Newburgh #1

Hello Family!!

WOW, wow, wow! Ok sooo much to tell you all! Sorry for the short email last week. Haha ok mom, to put away you're worryings, yes, Newburgh actually has the 9th highest murder rate in the country, but I do not serve in the city. It is too dangerous for the sisters. There were 3 murders just last week! Crazy.... But I serve on the outskirts of Newburgh. It is BEAUTIFUL here. Oh my goodness. I am in heaven. The east coast is SO BEAUTIFUL!! I seriously can not get enough of it! It is breath taking. Trees entirely consume the hillside. It feels like magic when the leaves swirl and blow off of the trees. I just absolutely love it here. Madeline, driving around here makes me miss our country drives together.  We went on a hike today as a district. It was so much fun!

I am serving with sister wilkes. She has been out for 12 weeks so I am follow up training with her. But she is the one who know the area, so I feel like she's training me haha. She is awesome. I love being her companion. She makes me laugh everyday and she is just so sweet. I am learning a lot from her and I am just so excited for the time we get to serve together. OH! And she likes running too. we've started to wake up at 6 so we can get a longer run in. We've been running 4 miles every morning. I am determined to get into shape!! We are gonna keep running til the snow hits.

So I haven't met the ward yet, but I have been over to quite a few houses. We get fed alllll the time... I think I preferred feeding myself in Yonkers. I'm terribly afraid of gaining a ton of weight here...but hopefully the running will help with that. It's just so hard because everyone cooks you a big dinner with dessert. But anyway, everyone seems great!

So something awesome happened this week!!! We were looking up a potential investigator that had been contacted on the street a while back. We knock on their door and they let us in and we have a lesson. The mom Lori had grown up going to a LDS church as a girl. She went with her friend and went to girls camp but never had the lessons.  She also attended a baptist church with her uncle. She attended a catholic school and went to mass for a while. Later in her life she studied with the witnesses. Then she went back to catholic. They have been all over because the church's teaching or the people's behaviors would turn them off. They finally concluded that they could just study in their own house. So that is what they do--family prayer and bible study every day with their two girls. But they felt that something was missing. They wanted to have a church family. So that morning they were praying that they could find some guidance and direction to know what to do and where to go. Then 4 hours later--we knock on their door! What a miracle!!! It was so amazing to see this faithful family praying for guidance and I felt so honored that God trusted us enough to be the ones to help them and to guide them to the fullness of the gospel. We got to know them in the first lesson. In the second lesson we brought a member and taught the Restoration. Lori and Steve really related to the story of Joesph Smith-- because they had been searching so long for truth in their life. She is excited to come to church and Steve wants to make sure he could be a pastor if he joined the church and the girls and so eager to learn. The older one who was 13 was sitting their with her bible, looking up all the questions in the back of the restoration pamphlet. They are so solid.

Sister Wilkes and I are striving to continue to be consecrated. We set a goal for a baptism this Oct. President Morgan told us that in the month of Sept we ended up baptizing 55 people and had over 20 reactivation. We haven't had that kind of number in a long time. He told us that we need to continue forward with the same kind of determination and faith. So we are going to everything we can to have a baptism this October. Keep us in your prayers :) 

Conference was so awesome!! I just soaked it all up! What was your favorite talk? What did you like about it? What new thing did you learn, and what are you going to do with this new piece of knowledge. There is a saying here in the mission. If someone is teaching, someone should be learning. And if someone is learning, someone should be changing. So make sure that you make changes and set goals so you can actually APPLY the truths you learned this week from Modern day prophets. Conference was so cool for me. We were able to watch one session with a less active and another session with a less active family and their non member friend. After conference I was able to bare my testimony to him that the reason he agreed with everything the speakers said was because they are modern day prophets called of God. I testified that they receive revelation from God and that their words will lead us and guide us in this world of chaos and constant change. The Spirit was there strongly. He said he would read the Book of Mormon. It is exciting to be able to work with new people. And I've been able to meet a few investigator in the first meeting with them.

OK one other crazy thing happened this week. So sister Wilkes and I were doing our morning study of the scriptures. It was maybe around 8:20 and we get a knock on the door. It was strange because no one comes to our door. We open up and the neighbor from downstairs is frantic and is crying. She told us that her mom had fallen out of bed and had been on the floor all night. She couldn't lift her and she needed help. I'm glad sister Wilkes was there because she remained so incredibly calm. We got down there and with our first attempt we couldn't get Philis to the chair. But once we thought a little clearer we placed a chair right behind philis and then got under her arms and lifted her up. We were then able to get her on to the chair. Philis was shaky and was super thirsty. Philis's daughter was still so panicked and wasn't sure if she should call 911 or the doctor or what she should do. We sat by Philis and stood as support on either side of her so she wouldn't slip out of the side of the chair. She kept trying to stand up and she was embarrassed. We just talked to her about her kids and grand kids and what she liked to do when she was younger while her daughter made calls. Philis's daughter ended up calling her siblings and then 911. Paramedics came and got her off to the hospital. We met a lot of Philis's daughters who drove over and they all thanked us over and over. Philis's daughter told us that she didn't know what to do when she found her mom on the ground. She thought about knocking on the apartment next to her, but she said the "boys" (they are 25 or older) who lived there smoke pot and she said she needed some real help. She kept feeling like she needed to go upstairs and knock on our door. We were home and able to help. She started crying while thanking us again and again as we hugged her goodbye. She told us to come over any time. It was quite an eventful morning. And it was a really cool missionary opportunity as we were seen by so many and got to share with a few people about what we do.

So it's been an eventful week! I love you all so much! Isaac, I got your letter! You're the best :) The rest of you need to pick it up ;) haha well I hope you all enjoyed your week and conference. If you didn't see all of conference, make time to see it. These men are inspired prophets, seers and revelators. You can not afford to miss their counsel, warnings and teachings. I want to here from you all about your favorite talk or thing you learned, why, and what you're going to so about it. I love you all!!

Love Sister Lounsbury