Kingsbridge #17

Hello dearest family! 

How are you! Thanks for the lovely email. Sorry I am just now writing, we are traveling home from the beach! It was so much fun! We went with our zone. We played football and ultimate frisbee. And then I made a sand castle with some people. And then while waiting for the bus I kicked the ball around. It was so so fun. I loved making the sand castle and being able to sit there without having to think about anything. It was so relaxing. Now I'm ready to get to work for another week :)

Well we finished up interviews this week and we did our first split of the cycle. I stayed in our area and Westlund went to Olmstead. It was a good split. I came away with a lot of insights on how I could improve as a missionary. Hmm what else happened...oh! We spent some time organizing all gees media referrals and referrals from missionaries and new investigators. Now we are able to plan better and if we are in the area, we just stop by. We did that this week and had contact with a lot of them. We were able to deliver the bible to a few who requested one and were able to set up return appointments so that was cool. we have 7 appointments with new investigators this week so that is exciting.

Miracle moment! so we were walking down the street and some guy stopped us asking if we were member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints/ we were a little taken back because most people dont know us by our proper name. anyway. it turns out that he has been taught all the lessons but then when he moved he lost contact with the missionaries/ the day before he met us he was trying to find missionaries then BAM we meet him on the street! he came to church that sunday and he wants to be baptized as soon as possible! So awesome!

Well i am sorry this is short. I forgot my ipad at home which limited my time to email. but i love you all! Isaac get feeling better soon with that collar bone bud!!

Love sister Lounsbury

Kingsbridge #16

Hello my lovely family!!! 

It's super good to hear from you!! It sounds like your summer has been awesome!! Dad- I loved the pictures you sent of the boys playing soccer. Those were awesome! But my favorite was Noah and Enoch all geared up for the World Cup!!! Haha I loved that so much!!! Mom, I hope you got my birthday card in the mail. Happy birthday! You are looking young and hip as ever :) dad, I hope you got my Father's Day card in the mail as well. I hope you got a yummy candy bar at church :) Caleb- man, it sounds like you are just tearing it up out there. You are turning into one beast of a soccer player. And now that you are as tall as me, I don't think I got anything on you any more! I'm pretty sure you would whip my trash! Hahah. It blows my mind that you will be turning 14 in August and off to high school in September... What?!?! Will your soccer season still be for in early October when I get home? I sure hope so. I want to see you play soooo bad!! Mom- my mission president is totally down with people visiting.  We can have one hour with them to have lunch. Give Julie my email and we can coordinate. Also, the project that you are working on sounds legit. Super legit. Take some pictures of how it is coming along! I want to see! Also, your New Testament read sounds sweet! Our ward is doing a 75 day Book of Mormon read. That is 7 pages a day, and I am loving it! Usually I study really in depth, do it is nice to do a broad study of the Book of Mormon. You make new insights. 

Well things are awesome in the Bronx. I love my companion sister Westlund. My trainer sister Awerkamp was companions with sister Westlund right after me. This missionary lingo might not make sense to you...but sister Awerkamp was my trainer (or mom) and she was sister westlund's follow up trainer (or dad) so that makes sister Westlund and I half sisters haha. It is her birthday tomorrow. So me and my roommates and the district planned a surprise party for her! It was fun. Today we went bowling with our district. I bowled a 122 which is the best I've ever done. Then we went to the church and I distracted sister Westlund while they set up the room and brought in cake and ice cream and a poster board. It was fun :) 

I can tell this is going to be an awesome cycle!! Sister Westlund is ready to work hard with me. She is obedient and a natural leader. If I am transferred out, the area will be in good hands. This week we were able to meet some good new potentials. We have been loaded recently with referrals and other members in our district are finding single ladies for us to teach, and we are finding new people as well so it has been good. It is almost too much to keep up with! I love it in the Bronx. I just love it. I've already been here 4 cycles. I wouldn't mind finishing my mission here, but I'll probably go one more area. 

This week we also did interviews with all the sister and we will be doing a split at the end of this week. We added another companionship of sisters in the Olmstead zone, so we are back up to 6 companions to do splits. So we are trying to get on it so it isn't so stressful at the end of the cycle. Mom- you asked how long you stay as a sister training leader. As with any calling, you serve as long as the Lord needs you. Some Elders are called as a District Leader, released, and then called again as a district leader. Some sisters like sister Awerkamp are called as a sister training leader for 11 months. Others are only called for 3 months. It just depends. 

