Newburgh #8

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FAMILY!!

Besides all the broken bones, it sounds like you all have had a lovely week! 

Well this week has been a good one. It has been slow lately as far as teaching lessons go. A lot of things have been taking up our time. We have personal study, companionship study, training, language study and then we are suppose to spend some time on facebook and time transferring all the information from the area book to the ipad. And things have been slow with learning all the things on the ipad. But things are good. Oh! One other thing has been taking up our time! Choir practice! I was asked to sing in the NY NY North Christmas Choir :)))))) I was so so so sos so sosososososo happy to be asked to sing in it! There are only 16 people in the choir, so quite honestly I don't know why I was selected.... But I was! And I'm not complaining! Not at all. In fact it is the highlight of my week. I get to see Sister Wilkes and some other missionaries I'm close to who were also asked to sing. And the music is legit. One of the songs was composed by a Elder in our Mission. It has piano and all sorts of string instruments. It is way beyond me... but I'm trying to blend in and act like I know what the heck is going on. It's actually pretty funny because 3 out of the 5 altos, myself included, can't read music. And 1 out of the 5 altos didn't do choir (me). So we are pretty lost most the time. We only know what to sing by listening to the voice next to us... so when none of us know the starting note, we are hopeless. But we recorded our parts on our ipads so we can listen to it at home and practice. It is going to be amazing when it is finished! I can't wait to practice with the orchestra.. that is like a dream of mine! Oh man. I am just so excited. This choir is my Christmas gift :) 

But nothing too exciting happened this week. Oh! Actually I finished cleaning out my facebook, so I will be posting my first official post as a online proselyting missionary today or tomorrow!! So please please please follow my posts and add comments! Like it and share it with friends! We want to have conversations going :)

Well, I haven't written too much about insights that I have had on my mission. But I want to share what I've learned on my mission about gratitude. Before I always thought gratitude was essentially just saying thank you. But I have realized that gratitude is so much more than that. Gratitude is choosing to focus on what you have instead of what you lack. We are told to develop an attitude of gratitude. So what does that even mean? I looked up attitude in the dictionary and it is defined as "a way of looking at things." Have you ever heard about looking at your cup as half full instead of half empty? No matter which way you look at it, the bottom line is that you still have the same amount of water. So you literally get to choose which one it is. Is it half empty? or half full? Having an attitude of gratitude is choosing to look at things in a positive light instead of a negative one. It is choosing to focus on what you have instead of what you lack. True to the faith talks about how gratitude is an uplifting and exalting attribute. So the cool thing is that when you start looking for all the things you have, you realize that you have more and more blessings. More than you ever thought you did. 

Another cool insight that I had is that gratitude for what you have pertains to more than just possessions. It can apply to your thoughts, accomplishments, talents and more. Let me give a few examples:

Do you get easily overwhelmed? Choose to focus on all that you have accomplished instead of all the things you have not yet done.

Do you feel you are not good enough? Choose to focus on all the good you did that day instead of all the ways you lack. 

Do you feel you have no talents? Choose to focus on all your strengths and abilities instead of all your weaknesses and shortcomings. 

Are you overcome with despair because of the evil in the world? Choose to see all the joy, goodness and love instead of the sadness, evil and hate. 

You want to develop Charity? Choose to focus on the goodness of other's instead of only looking at what they lack

You want to gain more knowledge? Cherish all the truths you've been given instead of wishing you had more. As you cherish the revelation you have received, you will be given more.

Gratitude can be applied in so many more ways then I had ever thought before.We get to choose our attitude. Choose to have an attitude of gratitude. 

When you focus on all you do not have and what you lack, it actually slows you down and halts your progression. You become bitter or weighed down. I think this is why gratitude is an uplifting and exalting attribute. Because it pushes you forward in a positive direction. You focus on your blessing, your strengths, your accomplishments instead of what you lack--and that propels you forward. 

Here is two quotes I love about gratitude: 

"We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said that 'gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.'” ⁸

 “The grateful man sees so much in the world to be thankful for, and with him the good outweighs the evil. Love overpowers jealousy, and light drives darkness out of his life.” He continued: “Pride destroys our gratitude and sets up selfishness in its place. How much happier we are in the presence of a grateful and loving soul, and how careful we should be to cultivate, through the medium of a prayerful life, a thankful attitude toward God and man!” ⁹  

-- Taken from President Monson's talk in October 2010 "The Divine Gift of Gratitude"

You all should read the whole talk, it is really good. He gives one example from the Scriptures of Christ feeding the multitude of 4,000. 

The disciples asked "Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?" The disciples only saw what was lacking. 

"And Jesus said unto them, how many loves have ye? And [the disciples] said, Seven, and a few little fishes. And [Jesus] commanded the multitude to sit on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and GAVE THANKS, and brake them and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude". While the disciples saw only what they lacked, Jesus gave thanks for what he had and a miracle followed... they were all filled. 

