Philip is really learning and having a great experience. He says "It's so cool to see how people get prepared and how we get put in their path." He's had 1 baptism so far which was a great experience for him. He got transferred from Ogdensburg to Schenectady. We got a really good email on March 25:
Hi everybody. Things are going really well. I am in my new area now, and I love it so much. It is so awesome here. I haven't seen anything crazy happen yet, but I'm sure I will. One thing that I've noticed though, is that everyone here is really nice. They are just cool. My new companion is Elder Hatanaka. He is American, but his ethnicity is Japanese, and is from Hurricane, Utah. He is a good guy. I have fun with him. On Saturday we had an all mission conference. We had a few special guests there too. Elder Hollstrom, from the Seventy, Elder Davis, from the Presiding Bishopric, and Elder Bednar, I think you know where he's from. It was awesome. Elder Bednar was the one who spoke most of the time, but he didn't just have a talk ready. We were given 3 of his talks and were told to study them. Pretty much all he did was ask us our thoughts about the talks and what we learned and what we have applied to our teaching. I learned so much!
Something cool that happened - we were tracting and we knocked on this door, and a lady answered it. Elder Hatanaka recognized her and I found out that she was actually a potential investigator that had planned on coming to church one week, but couldn't find it. She remembered us and said that she was in the process of moving into this house that she was at. So we offered to help. She accepted, so we went to the house of an inactive member just a couple houses down to get a ride, and he just happened to be home and willing, then we went and changed at our apartment and we asked someone else to give us a ride to her old house, and he just happened to be home and willing to give us a ride. So we helped her and she was so happy that we just happened to knock on the door of her new house. A lot of "coincidences"!
Love, Philip
Hailey is still loving her mission and hating the thought of coming home! She has been transferred to Quince Orchard, which she says is right next to Kentlands, but not as rich. Her companion is Sister Balls. During the last 6 months of the mission, the President takes them to Arlington Cemetery. Hailey was really bummed that it was her turn, but she loved it! Pictures are below. They got to the city and they got a tour of the Capital building. At the end of the month they get to go to another National's baseball game. I've named her mission 'the party mission'! A portion of her most recent letter:
General Conference was great! I loved Elder Holland and President Monson. They were all really good. I'm excited to re-read them. In between conference is when they cool thing happened. This lady came in and she began to talk with me. She had watched conference in Frederick and then knew she needed to come to the temple. We sat down and began to talk. Her mom was a Baptist preacher, her sister was another religion, and she had bounced between all sorts of religions trying to find Christ. She's Christian and does everything she knows how to do. Whenever they told her to come and accept Christ, she always would, but she never felt like Christ accepted her. CRAZY! She was pleading with me, asking if Christ accepts her and how she can accept him. We talked about baptism, she wanted to get baptized immediately. I told her she had to go to church 3 times. She said she'd do anything. She asked for all our pamphlets, asked where the book store is (she liked my ctr ring and she wanted on of our bibles), asked for the missionaries. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how she should read and pray about it. She told me that she would, but she already knew that this is where the Lord wants her. She asked if she had to give up the Bible. Thank goodness she doesn't! But she was willing to! She is the most golden person, giving her will to the Father. She just wanted to feel that Chirst accepts her, she then asked me what she could do for the church. AMAZING! The most amazing experience I've ever had! Missions are the Best! Love, Sister Wankier
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| All the missionaries that went to Arlington Cemetery. They will all go home within the next 6 months. |
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| The missionaries going home in June. |
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| The beautiful cherry blossoms and summer like (80 degree) weather. |
