The baptism of Moises!!!

He cut his hair. It was really long and he took out his lip ring all on his own with out us asking.

Armand and Moises after the baptism.

We played don't eat Pet at a FHE with the Castro and Mattos Family. This was the board we made for it. It was so much fun!

The Mattos Family

Castro Family

Playing Don't Eat Pet!!!

Hermana Bustos

Sonia, a friend of a member. We called her Sat night and I asked her if she could come to church so I could say good bye and take a picture with her. That was her second time there. Hopefully she'll keep coming :)

Lehi Palacios and his kids plus cousins

Hermana Carbajal, and Rios. The YW and RS President.

Armand and Hna Pedraza. We were all crying. I'm going to miss them so much.

Rosa, Martin, and Diago

The Henriquez Family, minus Hermano

The Mite Family

Our District

Claudia and her 4 little girls



Hello Family!!!

It was an amazing week to be a missionary! I can hardly believe all of the things that have gone on and there is no way I can write about all of them but I will do my best. This week could not have ended any better than it did. It was extremely stressful and emotional but it was really good. Tomorrow I will get my new companion and new area. I was able to talk to the Elders who will and are serving there who is ALSO be training and got a feel for the area a little bit. The members are excited for Sister missionaries to be in the area and are showing it by signing up for a Dinner Apt for EVERY NIGHT!!! I am going to be a HUGE ball when I get home but its all out of love. I just plan on running running running when I get home. So, I will be living in the same apt that I am in...6...6 sisters in our pad. I will be living in our study room, I just have to laugh about it. The mission office is working on getting us another apt in Jamaica. Oh, that is where I am going by the way. I had an interview with President Nelson and he confirmed that. So it will take us a while to get into our area everyday by train and bus...it will be an adventure for sure.

To start of I must have all of you know that my mind is overwhelmed with things to do, past experiences, the pain of leaving people I LOVE, what I need to be doing, moving my things, everything...so I will do my best at describing this week of mighty miracles the best I can. Today has been crazy. We went to go do laundry and all the machines were full because a lady was doing her laundry from the past 3 weeks with 6 people in the house. We ended up going to a MUCH more expensive place but I know we were guided there. We are running around doing our best to have everything done for tomorrow but this morning we woke-up and just felt like we need to not stress, just do our best and it will all work out. Heavenly Father is teaching both of us patience. While at the laundromat the woman working there ended asking us a lot of questions about being missionaries and about the church. While our clothes were drying we ran home and got a Book of Mormon for her. It was really fun. Then we came to do e-mail but all the computers were full. While waiting we went to copy all of our keys so I can actually get into our apt next transfer. While there we met a man who had talked to missionaries before in another area. His name is Dominic. He was a funny middle-aged guy drinking his coffee. He talked to us about why in the world we would want to do what we are doing and NOT get paid for it along with some other things. Towards the end he asked us some questions about the church and were able to clear some things up for him. That was really fun. Heavenly Father guided us with the small and simple things. I love being a missionary and I LOVE being a member of the church. What blessings!

So, after last week with Moises telling us he was hoping to get baptized before I left we knew we had a LOT of work to do. Well, we were wrong. We actually didn't do much with him this week, the Spirit of the Lord did. On Sunday Hna Porter and I left him with a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon. It was a different chapter than we thought it was but thought it was good anyway. Moises had an FHE with the Aguilar family and the Elders because we had to be at another FHE with two other families...always running. That night the Elders called and said the FHE was ok but that Moises had a lot of doubts and was questioning a lot of things. We were really worried about him and just kept praying our little hearts out for him.

