A few more pics from Pembroke Pines

Coolest cat....follows us everywhere

May 26, 2015

I am in love with Pines!!! I know I keep saying this, but really if it is the Lord's will, I will continue to give my all to Pines and die here in October. The work is seriously hastening. There are three upcoming baptisms.

IT IS MANGO SEASON AND I AM IN HEAVEN. The Hollywood house has a mango tree so you bet we brought a huge bag back after we exchanged with them this past weekend.

One of our best investigators came to church and we had an awesome member teach him with us. At the end of the lesson, after trying to set him with a baptismal date...it was not going to happen. He is dealing with family members who are not supportive about him getting baptized. He knows he wants to be baptized and is hoping this will work out.

Another investigator we are teaching is struggling a tiny bit with Joseph Smith. But then he found himself in a situation where he was defending his beliefs about JS. Way cool. He admitted that he feels that he needs to be baptized already. So we took an awesome member to teach him with us and he committed to baptism. Sunday, he came and told us that his friends in Arizona want him to wait till October when he gets back so they can see it. He told us that he told his friends that he will wait, but confessed to us that he might just do it sooner. He sees the need for the gift of the Holy Ghost now. He is going to tell us today how his prayer went as far as a baptismal date. He is so solid! I feel completely humbled and blessed to be able to teach him. 

We are teaching a family who is coming back to church. We taught the restoration to one of their friends a few days ago, then all about the Book of Mormon last night and he accepted baptism. He is so prepared he literally accepts everything without batting an eye.

Highlights of the week:

Monday: had a Family Home Evening with a very nice family

Tuesday: happy day I got a package with Trader Joe’s treats and TEN DOLLARS you rock! I loved those letters more than you know!

Wednesday: special zone training... so inspired and so good to see my other missionary friends AND MY BYU BFFS SENT ME A PACKAGE with dried fruit and trail mix and LETTERS and body wash and I was on cloud 9. Two packages in two days I am spoooooiled

Thursday: biked all day and talked with lots of people

Friday: exchanged with Hollywood north! Went with Sister Smith and Sister Morrow took my place in Pines. It was crazy fun to be back in HollyHood!! Fun to be back in the neighborhood and did not want to leave.

Saturday: half our zone packed and moved a family into the ward next to us. 6 hours later, ate a quick bite and biked the rest of the day 

Sunday: Sis. Ordonez (one of my favorite members to take out teaching) referred us to her friends. We went back and shared the lesson of the restoration with this family of 4 last night. Member referrals are the best!

WE BIKE ALL OF THE TIME AND EAT MANGOS AND I LOVE LIFE IN PINES

I was studying in Alma 12 this week and I love using the footnotes to look in the New Testament and Doctrine & Covenants. The scriptures are constantly teaching me. I love Alma 12:29-30:

 29 Therefore he sent angels to converse with them, who caused men to behold of his glory.

 30 And they began from that time forth to call on his name; therefore God conversed with men, and made known unto them the plan of redemption, which had been prepared from the foundation of the world; and this he made known unto them according to their faith and repentance and their holy works.

We were blessed to be able to teach the restoration a lot this week and I realized that it is an incredible blessing that God spoke to us in ancient days and still speaks now. The Lord will always send us angels and now they are seen and unseen. I know that by the spirit we are led. We have the third member of the Godhead to reveal what God needs us personally to know. 

Keep reading your scriptures and share with me what you learn please!

I love you all!

Hermana McCormick

Coming up on summer

Melting hot here!

I LOVE PINES! This ward has my heart and the miracles are literally nonstop. Get this: long, long week of knocking. I am trying so hard to show Sister Hunter that we CAN find through knocking in Pines (along with member referrals and all of our other wonderful resources). There is a visitor for the summer who came to church yesterday with a couple of member friends. We got to talking and turns out he was first introduced to the church during college when he was 18 and his coach invited him to church. Met with elders once, said they were totally nerdy and gave up with them. Then, he was selling in Texas and the sister missionaries there taught him EVERYTHING for three months! Still not ready to commit but then he promises himself that when he comes to Florida for the summer he will "go hard with the missionaries" and figure this all out. He knows all of the lessons, has a Book of Mormon, has seen every single GC address given in the past two years, and knows that it is now that he needs to act. He is so prepared and shared so many spiritual experiences that he has had during his conversion. God has been preparing him like no one else I have seen.

