Sister Stephani Rodriguez: Sunny and 49*

Hello, hello!

Well it looks like all of your prayers paid off because the past few days the weather has been beautiful!!! (and by that I mean 49* so that's literally amazing)

Well on Thursday, President Rogers gave us a heart attack and called us. We never get calls from President so we were really worried something at home was wrong. We hurried and called him back and luckily it was just transfer calls! He was like 3 days early but that's alright. We found out Sister Folkman will be going to Carthage to open and train!! Holy cow I'm so happy for her, she's going to be amazing. And I will be staying in Manchester and get Sister Ferrin as my new companion! She was my STL my last two transfers in the Utica Zone so I already kinda know her! And she's from Taylorsville!

This week we've been doing a lot of tracting and OYMing (shocking!!) It's awesome though. Because every single night as we go out in faith and really get over ourselves, the Lord shows us a miracle. On Saturday night I just was not feeling it. I was being selfish and really didn't want to be out OYMing. I've been sick the last few days and had a major headache and really just wanted to go home for the night. I said a little prayer and told Heavenly Father how I felt. I told him I didn't want to be out that night, I wasn't feeling well, and I wanted to go home. I asked Him to forgive me for feeling this way and to help me get over myself and get to work. I asked Him to show us the blessings that come from being obedient and working hard. Sister Folkman said we should go try and see if Wendy was working at Subway so we head over that way. We saw some people walk out of a pizza place and so we start to talk to them and asked them if they had a belief in Christ and they said yes but they were from out of town and they had their own religion and just weren't really talking to us. They walked away and we could hear them laughing about those "Mormon Girls". We walk into Subway and saw Wendy helping some customers so we waited and then we were able to share a little message with her! She told us how the first time we walked into Subway to talk to her, she told us that her life was falling apart and she wasn't lying. Then she told us that as soon as we came in to talk to her, things in her life started getting better. Little by little she can see the Lord blessing her and helping her put her life together. She told us some really personal things and I'm crying even thinking about it now. The things she shared really taught me that the Lord has a plan for everyone and told us to talk to her for a reason. Her and her family are now ready to receive the gospel! It's incredible. We left the shop and only had a little bit more time for OYMing and didn't meet anyone else so we were able to go home at 9. It was such a tender mercy to see the Lord truly blesses us when we are obedient. Getting over myself and fully submitting my will to Gods has by far been the most challenging thing on the mission. But everytime I do, I see His hand, His love, His mercy. etc. I am soooo thankful for my Heavenly Father and His Son. They truly live and absolutely love us. I am SO thankful to be apart of this work and bringing His children home. I'm super nervous about taking over the area, but if I've learned anything, it's that this is the Lords work. And nothing will stop it from progressing. Something my trainer said has been in my mind this week. "The Lord calls imperfect people to help with His perfect work" The Lord knows my inadequacies and yet still called me here. He can and will help me through anything! I am just so lucky to have this knowledge. I want to quickly give my testimony that the Lord is mindful of us. We are God's children and He loves us so much more than we can comprehend. He truly has a plan for each and every one of us and as we live righteously and are obedient. As we truly submit our will to His, He will make us into someone we never thought we could be. I've absolutely seen that. I love my Heavenly Father and know that as I put my trust in Him, I can do all things!

I hope y'all have a good week! Don't forget to follow the promptings of the Spirit. Put the Lord first and everything else will work out. LOVE YOU GUYS.

Also omg literally the funniest tracting experience ever happened this week. We knocked and this little kid comes to the door and it took like 30 seconds for her to open the door. So when she does I was like "Hi! Is your mom home?" and she just nods. I was like "Can we talk to her?" and she just nods. So then her 5 year old sister comes over and was like "My mom's at work" so Sister Folkman was like "Is your dad home?" And she goes "He's pooping" HAHAHAH WE LITERALLY LAUGHED SO HARD AND WE WERE LIKE "okay we'll try back another time" and then just walked away laughing our heads off. Oh man I love little kids.

Also we met this girl named Lillian and she was soooo funny. We knocked on her door and she let us in and she was crackin me up, here's a few things she said:
"Not gonna lie I didn't know people did this.. I thought that was like a fake thing only in the movies and yet here you are, at my door talking about the Book of Mormon!"

"One time I had a dream that I emailed the Virgin Mary asking her if she liked cows"

*in her prayer* "Back to you Lord! .... hey. My prayers are like a news report. Thank you Holy Spirit for the weather report over Jerusalem, now back to you Lord!" Oh my. We were dyin.

Pics:

1. eye LOVErmont (see what I did there?)