Week 28- losin our mind in Massena

A little late, but I hit my 6-month mark on October 17--transfer day!

It has been an interesting week people! For the most part it's good--exhausting but good! We have several people who are progressing, there's a sweet grandpa named Dale who cooks us the most delicious food, and we are teaching several young women, and there is a woman named Rita who is a Nurse Practitioner and a county legislator who should be baptized soon! 

There was one awesome moment this week when Ellie, who I talked about earlier, called us and told us how well an appointment she was stressed about went, and said she knew the Lord was with her. Then she described the feeling she felt when she received a priesthood blessing and said, "is that the holy ghost?" We practically screamed YES YES YES IT IS! 

Some of our area--lots of beautiful rivers & waterways.

The 3 amigas.

The reason we are losing our mind is because we managed to lock ourselves out of our apartment AND our truck on the way to church yesterday (the keys were on the same ring, and our door automatically locks behind us).  The senior Elder who we called tried to jimmy the lock with no success, but thankfully someone from the apartment management was able to come and unlock it. Then this morning we managed to get out of the house and ALL THREE of us forgot our name tags. Haha. We're fine--learning lots haha.

Locked out of our apartment

Showed up to Aldi's to do our shopping this morning with not just one,
but all three of us forgetting our badges!  Yikes!

Have a great week, and read the Book of Mormon! It's amazing how many questions can be answered through it, and how others can be answered through the spirit that exists as we read.

Love, Sister Potts 

FUN FACTS (about the Grandin Print Press)

1.  The type setters for the Book of Mormon would set the type upside down and backwards to make it print correctly.

2.  They would print 16 pages at a time.

3.  The ink that they used is vegetable ink and is thick like peanut butter.

4.  Those groups of 16 pages are called a signature, and 37 of them make a book.

5.  They would have had to pull the lever of the press over 185,000 times!

Week 27- Sister Potts in POTSdam!

Another trio--this time in Massena, New York!
(left is Sister Penrod, center is Sister Wiese, and me on right)

Well everyone I'm in Canada! Just kidding, but really I'm as close as I can get.  I'm in Massena NY, which is the northern most part of New York on the Canadian border.  It was a four hour car ride from Palmyra! I'm in a trio with Sister Wiese (pronounced "we-see") from West Point, Utah, and Sister Penrod from Lindon, Utah, who are the STLs for the zone which is fun. I'm in one of the last 6 surviving districts of the church (the Potsdam district) left in the United States because it's too small to be a stake! It's been busy and fun and lots of ups and downs. We were supposed to have a baptism Saturday, but there's tons of drama so that fell through but there's a lot of amazing people being taught that I've fallen in love with. 

There's one woman named Ellie who is the daughter of a less active member who we've been meeting with. She just got out of a rough situation and has a big important meeting today so she was worried. We talked to her about prayer and faith and testified over and over how God helps us through hard times. Well, she came to church! And she was so excited to tell us that she prayed and it helped her find a wallet haha. Well she was really nervous after church so we were able to ask her if she wanted a Priesthood blessing and afterwards she said how peaceful she felt and how she knew it was the Lord. It was so sweet. 

Wow everyone this experience has just blown me away with how blessed I am. Even though my life isn't perfect, the fact that I have a home, a family who loves me and supports me, the gospel which anchors me, and all my teeth has made me SO grateful for what I have.  We can all find joy and good times regardless of our circumstances when we're centered on Christ!

Love Sister Potts 

Meet my Rotweiler friend, Sadie! 
(from Mom:  those who know Emily well will recognize that this picture is a miracle with her sitting this close to a dog, smiling and petting it.  She overcame her phobia of cats & dogs during high school through sheer determination and the help of  some special kitties in her life, but she is usually pretty cautious around big dogs.  She sent a cute video of her petting the dog and smiling, laughing, and talking to him.  She said "My parents are going to drop dead when they see this."  So proud of her!  :)

FUN FACTS (I've only scratched the surface of fun facts from the Palmyra sites, so I'll continue these even though I'm not there anymore):

1. The roughly 12 printers for the Book of Mormon would work 12 hour days, 6 days a week, for about 7 months to print the book of Mormon.

