Week 41- We're sliiiipping, We're sliiiidin'

I hope you sang that title to the tune of "We're Soaring We're Flying" from High School Musical haha. 

As you can probably guess from the title, it's been slick up here but the good news is, that's because it's warmed up! We got a couple inches of slush the other day which makes it really awkward because if you wear even waterproof snow boots they leak and your socks get wet, but If you wear your rain boots then you have zero traction and you hear a little squeal every couple steps because you almost slide into a snow bank. We're making it work though.

Good news is we got in contact with our friend Dale who was ignoring us for a couple weeks after we taught tithing. He has some valid concerns we're going to help him work through while we help him build his faith in Christ. 

We visited a less active member for the first time and she has 15 dogs and 4 cats and a couple birds. Oh my goodness it was exciting.  But for anyone who knows me and my lifelong phobia of dogs will be glad to know I wasn't even phased by it haha. 

We also started teaching a few new people. One of which is a cool guy who actually has a degree in American History, so he is familiar a bit with the history of the church and has actually read parts of the Book of Mormon and believes it to be true! That's exciting to start off with. 

I'd like to end with my testimony of CPR. No, not cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but Church Pray Read. The three building blocks of faith and testimony. I know that as we consistently strive to do these three simple acts and focus on the Savior as we do, that we will be able to strengthen our foundation and find strength and support through the attacks of the adversary. 

Love, Sister Potts 

FUN FACTS:  Mary's Miracle Amid Translation

1. As you can imagine, Mother Mary Whitmer was pretty stressed having 8 kids of her own and three house guests thrown in the mix. She tried hard not to complain, but it was getting tiring.

2. One of her chores was to milk the cows.  As she went out to the barn one day, she saw an old man standing there. 

3. He introduced himself as Moroni and said that she must be pretty tired with all the work she had to do. He said it was requisite that she should have a witness so her faith can be strengthened. 

4. Moroni pulled the golden plates out of his knapsack and showed them to Mary. He flipped the pages and then he left. 

5. While this didn't take away any of her chores, it did give her a boost to endure them with greater ease. It also shows us that God is aware of our trials and our needs whether it's great or small. 

Bonus pictures from last week's Zone Conference:

Week 40--9 Months!

Wow where has the time gone? 

It has been nice and cold here in the north country, and we've gotten a bunch of snow! It's been averaging around 0⁰, and we got 14 inches of snow this week. (P.S. just so you know it's a bad idea to hand-wash your car in these temperatures--the foaming soap just freezes instantly to your car--haha!) But nothing stops the work! We do get lots of really confused people wondering why we are out in the cold though haha. 

So much snow!! Thankful for shoveled walks!

Icicles on our roof!

It's hard to see, but we tried to go running the other morning,
and our eyelashes & eyebrows totally froze!

We had Zone Conference down in Syracuse this week and so we got to road trip down 3 hours each way. We talked about and officially implemented the new handbook which is exciting. We also really emphasized, as we do a lot, discipleship. So many talks from last conference focus on being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Being a disciple is basically being a follower. As we are disciples of Christ at home or on a mission, we are examples to those around us and we are committed to him and what he asks us to do. There is no lukewarmness about it! And we are promised enduring joy in return. I am striving to become a better disciple each day. 

Funny thing of the week, we have been having the HARDEST time getting a hold of our top progressing person, so we left him a note in his door. We go back the next day and HE had put a note for us in HIS door in response.  Basically throwing it back to the stone age with carrier pigeons but hey we did end up seeing him the next day. 

Hope you all have a great week and are staying WARM!

Love, Sister Potts 

FUN FACTS: (Whitmer Farm cont.)

1. The miraculous plowing sure seems like it would impress some people, but David Whitmer was actually MORE impressed by what's to come.

2. On David's way to Pennsylvania to pick up Joseph and Oliver,  without Oliver telling him, Joseph could tell Oliver exactly where David had been, where he stopped for the night, and they were right there to meet him when he got there. That was more of a sign of Joseph's divine calling to David than the field!

