If my nose was running money...

...I'd blow it all on you

... but it's snot" 

So one of the office mission couples came to our Mission Conference JUST so he could sing us this song. He said he felt bad that we're all super poor so he sang us a song about how if his nose was running money he'd blow it all on us. It was so funny. I love Elder Lee! 

Well, this week seriously seems like it has been an eternity long! On Monday it got down to 8 degrees which is the coldest it's been while we were out tracting. But people were still really nice and we were able to get a few potentials from it! The Lord blesses us for being diligent. (and I'm not complaining cause I know it's just gonna get worse)

On Tuesday we had our Christmas Conference in Syracuse! It was so much fun. We learned a lot and got really motivated for this upcoming year. Our mission has a goal for having 280 baptisms for the year of 2016. Currently, we are at 271!!! We are sooooo close! This is the first time that our mission has gotten over 200 baptisms in 10 years! Our Stake Presidents all came together and created our goal for 2017.. 340 baptisms!!!! That's a huge stretch but we totally can do it! It got us really pumped. We also watched this video by Elder Anderson and he gave some really interesting statistics. He said in the North Eastern United States (so, New York included) the average amount of baptisms are 20/month and 1.4 baptisms per missionary per year. Then he talked about other missions in the world and in Brazil they have 8 baptisms per missionary per year and 400 baptisms a month! How crazy is that?! It was weird to see the difference. So to look at the average numbers and then see the numbers for our mission, is so awesome to see how we're doing. (even though it's not about the numbers.. it's about the souls!!) 

Anyways, on Saturday we spent the night at the Smiths and had dinner with them and opened some presents from them which was sweet! 

We also were able to bake Christmas cookies with the gang! It was so fun!!

Sunday we woke up and opened presents, ate some German Pancakes and treated ourselves by watching 'Legacy' :) Then Sister Maughan and I sang a duet in church which was really fun! There were only 30 people there (and 12 of them were kids) so it wasn't bad! Then we headed over to Nikki and Keiths and we went to the farm and watched everyone open presents and we played SORRY with Kayden! Then we went to the Rains and we were able to skype home!! It was sooo good to see everyone, especially Little Lou It was also really fun to see Sister Maughans family! They're so cute. After, we played a game with the Rains and she made us jello pretzel salad! It was so sweet. Then, our investigator Jason invited us over and gave us tons of Christmas dinner leftovers and a little Christmas present so that was awesome! 

After that, we headed over to Morrisville and went to the Gang's Christmas party at the fire station! It was so fun. And we got to see Alex get engaged to her boyfriend Josh!! It was crazy. So happy for them though! 

Christmas was definitely different than what we're used to this year, but it was still fun. It was so good to be surrounded by people we love. Sister Maughan and I have talked a lot about how this season has been so different this year. Since we're not caught up in all the materialistic parts of Christmas, we really have been able to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. One of our New Year Resolutions is the keep the spirit of Christ with us all year round. One thing that has helped with this, is I put my favorite picture of Christ in a little frame and put it on my desk. EVERY time I look at is, it automatically puts a smile on my face. I love doing the Lord's work and being His servant. I know He is proud of me and all of us when we try our best to be like Him.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and can keep the spirit of Christ with you all year round! It makes a difference. 

Funny quotes of the week:

*gets Christmas cards from the First Presidency* 

Sister Maughan: "there's no money in this..?!"

Francis: "Do you want the good news or the bad news? Bad news is I gave up on reading. ...Good news is I'm on chapter 19 in 2 Nephi" 

Me: "I can say the closing prayer"

Kristen: "hit it"

Kaiden: "oh! And we got skin milk"

Maughan: "you mean Skim milk?"

Kaiden: "what? I thought it had like skin in it..."

Edna May: "yeah I made those cookies.. Don't eat them. You might die" 

President Nelson: "I was at this place where they kill cows and-"

Skye (5 year old daughter): "they kill cows?!?!!?" 

