Hello dear family and friends!
I have been receiving some questions in emails that I haven't addressed so I decided to choose one to focus my missionary email on. This week I will answer a question and statement Mom had for me which was "Have you been able to teach in your ward? You love who you serve!" Sister Xayadeth and I must love our ward a lot because for the past month we have been teaching every week! (We do love them!):)
5TH SUNDAY
When we first arrived in our area we found out that we were 'white washing' the area. This means that all the missionaries that were serving here before were all transferred to a new place. And since we are replacing Elders with Sisters we sometimes call it 'pink washing' instead:) When we arrived at our apartment there was a note from the Elders on the different people they were teaching. At then at the end it said "By the way you are teaching the Combined Lesson on Sunday. Good luck!!" Even though at first we were a little overwhelmed, after we planned everything and practiced everything it ended up going so smoothly. Our lesson was for the 'third hour' and since it was the 5th Sunday of the month, it was with both the Priesthood (adult men) and Relief Society (adult women.) We were asked to talk about how families can use Preach My Gospel in their family studies. Our amazing Bishop even ordered enough copies for each family! We passed them out and then talked about what is included in this incredible book. There are so many great things that can be learned from it. The Prophet of our church and many of the Apostle helped to contribute to it, so we have been told to study it along with our scriptures daily. If you don't have one already, I invite all of you to order a copy. Most people think that the Preach My Gospel (aka PMG) is only for missionaries but "every member a missionary" right? :) The lesson went really well and both my companion and I knew that the spirit was helping us share this important message with these lovely people. Afterwords many people came up and told us we did a good job. Which is always good to hear, especially when we were really trying our best and had prayed a lot about it. It was a blessing that we could do that on our very first Sunday, so we could get to meet a lot of the ward members, gain the trust of them, and we could share our personal testimonies with them :)
GOSPEL PRINCIPLES
The next week we were asked by the Gospel Principles teacher,Brother Tsimanis to substitute for him because he was feeling really sick during the week. We told him we would be happy to help and teach his class! We prepared during the week and practiced just as we did the week before. (Lots of prayers too!) :) We got to class on Sunday and set up and just as we were about to start our lesson, Brother Tsimanis walked in! He just smiled at us and sat down in one of the seats. So we still taught the lesson. After class he said he started to feel better that morning so he came to church. Ever since he was baptized he has only missed two Sundays and didn't want to miss this one. He said he felt bad for all the work we had done, but he was not sad, because he said we did a great job! Our topic was Repentance. It is always a great feeling to be teaching something and having the feeling that you are helping others. To help everyone remember we wrote down the ABCs of Repentance.
A - acknowledge what you did
B - be sorry
C - confess
D - don't do it again
E - endure to the end
F - forgive others and yourself
G -"go forth and sin no more"
PRIMARY
The following Sunday we were asked by our ward Primary President, Sister Shewell to help in Sharing Time (when the primary meet together there is Singing Time and Sharing Time where the kids do some type of activity) She told us that she would be out of town and so would her two councilors. The only leader there would be her sweet secretary! To make things less stressful for Sister Walker we again offered our services :) We taught both junior primary (Sunbeams - CTR 8) and senior primary (Valiant 9 - Valiant 11). We decided to play a game while we taught the children a lesson. We did a twist on Truth or Dare (I got the idea from Sarah Johnson when she taught singing time at home. Thanks Hermana Johnson!) :) We had papers on the board that were 'truths' that they had to answer and then there were 'dares' they could pick from the jar. It was interesting to see the personalities on junior vs. senior primary. The little kids did mostly truths while the older kids did dares. They all had fun and hopefully they learned something too :) At the end we talked about the promises we make at baptism. One of them is to "take upon us the name of Christ". We can do this by following His example and acting as He would. We showed them how our missionary name tags have the name of Jesus Christ on them. We then gave them each their own personal names tags, so that they can remember that they can all be Missionaries, even at a young age. As they help others and share their sweet testimonies they will be able to "take upon them the name of Jesus Christ". It was another favorite time on my mission. These children are just amazing!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
For our last teaching opportunity we were asked to help with the 16 year old Sunday School. This one was the easiest to prepare for. The teacher just asked us questions throughout the lesson to get our missionary perspective. The lesson was on Covenants and why they are important to make and keep. It was fun being in a small setting too and I know I learned a lot as well as the rest of the class.
We didn't have any classes to teach this past Sunday, which was relaxing, but I am so grateful for all the opportunities in which we have been able to help this ward. I have learned so much as I have taught each class, especially the little primary children. That is one of the things I love about going to church. We go to renew our covenants and to learn from one another. There is always something new I can take away each time I attend church on Sunday. My testimony grows each time and everyday as I continue with my scripture study. I love it :) I'm really grateful for it every week. And I love the ward here. I am so grateful for them and their serving and loving examples to me. I continue to learn and be amazed at how much our Heavenly Father knows each one of us and what we need in our life to keep moving forward and to be able to try and improve every day.
Have a great week everyone!
Lots of love,
Sister Skinner - Karatassos
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