Called to Serve in DC North: 2016

Merry Christmas!

Hey family and friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!:)

This week we were able to have a couple really neat experiences. The first one was when we were on shift at the Visitors' Center a couple of days ago in the morning. We were so happy to see this amazing Chinese family come in. They spoke very little English but wanted to know and learn more about our beliefs and Jesus Christ. We were at the temple model explaining what happens inside temples and they were having a really hard time understanding English. We felt so bad because we could tell they wanted to understand so badly. I said a silent prayer... and literally two seconds later the Chinese missionaries were led into the doors of the Visitors' Center. We saw them come in so we grabbed them and they were able to communicate better with them in Chinese. The Chinese elders got their information and are going to go back and visit them in their home and teach them more! It was such a miracle!

Our other neat experience that happened this week was with an elderly lady named Victoria. We got a referral to go and visit a family in an outdoor apartment complex but it had no apartment number on it, just the building. So we decided to tract the whole apartment building in hopes to find this family. In the process of looking for that family, we met this sweet old lady from Bolivia. She quickly invited us in and gave us some cookies and water and was so grateful that we came. She told us how she has recently lost her husband and she was feeling very lonely and sad. She sad that us being there made her happy. It was cool to explain to her that we can be happy through Jesus Christ and how He has a plan for us and that we will see our loved ones again. She loved the fact that we are never alone because we have Christ. As we prayed with her, she just started bawling and she felt the spirit so strongly. We are so happy we were led to her home that day and that she was humble enough to let us in and let the spirit comfort her. We look forward to the Spanish missionaries going over to teach her more about Gods plan of happiness.

Christmas was amazing. Our whole mission got together and we had a wonderful devotional with President and Sister Johnson. They fed us some yummy lunch too! It was a lovely day. A highlight of the week was getting to skype home! That was so amazing and it was so good to see my family. They are a huge blessing to me and my source of strength and support. I miss them so much! On Christmas Day we had over 9,400 people come into the Visitors' Center! It was AWESOME! It was so busy and so many miracles happened!!! Festival of Lights has been so incredible!! I love this time of year!

Well I love you all! Have a safe and happy new year! See you all next year!

Sister Freeman

We got to go to the city today!! We went and saw the Hirshorn Museum . It is a museum of modern art! It was really cool!

SKYPING! (I'm not sure where McKenzie went, haha!)

Elder Fowler (the VC Director) reading all the VC sisters the

Christmas story of the birth of Jesus Christ in Luke on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve mission lunch.

Our Christmas Skype!

After church we went home and finished opening up all of our gifts, and then had breakfast (lunch), waiting for our Skype call with Megan!!! She called just after 12noon, and it was so GREAT to talk with her and see and hear her voice! The only thing that would've been better would've been to give her a great big HUG! Oh how I wanted to do that!!!!! But we had such a wonderful visit with her and at points in our conversation with her, she got emotional and broke down and cried-- something she hasn't done in the other two Skype calls we've had with her. And of course, these emotions caused me and others to get emotional too! Man it's hard to have her so far away, but knowing that it's right where she's supposed to be!! She has such tender feelings toward us (and I'm sure she really misses us), but also about the gospel and her mission and the experiences that she's having! It's going to be so hard for her when it's time for her to come home!! She shared her testimony of the gospel and specifically about the Book of Mormon and her love for that book!! She shared Ether 6:5 and likened the furious wind to her experience as a missionary and how it is not always easy, but that those "winds" are what Heavenly Father sends to bless us with the growth and experiences we need and eventually steer us to the promised land, or in our case, to return to live with Him again. I loved hearing her thoughts, perspective and feelings about this. When it came time to end our call, it was SO HARD to hang up! We made her do it!! When that screen went blank I immediately felt a sadness that's hard to describe-- maybe more of an emptiness-- even though my house is FULL of the people that I love! It's hard for mothers to be missing one of their children! But I know she's really not "missing" at all, and that she will be home before we know it! She is where she is supposed to be and having such great and beautiful experiences sharing the gospel with others. Another point where she got emotional is when she said that it's hard to share the gospel because so many don't accept it. She said it's hard because the gospel is so very important and special to her that she wants to share it with everyone and have them feel the joy that she has felt... I think every single missionary in this world that has ever served can relate to these feelings, Megan!!!! It's comforting to know that many of these people will accept the gospel eventually, and that important seeds are being planted right now. It's also important to remember that everyone has their agency, and that Heavenly Father fiercely protects this agency! It's hard, but all part of His plan! Well, it was a great day! We love our missionary!!!!!!

