Pictures!!

We got a memory card with a few hundred pictures! Here are just a few! Enjoy!

 

 At the Albuquerque Temple

 After a Mission Conference in El Paso everyone decided to stop for some famous Hatch Peppers in Hatch New Mexico.

Our Beautiful Elizabeth..  Sister McShane.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!!!!!!

 

I hoped that people would be more willing to talk to us this week, but not yet. This has been the longest week ever!!!! Everyone has been so busy. It is crazy to see how Satan uses busyness and idleness to go about his work. But nothing stops us.
 

On Thanksgiving, we had about 6 or 7 places to stop. All members and all with tons of food. I am sooo thankful that I am English speaking! After eating at 2 of the houses, we said no more until dessert! If we had been Spanish speaking, I think we may have burst! Either way, we both had way too much food. People later on kept saying you HAVE to have some. Its thanksgiving. At least we could choose what not to eat, seeing it was a feast. (NO sweet potatoes. yuck!) Well, lets just say that i wasn't hungry for days and felt OK. But my companion was sick and we ended up doing a few hours of study at home on Fri. and Sat.

 

At each of the houses that we stopped at, we had the members write down something they were thankful for and put in on a chain. The chain is taller than I am! It was so much fun to see everyone and participate in their activities. We now have the chain hanging in the apartment. Oh, and we took pictures with each family that we got to see. I thought you would like seeing some of the members that we work with, but you will have to wait a bit for those pictures.

 

Oh, Read Alma 32:4- I think about feasting on the scriptures. Then think about this, do you eat as much as you read. then- if you ate as much as you read, would there be days that you starve? I love how much we get to learn about the scriptures and about the gospel. Its amazing how you grow up with something and then you get to study it deeper as ALL you do is try to live it. I also love to read the ensign.

Something great this week was a blessing I received from the bishop. (We always try to get transfer blessings from the bishop) The thing is, that missionaries are not suppose to be a burden to the bishop, but a blessing, so in reality, there is only so much that we can tell the members or even the bishop about any difficulties in the area or how we are trying to improve or whatever. So when we get the blessings, I've always been wary that the bishop won't be able to say certain things in the blessing, bc then he would know. The first thing that the Heavenly Father blessed me with, was that my secret prayers were answered. It was incredible. In just a simple line, Heavenly Father knew how to help and convey to me the things that I needed in a way that helped with the work. I love receiving these blessings. The spirit is always so strong. Sometimes I wonder why I ever hesitated to receive blessings in the past when they help me feel so close to God. I love them!

 

I am soooo happy that Christmas is coming. I love looking at all of the decorations. My comp is confused. She says without the snow, its not Christmas yet.

 

I LOVE ALL OF YOU SOOOO MUCH

11/19/12

HI HI HI HI

No Transfer.  I get to stay with my companion Sister Lindsay for at least 6 more weeks in this area!

 

This week has been great! We have seen a lot of good changes and improvements in the wards. Including a new bishop in one and a new ward missionary leader in the other. Both are super excited to work hard and do everything that they can. I am so excited for it.

We also have a new baptismal date set for Dec. 8th. The amazing thing about her, is that my companion had taught her a few months ago, but the investigator had dropped the missionaries. Sis. Lindsay and I had decided to drop in on them and see how things are going a few times (she has very bad medical issues) This last week, we said a prayer before getting out of the car. But during the prayer, we both felt impressed to be bold and to extend baptism to her. She didn't answer the door that time, but the next time we tried, we went in and she told us that she was finally ready to take the next step in church. She practically begged us to ask her to be baptised. So when I extended that invitation, she said yes without a hesitation and she is sooo set on her date! I am so excited for her. She is amazing. When we taught the Word of Wisdom, the spirit was so strong that her less active husband almost cried. Teaching the Word of Wisdom can seem scary, but "we should never hesitate to teach the commandments, especially the word of wisdom. we can not deny them those blessings."

I was thinking about YW and the Book of Mormon when I remembered one of my favorite things to ever do as a youth. and it was one of the hardest things to. It was in 2005, for Pres. Hinkleys challenge to read the Book of Mormon in a year. I had tried, started, and given up so many times. And then it was suddenly December. We had just been split into the branch. We had a combined activity of all of the youth in the ward at sister Swan's home in which we started right after school and read the entire Book of Mormon until we were done. It took from noon to 11 on one day and then 7am to midnight the next day, but we did it and it was amazing. I remember that so well, because although i hadn't got everything out of it (if you ever do that) I had learned that you could read the entire Book of Mormon and it was good and it was commitment. It was amazing. I don't remember many activities, but that was def. one of the best.

