Dec 17th 2013

     Transfers this week! Sister Walker and I are going AP (Assistant to president) and Sister McQuivey is going Spanish speaking (which is quite a feat seeing there are no Spanish sisters). At least that's what we told everyone. Otherwise, we pretty much stayed the same. Actually - get this - there are 7 missionaries going to our home ward right now, including us though we can go anywhere because we currently don't have a Cambodian ward yet, and the two sisters here are getting a new sister from the MTC today! So there will be 8 missionaries going to our Mountain View ward! On the flip side, 8 other missionaries are leaving the zone, most of them our close friends, but thankfully they're not going too far. But this being my first transfer, it's a lot harder than I thought.

Good news, we had a less active go to church on Sunday!! YES!

Out of time..... Love you!!

Sister Dunster

December 9th 2013

     Yesterday was awesome in the fact we didn't have the 2 hours of tracting time because of the time it would take to drive to the stake center in time for the Christmas Devotional, but we decided we didn't want to leave without finishing off our weekly goals, so right at6:59pm we handed out our fifth Book of Mormon to a sweet Vietnamese woman and had our fifth lesson. And not only that, but we had our first experience putting someone on date!! We met this guy who's a music producer (he's not Cambodian so we'll have to pass him on, but until we do he's still ours) and he'll be out of town until the end of January, so we couldn't put him on date for December which is what our mission goal is, but we had our first experience actually having someone put on date at the doorstep! He has a religion, but he was pretty interested in what we had to offer which surprised us. It made the Christmas Devotional all the more sweeter to sit there knowing we made pretty much all our weekly goals.

This past weekend the stake center had a Festival of the Nativities where the whole building was decked out in Christmas trees and tables upon tables of Nativities! It was beautiful! And not only that, but we had a less active family which we had just visited show up! Our first family to follow through in going to an activity we invited them to! Needless to say, we were excited. Most of the work here is in reactivating members, even those who forget they're members until they realize some things sound familiar and realize they were baptized in '82.

Well, computer times up so I have to go!

Love you!

Sister Dunster

Sara enjoying her time

     It snowed today! Actually just enough to give a few things a white color to it, but it snowed! It's fun to see and remember that it's now December, but I am glad we don't get inches of it. And even then I can't complain much because we have a car, so I'm pretty happy with the warmer weather dispersed with a little sprinkling of snow.

Thanksgiving was so much fun! We went to two different houses (though I wasn't smart enough to leave room for the second after the first so I really couldn't eat much) and since we're in one of the two zones closest to the President's house, we got to go over to play games and sing. SO much fun! Not only did I get to sing and play at the piano with other missionaries, but somehow we played Catch Phrase with everyone. About 60 people were packed into that living room with missionaries sitting on the floor even, so we made as much of a circular pattern as possible and based teams according to who sat in chairs vs the floor.

I was a little bummed the other day because the other week we were dropped by a family where we'd started teaching the kids; Tommy and Jenny. The kids were taking it all in, but the parents were Buddhist and although they said they were fine with us coming back, they completely looked out the window and turned out the lights when we knocked on their door for the next appointment. Then there's a different family from week one we've been trying to contact but every time we go over there the mom's not home so we end up calling to make another appointment. One day we finally decided just to drop by and who did we see but Tommy from the other family at the window with all the other children! He ran to the door and I thought "Cool, we might actually get to teach them tonight!" until over the commotion of children's voices we hear the click of the door lock and see his shadow leave. We waited a few minutes anyway just to make sure they weren't coming, but apparently the Cambodians here are very connected and we just didn't get to them soon enough.

But the other night we went to go check a contact and although I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, we met the sweetest mother of four children who let us in from the cold to share our message and took a preahkompii moomoon (Book of Mormon in Khmae). She reminded me so much of Hian, the mother of the first family we trying to get a hold of, but I hope we get to her before any other connections do and that it turns out differently from the first. It's hard not to get discouraged when we don't have any set investigators, but I'm learning to enjoy moments like that when people do accept our message, even if just for that one visit. We planted a seed, whether or not they are ready to accept the gospel, and that's part of our calling. :)

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving week!

- Sister Dunster

 Me and Sister Walker with Sister McQuivey's recent converts; Toni and Erin Baker. (I promise I have not gained as much weight as it looks like in this picture.)

