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Hello!
This week was full of different experiences. Perhaps I will work
backwards starting with General Conference. Wow, what an amazing General
Conference it was and how about that new missionary announcement! Woo
Hoo! I'm pretty sure that the number of sisters who serve missions will
triple and it will completly change the Young Single Adult LDS culture
having sisters serve at 19 and elders at 18. Haha, President Wirthlin
when we asked him what he thought about his new baby missionaries and he
said "Well, I'm just glad I have you older sisters to train them." Haha. Also during conference, we had two less actives come to the church
to watch it with the branch members. One of them was Sister B., who
is elderly and has a lot of health problems and has a hard time walking
because of how swollen her legs are. The Relief Society President of the
branch, Sister W., took her Ipad to Sister B's on Saturday to
watch GC with her and then Sister W. had the idea to bring a
recliner/chair that Sister B. could sit in so she could come watch it
with us at the Church during the Sunday sessions. So Sister La. and
I had a member with a truck take a big chair we have in our apartment
and take it to the church for Sister B. to be there on Sunday. It was
so sweet to see how excited and happy Sister B. was when the chair
worked and she really enjoyed watching conference with everyone who came
to the church to watch it. She was more excited than a little kid on
Christmas morning, it was so cute! The other less active was a lady
named El. and her two year old daughter E. El. really wants to
start coming back to church and so she was able to come to the Sunday
sessions as well. E, had a small mini box of cherrio's that she was
passing out to everyone during conference on Sunday, even the old ladies
and the sleeping ones. Haha, She went up to one of the ladies that was
totally snoozing, and she kept poking her until Sister P woke up
and took the tiny handful of Cherrios E. was offering to her, haha. It
was so funny and adorable. El then passes a note to us that says
"Wake up, I have cherrios for you" implying to her daughter passing out
the food to Sister P., haha. I just love the members of this branch,
they are too funny. Oh and just after the first session on Sunday ended,
the new senior couple arrived, the Ts, who are from Utah, of
course. They are pretty great though and quite the opposite of the last
senior couple who was here. I am very excited to work with them. For any
couples who are the age to serve senior missions, just do it! The
missions of the world need you. Elder T was telling us how the
application process for senior couples is a little bit different than
the younger missionaries because you are encouraged to either serve 18
or 23 months but you can serve 6 mo, 12 mo, 18 mo, or 23mo. Well after
discussing it with Sister T, they were going to serve for 12mo but
when he put in 12 months there was a little window that popped up that
said "why only 12 months...?" and you had to type in a valid reason why
only 12 months. Sister T said that "because her family needs her"
probably wasn't going to fly in the computer system so they then typed
18 months and it gave them a smiley face :). Haha, weird right? But kinda
funny at the same time. They both used to be teachers as their
professions so I am sure they will make wonderful missionaries for the
Lord,
On Friday, we showed up to the home of one of the people we teach
named Ev. She was all in a frenzie trying to pack her little
apartment and we offered to help and she kept trying to decline but I
kept asking and finally asked if she had any trash bags so I could help
her and started going to work helping her throw stuff away. When we were
all done and had to go she greatly appreciated the help and thanked us
for it. Sometimes, it's good to be a little persistent with people
depending on the circumstance. Sometimes people don't want to admit that
they need help; actions do speak louder than words. Later that same
day, as we were tracting a street in Saranac Lake we came across these
two fellows chopping wood in their front yard for the winter. (People
use wood furnances up here and have stacks upon stacks of wood at the
side of their house, supposedly a cheaper way to heat the house than by
electric heat). Anyway, so they were about finished chopping wood when
of the them asks "can I help you?" We said yeah actually we are
missionaries.... and so the convo began and this guy was drilling us
with questions and Sister La was holding a Book of Mormon in her
hand and he asked her where it is that talks about where we go after
this life and she opened up to Alma 40:11-12 and he was like I love that
answer. His name is M, and turns out that he used to be a JW but
doesn't practice it anymore. We talked to him and the young guy who was
helping him cut wood for like 45 minutes outside and he told us he would
read the Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we left with
him. We are going to try to follow up with him sometime this week.
So those are the most prominent experiences of the week. Oh yeah, by
the way, we got transfer calls and Sister Lambert and I are staying in
Lake Placid. Turns out no sisters were moved because there were no
in-coming sisters this transfer. Which means Sister Ho (who I
trained in Bennington who is still there) has been in Bennington 9
months and is going on her 7th transfer there which means she will have
been there for ten and a half months! That is a new record, no one has
ever been in an area for that long before. Man I can't believe it's been
that long since I was in Bennington, wow time is going by sooooo fast!
Well that's about it for the week here in Lake Placid, it's been a
pretty good week. I know that this truly is the Lord's work and it is
truly a humbling blessing to be a part of bringing about His great and
eternal purposes "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of
man"-Moses 1:39. As Russel M. Nelson put it if anyone has any
spiritually probing questions or concerns "Ask the missionaries, they
can help you." =)
-Sister Gifford
p.s. epic fail on the pictures this week, sorry we were super busy.
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