 

This week, when Elder Paul V. Johnson came, I learned that I need to remember and use the education and knowledge that I gained actually at BYUI. Sister Miller talked about a document that she had read about Teaching like Christ. Ive read that exact document! I have learned and studied teaching for a long time, so why does my mind try to trick itself and say that none of that is related? I also have a better understanding of what it means for an investigator to progress. It is just like teaching in elementary schools. If you teach a child math, but then the child fails the homework or gives up on it, then the child is not progressing. I cant just say, oh, well, I taught them everything they need to know, so that is ok. I'm sure its in there somewhere. I really liked what he said about how you teach differently depending on what you want them to learn. that is SO true!

I LOVE YALL SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!! KEEP SMILING AND PRAYING FOR ME! I PRAY FOR YOU ALWAYS> Y'ALL ARE THE BEST I DON'T WANT TO END THIS LETTER. I COULD TALK ALL DAY :)

Baptism of Isabella

11/12/12

Hola Mi Familia!

I wanted to send you a picture of the baptism of Isabella Bonura.  This is the amazing 12 year old whose mother is deaf.  Isabella was friends with Emma Roundsville and asked Emma if she could come to church with her.   After a few weeks at church, she asked how she could be a member.  That is where we came in.  Isabella is amazing! We taught her for 3 weeks and she was baptized.  She has an incredible testimony of the church and the members have helped her so much.  We want to teach her mother but are having a hard time finding a translator.  The fact that we had one for Isabella's baptism was a miracle at all.  Isabella is now the only member of the church in her family.  But I know, that with the help of the Holy Ghost, her family can join with her and one day be sealed together.  I love to watch the light of Christ shine through her eyes!

I love ya'll!
Sister Elizabeth McShane

Veterns Day Letter

HELLO FAMILY!!!!!

I LOVE YALL SOOOO MUCH

The baptism went great this week! Isabella was so beautiful in white and the young women had volunteered to sing as well. It always helps when we have a great turn out from the ward. At the start, I was a bit stressed out trying to make sure everything went smoothly and so forth. But then I decided that baptisms are not all about how perfect everything runs or that people are at the right places at the right time. All that was truly important was that we had prepared well, the spirit was present, and that Isabella was choosing for herself to make sacred covenants with God. After that, little else mattered. It truly was a beautiful baptism and I am so excited to be able to keep in contact with her for the rest of our lives. I can already imagine her in white, preparing for marriage in the temple. I have sent you a letter that tells a little about her, but has her baptismal photo in it.

In teaching Isabella and with moms new calling and with new things we are trying to do with the youth, I have been thinking alot about the youth recently. We have been trying to get priests and laurels to go with us. You know, we found Isabella because of her 12 year old friend? And Isabella has amazing fellowshiping in the youth of the church. She loves it. Then the young women sang "Firm on Faith" at church on Sunday and left our investigator speechless and feeling the spirit with great strength. It is amazing what they can do. Working with children and youth, I have seen them do more missionary work than most adults have done in the ward. Fear of missionary work seems to be something that children learn from parents, wards, and the society at large.

(Last week we taught sharing time and asked the older kids to give away pass a long cards) So this week, we gave away small prizes and asked the kids who they gave the cards too. They were so excited to tell us exactly who they gave the cards away to and how and all about them. They are so great.

S. Lindsay's brother, Elder Lindsay recently sent a letter in which he said this " A lot of members think that doing missionary work is telling someone we are Christians at work or answering a non members questions and then not inviting them to church of giving them anything. The best way for us to missionary work is to have the missionaries involved and getting the non members to do something. Not just planting seeds but looking for ways to harvest." We read this in RS this Sunday. That night, we had a call from the woman feeding us on Monday. She said that she had really thought about what we had said and that she had invited 2 nonmembers to eat with us Monday night.

So, exchanges are the 20th. If me or my companion are getting transferred, then we will mail on Tuesday so that I can tell you where I am going to be. So be super careful if you are mailing me anything that should come around then. Because I have no idea where I may be. So, let me teach you a bit of lingo.

