it's abb

Today is a good day. There's a slight chill in the air. It's nice and crisp. The trees are overwhelmingly beautiful. Lately we've been listening to this CD in the car, (idk what it even is) but it's pure piano. Just beautiful simple piano. And when we are driving and it's quiet and I look at the trees I just get emotional. Hahaha like I'm a loser and I don't know what comes over me. But it's so peaceful. And this time of year wins. And I also like pumpkin everything. I also love Halloween. And all the fun decorations I see. There's like this spooky fun in the air here. Love it. Connecticut is great.

So first announcement. WE HAVE A CAR AGAIN. Yes. Count your many blessings name them one by one. Here are some of my blessings right now....
Car.
My testimony.
People to teach.
iPad.
A blender.
My bed.
My Book of Mormon.
Mission friends.
Pumpkins.
Tights. To keep my legs warm.

Yeah!
I'm grateful. Attitude of gratitude. I know it's not thanksgiving yet. But I'm just grateful.

  

So Elder Arnold from the seventy came to our mission on Thursday! What an intense all day meeting!! That man... Wowweeee! He's got the spirit with him. For sure! The meeting was from 8 am to 5 pm. Loooong! And the whole thing was about how to better work with members! Interesting. He had us take tons of notes!!!! We all have it pretty nailed into our heads now. We knew before that member+missionaries=success but now it's like real real real. Elder Arnold told us to be BEST FRIENDS with the members. Members are great and they are key to spreading this message all around the world.! Missionaries cannot do it alone. So my invitation to you, if you don't know the missionaries in your area, plz, get to know them. You'd make their life happier :) AND the both of you together can make a lot of people happier. #spreadtheword #missionariesarecool #presidentsmithuseshashtags #allthetime

One thing I've been real happy about lately is that we have literally passed out at least one Book of Mormon every day since I've been here. Last week we passed out 5 in one day. That was happy. One night it was like 8:45 and we had just gotten out of our appointment and hadn't passed out one Book of Mormon yet. We were like "ugh.... We can't go home yet!!" We still have 15 minutes. Let's go pass out one book. So we park the car, get out, and start walking. K coolest ever, within 10 minutes we passed out 2 books and extended one baptismal invitation. And the awesomest part was that one of the people we talked to had been taught by missionaries and lost contact with them one year ago!! And we were able to get his number and set another appointment with him. TENDER. Right? Faith works you guys.

HAHA THIS STORY.
So Monday we were supposed to meet with these two guys we met last week in the dark. (We didn't remember what they looked like) sounds sketchy .. but I promise sometimes missionary life is just sketchy. So it's okay haha. Anyways. We get to the park that we were supposed to meet them at and we couldnt find them. Well, we looked around and saw two African American boys sitting at a table. "We were like is that them...?" Haha. Decided we better walk up and see. So we asked what their names were. And NOPE. Awkwardly found out it wasn't who we were looking for. But then, they started asking who we were. And (you know what comes next..) we TAUGHT THEM. Haha it was awesome. Funniest part was that they were rolling marijuana the whole time. They were about to smoke and then when we came up, they didn't. And also, we set a baptismal date with one of them!!! For November 22nd. And honestly they were super sincere and want to come to church on Sunday. I could most definitely picture them in their temple whites one day. Beginning with the end in mind you know? :)

OH another great thing. So remember how we met the person at target like two weeks ago that wanted to learn more?? Richard. Well we met up with him on Saturday and did some how to begin teaching and taught the restoration! And he came to church on Sunday. And you know what it was the perfect day for him to come!!! Because it was fast Sunday for us. And there were so many converts that stood up and bore powerful witness that they knew this was Christ's Church back on the earth. Richard told me he felt like it was Heavenly Father speaking directly to him. I wish I could explain more of the amazing details. Richard comes from a family of devout Christians. His dad is a preacher. So his questions are quite challenging. But I love it. I enjoy the challenge. It's nice to teach someone who is dead serious questioning and wanting to know truth. He is a miracle! Also the ward was so welcoming to him so that was happy. Loved it.

I made 96 cookies. For some families in the ward. Missionaries and members are best friends. Best friends make cookies for best friends. Cookies are good!

Yesterday we had breakfast for dinner and that was fun and good. Liked that. But I didn't like that the next appointment we had fed us too. Double dinners. MISERY. In my mind I'm always like "what would Jesus do" and then I think ugh... He would eat the food. He would. He would. At least I think he would. Especially if it were made just for him. And people make food specifically for us. Anyways. I wanted to cry. She was Hispanic too. Hispanics eat LOADS of food. Yeah. That was my night last night.

