Transfer Week - April 28

Hello hello!! How are you all? This has been a nuts week and I loved it.

The work in Pines is progressing so well. Not sure how, but miracles just keep on coming. We are teaching two people right now, and we have two appointments this week with referrals. One is a 17 year old who referred himself online. The other is a family of 5 who walked into church wanting to know more. I have never had that happen so much on my mission. There is something drawing people to the Pines chapel! I know that the Lord wants to bless and build up this ward. We are getting in plenty of knocking and biking and are seeing miracles. Even with way less time, somehow we are able to pack in double the work. We know that we are being blessed.

So Monday night: we went out to teach at the end of the day. We biked, and after teaching a great lesson on the restoration, on our way home, my chain broke. We were 5.5 miles from home. The chain WOULD NOT FIX so we ran home. In church clothes. Took our shoes off, of course. We got home on time! Dripping sweaty. That was an experience.

Okay so Tuesday night this amazing family dropped off a chicken enchilada dinner at the church. It was another biking day, so this was a huge delicious blessing. Apparently the woman, Sister Denney, is known all over and has a cookbook at Deseret Book. All I could think was how much dad would have enjoyed it. Better than Red Iguana and El Ranchito and everything! And her husband was a Miami Dolphin for 8 years. Talk about power couple. They have like 5-6 kids and are beautiful. Love the Denneys!

Also, Tuesday there was an enrichment activity and it was all about Emergency Preparedness. You bet that is our first FHE when I get home.

So we fasted Tuesday-Wednesday. We were going to break our fast around 6pm at the church (with the Denney leftovers). Sister T. said she was feeling like passing out (after a day of fasting and biking.....happens), so we went to eat at 5pm before our 5:30 lesson with one of our investigators. We were planning on getting there at 5:45 to teach him, but tender mercy because as we got the dinner heated up, he knocked on the church doors! Nuts because we had our bikes in the church with us, so he would not have known we were there. Anyway, he had to leave early for an appt. and couldn’t make the lesson so it was awesome because we taught him right there. Otherwise we would have missed him... cool, right?

Wednesday we did a fire exchange with Coral Springs (we blitzed their area and knocked with them for an hour). It is fun to be with my old housemates. Kinda weird but fun.

Thursday we got to go to Southwest Ranches for dinner. The Isoms made us spaghetti squash, sauce, fruit, and salad and it was the best. Then, we biked to our knocking spot, met a member, my bike broke again. We knocked and taught 3 MPLS! It was perfect... and then she drove us home with our bikes in her car so we could fix it at home AND get home on time. God is so good to us.

Friday we did a full day exchange with Hollywood North. They had a PM family baptism and I got to see a bunch of my friends from the ward! It was phenomenal.

Saturday, before we left Hollywood and before our other exchange with HWood West, we treated ourselves at JAXSONS! We shared a dinner and ice cream sundae. It was the best.

At church on Sunday, someone was talking about sacrifice and talked about Sean Kimball's surfing vs. seminary story. That was neat.

Bishop had us over for dinner and gave us the info for a family who walked into church after "passing by for several months and wondering what it's all about." Excited to start teaching them!

Mosiah 14 is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon:

 6 All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened‍ not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb‍ to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise‍ him; he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

 11 He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear‍ their iniquities.

These are some of the most powerful scriptures to me. I know that we are all learning and making mistakes, and each day I come to know my Savior more I see that the perfect example suffered all. For me and for every other person. My understanding and testimony of that grows each day that I put Him first in this work.

Kind of freaking out that I only have 5.5 months left. I love you all, but time is passing too quickly. There is so much service to render, people to find, and things to learn. I am happy to be here!

Transfers are tomorrow, I am staying in Pines... YAY! My current companion Sister Trebotich is going home and I will get a new companion. No clue who it could be--I am excited. It has been a wonderful 6 weeks with Sister T. and I will sure miss her!

All my love,

Hermana McCormick

PS I AM SO GRATEUFL FOR TWO PACKAGES THIS WEEK. You all are ridiculously good to me.