Monday, September 30, 2013

Fall in Lincoln!

Good Morning Sweet Family!

How are you all doing this fine day??  Are you loving the sunshine as much as I am??  I hope so!  Fall in Nebraska is incredible, the corn is all yellow now and being harvested, the days are fantastically cool and sunshiney and it is amazing.  I am falling in love with this place, someday you all need to come here because It is awesome! 

So this week was a good one, and then we had the Relief Society broadcast and it was like a cherry on top!   Sister Schrader and I are working with so many Less Actives, that is our goal to find all of these lost sheep.  We see miracles happen as people's lives begin to change!  Have I told you about the sweet lady we're working with named Deanna?  She has made so much progress in coming back to church!  She is the best, she has a huge dog named Tonka.  I met her when I was Sister Call, so it's been a few months of seeing her each week, but  I know she is making more efforts to read the Book of Mormon, and she has been coming to church again and it is like the change of the seasons, she is changing colors like the leaves on the trees, she is becoming warm and sunshiney.  I love her so much.  I love all the people here actually.  It was cool to be at the Broadcast on Saturday night and to feel so much love for the people of this ward.  I didn't know that you could love people so much!  Only a few months ago they were like complete strangers and here I am loving them so much and praying for them and hoping that they will  continue to seek happiness. 

This morning in my studying I read a talk by President Monson about having Joy in the Journey.  It was so inspiring. I think that is why I'm so happy right now!  I was reminded of something I learned in the MTC, that you have to have favorite things to remind you to be grateful everyday!   Did I ever tell you I have a favorite light switch?  At the Katz house there is a switch at the top of the stars that has a painted cat thing... I'll send a picture... haha And it is my favorite light switch.  Every time I see it I am reminded to be grateful for such a wonderful home to live in with sweet members that take such good care of me.  Brother Katz bought a keyboard from good will a few weeks ago because he knows how much I love the piano, it was the sweetest thing ever.   He is so sweet to us.  And Sister Katz has been coming with us to find people!  It's been awesome, she speaks Spanish so she helps us when we run into people that don't speak English. (did I tell you I tried to speak Spanish to someone? haha I told them who I was in Spanish (I forgot to say "Saint" so I was just a missionary from the church of Jesus Christ of Later Day...)  Then I tried to tell her about the book of Mormon... wow I know zero Spanish...  I tried to say well here take this book... and then I realized it was in English anyway so it was not even of any value to her... yup it was a complete fail.   Sister Schrader and I like died of laughter after that... haha the lord recognizes our efforts I hope no matter how pathetic they may be :))




I wish I had more time to write but it runs out fast here at the Lincoln library (I got a new library card today! yay)  But remember to have joy in the journey.  Remember that everyday is a good day if you let it be, remember that everyday is a gift, it is an opportunity to smile and share your happiness with the world.  I hope you know family that I am savoring my time as a missionary, so savor your time doing whatever you are doing.  Don't ever endure life... we must enjoy it :)  ENJOY TO THE END!   

I love you all so very much!  Keep Choosing the right!!

Love Always,

Sister McMaster



Monday, September 23, 2013

Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Hello family! 
haha.  That song is stuck in my  head this morning as I stare at the keyboard thinking of some inspiring thing to write... Hahaha Natalie keeps telling me I'm changing peoples lives or something via a blog that I have never seen.. so now I am getting like stage fright... ... Do you tie 'em in a knot? do you tie 'em in a bow?  What does that song even mean. Does anyone even know?? 
So anyway.  I have had quite a week.  I love being a missionary.  I am catching the vision of what it means to put your whole heart into the work and I am loving it.   Sister Schrader and I have a different relationship than Sister Call and I had, but who ever said different was a bad thing?   I love that God knows each of his children and he knows exactly what they need at exactly the right moments in their lives. 


I love Sister Schrader!

                  


Doing our nails with awesome members in Pioneer ward! (my companion is obsessed with mustaches..)


