Chick Chick Chick Chick Chicken wing!!

Hello everyone! Wow, looking back and thinking about what I wanted to write about, I realize this has been an awesome week! Also, great news.... I will be staying in Hamilton another transfer with Sister Maughan!!! YAY!!!!

Monday: We had to stay in all night because it was so snowy and the roads were really bad! We called our investigators we were going to come see and they told us to stay home. We were kinda bummed but it was nice to stay in. At the end of the night we made hot chocolate, painted our nails, and watched a movie! I love Sister Muaghan!!! 

Wednesday: After District Meeting, we went to Oliveri's for pizza with Graver and Christenson (the Oneida sisters) which was really fun! Have I mentioned that I'm gonna come home weighing like 300 pounds because of NY pizza? Worth it. 

Also on Wednesday we went out to Madison and focused on finding. We were able to place two copies of the Book of Mormon! I love tracting with a BOM in my hand because it's so special. I decided at this specific house (okay, trailer) I would use it as my approach. I just started talking and testifying of the Book and then I extended it to her and invited her to read it. And she said YES!!! Not gonna lie, I was pretty taken back by that. I've placed many copies of the Book of Mormon before but normally everyone says no. I asked her if it would be alright if we came back another time to discuss what she has read and she said YES AGAIN! I walked away and was like "what just happened? That never happens." Haha it was awesome! It seriously is so amazing knowing that she now has the fullness of the Gospel in her home. After tracting, we went home and started making dinner when Lacey called! She asked if we could have a phone lesson where we read from the Book of Mormon with her! We were like "umm yes of course we can!!!" Seriously you guys, Lacey is amazing. We were like "who does that? Who calls the missionaries and asks them if we can have a lesson?" Well, Lacey does! I just love her. 

So then that night at Coordination, we got a phone call from the Fayetville sisters (my girl sister Park )  saying that one of their investigators who is on date to be baptized, just moved into our area!! So we just got a new gator who is already on date! Sister Maughan said "it goes to show that you don't find people when you tract, but when you tract you find people" I loved that!! A lot of the times we don't see success from tracting but we definitely know that obedience to that brings blessings. So cool! Such a great day.

Thursday: THANKSGIVING!!!! In the morning we had a lesson with two of our investigators that went well. We also went over to another one of our investigators house and helped her clean. Her... boyfriend I guess just passed away. She is 59 and he was 93 and she was his home health nurse and they fell in love and he passed away a few months ago and she is really lonely and has a really hard time lately. So we went over to help her clean and organize the house because she has to move out soon. It was good to spend some time with her! Then of course, we went to the gangs!!!! I remember looking around and seeing all these people that I love so much. I seriously consider them to be family. I turned to Sister Maughan and I was like "My heart is really happy" I just felt so peaceful at that moment. It was great. Sometimes I feel like I've been in Hamilton my whole life! I love the people here SO MUCH!!! But of course, something crazy had to happen! Well the boys went hunting before dinner and Travis ended up getting lost in the cold and so Nikki and Keith had to leave to go find him! So dinner started an hour late but everyone is okay! I though it was funny just cause we knew something was going to make the dinner run.. well not smooth. Ha! 

Oh also I had chicken wing dip for the first time. 10/10. So good.

Friday: We had exchanges with our New Hartford STL's! It was really fun! We ended up having dinner at President and Sister Roger's house! It was kinda awkward but really fun. The Sisters were like "what do we do? Do we leave a spiritual thought? I mean, it's PRESIDENT! What does he need to hear?!" So they ended up sharing a thought about enduring to the end. It was good. And dinner was fun! I love love LOVE the Rogers. They take such good care of us and they are the sweetest ever.

Sunday: There was no Sunday School teacher for the primary kids so they BEGGED the president to let us teach them! Haha so we taught the primary kids about Mormon and it was really fun. I love those kids. They were like "when are transfers?" "Wednesday. We find out if we leave tonight" them: "Sister Rodriguez! You have to stay!! If they tell you you're leaving just say 'no. I'm staying in Hamilton!!!'" Haha it was really cute and made me feel really good. You guys can see why I love Hamilton SO much!!

