Monday, June 10, 2014

Monday, June 10, 2014

Hello!

Lots to report this week. Our p-day is on Tuesday because Elder Nielsen of the 70 came for the mission tour.  We were the first stake of missionaries to hear him speak.  He will go to the other stakes of missionaries today and tomorrow to finish it off.  It was spectacular!  I look forward to sharing my thoughts.  Today our p-day is also cut short, because we have to leave Bensonhurst today at 2:15 to make it to the office for another MLC at 4:00. President called a special MLC (normally it is only once a month, but we have 2 since Elder Nielsen is coming) I look forward to it.

So, last Monday for P-day we played a game of clue that the elders in our district bought, and we played that as a district, and the elders from Midwood came and played with us too.  It was fun.  I also got the new Toms.  My other shoes were terrible, a year and a half of walking... nuts. When I was in Plainview I bought some shoes, but they were cheap and not made for walking in.  I thought that I wouldn’t ever be back in the city. Boy was I wrong... so the Toms help me a lot.

Tuesday was so crazy, we were kind of in a bad mode because we ended up having to cancel quite a few appointments since we had a STL meeting to attend.  We tried everything in our power to make an exchange work so that we could be in two places as once, but to no avail.  The meeting ended up being great though-- we were able to get Mission wide-sister exchanges all set up and planned out except for the new ASL SISTERS that are coming next week :) We are so excited to have them come to the mission. Right now, we have our first 2 ASL missionaries in the mission, so to have 4 will be spectacular! :) The ASL pool is growing bigger than it ever has. There are two missionaries here that transformed the whole pool, president said at our last MLC he was going to shut down the ASL program because it was so slow, but they elders did work and a family of 8 was baptized into the deaf branch this year. Phenomenal!

Wednesday was a great day-- we were able to go to Prospect Park and paint benches! That was fun for me to be here this year again, because last year even though I wasn’t able to go to that day of service my zone painted the same benches just a year earlier.  Amazing how time just flies away... I’m not a fan. Ha-ha! But, we had a blast painting, it was a more memorable day of service.  They had these jump suits that we could wear, so Sister Montgomery and I were the only ones that did.  We just had a fun time. Apparently we have been coming to Prospect Park for longer than 5 years. We try and talk to the people that work/volunteer there and the woman in charge was so cool :) She has such great leadership skills! I love people that just are fun loving and TAKE CHARGE! So, as we painted we talked to her and she really just loves the missionaries. Next time we go I really want to be able to talk to her again and see if we can give her an opportunity to learn more about the church-- to be honest I don’t know if she has been able to have the opportunity yet. Each week after service we go to Wendy’s for lunch, and so we went there-- Sister Montgomery and I just packed a lunch though. Trying to save money and calories.

That night we were able to have a great lesson with Sister Rose! She went to the temple Thursday and so we were able to prep her with any last min things before she went! :) We worked on getting her things set up for her family history so that she could have names to baptize.

Thursday was a great day all around!  We were able to have MLC-- and that was Stake Temple day, so Sister Rose got to be baptized for her mom and grandma!  She was on top of the world!  She would not stop talking about how she felt and things for days afterward!  She is not too old but her body is not healthy and this was a great thing for her to do.  She is working toward getting her endowment as well now!

At MLC president talked about the Holy Ghost. I am telling you, I learned SO much!  It was amazing how much I didn't understand about it. I think I might just copy and paste my notes from the meeting.... I actually felt like the things that he said were very enlightening. ((((((Mom, if you feel like it-- you don’t have to post the notes... I can't tell if they are too hard to understand.))))))

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LIGHT OF CHRIST:

The light of Christ, is not a personage, and is what tells us what is right and wrong. When we feel guilt-- feelings that tell us not to do something or TO do something.

POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST:

--Also known as the influence of the Holy Ghost.

--Teaches people of truth, how we got iPad-- how we get medicine and things... :)

--We have experiences in our life where we get to feel night and day differences.

THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE:

This is related to covenants and promises that we make-- and can also be confirmed when we do acts of righteousness.

GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

*Discernment

-We can ask the Lord what is the problem, and he will allow us to know how to help them.

-When someone asks us a question, ASK ourselves/the Lord what they really mean.

HOW DO WE HELP OTHERS UNDERSTAND WHAT THE SPIRIT IS:

--Clarity

--There is not cloudiness

We need to tell the people that we are working with WHEN they are feeling it. They will not recognize it as what it is if we don't.

The spirit will impress different things in our mind depending on the experiences we have had in our life.

I can understand that we receive revelation the same/similar ways to how the prophets do. Just because someone is a prophet, or because they are an apostle, they often still receive revelation the same ways that we do. Which means that we don't have different potential then they do. They are learning to govern themselves the same way that we do which means that we have the same divine potential that they do.

Sister Calderwood: The Holy Ghost is our constant companion. I know what it is like to have a constant companion 24/7, imagine my companion critiquing my driving all the time in EVERY move that we make. That would be so annoying. Take the knowledge that I have learned from Drivers Ed and apply it.  I don’t need someone to tell me everything in those moments.  It is the same way with the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. He really leads us and guides us-- but he is not going to tell us everything in this life-- He will allow us to use him when we don’t know something and when we need to gain further insight.

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I just know that the Holy Ghost can be our constant companion, I am trying to work on being someone that can really have the constant companion of the Holy Ghost. I love Him, and want him to be around. I was asked to speak on our relationship with Heavenly Father for next sacrament meeting, which is Father's Day. I am looking forward to that. I know that we are blessed to be Gods sons and daughters. I feel so much gratitude for Heavenly Father sending his Son. I know that we all have an opportunity to live in a mansion with our Father in Heaven again-- I just don't want any of us to blow it so we can all live together again too ha-ha! I can't imagine feeling this separation that i feel now from you for eternity because we all couldn't make it to the celestial kingdom.

At MLC we had a fun time, because we were able to have the Calderwood's high school friends come to the meeting for a short minute. It was a great faith building experience for us. President and Sister Calderwood met in high school, and went to seminary and things together, and so-- that's where their love spurred..... and apparently from these high school friends they were the kings of missionary work in high school. Several of their friends were baptized. So, long story short there were two friends that came, and one of those people was a convert after high school. Both of the Calderwood’s friends served missions and now the convert has 2 exchange students over and they aren't members and they wanted to see "Real, live missionaries" as they said. 

So that was fun for them.  I learned that there are 8 languages in our mission as of now... Korean is a new language since I have been here!! It was cool to see 'Real growth' convert baptisms come forth to strengthen the church. There is so much of that around here, practically most of the members of the church here in NY are converts and a lot of those converts are within the last 5ish years. SO. Cool.

k-- Last thing from MLC. The standard of excellence changed for the mission. Did I talk about this?? Don’t remember... either way. So we have standards that are given for the missionaries to raise their vision. For example 20 new investigators in 6 weeks (NOT an easy task...) or committing someone to baptism every first lesson. But this time we just added some standards of excellence, this one being simply to extend a baptismal date on every first lesson :) I am not going to lie, I had to put a lot of faith in this, and just kind a skeptical. But when we did our role play/ lightening round (lightning round is when you take the main ideas and bullet points in PMG and list off the simple doctrine in 1-2 minutes simply to commit it to memory and a role play is when you take the same points and TEACH them in a format that is simple and clear, and then we critique each other!) In the role play for this, we had a special experience. We were doing the role play with the new standard and we felt the spirit so strong. We did it as if there was a member with us, and we were able to extend the commitment and date as if in a first lesson. It was something that really changed my whole outlook. I knew at that point that it was totally possible and I was stoked to be able to apply it one day :)

