Missionary + Experiences + Tender Mercies

Our missionary son doesn't call home much or write, so I love when I get little glimpses from other people. Nate's Grandma Laura has a cousin who is serving in his same mission and will keep me updated from time to time.

She says: Missy, your missionary is changing lives here, especially with the missionaries. He is such a hard worker, and his diligence and obedience blesses everyone that he woks with. He is making a difference! She basically mentioned the same thing in a letter to Grandma Laura that was forwarded to the entire Ellis family. "Your missionary serving here in the Colorado Denver North Mission, Elder Nathan Leary is one of our finest missionaries! And that is the truth. He has an extremely good work ethic, and his companions love him. He's making a difference here!"

He consistently challenges me to look for opportunities. One of my goals over the past couple of years has been to follow through on those little thoughts and promptings I get.

This week I did just that and couldn't wait to email or talk to Nate about it. This is where that little tender mercy comes in. Nate's p-day is usually Monday and it didn't surprise me when he didn't call. But on Wednesday, immediately after hanging up the phone from arranging a much-needed blessing for a neighbor, Nate called. I couldn't believe it. P-day got moved due to meetings on Monday. I was ecstatic to tell him of my missionary experience.

We came home from our Thanksgiving vacation and I had a thought that I needed to reach out to my neighbor about her upcoming surgery. I knew it was happening; I just didn't know when. She messaged me with these words: " Hi Missy. It's Thursday Dec 2nd and I stay all night then come home Friday. I start PT Monday morning. OUCH. I'm so scared. . . ." That was the part that really got me thinking.

I could have just sent back some encouraging words. But the spirit told me that this lady needed more. She might could use a blessing.

Now, a little background. I would never have guessed that she belonged to my faith, but she shows up on our records (there is another story there). We've been neighborly. I've gone walking with her and shared my produce. She's asked us to watch their yard. But she's never been one I thought might in the least be interested in any kind of religion. The book The Power of Everyday Missionaries taught me you can never predict who or who wouldn't be a good candidate; you always ask and invite. So that is exactly what I decided to do.

Wednesday morning I sent her a quick message, asking if she'd like a priesthood blessing. I explained that God wants to bless all of his children and that I've had several blessings in my lifetime that have brought comfort and peace to me, something I knew she was needing.

I sat . . . and sat . . . and sat with my finger on the send button. I was a bit nervous not knowing how she would take it.

I finally pushed send, shut my laptop lid, and went to work.

At lunchtime I checked my messages and there was one from her. Oh how I was a little scared to open it. But I did.

"Hi Missy. Yes. I would like one."

I couldn't believe what I was reading. I knew I had followed through on promptings from the past couple of days. It was such a good feeling to know that the Lord trusted me with an errand and I followed through.

After several texts and phone calls, I went with her ministering brother and a member of our stake presidency, both who live on the same street and two people she knew (although she did message me later about how grateful she was that I came with -- it helped her feel more comfortable). It was a beautiful experience, one I hope to talk with her more about. She has never had a priesthood blessing in her life, so the two men did a wonderful job explaining how the whole process worked.

The whole day was one of shock and excitement. I got a little glimpse of what a missionary must feel. And it's something we can all be a part of. It made me want to try a little harder.

Revelation as pure intelligence

"A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus."

-Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith

This week's Come Follow Me study has included Doctrine and Covenants 8-9. I call those the revelation chapters. More specifically how to obtain revelation. One of my very favorite talks by Jeffrey R. Holland references these chapters.

Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence.

It's a BYU Speech that you can find HERE.

I was thinking about revelation this week on my way to and from work. It's not an easy thing to know when God is speaking to you. And he speaks differently to one person than he does to another. For me, I get thoughts and nudging's. I've also also had that pure intelligence flow into me that Joseph Smith describes.

