2 Months??? + Pictures!

Dear family,

I can hardly believe that 2 months ago you were dropping me off the
MTC! Time really does fly out here! It sounds like you all had the
best week ever!
My week was awesome! And so much happened, so I will just give you the
highlights!
This week our main goal has been to teach investigators with the
members. It has been a big challenge to try to schedule appointments
and make arrangements for the members to join us. but things have
worked out so well!!!! We ended up teaching 5 lessons with members and
we usually teach 2 or 3.
Another huge miracle is that we`ve been trying to teach a girl named
Kelly, but she has been staying with her Dad outside of our area. This
week we were able to teach her a lesson over SKYPE! It went so well!
And it was so cool because we finally got to teach her and she is so
open and receptive to the message. It is such a miracle that we can
use the internet to teach lessons. I also found out that I can teach
other people via skype, like Becca and Seraina! I am hoping that they
will reply to my emails so that they can hear the message of the
gospel, and it can come from me!
Another miracle this week was the announcement of the movie, Meet the
Mormons. It will be playing in a theater in Philly that is pretty
popular around here. I know that this movie is so inspired and that it
will move the work forward in this part of the vineyard.
Here's some funny things I learned about Penny culture this week.
People say jawn to mean anything! "hey, pass that jawn, sign this jawn
for me, What the jawn!" It is so funny!!!! Another thing is that
people out here dont say fight. Like I got in a fight or dont fight
with me. Instead they say fussin. "They were fussin in the parking
lot. Dont fuss with me!" Its so weird! hahaha! Also, people out here
make the best spanish rice ever!
Anyway, I love you all so much!!!!!! Hope you all have an amazing
first week of school!!!

Love,
Sister McGuire

This is a door mat we saw and Sister Clark LOVED it!!!!!! Hahaha!

This is a sign we saw in the Mall! They didn't know who said it, but we sure did!!

Another Transfer Down!! Plus Pictures!!!!!

Dear family,

I cannot believe that I have just finished my first six weeks on the
mission! The time has flown by! And yes, Sister Clark and I are both
staying in Whitehall for the next six weeks!!! So excited!
Also, this was just the best week! We taught so many incredible
lessons and everything just worked out so well! Here's the highlights.
Monday, we went to a place called Trexler Park for Pday. It's gorgeous
and so green! Then we taught Rose, a less active. Her mom died
recently and she has been having a hard time. We talked to her about
the temple and how we can do ordinances for the dead. She got so
excited that we went to the family history center and reserved the
ordinance work for her parents and she is working towards getting a
temple recommend!
Tuesday we taught 5 lessons in one day!!! Our weekly goal is 12, so it
was awesome! During dinner with the members, the three kids danced
gangum style for us. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen! Then
we taught a new investigator who is friends with some members. We had
the lesson at the members home (which makes SUCH a difference). She
committed to be baptized at the end of the lesson. It was great!
Wednesday we taught 3 more lessons and each one was incredible, by the
end of the night we were skipping around everywhere, and people
thought we were crazy!
On Friday we taught Anne again. We told her that if her husband (who
is a less active) came back to church then he could be the one to
baptize her and her children. She got so excited that she is gonna
make him do it! Hahaha! It's the best! They are planning to be
baptized in October.
That night we got transfer calls and found out that we are both
staying here! We were both so excited!
Saturday, we did service all day. It was great!
Sunday was good. We taught relief society and it went so well!!!
Sorry this is so short today! We are just always out of time!
But, I love you all so much! I hope everything goes well this week!
Enjoy the last bit of summer and good luck going back to school!

Love,
Sister McGuire

Trexler Park!

Whitehall is Green Everywhere!!!! This is the side of the road. Really.

A Whitehall Week!!

