Doing the will of Heavenly Father requires faith...faith takes courage

Dear All, 

This week has been the fastest and longest week of my life. I didn't realize that was possible! Trying to take in so much information is overwhelming, but such a neat experience. I love it here. This week, my companion Sister Wilcox and I were called to be sister training leaders. There are zone leaders which are the elders and the sister training leaders are what they call the sisters that are over each zone. We have 12 people in our district and then there are about about 4 districts in our zone. We get a phone (that can only call the office and our branch president haha) and we get to welcome all the new districts. Every Sunday and Tuesday we have devotional where all of the missionaries meet together. My favorite part here is singing with everyone. It sounds amazing. I'm in the MTC choir and we learned the song baptism. We practice the song on Sunday evening and then actually perform on Tuesday devotional. This week we learned the song Baptism. For general conference there is a choir that is singing the Saturday afternoon session. I really wanted to be in it but I got here too late. Plus there is a waiting list of 200 sisters waiting in case they need someone else. One of the songs they are singing is baptism and it is so powerful singing together. They got special permission so that the MTC choir that isn't singing in the general conference choir can sing along with them while we watch conference. I can't wait to be able to watch conference here. Some things that I've written down this week in my journal that I love:

-Doing  the will of Heavenly Father requires faith. Faith takes courage. 

-When we choose to align our will with Heavenly Father, we will never ever miss out. He wants to bless us and will.

-On Sunday morning Sister Kunz who lives in the same room as me and is going to DC was playing music on her speaker. I had been having a difficult morning and she asked me what 3 of my favorite hymns were. I told her "I'll Go Where you want Me To Go", "I stand all amazed" and "Did you think to pray". we walked into sacrament meeting later that day and sat down. The sister in charge of the music started writing down the hymns for the meeting. I saw her write down, "did you think to pray", "i stand all amazed" and "I'll go where you want me to go". It was really a neat experience. I know that Heavenly Father is always near and knows how to comfort us. He knows us individually and loves us.

-Love is really spelled T-I-M-E

On Sunday evening we got to watch a devotional that was recorded from elder Bednar. It's called the Character of Christ and it is only shown in the MTC. It changed my whole perspective on life and serving a mission. It talked about how when we go through hard times we tend to turn inwards towards ourselves. Elder Bednar explained how Christ turns outward. By helping and serving others we grow. We will find ourselves through others. When you think you can't do it you're right..but when you rely on Christ you CAN. Another thing that I've learned is listening to others better. Sometimes when I am teaching I try to think of what I should say next while they are talking. Instead of planning everything out in my head I am learning how to have the faith to listen and then rely on the Spirit. We had a great devotional from the Schwitzers. He and his wife talked about how when you're on your mission all you think about is home, but when you get home all you think about is what you did on your mission. I love this time in my life and even though it is hard and it takes work, it is so worth it. They also talked in the devotional about the "phases of commandments" the what, why, want, and within. We don't keep commandments because we are mormon and that's what we do, we keep them because it's a part of who we are. That comes from the within phase. I hope you all have a great week. It is such an amazing opportunity to serve a mission. I wish I could write more, but there is hardly any time!

Love, Sister Haertling

Top picture: Sister Haertling with Sister Rice

Middle Picture: Provo Temple

Bottom Picture:  Sister Haertling with her companion Sister Wilcox at the Provo Temple

Sister Haertling
Unit 101 DC North Oct 18
2005 N 900 E
Provo UT 84604-1793
sarah.haertling@myldsmail.net

There's no growth in a comfort zone

Hi everyone!

I've only been here for 3 days and it feels like a month, but I'm loving it. I have an amazing companion sister Wilcox and have two other sisters living in our room (sister Yancey and sister Kunz). We all are going to the Washington DC North visitors center and have a strong friendship already. Since we are visitor center missionaries we are here in the MTC for 4 weeks. It has been pretty rainy and cold here in Provo. Last night we met with our Branch President, President Liston and his wife. When our district left to go outside it was pouring rain and nobody had umbrellas except for Elder Anderson. We took trips to our residence halls two at a time until a group of about ten Elders all with umbrellas came running to our group to walk us all back. It was pretty fun and sweet of them. They had already been out there for 45 minutes helping haha. My companion sister Wilcox is from Springville Utah which is only about 10 minutes away. My teacher is Brother Baker and he is the coolest guy. All of the workshops here are amazing and I love when all of the elders and sisters sing together. Sister Wilcox and I taught our first investigator yesterday, it was a little bit scary but it went really well. The investigator was just our teacher who was acting as someone else who is an actual investigator. Being here is a little overwhelming at times, not knowing what to say or role playing in front of others but there's a quote that I learned the first day that really has helped me. It says, "there's no growth in a comfort zone, and no comfort in a growth zone" or something along those lines. I have to remind myself that. A mission is hard work and stretches us a lot, but the Spirit is so strong and I'm loving my experience already. As long as we have faith and trust that Heavenly Father will be there to help us-as well as the spirit-things will work out. Sorry there's not much to write about, I've only been here for a couple of days. I love you all and thank you for your prayers. 

Love, Sister Haertling

Top picture--Sarah and her companion sister Wilcox

Middle picture--All of Sarah's roommates who will all be serving in the Washington DC north visitors center

Bottom--first P-day

Goodbye for 18 months

Today was the day that we have been thinking about for so long now.  Saying goodbye was definitely the hardest thing I have ever done.  The thing that makes me happy is that I know she is ready.  She will be amazing!

Temple night

On August 17, Sarah went to the Columbia River Temple to receive her endowment in preparation to go on her mission.  She had lots of family there to share this special experience with.

The Call

On Saturday, May 21st Sarah received her mission call.  We invited friends and family over to watch her open her call.