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

Transfers and a Face to Face!

Hello everyone!
So transfers came around! I'm staying in Newark!! This place isn't done with me yet! Though, Sister Moberly is leaving me, she's going to Buffalo, more specifically Kenmore. She's super pumped and I'm pumped to be staying here! My new companion will be *drumroll* Sister Ewell!!
I'll send a picture as soon as I get one! In terms of this week we had lots of finding and site shifts sprinkled in there. When we had site meeting this week Sister Moberly and I got distracted and forgot to make a turn to the hill so we ended up at the Martin Harris farm which neither of us have been to because they don't give tours there. While we were there we thought we'd take pictures.

The sites are slowly but surely picking up speed. The Smith farm was fairly busy one day. Elder Holmes, my old district leader, brought an investigator from Buffalo. They were a super cool tour and provided some really awesome comments.

Sister Wolfe, an older sister who had gone home, came back to the sites. She was Sister Topham's old companion so I'd heard a lot about her. She was so sweet, and such an awesome missionary. Her first area was Newark so she came out with us after out shift and visited a recent convert with us named Carol Mussaw. It was so inspired, and really what Sister Mussaw was needing because she'd been

going through a hard time, her husband recently passed away. She came to the sites earlier to visit the Nielsens. Here's some pictures of that!

Also we saw Bob, the grove keeper at the sites. It's always such a pleasure

being able to see him. I took a picture with him!

Here are a couple pictures of Sister Moberly going around before she departs to

Buffalo!

Alright, here's the important part of the email. This week President Eyring and Elder Holland are coming to the Smith Farm for a face to face youth broadcast. We are all scrambling getting ready for them, and I'm getting super pumped! On March 4th tune in to lds.org and watch two of the Lords apostles testify of Jesus Christ and His love! Crazy thing is, there's a small statue here at the Smith Farm depicting the First Vision and it's called Face to Face. Get ready everyone!

I would invite you all to prepare for the chance to hear from the apostles! Bring a question to the face to face, I promise it will be answered! I love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Abreu

Faith, Hope, and Charity: The Pillars of Joy

Hello Everyone! What a week it has been. First of all, the weather has been beautiful! I never thought I'd know what it would be like to feel sunshine again, and I've loved every minute of it. It will probably go back to some snowy bleak days in a little bit, but for now I'm enjoying the Indian summer. Just to show you how beautiful it's been Sister Moberly and I did daily planning on top of the Hill Cumorah (well, as close as we could get to the top, we got tired). Here's a video of me racing up the top, and also a picture at the bottom of the hill. It's a lot steeper than it looks.

We've still been seeing Aaron and Christina pretty consistently, and Christina is going through a pretty rough patch. Keep her in your prayers! We've also been visiting a fair amount of less actives. One of these less active's name is Melanie. She is the coolest person ever. She used to go the Palmyra ward but then moved to Sodus (the Naples of Newark), which is super out of the way and kind of stopped coming. But when we came by she was so loving and sweet. She has four daughters and a son all different ages which are all so cute. Brings back lots of memories of the babies for sure. Her house is super cool with ladders and crazy stairwells. She lives on the shore of a lake on the farther side of Sodus, Sodus Point. Here's a picture of that lake from the window of our car.

We've seen them a few times and had a lesson about Faith, Hope, and Charity. We took three pieces of paper and wrote out Faith, Hope, and Charity then rolled them up. Then on top of a Reese's bar we put a piece of paper that said Joy. Faith, Hope, and Charity are the pillars to Joy. That principle is something I've been learning a lot lately. There's a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness comes and goes, but Joy is a state of being. To have Joy there must be three things: A knowledge that God is good and He loves me, so Faith. A feeling that everything will be alright, despite present circumstances, so Hope. A belief that people are good and are worth it, so Charity. Those are the first steps, the beliefs. But it is when we build upon those things and act on them that we will find true Joy. One of my favorite conference talks that talks a lot about this has been Joy and Spiritual

Survival by President Nelson. I invite you all to make the time to read it. You won't regret it.

In other news, Melanie's kids have a pet ferret named Mousekitty and I held him. He's kind of blurry because he kept moving around, and I only freaked out a little bit!

(Maya, Melanie's daughter, is the one in the background. Super cute!!)

I love you all! You are always in my thoughts and my prayers! Always remember

that Heavenly Father is there and He loves and each and everyone of you. Until

next week!

Hermana Abreu

When You Pass Over The Passover

Hello Familia!

What a crazy week! We're doing a good amount of finding here, lots of old investigators have dropped us or we've dropped them recently, but the Lord is definitely showing us miracles! There's a fair amount of new potentials we've found that we have planned to see this week, please pray for their progression!

