20 March 2017 - I've been sleep-talking.

HELLO, ONE AND ALL.

Spring has sprung up here in Idaho Falls and I am LOVING IT.  The skirt-and-wind combination, not so much... but the sunshine and lack of coat, beanie, and tights is marvelous.

I need to take some time to brag about a couple of our investigators:

FIRST, Ericka.

Ericka got baptized this past weekend and earlier that day we met up with her and her husband to the Idaho Falls Temple Visitor's center to have a lesson about stuff AFTER baptism - temples and families and such.  It was one of the BEST lessons.  We had the senior missionary couple who works at the VC come and talk to us about how being sealed in the temple has blessed their life.  It was so incredible.  After she left, some of the other sisters who work at the VC came up to us and asked about Ericka -- "Who was that girl? She was GLOWING."  They talked about how radiant she looked with the spirit.  How awesome is that?  It was a great baptism.

NOW, Jocelyn.

So, I've had a theory about SE Idaho for awhile.  Keep in mind that my theory is from the point of view of me, a missionary from the south who has served in 4-5 Idahoan towns ranging in size from "minuscule" (Newdale) to "less minuscule" (Idaho Falls).  My theory is this: For the most part, the people here either love the Mormons and the LDS church, or they dislike the Mormons and the LDS church.  LDS-Baptized AND non-LDS-baptized  people belong to both groups.  It's interesting.  After talking to Jocelyn the other day, I am more confident in my theory's validity.  Jocelyn went to school and told her friends that she has decided to get baptized next week, then all of her friends TOTALLY turned on her and started teasing her and making fun of her and trying to convince her to NOT get baptized (some of them members of the church).  HOW SAD IS THAT!  I was heartbroken that they would make fun of her.  She said that she's not welcome in a lot of her friend groups any more because of her decision but that she is still 100% on board with it.  I admire her faith and her courage in standing firm with what the spirit has told her to do.  I love teaching her.  Honestly, she IS Rory from Gilmore Girls.  The whole show describes her life.  Her mom is SO Lorelai, there is a Luke, the grandparents.... Ah.  It's all real.

(I forgot my camera today, so no pictures.... lo siento)

Last night I was drinking some Ovaltine and reading conference talks from last October, to show God that I am PUMPED to receive more revelatory goodness from Him next next weekend.  While so doing, I came across THIS TALK HERE and found it to be brilliant and wonderful.  How grateful I am for a Savior who teaches me all things.  

Last night my companion told me that I started loudly sleep-talking at 3am... She told me "rodeo clown" was the only intelligible phrase that she remembers.  No more nighttime ovaltine.

Loves,

Sister McIntosh

13 March 2017 - Kids sure say the darndest things...

Hello, friends!

Things are going swimmingly up here in Idaho Falls!  I would like to begin this week's email by listing the absurd/hilarious things that I have heard children say in the past week:

"The temple is God's home... the churches are more like his hotels probably."

Primary teacher:  "Who is our prophet today?"  

6 year old child: "Not Obama."

"At general conference we hear from Henry B. Frying"

"Jesus wants us to be together forever like pb&j."

( After seeing a picture of Elder M. Russell Ballard: ) "Is that Elsa?"

9 year old: "I wish I was 10..."  

Me: "Why is that?"  

9 year old: "Because mom said I can wear DEODORANT."

*he raised both fists in the air and waves them around as the last line was said.*

As you can see, there were some adventures this week.  One of my favorite adventures was being able to witness Eric get baptized!  Eric lives in our stake, but had been going to church and being taught by some other missionaries by where his girlfriend lived, so we didn't get to be involved with a lot of his teaching, but it's crazy because I knew him way beforehand from an exchange I went on MONTHS ago where I got to teach him one of his first lessons - about the plan of salvation.  It was soooo cool to see how far he has come since that time I first met him.  