                    Thanksgiving Eve with coordinated outfits; me, Sister Walker, & Sister McQuivey

                                                     first snow with me and Sister Walker

Life is Good

You meet some of the most interesting people when tracting. A couple days ago as we made our way down a street, one of the guys said he wasn't interested and started to close the door when Sister McQuivey asked if he was making barbequed chicken for dinner. (Something she and her companion use to do was guess what dinner they were making at each house). She was close, but it was actually barbequed ribs. Then the guys said "Do you want some? I have some extra." He then disappears for a bit while we stand outside gaping at each other until he comes back with a paper plate and three hot ribs. Somehow we managed to finish the last couple of houses before sitting down to eat them. :)

Another experience was when, at our last house, we tracted into a Jehovah's Witness. Ironically what surprised me most was that he didn't even try to shut his door to keep the cold out for the 50 minutes he talked to us. Sister McQuivey told him some principles we believe in, but he was so vehement it was hard to keep it to a friendly discussion. I ended up baring my testimony which hopefully touched him at least a little bit since you can't bash something someone personally knows without insulting them directly, but I said something that would have led into another discussion when we both decided to let it go and say goodbye. As long as it was, it was a great learning experience for me; both in what the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in, what more I need to study, and overall having my first confrontation with another strong Christian.

Saturday the mission gathered for a conference with a member of the Twelve. They wouldn't tell us who it was, only that it was going to be a younger member, so I guessed either Elder Quentin L. Cook or Niel L. Anderson. I was leaning more towards the latter when President Weaver announced that the plane had landed and they would be there soon, and it turned out to be Elder Anderson as well as Elder Craig C. Christiansen of the Seventy! Since we most likely wouldn't have time afterwards, they had us go up row by row and shake hands with him. It's always fun to see a member of the Presidency in a more casual setting - you get a better view of how they are personally, and I learned so much from him!

He first talked about how the presidency refers to him and the others as the "kids". When President Monson was ordained into the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Anderson was ordained a deacon. He was also the mission president to my companion's mother who served in France, so when he spoke he had Sister McQuivey stand and he explained how he knew her as well as a few other missionaries there.

Rather than stick to the podium, he took a microphone and walked down the isles while having missionaries add comments or read scriptures from the projector. One of my favorite parts was when he talked about looking for the unseen rather than the seen. He said to pray for the ability to see the unseen things which are spiritual, and reflecting on it later made me wonder how much he knows about us just by looking at us. At one point he said "All of you are great. Well, some of you have problems - do you want me to point out who?" But he said he was joking and didn't point out anyone. But it made me think about the potential we have to see beyond the visible, and find the needs of others even without them directly telling us as we strive to teach the gospel according to the needs of our investigators. I don't even remember everything he said, but the spirit I felt afterwards was remarkable, and I hope I can maintain that same spirit.

I love this gospel, and I am so grateful for the huge part God's played in my life. I was looking at the family calendar Anthony made and I couldn't help but feel how much I love my family! I don't know what I would do without them - they play a big part in my life and have been such an influence on me. Families truly are forever.

Sister Dunster

Second Week in the Missionfield

Many of the Cambodians we meet here are already members, but either claim to be Buddhist or are not interested anymore, so when we knocked on the door to one Cambodian man and during our conversation he pointed to a picture of Christ with a little picture of President Hinckley tucked in the corner, I felt so happy for him! I think he's in his upper 60's, and doesn't go to church because he has health problems, but he also asked whether God understands Khmae since everyone here speaks English. We did our best in explaining the Tower of Babel, and honestly, I could only understand maybe one out of 50 words he said, but Sister McQuivey said for some reason she was able to understand the gist of what he was saying and answered to the best of her ability and while he went to get something she quickly filled Sister Walker and I in what was going on. I bore testimony of the Book of Mormon, and he said he had one in large print but couldn't find it, so we tried to give him one, but he wouldn't take it.

For the closing prayer, So Him is his name (I'm pretty sure), volunteered to say the prayer and in it expressed thanks for sending these three sister missionaries to his house. Before we left he touched his heart and kept saying something about his heart feeling good and when we explained that was the Holy Ghost, he said he hadn't felt that way in 10 years since he stopped going to church. Afterwards, we couldn't stop talking about that lesson for at least an hour as we reflected on the Spirit that was there and the way he had been touched.

