June 3, 2013

 

Hey Mom!

Thanks so much for the pictures! The bridge picture is crazy! and Rosita is so cute! and you and Eleanor and what I can see of Josh look great too.

These pictures are of the Brooklyn Bridge, and Me and Elder Rose on transfer day.

I don't have much time left so I will do what Devin did a lot and copy my letter to my mission president to you. Recently it has been really hot and humid, last night we had thunderstorms, and today it cooled off so that was nice.

Here's the letter to President Calderwood.

President,

Missions are so incredible because of all the different ways you learn. I have learned some things from experience, but I have also learned some incredible things through very guided study. I can't believe how much I can learn and how deep the message goes in just an hour or less. And the things that I learn seem so powerful to me, but when I try to explain them they seem so basic and common sense. But what I have learned has changed me for the better. Recently we have worked hard as a district and companionship on planning by setting Visions, Goals, and Plans. This strategy is so clear and powerful, especially when guided by the Spirit. Elder Nisguritzer and I have felt very guided as we have planned for our investigators and sought from the Lord what they need. And very recently we have felt the need for more inspiration, and much more action in order to hit our vision. I learned this week one of the reasons, and perhaps the reason that exact obedience brings miracles. It is because miracles are wrought by faith. It is stated so many places. Moroni 10:7, and Ether 12 are some of my favorites. God works according to the faith of men, and faith is manifest through our actions (as well as in our focused, purposeful, and powerful prayers as I learned in Alma 8:10). As we show God our faith unto obedience, he performs miracles. Elder Nisguritzer and I are really going to work on this during the last few weeks of this transfer, as we have a previously set vision that is very high. We know this vision will be a great challenge to achieve, but we also know it was inspired, and as Elder Nisguritzer reminded me, 1 Nephi 3:7 can occur in our lives here and now.
Thank you so much President for all you have taught us, as well as placing me here with my companion, district, zone, and branch. They have all changed me for the better. Working with Elder Nisgurizter has accelerated my spiritual learning and growth more than anything else.
Elder Schenk

I wrote a bit to dad so his email will have more. We played kickball today as a zone and it was really fun! It was great to combine soccer and baseball and to just run and have fun. before the activity started our ball got kicked into the pond, and we couldn't swim to get it, so another missionary and I ran into town to Modell's sporting goods (it's like big 5 or sports athourity, maybe a mix of the two) to get another one. While there, I bought some sweatbands! grey nike ones for the arms and a reversible blue/white addidas one for my head, so I'm pretty well off now.

Another thing. I'm not sure how we could do this but I've seen another missionary use dropbox to share pictures with his family, so maybe we could figure out how to do that.

Love you all!

Elder Schenk

 

Hi Dad,

The time seems to fly by really fast! I need to make sure I'm using my time well every day. I feel like my mission will go by pretty fast now. We are already starting week four of the transfer, so it's already halfway over! I can't believe it. It makes me start thinking about what might happen next transfer meeting. I wonder if I will go somewhere else. When I think about that it makes me want to do all that I can here to make sure I did my part strengthening the branch and paving the way for someone else to take my place. Last night Elder Nisguritzer and I were talking and I brought up a concern about our 3 month goal that Elder Rose and I felt inspired to set. It was 3 baptisms. We still have zero baptisms and zero progressing investigators. We have a lot that could be progressing soon, they just need more work. As we talked about it, we decided that we will redouble our efforts and do everything we can to be faithful unto obedience and get this miracle to happen. We feel good about three of our investigators, so we will see what happens.

The Holy Ghost has led me to some great learning experiences! A while back I had an incredible study about Faith, Hope and Charity. I also read part of a collection of talks and quotes about faith, called the Doctrine of Faith. It was really good. And yesterday morning and this morning I learned an incredible amount about Prayer! The Spirit is definitely guiding these studies! This understanding is changing me. My prayers the last few days have been more focused, and I have also learned about myself. Based on what I read in Chapter 6 (Christlike Attributes) in Preach My Gospel, I have a lot of hope. I learned this morning about how incredibly important prayer is in every step of the Doctrine of Christ. Faith is driven by prayer, Repentance is more effective through prayer, Baptism and Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost are done through prayer, and Enduring to the End requires constant prayer. "Pray always." That is just a really short summary of what I learned.

Today we had a zone activity. We played Kickball! It was really fun and I loved it. I used my baseball knowledge and chatter, played at third base for a little bit, kicked a home run, Had a nice catch in center field, got knocked over by a sister missionary, and slid headfirst into third base very smoothly. It was really fun. I'll attach some pictures. I also bought some new sweatbands and am enjoying them a lot

Love you so much!

Eric