5 Reasons Why I'm a Timelord

Ready for Sister McCall to go all nerdy on you? You better be! This is a mega blog post because I just got so dang excited about it!
Some of you may know that I am a big time super fan of Doctor Who. I came up with this list of comparisons between myself and the Doctor yesterday during my scripture study time. The similarities between us are pretty incredible. Except I only have one heart.

1. I regenerate. Different interests. Different clothing. Same person.

One thing I was worried about when I left on my mission was how I would stay myself when I couldn't do any of the things that I was used to. I have come to understand that it is ok to be myself despite the change in clothes and time schedule. Elle is still in there! What I have the chance to do is focus on the needs of other people. As I help them accept the gospel of Jesus Christ I understand it better myself and I polish off some of those rough edges that I'm really much better without.

2. I pop up at odd times in people's lives with a blue box to help them. And yes. It's bigger on the inside. This one holds eternal life. Pretty cool huh? Sometimes I have wanted my own Tardis to be able to travel through the time and space continuum, but I'll happily settle for this blue book that holds the record of 1,000 years of history and scripture. Get your own mini Tardis here for free!!

3. I travel with a companion 24/7.

4. Sometimes time and distance separate me from people that I love. I meet people along my journey that I might not get to see again but they are always close to my heart.

I was so sad to leave the first area I served. Hopkinsville Kentucky will have a piece of my heart forever! I left some best friends behind when I had to go.

5. I have been known to wear a fez.

(This one may be a bit of a stretch. But the rest are good reasons am I right?)



You're Weird and I Like That

I'm happy.

I'm me.

I'm fearless.

And it sure hasn't always been that way.
This blog began 5 months ago when I had a lot of fear.
Here I am, thrown out into the middle of Tennessee and Kentucky with nothing but scriptures, prayer, a few skirts, and a companion with a huge responsibility to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Every action is a reflection of my love for the Savior. I didn't know what I was doing. I still have a ton to learn.

But what I do know is this:

The Lord called me here for a reason. There are people here that will learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ because they need to hear it they way I teach. I wasn't called because I'm a perfect teacher but through my diligence and the things that God throws my way I keep learning and He's helping me to become more Christlike.

I can do this. I have 13 more months to live it up!

(thanks to emily for the encouragement to post a picture of myself, even if it is an old one...)
(and thank you to arielle elise for the inspiring post about letting go of fear. she shared some great quotes!)

You Know You're A Missionary When...

1. You keep teaching even in your sleep.

(An Elder that I met at the MTC who just about passed out tired in the grass!)

2. When your dreams are about music you used to listen to you wake up thinking it was a nightmare

(These cute girlies sang Taylor Swift songs to us one day and then they made sure both T-Swift dolls had their steatbelts on!)

3. The Prophet of the Restoration movie sounds like a great date night activity for when you get home.

(Plus I found this blog about a girl who loves this movie as much as I do!)

4. Every bad day can be fixed with a quick trip to Menchies!

(They may possibly know us by name now. And not because of our nametags)

5. You go to a wedding/baptism/event where other people are dressed nice and you think "Crap I forgot to dress up for today" then you remember you wear a skirt 90% of the week.

(We were even dressed up for when we met Zac Efron!)

2 Reasons I'm Supposed To Be In Nashville

My name is written all over this town!!

Be Happy!!!

Photo Montage Time!

It's no secret to those that followed my non-mission blog that I love finding silly/cute/pretty/weird pictures on the internet. Today's theme is HAPPY!!

Sister Jasper and I have a goal for the next 6 weeks to CHOOSE to be happy. Life is all made up of choices so why choose to be a downer?

I hope a few of these little fun reminders help you choose to be happy today!

Love ya byyyyyyee!!!

--Sister McCall

Faith, Hope, Charity, and Parker

"Mom I'm not screaming the song! I sing it as loud as I can because I just love the scriptures so much."

