Sin Bad Jesus Good Details Inside

This week in Earlville we saw a sign at a Baptist church that said:

"Sin bad

Jesus good

Details inside"

No punctuation or anything, that's it! I couldn't stop laughing and I've been saying it all week! hahaha

Just a heads up for y'all I will not be emailing on the 10th! Since we are going to the Palmyra temple on October 8th, that will be our Pday! So I will be emailing on the 3rd, the 8th, NOT the 10th, and then again on the 17th. It's kinda a bummer but I'm so excited to be going to the Palmyra temple!!! We're going with a returning Less Active, Chris Moglia and the branch decided to come as well! We will probably email really early in the morning like between 5-8 am because it will be a long trip! I'm not sure though, I will probably let y'all know next week!

Not much happened this week! Our investigator Rita broke up with us! Hahah she said St. Mary's is home to her and wrote us a note and gave us back our Book Of Mormon which was sad but she was sweet. 

So surprise, surprise we did more hay this week!!!! This time we stacked it! I still have tons of scratches on my arm where it looks like I lost a fight with a cat because the hay was so scratchy! But it is a really good work out and the service is great. 

Also this week we had Filipino food!! The Bagnalls fed us and on our way there sister Loveland was like "I really want Bernadette to make us some Filipino food!" And we got there and she had made us Filipino food! She's from the Philippines and so I was a little nervous but it was actually really really good! It was like a noodle dish with shrimp, chicken, mushrooms, veggies, etc. I was impressed! I'm definitely spoiled when it comes to members feeding us!

So a few weeks ago we had a member Mike Smith get life flighted to Syracuse because of kidney failure. He should be dead right now with everything that happened, but because of prayer, fasting, and the priesthood, he is HOME!!!! And doing much better! Pam and Mike have been so so so sweet to us that it scared us so bad, but he is now home and doing much better, it's such a relief! 

Also this week we watched the womens conference at the Rains house! It was so good!!! Uchtdorfs story about the missionaries "fourth floor, last door" was so inspiring! I am SO STOKED for conference this weekend! That's the only thing I have been able to talk about for the past month!! 

Also today marks TWO MONTHS in the mission field!!!! What?! It's crazy!!! It's been crazy hard but so amazing. I love being a missionary!! 

So this week I met a guy at the gangs. He's nicknamed "the apple" because he's a bad apple i guess. He was very very crude and I felt sick to my stomach when he was speaking to us. He was very disrespectful in the way he spoke to sister loveland and I, he said the f word every other word, and he told us "I don't believe in God. There is no God. I AM THE HIGHEST POWER THERE IS!" Holy cow, I felt the Spirit leave just like that. I just sat there, unable to speak. The only thing Sister Loveland could get out of her mouth was "Read Alma 22". That morning, I had read Mosiah chapter 2 and I wanted to share with him what I learned. That chapter talks about how mighty God is and how we will forever be indebted to him because when we keep commandments, he ALWAYS blesses us, so we are forever indebted to him. We are so insignificant. We are no better than THE DUST OF THE EARTH because God created even that so we have NO RIGHT to brag about ourselves!!! Ahh it was so frustrating. I couldn't even say anything, I just sat there because I knew he wasn't being sincere and wanting to learn. He was looking to argue so we just let him believe what he will. One day he'll stand before God and have to look God in the face and tell him how the apple thinks he is the highest power there is. I LOVE THE PLAN OF SALVATION! EVERYTHING will be made right eventually through the Atonement. 

Well on that note I think I'll end with some funny stories as always! 

"How old are you when you're ten?" -Sister Loveland (she meant what grade are you in when you're 10 hahaha)

"Man up and do the tuba!!!!" -Keith to Kayden when he was figuring out what instrument he wanted to play in band

"I'm gonna punch you in the jugular!!" -Nikki to Alex's boyfriend hahaha oh how I love the gang

One of the boys that we teach, Rhonald says "Chewcabacca" instead of "Chewbacca" from Star Wars hahah it's so cute! 

Well that's about it! Thanks so much for all of your love and support! I hope things are going well at home! Some temple missionaries attend our branch and they're from Cedar City!!! They told me how it's getting cold and home and there's starting to get snow on the mountains! Ahhh I miss that view!! Love you all!!

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

Pictures:

1. The temple missionaries, Elder and Sister Morgan

2. Beautiful view from Morrisville

3. GO COLGATE

4. Everytime sister loveland sees a cow, we have to stop and take a picture!

5. Our fave Pam!! <3 

6. Sister Loveland about 10 minutes ago started laughing and said "This is you!!" I agree :)   

We had a spontaneous photo shoot this week so enjoy :)

Just Another Day At Panera Bread

So I'm pretty sure all of my email subjects are from vines or movies haha this one is from a vine from Josh Peck. 