We were able to meet with him on Tuesday. Tuesday was crazy as well, everyday was. We were able to see Rosa and say good-bye to her. That was hard. She is incredible and she has changes so much. I asked her how she has seen herself change from October to now. It was...my joy was full. Thats the only way I could describe it. We met Moises in the church later that night. He looked really happy. We talked to him and all of his doubts and questions were gone. He told us that he read the chapter...3 times. The first time he didn't understand ANYTHING. The second time a little and the third time he understood all of it. It was Mosiah 4. While reading on his own he said that he would pray and ask for help. His experience was a tender and overwhelming mercy from the Lord. He understood the Atonement, his purpose in this life, what he needs to do, he repented and felt the overwhelming love of our Heavenly Father. He also took notes while reading, that doesn't happen often with our investigators. I can not describe well the experience with him but overall what happened was that Moises went through a repentance process and felt the joy the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers. Then we asked him about baptism again. He said he wasn't quite sure about all of it. We went through what the covenant of baptism is and how his desire to repent will happen with and through baptism as well as his reading and prayers. We then taught about the requirements for baptism. We went through the baptismal questions and taught him about every point as we were there. He accepted all of it. The spirit was extremely strong. We told him that we needed to set up a baptismal interview if he was going to do it for sure. At the end of our meeting he was still really happy. He said he wanted to be baptized for sure and that we could set everything up. What!!! Yep! That night we were also able to visit with the Casares family for my last time. I love that family so much.

On Wed we had a great lunch with our Bishops wife. She is awesome. Then we visited the Henriquez family for dinner and then we taught English class. That was really fun and I'm going to miss all of those people. Moises came to class and afterwards we taught him more in preparation for his baptism. We decided to watch the Restoration movie and felt that if he was questioning anything that it would be about prophets and Joseph Smith. Before we began our lesson he asked us if he needed to take out his lip ring and cut his long hair before his baptism. We hadn't talked to him about that at all but he said, "I want to be a new Moises." We told him that the church has standards but its up to him. He said he would take his lip ring out and cut his hair by Saturday before his baptism. I told him he could just do it now if he wanted but he said that was to fast. (He took it out the next day for his baptismal interview...on his own.) After that we watched the Restoration. Wow, the Spirit was so strong. Afterwards Moises expressed how much he felt the spirit and said that he knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this is what he needs to do in his life right now. We then talked about President Monson. After testifying that he is a living prophet we asked him what he thought about him. He said, "He is a prophet, why wouldn't he be. He has strong words and I know he guides us to do good." I said, "You've heard him before?" We have no idea when or with who but sometime before he watched General Conference in the home of a member before.

What then happened was something that I can not describe because of how sacred it was and because it was mostly done with emotions and the spirit. Moises then began to express all of his feelings about our Heavenly Father, our Savior Jesus Christ, changing, repenting, knowing that all of this is true. He said that for the past week that he has never felt or had this much joy in his life. That is was a week full of happiness, true happiness. He described the person he use to be and how different his is and the true change that he has experienced in his heart. Wow. He said that he knows that the joy and happiness that he has now is from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He thanked us and we told him that we really didn't do anything. Honestly we didn't. It all came from the spirit and his desire to change and act. He then kept going and boar powerful testimony. All three of us were crying, balling really and he thanked his Heavenly Father for the opportunity to change. He told us that he had been praying for one opportunity for salvation. He felt that he had lost his chance at being saved by his bad behaviors and sins and that if God would bless him with one more chance that he would take it. He said, "I did, and I can't even discribe how I feel, how blessed I am." It was incredible. Wow. After he left Sister Porter and I knelt down right then and there and prayed thanking Heavenly Father for what a blessing that was for us in our lives and for Moises.

On Thursdays we taught the Mite family. They are doing well. They actually read more in the Book of Mormon which was an improvement. I told them to let me know when they are ready and that I would come to their baptism :) We then went to Jamaica with Moises for his baptismal interview. It was his first time on the train. It was really funny to see him experience that. His interview was about 1 and 20 min long. Elder Trejo who interviewed him said it was an amazing interview and that Moises is READY!!! While Moises was being interview we taught Edvin. A student from English class from Jamaica who actually lives in our area. It was an interesting lesson and taught with an Elder. The neatest thing is that after going to Jamaica for the last 3-4 weeks for church he came to where he needs to go, Richmond Hill and ACTUALLY came. He is 18 and is READY!!! The sisters here are going to teach him on Tuesday after Transfer meeting.

