Lincoln, Nebraska

Hello dearest family!

How I love all of you!  I cannot believe that I have been gone for almost a month and yet this is only my 2nd preparation day!  Weird.  So let me see if I can update you on my life...

Flying was great, I met some really sweet people on the Airplane!  I think Heavenly father was like playing a joke on me... I sat next to an elderly gentleman on both flights and had almost literally the exact same conversation.. like these men almost had the same lives.  It was pretty cool.  The one on my flight to Omaha was from Norway so I thought a lot about Amy. I wish I could have remembered where she is serving right now. But he was really sweet and shared some licorice candy with me.  He told me that the rolling hills of Council bluffs can be my mountains.  He wasn't very interested in the gospel but he wished me luck and was very kind.  I do hope that some day I run into him.  The last thing I told him was that he needed to name his cat.  That was the commitment I left him, so I will have to follow up! (he has a cat with no name!)  So I'm learning how to be a missionary.. I'm not very good at it yet but the lord is here to help.

So we stayed at a hotel in Omaha for 2 nights before we got sent to our areas. We all met at the President's house to open up our letters! It was kinda stressful to stand in front of everyone to announce your new area... mostly because most of us had no idea where any of the areas were anyway so who really knows how to respond?  So I opened my letter and read that my trainer would be Sister Call, and We would be opening a new sisters area in the Lincoln North Zone.  Yippee! Guess what guys... I had NO idea what I was getting into.  My trainer has been out for 3 months so we both have a lot to learn.  I love listening to her, she is an excellent teacher and missionary.  I hope I can become something like her.   Heavenly father must have some plan for us because this is an interesting situation. 

We are sharing an area with the elders so we have to work through our Ward Mission Leader so we don't conflict schedules and such.  Wow... I don't know if any of this makes sense... let me just tell you what I've done the past couple days:

• Decorated for a wedding
• Met a whole lot of new people
• Learned how to navigate Lincoln Nebraska with nothing but a road map... (YIKES!)

Yeah that was my cool accomplishment... haha  be gratefull for your map aps... but seriously Maps aren't that complicated. I've been so proud of myself! But really if anyone desires to send me a GPS for Christmas I wouldn't be offended.

We have a lot of work to do.  We currently don't have a teaching pool so it's hard to fill our schedule.  We mostly have been going to visit less active families.  The work really is changing a lot because President Weston doesn't want us to be finding people he wants us to be teaching referrals from the members. 

This ward really is on fire though, they are ready for mission work, The bishop is so awesome and is so supportive of the missionaries.  We bore our testimonies in Sacrament meeting yesterday... just on a whim because the bishop invited us to.   That was a little bit stressful, but I stayed surprisingly calm. 

It's been interesting working with the Elders... They've been here for a while and we're kind of stomping in their territory so we have to try to play nicely. They're working on remembering that this is the lord's work and we're not there to "steal" their investigators.  We're simply all there to be what the lord needs us to be.

Oh so we are living in a member's family which is fun! We live in the basement of the Katz.  haha Brother Katz's first name is Bob... so he is Bob Katz... Cool right?  They are such a sweet family!  Grandma and Grandpa were asking about some of the ancestry of the people here. I don't know much about people here as a whole but the Katz are from California... Sister Katz is from El Salvador and she was a convert when she was in her 20's I believe.  Brother Katz was also a convert when he was about 20.  They're a really sweet couple.  They have stuffed cats like everywhere.  Haha Sister Katz is a preschool teacher so I feel at home with her.  She is like 4 feet tall and such a sweet heart.   It's so cool to see the sacrifices that the members make for this gospel. 

Yesterday we had desert with a family that was super funny! They decided to walk us to our car and introduce us to all of their neighbors! Talk about being a good member missionary! We have 4 referrals to follow up with just from them.  So here's your commitment:  Will you pray for missionary opportunities? I sure hope the answer is yes.  Just know that I think being a missionary is scary.  But when we build a trust with the members we can be teaching people that they love and care about and it is so much easier to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people you love.  That's what the gospel is. Learning to love like the savior loves.

I am so grateful to you family!  You really have no idea how much I need your love and prayers.  They keep me strong!  I am doing my best to write all of you back but I'm working on the lord's time here, and I have very little time to write.  Oops I also forgot my camera today... So I can't send pictures.  It is a very rainy day here and I'm quite forgeful!

Love you all soo so much! Have a fantastic  last week of July!  Happy Birthday shout out to the one and only Thomas McMaster!  Happy birthday littler brother! I love you soo much!! Have fun being 15!  It's such a good year!  Build your testimony of your  Savior, He loves you so much!  I know that you will be a really good missionary some day if you do :) 

Love you!

Sister McMaster