Family!! It has been a really great week. Sister McManama is AWESOME and we have been blessed with a lot of work to keep us busy! My health is doing pretty good, I've been off meds recently because my stomach is behaving itself most of the time, and I'm mostly over the coughing, just some annoying sniffles left. I guess the best way to summarize the last week would be to talk about each of the people we've worked with and how they're doing. Whirlwind version:
Patrick and Melissa- unmarried couple, walked into church a few weeks ago (with a coworker whose daughter is a member of the Young Single Adult ward). Have now come to 3 sacrament meetings in a row and they brought his kids (Aiden-8, Isabelle-10) yesterday. We asked last week if they wanted to learn more and they said YES but that they were really busy this last week. We are teaching their whole family tonight!! They don't live in our boundaries, so still trying to figure out if we can keep teaching them or if the stake president will make them move to the Buffalo ward. Neither of us have ever taught a whole family before on my mission, and we are so excited.
Scott- Believe it or not, he actually also walked into church the same day as Patrick and Melissa. And he also lives in Buffalo ward's boundaries :( We've taught him 3 times now and he is AWESOME. He has a lot of knowledge but is working on building his faith. He actually walked in because he wants to make things right with a new member in Rochester stake he has wronged. The Spirit is so strong when we teach him, and he has a lot of questions that are very to-the-point, but he is okay with the fact that we can't know everything right off. His faith is building and it is amazing how much of the love of God we feel for him as we teach. He was uncomfortable praying the first time we met with him, but by the second meeting he'd read like 100 pages of the Book of Mormon and immediately accepted the invitation to say the closing prayer. By the third time (3 days later), his prayers sounded much more comfortable and he is starting to feel like Someone is listening. We have invited him to be baptized and resolved a concern he brought up, but still don't have a date with him (yet).
Lakesha- She has been super busy recently so Sis McManama actually hasn't met her yet, but we had an amazing lessons with her last weekend and she came to church!! And said she'd be back. She's in her last year of dental hygiene school, but is recognizing that the Lord helped her with her schoolwork this past week because she took the time to come to church. She has a 4-year-old Malachi who came with her, and she is talking to Malachi's dad and her sister about meeting with missionaries. She really considers what we teach, asks great questions, and accepts almost everything we teach immediately because she can recognize the Spirit testifying of truth.
Julie- She is a recent convert's sister and we've been teaching her and her two older kids. Turns out their dad isn't comfortable with us teaching the kids, but they are coming to the ward Halloween party and Primary program this weekend so we will still see them around AND Julie still wants us to teach her. :)
Mamie- I think I talked about her and her husband Lewis last week... She was really progressing after two meetings and then we went to the third one and realized that Lewis isn't the only one suffering from dementia :( So we're not teaching her anymore. We stopped by for a final appointment that we had already set up and she was already asleep but it was perfect because just as we knocked her daughter pulled up. She's really busy right now but potentially interested and we were able to give her a Finding Faith in Chirst DVD and our number. We did some contacting during that hour instead and set up a first appointment with former investigator and exchanged info with another man who wants us to call him this week. Tender mercies :)
Ursula- has been excommunicated for like 20 years but got rebaptized last Saturday!! Her baptism was very small, only the people participating were invited (we accompanied/conducted), but the Spirit was VERY strong. Her whole family was so happy, even those who are not members right now and it strengthened my own testimony of repentance and forgiveness in my life and the lives of others. Ursula is in her early 80s I think and came to America during WWII from Germany. She is so sweet and I was very grateful to be a part of that night.
I think that's most of the exciting news this week. We also had a little booth at a stake family history fair this past weekend. There were like 200 people there and most of them weren't members of our church. We met a lot of really nice people. :) I know I keep promising pictures but I forgot my cord this week... it will happen, eventually. I love you all and hope all is well. I pray for each of you all the time! <3
Sister Schank
