Punctuation Matters

This was a FANTASTIC MONDAY for this Mom!!!

I was able to email back and forth with Danielle for quite some time...she is such a crack up!  

She is not being transferred again, but is getting a new companion. 

She is happy to be staying with the families she is working with, sad to see her companion go, but also excited to meet a new companion.

Change is hard, but she is resilient.  :)

And she told me this was 

THE BEST WEEK EVER!

Read her news below:

Welcome to the week of all weeks!

This has really been one of the most eventful weeks of my life.

To start out with- 

I caught 

and killed 

a mouse 

that had snuck into our apartment, 

all by myself! 

It was terrible. 

I don't like mice...

but I succeeded and have taken back the apartment from the horrid vermin.

Sister Anderson was no help.

...Unless you qualify screaming her head off and pushing me off my chair (so that she could stand on it, instead of taking the chair NEXT to me) as being helpful :P

Then- March 22nd. 

The day that has been in my prayers for the past two months.

But seriously, 

every single prayer has included, 

"And please bless Sister Schneider that she'll get her answer to be baptized on March 22nd."

Every.

Single.

Prayer.

Even my food prayers.

Well, a week and a half before, she called off the date because she didn't feel ready yet, and we moved it to April 19th. 

Which was totally fine! 

But it did make me feel a little bit sad because we had PROMISED her that if she would set a date to be baptized on (3/22) that she WOULD get her answer to be baptized on that date.

So she set it and did EVERYTHING she was supposed to do. 

There was no reason she didn't have an answer.

But it was okay. We were just being patient.

"Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you."

So... 

we've been asking and she's been asking... 

and we were getting a little anxious over all this, 

cause it's a make it or break it. 

And this is kind of a big deal!

We knew she'd either get her answer and be baptized now, or else it was going to be a loooong wait for their family.

On Friday (3/21) we went to the DC Temple Visitors Center and did a tour. 

It was amazing... 

the spirit was so strong. 

I was in shock the whole time at how good it felt there.

The next day, Sister Anderson and I decided to go to Rita's for my first time.

(I am guessing Rita's is a restaurant???) 

Which was odd because we'd just eaten and it was still early, but... we went anyways. And as we got up to the window, the Schneiders pulled up!

Brother Schneider had to go next door to make some copies, and Krista talked to us for a few minutes. When he came back out he looked at her and said, 

"So, have you told them the good news yet?"

-WHAT-

--WHAT--

WHAT?!???!??!!!

And then she told us that she had decided to be baptized.

And we all started screaming and crying.

They're already planning on being sealed in a year.

When we asked her what finally did it for her, she told us, 

"Well it was yesterday at the temple, 

and I just knew I needed to be sealed to my family. 

So I needed to get baptized."

AMAZING.

Here's the tricky part.

We'd been praying for her to get her answer to be baptized on March 22nd.

She got her answer to be baptized, on March 22nd.

I need to start punctuating my prayers...

(Sooooo love the way this girl thinks!!!  :)  )

THEN, that night, 

I went to dinner 

and we were having 

ginger brown sugar chicken, 

AND I LIKED IT. 

I reeeeally liked it.

So weird.

3/22. Most monumental day of my life.

First time going to Rita's.

Sister Schneider's getting baptized

And I ate meat that I liked.

Pretty good, eh?

Well, lot's of other wonderful things happened  this week too... I wish I had time to talk about them all.

Here's a basic run down,

We met Sister Schneiders sister and mother (again) and they love us. She's such a little missionary already!

We went to Café Rio with the Schneiders!

Everyone and their dog came over to talk to us because they were so excited to see sister missionaries.

So excited, they even bought us our dinner!

Then we had someone hit on us in Walmart (story of our lives) and he told us that "thick girls are in. Thick is what get's you a husband. You going out tonight?" .... rudest compliment of my life. #DietsAreForRM's

Sister Anderson is being transferred :( 

126 days... all coming to an end.

And also- here's a highlight for the coming week- We have no car!!! Extra prayers would be appreciated. 

 (And after emailing with her today, they are supposed to get hit with another snow storm tomorrow!  I sent her a little package today and did my best to wrap up some sunshine to ship her way.)  

