Week 10 - Temple, the race, and talking to people :S

This week has been awesome. The highlight was Friday/Saturday. We worked at the Smith Farm Friday afternoon (probably my favorite site thus far), then got to go to the Palmyra temple for a session that night! It is beautiful. There is one clear window just past the reception desk that looks out on the Sacred Grove. It was dark when we finished the session, so it was hard to see, but I really like the idea that the place where God communes with men today looks out on the place where He appeared to a boy for the first time in this dispensation. The temple is wonderful, you can't help leaving with a broadened perspective and a feeling of peace. We spent the night at the "white house" that night because our ward had a shift in the bishop's storehouse in nearby Canandaigua Saturday morning. The white house is a sister missionary residence. There are only 4 sisters who live there right now, but during pageant week the beds, couches, and floors are filled with sisters because it is very close to the sites. It's a cute old house just down the road from the temple. Joseph Smith helped to build it, which is pretty cool.  I had never filled orders at the storehouse before, but it was a lot of fun and a good way to get to know some ward members and their friends. We left the service project early to get some pros/teaching time in, but stopped by another ward activity that night. It was a ward-wide pinewood derby, for adults and children both. We didn't want to spend the whole time away from proselyting, so we scheduled a teaching appointment right in the middle, but we were there long enough at the beginning to register a car (the "Mormon Missionary Mobile") and at the end to see it race. We won the "lemon award" for the slowest car (we had spent like 15 minutes decorating it and putting it together while watching "the district" during training time), but felt successful because of the people we were able to contact while we were there.

President is adamant that we don't have "greenies," because he wants us all feeling like "real missionaries." It's getting to be the end of my first transfer, and even though I hit the ground running, I am very grateful to be seeing some improvements in my missionary skills (slowly, but surely). It's been a blessing to have our areas combined these past couple of weeks, because we are teaching a whole lot more. I am getting more comfortable with all of the lessons (not just the first lesson), and I'm doing better at teaching effectively from the scriptures. That is a skill that I thought I had before the mission, but that really needed some fine-tuning. I'm still not perfect at it, but it's really great when you can use the scriptures to teach a principle more clearly than you could do on your own. The other skill I was surprised to find I am lacking in is simply talking to people. I don't know why, but for some reason it is really hard to just walk up to a stranger and start a conversation. We are expected to do that every day. In fact, the mission goal for this year is for every companionship to talk to 10 people (outside of our normal teaching appointments) every day. At first, that sounded like an awful lot. It still feels like a lot some of the time. But as we are showing our faith and trying to talk to people wherever we are (and especially to actually teach them something), God is providing people to talk to. I can't say I've never let an opportunity pass me by, but I am getting better at it. Slowly. For those of you who are thinking about serving a mission in the future, I would highly suggest you start developing this skill as soon as possible. It's a really important one, and it takes some time. But there really are people all around us who are searching for the truth, but are kept from it because "they know not where to find it".

That is about it for this week I guess. Gear up for next week, and the news about this Saturday's baptism! One more thing I would include... I never realized until recently how much responsibility each of us has to share the gospel. I always thought my patriarchal blessing never talked about a mission, but every one of us who has one has our lineage declared. That means we are included in the Abrahamic Covenant, which has EVERYTHING to do with spreading the gospel! And with the blessings we receive when we do so. Re-read the conference talk on covenants with that in mind, it's pretty awesome.

Okay it's really time to go!

Sister Schank

Here is a picture of me and Sister Chatterton in the Sacred Grove.  Even in the winter it is beautiful!










Me, Sister Wall and Sister Chatterton showing of our Missionary Mormon Mobile and our lemon award.

Week 9

Hello family! This week has been super crazy. I think I told you last week that Sister Cox had to go home for medical reasons. I miss her a lot; she is really great and now that she is gone we are REALLY busy. The two areas that make up the Rochester 1st ward are combined now, and this happened to be the week that the other area really took off. We now have two investigators (mom and her 9-year-old son) with baptismal dates for Feb 4th. We still have like 6 lessons we need to tech them before then, but they are doing really well so far. They had been attending a different ward with her sister (who is a member), but they came to our ward for the first time this week and they are really taking off. Their names are Mislourde (sp? ...it's French) and Cedric Jean.

Then we have Corky (middle-aged mom) and Jeremy (son in his 30s). We took them to tour the sites this week (the Grandin Building, lovingly known by the sisters as the BOMPS for Book of Mormon Printing Site, and part of the Joseph Smith Farm/sacred grove). They loved it! Tina (used-to-be biker gang woman, baptized this past Christmas eve) was AWESOME and came with us. She totally talked about all the ways the church has blessed her life and why she got baptized. I was brave and invited them to be baptized... there is still a barrier there for Corky but Jeremy said he feels like he'd have to if he gets an answer that the Book of Mormon is true. VERY cool experience.

