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.
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.
