Transfer 3 Week 3 Update

For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, [she] that thrusteth in [her] sickle with [her] might,

the same layeth up in store that [she] perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to [her] soul;

And faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the glory of God,

qualify [her] for the work.

 

Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience,

 brotherly kindness, godliness,

charity, humility, diligence.

Ask and ye shall recieve;

knock, and it shall be opened unto you.Amen.

-Doctrine and Covenants 4: 4-7

 Hello everyone!

 

Another week has come and gone, the weeks are barely starting to add up. I will be on my 20th week I think this week. 

 

Anyways, so this week was suhhweeet!!

 

Tuesday was bomb! So there is a member in the ward here, Kasey, every 6 months he takes the missionaries to OCC (Onondaga Community College) to answer questions of this anthropology class on family and marriage. He is a really good friend of one of the teachers there and so we (the sisters, syracuse elders, and zone leaders) and Kasey got to go and do that. The teacher loves missionaries (funny she isn't religious herself) and she kinda cleared the way a little bit by telling a little about us before we arrived there. She also had each of her students come with 3 questions to ask the "mormons", that was their assignment. The class wasn't very big, a little smaller than the average class size at MCC, maybe 20 people. The teacher knew that they would ask a lot of questions that didn't relate to the assignment they had been given to ask questions about marriage and family since that was what the class was about. She let's them ask basically any questions they may and it provided us a chance to teach and testify to a group of college students. I knew it was going to be a good experience when the first question that started the whole thing was "What makes you guys so happy? Each of you mentioned something about how it makes you so happy, how?" When we got there, in a row at the front of the room were 6 desks that we each sat in and did each our own introductions about who we are, why were on a mission and such. Each missionary had basically said that they love the gospel, how it makes them happy and they wanted to share that happiness with others. It was so cool! We were there from 6 pm - 8:30 pm answering their questions, then at the end we handed out at least 10 Books of Mormon, pass along cards, and other materials. We also wrote our names on the board in case anyone wanted to know more. Kasey said that that was the most amount of materials he has seen go out during all the years he's done this with the missionaries and the class. That was just the evening, during the day all of our appointments went through, I love it when that happens. Tuesday was awsome. Planted many seeds :) Maybe something will come of it.

 

Thursday- was a good day as well. We taught 5 lessons, Boo Ya! Heavenly Father decided to really bless us a lot this week. We must be doing something right, haha. We taught 3 investigators. 1 LA, and 1 RC. Oh and we also picked up a new investigator too. Her name is M., she is as golden as they come. She seems too good to be true, haha. She said her cousins are LDS, she notices a difference when she's around them than when she is around her immediate family. She has gone to church with them some as well. She already has a Book of Mormon that she has already started reading on her own BEFORE she met us. She is a mormon.org referral as well. She is super nice, and she is eager to learn more. The catch is that she is moving to Texas in the end of November, so we are going to teach her as much and often as we can before she leaves. We love talking with her and getting to know her. Said she wants to go into the Air Force, which I thought was pretty cool. Oh! I almost forgot to add, we also set one of our investigators, S., with a baptismal date of December 10. It is more of a goal, and we committed her to coming to church every other Sunday to start really weining her off her church. S. is the one who at General Conference brought her band of kids and who said that when she switched churches before that 30 youth followed her. So we are hopefully starting to ween her off her church and welcome her into the fold.

 

Friday- we tried see T. (the born again I mentioned last week). He wasn't home for the appointment we had, so we left a note on his door and left it at that. We taught D., who said that he hasn't had coffee all that week which is great. He still has a baptism date, keep him in your prayers please. He is really struggling to be of good cheer.

