This is My Work and My Glory

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was has been good. Sister Banks and I have been on Bikes since Tuesday night! We get the car back tonight (usually Wednesday's) because we have a training meeting in Charlotte tomorrow. 

Well last Monday, the Spanish Elders, the Burlington Elders, and us Burlington Sisters went bowling! It was super fun! We had to bowl in our proselyting clothes! (Sister's skirts or dresses, Elder's shirt and tie). I also made a cover for my planner! (I'll send a picture when I finally get a SD converter to send pictures :P ). 

Tuesday we had Zone Conference for the Greensboro Zone! It was so inspirational! President and Sister Craven came and spoke to us. They taught us so much! My favorite thing was a Ho-Hum! It's a boring talk, so Sister Craven taught us how to give a talk and not make it a Ho-Hum! Tuesday night we met with Dagmar again. She started reading the Book of Mormon, so we answered some questions she had and committed her to come to the Pioneer Activity the next day! Which she came too!!!!!!!!!!! :)  We also had Sister Sheperd at our lesson with Dagmar, which was great! She's a convert of about 20 years. 

   I got a letter from the Esplins! Thank you so much! I can't wait to hear more about my cousins and aunts and uncles (and grandparents and friends) in the coming months! 

Pioneer Day was good, it was the first full day on Bikes! OH MY GOODNESS! I have never been so physically tired in my life! But it was great! Dagmar and her sons Anthony and Walter came to the activity! And the ward was so great in fellowshipping them! 

Thursday we pretty much just tracked everyone around our apartment! 

Friday - I've been on my mission for a month now! Crazy how it's already been a month! It's funny because my District Leader (Elder Steenson, one of the Elders in Burlington too) has been on his mission longer than the other 3 missionaries in Burlington combined! (Sister Banks and I, and his companion Elder Skousen). The rest of us are all fairely new. 

Saturday - Both Friday and Saturday Dagmar cancelled her appointment with us, because Anthony moved in with his Dad in Philadelphia this week, so she's just been having a hard week. The devil is really working on her, but we told her to continue praying and reading the Book of Mormon. We'll hopefully be able to meet with her the beginning of this week. 

So I figured out why missionaries gain weight on their missions!! It's because the members feed them so well! Seriously! Every night we eat with a member we have such good food! AND A DESSERT!!!! I've never had this much dessert in my life! Sometime we just want something simple, but the food is good! I haven't had anything super weird yet. 

Oh I went through our media closet and we had 4 grocery bags FULL of VHS tapes of all the church media we give out! So we'll be giving those to Good-Will and maybe someone will buy them and want to know more about the church. 

Sunday is always a great day! We talked about work in Sunday school and working because you WANT to, not because you HAVE to. A lot of the youth gave talks about their experiences from Pioneer Trek! I was reminiscing on  my experience with trek and how fun it was! I'm pretty sure the Stake is suppose to have one next year! If they do that would be amazing! And I know Jason, Sam, and Adam would all have a great time! :) 

Speaking of Sam - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :) I hope you have a good day! :) I'll send something off today for you! :) 

Love you all! 

Sister Loosle 

Pioneers Prepare the Way for Others to Come

Hello Friends and Family, 

This week has just flown by! I can't believe it's P-Day again already! I love this area. I hope I'm here until Christmas, because a Less-Active that Sister Banks and I saw yesterday said they do a "live" (stand-still) nativity at Christmas at the church building! Which would just be amazing to see. 

I forgot to mention last week, that I am in a tri-car share. Meaning we have the car for 2 weeks and then bike for a week. So this Wednesday at District Meeting we give up the car and ride our bikes! And we aren't really driving a car, we're driving a van. Yes a Mini-Van. But it'll be fun! 

This week flew by, but Tuesday was seriously the LONGEST DAY EVER! It was the first day that Burlington has had without rain for almost a full month! And because of the humidity it was HOT! I also think because of all the bug bite I had gotten it felt like the day just dragged (but after Tuesday my bites got better!) We had lunch with a member at a Thai food restaurant, which was actually really good. 

Wednesday we met a lot of less-active families and got to know them and let them know that Sisters are now in the area. It was fun to put names and faces together so they weren't just names on a roster. 

Thursday we went on visits with one of the Sisters in our ward. We saw some more less-actives and found Sister Hall after dinner. She is so sweet! She reminds me of D'auriel and Whitley's moms combined! (Not just because she's black, but she also acts like them) We talked to her and she hasn't been to church in over 20 years! She became a member in the '70's. We have another appointment with her this week, so we hope we can get her testimony fire started again. 