Hey. This work is the most important work in the WORLD!?? Did you know that? More important than the President of the United States job. Because this work is eternal. :)


To close... I was reading President Uchtdorf's talk from conference the one about the simplicity of the gospel. And I loved it. And I wanted to leave his closing remarks with you. He said this:



"Brothers and sisters, dear friends, I pray that we will focus on “the simplicity that is in Christ” and allow His grace to lift and carry us during our journey from where we are now to our glorious destiny in our Father’s presence. As we do so and someone asks us, “How is being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints working for you?” we will be able to say with pride, in all humility, and with great joy, “It works wonderfully! Thank you for asking! Would you like to know more?”



I liked that. Because you know what!? It's true. IT WORKS WONDERFULLY.




I love you.



Love Abigail

different and distinct in the happiest of ways....

Wednesday its Wednesday again. Stop.

Today we are going to one of my favorite grocery stores. Stew Leonard's. Haha. It's like Disneyland. And then we are going to the cute shops in Westport CT. This place Connecticut is SO BEAUTIFUL. I hate that I say this so much.... But I LOVE CONNECTICUT. Fall. The trees. They are starting to change and it makes my world happy. Yay!! 

So much happened over the week but it went so quickly I can't even handle it. If I could  have one super power right now it would be to control time. I want to stop it. Because In just a short time I wont get to tract doors anymore. I won't get
to wear Christ's name physically on my shoulder every day. So, not to focus on the future.. but I'm just telling you this so you can understand how much I'm savoring these last few months. I looooooove my mission. It makes me happy. So first of all. HIGHlight of the week. General Confidence. Haha (yea confidence) inside joke 

between my comp and I. Of course I know it's really "conference." I just called it general confidence one time on accident and it stuck with me. Now it's just funny.  

So anyways. I super enjoyed the messages that were shared. My top favorite talk was by President Russel M Nelson. I can't quite figure out why I loved it so much. (It's not because I have like "women pride" or anything.) but when he was speaking I had the craziest overwhelming feeling. Like tears in my eyes. Warmth. Excitement. Peace. Chills. You know, the whole spirit thang. Idk. I LOVED when he talked about being DIFFERENT and DISTINCT in the HAPPIEST of ways. I feel so different and so distinct in the happiest of ways right now. Also when he said"We need women who have a bedrock understanding of the doctrine of Christ." I was like "quit it. YES!!" My eyes just were blurred by the water in them. He also said "We need women who know how to call upon the powers of heaven. We need women who teach fearlessly." AH. His talk just hit home for me.! And then Elder Hollands talk about MOTHERS. Holy cow. I love my future family SO much already. I'm just so grateful for my testimony. I can't put my feelings into words. I keep thinking about how grateful I am for the women in my life. Grandmothers, MOM, dance teachers, sisters, YW leaders, aunts, friends.! Wow. I am who I am because of the women in my life. 

#whoruntheworld #girls yea. just quoted Beyoncé. Teasin. But woweeee. OH. Another fun thing. Elder Rasband! He was the mission president here not too long ago. I actually met and talked to him at the Yankees game in July. He gave a shout out to the NYNYN mission in his little talk. Haha (as you can imagine) all of us  missionaries were like Yyyyeeeeeaaaaaaah!!! Haha we were cheerful missionaries during his talk. He's awesome. He loves New York just like ME. :)

I also loved Elder D Todd Christofferson's talk. Can EVERYBODY in the world just listen to his words??I feel like especially in NY people think that it doesn't matter which religion you live. (There are so many stinkin religions here.) they say things like "it doesn't matter which vehicle you take home. You could take a bmw, or a bus, or a motorcycle, etc. as long as you make it home." I'm like ugh. 
You're kinda wrong. And Elder Christofferson just nailed it right on the head. I can't wait to re read ALL of the talks. I loved more of them but those are what are popping into my head right now! Oh and of course "what lack I yet" because oh my 
goodness. That's exactly what I've been asking myself. Anyways. General Confidence was amaze. Answered lots of my questions. Answered questions for my investigators too. I kept thinking "oh this would be perfect for so and so!!" It was cool to 
have different people that we are teaching come to mind. Sad that it was my last one as a missionary. 

Okay so we still don't have a car.  BUT GOOD things are happening. WE ARE FINDING PEOPLE. We are finding people we are finding people!!! Heavenly Father is just blessing us. He just IS. 

