Hello everyone! Another great week being a missionary, as Sister B says, and another great week to be serving the Lord!
1. Well, transfers are tomorrow. So let me just tell you the drama that has happened. Are you curious? You should be! So we were getting worried and I could not stand the suspense all day on Saturday (we get transfer calls Sat night). And I was really trying to focus but I did not want to leave this area and I didn't want Sister B to leave.
So finally at 9:40 ish we called our district leader (he was supposed to tell us at 9) and Sister B asked him if he knew anything. He said he still hadn't received the call. This transfer was already getting crazy because President had been calling Sister Mamon and Sister T a lot over the past two days and he finally told them he was transferring both of them and closing down that area for sisters. Crazy stuff.
So we were getting all worried and then Elder Selander finally calls and said "Have any guesses?" and we said, "No! Just tell us!" And he said, "Okay fine, you're both staying." Whew! I was so relieved. The next day at Stake Conference I saw President and just smiled and said, "Thanks" and he said, "Oh, no problem."
But no, the story isn't over. Yesterday we were walking from an appointment and I checked the phone and realized we had a voicemail from Elder Selander that said, "Hey sisters, we've had some changes with transfers so if you could give me a call back that would be great." Sister B said I had the biggest "deer in the headlights" look she'd seen and I was having a panic attack and Sister B was laughing......which is how she said she acts when she's nervous but I think she really was just hoping I'd leave jk :) So as I'm trying not to throw up, Sister B calls Elder Selander back and puts him on speaker phone. And he asks if we got the message and Sister B says yes and asks him what happened, and he says "Well......I'm just kidding!" I was SO mad at him! I love this area and I love my companion so I did NOT want to leave and out of the two of us it was more likely to be me. Whew. So the end of the story is that we are NOT leaving and we have another beautiful 6 weeks together! And we will now be the only sisters in this zone.......which is weird and strange cause it's the only zone like that in the mission. Fun times!
2. As you can see from the pictures I emailed, we were part of a CBS filming this week for the show "The Good Wife". Okay, so when I say "part of" I mean that they filmed right next to our apartment. :) I have never even heard of the show but apparently it's on primetime and they filmed right where the cops picked up that body a few weeks ago that I told you about. So we assume they were filming some murder scene or some secret drop off. It was funny cause we walked by all their trailers and everything and this guy that looked WAY too nice for the area passed by us and he looked familiar and I said to Sister B, "Do we know him?" And she said, "Uh yeah, he's famous! I think he's one of the main characters of the show." I've never seen the show so I'm assuming he's been in other things too. If we weren't missionaries I would have struck up some cool conversation with him, but alas I only gave him a prayer in my heart that he would hear about the gospel.
No parking due to filming!
Here's the scene they were filming....as close as we could get!
3. Sister B was trying to show me these hand signs to remember the 10 commandments. And when she put up her index finger she said, "Only 1 other God before me." And I said, "Uh, it's NO other Gods before me." We laughed for a long time and I kept telling her all my different choices of what my 1 other God would be. Haha gotta love the 10 commandments.
4. The other day we received a phone call from someone asking about English class and we could not hear them because their accent was weird and there was a lot of background noise. So we kept passing the phone back and forth and taking turns trying to understand them and answer their questions. When we hung up we high-fived and I thought, "Now that is companion unity."
5. This story is not for those with heart problems. From the pictures you can tell I have what Sister B calls "Hobo socks". I made them from the socks I already had and I'll tell you why. The other day I was walking and my feet were really hurting and when we got home I mentioned, "Man, my feet hurt really bad today." So Sister B looks at my feet and they're cracked and bleeding. She thought it was so horrible and is now my personal foot nurse. She makes me soak my feet every night in hot hot hot water for a long time and then I have to scrub them with one of those stone things we bought, and then I have to use some exfoliate on them, and them I have to put Vaseline on them and put socks over them while I sleep. But I feel claustrophobic that way so I had to cut the toes off of my socks. But, I am happy to report that my feet are doing a lot better :)
Feet on the mend! Hobo socks!
6. The other night we were walking and I saw my first literal cat fight. They were screaming and clawing each other and were straight up wrestling. It got so bad that we started to back away from them and go the other way. The white cat won and the gray cat ran for his life. And we were a little scared of the white cat, not gonna lie. Then a few minutes later we went to go look up a referral and the street turned into a park, but it was late and pitch-black so I was scared to go in it. But I didn't want to lose the referral so we decided to just go through the park and pray the whole way. As we entered there was a sign that said, "Exiting Safety Zone" and I thought that was pretty funny. But by the end of the walk I was terrified and I made Sister B tell me stories to keep me distracted. We got out just fine but I will NEVER go there again at night. But, in the guidance of my mother I did not break any rules so I was protected :)
7. We hadn't been getting fed very much here so Sister B in her ingeniousness suggested we put pictures of ourselves on the sign-up sheet and hopefully more people would feed us. Success! Last week we had a dinner appointment every day :)
We eat a variety of different colored carrots here!
8. Stake conference was awesome! We had it yesterday and Elder Eyring from the seventy came and spoke to us. President and Sister Nelson spoke as well and I learned a lot of things from everyone that spoke. It was held in the gym and it got so full that the missionaries all had to stand up in the back for the whole session. It's awesome how quick this area is growing! (FYI all of Queens makes up 1 stake and all of Brooklyn makes up another. That's nothing compared to the 4 stakes in little Vancouver alone!)
