Kingsbridge #22

Hey family!! 

So it has been a great week with lots of things going on. I am going to write a little bit about everything. 

So the most eventful thing this week was that I got to go to Queens! The NYNY N Mission and the NY NY S Mission leadership was able to join together for Mission leadership Council. It was so cool! I got to talk with missionaries from the south mission and bounce off ideas for finding activities. We also talked about online proselyting, talked about barriers and how we could move forward with this tool. My favorite part was hearing their mission President talk about the Doctrine of Chist. He taught a principle of what he terms "real time". He taught us that rather then having repentance being an event, it can become a part of us. In the moment we make a mistake, we can repent right then and make it right. Repentance shouldn't be an event or a check list, it is a continuous way of living, we are continuously repenting and making things right. And we can in the very moment we repent, feel the burden relived and be made clean. I really liked that. 

The most exciting thing this week was that I found out that 4 less actives I was working with in Yonkers are going to receive their endowments this Saturday!!! Angela, alberte, Fabienne, and Michelle are all going to the temple! Sister Matthews and I were the ones who found Angela and Michelle. I am just full with joy that they have continued to progress and are worthy to enter into the temple! And the best part is that I and sister Matthews both got permission to go to the temple this Saturday to be with them!!!!! This is the greatest birthday gift I ever could have received!!! 

It was Elder Griffiths birthday this week so the district went to little Italy which is in our area. There I have the best pizza in my life. Literally, I didn't know pizza could taste like that. I feel like my whole life I have never actually eaten pizza....if I ever come back to NY, we are not getting NY pizza, we are getting little Italy pizza :) 

Novella, her husband and her daughter came to church! That was really exciting! They stayed for the whole time so that was awesome :) Tee. Menafee, her boyfriend and daughter also came to church came to church. She stayed for two hours but had to take something out of the oven. She was sad to miss relief society, it is her favorite class. We met with Natasha this week and invited her to a service project. It was great to get to know her better while doing service. She wants to be a missionary and go do baptisms for the dead and to come with us as a member present...we told her she needs to be a member to do those things! She is eager to take all the lessons so she can be baptized!! Her niece came along to service and we'll invite her to take the lessons as well. 

We had our first gospel study class. It is designed for new members to come and receive the new member lessons. We have so many new members and they all need to be nourished by the word of God. We had a good amount of people there, so it was a success! 

This week we got our interviews done. There are two new sister missionaries in the zones we are over. It was fun to get to know them better. I find that I have really learned to love getting to know people. It is something that is much more fun for me now. I really enjoy my calling as STL because it allows me to get to know more of the sisters on a more personal level. In interviews we talked about being positive. 

We read D&C 98:3 which teaches us that all things we are afflicted with shall work together for our good. I want to share some of my thoughts.

1>there are bad things and good things that happen to us every day. Most people judge a "good day" to be one where the good things that happen outweighs the bad things. But there is a way to make every single day a good day. The secret is understanding that good can even come from things we think are bad (D&C 98:3) 

Here are some missionary examples: 

•you get lost & are late to your appointment or your appointment cancels....maybe you needed to bump into someone else. Maybe there was someone else God needed you to meet. Or you could see getting lost as a chance for you to learn the area better. 

•someone calls you a name and mocks you for your beliefs....you get a chance to defend your faith. You have an opportunity to go through the smallest portion of ridicule that Christ went through for you. 

•you can't communicate what you want to in Spanish in your lesson....This is a opportunity for you to exercise faith in the gift of tongues, that God can communicate the message you're trying to teach to the hearer. This is an opportunity for you to use what talent you do have and to develop more. 

•you get sick and have to stay in...You can learn to be more compassionate and more understanding of others who are sick. This experience can help you be more grateful for your good health.

I went through with these example and more and without fail I was able to find something positive that could come. Truly all things that we are afflicted with can work together for our good and for the glory of God. Then I started thinking about life experiences outside of the mission and tried to apply this principle. 

Real life example

•you fail a class... This is a chance for you to learn the subject better a second time! The second time through you might be able to help others in the class. 

•you Lose your job... Maybe God has a better job in store for you. Maybe you are needed somewhere else.

•you have no friends at school...this is a chance for you to develop greater empathy for those without friends. You can learn how to reach out to others mores stead of expecting others to reach out to you

With every circumstance there is either despair, or hope. We should choose to be hopeful. 

Of course after we did our interviews in Olmstead everything went wrong that day. We waited an hour for our bus only to find it had been re-routed. We missed our appointment. We got lost. We had a member come to an appointment out of their way only to find out the investigator wasn't home. Hahaha I was literally laughing by the end of it all because God was giving us plenty of opportunities to practice the principle be positive and seeing the good no matter what our circumstances. 

All in all it was another great week. We actually picked up even more investigators this week. Everything is going great! Well I love you all a ton! Have a great week :) 

Kingsbridge #21

FAMILY!!!! 

Well it has been another great week! We have been teaching lots of investigators!! I have never had so many progressing investigator in my whole mission! Let me tell you about them all. :) 

Linda Gonzalez and kids. Linda randomly came to church one Sunday and we have been teaching her ever since. She is from Bangladesh and is so ready for the gospel. She and her kids are soaking up all that we are teaching. We taught her two times in the furniture store that she works at! Hahah so we have been sitting on un-purchased furniture while she Has to get up every now and then to tend to customers and answer the phone. But it is the only time she can meet. 

