10 October 2016 - Change is in the air!

Greetings, loved ones:

Public service announcement.  For the next monthish, my address will not be 1292 Fairview Avenue.  If you would like me to smile and be happy, feel free to send things to:

124 S 3rd W

Rexburg, ID 83440

If you have sent something to the Fairview address, I can still go and get it from the lady I used to live with, but for now I'm in another house.  

My new trainee is Sister Намуун Ганболд AKA Namuun Ganbold.  If you want to see her singing in General Conference, go 6:22 on the Saturday morning session, she's the asian sister wearing a light pink/peach shirt in the bottom leftish.  OR there's a nice close up of her at 1:30:56.  She's the asian in the light pink/salmon shirt.  She's from MONGOLIA.  She speaks MONGOLIAN.  And another language that I've never heard of before.  I found out 30 seconds ago that she's a part of an LDS singing group that sang on MONGOLIA'S GOT TALENT.  So that's intense.  

We're staying busy all the time, and meeting some wonderful people!  One of the BYUI students that we started teaching has grown up in SE Idaho all of his life but never was interested in learning about what "the mormons" believe.... until this last week.  We taught him the Restoration - introduced prophets, the priesthood, Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon etc, and he was responding really well to everything, asking awesome questions, and responding well to everything!  At the end we invited him to be baptized.  And he said YES.  After trying our hardest to not to happy dance, or hug him, or cry, or do anything else that may be socially inappropriate, one of his friends who came along asked him how he felt when we invited him to be baptized.  His response: "It felt good, like I already knew it was right.  This is what I've been yearning for, thirsting for, for all of my life it seems.  I want this."

AMAZING.  I have pondered his response for awhile after that.  And it reminds me of Alma 32:28 talking about a seed planted in our hearts that we need to make room for.  I always thought for quite awhile that the seed is faith.  I, no surprise, was wrong.  The SEED is Christ and his doctrine.  If we make room for it in our life, and in our heart, "it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me."

That's how Alma describes it anyways.  Don't you love those moments when you learn/realize something that enlarges your soul? I personally love that phrase.  

The student we taught - the doctrine and gospel of christ was something he THIRSTED after.  

Alma - the doctrine and gospel of christ was something that was DELICIOUS to him.

Usually when we talk about the gospel, we talk about FEELING or HEARING the spirit.  SEEING miracles.  How interesting that the gospel can change and influence all of our senses, desires, and actions, if we give place for it to do so.

May we all strive to do that!

Thanks for everything,

Sister McIntosh

3 October 2016 - Third Time's the Charm!!

Hello, family and friends!

I have news.  As a reminder, my companion, Sister Dodd, was actually called to serve in the Samoa Apia mission but was just here awaiting her visa paperwork.  She arrived here along with a few other visa-waiters to serve in our mission in the meantime.  This past week, she (along with a few others) GOT HER VISA and got on a plane and left me this past Sunday :(  It was sad seeing her go, but I'm really excited for her to serve the people in Samoa.  She'll be a wonderful missionary there as she was here!
Transfers are also THIS WEDNESDAY.  President Nelson called me a few days ago and asked me to train a new missionary again - my 3rd trainee so far!!  It'll be so fun!  I don't know who it is I'll be training yet, but I may train another visa waiter again.  It'll be good for me - I love working with the greenie fire!
Until Wednesday, however, I'll be working with Sister Naitoko. I met her at the MTC and we came out together.  She had been training a visa waiter that left, as well, so we'll just hang out together, working in both of our areas until Wednesday.
The biggest change, however, is that when my new trainee gets here on Wednesday, she'll join Sis. Naitoko and I and we'll be in a TRIO covering both the BYU-I are and Sis. Naitoko's area in Rexburg.  Meaning my area will have 24 wards added to it.  We will be covering 152 wards.  Prayers are welcome and appreciated. :)

This week I also got the opportunity to go on exchanges with the Sisters in Sugar City - my FIRST AREA! I have so many fond memories and beloved friends there.  I was only there for a day, but it made me happy to think about how wonderful it is to be a missionary and interact with people in such a unique way.  I love seeing others in a way similar to how Christ sees them.  It's liberating an d mind-opening, if that makes sense.  I love meeting new people.  I love serving people.  A lot of this week was spent washing others' dishes, packing boxes, sweeping floors, weeding gardens.It's amazing how when you're doing those things in Christ's name and for the love you feel for them, there's a very noticeable holiness that begins to accompany a task like scrubbing the crusted mac'n'cheese out of bowls and pots.  And I actually mean that!  The things that seem mundane, boring, lonely, stupid, difficult, or pointless become SO much more meaningful when you realize how it plays a role in the ETERNAL plan that God has for us.