Well Family, I love you a ton!! I hope you have an awesome week! 

Love, Sister Lounsbury

Kingsbridge #15

Family!!!! 

Hey! So first off, news with transfers: I am staying in the Bronx!!! Sister Lopez is going to Kingston, which is as north as you can get. I am receiving a new companion sister Westlund. We actually have a few pictures on FB. Sister Westlund was companions with sister Awerkamp. So when I visited Awerkamp in the city, I met sister Westlund. She seems really cool so I am stoked to serve with her. She hasn't served as a sister trainer leader before so I get to show her the ropes. This time, I feel like I have a little better idea of what I'm suppose to be doing in this leadership position. 

Well!  This has been a week of miracles. As a mission, our standard of excellence is 21 lessons a week. Sister Lopez and I had set a goal to work up to 25 lessons a week. We had come close a few times but this was our last week to try to get it. We ended up having 17 lessons with less actives! That is far more than I have ever had. We have 10 other lesson. We reached of our member present goal of 5 (which has been very hard for us to get) we had 9 people at church!!! Including shante who has a son who is preparing for baptism for July 12th. We had a lady named jasmin who showed up at church who had been in contact with missionaries from Utah. She showed up to church as said "I was told to find missionaries and to tell them that I want to be baptized on June 28th" what!?! I could believe it! We had set the goal for 2 baptisms in June. We are working with mackela smalls and didn't know who our second person would be. Well, we know now! We are finding more and more less actives to work with. 

Our days are being filled and it is really exciting to see everything that is happening in our mission. Everyone is getting pumped! In May we had set a mission goal to have more faith and in calling down the powers of Heaven in our work. As a mission we received 60 baptisms! We Taught over 6,000 lessons. We had More church attendance, more Member presents and excelled I all areas. President Morgan said We've done more in these last 50 days than has been done in a very long time in this mission. Today we received further training on goal setting and planning. This has been a big focus in our mission- understanding God's vision for this work. He is hastening his work and he wants ALL of his children to come back. To accomplish this vision, we need to set inspired goals. Not goals of what we think we can do on our own, but what we think we can do with God. But goal setting means nothing if you don't make some plans. We need to make sure for every single goal we set, there are plans in our iPad. Then as leaders, we will be holding the missionaries in our steward ship accountable by having them show us their iPad and their plans. 

Understanding God's vision, setting inspired goals, and going out and making those plans is being a part of our culture. And it is amazing to see the blessings. I am so thankful to learn how to set goals and make plans as I have on my mission. Having a vision, Goal setting, and accomplishing those plans is the way you improve and progress the fastest. I am excited to apply it to other things I hope to accomplish when I am back home.  

Our district have been setting some sweet goals as well. We are making some real progress with the less active list. Here in the Bronx we have like 900 members of our ward list and only 130 or so go to church or are accounted for. Everyone else... We don't know. So we have been searching for these lost sheep and we have found a lot! We have sent out around 175 people who have moved and we are finding and teaching lots of new less actives. We are going to keep at it his cycle. And we are going to make a big effort to gain the trust of our members so they came come and help fellowship all these less actives. Because we have more than we can keep up with!!

I am super pumped for this cycle. It's gonna be bomb. Keep praying for shante and Zyire and for jasmin rosa. You guys are the best! 

Love, sister Lounsbury

Kingsbridge #14

FAMILY!!!

What up? So this week was a good one. We had an awesome time at the temple last Wednesday. We went down to the city a few other times for appointments and such. Today we are going again to pick up sister lopez's eye contacts.

Well we had mission leadership council in Scarsdale on Friday and that was AWESOME. If went from like 8 to 5.... So long, but so good. We got to hear from all the zone leaders about what is going on in their zones. It looks like our mission is on par to have 66 baptisms this may. And in June we are looking to have even more amazing things. Our mission was averaging about 18 baptisms a month and in June one zone alone has 19 baptismal dates. Just one zone. Junes going to bring forth lot of fruits as well. As a mission we have been working on having more faith and then to act on that faith by setting high goals and making more efficient plans to achieve our goals. It has been so cool to see the blessings The Lord has given us. In the leadership meeting we also just talked a lot about what our roles are as leaders. I am so thankful to be called as a sister training leader. The lessons I am learning now as I am a steward over others will not only greatly bless me in future church leadership, but as a mother as well. I am so grateful to president Morgan and for all his inspired guidance and leadership. He truly loves us and would do anything to help us. 

