I can't believe another week has gone by since I last emailed! So much has happened, last pday seems like a century ago!
The Pioneer area is doing pretty well! Other than many potentials appointments falling through and losing contact for a while of our most progressing people, it's great! No seriously, we've made progress throughout the week and my love for the work grows each and every day.
Miracle of the week:
Jenny has committed to stop drinking coffee! We were a little nervous to teach her about the Word of Wisdom this past week because she struggles to keep other commitments of reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church, but we followed our promptings and went forward with faith! She was pretty shocked to hear that we don't drink coffee or tea, but we testified to her about how it is a commandment from God and that not consuming it allows us to be spiritually clean and more receptive to the Spirit in our lives. She loves being close to God and wants to implement that more into her life, which led her to accept our invitation to live the word of wisdom! It was amazing! After the lesson, we helped Jenny to get rid of all the coffee and tea in her house and the next day we brought her hot chocolate mix to have as a substitute. By the next day, we could already see a HUGE difference in her- she was more alive and much quicker to respond. She says it's been a challenge, but we expressed our faith in her that she can do hard things! I know that Heavenly Father is so proud of her in the steps she is taking in her life to follow Him. She has a desire to have a better relationship with God and she's putting that desire into action! God is so good!
Another cool experience:
Sister Schmoekel and I started a family history class at an old folks home! It was SO fun! We had our amazing family history consultant come with us and for our first class, we told them about what family history is and why we do it, and then helped them to fill our their paper pedigree charts before we put them on familysearch.org. We helped them to fill out information they already knew about their families (birth dates, death places, marriage dates, etc.) and they were so funny as they told us about their families. Many of the conversations went like this:
Me: "Okay, so do you know where your grandma died?"
Resident [thinking REALLY hard]: "Ummm....I'm not sure, I can't remember if she died in the hospital or at home..."
Me [biting back a laugh]: "Oh, I meant, like what CITY did she die in?"
It was hilarious!
This past week we had our first class, and we actually had a pretty good turnout! We had about 10 people there, and only one was a member of the church! When we went to the old folks home to tell them about our idea of having a family history class, they said that some of the residents expressed interest recently and they were more than excited to have us do it!
I'm excited to do it more in the future and tell them about the importance of doing family history. As I've been out on my mission, I've learned more about it and I wish I would've done more of it when I had the chance! It is truly amazing to connect our family together, piece by piece, and giving them the opportunity to accept the message of the restored gospel. We are doing work for them that they can't do for themselves- what a huge responsibility. What a privilege! And who wouldn't like to learn more about where they came from?! Family search has so many stories and pictures- all at our fingertips! I'm so thankful for the technology we have to do so many things!
Well, those are the highlights of my week. There was a lot of walking, talking, contacting and teaching all in between those two experiences I wrote about above.
I'm just thankful that, at this time of year, the sun is still out- which means people are still out! I can't imagine what the work will be like and how we'll have to adapt when the clouds start rolling in. I guess at this point, I need to take advantage of the sunlight we still have!
Thank you, everyone, for all your love and support! I am so thankful for this work that I have to be apart of, and for the opportunity I have to be serving God with all my heart, might, mind and strength! It is a great time to be alive and a great time to be working hard!
One quick spiritual thought: We had stake conference yesterday, and they focused on family history and temple work. Man, do I miss going to the temple! Before my mission, I worked at the temple and attended regularly, and hearing all the speakers talk about the blessings of the temple just made my heart swell with longing to go to the temple! I know that my responsibility right now is in Lebanon, but I encourage everyone to make temple attendance a greater part in their life! If there is anything that will strengthen your faith and knowledge of Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ, it is going to the temple! It truly is the house of the Lord and the closest place to heaven on earth!
Till next week!
Sister McCown
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