Sister Hayley Meise: "Coach doesn't know we called this meeting"

Hi everyone!

It's officially springtime here in Oregon! The weather has been beautiful this past week. It is so warm and sunny. I swear all of this stuff about it raining ALL the time in Oregon is just a rumor. We've had breaks of sun all winter long and now it's just gorgeous out!

I do not know where this week went. Every week goes faster than the last. We had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) again this week. It is always a highlight because it is so incredibly uplifting. This time was especially so. The APs (Assistants to the President) asked us to come to the church a little bit earlier than usual but didn't explain why. When we got to the church, they recounted to us the scene from Remember the Titans (President's favorite movie, he literally quotes it all the time) when the two captains of the team call a meeting one night. When the team gets there, they start asking where "coach" is and the captains tell them "Coach doesn't know we called this meeting". They explained to us that's exactly what they were doing, that President didn't know but they had asked everyone to come a little bit early so we'd be able to study personally before MLC and ponder about what we were hoping to receive from the day. It was SUCH a simple thing, seriously 20 minutes, but it made all the difference. I made a list of questions we had been struggling with like, "How do we help the other sisters strengthen their companionships?" and "How do you help someone else have a desire to work harder?". I kid you not, every single one of the questions I wrote down was answered through the training sessions that were given. It was amazing. Such a testimony to me that Heavenly Father is so aware of my needs and the things that concern me. It also really illustrated to me the importance of personal preparation. I'm sure had I not pondered specific questions before the meeting, I still would have learned a ton. But I'm not sure that I would have recognized the application of the things I had learned so readily had I not been seeking for specific things. It made me think a lot about the importance of seeking for specific answers. How can the Lord answer questions we aren't even asking? It also made me think a lot about General Conference coming up soon and how the same principles apply. As we seek for specific things, we will receive the answers through the talks that are given by the prophet and his apostles.

I take back what I said earlier about there being super nice weather. Yesterday was super crazy windy and we were out contacting nearly the whole day! It was the only dreary day the whole week and, of course, it was the one day we were outside the most. BUT we met a ton of awesome people so it was all worth it.