Love you all!!!!

SISTER LYTLE!

Here's our Missionary Girl...

A few photos from the 

Sisters Conference

that Danielle 

just attended this past week.

Let's see how good your eyes are...

Can you find her???

I'll give you a hint ~ 

She is not standing

but is in the row just in front of those standing

smack dab in the middle

in a white shirt.

Do you see her?

 And here she is in the middle again.

 Love that girls smile...

 And here she is with Sister Stradling...

I really think they will be friends for life

after serving together!

Loving her shorter hair,

she is just beautiful!

Just wanted to share some of

my HAPPY 

tonight.

Seeing her makes my heart smile!

16 Snow Days and counting...

Received this letter from Danielle middle of the week...
I didn't hear from her for several days
DUE to the SNOW, again!
But all is well and happy in her world.
She sounds as amazing as ever.

PLEASE take a moment and watch the video below that she has shared for you...
My hope is to one day live up to being just this kind of person.
It's pretty fantastic when you have kids who push you to be more and to be better.

Now on to Danielle's letter ~ 

16 snow days for the Carroll county schools... 
and mind you that doesn't even count weekends!

I'd completely lost track of how many snow days we've had, but someone reminded us on Monday night! Add in a few more (for the days the schools didn't count) and that's where we're at for the year! YUCK! 

Where is the springtime???

Hopefully it'll be just around the corner :) 

I keep hearing about how everything blooms in the spring, and I can hardly wait to see it all. They talk a lot about the cherry trees. 

Those are suppose to be amazing. 

This week has been pretty fun! 

We had Sisters Conference last week. 

There are 90 of us in the mission, which is a TON of sisters! 

Then we had Stake Conference.
AND THEN Zone Training this week.

All kinds of meetings! But they have been good. 

On Friday we are going to go to the DC Temple Visitors center and then have dinner at Cafe Rio! We are so excited to go. We're going with the Schneider family. Brother Schneider has been a member for 5 years, and their 9 year old is baptized, but Sister Schneider hasn't joined the church yet. The sisters tried to teach her when Andy first joined, but she wasn't interested in having them over, but within the last year, she's been coming to church every week and staying for all three hours. 

Sister Anderson and I have become really good friends with her, and she started letting us come over to teach her, and she is making so much progress in the gospel. A week ago, we taught her the Word of Wisdom (which she already knew,) and she had a lot of questions about Green Tea and why we couldn't drink it. But she decided that she would pray about it and committed to live it. Later on, we talked about the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy, and she talked about how hard that can be at times, but she also committed to live that. 

WELL, fast forward a few days later: 

We went to Stake Conference with their family

 (her first time ever going to one!) 

and Sister Anderson and I were on kid duty. 

We had to keep them busy so that she could listen. 

It was fun :) 

but then afterwards we went to her mothers house to have lunch and do some yard work. While we were at lunch, her mom gave us this sparkling juice stuff, and then walked out of the room. Kamryn (their 9 year old) rushed over to us and told us, "DON'T DRINK THAT!" and then grabbed the bottle to show us that it had 3% green tea extract. Then she told us that she watched her mom check the labels of all the drinks in the house and dump out all of them that had tea in them. So cool!! Then later, we were out doing yard work and ran out of black bags. Her sister, who was also there helping, kept telling Sister Schneider that she should just go to the store and buy more,
"We can't go to the store on Sundays! We're Mormons!"
Her sister then agreed that, "Fine, I'll go get them."
"Ahh... I can see the blessings already."

Hahaha. She is so funny. 

This is basically one of the best videos you'll ever watch. 

So you should probably look into watching it.

It reminds me of the type of person I want to become and that one of the reasons Christ came was to be an example for us. It's super short, and it might even change your life. So for real, watch it.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-01-001-christlike-attributes?category=annual-mutual-theme/2014-come-unto-christ&lang=eng 

Other than that, my life has been pretty great :) 

we're just waiting for the sun to come out 

and trying not to freeze to death in the meantime :) 

Love ya all! Have a great week! 

Sister Lytle

Aaaaadventure time! With Sister Lytle and Sister Anderson, Edition: Bus

It's MONDAY...more news from Danielle!!!!

