Newburgh #11

Dearest Family!!

Hello! I am so sorry but I don't have much time this week. It was transfers week so the bulk of my Pday was used to drive, go to transfers and drive back. It was so great though. I got to see lots of missionaries I love and miss. It was so great to hear about how Yonkers is doing! Sandra and Angela are coming to church every week! And both of them are so close to going to the temple! The Alberts (twins from Africa) are progressing and doing well. Mary is coming to church again. It just filled my heart with joy to hear about them doing so well. I think it is so amazing that these individuals have passed through so many missionaries and that each of us were able to help them change, progress and come closer to Christ in the few months that we were there. I have learned that truly with less actives, it takes time and that you only get to be in their life for a short few months but that your efforts do make a difference! 

Well a sad thing that happened this week... my car got towed. And yes mom, if you were wondering why 300 dollars was taken out of my account... this is why. Ahh I feel so dumb. Basically in an effort to not have my car towed, my car was towed. It was a classic example of self fulfilling prophecy. haha. My apartment mangers sent a letter that said your car must be moved by 9am after a big snowfall. SOOO on Saturday night after a big snow fall I decided to be ahead of the game and to move my car right then and to park across the street for the night. Well, it was a no parking zone and I got towed. We saw the tow truck out our window at 1030. we are in our pjs but we throw on our boots and run out there in the snow. He had a hook on our car and he wouldn't take it off. He said he had to tow it. It was a bummer. 

We were grounded twice this week due to snow. Being grounded just means we can't drive the car so there isn't much we can do. We walked around and visited some investigators that were close by. On Saturday we were grounded but a member picked us up so we could use the wifi at their house so we could do our first online lesson. Thank you to everyone who participated! I'm not sure when we will do our next one, but we will send out another invite!

And finally for the most exciting news, Maryellen is being baptized this Saturday!! We are so excited! Thank you everyone who kept her in your prayers! It makes a difference! 

Thank you everyone who has gone out of your way to wish me a Merry Christmas and to send me a quick letter or email. You all are the best! I really appreciate your support and I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

I love you all! 

Love, Sister Emma Lounsbury

Newburgh #10

Hello family!

I had a great week. We went to the New York New York North Christmas devotional where we were able to see everyone from the mission. It was so so fun to see sister Awerkamp, Matthews and sister  Wilkes. We were able to talk, exchange stories, and to enjoy each other's company again. It was a sweet experience. Performing in the choir was such an amazing experience. I felt the spirit so strongly as we sang the last song Joy to the world. Music has always touched my heart in a special way and being able to perform with so many talented singers to create such beautiful music was just so amazing. We had a giant lunch with all of the missionaries. The tables were decorated with stockings on every chair. It kind of felt a little bit like we were in a Harry Potter movie. They played a slideshow of the pictures missionaries submitted. We were spoiled by our mission president and his wife. I love them both so much and feel so blessed to be a part of this wonderful mission.

But that was the really exciting thing that happened this week. We had the ward Christmas party and the relief society Christmas party is coming up as well. Things of been kind of slow it's trying to get used to the iPad. We have to enter in all of the information from the area book into the iPad. It has been taking quite a long time. They also want us to spend an hour or so Facebook every day. We haven't been spending that much time on Facebook but this Saturday we hope to have a Facebook event. The elders in our ward did one and had a great turnout in a really good conversation.

I'm really sorry this is so short. We had a zone activity today and we made gingerbread houses. It was a ton of fun!! It was district against district And our gingerbread house totally won! So I didn't have very much time to email. But I hope that all is well back at home and that you're having a wonderful Christmas season! I love you so much!

Love sister Lounsbury

Sent from my iPad

Newburgh #9

Hello family!

Well this has been a lovely week! Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We did weekly planning and some other things earlier in the day. Later in the evening we went to a member's house for dinner. The Elders and another family came for dinner as well. The Tousley family had a whole room of guitars, a key board and a drum set. I got to have a little jam session while waiting for dinner to b made, so I was in heaven. I miss playing music so much, so I had a blast strumming some beats on the guitar.

This week we have spent a lot of time going to choir practices for our performance in the NY NY N Mission Christmas Devotional that will take place this Friday the 6th. That is actually where I am right now. We are doing a run through of the whole program. I am so glad I get to be a part of it!! The music is so beautiful and I am just trying my best to keep up with all the choir lingo and singing the right notes haha. But it should be a great program! I am so excited to see Sister Awerkamp and Matthews!! And I already get to see sister Wilkes at choir practice. it should be a blast.

So you may have noticed that I am on Facebook now. As a online missionary we are trying to find ways to teach as many people as we can online. One thing that we are going to try to do is to create a Facebook event to have a gospel discussion. Once I create the event (a day and a time to be on FB) , I invite all the members here, all my investigators and all of my family and friends back home to join in a gospel discussion. We want you to invite all of your friend and family to the event as well. Anyone can be a part of our lessons and discussions! Sister Steele and I want to try to do our first Facebook even next Tuesday the 10th. We haven't picked a time yet, but we will keep you posted. Please have the turner ward girls and relief society and ward members add me on Facebook so I can invite them to these Facebook discussions with our less actives and investigators here in NY. In the discussions we will pick a topic such as receiving answers to prayers. Then we will pose some questions and anyone else can pose a question as well. This allows us as missionaries to have the potential to teach multiple people at once. It allows all of you lovely people back at home to be involved with missionary work here in New York! And it is a great opportunity for all of us to answer questions, to share our testimonies and experiences and to strengthen each other.

So please add me on Facebook and be involved with our online lessons! Other missionaries who have done this have had 20 or more people show up on Facebook to talk gospel and the missionaries didn't know most of them. So don't forget to invite your friends to the event as well!

Hmm I can't really think of anything else that was really eventful this week. We were able to help an elderly lady out up some Christmas decorations and she gave us some ornaments to take home to put on our tree. So we decorated our artificial tree and we placed random items under the tree...a soccer ball, tennis rackets weights, some chocolates and cookies, and some empty boxes haha so it looks like we have a ton of gifts under the tree. Oh ps, mom I now you have my current apartment address, but they have asked that we only send mail to the mission office (NY NY N Mission 700 White Plains Rd St. 315 Scarsdale NY 10583) so that they make sure that none of the mail is lost.

Well I love you all so much!

Love Sister Lounsbury