Mission Grandma & Mother's Day (Week 35)

Newel and all of his missionaries!

Hey everyone,

It was great seeing you on Mother's Day.

One of the highlights of the week was Newel's baptism.  Every companionship in the ward taught Newel.  First, we taught him, then, after one lesson and his coming to church, we passed him off to the Elders, since he lived in their area.  Then they passed him off to the Spanish missionaries.  He is so awesome, and he has a great testimony.

Another highlight of the week was Zone Conference.  Elder Clarke stayed for it.  It was so sweet. There were a lot of good things, but I will mention one.  He talked about being a Preach-My-Gospel Missionary, which is a missionary who follows the spirit, obeys all the commandments (including ones found in the Missionary Handbook), studies the scriptures, and applies what they learn.  All
that can be found in the introduction to Preach My Gospel.  He said we can't expect our investigators to keep commitments if we can't keep the mission commandments.  He also said that missionaries should study the scriptures in the role of a missionaries and parents should study the scriptures in the role of a parent.  He said that when he became a seventy he was told to buy a new set of
scriptures and to study it in the role of a seventy.

Just so you all know.  Wawa has the best sandwiches.  I don't think we have any in Colorado.

While we were weekly planning a thought came into my head to bring Essix's mom a Mother's Day card.  We did that, but we just left it taped to the door.  Later during the day, Essix told us it was a beautiful note and thanked us.  She also said, this morning, that it meant a lot to her since she wasn't able to get her mother one, as the doctor still doesn't want her out of bed.  I am glad I followed the spirit and did that for them.

We also brought three other people Mother's Day cards.  Tammy, who is a mother, but isn't in contact with any of her children.  She is a grandmother to us.  Sister Sebastian, who has a son in heaven and one in the military, but also is a mother to us.  Sartan, who is in a nursing home, that we visit every week; she also a few children.  I don't know how often they visit her though. It is kinda sad that those three women couldn't see their children yesterday, but I am glad we could brighten up their lives.



Tammy on Mother's Day

Mom, you would be so proud of me.  I cooked curry your way.  Your way is to read the ingredients off a package then make your own thing.  I did that.  I didn't measure anything, and it tasted awesome.  Thanks for teaching me how to cook.

The picture with the boxes is for Iridal.  She is blind, and she is moving to Maryland.  They needed help shipping her Braille scriptures.  Because she is blind, the post office ships it for free.  It was quite an adventure getting them shipped.  We did what Iridal said to do, but the post office wouldn't take them.

We later found out that we needed a stamp to prove it was for blind people.  We went and got Iridal's stamp; thank goodness she had it.  At the post office, after talking with them to make sure we had it right, we went to go get the nine boxes from the car.

Iridal's Braille Scriptures

There was someone who was whistling at people.  Whatever, we were just going to ignore him, but he came up to us.  He was offering to help carry the packages inside.  We were getting creepy vibes from him, so we told him we could handle it on our own.  He said it was an insult to his culture from Puerto Rico.  We kept telling him no.  When we talked inside, I made sure to lock the car.
He stayed by our car.  We then talked to someone who works at the post office to help us.  He went and talked to him, asking him to leave.  He walked away from our car, but he wouldn't leave the parking lot.  Anyway, I saw the employee call the police.  If the police came, we weren't there.  Good news is that the boxes
with the scriptures in them shipped, and I have a crazy mission story to tell. :)

Mirth, in one of the pictures mom sent me, I saw your blanket.  I approve.  I love Hiccup and Toothless.  Sister Fricke named her bike, Charlotte, so I decided to name mine Toothless.  I should send you a picture.  I don't think I have ever sent a picture of my bike yet.  I know mom asked for one, so I probably should.

Miracle: After Elder Clarke, Sister Fricke and I decided to change some things, so we could be better Preach-My-Gospel missionaries.  We wanted to work harder and be more obedient.  Not that we were very disobedient, but making sure we got
to studies at 8 am instead of a few minutes late.  Making sure we ask to leave our area, even if it is to see a less-active in the ward.  Anyway, we worked harder, but didn't see too much success.  However, God blessed us for improving.

On Sunday, Trian just showed up to church.  She isn't a member, and she lives in our area, so we are going to start teaching her.  She is super awesome, and I am excited to get to know her more.  All this shows me is that missionary work really isn't in our hands.  There is nothing we can do, but God will let us teach the people who are ready if we show him that he can trust them to us.  I
think this week we showed God that we were willing to work hard and so he saw that we would take care of Trian.

~Sister Aurora Pack

Tammy and the Red Noses

P.S. We took Tammy to Essix's lesson.  Tammy bought red noses for each of us.  Essix said she liked it.  The other picture is of Tammy and I on Mother's Day.  We brought over a Mother's Day card for her.  We told her that she is like our mission grandma.