"We are here, We are here"

Hahaha. Where to even begin?! Manchester continues to keep me on my toes! 

This week was so great though because  I FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON IN MY GOAL OF 28 DAYS!!!!!! I fell way behind the week of transfers so the last two weeks all I've been doing is reading and reading and more reading. It was an incredible experience to read it that fast. I feel like the stories were really able to come to life and I gained greater knowledge and understanding of it as I got so much information at once. I think I mentioned, but I marked with a highlighter every time it mentioned Christ or something to do with Him. Needless to say, I ended up going through 4 whole highlighters because (in case you haven't noticed) the entire Book truly testifies of Him. I LOVE the Book of Mormon and I'm so grateful that we are able to read it anytime we want. It truly is a gift from our Father in Heaven!

The past little bit we've been doing a lot of tracting in Arlington and a few days ago, our Branch President texted us and told us (for reasons I can't say because I don't want to freak my mom out) that we're not allowed to tract anymore. In Arlington, Manchester, or Dorset (our three main areas that we work in) because it was 'freaking people out'. We were CRUSHED. We were so discouraged. Here we are trying to do the Lords work but no one is progressing (we have 2 progressing investigators that aren't even super solid), it is the BIGGEST struggle to get return appointments, a lot of our nights we would tract for at least an hour and now that was being taken away from us. How are we supposed to build up our teaching pool if we can't tract?!?! We seriously have like NO ONE to teach. We have been working so hard to build up our teaching pool and we've seen so many miracles come from tracting! So we ended up calling President Rogers and talking to him about it. A while ago in Manchester, people complained about us tracting (this has been going on since my trainer served here which was last April soooo yeah, the people don't really like missionaries here) and they got the police involved and told us that we couldn't tract. This was a few weeks ago before I got here but Sister Folkman told me that she did some research and talked to the police and they ended up telling her that she was right, we are legally protected and allowed to tract because of the First Amendment. So we called President Rogers and told him what President Finnegan said. P Rogers told us that we are fine to tract in Manchester and the other areas but to stay away from Arlington right now. So we felt a lot better about that. We're still able to tract and find people and we've gotten so much potential from that!

That's the key. There's SO much potential in Manchester! We have so much faith that this area could have baptisms it's just not solid yet. There are so many people that have so much potential, but they're not solid yet. We got a few calls from our leaders (president Finnegan, president Rogers, and our District Leader) telling us that we can start working in other areas that have more investigators so we can work there. A few hours ago, Sister Folkman and I decided to pray about it. We got down on our knees in front of the map of our area and we prayed. Very sincerely. I don't think I have ever prayed with so much faith, so much need for an answer. We prayed to know if we should stay here in our area or start working in the surrounding areas. We know that Heavenly Fathers knows His children and knows what this area needs so we asked Him. After we closed the prayer, Sister Folkman said "I know this is cheesy. But while you were praying, I heard the voices from Horton Hears A Who, saying 'we are here. we are here' We need to stay in Manchester. There are people here that are prepared" WOW. Isn't that powerful? I truly know that was an answer to our prayer. We have been working so much on having faith. This area is really hard but it is so amazing. There is seriously soooo much potential here and we are just doing everything we can to build it up!

It's been kinda frustrating because we have been so obedient and so diligent sometimes it seems like there's nothing else we can do. But this week we had a mission broadcast (our daily schedule is changing!!!! it's so weird!!!!!) and Elder Bednar said something that has really stuck with me this week. He said how success is GIVEN. Alma 26:27 "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will GIVE unto you success." 

Everything is GIVEN. We can't demand baptisms or progressing investigators just because we're working hard. Even when we do everything we can, the Lord is still the one that GIVES it to us. He doesn't owe us anything, we can't demand anything from Him. It's His work. He knows what's best. If He wants us to have baptisms or progressing investigators, then He will GIVE it to us. That has brought me so much peace and comfort this week. 

This morning I was reading through some of my quotes in my journal and I came across this one, it says "He could do His own work, but He lets us do it so we can become like Him." I absolutely agree. I don't mean to sounds like I'm throwing myself a pity party or anything because I'm not! I really enjoy serving in Manchester, it's a challenge but that's how we grow! I feel like the Lord has been preparing me for this. I knew I was going to get an area that would be difficult and it's here. The Lord has been preparing me for this. He has picked me and Sister Folkman to serve here together at this time because He knows it will be exactly what we need. I'm so so so grateful that the mission has helped me become more like my Savior. I'm so grateful for Him allowing someone as imperfect as I am to help participate in His perfect work. The love and mercy He shows us all is truly amazing. I can't even describe the closeness I have felt to my Savior this week. 

