Breanna's Baptism and some Pictures

Happy Thanksgiving my dear family and friends! There is oh so much to be thankful for!

We had a baptism yesterday! Everything went great! Brianna was so happy and the spirit was so strong. We asked how she felt and she just said: "I don't know how to explain it. Just all...warm...and tingly." I love baptisms...and I love being a missionary!

Here is my final list for my attitude of gratitude emails! (although that doesn't mean I'll stop being grateful for things ;D )

-Musical numbers in church

-Christmas Decorations

-Gloves and Scarves

-My fellow missionaries

-Iola, Kansas!

-A warm bed

-My supportive mission president and his sweet wife

-a full mailbox

-Getting to know new people

-Being able to share my testimony all day, every day

-Tender Mercies and miracles

-Baptisms!

-Emailing family and friends

And the number one thing I'm grateful for this Thanksgiving season:

Being a missionary and having the opportunity to see the Gospel and Atonement of Jesus Christ change lives each and every day.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

I love you all, oh so much! I wish each and every one of you a happy thanksgiving. May you recognize the blessings and tender mercies in each of your lives as you reflect on all that the Lord has given  you!

Much love,

Sister Hyer

Baptisms are my Favorite!

Breanna's Baptism

Me and Beanna

Just me and a few of the Sistas

She's taller than me...what the?! Never thought I'd see the day! :)

Sister Kamradt and I...our first day together 

P-Day with the ELDERS

all the sisters that have served in Albany

Last Day together...Sad Day

old companions with new companions

Baptism and some Thankfuls

Hello everyone!

First of all. I have a new companion! I am training a new missionary--Sister Kamradt. She's from Draper...and now straight from the MTC! She is full of enthusiasm and is ready to get to work! She's great.

We are having a baptism this weekend! We have been teaching a girl named Brianna. We met her at our event, 'farm city days' about a month ago when we offered her a free cookie and copy of The Book of Mormon. Miracles happened that day! We invited her to church the next day. She said she actually had a friend who came to our church, and said she'd come with her! And guess what. She really did! We were having a baptism that morning before church, and was able to be there for that as well.

The next day we went and taught her about the restoration of the Gospel. At the end of the lesson, we brought up baptism. We usually extend an invitation for our investigators to be baptized, but this lesson went a little bit different than normal ones...it went something like this:

Brianna: "So. I've been baptized before. But the girl that got baptized today did it different. And then she had that part where the men put their hands on her head and gave her a blessing. I didn't have that. Is my baptism wrong?"

Us: "Well, it's just not complete. The gift of The Holy Ghost makes baptism complete. And it's also necessary for baptism to be done by someone holding the Priesthood Authority of God."

Brianna. "oh ok. Well I guess I need to be baptized again. When can I do that?"

My companion and I were floored. We didn't even really know what to say...this isn't a common conversation after a first lesson. But we were oh so excited and happy! And now she's getting baptized...this weekend! Oh miracles...miracles...miracles everywhere!

Also. I fail. I said I was going to write things I'm grateful for in each email, and I didn't last time! Here's my list for last week and this week:

- The Book of Mormon

- Opportunities to learn and grow

- Laughter and good memories with companions

- Music

- A wonderful mission president who loves and supports his missionaries

- Trials that bring me closer to Christ

- Beautiful autumn weather with temperatures in the 60s

- The support I feel from family and friends

- Members who feed us yummy dinners

- 3 hours of studies every day

- Answers to Prayers

- The holidays that allow us to reflect on our blessings

- Having the blessing of being a part of the Hastening of the Lord's work!

Oh how grateful I am for the bounteous blessings the Lord bestows upon me!

I love you all!

Sister Hyer

Veterans Day

Hello loved ones! I hope this email finds you all happy and well!

Last week was a week full of miracles! (which seems to be a reoccurring theme on the mish. just evidence that The Lord is in charge of His work, right?) We found an incredible family to teach! Their son is serving at an army base in Missouri, and met the missionaries. As he has been learning about the gospel, he wanted his family to hear about it too, so he asked if the missionaries could visit them in Kansas...so we received a referral to track them down. We taught them about the restoration of the gospel, and they accepted the invitation to be baptized in December! Hopefully there will be more miracles written in the future about this family!