Pictures:

1. Sister Stowell and I at Christmas Conference!

2. Sisters Clark and Hall My MTC buddies minus Sis Campbell :( 

3. Sister Hayward (she trained Sister Campbell so sister Maughan calls her my 'aunt') 

4. My cute fam

5. Christmas mornin in Hamilton

Please excuse my weird looking finger but this shirt describes Keith perfectly!

MY GIRL ALEX IS ENGAGED WHAT WHAT

Edna May

Nick

 Nikki

"Stumble Forward"

In Branch Council yesterday, our Branch President said something about how we all have to "Stumble Forward" sometimes. I really liked that because I feel like that perfectly describes my week! We did a lot of stumbling this week but as long as it's forward then we're okay!

So on Monday we were able to go to Wal Mart! Nikki and Keith took us which was really nice of them! It was a little scary cause the roads were super bad because of the snow. It was also a little scary because we had to drop off Alex's boyfriend to spend an hour with his parole officer!

Tuesday was also a struggle because of the snow! We were at the farm (the first half of the gang) for dinner and we were having a lesson afterwards with April, a recent convert because we're helping her prepare to go to the temple! Halfway through our lesson, Vonnie comes upstairs and told us we should probably head home because the roads were getting pretty bad. (They live on a hill that gets CRAZY snow!) so we ended up having to leave and get home early cause the roads were SO. BAD.

Wednesday was a little better! We had a white elephant gift exchange at district meeting and then went out to a luncheon provided for all the volunteers at the food pantry! (and they gave us ALLLLLLL the left overs!!!! ) Then we were able to go out to Madison and spend some tracting and trying potentials! We also were able to place three copies of the Book of Mormon, I'm excited to go back to their homes and see if they've read any of it!

Thursday morning the snow was a booger again. Sue, a lady from the food pantry called us and said we should stay put and not come out to Morrisville that day because the roads were too bad. So we stayed home and weekly planned and had dinner and we got on Facebook to try to contact some people! Kinda lame.

Friday and Saturday were reaaaaaaly awful. We spent both days inside all. day. long. Sister Maughan has been feeling terrible lately. She's so sick and exhausted all the time that both days she couldn't do anything. Like at all! So we stayed home and took it easy so she could get feeling better. I'm glad she did because yesterday and today she seemed to be doing a lot better!

I remember when i first got out here Sister Loveland and I would always joke and say "I want you to get sick so we have to stay inside and rest all day!" Well now that that actually happened.. I regret ever wishing for that! It sucks so bad. I just want to be out and about preaching and teaching!! But I know it's important to take care of yourself so we stayed in and got her feeling better! Also I was able to finish the November Ensign with all of the conference talks and the book "Our Search for Happiness" by M. Russel Ballard and do lots of reading from the Book of Mormon! So lots of good came from it. :) 

A cool experience happened yesterday. So on Saturday, our temple trip with Lacey and the rest of the youth got cancelled because the snow was too bad to go anywhere! We were sooo bummed. We've been planning this for so long and it got cancelled in the blink of an eye. It was really frustrating. But yesterday, President Nelson shared with us that even though the temple trip didn't happen, something good came from all that planning and preparation. He was able to meet with Nick and Jordan (youth from the gang) to get them their temple recommends. While he was meeting with Jordan they figured out that her cell phone number was the wrong number in the system! So they were able to correct it! Now that may not seem like a miracle, but let me tell you the background. Jordan decided to move back down to Florida with her mom. (she left today) and down there, she's not gonna have tons of support telling her to go to church. So we're happy that when her records get transferred, they will have the right cell phone number to be able to contact her and hopefully be the support she needs! 

It was awesome to be able to see that something good did come out of our cancelled trip! Small miracles like that are so comforting. 

Yesterday was just a really good day. We got out to see the gang and had some lessons there and had a lesson with Catherine as well! 

