Called to Serve in DC North: January 2016

Megan Has Been Out For 100 Days Today!!

I could hardly believe it when I saw this! Some moms at the Missionary Mom Lunch we had in our Stake today, told me about this app that tracks your missionary's time, etc. in the field. When I downloaded it, it showed that Megan had been out exactly 100 days!! (Which is just over 3 months-- which I knew, but 100 days just feels like such a milestone!) It's crazy, but it doesn't feel like that long! Time is playing tricks on me, I guess.:) Here are some screenshots of the app....

This is the actual mission boundaries of the DC North mission and it

shows 18% filled in-- she's completed almost 1/5 of her mission!

SNOW BLIZZARD

Hey family and friends!!:)

So this week we had a HUGE snow blizzard roll in!! They said it was the biggest snow storm in DC in 10 years!!! We got over 2 feet of snow!! They said it made history ;) haha. President Cooke had us all stay in our apartments since Friday afternoon! On Thursday, all the missionaries had to go out and buy extra food, candles, and blankets in case something happened!! Haha, apparently everyone else in DC had the same idea because all the grocery stores were so crazy and all the shelves were bare!! So insane!! Yesterday since we couldn't leave our apartments, we got permission to have sacrament meeting in one of the senior couples apartment in our building!! It was such a neat experience to have 23 missionaries all in the same room partaking of the bread and water symbolizing Christ's atoning sacrifice!:) We had a testimony meeting after and the sweet senior couples made us all

lunch!:) This was such a neat experience! I will never forget it! It was a huge testimony builder!:)

It was so amazing, before the snow storm came, all the sisters in the mission got to do a session at the DC temple! It was so incredible! The temple is such a spiritual, peaceful place! I love the sisters in our mission!

So not too much happened this week because we were snowed in, but it was such an incredible time to study the scriptures and to ponder on the teachings of Christ. It was a time to refocus on our purpose as missionaries and to think of what we can do to improve. I love President Cooke and Sister Cooke so much! They have such a strong desire to keep all 200 of us missionaries safe and sound. They are really neat people!

I love all you guys and am so thankful I have you all in my life!!

Love, Sister Freeman :)

Sisters Temple Day!

Bare shelves at the grocery store!!

Sacrament Meeting at the Senior Missionaries' home in our apartment complex

Snow....

ice...

snow...

more ice and snow...

piles and piles of snow...

ditto...

and MORE SNOW!!! The blizzard of January 2016 made history!!!

Hello!:)

Hey everyone!!:)

This week was so good!!! We did a lot of contacting this week and we found A LOT of people to teach, but we had to pass most of them on to other missionaries because we can only teach young single adults because that's the area and ward we are in!!:) So that has been the struggle but it's been good!:)

So we just got back from seeing the Capitol and looking at the museum near it! It was so much fun! Afterwards we went grocery shopping and THE COOLEST THING happened! So we saw this man named Paul! This was our second time seeing this man at the grocery store! The first time we accidentally bumped into him while we were getting milk and we said sorry and he said, "You guys are Mormon huh" and we said, "Ya we are missionaries" and pointed at our name tags and he said, "No, I knew you were Mormon because you said sorry." He said that no one else would have said sorry!! It was so funny!! Haha. The first time we asked him if he wanted to meet with missionaries and he agreed! He said he has been having dreams about the Mormon DC temple!!!! Ahhhh so cool but we were never able to get a hold of him, AND TODAY we ran into him again and he gave us his address and phone number and said, "Let's try this again!!!!" Such a huge miracle!! :)

IT HAS BEEN SO COLD!! It has snowed a couple times, but it's not cold enough to stick!! Ahh on the East coast it's really humid so it's been a wet, piercing, bitter cold!! Haha! It's so freezing but it makes us stronger I guess! ;)