I hope you all watched General Conference and enjoyed it.
My initial faves/highlights:
**Quentin L. Cook's talk about the stumbling blocks to our testimony.  We don't need to be looking beyond the mark (Jacob 4)!  The gospel is much simpler than we make it out to be and we need to question whether the things in our life are HELPING or HINDERING us.
**Kazuhiku Yamashita's talk about having AMBITION for Christ.  I love that.  It really inspired me to stop having pity parties, even if they only take place in my own head.  None of us really ever has reason to make excuses or complain.  It's time that we feel JOY and EXCITEMENT about serving our Savior in whatever capacity we're blessed to.
**M. Russell Ballard's talk about, well, so much.  My absolute favorite part was when he discussed how just because something is inexplicable to US doesn't mean that it's inexplicable period.  Living the gospel will never not be difficult, so we just need to have faith.

There was a lot more that I learned.  Sorry this is kind of a novel, but I just wanted to let you all know that Jesus Christ is on your side!  He and Heavenly Father want nothing less than your complete joy.  They know what you need in your life in order to attain that.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear y'all's thoughts from conference.

Thanks so much for everything.
xoxo
Sister Mc


We didn't take a whole lot of pictures this week, but here's a mediocre-quality shot I got of Sis. Dodd the night before she boarded her plane to Samoa.  :(  I'm going to miss her!

26 September 2016 - OLD FAITHFUL

This past week was definitely one of my favorites in the whole mission. Seriously. First of all, earlier this week we had a mission tour - meaning two general authorities came to meet everyone and hold zone conferences with us.  Elder Brent H Nielsen (gen ath 70 and head of mission department) and Elder Joaquin Costa (gen auth 70) came.  They're brilliant.  We had a zone conference and 2 missionary leadership council meetings with them.  One of my favorite parts was when our mission president, in order to illustrate the allegory of the olive tree (see Jacob 5) literally GRAFTED TWO TREES AT THE PULPIT IN THE CHAPEL.  Our mission president owned a very successful nursery of trees in Oregon for his business.  Meaning he literally grafted trees all the time.  It was wonderful. I'm still reviewing my notes from the whole mission tour, but I'm excited to be a better missionary because of it.
Then, we got to go to Yellowstone National Park on Wednesday which was beautiful and JUST the soul-cleansing that I needed. It was probably the sulfur haha. That's why I didn't email last week.
THEN we got 3 new investigators this week - from Nepal, Germany, and Vietnam. And each of them are SO prepared in their own ways. The one from Nepal agreed to a baptismal date yesterday, and the other two have said that they want to get baptized!!
Another amazing thing is that we were looking for a particular house, supposedly "Jared" lived there - a nonmember that the elders before us found that was interested in taking the lessons. When we get there, we learn that nobody named Jared lived there (anymore, at least) and now a young couple with a daughter lived there. The wife told us that she was baptized a few years ago, but now she and her husband were less active. They're both smokers, but said that they've been looking for a way to quit and come back to church and invited us over again for a lesson!!!!!! We're so excited. But we're still looking for Jared, too.
THEN to top it all of, we got to watch the General Women's conference of the church.  I enjoyed ALL of the talks, but my favorites were Sister Oscarson's and Elder Utchdorf's.  Sister Oscarson's talk, like, made me just want to cheer the whole time.  I could have genuinely just started applauding at multiple points because of how unapologetic and straightforward and hardcore she is.  Then Elder Utchdorf, if he isn't enough of a charmer already, told wonderful stories about having faith and enduring and trusting God.  A lot of what he said very literally answered some of my questions in very real ways.  It was amazing.  I encourage you all to look into the conference regardless of whether or not you are a woman.

I love you all.

This week was great.
I will send pictures.

xoxo
Sister Mc

12 September 2016 - "Thanks, guys! Or, girls. Uh, ladies, I mean, SISTERS!"

The pronoun struggle for people talking to sister missionaries is amusing.  I've been conditioned to respond to any of the above.

This'll be a short email, but a lot has happened!  The most exciting is Eva's baptism!  She looked SO cute and so happy.  Me and sister Dodd sang a medley of "I Need Thee Every Hour", "Nearer, My God, to Thee" and "Come, Thou Fount" while I played guitar.  I warned her that my eyes might get "sweaty" while we sang (we'd always joke about "sweaty eyes") and they totally did.  She was just so happy.  "Jesus told me I need to follow Him so that's what I'm doing today." -direct quote.  