We also have a woman named Delores (she was a referral). She is looking for peace and trying to figure out how to forgive her father for some things he'd done. We've only met with her once, but it's going well so far. We have also taught Dale only once so far... he was tracted into but is the father of a less-active in our ward. He mostly just wants to feel the Spirit in his life and to understand what it means that he is a child of God. He doesn't have the vocabulary to know that's what he wants yet, but that's exactly what he described.

We are also still working with Laurel, the LA that is quitting smoking. She's doing really great, but didn't make it to church yesterday :/ Still waiting to find out what's up.

Today we are going to the museum of play, and Friday night we are going to the temple (a once-in-a-tranfer opportunity)!!! Super excited. I'll be sure to update you on that next week. The pic this week is me at the Hill Cumorah. In my sleeping bag coat :) It's warmer this week, but the wind still gets very cold.

The Hill Cumorah in winter

I think that's about it for this week. I am always praying harder, but I am feeling the Lord's blessings every day. We record daily miracles in our planners, and sometimes it is hard to pick from all the ones we have received! It's cool. I would encourage all of you to look for daily miracles in your lives... I know we will find the Lord's hand when we look for it.

I love you all! Have a fabulous week!

Love,

Sister Schank

Week 8

So. This was a pretty interesting week. Remember what I said about the nice weather here? No more. We had a huge blizzard on Friday--- feet of snow. We had planned on door contacting for three hours that afternoon, but luckily President was at our apartment for something that morning and he banned us from leaving the apartment until it let up. The roads (and temperature) were too dangerous. Since then, we have had a couple of pretty cold days. We tried to leave a note for an investigator the other night and had to use a pencil because the ink in our pens had frozen. (Don't worry, my coat is very warm and I have new mittens and scarves as well as new snow boots. I'm doing okay.) It's warmer now and a lot has melted, but it was just a little reminder that yes, this is winter in NY. Our heater has apparently also been broken... we woke up yesterday and our living room was 58 degrees. I'm pretty sure my bedroom was colder. But, all fixed :) I studied this morning without my coat on.

I worked the Book of Mormon printing site for the first time this week. No one showed up for a tour, but it was still cool to see it and get behind the scenes. 

President showed up again yesterday because my roommate (Sister Cox--- she was one of my companions at the MTC) has had some health problems. We thought she was going to be fine, but found out shortly after that she is getting sent home this week! It turns out that she has a medical condition that she has dealt with for years, but that hasn't flared up since she was a teenager. The medication she needs to control it isn't allowed on the mission, so she can't stay for her personal health. So sad! It was devestating news to the whole apartment. I am really going to miss her, and she is a fabulous missionary. I am really greatful to have learned from her, and I know she is going to do a lot of good no matter where she ends up.

This leaves the rest of our apartment in a precarious position right now. Sister Wall (Sis. Cox's companion) is with her at the missionhome righ now, so we are trying to cover their appointments as well as our own. Once Sister Cox leaves, we don't know if they are going to pull another missionary from somewhere else, or just combine our areas and make us a trio, or what. Transfers are in three weeks, so whatever it is will be temporary until we get new missionaries, but it is going to be an interesting three weeks. It has been interesting to see God's hand in all of this, though. It is becoming apparent that He knew what was going to happen because both Sister Wall and Chatterton are familiar with both areas and our schedules are working out.

Some exciting news: we've been working with a less-active woman named Laurel lately. She has a really strong testimony but has health problems as well as some word of wisdom issues, so we have been working with her to help her get to her goal of the temple. She decided to quit smoking this week! She's doing great so far and we are really proud of her. :) She is such a humble woman, I really love her.  Here I am helping her flush her cigarettes.

Also, we went out last week to contact some potential investigators. Two of them lived in the same apartment complex, but both had moved. One of the new residents invited us in and we had a good chat and gave him a Book of Mormon. The other, we had woken up, but we testifies and left him with our card. We also decided to tract their buildings, and placed a couple more BoMs and pamphlets, a lot of cards, and had a good discussion with a man who was just visiting. The best part is that Dominic (the man we had woken up) texted us and said he'd like to learn more! He has a crazy schedule and we've had a hard time communicating with him, but hopefully things there will turn out well. :)

Well, I gotta run for this week, but the gospel is true! I love the Book of Mormon because through it, we can really come to know not just about Christ, but of Him. We can develop a relationship with Him and become more like Him. I'm so excited and blessed to be serving the Lord! I love you all.

