Week 8- Extra Lucky

Emily's P-day ended up being a day earlier than she thought, so here we go:

  

The Hill Cumorah Monument

Hello everyone, I have officially reached 5 weeks here! Transfers are this next Monday so we'll see where that takes us. This week has been good, just working hard at the sites for 12 hours every day which is kind of exhausting but I'm just grateful we can sit for a minute between tours haha. We've started getting more 'bus tours' which are really fun because you're preaching to the masses on benches and feel like the early missionaries in England. We had one really neat tour yesterday at the Whitmer farm of youth who just graduated High School. We showed the short film on growth of church (which is AMAZING BTW) and then were prompted to bear our testimonies. We were all led on what to say and the spirit was SO strong it was amazing. 

One other cool thing is that we got to give a virtual tour to my companion's mom! She's a nonmember and so my companion was given permission to help teach her and her sister. We called her up and told her about the restoration while we were in the Smith log home. While it was raining really hard, and the tour was in Spanish, the spirit was as thick as the humidity (I thought that was pretty clever hehe). I got to bear my simple testimony and she told me it was great haha. 

A 4-leaf clover!

To explain the caption, apparently the Smith farm is a GOLDMINE for 4-leaf clovers! I've found 7 so far and it's become very entertaining while we're waiting for tours. 

For my spiritual thought, I want to share my testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I was invited to do it for personal progress in testimony meeting on Sunday and so I'll share it here as well. I love the imagery that is in Isaiah 53:5. "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows... But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Isn't that beautiful? I'm so grateful that the atonement covers not only our sins, but our sorrows. I am a firm believer that no one on earth truly can empathize with us because each person's experiences are so unique, but there is one, Christ, who can completely. Because he suffered for us INDIVIDUALLY! I'm so grateful for that and for his love that has brought me so much peace and happiness.
Know he loves you too!

Love, Sister Potts

FUN FACTS:

1. The bookstore the BOM was first sold in was in the first floor of the printing place, and was called the 'sign of the bible'. 

2. Isaac Merritt Singer, inventor of the Singer Sewing Machine did the original woodwork for the building.

3. The room Moroni appeared in would doubtless have held most of Joseph's 8 siblings, though the girls were in a separate room in the back.

4. Alvin, Joseph's oldest brother, is thought to have died from a burst appendix.

5. At the time of his death, Alvin was engaged and was building them a new house down the street. 

My comp and I all matchy, matchy & sunshiney

Smith Farm views!

The senior couples are so funny. And buy us ice cream haha.