Week 28: 02/06/17: Transfers...:(

Week 28: 02/06/17

SOOOOO transfer calls came the other day and sadly, the adventures of Sister Baker and Meli are coming to an end :-( 

I knew it was coming since I've been in Maypen for 6 months but I was hoping to stay another transfer, hahaha. I will be going to Savannah La Mar (the most western part of Jamaica) and will be white washing the area with my good friend, Sister Von Der Leek. She's from South Africa! Even though I am sad to be leaving the MOST promising and blessed area in all of Jamaica, I am thankful for this opportunity I am given to start fresh with Sister Von. She's a great missionary and so I have full faith that her and I will work well together!

Earlier this week, I was able to go on trade offs with my SISTAH, Sis Afemata! She is awesome and I got to spend the day with her in Portmore. One thing I learned from her was how to replace my irritation or frustration with sorrow; sorrow for when the people we meet reject the most precious gift that our Heavenly Father can give them: the Atonement!!! By replacing my frustration or anger with sorrow, I was able to truly see others as children of our Heavenly Father. It has opened my eyes IMMENSELY. I hope to be able to apply this throughout the rest of my mission.

I am soooooo sad that Sister Baker and I won't be serving together but I am so thankful for the time I was given to be her companion. She has taught me so much about hard work, diligence, humility! Her and I always reminded each other to SMILE :-) I know that her and Sister Pierre (her new companion) will do well together! I am excited to hear about our investigators on date, Mr. Barnes, Ms. Joy, Tj, and Shavanese get baptized! I said goodbye to so many people yesterday and just cried out of gratitude towards the people of Maypen. No one told me that leaving an area, especially your first, would be so hard!!! But I am excited to see miracles happen in Savannah La Mar.

As this week rolls up, I hope everyone finds a miracle or tender mercy!! Those are EVERYWHERE! Thank you to everyone for the support and love!!! Wish me luck in Sav!

Aloha wau ia oukou a ofa lahi atu,

Sister Meli

Week 27: 01/30/17

Week 27: 01/30/17

This week was a CRAZY WEEK........ so, as many of you may know, there has been a lot of changes in the missionary world! We have a change in schedule and in the key indicators we report every week. The leaders of the church want us to focus on teaching repentance and baptizing converts and so we will only be reporting on the things related to that.

Our daily schedule for sister missionaries here in Jamaica has changed too and I'm still trying to get more accommodated to it. We will be proselyting starting at 8am now and we have to be back inside by 6pm (due to how dangerous it is here....... I mean, I never got shot yet so idk). All things are from the Lord and so I am focusing on getting more used to the schedule, hopefully that happens soon, hahaha!

Anyways, Sister Baker and I are excited and also scared for this week (transfer calls are soon, that happened so fast!) but it will be great nonetheless. We are still trying to make our goal for seeing 4 baptisms together and so I have a good feeling about it!! We are working on putting Mr. Barnes and Ms. Beth on date to be baptized and we will see how that goes. We see them later today :D

Well, I hope everyone has a great week! I know it's weird that I'm emailing so early but I hope this one finds ya fine :-)

Aloha wau ia oukou a ofa lahi atu,

Sister Meli

Pic 1: @ Traci Aiwohi

Pic 2: The camel cows that patrol our streets everyday

Pic 3: THE BEST JAMAICA/MEXICAN BURRITO I HAVE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE (shout out to Elder Palmer for telling Sis Baker and me about Chilitos)

Week 26: 01/23/17: Miracles in Maypen!

Week 26: 01/23/17: Miracles in Maypen!

This week was so awesome!!!! Sister Baker and I have been working on finding the "elect" in our area and so we have been walking and talking to everyone!! We currently have three investigators on date to be baptized, Ms. Joy, who runs a small shop near our house, Shavanese, a woman who works at a bike store, and TJ, the son of a recent convert. All of these people are very promising and Sister Baker and I are excited to get these people prepared for baptism!! 

We have two other investigators named Beth and Mr. Barnes and I wanted to talk about them a little. We met Beth while trying to find her son who we contacted the day before and we ended up getting an appointment with her. She is SO awesome. She told us about how confused she was about all the different churches and is very willing to listen to our message. I think she's elect :) Mr. Barns is a referal we received from the elders in the office and when we met him, he had already been reading the Book of Mormon and testified to us about how he knew it was true. It was awesome teaching him because he's very humble. He also had his mom and grandma sit in on our first lesson with him and the spirit was there!!! Sis Baker and I are working on getting them both on date to be baptized and so we will see how that goes this week :)

I have to give credit to my companion, Sister Baker, for the week that we've had together. Her and I get along SO well! I feel like I'm serving with a best friend, every day is so much fun!!! I love her a lot and I learn a lot from her as well. We are working really hard in meeting our goals and we know that as we both work together to help Maypen grow, we will be able to see miracles!!!