3. Joseph and Oliver went up to Fayette, and Emma joined a couple weeks later.

4. Translation continued, and they worked on the small plates of Nephi, now 1 Nephi - Words of Mormon. 

5. It took about a month there to finish translation. But many exciting events transpired in the meantime..... 

Week 39- Transfers 😱

The Potsdam District before transfers.

Well everyone, this week was transfers............... and Sister Penrod and I are staying in Massena! We were shocked because our mission president rarely keeps companions together that long--this is our 3rd transfer together. But we are excited! No complaints here! Then of course the next day our SIM card in our phone died, and we had no way of communicating to anyone, so we had to spend half the day at Walmart with wifi arranging to get a new one all the way from Syracuse (over 3 hours away)! That was another adventure. We also had another ice storm, and it canceled church yesterday!  So it has been quite a week. 

We started teaching the cutest mom and 8 yo son last week. He has so many questions like,  "Did anyone see Jesus after he rose into heaven? " SO CUTE! and he was so excited to meet with us he could hardly handle it!  He was so excited to download the app on his phone to watch the Book of Mormon videos. 

We have zone conference this week, and they have asked us to read 'Beware of Pride ' by Ezra Taft Benson. It's really good and really humbling. Here's a quote:

"The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.” " WOW, huh?  And I think it's interesting that the things we are using against others,  wealth, talents, intellect, etc, are the things God has given us! We are essentially turning his gift against him. I'm really going to try and work on the important virtue of humility. 

Have a great week :)

Love,  Sister Potts 

Yes, it's officially COLD outside!

FUN FACTS:  MIRACLES 

1. So the miracle that helped the Whitmer family let Joseph and Oliver come is reffered to as the miraculous plowing. 

2. It was planting season, and the family had a lot of work to get done, so Father Whitmer said maybe if David got the plowing done he'd let the men come. 

3. Well, one morning he went out to finish plowing and found several acres of his field had been plowed miraculously by some unseen hand, with the plow waiting for him to finish the job. 

4. He was also able to finish the job in a shorter amount of time than anticipated. 

5. The family took this as a sign from God that the work the men were doing was from God, and they needed to be a part of it. 

Week 38 - Gotta Love New Yorkers...

Team Massena, NY!

This has been quite the week y'all.  We've had some interesting people we've dealt with and some scary run-ins but we survived! We just tell ourselves that if Satan's working this hard against us that must mean we're doing something right, haha. 

We committed our friend Dale to live the law of tithing this week!  He's getting close and we are hoping and shooting for his baptism this spring. April 1st, he said, which hopefully isn't an April Fool's joke! 

It's a New Year and it's going to be a great one! 2020 is also an exciting year because of the 200th anniversary of the first vision! Probably around this time 200 years ago a young Joseph was diligently studying and seeking his answers through the scriptures and I don't think there's a better way for us to prepare to celebrate the first vision than by doing the same thing ourselves. Take President Nelson's invitation to study the accounts of the first vision and get excited for an awesome general conference. 

Love,  Sister Potts 

Lots of opportunities for service--shoveling walks.

Transfers are this Wednesday--wish us luck!

FUN FACTS: 

1. So to end last week's cliffhanger, the first letter Oliver writes to David Whitmer tells of the work Joseph and Oliver are doing and how Oliver knows that it truly is the work of God. 

2. The second letter was written by Joseph and Oliver and was a plea for help... a place for them to finish the translation of the Book of Mormon. 

3. The persecution in Harmony, Pennsylvania had gotten so intense (much from Emma's own family) that a move was necessary. 

4. David Whitmer and his family got the letter, and it took some time for them to open their home to the two highly controversial men,

5. But through some miracles (to be discussed next week) their hearts were softened, and the men moved to Fayette, NY in June 1929.