Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Greetings From Glenville!


Hey!

Another great week in Glenville New York! I feel like this week was longer than usual weeks. We have been helping a part member family move this week and that's been fun. I like when people ask us to help with things. When we ask people if they need help with anything we really mean it. It was fun to help them pack and get them moved.

There is a less active in our ward that we meet with once a week. She is so nice and we love meeting with her. She sent us a card in the mail telling us how much she appreciated our friendship. She said she felt happy that we cared when no one else did and that it makes her want to believe again. I think its so important to just love people and eventually who knows maybe they will come back to the church. It felt so great to get that card from her and it made me feel like we are making some sort of a difference.

We met with Mike Sullivan on Friday night and there family. He was telling us how he bought a hot dog cart and wants to sell hot dogs like they do in the City. Of course I asked him to demonstrate to us with his New York accent "Get your Hot Dogs here!" It was funny! The lesson went great, his wife Kathy and his recently returned missionary son sat in. We talked about faith and we came to the conclusion that he just needs to start reading the Book of Mormon. Is great when his family can participate and bear there testimony, I believe that helps a lot. We asked him if he would come again to church this Sunday and he said he would! YAY! His wife Kathy said, "how do you do that?" I'm not sure how we keep getting him to church, but its a great thing!

We picked up a new investigator last week and met with him on Thursday. His name is Dave and he is an older man in his 60's. We can barley get a lesson in when we meet with him because he loves to talk and tell stories about his days growing up on the farm. He is really nice though! He believes in the Book of Mormon, but won't come to church. In the beginning of the lesson we asked him if he would come to church and he said because of health reasons he couldn't. The lesson went on and he began to tell us how when he was younger his parents would invite missionaries in the home. He started talking about his mom and he got really emotional. We told him that we believe his mom had led us to him. At the end of the lesson he turned to us and said, "I'm coming to church on Sunday!' YAY! We were excited! Maybe his mom is waiting for him to do her work!

So Timmia is the 11 year old that we set a baptism date for. We had a lesson this week going over the baptism questions and the elders stopped by so they could get her interview done. After the interview Elder Matongi my District leader was really impressed with her testimony. I think Timmia's grandmother really loved the elders because once they came over she got really excited about coming to church. Hmm.. guess she won't find out till she comes to our ward and learn that the elders aren't in our ward. haha So after the baptism interview we were all really excited for her baptism. The next day we get a call from our ward mission leader saying they want to make sure they set her up for success. The bishop wants to meet with her and her mom before. So I guess the baptism is being held off till that happens. I know she is ready, but we have to respect what the Bishop wants because he does know best. So it was kind of a bummer, but I know it will happen, I'm just not sure when!

Sunday morning at 6am our phone starts to ring and its Melanie. She had been up all night reading conference talks and had been patiently waiting for 6am to call us. She had read the talk that was in the priesthood session about Missions by Elder Anderson. She then told us how she wants to serve a mission and she was asking us what you had to do to be a missionary. It was early, but we both started screaming. haha She hasn't even been baptized yet and she is talking about wanting to go on a mission. During church she leaned over to us and said, "Do you think we can set up a date I can look towards for my baptism." I'm pretty sure that's the only time an investigator will set the date before we do. We had been planning on doing that with her that day. She is amazing! During church she was making all these amazing comments, it was like she was already a member. She is amazing and she is one of those people you know will make a difference in the church. I feel so blessed to have met her! Its fun because she is our own age so its easy to relate. We set her baptism date for June 25th, my last weekend in Glenville if I get transferred. I'm so excited for her and I can't wait for her to be baptized!

This Sunday was a little crazy at church. We planned on 5 investigators coming and only three showed up. Dave, Mike, and Melanie. Me and Sister Zwick sang in church so we tried to use that as an excuse to get people to come and it did work on Mike and Dave so that was good. We sang The Olive Tree and it was really good. I think people liked it a lot. Mike came up to us afterwards and said, "WOW..you both sounded like angels.. I didn't know you had that in you!" It was funny! Dave really enjoyed it and I"m glad he came, sadly he didn't stay for all three hours. During Gospel Principles mike made a comment about charity by using a scripture. I was so proud and happy that he felt comfortable to do so. It was an amazing Sunday!

I feel so blessed to be a missionary and share the gospel with others. It makes me happy to see others find happiness! We are so lucky to have the gospel in our lives!

Love you all,

Sister Stacey



Random Pictures of the week

pic 1) New york has really big beautiful rivers this is one that is by our house.


pic 2) Watch dog in the ghetto (I thought this was funny)

pic 3) Another beautiful picture of the river at sunset

pic 4) Last week our district was going to go bowling, but it was closed. so we went to the park. It was fun!

pic 5) This is an older lady we meet with once a week. She can't get to church so we visit with her. She is so cute! Her name is Sally


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