Saturday, Jamaica was blessed to have a General Authority visit us and help us and the members work to see the church grow!!! Elder Gamiette was able to teach us a lot about how the members and missionaries can work together to bring souls unto Christ. It was POWERFUL and I learned so much about the importance of talking to everyone and how we can ask inspired questions in each lesson. I hope to be able to apply those things as I continue to serve as a missionary.

This week, the missionaries will have a broadcast training on Wednesday and I'm very excited to watch and learn from that as well. As I continue my search for a miracle each day, my hope is that I will always find one!!!! 

Have a blessed week and I hope you all know how much I love you all!!!

Aloha wau ia oukou a ofa lahi atu,

Sister Meli

pic 4: Sis Baker and I went to the Bob Marley Museum today and it was AWESOME! 

pics 1, 2,3: pics from the training on saturday lol

Week 25: 01/16/17

Week 25: 01/16/17

hey hey so I promised pics for like the last 3 weeks so here ya go. I'll make this one short so you all can enjoy seeing pics of my life from the last month lol

 
             

Week 24: 01/09/17

Week 24: 01/09/17

Aloha everyone! Well this was the first week of a new transfer and as you all know, I'm spending it in Maypen. Maypen is still the best place I know (given since it's the only place I know) and so I'm always on the search for miracles!! 

Sister Baker and I have been doing crazy work this past week and it's been awesome! We've been able to meet a lot of new people including Michael, our new investigator who told us that he wants to change his life. I have high hopes for him! Our first lesson with him was so strong, the Spirit was truly there! Sis Baker is a hard worker and since she goes home in a few months, we are working so that she can add a few more miracles on her list of missionary experiences :)

We currently have two investigators on date to be baptized soon and we are working on extending two more this upcoming week or the next. Our goal is to see 4 baptisms within this companionship and so we are hoping that we can see it within this transfer! that would be cool. 

Anyways, we also got an announcement that the Area authority will be coming to Jamaica next week and so we are super stoked to see him! He is going to be talking to the missionaries and the church leaders here and so I'm excited to hear his suggestions as to how we can help the work move forward here. 

This week will be an exciting one as well and so stay tuned!!! 

Hope you all have a great week!!!

Aloha wau ia 'oukou a ofa lahi atu,

Sister Meli

ps, I'm sending pics later so stay tuned for that too lolol sorry

Week 23: 01/03/17: Hauʻoli Makahiki Hou!

Week 23: 01/03/17: Hauʻoli Makahiki Hou! Transfers = New companion, Sis. Baker!!!

Sorry for not writing you all last week, things were really crazy since transfers!!

So, a little update on transfers, I'm still in Maypen but I got a new companion and her name is Sister Baker! She is from Orange County, California and she is so awesome! We laugh a lot and she's a hard worker and so we walk everywhere! I've said it many times but Maypen is full of miracles, and I'm excited to see them unfold in this companionship. We've made it a goal to have 4 baptisms together and so we are working hard to see that happen!!

Christmas and New Year's was great, and it was amazing to see my family after what felt like forever. I found out that my brother Saia is taller than my dad....... WHAT! 

It was really nice to talk to everyone even though I called an hour late (I got the time difference wrong lol). But it was still awesome!

I have a lot of high hopes for this upcoming new year, especially since I'll be serving this full year as a missionary. Last week, I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time as a missionary and am truly grateful for it. Whenever you have time, read a couple pages!! I've felt myself grow so much in the gospel while doing so and I know that everyone can do the same :)

I will be sending pics soon from these last couples weeks so stay tuned. 

I also hope everyone had a great holiday season!!!

Thank you for all the support I've received from everyone!

Aloha wau ia 'oukou a ofa lahi atu,

Sister Meli

Week 22: 12/25/16...Merry Christmas!!!

Week 22: 12/25/16

No letter, but these picture say it all!!! Face timing with Sister Meli was the greatest Christmas gift! She originally called while we were in sacrament meeting, so she was able to call us later that evening when we all were home. Only 1 more Christmas to go, then she will be home!