I have one last story I want to share. My testimony of the Sacrament. Our branch is about 30 minutes away from Manchester so we normally get a ride from some members, we had to go pick up a Less Active and bring him to church and none of us had been to his apartment before so we ended up getting lost and being late for church. We got there when the water was being passed. Elder Molanson brought it out and we had to watch as we passed by us and brought it back inside. My heart felt broken that I wasn't able to partake of the Sacrament. I felt so powerless and empty inside. I sat through the whole meeting just thinking of how it would feel to not be able to partake of the Sacrament each week. I would have to wait a whole week more before I got to partake of it again. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, we were late to church because we were bringing someone else, that was a good thing! But I just felt so awful. After the sacrament, Eric Vaughn came up to us and said "Sisters! Do you want the Sacrament?" YES WE WANT THE SACRAMENT! We jumped at the chance and ran over to the room where they prepared it and we were able to partake of it. I have never noticed how much power or strength comes from taking the Sacrament. As soon as I picked up a piece of bread, I felt overwhelming peace and power from the Savior. We are so lucky that God allows us to make and renew covenants with Him. He doesn't need us to do that, but we need to do it. 

Needless to say, this week my faith and testimony has been strengthened SO much. I love this work, I love my Savior, I love being His servant, I love Manchester, and I love having a Heavenly Father who answers prayers. And I love all of my friends and family back home!! Have a good week, I love you all!

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

Just one quick funny quote from the week: 

*In the middle of Sister Folkman saying a prayer*

Ram (a former we were trying): "Tell Him to help me gain weight!"

Pictures: 

1. Hey mom and Carleigh look: I made my own Jolly Holliday this week 

2. no comment

I'll probably steal Sister Folkmans camera and send some more pictures in a separate email.. we're just really bad at taking pictures, sorry mom

my beautiful companion 

We met this lady and she gave us 2 dozen farm fresh eggs and then let us hold her chickens!!  I loved it.

Opposition in all things

Hello everyone! What a week! We have been strugglin hard core this week. We've both been kinda frustrated this week because we can tell Satan is working really hard on us. But it seemed like everytime something bad happened, we saw a miracle! And everytime we saw a miracle, something bad happened. Haha. 

So this week, we had Zone Conference in Saratoga (me love) and then went on exchange with our STL's afterwards! The Toga zone is seriously awesome. Sis Camp and Sister Reintjes are both in my zone so it was awesome! This ZC was seriously wonderful. We focused on how to teach the Restoration in 5 minutes! Wow, so much information in so little time. We learned how to focus mostly on Joseph Smiths' experience and reciting the first vision and then having both companions testify of how it's true. Holy cow we have seen so many miracles from that! We were able to pick up 4 new investigators the next day from teaching the Resto in 5 minutes!!!! We've also been able to teach 5 min resto at least twice a day since ZC. We've definitely seen miracles happen from that and we know it was inspired that we practiced doing that. I absolutely know that Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Everytime I recite his experience, or even listen to it, I just know it's true. Like Elder Chidester said, "Elders and Sisters, you can not make this stuff up." It's true. I know it is. And I'm so lucky I get to share it with my brothers and sisters who need to hear this message and be brought back home. 

Sister Folkman and I are just working our little butts off here in Manchester! It's definitely a hard area, but it's incredible the people we're meeting and the success we're having! We both have the biggest desire to have 3 baptisms this transfer. We keep that goal at the forefront of our minds and in our prayers daily. We've been focusing on finding a lot. We followed Presidents advice and got lists of Part member families, unbaptized children, and prospective elders. Everyday we try to see a few of these people and WOW MIRACLES HAVE HAPPENED. 

We met this awesome woman Brittni. We ended up finding her sister in law because Brittni had moved, but we found her! She cried twice while we were there because she needs this. Her husband is pretty anti and her kids aren't really interested but she was so sweet and said we could come back anytime! It was such a blessing that we got to meet her. 

We also got to meet Shayna and John! Wow does the gospel change lives. We met them through tracting. We knocked on their door and there were so many kids screaming and running around. This one girl came to the door and just screamed as soon as she saw us cause we scared her! Haha but she grabbed her parents and they sat outside and talked to us. Shayna told us she believes in God but not really sure what to believe because there are so many different opinions out there. John pretty much told us that he doesn't really believe in Christ. Well, we started teaching them the 5 minute Resto, and at the end, they both committed to come to church and read the Book of Mormon! It was incredible to see someone who didn't have any belief in Christ, to truly listen to what we said. The Spirit was so strong in that lesson. 