Elder Stevenson: "Heavenly Father's generous compensation for living in perilous times is that we also live in the fullness of times" Wow I love that quote!! I read it this morning and had to share it. 

Funny:

Sorry my email is super long this week, I'll just share one quick funny story:

Sister Maughan thinks it's hilarious to try to prank me! So this week she decided while I was in the shower that she would put clear tape right where my head would be and then fill tons of cups up with water so I would run out and knock everything over and run into the tape! Well, it didn't work. Hahaha I just sat there trying to figure out what was going on cause I didn't have my glasses/contacts haha it was so funny! I am so excited to spend 6 more weeks with her!

Pictures:

1. Nikki (from the Gang) and I at Thanksgiving 

2. Thanksgiving in one picture:

3. Finally snuck a selfie with Justin!

4. Sister Maughan trying to prank me  but we only have like 8 cups in our whole house... 

5. "I'm Grateful for..." posters with Jessica Carroll and her kids Kaiden and Logan in the corner :) 

Love you all and hope you had a great Thanksgiving! 

Xoxo

Gospel Girl

Apples and Oranges

This week was really good!! We haven't caught anymore mice so hopefully they're gone! This week we were able to go watch the Nutcracker at Colgate University for the Relief Society activity and watch Skye, from our primary dance in it! It was really fun to go out and see that.

SOOOO on Saturday it was literally 72 degrees outside. Saturday night? It dropped and snowed!! I almost thought I was in Utah!! Haha but so far the snow hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. It's really cold but really pretty and we are surviving!  

Catherine is still doing great and is on date for baptism for December 10th! She is super sweet but very shy. This week in our lesson we asked if she'd be willing to say either the opening or closing prayer and she said she would be willing to say the closing (which is a big deal! She's only prayed with us once before and after that time she just go so nervous and wouldn't do it again). So after our lesson, she said the greatest closing prayer! She talked about how she's grateful for what she's learning and it was very sincere. It was so awesome. I love seeing the improvement in people with Christ in their life! She also came to church this week and we had Young Womens in Excellence afterwards and she displayed a poster she made and she wrote on it that she's grateful she's "learning how to be a Mormon and how to follow what God wants for her" or something along those lines. It was so sweet! 

Another cool experience this week happened with our new investigators Francis and Nancy. They're a super sweet couple that attend a Baptist church. They were a Head Quarter referral and wanted some Bibles. So earlier in the month we stopped by and delivered them and then talked to them about the Book of Mormon. Francis has already read the first 14 chapters in Nephi! He told us he knows that book is true. They said they were going to talk to their Minister about having us come to their church and pass out some copies of the Book of Mormon and we knew that the Minister would say no but we told them if they wanted to talk to him that would be cool! So we went over on Saturday to see them again (oh and they are on date for baptism!! by proper priesthood authority!!!!) but we were a little nervous because we weren't sure what their Minister would say about us. So they told us that they talked to their Minister and he told them that we are Jehovah Witnesses and to tell us to leave and Nancy goes "but I told him WE'RE NOT GONNA TELL THEM THAT" Haha they are so sweet and it was really cool to see how they didn't even care what their Minister said, they know what we teach is true. 

Also I just wanted to share a little bit about what I've been studying this past week. I've been reading Alma 5 during my personal study and it is so good! It's a little intimidating because it's like a self evaluation for us to think about how we would feel at judgement day. It reminded me of Alma 34:32 "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." I've thought about that a lot this week and I want to challenge all of you to think about things that you do throughout the week and ask yourself if it is something that will help you as you're preparing to meet God. That is what this whole life is about! It's our chance to 'perform our labors' and prepare to meet our Heavenly Father. I'd like to add to that and invite you all to read Alma 5 and really see what you need to change in your life so that you can better prepare to stand at the judgement of God one day. It's coming soon and we don't want to procrastinate repentance! I don't know why I felt inspired to share that with you all but it has been on my mind all week that I needed to share it. It is SO important that we remember WHY we are here. Yes, we are supposed to have fun but our main purpose is for us to return back to our Heavenly Father. I am extremely grateful for the chance that I have to be serving a mission. I know that nothing else at this time in my life could help me prepare to meet God than being out here and serving Him. That doesn't mean every person has to serve a mission, but go to God and ask Him what you can and should be doing at this time in your life that will best help bring you closer to Him and His son. This is so so so important!!!

