8-2-10

Hello Family!

How is everyone doing??? I love hearing about everyone and the fun experiences people are having. This week has been one of the most amazing weeks of my mission. We saw many amazing miracles and I feel that we are feeling the effects of our extreemly hard work. It conntinues to feel so good working as hard as we possibly can. Regardless of how hard we work it is still not enough. How grateful I am for the Lord, for the Atonement which makes up for all that I lack.

I am loving the people here in Brooklyn more and more every day. I feel the love the Lord has for these people. I am amazed at how much I truly love them. A lot of really neat things happened this week. I'll do my best to share some of the experiences with you.

Starting on Tuesday night. Sister Smith and I were together for about two hours. Sister De La Mare is her companion and we share an apartment together. They are the only English Sisters in this area right now. Sister De La Mare was sick so I went out with Sister Smith for a little while. As we went out and looked up referals and contacted people on the street testifying of Christ and about His restored church we experienced a miracle. We walked by a shop that had a lot of people outside the front of it. Later we found out it is a barber shop. As we walked by I thought I heard someone speaking spanish. I turned around and was looking to see who was talking. One of the men outside asked if we were lost or where we were going. We stand out, two nice wemon dressed up walking around a...not so nice area. I love New York. I told him we were good and was just looking around because I thought I heard someone speaking Spanish. I asked if he did and he DID! We walked back and found out all of the people outside the shop spoke spanish. They are all from Panama. We started talking to them in English and spanish. Sister Smith only speaks English. We ended up teaching them a lot right on the corner of the street. They were sitting on crates and broken chairs and we taught them about the restoration and recounted the first vision. It was really neat. They had a lot of really great questions as well. We then left them with our information and where they church is and then started to walk away. As we were walking away I thought, "I wounder if we could set up a return apoinment. Should we? Why not?" So we turned back around and then asked when we could come back. We went back on Sat with a member. Unfortunatly there was only one of the original guys there but we were able to teach him and one of his friends as well. He has some really good questions. We are planning to go back on Wed and teach them again. It was really fun and I felt the guidance of the Holy Ghost as we talked and began teaching them. Usually we do not, as Sister missionaries, stop and talk to a big group of mostly men together but the prompting was there.

My testimony and gratitude for the gift of the Holy Ghost has grown so much. I am so grateful to be worthy to have this gift and to have the added direction I need as a missionary to know who to talk to, what to say, and how to sat it in Spanish.

We have had so many experiences like the one above. I could go on and on. The other day we were knocking doors in a building and looking up people that were taught by the missionaries before. As we were walking by a door the door flew open. It was a member that I didn't knew lived there. They invited us in but over and over we said, "Its ok, we were just walking by." The husband said, "no, you can come see my wife" as if we had an apointment with her. We came in and found out that she had just gotten back from the hospital and has cancer. We were able to talk with her for about an hour about her life, her sorrows, her goal. She wants to go to the temple so bady and be sealed with her family before she dies. It was a miracle to me that we were able to be there right when she needed it. I could feel the spirit grately in my heart as this woman talked about things she despratly wants to change in her life. I was so grateful that I was able to understand what I needed to as well. When we left I realized I understood everything she had said in Spanish. What a great blessing from Heavenly Father.

I really could go on forever with experiences like this but I must end. We are working with some really good people right now. We are going to continue to have miracles for the people here to understand and make the decision to follow our Savior Jesus Christ and be baptized. The work is moving forward in might ways. More and more I realize that I need to continually be applying the Atonement into every aspect of this work. I am not strong enough to do all that is requeired alone but with the Lord it is all posible.

We are working as hard as we can. Hermana Reed is great and keeping me on my toes. I know that this is the work of the Lord. I love my family so very much. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. I know that the Church is true. Yesterday a man came up to me at chruch and told me to thank my parent and all those that are supporting and sacrificing for me to be here. He said, "It is a sacrifice for them to not have you around or to be able to talk with you and have your help." I hope all of you know how grateful I am for your love and sacrifice as well. This work can not be done alone.

I love you so very much. Have a great week, find the joy in the journey and remember that regardless of how difficult every day is, its still a great day to be alive!

Much Love,

Hermana Banaszewski