Break Up With The World

So there is an awesome fireside called "Break Up With The World" by Hank Smith and you should all go listen to it because it's hilarious and also it's soooo cool! It's incredible and has helped me so much this week.

Well we are running out of our miles for the month so we have been walking everywhere on top of our walking for tracting so we are so exhausted ALL THE TIME! Like I have to drag myself home at the end of the day because we are working SO. HARD! But I have seen so many miracles this week! It's been an incredible week, seriously!!! 

So on Friday we had Return and Report meeting in Utica where i got to see SISTER CAMPBELL!!!!!! That was probably my favorite day in the mission so far. (so prepare for an overload of pictures) The first day we were here everyone was like "Just make it 4 weeks until Return and Report and then you can see each other again" and that seemed like it would NEVER come!!! But this first month has gone by SO FAST!! Can you believe I've been in New York for a whole month?! Ahh it's crazy!!! Also at Return and Report I finally got to try Chicken Riggies! It's this pasta dish with chicken that everyone loves in NY and it was REALLY good! 

I wish I had time to write all of the miracles we've seen this week but I'll just summarize. So we were weekly planning and we got this call and this guy CALLED US asking about when our church is and he's moving to Hamilton in two weeks and is confused because there are so many churches and he's looking for which one has the truth so basically God just handed us a perfect investigator and said "HERE!" it was awesome!!! We are working SO HARD but we can absolutely see Heavenly Father blessing us for it!

Another one is that this week at the Gangs, we were reading the Book of Mormon and there's this girl Jessica (we have no idea how she's related, she doesn't live there but she's there a lot) and she never reads with us (a lot of the gangs friends/family don't like the church...) and so anyways we had finished eating dinner and we got out our BOMs and Trever (he's a member, he's like 10 i think) was like "here..." and slyly slid his BOM over to her and she was like "hmm... okay. I'll read." And she read with us! and afterwards she said she understood what we read! So afterwards, we were on the deck having a lesson with Lacey (LOVE HER SO MUCH) afterwards Jessica came up to me and was like "I want you and sister Loveland to come over to the house and start reading with my kids" WOW I'm getting goosebumps right now even remembering it. She said she won't give up her cigarettes or coffee but she wants her kids to have the chance to go to church and Nikki said how much of a good thing it is so she wants that for her kids. Holy cow! The Spirit is working SO HARD on that family, it's incredible! 

Well, I have A LOT of funny stories this week: 

So we were meeting with a potential and her roommate was there and we were basically just doing a Q&A since he had so many questions about us and our religion and "John" Smith ahhaah (Joseph Smith) and they were just drinking their beer an swearing but they were being super respectful about what we believe and stuff so I said the closing prayer and Ben (the roommate) just sits back and was like "...that was thorough as fu**... you just pulled that out of thin air!!!" hahaha they were so awesome! That was probably my favorite lesson, we were just talking and having a good time!

Also this week we were at McDonalds and we prayed on our food of course and then this lady was leaving and she came up to us and was like "are you nuns?" HAHAAH NOPE! we explained we're missionaries, it was just really funny!

So we were meeting with this girl janette (another miracle story: we knocked on her door and her daughter told us to come back and that janette would love to meet with us so we came back and janette said her son has been interested in the LDS church but he's in OHIO right now! so the Lord directed us right to her and she was already prepared because of her son.) But anyways, she's this awesome lady and we were talking about prayers and she was like "OH GIRL. I AM A PRAYER WARRIOR!!!" And then in the middle of Sister Loveland's prayer she was like "AMEN!!!" and she was so receptive to the things we were saying, it was awesome! We were talking about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and she was like "oh i know. He is up there right now looking down on us and smiling saying 'look at my daughters, talking about me'" It was the sweetest thing!

We were at the Gangs house this week making scripture cases but there wasn't enough cardboard for everyone so i was just kinda sitting there and Nick (13) came up to me and was like "Can we play basketball?!" So i went and played and I was like "I suck!" and he was like "no you don't! You're the best sister at basketball so far!" that was super sweet even though he creamed me hahah!