I know you are all incredible members of the church and I look up to every single one of you but I really feel like I needed to share this. Maybe it was for me to read for myself! Anyways, I really hope you all will do that this week.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

P.S. Have a great Thanksgiving! We will be having dinner at the GANGS OF COURSE!!!! Nikki invited us over early so we can help cook. I am SO excited!! 

Funnies: 

Me: "Pam, have you seen The Office?"

Her: "What office?"

Me: "No like the tv show" 

Her: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKIN BOUT?!?!?!" 

Hahaha I couldn't even finish explaining what I was talking about to her because I was laughing so hard.

We joined Catherine and Sarah for Sunday School yesterday with Cory Duclos! He is seriously the funniest. Two of my favorite quotes now come from him:

"Why do people say you can't compare apples and oranges? Of course you can, they're both fruit! They should say 'you can't compare apples to feelings of loneliness'" 

(Talking about bearing false witness)

"Suzie likes to throw dogs in the river."

Sarah: "I don't have a dog"

Cory: "Well It's probably because of Suzie"

Also we had our primary program this week and it was so great! The kids did a really good job. They were all telling us how they follow God's plan and Hank Child (7) gets up to the pulpit and goes "I will follow God's plan by running away when girls try to kiss me" And we all kinda laughed and then afterwards Katie, his mom, told us that he was so confused as to why people were laughing because he was being serious because he gets kissed a lot at school! Haha it was so cute!

 

Pictures:

1. Sister Maughan always wants to go bowling on P day but I keep telling her no and she didn't understand why until I took her to the bowling alley in Earlville. This is it. It's so creepy

2. This is our cat, Carmichael! Sister Maughan keeps feeding him so he always comes back for more food but when he comes, all we can see are his two eyes staring in our house. It's so funny! We brought him inside our house last week to help catch the mice, but it didn't work :(

3. After YW in Excellence, we had lunch and Katie Child (YW pres) gave us all of the leftovers because Sister Maughan and I are out of money and basically out of food  So now we have sandwiches, chips, cheese, lunch meat, and tons of cuties!

4. The snow and the Bookstore. My favorite part of Hamilton

5. We found Christmas decorations in our apartment and had so much fun putting them up! 

The 4 "M"s

Well. This week was really interesting, lots of 'M's:

1. Mice

2. Mental Breakdowns

3. Mac Daddy

4. Mission Conference

So first off: YES WE HAVE MICE IN OUR APARTMENT!!!! We were home for like 5 minutes one day and Sister Maughan was in the bedroom and I was talking to her half in the bedroom, half in the kitchen. I turn around and saw this tiny grey thing run under the fridge. Needless to say, we FREAKED!!! Oh my word. We had to go get traps and everything and set them ourselves. It was hilarious trying to figure out how to do it. By now we're both pros at setting them (which is NOT a good thing). So like two days later, we come home and we saw that the trap worked! We got the mouse! So we were celebrating and then Sister Maughan found another one... it was stuck on one of the glue traps that we set. Elder Cook told us that the glue ones would kill the mouse but it didn't! So this poor little nasty mouse is stuck on the trap trying to get off. We were DYING! So we called the Smiths and they told us we needed to kill it with a shovel. So Sister Maughan built up the courage and wacked it TWICE with the shovel and it still didn't die!!! So we had to take it outside and I had to kill it with a rock!! Yes, ME!! I KILLED A MOUSE, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! Because I can't. We were so angry for the rest of the night. We set a few more traps because we're scared we have more. But how nasty is that?!!?

