend and her dad were also there as well as some other grandparents and an aunt and uncle. It was a good turn out.

We had stake conference on Sunday. Sister Brown and I sang in the choir. We sang a song called "Refuge and Rest" that someone in the stake wrote a few years ago for the Bicentennial. It was good. Elder Deschler of the Seventy was the speaker. He had all the full time missionaries in the stake come up to the front and had us all sing the first verse of Called to Serve. Then, he talked about the power of missionaries. He said that the power of missionaries is great, but it is greater when they have the support of the members. He then had everyone stand up and sing the second verse of Called to Serve. It was really powerful.

Ah! I need more time! I haven't even said anything about our investigators yet but they are doing great! We have a lot that are progressing and 2 set for baptism in October, with more to come! Great things are happening!

Love you! Have a great week!

 

Love, Sister Melly

 

 

 

Sister Lamb's West Maple Dream



Dear Family!

Hello from Omaha! Haha Love yoU!

This last week has been a dream. I still don't feel like I know what is going on completely in West Maple, but I feel like I am starting to get a grip on who everyone is and what is going on. The biggest problem is that there are a bunch of people that the sisters have met and taught a little in the recent past, but who we have not been able to contact in the last while, so I keep seeing and thinking about these names that still don't have any faces to go with them.

It’s so funny how the Spirit works. I think that I am just starting to recognize that feelings that I have felt many times in the past but wasn't sure exactly what it was that I was feelings were actually the Spirit trying to tell me something. Yesterday, we were at our church building eating lunch after church when I started to feel really strongly that we needed to go to an apartment complex where some of our investigators live. It’s hard to describe, but it was like feeling really excited, but also a little nervous at the same time. We headed to where we thought we should be going, but the lady we were looking for was not home. We talked to some other people and knocked a couple of doors. We also talked to a Muslim man outside, which was really interesting to me because he wanted to give us a copy of the Koran and talked about it the same way that we would talk about the Book of Mormon. He said that if we would read it, that we would know that it is true and that we could pray about it to know the truth from God. We had an interesting conversation and decided to respectfully not agree with each other.

One of those names that I mentioned earlier (a name without a face) was a lady named Faith who we have tried several times, but have not been able to catch home. After we talked to the Muslim man, we went to try her and she was home! She was so funny. She is African American and talks at a million miles an hour, but somehow we were still able to teach her the restoration and about the Book of Mormon. I shared with her Helaman 5:12, where it talks about building our foundation in Christ and she immediately asked if she could have a copy. Turns out, her fiancée also has a copy of "the blue book" and she has really wanted to read it because he has been reading it. In the end, I don't really know what it was that Heavenly Father wanted to accomplish or if there was even one specific thing that we needed to do, but it always feels good to be able to receive and then follow the promptings of the Spirit and know that you are doing God's will.

We also met with another investigator, Tatiana, a few times this week. She is a single mother of one and has a second son on the way. It’s hard to know how to explain her. She is very depressed and a lot disappointed in herself because she has had both of her kids out of wedlock.

Another neat thing that happened this week is that someone chased us down to talk with us. We were in an apartment building, going to knock on the door of Andy, a girl that they met a couple of weeks ago. As we walked to the door, her mom came in, talking in the phone. We tried to talk to her, but she ignored us and went inside. We continued down the hall and upstairs, knocking on doors and began talking to a man named Doug. As we were talking, Andy's mom poked her head out of the stairwell from downstairs and yelled to us "Hey! Were you trying to talk to me?" we said yes and she said to come knock on her door when we were done. We did, of course and went to knock on her door. She let us right in and we got to know her and taught her the Restoration. She liked everything we said. Her name is Lynette and she is so funny! She told us that she had seen us while she was talking on the phone and something had told her to finish her call and go talk to us, so she did! She had gone up and down the hallways and outside looking for us before she found us upstairs. She is so in tune with the Spirit! It is awesome. She is an older black lady and so sassy. We are going back to teach her and Andy this Friday.