ALSO.  A couple of big-wigs from the MTC came to our mission this week - Brother Shane Littlefield and Brother Wave.  They're in charge of the training that missionaries receive not only in the MTC but throughout their mission.  They held an 8-hour meeting with about 50 missionaries in the mission and it was AMAZING.  They just focused on some core, key, basic things from Preach My Gospel that all of us had seemed to have forgotten or not really implemented as well as we could have and it was seriously so refreshing and so fun to just role-play, practice teaching, set goals, and have discussion on doing my favorite thing - talking about Jesus. :)

This weekend Ericka is getting baptized!  I'm so pumped for her and we just found out that her husband who quit smoking a few months ago is cleared by the Bishop to baptize her!!!  They just got married several months ago when she found out that she wanted to learn about the lds church and get baptized.  They're so cute and I'll send a million pictures next week about it, hopefully.

Today I want to bear my testimony about the restoration of Jesus Christ's original church through the prophet Joesph Smith.  This element of what I believe is torn apart and attacked ALL the time and it makes me so sad.  No matter what people claim about Joseph Smith or ANY of the latter-day prophets, I know this is Christ's church.  It doesn't really matter if any of what people claim about Joseph Smith is true or not - maybe some of it is.  BUT, I know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ and I know that Christ's priesthood power was restored and that The Book of Mormon was translated by that power.  Because I know that, nothing else matters, even if it is true, because God's power is on the earth.  Christ's church is here. That is true, too!  Yes, imperfect and lame people may be members and even leaders of the church.  In fact, I'm sure that they are... I know a few, and I'm one of them myself.  But the ONLY thing that matters is believing in Christ's atonement and believing that Christ's restored church is here. It is STILL being restored.  That's why we don't understand a lot of why things are the way they are in this church - because this true and living church is being restored every day... and because maybe we're not meant to understand.  

That being said.... I love you all so much!  

Sister Mc

6 March 2017 - New Address!!! Also, Remember the Alamo~~

"The identity of child of God can NEVER, EVER be threatened or taken away from me. In fact, it is the only identity I’ve found that can’t.

It means there is something from my Heavenly Parents inside of me—some piece of divinity—and since I did nothing to deserve it, there is nothing I (or someone else) can do to take it away. I can’t become MORE “child of God” by my own merits, and I can’t become LESS “child of God” by my mistakes. I just am a child of God. The divine is just there.

I still stumble. At times I still feel insecure and defensive and scared. I still try to stubbornly cling to my lesser identities, but the more I try to identify myself as a child of God—as a child of love, forgiveness, long-suffering, and kindness—the more my self-worth feels solid and stable, built on something everlasting and unchanging. Something good and pure and true. Something that defines my very essence."

(Read the whole thing here - it's so good.)

So, the above quote has been circulating around in my brain, applying itself to all kinds of situations and questions that I and people I teach and love are finding ourselves in and I know that it has at least helped me a lot.  That was a long sentence.  Regardless, the quote has helped me realize the value of MY self worth, as well as others'.

That being said, the above quote made this week a WHOLE lot better than it could have been - aka my Savior helped me through this week and helped my companion and I see SO MANY MIRACLES.  5 people that we are teaching are scheduled to get baptized within the next month, which is nothing short of amazing.  I love the people we teach.  

I also got to go on exchanges with some sisters this week in the spanish area!! My favorite.  A recent convert we taught spoke to me all in spanish, except for one sentence - "Do you have medicine for your acne?"  That was interesting haha.  But I was able to understand everything she said in spanish and help her get set up on FamilySearch to do some genealogy!  It was so cool to see her light up about finding her abuelitos on there.

My favorite thing: one of our investigators is this cute 9 year old boy named Aiden.  He said the closing prayer at our last lesson and in it, he said: "I think it's kinda cool that the missionaries get to come and tell me things I didn't know before... I think even my parents are learning some stuff."  It was great.