The next time we met with him he brought out a bag and pulled out his large print Book of Mormon, a hymn book, a Liahona from 2003 with a picture of President Hinckley and his wife, and some pamphlets. "I didn't lie" he told us happily, as he displayed his church materials which made us smile and say "good, good!" in Cambodian which I would write, but can't type in Romanization.

The Cambodian reunion went really well. Of all the people we personally went house to house to hand out fliers and invite to the party, only one showed up, and that was because she had a friend in the ward who asked her to come. There was one woman who was excited to go and made 100 egg rolls for it, but couldn't because her brother showed up unexpectedly from Oregon. But about half the people there were Cambodians; other American members were there to reminisce with the Cambodians about the time they did have a Cambodian branch and served together. Most of them are still familiar with the church only because they have visiting teachers and home teachers that still contact them, which I'm extremely grateful for since we have found so many great contacts through the members! So Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching are important!

It's nice now that the Cambodian reunion is over we can focus our efforts more on meeting and teaching the contacts we've received instead of getting to as many houses as possible to hand out fliers to the reunion, and there are so many great people to work with! This past week has been both humbling and inspiring as I've learned more about my purpose as a missionary here and how much change is to be made both for me, and the work here. It's hard doing pioneer work and with the whole Tacoma mission as our area, but it's the Lord's work, and I know that with Him, anything is possible!

- Sister Dunster

P.S. If you get a chance, check out my favorite song of all time: "I Love the Lord" sung by the BYU Men's Chorus. :)

MTC zone just before going to the missionfield

Sister Dunster with her MTC zone just before going to the missionfield

Starting A New Area

Wow, what a week! Ok, where to start....

Since there is only one other Cambodian speaking sister here in the field, my companion Sister Walker and I are now in a trio with Sister McQuivey who has been out for about 6 months and is training for the first time. I love sister McQuivey, and there is never a dull moment with her! Since we are working with Cambodians we don't really have an assigned ward or district, but we live near the other sisters in the ward of our area so there are about 7 missionaries in this ward until ideally we Cambo sisters get a group started that turns into a branch where we would attend. For now, we're doing pioneer work.

From what I understand about the history here, eight years ago there was an Asian branch or 200 members which fell apart due to the members not wanting leadership positions (they came from Cambodia where leaders were being killed) and now there are no active Cambodians. So our job for our first week and a half here has been to pass our fliers inviting every Cambodian or Asian we know to a reunion which will be held this Saturday for everyone to come, eat, and meet old friends and hopefully rekindle an interest in the church so we can start a Sunday school group which will hopefully evolve into a Branch. For a new missionary this seems like a really daunting task, but with the whole mission as our district, and with Sister McQuivey's amazing attitude, I'm not freaking out. I have learned so much this past week from my companions as well as from the new experiences we've had so far!

Day one we moved into a whole new apartment where our furniture consisted of wrapped mattresses and boxed bed frames, and nothing else, so the first thing I did when we got home was start setting up our beds (which I discovered assembling simple bed frames are a piece of cake) and near the end of the night the Bishop, Elders Quorum President, Relief Society and another member of the ward came and gave us all the necessities; cooking pans, utensils, a table, chairs, ironing board, blankets, pillows, food, - you name it, they brought it, and I was touched at their efforts in making us at home our first night there.

The rest of the week is kind of a blur, but we found some Cambodian families who we have return appointments with, and though we have yet to have our first lesson in complete Cambodian, it will be coming soon. One of my favorite experiences was when we tracted into a Filipino family who actually invited us in! They had the cutest little family and wife was making dinner so the father invited us in where Sister McQuivey told the First Vision. I had not yet had a real sit-down lesson so Sister Walker and I didn't say much, but we invited them to have a kneeling prayer with us and asked the father to give the prayer. As most people are, he was hesitant to say it, but they're Roman Catholic, so he was familiar with it and said one of the greatest prayers I've heard an non-member say (which isn't saying much just yet). They were interested in coming to church and promised to go on Sunday. They were such a perfect and happy family (looking for another religion too) I really hoped they would remember and come to church on Sunday. Unfortunately I got a sore throat and Sister McQuivey got sick, so I stayed home with her while Sister Walker did splits with the other Sister missionaries in our district (Sister Packard and Cassell). She said she didn't see the Filipino family there, and we had to give them up to the English speaking sisters to teach, but I really hope they are still interested in learning more.

