September 2, 2009

"This Beautiful World!"

Hola Mami Y Papi!
This morning we were doing our laundry at the laundry mat and to our surprise there were all of the little kids in their uniforms going to school!! It seems like yesterday when school was getting out! My oh my! So, nothing is really new this week but Sister Luedtke and I have felt so good about being together! She is always so happy and it makes mission life so much easier to have a companion like her! We live with 2 spanish speaking sisters and we love coming home to them and night too! When I was CT it was just my companion and I living together and that was relaxing but it is nice to be back with roommates!! So about the work, each day we are trying to build the Lord’s kingdom and have seen much of the fruits of our labors! We have had many successful appointments and not only with new people but with less actives that have not been to church in a long time. In our area we have a total of 6 active people going to church and so we are trying our best to increase that! Isn’t that shocking?! When President and Sister Smith first came into the mission and he was introducing themselves, one of the things he said is that he comes from a neighborhood where his ward consist of 2 blocks total and on those 2 blocks not one person is going less-active!! Our ward has a total of 8 of us missionaries and so the vicinity for our ward is huge but there are just so many people that aren’t going to church! We hope to change that! On Sunday I was able to speak in sacrament meeting with 3 of our Elders and we spoke about missionary work! I had the chance to talk about serving others through ways of sharing the gospel and it helped me to recognize what I personally can do better! Sister Luedtke and I have many opportunities to be of service to Heavenly Fathers children in the Bronx and we pray every single second that more will accept us! : ) One person we found is from Elders who taught her in the past and her name is Terese! One reason she did not get baptized was because her friend who lived in Brooklyn could not get baptized in this area and it was disturbing to her. She did not really get why but now she does Another factor in the picture is that she was trying to quit smoking. She told us other Sisters tried to see her in the past but they never showed up for appointments when she was expecting them. As we know, there is a reason behind everything and one reason I feel as though we met her now and are able to teach her is because she and Sister Luedtke can relate a lot! Therese is trying to quit smoking once again and Luedtke had to do the same thing when she was taking the lessons from the Elders! Luedtke shares a lot of things that helped her and Therese just appreciates it so much! It is really cute! There just might be a baptism around the corner for us!! We keep saying we know it is coming! And how could I forget? Guess what I got to do yesterday?! I went on a split back to CT with my former companion from the MTC and Manhattan…Sister Dantes! Not only did I get to see the pretty trees again but we were able to have an appointment with the family from Africa (Chantel and Cindy) and it just made me so happy! I never had the chance to say bye to them when I got transferred because they were out of town but Heavenly Father provided a way! He always does! Chantel and the kids are so humble and grateful for what we do. Little do they know how grateful I am for them. Chantel is one who just does not really have the complete desire to be baptized right now and although I wish she did I completely understand and we can’t force her. We have taught her multiple times that this church is the only one with the authority to baptize but she goes back to her Catholic roots and being baptized Catholic is good for now. Although there is not a baptism with proper authority in physical sight for her and Cindy I know there will be one day and I am grateful for the things we were able to teach her. Maybe we met them when we did and had the relationship we did for Thomas!! The man who changed my world!: ) Chantel told me yesterday Thomas is trying to get all of his friends in his city in Africa to meet with the missionaries and he goes on the church website to give their address so missionaries will show up. How touching it was to hear that. I also found out from Sister Roberts that Chris is getting baptized next month in Utah. Of course that was just as amazing! Ok time is up….but I love you bunches and hope you have a wonderful day and enjoying the fall weather! It is so nice here! Until next time, XOXO!


Love you Always,
Sister Miller