WE ALSO MOVED TO A NEW APARTMENT.  And it's wonderful.  If you're in the mood to brighten a sister missionary's day with a letter or something, here's the address:

716 Saturn Ave #2

Idaho Falls, Idaho 83402

I love you all SO SO MUCH.  Keep praying, keep believing, and be believing WHEN you are praying.  Keep it real and be good.

Loves,

Sister Mc

The pictures were taken after Debbie's funeral (see previous email I sent).  Soooo happy that previous comps and missionaries that taught her were able to come.  Love those sisters, Love Debbie.  

Also remember the Alamo - March 6, 1836

27 February - (no subject)

HI GUYS.

Tuesday: A temple recorder had a few missionaries over for a q&a session about pretty much anything we had questions about!  It was amazing.  I loved hearing his insights about the things we learn about in the temple and he was able to answer some questions I had about the Book of Abraham, the Plan of Salvation, and SO much else.  It was amazing.  We also got to speak to a group of YW that night who invited their friends to the activity!  HOLLA-LUJAH.

Wednesday:  ZONE CONFERENCE.  It was so great.  It always is.  Sister Houston and I were asked to do a demonstration for it, and I also got to do a training.  And they fed us pulled pork sandwiches.  THat night we had a meeting with all of our ward mission leaders WHILE our mission president had a meeting with our stake presidency.  #twobirds #onestone

Thursday:  We met a really neat part-member family that really wants to take the lessons and they're already wanting to be baptized!!!

Friday: We met ANOTHER part-member family.  They are fascinating.  We love them.... I would tell the whole story, but nobody wants an email 29387 paragraphs long.  It sufficeth me to say that it went well.

Saturday: We correlated with some of our ward mission leaders, went to lunch with our investigator HEATHER (amazing person, and I had amazing prime rib sliders with au jus sauce that I wanted to drink.)  We also got to meet a lot of people that we'd been hoping to meet!  Good day.

Sunday:  Sundays are the busiest days of my life.  Went to a few ward councils, spoke in a sacrament meeting, met with some Bishops, went to some presidency meetings, taught some investigators, went to a family's baby-gender reveal party for dinner (see friday's description--THAT family).  Then we saw a couple other people.  Then we came home and I fell asleep immediately.

Love you all!  

Sister McIntosh

The first one - unintentional blink

The second one - intentional blink - Unintentional blink because it was post-sneeze.

BTW it's snowing again.

20 February 2017 - The adversary is real. So is God.

I don't know all who remembers Debbie (she's in her early 60s in this pic), but this is her:

I taught her when I was in Rexburg.  She got baptized.  She cried when she finally overcame all she needed to and turned to Christ and repented.  She cheered when coming out of the water.  She smiled so brightly all the time.  I felt so much love for her from the beginning.

I received word this past week that she passed away. I was initially surprised, then sad...  But, the more I've thought about her, her spirit, her light, her excitement about the gospel... I've been thinking about how happy she must be to share the gospel with no inhibitions.  Am I still sad knowing that it'll be longer than I expected before I could give her a hug again? Yes.  Am I happy for her new life?  Yes.

Is Debbie's passing a work of the adversary?  No.  That's not why I titled the email that.  There are many reasons why I know that there is a very real power working against all that is good and happy.  I have experienced those reasons, as I think we all have.  I know I keep telling y'all about all these things I'm learning, but this one was especially profound.  Apparently the church did this cool "HOPE WORKS" initiative or something where basically they did spiritual Ted Talks.  I watched one today and it was a great reminder for me that we can overcome setbacks, unrighteousness, actions of others beyond our control.  Things like that flip our world upside down - sometimes in good ways, but a lot of times in negative ways.  We don't have to flip our world back on our own.  We don't even have to live in the flipped around world we're sometimes thrown in..... But we have a Savior to make us whole, no matter what situation we're in.

Here's the video:

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/hope-works/seeing-green-jill-thomas-hope-works

PLS WATCH IT.

