I Love Chico

I love Chico, I love being a missionary, and I love my companion and time is going by SO FAST! It seriously won't slow down, this week was CRAZY fast. 

This week was fun, I don't have a lot of time so you get the highlight reel.... sorry. 

We were able to help one of the members of our ward with their goats! They have about 30-40 goats and we helped them take blood from them, clip their hooves, feed the 2 week old baby goats, and clean out stalls it was a lot of fun! Sister Housley got tackled by a goat named Sir Lancelot hahaha it was SO FUNNY. I found out this week that she is afraid of goats. I really love service!

We set a baptismal date with Lexi! She is getting baptized on January 25th and she still needs some TLC but she will get there, please keep her in your prayers she really needs them! 

Wendy is getting baptized this Friday on January, 10th I am so excited :) She is so ready and she is doing sooooo well! We won't be able to attend because she is getting baptized in San Diego but she is really great and I am so blessed to be able to be friends with her, I love her! 

This is really short I am sorry, but something I learned this week is not to judge. In 2 Nephi 21:3 - 4

it says, "[Christ] shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge" We are so quick to judge people as human beings and I can't think of how many times I have heard something about someone and automatically judged them because of what I heard, and I don't even know them! Or I have looked at someones appearance and judged them, I have learned this week that I need to look on a persons heart, like Christ and help them feel the love that Christ has for them. Who am I to judge anyone when I am SO VERY imperfect? That is a goal of mine this week, to not judge others and to share the Gospel with everyone regardless of what they might look like. 

I miss you all! Have a great week, sorry this is supper short and brief. Adios! 

Every day had its dawn just like every rose has its thorn

This week was hard, but I have learned so much! 

First Sister Housley my new comp is awesome! I love serving with her, she is so ready to work and we have already seen many miracles. 

However, this week was really hard. As you all know Tara had a baptismal date for this past Friday. She cancelled very last minute, literally the font was filled and people were there to support her and feel the spirit. She still wants to get baptized but her mom is very against her getting baptized. I know her mom loves her and wants what is best for her but needless to say, I was FRUSTRATED. I kept asking God, "WHY is this happening? Tara was so prepared!!! She was so excited to get baptized!!! So why is this happening?" I was worried that Tara would stop coming to church, which she didn't she is still wanting to get baptized but she is going to wait until she is financially dependent, and I was worried that the people in our ward who have come to love her would be disappointed, but that didn't happen either :). Then I was just overwhelmed with feeling like, I am not capable of helping people progress in the Gospel, I haven't had one baptism in the past 8 months and I was feeling sorry for myself, I told God that I didn't know if I could do this anymore. I got a blessing and in the blessing it promised me that Tara would get baptized and that God was going to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings upon me for enduring my trials, after my blessing I really felt the love of God and knew that He was in charge and that He was going to help me. Then I read in my personal study this morning in the new testament in the book of John in chapter 15 verse 2, "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruti, he purgeth (try prove, test, purify) it, that it may bring forth more fruit." Then I realized something, God is preparing me for something better, He is allowing me to go through trials and to face hardship because He loves me and He is helping me become better. I am not a failure, I am good enough and He does love me! God loves all of his Children but sometimes in order to help us become better He has to allow us to struggle even though it is probably hard for Him to watch us struggle  because He loves us and He wants us to be happy. I might not receive blessings for the trials I am facing on my mission I may not receive them in this life but I know that God keeps his promises and He promised me that at some point Tara will get baptized, and that He is going to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings upon me. God answers prayers and keeps His promises I know He does. 

Some of you might be thinking, why do you care so much if Tara get's baptized? I want you all to know, I love Tara so much! She is amazing and I have come to love her so much and I know that the only way for her to receive Joy in this life and joy in the life to come is to get baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God and to live faithfully to the covenants or promises she has made with God and so that I can see her in the afterlife in the Celestial Kingdom! I love being on my mission even if I did cry in front of the whole ward this week at Tara's baptism or lack of Baptism. 

God is in charge and He love's all of you! Put your trust in Him and you will NEVER fail! 

I love you ALL!!! Merry Christmas! 

Love Sister Lyman

Good Morning Snowey California

So this week it snowed, it literally snowed in California. It is the first time it has snowed for a long time in Chico so I think I am just bad luck, but it didn't stick and it only lasted for about 30 minutes. But it is VERY cold! Other than that this week has been amazing! I have once again been reminded of how much God loves me and how I cannot do anything without Him. 