I was thinking last night about how I have been prepared to be a missionary.  I remembered a moment way back years ago when I was a wee 15 year old going to an apartment complex with my lovely friend Claiborne (who should write me a letter about her child that she now has even though she's busy...)  and going to the members that lived there and asking them to help  with the YW fundraiser.  I remember feeling scared out of my mind to knock on people's doors, yet we did it because we were asked to.  And people ended up being reasonably nice and what not, actually I maybe don't even remember how they reacted.   But then again years later I got to go on visits to people in the ward with the Relief Society president and how that wasn't as scary, but it was a growing experience.  I remember being with the lovely Jessica Page, to one of the first doors we went to after having prayed, and no one answered.  Yet standing their on the porch I felt so powerfully that Heavenly Father was grateful for my efforts.  He knew that I was doing my best to do his work and he was grateful for my efforts.  Now as a missionary I am doing the same thing that I did when I was 15, yet now I have learned to rely on the lord.  I have learned that when you have faith that a door will open, it often times does.  Haha reminds me of when we say family prayer and I always think really hard(exercising my faith) that Dad will call on Sarah... and he does.  haha Sorry Soap.   
So sorry for that random tangent.  Basically It is amazing to me how divinely laid out the plan of our father in heaven is.  I was reading in 1 Nephi 14 this morning and it prophecies about the world and how it is being constantly prepared for the coming of the lord.  In the same way the lord is constantly preparing us.  We are being prepared for something beyond what we can imagine.  As I realize that little moments in my life were preparing me for a mission I can only imagine what things in life a mission is preparing me for in the future. 
So just as heavenly father has prepared me to be here, he has also prepared people here to meet me, or any missionary really.  Yesterday we met a woman who is on the rolls but no one seems to know anything about her.  We found her humble home using sister Schrader's GPS (she has one!?!)  I was so tired and didn't want to think so we GPSed it.   But we met her and she looked so sad and lonely.  She needs to be reminded of the happiness she once had in life.  She is a lost sheep. We shared some scriptures with her and prayed with her (It is amazing how the spirit guides your words when you pray for people, so powerful)   I know that we didn't necessarily change her life yesterday, but I know heavenly father wanted us to find her.  He wanted her to know that she was remembered.  I pray that we will be able to work with her (Susan)  and help her come back to the fold. 
Missionary work is the best.  Keep being examples and loving those around you.  I love you family, I love all that you each have taught me just from being you.   I know you have each influenced me and helped me to be prepared to be where I am today.  I hope that as you go about your days that you walk with faith!  Don't let you ears hang low, walk tall and be believing.  (we could probably count that as today's miracle that I found some way to tie that into the gospel)    Love you all so much! Keep sending letters because I love getting them! Be patient with me though I hope to write back to all of you and it could take time because I seem to be long winded when I write... Sorry bout that!
Oh request!  Sister Schrader's birthday is on October 3, so really soon!  It would be really cool if you wanted to send her things like Balloons... or CD's... I have all those awesome CD's from Nat and Tan and would love to give some to her.  Or if you want to send random things like a Boa... actually I don't know you don't have to I will probably just make her a card... I've always been kind of a freak about birthdays.  Haha The Katz want to take her to a crazy Sushi restaurant so hopefully we don't die from eating sushi.   Are you all going to St. George for conference? I was remembering that that's what we do... haha I am so beyond excited for Conference and for  the RS Broadcast.  I hope you all take advantage of hearing that! 
Well again I love you all dearly!  Be safe and keep choosing the right! 
Love always,
Sister McMaster


 I MOWED A LAWN BY MYSELF!



I learned how to do the magic trick "cups and balls" thanks to Brother Katz.... Some day I will wow all of you with my talent... haha
       


Me and sister Katz
             

The crazy Lion cat we saw during an appointment... I was like dying not to laugh... haha who tortures their animals like this!??
        



 I love my companion:)
          


   Sometimes we are crazy! Yay!
   

Monday, September 16, 2013

Tractors...

Hello Family! 

How are you all doing??  I don't have a whole lot of time today but I wanted to let you know that great things are happening in Lincoln.  The people here are so fantastic and we are slowly seeing them become more excited about missionary work.  Yesterday was a busy day at Church, the elders had like 3 investigators and we had several less actives and Sister Schrader and I had to speak... so it was busy!  I love that you get to dive in and love the people where ever you are serving. 

Sister Schrader and I are becoming really good friends, we are figuring out how to work with each other and it is fun to see new mission styles.    We had some really good lessons this week!  We weren't able to see Gum this week which was sad, but we'll see him next week.  Thank you for the prayers for him, it's cool to know how much you guys care for me and the people I am teaching.  We did meet his sister however and we may start teaching her but we will see. 