The second thing: I had my first mental breakdown this week. Wow it was a stressful week! One thing after another we just have so much stuff going on and I haven't gotten enough sleep lately. So in the middle of sacrament meeting I just broke down and ran to the bathroom. Sister Maughan came in and we just sat on the bathroom floor and I just cried. Missions are so tough!! Sister Maughan told me that she's glad it was me that had the breakdown because it would either be her or me. She was about to go into the nursery room and cry herself, and then she saw me leave. It was bound to be one of us! But Sister Maughan already had a breakdown this week. Haha in the middle of our weekly planning session she just got up out of her desk and said "NOPE. I CAN'T DO IT." And grabbed her blanket and just sat outside for a bit. We are so stressed out! We have so much to do and we just have had the busiest week. So yesterday we took a much needed nap. That seemed to help. But things are going really great! We are working on getting more organized so we can cut back some of the stress. And our branch members are INCREDIBLE at helping us out with anything we need!

One good thing this week though is we had our first MAC DADDY!!! It's a grilled cheese sandwich with mac n cheese and ham! Oh my goodness. It was heaven. We've had so many people tell us to go get one so this week we did!

Friday was awesome though because we had our mission conference in Liverpool! It was so weird driving there. We drove in the mission van with our district. We passed the Turning Stone, a casino and it was so weird. I felt like i was in the city again! It was a big building with lights! It kinda freaked me out. I'm getting too used to the country which is really weird. But I love it here. So we walked into the stake center and Sister Maughan and I were like "Wait. what's this? An ACTUAL church BUILDING?! With PEWS?! And more than  5 rooms?" Haha it was weird to be in an actual building cause we're so used to our little space in the medical center! 

But Mission Conference was so great!! I got to see a lot of my MTC homies (except Sis Campbell and Shulz and Reintjes ) But when I saw Sister Lee, I ran up and hugged her and she yelled "STEPH!!!" Hahahaha it was so funny but weird to hear my first name again! I love being surrounded by other missionaries! Elder and Sister Snow did an amazing job at teaching us. We learned so much from them. One of my favorite things he asked us is " Where can I find a better life than what I've had in this church?" And I really thought about that. It made me realize how blessed I am to have grown up in this gospel. And how truly happy it makes us! My favorite thing to testify of is how happy this gospel makes us. I have seen it in my own life and in the lives of our investigators, especially Lacey! It's so incredible how keeping the commandments truly brings us happiness. I absolutely believe that to be true. 

Funny Stories:

My favorite story from this week is from Sister Graver. We called her and told her about our mice problem and she told us to sprinkle Baking Soda and Paprika on our floor around the fridge and that would get rid of them! Well we didn't have Baking Soda so we used Baking Powder. A few days later, she told us she was joking and that we have a huge mess of Baking Powder and Paprika on our floor for nothing. Hahahah!

One of the Elders spoke in mission conference and said "God will throw you a bone!!" and he said it like 5 times and we were just like "What does that even mean?!" So now we always say that.

One more: we were driving with the Smiths and a huge buck ran in front of the car and into the woods and Pam FREAKED! She was like "MIKE. LOOK AT THAT BUCK. Oh that's got to be a 6 pointer. I gotta call Adam!!" And she was freaking out hahaha it was hilarious.

Sorry my email was so long this week! And my funny stories weren't too funny this week. But life with Sister Maughan in Hamilton is seriously the best. She is the greatest companion and one of my best friends. This transfer has gone by so fast! I need it to slow down!  Thanks everyone for the love and support. I love hearing from everyone!

Pictures: 

1. Baking Powder on our floor...

2. Sister Maughans mental breakdown...

3. Sister Maughan decorated my desk for me while i was sleeping cause I had a bad day. I LOVE HER

4. Sister Stowell and I at Mission Conference! 

5. New York has my heart you guys

MTC buddies minus Sis Campbell

My bff Sister Maughan

Sister Lee and Sister Park

Our car selfies on the way back from mission conference

BEST. DAY. EVER.