White-washed= a completely new set of elders are being put in an area

pink-washed= a completely new set of sisters

died= its your last transfer in the mission

someone killed a missionary= they were that missionaries last companion before she got transferred

ummm that's all of the ones on the top of my head at the moment, but there is more

It has been FREEZING!!!!! Mainly, because we just got our heater turned on on Sunday night. But on Saturday, we had been at a member's home and they asked how we were and we told them that we had no heat. Before we knew it, everyone jumped in to help. WE had 3 space heaters donated and a bunch of warm blankets from the members. Everyone has been asking how we are doing and we even had a random call from a member asking if we were ok. Not to mention many members cooking amazing meals, and then giving us ALL of the leftovers from it! I cant believe how great the members have treated us recently. No snow yet, but our car has been telling us "Ice Possible" quite a lot

On Saturday, we had a mission wide "Park and Walk" day where we parked the car and had street contacting for 2 hours. IT WAS FREEZING! Sadly, it was so cold and windy here that no one was outside. But we pushed through it all and gave away a few mormon.org cards.

I LOVE YALL SOOOOOOO MUCH!!! YOU ARE ALL AMAZING! I PRAY FOR YOU ALWAYS!

11/5/2012

Hey, Yall

 

This week, like all weeks, has huge ups and downs. But yesterday was the best Sunday on the mission yet. Church was just really good. God blessed us to be busy but also that we would be able to find all of the people we needed to talk to quickly. I loved it.

The mission also fasted for 600 baptisms as a mission goal. Recently, Pres. Miller asked us to find out what our spiritual gifts are so  I also fasted for help in knowing what my spiritual gifts are. It was amazing to look back on the day and see how God had decided to teach me and show me what some of these gifts are. I feel God's love and his grace as we work forward to find new people to teach and to testify of his word. As part of that, we taught primary this week! And it was so much fun! We were teaching them about what missionaries do for sharing time. At the end of the lesson, we gave all of the kids a service scavenger hunt. They have to go do so many things for so many points, then on Sunday they get to find us and we will give them a prize! They are so exited! It was so much fun to see there reactions and hear all of the kids telling there moms about it after classes. They are the cutest kids ever. It will be so much fun to have them coming up to us on Sunday.

 

We have a baptism for a 12 year old girl coming up this Saturday. This girl is amazing. On Sunday, she sat with her friends at church and they had been whispering about getting up to bear their testimony. The girl didn't know how to say one. So her friends mom got up and taught her how to bear her testimony through example. After the testimony meeting, the girl came up to us and told us that she had thought of a testimony and she wanted to tell us it at the end of tomorrow nights lesson. She is truly amazing and has the sweetest spirit. She asked me to give a talk on baptism at the baptism! And because of every one that we have had to work with to help her out, we will have the bishop, stake president, and very likely President Miller there with us! Ekkkkk! But I know it will be fine. I love this girl so much. I cant wait to send y'all a picture of that!

I got the Ensign today! I cant wait to look through it! Remember, Transfers are Nov. 20th and I won't be able to tell you if I am staying or going till the day before that. And what kinds of things are y'all wanting from NM for Christmas? Oh, that reminds me. I kinda really really super a lot would love and need a GPS about any time or as soon as possible and still kinda on sale ish. :) With training ending there is a huge chance that Sister Lindsay will leave and I will have the area. But we think that we may be getting white washed so I am not so sure. But then, no one is ever completely sure about any of this any way.

 

How are y'all liking feeding the missionaries still? What kinds of things are they inviting y'all to do and how is your missionary work as a family progressing? I always need new ideas! So our mission has about 167 missionaries right now, but we are allowed to have up to 175. With the new age changes, we are now allowed to have up to 250 missionaries!!!! ITS SO COOL! But they will not really start coming in mass until March, which is good for me because I definitely am not ready to train other missionaries yet. scary thought. We also got a report, that on average, there are about 50 Sisters at each BYU ward turning in mission applications! Its so cool! Its kinda funny, we keep telling the missionaries that will be going home soon that they have till March to find a girl to marry before all of the 19-21 year olds are gone. haha. However, Hermanna Henderson goes home in March and she is way looking forward to having all of the younger sisters gone. Its all just funny and we just laugh over it. To tell the truth, all of the sisters look at "going home and getting married" "texting a boy" or whatever as super disgusting. We have a lot of fun. One sister who left, got engaged 5 weeks later, and married shortly thereafter sent a wedding pic of her, and an elder she served with back here and all of the sisters wanted to throw up. it is sooo amusing. haha

HI TO BROTHER AND SISTER MORRIS!

I love y'all so much!!!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE! I can't say it or write it enough!

Sister Elizabeth McShane