Happy Thanksgibbin'...back

(Posted by Steph's Dad 11/21/07)

Hallo!
I hope all of you are doing well. We're going to have preparation day tomorrow instead of the usual Wednesday but President told us we could email today (since places are open) and then we'll be able to celebrate without interrupting the work. Just fyi, a really nice family in our ward is having us over for dinner--they actually reserve the church building and have all their family eat together and then use the gym and do skits, play basketball, etc. so it should be a blast. I think I may curl up for a nice nap on one of the couches in the foyer or something...we'll probably just go home afterwards and lay in bed. That sounds nice :) I hope you're all prepared for the big day. Dawn, do you have the cards with each item already placed in the serving bowl? Who's in charge of the mashed potatoes? Don't forget to make a sculpture! I hope your meal is wonderful and know that I'm thinking about you all. Jake and Nicole, please travel safely to Boise; Nathan, Monica, Ethan, and Blake, please travel safely to Utah.
This week has been great. We've definitely seen the Lord's hand in the work--even when original plans were altered, it ended up being for the best.
For starters--Wednesday. We normally meet with Brent M/W/F--he wasn't able to meet due to a new job he picked up. We scheduled a meeting for 7pm with Tara at a part member's home--she was late. We started our lesson at about 7:30 and right at the tail end Drew, one of the boys from the part-member family who isn't baptized, got home and sat in on the tail end of the lesson. We're now meeting with him regularly and if the situations with Tara or Brent would have been different, we'd have missed out on Drew. I love that the Lord is orchestrating the affairs of this work--turning what appear to be negatives into great opportunities.
Thursday we found another new investigator who is amazing--her name's Natalie and she just moved here from Cincinnati. She's looking for a church up here, was raised Catholic but is now attending Christian churches, and shares our views about the Godhead. She invited us into her home that day and we taught her again yesterday--my favorite part about it was when she sincerely asked, "How can I know what's true?" towards the end of the lesson. I love seeing people who truly have the desire to know for themselves of truth and are willing to seek it out for themselves.
One thing I love about being a missionary--you have no shame. We were supposed to meet with Tara on Saturday but she called to cancel because she wasn't feeling well. We grabbed a can of soup and took it over to her, then proceeded to read the Book of Mormon with her and teach her a short lesson. We also have been spending a lot of time in the Walmart parking lot at night, because sisters can only knock doors in well lit areas after dark but we cannot knock doors at night in Stow due to a city ordinance. So we contact, meaning we stop people when they're walking to/from the store and talk with them. If that's not awkward, I don't know what is, but I actually love it. It just makes me laugh and we get to talk to a whole lot of people. Usually we offer them a pass-along-card and see if we can meet with them another time. It's not as effective as tracting, but we have met a couple people from it. I think the thing with contacting is not only to get a lesson in but also just to give individuals contact with the church. I heard from someone that it takes the average person multiple contacts with the church before they're interested in taking the lessons/learning more. Though the goal is more investigators, I know that this work will help down the road.
This week in district meeting I was asked to give a workshop on the topic, "How can I apply principles of faith in missionary work" and I wanted to share some study ideas with you because the principles apply to all of us. I came up with 5, pulling them from Romans 10:14-17:
1. Believe in Christ yourself (Romans 10:11; Moroni 7:33; Mark 9:19-23; 3 Nephi 27:21) 2. Be Obedient (Mosiah 2:24; 1 Nephi 16:28-29; D&C 112:28; 130: 21) 3. Pray (Mosiah 27:14; Mark 9:17-18, 28-29) 4. Hear through the Spirit and the scriptures (3 Nephi 11:2-6; Alma 37:8-10) 5. Act in your office (D&C 81:1,3-6; 107:99)
I have been able to study faith for several days (both because of the workshop and because of mission-wide study topics that we do every Wednesday) and I continue to be more and more amazed at the magnitude and power of faith. It's amazing and I am working on developing faith as power in missionary work; I hope you all can do the same in the work you're called to do at this time, missionary work included. :)
It was Sister Corbridge's birthday yesterday--I sneaked in phone calls to members while she was in the shower and the bathroom this past week and we were able to have a surprise party for her at a member's home. The members here in the Tallmadge ward are amazing--and so dedicated to helping the missionaries in whatever way possible, even with a birthday! I think she felt pretty special. We were also able to commit someone to live the word of wisdom yesterday, so I think that was an even better birthday present for her :)
Dad, thanks for letting me know about getting another set of missionaries in our stake. It's a little different out here--we have 3 sets just in our ward! I hope that both sets will be able to find people that are prepared to hear the gospel in our stake. I'll be praying for you!
Goodness me. Another week, another novel. Let me know if this is too long/boring/detailed and I'll give you the summarized version in greater summary :)
Again, have a fabulous Thanksgiving and I love love love you!
Sister Cannariato
P.S. Dawn, you had asked in your letter what I wanted for Christmas...a scripture case (probably just a plain black canvas one unless you find something that screams "Sister Cannariato"), a warm, soft, scarf (it can be a color other than black but just not too crazy), some more thermal bottoms, more of those mint chocolate chip cookies the laurels made :) or even the recipe, a cardigan (maybe beige, brown or black?)...and lots of prayers. Dad, thanks for the info. Love you all!
P.P.S. We raked leaves at Richard and Gail's house for over 4 hours on Saturday (we'd planned on taking about 1 1/2 hours, including a lesson); afterwards Gail volunteered to pray and cried because of our willingness to help. It made the exhaustion so worth it.