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

Happy St. Patrick's Day....and Good Bye Iola Kansas!

Hey there!

It's me. Sister Hyer.

So....The time has come. My stay here in iola is coming to an end. It's been an amazing 6 months (holy cow, 6 months?!) filled with many adventures and journeys that have helped me learn and grow. After a while, I was beginning to think I would end my mission here, and leaving only felt like something I'd face when I got on the plane to go home. But the Lord needs me somewhere else....where? I won't know until tomorrow...but I'll go where He needs me to go!

iola has become my home over the past 6 months. I knew I cared about this place and the people here, but saying goodbyes yesterday made me realize how much I truly love them and how wonderful my stay here really has been. I didn't think leaving the area would be this hard...but through many hugs, tears, and 'I love yous', my heart felt a little different than I thought it would.

Reflecting on my journey here in iola, Kansas, I thought I'd share a few things I've learned/experienced over the past 6 months.

while serving in iola, I have:

- met so many incredible people

- experienced Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, my birthday, and Valentine's Day all in one area
- learned to love the country

- met more dogs, horses, chickens, and cows than I thought even existed

- laughed, cried, and made memories that will last forever

- driven a total of 10,000+ miles

- seen oh so many miracles

- learned more about the Gospel than I have my entire life

- had the blessing of being a part of 3 baptisms

- come to understand the importance of member missionary work

- been shaped and refined by trials

- learned the importance of prayer

- realized that I truly "can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13)

And above all else, while serving in iola,

- My faith and testimony have been strengthened. I can truly say with more conviction than ever that I know this Gospel is true. Heavenly Father loves us and has a plan for all of His children. Our savior Lives! Through the power of His infinite Atonement, we can be strengthened and be enabled to do things we would not otherwise be able to do by ourselves. The Gospel was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith and we are lead by a living prophet and apostles in these latter days. The Book of Mormon is true and can help us come closer to our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's all true!

Goodbyes are hard. But I'm truly grateful for the time I've been able to spend here. Iola Kansas will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Here's to the last stretch  of my journey. Onward to wherever the Lord needs me.

I love you all!

Sister Hyer

Service at it's Finest!

Hey ya'all!

Spring is doing it's best to get here in iola. We had a big ice/snow storm that cancelled church again last week. But after that, the sun tried to find it's way here and it actually warmed up a little bit. Hopefully it will stay that way!

A few weeks ago I wrote about a lady in the ward that has had cancer for the past few years...we had visited her and had an incredible experience with her. She had received the news that she was cancer free a few days before we went, and was able to share with us that she believed she was able to endure the cancer so that she could continue share her testimony about the plan of Salvation with others.

Last week she was told that the cancer had returned and that there were additional spots on her liver that could potentially be cancerous. After enduring what she thought was her last round of chemo and thinking she was cancer free, her heart was broken to know her battle wasn't over. In addition to her many health problems, she lost her 13 year old  granddaughter last week in a very tragic car accident. The trials seem to keep piling up in her life.

At the end of last week, she called us and asked if we could come help her clean her house before the funeral. While we were there, she said the only thing she really cared about being done was her kitchen floor. Having cleaned houses for so long, I got right to work, down on my hands and knees. She had left the room for a while, and she came back just as I was finishing the floor...still on  my hands and knees. When she walked in the kitchen she was so surprised....she said: "Oh my goodness, you're on your hands and knees. This floor hasn't been cleaned like that since I started Chemo last year!" As she glanced at the freshly mopped floor, she began to sob. She could barely talk as she said: "This floor has never looked so good. You will never know how much this means to me...."  Then between sobs, she said: "Thank you...so much." Then grabbed me and hugged me like I've never been hugged before. Her gratitude was sincere. I was filled with the kind of joy you can only receive by serving others. I never knew that doing something as simple as cleaning a hardwood floor would mean so much to somebody, and would be able to bring me so much joy.

Saturday was her granddaughter's funeral. We were able to attend and I was asked to say the closing prayer. As I sat there during the service, and especially as I said the prayer, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the knowledge I have of this Gospel. How comforting it is to know that our Heavenly Father loves us enough to allow us to return to live with Him and our families for eternity. 

