Week 61

This week has been really excellent! Lots of really random things happening...

First of all Sarah, congratulations! So proud of you :) We had a really good day on Thursday, but it had ended kind of hard. We showed up to one of my favorite investigator's home, and she was having a really huge fight with one of her family members. When she finally let us in, she was shaking and crying and kind of babbling... it was pretty scary. We calmed her down and read some scripture and the elders came over to give her a blessing, but the whole evening was just a little intense. And then I got to call home to a loving family and feel an overwhelming spirit of love and truth as Sarah opened her mission call to San Jose, California. What a contrast. I don't have words to say how grateful I am for each of you making good decisions in your life, for parents who raised us in the gospel, and that we truly love each other. Sarah, I know that your call is from God because of the strong Spirit that I felt from 2000 miles away when you opened that call. I am so excited for you and very proud :)

Friday morning started interestingly... I was making my bed and the bed frame jumped out and bit me :( It sliced through my leggings and cut an inch-and-a-half long gash in my leg near my left knee. I actually ended up having it seen by a doctor who is a member of the Palmyra ward and works next-door to the Book of Mormon publication site, where I was working later that morning. She said it definitely would have needed stitches, except that we got butterfly strips on it really well early on. I'm still not allowed to get it wet and will have the butterfly strips on for another week or so, but it should heal just fine. I'm taking good care of it :) It is healing miraculously quickly.

This week I got to meet the Ciceros. They are a really awesome family with 3 kids we are teaching and they are so sincere about wanting to learn the truth! We hadn't seen them since before I got transferred here, but they've been reading and had lots of questions. We fasted and prayed for them really hard this weekend and they all came to church! It is really wonderful to be teaching a happy, functional, honestly-seeking family. I already love them so much :)

We also taught a lady named Monique last night. She has a lot of questions and her confusion sometimes comes out as a little bit rough and even attacking, but it was a good experience overall teaching her. It feels good sometimes to stand and defend the church and it's doctrine. It definitely backed me up against my "wall of faith" and made me remember why I really do believe in all of this. And it comes down to the fact that I have received a witness for myself that it's true. It reminds me of Joseph Smith, when his mother asked him what was the matter after the first vision. He said "All is well, I know for myself." And that is really true for all of us. All will be well when we know for ourselves.

I've had some really neat experiences in the last couple of weeks touring the Tomlinson Inn, the Young Farm, seeing the Palmyra cemetary and Oliver Cowdery's schoolhouse, and getting an in-depth tour of the Smith frame home and the Hill Cumorah. Rand Packer was here to talk about Willard and Rebecca Bean, and I was able to read his book "A Lion and A Lamb." We took our investigator Christine to the visitor's center this week and watched the Joseph Smith video with her and listened to the Christus recording. All of it has really increased my love for this gospel and for those who sacrificed so it could be restored. "I know for myself" that Joseph Smith is God's chosen prophet to restore the fulness of Jesus Christ's gospel and His church. I love the Smith family and Joseph's friends who made it all possible. That love is making it easier and more joyous to take tours and to proselyte, and overall to testify of my Savior and the coming forth of His saving gospel. I love Him, and I love the happiness and peace that comes only through the first principles and ordinances performed by His sacred authority.

Hope everything is going well with the family. I love you all soso much!

Love,

Sister Schank

Week 60 - This is what it's all about!

Really great week this week! A lot has happened.... let's start with the best news: The Allgood baptism!

Cameron (11), Cody (10), and Breckin (8) Allgood were each baptized and confirmed yesterday after church. Their half-brother Austin (16) was in town and he performed the baptisms. The Spirit was so strong and really hit the family, especially Matt (the dad). He is all tattooed up and has had a lot of struggles getting back into activity recently, and he just cried and cried after the ordinance. It was so special. The bishop challenged them to prepare to be sealed on Matt's birthday in August! They still have a little work to do before then but I definitely believe they will make it :) The confirmations went great and the member who performed them said he felt really strongly that all three will serve missions. They are already preparing! Cameron turns 12 in a couple of months and is preparing for the priesthood. His 13-year-old brother, Blake, has been interviewed to receive the priesthood next Sunday. I am so proud of their whole family.

