Sister Stephani Rodriguez: 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