First off I had a pretty embarrassing moment this week. So I have almost been out on my mission for 8 months and I didn't realize how AWKWARD I am until this week. We were having dinner with a family. The husband is a recent convert so he is still trying to figure out all the weird customs of the church, one of them being not hugging sister missionaries. So I go to shake his wives hand and then I realized I could hug her so I say, "Oh I can hug you." So we hug and then I go to shake her husbands (Phil) hand and he is making the motion to hug me, just some background information my ward mission leader always pretends like he is going to hug me and I have gotten use to him pretending to hug me, so I for some reason think that Phil is going to just pretend hug me and then I realize he is actually going to hug me and I freaked out! I shouted at him "I CAN'T HUG YOU!" and somehow ducked under his arm and ended up behind him. Everyone got really quiet and stared at me for a second and then they just started laughing, then Phil say's, "It's like I am Satan or something, you were so scared!" haha it was so embarrassing! So sister Paul, my comp, thought it would be good to tell a couple of guys in the singles ward on Sunday so after church a couple of guys from the singles ward kept pretending they were going to hug me and it was making me SO nervous. I am going to be so AWKWARD when I get home, Dad I don't know if I am going to be able to hug you haha because I still have 10 more months to get even more awkward and uncomfortable around guys, it's great. 

On exchanges this week I went to Paradise, California which is also known as the place where everyone smokes pot. So we were going to see this guy Matt who is also a Christian rapper whose rapper name is Disciple. We pull up to this guy Disciple's house and his neighbor keeps looking out his window and then he comes outside and when we get out of the car he says "nice car" he was kind of sketch looking, but we go talk to him anyway and tell him we are missionaries and we share a message about Christ etc., he says, "Well if you will listen to my religion I will listen to yours" at which point he goes inside his house and we wait for him to come back. He comes out of his house with a GIANT bag of weed and says, "This is my religion do you agree with this?" the sister I am with doesn't say anything so I say, "No we don't" and he says "You shouldn't discriminate" I told him, "We don't discriminate we know that Heavenly Father loves everyone and that He loves you, however, we also know that there are certain standards that God expects us to maintain." to which he responds, "Well I know Heavenly Father loves that."(pointing to his marijuana) it was pretty funny I was dying! But we met a guy on that street named Bruce who is a raiders fan and who is going to read the Book of Mormon so we were there for a purpose and it was a great day, even though it was FREEZING the whole time. 

But let's get to the spiritual stuff.  

We had a lot of success this week, we had 6 people come to church that we have been teaching and during Sunday School Kathy, a girl we just barley met, asked Ian (a guy in the singles ward), "How long does it take to get baptized?" She is really prepared and you can tell she has just been searching for something more in her life and that she really want's to do God's will. 

We also have a baptism on Friday for Tara! She has overcome a lot of opposition and her family still isn't 100 percent supportive but she has gotten to the point where she knows this is what God needs her to do and she is so excited to make those covenants (promises) with God. It is amazing! Once again I have come to realize that even though I do have weaknesses that God is going to make up for what I lack. He hasn't asked me to come out and be perfect and just all the sudden not have any weaknesses, He has only asked that I do my very best and He will make up the rest. I talked with my mission president, President Weston who I am pretty positive will be an apostle one day, about some of the things I have been struggling with lately, not big things just little things that make me feel inadequate, but He just told me that God loves me and trusts me and He needs me to do this work and that He has put me in the calling I am in because He knows I am capable of fulfilling my calling, well by myself I wouldn't be able to do anything, but with God I can do all things.  I was just so happy this week and nothing HUGE or crazy happened I just felt joy and happiness. I love a scripture in the Book of Mormon in the Book of Ether, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." I might have already told everyone this at the beginning of my mission but I love this scripture because it shows that when our weaknesses are being exposed it means we are coming closer to Christ. I love my mission! I love my Savior. 

We had transfers this week and sister Paul is leaving, she is going to the south part of my mission. Sister Housley is coming to serve with me and she is awesome, she came out with me and I think we are going to get along great I am excited. But I will miss Sister Paul I have learned a lot from her. 

Love you ALL!!! Sorry this is super long. But I hope you have a great week! 

17 or 60?