Since moving to Randallstown, we've had the idea that in order to save on miles (we have restricted mileage) we would ride the bus from time to time, and that'd probably be pretty fun, and a good way to talk to people and stuff. And then we'd have extra miles to use elsewhere!On Saturday, we woke up and it was so nice and warm outside! We had planned to spend some time outside anyways, but after a little while, we had to go inside and change because we were expecting it to be freezing outside (like normal) but instead we were roasting to death.

Here's where our mistakes begin.

#1) We'd already walked a few miles

#2) When we got home, we changed our shoes. 

Her into white, lacy flats, and me into a pair of her shoes, that a a little bit too small for me.

So then we jump back in the car and start heading out to Della's home in Windsor Mill. A few blocks from our home, we decide, 

"WAIT! Let's ride the bus!!" 

So we pull onto a side road and ditch the car. 

Then we walked to the bus stop. When the bus got there, we found out that it only takes exact change... so instead of $3.50, it was $4.

We were on bus 54, going down Liberty, and we needed to turn on Rolling Rd. And the bus didn't turn! So we pulled the sting to make it stop, and tried to bail off the back of the bus, which we had JUST seen someone do... but for some reason the doors wouldn't open for us like they did for them. We panicked and ran to the front of the bus and jumped off. And were just a little bit embarrassed.

From there we backtracked back to Rolling Rd, and started down it looking for a bus stop. But we walked a REALLY long way before ever finding a bus stop! And unfortunately, that really long walk was walked ON the white line or in the mud. That road doesn't really have any kind of shoulder to speak of haha. I'm not sure how people do that out here, but people walk on the line like that ALL the time, and it's SO SCARY!

After several miles and a lot of mud (which found it's way all up our nylons) we found a bus!!! YAY!! It only drove us a block or two in the right direction though, and then we had to bail again. This time we figured out how to get the back doors to work... you have to push them (thank you random guy for yelling directions at us on how to get the doors open hahaha)

Then we walked again.

At one point, someone pulled over and asked us if we were lost. HAHA! Just cause we're a couple of white chicks walking around doesn't make us lost! Just confused on how to work the buses.

Then, WE FINALLY MADE IT TO DELLA'S! And had a whole 30 minutes to spend with her before having to leave to make sure we made it back to our car in time for our next appt.

So we're exhausted and walking back to the bus stop, when Sister Anderson looks behind us, and what did she see?

The bus.

And so we started running cause the bus out there only comes every 45 minutes or so, and we did NOT want to wait that long!

Sooooo.... we had quite the run, up the hill, to make it to the stop before it pulled away.

But we made it!! MIRACLE!!!

A lot of people were laughing at us when we got on.

Luckily, we figured out how to catch the right connecting bus back to liberty so that we didn't have to walk the 4 mile stretch between the roads.

The only problem was, where did we put the car?

We watched and watched the roads until it finally showed up! Then we jumped off the bus again, and did the Baltimore Shuffle, across 4 lanes (and a suicide lane) of traffic.

Hahaha. 

So tired. 

So sore. 

So muddy.

 

Lessons we learned:

#1) When riding the bus, wear walking shoes, in your size, that are NOT white.

#2) Carry exact change

#3) Don't carry your scriptures in your bag

#4) To get to Della's, get on the 54 UNTIL you get to the 77. Don't walk down Rolling Rd.

 

Anyways- we are alive and well! Love you all!!

Sister Lytle

Miracles and a New Wife

Oops...this one is out of order.  I was really behind on posting letters from our sweet Missionary daughter!  I am happy to know she is safe and healthy and loving her time serving!  She has had some very interesting things happening in her world.  Her letters recently have been about the many people she has been working with.  She is serving in Baltimore (BIG city) for a little country girl from Idaho!  

She said that many stories begin with 

"Before I was a Mormon..."

followed by stories of living in the ghetto.  

And from people who are investigating, the stories they have are just heartbreaking, they are living very hard lives!

She is getting an education that I don't think she ever counted on having.

She is so compassionate though, that she is the perfect person to be there to touch the lives of these people.