It was stake conference this past weekend. The adult session Saturday night was all about missionary work. Our mission president was speaking, and asked all the missionaries currently serving in the stake to attend....he spoke about the importance of member missionary work and bore his testimony about the restoration of the Gospel. As he spoke about Joseph Smith, he said: "I would like all of my missionaries to stand and recite the experience Joseph Smith had in the Sacred Grove." As he said that, 30 missionaries stood from different places in the congregation and said:

"I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”

It was so touching, and brought a very powerful spirit into the chapel. Our mission president bore powerful testimony of the Gospel and ended by saying:

"There is only one man on this earth today that has the power to make a change to hasten the Lord's work that would stir the hearts of over 30,000 young people to take action and serve the Lord as they serve missions around the world. That man is President Monson. He holds the keys. He has invited us to help in the hastening of the Lord's work."

The Lord's work really is being hastened. When Elder Ballard was here a few weeks ago he talked about how in the past, people didn't really have to worry about rushing to share the gospel...but in these latter days, we don't have time to waste! We must do our best to share the Gospel each and every day!

I love you all!

Sister Hyer

A Month Of Gratitude

Hello all! November is Here and fall is in full swing here in Iola! The trees are beautiful, and everyone is preparing themselves for the holidays. I'm sure things are going to fly by even faster than usual the next couple of months.

So this past week was kind of crazy! We had appointments, interviews, exchanges with other missionaries, and other random things, that lead us to being in the car for a total of over 20 hours by the end of the week. It made for an exhausting 7 days. at one point, we were asked to switch cars with the elders in the closest area to us. We had been driving a 2012 corolla, and traded to a 2014 chevy cruz. The long hours in the car made for tired eyes and sore necks and backs...we found ourselves complaining a little too much at our circumstances. In the midst of the hectic week, we made the mistake of doubling up on dinner appointments last night. As we drove home we complained some more and said how we never wanted to be in the car again and how we were so full we never wanted to eat again....too much steak, potatoes, warm rolls, and apple pies. Then it hit us....how ungrateful we were being!

Here we are...serving in zion...in a beautiful area...driving a car so nice that it's from the future (2014 isn't even here yet!) being fed lots of food, all the while having the blessing of sharing the Gospel with others! We might as well have said: "Ugh. we're just too blessed. we've been in our fancy car, listening to uplifting music, and enjoying the beautiful scenery for way too many hours. we're too full of delicious food. we just want to go home and get in our warm comfy beds and sleep all night so that we can wake up and continue complaining in the morning."

Our thoughts were turned to the less fortunate missionaries serving in the not-so-nice parts of the world....who walk all day...have very little to eat...and don't have many of the luxuries we seem to complain about here in the M.I.M. Needless to say, I was very humbled...I am a very spoiled missionary! I realized I need to be more grateful.

So I decided that November needs to be a month of Gratitude! With thanksgiving approaching, our minds and hearts can be turned to the things we are so blessed to have in our lives. This is nothing new for this time of year...but for me, I get to recognize new blessings I've received as I've been serving a mission! Each week in November I will make a list of a few things I'm grateful for here on the mission. So this week, I am grateful for:

-The beautiful area I get to serve in
-A wonderful companion
-Letters and packages from home

-The conference issue of the Ensign

-Supportive ward members

-Pictures that capture memories

I hope each of you will do your best to develop an attitude of gratitude this month as you focus on the blessings and tender mercies in your lives that come from a loving Heavenly Father!

I love you all!

Love,
Sister Hyer

This is up in Liberty, Missouri...this is why autumn time is my favorite!

the leaves have changed gradually over the past month or so, so there are trees like this all over town! so beautiful!

we were trying to entertain ourselves on our long car rides...so we wrote some raps. this is us tryin to be gangsta. ha

just being vampires on Halloween!

we didn't have a candle to put inside our jack-o-lantern, so we had to use our phone...which didn't light up very well haha. not a very good picture, but we thought our CTR pumpkin turned out pretty good! :)