Week 5 - New York: The Adventure Begins!

I miss you all but Christmas was fabulous. Elder Bednar was our sacrament meeting speaker on Christmas!  I hear that most of his talk has been previously published (just not as tailored to missionaries); Google "the character of Christ" by him—it was really good. :) We had a yummy dinner and a nativity program and watched A Christmas Carol and a fireside and sang carols and opened presents, but the highlight for me was definitely that sacrament meeting. First of all, it is just cool when 2061 missionaries get together in one place for any reason, let alone to worship and renew covenants. Second, Elder Bednar rocks. (Are we allowed to have favorites? Because he is mine, followed closely by Elder Holland.) I will probably eventually forget everything that was said in that meeting, but I will never forget the way I felt when that man bore his testimony. He is a prophet of God, called to help lead the true and living Church on the Earth today. As he bore his witness of Christ, I felt so much joy, peace, and love. My companion and I talked about it later and could only describe it as too much happiness to fit inside of us. The true gospel brings joy that I have never comprehended except through it. That's why I'm here!

"Here" is now New York.  We flew in yesterday and went straight to the mission home. President and his wife are AWESOME. Yummy lasagna dinner, an orientation meeting with papers to sign etc., and a late interview in my pajamas before bed. This morning we ate some cereal and yogurt and were off to see some Church history sites. We started off in the Sacred Grove, then to the Joseph Smith home, then the Hill Cumorah. I got to stand where prophets, angels, and God Himself stood, all before noon. It was really awesome.

Me with President and Sister Christianson

Moroni statue at Hill Cumorah

In the Sacred Grove, we had some time to ourselves. Our President Christianson wanted us to pray and to decide "what kind of missionary we want to be." I thought I would start reading in JS-H, since I was at the place Joseph describes there. I had an "aha" moment when I got to verse 20. Joseph is commenting on the opposition he had throughout his life, and attributes it to the fact that the adversary knew that "I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom." THAT is the kind of missionary I want to be. I want to be so obedient, so hard-working, so full of the Spirit that from the time my feet hit the floor every morning at 6:30 AM until 10:30 at night at bedtime, I am annoying and disturbing the work of our common enemy. I want to be on the offense in the battle we are fighting with sin and darkness. I believe that there was a talk given on "being a disturber" in the YW general session five or six years ago, and I like that idea. :)

Another cool experience: we got to have a testimony meeting in the Joseph Smith home, in the very room that Joseph was visited by the angel Moroni for the first time. It was very powerful. The restoration was important because it restored necessary truths, but to me it was most important because of the restoration of priesthood keys. Covenants can be made and ordinances performed because this power of God is on the Earth. Miracles happen. To me, the greatest and most important miracle is that of revelation. The priesthood enables us to have a living prophet on the Earth who communicates with the Lord in behalf of the Church. We receive many blessings and warnings through him. The very best part of revelations though is that we don't need to rely 100% on the prophet to speak to God for us. It is important that we sustain and follow him, but it is also important that we develop our own relationship with our loving Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Through the whisperings of the Spirit (usually through our thoughts and feelings), we can receive direct answers to our prayers if we are listening and if we are inviting that Spirit into our lives through righteous living (continual repentance). What a blessing.

Next we went to transfer meeting, where I met my new companion. Sister Chatterton is awesome and so sweet. I was a little bit nervous about who my trainer would be, but she is very nice and a good, obedient missionary. We will get along great! :D I'm in the Webster zone, Rochester area (I think my terminology is right there). We are living in Irondequoit (sp?) with the sisters there. Sister Cox will be in my apartment with me, along with her new comp, Sis. Wall. She and Sis. Chatterton were comps the last two transfers, so this will be fun. :) We went to Delicious Doughnuts for lunch, and I had my first experience with New York pizza—delicious. :) 

My trainer, Sister Chatterton

My p-day I guess is Monday, but apparently the library was closed yesterday due to Christmas so here I am. Let's see what else... oh we are right along the bay of Lake Ontario, so we will be crossing it most days. I have a dinner appointment already for tonight, which should be fun... I feel a little bit like so far we have been on vacation since everything has been planned out for us, so I'm excited to go out and be a missionary!

Well, I guess that is about it for now. because I am running out of time. Thanks again for all you do! You are in my prayers.  I will update you again on Monday!

With love,

Sister Schank

Week 4 - Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I love you all! It has only been a couple of days since my last email home but wow a LOT has happened! We started visitors center training on Wednesday. SO cool. (All my VC training has been awesome. I have been going around all week saying that everything "rocks") :) I feel very blessed to be one of the 600 missionaries worldwide who work in the Lord's visitors centers. It is such a great experience to touch the hearts of so many. As part of our training, we went up to Temple Square last night to do splits. It was awesome! I spent most of my time at the foot of the Christus ramp in the North VC, talking to people about Christ while the recording was playing upstairs. What a great experience!

