Sister Stephani Rodriguez: 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...