Peter Whitmer Farm Training

Hello! I'm still alive! And only a 41/2 hour plane flight so I'm really not that far away:) I am feeling really healthy and my stomach has felt a lot better since being out here! I stopped eating apples and that has stopped my stomach aches and I try to stay away from dairy but when I do have it I eat it with one of those lactose pills. I take a probiotic once every three days usually and I think that has helped as well:) So Monday we went to the Niagara Falls aquarium. It was fun and we had some good laughs:) Tuesday we had exchanges and I went with Elder Fields to Lewiston. We had a great day street contacting in the falls! We gave away a ton of Mormon.org cards and I was able to give two Book of Mormons away on the street! It was awesome because that doesn't usually happen in N.T. Haha Wednesday we had a two and a half hour drive for our specialized training at the Peter Whitmer farm! It was such an awesome training and it was great to be right where the church was organized. I also got to see Sister Taylor Hunter again!

We had different rotations into different rooms throughout the day. I will just describe some of the things wrote down. Some of my favorite scriptures that we studied are Alma 5,7,58,2Nephi 2. In the Peter Whitmer log home we were given a tour by the Oslers (the site directors) it was pretty familiar to me and it reminded me of coming with the family. I wrote down that when Joseph was translating he was always ready to translate based on the next word, he never had to read the paragraph before to understand where he was at. He could just continue where he left off. I also wrote down that the Urim and Thummim were clear stones that he would look into, and sometime he would put them into a black hat to see the words better. Emma said that when he would come to a name he would spell it which meant that he was actually seeing the words. But Joseph always said that he translated by the gift and power of God. He translated it once and was done! President Francis talked to us about having Elder Holland come and speak to them at the new mission presidents seminar when they fist got called. To paraphrase E. Holland said that "when your missionaries ask, why is his so hard? Why is this painful? Is there some other way to do missionary work? You tell them that we must all feel a part of the Atonement because salvation isn't cheap!" President Francis went on to say that time is not relevant to God, it is only something that we understand here on earth. Which means that those three hours that Jesus spent suffering in the garden were actually longer. Jesus paid for each of our sins individually and also our infirmities. It was a performed ordinance, an individual ordinance performed for each of us by the Savior. When we ask "Why is this so hard? Why do I have to go through this?" Remember someone has already asked that before when he cried out "Abba!", and that person was also the most pure and perfect of us all. Thursday we helped out at Northgate like usual, we took A (the polish lady) for a walk and she loved it!:) I know that her and I will be good friends in heaven. My driving record came, so I sent it in to Elder Clement! We gave a Ukrainian man a copy of the Russian bible and Russian restoration pamphlet. We street contacted along the canal. We went out to a Chinese buffet for dinner with M and ended the night with a POS lesson with J and A M. We sorted books with J on Friday at the N.T. Museum. We had a great discussion with her about different Gospel topics and resolved all her concerns, it was awesome! She really likes the atonement because she thought that we all have to be perfect to go to church haha. I can wait to see where she goes in life, I think she will be a great mom and a great addition to God's army! We had a full day of service on Saturday! We went to Grand Island early to help set up traffic cones, tents, and barricades for the lawn mower race that happened in front of town hall. J came along for our missionary shenanigans pretty much all day. It was nice to do service all day, and we made contact with a lot of people. In the afternoon we helped with the Rotary club's hotdog sale at the same lawnmower race event. It was really cool to watch these "lawnmowers" more like go carts zip down the road! I think the top speed was 75mph. The Rotary club it didn't sell as many hotdogs as they would have liked to, but the old man were fun, the local band was okay, and it was such a beautiful day. After that we did service for the Riviera Theatre! We had to book it back home and then change into our proselyting close while eating dinner on the way. We got to the show and we're ushers. The show was "yesterday "A tribute to the Beatles. J came with us and it was so fun all these old ladies ushered with us, and at intermission people were really starting to get weird after a few visits to the bar ha ha. But we still got out in time to be home so that was good! We're going to be back on Tuesday to clean so that should be fun. I love old historical things especially theater, so this is really fun for me. Some last minute things that I have learned this week are to do what you love but don't be stupid, take time to enjoy life, love people, and if we are in a situation where our faith is being tried we should rejoice because that means we are on the right path. My favorite quote from the week is... "In the end, we are all pilgrims seeking God’s light as we journey on the path of discipleship. We do not condemn others for the amount of light they may or may not have; rather, we nourish and encourage all light until it grows clear, bright, and true." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf Love, Elder Crowley