We've also been preparing for TODAY, also known as the day that fall semester starts at BYUI.  I've been so excited to reconnect with some of our investigators from the previous semester that I was here and I have high hopes.

Public service announcement: next monday will not be p-day, meaning I will not be able to send or read any emails.  Elder Brent H. Nielson of the seventy will be coming for a couple days to do some zone conferences, interviews, inspections, and whatever else.  I'm very excited!!! He's currently the executive director of the entire missionary department.  He'll be here next monday and tuesday... so our pday will be Wednesday, but some of the missionaries have planned a trip up to Yellowstone, so I'm not sure when or if I will be able to email that day.  

Thank you all for your prayers.  Sorry this is a short email.  I love this work and I love the people of Rexburg!  

Faithfully,

Sister McIntosh

1.  We had a masquerade to celebrate my half birthday and her 2 month mark and my 8 month mark

2.  I got to go on exchanges with Hna Alvarez and speak spanish all day!!!!!  (PS this past week marked the half-anniversary of the Alamo...(the only reason I know this is because the battle at the Alamo took place on my birthday) which took place in San Antonio, TX.  In order to commemorate, how cool is it that I spent the day speaking spanish in St. Anthony (aka San Antonio) Idaho?)

3.  Us with Eva <3

4.  Us with Eva <3

5 September 2016 - ... It happend...

Well.  I knew the day was coming.  I just didn't know that it would come so soon.  I am saddened to announce to you all that it has officially started being "chilly" in Idaho.  Most days are fine, but it's only a matter of time before my nose hairs are frozen, my bum is bruised from falling ALWAYS, and my hair starts greying from the stress of driving on iced roads.  

But good things are in the future of Rexburg!  We're teaching a cute little girl, Eva (9) who is getting baptized this weekend.  She's the funniest little girl.  And so smart.  Oh my heck.  

And the fall semester starts in a WEEK!  I am anxious for that day.  For many, many reasons, but one of the most significant is that we will have MUCH more people to teach!  I love working with the YSA and everyone else on campus.  Sister Dodd and I have some good ideas to really get the work rolling on campus - stay tuned.

We have a new YSA investigator named Willy - he's really cool and very receptive to everything we teach.  We taught him the Plan of Happiness and at the end, since we had gone over a lot with him, I asked what in the lesson particularly stood out to him or meant a lot to him.  "Well... no matter what we do, we can be forgiven and it will be okay. If we do what's right, anyways.  I didn't know that there was that much hope." 

That was a really needed answer for me particular.  

I know a decent amount of things.  I'm aware of things, at least (except between 10:30pm and 6:30am).  But do I really UNDERSTAND what these things mean?  Do any of us?  It was a good reminder and it made me think of the great missionary Amulek who said:

I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; 

therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know  

Profound much?

In our prayers, in our studies, in our everyday activities, let's try to remember and to KNOW the things we know about.  Let's pray for increased perspective and understanding of the things we take for granted.

Love you all!!!!!!

Sister McIntosh

1.  Me and Kolo both pretending like we weren't crying.  This was shortly before she left

2.  Us with Eva!  And her cousin! (turquoise hair)

3.  Eating at the legendary Big Judd's restaurant outside of Rexburg while on exchanges with some of the other sisters in Rexburg :)

4.  The beautiful temple

29 August 2016 - Goodbye, Tong! Hello, Samoa!

Greetings!

On Wednesday, I got me a new companion!  Her name is Sister Tiane Fa'afofoga Saumanuia Dodd.  Aka Sister Dodd. She is most recently from Montana, a couple hours outside of Billings (in the northern Cheyenne Reservation).  She is 1/16 native american, and 1/2 Samoan!  Her mom is from the islands.  Remember the first missionary I trained, Sister Reupena??  She is from Samoa, and actually served in Samoa for a couple months on a visa wait before I got her here in Idaho.  Sister Dodd, ALSO is a visa waiter.  She was not called to Idaho, but TO SAMOA.  So, I'm not sure how long I'll get to keep her, but I hope it's awhile because she is STELLAR.  Her Samoan is already super great because her grandma and mom speak samoan with her a lot.    I love all of these poly companions I have!  SO FUN.  Sister Dodd likes to play the guitar, uke, and piano by ear (she asked me to teach her how to read notes on pdays!) and loves to braid hair.  We get along great and she's such a hard worker.  I LOVE THE GREENIE FIRE.