It hasn't all been finding though. Online has provided a good deal of crazy experiences. A man from the U.K named Graham came on chat worried he wouldn't pass his upcoming baptismal interview, so we pulled out the questions and asked them online. By the end he was still worried so we said, "Guess what? We just asked you the baptismal interview questions." BAPTISMAL-CEPTION. Then we asked him if there was anything else we could do for him and he asked us to sing a song for him. Jokingly, we said if he gave us his number we would sing for him. Then he did, so we called him, and I sang "I know That My Redeemer Lives" over the phone. As odd as it was it was actually a really cool experience.

I also had my first online baptism! About a month back I called a man from Uruguay named Massimiliano who had called Mormon.org before and some sisters said they would call him back and teach him more but they never did, so he was pretty sad. I had the time, so I taught him a couple principles of the Restoration and then asked if he wanted to get in contact with local missionaries. He was thrilled, so I sent his information off and as per usual waited a few days and checked on him
again. It was saying he had been un-contacted so I called him expecting to have to reach the mission office afterwards. But then he said he had been meeting with a trio of Elders and was on the second lesson, and loving every bit.  Every time I've talked to him I have felt uplifted by his Spirit and His desire. Here is a picture the Elders sent me of his baptism!

We got to meet Aaron and Christina's baby! Jacob is so cute, I just want to squeeze him, AAH!! Made me miss holding babies and I had many a flashback on all the times we'd have a newborn in the house. There's just a light about him, and the family, and it's one of my favorite pieces of the week to go visit them. Aaron's decided that with the new baby he really wants to be more dedicated in quitting smoking, so we made a plan with him. Until the end of February he's going to cut back a little each day, to be cigarette free in time for him to baptize Christina on March 12th! To help him in this endeavor we've written out scriptures for every day of the month and told him to put them on his cigarette packs. It's rather funny, but it's helping him! I love that family so much, and I pray for them every day. Keep them in your prayers!

Aaron and Christina and baby!

Cigarette pack with a scripture taped on top

Aaron and baby Jacob

One fun experience was getting to go out with Sister Evans, the mission Presidents wife. We had a couple lessons planned that fell through so we took her tracting at night! WOO! We met her at Subway (where we were low key stalking our investigator who works there and hadn't been responding to our texts, mission life ð$$$) and went to a variety of places. Going out with the mission president's wife can bring miracles! We started talking to a guy with a family who accepted a return appointment. Then because there were three of us we decided to visit a potential Sister Moberly had met once who we hadn't been able to see because he was a single male. His name is Mark and he's slightly off kilter. Sister Moberly's first comment at the door, "I hope he's wearing pants this time." He wasn't.

As we're teaching the Restoration and get to the part about the apostles he looks up with a slightly glazed look in his eyes and goes "Oh yeah, I know them, they're here." We thought he was losing it a little bit, but then we look up and see this HUGE framed picture of Jesus sitting with all of his apostles in that famous painting of the Passover. That threw us for a loop, and we had completely

missed it walking in. Passed over the Passover. Later, by the end of the lesson we asked for a return appointment and he said he would love to have us over, but he'd be going to jail for a week starting the 15th. Sister Evans just goes, "Oh darn, well that happens." We weren't busy the 14th though, so we'll be spending Valentines Day evening with Mark before he goes off to jail! Keep in mind, this

all occurred with the mission presidents wife. Only on a mission.


We had zone Pday last week which is always fun. It was an Elders in our district, Elder Short's, birthday so we brought a mini birthday cake for him. Besides that we played games and my arms stung a good deal from volleyball, but

it was still fun!

Elder Short's cake!

The ZONE

Well, I love you all! You are always in my thoughts and prayers! I hope you have

a great week! I'll close with some pretty pictures of the New York sky, which

never ceases to amaze me.

Hermana Abreu

Car Wrecks and Raps

So first things first! Got in a car wreck. WOO HOO!! Mission life!! Anyway, it wasn't anything too serious, just kind of jarring. All of us Newark sisters were coming back from doing service in Sodus and lots of people had called us and our phones were blowing up, so we were trying to answer everyone back like chickens with our heads cut off. Also, Sister Packard, who was driving, was going in the wrong direction. We pulled over to figure out how to get back to Newark, and once we got ourselves situated Sister Packard tried making a U turn, but did not look. Lo and behold there was a car! Both front sides of our cars got hit and we all kind of went flying, but we had our seatbelts on! Literally the first thing I did as soon as it happened was laugh, because OF COURSE we would get in a wreck, on top of everything. But hey, we gave the lady we hit a pass along card. It could have been a lot worse, but of course the Lord had a hand in our safety! 

