Megan's Letter on 10/30/15 - BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE!!!

Hello everyone! The MTC (Missionary Training Center) keeps getting better and better each day!! Time is such an odd concept here... Breakfast feels like one day... and then lunch feels like another day... and then dinner feels like another day... so we all feel like we have been here for ETERNITY but it is great!! We have 16 hour days of PURE studying and training! It is so awesome!!! Everyone is so nice here!! God's love is so strong! :) On Wednesday a new wave of missionaries came in! It was so fun to welcome them, but so sad to see them all say goodbye... brings back memories from last week! :) Our teacher told us that Sister Bradford and I actually weren't supposed to be companions!! There was a last minute change! I AM SO GLAD I HAVE HER! She has been a huge blessing!  

Tuesday was so amazing! We had the wonderful opportunity to have an apostle (a leader from our church) come and talk to us!!!! :D Elder Neil L. Andersen came! The Broadcast went out to all the other MTC's in the world! My companion and I sang in the choir! It was so awesome! It was a great experience! We sang More Holiness Give Me! :D  So in our church when an apostle walks in, everyone stands up... AND THAT WAS SO POWERFUL! In that very moment I could feel that prophets and apostles are truly called of God! 

So as you know... Halloween is coming up.... and the girls in our room thought it would be so funny to scare my companion and I... they hid in the closets... and when we walked in and got settled... they all popped out and scared us! Hahahahha it was the funniest thing ever!!!!!!! Shortly after that the cleaner checker person came walking down the hallway to check everyone's room and make sure it is clean... and I mean our room wasn't completely messy... but it looks like we all just moved in last week soooo Sister Starling peeked out the door and saw the cleaner checker was coming... we dropped everything and INSTANTLY PUT ON CLEANING MODE and ended up cleaning our room in approximately  10 seconds.... I never thought that was possible to do... until then! It was so funny to see us all scrambling around running into each other trying to clean our room to pass the cleaning check. We ended up passing the check ( don't worry) haha even though we may or may not have shoved everything into the closets!!!! Good times! I LOVE the girls in our room! We are always laughing! Apparently it is a thing where EVERYONE gets sick at the MTC... and our whole room had the sniffles all week! It's funny when we were all trying to go to sleep... all you could hear was sniffles... we actually sang Jingle Bells with our sniffles AHAHH it was so funny! We like... ya you had to be there! But we would each do sniffles to the Jingle Bell rhythm haha we have fun. 

This week A LOT happened!  All the missionaries got to watch The Character of Christ by Elder Bednar! This talk seriously changed my life! I would tell all of you to go and watch it... but it's one of those videos they only show missionaries:(  But let me tell you... It was so great! He talked about turning outward when the natural man would turn inward... that is the Character of Christ... that is who Christ was! He was always turning outward and serving others and losing himself in service!! :)
Bednar said, "Empathy during agony is a portion of divinity". I loved it so much! He said Saint means being Christlike! That's why we are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day SAINTS! We are always trying to be Christlike and follow His example:) If you look for yourself you will never find it.. you have to lose yourself in service to find it, just as Christ did. 

This week my companion and I had Sharon and Violet for our TRC investigators! Our lessons are getting better and better each time! It is crazy how words just flow out of your mouth!:) We love our investigators so much! Well guys I've got to go but  I just want you all to know that I don't just know this church is true, but I FEEL by the power of the Holy Ghost that it is SO TRUE with all my heart! 

Miss you all! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Freeman :) 

PS: read Jude 1:22 and Mosiah 3:19 

Sister Bradford and I next to the Joseph Smith statue :)

I LOVE SISTER BRADFORD

Elders in our district being goof balls

The MTC is a rough life ;) BUT SO GREAT

Our district took a walk to the Provo Temple on Sunday :)

A Familiar Face at the MTC!

Here is the benefit of having family (a  cousin) working at the MTC!  Michael Freeman works there as a security guard a couple times a week... Jayden Rasmussen also works as a teacher there in the English area... I wonder if Megan will see him?  It's comforting at least to know that there is family around and a familiar face or two!

Megan's Letter on 10/23/15 - I LOVE THE MTC!!!!!!!!!

Hey everyone!!!!!!!!

So my pdays will be on Fridays for the next three weeks!!! I just found out that I will be in the MTC for three weeks instead of two because I'm in a visitors center mission!!! But I am totally okay with that!! I absolutely love the MTC and my companion and my district and my zone!!! It is like EFY on steroids! It all is just great!! 

