This has been a particularly busy week. Many cases of stomach virus and colds with all of the ramifications: sore throats, coughs, ear pain, etc. The cold virus that is going around seems to be particularly bad for lingering coughs and body aches. Not as bad as the influenza but close in some cases.
Monday morning on my walk through a park, I had a friend who followed me for a way running in and out through the daffodils. He was about to run up to me but some passers-by scared him away. I think people must feed the squirrels. He was on his way to me for a handout.
Monday evening I went to Far Rockaway to a farewell dinner for Elder and Sister Lilly. Their mission is over and they have left. We had Thai food and I was bad and forgot to take pictures. They are the best genealogy missionaries!! They taught many people in our mission and also in the North mission how to find family names to take to the temple. They taught the missionaries how to help their investigators and converts how to find names. They will be missed as missionaries but more as best of friends!!
Tuesday I had lunch with some great sisters and then more who came to my home while their companions were at the temple. I fed them dinner and thoroughly enjoyed my day.
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| Sisters Figaro and Krause |
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| I had a call so the sisters walked ahead. They went down a driveway to
jump out a scare me. I saw them do that so I foiled their attempt |
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| Pork gyro. The sisters had never had baklava so I was duty bound to educate them |
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| I provided blankets so the sisters waiting for their companions could keep warm in "Sister Petersen's ice castle" |
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| Sisters Nelson, Reeve, Valverde, Lyu, Spackman, Taylor |
Wednesday I went to Manhattan with some missionaries to an appointment.
Thursday I had a late lunch with two elders at The Cheesecake Factory. I always forget how HUGE the "skinnylicious" salads are.
Friday I served dinner to the sister training leaders and the sisters they exchanged with.
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| Had a surprise visit from a former missionary, Oakley Patterson |
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| Sisters Bush, Pew, Gourley, Eckhardt |
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| Dinner with Sisters Bush, Pew, Eckhardt, Steninger |
Because of the nature of my calling as nurse, I don't have many stories of converts and teaching the Gospel. I receive copies of weekly letters from a few of the missionaries. I thought I would like to share one with you. I received permission Sister Fitt but first I would like to tell you about her. She was called to teach Korean speaking people. The Korean area of Queens is in Flushing. I have known Sister Fitt her entire mission. She has taught me a lot about Korean food and introduced me to The French Workshop Bakery and the "Duke." She will be going home this Wednesday. She is half Korean. Her mother is Korean and her father served a mission to Korea.
The Korean pool is small because Korean people are reluctant to listen to the missionaries. When a new Korean speaking missionary comes to the mission, in order to place them in the Korean speaking area, an older Korean speaking missionary often has to leave Flushing and go to an English speaking assignment. This is what happened to Sister Fitt.
Now her letter:
Today is my departing temple trip and my departing interview so it will be a pretty big day. We get the opportunity to go to the temple with our Mission President and His wife. I have officially served an 18 month mission yesterday! I am so grateful to have some "bonus" days until I return home next week.
So when you think that your mission doesn't get much better....it somehow does.
Last Friday we had interviews with President Reynolds. At the end of my interview President looked at me and said, "Sister Fitt...you have 1 week left. Go find one more family to teach." I loved that he said that and somehow knew that we could. I really believed that in my last week Heavenly Father would continue to show His hand in the work and that we would find the prepared people. But something happened that exceeded any faith that I thought I even had...
Friday night we were on exchanges with Sister McDowell and Sister Spencer. We had a lesson planned for 6:30pm at the Huntington Library(about a 30min drive) so we last-minute decided to move up our dinner time from 4:30-5:30 so that we would have plenty of time to get there just in case we hit traffic. Sister Spencer and I had arrived early and wanted to do street contacting until our lesson. We walked down the Main Street and were talking to people. The weather has been so incredibly nice that I was wearing a lighter jacket than I have for the past few months. After talking to a few people I realized all our pass-along cards with our name and number were in the car. We had to run back to where we parked to get more cards. As we are walking I see this man. He is outside a dry cleaning shop with his son. Because we were in a rush to get the cards we almost walked past him...but something stopped me. I turned to him and introduced myself. He was Asian but I couldn't tell if he was Korean or Chinese. I asked and when he said Korean, of course I got excited. I started speaking to him...and I am not going to lie I thought, by the look on his face, that he was just going to say he goes to another church and that he wasn't interested, (like most Koreans we talk to) but I couldn't have been more wrong. He smiled and the first question he asked was where our church was. In awe and excitement I explained that we have a Korean Branch in Flushing and an English Branch here in Plainview. I asked him if he would be interested in learning and he said he wanted to talk to his wife. He invites us into the Dry cleaning shop where we met his wife, Jessica. Expecting her to be more fluent in Korean, like her husband, I excitedly introduced Sister Spencer and me in Korean. Shocked at the fact that I could speak Korean she stopped everything she was doing to talk to us. She has grown up in America so she was naturally more comfortable in English and she was very interested in learning. The more we talked the more excited she got.
