Kingsbridge #18

Hello dear family of mine! 

It sounds like you had a fun Fourth of July! That is awesome! :) 

Highlights for this week: 

-Four of July was fun. Our ward mission leader hosted a lunch where we could bring less actives and recent converts so they could socialize . At the end we shared a message, so that was cool. Later that night a member had us over for a Dinner. We played a board game called "What" that was hilarious. We had a really good laugh. Having 10 missionaries in a ward is a lot... So I really grateful for supportive ward members who have us over on a regular. They sacrifice a lot for us. Once we got home and finished planning, we went to the roof of our building and watched fireworks over the city. It was so beautiful!! The buildings in the city were all lit up and then there were firework shows to every side. Someone was doing fireworks In the ally way of our building....those were blowing up a little too close for comfort haha. It was a great night :) 

-we had Interviews with president Morgan. I love this man. He is so amazing. Every single time you come away from a meeting or interview with him, you just feel uplifted and inspired. I felt a renewed desire to give it my all and to finish my mission strong. He is so great. We found out that our roommates area is closing. There are 33 missionaries leaving this cycle and only 22 coming in so we have to close some areas. So that means that we will be taking over their area. We will also be responsible over all the single ladies that are less active members in the Bronx. And of course we will continue to do our responsibilities as a sister training leader...so we are going to be super,super busy.  I'm not sure if I will still be here next cycle, but since sister Westlund has only been here for 6 weeks to learn the area and learn her responsibilities as a sister training leader, I kinda feel like I might be staying for one more.  We are going to work hard to get our area organized and get ready for the anticipated changes. 

-There have been some crazy rain and Thunderstorms lately. We have been caught in the rain so we just accepted the fact we would be soaked and we made it fun. We danced in rain and splashed in the puddles. There were warning for flash floods. During the storm There were still fire hydrants opened up spraying a continuous flow of water to add to the flooding down the streets. We splashed in it all and came home soaked. 

-We Had mission leadership counsel which was really good. We were told about some recent changes 

1. Our areabook will be getting a pretty big update in a few weeks

2. Our mission will be counting key indicators a different way. We will finally be reporting key indicators as defined in PMG

3. The first Presidency sent an email with some changes. Before baptism we will have to teach lessons 1-5 in PMG before and after baptism. (Teaching lesson 5 before baptism is a new thing) we are also to stay in frequent contact after baptism for 3-4 months. Missionaries will now be taking the lead to make sure new member lessons happen (before the ward council was suppose to take the lead...but that never happens) I think these changes are good and will help with retention. 

Random things:

-We presented zone meeting yesterday. I think it went fairly good.

-I've been Sugar free for 3 weeks now. (Except for when dessert is offered at an appointment and we can't refuse it without hurting feelings) 

-our Elevator broke. We had to carry our groceries up from target on this hot sticky day. To get home we go up over 200 steps (very uneven steps, a lot of steps are decaying/slanted) 

Then we got home and had to walk up 4 flights to get to our apartment.... That was fun

So miracle moment: we were greeting people at church and this lady Linda came up to me telling me her brother in law was a member and gave her the address for the church. We talked to her and she said she wants to meet and learn more! She loved church and wants her whole family to be taught! Wow! I truly feel the Lord's work hastening. We have been approached by around 7 people this week who stopped US and asked US who we are. More and more are being affected. As people are baptized, they reach out to family and friends. More and more are hearing about the gospel. And more and more are curious.  I think missionary work is going to get to a point where truly missionaries number one responsibility will just be to teach—they won't have time to do anything else! 

Well I love you all! Hope you have a great week! 

Love, Sister Emma Lounsbury