So one more for the week, Millie (9 I think. She just recently got baptized) was on the phone with us and we were explaining we were gonna come see her next week instead of this week and then a little bit later there was this long pause and she was like "....are there pets allowed in church?" And we just started laughing and we were like "NO!" hahah she's so cute!

Pictures:

SIS CAMPBELL

Sister Hall! My comp from the MTC!

1 MONTH DOWN! 

Sister Hayward (sister campbell's trainer) love them both!

Sis Campbell of course!

Byrne ice cream is AMAZING!

Sister Shulz and Sister Lee

Of course, beautiful sunset!

Our mission president encouraged us to write down faith building experiences and we saw these journals at BIG LOTS that have the "BE" quote from PRES HINCKLEY! So of course that was the perfect match.

Well I love you all, thanks for all the support. have a great week!

 xoxo,

Gospel Girl

Captain Hook was a hooker

Yesterday I had the best dinner appointment ever! It was with Alisha and Cory Duclose and their three daughters. We had dinner with them a while ago and Alisha said she was going to Salt Lake City (she's from Layton and he's from Pleasant Grove) and asked if she could bring me back anything and I said "my mom!" haha so later in the week, I saw Cory and asked how Alisha was liking Utah cause she went to visit family and he said she liked it and again asked if she could bring me anything, so i jokingly said "Chick-Fil-A sauce!" So we show up to their house last night for dinner and SHE BROUGHT ME CHICK FIL A SAUCE!! AND for dinner they homemade Chick-Fil-A nuggets, sauce, and fries!!! It was AWESOME!!! They even gave us left-overs to take home. It made me feel so special! I seriously feel like I'm home when I'm there cause we can talk about Salt Lake and Cory and the girls LOVE RSL so we talk about that a lot which I LOVE! Ahh it was great. 

But anyways, during dinner we were talking about rugby and how there's a position called "hooker" and Cory was saying to one of his daughters "hooker means something else than just a position in rugby.. it's someone... that umm.. has a hook for a hand and... hooks people with it... like captain hook was a hooker!" HAHAHAHAH i was dying I was laughing so hard! I just love the members of our branch! We're so small but it's great because we're truly family. I feel so loved here!

This week was so great! I truly love Hamilton, can i just say how much I LOVE MY MISSION!?!!!!! It is an amazing thing. I read a talk this week by Elder Holland called "The Miracle of a Mission" I've read it like 3 times now and I cry everytime because it's SO POWERFUL! He talks about how a mission is the most important thing you could do in your life at this time and it seriously felt like he was talking right to me. I could hear the power in his voice and i was only READING the talk. I would encourage all of you (if you're an RM, preparing to go, not sure if you should go, if you're currently a missionary, ALL OF YOU) to go read this talk! It is incredible!!! 

Well I'm sure you've all seen pictures and videos of me on facebook from our investigator Micheal! He really wants to be baptized so hopefully we can help him with that. I truly love the gang. They treat me like family and I couldn't love a family more. They are so funny and so kind to us! Even the parts that aren't members! They are the coolest people I've ever met and Lacey (our 13 year old investigator) started crying when she thought about us leaving Hamilton, she is the sweetest! We have so much fun with her, I can't wait to see her get baptized!

So this week we had Zone Training Meeting with workshops and interviews and it was great! President Rogers is an amazing man. He's truly called of God. I've been studying lately about how certain callings were foreordained in Heaven, I know he was foreordained for this calling and I was absolutely called to be one of his missionaries. He's an incredible guy and he cares SO MUCH! My first week here I wrote to him about how I was a little homesick and either that night or the next night he called to check up on me! He's just so thoughtful and kind, I know I'm in good hands! ZTM was so spiritually uplifting. I love our zone and Sister Shulz is in my zone so that was an awesome surprise!! While we were there we sang our mission song "We'll Bring the World His Truth" and we changed the words a little so instead of:

We are as the army of Helaman.