Welll, I am over time but want to write about two more things. Moises' baptism and the Pedrazas. The baptism was incredible. Moises was nervous but extremely excited. It was combined with two English wards but our ward kind of over took it. Oh well, Moises understood and that was what we carried about. lol. Afterwards he expressed so much thanks. We kept telling him we didn't do anything but...what a sweet man. He has truly changed and been converted. He told us that he promises to us but more importantly to God that he will be faithful and endure. We will be seeing him tonight just for a moment because he wanted to say good-bye to me before I leave. What an incredible incredible week.

After running around, we visited with the Carbajal family and then...last but not least the Pedraza home. It was a somber evening but amazing. I love that family more than...a lot of things. I gave them a gift, the most important thing I have. I gave them one of my name tags. All of us started crying and Hermana Pedraza started talking to us about her family and that we did our best with helping them to be strengthened. The tender thanks they gave were...never will I forget those moments. I know that it really is never me doing the work. I do my best and try to do what the Savior would do. They told me I was part of there family and that they really want to see me before I return home to Chicago. Armand was crying as well and I think felt a little overwhelmed. While we were walking out he said he needed to go for a walk. I am going to miss that man! He ended up walking us home and...he thanked us for having so much faith in him. I know he will do mighty things.

The week was full of good-byes, until we meet again, running around, and miracles. I know that the hand of the Lord is in this work. This is not our work but clearly the Lords. Our job is to do our best, be strictly obedient, and follow the still small voice of the Holy Ghost. My heart has been ripped and I become extremely emotional just thinking about leaving this place, the people. I have been here for 6 mo. I feel I did my best, worked hard and am excited that I have 6 more weeks to work even harder in Jamaica.

I love all of you very much. I pray for you daily. Be of good Cheer!

Love,

Hermana Banaszewski

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

2-28-11-2

Some pictures from a cemitary. Sister Nelson took us on the way to the office. There are SO many graves in such a tiney space.

Our extreemly HUGE map we worked really hard on and marked where all the members live.

Me very sick but happy because the Elders in our district brought us soup and made us brownies.

2-28-11

Hola mi familia!!!

Como estan? Bien? Que bien! Estoy SUPER bien. It was another GREAT week to be a missionary, to be a live, to be a daughter of God. This week was really fun and we experienced a lot of miracles. I can hardly believe that all we experienced fits into one week.

We were sick YET AGAIN this week. We're not exactly sure what we had. It was different from last week and we BOTH were sick again. I've never had that before. We ate some really good Dominican food on Tuesday afternoon and then we had another Dinner Apt later that night. We're not sure if it was the food or a bug but...that food did NOT sit well with us. We were sick from Tuesday night when we got home until Thursday night. We ended up being inside our apt for that entire time! I have never, ever been so sick before. Wednesday Hermana Porter and I literally spent the entire day in bed. But even with being inside for a huge chunk of the week the work has progressed and miracles continued to happen. We are both feeling MUCH MUCH better and are excited to start a new week with OUT being sick.

On Tuesday night we were able to visit with the Ar* family. They are from Chili. Hna Ro* is Hna Ar*'s daughter who I've mentioned before. Hna Ar* has been less-active. She has begun coming back to church and bringing her other daughter Li* and her kids. We also found out that another girl, Gi*, who I thought was Hna Ar* youngest daughter is actually her grand-daughter and not a member. She is 13 and Hna Ar* said she wants us to begin teaching her in her home! What?! Yep. Huge blessing. Gi*'s mother, Hna Ar*'s other daughter is a member but converted to be a Muslim. She does not want the missionaries over in her home but gave permission for us to teach Gi* in her grandma's home. We're going to need a lot of prayers to begin teaching her but...we are really excited to work with her. She's already come to church 4+ times and loves it. She has a lot of friends in young women's and is doing well.

Thursday we were able to teach the Mi* family at night. We have been planning really hard to teach them and felt that we needed to invite Hna Mi* to be baptized. They have been doing really well with reading in the Book of Mormon and we have seen them change. When we got there Hna Mi* had read two chapters and was doing really well. We read in the Book of Mormon with them, taught, and the spirit was there. We invited Hna Mi* to be baptized and she said no. We really feel like we need to focus on Hna Mite and not them together as a couple. We did our best to work though some of their doubts and re-invited them to be baptized. They still said no. Both Hna Porter and I really felt the spirit while we were teaching. The Mi*'s said they know the church is true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God but they want to be solid on everything in the gospel before they commit themselves. They are afraid of falling away. We asked their daughter to bare her testimony and her thoughts about baptism and she expressed their concerns exactly. Regardless, they don't feel ready yet, even though they have investigated the church for over 2 years and are more active than some members here. We will continue to work with them. I know it is only a matter of time. They are ready but they need to feel ready themselves. They are a great family and we love them very much.