We were supposed to do a church tour with them on Saturday, so they called us and said they would come!!! But then a few hours later, they called and cancelled :( but they said they would be at church the next day! But then they didn't come. We know they are truly interested and want to bring their daughter but we also know how hard Satan is working on them. It's so frustrating. But we also met a few other awesome people that have sooo much potential so I'm super excited about that! 

It's just a huge struggle getting return appointments and having set lessons. Most of the time, we open up our planners and have nothing planned for the whole day. It's a struggle but the happiest struggle of my life. I never thought I could be so happy doing something so hard! Sister Folkman just has the best attitude about everything and it makes it so much better! 

Oh, another struggle this week. We parked at a post office in Arlington so we could meet the Elders there and drive with them to Saratoga, and when we came back we found that someone hit our car! They didn't leave a note or anything. So messed up. SO we've had to take time out of our day to go get it fixed. We're gonna go try to figure more of that out today. We can just really see the adversary working so hard on us! But we absolutely know it's because we have miracles coming! Opposition in all things. 

P.S. I spoke in church yesterday on Luke 22:32 and personal conversion! I was able to share a lot from the talk "Converted unto the Lord" By Elder Bednar that my dad sent me a while back. It caused me to think a lot about my  personal conversion and I hope you will all take the time to read that scripture and that talk and think about how you can improve your personal conversion to the Lord. This gospel is all about the one. I love that concept. The Lord knows us each by name. It is so personal. He wants us each back. He suffered so much for YOU. He loves YOU. We NEED to be converted to HIM. And we will never fall away. The way that we become converted is by living the Gospel/Doctrine of Christ: Faith, Repentance, Baptism/Sacrament, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. Our Mission President has told us that ANY problem we have in life can be resolved by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we need more faith, other times we just need to partake of the sacrament, sometimes we need to repent, etc. So next time you have a concern/problem, just think what part of the doctrine of Christ do you need? It WILL help. I LOVE YOU ALL AND I LOVE THIS GOSPEL AND I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY AND I LOVE VERMONT. 

President Rogers: "This is just advice from your seasoned old, salty mission president" (we don't think he knows what salty means so we were all just crackin up)

Chidester: "Elders and sisters, the pizza's been ordered, go deliver it." (the pizza meaning the gospel) 

Also, we found a Jehovas Witness pamphlet on someones door while we were tracting, so we took it and replaced it with the truth, a Pass Along card. :) 

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

1. My girls at ZC

2. our poor car :( 

3. Vermont 

4. In Saratoga Springs, they have natural springs you can drink from, this one tasted like rotten eggs. Sister Saunders and I hate ourselves for trying it 

5. This is a TERRIBLE picture, but Sister Folkman and I accidentally drove to New York on our way home and didn't realize it until we saw "Welcome to New York" so I got a picture of Vermont on our way back home. It's always an adventure 

  

Instant Mormon

Hello everyone! Wow, what a week. Week 6 is always the biggest struggle for me, and this week was no exception! Last Tuesday was probably the worst day of my life. I had to say goodbye to my best friend Lacey. We went over to her house and we talked and when I had to leave we hugged really tight and she started crying. We left the apartment and as soon as I got in the car, I just started sobbing. Everything hit me all at once. Everyone/everything I was leaving in Hamilton. I've cried a lot this past week because being a missionary is really hard sometimes! I think the worst part was leaving Lacey and Sister Maughan. Oh boy. I miss those two soooooo much! Sister Maughan and I were sooo close that it has been really hard to be away from her. 

But now that my sob story is over we can move on to MANCHESTER!!! WOOT WOOT! Sister Folkman is seriously AWESOME!!! She is the best missionary I have ever seen. I have learned so much from her the past few days. Like if there was a sister Assistant to the President, it would be Sister Folkman. She's so dedicated and so focused. I love it. 

So Manchester is a bit of a struggle. It was closed for a while and opened about 7 months ago so the work is reeaallyyy slow. Which is a huge change from Hamilton. I have done more OYMing the past few days here than I have my whole mission. We tract for about 30-60 minutes a day (which is pretty normal) but we also OYM for like an hour every night. I have learned so much from Sister Folkmans example that I have grown a huge love for OYMing! We have met some really cool people from it! A lot of the work that we do is planting seeds. We talk to people at gas stations a lot and place TONS of copies of the Book of Mormon which is cool. It's just hard cause a lot of those people we will never see again. 

