One Stunning Week

Hola familia!

The sites are absolutely amazing! I can't tell you how much I love being here. I've moved to the famous White House, just a short walk away from the chapel and the Smith Farm. We've started to use our exercise time by running to the Smith Farm then walking through the Sacred Grove. It's absolutely stunning each morning, and never fails to take my breath away.

The stunning-ness:

After our shift one evening:

I said goodbye to lots of people, including the Bennett family in the Lyons ward. I haven't talked much about them, but they have been one of my favorite families I've had the privilege of serving with. Lots of kids, and lots of daughters, one who served a Spanish speaking mission, and another who is getting married. They live in Sodus, so we saw them once a week, and I didn't get the chance to say goodbye, so they stopped by the Smith farm with a piece of their family and said goodbye there!

The second day of this transfer was Sister Ewell's birthday, so we found out where she was serving and brought her cupcakes! I made them with lemon cream cheese frosting (Sister Ewell and I shared an affinity for lemon things), but I didn't get a picture of all of them before they were devoured. However here's one I caught of just mine!

It being spring break for lots of people we had tons more guests come in. I took a tour of a family from Mexico City, a mother and her daughter both named Eloisa, and a son in law named Cristobol. The older Eloisa shared her conversion story in the log home. She explained how missionaries had come to her apartment complex looking for a Cadenas family, and were shown to her apartment by some neighbors. The Elders eventually started teaching their family and after being baptized the mother asked how they came to her home, and they explained they had been looking for a referral of a different Cadenas family, but had later discovered they took a wrong turn and were on the complete other side of their area, and had believed them to be the referral. That led us to talk about the Smith family and how they were brought to New York because of a hard winter in Vermont, and there was cheap farm land here. There really are no coincidences, the Lord has a hand in every small step of His work.

I also took a family on tour from the Philippines. The dad really reminded me of Papi, just things he would do. For example: he grabbed one of the hats used as props in the log home and wore it around. The Lord truly provides tender mercies like those to bring a smile to my face.

Online is a huge miracle! I talked to a young woman whose name is Tonya on my temple square day back in the MTC, and she is preparing to go on a mission. We've been sharing insights back and forth and she is just so awesome. She's been called as a ward missionary, and dang, she's fabulous.

Being with Sister Tucker and Sister Cahoon is such a blessing and already we have so many inside jokes and things to laugh about. If I were to serve full time at the sites with anyone it would be these two chicas! 


Reunited, and doing online!

In the grove, watching spring slowly creep up:

We decided to hike up the Hill Cumorah along the nature trail. Wow, can I just say that is one gorgeous walk.

Easter will always be a treasured memory here. It was my first Sunday in the Palmyra ward, and there being so many missionaries in that ward (fifteen of us I think, lots of full time sisters) we helped out in nursery. It was loads of fun, and very hard following the no holding children rule, but still very sweet. I just really love chilluns'. Afterwards we served at the Hill and took loads of pictures. It was one of the warmer days, and ah!!! Everyone, spring is here!!

I took a picture outside with the flowers to commemorate the event!

I am so excited, and so so so happy to be a Visitors' Center sister at the Hill Cumorah!

There are too many stories and too many experiences to share, but I hope you have been able to get a taste of the Spirit that is here. The things that happened here really happened. A young prophet named Joseph Smith restored the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Christ—that very Lord and Savior who suffered at Gethsemane and died on Calvary—leads and guides us, TODAY. He will never leave us alone.

I love love love you all!

Hermana Abreu

The Fun Will Never End...It's Transfer Time!

Well hello everyone!!

So remember when we were all skyping on Christmas and I said that the sites were wanting to put in full time sisters? Well, now I'm one of them! Just to explain a little more it won't be for my whole mission, but something you get transferred in and out of. So I'm moving down to Palmyra and living at the White House and will now be a full time Visitor's Center sister! And to be one hundred percent honest...I am STOKED. Splitting area time and site time is a challenge all site sisters face, but now all of my attention will be on the sites, just as we are getting into the busy times! WAAH! I'M SO EXCITED!

In other crazy developments, I am going to be back in a trio, with none other than Sister Tucker (A.K.A my trainer), and a Sister who I flew in with who came from Canada, Sister Cahoon. She's about a transfer ahead of me but got to the mission at the same time because she was visa waiting. This is super rare and never happens but President Evans is a pretty wild card of a mission president and always keeps us on our toes. I really can't explain how excited I am though. I love love love Sister Tucker and Sister Cahoon is so sweet! I know it will be one par-tay! Also, all the full time sisters (there's nine of us) will be sharing a mini van. So yeah, I really really love my mission.

