Forever

4-8-15

My mission coming to an end is the weirdest thing of my life. It still doesn't feel totally real.

We drive to Charleston in the morning, and Sister Reed and I will be driving our own car, and then we'll have interviews and be at the mission home that day.  And amazing things have happened! We've had some GREAT pass off lessons with the Elders. I was super stressed that we would lose some of our people we're working with because transitions with missionaries are hard, especially when it's a complete companionship change... but things have gone so well!!! I can't wait to be home and be able to tell you all the stories of these wonderful people.

So we got to have a bonfire at the M------'s Monday night. It was heavenly. But my little M------, who is about four, didn't realize I was leaving for good until at the very end of the night we were hugging everyone and saying our goodbyes and she grabbed my hand and looked up at me and said, "Are you leaving forever?" I didn't think I was going to be able to hold myself together. I could hardly look at her as I said, "Well, I'm going home." 

Her face fell a little and she just said, "I wish you could stay here forever."

Me too, M-----.  Me too.

Bonfire!

 

It's so hard to leave these people

At least we know we are leaving the people we love in good hands

I'll see you in a few days :) I love you so much. I can't thank you enough for everything you've been and done for me this last 18 months.

See you Friday :)

I love you!!!!!!!

Hard on the Heart

3-30-15

So... I'll be seeing you NEXT WEEK. That makes me want to puke sort of. Yesterday was my last Sunday dinner at the M--------s, so I'm kind of heartbroken right now. I'm starting to have a lot of "lasts" and it's getting uncomfortable. 

This week we were driving home with J----- and J------ from an Easter program in Radford, Virginia and J--- was asking if we would ever come back and talking about how they will always have an extra room for us.  Then the conversation kind of died down and I'm just watching the Virginia hills fly by outside the window of J----'s big truck, sitting next to one of the best friends I've ever had, and I was just so in love with these people and this place... and then J---- said, "Ya know you don't have to leave at all. Just stay here with us. That extra bed is just sitting there." And my heart broke. 

It's a good thing y'all are in Utah, or I really think I might never come back.  

I love this mission.

We kind of can't resist the tractors

Me and John Deere.  Oh, and Elder Bingham.

The Right Place

3-23-15

I love Mondays and hearing what the week was like at home and reflecting a little on my own week. Things sound so good at home, and they are so good here.  I met Elder Christofferson! The meeting he had with the missionaries was SO good.

We also spent a lot of the day with J------ and J----- doing some service then making dinner over a fire at their house! So fun!

 E------ and B------ came to church! They are this awesome older couple, and Sister Reed and I adore them.  They are coming along so well and they are amazing. They gave us some fish they caught for us to cook and it was SO yummy! Last week E----- went to their usual church and she told us she just felt like she wasn't in the right place, so this week they came to ours!   

Sorry my emails are getting so short, we have an appointment and have to run.  We are using part of our d-days to cram in more teaching while we can!

Elder Trujillo

Not Sure I Can Leave

3-16-15

Hearing about homecomings and all that is going on at home is surreal. Coming out here made it seem like the world stopped back home, but then I realize it really didn't, and my sister got married, and a lot of things will be different. Something inside of me kind of revolts every time I think about leaving this place. I'm so excited to come home, but I'm not sure I can leave, if that makes any sense. 

Our week here in Bluefield has been incredible, as per usual :) The weather is starting to warm up a bit which is so exciting I can hardly stand it! We're going to be without a car for half this week because we took it in this morning to get it fixed, but I'm excited to get out and enjoy this weather and there are so many more opportunities to meet people when you're on foot. This last week I went on exchange to Blacksburg with Sister Erickson, an AWESOME girl from Star Valley, Wyoming! We had so much fun and saw some sweet miracles!

This week we get to drive to Charleston to hear Elder Christofferson speak!!! I can't wait!!!

Bluefield High

Blacksburg

High School Spanish didn't prepare me for this!

God's Love is Like Gravity

Helping an investigator stack wood.

3-9-15 

It has been such a productive week!  We taught so many lessons!  We also found a new guy who just moved here who is SO sincere.  I'm happy beyond belief and miracles are happening!

The closer I get to the end of my mission, the more my soul is kind of rejecting the whole idea. The other night I was brushing my teeth, looking in the mirror, and I was just like, "I'm Sister Lytle now. It's who I am. This is what I do." Home life almost seems like it was just a dream. 

I am so excited to share what I've learned doctrine-wise with y'all when I get home! I haven't shared much of that in my letters, but it's incredible! I understand the gospel on a whole new level, and I can't wait to share it with you! I have notebook upon notebook filled with amazing things I've learned.

I was looking through my old journals and I found where I had written about the second time we went back  to see S------.  He said, "I didn't think you would really come back." 

Now think about that in terms of God's love. . .

Like a lady in Huntington said,  "God's love is like gravity. We can deny it, we can pretend it's not there, but it will always bring us back." 

Do You Want This Dead 'Possum?

3-2-15 

Sometimes we're at correlation at the M-------'s and we have to go out and move our car so Bishop can get his tractor through... but when we went outside Bishop already got the tractor through and is walking up the drive, and when we ask him if we need to move our car he says, "No, but do you want this dead 'possum?" 

Of course, I said yes.

So everyone is making jokes about us being trunky (thinking about home and wanting to go home) and we make jokes too, but actually, Sister Reed and I are so focused!  She said something beautiful the other night, she was like, "We can't be trunky, it's impossible, because we're already home."