Another great thing that we did this week was that we got to go do service at a medical clinic. One of Elders Watson’s friends from Kiwanis is a doctor and holds a free medical clinic for the uninsured once a week in downtown Omaha. They have enlisted our help, so each week four sisters go and help by counting pills to fill prescriptions for the people that come into the clinic after they have seen a doctor. It was a lot of fun. It was in a school of some sort and we were just using some of the extra rooms. We were in an office counting pills and when the prescription was filled, someone else would call the patients in one at a time to give them their medications. I didn't pay much attention most of them time, but there was one little, older man, medium height and skinny with glasses who came in with his wife. They had to explain to him that the medications that he needed for seizures were too expensive for the clinic to have, so they could not give them to him. Right then, I just felt a huge surge of love for this man and his wife imagining them in a small, worn down house and trying to courageously deal with his medical issues. I had a hard time keeping myself from crying for a minute. But it made me grateful for the good we were able to help do, even if we couldn't do it all.
So yeah! It’s been a pretty neat week.

I don’t' have a picture of Sister Brown because my camera ran out of batteries, but you can probably pick her out of a picture. She is the one with really short hair.

Could that be Sister Brown in the lead arriving in Omaha?

Love yoU!

Sister Melly

 

Sister Lamb answers a few questions:

We just started volunteering again at the Catholic retirement home- Seven Oaks. I have not been yet, but I think I will be going in the next week. with so many sisters, we only do it once every couple of weeks. it seems like it was more often in the fall last year, but that is probably not really true.

We do still do mormon.org chat. I have seen two baptisms so far come from the people that we have chatted with- one named Eric who lives in London and one in California named Brent.

We ate a lot with the members in Millard, but not so much in West Maple. it all depends on how willing the members are to help out. The members in Millard were also a lot more willing to help with things like team-ups. I think it mostly has to do with the demographics of the ward. Millard was a lot younger with husbands that have recently been on missions, etc.

The quilt show just started this last weekend. There are all kinds of quilts from all backgrounds and sewing capablilitles. There are some that were loaned to us that are from the late 1800's and early 1900's. I really haven't had much time to look at all of them yet.

We haven't started working on the Christmas fireside, or at least I haven't heard much yet but I do know that they have set up many performances in November and December. I think that they are going to be keeping us very busy. It will be good to keep all of us that are nearing the end of our missions excited and focused. We are going to the Walking Bridge and a museum downtowm next week for Watson Wagon and the temple next Friday! Love yoU!

Sister Melly Battling Bugs, Moving Mania and Celebrating 366

Dear Family,

Love you!

This last week has been pretty crazy. It is kind of a stressful experience going from an area where you know everything and everyone and what is going on and where things are, to not knowing anything at all. The last week has kind of been like a dream. On top of that, I really have not had much time to be able to put away all of my stuff in our apartment, so I feel even more like a mess. I got a lot done during lunch time yesterday and hopefully I can get the rest in it place this afternoon. Right before I first moved in, I got a whole lot of bug bites on my legs that we thought were bedbugs, so we washed all of my clothes and did a whole bunch of stuff to get rid of the bedbugs, but we later decided that it was not bedbugs but that it was chiggers or mosquitoes. But at least all my clothes are clean! They itched really badly for a while but now they are just a bunch of little scabs on my legs. There are probably about 20 or them. Maybe more.

We are living with Sister Proctor and Sister Arnold. We don’t see each other too often though. We get home at night, plan for the next day, get ready for bed then may have a few minutes left to talk about our days. Last night I decided to dye my eyebrow so everyone joined in and we all looked pretty funny. In the mornings, Sister Brown and I go running while the others go to the Trail Center to exercise. Then we study while they get ready and we get ready while they study then one of us is usually out the door. Yesterday, we were all there for companion study at the same time, so we decided to sing a hymn together. It was fun!

The work in West Maple is different from Millard. It always amazes me how different areas of one place can be, even if they are just a few miles away from each other. Our area is bigger- probably about 15 square miles, but at least lately, the missionaries have been spending all of their time in about 1 square mile of it. This area has a lot of apartment complexes, which are usually good places to find people. The biggest problem is not that people don't want to talk to us; it is that even those who really want to learn are too busy to have time for us to come teach them.