2. The typesetter for the Book of Mormon was John H Gilbert, and he also added in all the punctuation.

3. A man named Abner Cole, under the pseudonym of Obadiah Dogberry, printed some passages from the Book of Mormon in his sarcastic newspaper The Reflector.

4. Abner Cole was a former judge so he should have known better, but Hyrum and Oliver couldn't  convince him to stop despite the fact that Joseph had a copyright.

5. When Joseph confronted him, he wanted a fight, but Joseph was able to convince him to stop peacefully. 

Week 26- It's Fall Y'all!

Every other missionary seems to be talking about how it's starting to snow and we're just excited that Fall has finally come! I mean it's been chilly but the leaves just exploded this week. That's about the most exciting event of the week to be honest. It's been pretty magical at the Smith farm and in the Sacred Grove! I've been trying to spend more time in the Sacred Grove, and I got to read about the Savior's Crucifixion and Resurrection in there earlier today which was pretty special, and take a moment to ponder this upcoming transfer. We get transfer calls tomorrow so that will be interesting to see what happens. I'm just keeping faith that whatever happens is where God needs me to be!

The Sacred Grove

On the Smith Farm--the trail
leading to the Frame Home

The Frame Home

I'm out of time but one quick story, I was at the Whitmer farm and giving a tour and I mentioned a story and related it to the change in countenance that you can see with people who are members of the church and one lady who was in our tour said that it was actually something that helped in her conversion. I guess she moved with her husband to Idaho Falls and they would play a game where they would be driving and point out who was a member and who wasn't just by their countenance, and that opened up the door to them accepting the Missionaries a couple years later in Alabama! That was cool that I was prompted to share that so I could hear that story.

The church where the Whitmer Farm Visitors Center is located.

 Whitmer Farm side view (check out that chimney!)

Whitmer Farm a la Fall.

Have a good week y'all!

Love, Sister Potts

Emily with President & Sister Neff

(The Neffs are over all the Church History Sites in Palmyra, Fayette, & Harmony, PA)
Note from Mom:  Serving at the sites, Emily has had two Presidents 
to report to:  her mission president and the Neffs.  
With almost daily interaction with the Neffs, these dear souls have become 
like second parents to Emily, and we will sorely miss them as Emily moves 
into a proselyting area and will now report more directly to the mission president.  
The sister missionaries have been instructed, trained, and supported by 
President & Sister Neff in countless wonderful ways. 
Emily loves them dearly!

FUN FACTS:

1. The main scribes for the Book of Mormon were Emma, Martin Harris, and Oliver Cowdery, though Samuel Smith and Reuben Hale probably helped a bit as well. In fact, Joseph himself even scribed for one verse.

2. In Feb 1828 Martin Harris took a paper with some of the characters from the plates to a scholar in New York City who verified their authenticity.

3. The scholar, Charles Anthon, later ripped up the certificate of authenticity when he heard about the gold plates and the Angel Moroni, but it was still good enough for Martin Harris.

4. Charles Anthon was actually a professor of Ancient American languages, so Joseph himself had no idea that the language on the plates was actually a form of reformed Egyptian.

5. Oliver Cowdery, who was the principle scribe, was so excited to meet Joseph that he practically ran and got there with a frost-bitten toe.

Week 25- Conference at the Farm

Fall at the sites! Just one more week before transfers, so I'm trying to soak it all in,  
The colors aren't quite at their peak, but it's still so beautiful! 

Wow what a weekend huh? I've never been so excited for conference it's like Christmas! Unfortunately the sites are still open and a bunch of people (mostly members) think it's a great time to come (?) so we didn't get to watch all of it but we watched what we could and are catching up! We were scheduled at the Smith Farm for both days, and at first I was a bit salty about it since it's the busiest site, but I was quickly humbled as they mentioned Joseph and the First Vision many times during Conference, and I was literally watching it FROM THE PLACE IT HAPPENED. It was so neat, especially when our prophet started talking about how next conference was going to be so cool! I loved the themes that ran through it. Lots on making and keeping covenants, and being prepared against the attacks of the adversary. I especially loved Elder Johnson's talk about it in the last session--we got to meet him when Elder Christofferson came!

Catching a few conference talks in between tours.  
My conference carepackage from Mom was a hit--especially the m&ms.  

