Sister Meservy’s Letter from June 24, 2013
SUBJECT: Sometimes we tract for hours in the RAIN . . . .
Dear Family! and Friends!
Man. It was a good week. So… I got a new companion… she’s in the first picture attached. 😉 Her name is Sister Harper, she is from Sandy, Utah- and she is 19. She trained horses before she came. She’s so cool. 🙂 And happy.
Also- we had a WONDERFUL MISSION TRAINING! Elder Peiper of the first quorum of the seventy came to our mission and spoke to us, and it was SO great! Why, you ask?
Reason #1: Elder Peiper is awesome.
Reason #2: Elder Dowse (from madrigals) , Elder Hall (from seminary council) , and Elder Cantwell (just another kid from my high school) were all at the meeting- So we had a nice little Bingham Class of ’11 Reunion! 🙂 A picture is attached.
Reason #3: …. Okay… So I was feeling a little overwhelmed by the end of the training- because sometimes I just want to be a perfect missionary… Then, after the meeting, one of the Assistants came up to me and told me that Elder Peiper wanted to interview me. SAY WHAT!
He apparently felt inspired to interview some of the missionaries… 🙂 In the interview he made me promise to do a few things… one of them was to email my family and tell them I love them. 🙂 Hopefully you know that I do. And all my friends as well. I love you. We’re all family, right? 🙂 The next was that I had to tell yall that Elder Peiper thinks I am a wonderful missionary and I am doing a great job on my mission.
. . . So now you may know one of Sister Meservy’s weaknesses: I don’t think of myself as a very good missionary… And I have reoccurring dreams that I get home from my mission and I regret how I served the last 18 months… Which makes me think God is trying to tell me to shape up… then I look at all my weaknesses. Then I’m not as able to follow the spirit- and it’s a terribly prideful spiral downwards of self pity and selfishness.
Then the atonement comes in. Whether I’m reminded through a blessing, or scriptures, or though kneeling in prayer, or through many tender mercies and miracles all around me- or even the occasional: God sends a member of the Seventy to tell me to “get those thoughts out of my head like I would any other bad thought.”
I want to testify that God is real. He answers prayers. I know this more and more every day. I also know, that God doesn’t expect us to be perfect. He expects us to take our lives one step at a time. I think for a while- I put my mission in a different category of my life. I knew that in life I didn’t have to be perfect, but I thought missionaries were suppose to be perfect.
Well Folks- that’s not true. Missionaries are people, and God will always be working with imperfect people. The beautiful thing, is that our loving Heavenly Father looks at us and loves us for all the effort we are putting in! President Uchtdorf explains it this way:
“Satan would rather that you define yourself by your sins instead of your divine potential. Brethren, don’t listen to him.”
“We have all seen a toddler learn to walk. He takes a small step and totters. He falls. Do we scold such an attempt? Of course not. What father would punish a toddler for stumbling? We encourage, we applaud, and we praise because with every small step, the child is becoming more like his parents.”
“Now, brethren, compared to the perfection of God, we mortals are scarcely more than awkward, faltering toddlers. But our loving Heavenly Father wants us to become more like Him, and, dear brethren, that should be our eternal goal too. God understands that we get there not in an instant but by taking one step at a time.”
Everyone, take it ONE STEP AT A TIME. I will too- I promise. 🙂 We may not be perfect, but the Lord doesn’t require perfection right now! Even for the missionaries. 🙂 And if we learned anything from the broadcast yesterday- We should ALL be missionaries, right?
God loves you. I love you.
This is the true church. 🙂 HOLD ON. and if you have let go, GRAB HOLD and never let go again! The blessings exceed what you can imagine or dream up. 🙂
Love,
Sister Sarah Jane Meservy
PS: Sometimes we tract for hours in the rain… and people still don’t invite us in. It’s like they don’t want you dripping in their home. It’s times like that you just have to splash your companion with the puddles… and laugh when you step out of the car into a puddle up to your ankles. 🙂 Good thing I love rain.
Sister Meservy at Missionary conference . .
with Elder Dowse (from madrigals) , Elder Hall (from seminary council) ,
and Elder Cantwell (just another kid from my high school)
Sister Meservy with ???
Sarah says this is Sister Harper but she looks so young
(TURNS OUT THIS WAS A GOOD JOKE. . . . .)