Dear Family,

It has been quite the week here in Whitehall!
Tuesday morning I woke up so sick! We had to stay in almost all day. I
hated it! But, by the end of the night I started feeling better, so we
were able to go and teach Anne. She is so great! Her testimony is so
strong! And we've only taught her the Restoration!
Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was incredible! President and
Sister Anderson taught us so many good things. They are so inspired
and I loved it! Unfortunately, we didn't get back until about 6:00
that night so we only had time to contact a few people. We met a woman
named Maggie and we were able to teach her the Restoration on her
front porch! It was incredible and she was so open to everything. We
will see her again tomorrow, so I hope all goes well.
Thursday was district meeting and weekly planning again. It was (the
district leader) Elder Wilson's birthday, so we celebrated with ice
cream and cake! He has been in Whitehall since March and everyone
thinks that he will be transferred next week. I hope he stays though,
cause he is awesome and he does so much for our ward.
Friday was so fun! And it ended up being mostly service projects all
day. We ended up painting a less active members house. And guess what?
She invited us back for dinner next week! It was so great! Then we
went and helped set up for a funeral for another ward in our stake.
Saturday.... Wow... We took a member named Ari with us for most of the
day. She is 23 and she is putting her papers right now, so she loves
doing everything with us! And we love her! We went to teach Ricardo
(our golden investigator). When we got there, he told us that he was
moving to upstate New York in three hours! And he would be living
there for about the next two months, if not longer. We almost died! He
still wants to be baptized though, so we are sending the other
missionaries his way. But we are so sad that we don't get to teach him
anymore! He is awesome though, and I know that he will continue to
grow and progress in the gospel.
Sunday was the best! Church was so good. We had an awesome lesson in
Relief Society about Eternal Marriage. Mom and Dad, thank you so much
for choosing to be sealed in the temple! It means so much to me and
our family! After church we taught Teresa again. She is progressing so
well! She did tell us that she is still unsure about the Book of
Mormon, but we encouraged her to continue to pray, and that she will
get an answer.
Life is so great!
Fun culture fact, people here have nice cars! Even in the super poor
part of Allentown, people have worn out houses with a 2013 ford Escape
or something like that. It's nuts! I rarely see a car that's older
than ten years, and cars older than 15 are basically nonexistent! So,
random fact.
I love you all!!! Have a fabulous week!

Love,
Sister McGuire

August Already??

Dear Family,

Just like you I can't believe that it is already August! And at the
same time, I feel like I've lived my whole life in Whitehall! Hahaha.
I'm so glad that Kait had such a good birthday! Sister Clark and I
yelled Happy Birthday off the Allentown bridge. We hope it carried all
the way to Utah. ;)
This week has been so nuts! We met with Jose and Melody a lot this
week. They are incredible! They're testimonies are growing and I can
see the light of Christ coming into their lives. They decided to get
married too! They learned the law of chastity, and wanted to follow
it. So, we're planning a wedding! Haha! It is so great to watch them
grow in so many ways.
We also visited a less active named Pauline. she is awesome! She makes
bracelets out of special stones and then sells them. So we go and
visit her once a week and help her make them. The hardest part about
visiting less active people is that you hear their testimony and you
see that they are living the gospel, but for whatever reason they just
don't come to church. It makes me crazy! But, I can only imagine how
frustrated The Lord gets with me when I don't do the things that I
know I should.
Most of the people that we have been teaching were out of town this
week on vacation. So we spent a lot of time finding people. Bishop
Smith has given us a list of names of people to locate, and so many of
them have moved, so we use tons of miles driving around to these
places. But whenever we stop we have started knocking on two or three
doors nearby. On Friday when we were doing this, we actually found a
girl named Kelly who was interested in learning more about the church.
She said that she was looking for a church that talks about the bible
and will actually help her live the teachings that she learns about.
In my mind I was thinking, "boy, do we have a message for you!!!"
Hahaha! We set up an appointment and we are going to see her this
Wednesday.
Also, this past week we had Zone Training. It was incredible! Our Zone
leaders really helped us understand more about our role as
missionaries and they taught us new ways to help and support our
companions and those that we teach. I LOVED IT!!! It was one of those
awesome opportunities that WE got to be taught. We also had Golden
Retraining this week. That is where all the newbies and our trainers
went to the mission office and we spent a day being taught by
President Anderson and the assistants. It was also an amazing day! We
were so uplifted and it helped so much! I also loved getting to see my
MTC friends again. Especially Sister Wilko!
So, yeah! It has been a great week! Thanks for your prayers and
support! This week I really felt support from The Lord when we had a
long day or needed something, and I know that your prayers have been a
big part of that. I love you all so much! I can't wait to hear of your
adventures from next week!

Love,
Sister McGuire

P.S. If you want to read a really good article about how a missionary
feels, check out Quest for Joy in the July 2005 ensign.
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2005/07/the-quest-for-joy?lang=eng