 

Saturday- We taught two asians who are singles branch age and met a new one who became a new investigator. New investigator number 2 of the week! They are super smart, but their English isn't super good and they have no concept of God, so we still have to simplify everything we teach. They are so adorable though, and they ask lots of questions which is good. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and I think it went pretty well actually. So far, everything makes sense to them, which is awsome! The gospel of Jesus Christ really does make so much sense, because it is true!  At the end of the lesson, we invited them to try to pray. It was cute, L. (the girl we originally went over to teach then ended up teaching her with two of her friends) asked "Does God speak Chinese?" haha. We said yes and told her a little more about prayer and how to pray. I don't think she completly understood exactly the concept of prayer because when she attempted to pray she said "I want to lose weight, that's all." and ended her prayer there, hahaha. Then each of them took a turn to pray and even though only one prayer is needed to close a lesson, it was good that each of them got to practice saying a prayer. We will probably end up re-teaching stuff again but that's okay, haha, that is what we are there for. Later that evening we went to a baptism of the Elders, M., who took us all out a couple P-days ago to go apple picking and the zoo. M.'s baptism was Saturday evening and it went really well. He was then confirmed Sunday morning in church and became an official member of the ward and church, even though he's been coming to church for quite a few months now. Saturday was good day too.

 

Sunday- we were at church from 8am-5pm... that's a lot of church! It was good though. We went to ward council at 8 and it was the first comfortable, non-confrontational ward council the missionaries and ward have had since I have been here. Everyone seems to be excited about the Halloween Party we are throwing this Saturday, lots of positive feedback. We will forever be known as the missionaries who got a ward Halloween party started again :). We didn't have any investigators at the ward, but we got one to the singles branch, which is a first since my first transfer here, so that was exciting. However, it was really difficult because we hardly know anyone in the branch. President has this rule that if we don't have an investigator to go to the branch then we can't go. Well, like I said, we haven't had an investigator come to the branch in a couple months. It's like how are we supposed to fellowship someone when we don't know anyone who can fellowship them? Ha, and to top it off all, 3 of the talks in sacrament meeting at the branch were on hometeaching (what?!?!). Needless to say it wasn't the best first experience at church that he could have had. Nevertheless, he says that he enjoyed going and will come next week so I'm hoping and praying that he got SOMETHING out of the 3 hours he stayed at church. Oh and the Singles Branch doesn't have a gospel principles class either, so it's not like they can go by the basics. Meh, oh well, it's over and hopefully he comes next week. We taught J. right after church and got our member present lesson for the week. Oh and then last night, (Sunday Night) we picked up another investigator (Investigator number 3 for the week!). Her name is E. and she is a member referral. One of the members of the ward runs a daycare and E. is one of the mom's of the kids that goes to the daycare. She is also golden, she has a firm testimony of the Savior already but she dosen't like how so many churches are so hypocritical who profess Christianity and don't act like Christians. We got to know her and she seemed very open to learning more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She agrees with the concepts from the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She said that she will definitly read and pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. She is a perfect candidate for the Gospel of Jesus Christ :).

 

I am so excited, we have so many promising investigators. It's amazing! Our teaching pool is now at 18 investigators! Many seeds are being planted and hopefully we will be able to harvest some of the field here. Till Next week!

 

Miscellaneous Notes:

-My tooth is doing much better, the swelling is gone along with the pain. Two Friday's ago, I went to the endodontist and he drained out the infection that was causing so much pressure and pain. It killed when he poked me to numb it, but since that weekend it's been doing much better. I am scheduled to go to the endodontist this Friday and finish up the root canal though. Honestly though, I could probably make it fine till the end of my mission since he drained out that stuff. The dentist and endodontist both said that actually both front teeth will need root canals, but that just the one was inflammed. But the pressure is relieved and the swelling is gone, and that's all I wanted. I think I will be okay for now till I finish my mission. I don't know what else would be done, since he drained out the infection. I finished my anti-biotics and it helped a lot.

 

-Jordan Richardson is home now?! When did that happen? Crazy that everyone is coming back, and I'm just at the beginning of my mission.

Althogh next transfer I will hit my 6 month mark, Yeah!

 

-Btw, I love hearing about what's happening back in AZ it's not boring to me at all haha.

Without emails, I have no idea what's going on back home.. the more the better :)

 

-Oh and I just remembered, transfers are November 9th..so I should know whether or not I am staying in Syracuse on November 5. My November 7th email will have all the details.

 

I think that's all for now, love you all so much! 

 

Sister Gifford