Okay, more like best WEEK ever, but still! Transfer 3 has definitely been the best transfer on the mission! But this week was the best because.... LACEY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! Oh my goodness it was amazing. The best thing ever has been able to see this gospel change her life. She is not the same Lacey I met 3 months ago. I am so proud of her! After her baptism I gave her a CTR ring, just like mine and it was a little small (I asked her mom what her ring size was but I guess she was wrong) but she was SO excited! I told her I could send it back and get her a bigger size and she was like "NO! I love it! I'm not giving it back!!" It was so sweet, I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!! It was also super cool because our investigator Catherine got to come to her baptism as well! Lacey and Catherine are on the same volleyball team so having that friendship in and outside of the church has been great! Lacey came to a lesson with us for Catherine this last week and after the lesson lacey goes "When I was speaking I felt really warm in my heart and in my stomach" MISSIONARY WORK IS THE COOLEST!!!!!! We get to see things like Lacey experiencing the Holy Ghost. These little things that as members of the church we take for granted. Lacey is just the best. We taught her about eternal marriage this week and she said "If i ever find someone like me. I mean Mormon and with the same standards" She's just the best! She truly loves this gospel so much and I'm so grateful that I was able to come and see firsthand how it has changed her life. 

Another reason why this was the best week ever is cause last Monday was Halloween! Sister Maughan and I aren't really too big of fans of Halloween but we got permission to go to Oneida and carve pumpkins and go shopping at Wal Mart with the Oneida sisters! Sister Christenson and Sister Graver. They have grown to be two of my closest friends! Sister Graver and Sister Maughan were past companions and they're like best friends so we always have so much fun when we're together!! 

Also this week we had ZTM in Utica which means... TARGET SHOPPING TRIP!!!! It was awesome, but ZTM was great too! I love meetings with other missionaries. The times I've felt the spirit the most powerfully has definitely been in meetings with other missionaries. The NYUM is filled with so many incredible missionaries! 

So many great things happened this week. Justin and Jessica (lacey's brother and mom) both came to Sacrament meeting to support Lacey and her confirmation! The Spirit was so strong in that meeting as it was fast Sunday and the members bore solid testimony of how the gospel has blessed their lives. Lacey never fails to recognize God blessing her. It was such a great meeting for Justin to attend. He is doing so great! Also a lot of the gang came to support Lacey on Saturday! It was awesome!!

Funnies:

So first off, after the baptism we were playing 3 hit kill with the Oneida Elders and Elder Cook ripped his pants!! hahaha that was awesome.

Sister Graver: "Just because they throw tortillas instead of graduation caps, doesn't make them Mexican" 

So Sister Maughan was showing Justin some of the pictures in the BOM and he goes "Wait! This has pictures in it? This just got SO MUCH better!!" hahahaha 

Also Caleb (he's part of the gang, he's like 4) decided instead of going to the bathroom, he would shave a section of his head! We came over like 10 minutes after that happened, it was hilarious!

Last but not least, Sister Graver. She is always messing with us! So on Monday we were at lunch and she got up so we stole her keys and hid them. And when we were leaving she was searching and couldn't find them and she called us and we were like "did you throw them away?" and she was like "oh no..." and ran inside and started digging through the trash to find her keys! Hahahaha we drove around and just held them out of the window. It was so funny!! She's the best.

Pictures: (warning: I have TONS of pictures this week...)

Our cute pumpkins that we carved

Sisters Graver and Maughan, my two favorite people

Parker requested a pic of Lacey and I dabbing

I've been in NY for 100 days?!!?!?!?

Oneida sisters at ZTM

Brother Morgan and Lacey

My bff LACEY!!!

Some of the gang: Edna May, Jessica, Lacey, Justin, Nikki holding Arianna (Edna May's baby), Kayden and Nick!  I love these people!!!

"Trevor will you take a selfie with me?" "yeah. Over here. by this." "Okay".