We also got to go to the temple with one of Sister White's converts. A year ago, he was baptized in Seneca Lake, where many of the early saints were baptized on the day the church was first organized. It was so cool to see how prepared he was to continue in his covenant-making this last weekend.

Cool story about how God's hand is in our daily lives:

The Shortsville sisters (who also live in our apartment) lost their phone like a month ago. They looked all over the town of Farmington, where they were that day, to no avail. Last week, we were trying to teach some people but NO one was home. We found ourselves on a street in the middle of Canandaigua trying to contact a recent convert and less-active. They weren't home either. But while we were there, we ran into two men. We try to talk with everyone, so we gave them our card. They asked if we'd lost a phone. We said we hadn't but we had friends that did, and showed them our phone. They said it looked identical, so we came by a little later to pick up their phone. The guys had sounded potentially interested when we first saw them, but they told us they weren't. I asked if they knew anyone interested, and they referred their next-door neighbor. We finally got ahold of him yesterday. He let us right in and said "I need you." He then started telling us about all these tragedies that had recently happened in his life and how he was looking for help to get through it. We didn't have another woman present, so we left him a Book of Mormon and told him we'd come back. Miracle? I think yes.

Anywho, I need to get going. I love you a whole lot, and I'm excited to hear about Sarah's call on Wednesday! Be good, and stay warm. The church is true!

With Love,

Sister Schank :)

Week 59

Canandaigua is awesome! I love Sister White, we have a lot of investigators, and it's been a great week!

My favorite things about Canandaigua so far are the Algoods and the Ioccos.

Lisa and Matt Algood are coming back from inactivity. They have 7 kids and only one is baptized. Three more are getting baptized this Sunday! We had a date set with them for February but they just really wanted to be baptized and have a step-brother coming in from out of town with the Aaronic priesthood this week so they decided yesterday to move the date. We went with them to the sites this week and we sit with them in church to help with the kids (age 3-13). We love them so much! We will be seeing them a lot this week to teach them all the lessons before Sunday.

Christine Iocco is another amazing investigator. She tried to drop the sisters a couple of weeks ago so we went by to talk about some concerns this week and it's amazing to see how much she has progressed in the 5 days I've known her. She came to church with one of her sons on Sunday, and LOVED it. We went over to watch the CES broadcast at her house and it was awesome. Her other son has written up a bunch of questions, which was awesome because he hasn't been sitting in recently. They finally trusted us enough to let us know about some struggles they've been having, and we are going to the sites with them tomorrow.

Also. Had a tour of the Hill Cumorah from the forester this week and it was AWESOME! The Hill is so cool and there is one part that hasn't been touched since before Joseph Smith. Some of the trees are over 350 years old! It was so cool to think of Moroni and Joseph and all the people who had been there.

Also... A friend of a friend is working on a project and asked me to answer these questions... I thought you would enjoy hearing about it :)

1.       What was the area like where you served- architecture, ethnic mix, language, landscape etc…

Upstate New York is a pretty good melting pot but I have mostly served in wards where there are like 2 families that aren't white. If you go downtown it's a lot more mixed though. There are a lot of rolling hills, lots of trees, and lots of farmland. It is exceedingly beautiful and the sunsets are often hot pink :)

2.       What were some funny customs and traditions that you didn’t know existed where you went?

Everyone has these closed-in porches, but for the most part is really is okay to walk right in and knock on the real door

Upstate NY food includes garbage plates (french fries, mac salad, hamburger/hot dog/sausage, all topped with spicy, greasy meat sauce), white hots (like a hot dog), sausage and peppers, roast beef on kimmelweck (really good sandwich on a bun with caraway and salt), buffalo wings, and sponge candy (sugar with lots of little holes because of the humidity in the air here and covered with chocolate)

3.       What things surprised you when you arrived at your mission?

How awesome the sites are

Missionaries actually have a personality, and are encouraged to use it :)

New York is NOT equivalent to NYC, I have seen like one skyscraper in over a year here

4.       What were some good p-day activities?

Niagara Falls

Rochester Museum of Play

Letchworth ("The grand canyon of the east")

Playing soccer at the chapel with other missionaries

5.       What should a new missionary to the area know?

It is cold and snowy here, but not as bad as everyone who wants to scare you makes it out to be.