 The other exciting thing for the week is that I'm in yet ANOTHER  companionship! A 5th Sister had to go home, so one of my last companions went to take her spot in an area, and her companion came with me to form a trio! I was with her in a trio a couple weeks ago haha. So it's been crazy but good.

Our new trio with Suster Rustad (right) joining Sister Fernandez & me--
we all get along great & are having fun together.

I've also started doing a 30-day New Testament challenge, and it's so powerful. I think there's a reason we have 4 accounts of the event of the life of Christ. Just like Joseph had to hear Moroni's message 4 times, I think we need to get the same story many times to help us truly understand and learn what we need to from the Savior. I love how he's always warning not to be hypocritical, and actually LIVES what he teaches. He teaches about turning the other cheek when you're smitten, and then when he's literally tortured and beaten he doesn't mutter a word. I want to strive to be that dependable and a person others can look up to.

Hope you have a great week and enjoyed conference!

Love, Sister Potts

P.S. Sorry for the picture overload, but it's only Fall for a short time:)

FUN FACTS:

So part of the tour at the Grandin building is an overview of translation, so I'll do a bit of that!

1. Translation didn't start until Joseph and Emma moved to Harmony, PA. Much of the translating work was done in the room where Emma "was at work" So presumably the kitchen.

2. Joseph would keep the manuscript in an old Moroccan chest when they weren't translating.

3. When Oliver Cowdery moved to PA and they could really start translation.  They finished in a remarkable 65 working days. It takes around 5 years to translate it into another language now.

4. The manuscript was written on common foolscap paper, and Oliver would draw lines or rule it before writing.

5. The original manuscript has virtually no punctuation because they were going so quickly, it would be added later.

Week 24- Well isn't this Grand-in!

The Grandin Print building is beautiful in the Fall--
it's the store with the flower planters out front in between the trees.

Hey everyone, so I have ANOTHER new companion! For those keeping track this is companion 5 this month--haha. We've been having lots of emergency transfers but the good news is that I GOT TO MOVE TO A NEW APARTMENT!  NO MORE KILLING SPIDERS!  It's right next to the Grandin building and is perfect besides the fact that it smells like weed--literally--it's over a pharmacy that sells CBD oil and must do their own manufacturing or what not?  But on the bright side I know what it smells like now! Haha #shelteredchild. My companion is Sister Fernandes and she's from Brazil and goes home in 2 weeks, so we're just living up her last weeks in the mission field! The sites have been picking up a lot with it being Fall and such, and the temperature has decreased a ton (besides today which is randomly 90 degrees) so we've met lots of neat people. 

Isn't my new companion, Sister Fernandes, so cute?  

We had Zone Conference last week and it was really good. We talked a lot about how to retain our friends on date and recent converts. And the key is the Book of Mormon! I've come to just love it so much on my mission. Like I thought I loved it before, but wow. Especially with all I'm learning about how it came forth. We went on splits with the Palmyra Sisters the other day, and we ran into this rude Born-again Christian lady who told us all the problems she had with our religion.  Most wasn't understandable, but then the last thing she said was "I don't believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God." OW--sucker punch to the gut. It's so sad because the chances she's actually READ it are so slim. And it's brought so much into my life I hate that there are people who won't give it a chance. And it's so amazing how every time you read it different things stick out to you based on your circumstance! While I've been on my mission I feel like nearly every scripture can be related back to missionary work! It's so great. 

Some of my favorite senior couples:  The Becksteads went home today (boohoo!)  

Another favorite senior couple:  The Radford's

I hope you all read the Book of Mormon every day AND ARE WATCHING THE NEW VIDEOS--THEY ARE GREAT! And happy General Conference!

Love, Sister Potts

FUN FACTS: 

So I've been doing fun facts about the Smith Farm, but it's been almost 6 months and I'm only part way through the Smith Farm information, and there's so much more to tell about other places, so I've decided to switch to the Grandin information!

1.  The bookstore the Book of Mormon was first sold in was called "The Sign of the Bible."

2.  The first copies of the Book of Mormon went for sale on March 26, 1830, only 10 days before the organization of the church.

3.  The sale price was $1.75 and was lowered to $1.25 because it wasn't selling, but that still was equivalent to 2 days of wages for a grown man.

4.  The Book of Mormon is currently translated into 111 languages.

5.  The printer of the Book of Mormon was a man named Egbert Bratt Grandin.