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The news of the week!
-Got my package! Thanks mom you're the best! =) Now I don't feel so scared for winter anymore.
Hi fam and friends!
Last Monday, we had the Endicott sisters came stay for a couple nights because one of them was leaving and was going on her temple trip. The sister that was leaving was a temple square sister again and this was her second transfer. It was cool cause I actually know her, she arrived the day after I did her in NY so Sister E and I were the ones to pick her up at the airport. In the third picture she is the one in the pink. So for a day we had a threesome with Sister S. and I and Sister D. Sister D. has served in the 'Cuse before so we visited a couple of her favorite people in the little time between appointments we had that day. Ha we taught the chastity lesson to one of our investigators that day, he just laughed, it was pretty great. We picked up Sister N. from Liverpool and they stayed another night here in Syracuse. During that day I cleaned the whole apartment and it was the first night we had slept in our beds since we tore the place apart for bed bugs, it was kinda scary. We had the Endicott sisters sleep on the air mattresses that we had been sleeping on for the past 4 weeks cause we were too scared to sleep in our brand new beds that were in our room, hahaha. It was good though it forced us to finish getting things completly back to normal, well for the most part.
Wednesday, we had basically all of our appointments fall through and it was kinda a weird day, eh oh well it happens. Thursday, we taught a lesson on tithing and it was a member present which was awesome. The lady we took with us has served a mission and she is adorable! It was a really good lesson.
Friday, we taught 3 lessons; saw a singles branch less active who we had been trying to contact for awhile, taught another less actives daughter from the ward who is investigating the church, then we taught another investigator about the gospel of Jesus Christ and re-committed him to baptism which was cool. To top off that evening on Friday, there was a ward social and E. came to it which was great cause he doesn't really have fellowshippers yet (we're working on it). He seemed to have a really good time and can't wait to be baptized.
Saturday, we went over the baptismal interview questions with E. who is getting baptized on October 8th for sure, it is a solid date. He is so ready to be baptized and I am so excited to have been apart of the teaching process. I was one of the original missionaries to teach E., he wa a pageant referral who Sister E and I contacted. I have been teaching him since the beginning and so I think he will be my first official baptism since I was one of the missionaries who started teaching him. Saturday evening the Cortland Elders had a baptism who got baptized into the Syracuse ward, weird I know, don't really understand what that was all about, but it was a nice baptism. After the baptism, my companion and I got to get a ride with some sisters from the ward to the Relief Society Broadcast. The broadcast was amazing, and was exactly what I needed to hear and I didn't even know it until I was there. Absolutely loved all the talks but President Uchtdorf's talk was my favorite by far. Sunday, was absolutely amazing. We had 3 investigators at church and guess which one got up to bear his testimony! E.!! My companion and I were sitting in sacrament meeting going through our planners checking stuff and all of a sudden we hear E.'s voice. We look up and both catch our breathe because we were astounded that he got up to bare his testimony. So about a year ago E. had a stroke and because of that, he now has a speech impediment which makes it very hard to understand him if your not used to it. It also makes people think he is mentally disabled, which is sad, but it makes it all the more amazing that he got up to the pulpit with Book of Mormon in hand, firmly and boldy declaring that Jesus Christ lives and the Book of Mormon is true! It was an amazing testimony and one I will never forget. It was his first time baring his testimony in public and in my opinion was the best testimony spoken in sacrament meeting, hehe. He is a modern day Alma the Younger, he has gone through so much it would make your jaw drop. He has come such a long way in such a short period of time it seems. After he had his stroke, he promised to serve God for the rest of his life because he says that he was saved for some purpose here =). E. is the best! Sunday night we usually always see this less active but for the first time (since I have been here) she cancelled and it turned out to be a wonderful thing. If she hadn't cancelled, we wouldn't have been able to teach the lesson we did. We decided to go see B., a member referral. We have seen B. once before and taught him the Message of the Restoration. This time we planned on teaching him the plan of salvation. B. is very academic, and my compaion was nervous to teach him because of that but I wasn't really that worried cause he was always very laid back when we were teaching him. We started with a prayer as usual, but this time the spirit was stronger than usual. We went through the lesson and he had good questions which we answered and the spirit gave me a really good analogy to use. So he was like "I am kinda analytical and skeptical and like to look at all perspectives of the topic" and I asked him what his favorite desert was. He said pumpkin pie. I was like, "Okay, imagine you have a pumpkin pie in front of you. You have analyzed the process it takes to make the pumpkin pie and seen it from all different view points in the room, but until you have a piece of pie and taste it you will never know how wonderful it is." He really liked that analogy, haha. I compared it to the gospel, how you can know how it all fits together and you can read all the materials you want but until you pray about it and gain that testimony you will never know how great it truly is. We also went a little into depth with the atonement and how we apply it in our own lives so that it can make a difference to each of us on a personal level. He is very smart and I think the lesson went perfectly, thanks to the spirit we couldn't have done that well without it. So there were some pretty sweet highlights from the week, most of them yesterday and saturday. My favorite parts of the week definitely were E.'s testimony and teaching B. the plan of salvation. So that's the news in the 'Cuse lol till next week! Hasta La Pasta!
-Love,
Sister Gifford =)
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