We went to Panera Bread this week for dinner so it's been stuck in my head all week!

So we were in Utica this week for Zone Conference which is SO great! I LOVE being around other missionaries. The Utica mission is filled with so many incredible missionaries, I feel so lucky to be apart of this mission! We have two brand new missionaries in our Zone so that was really weird to see that I'm not the newest of the new anymore! But we had a training by our mission president and holy cow President Rogers is so amazing! Before I came on my mission, Tanner O. said something to me about how we were called to our missions for a reason but also to our mission presidents for a reason and that is absolutely true! I know that President Rogers was meant to be my mission president. I learn SO MUCH from him! 

Since we were in Utica, we of course had to go shopping!!! So we stopped at the mall and it was so great! I definitely know Heavenly Father called me to Hamilton for a reason because there is literally one store called Peebles and it's like not even cute at all so I have ZERO distractions for shopping which I guess is a blessing haha. So we went to Target and a few stores in the mall which was awesome because I got a few things for the fall/winter before it gets cold! After we went shopping we went to Panera Bread and of course it was amazing! That's one thing I love about New York is that it actually has a Panera! My fave!

Well this week we put Lacey on date for baptism!!!!! We sat down and talked with her and her mom last night. Jessica brought up some concerns she has but ultimately is going to support Lacey if this is something she wants. So October 15th is going to be the best day ever because Lacey will be baptized!!!! I am SO PROUD OF HER! She is the sweetest and one of my closest friends. She also has the biggest desire to go to the temple which is so awesome! I thank Heavenly Father every night for trusting Sister Loveland and I enough to be the ones teaching Lacey. 

Also this week I expressed to Sister Loveland how I felt like our lessons weren't as sincere as they could be, so we were at a lesson with Steve and Jessica and I could feel the Spirit SO STRONG! We finished reading a chapter in the BOM with them and I just started asking them these questions is they've prayed about the Book and Jessica was like "yeah" me: "have you gotten an answer?" "No" "well do you believe that Heavenly Father will answer your prayer?" "Not really..." We finally found our problem!! We were struggling with how to help them and so we finally were able to discover one of the things holding her back. We both were able to testify to her that Heavenly Father answers prayers but we have to ask with real faith and I just could feel the Spirit guiding us and telling us what to say and what questions to ask. It was incredible!!

Also this week we stopped by our investigator Janette's house. I think I've mentioned her before but her son is in Ohio and he is also investigating the church so they've been discussing a lot lately! She is so cool. Her faith in Jesus Christ and her relationship with God is so incredible. She is actually STUDYING the Book of Mormon! Like she sits down and reads it and uses the footnotes to compare it to the Bible, it's awesome! She's literally PROVING to herself that it's true! I wish everyone was like that! We keep asking her about the Book and she was telling us about her studying and goes "don't worry! I like the Book!!" Hahah it was cute but it was so great because The Book of Mormon plays a huge role in conversion so we are so happy that she's studying it! 

So our Zone this month has a goal of placing 600 copies of the Book of Mormon! Sister Loveland and I have been struggling really hard to do our part. Like the last week of August we placed about 10 in one week but as soon as September hit and we had this goal it seems impossible! We've only done three this whole month! So we decided that as much as we hate OYMing, we were going to do it and we were going to place some. So we get out and start walking towards the town and we see this guy sitting on a bench (it's like 8:00 at night so it's pretty dark and it's raining) and my trainer's like "let's go talk to him" so she just strolls right up to him and goes "have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon?" and BAM just places it right then and there and testifies of it and tells him what it is and i was like in shock, how cool is my trainer?! If she has it in her mind that she's gonna do something, she's gonna do it! I'm still getting over my fear of OYMing but that definitely helped, her example is so helpful to me! So hopefully we can get out there and keep placing them! 

Also I know I say this all the time, but I LOVE the Hamilton branch!! We had a pot luck after church, there was no sign up or anything, people just brought what they wanted and it all worked out! Since our building is so small we cleaned up the chairs in the chapel and put out tables and ate in there! It's been so cool going from Utah where there are churches on every corner to our tiny little branch here in Hamilton! I used to think our ward was small with 9 young women but here, Sarah is normally the only one in Young Womens! Jordan and Lacey have been coming too now so our young womens just tripled basically! But it doesn't matter how big the church is, we're all still family no matter what. I have been so lucky to have been apart of the Hillcrest ward at home. They're so awesome! It's just so different to experience a tiny branch!