We have been taught in our youth.

And we will be the Lord's missionaries

To bring the world his truth.

we sang:

 We are as the army of Helaman.

We have been taught in our youth.

And we ARE NOW the Lord's missionaries

To bring NEW YORK his truth.

And we had a few other changes but those were the coolest changes. I am one of the Lord's misisonaries called to bring NEW YORK His truth!!! SOO COOL! 

Holy cow my companion and I have been teaching so much this week! We are sooo busy!! I'm exhausted all the time but I guess that's just part of being a missionary! I LOVE IT! I love being busy! I love bringing New York His truth!!! 

Funny Story of the week:

In ZTM someone was bearing his testimony and he was quoting 1 Nephi 3:7 and he was like "JUST DO IT" and whips out his name tag and on the bag he had drawn this huge Nike symbol hahaha I was crackin up. We don't get too much solid humor so I take what I can get. But it was funny!

Pictures: 

1 -2: I was Chick-Fil-A Sauce happy haha

3. Hamilton sun sets are the best sunsets

4. My faves Sister Reijntes and Sister Shulz at ZTM

5. CARLEIGH MADE ME THE CUTEST DISNEYLAND FRAME and sent it in my moms package, totally made my week!

6. When you get a warning that you're car is going to get towed for parking at church (the curse of not having your own church building and having to park somewhere else)

FREE SHAVOCADO

So we had dinner at the Rains house last night and of course Abby was hilarious as always! She randomly looked up and yelled "FREE SHAVOCADO" and I LOST it I was laughing so hard! It's from a vine of a lady because the sign said "fresh avocado" but the spacing was weird so it says "free shavocado" and it was hilarious and I really needed a laugh so that was great!

Well this was a weird week. Definitely mixed feelings. 

Since we have bed bugs in our mission, we can't do overnight exchanges but we did blitz for the day in New Hartford with our STL's and it was so fun!! We went to dinner and got New York pizza and yes, it is as amazing as everyone says it is! While I was with Sister White we met this guy Tim who has a baptism date but needs to push it back and I just blurted out "what's your favorite part about this church?" not knowing where the heck that came from and before I got the question out o my mouth he was like "the people. and the love" Wow! What an awesome answer. Make sure you go out of your way to be nice because people notice! He also told us how sister missionaries have the "pregnancy glow" hahaha he said something about us just shines, it was so sweet. I love being a representative of my Savior. 

This week one thing I learned is there are absolutely no coincidences in life. We ate dinner at a members house on Saturday, the Gilchrists. After that we had a lesson with Lacey. Lacey is one of my best friends here! She's the sweetest 13 year old you'll ever meet. She lives with the gang (her uncle is the dad of the house and her mom is best friends with the mom of the house).  So we normally take her to the farm (the first house and first half of the family on the hill). So we were bringing her back to her house and we were dropping her off (Our mission president said it's okay to drive investigators to lessons, just fyi I promise I'm being obedient hah) and she was like "do you guys have to go somewhere or can you hang out? Can we read from the Book of Mormon?" So we were like "yeah we can read a chapter before we leave!" So majority of the gang is out of town, they went to Ohio for a trip so only a few people are home but we walk in and Lacey's mom was crying and Jeremy and Justin were on the back porch and literally right before we walked in the house Oreo, Jessica and Lacey and Justin's kitten had ran into the barn fan and cut her face open. Jessica and Lacey were A MESS. We were trying to figure out what to do and Sister Loveland looked at me and goes "Should we call Brother Gilchrist?" and i replied "that's what i was just thinking" so we frantically called him because he's a vet and he said he would come out of his way to help. He arrived and was able to take Oreo to his clinic (In the middle of a storm I might add) and fix her up free of charge because Jessica has no money. It's no coincidence that the Gilchrists signed us up for dinner that night. It's no coincidence that we had a lesson with Lacey. It's no coincidence that Lacey invited us in. It's no coincidence that we felt impressed to go inside. And it's definitely no coincidence that we both felt impressed to call brother Gilchrist. (He wrote a story about this experience on facebook, I shared it so you should all go read it). 