At the same time that I came into the area, we also got a set of elders in West Maple. Before, it was just sisters, so we have been trying to help them get settled and give them some of our investigators to teach. We have one man, Ryan, who is set for baptism in two weeks, but still has a lot to learn before then. It seems like that is the typical way of things - a rush to the finish line. I have not even met him yet, which is a little scary, and we will probably have the elders finish teaching him since they have more time than we do. We are also teaching Holly, who is set to be baptized in October. She really wants to learn and believe the things that we are teaching her, but is really struggling because she just cannot trust people or even herself really. She has very little self confidence and is just miserable. On Saturday, we watched "Your Happily Ever After" with her - a talk from President Uchdorf from YW conference last year I think. I think we really made some progress with her in the lesson. I read something a little while a go that confidence comes from keeping the commandments because when we are obedient, we feel God's love for us. Hopefully we can use that to help her build some confidence in herself and recognize that she really is a child of God!

We have been teaching a lot this week and getting a lot done. On Friday, we helped a less active and her sister move. The less active was just moving her stuff from one apartment to another in the same complex. Her sister was moving from Alabama, so we got to drive out to Bennington (which is about 5 miles outside of our area through cornfields and such) and got her stuff, then moved it into he apartment as well. Luckily, we had two sets of elders there to help and we got quite a workout from all of the moving, but it was fun!

On Friday, it was also my year mark of going in to the MTC, se we went to dinner with our roommates at Village Inn.

It was a good week, although crazy!

Love you!

Sister Melly

Sister Melly Trains with Deluxe Hamburgers and Moves Two Stairwells

Sister Melly and Madison - Best Friends Playing Dress up

Dear Family,

Llooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeee you!

This week is transfer week, as you may have guessed by now. The suspense has been great so I have had to study patience this morning because I could not focus otherwise or sleep last night. But this morning when we got to the Trail Center (just a few minutes ago) Elder Watson pulled us into his office and told us what is happening. Sister Bergeson is staying in Millard and getting Sister Watson for a companion and I am going to West Maple to be with Sister Brown! Sister Brown is from Arizona and just finished being trained by Sister Baker. I will now have served in all the same areas as Sister Kusnerik( my trainer) who by the way is moving back to Omaha for a job, so that will be weird. She started in Millard, then went to West Maple for a long time, then ended in Oakview. So I guess I will be spending the rest of my mission in West Maple. Kind of funny. But, good news. . . I get to drive! Sweet! I am so excited. Ha-ha

So I will be staying in the Willet apartment building, probably for the rest of my mission. Woe is me. I just have to move two stairwells over and will be living with the Trail Center leaders (who now are companions serving in the same area, so there will be no more Trail Center leader companion craziness) Sister Proctor and Sister Arnold. We will have a lot of fun, I am sure. It is probably a good thing that I don’t have to move too far because I don’t know if I could fit all of my stuff into my suitcases/a car. West Maple is a good area, so I am excited.

OK, in other news, last week we went bowling with our zone. That was a lot of fun, but they let us wear jeans which turned out to be not such a good idea. I have definitely gained weight since I have been on my mission. They still fit, but they were not so comfortable.

On Thursday, we had district meeting. I trained on prayer. I talked about how when we first learn to pray, we just get down the basics of opening, giving thanks, asking for things and then closing. I compared this to a hamburger with only a bun (opening), patty (asking), cheese (thanking) and bun (closing). We then went through the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 5 and pulled out all the additional things that Christ shows us to pray for/about like asking for forgiveness, forgiving others, praising God, etc. For each thing we added more toppings to our burger until it was very deluxe with bacon and extra cheese and all kinds of veggies and sauce, etc. I like analogies a lot, so I thought it was a lot of fun. Obviously, since I came up with the idea. The rest of the meeting, the drawing of the hamburger was on the board where we all could see it, so we were very hungry for a hamburger, so after district meeting we went to 5 Guys for lunch :)

 