At the end of the funeral, With tears in her eyes, this sweet, incredible strong woman once again hugged me and thanked me for my service...Although I am simply doing my best to fulfill my purpose as a missionary and deserve no special appreciation or attention, it meant the world knowing I had helped someone in need. I'm not sure who was more grateful--her, for having the help she needed...or me, for having the opportunity to serve her. I am so blessed to be able to serve each and every day and am so grateful for the joy I feel as I do so!

I love you all.

Sister Hyer

exchanges with sister Albrecht. We made cupcakes for our friend!

Our cute cupcakes. baking is part of preaching the Gospel when you're a sister missionary! ;)

picture of a picture...but this is too cool not to share! Since our mission is so geographically small, we were able to get together as an entire mission back around Christmas time...that doesn't happen very often! So our mission president had a photographer come and capture the event. What a good lookin mission! ;)

I couldn't resist sending a picture of this. Evidence that I live in a small town...in the middle of nowhere...with a bunch of awesome farmers. This has been in our fridge for the past 6 months. Yes, your read it right, that does say BarBQ Coon...as in Barbeque Racoon...as in Racoon that has been bottled with BBQ sauce. haha. Oh the life of a missionary!

So Happy on a Sunny PDay!

I've had more slumber parties on my mission than I have had my entire life. haha. This is how we fit 4 sister missionaries in one tiny room. We love sleepovers with the Stanley sisters!

This is a very common view I have from the driver's seat. Love the big Kansas Skies!



Testimony Builders

Hello My dearest friends and family!

This past week we went to visit a member who has been suffering from different types of cancer for almost 4 years. I hadn't really had a chance to get to know her since I got here to iola, so when we got there I said: "Alright, tell me all about you." She laughed at first then began telling us about her life. She joined the church when she was in high school when a group of her friends were all getting baptized. She said she didn't really have a testimony at that point and that she mostly did it to fit in with her friends. But her faith grew over the years and her testimony was strengthened as she lived the gospel. She married a man who wasn't a member, and had 5 kids who she raised in the church, but who had since become inactive. She talked about how she'd stayed strong in the gospel even though there were times when she felt alone. We showed her the Mormon Message from the talk by Elder Holland, 'None Were With Him'. It says:

"Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are. Truly The Redeemer of us all said: “I will not leave you comfortless: [My Father and] I will come to you [and abide with you].”

 I asked her how she's been so faithful, and how she's stayed strong even through her battle with cancer. She said something along the lines of:

"When I first found out that I had cancer, I went into my room and sobbed. As I stood there crying, I felt something touch my hand. This warm feeling radiated through my whole body. I opened my eyes to see what or who it was, and there was no one there. I knew it was the hand of the Lord, and that he was there to comfort me in my time of need. He has never left me. I know it with all my heart." As she told her story, she started crying, and could barely speak as she finished with, "I have a testimony of the plan of salvation. I know it is real. I believe Heavenly Father has helped me through this battle so that I could testify to others of the truthfulness of the Gospel."

With tears in my eyes, I could barely respond. I thought for a minute about what to say... "As missionaries, our purpose is to visit people and uplift them and help them come closer to the Savior, Jesus Christ...but today, I have been uplifted and my testimony has been strengthened. Thank you...for being such an incredible example and testifying of the truthfulness of this Gospel to me and to all those you love."

This made me realize that Heavenly Father as helped me endure my trials not only because He loves me, but so that throughout my life, I can testify of the truthfulness of the Gospel.... It is true! I've said it over and over to all of you, but I'll never back down from my testimony.

I love you all!

Love, Sister Hyer

He Shall be Called

Can you believe the new year is approaching?! This will be my last email on my mission in the year 2013...I better make it good!

Since last week was Christmas, my companion and I were wondering what we could give to our members to show our love and appreciation to them. As a missionary, money, time, and resources are limited, so we were having a hard time coming up with anything. Most of you know that I like to write poetry...so naturally, the only thing I could come up with for a Christmas present was a poem about the Savior. My mom had sent me ornaments for our Christmas tree that had the names of Christ on them, so that had been on my mind the past few weeks. So as I brainstormed what I was going to write, the theme of my poem became the names of our Savior.

