Sister Stephani Rodriguez: 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-"