I recall sitting in a sacrament meeting in Magna and getting the impression that I would be called as the next Primary president. I immediately began looking around the ward as to who my counselors might be. Same thing happened here in my current ward, only the outcome was a bit different. I knew big changes were headed my way, was pretty confident about the new calling I would be getting, and I had already decided on a counselor; the bishop caught me by surprise with a different calling and then informed me that my "counselor" would be filling a similar position (they were redoing two separate organizations). So even though I may have been a bit mistaken in my next calling, I was still given a heads up that my life would be changing.

Those "sudden strokes of ideas" or pure intelligence has also come to me as I write. One time I had to write a letter to someone very close. As I sat writing, the thoughts just flowed through my fingers onto my keyboard. I got done composing, reread it, and knew that it had come from God. Those were not my words. Another time came recently in a talk I wrote. The words flowed to me late one night, and again I knew they were from God. Just last week I had another person reach out to me about that talk. Every time this happens I am quick to tell them that it was not my talk. Many times I have put together a Facebook post where I know I had help from above.

It's a miraculous thing to be a conduit to God's words. And how do I know they came from above? Because I am at peace. I feel light.

These are the days of . . . 

*Beautiful January weather. Perfect for a hike to the "T."

*A science fair project. Alex made it to the district round of the science fair and because they are not in person, we had some extra work to do on our part to get his project uploaded to the site. Then he had to login Friday morning and wait his turn to be interviewed. Tyler says he nailed it.

*An unexpected visit from our kids due to Jason's grandpa's funeral.

*A missionary parent Zoom meeting. I have been so impressed with Nate's mission president. He seems to genuinely love those missionaries and makes sure to keep parents very informed. He invited all parents to a Zoom meeting tonight just to give us updates on what is happening in the mission and give us a chance to ask any questions we might have. I loved hearing from him and his wife.

Our second missionary has embarked

We dropped our missionary son, Nate, off at the airport to begin his missionary service.

Tyler helped him with his bags and getting to security while I made a loop through the new airport. It was surprising to Tyler how much Nate stood out. Everyone knew he was a missionary and went out of their way to help him and ask where he was headed.

I was forever grateful to a sweet soul who took several photos of the missionaries at the airport and texted them to me. I was nervous for Nate who had never been on an airplane and was having to navigate the airport by himself AND a new airport at that. I couldn't even tell him what to expect and where to head because I'd never been in this new airport myself. But Heavenly Father was aware of my concerns and sent me some relief from a total stranger.

I've included his first email below. I don't know if we will get the photos like we did with Erik. I can hope. But he's already been challenged by not having a car or a bike and he's witnessed God's hand with a little miracle that came to him and his companion.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

Hey Everyone!

This week has been craziest week of my life. I flew on an airplane for the first time, which was super cool. I had the window seat and I spent half the flight just looking at the clouds right next to me. It's a super short flight to Denver (I've been reassigned to the Denver north mission), but I loved it.

The first night we had dinner at a church and President Blake and his counselors and their wives all spoke. We stayed at a hotel, and then went back the next morning for more instruction and we met our companions.

Elder Hales has been out about a year, he's from Mesa, Arizona. That first day he told me that I was in charge, and that I was supposed to lead on everything, which I was not expecting. Instead of just learning what to do, I decide what to do, and he gives suggestions. This has been challenging, because everything they taught us in the mtc was about teaching, which we haven't done a lot of. We're both new to this area so we've been trying to contact all of the people the sisters before us had contacted, and we're working on doing member lessons and setting up our Brighton Facebook page.

In other news, I live outside my area by a ways, and though I was told it was a driving mission, due to the number of reassigned missionaries here, my companionship doesn't have a car. I do not have a bike at this point either, since I didn't think I needed one. We do all our work online for the most part, but we do go to the church and other places to do service. We've been able to get rides places, but on Friday we walked 3 1/2 hours back from a service project. I've emailed my Mission President and we'll see what he thinks I should do.

A mini miracle happened on my first full day. I've decided to pick an attribute of Christ to work on each day, and I picked faith that day, and I prayed in the morning to be able to have more faith. We went to the church to create a video introducing ourselves to put on the ward Facebook page, and then walked to Walgreens so Elder Hales could get a flu shot. We got back and called for a ride, and then realized we didn't have the flash drive with the video. We looked everywhere and couldn't find it, so we prayed and asked for help. We checked everywhere again and then felt impressed to check in the rocks along the fence out by the road. We went and sure enough there was the flash drive.

