Well surprise, surprise. Preparation day has come two days early {kind of} we won't have p-day for a few weeks, and today's we just get an email time because we worked at the farm. The pageant starts this FRIDAY!!!!!! yea! yea! yea! So we will be living down in Fayette with the sisters there for five days, because 1/2 of our pageant assignment will be working at the Peter Whitmer Farm. The other half next week will be at the Joseph Smith Farm and we'll just live at our normal apartment in Pittsford then.
In case you can't tell, I'm really excited. It's probably unhealthy. Also unhealthy is that ice cream I ate last night in celebration of the 4th. yum.
Anyway, this week has been so busy at the sites that we were only able to see a few friends. Last week when we visited them we were a little discouraged afterward, because she spoke so much that there was literally no way talk at all. But this time was really interesting because we had been praying about a way to reach them, and when we went over she said "He told me I didn't let you girls speak at all last time, and I have felt so bad about that all week. I've been thinking about you." So God answers prayers! We are taking them to the pageant and they will be coming to the farm tomorrow to hear the restoration.
We worked at the Peter Whitmer Farm yesterday, and Sister McKenna had an interesting experience. She sang "Praise to the Man" in the Whitmer cabin and one of the families on the tour {there were 2} said, "we're not members of your church, so we aren't going to sing." She was surprised because she had thought they were the whole time. As soon as the other family left he said he said "that song is blasphemy and it made me cringe to hear you sing it."
It turns out the family that stayed are here for two weeks for pageant. Which translated into - they are spending their family vacation protesting the pageant. This is pretty common. Anti's will come a few weeks before pageant, take tours and then when they get the missionary alone try to rip them apart. Sister McKenna said as soon as the man opened his mouth to talk the spirit immediately left and it felt so dark. In fact, it was so confusing to her that it wasn't until after they left that she realized they had been antis. There were some great miracles that happened with this though. She had the feeling to just keep testifying. She didn't cry or get mad, she just told them that she knew the Book of Mormon was the word of God and that the church was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. At one point while she was stuck in the cabin with them, Elder Toronto {the senior couple with us that day} came out to check on her because he felt strange. But when he opened the door he felt he should leave her there to testify. So she continued to. Whenever they would come back to retort she couldn't remember at all what they were saying. She was so guarded by the spirit that nothing they said even registered. After she had testified over and over, it was getting to a bad point when the older man was very angry. For some reason she just couldn't get out of there, so she prayed to heavenly father that he would help her and almost immediately Elder Toronto came over again and said, "sister McKenna I am going to need you inside." She gave the woman a hug and walked away with him.
More than anything she said it strengthened her testimony because the spirit was there when she testified and the room felt so dark whenever he said anything. It was a testimony that nothing he said was true. At the same time, we all feel that maybe out of the four there was someone in that group that needed to hear her testimony. It was cool. I'm sure there will be more moments like this the next week as pageant starts.
Transfers happened this week, which meant Sister carver our cute roommate left :( She is so fun and very obedient so we were sad to see her go, but the cool thing about this mission is that you see the sisters quite a bit unless they are full proselyting. {and there are only 4} Sister Gines new companion is Sister Sultanian, who is from Jordan.
Mom, I don't know if you got that picture from the Strongs {the one with me and the mom and their son who they just picked up from his mission} but they know uncle bob. He worked with the dad in the hospital. They were a really nice family.
That was the week. Hope the reunion was fun fun! I thought of you when I heard the fireworks last night. Love you all lots and lots!
Message received from the Strongs, 4 July: Just chillin with your daughter at the Farm! She has a great spirit and testimony!! Beautiful daughter of God!!!
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