My companion is Sister Bradford, she is from Portland, Oregon. She is super fun and nice and awesome! We get a long super well.  We are both directionaly challenged... so we get way lost in this HUGE MTC all the time but it's all good its way fun! We are a lot a like! haha our zone tells us we are too  smiley ;) We just cant help ourselves! It just so great here it just makes us so happy. 

I love my district! There is only six of us! There is Sister Bradford and I, Elder Dearden and Elder Lehnig, and Elder Jenking and Elder Woods. They are like another family! We all get along super well. All the Elders are incredibly nice and treat Sister Bradford and I like little sisters... even though I'm pretty sure we are older. Our district and zone bonded really well. Everyone is so nice here! I don't think I've had to open one door:) 

I absolutely LOVE all the classes and teachers here! You feel the spirit and Gods Love so strongly! In one of my Classes, our teacher challenged us to work on a Christlike attribute for the Week! I decided to work on Faith! Faith is an incredible and very special concept to me. It makes enduring to the end a lot easier! One of the things I love about the MTC is the spirit you feel during the songs and hymns! It just empowers you and makes you want to be a better person! I am already growing so much and its only been two days!! Yesterday we learned A LOT about our purpose as missionaries. It is truly to bring others unto Christ. The most important relationship anyone can have, is the one with God and Jesus Christ. Today we learned a lot about the Doctrine of Christ! I'm running out of time, but I encourage you all to read 2 Nephi Chapter 31... it talks all about the doctrine of Christ! :) I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!

Love, Sister Freeman :) 

My companion Sister Bradford

The girls in our room...Sisters Miller, Starling and Bonita

My lovely district that I absolutely love!

The map picture!!

A note on the white board in our classroom

Sister Bradford and I

The Dreaded MTC Drop Off...

Here are pictures from dropping Megan off at the MTC.  It was a very emotional day!  Megan is so ready and so excited to serve a mission though.  You will see below some of our emotions from this day and the dreaded curbside drop off!  (We actually had a very sweet sister missionary who let us say our goodbyes and take some pictures who didn't rush us like I've heard so many moms say happens at this moment)

We went behind the Provo Temple and found this beautiful spot!  No one was back there!

Here we spent our last few minutes with Megan!

So hard to let her go!

Lightening up the moment!!

OK we are one step closer... we are in the car!

Tears...

Me too but trying to make things happy!

Aw Megs!  We are going to miss you SOOOOO much!

I was ok until I saw her get emotional!

One last hug...

Megan's Missionary Farewell

Farewell Talk: Grow Through Life With Faith!! 10/11/15

Good afternoon brothers and sisters!!!!!!!! As some of you know, I will be leaving for the Washington DC North mission in about a week and I am so incredibly excited to serve the Lord along with serving in the Temple Visitors’ Center. It is going to be an amazing experience! The topic I was assigned to talk to you about today is Faith in Jesus Christ. This is a Christ like Attribute listed in Preach My Gospel. Preach my Gospel states, “When you have faith in Christ, you believe in Him as the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the father in the flesh. You accept him as your Savior and Redeemer and follow his teachings.” It is important to center our faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. We learn that faith is a strong belief of truth within our souls that motivates us to do good.

As I was pondering on what to talk about today, these simple primary teachings from the children’s songbook rang true to me:

1. Faith is knowing the sun will rise, lighting each new day. 
Faith is knowing the Lord will hear my prayers each time I pray. Faith is like a little seed: 
If planted, it will grow. 
Faith is a swelling within my heart. 
When I do right, I know.

    2. Faith is knowing I lived with God before my mortal birth. 
Faith is knowing I can return when my life ends on earth. 
Faith is trust in God above; 
In Christ, who showed the way. 
Faith is strengthened; I feel it grow
Whenever I obey.