Soooo good to see you Megan!

Pictures with Megan!!

Growing into such a beautiful woman! We love our missionary!!!

Another Random Text From A Nice Stranger In DC!

We got this picture of Megan while we were at the Mesa Temple lights tonight! This picture makes me smile! How fun to be involved in the DC Temple Lights every single day of this Christmas season!

More Pictures From April!! Christmas FUN!!

Megan and her companion went over to April's house tonight and helped her wrap some gifts. It looks like they had a lot of fun! I love getting pictures from the members out in DC!! She sent a lot of video too!

April said they were trying to teach her to cut on the lines!

14 Months!!

MERRY (early) CHRISTMAS!!!!!
I hope you all are doing wonderful! I LOVE this time of year when everyone is so open and receptive! It is so amazing!

We are continuing to see miracles each and every night at the Visitors' Center with Festival of Lights! Sister Fowler, the Visitor Center Director's wife, brought her neighbor, Mary, with her one night this week for the Festival of Lights. We were able to meet her and we found out she lives in our area!! She is such a sweet lady and gladly agreed to having us come over sometime! It was so lovely. Last night, we were able to go and visit Mary and she was so happy to see us! She had cookies and Herbal Tea all ready for us on the table and was so interested in the message we got to share. It was so amazing and she is an incredible lady. She wanted to start AND end with a prayer without us even asking! AND she set up her own return appoinment! It was so amazing! We are so blessed to be able to serve in the Bethesda area! I love it so much.

Another miracle that happened at the Visitors' Center happened with a man named Freibergue. He and his family are from Brazil and were at the Festival of Lights for the first time and really enjoyed the spirit that was there. We got talking with them and he said that he definitely wanted to learn more about our beliefs and how we can come closer to our Savior. THEN we found out that their family lives in our area as well!! That was a huge miracle and made us so happy! We are so excited to visit all these people! Our area is getting a lot of referrals from the Festival of Lights and it is such a huge blessing! Lots of members in the ward are also bringing in their non member friends and we get to meet them all! It is so amazing and such a neat way to invite people to come and feel the spirit of this holiday.

On Wednesday, the bishop and his wife invited us over for dinner AND they invited Tara and Reza Ghanadan (some of our investigators that have a son that converted and is on a mission right now). It was so amazing to be able to go over there and have dinner with all of them! The Bishop and his wife are so missionary minded and it is such a blessing to be able to serve with them. The Ghanadans are so incredible and it was so great to be able to teach them some more at the Golightly's home.

So here are a couple of funny stories that happened this week. So for the first one, we were invited over for lunch one day this week by a sweet Asian lady in the ward. She is the BEST. She decided to feed us ALL seafood to boost our energy level with Festival and everything. SO we get over there and she has wonderful lobster and crab all ready on the table. We were so happy to be there. So we get eating and we had to crack open everything in order to eat it. So the sister who invited us over taught us all about how to crack it open and eat it... but I guess I didn't hear right what we could and couldn't eat... turns out I ended up eating the lungs and eggs of the crab... haha... woops! And I thought the lobster had green seasoning in it... nope that was the green gutsy stuff. Aha it was funny. My companion and I had a good laugh about that after! We are still alive so I think it was okay to eat... I hope... My companion and I also manage to find EVERY frozen patch of ice everywhere we go... that is always fun haha. We 've successfully managed to learn how to fall gracefully haha!;)