A small example:

Yesterday we were on an exchange in my area. We were having a lesson with a YSA investigator at a park, and there was this man sitting at the table just a 
little bit down from us. I kept thinking that we needed to talk to him... Another one of those annoying thoughts that wouldn't leave you know? (I guess I shouldn't say annoying..)Well finally like in the middle of our lesson I was like "ummm I 
hate to stop the lesson right here but I need to give this guy a Book of Mormon." Then our investigator was like "oh it's okay! Invite him over here." So we did. Turns out this man spoke Creole!! And English. But Creole was his first language. Our investigator that we were teaching at the moment did TOO!!! So our investigator told this man about the Book of Mormon and how it has helped him find peace. He told him that we had been teaching him and that he was going to get baptized soon. And then (I'm leaving out details) but the man told us his name, gave us his number, set an appointment with us. And walked away with a Book of Mormon in hand. His name is Ralph. Ralph is SO cool. Like really guys. He had the coolest swag pants on and just like a cool person. We are meeting with him again on Friday. And he is YSA age. Miracle. Blessing. Tender mercy. I give all credit to Heavenly Father. He sees us out here working our tooshies off. And so he is putting people in our path and then sending the spirit to tell us to talk to them. ALL GOOD THINGS HAPPENING HERE IN CONNECTICUT.  

We have a goal to pass out AT LEAST one Book of Mormon a day. And we try not to go home until we have accomplished that goal. Well Monday night (it was like 8:30) and we hadn't passed one out yet. We had been tracting the whole day and NOBODY would 
accept the book. It was a bummer feeling because we wanted to accomplish our goal. Well we were at an appointment at an active members home eating dessert. And someone knocked on their door. It was a friend of theirs who was not a member. He was coming just to drop off something he had borrowed. The members invited him in for some apple pie and ice cream and the friend said haha of course. So he came in and we were all sitting at the table just enjoying our desert and talking. Then the friend started asking what we all did that day and we told him we knocked doors all day trying to pass out one book. And we had no luck. Then he asked what book. We told him (happily) "oh the Book of Mormon!!" And he said I don't have one, and we said do YOU WANT ONE!?! And he said yeah tell me about it! SO WE DID. And there are obviously more details but it ended with him leaving with a Book of Mormon in hand and we got his number. THESE SMALL STORIES ARE NOT JUST COINCIDENCES. The Lord is working through us. I love to be an instrument in His hands. 

We were also able to go pass out TWO Book of Mormons
in between conference sessions. Tracting. Heavenly 
Father provides a way for us to accomplish our goals.
I love it. 

Another miracle. Steven, one of our YSA investigators, had a baptismal date for November 21st. Well yesterday on my exchange we were teaching him and I asked how he was feeling about his baptismal date. He said "I feel like it's too far away." He said he wants to get baptized in 3 weeks!!! I was like OKEE DOKIE YOU GOT IT BOY!!!! So he is getting baptized Sunday October 25th. Yes. Guys. This work is 
happiness. Fulfillment. Good. I love it. 

Haha one of the days it rained the whole day. Now picture us without a car. Now laugh. It was too funny. Knocking doors. Dripping wet. Walked allll the way to the chapel from our apartment. OH THE MISSIONARY LIFE. Is oh so good. 

Funny thing

Saturday we were walking by a park and there were these cute little moms with their kids and I turn to my companion (in a joking manner) and I'm all "these look like a bunch of Mormon mommys" then literally 2 seconds later they're like "hi sisters!!"

HAHA. They were a bunch of Mormon mommys. From a different Ward. I guess you really can see the "different and distinct in the happiest of ways" in us Mormons. Good stuff. Side-note I loved in President Monson's talk when he told the story of the no proselyting in Jerusalem. And the man said "but what about the light in their eyes!?" Haha. LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE. In all the cheesy ways too :) I sound cheesy right now. Ha. 

One of our investigators hasn't come to church yet and we have been trying to get him to come and meet more people. He said to me in a lesson "if you were the bishop, I would come to church every week." HAHAHAHA. I was like dying laughing. And he was so serious too. I still laugh when I think about it. He is an interesting investigator. Oh boy. The funny things people say. 

My email is so random and scattered right now I'm 
sorry for that. But I did like this quote that I 
saw in my studies one day and I wanted to share it. 
It says this:

"Just as we should not lower the standards that The Lord has established for the conduct of his servants, we are also not authorized to raise them.. Be sure that you do not have higher standards for yourself or others than the lord has established"

Elder Cecil O. Samuelson Jr

I think I, (we) expect ourselves to be perfect. and when we aren't, we are hard on ourselves. But The Lord DOES NOT expect perfection. So we shouldn't either. We shouldn't raise his standards. We should just be actively living the doctrine of 
Christ. (Sincerely repenting, taking the sacrament, keeping our covenants.) And through Christ we will be perfected. Not perfect!!! Not yet. But we will be perfectED :) and God wants that. He wants progress!!! And so do I. I'm grateful that the doctrine of Christ provides a way for me to progress. And to become perfect. I love love you. And I love love this work. 

Love abbbbb