I love Plainview. A lot.
(I didn't have enough time last week to send off the email I typed up,
so this first part is a recap of two weeks ago.)
We like to joke that we run on Kolob time here. I literally have no
idea how we fit so much into a single day. The Lord is truly blessing
us to help hasten His work in this area! But man, "Kolob time" is
exhausting! I'm loving every second of it though.
We started this past week with an exchange. I got to go back to South
Shore with Sister Passey and Sister Layton! Their other companion
Sister Moore came here to Plainview with Sister Blonquist. I got to
go with these sisters to teach a lesson to a deaf investigator as
well. It was so great! They taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I
was able to understand most of what was being signed. At the end, she
even accepted the invite to be baptized! It was great! It was really
fun to be back in SouthShore with Sister Passey again.
We also went on another exchange with the Riverhead Sisters. I stayed
in Plainview and Sister Guris came here. It went well. We went and
did a bunch of look ups with a member named Nina and then went and got
Coldstone ice cream after. :)
We also helped prepare a sister to go home a few days ago, so that
kept us busy for a bit. Today we had a party with about 8 of the
sisters where we made crepes for them. It was so much fun! I love
all of these sisters so much and am learning so much from them.
As far as Plainview goes, we managed to teach about 12 lessons this
past week among the many other happenings. This is a special area,
Heavenly Father really provides a way for all of his work to be
accomplished here.
This past week was super crazy as well!
We had two really big meetings. The first was Mega Zone Conference.
Sister Blonquist and I gave a workshop about following up with people
using the members. It was a really interesting topic President
Reynolds gave us, but it turned out working really well. We compared
it to the story of Naaman. We said that each of the people I that
story could relate to the different people involved in missionary
work. The little maid is the referral, the prophet is the Lord, the
servant that delivered the message is a missionary, and Naamans
friend/soldier is the member. Who made the difference for Naaman in
that story?? The soldier. He is the one who support Naaman enough to
make that decision. Overall we felt like the workshop was well
received and that it went very smoothly.
After MZC we had an exchange with the Patchogue sisters. I stayed in
Plainview with Sister Lewis. We went to dinner at a members house,
then ran to an appointment with Andrea. Andrea is in the YSA Ward and
is getting baptized on the 23rd. She is great! She taught us what
she understands about the Plan of Salvation and then we went over it
together. Andrea has changed so much to make this possible in her
life. She is such an amazing example of becoming a disciple.
On Thursday we put a lot of time into trying to serve some of our
members. There is one member named Lani (she is from Samoa, the only
Polynesian I have met in NY so far. She is soooo awesome!) who is
always doing a million things for the branch and yet she doesn't have
a ton of close friends yet. She is seriously the most selfless person
I have ever met! We have felt for a while that she needed someone to
do something for her and show their gratitude. So we decide to treat
her to an adventure picnic. Lani loves hiking, but I have not seen
any places to hike, the closest thing was a paved walking path. We
found the address for the path and decided to just try it out. But!
As we pulled up to the address we realized that we were at an actual
hiking trail! Yay!! It was perfect. We went for a short hike and
ended back at the picnic table at the beginning for lunch. This was
the first real hike I have been on since I've been in NY, it was
beautiful! Sister Blonquist and I really needed the fresh air and
peaceful feeling that comes from being in nature. We got to talk a
lot of things out with Lani, but it really helped all three of us. :)
Later that night we made Teriyaki bowls for our correlation meeting.
We fed our branch mission leader Zach, (he is amazing! He is the best
Ward mission leader I have had my whole mission. He helps us so
much.) the senior couple here, the Bushmans, and the Elders. Then had
a miracle happen the evening! For some weird reason we decided to use
the restrooms that were on the other side of the building from where
we were, not the ones near us. As we came out of the restroom there
was a family there looking at the pictures of the missionaries serving
in that area...us. We started chatting with them and found out that
they were a family from Utah that came to visit their cousin. (who is
not a member) They were there showing Angela around the church.
After talking for a bit we were able to set up an appointment to help
Angela do some yard work this week. Her cousin told us she had been
trying to find a way to introduce the Gospel to her and then this
happened. It is amazing, the Lord is bringing people to us. We have
felt bad because we are so busy with so many things, but the Lord is
helping us reach our transfer goals even if it's not all planned out
by us. We are so grateful!