After the Mi* family we headed to the church where we were going to meet Hno Diaz, our ward coagulator. He is a funny man. When we got there he was helping set up for the ward talent show night the next day. We ended up not having ward correlation with him. We were downstairs with all of the youth. There was loud music playing and the youth were dancing and goofing around. We stayed and asked if we could help set up but there really wasn't anything that we could do. I thought, "I don't feel good, I don't want to hear this kind of music right now or ever, what are we doing here?" Even though I questioned what we were doing there, we didn't feel like we needed to leave. We set a time for us to leave regardless of what was going on. Right before we were about to leave the church and work Hno Aguilar came down and said, "Do you have a min, I just called Mo* and he is going to come. Can you teach him?" What?! YES!!! Even though we hadn't had a set apt with him we kept planning for him. When we were called to teach him we were ready. It was a lesson to me to always be ready along with obedience. We could have easily been listening to the music, dancing and so forth but we didn't.

Mo* came and we did our best to teach him with the Spirit. It was an incredible lesson. Actually the lesson was ok but the spirit was really strong. Mo* has a strong STRONG desire to change, to repent, and become better. He is about 28-30, from El Salvador, I think, an alcoholic, and smokes but that is what he wants to change. It is hard to describe the lesson, what was said and felt other than it was incredible. Because I was still sick I couldn't think 100%. I said a silent prayer and pleaded that this would be a spirit guided lesson. As we taught him I felt bold, confident, and did everything I knew how to hear and follow the spirit. While teaching he stopped and said, "This is amazing, it is like you know what I am thinking." I had just said, "Mo*, Heavenly Father is so pleased with your desire to change. He loves you. He is happy with you." Mo* said, "That is what I wanted to know. I wanted to know if this was what God wanted me to do, if He even cared and if this is what I should do to change. How did you know? You are servants of God, you are speaking His words to me right now. This is just what I was looking for and wanted to know." WOW! How humbling. I know that everything that was said was from the spirit. I know the lack of my skills as a missionary, I recognize how poor my Spanish is but Moises was there, he has desires to change and Hna Porter and I were doing EVERYTHING we knew we could to help this man learn and come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful that Heavenly Father is aware of what we stand in need of and how to help His children. That night He helped Mo*, not us.

We invited him to read in the Book of Mormon. We promised him that he would be able to change, stop drinking and smoking as he worked hard, kept his desire change and read. He was a little take back that a book could do all of that. We left him with Alma 36 to read. We talked to him a lot about baptism as well and said he wants to learn more before he decides to be baptised but he understands that he can be cleansed from all of his sins as he follows the example of Jesus Christ and is baptized. He came to church Sunday!!! He also read and said it was great and he didn't stop reading after he finished reading the chapter! What a great man. While teaching him we taught him how to pray as well. We asked him to give the closing prayer and after a little tough love and saying that he CAN do it he did. He prayed and it was amazing. Afterwards we asked him how he felt. He said, "I feel warm all over. Maybe this church is just hot but I feel warm all over my body. I feel something deep within me..." We testified of the spirit and that he was feeling it.

On Friday we were able to teach Ol* and St*. It was kind of a crazy lesson but I guess that just happens sometimes when you are teaching a 10 yr old, 7 yr old, with their 5 yr old friend. It was good though. They understand better that they need to take these things a little more seriously. Hna Me* helped teach. Ol* came to church on Sunday! We were so excited to see him there. Ro* also made it to church. We've been worried about her and her progression lately. Part of it is that we haven't been able to teach her for a while with being so sick. We are hoping to teach her and Martin sometime this week.

