Sister Manwaring: Serving in North Carolina

  April 25, 2022   Dear Family & Friends,   Things continue about the same here.  I just keep looking for ways to serve.  This week, some of my activities included teaching ESL, visiting a sick person, giving rides,  helping people with their family history, serving in the temple, and talking to literally everybody I see.  Someone once said, “Compliment someone.  You’ll feel better than they do!”  I have found this to be true!    Wednesday after district council I went to lunch with our missionaries.  They were surprised when another customer recognized me and asked about the missionaries I was with.  I remembered her because I had complimented her beautiful hair at another time and place.   And speaking of beauty, Sunday evening the Hermanas and I were able to observe some beautiful peacocks and other birds at the home of one of our ESL students, Octavio, who had invited us...

  April 18, 2022     Dear Family and Friends,   It was a beautiful Holy week.  I was blessed to be able to help with our church’s Easter Celebration.  Scenes from the last week in the Savior’s life were portrayed.  There were musical performers, a Christ-centered art gallery (the kid art was my favorite.)  They also had interactive rooms.  I helped in the olive press room, the palm room, and the Passover room.  It was fun and interesting.  For example, did you know that olive trees take about seven years to reach full fruit production and can continue to produce fruit for hundreds of years?  It helped me appreciate the allegory of the olive trees.   And speaking of trees, the dogwood trees are all in bloom here.  The dogwood is the state flower of North Carolina and signals the beginning of spring.  I’ll attach photos.   Another interesting activity was helpi...

  Wall flowers Dear Family and Friends,   My activities this week have ranged from serious to silly.     For example, one of my activities involved working on the cross to be used in an Easter pageant this weekend.  A friend and I were tasked with making it look old, worn, and cruel.  We beat it with hammers and other blunt instruments.  We also rubbed it with dirt and stuff.  While doing this I found myself humming the song, “Upon the Cross of Calvary.”  I am so thankful for my Savior who made it possible for us to return to our Father in Heaven.   I observed this gratitude for our Savior in our friend Kenneth when our Family History group helped him find records of his family members who passed away.  Kenneth is looking forward to going to the temple to be baptized in behalf of his brothers who died in a very tragic manner.  Kenneth said that other ministers had told him that his brothe...

    April 4, 2022   Dear Family & Friends,   It’s been an interesting week.  I’ll share a few highlights:  Our friend Omar wants to be baptized.  The temple is holy ground.  Goodberries is a great place to buy frozen custard and share the gospel.  Cooking 10 pounds of bacon is noisy. My companion went to live with her daughter.  We have a living prophet on the earth today.   The best part of my week was seeing the happiness in the eyes of our friend Omar when he told us of his decision to be baptized.  He gave a very lengthy and inspiring account of his faith journey beginning when he met the missionaries quite by chance. He said the teachings of the gospel made sense. He liked the people at church and liked what he observed:  individuals and families loving and serving one another. He smiled the whole time he was talking.   Wednesday evening I took Hermanas McHenry & Mo...