On Friday we had our Mission Leadership Council meeting. This meeting
is really cool! All of the Zone Leaders and STLs meet at the mission
office with President and the Assistants. The assistants gave some
great workshops about how to better council together to assist the
individuals needs. We learned a lot from that meeting and were able
to gain some great revelation for the Zone Training Meetings that will
be happening in the next 2 weeks. We have skyped all 3 sets of zone
leaders in our area and are trying to hurry and plan the workshops for
those meetings this week.
The last miracle of the week was just dropped into our hands... Zach,
our branch mission leader, told us on Thursday that his mom was
getting her endowments on Saturday. What! This is a lady that the
previous sisters were trying to help do this but were never able to.
We didn't even really do anything and yet they were inviting us to go
to the temple with them. We were not sure if we would be able to make
it with an exchange we had planned. But the Lord provided a way for
that as well and the exchange was moved. So we were able to be there
for sister Villaran on Saturday, it was amazing. Also! There was a
member at the temple with us as well, come to find out she had not
been to the temple in a long time either. So both of them count
towards our temple goal for the transfer! All we did was ask Zach to
tell his mom to invite some members to go with her to the temple.
Miracles!
The Elders were able to have a baptism on Sunday. It really reminded
me of the importance of the covenants we make with our Heavenly
Father. This is something we, His children, tend to forget and take
for granted. The things that He has asked us to do is really so
simple, it just requires our desire to be obedient. The talk
"Reflections on a Consecrated Life" comes to mind. Here is one of my
favorite quotes from it.
“Life offers you two precious gifts--one is time, the other freedom of
choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will. You are free
to exchange your allotment of time for thrills. You may trade it for
base desires. You may invest it in greed. …
“Yours is the freedom to choose. But these are no bargains, for in
them you find no lasting satisfaction.
“Every day, every hour, every minute of your span of mortal years must
sometime be accounted for. And it is in this life that you walk by
faith and prove yourself able to choose good over evil, right over
wrong, enduring happiness over mere amusement. And your eternal reward
will be according to your choosing."
I hope that everyone has an amazing week and will remember to "Choose
the Right!"
I love you all!
- Sister Beecher
Sisters crepe party!
(I didn't have enough time last week to send off the email I typed up,
so this first part is a recap of two weeks ago.)
We like to joke that we run on Kolob time here. I literally have no
idea how we fit so much into a single day. The Lord is truly blessing
us to help hasten His work in this area! But man, "Kolob time" is
exhausting! I'm loving every second of it though.
We started this past week with an exchange. I got to go back to South
Shore with Sister Passey and Sister Layton! Their other companion
Sister Moore came here to Plainview with Sister Blonquist. I got to
go with these sisters to teach a lesson to a deaf investigator as
well. It was so great! They taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I
was able to understand most of what was being signed. At the end, she
even accepted the invite to be baptized! It was great! It was really
fun to be back in SouthShore with Sister Passey again.
We also went on another exchange with the Riverhead Sisters. I stayed
in Plainview and Sister Guris came here. It went well. We went and
did a bunch of look ups with a member named Nina and then went and got
Coldstone ice cream after. :)
We also helped prepare a sister to go home a few days ago, so that
kept us busy for a bit. Today we had a party with about 8 of the
sisters where we made crepes for them. It was so much fun! I love
all of these sisters so much and am learning so much from them.
As far as Plainview goes, we managed to teach about 12 lessons this
past week among the many other happenings. This is a special area,
Heavenly Father really provides a way for all of his work to be
accomplished here.
This past week was super crazy as well!
We had two really big meetings. The first was Mega Zone Conference.
Sister Blonquist and I gave a workshop about following up with people
using the members. It was a really interesting topic President
Reynolds gave us, but it turned out working really well. We compared
it to the story of Naaman. We said that each of the people I that
story could relate to the different people involved in missionary
work. The little maid is the referral, the prophet is the Lord, the
servant that delivered the message is a missionary, and Naamans
friend/soldier is the member. Who made the difference for Naaman in
that story?? The soldier. He is the one who support Naaman enough to
make that decision. Overall we felt like the workshop was well
received and that it went very smoothly.