Part of our training also included working in the referral center a couple of days ago. Basically as VC missionaries we have some time to open an online chat room between a companionship and a person who wants to chat through mormon.org. Sister Brown and I spent maybe half and hour chatting with a woman named Kathie. She wants to join the church with her two sons! We got her hooked up with a local chapel and some missionaries to teach her. The best part is that I still get to work with her, even though she has now been referred to the local missionaries in Florida. I am contacting her again next week to set up a time to talk about the Atonement, at her request. It is amazing to me how many people there really are who are "kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." The gospel provides so much hope! I love it. :) It is really great how quickly the Church is jumping on board with technology. Kathie is now in my online area book. It is looking like in the not-too-distant future, missionaries are going to go paperless! I will continue to have a hard copy area book for people I contact in NY, but referrals and online contacts get put in online now. Super cool. Even with chatting, there were technologies being used by the Church that I have never seen before! It's amazing what we can do.

Quick Christmas thought. We had L. Whitney Clayton (in a 70 Presidency) and his wife come talk to us for our Tuesday devotional this week. One of the things he talked about really hit me. You may remember that last week, Kenny talked about how missionaries today are like the angel in Luke 2, testifying of Christ and inviting others to come and see. (You can keep up with Kenny's mission experiences on elderschank.blogspot.com) I love that the angel told the shepherds "unto YOU is born this day a Savior." When I read "you" in the scriptures, I often like to substitute my name. Christ was born to be MY Savior. He was born to save President Monson, and Sister Cox, and the woman on the square who told me that Joseph Smith was a con man last night, and every investigator I will ever meet. And you. He knows us and sacrificed for us on a very personal level. I love MY Savior. At this Christmastime, I hope that each of us are coming to know and be more like our Savior. We can do this as we develop charity, the pure love of Christ. I have especially loved 1 Jn 3:1-3 this week, which talks a little bit about becoming like the Savior through His love.

Well, my time is up today. Next time I'll be sending from New York! I love you all! Merry Christmas. <3

Sister Schank

Alma 7:7,10

Week 3 - Great week :)

Wow, it has been a big week. My three-week Preach My Gospel training is officially over, and all the elders in our district are already serving in the field (Washington D.C. and San Diego). We only have a few more days here to to Visitors' Center training and we are off as well! I never thought I'd say this, but the time has really flown. I miss our elders already; I learned so much from them! But I am excited for this week. As part of our Visitors' Center training, we get to go to Temple Square twice in the next week. It is going to be awesome! I am so excited to go out and share the good news with "real" people. We have been taught that one of our best tools in missionary work is our personalities. Sometimes when we get nervous, it gets easy to start acting like a robot... Boring! But I like talking to people, especially about things that I am excited about. I can't think of any news more exciting than the idea that God's true church as Christ himself organized it has been restored to the Earth through living prophets, can you?! But somehow, it is a lot easier sometimes to tell people about your new favorite restaurant than about the gospel. I got some good advice this week to help me not be nervous when I'm sharing this message though. It was simply to pretend like everyone is your best friend. Don't wait to know everything about them, just decide to like them immediately and that you can talk to them about anything, especially something that will help them. It really helps me to loosen up a little bit around strangers. We'll see how it goes once I actually will need to talk to strangers everywhere I go, but from what I can tell it's a brilliant outlook to have. :)

So... the SECOND most exciting thing on my mind this week is Christmas. Who doesn't love Christmas? It is a great way to start a gospel-centered discussion. I almost wish I were already in the field just so I could talk to people about Jesus Christ while they already have Him in their minds and hearts at this time of year. I would like to challenge each of you who read this to talk to your friends about Christmas, and in the conversation to focus on inviting your friend to come closer to Christ. (That is the official purpose of missionaries of the LDS church: to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel".) It doesn't really matter if your friend is a member of this church, another church, or no church at all, if you are inviting others to Christ, you are doing missionary work and you are serving the Lord. I know that if you do this with even one of your friends in this week leading up to Christmas, you will have an extra-special spirit of Christmas with you this year, "for the spirit of Christmas is the spirit of Christ," as President Uchtdorf said in his address at the First Presidency Christmas Devotional this year.