Sister Bergeson and Sister Melanie and Silly Elders

This last week, we have been seeing some great progress with one of investigators, Walter. His wife Julie was baptized in February. He told us a few days ago that he is 75% of the way to being baptized and expects that he will be baptized in the next two or three months. He still comes to the BOM class every week but normally does not come to church because he is a realtor and works every Sunday, so he says he is too tired to do both. This Sunday, he does not have to work, so he is coming to church! We are so excited. Yesterday, Julie came to the Trail Center because she wanted to see Sister Belka and Sister Graham. She brought her granddaughter, Madison. While we were waiting for the other two, I took them on a tour. Madison and I got pretty attached. We had a lot of fun packing wagons and dressing up and eating the candy corn that you sent. It was perfect because Julie is going to get Madison to come to church so that she can see me. Unfortunately, that plan is going to fall through because I won’t be in that ward anymore. If we didn’t have church at the same time, I might try to get permission to go to both sacrament meetings, but West Maple also has church at 9.

 

We also met a lady named Cathy, she invited us right in for something to drink. We chatted about faith and the plan of salvation and then she took us on a grand tour of her house. Before we left, Sister Bergeson offered a prayer (Cathy is catholic, so she is used to recited prayers) and by the end, Cathy was crying. She felt the Spirit. She is taking us (well, Sisters Bergeson and Watson) to dinner tomorrow night.

 

Also, a less active lost sheep (her records are not in the ward) from the Lakeview ward showed up at the church while we were there studying one day and told us that she has decided that it is time to come back to church with her one year old son, even though her nonmember husband is not in favor of it. We got to sit and teach her for a little bit. It was really cool and exciting for her, even if she is not in our ward.

I feel like my letters lately are getting shorter and shorter. They just started a new thing where we have to email both President Weston and Elder Watson each week, so that is taking up a larger chunk of time that usual until I get used to this whole thing.

The rest of the week was a little tough. We had a few slow days with a lot of tracting, but we found a few good potentials and are now teaching a couple more  less-active families. We also got a referral from mormon.org that we are going to try tonight, so hopefully that goes well :)

 

Love you!

Sister Melly

Cornfield Discouragement



Sister Lamb suits up



The cornfields out here are not looking so great. Almost everything is dead, with the corn still hanging on the stalks- rather than being straight off the stalks, it is kind of flopped over and yellow. It is very tragic looking.

Dear Family,

Love you!

I don't have a lot of time this week, so this will be a sharter email, but that will probably make it easier to read :)

I don't feel like much happened this last week, but maybe thats a good thing because i will have less to write about.

The major thing that happened this week was that Aliyah dropped us. She was supposed to be baptized two weeks ago, but didn't come to church, then was going to be baptized last Saturday (the 18th) but didn't come to church again. On Satursday we stopped by her familys apartment and were able to talk to her for a while. She had lots of questions. She would ask something, we would explain, and then ask her if what we had taught answered her question, if it made sense to her, etc, and she said yes everytime, but it still seemed like she was questioning. She said she wanted to tome to church though, so we were planning on having the McCash family go to pick her up. As we drove home at the end of the day, we got a text from her saying "I don't want to go to church anymore, at least not that church. It's just not for me." we texted back and forth a little and then I just bore my testimony to her of the blessing of the gospel and turning our will over to God and of the Spirit that she has felt, but we go no response after that. Itw as really sad. It is one of the worst feelings when someone knows what is right, and you know that they know it, but they still decide not to act on what they know. Of course this happens a lot. People get scared or whatever reason and they just fade away, but it is harder when they are so close. The other time that I have felt this on my mission was with Beth, in Oakview, back in February I think. It just kind of miserable. It not even that I just want a baptism or some kind of number to add to our statistics. I know that Aliyah needs this, that it would be such a good thing in her life and in the lives of her family members. I can see that the changes she has made already are changing her, but if she would just have the faith to go a little bit farther, I know that she would see greater miracles.

We are going to still invite her to YW this week and hopefully the YW will keep fellowshipping her. It is just hard because she goes to a different high school than most of the people in our ward.

Madison is planning on getting baptized on the Sept 15th. It is a little while away, but whe is trying to find a day when both her parents are going to be able to come, so that is awesome that they are both being so supportive and want to be able to come to her baptism. It sounds like the rest of her family is being supportive as well, so that is good.