Lately at the Visitors' Center I have had the opportunity to teach SO many people from India! It is so neat. I remember one night I was talking to this one family from India and they were so intrigued by Jesus Christ and what He has done. They wanted to learn more about Him! It was a tender mercy. On Sunday, we recieved a referral from Festival of Lights to go and see a different Indian family that came in the Visitors' Center and wanted to learn more. So we went over and they were the CUTEST family ever! They were a young couple and had a cute baby boy! They wanted their son to grow up in a good environment and loved the spirit they felt at the Visitors' Center. We got to teach this family about the Restoration of the gospel and they were so sincere and honest seekers of truth. It was such a blessing to be able to teach them. After the lesson, they made us YUMMY Indian food! They accepted and committed to our invitation to come to church on Sunday! We can't wait!

Something sweet: So a non member family walked into the Visitors' Center and a little boy walked past the big statue of Christ and he said, "Mommy! He was holding me in Heaven!" It was the sweetest thing ever and some sisters were able to talk with that family and had a really sweet conversation with them! It was so sweet and made me enjoy the sweet spirit little children have around them always.

Spiritual thought to wrap things up: Sister Haertling shared a really neat experience she had with me. So all last week she has been sick with strep throat (she is feeling better now) and we had to go to lots of doctors appointments until they finally decided it was strep. One time when she was in the doctors office (before they knew she had strep), they pricked her finger to test her blood to see if she had mono. Sister Haertling at this point was so tired of all the doctors office stuff and she wanted to just get feeling better so she could go out and work. She kept praying asking God to make her feel better so she could do His work. While they pricked her finger to test her blood she said these thoughts came to her mind, "I bled from every pore." She said that she KNEW these were not her thoughts and that those words were so comforting to her. Jesus Christ bled from every pore. He knows what we are going through, and He knew exactly what Sister Haertling was going through. Sometimes we feel abandoned or we may feel God is not answering our prayers, but we are never alone as we come unto Christ. Christ is always there reminding us that He has experienced everything and He knows each and every one of us. The more we come unto Christ, the less lonely we feel and more divine help and happiness come into our lives. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and remember the true meaning of Christmas and remember what Christ has done for us so that we may return to live with our Father in Heaven.
Love you all!
Sister Megan Freeman
PS: Love you family! Can't wait to skype you all on Christmas Day!! :D :D :D

The sea food the sweet Asian member made for us...

She let me keep the Maryland crab shell! ;)

Happy December!

Hi everyone!!
Long story short, Sister Haertling got strep throat and has had it for the past couple days along with a high fever and so we were instructed just to take our p day today (instead of tomorrow) so Sister Haertling can recover and be ready to go back out by tomorrow! But all the other weeks in December our p days will be on Tuesdays!

As far as our week has been... it has been pretty good considering Sister Haertling being really sick! We had the wonderful privilege of getting to hear from Elder Kim B. Clark, a member of the 70. He came and had a mission tour with our mission. It was one of the most instructive and life changing events on my mission! He talked a lot about how we can become better missionaries and servants of the Lord. He gave us so many things and training on how we can put all he had taught us into action!! Something that I really liked from his training was he said, "God works on EVERY person's life. God prepares people and He also prepares you and He works in your life and is preparing you for things down the road. He is preparing things that will bless your lives and some of those things are in the people who you meet who are prepared to hear your message." Then he went on to say, "Think about it, the most powerful person IN THE UNIVERSE (God) is preparing and working with the people in your area. All you have to do is find people through faith and obedience" (Elder Clark). It is so neat how General Authorities and church leaders are completely guided by the spirit as they teach. It truly was an amazing experience to be able to hear him speak with us all day long! One more thing that I really liked that he said was, "Christ had the people feel the wounds in His hands so they could feel the power of HIS atonement and feel of His love. Help the people who you teach feel of Gods love so they can feel the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. You can help them feel of that love by your light, faith, and obedience" (Elder Clark). I love this and I love how we all can come to know the atonement so strongly in our lives as if we were actually feeling the wounds in His hands.