The snow is killing me. It's freezing and it interferes with missionary work so much! There are so many hills that we have to travel over to get like basically ANYWHERE so anytime we have an appointment and it's snowing, they call and tell us not to come because the roads are too bad. We're slowing learning how to do missionary work with the stinkin snow. It's been a struggle but we're "stumbling forward" 

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!! Love you all :)

xoxo

gospel girl

Funny Stories:

*In the car with Keith driving in the snow*

Sister Maughan: "this is the day I die."

*boy with down syndrome at the food pantry luncheon puts his arm around me*

"this is my girlfriend!!!"

Trevor: "mom can I have some money?"

Keith: "what happened to the money we gave you?"

Trevor: "I spent it on ice cream!!!"

Me: "My name is spelled correctly in tagalong"

Sister Maughan: ".....you mean Tagalog?" 

(Our voicemail says leave your name and number) 

*brother morgan leaving us a voicemail*: "Hello. My name is brother morgan.. and my number is.. number 2. ... God is number 1. Call me back" 

Pictures: 

Behind the scenes of our Christmas card making

Hamilton for the Holidays 

Carol Ling

Well, another great week here in Hammy Town! Saturday was awesome because Catherine got baptized!!! It was really neat to be able to see her dad be the one to baptize her. Well, since it was baptism week, of course it was a stressful week! It's so crazy how we can really see the adversary working hard to stop the baptisms from happening. He works so hard to get to us on baptism weeks and we really can see it. Sister Maughan and I have both been really sick this week and very stressed! But, the work must go on and luckily, despite the stressful week, the baptism happened and it went very well!! After she was confirmed on Sunday, Catherine couldn't stop smiling. And this coming from one of the quietest girls I've ever met, was a huge miracle! She got up and bore simple testimony after he baptism and just simply stated how she really felt the Spirit with her when she was in the water. Ahh that was awesome! I LOVE Catherine!!! She is so sweet and her faith has just sky rocketed since we've been meeting with her! I love being able to see the change that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring into our lives. 

On Thursday we had Zone Conference in Utica which was awesome! I've said it a million times, but I love Zone meetings! Any meeting with other missionaries is such a blessing and a privilege! I LOVE the NYUM!!! After Zone Conference, Maughany and I went to Friendly's! It was my first time there but it was awesome! It's a little restaurant that has the best ice cream! 

Also on Thursday we had the COOLEST lesson with the Pumilia's. John owns a pizza company named Giovanni's and they fed us dinner and it was AMAZING! We had NY pizza, chicken riggies, salad, 'greens', and cannoli's. And they gave us all the leftovers! It was sweet. But our lesson with them was awesome. We brought the Smith's with us (The Pumilia's and the Smiths are really good friends) so we were sitting at the table talking with Kristen (She's been meeting with missionaries for about 2 years now) and we were asking her questions and she was telling us how she believes Joseph Smith was a prophet, she believes the Book of Mormon is true, she loves the church, etc. But she feels like she's betraying her family (they're all Italian and hardcore Catholic). But during the lesson, John sat at the table with us. Normally John sits in another room and just listens, he doesn't participate. But this time, he sat at the table next to me and he starts asking me some questions. He asked me why we're here on Earth and a few other questions. So I start explaining and testifying about the Plan of Salvation and he still had questions so I was like "here, one second." and i got up and got out my Plan of Salvation cut outs (I use those to explain the Plan just cause it's easier for people to follow along) and I start sharing with him this amazing plan that Heavenly Father has created for us and why we're here on Earth. At the end of me teaching to him he asked me "Well, how do you KNOW? I mean like how do you ACTUALLY know it's true?" So I told him it's because of a lot of things. Prayer, faith, and the Book of Mormon. I told him how the Book of Mormon teaches everything we believe and it teaches us about this Plan and how we know it's from God. I asked him if he would read the BOM if I gave him a copy and he said YES! So I was able to give him one and invite him to read it. We got back in the car and the Smith's were freaking out! They said that was the first time in 2 years that John has sat in and listened. That's the first time that he's wanted to learn and been interested. It was soooo cool!!!! Ahhhh that was the best lesson with the Pumilia's. One thing I've definitely noticed is that the Lord has His timing for His children. Every set of missionaries that have come in have helped plant seeds in John's head and that night I was able to actually teach him. It seriously shows how as missionaries you never know how much good you're doing. One small seed planted can help missionaries SO MUCH in the future! I am so grateful for the missionaries that have served in Hamilton before me and done so much hard work to prepare the people. 