In terms of this week there was lots of finding and lots of talking. As the sites are picking up speed I've given lots more tours! We were able to go down to the Whitmer farm and serve there again (a total of three times so far on the my mission) and a half hour to closing a young woman and another woman walk in. Her name was Karina and was a convert of almost a year, and came in with the mom of the missionary who taught her. They were one of the most AMAZING tours I have ever taken. They have such a strength. Karina herself was almost done with her mission papers. At the Whitmer farm there is this room called "The Growth of the Church" where you watch a video showing how the church has grown since it first started in Fayette, and never fails to make me cry. Afterwards we shared conversion stories and testimonies and the Spirit was SO strong. I am very very grateful for them! They make the sites some of the best places!

A picture of Karina and I, and of course Christ

Sister Evans came into the sites and we did some online with her. She is such a fabulous example and though she is a very busy mission president's wife, she always takes time to show us how much she loves us all and gets involved in the work! Here is a picture of us with her in the Christus room.

It was also Sister Packard's nine month mark so Sister Ewell and I decided to throw a party for her. They were late from the sites (held up by tours, we're getting busier!) And so we streamered the house and got her a cupcake. Sister Ewell had the meet the Mormons movie downloaded on the "Let's Have A Party" part and played it as she came in. Here is her reaction!

Last week we found a new investigator while visiting Ronda and Mike (the same couple we visited and tried to watch the women's session of General Conference with) who is a friend of theirs. This week he began progressing very well and came to church on Sunday! Such a big miracle. His name is Kevin, and while growing up he had a good amount of seizures but a few years ago had a surgery to

stop them, since then he's recovered and doing well. But another amazing miracle was the fact that one of his middle school teachers who helped him a lot in school with his seizures is the ward clerk! They just started talking and catching up like old friends. The Lord really is aware of where each and

everyone of His children are, and what they need. I will be sad to leave him, and all of the people we have taught here, but I do know they are in good hands with Sister Ewell and the Lord. We had our last district meeting in the basement of the Hill where there are lots of clothes Sisters have donated over the years, so we put on a bunch of stuff and took a picture. We're cool like that.

Well, I will let everyone know next week how things end up! I will give you a fair warning, full time sister p-days are pretty wacky so these nice consistent Monday pdays probably won't be a thing anymore. Have some patience with me as things get figured out! I love you all!!! Have a great week!

Hermana Abreu

Hispanic and Six Month Celebrations!

Another week down!

So it started off Monday evening when we had the celebration of the anniversary of the publication of the Book of Mormon. We were assigned the Grandin again and this time we got to dress as pioneers and take throngs of people through tours. Behind each station were characters from the stories we tell, such as Martin Harris, E.B Grandin, and Emma Smith. It love being a site sister, where we can

all join together in song and sing Happy Birthday to the Book of Mormon :)

We hosted a Spanish dinner! A week or so ago Sister Ewell and I were at the hospital trying to see an investigator we visit there named Virginia who just had leg surgery. As we got to her room we opened the door and find a completely different woman lying in her bed. Upon asking a lady at the desk where Virginia was she said she checked out the day before, which made no sense because we had called Virginia that morning and she said she was still in the same room. We called her again and she confirmed she had checked out, and thought she had let us know. So as Sister Ewell and I sit there trying to figure out what to do, out walks a couple speaking Spanish. I was ASTONISHED. Then I stopped them and asked where they were from. I get to talking about how my dad is from the Dominican Republic and they're from Puerto Rico. They're names are Ruth and Rafael. Soon enough were exchanging numbers and voila, Spanish dinner! We invited them over to the church where we got Francisco from the Rochester third ward to come down and Aaron and Christina as well, since Christina is Puerto Rican. We spent part of the day cooking (I made mangu, Papi would be proud. My hands got super dirty from peeling the platano, but I felt like a true Dominican.

Yummy Hispanic food!

There were lots of good Gate City Branch memories flooding back when we all showed up with our different dishes. Eventually Francisco got to talking about his conversion story, which is AMAZING. And completely what Ruth and Rafael needed to hear. It was such a good experience and something I will always remember.

I hit my six month mark this past week! All day I had completely forgotten about it until as Sister Ewell and I are sitting in bed and I write the date out for my journal. I made a comment like, "Oh, today was my six month mark." Sister Ewell was apalled and gasped, "We didn't celebrate!" She then made me get out of bed and take a celebratory picture.

General conference was absolutely fabulous! Sister Ewell sadly wasn't feeling the best so we went to the Hill on the Sunday sessions and sat in one of the teaching rooms (the same room that I was sick in) and watched both sessions on her iPad. Last general conference I had the privilege to hear from Elder Bednar not even a week later in the MTC where he urged us to make the conference talks

"our walk and talk for the next six months." I still stand in his desire, and invite you all to review the talks and see how you can walk and talk in General Conference even after it is finished. I love you all! You're always in my thoughts and prayers! Have a great week!

Hermana Abreu

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