Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles!

This week has been one of miracles!

As my good friend Christopher Dean once told me, "Miracles happen every day of your mission.  If you don't see one, you aren't looking hard enough."  Last week I wrote my mom about miracles, and what goes into accomplishing a miracle.  What it really comes down to, I have decided, is faith: faith that the Lord will provide the miracle when it is needed, not when I want it. Faith that when the miracle comes, that it will serve the people it needs to. And faith that God is a God of miracles; He loves us and wants us to feel that love. Our experiences this week have helped us to see how important miracles are in this work and how we have been blessed with an opportunity to serve. The past two days we have had several "surprise lessons" (where we either found someone on the street who was interested in the gospel, or someone's schedule opened up, that sort of thing) where I have felt the Spirit directing our teaching. It was exciting, since we had very short notice before the lesson started that it would be happening, and we had to rely completely on the Spirit to help us know how to move forward. It was a great experience for both Sister Lee and me to teach those lessons. I think these people have a lot of potential to progress!

What really happened to make these miracles happen, though, is trusting that the Lord would help us do the things that we need to do.  Every week we set goals as missionaries to direct our focus for the week.  We realized that in order to meet our goals this week, we would need to get a certain amount of lessons every day.  So far, we have met those goals each day for lessons, although in ways that we did not think we would!  Heavenly Father really is blessing us here in Chinatown.

This week is a shorter letter because we are meeting at one to go to the Bronx Zoo!  It should be lots of fun, but it takes a while to get there.  Even though what Chris said applied to missions, I think it applies to our everyday lives as well.  If you see any awesome miracles in your life this week, feel free to post them in a response here or send me a letter.  I would love to hear about them!

You are amazing. :)

Love,

Sister Beer

Life is Good

Today is a wonderful day.  As our rainy day backup plan, we are going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to check out the impressionist exhibit there, we have a lesson tonight, and even though we have done a lot of contacting so far this week, it has been a great experience.  We have even met people who want to hear about the gospel.  Who would have thunk it?  (Well, us when we set our goals to find them....)

We had Zone Conference this last week, which is where a whole bunch of zones in Manhattan get together and receive training from President Morgan and  his Assistants.  It was awesome.  We learned all about how to help investigators progress, which is something that Sister Lee and I have been thinking a lot about recently.  I loved learning about how to more effectively plan our time to reach goals (can any of you imagine those words coming out of my mouth a year ago?  The mission is a wonderful changing ground.) and how to really focus on the needs of our investigators, as well as Sister Morgan's words on really loving and serving our companions.

One of my favorite things President Morgan told us is something I think applies not only on the mission, but to every member in every area of the world.  He talked about being someone that the Lord can trust.  As we become that person, we will find that He will trust us with more, whether it be more blessings, more responsibility, or more opportunities to grow.  My favorite quote from his talk was "The Lord does not pay attention to tenure or to title.  He pays attention to trust.  Your trust in Him, and His trust in you."  As we learn to trust the Lord, He will guide us and give us the things or experiences that we need to progress. (Proverbs 3:5-6)  It all starts with us, though.  He's waiting for us to make the choice to trust Him.

I am grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission.  I have seen and participated in miracles, which is awesome to think about.  Thank you for your love and support!

Love,

Sister Beer

Revlon Run/Walk for Women

 We went to Times Square last Saturday to help with the Revlon Run/Walk for Women as volunteers.  It was super fun, and I loved everything about it!!  Except for the embarrassing story that will be included in a future blog post... but more about that later.

Elder Murray was a great sign-hander-outer.

[Sister Beer promises a letter will be coming shortly.......]

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

I have been thinking a lot about about the Conference talk where the speaker referred his perpetually happy roommate.  As a result, this song is stuck in my head this morning.  And now it is stuck in yours. :D

This last week was super awesome.  Sister Lee and I set goals and achieved them!  I am such a firm believer now in setting goals and making plans! (For more on that, see my last post.)  Our success has prompted us to work harder and continue to improve.  This week: more member presents!

On Monday we had an awesome district meeting all about our relationship with God.  I had actually been thinking a lot about this recently, so it was well timed!  First, Elder Ling had us describe how we view a friend.  We know them, we love them, we trust them.  They want what is best for us, and we in return want what is best for them.  Friends are honest, understanding, people with whom we have good communication and a good relationship.  Then Elder Ling asked "is God your friend?  How do you think you are doing in all these areas with Him?"  He continued by illustrating that as we come to know more about our Heavenly Father, it becomes much easier and more natural to approach Him.  I love what the Bible Dictionary has to say on the matter: "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part. Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. " (Bible Dictionary: Prayer) When we know Him, we want to talk to Him. There is no more worry about whether or not He will listen to our prayers, or whether or not He will answer them. We know He will, because He is our Father, our Friend, and our God.

How we show our trust in Him, in the end, is through obedience to the commandments He gives us. As we keep the commandments and actively build our relationship with Him, we are better able to recognize the blessings He gives us, particularly related to those of the Atonement.

It was a pretty awesome district meeting. I have to get going, since we are off to the temple today. I am so grateful to have a temple in my mission! It's a pretty incredible blessing.

Good luck as the semesters draw to their ends at your respective universities. Try and take a few moments to go out and enjoy the spring weather!

Love, 

Sister Beer

We went to Union Square (at 14th st) two weeks ago and got Pret a Manger to eat!  I haven't had it since going to London, and it was wonderful.  I had a really delicious sandwich with lots of veggies, made fresh, and a big chocolate chip cookie.  Sooooo good!

We went to Central Park last week, and it was awesome!  We ate Chipotle and played Ultimate Frisbee.

I love Central Park