She's On Her Way!

We won't get an Email this week Since Today....SHE IS ON HER WAY!

Independence Missouri Get Ready! Sister Hyer is Coming!

If you want to get a letter to her now that she's in Missouri, Here's Her Address:

Sister Jenna Hyer

Missouri Independence Mission
517 West Walnut Street
Independence, Missouri 64050

Remember that Packages have to be sent Priority Via US Post Office

(FedEx and UPS can't be forwarded so they will sit at the Mission Home waiting for Jenna)

Jenna Thanks you for your love and Support! Keep it Comin!

What Awesome Looks Like

A Few Pictures from the MTC: 

I ran into a good friend from high school! Matt Smith is teaching French here at the MTC. So fun to see a familiar face! 

My companion and I, sister McKay, on our first Sunday Walk to the temple!

Me and my district! All 12 of us will be serving in Independence!

MTC Week Two- Joy, Tears, and Feeling the Spirit

Hello All!

Consider this my goodbye from the MTC! I will be heading out to Missouri next Wednesday morning. I can't believe it's coming so fast! There is still so much to catch you all up on. The past two weeks has been packed with information and good things happenin! I love my district more and more each day. It's amazing how fast you can get to know a group of people. They are wonderful. I have the best teachers in the world. One of them is a sister who served in Texas, and one is an elder who served in Scotland/Ireland...He is so awesome. His lessons are my favorite. I am always amazed at how much I can learn from him in 3 hours!

A few times a week, we do this thing called TRC...people come volunteer to pretend to be investigators. Some of them are members, and some of them may really be interested in the church and have been referred by a local member.. but they aren't allowed to tell us, we have to treat it like it's a real situation with someone who has never heard of the church before. Our TRC experience this week was amazing. We go to these rooms, big enough for only 3 people, and knock on the doors just like it was a real tracting situation. We knocked, and this cute little old guy opened the door. We told him we were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints, and asked if we could share a message with him. He let us in, and we started to ask him some questions. He told us how 12 years ago, He and his wife had gone on a trip and while they were there, his wife got bit by a mosquito and got really sick...it started to make her more sick, and pretty soon her body just shut down. She was disabled for over 9 years, and he took care of her every day. Then he went on to tell us that she had passed away 3 years ago and was angry at God ever since. He stopped praying, and didn't think God cared about him. We started to give him our lesson, and focused on the plan of salvation and eternal families. It had been an emotional day already, and as we talked about this, I just began to cry. He was amazed. He kept saying: "Barbara was the love of my life...and you're saying I can be with her again?" The spirit was so strong. The tears wouldn't stop. He pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket and says: "I'm sorry, I don't have any tissues, but this is clean! Use it to wipe those tears away." And he just smiled at me. We finished the lesson and he said (more than once actually): "There is just something about you 2 sweet sisters. I can feel it." It was all so real. You could tell all 3 of us felt the spirit. And at that moment I realized it didn't matter if it was a real investigator, or a member simply pretending...We accomplished what we had come to do...help others feel the spirit and come unto Christ. Sometimes we all need help feeling the spirit...member or not. When we left I turned to my companion and said (tears still rolling down my cheek) "if I even have just one experience like that on my mission, it will make everything worth it." This sweet little old man had given me a glimpse of the bliss I will feel helping others come to Christ. It was amazing.

We got a new MTC president this week. Our fireside on Sunday was Him and his wife speaking. They are the sweetest people. At the end, Sister Nally and 4 of her daughters played a beautiful arrangement of 'lead kindly light.' Sister Nally had written it, and written the piano accompaniment and 4 violin parts. It was so beautiful! Yesterday, we were eating lunch, and president Nally came up to our district and asked if he could eat with us. So we got to sit at talk with him for a while. He said that by July they are going to have 8,000 Missionaries! They are trying to buy apartments and dorms from BYU and they will eventually have to have the devotionals at BYU because the gym here only holds 2000...we already have over 3,000 so we already don't fit! Such an amazing time to be serving. When elder Holland spoke last week, he said: "Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of The Church."