So i thought I would share a little bit about what I have learned while being on my mission. Ahh I have learned so much! So I always knew how much I loved my family, but I am realizing that even more now that I don't have as much communication with them. Family means the most. :) I would honestly do anything for my family!! I am also learning the things I want to teach and do in my future family as well! I was thinking during personal study one day just how much I yearn to return back to God and how I hope and pray that one day I can return back to Heavenly Father with my family. I will do anything that it takes to get there... Will you? :) That's all I want in life is to help myself and my family and future family to have eternal life and return to the presence of our Lord and Savior!! I am also learning how real this gospel is and how the Atonement works in people. Seeing the change in investigators as well as my life is truly amazing! The atonement is so real it is almost tangible. I know it is important to keep the Atonement in our hearts. I know that that is what helps us overcome the natural man. We were talking about Joseph Smith with one of our recent converts and just hearing our recent convert's testimony really helped strengthen my testimony. Joseph Smith gave his life for the truth! Converts always have the strongest testimonies! It is so neat to see them grow. I have also learned what hope, patience, faith, and prayer truly are:) THE MISSION IS SO GREAT! :) I could go on and on of everything I have learned! The mission truly does change you! You guys are all great!!!

Have an amazing week!

Sister Freeman

ITS SNOWING!!!

The Capitol and Museum we saw on our Pday today!

Brooke Wrote A "Slam" Poem For Megan For A School Assignment That Dad Sent To Her... It's a tear-jerker!

(Here's Brooke's poem...)

Brooke freeman

Selbach

English II H

09 January 2016

The Days Go On and On

Day 1, birth, beginning. A jump into life and my eyes open for the first time.

I see Mom and Dad. And then I see her.

They hold me. She holds me.

Somehow, there’s automatic trust.

The days go on and on.

Day 378, she’s my best friend.

Hide and seek, tag, ring around the rosies: all our everyday activities.

I fall, she picks me up. I cry, she makes me laugh.

We wear matching overalls and our hair in braided pigtails.

Day 1,092, things change.

She goes to school.

She’s away for a couple hours every day. I miss her.

She makes new friends and, without me realizing it, she grows up.

Our play dates get shorter and shorter.

Day 2,954, she ignores me.

When her friends come over, I’m like the annoying fly buzzing around her head.

I try to fit in with her. I copy her. She hates it.

She’s almost a teenager. And I’m just a little kid.

Day 3,622, she sleeps all day, eats occasionally and texts her best friends on her new phone.

Does she even know that I exist?

Day 4,339, B-O-Y-S. That’s all she thinks about.

She texts them and talks to them, but not me.

Day 5,110, she drives me crazy.

She thinks she can boss me around. We fight.

I wish she would quickly finish high school and move out.

Day 5,475, she’s gone.

College took her away in the blink of an eye.

One moment she’s here, bothering me, and then she’s gone.

I take it back. I want her to come home. I miss her.

Things change.

We text. We call. We laugh.

We go back to Day 1, the beginning. A jump into life and I see her.

I see her as my trusted play mate, my oldest pal, and the best friend that she has always been.

I see now the times where she picked me up after I had fallen.

Even when I thought she wasn’t there.

The days go on and on.

Day 5,503, she’s home, but only for a little while.

We take advantage of the time together and keep in mind time wasted in the past.

Day 5,622, we’re closer than ever.

In a couple days she leaves to serve a mission, to help people.

568 days, and I’ll be counting down every one of them like a child counting down to Christmas.

I’ll miss her. But 568 days is nothing compared to 5,000 days we’ve already lived.

We still have some 31,000 days left to live. And I don’t plan on wasting a second.

Now, she may be on the other side of the country, but when I fall she still picks me up.

When I cry, she still makes me laugh. I don’t know what I would do without her, my sister.

(Here's Megan's response...)
Hey Dad!!:) Everything is going great!!!

THAT SLAM POEM MADE ME BAWL!!!!!!!! Sister Griffin thought someone
died or something because I was crying so much!! Haha it was the
sweetest poem I have ever read!! I had no idea she was talking about
me until it said mission!!!!!! I keep reading it! Brooke is so
talented in writing! Thank you for sending me that. I will cherish
that forever!! Does she know you sent it to me?:)

Thanks for everything! Love you dad!
Sister Freeman

Crazy Week!:)

Hey everyone!

