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

1-31-11

Hey Family,

It was another great week to be a missionary! Guess what? Hermana Sorenson is getting transferred. I am extremely sad about this. She is going to Brooklyn though where I served so its been fun talking about all of the amazing members out there. And...I am training for the second time. Yikes!!! Can you believe that? I sure can't! All I have to say is I will need all the love I can get. Tomorrow I will find out who my new companion is and just do my best to help her and love her up.

This week was really good. We were really lead by the spirit in all the things we had to do. We had planned places to go and things to do but in the end we found ourselves where we needed to plan more and prepare for the coming transfer. Neither of us knew what was going to happen next transfer but we worked really hard to get everything up to date and create a member book here. I feel ready for the coming week and the area is doing really well.

This last transfer we have had a lot of miracles. One is with Ol* and St*. When Hna Sorenson was here last she was teaching them. Some how the missionaries either lost contact with them or were not able to teach them anymore. When Hna Sorenson came back they had moved into a members apt, Hna Me*. On Friday we were able to teach them the plan of Salvation. Ol* is 10 and St* 7 turning 8 in April. There mother is a less-active and doesn't want anything to do with the church anymore but is OK with her children learning and going to church. On Sunday they came to church! We are going to work really hard with teaching their father and really feel like he will be the key to helping all of them progress. There have been miracles all over this week. They may seem small to some people but to us they are huge. On Sat we were on the bus heading to the Street Sweep from looking up a referral. On the way we were about to pass another Less-actives house that I have never met but that Hna Sorenson use to teach and we wanted to work with again. On the bus I really felt that we should get off and look this man up. We weren't sure if we would make it on time to the street sweep because the busses were really bad with all of the snow. So we took the risk, got off the bus and looked them up. They were home and I was able to meet them before Hna Sorenson leaves the area. We are planning to work with them this week in hopes to help them come back to church.


Well my time is almost up. I am super sad that Hna Sorenson is going to be leaving. I will be here with a BRAND NEW missionary! Woot! I have about 12 weeks left in my mission, NOT enough time. I know I will be here for at least half of that and I'm not sure if I will finish my mission here or not.

I love all of you very much. It is incredible how much the hand of the Lord is in all of this work. Christ lives. He loves us. Keep it up family and know that I love you.

Love,

Hermana Banaszewski

PS-Please pray for my Spanish especially with training again and that all will be well. Thank you!

1-24-11

Hno & Hna Vasquez
Casarez Family minus Hno
A party after a baptism
The Diaz Family at their youngest daugher's baptism
Marshmallow gun wars
Breakfast for the Nunez family
Makin' breakfast
Oopse!
Zone marshmallow gun wars
Hna Mejorada, Ethan and a baby they were babysitting
Making jumping frogs with Fatima and Johnny



Hey Family,

Can I just say...It was another GREAT week to be a missionary! I LOVE LOVE LOVE life right now! I feel so good. I'm dead exhausted everyday. Hna Sorenson work as hard as we can and have doing everything to strengthen our faith.

Saturday we had another Street Sweep in Jamaica. We talked to some pretty neat people. One man, he was HUGE, came up to me as I was filling up cups of hot co co ( We were giving out free co co to get people to check out our table and so we could talk with them) and went off about how Christ will come again to the earth in the flesh and that we have a purpose to having our bodies. I agreed with everything he said. He was a little confused and just expected me to bash with him. Then he changed his topic to prophets. He said, where is the prophet? We are suppose to have a prophet on the earth. Christ said he would never leave his people alone, and so forth. I looked at him in the eyes, even though his eyes where about 2 feet higher than mine and said, "We have a prophet." He was surprised and stuttered on his words. Then he asked who this prophet was over. I replied, "He is the prophet of the world." He then asked me what he prophecied of and I explained. I felt the spirit testify to me that what I was saying was true. The man then left but I was at least able to leave him with a pass-along-card. It was a really fun and COLD street sweep. We'll have another one this Saturday as well.

This week was all about loving people up. We have seen how much love these people really need. We were working on loving our investigators, the members, less-actives, all of them. We have seen some pretty big differences with people as we focus on loving them. We made cup cakes for a family and brought them by. We made breakfast for two families and so forth. It has been so much fun. The members have been a lot more open to help us and...our investigators are moving forward as they know that we truly do love them and aren't there for any other reason.

The Mi* family is doing well. They are still reading in the Book of Mormon together as a family. They really could be baptized at anytime. We have been doing everything we can to help them. They are still changing and learning a lot. We are praying for a miracle with them. They will be baptized some day, it is just a matter of the right time.

We started teaching a man named Al*. Hna Winfield and I started teaching him but then it was really hard to get in contact with him. We taught him on Friday and he remembered A LOT from our first lesson with him. He will progress a lot as long as we can keep teaching him and he comes to church.

So, as usual there is a lot I would like to write about but time is short and it is FREEZING in the place we are doing e-mail today.

I want to tell you about a neat experience from yesterday. We had planned to go cook breakfast for Ro* and her family Sunday morning. This is where the original idea come to cook breakfast for people came from. Well, we couldn't get a hold of them in the morning but we felt we should just go anyway. We got everything together and walked to the bus stop. Right before we got on the bus the English Elders texted us and told us that Ar* was not at church. He has been struggling. We thought, maybe we should go over there and cook the Pe*'s breakfast. We stood there and thought about it as we waited for another bus. Then the 2nd bus came. I turned to Hna Sorenson, "I really don't feel like getting on this bus" So we decided to show up at the Pedraza's. We called Hna Pe* 5 min before we got there. She was happy to have us over but wanted to know if it was OK because she was still in her jammies. lol. We got there and when we rang the bell Ar* RAN to the bathroom. He had no idea that we were coming. It ended up being a really good thing. We didn't say anything to him about not going to church, he knew where he needed to be. Hna was SOOOO happy. She was beaming! She said she hadn't had anyone cook her breakfast like that in YEARS!!! It was such a blessing to us and to them. Later that night we went over again and talked to them about how much Heavenly Father Loves them. They are incredible people and I know that I am hear to help them feel how much God loves them. We are praying for Ar* and that he will get back into things.

It is so easy to doubt, think less of our selves, and struggle in this life. Heavenly Father wants us to be happy. That is why He sent His son, Jesus Christ to rescue us and be a comfort and guide. I love being here. Next week will be interesting. Saturday we will get transfer calls : / Hna Sorenson and I really want to stay together again but it really doesn't seem likely. Please pray that whatever happens will be the will of the Lord, I know it will be.

I love all of you so very much. Thank you for all of your love and support. I pray every time I write e-mails that you can feel the spirit while reading them and know how much I love being here.

Have a great week, I'll be praying for all of you,

Love,

Hermana Banaszewski