Mission Conference!! With A LOT of pictures!

Dear Family,

Sounds like your week was a lot like mine! Haha! Life is always crazy out here, and there is just no other way to describe it than crazy.
We had some big things happen this week! The biggest was our mission conference yesterday! It was the first time that all of the missionaries in our mission gathered together! We were visited by Elder David Evans and Elder Steven Allen of the Seventy. They came and trained us on the use of technology in our missions including iPads, FB, Skype, and many other things. Our mission is one of 28 missions that have iPads. We have been part of the "test" group. Things have gone very well with what we are doing, so starting in May, 88 missions in the US, Japan, and Western Europe will all be receiving iPads and beginning online proselyting!!! It's so exciting! On another note, we are starting over as a mission and we are going to be totally changing the way we things online. Their direction was incredible and inspired and we are already seeing a HUGE difference in our work! We are so grateful for this conference! One of the best parts about conference was that we got mail! I had two packages and some letters! It really did feel like Christmas again! :) I was the happiest missionary alive!
Speaking of technology, I was able to meet a person on Facebook this week. He is living in Brazil right now and really only speaks Portuguese. But with the help of an amazing translator (aka Daniel) He told us that he wants to meet with missionaries and learn about the gospel! We sent a referral through the system, and hopefully, the missionaries in Brazil will be able to begin teaching him soon!
We had another miracle this week of recieving a GOLDEN referral from a member in our ward! We will be seeing him this week, and I will have to let you know how it goes! :)
We also had fun spending Wednesday night with the Activity Day girls. They are so cute! And we had a great activity with them where we learned what it means to recognize and listen to the Spirit.
Last, but not least, It SNOWED!!! It Snowed so much this week that I thought I was back it Utah! Our cars were grounded all day Saturday and parts of Sunday. Church was cancelled, all except for sacrament meeting. It was crazy! But, Sister Roesch and I listened to all of the Christmas music I have and we made homemade Chircken Noodle Soup to celebrate 'Christmas'! It was so much fun!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Sister McGuire

Sister Roesch and I were twinners on our first day! We didn't even plan it! Comp Unity!

Love Park with Sisters Wood, Wilko, Roesch, and I and Linda!

Cheesesteaks for lunch and.....

......the Liberty Bell!!!!

Independence Hall. This is where the signed the Declaration of Independence!

The frozen Deleware River. I prefer crossing on the Bridge, rather than the boat method!

The Snow!

That sign looked familiar!!!! I slammed the brakes so hard, so we could take a picture! :)

Pizza with George and Sister Baluyot! (We were on exchanges for the day)

Snow Day!

Snowy Week!!

Dear Family!

Hope you all had a great week! I did too!
Just like you said Mom, Each day is a new adventure. And we have had
plenty of adventures this week!
The weather has been crazy! I warmed up and everything melted out
here. I didn't even wear a coat for two days! But, then on Friday the
temperature dropped again. Saturday was dreary and cold and that night
it Snowed and Snowed. I haven't see that much snow since we left Utah!
We got 4 solid inches of snow. Because of that Church was cancelled
yesterday. We were so disappointed! I really missed having church.
But, we carried on! Since we didn't have many appointments, we threw
two shovels in the back of our car and we spent the day digging
everyone out. One guy had even got himself buried in a huge snow bank,
but we dug him out and sent him on his way. It's incredible what two
20 year old girls can do with 2 shovels! I LOVED it!
On Valentine's Day we went around heart-attacking everyone's doors. It
was so much fun! We were doing it to a family in our ward and the dog
saw us and started barking. So the Dad opened the door while we were
trying put up the hearts. Whoops! Cover was blown! Hahaha. But, they
really liked it anyway.
Today was AWESOME because we got to go to Philly with a Recent Convert
in our ward. We got to spend a lot of time talking to the Missionaries
that are serving there. They shared an awesome message about the
temple. We also got to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. It
was incredible! Those places are truly sacred ground. We really could
feel the Spirit so much while we were there. I know that our Founding
Fathers were inspired men. We listened to a man talk about the
Declaration of Independence. Each and every word had been so carefully
chosen. It was amazing.
Next week we are going to be having a mission wide conference where
all of the missionaries will be there. That has Never happened before!
We don't really know it's about, but we are excited! So, because of
that our PDay will be moved to Tuesday next week.
Because of the Holiday, the library was closed, so I will send plenty
of pictures next week. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Sister McGuire

I'm an Aunt!!