It's also a bit frustrating because since the area is pretty new, a lot of the work has been done. All the sisters that have been here in the past 7 months have been SO dedicated and diligent. Almost the whole area has been tracted multiple times (not like that stops us from doing it more it's just hard cause sometimes people get mad when we come around so often) And the area book has been gone through SO MUCH. Like ALL of the potentials and formers in the book have been tried recently. So it's a huge struggle to find people to teach. But alas, we will find the people that are ready! 

We have a few people that we teach pretty regularly (oh also this week was really weird because the past 2 weeks Sister Folkman spent most of the time in Greenwhich because a sister there had to go home early so Sister DeGoyler got ET'd and Folkman and Anderson were working both Greenwich and Manchester so it's been a bit messy trying to get appointments set up and things like that) I haven't met too many of our investigators yet but from what I've heard from Sister Folkman, they're awesome! We have a high goal of getting 3 baptisms this transfer! We keep that goal in our thoughts and in our prayers constantly so we are going to make it happen! 

Funny stories:

Nikki: "when you're older and think about getting married and having kids.. just remember: 'Nikki's house. Nikki's house. Nikki's house'"

Keith: "Ya know what the worst part about transfers is?"

Me: "when we leave?"

Keith: "...yeah."

Brother Morgan: "Before I was baptized they called me an 'instant Mormon... just add water'" HAHAHA

Katie C: "if your new companion is crazy, I'll send you a Costco supply of Cookies 'n' Cream bars!" (Katie is another HUGE reason I miss Hamilton.) 

Also this week, we were at a formers house and found a nice little surprise of weed.. ON SOME TEMPLE PASS ALONG CARDS. SOMEONE WAS USING THOSE TO SMOKE THEIR WEED. Sister Folkman and I were just like "well. At least it wasn't a Jesus card." Haha yay Vermont!

BUT I just want you all to know that I know I am where I need to be. The first few days I was really "Hamilton home sick" but there have been multiple times this week when I've been reading the scriptures and have just felt this OVERWHELMING love and knowing that Heavenly Father lives and He loves me, He knows me, and He needs me here. I am so excited to continue to learn and grow more into the person that He needs me to be. 

P.S. VERMONT IS BEAUTIFUL HOLY COW. IT IS CALLED THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE FOR A REASON. THE MOUNTAINS ARE SOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

P.S.S. ONLY 75 MORE DAYS UNTIL GENERAL CONFERENCE BUT WHO'S COUNTING

Pics:

1. My dear friend Katie C

2. So sad to say goodbye to Maughany 

3. My BEAUTIFUL new comp (we were really bad at taking pics together this week)

VERMONT IS SO COOL

The girl who cried transfers...

What a crazy week! So last Monday, Sister Maughan was on the phone with President and he told us that I will be transferred this week! He didn't say where I was going or who would be coming to Hamilton. So the last week has been TORTURE of not knowing! I told a lot of the branch members that I'm leaving and they kept asking me where I'm going and I just had to keep saying "I still don't know" So last night, the Rains threw me a little goodbye party and had ice cream Sundaes and a bunch of the branch members came over to say goodbye, it was so sweet! Brother Rains said "what if you get the call and they tell you that you're staying in Hamilton! Then you would always be known as 'the girl who cried transfers'" Hahah it was so funny, but alas, last night around 10:00 I found out that I will be leaving! I'll be going to Manchester, VERMONT! Just when I think I can't get any farther away from home, I get sent another state away! Haha there is a tiny sliver of Vermont in our mission and that's where I'm going! ) So I will be joining Sister Folkman! I am super excited. I have only met her once or twice but she trained Sister Park (a sister I came out with) so I've heard really good things about her! AND SISTER STOWELL (The girl I went to high school with) WILL BE COMING TO HAMILTON!!!! I honestly was more worried about who would be coming to Hamilton than I was about where I would be going but when I found out it will be Sister Stowell, I got so excited! I feel like Hamilton is my baby since I've been here for 6 months (WHAT WHAT) so I'm so excited for Sister Stowell to come here. She will do so awesome! And of course Sister Maughan is amazing so they will do wonders here! I am super sad to leave Hamilton and Sister Maughan and all the branch members. I have grown so close to so many of them that it's been really hard to say goodbye. But I definitely feel very peaceful about Vermont, I know that this is where the Lord needs me at this time. (But of course if y'all could keep ya girl in your prayers this week I would appreciate that very much).