Sacarius, our recent convert, is doing so well. He helped the ward with a move on Saturday and is preparing to receive the priesthood next week!

Another of our investigators is listening to conference talks and the Book of Mormon each day. He was sad that he has to give up a certain habit but we asked him point blank if he believes the Word of Wisdom is a commandment from God, and without batting an eye he said yes and committed to living it!

We are also teaching a part member family, and the spirit was such a strong guidance in our last discussion. I never knew what that truly meant until my mission so that was a blessing that I got to learn that this week. They are excited to take a tour of the temple grounds this week.

Alma 5:14-16, :19

 14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually‍ been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change‍ in your hearts?

 15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created‍ you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised‍ in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged‍ according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?

 16 I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?

 19 I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image‍ of God engraven upon your countenances?

This is what it is all about! Verse 16 sums up my reason for serving. I truly cannot imagine standing before my Father in Heaven and Savior and not being able to say that I gave my all to further their work on this earth. I am forever grateful for my mission and verse 26 is what I read to remind myself to remember these sacred experiences of my mission:

 26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change‍ of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song‍ of redeeming love, I would ask, can‍ ye feel so now?

I learn more about the Book of Mormon each day. Not just the stories, but as I read I learn of God's love for me and all of His children. I learn about charity, second chances, repentance, and priorities and so many things. These are living scriptures! They are my most prized possession. How amazing that we give out the most priceless object to strangers for free. It has all of the answers. For everyone. Period, end of story! I wish that everyone would read this book.

Okay here is a day by day:

+Monday: knocked in Southwest Ranches, some man gave us TWO grocery bags of homegrown tomatoes. Dad, you would have died. I ate a couple handfuls as we biked home. That was a happy summer day. As close as I will get to your amazing tomatoes, dad!

+Tuesday: biked AAAAAALLLL day. Got a yummy cold coconut water from Whole Foods, Sacarius taught US resto...he gets it so well, I love it. The Twitchells (one of my favorite families in this ward... young family with 6 kids) fed us. Yummy baked potato with cheese, avocado, tomatoes, chili etc on top... so delicious.

Buuuuuut, I woke up at 3am and had a NASTY 24 hr. bug. Yeah, couldn't really eat or work for two days. Hardly could keep water down. Ached from the top of my head to my ankles. Not sure if I have been that sick since Hawaii with m and KK and gma. So that was fun. Slept 20 hours a day both days and you would think my bags would be gone. They're not. #missionarylife

+Wednesday: missed Zone Training :(

+Thursday: Awesome lesson with investigator

+Friday: Exchanged with Hollywood West (Spanish area so I went). Knocked for 6 straight hours. Livin’ the life. I love wearing myself out that way.

+Saturday: OKAY BEST PART OF THIS LETTER. REMEMBER ROBERTO FROM LAUDERHILL (my last area). He baptized his wife on Saturday! My heart is so full I could die. You bet we are coming back for their sealing. Should I just stay out here next fall and winter? Haha, kidding mom!

+Sunday: Definition of a miracle investigator: our summer visitor came to church.

Tender mercy of the week.... on Saturday we had to grab dinner to go. I got a yummy Publix salad and Sister Hunter was feeling Chick-Fil-A. We went. The girl who took her order was from our ward! We had been trying to visit her and her mom. Jessi told us that her mom was home if we wanted to meet her. We had other plans, but we felt impressed to go, so we went. We found her, locked out of her house. This woman is crazy cool and served a mission in North Carolina in like ‘82 and has a rock solid testimony. Anyway, she is one of my closest friends already. She was going to walk to Chick-Fil-A (like 5 miles) to get the key from her daughter since her daughter would not be off work til midnight. But we drove her and were able to get the key, get her back into her house, and had a lesson on faith. She came to church on Sunday and has so many cool stories and so much faith. I just love her. She cried as we left; God answered a prayer through the missionaries! My favorite.