Saturday we were doing all we could to work hard and at the same time remember that we had just spent two days in bed and to not kill ourselves. I love LOVE working. We ended up writing about 30 thank you notes for members of our ward, investigators and so forth to express our love and thanks for everything we do. I have a huge testimony of thank you notes. :) They get things done and people let us come over when they feel we really love them and aren't just trying to get something out of them. After that we had a dinner apt with one of our investigators, Hna Parada. She is incredible. She has a rough life and due to some choices and things going on in her life she can't be baptized just yet but has a HUGE desire. She will be some day. After a great time in their home we had planned to finish our weekly planning that desperately needed to get done. My testimony of planning has grown in enormous amounts serving a mission. The thought of going home right then didn't sit well with me...more time inside...NOOOOOooo... We had planned another apt but they called and cancelled right before we were going to leave. We decided to look up some former investigators and thanks to the awesome zoning of our area we were able to look up quite a few people in an hour. There was either no one home or no one interested but we did our best. As we went from house to house we did our best to contact people on the street and check out the area. On our way to the last person we were going to look up we stopped a couple on the street and talked with them for a little bit. They had talked with missionaries before and actually use to have missionaries live in their home in Peru. We've really been doing EVERYTHING we can to find new investigators. It has been difficult, which it always it but it makes you value and love those you are teaching even more. We got the couples information and invited them to church. They said they would give us a call when we can come over which usually means..."I'm just being nice to you but I'm not going to call." They didn't call BUT the next day I was looking over the potential investigators that we have in that area and I found them in our records! We have some more information on them and missionaries here have met with them before. We are going to do our best to look them up this week and pray that they will be ready to accept the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week has been one of miracles and blessings to hear and follow the spirit. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the people here more than I could ever express. One example of a miracle is that there were 3...THREE people that wanted to feed us all at the same time or within two hours and would not let us say no. Some how after explaining that we would LOVE to come over but were running from apt to apt they said, well, just come and pick up the food, then you can eat it when you have more time. What?! Yes!!! What a blessing. We ended up bringing two dinner apts home and eating at another members home. Please don't question the weight gain my poor body has experienced. It is all because I love the people :) and their food.

I love being a missionary Family. I am doing everything I can to be 100% obedient, consecrated, and follow the spirit. I know there are so many things that I lack in but I am doing my very best. I need to apply and use the Atonement more in my life and in this work. We are looking forward to this coming week. We have a lot of good apts with people we have never met before but are family members of members or people that contacted other missionaries on the street.

I know this is the work of the Lord. I know that Christ lives and miracles continue to happen. The world is getting torn apart but there is hope and comfort found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know this is His church. I love all of you very much. Have a great week and know that I will be praying for you.

Con Amor,

Hermana Banaszewski or as the members say, Hermana Banana wisky

2-21-11

Hey family!

How is everyone doing? I hope well. It is always so great to get updated on how everything is going in all of your lives. It was another great week to be a missionary. We experienced a lot of miracles and humble times. This week both Hermana Porter and I were really sick. We were not able to even go out on Thursday or Friday. It was bad. We spent a lot of time in bed just resting and sleeping when we could. We were worried that we wouldn't get better in time to go to the Temple Saturday morning. We did EVERYTHING we could to get better and fast. We slept, we drank water, air born, vitamins, soup...you name it, we did it. It really was a miracle though that with being super sick for 2 days that we only had to cancel 2 apts. It was a huge blessing for us. On Saturday morning we had to wake up at 3:45am to get ready and meet our ward at the Church. When both of us woke up we felt pretty good. We still had a stuffy nose but good enough to make it to the Temple. What a blessing! We were able to go because Cl* had never been before and is a recent convert. It was amazing!

We were able to go with our ward as well. There ended up being about 25-30 members there from our ward. There was a group of youth as well. That is one of the best things in the world, to see those your are working with spiritually to be in the Temple and that they are worthy to be there. We have been working with Cl* to do family history work as well and she was able to bring 3 names to the Temple and did the work for her Grandma! Neat hu? What a blessing!

Besides being sick there were a lot of other things that happened. On Valentines day we were all over the place but we were able to heart attack some people on the way from apt to apt. We heart attacked the Mi* Family as well as the Ro* family. We found these really neat posted notes that are cut in the shape of a heart. It is the best thing invented for missionaries. Now we can do heart attacks anywhere, anytime. All me need is a pen and we have the hearts already cut out with stickiness on the back!

