Sister Stephani Rodriguez: Be An Organ Donor...

...give your heart to Jesus!" haha that was from another church sign I saw this week! Church's have lots of funny ways of advertising things I've decided. New York is so crazy because there are SO MANY religions! I am able to see first hand of just how confused Joseph Smith really must have been. Speaking of Joseph Smith.... I GOT TO GO TO PALMYRA THIS WEEK!!!! Oh my goodness it was incredible. We got to drive by the Hill Cumorah which was so cool! We were not able to go to the Sacred Grove which was a bummer, but the temple was beautiful! It was really really small, but still the Spirit that was there was very strong! And Elder and Sister Morgan (the temple missionaries in our Branch) were able to be in the session that we did! That was sweet. We drove 2 hours to the temple with Brother Morgan and our returning Less Active, Chris Moglia who had not been to the temple in almost 30 years! It was the sweetest privilege to be able to attend with her. We had been able to see just how hard Satan worked to prevent her from going. Since I've been here she's been ready to go but has had to wait for her clothing and everything to get shipped to her! So about a month ago, she got her package, but it was missing an article of clothing! So we had to wait about 2 more weeks to get that! There was a lot of other stuff that was just a mess that we needed to figure out before we could go. So on Saturday in the car, about 20 minutes into the drive, her husband Skip called and said he forgot to put her dress in the car! But no worries, we were able to get to the temple and they had a dress for her. It seemed like one thing after another Satan was trying to prevent her from going but Chris definitely knew she needed to be there and wasn't going to give up until she got there!

After the temple, Brother Morgan treated us to lunch! Sister Loveland has been telling me that New Yorkers say "hamburg" instead of "hamburger" and so far I had only heard a few people call it that, but at the diner we went to, the MENU even said hamburg! So weird. But it was really good! After that, we took our 2 hour trip back home. That took place of our P-day but since it was an all day thing, President gave us permission to email today!

This week, we were able to go watch Nick (from the gang) in his football game! His team crushed the other guys! It was awesome! After the game, Lacey asked us what we were doing and we told her we were gonna go knock on some peoples doors and she goes "Can i come?!?!" So we said sure!! And she came with us! While we were tracting, she got kind of discouraged because (like always) everyone said no. She asked us "Why does everyone say no?" I loved that question. Lacey knows how important this Gospel is and she wants to share it with everyone and it made her sad that people said no. She was confused as to why anyone would want to decline this happy message that we share! I told her I wondered the same thing. On our last house I asked Lacey if she wanted to talk to the people and she said yes! So she figured out what she was going to say and knocked. She said "Hi, we're sharing a message about Jesus Christ and we're wondering if we could share it with you" or something like that and the lady was like "I know all about him" and Lacey goes "oh. okay. bye" and just turned around and walked away. Haha I was so proud of her for opening her mouth! The lady was kinda rude so that's a bummer but she did awesome! She asked us if she could come again so tonight she's going tracting with us and then she'll join us for dinner at The Duclos's!!

My email is pretty long this week but I have to share another cool experience. A while ago, we mentioned how testimony meeting would be on the 9th because of General Conference. Lacey was excited and I asked her if she would want to bear her testimony! She looked a little nervous and so I told her she could read it if she wanted to (a while ago we had a lesson and helped her write down her own testimony) so she said she would just read it! Well she ended up losing that paper, so on Sunday in Sacrament meeting, she pulled out a piece of paper and started writing down her testimony. With no help from Sister Loveland or I. She was really nervous but eventually she was bold and got up to bear her testimony. She talked a lot about how she knew Heavenly Father loves her and blesses her and how she loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the middle of her testimony, she started crying, which needless to say, I had tears streaming down my face. I have been so lucky to have seen this Gospel change Lacey's life. That was probably the best experience I've had on the mission so far, was being able to see Lacey get up and proclaim to everyone that she knows this church is true. It was the neatest experience.

While Lacey was writing hers, she helped Trevor write his down as well. Trevor told me that he would go up after Lacey if I got up after him so i told him i would! So after lacey sat down, I made Trevor get up and he wasn't going to but eventually he goes "SCREW IT!!!" and marches up to the podium to bear his testimony! When he was coming down, he looks at me and goes "Alright you better get up there NOW!" hahah so amid my tears and laughter, I got up and bore my testimony. I love this gospel so much, and I love how I've been able to see it bless the lives of those here in New York. Being a missionary is SUCH a privilege.

This transfer has gone by really fast and it makes me sad knowing that my time in Hamilton might be coming to a close soon. We think Sister Loveland might get transferred next week cause she's been here for almost 6 months. That makes me really sad! But one thing I've really been learning is to put my trust in Heavenly Father. One of my favorite quotes from Conference was something along the lines of how we need to trust not only in Heavenly Fathers knowledge, but in his love as well. Wow I loved that. I know Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us. We need to put our trust and faith in Him, and He will make us more than we could ever imagine.

My funny quote from the week is from Trevor of course:

This week we were having a lesson with Trevor on prayer and we asked him how many hours there are in a day and he goes "48. Because when it's dark here, the Chinese people have day" Hahaha yeah okay! He cracks me up.

Pics:

When your companion gets too lazy to clean a pot so she uses a PAN to cook her hot dog. #LifeOfAMissionary