Yesterday in Relief Society we read the coolest poem. I thought I'd include it for everyone to read cause it really helped put things in perspective for me. A lot of times as misisonaries we want recognition. We want praise. We want baptisms to prove that we're working hard. This poem shows us that it doesn't matter if we get those praises. What matters is that we're serving our Heavenly Father. He will see our good works and He will be the one that rewards us openly. No matter how small our acts of service, they will never go unnoticed by Heavenly Father. Don't forget to serve and Light the World this season! I love you all so much and hope to hear from you soon!

“Father, where shall I work today?”

And my love flowed warm and free.

Then He pointed out a tiny spot

And said, “Tend that for me.”

I answered quickly, “Oh no; not that!

Why, no one would ever see,

No matter how well my work was done;

Not that little place for me.”

And the word He spoke, it was not stern;

He answered me tenderly:

“Ah, little one, search that heart of thine.

Art thou working for them or for me?

Nazareth was a little place,

And so was Galilee.”

Funnies:

3 year old Abby Rains: "Mom, can Sister Rodriguez and I go out for ice cream sometime?"

Maughany: "i like your socks"
Trevor: "thanks, they're mitch match."

Kristen: "Do you want some ice?"
Johnny: "ISIS!!!!!"

Brother Morgan: "So what's the news with caroling?"

Maughany:" Who's Carol?"

Morgan: "You know the new Chinese family that moved in... Carrol Ling!" 

Also one last note, we tracted into a Jehovah's Witness and Sister Maughan wished her a Merry Christmas.. haha it was hilarious!! 

Pictures: 

1. You know you're at the gangs house when this is in the front yard.. yay hunting season!

2. Ice cream at Friendly's 

3. Nativity in Earlville

4. We went to pick up Lacey to bring her to the baptism and Trevor was outside all dressed up and asked if he could come with us, he's such a stud.

5. Catherine's baptism!!! 

"BAZAAR" week

This week was so awesome! Sister Maughan and I are still having the BEST time being companions! All the time we're like "Something is wrong. We're having way too much fun." We're able to laugh and joke and find joy in the journey! I'm so lucky to have her as a companion and best friend!! 

This week, we did a ton of service! Which has been so great because of the #LIGHTtheWORLD initiative! We were able to volunteer at the Food Pantry, and also helped set up for an event at the Art Gallery in town. Both were really cool. We also did a lot of service at this "BAZAAR" at the Baptist church in town. Every year they have a Christmas sale with donated items and all the money goes to the Community Memorial Hospital! On Wednesday we spent a few hours setting up the Christmas room, we decorated a tree, sorted through boxes, and set up all these tables with awesome items for people to buy. On Friday we went to the hospital and helped with the auction part going on. Each department at the hospital puts together these AWESOME Christmas baskets and donated them. Then people can buy raffle tickets and try to win the baskets! Then on Saturday we were able to look around and do some shopping at the event and then we helped a ton with clean up and anything else people needed. 

It was really cool because before we went over, I said a prayer that people would be able to recognize us as servants of the Lord. Well, I know a lot of the volunteers because we volunteer with them at the thrift shop as well, so when we got there to help clean up they were all "Oh! The Sisters are here!" "Oh sisters! Come help us with this!" "these are the sisters from the Mormon church!" "These are the Mormons! They're the best helpers. " etc. etc. I didn't even think about that as being an answer to my prayer until Sister Maughan pointed it out to me! She was like "It was super cool that you prayed to be recognized as servants of the Lord, and all the people there did." I loved how that prayer was truly answered! 