This week we met with the Mi* Family. They are doing really well. Hermana Mi* is really progressing. I can hardly believe it. When I first went over there with Hna Winfield we began inviting them to be baptized and they cut me off and started yelling. When we left I said, "I don't really ever want to go over there again." But now they are reading. It is still slow but Hermana Mi* is READING!!! Before she said she never really understood it. Now she says that what she read was beautiful and she is getting it. One Tuesday we read with them in the Book of Mormon as we have been doing lately and taught them simply about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what exactly that is: Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. Then...we knelt down with them. Right there. We had them each pray and ask Heavenly Father specifically if the Book of Mormon was true and if this was the Church of Christ and also to have faith enough to ACT when they received an answer. THE SPIRIT WAS THERE! Hermana Mi* felt it. After we had them write their feelings and thoughts down in their study journal. Hno Mi* tends to talk a lot and Hna Mi* doesn't talk enough so to be able to ponder and thing about what they felt we had them right. Hna Mi* ended up writing about 1/2 page which is a lot for her. Hna Porter and I both feel like we need to talk to her and ask her about Baptism. She came to Gospel Principles again which was great and...We are praying HARD that she will be baptized pronto.

I know miracles are real. Lately I have really been feeling like I am lacking in something. I feel like I'm doing pretty well but this work can not be done on "pretty well". It must be done on excellent. This week I have been studying and doing all I can to better understand what I need to do and can do to become more consecrated. One thing that I've learned from my study is that to become consecrated someone must consecrate you in a way. In Mosiah and Alma we learn that Alma the younger was consecrated by his father Alma to be the high priest. When we consecrate oil for the sick it is done by the priesthood. The oil is consecrated by the priesthood and so forth. That is something that has really stuck out to me. For me to become consecrated the Lord must do it. Mind you there are things that I must be doing. I have been set apart as a representative of Him, a form of consecration. It will come as I do all that I can, become exactly obedient, have grater faith, repent, seek the Holy Ghost, and endure that the Lord will consecrate the work which is going on here. I hope all of that made sense. Most importantly...I recognize that I need to improve. We always do but...I NEED to improve. I can not afford not to. I must trust in the Lord more, trust and follow the Spirit more, be more humble, and improve my obedience. I know it can be done as I turn to the Lord and apply the Atonement more in my life.

This Sunday was missionary Sunday. For some reason our bishopric only wanted us missionaries to speak. It was somewhat funny to me. In a Spanish speaking ward there were four people speaking who are learning Spanish. Hna Porter gave her first talk in Spanish. She was really nervous but did an excellent job. She is a great missionary but needs to believe it. She can speak Spanish really well but she doesn't think she can. It was really good for her to speak and a lot of the members told her that she did a really good job.

All of us decided what we were going to speak on ourselves. As I prayed about what I should talk about I felt impressed to talk on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is amazing how much we refer to the word, "Gospel" but sometimes do not understand what that really means. I talked about how simple the Gospel of Jesus Christ truly is and that it is possible for all of us to live it. What joy that should bring to all of our hearts! It is possible to live the Gospel, it is simple, and all compassing!

One thing that has also stood out to me this week is how much of a difference it makes when people can feel your love for them and the effects love has on people. I have now served in this area for 5 months. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the people here. I'm not sure if I will be serving her my last transfer or not. Secretly I am hoping I stay. I don't think I could bare to leave and say good bye to all the people I love here, have to go serve in another area and then say good bye to them as well in 6 weeks. I also love serving with Hna Porter. She is really fun and she loves to work and work hard. That is one thing that can make or break it for you. If you have a companion that likes to work or not.