On Friday, we really saw miracles! We went to a less active members home, but they weren't there so we worked in the area. It was 8:30, so we only had a half hour left, and we knocked on a door and Dagmar open the door. She had met with the missionaries before, when she lived in Florida, but since coming here (3 years ago) she hasn't. She missed the feeling that the missionaries brought so she let us in and I taught her about the Book of Mormon again, while Sister Banks talked to her son, Anthony, who's 14. He has a lot of great questions about God and the nature of God. He just has a hard time focusing so his questions are all over the place! We made a return appointment for the next day. 

So on Saturday we had lunch and a semi first discussion with Dagmar. It didn't go the way we wanted or really any way at all, but I hope Dagmar got what she needed out of it. I had forgotten my planner on Saturdaywhile we were out, so I felt lost the entire day. That might be one of the reasons the lesson didn't go well. But I learned my lesson! Never leave home without your planner! 

Sundays are just amazing! I love church! The Stake Presidency visited our ward and spoke. There were a few things that really stood out to me: 

• Every Calling is a Teaching Calling 
• Pioneers Prepare the Way for Others to Come
• Remember who you are and where you come from
• If you remember where you've come from, you'll never get lost
• Make Memories. Be intentional about the memories you make

Sister Banks and I also taught Gospel Principals yesterday. That was fun. We taught about sacrifice and how we still sacrifice today, maybe not blood sacrifices, but our time, money, talents, and efforts. 

That's my week. I love all of you. And I pray that you are all safe! 

Love, 

Sister Loosle  

P.S. I need to buy a SD Card converter, so I can send my pictures to y'all. Also Mom and Dad can you send my green 16-gig flashdrive so I can put all my pictures on there? Thank you! :) 

Map of mission and areas Miriah is serving

North Carolina Charlotte Mission Map

First Area  - Burlington 2nd ward

One more email...

Oh! I forgot to mention there are a LOT of bugs! I already have over 70 mosquito bites on my legs! But I just need to remember to spray my bug spray! :)

First Week in the Field!

Hello Family and Friends! 

I have so much to catch up on because I didn't get to email last week! So I'll just go through everything from the last time I emailed! 

On the 4th of July, the MTC Presidency let us stay up late and watch the fireworks! We also got to watch "17 Miracles" which is a fantastic movie! Brother Laney (who was in my Branch Presidency) gave a talk before the movie. His talk was on, "Our Message is One of Freedom". 

On Friday, Sister Tucker and I went "tracking" and knocked on Mrs. Pinkney's door, she let us in and we had a great discussion about everything the gospel has to offer. From The Restoration to the Plan of Salvation to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson! That day we also invited our other investigator, Jason, to be baptized! but on Saturday we found out Jason is actually Jessica (but our teacher didn't want to play a girl, so he switched a few things) and she lives in the Charlotte Mission! So all of us going to Charlotte are going to try and find her and get her to come back to the church, because Brother Fuller is pretty sure she's less-active. 

Sunday was just amazing! Since it was Fast Sunday, there was a Mission Conference with all the missionaries at the Provo MTC and West Campus. We filled up I think 5 overflow rooms including the cafeteria! The whole MTC Presidency talked to us, which was amazing! At the Sunday night devotional, George Durrant and Susan Eastan Black spoke to us. That night I said good-bye to some of the Elders in my district because they were going to Oklahoma City! And I was leaving at 3:30 AM the next day! 

Monday - the day of travel! I got up at 2AM And we went to the Airport. We got to Charlotte around 3 and President and Sister Craven met us at the airport. They are so wonderful! For dinner that night Sister Craven made pulled pork and baked bean! It was delicious! Especially after eating airport food all day! She also made a Banana Pudding with Vanilla Wafers for desert! Then we went to bed before 9 because we had been up for so long! 

Tuesday was Transfers. The new missionaries had some training before the other missionaries came in Charlotte. I saw Sister Banks (who went to Utah State and was in my ward first semester) at Transfers and was so excited to say hi to her! Well when President Craven said "Sister Banks will be training Sister Loosle" I just couldn't believe it! I was companions with Sister Banks!!! It's so great! We're opening an area for Sister, there have been Elders here, but now we're here too! So there's a set of Elders and Sister in our Ward! We're in Burlington, which is right on the Northern Board, right by Virginia and the Raleigh Mission. When we got here, we already had a dinner appointment with one of the families in the ward. They are so excited to have Sisters in the ward! 

