3-7-11

Dear Family,

Can I just say, I know miracles are real, Heavenly Father is real and loves us. His son is Jesus Christ and He performed the Atonement on our behalf. This week was absolutely amazing. I have no part to say that I brought about any of the goodness/miracles that we experienced.

Where do I even begin. Well, last Monday I received an amazing phone call from Hna Cu*. Do you remember her? She is from Brooklyn. We are not allowed to call members in other areas but we can accept calls from them. One reason is we don't usually know who's calling and just pick up which was the case Monday morning. She called me to let me know that Hna Si*, who is Hno Cu* mother who was baptized in Brooklyn in 6 days is doing really great. She said Hna Si* was released from her calling because she was just called to be the 1st councilor in the Relief Society! Woot! Hno Cu* has been completely floored this entire time. If you recall he was our opposition and didn't feel/think his mother was ready to be baptized. I received a post card in the mail from her as well about 2 months ago saying that she completed reading the Book of Mormon! Where did this woman come from! The Cu* also told me that when I leave they are going to come to transfer meeting so say good-bye to me. That made me feel like $100. They also wanted to make sure that I will be coming out in Sept because Hna Silva will be coming to go to the temple for the first time. :)

There were miracles falling from the heavens this week. This week we were FINALLY 100% healthy! It felt so good to work and work HARD! Looking at our schedule at the beginning of the week we thought, "How are we suppose to be able to meet with all of these people?!" Miracles happen. As you know we have been working as HARD as we can with the members. We have been heart attacking them, being as obedient as we possibly can be, and as I like to say, "Lovin' um up!" Well, it was a huge blessing this past week to work with the members. We were able to have 4 amazing lessons or Family Home Evenings with members combined with investigators or recent converts. Can I just say, I LOVE THIS WORK!!! This are going so well here. Mind you, I know there is always room for improvement but...things are going so well. They are all blessings from Heavenly Father.

On Monday we had a FHE with the Nu* family and a recent convert Al* & Family. She was baptized in October. On Tuesday we had an amazing FHE with the Mi* family and Hna Pe*. Hermana Pe* is incredible. The Mi*'s were suppose to give the spiritual message and cheated by having there daughter who is a member do it. Afterwards Hna Pe* shared her thoughts on the message and completely spoke with the spirit and what they needed to hear. The Mi*'s are ready. We just have to have patience and keep loving them even though it can be frustrating at times.

Then on Wed we RAN from one FHE with the Ca* family with a less-active, Fa* to the Ro* family with Ro*, an investigator. Wow! Ro* is doing really well. She has come to chruch about 9+ times now. She still wants to be baptized but there is still a problem with her "esposo". She is living with her boyfriend and they have a family together. She opened up a lot to Hna Ro* and...I love members. Ro* knows what she needs to do. She is not sure if she is committed to Martin or not so...she is going to pray about marriage and what she needs to do next. :) I KNOW she will be baptized someday, as soon as she can.

On Thursday we had an apt all set up with Mo* and two members but something happened and he didn't come. It was neat though because we had a less-active who was going to help us teach but because Mo* didn't come we were able to teach him. Jo* is his name. He is less-active because as much as he tries his boss will not give him Sundays off. He reads in the Book of Mormon and prays everyday. We are hoping to teach with him this coming Thursday with Mo*.

Here is an update on Mo*. So on Thursday he "juked" us but we still had hope. We were able to contact him on the phone and he said he was coming to church. He made it to church 30 min early. Before he went into the church he called us and said that he was outside. Lol. I said, with out thinking, "ok, well go in." He told us that he was nervous to go in by himself. The way he said it in spanish I thought he just said he has a pain. I said, "what? ok...just go into the church Mo*." Then it clicked that in my mind that he was nervous to go in by himself and we both started laugh on the phone. He went in and we were able to get there 5 min later. While at church we talked to him about how he is feeling about everything. He said he loves the church and everything about it. THat is is familiar to him and he loves how much it feels like family. Then we had our service and....I LOVE Mo*. After Gospel Principles he asked if we had one of the books that that Gospel Principle books quotes. He wanted to look up the references and learn more! That was really fun. After class we showed him the Baptismal fount. It was really neat. He looked into it and said, what does someone have to do to know if they should be baptized or not. Not thinking I said, pray about it and ask Heavenly Father. He asked how often we have baptismal services and we told him when ever someone wants to be baptized and that we have one next week for our Zone. He then went up to priesthood and after church we were able to talk with him a little more. I told him earlier that this was my last week serving in Richmond Hill (I'll tell you more about that soon). After church we were talking about something, I can't remember what, and he said, "You don't have a baptismal service today?" I said, "No but next week we will." He then said, "I would like to get baptized before you leave, I hope I can be baptized next week." WHAT!? Yep! Mo* committed himself to baptism. It is going to take A LOT of hard work to help him and we are going to need a lot of prayers but it is possible. Right now we are worried about the word of wisdom. He is going to a FHE with a family and the Elders will be there so we asked them to teach him because we have another FHE to go to with a recent-convert. Then we will be teaching him on Tuesday and Thursday and hopefully more than that. We are praying as hard as we can that it will work out and if not...we know he will be baptized soon. What a miracle.

