July 21
So I'm not so sure what to write since it's been... three days? This will probably be boring. And by that I mean even more boring than my emails generally are. This morning we had our interviews with the president. President and Sister Christianson are incredible. I love and am so grateful for them. I mean, this is a guy who is a dear friend of Elder Holland, so meeting with him always inspires me so much. I want to be as familiar with the scriptures as he is someday. We asked him how we as a companionship can be bolder and he shared some powerful scriptures on the atonement with us, because when you understand the atonement you will always be bold. So that is what we will be studying for a long time. Probably my life. We both kind of failed at boldness this week haha. But we want to change and we will! He also talked about the importance of pondering what I learn in my morning study all throughout the day and that that is what helps him avoid temptation more than anything else, and it will really help me focus. Sometimes when I'm sitting I realize that I have literally been thinking about absolutely nothing for the past ten minutes and I don't like that.
These past few days have been really good. Every day it's been a whole new appreciation for getting to serve in this mission at this time with these people and meeting all the people I have met. Also, I am grateful for pageant because we received 9 referrals for our area and we will go visit them tomorrow! {We've been at the sites all week, so we couldn't go before}
Mom, a while ago you asked about eating at members houses. Yes, we eat there. We would eat with them more, but we are in our site area so much that we aren't usually available. But generally it will be about 3-4 times a week. I love our ward. There are such good people here that take care of us. A huge population of the ward are converts and my favorite thing is to hear their conversion stories. A couple I took on tour this week said their son served in Pittsford {my area} 15 years ago, and asked how the branch was now. I was so excited to tell them that it is now a ward! And Fairport where we live has a strong ward too, which used to be combined with his little branch! It has grown so much in 15 years. yea!
That's all for this week, but I will send pictures! It's worth a thousand words! I love you all. Hope the travels finish up well. Love, Sister A
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| Sister McKenna with an awesome couple in our ward The Cordon's who were in pageant |
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| Hill Cumorah pageant |
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| The cute family and I! Oh, I love them. A, Nicki, Tyler, James |
Prep day will come on Thursday, but we were supposed to email last week, but literally we had no time to even eat lunch and dinner so the emailing went by the wayside. {not sure if that word is even applicable here, but it sounded good}
Yes, it's true. Pageant is over, and we are a little bit in a daze as to how to get back on schedule. It was an incredible experience! We got to contact all the people coming in before pageant and got a lot of self referrals for recieving a DVD on The Plan of Happiness. There were three from our area, which we will make it over to later this week. Yea! It was like seeing miracle after miracle. So we loved it, but our bodies couldn't handle it much longer. Getting home at midnight is way too late for a missionary. And we got very grumpy on Thursday to the delight of all the people that came through the Joseph Smith Farm and asked the same question that had been asked 400 times to us already. Charming we were.
We spent the first week living in Fayette, which was incredibly fun, but not super productive since we weren't in our area at all. Also, we found out the water well {it's out in the middle of nowhere} had high ecoli the second day we were there, which helped explain why all of us had really bad stomach aches. It was funny. and I saw FIREFLIES! Which is a dream come true, because I have always, always wanted to see them.
I saw lots and lots of people I know this week. That was fun! Nicki, Tyler & James{who is the most delicious chubby baby boy ever}, Karen G, Donna, pato, friends from my DC singles ward, a friend from BYUI and two missionaries that served with Liz Lovell{The jessies and Kimbal?} and an Elder in my mission, Elder Halbert knows Tyler Lovell. And a family from Theron and kim's ward. And...lots of other great people I love. Kristi - your package was adorable. Thank you!!! The food came at a very needed time and sister McKenna has greatly enjoyed the gluten free stuff. I loved the letter as well! I will respond as soon as I get a real prep day.
The highlights were taking two of our investigators to pageant and seeing them understand the importance of the Book of Mormon for the first time and realize that it does testify of Jesus Christ. It was incredible. My heart was so happy. What a powerful experience! I thought about them when we did sealings in the temple and I thought that I can't even imagine the joy I would feel if I got to see them in there one day.
The other highlight was having Elder Costa of the presidency of the seventy come to our sacrament meeting and then talk to all of the missionaries. We needed it so much. It lifted us to believe in our mission. He made us an incredible promise. He said, "If you follow the vision of your mission president, a miracle will happen here - conversion like you've never seen it before. Things that have never happened in the history of the church." I want that, so I want to do everything in my part to make it happen. The first step to operating miracles is to believe they can happen, and I am bad at that. I want to be 'realistic' too much so I don't disappointed, but miracles are realistic. They happen all the time.
Finally, I had a super awesome realization this week. When I was little I always wanted to serve a mission in Israel, because it's where Jesus lived and walked. I was convinced if I served a mission it would open up before I went. But when we were driving home from Palmyra the other day I realized that where I am serving comes closest to that. Jesus Christ was here, and so was God the Father along with Moroni, mormon, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young {Mendon, where he lived, is in my area} and so many others. Wow, I am so grateful to be here!
I love you all so much, and hope vacations were safe and fun.
love,
Sister A
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