I believe that when we choose to focus on what we have instead of what we lack, we too will be filled. 

I am so thankful for the wonderful family I have. I am so, so blessed to know each one of you. I can't find the words to express my love and gratitude. Just know that I love you so very much! 

And thank you so much to everyone who has supported me on my mission. You all are so wonderful! I love you all! I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Sister Lounsbury

Newburgh #7

Hello my family!!

Well this has been a crazy two weeks (I didn't get to write much last week because of transfers)

So my last week was Sister Wilkes was so rushed! We had to say goodbye to many people and then packing and preparing to take over the area took up a lot of time as well. I was so sad to have to go, but I have found that the Lord likes to switch things up when I get a little too comfortable. Change pushes me to try harder and to be better. And the call to train a new missionary has definitely done that for me. I still don't know the area too well. But I have been able to manage alright. And sister Steele doesn't know the difference anyway haha fake it til you make it right? 

we've had bad luck with technology... Sister Wilkes dropped the phone in the TOILET! Hhaha so here 2 days before my new companion arrives, she breaks the phone. How am I suppose to set up appointments or plan out the week!?!! But we put it in rice and miraculously it worked! later in the week the phone fell out of my pocket in the parking lot. An old man saw it and put in on our car door... thank goodness for the kind people in the world! Then I ran my ipod through the washer machine... The glass on the screen cracked. I put it in rice and now it kind of works. You just got to be careful that you don't get a glass sliver in your finger. And THEN we got brand new ipads for our mission!!.... And I dropped mine down the stairs the first day!!! .... haha just kidding ;) ... I am trying to be so, so careful with it!! But I'm waiting for something terrible to happen! I don't feel like I should be trusted with it! 

The meeting for the I-pads was so cool. I have been a little reluctant about the whole i-pad thing. You all know me... I am just not so interested on being up to date with the newest gadget. But after this meeting I was greatly humbled at the amazing privilege and opportunity I have to be one of the very first missionaries with an I-pad. We are only the 9th mission to receive an ipad. Technology is the direction that missionary work is going. If this work is going to hasten, we have got to do missionary work in a new way. Elder Perry in the mission President's fireside side that this time is the greatest era in the church's history. It is comparable to the events of the first vision, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and when all worthy men could receive the Priesthood! I have heard that quote several times now and it shoot chills up and down my spine every time! We live in a time when the world is being prepared for the second coming of the Lord. I feel the Spirit so strongly every time they talk about it. The Lord's work is hastening. He is sending out his servants into the vineyard for the last time before His coming. And these new tools have been a long time coming. The Brethern have been preparing for this with the 12 week program for trainers that they put out and with the lowering of the age. Elder Perry said you would have to be blind to not see how the Lord has been working and preparing. Our mission are going to be pioneers in this new age of missionary work. We get to be some of the firsts. There are still some glitches in the system but things are coming along. We have to put EVERYTHING in our areabook onto the ipad. We have an app for the areabook and we can update lessons on the go. We no longer report our key indicators because President Morgan will know exactly who we taught and when and how many lessons we had when he gets a report from our ipads. Things will be a little slow while we get use to it, but once it is up and running, we will see this work take off. 

So Sister Steele is a lot of fun to be with. She is from Russia originally. She lived in and out of orphanages in Russia until she was 10. She was adopted by an American family. Her life story is crazy... it could be a movie--a movie that would make you cry and then feel so happy at the end because things got a lot, a lot better for her. And look where she is now! And I get to train her :) She is most self conscious about her English so we role play a lot to help her feel more confident teaching and explaining. :)  She is still learning the gospel and understanding it. I love teaching and helping her understand. It took me a while to adjust how I teach her. I try to eliminate any words that are too big and I make sure to stop and to ask if she knows what a certain word means. If I don't she won't say anything. I think learning to explain things as simply as possible to her is really going to help me to teach investigators more effectively. Sometimes I think I am explaining things so clearly when in reality it goes over their head. So you have to stop, and try to explain again and again until they get it. 

I have been so humbled by her humility and faith. She knows her weakness and she relys on the Lord to be her help and strength. We've had some really amazing lessons together and then Lord is blessing us with new people to teach! 

This first week together has been really good. We have had some great lessons! Mary-Ellen has a baptism date for Dec 21. Please keep her specifically in your prayers. her husband is a returning less active. She has had several bap dates. I am praying that she will have a spiritual experience praying or reading so her testimony can be strengthened. We got in contact with Steve Valentine finally this week. We answered some of his questions about the 3 degrees of glory. We will see him hopefully next week again. 

So I am singing in the Christmas choir!! I am so sos so sososososososo excited!!! I love Christmas songs! Ah :) I am just so happy they asked me. And Sister Wilkes is in the choir too! So I get to see her for at least 3 times for practices :) 

Well life is good. I hope this email is long enough for you mother ;) I love you all! I hope you have a great week! 