He Shall be Called

Our Heavenly Father loves us

So He sent His 'Begotten Son'

'The Creator' of this world

'Jesus Christ', The 'Holy One'

This life will not be easy

We'll be faced with trying tasks

The 'Savior' helps us make it through

till we return to Him at last

The trials begin to make us weak

We reach out-- a desperate call

We must build ourselves upon 'The Rock'

Whereon we shall never fall

A life that's full of darkness

That becomes empty, bleak and dim

Can be filled with 'The Light' of Christ

As we turn our hearts to Him

When our troubles overwhelm us

We are anxious for relief

We must run to Him and feel His love

He is the 'Prince of Peace'

Hearts are often broken

Seemingly far beyond repair

We must seek 'The Great Physician'

He will mend us in His care

A kind and loving 'Shepherd'

Leaves behind the ninety and nine

To bring just one back to the fold

as He seeks them He shall find

We know He's our 'Redeemer'

We'll never walk alone

In our lives He's there to be our guide

And lead us safely home

'The Messiah'--full of mercy

We can't comprehend His love

He gave His life for each of us

Our 'King' and 'Lord' above

We are graven upon His hands

To earth He freely came

Until we're held in His embrace

We will praise His Holy NAME.

The other day at WalMart we walked past a couple, and I heard the man whisper: "hey! Those girls work for Jesus!" I laughed, then realized how true that really is! How great is it that I get to wear a nametag over my heart each and every day that bears His name. It's a constant reminder of who I am here to serve. This is His work!

I love you all so much!

Love, Sister Hyer

December Already?? Thanksgiving REcap

Wait...what? It's December already....what the?! I can't even believe it! Time is flying here in the mish!

Thanksgiving was great! In missionary life, it's not much different than any other day...but it was still good. We spent the morning helping another church serve a Thanksgiving lunch to members of the community that had nowhere to go. It was really rewarding. We met a lot of great people, and the church we helped out was really grateful for our service. People are always so impressed with us and are amazed that we work so hard and choose and pay to be here! I love representing The Church and sharing with others what we do as missionaries!

After that, we went to a family's home for Thanksgiving dinner. It was so great to be with some of the members of the ward and feel at home. :) We ate a ton, then played some football and volleyball. It was a great day!

I've been thinking a lot about life as a missionary lately. And if you think about it, it's kinda crazy. We sort of stick out in public...and people notice us with whatever we're doing. I have to constantly remind myself what and who I represent so I can to my best to be a good example. Sometimes people look at us funny, and I catch people looking at my name tag all the time. (I've been asked if I'm a nun a few times haha) It's great because this often provides us with an opportunity to share the gospel. We are taught to talk with everyone we meet because the Lord places people in our paths who are ready and prepared to hear the Gospel.

This morning was one of those times. While we were doing our laundry at the laundromat, we were studying 'Preach My Gospel' and talking about some principles taught in the lessons. This guy was standing near us, waiting for his clothes to dry. He turns to us and says: "You girls studying for a test or something?" We smiled and told him that we were missionaries and that we were studying the gospel of Jesus Christ. This provided the perfect opportunity to ask about his faith and teach him about the restoration of the Gospel. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and offered him a copy and invited him to read the account of Christ's ministry to the people of the Americas (found in 3 Nephi 11) He said he'd definitely read it and said, as he was leaving: "Thank you. You ladies have a great day. May the Lord bless you...I'll be praying for you."

Who knows if anything will ever come of this simple encounter at the local laundromat...but we were able to plant a seed of truth and invite him to come closer to Christ through the restored Gospel. It reminded me that as members of the church, whether missionaries or otherwise, we must ".....stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in...." even if that place you're in is the laundromat. :)

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Hyer

Our turkey veggie tray! :)

Happy Thanksgiving

The FEAST

Just the coolest missionaries in the M.I.M

We got Elders in our ward! We make a good team! :)

There's this weird meal out here that everyone eats called 'chicken and noodles'.it's a traditional Midwest/Kansas/Missouri dinner. we told our neighbors we'd never tried it, and they FREAKED. So we got a knock on our door thanksgiving night with a few plates of chicken and noodles for us to try. it's basically chicken, noodles and gravy, served over potatoes. Not your typical Thanksgiving dinner, but not too bad!

ATTITUDE is EVERYTHING

Heeeeey! Hope life finds each of y'all happy and well!