 

Pictures of the wreck:

Me and the car!

Sister Packard (the driver) and the car 

 

Other less exciting things but equally thrilling things that happened this week. I went on exchanges with the STL of the zone, Sister Larson, in Macedon, a town right beside Palmyra. That was tons of fun because I got to spend the night in the White House, as we sisters call it, it's just basically where the sisters around the Palmyra area live and it's pretty fancy because it's super close to the sites, you could walk there from the White House. Also, it's a house and not an apartment! Here are some pictures of that! 

Me in the White House!

 

In front of the cut out Enthusiam, which you can't see very well, we are enthusiastic at least.

 

 

Exchanges went really well with Sister Larson. I've recently felt more motivated to really talk with everyone that we approach, so I had a goal of doing that as we were out. As I was backing Sister Larson out of a parking lot a man pulled up with a young son. We were far enough away that it was pretty awkward to walk up to him, but I did it anyway and it was still awkward. But once the awkward passed he turned out to be an awesome guy named Rob who we got a follow up appointment with. I'll be checking up with Sister Larson about how that is going! Anyway, here is another picture of our exchange. 

 In front of a Moroni painting

 Also, our apartment can get kind of cold, and so one evening all of us sisters huddled under a table where some of the heat was coming from and just stayed there. Here is a picture of that! We all look pretty creepy, especially Sister Hallows, the one in the middle. 

 

The sites have still been pretty slow, but a cool tour came in. It was a group of YSA girls from Cincinatti who decided to take a trip up on the spur of the moment to the Restoration sites. One of the girls was named Emily and she had just gone back home early from serving a mission. She came out around the same time Sister Moberly and I had, and had only been out three months. She was working to go back, but I am so glad I had the chance to meet her, because she was an example to me of true patience. Here is a picture of that group! 

We were unable to see Juan or Chelsea because Juan was in New York City and Chelsea was sick, but we do have plans to see them again soon and I am very excited about that! 

 

One last thing I'd love to show you. In the car with the Newark South sisters on the way back from he sites we were bored and decided we should all rap. Here is my rendition of the mission through rap. I'm sorry you can't see my face, but enjoy my voice! 

Alright, I love you all! Know that you are all in my thoughts, and the Lord is always watching over you. Have a great week! 

Hermana Abreu

 

 

 

 

The Lord Always Provides!

This has been a long week, but the Lord is always there waiting to pour out miracles on us! The biggest thing that happened was the worksite missionary broadcast, where it was announced that there would be a schedule change and now only four key indicators! Crazy, I know! Now there's no more daily planning at night (not gonna lie, I was pretty excited about that one, I would always fight falling asleep). It basically gives us more flexibility about when we do our studies and planning. I'm super pumped for it!

This week has provided a lot of miracles. So first off, JUAN. Juan is our fabulous SPANISH investigator. You heard that right, SPANISH. Oh, it was so nice giving a lesson in Spanish. I hadn't done that since the MTC. Anyway, he moved from Orlando and before that Puerto Rico. He doesn't speak much English, and is technically in the Newark South sisters area, but because I speak Spanish they handed him off to us. He is such a nice guy, and really interested in learning more. He says
he felt like he has needed this in his life, as his wife left him. We'll be seeing him soon!

The Lord has also blessed us with the miracle that is Chelsea. A member in the ward texted us that she had a friend who wanted to take the missionary lessons. So we zip over to the church building where we meet Chelsea. She is seventeen and has been going through a rough time. She had to grow up pretty fast and lived on her own when she was sixteen. She doesn't know much about Jesus Christ, but she sure does want to. During the lesson she asked US if she could be baptized. Me and Sister Moberly were like.....uh, DUH. But in a much more spiritual way.

Aaron and Christina had their baby!!! We spent a good piece of the week helping them finish their house. Here is a picture of Aaron with baby Jacob!

Some other things that we did this week. We went to Sodus, which is kind of like the Naples of Newark. It's pretty far, so we only go there once a week. We volunteered at a library there where we organized books and stumbled across this beauty:

We also had zone conference! That was a lot of fun, and definitely a needed spiritual boost! President Evans is such an amazing person and I'm very grateful he is our mission president! We also did service at a place called Food Link, we basically gave out food to those who need it. We didn't know it was outside though and we didn't come prepared, we were all freezing. Afterwards we gathered

in the car, took our shoes off, and put our toes against the heaters. Here's a blurry picture of that!

I don't have many more pictures of this week.

Here's a picture in Wegmans, which is a famous grocery store here in NY. Mr. Wegman was apparently a very happy fellow.

Anyway, I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and your love! Have a great

week!

Hermana Abreu