The other day we visited a Cambodian lady Sister McQuivey has visited before where we spoke the most Cambodian we ever have in an hour as this woman spoke straight Khmae. Sis. McQuivey said most of her appointments went like this when the woman took the lessons; she would listen, then when a questions was asked, avoid it, and begin talking about the bad health of herself and her family. We would direct her back to the gospel and she would take out her medicine bottles, have us read them, and when we asked her to say the closing prayer she would resist until we would help start her out and she'd end up repeating everything we said right to the "amen". This being my first experience trying to understand at least the gist of what this Cambodian woman was saying I couldn't feel anything but the Spirit and God's love for her as we sat there and listened. I wished I could speak more, but I bore my testimony about the Book of Mormon and prayed in Khmae before the woman repeated Sis. McQuivey's closing prayer. I don't know how much I'll be able to communicate to these people, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is God's work and if we do our best God will make up for the rest.

It's so good to hear from everyone, and I hope you have a great week!

- Sister Dunster

Sister Dunster speaking Cambodian

This is Sister Dunster speaking Cambodian.

Sara's week 9 in the MTC

I don't want to be cliché by saying this MTC experience has gone by SO fast, but it's true. This is the last email I will send out from the MTC which is both amazing to me, and exciting. There is still a lot of Cambodian I have yet to learn, but it amazes me how much I have learned in such a short time here. Elder Duffy in my district can almost fluently read the script and has nearly every word in our small dictionary at least familiarized so if he doesn't know if at once, he's at least heard it before. It's amazing the great examples I have around me, because although he is naturally very quick and observant, he is an example of what's possible. 

Elder Jones is also our next smartest missionary. Yesterday our teacher didn't have his grammar book and we were joking that Elder Jones had it all memorized, so the teacher took it and Elder Yu randomly asked "Elder Jones, what's on page 74?" to which Elder Jones responded "Nothing." Elder Yu flipped to the page and gasped "Holy cow, he really does have it memorized!".... which really he doesn't - he was just really lucky, but it gave us a good laugh. Oh I'm going to miss my district!

Good news; we got our Khmae name tags (which we're not allowed to wear except in the field) and travel plans this week! I leave Tuesday morning at 4:30am which means Monday will be full of hugs, handshakes and tears as a good two thirds of our zone says goodbye to the missionaries of our zone going all places. (California, Minnesota, Washington, Australia and Cambodia)

Every Wednesday we go to the temple it seems I always find someone I know. This week's a bit of a stretch to say I "know" them, but I met a sister in the cafeteria line going to Argentina who I found out is the sister of a Jared Ricks who I played in the same orchestra with my first semester of college and danced with at the Latin dances. Crazy connections, right? And then to top it off I saw the girl from the Mormon Messages video "Origins" in the temple. So weird to me, but hey, I'm in Utah!

Other than the fact I've lost my appetite for food from the cafeteria food here, the MTC's been a really great experience for me and I can't wait to go out in the field and see how much more progress I can make! Our investigator Phoan (Bro. Mickelson) is getting baptized this Thursday, and I'm excited about that, but I can't wait to teach real people and see the gospel change their lives.

Sister Dunster

  The Cambodian, Vietnamese and Cantonese sisters! (me, Sisters Walker, Thain, Egelund, Litchfield, Davis, Choi and Peterson)

                 Me with the old Thai sisters (Sister Ellis, me, Sister Barber and Sister Peterson)

                                                                         Khmae name tag!

                                                           Saralee with her companion. 

Called to Serve Pictures

                                                    As Sisters in Zion at the Provo Temple

The Elders and Sisters that come and serve the world, bring families and individuals together in happiness.

SLC Temple

                                                                           Salt Lake City Temple

Picture #3

 This picture was taken the day before the old Thai's left. :( There are better photos of us sisters, but I need to request those photos from other people.

Picture #2

A district picture with our teacher Bro. Mickelson and the former mission president and his wife.

Picture #1

 A sister whose husband was one of the mission presidents in Cambodia who served with our teacher Bro Mickelson. She is from Cambodia but served in Tacoma!