So a few weeks ago we had the Primary Program at church where the little kids all get up and sing songs and say little parts about the scriptures and bear their testimonies. Charity here stole the show with her enthusiasm about the scriptures! I couldn't get over how adorable it is that she loves the song and the scriptures so much so we had to go back to their house and have her sing it just for us!

 
Confession time. These may be my favorite kids ever. My first warning about going to their house was, "the Nash kids have absolutely no idea what it means to have personal space". It just might be true. Shhh!!
One night we taught a lesson about the Tree of Life, a scripture story found in the Book of Mormon. We had each member of the family draw the tree and their family around it, representing being together forever!
Isn't their artwork great?

This family is so wonderful because it is easy to see how much they love each other and the Savior because they show it just in the way they are all of the time! They've also added a new Christlike attribute to the scriptures. Every time I read verses about having faith, hope, and charity, Parker gets added in now.

Nashes are Forever!!

Thursday Thankfuls

Guess who's been keeping up on her gratitude challenge? ME!
Since I've written the past few days in my journal I'll share today's list here!

1. I am grateful for my new companion Sister Karen Jasper!! You better believe it when I say there are some incredible memories to be made this transfer! I'm thinking about making a new blog page for missionary words. Like transfer...

2. I am thankful for a lap full of warm puppies. It was a few weeks ago that this picture was taken, but Sister Valentine and I talked a lot about how wonderful pets are because they just love you no matter what you're going through and they don't sass you back! Best listener award goes to our pets!

3. I am grateful for sticky notes. I've written about how much I love them before. Aren't they just a clever idea though? A little piece of paper that has glue on it so you can put it places for reminders or just little happy notes. I always vote yes for leaving sticky notes!

4. I am thankful for crunchy leaves to step on. Fall in the south is incredible! I grew up in Northern California where it is green all year round and it is so beautiful to see swirls of yellow and red and brown leaves in the wind. LOVE IT!

5. I am grateful for Trader Joe's tomato sauce that is waiting in my fridge to be eaten for lunch. (You know I had to get some kind of food squeezed on this list somehow!)

What are YOU thankful for??

Mission Conference!

Do you ever have one of those super wonderful awesome perfect days? Today is one of mine! There are 140 of us missionaries serving in western Kentucky and middle Tennessee right now and we were so blessed today to join together for a conference where we heard from Elder D. Todd Christofferson, an apostle of God. Apostle you say? Like in the Bible? Apostles like Peter, James, Paul, and John? Yes! We have 12 living apostles on the earth today in the same order and organization that Christ established during His ministry!

(Picture taken by Kate Lifferth)



We only had a few hours to join together and listen to several talks shared by our Mission President and his wife, an area authority, and Elder Christofferson and his wife. We then had a chance to ask a few questions.

Most of what I learned during this meeting was the importance of spiritual preparation on a daily basis.

I have 2 hours set aside every day to study the scriptures and I have seen that time in my morning change my life. Sister Christofferson compared that vital scripture study time to charging a cell phone. If you don't charge the phone you can't talk on it! And if you don't study the scriptures you're not going to be prepared to hear God's answers to your prayers! Funny how I've been hearing that all my life but now it's really starting to sink in.

Simplicity

I have a goal for myself. And I think its becoming apparent that I'm not super great at following through with goals that I set, but this one is easy. I want to write 5 things in my journal each day that I'm thankful for. And if I remember I'll share some of them here! I don't really know why I wanted to use these pictures for this post but I think they will be my first thankful:

1. I'm grateful for pictures from my childhood because they remind me just how awesome I can be.
2. I'm thankful for my new fuzzy on the inside raincoat. I'm going to need it today!
3. I'm grateful for my super awesome companion Sister Valentine.
4. I'm thankful for the US Postal Service! Hooray for mail!
5. I'm grateful for my family at home that sends me lots of love and support while I'm away for 18 months <3

&

(somehow Grandma double teamed it into both pictures!)

It's Gonna Take WORK!

Its been a while since I've had a chance to read Emily Anderson's blog, I just love that family so much! Since today is Thursday I have to join in on her weekly "embrace the camera" posts. A great part of my week was visting Timmy! The first Sunday of every month at our church is a bit different from the rest. Instead of having a regular planned program anyone who wants to share their testimony of the gospel of Christ can go up to the podium and share it with the rest of us.