Funny Stories:

So I got the kids from the Gang addicted to 3-hit-kill!! Hahaha one day this week we pulled up to the house and I see 4 kids run out from the house and the porch and grab the ball and they were like "WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU SO WE CAN PLAY!!" Hahah I love it!!

Also this week we were walking home at night to get back to the apartment and this guy on a golf cart starts driving next to us and was like "Hello Mormons." We were like "hi!" and he was like "It's a full moon tonight. Be careful." It was so weird!!! I was like "You're the only person that i need to be careful of!!!" But of course i didn't say that haha it was just super creepy!

Also one more, last night Sister Loveland was on the phone with Elder Cook, our District Leader while I was in the shower and when I got out, the first thing I hear is Elder Cook saying "No, I don't want all of my posterity to know about dead old lady butt!" HAHAHAHA I was so confused!!! So I get out there and make him tell me this story but apparently they were in a nursing home and long story short, he walked in on an old lady who was being changed and saw her butt and then like the next day she died! So now he's haunted by the fact that he saw a dead old lady butt. hahahahah oh man how I love this mission. 

Well that's about it for this week! Thanks so much for all of your love and support, I miss you all so much but I love being a servant of the Lord! I hope you all have a great week and I look forward to hearing from y'all next Monday!

xoxo

Gospel Girl

Pictures!!!

1. Our typical "we're way too busy today to even eat lunch so we're packing a PB&J and eating it in the car" lunch :)

2. Sister Shulz and I at Zone Conference, oh how i love her!!

3. PANERA BREAD

4. Friday was like the best day ever and to top it off, we came home and both of us had packages!!!!

5. Kayden and I at church!

6. Lacey stuck these hearts on our face at church so we took a selfieeeee

I've learned to pray with one eye open

So this weeks explanation of my subject line comes from my companion! We were going to visit Millie, a 10 year old Recent Convert, and we were praying in our car before we went in for the lesson and Millie had snuck out of the house and jumps out at us but we knew she was there! She's done that before so my companion goes "Because of you, I've learned to pray with one eye open" haha it was funny! We had so much fun at our lesson though. We talked about missionary work with her and we went on "splits" so she was my companion! We did a door approach and then taught Sister Loveland a lesson. Afterwards, we switched and I was the investigator! They were teaching me about tithing and Millie goes "I forgot what to say.." and sister loveland goes "follow the spirit" so Millie goes "Oh! Follow the spirit!" to me. HAHAH we were like "no! As a missionary, you have to follow the spirit in order to know what to say, you don't say 'follow the spirit'" haha it was so cute, we had a lot of fun!

Well last week after our hike, we were in Utica. My comp and I both were a little sad after emailing so while we were driving home, Sister Loveland stops and goes "we're making a pit stop" and stopped at Target for me!! She is the sweetest. Whenever I'm having a bad day, she knows exactly how to cheer me up. She knows how much I love Target so we stopped there and did some shopping and then we even went to TJ MAXX!!! Ahh I loved it. 

Being in Hamilton is great, but there is literally NO WHERE to shop, it's a struggle.

So it was another great week! One of our investigators thinks we're nuns so that's always fun, Edna May (part of the gang) had her baby! She is so cute so that house has been so fun this week. Also I did more farm work!!! We helped Keith with cutting wood this week, we even did it TWICE! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I don't like farm work but I love giving service so It all works out.

We also did a lot of crafts this week! With the gang we made scripture cases for our BOMs which turned out SO CUTE! I'll have to take a picture this week of all of them to show you all. 

So I'm pretty sure I mentioned how hard the Spirit is working on the gang. Jessica (Keiths cousin) read with us and wanted us to come teach her kids, so we have been going over there and OH MY they are the CUTEST! This one little boy is 4 and his name is Rhonald and he always gives me hugs and tells me "I'll miss you!! I love you!!" It is so cute! So with them we made a prayer poster that has a sandwich and shows them how to pray so they can remember to say their prayers! We decorated it, my comp has a picture so I'll see if I can send it to y'all. 

Also last night we were reading with the gang and Jessica (Lacey's mom) (there are so many Jessicas in that family hahaha) sat down with us to read!!! She said since she read with us she now wants her own scripture case and Book! THE POWER OF THE BOOK OF MORMON IS REAL!!! 

Lacey's baptism date was scheduled for the 10th but her mom doesn't think she's ready yet so we're trying to find another date when her mom feels she will be ready. I'm so excited for Lacey! She read from the Book of Mormon everyday, her prayers are so sincere, she has come a long way and really desires to follow the Commandments. I JUST LOVE THE GANG! They are seriously like family to me. They are so sweet and protective of us. If someone in the house swears, we immediately hear "SHUT YOUR MOUTH, THE SISTERS ARE HERE" even though everyone in that house swears, even the people that do swear will tell someone else to stop swearing if we're around. Ahh They're so great. A highlight of my week was probably eating dinner at their house this week. We had BLT's with fresh bacon! it was 10/10. Also tonight, they're feeding us venison (deer meat) because I've never had it, but apparently it's super good so I'm excited! I am so lucky we get to stay in Hamilton for another transfer, I love it here!

