What a fantastic week. I've been so happy. So happy:) It's so hard to write out how I'm feeling and the rich experiences I'm having. Words just don't do it. I'm convinced Sister Eastman and I are the same person, but different. We are twins my friends. We are sooo much a like and both really just want to be DILIGENT!! I feel like we both just do things similar & it's great. That's when missionary work is so fun. She is one of the best people, so kind, so much fun, and has such a good energy. I love her so much. We got asked about 6 times this week if we're sisters!! I'll take it.
This morning we went apple picking in the beautiful fields of Stuart's Farm with a couple cute families in our ward. We even picked up Lauren, our Mission President's daughter. I guess it's an east coast thing. We got a big thing of apples and the best donuts eva. Such sweet moms and their kids. SO MUCH FUN!! So I guess this week we will be making apple sauce, apple pie, apple cider, anything APPLE so if you have any recipes please send them over.
We had a pretty crazy week. We have been so busy and I love the feeling of being exhausted at the end of the day. It seems like we have so much work to do! There are really good things happening here. So many golden people we have found that we love. We also had some really weird things happen this week that really showed us the Lord works in mysterious ways. But first, we actually tracked "Beyoncé's" house... We were laughing so hard. Hahaha! We just thought she needs the gospel too?? I think we were the first brave souls to do it... A man that was not Beyoncé answered the door and denied the BOM. We're convinced it's one of her cousins or something.... HA! Okay so, we went to go look up a potential investigator in this apartment building. She wasn't there so we knocked that floor and the floor down. We got to this one and there was a cute rug (things we notice) so Sister Eastman said, "This one will be a good one!" So this girl answers and immediately lets us in to sit down. She was so nice. She was studying lots so she had sticky notes everyone in her house! Everywhere. She starts talking and said that last week she was praying really hard because she felt so lonely and then this week she got a call and someone proposed to her..so casual.. She's Muslim! Well she is thrilled and she'll get married in the next month. Anyway. She said that sister missionaries have met her before and she has talked with them about the similarities of our religions. There are actually many with the Muslim religion. They are very religious and devoted people. She is such an intelligent and interesting person. We introduced the Book of Mormon and told her what it is. She said she was going to read it and was quick to give us her skype account and phone number without us even asking for it. She said we can Skype each other and talk about it. We left her place and put her in the area book and her name was already in the area book!!!! Whaaat. Hahahaha Super cool. Out of all people in White Plains. Interesting!
Another interesting thing was meeting with Tika in the morning and discovering that a less active we were going to ask her about had passed away a few days before. Not really sure the story. It was really strange how she told us.. As we went to go visit a potential investigator, Jaquai & Betsy, a car pulled up and he said he knew us. He told us Annie Bell, Tika's mother in law was his mom. That was so random we met him that day... Then we connected all the dots. On Sunday, we asked Annie Bell about her son and she said he was baptized as well. We gotta find out about his family!!! Oh yes. And Sunday was so good because our less active Lakeshia Brown we have been working with came to church for the blessing she received! She's having a baby in 2 weeks!!! Whaooo baby Jezoly. Cotton was at church, as well! We found so many of the people we planned to see & had a thought to see this week. They were there. What a big blessing!
Couple fun things we did:
-Service on Saturday morning-- breakfast on Ferris. We made chocolate chip pancakes for around 200 people. We are now great at making them, but it came with some trial and error. We were laughing so much.
-We went to a baptism on Saturday night for the Spanish branch because the Hermana's asked us to right before. Sister Eastman on the piano. She does not play the piano. We sang a musical number. Who woulda thought I would be singing so many musical numbers. Those expensive singing lessons when I was younger are really paying off!!! The spirit helped us sing beautifully, of course.
-We went and checked out this community college that we are going to start spending time. We got talking to this woman sitting by us as we waited. She told us when we left that she knows we meet people for a reason. I loved the atmosphere at the college! Discovering great ways to find people, especially as Fall comes around and General Conference is near. We have been handing out General Conference cards!
It's amazing the change that can happen in your heart as you do all you can for the people in your specific area. You start really caring about them and wanting to do all you can to help them progress in the Gospel. I feel that change and it's only through the Savior. He makes that space in our heart's bigger. When we come unto Christ he helps us change our hearts. I was able to be in the President's home last night as they welcomed two new missionaries into the mission. We were also asked to stay for the testimony meeting. What a wonderful spirit was there. I just thought about myself in the short time I've been here. Growth! And instead of seeing things as a sacrifice, they are a huge blessing. Serving the Lord is such blessing. This work is amazing! I am so grateful for my testimony. It's the most important thing we can have. To KNOW. It's something I hold dear and that I am trying to share more freely.
I love you guys!!!!
Have a fantastic week and BE DILIGENT IN ALL THINGS!!
Love, Sister Vassau