So, as I said, this will be my last week in Richmond Hill. I am extremely sad but I know it will all work out. President Nelson pulled me aside on Sat after hearing from Elder Anderson and said, "I need you to do something, how would you feel about training again, and being blinded into a new area?!" What! YEAH! I'm really excited. It is going to keep me on my toes and it is going to be a LOT of hard HARD HARD work but...I'll be praying a lot. He told me he wasn't exactly sure what area he was going to send me but it is OPENING an area to sisters. It will be a humbling process but it will be great. Thus, this week is going to be really crazy saying good-bye to all the people I love and cherish so very much. I am sad to say good-bye to Sister Porter as well. She is great. This week we will be running from apt to apt saying good-bye and setting things up for the next transfer. I might be staying in the same apt just in the area next to ours but as of right now we aren't exactly sure what is going on besides the fact that I am leaving. This week should be fun but also HEART wrenching!

Saturday we had the special privilege of hearing from Elder Anderson of the 12 apostles, Elder Rasband of the 70, and Bishop Edgily the 1st councilor in the Presiding Bishopric. As we sat waiting and preparing ourselves for the meeting to begin my heart was swollen with love for all of the people her. It was incredible to me how much I love these people. I LOVE all of the missionaries here, I absolutely love President and Sister Nelson, they are amazing, I love every person I have met here in New York. My heart wanted to burst as I thought about how much love Heavenly Father has blessed me with to feel for these people. At times the work is frustrating, things don't go how we would like but there are always miracles awaiting us and Heavenly Father always provides a way as we are faithful, work hard, and obedient.

Our fireside was incredible in every way. Elder Anderson had all of us shake his had and say hello before we began. It seemed that the theme of the fireside, as it was lead by the spirit was on deepening our commitment to becoming more as our Savior. Elder Rasband and Bishop Edgily both served there missions here in NYC and it was amazing to hear their stories and feel the level of consecration they had while serving. I will continue to do all I possibly can to consecrate my heart and deepen my serves to this work. I can not really describe much more from the fireside other than I left there changed and will continue to do my best to change, improve, and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.

Yesterday we were able to meet with Hna Pe* and Ar* as we do every Sunday. I do not have time to describe everything other than I know the spirit was there as we spoke about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. They are such a special family to me. There are certain people that have really stood out to me on my mission and they are some of those people.

One thing I have thought a lot about this past week is the balance between pride and feeling really good about things. It seems to me that it is easy to become or slip into pride as things are going so well. How do we enjoy when things are going so well while not falling into the pride cycle. I have thought a lot about this. We must always remember where all of these good things are coming from. It is not from us. It is not because we are obedient or work really hard. We can still struggle and face trials with great faith as Nephi did. I think that we must always remember the Lord and the hand of Him in our lives. I love how things have been going here in this area. At times I stand on my chair and shout for joy, I can not contain myself, but at the same time I must remember that all good things come from God. What a blessing it has been for me to see this work progress and grow knowing that it has all been a gift from Heavenly Father. I know Heavenly Father loves each on of us and wants us to be happy and receive a fullness of His joy. I know the way to receive such joy is through His son, Jesus Christ. I know Heavenly Father answers our prayers. My testimony of prayer has grown grately on my mission. I must have more prayers of gratitude for what I have been blessed with in my life.

I love each and everyone of you very much. I will be praying for you this week. Thank you so much for all of your prayers, especially for my Spanish. Have a great week family!

Love,

Hermana Banaszewski