Sister Stephani Rodriguez: "RODI!!"

If I had a dollar everytime my companion yelled "RODI!!!" at me while I was doing something stupid, well I would be VERY rich!! Hahaha Rodi (road-ie) is a nickname that Sister Loveland has got everyone calling me here in Hamilton! Today I was sticking a nice piece of my hair in Sister Loveland's photo album so "she could remember me" and she turns around and yells "RODI!!!!" again :) Hahaha it's a great sound! We have LOTS of laughs throughout the day and we've started a quote board in our living room! We love finding funny moments in the work.

Well I'll start off with saying just how AMAZING conference was!!! Seriously I can't believe how powerful the Spirit was that I felt. I can't pick a favorite talk, I starred so many of them so I can go back and read them! I LOVED President Nelson's talk on JOY :) This Gospel truly brings us joy! As missionaries we leave our homes to bring others JOY! Jesus Christ is JOY! his JOY is CONSTANT! Ahh I loved every second of conference!... Until it was over.. I was so looking forward to hearing Elder Holland speak. Sister Loveland and I predicted that he would be the last speaker. So when they announced the closing song and prayer, I was devastated! I was so sad that I'll admit, I started tearing up a bit! Trever (from the Gang) was like "I've never seen a missionary cry before!" and Sister Loveland and I just started laughing and we were like "you have no idea, we cry all the time!!" We were able to watch Conference with Pam and Mike on Saturday and with the Gang on Sunday!

This was the first Conference that I went in having prayed to Heavenly Father with a specific question that i wanted answered. It seemed like every. single. talk. was aimed at me! Everything I heard was able to answer my question. I LOVE this Gospel! Like seriously, it was an incredible Conference. I'm sad I have to wait 6 more months before we can hear the leaders of our church again. They are truly called of God. This IS the same church that Christ established while He was on the Earth. My testimony was strengthened SO MUCH this weekend. Heavenly Father truly does answer prayers and the power of the Holy Ghost is REAL! Another talk I really loved was Craig C. Christensens and his "because Joseph was a prophet..." saying. It really strengthened my testimony of the Restoration. Another one of my favorites was M. Russell Ballards! "To whom shall ye go?" This Gospel truly provides so many answers to us. We sometimes take for granted what this Gospel offers us. We can't go anywhere else to find what Christ offers us in His church.

Conference was basically the highlight of my week! But some other good things happened too! On Saturday morning we were able to go watch Rohnald and Warren (some of our investigators) play football! It was flag football and the cutest thing. Rohnald ran off the field, looked at his coach and was like "I wanna go say hi!" So in the middle of the game he ran over and said hi to us and gave us hugs! Ahh he's the cutest. Sister Loveland calls him my little "boyfriend" cause he always hugs me everytime he sees me, it's so cute!

Things are going great with Lacey! We may have to push her baptism date back but we will see. She's so sweet. We've gotten so close. I feel like she's the little sister I never had. So far I've braided her hair, painted her nails, helped her with homework, and sent her off to Homecoming! It's been so fun hanging out with her and seeing the Gospel bring a new light to her!

Also this week we had Blitz! I just adore Sister Tesch and Sister White. We met this guy named Prince and well, he reminded me of Parker because he was just so funny! He was like "Today in school I had to realize something." "what?" "I had to realize.. that I look GOOD!" hahaha It made us laugh. Also on Blitz we did a lot of OYMing. Sister Loveland and I really struggle with that but Sister Tesch was so diligent and did a really good job! Even though no success came from it, "we'll be blessed in other ways" (a huge saying I've learned on the mission hahah) Oh and on Blitz sister Loveland and Sister White went to the Mission Office and while they were there they found some cool New York license plates so we get to take those home!

Funny stories for the week:

This week while tracting some guy turned us down so naturally we asked him if he knew anyone that might be interested and he goes "Mr. Rains!" us: "...Dan Rains?..." "yeah! He's always looking for uplifting stuff" Hahaha Dan Rains is a member of our branch! We told him we got his name as a referral and we all had a good laugh.

Also one downside to having Facebook is that people know your first name! We were at the Farm (the first half of the Gang) for dinner and Becky was talking to me and she called me Stephani!!! It took me completely by surprise and I freaked out! Hahah she gasped and was like "SORRY!!" it was so funny!

"If you say you've never crapped your pants, you're lying. We've all done it!!!" - Pam :)

One last thing, so Lacey has decided she's gonna go to Idaho to live with Sister Loveland when she gets home and Trever has decided he's going to come live with me in Salt Lake when I get home and we're going to have a Bugatti and a tower of Mentos and Tic Tacs in our house! So now whenever he sees me he always brags about how he's going to move to Utah to live with me! hahah I love him!

Well I hope you all have a great week! Don't forget the Spiritual impressions you received during conference! And make sure you all apply what you learn. Member missionary work was completely emphasized this weekend. Just because you don't have a name tag doesn't mean you're exempt from being a missionary! Go spread the Gospel! Puzzle piece by puzzle piece! LOVE YOU ALL!!

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

Pictures!

1. You can't have Conference without German Pancakes so I whipped us some up :)