<3/ Sister Schank

Week 7 - Sick week

So, this week has been interesting. Kind of a rough one, to be honest. It started with a few sick days (Sister Chatterton had the flu, so I by extension stayed home Sunday-Wednesday), and even after we were able to get out into our area, we had a few days that just felt altogether unsuccessful. It's not so much that we were getting rejected... more that people weren't even opening their doors. So frustrating! We actually started bearing our testimonies to people's front doors. (We are not going crazy, probably. We just needed to be uplifted, and what better way than bearing testimony?)
In some ways, this week has been a blessing though. We have redoubled our faith, our efforts, and our prayers. We are starting to get appointments to teach lessons this week! We still don't even technically have a progressing investigator, but it feels like the area is making progress. We got my first referral this week, and even though she wasn't interested, it felt like the Lord was providing :) I know that no matter how my area is progressing, I am making progress as a missionary. The Lord is teaching me faith and patience. I am seeing the small miracles in my life every day. I have had to decide again that I would serve Him however He asks--- whether that includes a lot of baptizing or a lot of door contacting. He knows what He is doing.

Another blessing of our "sick week" was that Sister Chatterton and I memorized the Living Christ this week. We started Tuesday and finished this morning. I am not generally very good at memorizing, but I love this document. My testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ has really grown as I have done this, and Preach My Gospel teaches that as our testimony of Christ and the Atonement grow, so will our desire to share what we know. And it's true!

The Living Christ

XOXO,

Sister Schank

Week 6 - First week in the field!

Hello family and friends! Happy new year! (Can you believe it's 2012?!) I miss you all but I am absolutely loving it here. So just to give you a little bit of an idea, my schedule is generally like this: up at 6:30, exercise, shower, eat, be ready for the day by 8. We have an hour of personal study, two hours of companion study (for the first two transfers while I'm training, after that it will be one hour), and an hour of site study to prepare us for giving tours at historical sites (we usually bump this to the evening because it is very dark and cold by 8:00 at night). Then we fill most days with proselyting. We are doing a lot of "finding," i.e. door contacting... which is a nice way of saying that we don't have a lot of investigators to teach in the area right now, but we WILL, we just need to find the people to teach. :) The area we proselyte in and the area we live in were combined the last few transfers, so now that it has been split again and a few recent baptisms later... it's time to increase our teaching pool. But the Lord is giving us many miracles! We are trying to follow the Spirit and are in the right places at the right times.

We are supposed to be back in our apartments by 9 PM (9:30) if we are in an appointment. Other than that, we have site meeting one evening a week, plus district meeting on weeks that we don't have zone conference or something like that. We usually have dinner at a member's house 3 or 4 nights a week, which is nice. We get to work at the sites about a half day a week, and do online chat for an hour once or twice a week. We live about an hour away from Palmyra, but even with the distance almost all of the sisters have a pretty equal amount of site time each week. There will be more site and less proselyting time once everything thaws out and pageant season starts up, but we are loving both sites and proselyting.

Saturday was my first site shift at the Joseph Smith Farm. This includes the welcome center there, the log home (where the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and told him about the gold plates), the cooper shop (one of the places Joseph hid the plates), the threshing barn, and the frame home. The property also includes the Sacred Grove and is overlooked by the Palmyra temple. What a blessing to walk where God, angels, and ancient and modern prophets have stood, and to testify of them! Tours are great. Each one is different, adjusted to the needs of the people who come. Most visitors are members, and we try to get them to share their testimonies of the things we testify of along the way. It is such an edifying experience. :) I am starting to learn the facts and I don't by any means know everything, but I was able to lead a tour by the end of the day, with Sister Chatterton filling in the technical gaps and her testimony of the things we talked about. (Usually only one missionary will take a tour instead of a companionship, especially in the summer when it gets busy, so I'm preparing and training to be able to do it on my own.)

Quick thought for the week: The scriptures are awesome. Especially the Book of Mormon. Because the priesthood has been restored to the earth, we are able to receive personal revelation through the Book of Mormon. It is "living scripture," and because of this we can receive answers to any questions we may have. There are so many other blessings we can also get from consistent reading of the scriptures. I highly recommend "The Power of Scripture" from Elder Scott this past conference for a good starting point.  Consider reading it and listing all of the blessings he promises. It is amazing. We are seeing a less-active member starting on her way to a temple recommend right now, and she is gaining power by starting with the scriptures. It really does bless our lives every day.

To answer questions, we have been blessed with an extremely mild winter (it's been in the 50s multiple times this past week), although the last couple of days have been cold with wind and snow. My companion has had the flu this weekend but she is starting to feel better and we should be ready to go by tomorrow. Sister Chatterton is awesome, I love her a lot and she is exactly what I needed in a trainer. The Lord is awesome like that. :)

Time for me to go. I love you all, and wish you the best at the start of the new year! You are in my prayers every day.

With love,

Sister Schank

Here  is a link to Elder Scott's talk.