Well, that has pretty much been it this week. We have been doing some finding this week and are going to be spending a lot more time getting to know the people in the ward, particularity meeting less actives and part member families.
Love you!
Have a good week!
Sister Melly

Air and Space Museum

Sister Lamb and Sister Bergeson

Sisters/Astronauts Bergeson and Lamb

Sister Lamb Gets Focused and Does a Little Traveling

Dear Family,

Love you!

Wow, what a week. I am not really sure what to say about it. The main focus of our week this week has been 1. Aliyah. 2. Madison. 3. Katie Ford.
Aliyah was supposed to be baptized last Saturday, but because she did not come to church last week, we had to slide back her baptism a week. We were planning on her being baptized this coming Saturday, which we thought would turn out really well because that was when Madison was getting baptized, so they would be baptized together. Aliyah just had to come to church this Sunday and have her baptismal interview this week and she would be good to go! However, we could not get a hold of her Saturday evening or Sunday morning to find out if she needed a ride to church. Apparently, the whole ward council meeting that morning was on what they were going to do to take care of Aliyah and Madison once they are baptized. We decided to stop by Aliyah’s house on our way to church to try and figure out what is going on. When we got there, she said that she had a headache. She was also worried about being baptized because she babysits a lot for her mom's friends on Sundays and is nervous that she might have to miss church a lot in the future. We talked with her and testified about doing what Heavenly Father wants us to do and that every time he gives us a commandment, that he will provide a way for us to keep that commandment. We also talked about how Satan tries to keep us from doing good things because he wants us to be miserable. When we asked her what Heavenly Father would want her to do, she knew that He would want her to go to church, but she still wasn't sure if she would come or not. When we left, she promised to pray and ask Heavenly Father what she should do and that at 10 30, she would text us to let us know so that someone could come pick her up for Sacrament meeting. When we got to church, we had missed Relief Society, but we sat through Gospel Principles praying that she would come to church. She decided not to come. It was disappointing because I know that she knew what the right thing to do was, but for some reason, she didn't. It's sad because I look back and remember times when I have done that and then regretted it later, but hopefully that will help her to make better choices in the future. We are meeting with her tomorrow and we are expecting lots of questions, so hopefully we can help her get over some of her concerns.

Madison was supposed to be baptized this coming Saturday, but her baptism is also being slid back, probably to September 1 however, because she did not clean her room on Wednesday. She was grounded for a week, ending this Wednesday. During this time, she is not allowed to meet with us or come to church. It is sad to see when parents keep their kids away from something that is helping them or see it as a "privilege" that can be taken away. With all of things that we still have left to teach Madison, this made the 18th definitely not a possibility. In the mean time, we have been texting her and occasionally talking to her on the phone. We talked a lot about obeying and honoring our parents, and something must have clicked because her mom allowed her to come to church on Sunday! We were excited about that. We gave her a copy of the Conference Ensign from this last spring, so she can read that for a few days and then we will be able to meet with her again. It a little scary because school is starting this Wednesday, and who knows what could happen!

Katie has been hard to know what to do with. Brother Jensen said that when we baptized her, we knew it was going to be a struggle, but I did not realize what it was really going to be like. The biggest problem is just that she loves to talk. It is really hard to teach her because we can hardly ever get a word in and always end up spending way too much time there. The other day when I told her we had to leave right then, she started into ranting about her father and when I told her again that we needed to leave, she yelled at me to get out of her house. She calmed down when I asked her if we

could say a prayer before we left, but it was still frustrating. She just doesn't want to be helped it seems, but we don't want to leave her alone to slide into the realm of inactivity.

On Thursday, we had exchanges. I went to Plattsmouth with Sister Jones and Sister Bergeson was with Sister Watson in Millard. We spent a good chunk of the day in the first-ever zone meeting. It is different from zone conference because it was only one zone under the charge of the zone leaders vs. zone conference with 2 zones and led by President Weston. We will have zone conference this week. I went to the zone meeting for the Council Bluffs zone, so we got to take a little field trip across the river. The trainings were on developing Christ-like attributes. Charity, humility, etc.