My Address is (for packages): 

Sister Miriah Loosle 

Burlington, N.C. 27215

My Address is (for letters):

Sister Miriah Loosle

North Carolina Charlotte Mission
3020 Hilliard Dr.
Charlotte, NC 28205

This week we've really just been trying to get to know the members of the ward and the area, since the Elders are the one's who have all the current investigators. But we're working hard and we've been knocking on a LOT of doors this week! We've also had a lot of interesting conversations. Most of the people around here, even when they don't want to listen to our message are really nice about it. Which always makes me feel a little better than when they're mean. 

Yesterday was a great Sunday! It was so nice to finally go to church and take the sacrament. The ward here is really small, I was actually surprised, because I was expecting like my ward back home, about 100 people or so, but this ward didn't even fill up the chapel all the way (and it's a smaller chapel than Austin's). But that just means Sister Banks and I have a lot of work ahead of us! 

It's so great to hear from everyone and I hope y'all are doing great! :) 

Love, 

Sister Loosle 

Pictures from Mission President

Pictures received from Mission Office

There was no caption from the Mission President, so I'm assuming this is all of the new missionaries that came in on this transfer.  I do know that new Sisters outnumbered  new Elders.

Sister Miriah Loosle at the Mission office

Sister Miriah Loosle with President and Sister Craven

Letter from Pres to Mom and Dad

Thursday, 11 July 2013



Dear Loved Ones of Sister Miriah Loosle,

Your daughter has arrived in the North Carolina Charlotte Mission. She has been assigned an outstanding companion to help her grow and develop as a missionary. The people of North Carolina are wonderful and the members of the church love the missionaries. We will work hard as a mission to assist her to become a successful servant of our Heavenly Father.

Your daughter will be serving in the Burlington Ward II area with Sister Hannah Catherine Banks.

You may send letters and packages to her at the following address until you have been notified otherwise:

784 A Boone Station Dr. Burlington, NC 27215USA

We love your daughter and look forward to serving with her.



Sincerely,



Ronald L. Craven

President

Pre mission pics and MTC pics

We're all going to North Carolina! From left to right in the picture of all of us ... Sister Adams, Sister Zisumbo, Sister Kenyon, Sister Tucker (my companion), Sister Loosle (me!), and Sister Carter

Sorry about the sideways pic. Mom can't figure out how to fix it right now :) It's late.

First Week

My first week in the MTC has been just amazing! I can't even begin to describe it!

Sister Tucker (my companion) is from Moses Lake Washington! She's so wonderful and I'm so glad we're companions! All the Sisters in my room (6) are amazing! I'll send pictures later today (Sister Kenyon has a memory card converted in the room).

I was really sad today because the Temple is closed for cleaning from July 1st to August 11th! But that's okay because I'm here to do the work for the living, not the dead.

On Friday Sister Tucker and I started teaching an investigator, Jason. He is progressing, which is wonderful! He said a prayer with us during our lesson yesterday. The spirit was so strong and Jason really just needed to know that God loves him and is his Father in Heaven.

Yesterday we started teaching Ivelisse, she didn't seem too interested in what we had to teach, but she said we could come back on Wednesday to teach her more about the Book of Mormon.

All of the Sisters in my district are amazing and we all get along (which is a plus). The Elders and awesome too! All but one of them just graduated from high school last month or something like that! Which is so crazy but so cool because they really are ready! And they don't seem like they are that young.

My Zone is just wonderful! The Sister Training Leaders and so cute! They are going to Pocatello Mission and the Idaho Falls Visitor's Center. Other Sisters from my zone are going to Temple Square and New Zealand. The Elders are going to LA! While the Elders in my district are going to Oklahoma City (4) and 2 are going to Charlotte with the all the Sisters in my district!

Oh! BYU Creamery Ice Cream is NOT as good as Aggie Ice Cream! We get Ice Cream on Sunday's and Wednesday's!

Speaking of Sunday! Sister Sherri Dew spoke in Relief Society. Her talk was just amazing and so spiritual! The devotional was just amazing too! Brother Robert Swensen and his wife spoke (He is the Director of Missionary Service or something like that). After the devotional my district watched Elder Bednar's talk on Character's of Christ that he gave in the MTC on Christmas two years ago.

Sorry all my other emails are so short, I have time limits. But I love and miss all of you! And would love to hear from you! (My parents have my addresses).

Love,

Sister Loosle