Speaking of Christmas, I will miss you all, but I am SUPER psyched to spend Christmas in the MTC. I am already starting to receive cards and packages, thank you to those who are sending me mail (I never realized how much missionaries LOVE mail!). I know I am not being forgotten this holiday season, and I am really excited to be able to spend this Christmas thinking about and serving others. There isn't a whole lot I can do to serve while I'm at the MTC but I know there will be other missionaries I can cheer up and love. I am especially excited to have a Christmas so focused on Christ. I feel very blessed to be able to celebrate the birth of our Savior in a place where he is learned about and taught about ALL THE TIME. I honestly can't think of another place on Earth where so many people have sacrificed so much and worked so hard to devote their lives to His work. So I fully expect Christmas to be awesome. I hear that general authorities usually visit for Christmas, and I have heard rumors that whoever it is this year is going to be exciting, but I guess I will have to update you from New York on that.

Speaking of which, the MTC has awesome speakers all the time! This last Tuesday, we had a devotional given by Sister Dalton. Yeah, be jealous; she rocks. I love her! We have a speaker like that twice a week and it is such a blessing.

I only have three minutes left, but I do get another p-day this week on Friday because we are doing visitors' center training so the schedule is different. Really quickly, I wanted to share my little miracle of the week. I believe I have shared a little bit about Lawanna in the past. Well we taught her for the last time this week. We spent a lot of time preparing, trying to fit her needs. After the lesson, she told us that although we had addressed the needs of the investigator she was playing really well, our topic, discussion, and invitations also perfectly fit her needs as a member. Something awful had recently happened to a friend, and she had to learn to forgive, and we had been teaching about how the Atonement can help us forgive, even though that's not on the "checklist" of things we have to teach. I felt really blessed to know that the Spirit had been able to work through my companionship to teach this amazing woman.

Gotta run. I love you all! Write you soon. :)

Sister Schank

Week 2 - Lessons learned

Halfway through the MTC! It's so hard to believe that in two weeks from today, I'll be in NY! The MTC is awesome; I always go to bed exhausted but I am learning so much. One thing we are all really learning is how to teach by the Spirit. It is more than living worthily (although that is very important), we have to be super conscious all the time to listen for the Spirit and speak the truth so it can testify but not get in it's way once it is present. Especially as a female tripanionship, we are all trying super hard not to be too talkative. We also are finding out the importance of being as prepared as possible, but being open to the Spirit to say the things we need to say and to address the investigator's concerns using doctrine (hopefully the doctrine we prepared). We currently have I think 6 investigators, and we teach up to four of them in one day. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of who has done what and which lesson each one needs, but we are trying to stay organized and record as much as we can. It is amazing how much I love my investigators, even though most of them are either our teachers or another missionary acting as a nonmember. Their investigator profiles have become very real to me as I think about and pray for them so often.

It is pretty awesome how much we pray here. I remember going to mission prep about a month or two ago and dad (who teaches a mission prep class in our stake) asked how many times a day missionaries pray. I think I said probably like 12. That sounded like a lot back then! Truthfully it is more like three times that number. Every day we are learning that even when we do our best, we can do nothing without Heavenly Father's help and without the Spirit (but there is so much we can do WITH that help.) We pray for strength, for investigators' needs, for our companions, for charity, for meals, for our families, for class, to invite the Spirit...I have honestly prayed just because it has been 45 minutes or an hour since my last prayer and I could feel a difference. Prayer works. I know Heavenly Father knows our needs and that he hears and answers our prayers--- often through feelings or thoughts , through the scriptures, and through others.

Something cool this week: we had our first relief society meeting at the MTC since last week was fast Sunday (which means mission conference). For relief socity, all of the sisters in the whole MTC (a few hundred I'd guess) gather together in the auditorium and we listen to a speaker. This week it was Ann M. Dibb (she is Pres. Monson's daughter and I believe is a counselor in the general YW presidency). After the meeting, we got to meet her! We talked a little bit about our mission experience and all got hugs. :) It was a cool experience. She talked a lot about her dad and also about her life. She has an awesome attitude and it was really inspiring.

Sacrament meeting is also always awesome. I have been conducting the congregational hymns since my companion got called as music coordinator for the branch. We really need the pick-me-up that comes from renewing our covenants with the Lord each week. That is a big reason that p-days are so awesome: we get to go to the temple! We spent a good three hours in the temple today and it was really wonderful. Sadly, it is our last time to be able to attend here in Provo, since the temple is being closed for cleaning on Saturday for the rest of the year.

Speaking of temples, I am so excited! Since we are going to be working in visitors' centers in our mission, we get a week of extra training. This includes a day where we take a field trip up to temple square in Salt Lake City and work with the sisters there for the afternoon! It will be so great, especially right before Christmas with all of the lights and just the Christmas spirit everyone has. My two roommates that are not in my companionship will actually have just left for the Temple Square mission before our trip, so maybe we will get to see them too, which would be nice.