6.       What were some unique ism’s to your mission?

I hear these almost every day: "Have a blessed day" "Can I axe you a question?" "I'm all set", the plural form of you is "yous"

7.       How developed was your mission? (1^st world, 3^rd world etc…)

Downtown Buffalo and especially Rochester is pretty ghetto, but I've only served in middle-upper class areas. Like mansion on a lake status, in a lot of cases.

8.       Is there any interesting local history that would be worth mentioning?

The Erie Canal used to be a really big deal around here, and everyone still talks about when Kodak started and was big.

9.       What was a typical area like?

Pretty rural. If you serve in the city you will be on bikes or foot, but a lot of it is pretty spread out.

10.   What was some mission lingo that you used?

born-came out to the field

died- went home

had a baby- trained a greenie

You learn to talk in transfers rather than months

11.   What kind of culture did you find in your mission?

This mission has a history of disobedience, but our mission president is awesome and in most cases people really want to be exactly obedient. The unity varies by zone, but for the most part everyone loves the mission and the other missionaries. Almost everyone is here to work hard.

Love you so much!

Sister Schank

Week 58 - Canandaigua (pron. Can-an-DAY-gwah)

Family!!

So... transfer calls came last night, and I'm being moved to Canandaigua!! It's pretty much halfway between Palmyra and Fayette (sort of). Which means I am going back to the sites! The Lord has been preparing me for this mentally; I was pretty sure I was being transferred, but there weren't sisters in Canandaigua when I came out to Buffalo so it was a little bit of a shock. I am super sad to leave so many of the close friends out here behind; Kathryn in particular will be hard to leave, but I am doing okay. I opened up to D&C 112 this morning to seek some answers, and the whole section was really good but this is what stuck out to me especially: "Wherefore, whithersoever they shall send you, go ye, and I will be with you; and in whatsoever place ye shall proclaim my name an effectual door shall be opened unto you, that they may receive my word." (v. 19). What a comfort! Verse 11 also told me that the Lord would take care of those out here (and at home) for whom I've been praying. I love the scriptures :)

As for updates on Amherst, we visited the Perrys this week. Sue is taking her boys back to the Catholic church for now, but she feels closer to God than a few months ago and says we can still visit. Scott (her husband) will have nothing to do with the Catholic church anymore, so we'll see how that goes... I love their family so much and I'm glad they have found at least temporary peace.

Scott and Kathryn have started announcing that they are broken up this week and it's been a really hard one for both of them, but they are both relying more on the gospel. We are in contact with Kathryn sometimes more than once a day, and she has a goal to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the month. That's like 20 pages a day from where she's at, but I believe she can do it!

Funny story with Scott. He came to sacrament meeting yesterday and knew we'd be sitting with Kathryn so he sat further up in the congregation. He was very frustrated, and just ready to go home after the first hour and stop meeting with us and just give up. So this little kid gets up in testimony meeting (he gets up every month) and just  says "I know this church is true, I know Joseph Smith was a prophet, and some people do something in Alma 24." What? It turns out Scott had just read Alma 24, and the last verse talks about how once you have received light, you better stick with it because it will be worse for you if you turn away than if you had never found it. How fitting. :) Then Sister Lewis was awesome and caught him between classes and sat by him in Sunday school. We had a great lesson about some of his concerns at the Lewis home that evening. God is good! He knew Scott's needs even when we couldn't.

I think that's about it for this week. I'll be praying for Ken. Love you all whole, whole lots! Here is my new address:

5914 Terrace Ln Apt A

Farmington, NY 14425

As always, you can also send mail to the mission office in Pittsford (hint) ;) I really will try to be better at writing people back; still have to finish packing today but I will work on that!