I think the Bazaar was the highlight of my week. It was so much fun. I love being involved with the community! 

This week we also had some really cool spiritual experiences!  On Saturday we were at the Gangs house and we read a chapter in 2 Nephi with Nikki and Keith. We read about the Restoration and in that chapter it talks about 3 witnesses. I've read that chapter probably 3 times out here, but for some reason that really stood out to me this specific time. I felt SO much power and peace speak to me as I read that verse. The Spirit confirmed to me that the Restoration REALLY did happen!! Seriously, little moments like that are HUGE to my testimony. It wasn't anything major but from reading the Book of Mormon, we truly strengthen our testimony. Every time we open the scriptures, we 'put ourselves in a position to be blessed' I absolutely learned that this week.

Another really cool experience happened with our eternigator Steve! Steve is awesome. He's been investigating for about 2 years and has the strongest testimony. He used to come to church a lot but then for a while he got a second job and worked days and nights so he couldn't come for a while. Well, he quit his second job a few weeks ago but we just could not get him to come to church! We texted him this week and he said he would come (as usual but then he doesn't come) so we asked if he needed a ride and after a few minutes, he responded "Sure, that'd be great" I was really shocked because he usually doesn't accept rides, he bikes to church or doesn't show up! So we called around and got him a ride. He came to Sacrament meeting and stayed for all three hours. Well, Sister Maughan and I were teaching Gospel Principles and it was just us, Steve, and Brother Morgan. We flipped open to the lesson about prophets and Steve was like "Did you guys just randomly pick this?" and we were like "no, it's the scheduled lesson!" and he turned to Brother Morgan and was like "They know that one of my concerns about the church is the succession of prophets. I agree with prophets but I'm not sure about the succession of them" this is an issue we have been dealing with for about 2 months with Steve! But we had our lesson and it was awesome! Towards the end, Steve was like "ya know, when you guys texted me asking if I wanted a ride I had typed out 'I'll think about it' (which when he says that, he means I'm not coming) but I stopped. Something told me that I needed to be at church today. So i erased my message and typed out "sure" and I know that I definitely needed to be here at church today" I was like WHAT!!!! YES!!!! It was so cool that he was able to recognize the Spirit and follow it's promptings to come to church! At the end we asked "We know we didn't really talk about the succession of prophets.. but did this lesson help at all?" And he said "...I feel at peace about it." AHH that was soooo cool!!!! This week I am sooo grateful for the Spirit and it's role in our conversion. Seriously The Spirit is amazing and I am so grateful for it in my life, especially in missionary work!! 

Oh and one more thing, we are SO EXCITED for this week because.... CATHERINE IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!!! She passed her interview this week so we are going to be busy busy busy this week getting everything ready! We are so so so excited for her!! 

Well, I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!! Don't forget to participate in #LIGHTtheWORLD and serve those around you. Love you all :)

Funny Stories:

 

Maughan: "I couldn't sleep last night. So you know what I did? I played The Incredibles in my head by memory"

Maughan: "Who do you think the angel was that visited Alma?"
Me: "Probably me"

"I'll trade you 120 chicken nuggets for 120 raffle tickets"

Dan Rains: "The sun never sets on McDonalds" 

Maughan: "We expect a feast for dinner tonight!"
Dan: "are you guys bringing anything?"
Maughan:" Yeah... we have off brand Captain Crunch!!"

*Playing apples to apples* 

Karen: "The word is unforgettable and you chose Hippopotamus?!?!"

Dan: "have you SEEN a hippo?!?!" 

Pictures: 

1/2. The Bazaar

3. Our goodies that we got at the bazaar :)

4. Pretty upset cause we had to set MORE mouse traps...

5. Coke, Mickey Ears, and a Santa hat... Christmas in a nutshell