After MZC we had an exchange with the Patchogue sisters. I stayed in
Plainview with Sister Lewis. We went to dinner at a members house,
then ran to an appointment with Andrea. Andrea is in the YSA Ward and
is getting baptized on the 23rd. She is great! She taught us what
she understands about the Plan of Salvation and then we went over it
together. Andrea has changed so much to make this possible in her
life. She is such an amazing example of becoming a disciple.
On Thursday we put a lot of time into trying to serve some of our
members. There is one member named Lani (she is from Samoa, the only
Polynesian I have met in NY so far. She is soooo awesome!) who is
always doing a million things for the branch and yet she doesn't have
a ton of close friends yet. She is seriously the most selfless person
I have ever met! We have felt for a while that she needed someone to
do something for her and show their gratitude. So we decide to treat
her to an adventure picnic. Lani loves hiking, but I have not seen
any places to hike, the closest thing was a paved walking path. We
found the address for the path and decided to just try it out. But!
As we pulled up to the address we realized that we were at an actual
hiking trail! Yay!! It was perfect. We went for a short hike and
ended back at the picnic table at the beginning for lunch. This was
the first real hike I have been on since I've been in NY, it was
beautiful! Sister Blonquist and I really needed the fresh air and
peaceful feeling that comes from being in nature. We got to talk a
lot of things out with Lani, but it really helped all three of us. :)
Later that night we made Teriyaki bowls for our correlation meeting.
We fed our branch mission leader Zach, (he is amazing! He is the best
Ward mission leader I have had my whole mission. He helps us so
much.) the senior couple here, the Bushmans, and the Elders. Then had
a miracle happen the evening! For some weird reason we decided to use
the restrooms that were on the other side of the building from where
we were, not the ones near us. As we came out of the restroom there
was a family there looking at the pictures of the missionaries serving
in that area...us. We started chatting with them and found out that
they were a family from Utah that came to visit their cousin. (who is
not a member) They were there showing Angela around the church.
After talking for a bit we were able to set up an appointment to help
Angela do some yard work this week. Her cousin told us she had been
trying to find a way to introduce the Gospel to her and then this
happened. It is amazing, the Lord is bringing people to us. We have
felt bad because we are so busy with so many things, but the Lord is
helping us reach our transfer goals even if it's not all planned out
by us. We are so grateful!
On Friday we had our Mission Leadership Council meeting. This meeting
is really cool! All of the Zone Leaders and STLs meet at the mission
office with President and the Assistants. The assistants gave some
great workshops about how to better council together to assist the
individuals needs. We learned a lot from that meeting and were able
to gain some great revelation for the Zone Training Meetings that will
be happening in the next 2 weeks. We have skyped all 3 sets of zone
leaders in our area and are trying to hurry and plan the workshops for
those meetings this week.
The last miracle of the week was just dropped into our hands... Zach,
our branch mission leader, told us on Thursday that his mom was
getting her endowments on Saturday. What! This is a lady that the
previous sisters were trying to help do this but were never able to.
We didn't even really do anything and yet they were inviting us to go
to the temple with them. We were not sure if we would be able to make
it with an exchange we had planned. But the Lord provided a way for
that as well and the exchange was moved. So we were able to be there
for sister Villaran on Saturday, it was amazing. Also! There was a
member at the temple with us as well, come to find out she had not
been to the temple in a long time either. So both of them count
towards our temple goal for the transfer! All we did was ask Zach to
tell his mom to invite some members to go with her to the temple.
Miracles!
The Elders were able to have a baptism on Sunday. It really reminded
me of the importance of the covenants we make with our Heavenly
Father. This is something we, His children, tend to forget and take
for granted. The things that He has asked us to do is really so
simple, it just requires our desire to be obedient. The talk
"Reflections on a Consecrated Life" comes to mind. Here is one of my
favorite quotes from it.
“Life offers you two precious gifts--one is time, the other freedom of
choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will. You are free
to exchange your allotment of time for thrills. You may trade it for
base desires. You may invest it in greed. …
“Yours is the freedom to choose. But these are no bargains, for in
them you find no lasting satisfaction.
“Every day, every hour, every minute of your span of mortal years must
sometime be accounted for. And it is in this life that you walk by
faith and prove yourself able to choose good over evil, right over
wrong, enduring happiness over mere amusement. And your eternal reward
will be according to your choosing."
I hope that everyone has an amazing week and will remember to "Choose
the Right!"
I love you all!
- Sister Beecher
Sisters crepe party!
No comments:
Post a Comment