Thanks for being amazing. I have the best family ever, and I'm not afraid to tell people that ;) Be good! The church is true.

With love,

Sister Schank

Melissa and Tim Lewis

Week 57 - Happy New Year1

Dear Family and Friends - Happy New Year!  Tell me all about your Christmas! I'm attaching pictures of some of what we did. Christmas Eve we went to Sis Walsh's house . It was Sis mMcmanama's (companion) and Elder Guzik's (serving in my ward) birthday, so they picked lasagna for dinner and we had yummy chocolate cake. We got up on Christmas and opened presents, and then went to the Blatto's home. Sister Blatto is a member, her husband is not and her kids aren't baptized (age 9, 7, 5), but we have a great relationship with their family. We watched the kids open presents and found a few there to open ourselves, and had bacon and french toast, and that's where I skyped my family from. We were allowed to watch one movie, so we went to Sandy's house and watched Elf :) and had MORE cake. Then dinner at the Kleinleins', ham and potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts, yum. We visited some older members, Eugene and Bill, who were home alone, then back to the Kleinleins for an hour or so of games. It was an excellent holiday :) I love Christmas because everyone is so receptive to the Spirit. A couple of weeks ago, a member in the ward was sad because there had been some tragedies in his neighborhood. He asked us to go around and give copies of the Book of Mormon to all of his neighbors on his street. No big deal, right? It just so happens that he lives in a mansion, and those neighborhoods are not known for being horribly accepting of the gospel. But the elders in our district came with us to carol, and we passed out almost 20 BoMs in one night! We started going back to follow up last night, and ran into one girl (Claire) who actually wasn't home when we caroled, but who is best friends with the Kleinlein's oldest daughter and is searching for religious truth. We told her we were actually going back to their home for dinner and games tonight, and she has since been invited to join us! What a tender mercy.

Best part of the week: Got to go through the temple with Tina Klein (she got baptized in Irondequoit 2 days before I flew out here last year) and see her sealed to her deceased husband. Then that afternoon went through again with a couple in our ward here, and saw them sealed. The temple is such a blessing! I can think of no greater blessing than my covenants and my family. I love you guys!

Also, I got to give a talk at a missionary farewell yesterday. It was on how I will be a better member missionary because of what I learned on my mission. I was surprised at how much easier it is getting to speak in front of crowds, since I usually just teach small groups of people.

Please pray for the Perry family. The baptism is off and Sister Perry is back to attending the Catholic church with her boys. She is feeling really conflicted and could use your prayers. Thanks for your prayers for Scott and Kathryn; we have grown really close with them this week. It's been a rough one for both of them and for their relationship, but they are both pulling through. She got a priesthood blessing yesterday and I think it was a big testimony booster for her.

Gotta run, I love you all and hope you enjoy the new year!

With love,  Sister Schank

My Christmas tree and presents

A Merry Christmas with Sister Walsh

Week 56

Dear friends and family,

What a remarkable week! I never cease to be amazed at the blessings of the Lord. Thank you for your prayers, especially for Sue. We attended a relief society Christmas dinner this week, and afterward she told me the she has received confirmation to move forward and work toward the temple with her family! Two days later we taught them again, and the boys are preparing to be baptized Jan 5. Scott is still off cigarettes, and the boys (especially Joshua) have made remarkable spiritual progress. It's evident in their desire and understanding. They went to Primary on Sunday even though they were a little nervous, and have been reading the scriptures on their own. They are holding their first family home evening this week and are so excited.

I also got invited to two endowment sessions and sealings for two different converts, Tina Klein and Tracy Grampp. (Tina is from Irondequoit and Tracy from Amherst). So excited!

We also got to meet with both Scott and Kathryn this week. I like Kathryn more and more. She came to all three hours of church this week and we got to go to a Christmas concert of Scott's (he's part of a Lutheran choir... beautiful! and reminded me of going to concerts with dad) and sat next to her. Please pray for Scott this week that he will have a desire to keep commandments, and Kathryn that she will recognize the truth.