On Sunday, we had another fireside, this one in Lincoln. It was so much fun! We got to have a roadtrip :) Sister Bergeson and I rode down with the Watsons and came back in the transfer van (a big 12-seat van). It reminded me a little of being with the Young Ambassadors. There were some sisters that were yelling and going crazy while others were doing their best to ignore them. But, the fireside went well. Sister Rhoades and I narrated again. As usual, there were lots of solos/small groups and then we all sang God Was There and The Olive Tree (which we all learned yesterday). I love the firesides and President Weston loves that we are doing them, so it works out well! This was the last for this group of firesides, but we are going to be doing a Christmas fireside in a couple of months, which we are excited for. The firesides are such a spiritual feast, both for us and for the people we are able to perform for. The spirit is always strong and we have so many talented sisters.

Today we went to the Air and Space Museum which is about a half an hour south of Omaha, so we got to take another little road trip in the transfer van . This one was a little more mellow. We had a good time looking at airplanes and hearing war stories from our tour guide, who served in the Air Force. It was fun.

Well, that's kind of what has been going on this week! Not a whole lot it seems like. I am not really sure where the week went. We didn't serve much in the TC, but the time still went very fast anyways.
Well, that's all folks!
Love you!
Sister Lamb

Blessings in the Cornfield and Busy, Busy, Busy

Sister Lamb on Bottom Right

Dear Family,

Love you! Happy Tuesday!

I am sorry to hear about grandma, but I am more worried about you than you should be about me.

I was just reading an email from Mom saying that she hoped that I would have emailed late enough to see if Katie is having a girl or a boy. I left the room for a minute to grab the cord so that I would send you some pictures; there was an email from Katie waiting! Yea for a little girl! That is exciting :) We were actually supposed to email earlier today, but the internet at the TC was not working, so we had to reschedule for now. What a nice little blessing.



Quilt Sister Melanie Worked On

This last week has been kind of crazy. We worked at the Trail Center every day from last Tuesday to yesterday, including an 8 1/2 hour chunk on Sunday. You wouldn't think that if would really matter how much time we spend here vs. our area because we are doing missionary work the whole time, but the Trail Center just takes a lot more energy and effort. Some of my reasoning for this is that 1. We take tours on our own vs. teaching together in our prosthelyting areas = twice the amount of effort/revelation receiving necessary. 2. Lots of crazy kids running around that have been bottled up in a car all day and then are running loose in the TC. 3. In contrast, there are also lots of awesome spiritual experiences. It is like running a spiritual marathon. Before my mission, I remember someone saying that on a mission, you will work the hardest you have ever worked in you life. I kind of didn't believe that because I have worked pretty hard and for extended periods, but I have now reached a whole new level of exhausted. The difference is that missionary work isn't just physically or mentally demanding. It is physically, mentally, AND spiritually demanding all at the same time. In the Trail Center, all of those things feel even more demanding. We are constantly meeting new people, trying to create a relationship with them, trying to understand and teach to their needs, creating an environment where the Spirit can teach them, answering all of their questions, trying to remember their names, figuring out what stories to tell and then relating everything back to them, all while constantly learning new things ourselves. It is intense. Then, when we are done, we sometimes get to have some of our studies and then rush to our prosthelyting area where although we have much less time that other missionaries, there is just as much work to be done. Even without being a Trail Center leader companion, there is still more than enough to do. We are able to see so many great things happen, but we wear ourselves out trying to make sure that all of those great experiences do not go unused. Where much is given, much is expected.