Timmy gets up every month to share something that has strengthened his faith. This last time he shared his feelings on Elder Holland's talk from General Conference. He shared a very personal testimony of the importance of missionary work and echoed the call of Elder Holland for each young man to prepare himself to be worthy to serve a full time mission. We went over to Timmy's house that evening to thank him for his loving boldness and the man sure loves having a picture taken with his missionaries! Another fun thing, if you haven't heard the new cd The Work by the Nashville Tribute Band you better give it a listen! Timmy's favorite song is #8. Work. We dedicate it to him every time we sing along to it :)

I love having a little weekly reminder to share a picture from a great time in my week. What are you up to this week? Get out there and embrace the camera!!

*Lehi and the Liahona*

Last day of the paintings posts! I hope that these have been fun to look at and read I sure enjoyed sharing them! The grand finale is simple. The liahona was a guide for Lehi and his family as they were wandering in the wilderness outside of Jerusalem. It would only give them clear direction if they were obeying God's commandments.

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So here's the thing, I can't find at this very second where the first reference to this "compass" is. I know that it is in the beginning of 1 Nephi. Whoever finds me the reference first wins a prize! Search and comment away my friends!

*Christ Teaching Mary and Martha*

Favorite rebuking in the scriptures time!

Are you familiar with the story of Mary and Martha? They were sisters (you may remember their brother Lazarus...) and their whole family seems to have been pretty close with Jesus. One evening while Christ was teaching at their home Martha was preparing food, or perhaps cleaning, making preparations so that everyone would be comfortable. I think she was probably the ultimate biblical homemaker. I can imagine her frustration that her sister Mary was not helping but instead sitting there with the Savior listening to Him teach.

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 He said to her, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (found in Luke)

It's important to take care of a nice house and prepare food for those staying at the house, but Christ taught an important lesson to Martha that she should follow the example of her sister and put the things of the Lord first.

Sometimes I'm such a Martha. I read a great blog post the other day by Anne and I was really inspired by her sacrifice of fun design-idea blogs so she could put her focus more on her family.

The Anniversary of My Birth

I love then and now comparisons so I thought I'd throw some birthday footage your way! Yes, October is the best month out of the entire year because it's my birthday month and Halloween too! So here's a treat, a shot from my 5th birthday party! I'm the little blonde one :)

And my birthday as properly celebrated at a member's home this past week with AMAZING pumpkin cheesecake! It was seriously the best birthday I could have ever asked for!

And it was finished by opening a package from home! My mom has made it a tradition to theme the birthday packages she sends me based off of whatever I'm obessesing over at the moment. The only thing I'm really obsessed with right now is the Gospel and also...Menchies Frozen Yogurt (probably going to get a post all to itself) so I just said...hmm..bees! Here's what wonderfully amazing things my mom put together for me!

Isn't she the greatest? Such a fun day and I felt so loved by everyone I met. I think I want to always treat people like it's their birthday. Blink-182 may claim that "nobody likes you when you're 23" but I have different plans for this year!!

*Lilies and Paint Splotches*

I had a picture of Mary Magdalene scheduled for today. And I wrote out a whole long description of what the word hope means to me. And then I felt super preachy. And I deleted it. I'm replacing it with something much more personal that I really do love! My absolute favorite artist of all time is Claude Monet.

Close up his paintings are just sloppy brush strokes,

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but when looked at from a distance I'm almost afraid that the water might pour off of the canvas and into the room.

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Here's my mini application to life. When I look close up at small daily parts of life it may seem like everything is just little messy brush strokes. Once I take a second to back up and look at the whole thing with an eternal perspective my tiny brush strokes have added up to make a majestic wonderful work of art!

So, today may feel like just a brush stroke, but its a dab of paint that has to be put onto my giant life masterpiece!

In other news, here are the cupcakes that Elders Lund, Dallof, and Davis made for me for my birthday that inspired me to change the painting of the day!