I love seeing the blessings that come from service! We ate dinner at a family's home this week and he told us that he's been feeding the missionaries for 20 years now. Well the next morning, he came in to get food from the food pantry that we volunteer at. My heart was so touched. He can barely provide for his family on his own and yet he still feeds the missionaries willingly. I know Heavenly Father is blessing him because of his dedication and service towards us. 

Well this week I had so much fun with the gang! I played basketball with Dakota and Nick, I threw a baseball with Trevor, and taught the boys and Lacey how to play 3-hit-kill! They LOVED it! Seriously they wouldn't leave me alone! Whenever we were just sitting and talking they'd run up to me and be like "can we play that game?!" Oh man I love the gang. 

Also this week I got the opportunity to speak in church! Hahah I've been to church 3 times and spoken in every single sacrament meeting! The first week they asked me to introduce myself, the second week I bore my testimony, and yesterday I gave a talk! I guess it's the curse of having a tiny branch. 

I definitely know that missionary work is hard. But it's also so worth it! I LOVE HAMILTON and i love New York! I love the people in my branch and I love my investigators! It's starting to feel like home which I'm so grateful for. 

Well keep writing and sending me letters, seriously it helps a ton and makes my day when I have mail! Love you all!

The Book is blue, the Church is true!

xoxo

Gospel Girl 

Funny story for this week is look up "flugtag" videos hahaha our investigators showed us it, it's hilarious. 

Pictures: 

1. HAMILTON MY LOVE

2. Killin' it with our Facebook lessons

3. I've never seen so many cemeteries in my life! They're all so old and soo cool. I'll have to take some better pics 

4. Hotel Maxwell is now an ice cream shop (SO GOOD) but there are so many old buildings that people have just turned into new businesses, it's probably my favorite part about Hamilton, besides the sunsets of course!

5. Little Rascals sign so obvi I had to take a pic

6. This is the view from Brother Gilchrist's lake house! SO PRETTY 

You guys are like magical, spiritual beings

So Pam and Mike Smith (the greatest people I have ever met, they're like our adopted grandparent) they have this neighbor who isn't a member and she has cancer and her mom just got home from the hospital cause she had two strokes it's so sad. But kathy (the neighbor) has her sister Gene and Gene's husband, Paul staying with them so we've been seeing them a lot and just catching up, they are so awesome! None of them are members but they're so nice to us. The other night we went to go visit them just to see how everything is going and Paul was like "You guys are just like these magical, spiritual beings" and we were like "what do you mean?" and he was like "you guys just have something about you, you're so awesome. I really like you guys" and we were like IT'S THE LIGHT OF CHRIST! Hahah it was just so funny the way he said it.

Well I decided it would just be easier to send you all my emails directly, instead of having my mom send it to all of you so I hope that's cool. This week was so great! Last week was really hard but this week was great! We've been teaching a lot about the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration lately which is great. My comp bore her testimony yesterday and was like "I just love the Plan of Salvation to death!" and i almost laughed out loud cause it was so punny. She didn't even mean it to be a pun but i was laughing cause through the Plan, we can overcome death! haha it was great. 

Last week I forgot to mention that I also volunteer at a THRIFT SHOP! Parker e-mailed me just laughing his head off at my new lifestyle and honestly it is really funny to think about who I was just a month ago compared to what I can handle now. changing lifestyle's is weird. But it's a lot better now! It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL here! Seriously I thought people were over-exaggerating when they said how beautiful it is, but no. It's amazing how beautiful it is. We got fed a lot this week by members which is so nice! We were at the Rains' the other night and Jared (he's like 11) was showing us his lego things that he made and I was like "That looks like a Pod Racer!" and he just kept talking and Karen, his mom, was like "Did you hear what she said?" So i repeated it and he slowly stood up and gave me a high five and was like "You're like the first girl I've met that likes Star Wars" it was so funny! 