I'm continuing my study of the Old Testament, by the way.  I've resolved to "Remember Lot's wife" as Christ has counseled us.... and I'm also trying to forget what happened with Lot's daughters... Oh my. 

I love you all.  I love hearing from you.

Sister McIntosh

13 February 2017 - Miscellaneous happenings for your reading pleasure...

Happy Monday!  Here are some significant things from this past week (disclaimer: a lot of them involve food), in no particular order: 

--The new transfer started, so I got to go meet the brand new sisters, help them find their comps, move their stuff around etc.  They're rockstars.

--I had the most amazing stuffed peppers for dinner sunday night.

--I had the most amazing lasagna and cherry chocolate cake that our ward mission leader spontaneously made for us... also sunday night.

--We got a new investigator who wanted to set a baptismal date on our first visit with her!!!  Melena is her name, conversion's her game.

--I'm getting increasingly excited about the IDAHO FALLS TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE.  Everyone come pls.  We know next-to-nothing about it...  But it will be amazing.

--We had our mission leadership council meeting this week, and SISTER NAITOKO (tongan, one of my favorite people ever, we came out of the MTC together) is now my Sister Training Leader companion again (she came down to Idaho Falls out of Rexburg for the FIRST TIME her whole mission) and they gave us mexican food at the meeting. #myroots

--I've decided that if it's above 32 degrees and the sun is shining, I'm not wearing a coat. #imisssunshine  #iamtoowhite 

--A man told me that my faith is insignificant and only "hollow but happy thoughts".  I tried to explain and help him.  Explicit words from him followed.

--Grass is visible, I REPEAT: snow has started to melt and we can see grass daily.  It's so happy.

--Finished the book of Jacob in the Book of Mormon and I'm obsessed with it always.

--Started the Old Testament recently.  

--We have been regularly teaching this less active family (all fairly recent converts, as well) and it's usually not the easiest visit, but when we came this week, the 12 year old boy that sometimes gives me anxiety kept on asking questions about temples and eternal families and expressing how much he wants to have forever families.  It was amazing and one of those "payday" visits.

There's much, much more.  There always is than what gets included in these emails unfortunately... But I love you all and thank you for your support.  

It's all real.  It's all true.

Sister McIntosh

6 February 2017 - IT'SMELLLTINGGGG

The snow is melting.  And it's been in the 40s and kind of raining and it's amazing.  The roads are slushy and horrible, but it's muggy and rainy (which I miss) and not freezing and SO NICE.

This was a weird week because I was sick on Thursday and Friday, then Hermana H-Town was sick on Saturday and Sunday.  So that was rough for both of us and we weren't able to do as much as we wanted to or had planned to.

Quick email today, but here's a cool story: We're teaching Ericka yesterday (I mentioned her before, she loves church, her hubby is quitting smoking, she wants to get baptized etc) about the law of tithing and fast offerings... and this cute little family is on the struggle bus with finances.  Aka they are having a rough time.  Hna Htown and I prayed a lot for help on how to teach it so that they would understand and still feel okay about being baptized... So we teach it to them, ask them questions, read with them, talk with them, they ask a couple questions, and we explain that in order to get baptized in the church, one is to pay tithing once they do get baptized.  Ericka gets this look on her face... not a good look.  My stomach and heart (and probably eye) spazzed a bit, because I was afraid she had completely lost ALL THE FAITH THAT SHE OBVIOUSLY HAD.  But then she said "wait... so I'm not allowed to start paying it now, before my baptism?"  Wait.  What?  We asked her if she did want to start paying her tithing and fast offerings now and she was like "well, yeah.  it's a wonderful way to pay back God for all He's done.  And to help others."  SO THAT WAS SO HAPPY.

Transfers are this week.  Hermana Htown and I are staying in the same area, and possibly even losing 2 of our wards.  They've been on and off with that decision.  SO i'm not sure what will end up happening.  

I love you all.  I hope you're happy, and I'm sorry for the shorter email.

XOXOOX
Sister Mc