Oh! Another miracle for the week. Hna Porter and I were talking about Ol*. He is having a really hard time progressing because...we need to work with his parents. We have been feeling that we need to work with his parents from the beginning but they have been avoiding us. On Saturday we made 3 different scenarios going over to their home. 1 if we could teach Ol* 2 if we had the chance to talk to his parents 3 if we could only talk with Hna Me* who lives with them Well...we prayed A LOT to be able to have the opportunity to talk to one of his parents. We practiced and everything. Yep, you know it. When we got there he was home and out in the kitchen for a little bit. I knew we had to say something. Hna Porter didn't know what to say in Spanish and I blanked. With some good companionship unity and the spirit and miracle happened. I turned to her and said, "what should we say?!" I was so excited he was there that I blanked on what to talk to him about. She said, "Invite him to church" OH yeah!!! We started talking to him about Ol* learning more about the church and so forth. We ended up having a REALLY good conversation with him and figured out what some of his concerns are about the Church. We testified to him about the reality that God lives and that He is our Loving Heavenly Father. I know the spirit guided the conversation. First off because I could understand him, I wasn't intimidated but this HUGE man who is intimidating, and I could speak Spanish when I needed to. Also because he said we could start teaching his family soon :) YEP! We obviously have a lot of work to do with that family but I told him that we are here for a reason. His family had moved after the missionaries were teaching them in the Summer and by the Hand of God we were able to find them again.

Well Family, it truly was another great week to be a missionary. I love being here. I recognize I have so much to change, improve and become. I pray that I will have become what Heavenly Father expects of me and that I can become before I come home. I love all of you very much. Thank you for your continual prayers, especially for my Spanish :)

I know this work is real and is the work of the Lord, not of man. Every day we experience miracle after miracle. I know that Heavenly Father loves each of you very much. Thank you for all of your love and support. Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Banaszewski

2-14-11

OK Family,

I have about 5 min to write. We have a Zone activity and...we have no time today. I love e-mailing and it is a huge release for me but...this week we're going to have to cut it short. I can hardly remember what has happened this week. Things have beeing going really well and our investigators have been progressing. Hna Mi* has continued to progress and...we need a miracle with them. She is ready she just doesn't know it yet.

Ol* talked to his parents about getting baptized but his mother who is a Less-Active member said he couldn't because he was already baptized in the catholic church. So, it will be a work in progress but, there is still a lot of hope.

On Tuesday we had an amazing Zone Conference. One thing that has continued to stand out to me is consecration. THere is so much that I can and need to do to become more consicrated, become a stronger, more faithful, disiple of Christ. That is one thing that all of us can do, it is a continual process.

We are HOPING to go to the Temple this Sat with a recent convert for her first time. We are having a lot of less-actives that are coming back to church come as well. It is going to be with our ward. Pray that the member, Cl* will be able to come.

Wow, family, I am so sorry my thoughts are everywhere right now. Right now I am in the mission office and we are rushing. I love all of you so very much. I love this work. I feel like we're working as hard as we possibly can. I know I can always do better and at the same time I'm doing the best that I can. I know this is the truth. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth once again. I know that Christ lives and how grateful I am for that.

I love all of you more than I could express.

Love,

Hermana Banaszewski

Hello Family,

How is everyone doing? This week I feel like I have a LONG time to write letters compared to the last couple weeks but I really don't. We are going to be running all over the place today and already have been. This week has been really good. It was yet again, another GREAT week to be a missionary. I love being a missionary and doing this work. Anyone can really do this work and feel the joy that comes from it. The best part for me right now is that is what I get to do 24/7 and don't have to worry about my personal life.

This week has been really fun. I am training Hermana Porter from Mesa, Az. She is really fun. She is just how I was when I got here. She doesn't think she can speak Spanish but her Spanish is already better than mine was coming out here. She is a little petite girl but she can hold her own. She's always dreamed about going on a mission which is really different from me BUT the best thing is that because of that she wants to work hard so that is exactly what we are doing. We are working our hardest, being as obedient as we can be, continually seeking for more faith, and just crushing the work. It has been really fun to train again though. I have been A LOT more calm about it this time than I was last time. I think some of that is because I need to be calm for my companion. She is learning a lot and taking a lot in. She has a great desire to serve though which is the most important.