I love this work. Sometimes it is like a 500 piece puzzle, following the spirit to use the Lord's time wisely to teach people the gospel. Never gets old! Am I dorky if I say that there is a thrill to it? I love the work of salvation. The Lord loves us a lot to try to help!

All my love,

Hermana McCormick

Alma 7:11-12 and Isaiah 53, some of the best!

Sacarius' baptism and other fun pics

Another beautiful Florida sunset

Letter from my best friend Sis. Baker

May 11, 2015

It was so fun to see you on Mother's Day, family!! Skyping was great. Kind of nuts to see how big the boys are and how long Al's hair is and that Katie is really actually married and living in Utah. When did this all happen?! Our life has changed so much.

It was so neat to see the grandparents. They all look so good and it made my heart full that grandpa remembered me and looked so happy.

SORRY I AM A WEIRDO sad realization yesterday when I asked Al, Tim, and Hayden if they invited their friends to church and they looked at me like I am a crazy person and being called Shannon was the strangest/coolest thing. I have zero attachment to that name but it was kind of fun stepping back into that realm for a minute. YOU ALL LOOK SO GOOD AND HAPPY AND AL WAS BAKING MY FAVORITE THINGS. Looks like life is goooooood. Also: German Shepard absolutely! Get whatever the whole family wants whenever you want. No need to wait for me, for real. I am happy if you are all happy and if that means having a dog over summer then do it!!

Onto PINES:

Our investigator, Sacarius, was baptized on Saturday! We had a great turnout from the ward. He bore his testimony after his baptism and explained that with the gospel, he has a new peace in his life that he has never had before. It was a neat moment for me... for so long we have been striving to help him to feel the spirit, and then at his baptism, it was his words that were making me feel the spirit. He is changed because of the atonement. He came out knocking with us two days before his baptism, he is signed up to help the ward move someone this Saturday, and he is just plain happy. His mom came to the baptism and was crying the whole time. Thelma really felt the spirit and accepted our invitation to have North Miami Shores sisters go and teach her and Sacarius' younger sister.

This week we were contacted to teach an inactive member who also wants her family to know more. So we are enjoying teaching them.

We have an investigator who understands that the blessings God has for him will be stronger than anything he can find in life. He is learning more each time we teach him and is preparing for baptism soon. Will keep you posted.

Mission Conference was phenomenal! I loved how it was all about sacrifice, obedience, and going the extra mile. That is what we are here to do! Each day we should be collapsing into bed from "delightful exhaustion." That is the only way to use the Lord's time to the best of our ability and serve His children in the ways He needs us to.

Breaking news: treason............................. maybe I have found a place that MAYBE might rival In N out.... it is called BurgerFi. Fasting growing restaurant in the US. Look it up, I bet they have one in LA. Dad would looooove it. And so would grandpa.

Mosiah 26: 20-24

 20 Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep.

 21 And he that will hear my voice shall be my sheep; and him shall ye receive into the church, and him will I also receive.

 22 For behold, this is my church; whosoever is baptized shall be baptized unto repentance. And whomsoever ye receive shall believe in my name; and him will I freely forgive.

 23 For it is I that taketh upon me the sins‍ of the world; for it is I that hath created‍ them; and it is I that granteth unto him that believeth unto the end a place at my right hand.

 24 For behold, in my name are they called; and if they know‍ me they shall come forth, and shall have a place eternally at my right hand.

Pretty awesome missionary scripture. Also, study "ministry" and "miracle" in the Bible Dictionary. Some of my highlights from Personal Study this week. And I hope you all study Preach My Gospel along with your scriptures... hint hint do it! It is inspired of God. I know it.

All my love,

Hermana McCormick

P.S. One of my favorite things to do is get ready while listening to a general conference talk. Try it! It definitely puts a different spirit to the day. Dad, you should listen to that one about technology that you liked so much from this year's GC!