Highlight of the week: I don't know if you remember Amanda, but she is a sweet lady I have been teaching online at the Visitors' Center that got baptized a few weeks ago! Well, her daughter Gracie just got baptized!!!!!!!! So that was so exciting!!!!!!!!! Their family is so incredible and I love their testimonies of how this gospel blesses their families!

I love you all!!!

Sister Freeman

Front desk coat checkers from diplomat night.

We sent out our Christmas packages to our families!! :D

Sister Ram! We used to be roomates a couple of TRANSFERS ago!

Festival!!!!

Helping a family decorate their Christmas tree!:D

I can't remember if I already sent this!!! (Nope.)

This is mom-- I got this picture of Megan this week in a text from April. Here's what she said:

"These sweet sisters came by last minute. Such a tender mercy tonight

to be able to feel the spirit they bring and be uplifted."

ELDER STEVENSON!!

Hey everyone!
This week has been AMAZING! Festival of Lights has started and the Visitors' Center is poppin'!!!! So many miracles happen each night!! Here are a few highlights from the week:

Monday: We have been working with the part member families in our ward and there is this Persian family from Iran that invited us over for dinner. The wife is a member and the husband is not but was super excited for us to come and have dinner! They both have crazy back stories. They are miracles and I am so glad that they are in our ward! We are excited to go back over there!

Tuesday: AMBASSADOR NIGHT!!!!! SO, Ambassador Night is where all the ambassadors come to the Visitors' Center for a special lighting ceremony to start out the Festival of Lights at the Visitors' Center! It was so amazing to get to meet people from all over the world!!! Another amazing highlight of that night was that ELDER STEVENSON (one of the 12 apostles) CAME TO AMBASSADOR NIGHT!!! It was really amazing the spirit that was felt when he walked in! He shook my companions' and my hand and spoke with us for a little over 5 minutes! It was the best day of my life!!!

Wednesday: DIPLOMAT NIGHT!!!!! Diplomat night is a lot like ambassador night except not quite as fancy! It is still amazing and it was so much fun! THE COOKES CAME!! The Cooke's were our former mission president and wife before President Johnson got here! It was so great to talk with him and to catch up! I almost cried when I saw President and Sister Cooke! They are amazing people! Earlier on Wednesday Sister Haertling and I were checking up on a man named Michael. We got to his house and he wasn't home! We then remembered that another person that the ward referred to us lived like two minutes away. And so we were guided to the Khademi family. We found out that the wife is less active and the husband isn't a member. They were actually really excited to see us and wanted us to come back next week!!:D We set a goal to work with the part member families in the ward and the Lord truly is guiding us every step of the way!

Thursday: FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS STARTED!!! Oh man Festival of Lights has begun and it is awesome!! Something really cool was that some of the people from Studio C came to the Visitors' Center and we got to meet them! It was really fun!

Saturday: We went to visit an AWESOME recent convert named Marty and he said the SWEETEST prayer before we left. He said, "I'm so grateful for these two wonderful sisters, please bless that these sisters can stay in my life for a very long time. I know that there will be transfers, but we can be friends forever and we can stay FB friends. I love these sisters, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." It was the cutest thing ever! We love Marty! He is such a huge example to us! He has had quite the past but still managed to find the blessings this gospel brings!!

Sunday: I LOVE Sundays. They are always so sweet and so fabulous. On Sunday evening this really neat family came into the Visitors' Center. They originally came in with some preconceived notion's about our church. But it was so great to be able to take them around and resolve any rumors or false things they have heard. They even wanted to learn more after, and accepted missionaries coming over to visit them! It was so amazing and such a tender mercy. During Festival of Lights, we show the 2 minute Christmas video right as you exit the nativity room. It is about Christ's birth and how we can remember our Savior this Christmas. I was walking past and I found a big group drawn to it watching it. As the video went on I saw almost everyone in tears as everyone was watching it and feeling the spirit. The spirit was so strong and it was really neat to get to talk to some of the people after! That video is so powerful and has softened so many people's hearts! Here is the link again to watch it: Mormon.org

Here is a short spiritual thought from this week! During my studies one day I found this quote that went something like this: "If the Book of Mormon would help dispel the darkness of over 2,000 years of apostasy, think of how much more the Book of Mormon can dispel the darkness out of OUR lives." I love this quote and I love the light the Book of Mormon brings into our lives as we read it! It truly is an amazing testament of Jesus Christ! Sorry this email is so rushed we didn't have too much time today! Love you all!

