Friday, June 23, 2017
But WHY are you a missionary? asked by Keif, from Germany
Okay, so to explain the title. A few weeks ago on the way home from
zone conference, we met this group of foreigners on the train and we
started talking to them and there was this guy named Keif. He started
asking us about the mission life and being Mormon and we were talking
about it and then he asked this question:
But WHY are you a missionary?
I don't know why that took me so off guard. We had been answering his
questions, but he didn't seem to understand WHY we were here. And then
I started to think about it more. Why am I a missionary? And then this
came to my mind:
"I am here because I desire with all my heart to follow my Master,
Jesus Christ. I yearn to do all that He asks of me in this great
cause. I hunger to be edified by the Holy Spirit and hear the voice of
God as He speaks through His ordained servants. I am here to become a
better [wo]man, to be lifted by the inspiring examples of my brothers
and sisters in Christ, and to learn how to more effectively minister
to those in need.
In short, I am here because I love my Heavenly Father and His Son,
Jesus Christ." (Priesthood and Personal Prayer April 2015)
I am here because I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I am
here because I know that this message is true and that it can bring a
perfect joy into our lives. I am here because this gospel brings
blessings beyond compare.
I don't know why I decided to write this all out and share it, but it
really touched me and I realized again for myself why I am here.
My challenge to you is if you don't know why you are where you are,
ask. Search. Pray. And find out why you're here. God has a perfect
plan. Ask Him about it. He will reveal all things that He sees fit to
reveal. He is perfect. And you are worth His time.
Speaking of time, Meise is on the countdown! 4 days until her baptism,
zone conference, we met this group of foreigners on the train and we
started talking to them and there was this guy named Keif. He started
asking us about the mission life and being Mormon and we were talking
about it and then he asked this question:
But WHY are you a missionary?
I don't know why that took me so off guard. We had been answering his
questions, but he didn't seem to understand WHY we were here. And then
I started to think about it more. Why am I a missionary? And then this
came to my mind:
"I am here because I desire with all my heart to follow my Master,
Jesus Christ. I yearn to do all that He asks of me in this great
cause. I hunger to be edified by the Holy Spirit and hear the voice of
God as He speaks through His ordained servants. I am here to become a
better [wo]man, to be lifted by the inspiring examples of my brothers
and sisters in Christ, and to learn how to more effectively minister
to those in need.
In short, I am here because I love my Heavenly Father and His Son,
Jesus Christ." (Priesthood and Personal Prayer April 2015)
I am here because I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I am
here because I know that this message is true and that it can bring a
perfect joy into our lives. I am here because this gospel brings
blessings beyond compare.
I don't know why I decided to write this all out and share it, but it
really touched me and I realized again for myself why I am here.
My challenge to you is if you don't know why you are where you are,
ask. Search. Pray. And find out why you're here. God has a perfect
plan. Ask Him about it. He will reveal all things that He sees fit to
reveal. He is perfect. And you are worth His time.
Speaking of time, Meise is on the countdown! 4 days until her baptism,
people!! I AM SO STOKED. Y'all are in my prayers.
Con amore,
Sorella Meager
Con amore,
Sorella Meager
Friday, June 9, 2017
1 YEAR + 1 week
I barely mentioned it at the end of my email last week. But I hit my ONE YEAR mark June 1st!! I ate Gelato, burned a tie and cried a little. I don't know where the time has gone, but in the past year, I've managed to:
• Eat Gelato
• Play sand volleyball so. many. times.
• Meet some of my very best friends and my twin (Bacher)
• Serve in 2 cities
• Have 4 companions
• Learn some Italian (lol still not perfect at it)
• Choke on lemonade and pizza and just about everything because of laughing too hard
• Get rejected 100000x
• Serve people 24/7
• Laugh until I cry
• Miss 1000 buses and trains
• Flip over my handle bars twice
• Fall down too many times
• Eat way too much food
• Get rejected
• Learn phrases in different dialects
• Eat Gelato some more
• Meet tons of people and their dogs
• Be humbled over and over and over
• See miracles big and small everyday
• Get pooped on by many a birds
• Fall asleep everywhere
• Meet people from almost every nation on the earth
• Embarrass myself (not new, it's been happening since 1997)
• Lose myself in the work
It's never easy being a missionary, but it's so worth it in the end.