She explained that she has two kids, a daughter in middle school and a son about to go into middle school. They were never raised up with any sort of religious background. She says she knows that there is a God and that she wants her children to know it to in order to grow up and have more of a purpose. She literally said she had been having this on her mind for the past few days and that it was almost like fate that we had shown up at her dry cleaning shop. She said it felt like it was meant to be. She said she wants her whole family to start going to church and getting closer to God and each other.
Holding back tears of joy and excitement I testified of my own family and how because of this gospel, we have been able to grow closer to each other. I told her that because my parents always put the Lord as their priority in everything we did as a family we were blessed to find the happiness God wants for all his children. She and her husband looked at each other and smiled. You could see it in their eyes how bad they wanted this. We closed with a prayer, in Korean, and they thanked us for coming by. We have a return appointment this Friday and she said she would love to make this weekly and then asked if she would be able to join us for church sometime. :)
Walking out of the shop I was overcome with emotion. I turned to Sister Spencer and just cried...tears of joy. I hit exactly 18 months of my mission yesterday and it was always a dream of mine to be able to not only find prepared Korean people, but a Korean Family!! Not serving in Flushing I didn't think that I would ever be able to do it. Heavenly Father truly does bless us in the most unexpected, extraordinary ways. I am so grateful that I was able to meet this Korean family out here in Plainview. Heavenly Father really knows what he is doing...he really has a plan for us. I now know why I needed to be in Plainview for my last transfer. I love this Gospel and I am so grateful for the countless miracles I have seen each and every day of my mission.
Marko-This was also a huge moment where we saw how Heavenly Father really does love all his children. We were knocking a neighborhood to find people that were interested and there was a man sitting on his staircase outside and when we walked up to his house, he stood up to go inside in order to avoid talking to us. We called after him and asked him if we could talk for a second.
He turned to us with tears in his eyes and sat on the staircase and started crying. He explained to us that a few seconds before he had received a phone call with some of the worst news and that all he wanted to do was cry. He was without a job now. We listened to him because it was clear he needed someone to just listen to his problems. We stood there and tried to comfort him and asked if we could pray with him. He has such a pure heart but is just in a really bad place in life at this moment. He talked to us about his life and how many mistakes that he has made and that he wishes he could just start over. We reassured him that he could.
We testified that he could start over and have a clean slate through and only through Jesus Christ. We explained to him how the Book of Mormon truly brings the peace that we look for because we can get to know our Savior. We shared with him a verse and he cried even more. He said that he felt like God was more real than ever before because at the very moment that he needed strength the most, we walked up to his house to comfort him. We agreed to meet again...but before we had a chance to text him, we received a text from him saying,
"Hi sisters. It's Marko from yesterday. I want to thank the both of you for being there for me yesterday. Gods light shined so brightly through both of you that it brought me to tears. I believe he put you there at that exact moment because he knew that I was truly in need and I am truly grateful that we got to pray together.
I'm doing my best to get through these obstacles life has thrown my way. I did what you recommended and called out to Jesus in prayer and felt presence in my heart. I don't know what plans he has for my life but what you said about starting over with a clean slate sounded very comforting to me. I'm just tired and heartbroken and my tears yesterday meant more than the bad news. It was very comforting to have met you. Thank you!"
The next day...
"I've been reading the literature you left me with. I feel as if I'm labeled as "unworthy" in the eyes of your congregation. I have many bad labels but I'm only as innocent as the cards I was dealt. I'm sorry if I don't fit your mission. But I do want you to know that I am ever so grateful that you were there to share my grief yesterday. I'm certain everything will work out for me though I feel downtrodden so did Jesus. It was so nice to be reminded that Jesus isn't mad at me and is there to rejuvenate my strength. I guess all I can do is pray and hope....
I am honored that you would invite me to church and every inkling in my body is telling me to go and I want to go but I feel as if it's too soon to partake in the congregation partly because it's a little scary and I'm also a little insecure. Perhaps we can meet for a service in a week from Sunday so I can further study and better acclimate myself. Washington Ave in Plainview is very close to my house, so I'm all for it, but I'm not ready due to my apprehension.