    A couple of summer ago, I remember going over to my Grandma’s house to help her plant new flowers in her garden. As you all know flowers start out as little tiny little seeds. In order for these dependent seeds to grow, they need three essential things. They need water, sunlight, and good soil. Just like my Grandma’s garden needed to be nurtured by water sunlight and soil, our faith in Jesus Christ likewise needs to be nurtured in order for it to grow.  In Gospel Principles it states, “Would we study and learn if we did not believe we could obtain wisdom and knowledge? Would we work each day if we did not hope that by doing so we could accomplish something? Would a farmer plant if he did not expect to harvest? Each day we act upon things we hope for when we cannot see the end result. This is faith”

    There are three essential things that help our faith in Jesus Christ grow. The first one is trusting in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Just like my Grandma and I trusted the sun to come out each day to nourish our garden, our trust in our Lord, Jesus Christ is essential for our faith to grow. Jesus Christ is the bright Son of God. God has a special plan for our gardens of faith to grow; we just have to trust him. This reminds me of one of my favorite a stories D Todd Christofferson told about President Hugh B Brown, formerly a member of the twelve and a counselor in the first presidency: “He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say: “How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.” President Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’” Years later, President Brown was a field officer in the Canadian Army serving in England. When a superior officer became a battle casualty, President Brown was in line to be promoted to general, and he was summoned to London. But even though he was fully qualified for the promotion, it was denied him because he was a Mormon. The commanding general said in essence, “You deserve the appointment, but I cannot give it to you.” What President Brown had spent 10 years hoping, praying, and preparing for slipped through his fingers in that moment because of blatant discrimination. Continuing his story, President Brown remembered: “I got on the train and started back … with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. … When I got to my tent, … I threw my cap on the cot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, ‘How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?’ I was as bitter as gall. “And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, ‘I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do.’ The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness. … “… And now, almost 50 years later, I look up to [God] and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.’”

 I can also relate to this story of the current bush: As my grandma and I were glorifying her garden, she had me trim back all the dead buds on a beautiful rose bush. I remember being so confused! Why would you cut it down if you wanted it to grow? But it all comes down to trusting that something big will come out of it.  Jesus’s love warms our heart and lights our ways just as the sun does as we strive to grow our faith. He will break you, and then lovingly take you and make you the person he wants you to be. So how can we develop trust in Jesus Christ? My suggestion to you would first be to get to know Christ because it is hard to trust someone you do not know. You can develop a relationship Christ by praying to him with all you heart and by reading the scriptures. You talk to God through prayer, and he gives his answers through scripture. Through faith you receive answers to your prayers and personal inspirations to guide you in the lords work. Faith in Jesus Christ means that you not only trust him enough to follow his commandments, but that you are confident that he loves you. It is important to turn to the Lord especially during trials. Rosemary M Wixom said, “Don’t quit. You keep going. Trust in God and the good things to come. The world needs you.  Overcome difficulties through faith. He can make more than what we could ever make for ourselves. Your faith in Jesus Christ grows as you become better acquainted with him and his teachings. As we exercise our faith it will light out paths each day.

Jesus Christ sacrificed for our sins so that we may progress. He died that we may be lifted. Applying this atonement into our lives is the second way to help our faith in Jesus Christ grow. As flowers are watered, their roots soak up and consume this essential nutrient given to them. We too can soak up and consume the atonement given to us. However, just as the flowers become weak and droopy if they do not use the water, we too will become weak if we do not use the atonement. So how can we apply the atonement into our lives? You have to believe that your sins will be forgiven through His Atonement. Mosiah 4:6 says “I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life.” Jesus Christ atoned for the sins of the world! He sacrificed and atoned for your sins regardless if you use it or not. We should always be repentant and have a prayer in our hearts so we do not waste this wonderful gift given to us. Through faith in the Savior and through repentance, we make His Atonement fully effective in our lives. Through faith we can also receive strength to overcome temptations. The atonement can clean, reclaim, and sanctify our lives. The atonement makes it possible for those who have faith in Christ to be saved from their sins. It is important to use this gift Jesus Christ has sacrificed for us and let it water our souls.

The final thing to help our faith in Jesus Christ grow is standing in holy places. Flowers grow to be so much stronger if they are planted in good soil, we to benefit and become stronger if we are in good environments. Stand in the soil Jesus Christ has nourished for us. This reminded me of a story my cousin told me when I was up at BYU, “There was an incredibly large group of people assembled. On one side of the 
group stood a man who was Jesus. On the other side of the group stood another man who was Satan. Separating them, running through the group was a fence. 

The scene set, 
and, one by one, each having made up his or her mind, each went to either
Jesus’s or Satan’s side. 

This kept going, and eventually Jesus had gathered around him a group of 
people from the larger crowds, as did Satan. But one little boy joined neither 
group. He climbed the fence that was there and just sat down on it. Then, 
Jesus and his followers began calling to the boy and begging him to come to their side. The boy then looked over at Satan and saw he was just standing there with an evil smirk on his face. 

