Be Thou Humble

Hello Family Dear!

Are you all staying nice and warm these days?  I sure hope so!

One cool thing from this last week, Sister Harris is teaching me how to play the guitar! Cool right? I've for the longest time been the only challenged one in our family that can't play any form of string instrument, but that my friends is changing! I can play a few primary songs and that's pretty sweet! The power of music is changing my life again and again.  This week was weird because time is going by in weird intervals.  Sister Harris and I are having such Joy though... it's pretty great.  

One of the best things to do as a missionary is to help people catch the vision of missionary work.  This last week my favorite Sister Frahm had a tea party!  She invited a long ago investigator and she came to meet a bunch of the other sisters in the ward. That was so cool!  Missionary work is not about teaching people and moving on, it's about helping them build relationships with other members of the church, relationships that help them reflect on their own relationship with the Savior and have a desire to draw closer to him.  That's what Sister Frahm did this week. I love seeing people be such talented missionaries.  

We are starting to see people catch the vision of progressing.  This week we'll be teaching Ashley the Plan of Salvation, the Elders taught her the restoration and we're going to keep teaching her now, I hope and pray that she continues to progress.  I know that we are beginning to see people change we are seeing hearts soften we are finding the prepared and it's so cool. The Lord's work will not ever stop going.  I hope we can each always try to see his hand in our life and progress the way he would have us progress.

I learned something cool in my studies yesterday.  First of all it's really cool to see how you learn the same things again and again but they strengthen your spirit each time you learn them.   Anyway I was studying 2 Nephi 29 and it was prophesying about the Book of Mormon.  I love the Book of Mormon... but it talked about how it is proof that God loves all his children!

 9 And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure.   And because that I have spoke none word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man,neither from that time  henceforth and forever.

this is why I love the Book of Mormon.  It teaches us so much about our Father in Heaven's love.  I hope you all are enjoying where you are reading and you continue to read!  His love is real and he loves every nation, every child he loves us all.  We are so blessed to know that.

I love you all! Thank you for your encouragement and support. I'm praying for you all too!

Love,

Sister McMaster

Enjoying our 10 degree weather...

so warm...

crazy faces with Sister Harris

I Looked out the window and what did I see?

SNOW FALLING ALL OVER THE TREE...S...

Hi People! How are you this blustery snowy morning?  Living the High life of that week of no school? I hope so!  

So it was cool to see your smiling faces this last week and meet little Jace Face... He's just as cute as he looks in pictures so that's a relief.  :)

We're just going to town here in North Platte, it was cool because last week while I was e-mailing you I realized how important it really is to focus on the Temple (I guess you can receive revelation where ever you are if you're seeking the spirit) So we titled this week the week of progression.  We are going to help this ward be progressing.  We are all at different points but it is so important that we never stop progressing. We have to keep climbing up, no plateauing okay?

So here's the Progress for this week... It snowed the day after Christmas... (thanks for hogging the snow clouds you crazies!)  The Kroons now have an established vision of their family being sealed in the temple.  That's cool!  The Bowkers are also more committed to their goal of being in the temple again.  We starting teaching their granddaughter-in-law and she's more committed to read from the Book of Mormon and learn. We met a lady that had received a He is the Gift card earlier in the week that accepted a Book of Mormon.  We're working more with the members and helping them have a better vision of doing missionary work. The Clutters are praying for people we're hoping to teach. We're praying for people they're hoping to teach.  It's a good system. 

Missionary work is a work of progression.  I feel like the more we do it we seriously do grow closer to our Savior. I hope you all understand that, that's why we'll all be missionaries for the rest of our lives okay?  Our Savior is right there just waiting for us to choose to grow closer to him.

Cool scripture from my Study this morning from 2 Nephi 10:14

"I will be a light unto them forever, that hear my words."

I love this promise. The lord will be our LIGHT forever. No matter how dark it may seem or busy or chaotic or whatever.  Our responsibility in receiving this promise is to hear the words.  Listen.  So that's what I want to share with you this week. I hope you are all listening to the spirit. Stop and be still for a moment and really listen. Then let that light guide you forever because it will.

I love you all!  I hope you have a fantastic week and New Years!  Talk to you Next Year!

Love Always,

Sister McMaster 

Christmas treats!

Snow!

Bundling up with Sister Harris!

Let Earth Receive Her King

Yellow Family!

Another crazy week out here in the fields of Nebraska!  So much Joy, who knew that sharing glad tidings of great Joy would be such a special experience?  It really is the most Joyous thing a person could do.  Perhaps I mentioned this last year but I'll say it again, I truly feel that we were among the angels declaring good tidings of great joy at the time of the Savior's birth, and our spirits haven't changed!  We to this day will forever have the greatest joy as we Declare this Joy!  