I know that prayer works, and that our Heavenly Father wants to hear from us. If any of you are struggling with anything, or just got out of the habit, I'd invite you to make prayer a goal. He will answer your questions if you continually pray in faith, and you will feel his love as you do so.

With that, I found out last night that my grandpa has the coronavirus, so if you could all pray for him I would appreciate that. I love all of you and I'm excited for the work to come!

- Elder Leary

p.s. if any of you got sent this by mistake, if there's a better email to use, or don't wish to be on my email list let me know. Also if you know anyone that does want to be on the list let me know, sorry if I missed anyone. 

Hear and Hearken

 It has never been more imperative to know how the Spirit speaks to you than right now. -- Elder Russell M. Nelson, April General Conference

Over many years I have worked to learn how God speaks to me. While living in Salt Lake City, we lived by Nancy. She was an older lady who had fallen, broke her leg, and eventually had it amputated below the knee. I was asked to help her and we became good friends. In our conversations she often told me how she had powerful burnings in her bosom that came from God. I had never felt such things and frankly did not know what she was talking about. But those conversations led me to seek how my Heavenly Father communicated with me on a very personal level.

I learned that God speaks to his children today just as he did millennia ago.

I learned that God speaks to his children individually.

I learned that revelation is a constant stream much like a rain shower, but we have to come out from under the umbrella to access it.

I learned that revelation is very personal and tailored to our individual needs and circumstances.

I learned that thoughts that tell me to do something good, especially if it involves other people, is from God. AND really, does it matter if it is my thought or God's thought is it's leading me to do good and be good?

A week ago I was in Vernal, attending a temple, in a session that was anything but ordinary.

With COVID-19 temples have been temporarily closed. Only recently have they begun opening up for limited ordinance work. I was praying and hoping that Nate would be able to go before his mission. It just seemed a little weird to send an unendowed missionary out although I know it's been done before. One Friday in August I received an email from Nate's mission president in Denver saying that when temples opened up there, they would schedule times for the missionaries to go and parents could come and go through with their missionary at their own expense. I cried a little when reading that email because I knew that my Father in Heaven was so aware of the turmoil my heart was in over this. I just didn't want Nate to have that temple experience by himself.

A week later Utah had several temples open up for own endowments for missionaries so I emailed Bountiful, our temporary temple. Several weeks later I received a generated reply that they were all full through October and had no available openings. I was a little saddened but held on to possibly going to Denver. A few days after that I got another email from Bountiful from a real person who said the same thing that there were no openings but that I might try Vernal. Vernal? I didn't even know Vernal was open yet.

I was hastily walking out the door for a half-marathon but decided to make a quick phone call to Vernal KNOWING I would get a voice mail with an email address to send my request (just like with Bountiful). I was taken back when a real person answered the phone and we had a real conversation and they had several days and times available!

So that is how we ended up in Vernal, three hours from our house, on a Wednesday night.

Although, in reality the Lord put us there.

After making that appointment the THOUGHT kept coming to me that I needed to contact my cousin Craig who lived in Vernal to see if he'd like to come. We were told we could have up to 16 and we weren't even close to that number. I kept brushing that thought aside. Life was incredibly busy.

Two days before our scheduled trip, I was sitting at the light headed to school. I had turned off the radio because that's when I get revelation which comes to me most often in THOUGHTS. I wasn't seeking any real revelation but that thought came back that I need to contact Craig.

As I sat and contemplated not doing it and trying to talk myself out of it, I realized I would hugely regret it if I didn't follow through.

I got to school and the first thing I did was pull up Facebook Messenger and messaged Craig's wife Andrea. She immediately responded that they would love to come.

Whew! Glad I took care of that.

*photo courtesy of Brian Leary since I forgot to get one

But that's not the end of the story.