Jennifer and kids. We met with Jennifer for the first time this week on Monday.  She was someone who was handed off to us once the sisters left. She has met with them for a few weeks. She didn't seem to remember too much so we are starting from the beginning. She wants to meet at least 3 to 4 times a week! But our schedule was so packed we could fit her until 5 days later. This week is really busy with interviews and mission leadership council. So hopefully next week we can meet with her more often. She came to family history on Tuesday which was awesome! It is so cool to see how willing she is to keep commitments. You can tell she is really ready for change in her life. 

Novella and daughter. We met her at a word of wisdom APF. We've been teaching her ever since. She met with missionaries a few years back and went to church for over a year then fell out of contact of missionaries. Now she is meeting with us again. We have taught the restoration and the Plan of Salvation. She seemed hesitant about baptism, but now she is opening up more and more to the idea. She and her daughter are such much fun to teach. We are already good friends with them. The daughters asks a million and one questions. It is really great teaching them. 

T. Manafee. We met her knocking doors. She met with missionaries a few years back for a little but lost contact. Then we met her :) she seemed hesitant about the idea of meeting frequently or being baptized. But after each meeting she grows more open to the idea. She is now willing to meet weekly. We saw her monday and she also came to family history on Tuesday which was so awesome!! She really understands the message of the restoration and knows she must seek to come to know truth. She knows baptism is a commandment from God and she knows she must receive an answer to know if she should be baptized. Her daughter miracle (4years old) LOVES church, so that is awesome as well :) 

 Cecilia. Was a referAl from the elders. We taught her and her family once. Cecilia is from Ghana. She told us about how there are 13 tribes where she is from. She told us about about her tribe and how they all interacted with each other. That was really fascinating. I seriously serve in the coolest mission in the world. I love teaching people from all over the world and with so many different cultures and backgrounds. We have only had one meeting with them so far so we'll see if they really start progressing. 

Natasha is a referral from the elders. She is 15 and she wants to be baptized! She has come to church twice and has already made some great connections with the 

Young women. We haven't had a solid lesson since they handed her off. We've been so busy! But we hope to get her in for next week. 

Genisis is a referral from Mormon.org. She requested a restoration DVD after randomly visiting palmyra. We had a great first lesson with her. It was great! She is 20 years old and we have fun when teaching her. She feels like a friend we are sharing the gospel with. She is very intellectual. We taught her about the difference between tangible knowledge you can see and spiritual knowledge you feel and receive through the Holy Ghost. It was a great lesson. 

Soon Denise and sister Gonzalez (single sisters that are recent converts) will be getting back in town. So now we will need to start meeting with both of them about 2 times a week as well. 

And there are other recent converts like Miriam we meet twice a week with. Then there are all the other active members we meet with regularly like the Abrahams who we committed to prepare to enter to temple and to be sealed as a family. Then we have the less actives we are working with and helping to get to church and help them progress. 

Needless to say, we are being kept very, very busy.

I feel so overwhelmed with gratitude. I feel so blessed to be here one more cycle. I am going to give it all I got, because these people deserve it. Seriously, I know these people are all so prepared. The Lord is preparing them and I want to make sure I am obedient and giving it my all so they can continue to progress and be baptized. Teaching them humbles me and makes me want to be better for them. I love this work! There is no feeling like it!!

Well family, I sure love you a lot. I hope you have a fantastic week! 

Love, Sister Lounsbury

Kingsbridge #20

Hello family! 

So today is transfers and I am staying my 5th cycle here in the Bronx! I am really happy to stay because there are so many great things going on :) after this cycle I have one more. I wouldn't mind staying here in the Bronx til the end of my days :) 

This transfer we lost 33 missionaries. It included the "baby boom" of sisters in particular who flooded out mission after the age was lowered. It was the biggest group I have ever seen leaving. There were many missionaries I was close with who left today including my trainer Sister Awerkamp. I cried to see them go. Because so many English sisters left, our mission had to close 3 areas, including our roommates area. sister arquero and sister Nielson left so we don't have roommates anymore. So we will be taking over their area this next cycle. We will b the only English sisters in the Bronx, so we will be taking everyone's single women investigators and less actives. And we will continue to do splits and have our Sister Training Leader responsibilities. So that should be fun haha. Needless to say, we will stay very busy. We need to be very organized or we won't be able to keep track of everyone. My biggest fear is that people are going to slip under the cracks. But The Lord thinks we are up for the task, so I know that he will help us. 

So, I wrote this song called 18 months one preparation day when I was in Newburgh. I recorded it of my iPad and gave a recording to my companion. Since then I have found out that it has gotten around all over the mission! People keep approaching me and telling me that they love my song and listen to it all the time in their apartment! I discovered just how many people had actually heard it today. An elder from my MTC district said he heard about my song and he asked me to play it. So I sat down and started playing the song. All the sudden heads turn, missionaries come around the corner and I hear people saying "oh! I love this song!" One guy was even singing with it and knew all the words!! Haha so that made me feel really good :) 

Well I am sorry I didn't write more. Transfer day never leaves you much time to do all you need to and preparation day. But I love you all!