I learned something about laughing at things when it seems like it's hard to keep going.  haha let me see if I can explain... Sister Schrader and I were road tripping to district meeting going like 60mph on a nice cornfield road when all of a sudden there was a tractor in the middle of the road... going like 5 mph... there we were in the middle of nowhere slamming on the breaks behind a tractor... and what did we do?  Well we laughed really hard!  How sweet it is laughter.    I had felt sad that day for some reason... but as soon as we slowed down for the tractor I remembered that I love Nebraska, I love being a missionary and I love the Gospel.  Sometimes little things like a tractor can change your attitude.   So I hope that all of you are having a happy week!  I hope that you are smiling at all of the things life brings to you, remember how much you love being you, how blessed you are to be a child of a loving heavenly father.  Remember that you are important and you have a purpose here on this earth. 

I love you family!  I hope you know I am loving it out here even though sometimes it's weird to think of life rolling on at home. 

Time is short and I seemed to have forgotten my camera, but I'll send pictures next week!  We have lots of people we are working with this week which is exciting! There is much to be done, here and all over the world!  Oh funny tender mercy, the talk I was asked to speak on was "it's a Miracle" by Neil L Anderson... funny right since that's what Tanner wrote his farewell talk on.  I was glad I printed out his talk and could see his insights.. haha  it was a miracle... how ironic.   I took a different spin on it but I like Tanner's humor... It just makes me like cry laughing.  I'm glad we have such a funny family.  Love you dearly family of mine!  Keep choosing the Right!  

Love,


Sister McMaster

Monday, September 9, 2013

Transfer Week!

Hello from Lincoln!

So I mentioned last week that transfers might be happening this week!  Guess what my friends, they did!  I was expecting to stay in Lincoln with Sister Call, and so was she, so we were both very surprised when Thursday morning we got a call from President Weston saying I would be staying in Lincoln and Sister Call would be going back to Omaha.  Phew!  Just like that your world changes and you get a new companion.  Haha it is amazing how quickly things change sometimes I can't even believe it!


Goodbye Sister Call!


Sister Schrader!

Sister Schrader is awesome though!  I am excited to work with her.  We have a lot to do here in the Pioneer ward!   I taught the restoration in sign language yesterday!  Talk about weird... I never in my wildest dreams (and I have had wild ones) imagined that I would use Sign Language.  But the spirit can testify in all languages including the ones when you use your hands.  I wish I could bear my testimony to you in Sign, but it's hard to do via e-mail.   Some day I'll do it for you  okay?  haha

Well I'm not sure what else to talk about, other than the fact that miracles really do happen every day.  I know that every morning when we go exercise (lately we've been finding the local swing set and swinging... does that count as exercise?  I hope so because it is my favorite thing... ever...)  and the sun rises, it is a miracle because heavenly father is filling us with sunshine.  He wants us to grow everyday!  How are you being filled with sunshine?    

I played the Organ again in church, and I did the musical number... I feel like this ward is going to get sick of me... and the little "sister McMaster show" I have going on here...  They haven't fired me yet so we'll see how that goes!   I apologize for my lack of good stories today!  


Oh I thought of one!  So the night before sister Call left we taught [Sun].  Our one and only progressing investigator.  It was such a cool lesson.  Have I told you how cool he is?  He's from Sudan and he is trying really hard to be a good kid.  We are trying to help him understand that he can be forgiven of all his sins as he comes to know Christ.  He is praying and always thanks us for helping him feel good.  So this lesson was really powerful because Sister Call and I were finally teaching in unity. It was really cool.  I'm grateful for all that she has taught me.  I hope that I can have powerful lessons like that with all of my companions. I was bold with [Sun], and I committed him to baptism!  He's going to be baptized on Oct 26, but we need to keep praying for him.  And It will be weird with Sister Call not being here, I hope that we can help [Sun]!  I'm scared, but I know we can do it!

Well I don't have much more time, but I  hope you know that I'm very grateful for each one of you!  You mean so much to me.  I love you!  Have a great week and keep smiling and loving all the people you come in contact with.  Every person you meet you meet for a reason, figure out what that reason is and learn how you too can be an instrument in Heavenly Father's hands.   I love meeting and working with so many of God's children.   I pray all of you are staying strong :)  

Love always!


