Sarah Jane Meservy

So this computer might just kick me off. . . in about three minutes. We’ll see.

Family. Friends. I love you all. I probably can’t tell you enough. 🙂 So you are going to keep hearing it.

This really cool thing happened yesterday. . . I got to skype my family! I sure love you guys.

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Some other cool things have happened this week. . . like sweeping into a new area. Gotta love that. Again. 🙂  I definitely miss my last ward, but already I feel right at home here in Liberty Lake. And what’s really cool is that– guess what? I GET TO GO TO 5 HOURS OF CHURCH. I love going to church as a missionary and meeting all the members, and we are covering two wards right now. . . So we get to go to a lot of church.  And I love it.

hmmm…  this letter might not be very long… because I skyped my family yesterday, but I’ll at least give some sort of uplifting thought:

In the last conference, President Monson said,

“The Savior demonstrated genuine love of God by living the perfect life, by honoring the sacred mission that was His. Never was He haughty. Never was He puffed up with pride. Never was He disloyal. Ever was He humble. Ever was He sincere. Ever was He obedient.

Though He was tempted by that master of deceit, even the devil, though He was physically weakened from fasting 40 days and 40 nights and was an hungered, yet when the evil one proffered Jesus the most alluring and tempting proposals, He gave to us a divine example of obedience by refusing to deviate from what He knew was right.13

When faced with the agony of Gethsemane, where He endured such pain that “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground,”14 He exemplified the obedient Son by saying, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”15

As the Savior instructed His early Apostles, so He instructs you and me, “Follow thou me.”16 Are we willing to obey?”

I love so many things about this quote.

First of all: It is so important for us to be obedient.  If we want to be like the Savior, we must be obedient as the Savior was.  If we want to show Heavenly Father we love him, we must be obedient to his commandments.

Second, I’ve recently been studying cases in the scriptures that use the word “Nevertheless” and it has been one of my new favorite vocabulary words.  So often people in the scriptures use nevertheless to bring comfort or to show triumph in hard times.  “ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer…” D&C 78:18;  “my heart groaneth because of my sins, nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.” 2 Ne. 4:19;  “Nevertheless I believe…” Alma 19:9; and finally “Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.” and “Which asuffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might bnot drink the bitter cup, and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be to the father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.” D&C 19:18-19

No matter what we are suffering with, no matter how hard life may be, the Savior has felt our pains and knows us personally.  Next time you feel you are ready to give up, or seem to be drowning, next time you feel inadequate, or feel you cannot take another step, use the nevertheless tactic.  and BE OF GOOD CHEER.

I love you all. 🙂

Thanks for all the support.

Love,

Sister Meservy!

SUBJECT:  I’m so stuffy I’m gonna die!!!! …

Dear Family and Friends,

Well I still love all y’all. 🙂 And I’m excited to SKYPE HOME ON SUNDAY. Crazy.  You know what else is CRAZY? At that point- I will be done with two months!!! I’ll only have 16 months left. That’s crazy. It’s all going by crazy fast… Anyway, I’ll call all yall at like 4:30… ish. And then we can set up SKYPE! 🙂 Cool?  I’m super excited.

This week was awesome.  Sister Hood and I POPPED by to some homes. 🙂 Meaning:  We brought balloons around to members and less actives, and we wrote “Pop Me” on them. 🙂 Then inside we put notes that said things like, “We just POPPED by to tell you we love you!”

I like doing stuff like that. 🙂

Our lesson with the members of the Community of Christ (or RLDS church) went well.  My companion lost her voice right before… so that made things intimidating for me. But I love them. And the spirit was so strong. We asked them to pray to know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was the church that the Lord restored, and the Lord testified of the truth, but they wouldn’t ask. I love them though, so keep praying for them.

Brother Young is still on date to be baptized on May 18th- He is wonderful. 🙂  His wife just went through the temple on Saturday.  On Friday night she took a fall and got a huge black eye, but she said “Satan was trying to keep me out of the temple, so I knew I needed to go.” So she went. 🙂 She is wonderful. 🙂

I am being transfered tomorrow. I’ll be honest, I’m pretty sad, but it will be a wonderful experience.  My new companion is Sister Halton. I’m sure she’s wonderful. But I sure am going to miss Sister Hood. We have had a lot of fun together. 🙂  I’ll be serving in the Mica Peak and Saltese Wards and living with some members.  It is going to be wonderful, I’m sure of it. 🙂

I love all the Elders and Sisters here. And I love President and Sister Mullen. I know, I know, BIG SURPRISE. 🙂 But really, this mission is wonderful. All missions are wonderful, I think. 😉

Something cool that I have been pondering this week, is my purpose as a missionary.  So many missionaries say “Our purpose is to baptize.” or “Our purpose is to bring people to Christ.” or “Some of us are just here to plant seeds.”

…. I have my own ideas. 🙂  So… in preach my gospel it tells us “Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.”  that’s my purpose- to help others come  unto christ through those things.  Baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is SO important. But that’s not the only way we are inviting others to come unto Christ. Repentance, developing faith, enduring to the end- those are all important as well. 🙂 So- you have to work under the counsel of the Bishop, because the Bishops hold the keys for missionary work in the areas I serve…. Haha- I obviously don’t know very much about missionary work yet- but I’ve been pondering fulfilling my purpose- BECAUSE I WANT TO BE THE BEST MISSIONARY I CAN BE.  So I’m trying to study the Character of Christ. 🙂 Because He was the perfect missionary, right? Right.

I love the Savior. I am so grateful he has atoned for my sins. I am so grateful He is out here serving with me. “And it came to pass that the servants did go and labor with their mights; and the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them; and they did obey the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard in all things.” Jacob 5:72

I love that. 🙂   The Church is True. 🙂  I love yall. 🙂

Thanks for the letters. 🙂 Thanks for the love. 🙂

Love,

Sister Meservy