The Anniversary of the Publication of the Book of Mormon!

Hello everyone! Wow, lots happened this week. We had exchanges and I was with Sister Embley, who is a fabulous missionary STL extraordinaire. Lots of finding! A man taught us to meditate on his

doorstep. We had the most POWERFUL lesson with Aaron and Christina. Much boldness, much love. We started the lesson by singing "Savior, Reedemer of My Soul". Something President Evans has advised me is to use more music in lessons with everyone. SUCH inspiration!

Door Knocking!

Afterwards we invited Aaron to stop smoking for the next twenty-four hours. My heart was pounding, but he agreed! I know the Lord is working with, guiding and leading them.

The Book of Mormon is now 187 years old! On March 26th 1830 the Book of Mormon first came on sale. Sister Ewell and I had the privilege to serve at the Grandin Book of Mormon Publication site on this glorious event and took lots of tours! Oh I love love love the sites! And the Book of Mormon! When it got slow we also decided to sneak downstairs (with the permission of the senior sister, Sister

Bergstrom, who has ironically been the one to lead me to a lot of secret places)where we touched the original door of the Grandin building!

While serving a man randomly walks in with a fancy camera and asks to take pictures of us. He turned out to be a photographer who had a daughter on a mission once and someone took professional pictures of her and decided to send them home, so he wanted to do the same for us. So at the thanks of the wonderful man I can't remember the name of, here are fancy pictures outside and inside the

Grandin building!

General conference is coming up!!!! Sister Ewell and I tried to watch the General women's session with Christina, but it wasn't communicated very well that it wasn't downloaded and we didn't have wifi. So we then try to scramble and find a place and end up going to a less active's home named Ronda and her boyfriend Mike. Their wifi wasn't the most clear, so while we were waiting for

it to load Mike decided to show us some of his gospel music on his HUGE speakers. There we sat, listening to gospel rap, waiting for General Conference to load. I really really love missions.

Sister Ewell commemorated the event.

We've got lots of plans for the upcoming week! Stay tuned for next week where we will be featured in our pioneer costumes for the upcoming celebration at the Grandin building ð

I love you all! Have a great week!!

Hermana Abreu

Nit-Picky Missionaries!

This week has been pretty slow, but we've definitely made lots of memories. Tuesday evening we were snowed in and not allowed to leave our apartments, and the same goes for all of Wednesday. We kept ourselves busy with studies and cleaning (loads of organizing) and also picking nits out of my hair. Oh yes, the most fun part of the week. Lately I've just been hit with all kinds of sickness
and ailments, and the specialty of this week was lice! We didn't find a ton, but Sister Ewell and Sister Packard were very sweet and spent a good amount of time combing them out of my hair, thus nit-picky missionaries! After lots of combing it looks like I'm lice free!

Not fun lice!

Fancy French toast we made while being snowed in!

The first day after Snowmageddon at the Smith Farm:

We attended the funeral of a woman in our ward I visited a good deal. Her name was Lori Watrous and she was known as the "birthday card lady". She wasn't very old, and her passing was very sudden. She was really great friends with a recent convert, George Higbee, and it was just very devastating for him. He's not one-hundred percent mentally there, but he is a very sweet man and we are all so sorry for his loss, and the family's loss. It's times like those that truly make you reflect on the joy of life, and the blessing it is to have the knowledge of the gospel, and that death is not the end. This week I was asked to participate in the Easter concert. The Hill Cumorah is putting on a series of six concert pieces leading up to Easter weekend, featuring students from Rochester in the Eastman school of music. I opened the program by singing the song "His Hands" one of my favorite Easter renditions that testifies of the Savior. Afterwards we listened to two students play the harp and the Spirit was so strong. I love being able to serve at the sites where we can constantly be refreshed by sacred experiences like these!

Sister Packard (who played the piano, and the amazing harpists)

Sorry this week's email is short again! But I'm excited to move forward in the area and everything the Lord has in store for us. I love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Abreu

Windy Days!

This week has been busy busy busy! We didn't serve tons at the sites, which lefts lots of finding time! Sister Ewell had never been down to Sodus point, which is this little town in our area by Lake Ontario. It's legit a beach town, but looks kind of desolate with all the snow and nobody out swimming, but it is super pretty! And windy! We knocked on some doors super close to the shore and were screaming to hear each other. We're hoping to take the bus down there more so we can save
miles. We also saw Melanie down there again! I love her and her family, they are so sweet! Down near the beach, if you zoom in you can see the pain in my face!

At zone conference we all played a huge game of lightning with President. President almost won but was bested by one of the Elders. Just a super funny side note!

After the huge impact President Eyring and Elder Holland left last week we are going into our area with lots of force! More specifically we have been testifying of the Book of Mormon to everyone we meet! Their testimonies of the Book of Mormon are really so amazing and I strive to have a testimony similar to theirs. At that zone conference we talked about how we can use the Book of

Mormon more in our teaching. Something Preach My Gospel says is that if our investigators don't understand the Book of Mormon, they will have a harder time receiving a witness of it. We role played reading some verses with investigators and dissecting them so they can really understand why it is important in their lives. We've implemented that into some of our teaching and read with our

investigators and we've definitely seen the fruits! Speaking of the Book of Mormon we were at the Grandin this week, and guess who served the shift after us? Sister Tucker! She came at the tail end of a Spanish tour I was taking and followed the last little bit of it. I love that lady so much and all her trainerly goodness. I also really love this mission where we see other sisters so often! It gives us that extra boost needed in the day knowing we are not alone in this work.

