The promised land of Nazareth

February 9, 2015

I've been called to labor in the Nazareth ward in Pennsylvania. It's
so good to be back in PA! I live in a tiny town called Bath. My new
companion is Sister Emily Barnum from Las Vegas. Jalex! What ward and
stake are you in there? She is adorable and we have had a marvellous
time together so far. She eats healthy! Wahoo! She is straight out
of.. The 50s. Hair curlers in the morning, long plaid skirts, even the
way she acts! She loves Jane Austin. Oh! And she loves knitting. Haha
she talks like someone in the relief society presidency of the church.
You know that voice they all have? Haha. I love her so much. Smooth
sailing!

I'm officially an old timer as far as sisters go. One sister asked me
when I came out and I said 2013.... Then I realised it was 2015....
She was like" woah! Your old!". Whatever, I don't think about it.

This ward is so missionary minded. Our calendar is packed. We taught
seminary on Thursday morning and I asked " how many of you want to go
on a mission?". Everyone raised their hand.
There were 30 of them!

There is a new rule In the mission that allows all missionaries to go
to the temple at most once a month. There are quite a few restrictions
though. We have a few people in the ward that are getting ready to
make those covenants. One restriction is it can only take 2 hours of
travel. Since we are up in the reading stake we get to go to the
Manhattan temple! What up NY!

We are meeting with an investigator named Kevin. He is having some
family trouble and is so humble. He wants to be baptized so bad but he
can't until April. He is awesome! I am so excited to continue working
with him.

Yes dad. I live in half of a house. The attic is huge, creepy, cold,
and kind of awesome. We have this tiny round table in our kitchen and
this gigantic microwave on top of it. Haha. It takes up 2/3 of the
table. We sit their and eat on the edge of the table and if our food
gets a little cold.. Boom! Mircowave is right next to you. Don't even
have to move. Haha I love being a missionary.

We have some great goals this week for finding. I wish my camera would
let me send some pictures but it won't this week for some reason.

MY VALENTINE
He is someone I have know since before my mission. He is around 6"4
with nice dark hair. Pretty good singer I guess you could say..

Any guess?


His name is Elvis :)
Stay tuned for pictures next week.

Love you all and I'm so grateful for the atonement! I can move past my
many weaknesses and be forgiven. I'm grateful for the agency Heavenly
Father has given us to choose for ourselves. He expects us to make
good decisions.

Love,
Sister Zeller

Goodbye Smyrna!

February 2, 2014

Everyone,

This week rocked! We are finally getting things down ... You know what
that means? Yes, I'm getting transferred. That always happens. My
heart broke when I heard I was leaving. There some amazing people I
will miss so much. Especially our only progressing investigator Alex.
He is 22 and he is not close to his family at all. He is very
intellectual. He reads philosophy for fun. He barely smiled the first
time we met with him. When he came to church that Sunday everyone
welcomed him so much and urged him to come back. He was smiling almost
the whole time. The next time he came he had seen some anti and had a
completely different demeanor. But this last Sunday when he came the
smile was back. He was smiling a lot and was so happy to be at church.
We had a lesson with him earlier this week at a members home. We
taught the Plan of Salvation and he had some questions. The spirit was
so strong in that lesson.

We had an amazing time at volleyball on Saturday! We were going crazy!
Haha. There was one kid Gunner who I think is autistic. He kept moon
walking across the court then doing spins like Michael Jackson. It was
hilarious.
Helped a new family move into the ward on Saturday. Only one guy and
us showed up to help. Good thing sister Wright and I work out! We
discovered the most amazing Dutch county Amish market. This Sunday we
were all over the place trying to get things done. We travel an hour
to get to church and we were at the church until 5.

I'm so happy to be a missionary! I love these people out here! I will
miss Smyrna believe it or not.

Stay tuned for next week to find out where I end up. My guess (or
hope) is the ghetto of Philly!

Enjoy the pictures :)

Love,
Sister Zeller

P.s. Dianne Green! I love you! Thank you so much for dearelder. So
nice to hear from you.

Funny times!

January 26, 2015

Everyone!

Lots of funny and wonderful things happened this week. 

1. Bishop Poquita was making announcements in Sacrament meeting and said:" we would like to acknowledge with us Brother Bruce Willis.......Williams. .... Sorry... I like him. He has good movies. Except for the cussing." 

The whole room was crackin up. Bruce Willis is in the building! Haha. 

Dos. In one baptism we attended, a speaker got up and was supposed to talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost but really talked about buses and basketball. Yeah, We were confused too. 

C. The Bishops son was baptized and it created a new standard for baptisms. We are talking CTR cake ( with fondant), 2 long tables full of authentic Filipino food and and an extra table for deserts. Plus, lots and lots of non members. The cherry on top was us being asked last minute to teach the restoration while Bishop and Ederick were getting dressed. Good thing we are prepared! They even had little gift boxes full of chocolates covered in words like 'covenant' and ' Holy Ghost'. 