Thanks for the prayers and support.
Love y'all,
Sorella Meager
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it
• Eat Gelato
• Play sand volleyball so. many. times.
• Meet some of my very best friends and my twin (Bacher)
• Serve in 2 cities
• Have 4 companions
• Learn some Italian (lol still not perfect at it)
• Choke on lemonade and pizza and just about everything because of laughing too hard
• Get rejected 100000x
• Serve people 24/7
• Laugh until I cry
• Miss 1000 buses and trains
• Flip over my handle bars twice
• Fall down too many times
• Eat way too much food
• Get rejected
• Learn phrases in different dialects
• Eat Gelato some more
• Meet tons of people and their dogs
• Be humbled over and over and over
• See miracles big and small everyday
• Get pooped on by many a birds
• Fall asleep everywhere
• Meet people from almost every nation on the earth
• Embarrass myself (not new, it's been happening since 1997)
• Lose myself in the work
It's never easy being a missionary, but it's so worth it in the end.
Thanks for the prayers and support.
Love y'all,
Sorella Meager
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Be realistic.. Expect miracles
It was a good week.
We had a million miracles, so I'm just gonna list off a few and some
other good stuff that happened:
1. We gave a church tour to Daniele (more about him at the end) and
Silvana and the last room we went to was the genealogy room. We
explained a little bit about it and how important we know the family
is and she seemed to light up. Little did we know, Silvana and her
husband are obsessed with genealogy! She has an entire excel
spreadsheet with all the families names and information on her
computer. So, we turned on the computer and started showing her
familysearch.org and then we got a member and he came in and we looked
up her dad's name and did some research and we're going to start
working with her and her husband on their genealogy.
2. This one is a smaller one. We have been trying to set an
appointment with the puppy family forever and we finally got ahold of
them and they said we could meet them Monday night, but we had an
appointment with members set up for Monday night already. But DURING
THE PHONE CALL, the members texted and canceled so then we could meet
with the family!! Tender mercies.
3. I had a feeling to take banana bread with us to do a pass by. (Not
normal because usually people a. Aren't home or b. Don't want to meet
with us) BUT I brought the banana bread. Long story short: the lady
was home and she was SO excited for the banana bread because she said
she hadn't received treats from the missionaries in more than 6
years!!
4. A member couple took us out for pizza (from Napoli aka the best)
and afterwards to Gelato and it was literally the best Gelato I've
ever had. Also, it was peanut butter flavor so double score. (Random
fact: for the past 2 nights, our apartment has smelled like peanut
butter when we came home. We don't have any peanut butter in the
apartment. So either our noses are crazy or someone is breaking into
our apartment, eating peanut butter, and then leaving.)
5. I have been trying to meet with this less active member since I got
here (4 months ago) and we finally got to meet her Sunday night, for
dinner, with her family!! (Miracle in and of itself). And we shared a
Mormon Message at the end and you could seriously feel the Spirit so
strongly in the room and they were all so excited and they invited us
to come back next Sunday for dinner again! We're bringing brownies
this time ;)
6. Back to Daniele, we had a lesson with him last night and it was one
of the best lessons I've ever experienced. We taught about the
Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the coolest
experience because I felt like I wasn't even the one talking, I felt
like the Spirit just took over and touched his heart. At the end of
the lesson, we invited him to be baptized July 8th and all he asked
was, "What time?" Scoooorreee. He's getting baptized July 8th at
19:00. And I'm so stoked for him. Best decision.