The MTC is a roller coaster! I've never felt the spirit so strong, said so many prayers, sung so many hymns, cried so many tears, yearned for more knowledge, laughed so hard, made so many friends...The list is endless. I know the mission is going to be different, and it will have more challenges, but I for now, I will enjoy my wonderful experiences here! Love you all!

With love,
Sister Hyer

The First Email

Here is her first Email from January 15th to Family and Friends of what's goin on at the MTC.

Subject: Hello from the MTC

My dearest family and friends!

          Hello From the MTC! I feel like I've been gone forever! Here at the MTC, they say a day is like a week, and a week is like a day. The days drag on, but when ya look back at it, it's gone pretty fast. Can't believe I've been here a week! I am loving it here. So much has happened! I don't really know where to begin, so I'll just start with the basics. There are 12 of us in our district, all going to Independence (6 elders and 6 sisters). I share a room (smaller than mine at home) with 5 other girls. Imagine all the stuff I took, then multiply it by 6. Then add a few more things, an extra suitcase and a few more carry ons, and you've about got what our room looks like. I love them all though, so I'm surviving! My companion is from Idaho Falls, Sister Mckay. I adore her. We get along so well, and I feel like I've known her forever. We teach well with each other and I'm learning so much from her! We told each other we would tell our families we have these crazy, out of control, weird companions just as a joke...but then we both realized it was true about ourselves. :) I love the other people in my district too! It's crazy how you can get to know so many people so fast, and feel so much love for them. I have amazing teachers, and I can't believe how much I've learned in the past week...It's weird that most of them are either my age or younger than me, yet they still have so much to teach me. There's so much more to tell you all!

Here's a typical day at the MTC:

-Alarm goes off at 5:45 and ends 16 hours later with 'lights out' at 10:30

-30 minutes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

-Two 3 hour classes taught by our teachers, separated by meals and gym time

-at least 2-3 hours of personal/companionship study

- service projects

-meetings with our Zone president (Districts make up zones, kind of like wards make up stakes)

- companion planning for the next day

- teaching our 'investigators' (either our teachers pretending to be one, or people who have auditioned to be paid to be an investigator)

-30 minutes of gym time

At the MTC it's not uncommon to see any of the following:

-Elders who don't know how to do laundry

-Companions praying in the middle of the halls (sometimes even kneeling)

-Missionaries singing as they walk to class

- People bragging about how many letters they got

-Elders in the cafeteria with 4 glasses of chocolate milk, 2 entrees, some cereal, a donut, and a bowl of ice cream....(ok, maybe that was exaggerated, but they eat a lot!)

The other night, the fire alarm went off because a pipe had burst on the bottom floor, and caused some damage...so all the girls in our building (probably almost 300) had to walk across the street in the middle of the night and sleep in the gym for a few hours. It was so funny to see all these girls, half asleep, walking in the freezing cold, then snuggling up on the gym floor. haha.

On a more spiritual side of things (cause that's what I'm supposed to be doing, right? haha) The first day we were here, we were in the new missionary orientation with the MTC president. He was having everyone stand up who were from different countries. He said a whole bunch of them, then said: "This next one is pretty special. Can I have anyone who is from Tanzania please stand up?" everyone turned to look and see if anyone was standing. In the very back, one girl stood up. He continued: "Sweet sister, can you come up to the front please?" She started walking.."Walk a little faster sister. Run! Tanzanians are great runners!" Haha. Then she got up there, and he introduced her and said, "How many sisters from Tanzania have ever served a mission?" She held up 2 fingers. "How many of them came to the Provo MTC?" She help up one finger. "Who might that sister be?" She smiled the most tender smile and said, in very broken English, 'It's me!" My heart melted. How special she must feel to be representing her country! I was so touched. The rest of that day, people would see her in the halls and say, "Hey Tanzania!" and she would just grin from ear to ear. It was wonderful!