So it was busy!  Christmas Zone Conference was such a treat... So much love from all of those missionaries.  President and Sister Weston gave training's on the Savior and how our hearts have been changed from reading the Book of Mormon.  It was perfect.  Because the Savior loves us so very much he gives us the opportunity to Change every day and he gives us a perfect tool to change us, the book of Mormon.  If I haven't said it enough than I'll say it again, I know that book is true and I am so very grateful for it and the strength it gives me every single day and hour of my life.  I don't know what I'd do without that.   

We also were blessed with an opportunity to go to Kearney and work in the Kearney area for a day, that was exciting.  Sister Lutz and Sister Wilson are our Sister Training Leaders and they are fantastic.  They have such love and are very skilled in helping me personally to feel loved, appreciated and capable to press forward.  It was a good exchange and I got to meet a family that Sister Youngberg helped activate, that was a tender mercy.  I love all the people that we get to meet and to cross paths with.  

Once back in North Platte it was back to work!  We are trying to find a solid family to be teaching!  We're doing what we can!  I was reminded this morning about how important it is to be exactly obedient.  That is our sole responsibility, the Lord will provide all the rest to accomplish his work if we are obedient. Cool right?  It's simple but not so easy!  

There are some incredible people we are working with however, families that are preparing to go to the temple! That's a really cool conversion to be a part of as well.  We will hopefully be able to help these families have the Faith to Live all of the commandments and truly receive all the blessings our father has in store for them.  That will be a miracle I hope to see, seeing more than one family enter the walls of the temple! (it feels like forever since I've been to the temple!  It's rough living so far away from the temple!)  I hope you all appreciate how close the temple is to you and take advantage of going often!  That would be my Christmas Wish for you, that you get to all be in the temple together. I'll be there in spirit and we'll all go some day :)  

I love you all so very much! I"m excited to see your little faces on Thursday!  Thank you so very much for your love and support! Thank you for the letters and little packages! I appreciate all that you do for me! You truly are the best family in the whole world!  Love you forever!

Love Always,

Sister McMaster

Sister Wrubell and Sister Page...love these two sooooo much!

Sister Harris and I Woot Woot!

Found Sister Newbold! We played Sleigh Ride! It felt sooo good to play that again...we went way too fast as normal but had the whole room clapping with us thanks to the goates encouraging clap...man I love our family!

It's Beginning to Looks a lot like Christmas

Hello Family!

This week was transfers!! They took my Sister Newbold away! I was actually quite shocked!  But it seems the Lord has plans greater than we can see so I'm trusting him every single day. It's the best!

My new companion is Sister Harris, and crazy enough she has served in North Platte before! (she was trained here by Sister Stiles... small world!)  So she knows the area better than I do so that's useful!  The ward was super surprised to see her back but it's cool to work with her.  

Our week was kind of crazy!  We were just going going going which is great, but also a bit tiring.  We helped a family move in and are  excited to be helping them adjust to the ward.  We also had some really powerful lessons one with my favorite people the Redhouses... We invited them to read the Book of Mormon every day and if they did we'd act out the tree of life for them.... I never thought that would make an 8 year old so excited, so this week we have plans to act out the tree of life... should be pretty epic.

So weird study experience this morning I wanted to share.  So I have a very distinct memory of watching General Conference with Grandma McMaster October 2003. I don't really know why but it was one of the years you all went to St. George with out me and I stayed with Grandma, but I remember really loving the talk by President Monson about bridges.  This was just a vague memory but this morning I was reading Sister Harris' ensign which happened to be from Oct. 2003 and found the talk by President Monson.  It's a sweet talk and I wanted to share with you the poem from his talk:

An old man, going a lone highway,

Came at the evening, cold and gray,

To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

The sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day;

You never again must pass this way;

You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide—

Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head:

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followeth after me today

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been naught to me

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.” ¹

So for some reason when I was eleven this poem impacted my life.... and upon reading it again the Spirit was so strong in helping me see that as a missionary we are sometimes bridge builders, we are doing all we can to bridge people's relationship with the Savior and help the find the greatest Joy.  In his talk Pres. Monson talks about how Jesus Christ builds bridges for us and helps us to return to our Father in Heaven.  So it makes sense that in order to become like the Savior we too must be bridge builders.  So when times are difficult it's important to pause when you cross your difficulty, and look back and see how you can bridge that trial and help someone else over a similar struggle.  

Oh I wanted to throw out a thank you to the Japanese McMasters!  I received a big ol diaper box full of Japanese goodies!  Sister Newbold was surprised to try seaweed stuff... haha That was very sweet of you to send!  Thank you thank you thank you!  Sister Harris will love it I'm sure!  We have Zone Conference this week and have to leave at 5:45 tomorrow morning! Woot woot! Pray for us to drive safely!  I get to See Sister Wrubell who got transferred back to York... I'm super excited about that.  Life is really going well as a missionary.  I'm loving every day and I am excited for the Christmas Miracles that await! I hope you all have a beautiful week!  Love you forever!