I am really excited to spend Christmas in the MTC. I hear a lot of good things. It will be weird not to be with family but I hear that celebrating the holiday here really helps you to focus on Christ, which I think will be a great experience.

I don't have a whole ton of computer time left so I will just end with some additional things I have learned or had reaffirmed to me this week:

-Pray for charity. Everyone around you is going through something and your life will be enriched as you love and help them.

-Act excited about the gospel! Does it really make you happy? Then show it in your face and in your voice! People will be interested if you make it interesting, and bored if you act nervous about sharing this joyous news.

-Many things in this life are really hard, but worth it. This week, these things include running, keeping mission rules, and preparing to teach.

-Never ignore a generous prompting. Compliment people. Smile at them. Do something nice for them. Focusing on others will make your problems seem small.

-Think about Christ often. We promise when we are baptized and every week when we take the sacrament to "always remember Him." The promise to always have to Spirit to be with us in return is huge. And we are happier when we remember and apply the Atonement daily.

-Prayer works. I know that I have made it this far in the MTC because of the prayers of friends, family, and members around the world who pray for the missionaries. We need your strength and faith, and we can feel it.

With love,

Sister Schank

Moroni 8:3

First Week---MTC

Hi everyone! The MTC is AWESOME. Crazy, but wonderful. I do miss the family and everyone else but we hardly have any time to ourselves to think and I am working hard at forgetting myself and my problems and focusing on others. The best thing about the MTC is everyone else here. EVERYONE here is temple-worthy and has the same goal: to bring others closer to Christ. It is really humbling to look around and see all of the sacrifices that have been made for people to come here.

I have two companions, which can be difficult at times but such a blessing. Sister Brown is from Highland and was in my student ward a year ago. Sister Cox is from Sacramento. I love both of them to death. They are both hard workers and very funny, which is really helpful with all of the stress we missionaries are undergoing. We do have personality differences we need to overcome, but we have been very good about communicating our problems before they get big and are currently focusing on really listening to each other and the Spirit. It has been a huge learning experience. There are 3 bunk beds in our room, which means we share with one other companionship. Sister Lake and Sister Rodriguez are going to the Salt Lake Temple Square mission, and they are wonderful. They have only been here 2 weeks longer than us, but they are very encouraging and have acted as mentors to us new sisters.

My district is amazing. We have our companionship and then 7 elders split into 3 companionships. At first I saw these elders as little 19-year-old boys, but they really are called of God and I learn from them every day. They are starting to be like family. We sit in the same classroom together for 1-3 hours of personal study, 6 hours of class, plus district meeting and companion study EVERY day. We also usually spend meals and gym time at least in the same area, and we go to church and the temple together. So it's a good thing we like each other. :)

Today is my p-day which means we got to go to the temple this morning. It was much needed. There is a lot of stress that comes just from living with new people and being in a new place, let alone all of the things we have to learn and lessons we have to teach and prepare. Don't get me wrong, we all love it, but sometimes it is really hard not to feel inadequate or get frustrated or tired. The temple really provided some much-needed perspective and calm. It was so good to go with my companions and my district. It's always nice to see people we love in the temple! The Provo temple is beautiful, too.

We are currently teaching three investigators. Two of them are just our teachers posing as people they know. One is someone we've never met. I am also acting as an investigator for some elders in our district to practice on. Even though I know that some of my investigators aren't "real," we work so hard to have the spirit with us as we teach and we love them as if we were really teaching them these things for the first time. Mike knows a ton about the gospel, but doesn't understand why it's important so we are trying to help him internalize and apply it. Victor knows pretty much nothing about religion, so it has been interesting trying to strat from square one with him. Lawanna has had a really hard life but is full of energy and actually called us out the other day for telling her that the gospel makes us happy but acting nervous rather than excited about teaching her about the truth. We have a lot to learn from our investigators as well as our teachers!

On that topic, our teachers are great but they really push us. We actually taught a brick on the wall about the first lesson last Saturday night (not as a teaching people exercise, but a learning-the-doctrine exercise). It was actually really hard! But I learned a lot. Our teachers so obviously love the gospel and they Lord and that comes across as they teach.

I got some really great pictures of my companions and our district, but the computers here aren't allowing permissions to download my pictures so I will try to figure that out and get them to you next week. If not, I will just print some out and write a letter.

90 seconds left... food is great, Spirit is strong, I miss and love you but I'm doing fine. The gospel is true! Thanks for all you do. I really need and feel your prayers. Missionaries are totally targeted by the adversaries, but we know that members and family are praying for us.

Gotta go! <3