4. Got a ride with the Phillips family and they say the funniest things. Young family. 2 kids. 

"His name is kind of inappropriate- whinnie the poo!" - Ethan Phillips

Cinco. I learned that Delaware was one of the biggest stops for migratory birds. Perfect :/

F. Went to a RC and new move ins house. The Harwell's. They are hilarious. The first thing she asked me was " where did you get your eyebrows done?". Haha. Uhhm.... My bathroom?

She never got retaught so we are going to start reteaching her. Her year mark was yesterday and we will go to the temple with her in February hopefully. #highlightoftheweek.

7. Had lunch at Panera bread with all the sisters we cover in Newark. #Paneralifeisthelifeforme

Ocho. After dinner at our WML's house (Brother Cherriman) we skyped the elders in to have a coordination meeting. Bro. Cherriman's webcam is not normal and randomly zooms on to whatever might be a face. So during the meeting it would zoom and it was funny. We would duck our heads so it would zoom out again. Toward the end of the meeting it did it again. But this time it wasn't a face... But my chest.... Awkward moment for the Elders let me tell ya. didnt notice at first. Then I moved and it zoomed out again and all of us were in tears because we were laughing so hard. 

1. No one let us in all day and then we by a miracle found this less actives house ( the address was wrong in the directory) and she let us in. Turns out she loves the church and knows it's the truest on the earth. Going to be working with her this week. 

Something's I learned from my studies this week. Honesty is essential. God is perfectly honest and that's why we can trust him. He won't lie. If we want to be like him we have to live true. I have lots to improve on :) 

Love you all and look for the good in everything and everyone. There is not time for anything but to be happy,

Love,

Sister Zeller

Serving in the South!

January 19, 2015

Hello!

I swear I was just emailing 2 days ago.

I love being a missionary!!!! Absolutely love it :) Saturday night a

yw leader asked us to if we could teach the lesson on Sunday. Of

course, we said yes. The lesson was on Jesus Christ. Since we didn't

have much time to prepare we really had to rely on the guidance of the

spirit. It was so fulfilling to be able to bare witness of Christ's

divinity to those young women ( plus, I put in a good plug for going

on a mission). We centred the lesson on the atonement and used this

visual to help explain what Christ really did 

for us. It worked out

very well.

I know if we do our part in preparing the best we can the spirit will

lead the way. I love being an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

Takes practice and faith.

In this area everything is so spread out. We have a certain mileage

limitation for every month. Things are getting crazy now that we have

to travel all the way down to Dover for church. I feel like half the

week we spent driving. One day we went over 100 miles!

The amazing lady Ann from last week didn't work out to week this

Saturday. She kind of avoided us and went up stairs as we were talking

to Sylvia. That was very disappointing. Then we had to drop Sylvia

because she would not listen to anything we said.

We got a referral from the a Elders serving in the zone above us. Her

name is Abby and she lives all the way out in Earleville, Maryland.

They met her on a Sunday when she walked into church from the street

randomly. She went for about a month until someone finally figured out

she wasn't a member. Haha. They finally handed her off to us and we

got to meet with her. She is super open! She is a Buddhist at this

point but is open to the idea of being baptized. We are seeing her on

Tuesday with our Relief Society President.

I still really enjoy  getting to see my Dover family at church! I got

to see a few more familiar faces yesterday.

Hey! Guess what I Learned this week!? The northern boarder of our area

is also the Mason-Dixon Line. I'm serving in the South! Haha.

Love y'all,

Sister Zeller

Cold. Cold. Cold.

December 12, 2015

It is so cold. 

It is a different kind of cold even than Rexburg. 

It seeps into your bones and it doesn't matter how many layers you are wearing. 

Things did not go as planned this week. So many of our appointments fell through. It was one of those hard growing weeks. But, of course, my faith is exceedingly strengthened because of this experience. My love and appreciation for Sister Wright has increased as well as my testimony of the Savior and his Atonement.

In other news:

This weekend, namely, Saturday and Sunday things got super amazing!  When of our transfer goals is to bring a new sister out with us every week. This week we had 3! One of the biggest miracles was when we set up an appointment on the phone with a former investigator. We kept having to move the time back for various reasons but it turned out the way it was supposed to. Halfway through the lesson the new caretaker walked in and sat out in the kitchen, listening in. We brought up the Book of Mormon and she asked, "Can I have one?"  She then asked what the difference was with our church. We started teaching the Restoration and she asked what we defined a prophet as. She said she wants to come to church and was reading the Book of Mormon we gave her during the lesson!! She is so interested and we suspect prepared as well. If the timing was any different we wouldn't have met her! Miracles abound when you are obedient! Just because of this and a few other miracles this week was totally worth it. 

Another highlight to the week! Our building is going under renovation for the next few months so we are moving our meetings down to Dover (45 minute drive). The ward council had a meeting down there after church this Sunday and it was right as the Dover ward ended. I got to see all my family again!! It was like coming home! There are so many wonderful people that I have met out here. I can't even begin to describe how much I care about them.

Today for P-day a Brother Lanier and his wife let us come over and shoot his bow and arrows. It brought me back to girls camp! ha. He also had one of those blow dart things. Apparently we are deadly Sister Missionaries. 