We had stake conference this past weekend and I want to end with a
quote that was read during it by Elder Phillips:
"The Atonement, which can reclaim each one of us, bears no scars. That
means that no matter what we have done or where we have been or how
something happened, if we truly repent, He has promised that He would
atone. And when He atoned, that settled that. There are so many of us
who are thrashing around, as it were, with feelings of guilt, not
knowing quite how to escape. You escape by accepting the Atonement of
Christ, and all that was heartache can turn to beauty and love and
eternity." (Boyd K. Packer April 2015)
I just want to leave my testimony of the power of the Atonement. It is
real. It heals all wounds. There is nothing you can do to outrun the
healing and comfort of the love of our Father in Heaven and Jesus
Christ. His Atonement is infinite. His love unending. Of this I know.
Con amore,
Sorella Meager
Also, HAPPY year mark tomorrow to me!
We had a million miracles, so I'm just gonna list off a few and some
other good stuff that happened:
1. We gave a church tour to Daniele (more about him at the end) and
Silvana and the last room we went to was the genealogy room. We
explained a little bit about it and how important we know the family
is and she seemed to light up. Little did we know, Silvana and her
husband are obsessed with genealogy! She has an entire excel
spreadsheet with all the families names and information on her
computer. So, we turned on the computer and started showing her
familysearch.org and then we got a member and he came in and we looked
up her dad's name and did some research and we're going to start
working with her and her husband on their genealogy.
2. This one is a smaller one. We have been trying to set an
appointment with the puppy family forever and we finally got ahold of
them and they said we could meet them Monday night, but we had an
appointment with members set up for Monday night already. But DURING
THE PHONE CALL, the members texted and canceled so then we could meet
with the family!! Tender mercies.
3. I had a feeling to take banana bread with us to do a pass by. (Not
normal because usually people a. Aren't home or b. Don't want to meet
with us) BUT I brought the banana bread. Long story short: the lady
was home and she was SO excited for the banana bread because she said
she hadn't received treats from the missionaries in more than 6
years!!
4. A member couple took us out for pizza (from Napoli aka the best)
and afterwards to Gelato and it was literally the best Gelato I've
ever had. Also, it was peanut butter flavor so double score. (Random
fact: for the past 2 nights, our apartment has smelled like peanut
butter when we came home. We don't have any peanut butter in the
apartment. So either our noses are crazy or someone is breaking into
our apartment, eating peanut butter, and then leaving.)
5. I have been trying to meet with this less active member since I got
here (4 months ago) and we finally got to meet her Sunday night, for
dinner, with her family!! (Miracle in and of itself). And we shared a
Mormon Message at the end and you could seriously feel the Spirit so
strongly in the room and they were all so excited and they invited us
to come back next Sunday for dinner again! We're bringing brownies
this time ;)
6. Back to Daniele, we had a lesson with him last night and it was one
of the best lessons I've ever experienced. We taught about the
Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the coolest
experience because I felt like I wasn't even the one talking, I felt
like the Spirit just took over and touched his heart. At the end of
the lesson, we invited him to be baptized July 8th and all he asked
was, "What time?" Scoooorreee. He's getting baptized July 8th at
19:00. And I'm so stoked for him. Best decision.
We had stake conference this past weekend and I want to end with a
quote that was read during it by Elder Phillips:
"The Atonement, which can reclaim each one of us, bears no scars. That
means that no matter what we have done or where we have been or how
something happened, if we truly repent, He has promised that He would
atone. And when He atoned, that settled that. There are so many of us
who are thrashing around, as it were, with feelings of guilt, not
knowing quite how to escape. You escape by accepting the Atonement of
Christ, and all that was heartache can turn to beauty and love and
eternity." (Boyd K. Packer April 2015)
I just want to leave my testimony of the power of the Atonement. It is
real. It heals all wounds. There is nothing you can do to outrun the
healing and comfort of the love of our Father in Heaven and Jesus
Christ. His Atonement is infinite. His love unending. Of this I know.
Con amore,
Sorella Meager
Also, HAPPY year mark tomorrow to me!
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