Now, on to the story of a VERY persistent individual that has fallen deeply in love with Danielle!  Oh my...I am choosing to believe that her Bishop knows what he is talking about.  

This week Brother ___ decided that passive notes just wouldn't be enough... sooo he stepped up his game. 

When we showed up to church, the elders pulled us aside and said, "we have to warn you, Brother ___ bought you both pillows this week. 

And Sister Lytle, we're supposed to put a good word in for him." 

He showed up to church with a suit case, and after trying to unzip it for 5 minutes, he finally got it open and pulled out two memory foam pillows. 

What the heck?! 

They looked pretty nice (TBH, worst pillow I've ever used... I threw it off my bed in the middle of the night. #cantbuymylove) 

But that's not all. 

THEN he said, "Wait, I got somethin' special for you." 

Oh great. Then he pulls out a really heavy Walmart bag and tells me, 

"Wait until you somewhere where you can take yo time and look at it. It's real nice." Then he handed Sister Anderson a bag of groceries, "There's two of each, for both of y'all."

So of course, we run out to the car and rip open the bag. He had a magazine taped shut with 4 cards and a FRAMED PICTURE OF HIMSELF inside of it. We were dying of laughter. But had to get back inside before Sacrament started.

After church though, we broke open the cards... I need to take pictures of all this stuff, but for now, just know it's amazingly awkward! The cards were all addressed to "My Angel, okay?" or "Angel Sister" And they're all married person cards! GAG!

"I know you have to be a sister for a year or two ok? you mean the world to me ok? i can't get you off my mine. I go to sleep thinking about. I saw you and something happen. I have never felt this way about lady like you. This is the truth?"

"Call me it will be worth it"

"My daughters will like you"

BAHAHAHA!! HOLY AWKWARD!

During Sunday School, we were talking about how people know there's a God, or when they first found out. 

One man was saying that when he stands on the beach and watches the waves roll in, he knows that there is a God. 

Then Brother ___ pipes up, 

"I'm taking my NEW MORMON WIFE to Hawaii for our honeymoon!" 

"Brother ___, you have a new mormon wife?" 

"Well, not yet. But I got my eye on her!" 

*Entire class erupts into giggles, cause they all know it's me...*

The Bishop says that he's harmless and not to worry though. 

(This Momma sure hope this Bishop knows what he's talking about!!!  This is sounding a little scary to me!)  

The poor guy has no idea whats going on around him... 

____________________________________ 

 

Miracles have been happening though!! 

We had a lesson with Sister Schneider this week, and we committed her to be baptized. We asked her if, when she knows it's true, if she'll be baptized. She had NO hesitation saying yes. It was so neat. So this week she's praying about a date, and we promised her that she'll know it's true before her date comes. 

It's so neat! 

She is so brave. 

I really look up to her cause this is a scary step, 

but she knows what she wants, 

and she's not going to stop until she knows if it's true or if it's not.

After we committed her though, she says, 

"Man, do you guys make a commission off this?"

"Sister Schneider, if we worked for commission, we'd be starving to death."

"Yeah, you probably would."

BRAT!!!

Anyways, life is good!

The new apartment is good too! 

It smells so much better than the last one! We're so glad!

Shhhhh...It's a secret!

Today's letter from Danielle...

she is so happy and is doing really well!!!  

I had to laugh when I asked her about the storms in Maryland.

I didn't hear from her on Monday, due to the storm, she remarked that it was a "Sissy-Storm" but everyone closes down when the storms hit...she thinks they are all just a little pathetic about snow and ice.  

She must be an Idaho girl!!!

Let's get to Danielle's big news ~ 

she has been working with a family for quite a long time and here is the secret!!! Drum roll, please....

SISTER SCHNEIDER IS ON DATE FOR MARCH 22nd!!!

We are so freaking excited for her!

Her husband is a convert of 5 years, but until just recently, she hasn't been interested in taking the discussions. 

But she's attended all three hours of church for about 6 months, and has been going to sacrament for a few years; she basically holds a calling as well.

She decided to let Sister Anderson and I start teaching her though, and it's been incredible. 

She's grown so much even in just a few weeks.