Our investigator Alex came to church again this Sunday. He had been exposed to a lot of anti- material which is unfortunate. We met with him just before church. He seemed way different and kind of shaky. He has never prayed before in his life and so we invited him to try it out. If he has questions he might as well ask the source of truth. We are excited to see how it goes. 

Despite hard times I truly love being a missionary. I was thinking a lot about being called of God. I received an answer to my prayer when I asked if going on a mission was the right thing to do. I can't deny my answer. Heavenly Father personally called me on a mission. That gives me so much strength to know that this is exactly where I am supposed to be. I know is the same with the different callings we receive in the church. He knows exactly what we and all his children need. 

I am so grateful for prayer. For the gospel. For all of you and the opportunity we have to serve God as we serve those around us. 

have an awesome week and PLEASE stay warm :)

Love,

Sister Zeller #4

Another great week!

January 6, 2015

Hello!!!

This week was another great one. The members here in Smyrna are wonderful. We had an investigator at church for the first time since I have been here. So many of the members walked right up and shook his hand. It was a great sight to see. 
The work is moving along. We are striving to be exactly and "instantly" obedient to the rules and the spirit. We have seen a lot of miracles. 

We found 7 new investigators this week! We started teaching a Spanish family. When we went to teach them the Restoration this Saturday the Grandma (abuela) Reina was the only really interested one (or so we thought). Her Grandson Edwin sat in and he is 12 or so. We figured he would meander off after a little but he stuck around and was more interested than Reina was! He especially was interested in Thomas S. Monson. He asked "Where does Thomas live?" and "Can Thomas baptize people?". It was so cute! I love how pure and innocent young people are. We have another appointment with them this Saturday. 
Sister Wright and I work wonderfully together. Never have I had a companion where we taught with such unity and simplicity. She is a great teacher and has a very strong testimony of this Gospel. I'm grateful for her example of obedience and organization. It was definitely and inspired that we are together.

We went on exchanges with the Newark 1st Sisters this week. Sister Eastmond came down to Middletown with me. She is a great missionary. 

I've started reading the New Testament. It has been such a spiritual experience for me so far. I read one scripture a long time ago but could not remember where it was. I finally found it when I started reading Matthew. It's in Matthew 5:46 "For if ye love‍ them which love you, what reward haveye?". There are so many people in this world and they are all our brothers and sisters. It is very easy to love those that love you. But the real reward comes from loving those that don't love you. I have definitely seen that on my mission. 

 We also trained in Wilmington Zone Conference about conversion. We committed the missionaries to really put their heart behind the commitment that we extend to others: Go to church, pray, and read. I did it this week and taking the Sacrament this Sunday was so refreshing and renewing.

We had a great New Years. One RM instead of taking us home took us to Wallgreens and got us a martinelli. It was awesome.

Love you and have a great week,
Sister Zeller

Happy New Year 2015!

January 5, 2015

Hello!!!

This week was another great one. The members here in Smyrna are wonderful. We had an investigator at church for the first time since I have been here. So many of the members walked right up and shook his hand. It was a great sight to see. 

The work is moving along. We are striving to be exactly and "instantly" obedient to the rules and the spirit. We have seen a lot of miracles. 

We found 7 new investigators this week! We started teaching a Spanish family. When we went to teach them the Restoration this Saturday the Grandma (abuela) Reina was the only really interested one (or so we thought). Her Grandson Edwin sat in and he is 12 or so. We figured he would meander off after a little but he stuck around and was more interested than Reina was! He especially was interested in Thomas S. Monson. He asked "Where does Thomas live?" and "Can Thomas baptize people?". It was so cute! I love how pure and innocent young people are. We have another appointment with them this Saturday. 
Sister Wright and I work wonderfully together. Never have I had a companion where we taught with such unity and simplicity. She is a great teacher and has a very strong testimony of this Gospel. I'm grateful for her example of obedience and organization. It was definitely and inspired that we are together.

We went on exchanges with the Newark 1st Sisters this week. Sister Eastmond came down to Middletown with me. She is a great missionary. 

I've started reading the New Testament. It has been such a spiritual experience for me so far. I read one scripture a long time ago but could not remember where it was. I finally found it when I started reading Matthew. It's in Matthew 5:46 "For if ye love‍ them which love you, what reward have ye?". There are so many people in this world and they are all our brothers and sisters. It is very easy to love those that love you. But the real reward comes from loving those that don't love you. I have definitely seen that on my mission. 

            Happy New Years to us! thanks to Meredith Christian!

 I had pizza for 5 meals this week......  #notcompletelymychoice #stilldeliciousthough

 We also trained in Wilmington Zone Conference about conversion. We committed the missionaries to really put their heart behind the commitment that we extend to others: Go to church, pray, and read. I did it this week and taking the Sacrament this Sunday was so refreshing and renewing.

We had a great New Years. One RM instead of taking us home took us to Wallgreens and got us a martinelli. It was awesome.

Love you and have a great week,
Sister Zeller