As the boy sat on that fence he wondered why Jesus was begging him to come to their side and Satan wasn’t. The boy asked Satan, why don’t you want me on you side? Satan foolishly remarked, “The fence is on my side.” Brothers and sisters it is important that we surround our lives with good influences so that our faith may grow in nourished soil. Do not stand in the middle be completely on God’s side so Satan will not have power to tempt you. However, when we mess up, our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will beg us to come back on their side with open welcoming arms. Jesus Christ has walked the soil we grow in. He knows how we feel and what we are going through, and most importantly he knows what is best for us. Strive to grow your faith by having good influences come into your lives and by seeking good friends. Deepen your roots and stand in holy places so you can grow. Having faith in Jesus Christ means you help bring out the good in your life and the lives of others. Moroni 7:33 states, “And Christ hath said: If ye have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.” We will have power to do extraordinary things through our faith. Henry B Eyring explains, “As we make a constant quest for the spirit to be with us [by standing in holy places], then we will never be in darkness, we will have no doubt, and our faith will be strong”

          

  With these three things in mind trusting, using the atonement, and having good influences remember that Satan does not want us to progress with our faith in Jesus Christ. He will make us feel insignificant and droopy, but always remember the love and warmth Jesus Christ and our loving Heavenly Father sends our way. During that warm summer day while my Grandma and I were planting the flowers, I was digging a hole to put this beautiful plant into, but as I was digging, we came across rocks and hard dirt that got in our way of progressing with the task. What can some of the rocks and hard dirt be in our lives that keep us from progressing with our faith in Jesus Christ? Some things may be pride, being ungrateful, or lowering our standards. To gain faith is to become humble and know that it is Gods will that shall be done, not ours. Elder Benson had a couple things to say about Pride: “Pride limits or stops our progression. It affects ALL our relationships, even with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ” when we are prideful we hold grudges and do not forgive, which is not using the atonement. Choose to be humble by loving God. Carol F Mcconkie said, “Have humility to fall on your knees and say oh Lord not my will but thine be done.  Be humble enough to pray and then faithful enough to act. Along with being humble, it is also important to be grateful. All things come from God. He gives us everything in life. Finally, do not lower your standards regardless of what the circumstances may be. Let your faith be heard and be not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Doubt and fear are also some things that are opposed to having faith in Jesus Christ. Remember the words of Deiter F. Uchtdorf, doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. Doubt and faith do not exist together.  Preach my Gospel says, “Your faith will increase through diligent study, prayer, dedicated service, and obedience to the promptings of the holy ghost and the commandments. As you explore the scriptures and search them, you learn of his ways, his love for all people, and his commandments. Helaman 5:12 states, “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." Build your foundation on Christ so that Satan's evil influences cannot drag us down into the  gulf of misery. If we build our foundation on Christ and are faithful and strong, we cannot and will not fall. 

I would just like to end with these lyrics from this song by Jenny Phillips.            

“It wasn’t long ago

I was in another place Preparing for this day

I could feel the Father’s love I could see the Savior’s face But now I walk by faith

I know exactly what I want for my life I want to become like Christ

And one day when I see Him again I want to hear Him say well done Come, come, come enter in Through serving with all my heart And through His mighty grace

I pray I can stand blameless At the last day

Through unimportant things Through the daily grind of life It’s so easy to lose sight

Of just how little time

We have to prove our faith And embrace the Savior’s way

I know exactly what I want for my life I want to live in the light”

I love this song and its beautiful message about faith and knowing that there is a plan for us and that we did live with our Father in Heaven before we came down to earth. It is by our faith that we will be able to return back to them.

Remember that plants don’t jump from a seed to a flower all at once, we too are not expected to make that big jump with our faith, it will come in small bits as we make the right decisions. Dieter F Uchtdorf said as you exercise a little faith and begin your walk as a peaceable follower of Christ your heart will change and your whole being will be filled with light. Faith has to grow. Sometimes our faith dwindles, but we can always be trimmed back by our loving Heavenly Father and grow to be even stronger. I know that as we strive to develop the Christ like attributes listed in preach my gospel that we will grow to become a happier and better person. Christ is truly the best example to pattern our lives after. We all have potential to become beautiful flowers: whether it be a rose, a daisy, or a sunflower, we are all the same in the eyes of our God. I know that the end will be beautiful for each of you just like the colorful flowers in my Grandma’s garden as your faith grows and as you pant that seed into your heart.

-Testimony

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.