Sara's 7th week in the MTC

Remember how I said we only get called to speak only once for Sacrament Meeting? Yeah, I got called on again this Sunday. Ironically my first topic was on Recognizing the Spirit, so when they called on me to talk about the Holy Ghost I was completely surprised. I had the thought I might be called again, but because the chances of being called again are extremely low, I kept pushing the thought away. Still, I decided I better study a little and I found a really good quote from the Teachings of the Living Prophets manual on Lorenzo Snow I had mom send me. It's not on the list of "approved books" which is why I didn't bring it initially (though it is a church manual), but I've learned so much from it that I had to request it. And, since we sustained a new counselor to our Branch Presidency, the 1st counselor to the MTC Presidency and his wife was there and didn't say anything about it except that I did a good job, so I guess I get to keep the manual. :) (Not that I was really that worried anyway.)

The weather lately has been super nice, so every day for gym we'll all go to the field to play kickball, Frisbee, Trackball (my new favorite sport), soccer or volleyball. I feel like a duck out of water when exercising by playing sports instead of dancing, but the bright side is I'm learning how to play. It took 4 outs while playing kickball before I finally got 2 home runs, but at least now I can sufficiently say I know how to play. To others that might seem really naive to not even know how to play kickball, but some people don't know the difference between clogging and tap dance, so I just don't worry about it too much. And in spite of incompetent players, we all manage to have fun anyway. :)

This past Sunday was really weird for me since Sister Walker was sick and had to stay at the residence hall with Sister Litchfield who was also sick, so I went to all the leadership meetings by myself and tagged along with Sister Choi; a solo sister going to Hong Kong speaking Cantonese and who is the sister to the Elder Choi in my district. It was a good day, but it wasn't the same without Sister Walker. Thankfully she's feeling better and although we missed a day of classes we're back to normal again.

I don't know how I missed adding this in my email last week, but I saw Aunt Arlene at the Provo temple!! I don't know what temple members from Manti go to, but I was completely surprised to see her there, though it was so nice to see family! Today I also saw an Elder Shelby Glenn from second ward back home as we left the temple. He's going to [something] California, English speaking so he'll be leaving next week.

Well, my times up, but I hope you have a great week!

- Sister Saralee Dunster

Sara's 6th Week in MTC

This week was definitely a week of change! First of all the Thais left on Monday so our zone has shrunk a third. On Sunday they all sang "God Be With You 'Till We Meet Again" in Thai as a musical number. I was doing so well until Elder Duffy from my district started crying, which made Elder Osborne who was singing start to cry, which made most everybody else start crying. And then Elder Sugihara went to wipe a tear from his eye and accidentally knocked the hymnbook out of his own hand with a whack so we ended in tearful smiles. I loved it.

Then Monday our zone moved our classrooms to a completely different building. You would think the change would lessen the absence of the Thais, but there are still empty rooms in the hallway which will be filled by the new Thais coming in today! Sister Walker and I were made the new Sister Training Leaders for the zone so we will greet the five new sisters and one elder into our zone tonight which I'm so excited for!

Yesterday Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke at the devotional which was broadcast to all the MTCs around the world. It was really good, and I got the chills when all the missionaries rose as he entered while we were singing "Come come ye saints". He spoke about some doctrinal difference between religions and why all churches couldn't be true which was really insightful. As good as it was, I would have to say the highlight of the day for me was when all the sisters of our zone got together with the only two Sister teachers. They teach the Vietnamese class, but they thought it would be good for all the sisters to get together to answer any questions about serving as a sister missionary. Somehow, they said exactly what I needed to hear I and left on a spiritual high for the rest of the day!

Another big moment of the week was when Elder Madsen (one of the Thais now in the mission field) and I got the envelopes in the mail assigning us to perform our musical number at the Sunday night devotional. We played an arrangement of "Our Savior's Love" for cello and piano at our Sacrament meeting musical number, and tried-out to perform for the campus but since it had been several weeks since we'd last heard from them, and he was leaving the following Monday we had decided they just didn't need us to perform. So when we got the letter we practiced a couple times and performed in front of about 600 people. It's fortunate for me that as the accompanist I don't have to face the hundreds of people before me, but I do have the projector screen within view, so I could tell when the camera switched its angle to me. I kept my nerves down pretty well though, as I'm learning it's not about how many people you're performing for, but how well they feel the Spirit and are uplifted because of your performance.