Sister Freeman

Here are some pictures!

The sisters with Elder Stevenson!!

Selfie with Elder Stevenson!!

Sister Haertling and I

Diplomat night and hot chocolate!

MARTY!!

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS!!

Nativity camel haha!

Studio C at the VC!!

I (mom) got these pictures from my friend April, in DC! She is so nice to send me pictures! Megan and her companion ran into the guys from Studio C-- how cool is that? Thanks April, for taking and sending me these!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hey everybody!! This week was fantastic! The Visitors' Center is ready and we are excited for The Festival of Lights!! Oh yeah, during the month of December my P day will be on Tuesday instead of Monday because of Festival!

I think I will start out with our little miracle we had this week. So we were checking up on potential investigators and we decided to go to Darlene Shaw's house. So we got there and her husband answered the door and he said that they weren't really interested but he did accept our offer to come back and rake their leaves on Saturday. So Saturday came and we knocked on his door with our rakes! He was shocked we actually came, haha! So we raked his whole front yard with him. We were praying the whole time that his heart would be softened. Sure enough, he asked us tons of questions and he really appreciated us coming to help him. We were able to teach him all about the restoration just from the questions he was asking. He was intrigued by the Book of Mormon and accepted a copy and said he was really going to read it. They had us come in for dinner after and we got to know them a lot more! They really opened up to us and told us some concerns they were having with their church. We testified to them of the things we know to be true and it went right along with what they believed. They accepted a return appointment and to come to The Festival of Lights. They are honest seekers of truth and it was really neat to be able to teach them. It was a huge miracle and I have such a strong testimony that service softens hearts, not only for missionary work, but for everything!

So a little bit ago, we found out that our ward has 49 part member families and so Sister Haertling and I decided to make that our focus this transfer. So far it has been a success. We visited a part member family and later found out that the dad who is not a member is the son in law to a senior couple in the ward! It was fun to get to know him and he said we were more than welcome to come back anytime! So we are super excited about that!! Some other part member families are having us over for dinner this week! We are so excited! I will tell you all about it next week!

So Thanksgiving was AMAZING!! We had a no proselyting day so we got to spend the day with lots of members from the ward! It was cool because a lot of the people we went to had non members there so we were able to teach them still! It was really neat and we loved being around so many amazing families!

Something cool: So at the Visitors' Center we have a teaching center where we call missionaries all around the world and send them referrals we get online from people who request Bibles or copies of the Book of Mormon and so there was a referral I sent to the local missionaries in the Little Rock Arkansas mission and GUESS WHO THE MISSIONARIES WERE?! SISTER SAGE INMAN! It was so amazing and it was fun to get to talk with her for a little bit and to give them that referral! Haha small world!

On Sunday Sister Haertling and I got to teach the cute Young Women in our ward! It was so fun! I LOVE the Young Women! The lesson went super well! It was about the value Knowledge!! We talked about the importance of not only gaining educational knowledge but also spiritual knowledge as well! And to gain a strong testimony because that is everything we KNOW!

Oh yeah, so I don't know if you have watched the new Christmas video for the year but it is really good!! Here is the link to watch it! https://www.mormon.org/ I love the video and how we are challenged to "light the world". I love how we all have the ability to follow the example of Jesus Christ. Even in the small things! We can ALL serve and help others! A member in the ward told us this wise council, "When we expect things from other people, our joy is in their hands, but when we choose to serve others, our joy is in our hands!" Keep that in mind this Christmas season! I love you all!

Sister Freeman