Be the Example

Well hello my family and friends!

Time is short. But life is good. and that's all that matters, right?

I am LOVING life here in Lee's Summit. The ward is SO happy to have sisters and they are totally spoiling us. The poor elders aren't too thrilled that we're getting all the attention and that our meal calendar filled up faster than theirs did. but they'll get over it....eventually. haha.

Quick story:

My companion and I ventured to the mall last week to do a little shopping (which was weird, by the way. I haven't been to a mall in a YEAR! i've only shopped at walmart for that long. haha.) So while we were there we grabbed some lunch in the food court. We sat down to eat, and before we started we each said a personal prayer over our food. When I raised my head and opened my eyes I caught the eye of a woman sitting across the court from us. I smiled at her and she looked away. We ate our lunch and as we went to leave this woman came up to us. She was from China, so her English was really broken as she said: "when i see you pray, it make me feel so good. i just want to cry." tears filled her eyes and she said: "i just wish my kids be like you. they not make good decisions and I wish they pray like you do." She told us a little more about her family before she went on her way, and that was that. Although our encounter with this woman was short, the warmth in my heart lingered throughout the rest of the day. What a testimony builder of the example we need to be as members because there will always be people who recognize our actions. We are making a difference simply by living the teachings of the Gospel. We truly must "...stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in"

i love you all!

Sister Hyer

TRANSFERS!!! Hello From........

Hey ya'll!

Welp...as Dorothy would say, "I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore!" :)

Hello from Lee's Summit, Missouri!

I am back to civilization....a place with traffic, highways, stores (other than walmart), restaurants, and a ward that fills the entire chapel and has a full primary! It's a wonderful area.

I am currently serving with Sister 'Ita...she's great. Her and I were called to open up a new area in the mission. Since there have been so many missionaries coming out, our mission is getting full. As many of you know, they split the mission last July, cutting our geographic area and missionary count in half...we had about 300 missionaries pre-split, then we ended up with about 150ish after the split. Since then, we have had at least 25 missionaries come out each transfer, with an average of 10 going home. Over the past year, we have grown back up to close to 300 missionaries in the mission, but still only covering half of the geographic area. How incredible. This means a few things: First. the work is hastening. The Lord made the call through His prophet to hasten His work, and the members have responded...the missionary force is ever increasing and to work is moving forward. second. we have to find places to fit all these missionaries!

So we were sent to open an area where sisters haven't ever served before. There are elders here, so we're not alone...but we are the first sisters to be serving in the Lee's Summit 3rd ward! so exciting.

The day of transfers was crazy. I found my companion among the other missionaries and said, "hey. do you know where we're going or what we're supposed to do?" and she replied: "Nope. do you?" haha. So....we found the elders currently serving in our ward, went and picked up a brand new car (never even driven off the lot, had a total of 30 miles on it), keys to a new apartment, and a few copies of The Book of Mormon, and followed a member to our apartment. When we got into our apartment, we just sat down and looked at eachother, wondering what to do. haha. We made a few calls and got right to work. we're starting from ground zero, but it's so exciting.

The members are absolutley thrilled to have sisters here...we have been welcomed with so much love and support, I hardly know what to do with myself! It's cool because the ward was expecting sisters a few months ago, but they said it didn't work out....my companion and I said it didn't work out because we weren't ready to come here yet, and that we were the ones that needed to be sent here. and I truly believe that!

There was a sister who came up to us, with tears in her eyes and said: "I have been praying for you. I've prayed for 2 years for the Lord to send sisters to our ward. My husband is a non-member, and I've always felt like the sister missionaries were the ones that would be able to connect with him. I am so grateful you are here."

And I'm grateful too. What a blessing it is to be here!

Love you all!

Sister Hyer

Oh the Missionary Adventures

(Sorry no Email Last week. Things were Busy)

My dearest family and friends! Hello once again from the middle of nowhere! :) Things up here in Albany are going great. It’s a whole new world up here, let me tell ya! The country life is very different…don’t be surprised if I come converted to the ways of a country gal! :)

 People here have very different struggles. A lot of times by the end of the night, I’m extremely exhausted, feeling like I’ve spent my day in one big therapy session. And in some ways, I have.  People have lost the light that Christ brings into their lives. They feel hopeless and are desperate for peace and someone to talk to. So when they see the tag on our shirt, somehow they trust us from the very beginning and want to tell us everything. I am learning a lot about listening and loving!

So, Adventures as a missionary are inevitable. I’ve learned to expect the unexpected. And I definitely didn’t expect to end up in the emergency room last week! I woke up one morning with a bug bite on my leg. I wasn’t too worried about it—I’ve had my share of them, and I’ve been warned time and time again that the bugs out here are pretty bad. So I went on throughout my day, not thinking much about it. But as the day went on, it started to get worse. My leg started to swell and as people saw it I was told to go get it checked out. I still didn’t care too much about it, until the 3^rd or 4^th person mentioned how bad it looked…I started to think, ‘oh. Maybe it really is worse than I think.’ Haha. So I called the mission nurse, thinking she would tell me to get to the Dr. on Monday after the weekend was over. But I was told to go into the Emergency Room right away. Oh what an adventure! The weather had been dark and gloomy all day and the moment we got into the car to go, it started to downpour. Another detail to our adventure. By the time we got to the ER, we were dripping wet. I expected them to look at the bite, tell me I was fine, and send me home with a cream, pill, or some sort of home remedy. Boy was I wrong! They took a few vials of blood and hooked me up to an IV to get some antibiotics into my bloodstream.  I was there for over 2 hours and was sent home with the IV still in my arm and was asked to come back for the next 2 days to finish the IV antibiotics. So I went to church with and IV stickin out of my arm and have to go back to visit my friends in the ER one more time. What I thought was a small bug bite turned out to be a dramatic missionary adventure! Haha. Oh the life of a missionary! :)

Well, I love you all!

Sister Hyer

Picture Overload:

Picture of my Nasty Bite. And IV's are No Bueno!!

The IV that had to stay in for 3 days!!

We may have played with some of the equipment when the nurses left the room....oops!

A Few other Pictures:

The elders locked their keys in their car...it took 20 elders forever to get it unlocked haha

We went laser tagging with the elders! We are the only sisters in our zone, so it gets a little crazy sometimes. haha 

Me and my companion, sister Grange 

Some of the sisters on transfer day

My cute little friend who would come sit by me in church in my last ward

Me and sister Call just bein weirdos like always :)

Me and sister Zito

Harry Truman was born in Independence, so there's lots of Truman stuff around town

More Truman stuff