This week was good. I love me some thanksgiving! Especially awkward thanksgiving meals with people that I don't really know that well, they are the best, seriously. Some background information, we don't go to the last meeting (which is relief society) in our family congregation on Sundays because we have a meeting at the same time and we found out that a couple of ladies in our ward got in an argument about who was going to have us over for dinner for thanksgiving that day. Eventually we told both women that we would come over to both of their houses and everything was solved. So come Thanksgiving Day, for the first half of the day we did some service for a family that I love! They were installing some flooring since that was the only few days the dad had off and we were able to help them with that--there is nothing better than service! I love doing service!!!! Then we went to dinner at the smith's home and they had an 85 year old woman over for dinner and she kept talking about what great shape she was in and how she could do anything those 60 year olds can do. Then she pointed at me and said, "I swear I can do anything you can do!" She made a few other comments that alluded to the fact that she thought I was 60 years old. Come to find out a little later she has a bit of Alzheimers but it was hilarious my companion and I were dying. Earlier that week though a girl asked me if I was 17 years old. So I think that evens about to 21. Then we went to the next house, the Castro's, and I don't think they remembered we were coming over because there wasn't enough room for us to sit at the table and we had to sit in the corner hahaha it was pretty awkward but we were able to talk to a couple of people there about the Gospel who aren't religious and don't go to church so that was worth all the awkwardness in the world! 

I really gained a testimony of the power of fasting this week. I woke up on Sunday morning and had  a strong feeling that I needed to fast for Tara, one of the girls we are teaching, she is 21 and she was going home for thanksgiving to tell her family that she was getting baptized on December 13th and her mom is very very against that decision. So I woke up feeling like I needed to fast for her but I decided that I would fast on Monday instead. Later Sunday afternoon we got a message from Tara that said her mom doesn't want her to get baptized and she might have to push her baptismal date back. I immediately regretted not fasting but knew that God would make up for my shortcomings and I committed to fast the next day. Monday I fasted and nothing new happened, we didn't hear from Tara we didn't get any wonderful news about her mom having a change of heart but I knew that God would take care of everything. So Tara got home and we met with her on Saturday and she told us, "I told my mom and her first initial reaction was, 'if you get baptized I am not paying for your schooling anymore and I really don't want you to get baptized and I do not approve of this etc.' but then the next day, the day I fasted or maybe the day after, Tara's mom told her, "I overreacted, if you really want to get baptized then I will support you and still pay for your schooling but I want you to make sure that this is really what you want to do" FASTING REALLY WORKS!!! I know that God prompts us to do things that require sacrifice, like fasting, and when we follow through in faith he ALWAYS blesses us. Tara is still getting baptized the 13th and she is so excited, she has come really far. I know that this is the greatest work in the world, I am so blessed that I am able to participate in this work. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love my Savior and I am so grateful for the sacrifices he made for me so that I can return to live with him and my Heavenly Father again. I love you all! I hope you all had a great thanksgiving and you were able to focus on being grateful rather than all the black Friday madness, I might have just called some of you out, sorry that is what missionaries do. I love ya! 

Hello Beautiful People!

Highlight of the week--not eating desserts!!!! We gave up desserts so that Tara a girl we are teaching can give up Coffee and it has been great she is doing really well with not drinking coffee and she is on track to get baptized December 13th!!!! 

Another humbling week haha I feel like I am just constantly being reminded of how much I need to improve BUT I love having this opportunity to really look at myself and the things that I need to do better. 

I have been feeling like I can't be myself lately. Being with someone 24/7 is VERY taxing and I have been going crazy because I just want to be myself but I don't know how. Sister Paul is great but we think very differently and we are both very competitive so we are constantly trying to show each other up it seems and it is not healthy. So at the beginning of this week I was sick of being with her truth be told and I was so excited to go on exchanges! So I went on exchanges with a Sister who has been having a really hard time, one of her friends back home just died and she has really been struggling with that. So we had a really good day, she is really funny and just super easy to get along with. So we had a really great day and I was not looking forward to going back to my companion, and I wasn't very gracious because I think my companion could tell but I didn't really care because in my mind my companion thought I was inadequate and didn't really think I was good enough. So in the mission field  we have this amazing awkward conversation called companion inventory. It is where you sit down with your companion and tell them everything that has been weighing on your mind about them, you also tell them their strengths and what you like about them. So this week my companion and I sit down to do companion inventory and she started crying and said that I have been making her feel like she isn't doing anything and that she isn't a good missionary. I felt awful I felt absolutely terrible that I was making her feel badly about herself so I need to change that I need to be a better more Christ like person. If anyone has any ideas on how I can do that, please let me know asap. 

As we go out and preach the good word to people we see a lot of people that are struggling and that don't really have anything and I always wonder, "why do I have so much? Why have I been so blessed?" especially with having the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life because I would be so lost without an understanding of the atonement and my Savior. I really increased my testimony of the reality that people can change through the atonement of Jesus Christ this week. I was reading in the Book of Mormon Mosiah 27:25-26 and it says, "Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, chagned from their carnal and falled state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God becoming his sons and daughters; and thus they become new creatures." ALL of us have weaknesses we all sin, we all have temptation but we can overcome those weaknesses and truly change through the atonement of Christ. Then I read in Alma 5:33 "Christ sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you." No matter times how many times we have sinned how many times we have struggled we will be forgiven God loves all of us not just some of us and I love that!!! I don't know how He loves all of us because I meet some people and I just don't know how to love them but I know that as I come closer to Christ I will be able to love everyone and accept everyone for the person that they are. I love you all I miss you all tons! I hope you are doing well and that you know that God loves you and so does Jesus Christ, don't ever think you aren't good enough. Sorry this got double spaced I don't know what happened. 

