Week 22

Whew, it has been a crazy week. First of all, I have been pretty sick. Dizzy, tired, and chest pains, mostly.

I had an appointment on Friday and Saturday went to the hospital for some blood work and a chest x-ray. The results should be back by tomorrow, so hopefully by next week's email I will be diagnosed and treated. :) Pray for me, and don't worry too much. I got a blessing Friday and I am already starting to feel better.

Our ward also had a baptism this week :) Not my investigator, but still exciting. I love baptisms :) There is something really special when someone is willing to make covenants with God.

We also got a few visits from Salt Lake this week. We had a couple of training meetings with Mark Lusvardi, who trains site sisters all over the world. I learned a lot of good things about loving the people we teach, even if we only get to see them for a few minutes. We also got to attend a training meeting held by Brother Russell T. Osguthorpe, the General Sunday School President, about teaching in wards and families. He is a really cool man and I loved the training.

I really need to run but I love you all! Thanks <3

Week 21

Not a whole ton to report on this week. The sites are picking up a TON... we have five shifts this week! It has been a little bit of a rough transition from proselyting almost full-time, but I love the sites as well. Our investigators have been really hard to get in touch with lately, so most of our time has been spent with less-actives or recent converts. I really have grown to love some of these people. Tonight, we are teaching Leah and Sarah. Sarah is 10 and got baptized last December. Leah is her mom, she was less-active before missionaries started teaching Sarah. I LOVE them. We always feel the Spirit so strongly when we teach in their home. They have sincere desires to be ever better. They have been feeding us a lot lately despite their crazy schedules, so we are bringing them dinner tonight :) Just chili and cornbread, but I am excited about it. :)

Thank you all for your prayers. I need and feel them. Sister Aiello is rapidly progressing, but we both still need all the help we can get from the Lord!

Favorite scripture of the week: Words of Mormon 1:7. Particularly the second half of the verse. Totally captures how I feel this week.

"And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me.  And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will."

Gotta run, but I love you all!

Love,

Sister Schank

Week 20 - Happy Easter Everyone!!!

My Easter was great. We had lunch and an egg hunt at a member's house, and then dinner at another member's house. One teaching appointment and a quick visit, and the rest of the day was church and studies. Church was excellent, and I was spoiled rotten with candy from members and roommates. Speaking of Easter, have you all heard of mormon.org/easter? It was supposed to have something like 15 million hits this weekend... just a place for people to post their testimonies of Jesus Christ. It's so cool to see how many people participated. I posted mine on Friday :)

Other happy news: we have a new investigator who we are teaching the first lesson tonight! Pray for us :) She is a member referral, which is LEGIT! They are coming tonight, it's going to be awesome. I hope. She's 83 years old and totally interested. Yay :)

We have been seeing a lot of miracles this week. We are spending 5 hours/day doing our studies (because of training and language and site stuff), and we're working at the sites about 4 days/week now, so we have VERY limited proselyting time. But we are getting appointments and finding people we are interested somehow. The Lord knows we are doing what we can. :)

Speaking of which, Sis Aiello is doing great. There are still a lot of things to learn, but she is picking up in English especially very quickly. We pretty much always can understand each other, and she is getting better at communicating with others at a rapid pace. She is already getting comfortable with some of the tours we give. Again, miracles!

Something I've been thinking a lot about recently is grace. Probably in part because of Easter, and also because I just need it more recently as a trainer. In the Bible Dictionary, it talks about how the grace of Jesus Christ gives us strength to do good works we would otherwise be unable to do. Of course, this covers the redemptive power of the Atonement--- it is by grace that we can repent and each be resurrected. But grace is also a principle that can give us strength to stand, rather than only to pick us up when we fall. I am so grateful for the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ that can be applied to my life each day because of His sacrifice. Because of it, I can do and be a little bit better each day. I still have a LOT to work on, and so do all of us, but we can all do it because of Jesus Christ.

That is pretty much my week! Thanks for the letters, I'll try to get back asap. I love you all!! Have a happy and safe week.

Love,

Sister Schank

Week 19

Well, it's been quite a week. Here's a brief overview of some things that happened:

-FHE at the Grandin Building: last Monday was the 182nd anniversary of the publication of the very first Book of Mormon. To celebrate, they had a mission-wide family night at the Grandin. There were like 500 people there; it was crazy (not a very big building). The senior couples all dressed up as people who played a role back in 1830, and people were able to go through and take tours where the senior missionaries recited parts in their role. I was asked to prepare one musical number and ended up having to sing for like 30 minutes... almost lost my voice. It was a good experience though. :)

-Grove tour: This morning, Bob (the man who takes care of the sacred grove) took the 4 of us in my apartment on a 3 1/2 hour tour of the sacred grove. he taught us all about the different kind of trees, and who owned what land, and the history of the grove. So cool! I love the sacred grove and feel so lucky to be able to be there so often. :)

-Training updates: Sis Aiello is learning very quickly. Miraculously so. And I am learning a lot as well. The language barrier is still hard for both of us, since missionaries have a lot more to learn than just the language, and it's frustrating sometimes, but we are both doing fairly well.

-Site shifts: We have been working at the sites 4 days a week now. Sis Aiello is learning the tours very quickly, and we are really enjoying it, especially now that it is spring break season and we have more guests :)

-General conference: AWESOME. We missed Sat afternoon because we were working a visitors center shift, but we will catch up. LOVED the talk on sacrifice by I think Elder Oaks (end of Sat morning session), and quite a few others.

-Proselyting time: Dwindling now that we are at the sites so often. Our investigators have been gone a lot, our appointments keep getting put off, and still we are very busy just because our time is so limited. I actually miss tracting, believe it or not.

Well, as always, the time goes too fast, so I think that will have to be it for this week.

Sister Schank