From what I've read on the Church of LDS I found it very fascinating on how structured and disciplined your organization is. I became fond of the words of wisdom in the standards of worthiness. Please be patient with me because I feel like I won't fit in. My apprehension is primarily feeling like an outcast because I don't know what to wear and it's too sudden. I can pray on it and give you a sure answer tomorrow."
Thank you for your kind diligence, I will pray tonight so that I may have more clarity and security. I'll text you tomorrow. And thank you for responding. Enjoy the rest of your night - Marko."
The day after that....
"I prayed this afternoon for Christ to give me clarity and take away any insecurities and apprehension I may have had about attending church on Sunday; and I prayed for guidance and now I know my true path is to follow in his footsteps. I feel 100% confident and I'm actually looking forward to attending church on Sunday.
I believe that your timing on Tuesday was a sign of divine intervention and I can't ignore it, the timing was too perfect. While I prayed I felt the dark illusions of insecurity and apprehension leave my body. When I closed my eyes it was cloudy all morning and about 15 minutes later the sun was breaking through the clouds and about a dozen finches were singing around the bird feeder.
All of yesterday and this morning I couldn't shake off the anxiety, then when I prayed it all disappeared and I felt all my depression fade away. My apprehension turned to confidence and I feel happy right now and the only way I can explain this happiness is that I was invited to church by you both and I'm happy about attending. I'm dropping off my suit at the cleaners :)
Thank you both for this new chance at life... "
And he came to church:) Everyone loved him! He got a haircut, wore a suit, and looked like a whole new person. He stayed for all 3 hours, participated, and seemed to enjoy every second, The members came up to us and told us this is the most prepared investigator they had ever met. After church he went around to everyone and thanked them for being so welcoming and said "See ya next week!" to literally everyone. He even signed up to bring something for our "munch and mingle"! After church he said he loved it and said, "I want to be a member of this church. I haven't felt so good in my whole life."
And THEN....
We had a lesson with him last night and he had read the whole Restoration Pamphlet, researched our church online, and expressed his desire to give up all his bad habits in life and become more like Christ. We set a baptismal date with him for March 18. After we talked about baptism...he smiled and said, "I am a little ahead of the game...I had secretly hoped you would ask me that because I want to do everything I can to prepare myself to be baptized and feel the Spirit more abundantly....like I did at church."
He might be the most PREPARED guy I have met on my mission. So grateful that we were AGAIN in the right place at the right time.
And last but not least- Hannah!
Also on exchanges Sister Snow and I met this girl named Hannah who had previously met with missionaries in France. She use to have a baptismal date but never chose to be baptized because she wasn't quite ready to give up the lifestyle she was living. She seemed very much like a free spirit but she agreed to meet with us.
On Sunday night we met up for the second time and she said that ever since I told her on the street, "Hey God must be trying to show you a sign...meeting missionaries in 2011 in France and then again here. Maybe you should take this chance to try learning more about it!" that my words were ringing in her head. She felt like that was true and that she needed to come and try again because she feels ready to commit to the things she remembered learning about.
We taught her about the Book of Mormon and as we kept talking she expressed her desire to be baptized and get work off to come to church. She still is friends with her previous missionaries and we were able to get in contact with them to let them hear of the good news! Just like I have seen throughout my mission. NO EFFORT IS EVER WASTED:) Sometimes it just takes the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th try....or even more. Heavenly Father truly guides us to his prepared children!
I so enjoy hearing the stories and experiences of the missionaries. I ask them often about what they are doing and who they are teaching. It builds my testimony and I love to feel the spirit that comes with them.
I love the Lord. I love my mission. I love studying the scriptures and learning about the things the Lord would have me do. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way!
I love you my family and friends.
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| I've thought a lot about the people of New York. Most of the time it
seems they are "cold" or they have that "don't bother me" attitude but I have found that many times if I say "hello" or a greeting of some kind, I get a smile or a verbal response back. In my walks in the mornings I always try to present a cheerful greeting. A few blocks from my apartment was a grocery store. Sister Prince introduced me to it because it is within walking distance if you don't have too much to carry home. It was the Silver Barn. (It has always looked red to me!) About 6 months ago it was renamed the Village Barn. Then a month or so ago I noticed it was closed but that there was something going on in there. This week one of the bay doors was open. I stopped to look in and saw it had been gutted and is now being refurbished. I thought I'd take a picture to send to Sister Prince. This man came out and informed me I needed a better subject than an empty building. Quite the jokester. I am finding more and more that New Yorkers are just like everyone else if they have the chance. |
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| I was shopping at Stop & Shop this week. I saw these poblano peppers
and decided it was a taste of home. I bought some and made Chili Verde for dinner on Sunday |
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