Friday Sister Montgomery and I were able to teach a lesson with a woman that we have visited several times now. It was quite the miracle lesson! We had our amazing relief society president with us and we were planning to teach her the lessons all over again. So we went prepared with the restoration lesson, and when we went all we did was talk about how God loves her and how the gospel can bless her family and she opened up all of these different things that we never knew. I had gained a bigger testimony of how preparing enables us to be able to reach the needs of others. We have to tell God what we are going to do- so that he can prepare the hearts of others to receive the message in a way that is for them. Long story short she committed to come to church! MIRACLES!!!!! :):):):) AND SHE ACTUALLY CAME! I prayed so hard. She loved church and felt the spirit. Even the lesson at church was totally for her in RS... co cool.

Also, we had a grand time with our iPad training.  The church came out with an official document that is our 'online pros handbook' if you will and so the Assistants asked us to help them make questions for a game of jeopardy. That was fun. We will have to send the pictures of them and their mustaches. It was the funniest training I have ever been to. :) I love the hand book, very insightful.

Anyway, Saturday, I went on an exchange... I went to Bushwick to visit Sister McGrath! Alight, let me tell you... reminisce central. When we were in Lynbrook we served together. I have not talked about Lynbrook so much since being there and we just LAUGHed and laughed and laughed as we told stories. She is only one transfer older than me, and it was amazing for me to see the growth in her and know that the Doctrine of Christ is changing us all. She is just soaring and working her behind off-- super proud. I learned a lot. We did a street sweep that was kind of fun! We had paper that was laminated that said  "I pray when..." with the church name on it, and then went around and told people that we were taking pictures of people with their answer and asking if we could post it  on FB to help the community see the importance of prayer. :) It was neat.

Back to Sunday--- Sister Montgomery taught one of our investigators who is 10, and in a part member family while we were on exchanges and let me tell you we found out that she chose to come on her own accord to church with her grandma. Her grandma didn't even invite her... It was so neat... she got herself all dressed and ready, and ask if she could come with her active grandma who said yes :) How special. :)

Okay, so in preparation for Elder Nielsen-- since it was a mega zone thing at our church building, we were asked to clean the building as missionaries. So when we went to the building we got out the mops and stuff and started going to town. Well, long story short I went to wring out the mop in the yellow mop bins and slipped, and spilled the WHOOOOOLE bucket of soapy water on the floor. HYSTERICAL. Until you hear the next part. I fell into a squat to catch myself and ripped my skirt. Pictures to come. Hahaha!

The conference was great!! We just talked about improving and progressing into better people. We had a great conference and was able to feel the spirit so strong. As soon as he walked in the room I started bawling. We talked about the Doctrine of Christ and had lunch, and broke into groups with sisters and elders in different rooms and talked about different things. We talked about how the doctrine of Christ has changed us. When we came back together we were able to have a testimony session and closing remarks. President and Sister Calderwood just spoke on the Holy Ghost again. The ZL's and STL's tend to hear the same things over and over again, which I actually like-- I feel like I am learning it better.

ONE MORE MIRACLE that I will record :) Okay. This was super special. Last night after the conference we had a look up that we have been asked to do. Sister Montgomery wasn't feeling good at all-- so we debated letting her rest so her stomach would settle. But she decided she felt okay enough to work. So we went to visit the woman. It was kind of a weird situation. We had her name from our RS president who only had her information from a Visiting teaching record, and her record wasn’t in the membership list. So we wanted to go check it out. So when we went there was a young man who was outside the front door that clearly was probing us. But when he found out who we were let us in, and found that the family was SOO excited to have us there. Anyway they could not go to church because of some things but she has a Jewish religious background and is still STALWART in her Book of Mormon reading and things. Her step son is not a member and we were able teach a little bit of the restoration and in our first appointment invited him to be baptized on July 6th. He is excited to learn more. He has the support of his family so this will be spectacular. He is 20 years old.

I love this gospel. I love The Lord. Thanks for all you do family.

Dad------- have a wonderful birthday and happy Father's Day! :) love youuuuuuu!