We also got to bring Chris to a baptism this week, and he is praying to know if that is what God wants for him. Chris is a little slower, but loves God so much and will do anything he asks. He's been to church for a few weeks now. :) We also had an 18-year-old Mohamed come to church this week; his family is Muslim so we'll need to get him interviewed by a member of the mission presidency and he's YSA age so we probably won't teach him much anyway, but he's a very nice kid, and happy to share the gospel. We met him and his friends at a convenience store this week, and all held hands and I said a prayer RIGHT in front of this guy fixing his engine. Haha, it was a different kind of experience, but anytime a new investigator says they want to pray, we'll do it!

Nancy & Elaina also came to the Relief Society dinner, and it was awesome. They met a ton of their LDS neighbors, and want to come to church once Elaina gets a Sunday off work. We are bringing the elders with us this week because they say their house is haunted, so that will be interesting... I'm excited to start teaching them more and help them to learn and keep the commandments. :)

Oh, we contacted Jim this week and he and his wife were very nice. He wants to just watch the DVD and read some of the Book of Mormon this week and see what he thinks, so I'll get back to you on him in a week or two once we contact him again.

Just lots of little miracles this week with timing and getting appointments, little stuff like that. I know that the Lord is so aware of us, and so much a part of this work! I love you all, and hope you are enjoying the Christmas season. Remember, it is all about Jesus Christ!  

With love,

Sister Schank

XOXO

Week 55

Dear family,

What a remarkable week! I never cease to be amazed at the blessings of the Lord. Thank you for your prayers, especially for Sue. We attended a relief society Christmas dinner this week, and afterward she told me the she has received confirmation to move forward and work toward the temple with her family! Two days later we taught them again, and the boys are preparing to be baptized Jan 5. Scott is still off cigarettes, and the boys (especially Joshua) have made remarkable spiritual progress. It's evident in their desire and understanding. They went to Primary on Sunday even though they were a little nervous, and have been reading the scriptures on their own. They are holding their first family home evening this week and are so excited.

I also got invited to two endowment sessions and sealings for two different converts, Tina Klein and Tracy Grampp. (Tina is from Irondequoit and Tracy from Amherst). So excited!

We also got to meet with both Scott and Kathryn this week. I like Kathryn more and more. She came to all three hours of church this week and we got to go to a Christmas concert of Scott's (he's part of a Lutheran choir... beautiful! and reminded me of going to concerts with dad) and sat next to her. Please pray for Scott this week that he will have a desire to keep commandments, and Kathryn that she will recognize the truth.

We also got to bring Chris to a baptism this week, and he is praying to know if that is what God wants for him. Chris is a little slower, but loves God so much and will do anything he asks. He's been to church for a few weeks now. :) We also had an 18-year-old Mohamed come to church this week; his family is Muslim so we'll need to get him interviewed by a member of the mission presidency and he's YSA age so we probably won't teach him much anyway, but he's a very nice kid, and happy to share the gospel. We met him and his friends at a convenience store this week, and all held hands and I said a prayer RIGHT in front of this guy fixing his engine. Haha, it was a different kind of experience, but anytime a new investigator says they want to pray, we'll do it!

Nancy & Elaina also came to the Relief Society dinner, and it was awesome. They met a ton of their LDS neighbors, and want to come to church once Elaina gets a Sunday off work. We are bringing the elders with us this week because they say their house is haunted, so that will be interesting... I'm excited to start teaching them more and help them to learn and keep the commandments. :)

Oh, we contacted Jim this week and he and his wife were very nice. He wants to just watch the DVD and read some of the BoM this week and see what he thinks, so I'll get back to you on him in a week or two once we contact him again.

Just lots of little miracles this week with timing and getting appointments, little stuff like that. I know that the Lord is so aware of us, and so much a part of this work! I love you all, and hope you are enjoying the Christmas season. Remember, it is all about Jesus Christ!  

With love,

Sister Schank

XOXO