The members here are so awesome. I so admire their faith. A lot of them have multiple callings since there aren't very many people in the branch. They're so amazing, seriously it's crazy how different it is here than in Utah.

Things with our investigators are going well! I love keeping busy and teaching lessons! Also i LOVE the gang. We are at their house almost everyday. They're so nice and welcoming, it makes me feel good! 

One thing that has definitely helped me on my mission is the Book of Mormon. Seriously, mission life is hard. We get rejected by people ALL DAY long and we're forced to hear people's doubts about the gospel and their questions and concerns everyday. They voice things that I've never even questioned in my life. I really have never had so many doubts about the gospel being shoved in my face. But every morning I read the Book of Mormon and receive that witness from the Holy Ghost that it's true. That it's the word of God. That it's another testament of Christ. That it needs to be shared with the world. And all of my doubts are gone. Any question that I have or that my investigators have can be answered through the Book of Mormon. It definitely has been the biggest help the past two weeks (besides prayer) 

Another thing that has really helped me that i LOVED is the AP's shared a story with us our first day here. They said how a brother got up in fast and testimony meeting and shared part of his patriarchal blessing that said "Brother, you and your wife would have joined the church a long time ago but the missionary that was supposed to convert you, decided not to go on a mission" HOLY COW. That hit me so hard! I think about that a lot. When I don't want to knock on someone's door or go do something, I think about that and it gives me a lot of motivation. Someone needs to hear the gospel from ME. I loved that. I hope you all have a great week! Please keep writing letters and sending emails, I really appreciate it!  

Funny Stories: (These are more for me than anyone else so if no one laughs I'm sorry, but I think they're funny haha!)

I keep remembering things from the MTC so I have to write them down so I won't forget.

Me: "We've eaten so many donuts since being here"
Sis Campbell: *totally serious* "what are you talking about, we only eat like 2 a day"

Sister Clark: "I'm pretty sure the MTC is designed to break you" *I'm changing this to The MISSION FIELD is designed to break you hah

Sister Giles: "I just feel like I'd say something like 'will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority of God?....are you down?'"

Sister Campbell and i got burritos from the vending machine and we were asking the Elders to bless them so we could eat and Elder Moody was like "OH I GOT IT! Good tortilla, good meat, good God, let's eat" 

Stories from the field now: 

Pam: "My son one time yelled at me as we were walking out of the store and yelled 'MOM GET IN THE CAR. I'M SICK OF YOU DRINKING AND CHEATIN ON DAD'" hahah i was laughing for days at this.

Brother Morgan in church bore his testimony and was like "I've heard the three T's: Things Take Time. well I have my own three T's today. My teeth, tithing, and testimony. Well since I can't share the first two with you I guess I'll share the third" hahaha he is so awesome!

At dinner with the Rains, their 3 year old Abby (she looks like a 5 year old and has the vocabulary of a 10 year old it's crazy) always says "SISTERS" so she was like "SISTERS" and we looked over at her and she was like "yo mama's so fat" and we didn't even hear the rest of the joke cause we were laughing so hard! HAHahaha it was so funny and so unexpected! 

Well that's it for today, sorry my emails are so long but I know my parents like them so if you don't read all of it, don't feel bad! Have a good week and know that God loves you! 

XOXO

Sister Rodriguez

1. HOW BEAUTIFUL IS HAMILTON?!? Seriously I love this place. It's 2 minutes away from where we live. I'm obsessed.

2. Our cute little church building 

3. If you and your companion don't match, are you even companions?

4. Sister Reijntes is in my district! Yay, we were friends in the MTC so it's good to see her.

5. The clouds were so low!

6. The sunsets here are so gorgeous! 

1. This is the view from Pam and Mike's deck! So gorgeous

2. Excuse the crazy eyes, but this store is the cutest and it's my name!

3. New York is so beautiful.

4. This place cracks me up. It's a car wash but you can also wash your pets there! Hahaha I laugh everytime I see it. 

Welcome to New York...It's Been Waiting For You

I've had this song from Taylor Swift stuck in my head all week! Sister Shulz and I sang it non stop when we got off the plane. Well I just have to say that everyone was right.. it is BEAUTIFUL here! Seriously it's so green. I'm pretty sure my companion (Sister Loveland) is sick of me because while we're driving I'm constantly saying "IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL" because seriously, it just takes my breath away. 