Dear Family,

I'm an Aunt now! Wow! I can't believe it! My family received a
beautiful new addition this week and there isn't enough room in my
heart to hold all the joy I feel for him!
Compared to that news, everything else that happened this week seems
pretty insignificant. But, here's the stories anyway! We were so busy
this week!
On Tuesday I said goodbye to Sister Veater. :( and I got my new
companion Sister Roesch! She is from downtown St. George! She went to
Dixie State University before coming out. She is awesome! She has so
much fire and energy and loves the work! So, we are just settling in
and getting into the swing of things.
On Wednesday we went to mutual. We are starting to work more closely
with the youth in our Ward and it is going really well! We went to
mutual this week and helped out with their etiquette dinner. Afterward
we got to have a lesson with George. Those are always the best!
Thursday we had District Meeting, which was crazy because almost
everyone in our district got transferred. I loved it, cause there's
lots of new people to meet!
Friday we were so busy! We had appointments all day long, and I LOVED
IT! And I got to eat real African food! One of the recent converts in
our Ward is from Sierra Lione and she made a huge pot of Potato greens
and peanut butter soup and we got to try some of it! I thought about
Elder McGuire while we were eating it!
Saturday we had a miracle! We were driving to the church to use the
wifi and do our weekly planning. On our way there I was thinking about
a less-active/part member family that lived close to the church. I had
the impression that we needed to stop and see them. So, we went and
knocked on the door. The nonmember husband answered. He said that his
wife was asleep, so we couldn't come in. We turned to leave and then
he said, "what are your dinner plans tomorrow?" We told him that we
didn't have any. He said "Come back at 5:00 tomorrow and we will have
dinner together." We were so excited that we almost jumped out of our
skin! The next day we came back for dinner and we had a great time!
After dinner was over we both felt like we should share the first
lesson about the Restoration. We were nervous about how it would be
received, but we did it anyway. When we got to the part about the Book
of Mormon, the husband said that he was a little bit doubtful of
Joseph's vision and the truth of the church. To our amazement HIS WIFE
(who has only attended off and on for years) bore a beautiful
testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon! She shared how
she prayed and learned of its truth. It was so incredible! We left him
with a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited him to read it and to
pray about it. We will be seeing them again this week and we are so
excited to move forward!
Sunday was fun because it was Ward conference and all of the Stake
Leaders spoke. President Sikehema came, and everyone was a little
star-struck. But it was a great day and we all received some good
training from all of the stake leaders. We also had a woman show up at
church out of the blue! The missionaries used to teach her, but then
she moved. I guess she just got back to the area. Somehow she knows
President Sikahema and he invited her to come to church. It was
awesome! We will hopefully start seeing her soon!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!! Have a fabulous week!

Love,
Sister McGuire

February Already?????

 Dear Family,

Time does fly when you're having fun! And things in Medford are flying! We have been working super hard to find new people to teach all transfer. Nothing was working, so we decided to change our focus to working with the ward. We helped with Visiting Teaching and we taught Sunday School and Relief Society and Young Women. We stopped in and visited the auxiliary presidencies just to volunteer some help. Things have been going so well! We really have been able to build a huge trust with the members here! We even received four referrals this week just from ONE Person!
We had a Ward Movie Night and Church Tour on Saturday night. It went so well! We had 9 nonmembers come and many of them are interested in meeting with us now! We are so excited!!!!! We also taught a combined YM/YW lesson yesterday. We gave each youth a mission call and then we taught them how to teach the first discussion. Then, next Wednesday for mutual, they will all show up as missionaries and they will get to teach the first lesson to OUR INVESTIGATORS!!! We are so excited! Many of our investigators have agreed to do it, and the youth are terrified but so excited! We can't wait for this activity! Plus, three of our youth are almost ready to put their papers in, so we hope this can give them some experience.
Our investigator, B, was in the hospital all week. So we went and visited her everyday. It was so special and she really appreciated it. Our service really touched her heart.
Also, Sister Veater is getting transferred, but I am staying. I am so sad to see her go! We are really close, but I know that Heavenly Father needs her big heart somewhere else. I'm just super jealous of the people wherever she goes! I will be meeting my new companion tomorrow and I can't wait!
Sorry this is short, but I'm out of time!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Love,
Sister McGuire