We were sitting and waiting and chatting in the temple when Andrea told me her story. She is the Relief Society president and had been asked to get two new counselors. She has been in angst over it and was up the night before I messaged her in turmoil and thinking to herself, "I can't even go to the temple over this." Then she said, "I was in complete shock when I saw your message the next morning."

You can't tell me the Lord is not the great orchestrator in the small details of our lives. He knew Andrea would love to go to the temple with her questions. He knew we needed to go to the temple for Nate. He also knew that Kiersten would come if the temple were close enough for her to do so. Had we gone to a temple in the Salt Lake Valley, she most likely would have stayed in Denver.

The entire day was magical. And the entire temple experience was so intimate and surreal. I know I'll never have that same experience where we had our own private endowment session with just family. The Lord truly orchestrated a beautiful moment when he allowed me to be in the temple with three of my children. It was this momma's dream come true.

Hear and then hearken. That is what the Lord needs us to do right now.

Happy endings and beginnings

 “I don’t know how to speak about heaven in the traditional, lovely, paradisiacal, beauty that we speak of heaven – I wouldn’t know how to speak of heaven without my wife, my children. It would, it would not be heaven for me.” 

-- Elder Jeffrey Holland

These past couple of weeks have been pure bliss.

We prepared our home for Erik's return.

Kiersten came home with baby Oliver from Denver, and then we picked up Erik from the airport late one night. There is nothing that quite prepares you for welcoming home a child who's been away for a time. I imagine this is what leaving this world might be like.

Oh, how we missed that boy of ours. This was the last photo I took of him as we dropped him off at the MTC 2 years ago,

and this is one I snapped of him returning. Looks like same suit with a few more wrinkles and a bit more faded.

Bright and early the next morning we met at the stake president's office to release Erik and set apart Nate as a missionary before Nate entered home-MTC later that day. President Child commented how this was a first for him . . . having two missionary brothers coming and going on the same day.

Nate's P-day happened to coincide with Tyler's birthday later that week where we spent the morning at the zoo with ALL our children.

Sunday was Erik's homecoming talk and Oliver's baby blessing with family photos afterwards.

Photo courtesy Brian Leary

Photo courtesy Brian Leary

Photo courtesy Air and Ember Photography

Photo courtesy Air and Ember Photography

My heart has been so full. There are still good things to come.

Heaviness and desires of a heart

The Lord is ever mindful of our thoughts and desires. Several Utah temples have opened up for phase 2 which means Nate could go through . . . if we could get an appointment. I stressed about this the moment I heard the news. I stressed about the unknown of home-MTC and knowing what his schedule would be like and could we fit in an endowment session and could we do it after Erik came home so he could be Nate's escort. See . . . too many thoughts on my brain. 

I just knew I wanted to go through the temple with him for his first time. The thought of him going by himself just made me incredibly sad.

And the Lord knew this.

Last week my heart was heavy after I got word that the temple was full and we could not be getting in on an endowment session before Nate left. Friday I got an email from his mission president in Denver and one item addressed my very concern. When temples opened up in the Colorado area, they were to send their missionaries as soon as possible and parents would be allowed to come with them at their own expense.

I read this, sitting at my desk, and shed a few tears, grateful that the Lord knew the heaviness of my heart and knew the desires of my heart.

Don't every underestimate the power and love of an all-knowing Father in Heaven who loves all of his children to the core.

UPDATE: A week after writing this I received an email from the Bountiful Temple from an actual person saying they were booked until November BUT that I should try the Vernal Temple. I was trying to pack for a half marathon race but decided to quickly call knowing I would just get their voice recording with an email to contact them. But Nooooo . . . I actually got a REAL.LIVE.PERSON!! AND . . . she said they had a few openings. I was ecstatic.

So Nate is going September 16. Erik will be home. Kiersten is going to drive out.

It's going to be a great day.

He also got his missionary tags in the mail and is getting ready for home-MTC this week.

AND . . . ERIK COMES HOME ON TUESDAY!! Kiersten will be here with our baby Oliver. We are all so stoked. It's gonna be a fabulous week.

