18 Months in the Big Apple: "Magnifying Her Calling"

Thursday, March 26, 2009

"Magnifying Her Calling"

As we have studied the New Testament this year, we have looked forward to seeing Marchita, our Jamaica Institute President each week. She was baptized September 21, 2008, and came from Panama to Jamaica several years ago. She works as a home health aide and hurries straight from her job every Tuesday night to make sure the classroom is beautifully clean and neatly set up. Marchita has been serving faithfully since January. She also plans and conducts a meaningful devotion to begin our class each week. Elder West enjoys hearing Marchita read the scriptures with such feeling. It is truly beautiful and inspires us. One of my favorite memories of Marchita is as we were teaching that the Jewish Christians had great difficulty in giving up their traditions and the law of Moses in particular, we used the analogy of a child learning to ride a bicycle. At first they need training wheels, but after the wheels are removed and a child learns to balance the bike, it would be silly to put the training wheels back on. Marchita had a "light bulb moment," raised her hand and shared that as a former Catholic, she was used to crossing herself when the bus passed a Catholic church. She told us she was going to work hard to give up this tradition and "just sit on her hands!" We love and appreciate Marchita and all of our students at the Jamaica Institute. Thanks for blessing our lives each week as we learn together. The apostle Paul promised, "...Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Each week as Marchita magnifies her calling she demonstrates her love for the Lord.

1 comment:

Sharon said...: Oh what a beautiful conversion story of Marchita! It's wonderful that you have the blessing of knowing her. It's people like this that make a mission such a great experience! Thanks for sharing.; March 28, 2009 at 9:33 AM

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“Service is the virtue that has distinguished the great of all times and which they will be remembered by. It places a mark of nobility upon its disciples. It is the dividing line which separates the two great groups of the world–those who lift and those who lean, those who contribute and those who only consume. How much better it is to give than to receive. Service in any form is comely and beautiful. To give encouragement, to impart sympathy, to show interest, to banish fear, to build self-confidence and awaken hope in the heart of others, in short–to love them and to show it –is to render the most precious service.”

Bryant S. Hinckley

January 10, 2008 we arrived in Queens, New York. We are currently serving as full-time missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We were called to serve in the New York, New York South Mission. It is a special and unique assignment. Serving here is like teaching all nations, with missionaries who teach in English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Russian and American Sign Language. Nearly 10 million people live within our mission, representing 112 nationalities. We are blessed to be serving along side the most incredible missionaries in the world! We love President and Sister Bennion who have been cherished friends since he was the president of Ricks College. We are happy to be serving the Lord and living on Steinway Street in Astoria.
Thank you for visiting our blog! Please feel free to leave comments or questions. It makes our day:-)

History of the New York, New York South Mission

Long before our mission was organized, Elder Parley P. Pratt was the first missionary in this dispensation to preach the Gospel in New York City and Long Island.
This mission has significant historic roots. It is the heart of the former Eastern States Mission which was established in 1839.
That mission, headquartered in Brooklyn, enjoys the distinction of being the second oldest mission of the Church, behind the British Mission.
The Eastern States Mission consisted of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and West Virginia in 1948. Since that time, many changes have been made in the boundries of the mission.
The name of the mission was changed from the Eastern States Mission to the New York New York Mission in 1974. At that time the mission included the following areas: New York State as far as Poughkeepsie, the entire state of Connecticut, a small part of Massachusetts, as well as part of New Jersey and the island of Bermuda. The mission boundaries were once again changed in 1976 excluding Massachusetts and all of the state of Connecticut, with the exception of Fairfield County.
In 1987, after another boundary change was made, the New York New York Mission consisted of the five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island), Long Island, New York State north to Poughkeepsie, a portion of Connecticut and the island of Bermuda.
The mission was divided once again in 1993. The New York New York South Mission encompasses the New York City boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island, as well as the New York counties of Nassau and Suffolk on Long Island. It also includes the small British Island of Bermuda in the Atlantic.