Elder Holland was our devotional speaker last night...they don't tell us who it is until we're sitting in the auditorium, waiting for it to start. He walked in and every stood up. It was absolutely amazing. He got up to speak and said: "I have traveled this globe. I have seen everything there is to see. But My most favorite place to be is with the Missionaries of this church. He spoke about how important missionary work is, and said: "I command you to come home with at least one convert...yourself...There is absolutely no excuse in time if that doesn't happen. If you don't bring any other members into this church, at least we can count on you to come home converted." It was so powerful. There was so much more that he said that I wish I could share, but I will have to wait til next week. After the closing of the meeting, he blew us a kiss, and waved goodbye. It was silent. and the spirit there was undeniable. I felt honored to be part of such an amazing time.

I want to leave you all with a few words of wisdom I have learned this week:

"Obedience brings blessings. Strict obedience brings miracles."

"Keep a happy countenance.  If you're not happy, no one will believe what you're teaching."

"You have something wonderful. This Gospel. Cherish that which the world desperately needs."

I love you all. Thanks for the continual love and support! Remember to write me!
jenna.hyer@myldsmail.com

or you can go to www.dearelder.com and type a letter that will get sent to me the same day!!

Much love!

Sister Jenna Hyer

Leave a Comment

If you find that you may not have a minute to write Jenna a letter and you would like to leave a comment on any of the Posts instead, please feel free. Once a week I will print Comments of love and support and send them off to Jenna. 

A "Good Job" or "Keep up the good work" will always go a long ways to a missionary. And I know she will LOVE that you care enough to read this Blog and keep up to date on the work she is doing.

Thanks in advance for your Friendships and Love for Jenna. I know she loves you all.

Now that she's on her way

Jenna has been at the MTC for a week now. And Yesterday her first letter to Mom was received.

The pictures are from Last week when Camille and Lori and Cooper Dropped Sister Hyer off at the Curb in front of the MTC! She just has a Glow about her.  

Mom says this about the letter that was only about a paragraph Long:

Hi Everyone!

I got a hand written letter from Jenna!  She is doing great.  She loves the teachers and is learning a lot.  She said she has a good companion and that there are 5 other sisters and 6 elders going to her same mission. She said the hardest thing is getting ready in a half an hour :) It was short and sweet, and very positive!

I will send emails as they come.

MOM

Sister Hyer seems to already be loving the learning and loving the work. Only two more weeks in the MTC and she will be off to Missouri.

Send her some LOVE:

Sister Jenna Hyer

MTC Mailbox 239

MO-INDE 0130

2005 N 900 E

Provo UT 84604-1793

Just a Week Away

As I prepare to leave this place behind
My thoughts are turned above
To my Father and Redeemer
I feel Their fervent love

The time is getting closer
When I'll set out on my way
I begin to count the weeks
The hours and the days

The beginning of a journey
A tale I’ll soon convey
Of the struggles and the joys
I’ll feel along the way

I’m sure the work’s demanding
And the hours will drag on
As I face the taxing task
of Teaching ‘til the sun is gone

There are days I’ll be discouraged
And nights I’ll miss my home
My heart might just be empty
I may feel utterly alone

Although concerns surround me
I must always face my fears
And know that through my trials
My savior will be near

I’ll study scriptures daily
Pondering the words I read
I know that if I do this
The Lord will take the Lead

When my heart becomes discouraged
I know that I must kneel
And utter words unto the Lord
His love for me is real

For I know I am His daughter
He sent me here to earth
To preach of His true Gospel
And learn of my great worth

In my life He’s never left me
And I’m sure He never will
Through trials I will face
I must listen and be still

If I make sure my heart is open
And I’m faithful, kind, and true
I’ll hear the Savior’s words ring out
declaring, “I love you!”

So as I serve His mission
I know He’ll be my guide
and if I follow in His ways
He’ll be right by my side.

An Army of Sisters

This is what I am a part of. This is the army that will be preaching His Gospel. The Work is moving forward. What an amazing time to serve.