Must be the Square that Sister Melly Embroidered

Some of the neat miracles that have happened in the Trail Center are: 1. I got an email from a man named Rhett that Sister Belka and I chatted with on mormon.org chat a couple of months ago. We have been emailing back and forth little bit and in this email he informed me that he was recently baptized! That was pretty exciting. I wish that I could actually meet him. 2. I took a woman named Jolinda on tour. She is from California and attends a non-denominational church. She was in Omaha with her daughter visiting her mother who has cancer. As we started on tour, Jolinda had lots of questions and had lots to share. Her mother and daughter wandered away and we spent a while talking about all kinds of things, from the atonement to faith to modern day revelation to the Book of Mormon to receiving answers to prayers. We didn't really even talk about the pioneers. (Its funny, but that seems to be the mark of a really good tour sometimes.) I was able to share a few different scriptures with her including Moroni 10:3-5 about Moroni's challenge to pray about truth and Alma 7:11-13 about the atonement. She was a really neat lady. At the end of the tour, I gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, which she promised to read. I also asked if I could have the missionaries near her come visit her and talk with her more about the Book of Mormon, which she accepted. The whole thing just felt very natural. 3. Another woman, Anne, who lives just down the street from the Trail Center, came in with her son and his fiancée. It was kind of the same situation all over again. When they first walked in the door, they immediately had questions about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and Mitt Romney :) Ha-ha. I just love when people have good questions and are willing to ask them. It makes things so much easier. They watched Zion in the Wilderness, then we started on tour and pretty quickly, I got to talking to Anne and the other two wandered away. She told me that she lived in Utah for a few years, has met with missionaries before, and absolutely loves the Church. While she and her husband were living in Utah, he hurt his knee and the ward helped them out by bring by meals and other things. That one experience has made her absolutely love the Church. She grew up Pentecostal and hated it and has not really gone to church since. She kind of hinted during the tour that she is not sure why she has not joined. She also said that she thinks that she is related to Joseph Smith, at least that is what her family used to say. Once her son leaves, we are going to figure out a time from her to come to the Trail Center so we can see if that is true! Pretty exciting! I love family history :)

Let’s see. As far as Millard, we have not had a whole lot of time, but in the time that we have had, we have mostly been trying to get Aliyah and Madison ready for baptism. Aliyah was supposed to be baptized this Saturday, but she was sick and did not come to church on Sunday, so she will have to wait until next week. It will probably turn out for the better because then she and Madison can be baptized at the same time.

We did service for Lori, one of our investigators, making more hair accessories. She introduced us to a couple of her friends, Lisa and Monica. She is so funny. She acts like a member sometimes, introducing us to her friends so that we can help them. The first thing that Lisa said when she walked in the door was, "Is this some kind of intervention?”. It kind of was, but we just got to know her as we did service for Lori and as we left Lori suggested that we make this a weekly thing so that we can be around her friends more often until we get to the point where we can teach her. I love Lori.

So, lots of great things happening! Busy, busy, busy, but I suppose that I would rather be busy than bored :)

Love you!

Sister Melly



Nebraska Sky



Sister Missionaries Need Care Packages?

Yes! Investigators Standing in Line to Talk to Sisters Lamb and Bergeson

Dear Family,

Love you!

What a week of miracles this has been!

After p-day on Tuesday, we saw Madison and Kate at their home. Kate apparently has really bad anxiety with leaving their home and all kinds of things and had thought about calling us many times to cancel, but for some reason (the Spirit) had not, so we were able to teach both of them together. Kate is so sweet, but can be confusing at times because she covers up a lot of her emotions, so it is hard to really tell what is going on in her head and what she is really thinking. Madison is excited to be baptized on the 18th. We still have a lot to teach her, but we will just keep pushing on through!

