It has been quite the week here in New City, N.Y.
We've had some interesting opportunities for service here during the past two weeks. On Saturdays we team up with the Salavtion Army to hand out food to the homeless. We help prepare the meals, and then all pile into their big food truck and ride around for a couple hours handing out meals and hot chocolate. It's a lovely time. You know what else is lovely? Hanging out with the Sisters of Sparkhill. We spent an evening last week at the Dominican Convent putting care kits together to send to places in Africa. The nuns were so sweet! Sister Pat was particularly delightful, and very interested to hear all about the church's missionary efforts. We also got to serve at Ellis Island this week. This was my first time going as the designated driver, which made for a more stressful trip than usual. Two hours there and back fighting through the traffic headed in and out of NYC.
Speaking of the city, we had a chance to visit this week... for about 5 minutes. In the past two weeks of driving a car again I have taken a lot of wrong turns. Thursday morning we had a long drive into Zone Conference. Not unexpectedly, I got confused while looking at the GPS and ended up taking a wrong turn. This forced us into a busy toll road, which was rather unfortunate seeing as we didn't have the money to pay the toll. However after explaining the situation to the lady in the booth we were let through, with instructions on how to pay it online. *stress relieved*
After making it through the toll road we were absorbed by a mass of merging lanes in an already heavily trafficked area that also happened to be under construction. *and the stress returns*
As I watched the precious minutes tick by on the clock signaling we would probably be late for car check before the conference, I realized a startling truth: we were headed for a bridge. Bridges themselves aren't inherently bad. But when you are confined to a specific area and crossing a bridge would cause you to leave those boundaries, you try to avoid them.
With no way out, we crossed the Washington Bridge into NYC... and then promptly turned around and re-entered the New Jersey Morristown Mission. :) We were fashionably late to Zone Conference, my one wrong turn having effectively added an hour driving time on to our trip.
On Sunday the ward decided to switch things up a little bit and conduct the meeting in Spanish, with the English and Creole members using the headsets. I was asked to give the opening prayer in Spanish. As I was headed back down to my seat the 2nd counselor called me back up and had me translate as he went through a bunch of changes in callings. I was not expecting this, was super thrown off my game and basically made fool of myself in front of the entire ward. But on the bright side, I don't think they will be requesting my translating services again any time soon. :)
I am still adjusting to not really being in the Spanish program anymore. During a meal appointment last night with the other missionaries at the house of some English speaking members of the ward, I looked around and realized I was the only one who had completely finished the large helping of spaghetti that had been put on my plate. It's no longer expected of me to eat everything I am given, but I have gotten so used to it I have to remind myself it's okay to stop when I feel full.
At that same appointment I shared a spiritual thought, that I thought I would share with all of you as well. In 3 Nephi 11 we read about the Savior showing himself to the people in the Americas. I love in verses 14-15 where Christ invites each person in the multitude to come unto Him and feel the marks in His hands and feet. It talks about them going unto Him one by one, and receiving a personal witness that He was their Redeemer. That extremely personal invitation is still extended to us today. And although we can't feel the prints physically, we can have a witness just as strong as they did through the Holy Ghost that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins. He is our reason to hope. He is our Savior.
Have a lovely week!
XOXO
Hermana Croft