Sister McMaster

Our sweet district!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Joy in the journey!

Heya folks!
 
So we had Zone Conference this last week.  Wow. It was incredible!  Such a fantastic opportunity to listen to a General Authority bear his testimony of our Savior.  It was Lynn G. Robbins and he taught us the importance of becoming, not just doing but actually becoming what God wants us to become.  He taught us that we need to have a vision of what we can become, so we can have a "why" in the work.  We need to have a reason to be doing what we do.  Once we understand that our heart is in the work, then we will be setting achievable goals and we will begin to make a difference.  That sparked something in my brain, the spirit knew I needed to learn this.  I could easily plow through my mission, doing what I am asked until the end, I could plow through life that way, but if I stop and think about why I am doing any of this and focus on that, then you can have joy in the journey.  That was something I have pondered lately, how do you have joy in every step of the journey?   The answer is to know why you are on the journey.  Then you don't have to think about it, you just will have joy because you know why you're journeying.   Does that make sense??    I hope so.. It makes sense in my brain.  Ponder it yourselves and let me know if you can word it better :S 
 
So I had my first exchange this week!  That was weird... Sister Call was just not around... I didn't really know what to think!  haha  I was with my Sister Trainer Leader Sister Vance  and she's really awesome.  Such a powerful missionary.  Miracles happen when you are on exchanges!  I got to teach a lesson in sign language... which was a miracle in itself.  The spirit speaks in whatever language when you bear testimony.  Some day I'll share my testimony with all of you in ASL... it's a cool thing to do.    Then we called this lady Rhonda who has had serious health problems lately and hasn't been able to get to church because of them and her husband isn't a member and there are lots of issues, but I called her and told her we wanted to come over to help her make dinner (we'd tried to serve her previously during the week but she kept saying "oh I'll call you back...." ) so finally I decided to be bold and guess what it worked!  So unfortunately I had to go to a different area during that dinner because of the exchange, but Rhonda had a miracle.  She learned from that dinner lesson about faith and the priesthood.   And on Sunday she had the Faith to ask for a Priesthood blessing.  She has dramatically changed since that blessing, she called us begging us to come over and talk about the book of Mormon with her and her husband, she says they've both been studying and have so many questions..  We went and saw them today and we had such a cool lesson.  They have such great potential.  I love seeing the way their lives have been filled with light because of their faith.  Wow such a jumbled story, but I am seeing miracles here in Lincoln and I love these people so much!  I can't even believe how much love you can feel for basically complete strangers.  I'm realizing that being children of god there is no such thing as complete strangers, we are all just a big family.  I love this big family.  It's comforting that where ever you are there is family that you can love, and they will love you.  We are never alone, that is such a powerful feeling.
 
But what I learned from the exchange was never be afraid to be bold!  You don't know your own strength.  I know each one of you is incredible and I love hearing about the fun things you are participating in.   I learned that I need to be myself, and not be afraid of who that is.  Do you ever feel like you are afraid to be you?  I have realized more this week the power of being the best me.  I've seen the way other sisters are and I realize that I cannot copy their strengths because I'm not them, so ask yourself, are you being the best you you can be?  I hope you are because I know each one of you is amazing and has so much to offer to this world. 
 
So so much is changing at home!  Do you all just love change??  It's scary right?  That's how I've been feeling.  This week is transfers which is crazy because how did time fly so fast??  I think Sister Call and I will stay here, but I'm not sure I know heavenly father has something in store for the two of us, but it may not be together here in Lincoln.  We just have to trust that he knows where we need to be. 
 
Well I am running out of time, but I just want you all to know that I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is real, that it brings me so much hope and strength.  I know that we are on this earth for a reason, I know we all have a purpose and I know that as we come closer to Christ he will help us see our purpose.  He will help us become, but most importantly he will make us our best selves.    Have a good week family!  I love you all so very much.  Keep choosing the right :)
 
 
Love,
 
Sister McMaster


Icecream with lovely sisters!

we went to the capital and took lots of pictures! haha lovely!


The Katz who had their 40th anniversary! Cute!