I hope you are all doing well!

This week was sort of an odd, funny, crazy week... Haha!!!

So this week our apartment has been super contaminated... our roommates have lice and Sister Griffin (my companion) has had a really bad cold/bronchitis!! So we are clearing everything out and cleaning everything. We all bought lice shampoo/killer and Clorox wipes and are cleaning EVERYTHING! I am way surprised I haven't gotten sick or anything yet!! Pday was much needed today! Hopefully everyone gets feeling better!!:)

Victor came back!!!! He has been going through a rough patch in life and was looking for a place to stay! AND FOUND SOMEWHERE! We have been praying like crazy for him! My testimony on prayer has been strengthened so much!!! When we pray, that is how we exercise our faith and that is how our faith grows! I KNOW Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers and wants us to let Him in.

Haha later in the week we went to go check up on a referral... So we went to the address that we thought was an apartment (it was in Chinatown) and the "apartment" was closed, you had to have a key that unlocked the outside... (The biggest struggle in DC.) So we did that whole thing where you nonchalantly wait until someone comes out and then you go in. So we get in past all the locked doors and we go up the stairs to his floor.... AND IT'S AN OFFICE! We pretty much broke into his office!!!! It was so funny! We snuck right back out!! Aw man it was SO hilarious! Luckily no one saw us haha!!

Aw this week was great! We found a lot of really neat people to teach!

I am so glad that I am in Washington, D.C. right now! Here is a scripture that really stood out to me this week: "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people that they might have everlasting life" (3 Nephi 5:13). I am a disciple of Jesus Christ! I want to follow Him and represent Him the best way I can! May it be so with all of us!! Talk to you all next week! Sorry this email was super random. I didn't have too much time to write!

Love, Sister Freeman

A group of monks came into the VC! It was so cool to meet all of them!

They are visiting from Thailand! I love the VC!

This is when we were in Chinatown checking on a referral.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!!:)

So this week I learned that if you pray for trials and opportunities to grow...you sure will get them!! Haha!! It's kind of been an inside joke between my companion and I... every time something doesn't go right (which has been a lot this week) she would say, "Dang it why did you pray for trials?!?!" Haha it is so funny! But we have been able to grow so much! This week has probably been the hardest so far, everything fell through and everyone cancelled but it taught us an important lesson. Patience is key in missionary work. Preach My Gospel says, "Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious. It is the ability to do God’s will and accept His timing. When you are patient, you hold up under pressure and are able to face adversity calmly and hopefully. Patience is related to hope and faith--you must wait for the Lord’s promised blessings to be fulfilled. You need patience in your everyday experiences and relationships, especially with your companion. You must be patient with all people, yourself included, as you work to overcome faults and weaknesses." Praying for trials to grow was definitely risky but definitely helped us grow and become stronger!! I highly recommend doing this. And I know as you do so, you will become the person God wants you to be! Trials mold you and shape you! It reminded me that if we look for the Lord's hand in our life, we will find it. We will be taught what we need next, we just have to trust that the guidance will come.

HEY IT'S A NEW YEAR!!! There is an awesome Mormon message that is called "Look Not Behind Thee". It is so neat and I encourage all of you to watch it!! It's a new year! We all have a fresh start! Anyone can choose to forget the past and just move forward! Forgive and forget!

Let's move forward in the best way we can! Resolute means heading in a direction with purpose! So make a New Years resolution that will help you move forward with direction and purpose! ALL these resolutions are possible because of the atonement of Jesus Christ! He makes New Years resolutions possible. Faith in Jesus Christ gives us strength to leave the past behind and look ahead to a brighter future. I love you all and look forward with an eye of faith, not behind worrying about the past! Search diligently, pray always, and believe.

Love, Sister Freeman