Sister McMaster

He is the Gift

Hello family!

Hope you are all having a beautiful Monday!  It's crazy here... 70 degrees... so much for winter!  But I'm not complaining.  

So short update from North Platte.  Things are going well, seeing miracles as always.   We got to go on an exchange to Kearney!  My first one in a while... it was a good little adventure :)  We got to see Sister Smith and Sister Lutz!  They're fantastic sisters that  I love a lot!  Sister Lutz and I shared the "he is the gift" video with lots of people and invited them to Loan a book of Mormon to someone by Christmas.  It really is the best way that we can share the gift.  Have you all seen that video?  If not look it up here ya go <christmas.mormon.org> it's a real treat.  It is so powerful, I think I've watched it at least 50 times in the last couple weeks.  

So this is why I love it, it reminds us of this incredible principle (3 Nephi 27:13)

13 Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me.

So ya see?  The gospel is the gift from our Heavenly Father, and that gift is the atonement.  Today in my studies in Moroni 7 (where you should be if you are caught up with finishing by tomorrow)  I learned that Hope=The Atonement.  So the gift that we were given upon coming to this earth was HOPE.  That is beautiful to me, I hope it is to you as well.  I know that our Father in Heaven wants us to share that gift the best we can with whoever he places in our paths.

This week we found some new people to teach which is fantastic.  A lady approached us asking how we knew that God was real, we told her that the Book of Mormon was evidence of God's love and that she could pray to know that God loves her.  She took the book and gave us her address.  So we went and met with her.. and she actually got baptized like 20 years ago... so kind of a pre-baptized investigator situation... but still a cool experience.  She said she hadn't prayed in years because she felt like god wasn't real.  But because we invited her to she did.  And she said... "Sisters... I just know that God is real, he really answered my prayer"  Such  a sweet lady.  I hope we can somehow help her progress in the gospel.  

We also will be working with the youth and we have 3 potential investigators that are quite promising.   We talked to a lady that had visited with Elders years ago and she was interested in us coming back... so lots is happening!  We still have faith that people will have a desire to be baptized in the coming weeks.  

Oh exciting family!  There is a less active family named the Redhouses, and they have come to church the last 2 weeks.  They have a son that turned 8 in July and isn't baptized yet, we finally got the Ward Council on board and it's amazing how that is what get things going!  He loved primary when he went and the family is beginning to progress towards the temple, that is the most fulfilling thing ever!

We'll find our about transfers this week!  I hope Sister Newbold and I get to stay together for Christmas!  I'll let you know next week :)  OH we also moved back into the Marshall's house yay! It's good to be with members again :)  

Be happy and healthy! Don't get ear infections! or colds or any of that stuff.  And keep reading the book of Mormon.  That's all I got for ya.  Love you to the moon and space!

Sister McMaster

Christmas Countdown begins! :)

Christmas Village at the Redhouse's :)

Stand at the Door and Knock.

Dear Family,

Hello today!  Did you eat lots and lots of turkey this week?  I sure hope so!

We had quite a fulfilling week... (spiritually and physically)  So many great experiences, I wish I could just throw them all up at you... but that's disgusting and I don't know how to do it.  

Really though. It was a sweet week.  Faith building for sure.  We actually got to go to a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving and serve Thanksgiving Dinner there.  That was cool. We're going to start doing service there regularly, but it was so cool to forget ourselves and how we weren't with the people we're most grateful for (you guys!)  and just serve people.  That's the best thing about missionary work.  You just get to love serving people everyday.  It's the best thing ever.

Miracle of the week... so I'm sure you're wondering about how our 25 Book of Mormon loans did... well I'm sad to report we only got 15.  So i'm assuming you all did your job and our combined efforts equal 25! right?!  Haha regardless, our faith grew like a weed. (That's what Sister Newbold says grows fastest)  ready for the story??

There we were.  (pause for dramatic effect) 

Praying.  What's new right?  We decided in our companion study that we needed to pray in every prayer to find a family to teach. Combined faith is super powerful. We went to district meeting and were inspired by a training that was recapping instruction from a General Authority,  it was incredibly motivating and gave clear instruction on how we can work with the Members better in helping this work become a team effort.   Then we received a phone call from a recent convert from Kearney (random... unexpected...) She asked us to come visit her because she was in North Platte for Thanksgiving.  So we did.  We drove to an obscure part of our area hoping to help this girl.  While parking we saw a girl sitting on the corner of the street... "Go talk to her!" was the thought in my head... but the girl we were visiting ran out of her house and we didn't get to go see that girl... ( I mentally named her Charlotte..)  Our lesson with her went well but it was time to go home after the lesson.  No family yet.