So like I said, this was a crazy week! On Monday, while Sister Maughan was on the phone with President, he told us we would be going to Albany on Tuesday with the Oneida sisters for a doctors appointment (not for me fyi) SO we ended up having to cancel all of our appointments and our service for that day and basically drop everything to go to Albany. It's about a 2 and a half hour drive but we were with the Oneida sisters so it was great! 

Albany was like the greatest blessing EVER because when we walked in the stake center, I saw Sister Redd. I've never met her before but I know that she is Sister Campbells companion so I FLIPPED! I was like "AHH. IS SISTER CAMPBELL HERE?!?!" And she was like "yeah!" So Sister Campbell walks out of the office after her appointment and she was like already half crying and when she saw me, she just bust into tears! We hugged for like 10 minutes! We were able to talk for like an hour and then go out to lunch at Olive Garden with her and the oneida sisters as well. I haven't seen Sis Camp in since return and report FIVE months ago! We write each other weekly but it just has been really hard being away from her because we were SO close in the MTC. She has grown to be like my best friend. So seeing her was the BIGGEST BLESSING Heavenly Father could have given me. It was a testimony builder to know that Heavenly Father is watching out for me and He is always waiting to bless us. (OH and I'm super stoked because I will be going to the Saratoga zone which is the same Zone that she's in so we'll get to see each other at Zone Conference!!!! Seriously, God is good. I have been praying every night since I got here that Sis Camp and I would end up in the same district or companionship or even Zone and.. it happened!!!! Ahh. I'm so excited.)

The rest of this week has just been hectic trying to say goodbye to everyone and figure out packing (which is a mess. I have accumulated so much crap over the last six months, it's so bad hahahaha) Oh and we also went to New Hartford to do exchange on Saturday! It was so much fun. I got to spend the whole day with Sister DeVries who is just the stinkin cutest and we had so much fun. (even though we were freezing cold from walking around and tracting and OYMing in the snow) But it was really cool because while we were out OYMing people, we met this homeless guy who asked us if we had any food or anything we could give him. We were so sad cause we didn't have anything. I had a few mentos so I ended up giving those to him (now I'm super sad because I totally forgot I could have given him one of my McDonald gift cards! grr.) and we also gave him a Book of Mormon. It was incredible to see how humble he was. He was so grateful that we were willing to stop him and talk to him and give him some mints and a BoM. He said he loves to read and that he was so thankful to us. It was sooo cool. 

Well. Everyone wish me luck and keep me in your prayers as I head out to Vermont on Wednesday! I'm super excited to see what The Lord has in store for me out there. I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you this week :)

Funny stories:

Sister DeVries and I met this homeless guy called 'rainbow' and apparently he's like a legend. He looooveeeeesssss the sisters and so he saw us and interrupted an OYM approach haha but he was like "what are ya'll preachin today?!" and then sang us a hilarious song on his guitar and gave us hugs and then left! So we get in our car a little bit later and Sister DeVries had some white stuff on her coat that when she looked down she was like "Oh my gosh!!! Is that cocaine?!?! From rainbow?!?!" and I was like "hahahah no! your coat probably brushed against the dirty car" hahahah

Abby Rains at dinner: "how dare ye"

Edna May: "Justin Bieber? Let me tell you my opinion of him: he's gay."

OH! super cool spiritual story real quick: We also have this super cool eternigator Steve that just asks all these hard questions all the time but he gives us like homework that we have to go and really study to find answers to his questions! So a while ago he asked us about the succession of prophets and so I had never even questioned that in my life. So I know how the process works but he just wanted to know more and so I had prayed a lot this week to have Heavenly Father help me find an answer to Steve's question. So I was reading in the "Our Heritage" book and found this AWESOME section on, you guessed it.. the succession of prophets! So i was like "MAUGHAN. THIS IS IT. THIS IS WHAT WE NEED TO SHARE WITH STEVE!" So we had a crazy experience with meeting with him but we finally made the lesson work and we shared it with him and he said it helped a ton and that it made sense! YES! that was such a relief and such an answer to my prayer. It's cool because I just felt like I wanted to read that book this week so I did and that's how He answered my prayer. I am SO grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who lives, loves us, is watching out for us, and answers our prayers. 

Also, in Gospel Principles yesterday, Steve said the closing prayer and he prayed that I would go to an area and find someone that asks just as hard of questions as he does to keep me on my toes! Haha so I will let you all know when I find that person in Vermont. thanks Steve! Ha.

