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