My favorite funny story of the week happened yesterday and I have not been able to stop laughing since. So, my comp and I are sitting at our desks and I realized that I bought the wrong brand of Highlighters and so I'm telling sister Loveland this and she goes "well let me see this one" (one that i got from the MTC) and she goes "Oh, it's flower scented!" and smells it. and then goes "it doesn't smell like flowers. Plus they spelled flower wrong" so I look at the highlighter and just bust up laughing. My companion was just looking at me so confused because I was laughing so hard I couldn't even get any words out. The marker said "FLUORESCENT" NOT FLOWER SCENT HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA I still am laughing about it. But yeah that's my funny story for the week! Well I love you all and I appreciate all the love and support. This is Christ's true church. I absolutely know it. 

LOVE Y'ALL

XOXO

GOSPEL GIRL 

SHOPPING

Trevor and Nick (they're the kids of the gang, we bribed them with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to sit down 

for a lesson with us and they went CRAZY!)

We stopped at this cute lake for some pics :)

My cute little companion, Sister Millie

Kaydon and Nick

Our Districts awkward family photo :)

The cute lil Library in Morrisville

Keith (in the background - the dad of the gang) let us feed his cows after we helped with wood! Hahahahha the cows tongue kills me everytime I look at it

Jessica's kids with their prayer poster! One of my favorite parts about being a missionary is when we get to teach kids. 

Pioneers for a day

The best part about being in a small branch is you can have church wherever! We had church this week at Leta Card's house. She's a member that we visit every Tuesday, she's super sick so she can't ever make it to church but she is the sweetest! I just love her so much. We decided to bring church to her this week! We only had sacrament meeting with testimonies since it was Fast Sunday. We all brought our own chairs and had the meeting outside. Some members brought instruments (cello, banjo, guitar) and we sang the hymns that way. A few people mentioned how they felt like pioneers, I was thinking the same thing! It was really cool to see how 30 people could be so close like a family. Everyone in the branch cares so much about everyone, I love it. I'm so grateful for the pioneers and it was soooo cool to be able to have that experience that we could feel a different connection to them. 

Also today I'm emailing super late because we went to the Adirondack Mountains!! (Well, it's New York, so they're more like large hills - Utah mountains are WAY better!!) but the Adirondacks were wayyyy cool! I have tons of pictures i'm going to send. We went with the Lees (the office couple) and a few other sisters around us. Then we went and had lunch at the Lees lake house! It was awesome! New York is sooo beautiful! 

I really can't remember too much about this week but it was a good one! 

This week while we were tracting, we had some rough experiences. People can be so rude! But after dealing with some difficult people, this lady let us in and she was like "oh come in!!! It's so nice to see the girls! i'm so used to the boys!" She's not an investigator, she was just this super nice lady who let us come in and sit down for a minute and be people. She said the Elders used to come over when they needed to rest and relax for a minute so we were welcome to do that anytime. That was such a tender mercy! To me it was like God saying "I"m sorry you had to deal with those rude people, but here's Tracy, she'll let you sit and calm down for a minute." 

Transfer calls came last night and I am staying in Hamilton with Sister Loveland!! YAY!! I love hamilton!!! I really am so excited that i get to be apart of this work. It has absolutely been the hardest thing i've ever done but so rewarding as well. This week was kind of a struggle, but I've learned so much about being selfless. Being upstate NY, people were raised so different than I was. I've learned so much about charity and I've realized so much about seeing people the way that Christ sees them. And can I just say how much I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON?!?!!! I've had a lot of struggles, but the BOM is such a great reminder of why I'm doing this work and what I'm doing. We truly are so lucky to have the Book of Mormon. I hope you all have a great week! :) 

Funny Stories:
Brother Rains: "I have socks older than you!"

Sister Rains: "...you probably shouldn't admit that"

While tracting this lady looked at us and was like "No. You are a CULT and i am NOT interested." Hahahah Okay then!! 

I can't really remember what else but yeah, those'll do for this week :)

PICTURES

1. Big Macs and Facebook lessons 

2. Gotta knock on EVERY door :) 

3. Bigger picture of the old creepy thing hah

4. The cemeteries here are SO COOL

5/6. NY is so beautiful! 

Adirondack Pictures!!