Pictures: 

Happy 6 months mark to me!!! (I know the MTC doesn't count for English speaking sisters but screw that, I'm still counting it)

SIS CAMP 

Sister DeVries and i found a street named ALMA!

Me and my bff miss Abby Rains It's gonna be so hard to leave her. 

Steve

The Solomons

 The Morgans

The Duclos family

 The Rains

 The Hamilton Branch primary has my WHOLE HEART.

NYE in NY 2017

Hey everyone! Happy New Year!!! I can't believe it's already 2017... It's crazy to think that I came out halfway through 2016 and now it's already 2017... so crazy! Also, this Friday marks 6 months of being a missionary! WHAT?! So crazy! 

Well, this week was good and bad. 

Last Monday we found out that my dear friend Leta Card passed away. We used to visit her every Tuesday and we had church at her house (when we were 'pioneers' for a day). Eventually she got so sick that we couldn't go over and visit her anymore but the visits that we did have (every Tuesday for almost 4 months) meant SO much to me! I love Leta soo much. On Thursday we attended her funeral and it was a beautiful service in Norwich. I am SO grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. I know exactly where Leta is, and I know she is happy there. I cannot wait to see her again! 

Also this week we had a snow day. We were supposed to go to New Hartford on Friday for our exchange with our STL's. We get halfway there and the roads were just too bad that President told us to just turn around and go home. SO we did. Well, we turned up a big hill and yup, got stuck. Luckily a mini van came and tried to pull us out! ... with no luck.  But THEN a big truck came! And he was able to get us unstuck! And he called a snow plow to come and clear that hill for us so we were able to get home safely! So we made it halfway to New Hartford and back in about 2 hours (it only takes 30 minutes to get to NH so you can imagine how big of a mess the roads were). I LOVE WINTER IN NEW YORK (can you sense my sarcasm?) just kidding. I really do love New York! 

I hope you all had a good time celebrating the New Year! We went over to the gangs and had some pizza, and lessons with Trevor and Kaydon, Lacey, and then Nikki and Keith as well. It was fun! Then we came home and went to bed at 10:30 haha pretty lame! But it was a good day. So I'm sure most of you have seen my posts on Facebook, but if you haven't, you should check it out! As part of my New Year Resolutions, I've decided to read the Book of Mormon in 28 days!!!! Sister Maughan and I have been talking the past few weeks about how lame the months of January and February are (not to mention how COLD) so in order to brighten it up a bit, we will be reading about 18 pages of the BOM everyday. It takes about 30-60 minutes and it is AMAZING! I love it sooo much. It's a great way to just get completely wrapped up in the BOM. President and Sister Rogers invited us to read the BOM before Easter and do a certain study of it, so my study is going to be Christ (of course!) So I have a pink highlighter and everytime the Book mentions something about Christ, I mark it up. (What I've read is already almost completely pink) Another goal I have is to keep the "Christmas" (or Christ) Spirit around all year round! I have so much love for my Savior and everything He has done for me. I love thinking about Him and being able to talk about Him everyday. So we have the goal of keeping our thoughts and actions focused on Christ. 

I would like to invite you all to add the Book of Mormon to your New Year Resolutions! I would love it if you did it in 28 days (I know that's a lot) but if you can't do it, then just somehow make a goal involved with the Book of Mormon. It truly is God's word and we should read it every chance we get! 

I love you all so much and hope 2017 is a good year for you! 

Funny quotes:

Maughan: *reading BOM* "Man! Moroni is just droppin dueces over here!!" 

Me: "Do you know what that means?"
Her: "no.... well... poop, right?"

Me: "yup."

Cory: "Sarah! You didn't bring your scriptures? You've already ruined 2017."

Maughan: "You know the ball doesn't drop all the way to the ground right? it's actually kinda lame"
Trevor: "It doesn't drop to the ground?"
M: "No."
T: *whispers* ".....Then why does every kiss?"

This week, Sister Maughan kept saying "your turn" for our nightly comp prayers and got me to say it 5 out of 7 days this week and I just barely caught on last night! Hahahah she keeps me on my toes! 

HAHAHAHAHAH this is pretty gross... but on NYE, Lacey was chugging her Root Beer and then burped so big that she puked HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I LOVE HER SO MUCH

Picture: 

1. I got 4 McDonalds giftcards for Christmas... if that doesn't describe me, idk what does

2. Comp facial masks

3. Sister Maughan caught a pic of me cuttin up deer with the gang! Haha Nikki was like "your mom isn't gonna believe you did this!" Alex got me a big t shirt and Nick got me a knife, and I got to cuttin!