Sorry this email isn't as long as others! The week has been filled with finding, so please pray for the progression of new investigators! I pray for you all every day and hope you can feel those prayers! I love you all!

Hermana Abreu

P.S something Sister Ewell has done a lot is vlogs, so we'll be doing those now! Hope you enjoy them!

The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

Oh this week. THIS WEEK. So as I've been raving about the past few weeks, the Face to Face finally happened, and it was AH-mazing. Sad to say I haven't actually seen the entire Face to Face yet, my experience laid with the night and morning before. The Palmyra stake had a secret-not-so-secret fireside with President Eyring and Holland. Of course every missionary's first thought is what investigators to bring. We of course invited Aaron and Christina. Aaron was ecstatic to go, Christina not so much, but she agreed to go if Aaron went. As the week went on though it looked like Aaron wouldn't be able to make it, and they told us they wouldn't be coming. We tried hiding our disappointment. So there I sat at the fireside greeting other missionaries and people, and then lingers into the doorway none other than 6'7 Aaron Burns! I cannot explain what a surprise and how happy I
was to see them, and I know they needed to hear those very powerful words of the Apostles.

The fireside itself was fantastic, though I sat pretty far back. What was cool was the next morning. I've been keeping this secret for a few weeks, but now that it's happened I can tell anyone. We had a mission wide meeting with Elder Holland and WOW. Nothing can describe that experience. I was asked to direct the music so I sat in the first row of the first pew. We each were able to shake hands with him and tell him our names and where we were from. Later Elder Holland told us as he shook each of our hands he was interviewing us with his eyes. It felt like he was looking into our souls. Here are some pictures after the Face to Face of some of the sisters and I sitting where the Apostles sat!

For the actual Face to Face we had a shift at the Grandin. We set it up with the Senior couples laptop and watched it all ghetto like. It was the first time we were hoping for tours not to come in, but lo and behold, in comes a tour! But man, how grateful I am they did. It turned out to be a member I knew back in Canandaigua named Sister Johnson. The first day of the mission I had to use the bathroom and we were by her house, so she was the first member I ever met. I love her so much! Sadly her husband just died and so her family was over for his funeral. It was such an inspired tour and it was such an honor for me to give it. Also a girl came in that said she knew Isa in California, so I got a

picture with her!

The girl from California who knew Isa!!!

 

*WARNING: The following passages discuss throwing up. I will only discuss them because they are hilarious. Do not proceed if you have a weak stomach. In other news I got the stomach bug everyone's been getting. It was my first full day with Sister Ewell and her previous companion had just been sick so she was feeling slightly cooped up. We worked out a plan for her to be able to go

out in the day with the other sisters while I stayed at the Hill. In the visitors center of the Hill Cumorah there's a small room near the back with all the kiosks that has a tv with lots of church movies and a small couch, so I brought my blanket and stayed in my pj's and went to the Hill. It was awful. But as I was sitting there harfing my guts into a plastic bag, I realized I was harfing my guts into a plastic bag at the Hill Cumorah. Not many people can say that. Anywhoo, it was much better than the last time I was sick because sweet Sister Nielsen, the senior sister on site, acted as a proxy mother. She supplied me with Gatorade, and check-ups, and lots of love, which is hard to come by when you're sick on a mission. Elder Nielsen gave me a blessing, funny story about that. So he needed a second man with Priesthood and there just so happened to be a man there named Nik Day on business for the Face to Face. Now, who is Nik Day you might ask? I had no idea. You may have no idea, and that is ok. But he brings him in to my dark damp cave where I'm wasting away. I weakly wave at him, then he proceeds to anoint me and Elder Nielsen goes on with the blessing. The entire time I'm trying not to throw up, then when they leave I proceed to throw up. I was feeling better at least to tell the sisters and they ask me, "Do you know who anointed you?" I had no idea. They were like, "That's Nik Day, famous LDS singer Nik Day. Nik Day who sang the 2015 youth theme Embark Nik Day. NIK DAY." And I almost threw up on him. Ah well. Things have been good with Sister Ewell! She's been out eleven months. I know she has lots to teach me about being a missionary, especially about member missionary work. She loves cats and when tracting we found a family with tons of kittens and she didn't hesitate to pick them all up! Here are some pictures of her and I getting ice cream today!

 

I am very excited to see where things are going to go! Tonight we have a lesson with a family we haven't been able to meet with because of the same sickness. Pray for their progression and everyone's progression! I know this gospel brings so much joy, and our purpose really as missionaries is to share with others what has given us so much joy. Pray for the people here in New York, and that we will be able to find those who want that same joy! I love you all! Have a fabulous week!

Hermana Abreu