Love Sister Lounsbury

Newburgh #6

So I really don't have much time but I wanted to let you know real quick what's happening with this transfer. Sooo Sister Wilkes has been sent to Stamford. I am staying here in Newburgh to take over the area and I will be training a brand new missionary from the MTC! Her name is Sister Steele. She was born in Russia, lived there for 10 years and then her and her 3 siblings were adopted by an American Family. So around age 10 she moved to the USA. She is so cute and sweet and I am so excited to be serving with her!! I am a little nervous because our area is so big and I am not familiar with everywhere and all the people yet! Also, we are receiving i-pads this Friday! We are no longer going to have an area book or our planners. We won't even report key indicators any more because they will automatically know how many lessons we taught by looking at what we updated on our area book. Everything is all so new and there is a lot of change going on. I hope I can keep up with it all! Well that is about all I have time to write about right now. But I love you all so much! Please continue to keep us in your prayers!

Much love, Sister Lounsbury

Newburgh #5

Hello hello family!

So this week was good! It flew by like usual. It is sure getting cold... we are not ready for it!! But we're going to Goodwill today to get some warmer clothes :) This 6 week cycle is almost over... what?? It feels like I just got here! I am praying really hard that Sister Wilkes and I will stay together for at least one more cycle. But I heard there is a huge surplus of sisters coming in the next 2 cycles... some 40 or so sisters I think they said! Which is crazy! And so it is pretty likely that we'll be split up. If not this cycle, then next.

Well this week was Halloween! I had trick or treaters come to the door for the first time ever! So that was kinda fun. We had to be in by 5 on Halloween night to keep safe. I taught a lesson to a less active dressed up as an army Zombie and his daughter had white paint all over her face. It was pretty comical as we were trying to have a spiritual experience and you realize that you're bearing your testimony to a zombie. haha

We did a lot of service this week at members houses so that was fun. My favorite was raking leaves with one of the families and then jumping in the giant pile with their small kids. It was fun but it made me miss the little boys! By the way, happy 5th birthday Enoch!! It sounds like your party was a lot of fun!! :)

So at 8:00pm on Friday night I got a call from the Assistant to the President asking me to speak at a Zone conference the next morning... hahah apparently I was the only one that the forgot to call. So I had to whip together a 15 minutes talk on how to prepare physically and emotionally for a mission. I was pretty nervous but I think it went well. It wasn't a normal Zone conference, it was a mini Zone conference with just 2 zones and the youth in the surrounding stakes who were preparing for a mission. We all grabbed a youth who came and became temporary companions for the day. We listened to the speakers and did some role plays. It was a cool experience!

We had 5 less actives at Church this week! it was awesome!! One young man, Cody, came back to church for the first time in years! We have had some great lessons with him and he loved church. One of the members, Paul, took him under his wing and made him feel so comfortable. After church Paul even took Cody to his house for a big lunch. They ended up hanging out til 6 that night and then Paul took him home. It is so great when members help by being a friend and welcoming new people to the ward. It makes all of the difference of whether or not that less active will feel comfortable to come back again. And it was great to see the other Less actives as well. I really love working with Less Actives and helping them gain a testimony and to start living the gospel in their life.

one girl we've been working with has been struggling with the Word of Wisdom. Since meeting with us she started reading the Book of Mormon daily, and she has noticed the difference it makes in her life! She has an easier time resisting temptations and she feels a spiritual strength in her life. She has read all the way to Mosiah the last time we met! She loves it! She didn't have alcohol, coffee or tea for a week and then she got a Priesthood blessing for extra strength. She thanked us again and again for suggesting for her to get a blessing as she could physically feel power coursing through her body for the rest of the day! She has kept the Word of Wisdom since and she is seeing amazing blessings in her life! I think that is one of the coolest things as a missionary...to get to see first hand how living the gospel can change people's lives.

We had a split this week. I stayed here in Newburgh and sister Wilkes went to Danbury. It made me realize how much I don't know about the area!! It was a wake up call! If Sister Wilkes leaves this cycle and I stay, I am going to have to try to absorb a lot of information!! I rely a lot on her to know where people are and what their story is etc. But the split was a good experience. I know what I need to work on!!

I've been on Facebook a little bit more this week. There is a check off list I have to go through before I can actually start putting up posts. I have to go through and hide all my pictures and organize my friends into lists and delete old posts and comments.... It's gonna take a while. But I'll be on officially soon enough!!

Well that's all the exciting stuff that happened this week! I am off to Middle town today to do some Goodwill shopping with Sister Wilkes and to play soccer with our zone! I am so excited!! I haven't played in so long!! Well family, I love you so much! I hope all is well!!

Love Sister Emma Lounsbury