This was an awesome night. J---- decided to get out all his guns to show us. (He keeps tempting me to shoot them, which we're not allowed to do, so pray that I'll be able to be strong, haha!) So he's showing us all his guns and he pulls out J-----'s Benelli and hands it to me, so I put it up to my shoulder to see how it feels and he gets this big smile, and I'm like, "What?" thinking he's about to make fun of me. But instead, he proceeds to tell me he was happy that I didn't hold it like most girls and try to stand behind it and that I leaned into it and everything. My response was, "This ain't my first rodeo" ;)  So here's a big thank you to dad for teaching me not to shoot like a girl. Who knew it would be so helpful on my mission ;)

 

I can't express how much I love these two families

Correlation fell on our anniversary day again--17 months!

What happens when you send 18-year-olds on a mission

The last picture together

Everything is Perfect

2-25-15

I WILL BE SERVING MY NEXT TRANSFER WITH SISTER REED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sister Reed, my MTC companion!  I am happy out of my mind. I can't even express it!!!! THIS is why I was staying another transfer. Sister Reed was there with me when I started my mission and we'll end it together! She was there for so much!!!! THIS IS IT!!!!! It's ridiculous! Everything is PERFECT. God gave me every single thing I wanted AND MORE!!!!! I literally don't think I've ever been this happy!!!!!!!!!!

Because Sister Reed has served here already, we will be able to just hit the ground running and we will be able to skip all the weird introductions and... AAAAAAAhhhhhhh!!!!! I can hardly sit still or think or anything! I'm so excited!!!! Heavenly Father heard my prayers!!!!! And Sister Reed is SUCH a hard worker! We're gonna tear it up! It has been our dream to serve together since the MTC! This doesn't happen! It's like every missionary’s dream to "die" with their MTC companion and I get to!!!!

I have  a SWEET miracle story from last week.  So Sunday night we walk over to shovel out this lady named Sister B----- (she's so awesome by the way, every time she sees a penny she picks it up and says, "In God we trust," and knows that God is thinking about her. Pennies are her butterflies :) ) But anyway, she had to work the next morning and needed help shoveling out, (it was awful, we got a crazy ice storm and shoveling ice is HARD!) so we went to help her. On our way walking back in the dark, we start to pass two guys, probably about mid-twenties, shoveling a driveway in the darkness. Sister L kinda speeds up a little cause it honestly seemed a little creepy, and you know, two dudes in the dark... kinda creepy. But I get this weird urge to talk to them. I think, "no way, it's dark, and they're creepy," but the urge only gets stronger so we're pretty much past them and I finally kind of turn and I say, "Could y'all use some help?" 

The one with the shovel turns to me.  J----- always says that the eyes of a person will tell you everything about them. Well, the eyes I looked into were kind. Kind and good, and every feeling of doubt about my decision to talk to them was gone. The man was like, "Yeah! actually that would be great!" And he puts out his hand to me and says, "My name's T------." I shake his hand and introduce myself as Sister Lytle and start to explain that we're missionaries and he stops me and says, "From what church??" And I say, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." His eyes light up even more and he's like, "I'm a Mormon!!" After some "no ways!" and "where are you froms?" and what not, we find out that he joined when he was 12, but  since he was 16 he's been pretty less active, but you can feel he still has a fire burning. So anyway, turns out he was shoveling the drive of that home because he and his friend had just bought it and needed a place for the moving truck to pull in (his friend is married and Muslim) and we are going to help them move in, and then he invited us to dinner with him and his roommate and wife and his other friend who is Jewish! He said they all love to talk about the Bible!

I feel like my whole mission has been leading up to me being here in Bluefield and especially this next transfer. I can just feel it! I can feel God's hand in it. I feel like I'll just be set free and be ready to work and miracles will happen!  THIS IS IT!!!!!

We Walked for Miles. . .Uphill. . .in the Snow. . .

2-18-15 

We finally get to email! We walked through the snow yesterday to get to the library and it was CLOSED! We have about 14 inches of snow right now.... but it seems a lot worse than that because people in the East don't deal well with snow! Church was cancelled on Sunday which literally made me cry because I look forward to church and seeing everyone so much. We're supposed to get more today, and it's currently starting to snow, so we'll see.

Sunday night all our plans had fallen through and it was kind of bad weather, so we're like, “Well, what now?” I then had one of the strongest impressions I've EVER had to go see someone. Like, it was pretty much words. So we go to see this investigator that we haven't been able to get in contact with in FOREVER. She hasn't answered texts and all our appointments with her have fallen through so we had no idea what was up with her. So anyway, we go over and she just yells to us to come on in. (People do that all the time here. It gets sketchy when you're just tracting and you have no idea who is inviting you in!) 

So we come in and sit down and she just kind of lets it all out to us. I can't go into detail, but it was probably one of the most emotional talks I've ever had with someone. I think I really felt what if feels like to keep my baptismal covenants and "mourn with those that mourn." My heart just broke for her and with her. So we shared a BEAUTIFUL quote that Sister Snyder gave me once about the atonement and healing and after she said, “God always knows when to send you girls to me. Thank you so much for just listening, you have no idea how much I needed that.” And then we planned a time to go back. Miracles are happening. I love it here so much.

Fun Fact: Around here they don't call it "plowing" or "shoveling," they call it "scraping." People don't sit "on" the floor they sit "in" the floor, or you drop something "in" the floor. 

I'd reckon I be talkin’ like a Southern girl whenever I get back to y'all! (They also say "whenever” pretty much in every place that we would say "when.")

"Busin' for Jesus" Courtesy of Elder Powell

Maybe gang signs, or maybe WV

Thought you would appreciate this classic Darcy look