Sleepy Hollow & Miracle Finding

¡Hola! ¿Como están ustedes?

This week was really good! And today since Sister Brower went to the
temple with the missionaries who go home next week we spent some time
in Scarsdale and even got to see SLEEPY HOLLOW (I'll include some
pictures) kind of a fun thing close to Halloween we even went to "the
horsemen" diner haha.

 

So we've been doing a lot of finding since we're whitewashing (=
tracting) and a few weeks ago we tracted into this guy named Francisco
who said to come back when his wife was home. We saw him on the street
a few days after, he was really excited. But then when we went back he
wasn't home. BUT we didn't give up so on Monday we were in the area
and we stopped by again and they were both home! It was a miracle too
because his wife, Vilma, was only home briefly between jobs and said
she's usually never home during the week AND she is actually a hidden
less active!! She was talking to us and told us she was baptized in
Honduras as a teenager and then they moved and lost contact with the
church and she eventually lost her Book of Mormon but she still loves
the church so much! So now we have a new investigator AND less active
to work with!! Miracles do come from tracting!

We also had a few other miracles- a less active we've been working
with from the English Ward came to church! And we finally got in to
see a less active from the Spanish Ward we've been trying to see all
cycle. It's hard to explain mini miracles like that but they are just
such huge blessings for us when we work so hard and often don't see
the results of our labors, but every so often we get little bonuses.

Double wards means double the parties too! First we got to go to a
wedding in the Spanish Ward for a little bit to talk to some of the
family and Ward members we don't always get to see, it was super fun.
Bodas (Spanish receptions) are definitely super fun and crazy and
filled with dancing! It was also a miracle because I was able to talk
to one of the girls in the Ward (she's about my age) and she's been
struggling and needed someone to talk to and we just were in exactly
the right place at the right time. Party #2 was that the English
ward's relief society had a fall social. They watched I love Lucy and
it was all set up as an adorable movie theme with concessions and
everything, it looked professionally done. And we had another less
active we're working with come with her little girl and they LOVED it.
Activities are such a great way to have people realize we're normal
people and just feel more comfortable with the Ward!

With the Spanish Ward we got to have breakfast with Obispo and all the
missionaries. He told the story on how he chose to be baptized and it
was church a special spiritual moment. It gives you perspective for
the people we find and realizing how they have that potential to be
future bishops, relief society presidents, etc!

One more miracle is that we've been trying to work on Reverence with
the Spanish Ward. It's been our goal as a district is whole cycle.
We've been teaching all the members about the importance of the
sacrament and reverence and then we brought it up in Ward a Council
and they've started to announce reminders of reverence every Sunday
(since our sacrament meeting is last it can be a little hard) AND THEN
Sunday night they had Noche de Hogar with the Ward and the entire
lesson was on reverence. This Ward is just so so incredible. We have
such support and great leadership.

Well those were the highlights of this week! It was a pretty busy week
with our STL split, our usual packed schedule, and some things to
prepare Sister Brower to go home. There's always something to do as a
missionary!

To end I'll share the scripture I've chosen to ponderize for this next
week! I've been loving studying Ether 12:4 and really going in depth
with all the cross references and seeking to ponder it more fully.
This week I've chosen to ponderize D&C 90:24 "Search diligently, pray
always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your
good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have
covenanted one with another."

I love you all!! Have an incredible week!

Con Amor,
Hermana Smart