Leaving the MTC was really hard. Our district was so great so it was sad to leave all of them. When we said goodbye to the Elders, Sister Campbell and I couldn't stop crying.. we love them so much!! But I do have to say the hardest thing so far was saying goodbye to Sister Campbell. We see each other again in 3 weeks so that's good! When she told me her and her comp were leaving we both broke into tears. I've definitely relied on her a lot in my mission.

Well one thing that I've learned this week is that God really does have a sense of humor!! The first day we got here, we did FARM WORK. Did you read that Kyle? I DID FARM WORK. We like threw hay in a trailer honestly so pointless but it was nice to do some service. You'll have to tell Dennis, I'm sure he'll get a laugh out of that. And Sister Rodriguez horror story: I BOUGHT CLOTHES AT WAL MART TODAY BECAUSE THERE IS NO TARGET IN HAMILTON. SOS. Well by now I'm sure Carleigh is dying because I did farm work and shopped at Wal Mart. Haha it's really not that bad though. I actually love Hamilton. One of my favorite parts is that our Sacraments are held in a medical building! We don't have enough people for  a ward so we have about 21 active members in our branch so we don't have a chapel. It's definitely different than good ole SLC where there are churches on every corner. It's a big culture shock here.

The first day I got here I met the gang.  They are so sweet and so nice to welcome me. They're our investigators and also part member family. My brain hurts when I think of their family tree cause it's so confusing. Everyone is related somehow, I just get lost when they try to explain it to me! 

Adjusting to mission life is hard.. the MTC IS NOT REAL LIFE. hahah it didn't prepare me at all. I actually love it here, it's just hard being away from home. The members are all so nice! Also whoever said "ask the missionaries" is a real jerk! Because the Saturday night I get a call saying I'll be speaking in sacrament meeting the next day and he didn't give me a time frame! haha it's all good it was fine but it's just funny. I heard that whenever people need stuff they ask the missionaries and that's definitely true! So much happened this week that I can't even remember. 

Pam and Mike Smith are the greatest people I've ever met! They took us to Wal Mart today in Oneida cause there isn't one in Hamilton but i NEEDED civilization. They're super sweet. 

If you wrote me an email this week thank you so much! I love you all! I wish I had more time to respond, but I will next week! Thanks for all of your love and support! Also mission life is really hard so if anyone has any uplifting quotes or some hope, please send it my way!

Funny stories: (Most of these are gonna be lame now that the elders from the MTC are gone)


Sis Campbell: "I won't be home until I see the H on the hill."

Me: "For Hurricane?"
Her: "Yep!"
Me: "I won't be home until I see the M on the sign"

Her: "For Murray?"
Me: "nope, for McDonalds" 

Also we were tracting and this guy opened the door and was like "I...uhhh... no" and just shut the door before we could even say anything! HAHah i was laughing so hard. 

Also we were tracting and this old lady flagged us down and could not hear AT ALL so sis loveland was like yelling so she could hear and then like 5 minutes later she was like "Why are you yelling?" OH MAN i was trying so hard not to laugh! Like hello, we're yelling because you can't hear us! hahah 

Pictures:
1. SO APPARENTLY SISTER STOWELL IS IN THE UTICA MISSION!! We went to Murray together so it was awesome seeing her.

2. Baby shower games for Edna May (part of the gang) 

3. Our tiny tiny sacrament meeting

4. We found tortellini in our freezer and went out on a limb and tried it.. so good!!