Week 15- Who would have thought...

All the seniors and sisters who worked the sites during Pageant 2019!

Transfers came and went and I'm still here full-time at the sites with Sister Hatfield! Yay!  We went from 100-0 this week. It's been REALLY slow besides a couple EFY groups. It's been nice to get a bit more time to study and recover from the last couple weeks haha. And I forgot how nice it is to take individual tours to really connect with people and get to share your testimony and really focus on them and what they need. 

Sister Hatfield and me at Church!

This week I finished memorizing the entire Living Christ! It has been such an amazing experience. My favorite parts are "He gave his life to atone for the sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth." and "We bear testimony, as his duly ordained apostles, that Jesus is the living Christ, the immortal son of God. He is the Great King Immanuel, who stands today at the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of his Divine Son." How beautiful are those phrases? It has strengthened my faith of the Savior and the reality of his existence and his matchless life. 

With one of our favorite senior couples, the Horsleys (from Malad, Idaho).

Now for the title, we were going home from the Whitmer Farm and we caught a ride from one of my favorite senior couples, the Horsley's. They are amazing and always have the most amazing and grateful attitude about the mission and it teaches me so much. We were driving and there was the most beautiful sunset and they said, "who would have thought that today, in 2019, we'd get to be driving home from the Whitmer Farm? How blessed are we?" and it really just hit me like WOW I get to be at these amazing historic sites that people get to visit MAYBE once in their lives, but I get to do it EVERY SINGLE DAY. Then we saw a quote that talked about an Elder in this mission who was having a hard time and prayed to know why he was sent here. That night he had a dream and Joseph appeared to him and told him that he hand-picks the missionaries that serve at his sites. Whether that's true or not I'm so grateful to be able to have this opportunity to be here and serve here. It's amazing to be able to learn so much and help others learn and my testimony of the restoration has grown a TON. I know without a doubt that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father appeared to Joseph in a grove of trees that's 100 feet from where I am currently writing this email. That Joseph translated the Book of Mormon, and that through that book we have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are SO BLESSED!

Whitmer Farm--the BEST!

The Whitmer farm chapel and Visitor's center!

Have a marvelous week! 
P.S.  My p-day will be on Wednesday next week.

Love, Sister Potts

Scroll on by if this makes you queasy!  I was finally able to borrow one of the senior couple's vacuums and get rid of the spiders and webs all around our house today.  I counted 40 spiders I vacuumed up!!  No joking!  You know how much I HATE them! and I've been having to kill my own out here--on a daily basis!  Everyone in our house will sleep much better tonight.

FUN FACTS:

1. Luther Howard, who was hired to help the Smith family move from Vermont, tried to steal the family's possessions 100 miles from Palmyra, Mother Smith had to enlist the support of bystanders to get back her things.

2. Sophronia, who was 13 at the time, payed a last family debt with her earrings she was wearing.

3. The Smith family traveled the last 100 miles with a family by the last name of Gates. 

4. On the final part of the journey, one of the Gates boys knocked Joseph out of the wagon and an unidentified stranger carried the 10 year old boy the rest of the way to Palmyra. 

5. The journey from Vermont was 300 miles in the WINTER and took 3-4 weeks--all without Father Smith.