First of all HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! To all you Mothers/future Mothers out there!
"Mothers are endowed with a love that is unlike any other love on the face of the earth" - Majorie Hinckley
"There is so limit to what a righteous mother can accomplish. Righteous women have changed the course of history and will continue to do so." - Julie B. Beck
New Transfer Update: WOOH! I've reached my 2nd transfer! Last transfer I had a lot of "Square time" this transfer I have a specific assignment... I'm in the Beehive House! and I couldn't be more excited! I love the Beehive House and I'm so excited to be serving there this transfer! and I'm still with Sister Magidson, which we are so happy about! Last night was terrifying, are we going to be together still or not? It's crazy how close you can get to someone in a matter of weeks and how you can come to love someone so much in that time. The thought of being separated and having a follow up trainer scared me so much and so I'm so happy to know we are still together! Crazy thing is! Sister Magidson has a dream that we would be serving in the Beehive House and Sister Walsh would be our Zone Leader... yep, guess who is my zone leader! So funny and crazy all at the same time! haha. So everyone get ready to hear some awesome Beehive House miracles in the next 6 weeks. And it's going to be summer so it's going to be CRAZY! We are going to be busy little bee's! (incoming terrible honey, beehive, bee puns in the next 6 weeks)
Unlikely P-day Activity: Last Monday we had our Zone activity and we watched *drum roll* FROZEN! and ate waffles, it was amazing. But after Frozen had finished they had another movie for us and it blew my mind, never in my life did I ever think I would watch this movie on my mission... They told everyone to close their eyes and wait for the music, we did and the music comes on, we watched the first HARRY POTTER! on P-day! Never thought it would happen, but there you have it! It was so much fun and I didn't realize how manyTemple Square/Mission jokes could be made about Frozen and Harry Potter, so much fun to be in a room full of Sisters all over the world watching a movie! I laughed so much! It was just hilarious! "He just needs the gospel! "The Atonement is real!" "Church is true!" hahaha, so funny!
Sacrifices Must be Made: We have an amazing investigator who I have mentioned a couple of times in my last few emails, Jennifer, great news! SHE IS DEFINITELY getting baptized this Saturday! (May 17th). She had to quit smoking however, so we thought about what could we do to help her and show our support all the way here in Temple Square, well we decided we would give up something too until her baptism. We were talking and before I even really thought about it I just said "Yep, and I'm giving up chocolate!"... What?! Yep... I went there... I had TimTams waiting for me at home and we had so many chocolate involved plans... I came to just a part of the understanding of how she felt having to change for someone in a positive way. Her quitting smoking to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized, me giving up chocolate so I could show my support to Jennifer. It might sound silly, but she was so appreciative of the things we were willing to do, though far away to help and support her though this time in her life. We love her so much and she is so incredible! We are so excited to hear all about it and she has promised lots of photos which is awesome. Giving up chocolate is nothing in comparison to the life change she is making in a matter of a few weeks, she is so inspiring and so wonderful! It's the best feeling to know we had a part in bringing someone to the waters of baptism so that they can return to live with Heavenly Father. I feel so honored to be part of this journey with her, to help her come closer to her Savior Jesus Christ. We have seen so many instances where the Lord is so aware of her and of us as missionaries as we have been teaching her, just thins like the local missionaries teaching the same thing we planned to or them setting the same baptism date we extended to her. It's been incredible and it's so marvelous to see!
Answering a Prayer: This week I really came to know the importance of following the promptings of the Spirit, this week we followed our inspired plans and went down to Scriptures and Revelation, I saw a girl and had the greatest prompting to talk with her, we started talking and sat down and we talked about so much! Turns out she is a less-active member, really struggling with a lot of things at the moment. She had come to Temple Square to get away from life for a little, she went to the Christus which is such a spiritual feast of a place and missionaries were constantly walking by or they were one a tour and busy with other people and she had been listening to what they would say to try and get the upliftment she needed. She felt discouraged that no one talked with her and prayed to Heavenly Father that someone would come and talk to her and help her in her needs... She decided to come to Scriptures and Revelation and only a few minutes later, completely unaware of what she was going through or the prayer she had given, we walked up and talked to her. We talked with her and gave her motivation and bore testimonies and shared experiences and gave her hope, invited her to read and pray and to go to church... We talked for quite a long time and she felt a lot better afterwards with a hope in her heart that she would be given the strength to do what she knows Heavenly Father needs her to do. She thanked us so much and told us that we were truly an answer to her prayer and shared her experience with us.
We also saw her the next day and continued to uplift and support her through these tough times, she had lost her bus pass and came back to Temple Square to find it and we saw her again! We again gave her that upliftment she needed and helped her come closer to Jesus Christ, we prayed with her and we talked a lot about faith, humility, repentance, patience. I still truly believed that she lost her bus pass so that we would run into her again and give her that motivation she needs and help her come to an understanding of the relationship she has with her Heavenly Father. I can't even put it all in words, but I really look forward to helping her through this time in her life.
Our Purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ, non-members, members, less-actives, everyone! To come unto Christ, to help them understand the relationship they can have with Jesus Christ and our loving Heavenly Father. Help them apply the Atonemtn of Jesus Christ into their lives. One thing that has really stood out to me this week is knowing that Heavenly Father is so aware of each and every one of us, He hears all of our prayers, and answers them when the time is right and in the right way, even if we really don't understand it at all when it happens. No matter how insignificant you feel or how silly you think something is, He cares and He has given us everything we love, every emotion, every color, every word in a book, every note of music, every flower to smell or see, everything. He had given it to us, because He loves us and knows us so perfectly! He knows our needs and He is aware of us and our situations, I see my prayers answered nearly every day, in the smallest ways, I put all the faith I have into Him, love Him with all I have. I have never prayed more sincerely and with more intent in my life being on my mission! I have come to a greater understanding of His love for me, His love for us all and all the beautiful details he puts in our lives. To make the most of every opportunity He has given me, make the most of the life he has given me! He loves us all so much and I could never doubt or deny that love. What makes the difference is when we turn to Him, in order to feel all of this, to appreciate all of this and understand it, we much turn to him. Be humble and have patience (I'm still working on these), when we submit, knowing that we can't go though this life without Him, He will open up the windows of heaven and bless us so openly! But only if we will let him and we turn to him...
I love this gospel so much, I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God with all that I have, I know that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet of God and that he did indeed see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Once you gain a testimony of these things, everything else falls in to place and I wouldn't be on my mission if I didn't know these things, and if you don't you can come to know these things for yourself, I know you can! Sometimes hard times come, and yeah, they suck. But, we are given them because the Lord knows we can get through them and He gives them to us so that we can become a better us. To be the us that He needs us to be, to help us understand our potential. What a wonderful blessing that is! Trials always turn into blessing in the end. We are pushed to our limits so we can become something greater that we could ever see our selves.
I love you all so much! and I'm so grateful for the support you give me. Thankyou for everything.
Love, Sister Ryan.
Photos: Announcing on Sunday for the First Time! :)
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