9. Rosa is this amazing woman that we met in English class and we LOVE her. She is from Mexico and has a 16 month old son and her husband works in Manhattan as a bus boy. The first time we went over was about a week ago and we talked about the Restoration and used a lot of things that Preach My Gospel teaches, including starting out the first lesson with something like this (I can't remember it word for word in English):
"As you accept our message, you will learn to make covenants, or promises, with God. You will learn how to make changes that will make your life more in harmony with His teachings. You will feel the desire to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and be baptized by the proper authority"
She was really receptive during that first lesson and we really felt the spirit and knew that she was someone that had been prepared by the Lord. I'm so thankful for Preach My Gospel and, more importantly, the Spirit! We went back and taught her with a member this last Saturday and talked about the Book of Mormon and the importance of it in our lives and Kenia, the member, did an AMAZING job. At the end we invited her to be baptized on the 21st of Noviembre and she accepted! I am so happy for her and the changes she is making in her life and how happy she is as she feels the spirit when she reads the Book of Mormon and prays!
10. My favorite gospel topic is the atonement. Sister B and I have both been studying it a lot lately and we had 3 specific experiences testifying of it this last week. We've talked about whether or not it would be appropriate to share them, and I definitely don't want to break any confidentiality, but we feel your testimonies could really be strengthened from these experiences so I will share them. All the names have been changed and I've tried to make the background information as broad as possible.
A. We met with Scott this week and we could just tell from his countenance that something had changed. We didn't want to come out and say it because we knew he'd close up so we asked him how he was doing and started talking. He finally admitted he wasn't doing well and that he didn't feel he could really change. He said he had done so many bad things and he didn't think he could really move on from them and become a better person. He looked hopeless and in despair. I felt the Spirit so strong in that moment as we testified to him that it is never too late to change and that there is nothing that the Savior cannot heal. We talked about how the atonement does not just mean that we try and bandage things up as best we can and live with it. It means being new, fresh, and whole. We don't have to live with the regrets of the past. We can be fully reborn and restored through the atonement of Jesus Christ. When we finished he said he felt like some weight had been lifted off his shoulders and Sister B told him that that was the miracle of the atonement and helped him recognize that the Savior was already helping him. It takes little by little and it's a process, but it is so true. The next day he told us that he was going to keep the Word of Wisdom. Miracles do happen.
B. The Smith family is amazing. We met with them and the husband told us that he had been in the armed forces and had done things that were unforgivable but that he was only going to church to support his family. His wife has a strong testimony and their children are great. He told us that he had done horrible things and that he knew that eternity for him with his family was not available for him anymore but that he would support them. His openness with us was surprising and we could see that his wife was hurting. I felt the Spirit so strong and in a moment that I know was completely through the Spirit, because I never could have done this on my own, I responded to this grown man something like this, "Don't you dare say that it's too late. It is never too late to repent. Your family can be eternal, you can be together forever. The Savior's atonement is infinite and there is nothing that He cannot take upon Him. When He atoned for your sins, He paid the price for anything that you could ever do wrong or ever will do wrong. You can't give up on this beautiful family you have, it is not all over." Sister B also testified of the reality and great expanse of the atonement and how it had changed her personally. The power of the Lord was strong in this home and we could see through her tears that his wife was being comforted by the Spirit. Here is a woman that is doing everything she can to raise her family in righteousness and her husband is being swallowed up by guilt, doubt, and despair. We feel so much of the Savior's love for them, I cannot even comprehend how much more He loves them than what we felt. We called him last night to make an appointment with them and he said they hadn't been able to go to stake conference because their family was sick, which his wife had told us the day before. He asked me how stake conference was and I said great. But he didn't stop at that. He asked me to tell him who spoke and exactly what they said. Then when we asked if we could meet them next weekend he asked if we could come over sooner, like today. So we're going over tonight and I can tell already that he has more hope than the last time we saw him. Heavenly Father loves every one of His children, no matter what they've done. And the atonement covers everything, from those that have sinned to those that have been hurt by the sins of others.
C. Sandra is one of my favorite people. The other night we were talking to her and she broke down and told us how she's feeling. Her husband left her for another woman, which happens in every family here it seems, and even though they're divorced and he has a girlfriend he still comes to see the kids and will sleep over on the couch often. She said it breaks her heart because she wanted a temple marriage so bad and now she's worried about raising her children without a father and she wants them all to be righteous. Sister B and I love her so much and I could really feel it as we told her that what happened was not her fault and that it did not diminish her value in Heavenly Father's eyes. That not only did Heavenly Father love her, but that He had many blessings in store for her as she continued faithful. This poor woman who had had her heart broken and her self-esteem ripped to shreds was not doomed to this situation forever. We testified that the atonement of Jesus Christ can heal every pain and that not only can we move on, we can be happier than we ever have been before. That even though she was affected by the agency of another, despite her efforts to live righteously, she was precious in the eyes of her Eternal Father and that we had sent His Son for this purpose, for moments like the one she was now going through. That she was of value, eternal value, and that her children would be blessed as she continued to teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. She has such faith and the Lord truly is doing miracles in her life. We talked with her yesterday and she shared a scripture she liked and explained how she was trying to forgive her ex-husband and feel that Christ-like love for him.
The atonement is not something we just talk about it, it is something that is affecting the lives of people everywhere today. It is drying tears, healing hearts, cleansing sins, and lifting spirits. I testify that Christ lives and that He did atone for us because He loves us.
Have a great week and remember to include Christ in it.
Love the mish. Be the mish.
Hermana Winfield
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