It's been a good week here in Albany. We have been struggling lately with things...investigators, members, finding...you name it. It has been so discouraging to work so hard and not see the fruits of our labor. I have had a hard time staying positive, hopeful, and faithful. I just wanted to give up. But because I love the Lord, I haven't. I just keep going. I wake up and say: "OK, it's another day. Let's go give it all we've got." And then we do....but I have a confession: I haven't had the best attitude for the past couple of weeks. All my thoughts have been really negative and I've found myself making negative comments about our investigators, members, and the area we are serving in. I didn't realize how much it was affecting me until I really took a step back and looked at things. When I realized what my attitude was doing, it was like a slap in the face. I realized that those negative thoughts were from Satan...he knew that having a bad attitude would bring me down more than anything else. And he was right.

So one morning, my companion and I talked about how we could be better and be more positive about the work we are doing. We decided that we would not only stop the negative, but we would replace it with positive. Every time we said something negative, we would make ourselves say something positive, that we were grateful for, or something nice about someone else. The first day that we tried this, I cannot even begin to tell you the difference we had in our work. We got home and felt more accomplished than we had in weeks...and the crazy thing was that nothing had really changed--except our attitudes. It was a lot easier to face the discouragement when we were filled with more faith and gratitude! Attitude is everything! in fact, if you add up the letters of attitude...

A=1 T=20 T=20 I=9 T=20 U=21 D=4 E=5...= 100%

Attitude is so much of how our lives turn out. It is 100% if what we make it. We may not be able to control what happens to us, but we CAN control what we do with what happens to us. The only thing that is greater than Attitude is:

L=12 O=15 V=22 E=5        O=15 F=6         G=7 O= 15 D=4    = 101%

The love of God is everything! It can help us overcome anything we face. Combined with a positive attitude, it is the most powerful tool we have in overcoming the adversary!

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Hyer :)

Be a Missionary

Can you believe summer is almost over?! Time is flying faster than ever...I know I say that every week...but I honestly feel like it was just last week I was saying it was my 6 month mark, and now I'm up to 7! I better stop keeping track or the end is going to come too fast. I have to just enjoy every minute of every day!

Miracles are happening around every corner! The members are really enthusiastic to help with those we are teaching and are pretty good to step up and take action when we need them to. Member involvement makes missionary work possible! Our miracle today was a result of just that....

We have been teaching a young girl who is facing some really tough things in her life. She is a single mom of a little 3 year old boy and another on the way. Some unfortunate circumstances left her jobless...so without income she lost her electricity, phone, car, and was close to losing her apartment. Without the means to support him, she decided it would be better for her son to go stay someplace else until she got back on her feet. She only gets to see him once or twice a month. Without a phone and a car she was having a really hard time finding a job. She has strong faith in God, but was feeling very discouraged. We have been doing our best to encourage her as we've taught her the lessons, but she just wasn't grasping the gospel because she couldn't see past her current circumstances. We were praying that something would happen to help her move forward towards baptism.
  
We asked around for local jobs that would be good hours and pay for her situation. In a small town, things are limited...including jobs...so we weren't having much luck. We finally turned to one of the members in our branch. She informed us that there was an opening with the company she worked for, and that if our investigator could get a position that has the same hours as she does, she could ride with her every day to work until she had enough money to get a car. She went in this morning to check things out...got a position...and starts TOMORROW! This was all made possible because a member was willing to reach out and serve someone in need. We talked to this member for a while about everything. She said: "You should have seen how excited she was. She couldn't stop talking about how she would be able to get her son back. We talked about baptism on the way home from her interview. She said she felt scared and nervous...but that it feels right." I was near tears as she shared this experience with us. How incredible it is when members and missionaries work together! We must be united in our efforts, and as we do so, miracles will happen!

I encourage each of you to be doing your part as a member missionary! That doesn't mean you have to go out every single day, knocking on people's doors, giving out hundreds of copies of the Book of Mormon...missionary work can be simple. Have the missionaries over for dinner. Ask them, "what can we do to help you fulfill your missionary purpose? what can we do as a family to help those you are teaching? is there anybody we can fast and pray for?" If you're unable to do that, be a missionary by simply living the gospel valiantly every day. Others will see the light in your life and will have a desire to know what it is that makes it shine! 

This video is from the new section of the Church website, Hastening the Work of Salvation. Take just a few minutes and watch it! We are One in bringing souls unto Christ!

http://bcove.me/mogs3aac

 I love you all! 

Sister Hyer