Two weeks ago we left her with the commitment to pray about a date to be baptized on, and last week she told us that she'd been praying and picked March 22nd, but that she still wasn't sure that there was a God, but if she knew He were there, that she'd be baptized on that date... so she swore us to absolute secrecy so that no one, especially her husband, would find out, and set a goal to know by the 22nd.

She has such amazing faith!

Keep Krista Schneider in your prayers! 

We're so excited for her!

This week Brother Kincaid passed away. 

He's been in the hospital for about a month... 

it's been pretty sad watching him go down hill. 

Their family was just getting active again when he had the stroke and fell. So we've spent a lot of time with them. 

His wife, Nicole, and son, James, asked me to sing at the funeral... it was pretty hard sitting through everyone crying and then get up to sing. 

But as soon as the piano started, the chapel just felt so peaceful. 

I'm so grateful to know that families can be together forever! 

Their next step is being sealed together in the temple. It's so neat to see the strength they've gained from the gospel at this time.

The church is so true!

Love ya!

Sister Lytle

Snow, car dents and purpose in life...

A little behind on posting for Danielle...At the bottom is her new address!

Their weather has been something!!!

This week has been crazy!! 

There is so much snow on the ground! 

It snowed 16 inches over night, and then a few more over the next few days.

On Wednesday night, we were driving home from Randallstown right as the snow started and it was killer slick.... and of course some one slid out of the parking lot and hit the side of our car! 

Dang it!! 

It was so minor, but we had to file an accident report because it dented the side of the car a little bit :/ so that night we didn't get home until almost 10. 

It was awful! 

But luckily, we made it home safe and no one was hurt at all since both cars were going less than 5mph when they hit us! haha.

The next day our cars were big time grounded. 

We shoveled a few driveways and had a nice walk. 

We decided that, in honor of another snow day, we'd each wear one of Sister Anderson's ugly coats. Black and gold y'all. 

Not to our surprise, very few people would let us shovel (like always) but at least this time when we asked people, they just laughed at us instead :P 

And by the end of the day, all the roads were clear! 

So we thought for sure we'd be driving the next morning.

Nope.

More snow.

Just about 7AM, we get a text from President Richards telling all missionaries to get outside and get the snow off the cars and driveways so that our neighbors could get to work! 

So we got to it... and made it through about 20 cars. 

While we were at it, we met a lady who decided to talk to us while we cleared snow away. 

She told us that she'd already read the entire Book of Mormon, 

was searching for happiness and purpose in life, and was interested in meeting with us. 

Holy cow. 

When does that even happen?!

So cool!

With all the snow and ice, I managed to slip and fall three times that day, none of them were bad though! 

One of those times we were cleaning off a truck with 20ish inches of snow on it... 

and Sister Anderson fell on top of me 

(while I was trying to hold her up) 

and we got stuck in a snow drift... 

so glad no one saw that!  :P

A few days later, once we had our car back, we were dropping by a former investigator, and it wound up being such a waste of time... probably one of the most awkward drop in visits of my life. So we finally left, and decided to try by a potential in the building next door. Like always, there were a zillion and a half people at home, but not one of them was the lady we were looking for. 

On our way out there was a girl sitting on the stairs looking out the window, and we offered her a Mormon.org card and told her to check out the website. 

After talking to her for a minute, she started opening up and asking a lot of questions, which eventually led to her telling us that all she wanted in life was to be forgiven and start over fresh, and that she thinks being baptized would help her to do that.... 

At that point we decided to ask her name, 

and theeennn 

proceeded to teach her about the Restoration. 

It was amazing to watch the simple truths of the gospel bring so much peace to her! 

Shykia is a total babe! We're way excited to be teaching her.

On Monday we were able to go to the temple!! 

Oh we were so dang excited. 

It was our first time going to the DC temple. 

It's so pretty. 

I love how different each of the temples are, 

but how they all feel the same inside :) just peaceful and happy.

NEW ADDRESS!!! (we are moving in on Saturday! Weeee!!)

Sister Danielle Brieanna Lytle

3714 Brice Run Rd Apt D

Randallstown, MD  21133

 

I love you all! Have a super fun and happy week!