Week full of service

This is going to be short. Sorry I have been distracted doing other things. This week has been one full of service which I love so that was a blessing. We were able to help this organization called Project Save. They send medical supplies all over the world for people who are poor and live in really awful circumstances. Eleven other missionaries and I helped load a whole semi truck full of medical supplies and it was really rewarding. The coolest part though was the guy who was in charge is from Nigeria and his uncle was the first Nigerian to take the missionary discussions in Nigeria and he helped establish the church there and was the first Bishop and the first Stake President in Nigeria. How cool is that!? It was really awesome to hear how the Gospel has affected his family and all of Nigeria. We were also able to rip out some old linoleum for a part member family. I love service! I love being able to serve others and help them out in some small way. We should all get out and serve this week! I love you all and I know this church is true I know that Jesus Christ is the way to find true happiness and peace. He lives and He loves all of us, even if we aren't perfect. Have a great week!

Two is better than one, three is company

This week was... interesting. We had one of our sisters in the zone go home early because she was sick (my trainer sister stanfield) so we had another sister with us this week, Sister Perkins, she is a great Sister and we had a lot of fun but being with three people all week is somewhat overwhelming. One of us was grumpy almost at all times and needless to say there was some crying that I was of course uncomfortable with. But this week I was really feeling like I just wanted some alone time, and then I was feeling like I just really wanted to be around people who loved me and I loved them. I know my companion loves me, and I love her. The people in the ward are great and I really enjoy them but to them I am just another missionary and I am temporary. So needless to say I was feeling like I just really wanted to be around my family, or someone who isn't forced to be with me 24/7 and learn to love me. So I just prayed a lot this week that I would be able to feel God's love more in my life and rely on that to get me through that week, it didn't work haha I didn't feel ANY extra love all week I was getting desperate so I said a prayer that went something like this, "Heavenly Father I know you are aware of me, I know you love me but I really need something more, I am really struggling right now and I just need one of those moments that helps me know that you are looking out for me." later that day I got on Facebook to do some online proselyting and I had a message from April Baird, who is my favorite person from Rocklin and was my saving grace there and it said. "I am going to be in Chico for work this weekend! Where is church and what time is it? I want to come see you." So yesterday at church on her lunch break she came and said hi to me and gave me a hug and later today I am going to lunch with her. I can't tell you how good it was to see someone who genuinely loves me and wanted to see me.  God answers prayers, I could have made it through the rest of my week without getting that physical witness that God is still aware of me, but because He loves me and He cares about me and He wants me to be happy He showed me that He is ultimately in charge and He is always going to take care of me. I am not complaining I really am doing well and I am still loving my mission just in case any of you are starting to worry about me.... don't worry i'm cool. 

We officially set a date this week with Tara for December 13th and she told her step dad which is a HUGE step because her family is very against her getting baptized. God is answering her prayers too because her step dad said that he would support her and that he wants her to be happy and if this is what makes her happy he will do everything he can to lessen the family drama. God answers prayers!!!! If there is one thing I have learned on my mission so far it is that God is so aware of me and all those around me. He loves every single one of us because we are His children and He wants us to be successful and happy. That is why He has given us commandments. For example, in the word of wisdom we are told not to drink alcohol, or strong drink this commandment seems very unreasonable for many people but for the person who becomes an alcoholic after drinking one time this commandment is a saving grace, they will never have to battle alcholism if the adhere to that commandment. God is merciful and loving. I know this because I am less than perfect, I have so many different weaknesses and I know that everyday I do something that isn't exactly in line with God and I think to myself, "ah crap not again! Why do I keep messing up? I am so HUMAN" and I know Heavenly Father is thinking, "Wow look at all the good that Melissa did today, everyday she is getting better and she is trying to overcome all of her weaknesses. I am so proud of her, I love her so much." I know that is true for all of you, regardless of where you are at in your life. Heavenly Father is proud of you. Don't give up, keep trying. This video is called Good things to come and its from a conference talk that Elder Jeffery R Holland gave and I love it! I rely on it's message all the time.  /video/mormon-messages?v=911029449001  I love you all! Keep trying to be better everyday, I will be doing the same.