I can't believe I only have three weeks left here, and they will be different from any other week with the new missionaries and new calling. But I've learned so much since I've been here and I'm excited for what's coming. :)

Sister Saralee Dunster

Sara's 5th Week in the MTC

After the first week, I don't know what happened to time. Next week half our zone - the Thais - will be leaving and it will never be the same without them! We'll get some more the Wednesday following, but no one can replace the Thais that welcomed us into the MTC and who keep things lively. :)

This past weekend, because of General Conference, felt the most like an actual weekend. Usually Saturday is a complete repeat of Friday's schedule, so to have Saturday and Sunday mostly free was really nice! And General Conference just made it that much better! But the highlight for me was Sunday night's devotional when they had the a capella group from BYU, Vocal Point, sing and give spiritual thoughts. The director had told the singers to prepare spiritual thoughts, and then he would announce who would be speaking and when at the performance. I loved every minute of that hour, and the music! They sang hymns, but after hearing nothing but the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or instrumental musical numbers, it was so refreshing to hear new voices, live, and in different arrangements. They also performed a song one of the singers arranged between an African song and "Come come ye saints" which was really cool.

Cambodian is coming along. Our teacher ruled out having notebooks when we're teaching our investigator which helps with forcing us to memorize more vocabulary better, though I miss being able to write down words I don't recognize and want to remember. I wish I could share something I've learned, but I don't know how to write in script yet, and I don't have a way of writing in romanized Khmae, because they still use different symbols. But as daunting as it sounds, Cambodian isn't as hard as it sounds. First of all, we don't have tones, and the hardest thing for me in learning it is reading script, and just getting a few grammar principles down. Otherwise their verbs don't conjugate, most of their words are merely little words put together like "want-hold" would mean "remember", or "shirt-pants-socks" would mean "clothes", and they don't have articles or plural vs. singular objects.

Next week we're going to have a General Authority speak at the Tuesday devotional which I'm so excited for, and they'll be broadcasting it to all the MTCs around the world. A couple Hmong Elders know which authority will be speaking since their teacher accidentally told them, but they won't share the secret with us. Still, it only makes me more excited to find out. :)

Have a great week!

Sister Dunster

Sara in General Conference

Sara sang with the sister missionaries in Women’s Conference on 28 Sep 2013.  I didn’t see her as our reception was poor in the chapel; but I saw her later that week when I accessed the conference on lds.org.  - Elaine, Sara’s mom

Sara is in red in the lower left corner.

Sara wrote:
“Sorry you probably didn’t even see me at all because you barely see my face at the bottom left corner of one frame before it switches angles,...In other frames, I was right behind the conductor and the only person obscured.  If you saw a not-so-happy face behind the conductor during the congregational hymns, that’s my companion, Sister Walker.  She admits she doesn’t know how to sing happily and is embarrassed that she looks completely unhappy.  The girl to her left is our roommate Sister Litchfield.  You’ll notice the last song (“I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go”) for the congregation her mouth stops moving.  It’s because she liked the descant the first sopranos were singing so she sang that instead.  We all had a good laugh at the follies we pointed out....”

“I’ll tell you about my experience behind the scenes.  We left around 12:30pm after a whole assembly line of sisters scrubbing more blush on our cheeks, checking our hair and our clothes.  Once in the conference center, they lined us up according to height (which is hard since the floors are slanted for a better view of the front) and we practiced for an hour.  Sister Emily Wadley was our director and what a character she is!  She’s almost goofy, but still dignified.  If you remember the movie, “17 Miracles,” she’s the mother from England who switched bonnets with the woman on the train to hide from her husband who searches the train to find her as she escapes to go to Zion.  She’s also the woman who got the dried meat from the mysterious man.  I didn’t realize it until they said she was in the movie and it clicked as to why she looked ever so vaguely familiar.

“After practice, the RS Presidency shared some spiritual thoughts with us; and, even just sitting in the Conference Center, I felt the presence of heaven was near.  There was a special feeling deep in my heart that had nothing to do with being in the presence of prophets and apostles of God; but what they testify of--the love of Christ.  It is their call to testify of Christ, and receive revelation for the people; but we have just as much right to gain a personal relationship with God as they have.  As I said in my testimony today, the only thing holding us back is ourselves.”

An interesting note:  Sara met The Maretts at the MTC.  They are her brother’s in-laws.  Bro. Marett is in a branch presidency there.

Sara and her companion at the Provo Temple.

The Maretts and Sara

And, her challenge is to read this!