*My Peace I Give Unto You*

This painting is so unique. I just adore it! In fact it was on the cover of my daily planner for 6 weeks. The title comes from the scripture John 14:27 . I find so much peace in studying the scriptures. In fact, when our alarm goes off at 9 AM to finish up our hour of personal study time and begin companionship study I just want to keep going!

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Just enjoy the simplicity of this work and take some extra time today to find lasting peace in the scriptures.

General Conference

Has everyone already written about General Conference? I may be a few days late to the blog world for writing my thought and sharing some of my notes, but I guess it's good that I'm getting to it at all. I'm really a blogger with the best intentions but not much follow through. Luckily this art post series is going well and still regular! Here's a peep into my study journal so you can see what it looks like in the brain of Sister McCall:

Pretty scary stuff huh?? Do you want to know what was the most exciting to me? Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles gave a talk that was the same theme as my blog! In other words, what you're reading right now is pretty much divinely inspired ;) His talk is titled Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear and you better believe that's a link right to it! Elder Perry asked us to "be bold in our declaration of Jesus Christ".  Sometimes I wonder when I'm blogging if I'm being too bold or straightforward. I wonder if maybe no one will want to read what I have written because it is so gospel centered. This talk encouraged me to to keep it up! I have a blog for personal fun ridiculous things that I will be writing on after my mission and I can do absolutely whatever I want on it.

Right now my purpose is to be BOLD!

I encourage anyone who may read this to be bold in your faith! Proclaim it! Teach others about what you believe! I would love it if more people would just come up to me and tell me about their faith!



And as a treat to you for reading through this post here's another crazy page out of the journal!

*Lord, Save Me*

The first time I saw this painting was 4 months ago when I was at the MTC (Missionary Training Center).  Three weeks before that I had gone to a singles conference in Medford, OR where we went to the temple, had a few workshops to choose from, a service project, and of course dinner and a dance!

One of the classes that I chose was about scripture study and really understanding the doctrine behind the stories in the scriptures. A passage that we focused on during the class was that of Peter walking on water to Christ. Click HERE to read the passage of scripture depicted in this painting.

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 What I find most fascinating is that we are usually quick to judge Peter and think that this story is about him losing his faith. I think I was in that same boat (har har. lame pun NOT intended) until I went to that workshop in Oregon. The instructor asked us to reread verses 31 and 32. Um, how did they get back into the boat? That part of the story is left out! I believe that Peter, after looking up at the Savior and recognizing the need for his direct focus on Him, walked arm and arm back to the ship with Christ.

Think on that a while!

*First Blossom*

I had to start the week of art off with this painting for a few reasons. One is that it is my FAVORITE that I'll be sharing and well, today is my birthday! So of course the best things must be shown!

I was so excited to find out that this painting, First Blossom by Annie Henrie was displayed at BYU as a piece in the artist's BFA portfolio. On the website about the gallery display shared her short description of her work.



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"This painting is about new life, and the process of regeneration, and how on spiritual, physical, and emotional planes we experience death and rebirth. This painting focuses on the wonder of that rebirth, and the miracle it is to be able to begin again."

I saw different significance in this painting. When I look at this I see myself with two of my sisters. I am the one on the left, S is in the middle, and R is on the right. I feel at peace looking at this painting and perhaps the blossom that we are gazing upon is symbolic of the joy found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Something about this image just makes me smile! I can't help myself!

*Art Series Time!*

I've been rifling through a pile of Ensign magazines from hmmm...about 1991-1994 and amid the great articles from the General Authorities of the church and inspiring stories written by members (and awfully funny poems) I have found some artwork that I just love!
So here is what you have to look forward to for the upcoming week:

One painting a day that I find inspirational, uplifting, or otherwise spiritually wonderful as pertaining to the 13th Article of Faith,

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I sure hope you're excited because I've just been bursting at the seams to share some of these!!!

Who Is That at the Door??

Have you ever looked through the peephole and seen some smiling faces like this?

How did you respond?