Wednesday was perhaps the most miraculous day of all. I think that because Sister Bergeson and I served in Oakview for so long, He is giving us a break and letting us see a lot of miracles to reward us for all the long hours of tracting and feeling unaccomplished. When we got to our area after district meeting, we only had two appointments scheduled with about 8 hours of time. We had set the goals of teaching: 1 member present lesson, 3 other lessons, and 1 less active/recent convert lesson. Our first appointment was with Aliyah, but when we got there, her mom said that it was really not a good time and asked if we could come back later, so we rescheduled for 6. We went to eat lunch at the church and while we were there, were able to make an appointment with Fatma and Fatwa for that evening as well. With the 45 minutes that we had before our 4 o’clock appointment, we did some tracting and taught a man named Earl about the Book of Mormon. We then headed to teach Patrick with Sister Staker. (sister Staker reminds me of what I think that Katie would be like in her Minnesota ward. she was a little nervous at first and her husband told us to go easy on her, but she has quickly some to love going on team ups with us. She is in her early 20's, super cute and sweet, not pregnant though :)) When we arrived at Patrick’s apartment building, Sister Staker (Amy) was waiting for us outside and talking to one of Patrick’s neighbors, an older woman named Patti. They made quick friends and were making plans to go to the apartment pool party a couple of days later together. Sister Staker introduced us to Patti and we are going to stop by and talk with her later when we get a chance. What a good little missionary. After seeing Patrick, we went to visit Fatma and Fatwa. When we got there, their mom had friends over, so they told us they had arranged for us to go to Madison’s house, just a couple blocks away, for the lesson. So, we got to teach both Fatwa and Madison together, making a member present lesson! Perfect. After we walked back to our car, we headed to see Aliyah. We talked to her about baptism and she is set to be baptized on Aug 11th, which will be just a couple of days before she goes to high school. It is coming up fast (especially because they now want us to have baptismal interviews a week before the baptism) and we have a lot to teach her, but we feel that it is the best thing for her so that she can have the Holy Ghost when she goes back to school, otherwise it may be a little tough on her. So, we will be teaching her a lot this next week. After Aliyah, we tried a referral that we received from the Skyline elders, a woman named Kellie and were able to teach her as well. She is quite an interesting person. She definitely needs the gospel, but she is going to need some work. She is recently divorced, going through all kinds of trouble with her ex-husband, has three young daughters, is living on disability, etc. so, she is going to be fun. She has met with the elders a few times before and likes what they have been teaching her, so that’s good! The elders are going to bring her to the TC on Tuesday (tomorrow) and officially turn her over to us.

One of the things that has been the hardest for me to wrap my mind around on my mission is setting goals and working hard to achieve them while still loving people and teaching them to help them, not just to check another number off of a list. When we set goals and think about them more throughout the day, we are better able to accomplish them and be focused and Heavenly Father is better able to bless us. It is hard to find the balance sometimes, but I felt like Monday was a good day for that. We were able to set high goals, work hard to reach them, while still desiring to help people.



Sister Melly at the fireside

It was also another one of those weeks where I got to do something a little unexpected. After all of the firesides, sometimes I feel a little jealous of all the sisters that are good singers and piano players and get to use their talents in the firesides. So, I was praying that I would be able to find a way to use my talents this week, and Heavenly Father helped me out with my request. On Thursday morning, I went to the home of a recently reactivated member in the Elmwood ward named Cindy. The guy that she has been living with has been being taught by the missionaries for a while now. I actually taught them once with Sister Pinchak a couple of months ago. They are getting married this weekend and then he is being baptized next week. She ordered a wedding dress from china and wanted some alterations made, so they asked me to do it. I was a little nervous about what she would ask. All she wanted was the neckline lowered, but I had to take off the sleeves to do it, so I had some fun :) it didn't take too long though and she loves it, so I am happy.

On Thursday evening, I had a unique experience. We went to visit a less active and as we left her apartment, we started talking to a man named Aaron. He has MS and is in a wheelchair. We gave him a copy of Finding Faith in Christ and set a return appointment. He said "Wow! I have never had two pretty ladies meet me, give me a present, and then want to come see me later!" It was pretty funny. As we finished up talking to him, another guy came up behind him, so we opened the door to let him through, but he said “No thanks, I want to talk to you." Have you ever had someone wait in line to talk to you before? Someone who you don't know? As a missionary? I never heard of it happening before, but that was what I would say it was. The second man, Joe, said that he had seen us around before and wondered what we were doing/what we talked to people about. We taught him right then and then again last night. He seems pretty sincere in his intent, so that's good. We are planning on turning him over to the elders soon.

So that was some of the miraculous events that happened this last week, although if I had more time, I could probably tell you some more. Those will have to wait. Pretty good I’d say! I liked it.

Well, I LOVE YOU! As usual. Have a happy 30th of July!

Love, Sister Melly

Sister Melly's mission car?