Everyone here is completely bonkers

Before we even get the weekly email there was stunning news that came out this week. Missionaries are now allowed to call home weekly!!! And sure enough I was sound asleep this morning because ya know it's a holiday and no school and I can sleep in. Well 6:30 am rolls around and my phone starts making this weird sound. I picked it up to find Erik on the other end. He couldn't figure out why we were all in bed as he thought he would catch us at our scripture study time. It was fabulous talking to him today. Next week I'm sure will be a little more rushed. For missionaries who struggle being away from home, this will be a good change. My sister Katie said that it was always a little weird telling people that we were a family-oriented church but yet as a missionary she could only talk to her family twice a year.

It was a great way to start off the morning. Scroll to the end to see news from our other missionaries . . . the parents.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I got transferred this week to Lake Placid with Elder Hintikka. I'll tell you a little about him. He is 23. He is from Finland. He is engaged to be married upon his return. He is the best. It's been a really fun week and I can tell it will be a good transfer. I also went from the smallest apartment in the mission to the biggest, so that's a good bonus.

We had about 20 people being taught when I got here. That is too many, so we spent the week contacting them and figuring out which ones were really interested that we should focus on. We have about 10 pretty solid people now, which is a lot better. 

Everyone we talked to is crazy. We just have a branch here, and they're also crazy. I went to scripture study the first day I was here, and I was like "Oh boy, everyone here is completely crazy." This will be a fun area. 

One person we are teaching is the girlfriend of a member, and he referred her to us. She is totally normal, but he is not. She wants to break up with him, which is honestly a good decision because he is crazy and laughs histarically every ten seconds, but she probably wouldn't be interested then. We'll see what happens this week.

We started getting people we are teaching to come to our weekly scripture study, which is great. The problem is the members are crazy. One member feeds us every week and loves missionaries, but doesnt come to church. She comes to scripture study though. She doesnt like the Book of Mormon, but absolutely loves the Pearl of Great Price, so she's always talking about it. It forces us to explain what it is and where it came from to our investigators, which is a little too much information to take in while their still trying to grasp the Book of Mormon. 

Elder Hintikka met Samantha a few days before I got to Lake Placid. She just moved here from Texas, and had been working with missionaries there. She wants to be baptized, but didn't know if she could be baptized because she has a learning disability. Then on Wednesday I talked to her and she said she knew an Elder Leary in Texas. Apparently he taught her not to drink coffee a long time ago. I said I didnt know if I was related. She asked if I was related to him about 10 times on the call and she said sorry for asking about 10 times on the call. She definitely had some learning disorder. Then later that night she called again to tell us his name so I could find out if I was related. Then she called again to say he lived in West Jordan, which was unusual. And apparently she lived in Tooele by what she called the haunted hospital. Either she's completely crazy or it's all a really weird coincidence. 

The branch here really is really good though. They get together for a scripture study every week, they do a branch brunch every week, and they have linger lingers after church 2 times a month. They are very tight knit, and they are very food at fellowshipping people. I just hope we don't find any normal people because they might not fit in too well. 

In other news, we can call our families every week. Whaaaat? That's a big change. My family is going to have to see my face every week.

As always, there are some cool photos in the google drive. If you dont have access, just request it and within the day I'll add you.

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Yo Missy, Tyler, and family,
All these fish.  

Big seamonsters  begging for a ride in the boat.    After a good day on the sea, what better way to relax than enjoying life like the locals do, sitting on your can inside the outhouse

or better yet, on your can in the great outdoors (pic #4) 

enjoying a Miller or a Bud, or some coconut beer. The locals only drink the cheap stuff because that's all they can get or afford, unless they rob the bank like they did last week.  Somebody figured that the chicken wire over the window at the back of the bank was NOT impenetrable so they got some wire cutters and presto, they were in side.  These folks are smart....Chicken wire is good for chickens but not the local thugs.  How did they solve the chicken wire heist?  They nailed up some boards and posted a KEEP OUT sign.

These guys are funny. 

Pop


the fishing for men is picking up.  I think we have a BIG one on the hook.