It has been incredible to me how the work had been going here. Its been really neat for me to be in this are for a longer time than I normally am. I am baffled everyday with the changes that are taking place with the people here. Yesterday at church there were two members that brought friends that really want to learn more about the church!!! So neat!!! The chapel was almost completely full yesterday and there were a lot of people there that we are working with. Oh! Guess what!? Hermana & Hermano Sanchez from FLUSHING came to Richmond Hill to see me!!! Guess what?!!! She brought me about 30 pupusas as well!!! MMMMMMmmmm!!! What a fun surprise hu? She is really hoping that I will end my mission in Flushing where I started but we shall see. I can't have an opinion on any of that. I love the people and am just praying that I will either go to where I need to be or stay if that is where I need to be. I love the people here in Richmond Hill so much. They are everything to me.

Hermano Agular gave us a referral this week for someone who is interested in the church and we met him on Wed night. His name is Mo*. We are really excited to teach him. He wasn't able to make it to our first apt but have high hopes for him. As a district we have been fasting and praying for our baptismal goal. Right now we have a few people that could be baptized at anytime, they just have to make the decision and move forward.

The Mi* family is doing pretty well. They are having a hard time reading in the Book of Mormon. When they do ready they change. Hermana Mi* has changed a LOT since I have been here. They are ready for baptism. This morning I was thinking about them a lot and just sat and pondered on how we could help this family. After much prayer, asking questions and writing some things down I think we have a plan on how we can help them progress more. We are going to continue to read in the Book of Mormon with them and help them to read on there own but we want to show them a line of progression. What progression is like in the gospel and that Baptism is in the middle. They need to 1 have a desire to learn 2 keep commitments like reading, praying, keeping the commandments, and attending church, 3 a change of heart 4 baptism, 5 temple 6 enduring to the end 7 spirit world, resurrection, and judgement 8 celestial kingdom. There is so much more to it. We are just going to do our best and pray our hearts out for the guidance of the spirit. Overall they are doing well, we just need prayers to help them read.

We had an amazing mission conference on Saturday with Elder Peirson. It was incredible. I'll do my best to sum it up. We talked a lot about the importance of diligence. When we want an increase of faith it comes as we are increasingly obedient. When we increase our obedience which increases our faith we receive an increase of spiritual power. Wow! I need all of those things VERY much. We also talked about having the Holy Ghost. When we are lack having the Holy Ghost it is because we need to repent. He said we can have the Holy Ghost with us 24/7, continually be praying and having a member of the Godhead with us as we do everything we do. Also, he talked about our identity. Many people say, Hello, I am Bob and I am a manager at company X but in all reality that is not who Bob is. There are reasons why the first principle we teach is that God is our Loving Heavenly Father. We are not who we are. We are disciples, disciples of Jesus Christ, followers of Him if we chose. All of us knew who we were in the pre-earth life but because of our mortal bodies and the need to have faith we have forgotten who we really are. We are truly sons and daughters of God, our loving Heavenly Father. Neat hu? I'm sure you had to be there to get it all but I did my best to explain it to you.

We are still working with Ol* and St*. Ol* is 10. We went over on Friday and talked to him about who his is and how the gospel can bless his family. Some how we ended up talking about baptism and he said he wanted to be baptized in our church!!! What?! Yep!!! We still have a lot of work ahead of us before he is able to be baptized. He first needs to get permission from his parents and we still need to teach him a lot. We really want to start teaching his Father. We're praying hard that we will be able to teach all of them together as a family. His mother is a less-active member so she is open to us teaching her children.

I love being here right now. My testimony of good hard work, love, obedience, faith, and humility have really grown. I can not even describe the miracles I have seen in the people here, in my self, with my companions, with the members, and those we teach. I know all that we have is directly from Heavenly Father. We can work and work and work and if it wasn't with the Hand of God nothing would happen. He is blessing us. He is aware of what these people need and through the Holy Ghost we are guided to teach them. It is extremely humbling that He would have me be called as one of His servants here. Because of that I recognize that none of this comes from my hard work. My job is is have the spirit, to listen and act, and do as the Savior would do.

This coming week is going to be fun. We have a lot of good apt set up, we are going to be working hard, and we also have Zone Conference tomorrow.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers. I need them, the people need them. I love all of you very much. Have a great week and know that I am praying for you.

Love,

Hermana Banaszewski