On a sadder note, Sister Kolo went home today.  She finished up her 18 months and about an hour ago drove off to be in the mission home.  Tomorrow she flies from Pocatello to Salt Lake to LAX (13hr layover) to Tahiti to New Zealand to Tonga.  All.  By.  Herself.  I can't even imagine.  When we were saying goodbye, we were both sobbing.  It was the first time she'd seen me cry and I don't think she realized how much I was going to miss her! I've known her my whole mission!! But she will be happy in Tonga, and I'm trying to convince her to come back to BYUI haha.

In one of the wards we went to this past Sunday there was a musical number of 3 brothers (2 cellos, 1 violin) and their mom (piano) playing "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing."  While the boys were getting set up and tuned up, the mom introduced them and read the lyrics of this hymn, which I love.  She started the first verse.......

Come thou fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above
I'll praise the mount I'm fixed upon it Mount of thy redeeming love.

.....And I was contently humming the melody in my head along with these familiar words.  Then she read the second verse.......

Here I raise my Ebenezer Hither by thy help I come
And I hope by thy good pleasure Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger Wondering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger Interposed His precious blood.

.....and I happily listened to these incredible words.  Such a wonderful hymn, and I was excited to hear their instrumental arrangement.  She read the third verse........

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above

...and I absolutely lost it.  

As my chin trembled and as I ungracefully pretended to cough to cover my blowing my nose, I thought.... What a reminder this was to me of the power a relationship with Christ can bring into our heart and into our life.  I am honestly at a loss for words, in a way.  Her reading that verse, and even me pondering it now, makes me realize how humble we all ought to be.  Do not all of us have a wandering heart?  Are we not all prone to leave?  There may be people closer to perfection than that, but I don't even hang out with those kinds of people, if they exist in the first place.  I need Christ's goodness to fetter my heart to His.  I can't do it alone. None of us can.

He just needs our heart.

Love you all,

Sister McIntosh

Here's us all right before we said goodbye to Sister Kolo and started sobbing.  It's me, Sister Kolo, Sister Crandall (my STL comp), Sister Dodd (my REAL comp), Sister Cottrell (from KS, also fresh from the MTC), Sister Naitoko, and Zuster Baker (also here on a visa wait, she was called to the Trinidad Port of Spain mission, Dutch Speaking).

22 August 2016 - *AHEM* Drumroll, please...

Hello, everyone.

This weekend, we found out what's going to be happening with this next transfer that will start on Wednesday.  I'm staying in the same area.  Kind of.  Here's what's going down:

**Currently my area is all of BYU-I and the Rexburg Center Stake.  It will NOW be all of BYU-I and the Rexburg East Stake.  They're working on opening up some new areas, so there's a LOT of rearranging and whitewashing going on throughout the whole mission.  ALSO, fun fact: The Rexburg East stake is statistically the most active stake in the entire world.  Literally. In terms of the # of baptized members living in the boundary and in terms of church attendance of those baptized members.  The most active stake. 

**Sister Kolo is going home back to Tonga, but her plane doesn't leave until next week, so UNTIL then, she'll be in a trio with me and my new companion.

**I'M GOING TO BE A TRAINER AGAIN!!! My new companion will be a wonderful sister fresh from the MTC.  There's 4 sisters total coming in this transfer, two of which are VISA waiters waiting to go serve outside of America.  I'm SO EXCITED!!!  

**I'm going to be a Sister Training Leader still, but I won't have an STL companion... So it will just be me for the sisters that Sister Kolo and I together were working with up until this transfer. 

So that's that!  It will be totally crazy and busy all the time, but that's how I like it.  

Anthony got baptized this weekend!!  I told you about Anthony last email, I believe.  We call him cat daddy.  His baptism was wonderful.  I wish you all could have been there to see how happy and smiley he was the whole time.  He just glowed.  His friends gave talks, me and the other sisters sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" while I played guitar which was SO fun.  His confirmation the next Sunday was just as wonderful.  Let me tell you, hearing about this guy's whole past story, and then seeing him come into church wearing slacks and a CTR tie tack.... The gospel changes everything.

This has been a wonderful week, and things will only get better, methinks.

Keep on keepin' on, everyone.  "Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever."

Love always,

Sister McIntosh

I had to run and play prelude music right before the took this epic picture.

#peanutbutterandjealous

But I was here for this one <3

ALSO  I taught these cuties back when I worked in Sugar City.  They live in Teton and they got baptized this weekend and I got to go see them and have a lunch with their family afterwards <3

Parker (11) and Reo (9) Cash.

Last monday we had dinner with this awesome family from Tonga who lives in the East stake, the one I'm starting to cover this week!!!

One of our BFFs who comes teaching with us took us to get Cold Stone because she's the best.