Two days later:   The girl from Kearney calls us again.... and wants us to come over again... (strange... we doubted our need to go)  We called the Kearney Sisters to see if it would be helpful to visit her multiple times and they strongly encouraged us to go.... so we did.  And again had a decent lesson with her in an obscure part of our area.  This time it wasn't too late, so we went to go find Charlotte.  We stood at the door and knocked.   Miracle of miracles Randy opened the door.  He and his family want to be taught, and they know 2 members of the ward.  They were very open and we invited them to come closer to Jesus Christ.  Doesn't mean they'll get baptized... but they could!  My faith was strengthened.  I know the Lord is aware of every single person in this world.  He cares enough to teach us.   So keep praying, and press forward when opposition seems to arise.  He'll provide a way.  He always does.

I hope to report more miracles.  Mostly though I want you all to know how grateful I am for each and every one of you.  I hope you have seen your testimonies grow in the last few weeks, I hope you thank our Father in Heaven for the testimony that you have.  Keep the Faith!  Love you all!

Love Always,

Sister McMaster

 Sister Newbold and her baby spoon... and a pizza

cows.. in the cornfield... in the snow....

Meeting the world war II veteren in our ward! He's 91!  Cool man :)

Because I have been given much, I too must GIVE.

Happy Thanksgiving week family of mine!

How are you all doing?  Staying warm and happy and healthy?  I hope so! 

Well you'll never guess, I learned new things this week, felt the spirit, worked hard, prayed hard, struggled some days, laughed others, and it was a really good week.  Sounds like a week as a missionary right?   Hope you're not bored to death of adventures in Nebraska, it's the greatest place on the earth right now.  North Platte.  Such a cool place to learn.  I have no doubt that I am supposed to be here right now.  It's been a week of struggling to know that, struggling to know how I can give my all in this area without throwing other peoples efforts out the window.  It's a place where I'm learning more than ever to be humble, to serve better, to love more, to work the best way I know how and to TRUST that that's what the Lord needs.  TRUST that the Lord will provide.  

So here I am a missionary serving in Nebraska.  Being a missionary is such a time warp that you sometimes need to stop and realized how incredible it is.  It really is incredible. And it's incredible that all of you are where you are doing what you are doing right now!  The Lord has a plan for you and he's guiding you and helping you become a little bit better than you were yesterday.  For all of this we have so much to be grateful for.  I decided the thing I am most grateful for is the Book of Mormon.  That is the one thing in this world that I cannot imagine living my life without.  It's changed my life.  I hold it in my hands and it's like an old friend waiting to share more light and knowledge.  The power in it is more than I'll ever be able to put into words.  This week I found a new scripture that I love.  I flipped to it on a day that was hard... and it was exactly what I needed to hear.  

Helaman 3:27-30-

 27 Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call 

upon his holy name.

 28 Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the 

name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.

 29 Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and 

powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and 

lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf  the wicked—

 30 And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of 

heaven, to sit down with Abraham,and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.

verse 29 is my favorite because it paints this picture in my head.... there we are like a little person tied to a Balloon that just began letting out air... zooming around loop-de-looping up and down through the wiles of the devil and the cunning snares.... and BAM.  We land there. Our IMMORTAL souls Land at the right hand of God.  And why did they land there?  Welp. it was because they read the Book of Mormon.  They held on to the Word of God which is quick and powerful.  So that is why I am most grateful for the Book of Mormon.  It has the power to literally tie us back to our Heavenly Father.  That is incredible.  So we have decided everyone in the whole world needs to understand know and feel this power.  So this week we are going to be giving 25 people a Book of Mormon.  Because it's what we're most grateful for.  So here's your challenge.  Join the cause.  Share a book of Mormon with someone because it's what your grateful for.  If you don't feel grateful for it today... read it,, and keep reading it until you feel the power in it that is tying you back to the very being that created you, I can absolutely promise you that you will feel more gratitude for that little book than you have felt for anything in this whole world.

I learned this week that miracles keep happening when you do your best on the Lord's errand.  We saw miracles at 8:48... the last person we felt prompted to see... She cried on her doorstep as all we could tell her was that the Lord was aware of her at that very moment.  How grateful I felt to be able to love her at that moment.  I needed it probably more than she did.  

This work is incredible. So much bigger than we are.  Do not doubt your own influence in the Lord's work.  He needs you.     So go be the best you that you know how to be.  

I love you all so very much!  Have a beautiful Thanksgiving and know that I truly am grateful for you.  I'm grateful that the gospel has made our family strong.  I know that Our Savior's love is real and that he has blessed us so very much. Press forward!  

Love Always,

Sister McMaster