We were told also that our mission will get the chance to go to another Yankees game this June. So that will be fun :) another big announcement was that Elder Snow would be visiting our mission. After he speaks to the whole mission, the zone leaders and sister training leaders will get the chance to meet with him for an additional meeting. I am so excited! It is kinda terrifying, but also way awesome! As a mission we were all asked to prepare a 5 minute talk on how we have accessed the powers of Heaven through our faith. I think I wrote a longer talk than 5 minutes but I want to share it with you so you can see what I have been learning:

TALK: How have I accessed the powers of Heaven through my faith? (5 minutes) 

INTRO:

I have faith that God can use me despite my weaknesses. 

THE STRUGGLE:

For many years I have struggled with feelings of inadequacy and feeling like I am coming short. These feelings of discouragement in turn make me feel like God can not use me to do His work. I think of characters in the Book of Mormon like Nephi and I think to myself: "well of course God could use them to do mighty miracles, they were so faithful, strong and obedient." But when I look at myself and I see my obvious flaws, weaknesses, doubting, disobedience and shortcomings, I wonder to myself how God can use ME as an instrument in His hand. How could he use ME to bring about miracles?

THE REALIZATION:

1. Imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. 

-Even Nephi felt of his short comings. In 2 Nephi 4 he exclaimed: "O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities. I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me." But despite Nephi's weakness, The Lord still revealed many great things to him and called him to be a king, prophet and ruler over the people. (2 Nephi 4:15-19)* 

-The Brother Jared forgot to pray to Godforsaken a period of time, But after he repented, The Lord still used him as a great leader for his people to bring them to a promised land. 

-Moroni struggled with weakness in writing. He feared the Gentiles would mock his writings. The Lord was still able to use him to contribute to Book of Mormon despite his weakness. (Ether 12:23-25)*

I find comfort that God has said over and over that he will use the weak things of the earth. If our sins and weaknesses disqualified us from God's help, then none of us could be helped! "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

2.God can use us despite our weakness because He loves us. He loves us so much! And because He loves us, He has provided a Savior—He sent his Only Begotten Son to die for us. Think of it—God's whole plan is for us to return to Him and to be happy. This was His plan in the very beginning. Everything He does is based around this goal.  His whole purpose, His work and His glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. There is nothing He wants more than for you and me to return to be with Him again. And if this is the case, then why would we ever doubt God's willingness to forgive us and to help us? He is on our team! We are striving for the same goal! Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has said:

"May I behold enough to suggest that it is impossible for anyone who really knows God to doubt his willingness to receive us with open arms in a divine embrace if we will but 'come unto Him.' I am convinced that none of us can appreciate how deeply it wounds the loving heart of the Savior of the world when he finds that his people do not feel confident in his care or secure in his hands" -Jeffrey R. Holland "come unto me" April 1998

THE FAITH:

-I know I have very obvious weaknesses and shortcomings. But I have faith in Christ. I have confidence that He can help me rise above all of that. 

-It takes a lot of faith to push out every doubtful, self-critical thought and to instead "look unto Christ in every thought and to doubt not, fear not" (D&C 6:36)

-I am learning to happily accept and acknowledge the fact that indeed "I am nothing, as to my strength I am weak"  but, I have faith that "in His strength I can do all things" (Alma 26:12)*  

-I know that God can still use me dispute my weaknesses. I have faith and trust in God's love for me and His forgiveness. As I have exercised this faith, I have seen many blessings.  

THE BLESSINGS:

-I was blessed with greater confidence that The Lord is involved in my work. I am able to ask for his help with greater faith and confidence, truly believing I will receive it.

-I was blessed with greater understanding of God's loving nature and His characteristics

-I am able to feel accepted of The Lord, and have been able to accept myself as well.

-I am finally allowing myself help from God that I have refused in the past because I felt undeserving of if.But I am learning more and more that truly I'm NOT deserving of it, but God still gives His help and mercy freely to those who seek it because he loves us.(Mosiah 2) 

-I am learning to graciously accept that help. I know as it says in Mosiah 2 that truly I will be eternally in His debt. 

-God does not excuse our weakness, but He is long suffering with our weaknesses. And as we turn to Christ, his strength is perfect in our weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Welp family, I sure love you all! I hope everything is going good! 

Love, Sister Lounsbury