YOSO

Y ou

O nly

S erve

O nce

Something I learned at Zone Training Meeting this week. Whenever I'm nervous to do something or when we have a potentially awkward situation, I just think "YOSO" and get the courage to do it!

A week of blessings! The Lord truly does bless us when we're patient and keep the faith, even through trails.

I used to think that trials or testing periods would come and go. If you just hold on and endure, then the miracles will come and the trials will be over. I have learned, however, that that is not the case! Even though we've been tested and kept the faith and continued to work hard, and the blessings and miracles have come, that doesn't mean that our trying days are over! The work has picked up and increased here sooo much but we still have so many struggles. It's the little miracles everyday that keep me going!

 

This last week was incredible because we picked up ELEVEN new investigators! A lot of them are families, which is so incredible. They have so much potential but of course, nothing is solid or progressing super well.

 

Remember last Sunday how our plans were changed because of the Super Bowl so we walked around for hours just OYMing and we met that cool girl Wendy? We went over to her house this week for our return appointment and she wasn't there, but her kids were! We were able to teach her 15 year old daughter and another guy in the house. We went over there again on Thursday and watched the Restoration video with them and picked up Sana (15 year old daughter), Rashawn (17 year old son), and William (one of her daughters boyfriends who's a christian). They wanted to come to church this week but it was snowing super bad so they weren't able to. Sana prayed in our lesson, and Wendy and Rashawn committed to baptism dates in April!! It was awesome!! I'm super excited for the potential there.

Also, my favorite experience this week was on Thursday. It was a snow day so everyone was out of school and work (literally the whole state shuts down and everything closes when it snows) so we decided it would be a perfect opportunity to try this potential Russ. He's a young dad with two kids that we haven't been able to see lately. We went over and he said we could come back later that day at 4. So we had a lesson outside in the snow with him (because there wasn't another woman home) and he just had ALL of these questions and problems with religions and everything and we had all of these awesome answers for him and he wouldn't even let us say a word! It was super frustrating because we would start to answer his questions and then he would just bring up something else that he had a problem with. But at the end of the lesson he committed to read the Book of Mormon and we were able to testify of how the BOM answers ALL of the questions he had. Towards the end of our lesson, his ex wife and her friend pulled up to the house. We started talking to them and Russ went inside. Well the friend, Kara, was telling us how she's Christian but hasn't been to church in years because she just wasn't sure which church to go to (SOUND LIKE ANOTHER EXPERIENCE SOMEONE HAD IN 1820?) we were able to tell her about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith's experience. While we were reciting the first vision... holy cow. I can't even tell you. Her reaction was PERFECT. Her jaw dropped and her eyes were WIDE OPEN. She was absolutely feeling the Spirit and she was like "Are you serious? How have I not heard about this? Could you imagine?! No one would believe you!" and all this stuff, it was incredible! It really reminded me of the scripture in John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me". She truly recognized that this message is true and it's from the Savior. She gave us her number and address and wants us to come and teach her more and she said she's going to bring her daughter to church next week!

Ahh, God is good. Miracles are so real! Even though we've still been struggling and the work is still slow, God is truly blessing us and helping us every step of the way. 

One more thing! It was super cool this week, we had ZTM and it was all about talking to everyone and OYMing. Afterwards, the elders and us went to McDonalds for a quick lunch before our drive home. We were walking up and saw some people outside. Sister Folkman and I turned to the left and started talking to this guy, I looked up and saw that the Elders were to the right of us talking to someone as well. It truly gave me strength to know that missionaries are doing this same amazing work all over the world. There aren't very many times when we get to see other missionaries working and sometimes it seems like it's just you and your companion against the world. But this experience showed me that there are always missionaries doing this work at the same time even when we don't see them. We don't stand alone in this work. 

I can't even tell you guys how funny Sister Folkman and I are. We laugh ALL the time. Like seriously I don't ever want her to leave. She is the BEST! She's constantly pushing me to be better, she truly leads by example, and is a dear friend to me. We have the hardest time going to bed on time because we could just stay up and talk and laugh for hours! It's the best. A few examples of how funny she is:

"I'm so glad I know the 'i before e except after c' rule, otherwise I'd be so lost in life." 

"They're like 'life is so easy for you, you're always happy!' and I'm like 'It's cause I'm not sinnin girls!'" 

"How do you spell quesadilla?"
me: "q-u-e-"
her: "WHAT"

me: "did i just blow your mind?"
her: "YEAH"

Pictures:
1. "the thug life didn't choose me, I cho- oh wait, no" 

2. I'M SO SO SO LUCKY AND BLESSED TO HAVE SIS CAMP IN MY LIFE WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT HER

3. Literally my favorite people in the whole world

4. We went to the most AMAZING Thai restaurant this week and got mango sticky rice  Thank you Folkmans for the treat!

5. This picture was taken outside a Jewish mans house. He talked to us for like 20 minutes and told us to question everything and how The Messiah hasn't come yet and all this stuff. WE said something about Jesus Christ and he was like a three year old and jumped up and down and was like "NO! NO! NO!". He was really cool though and sang us a beautiful prayer in Hebrew so that was sweet! 

Love y'all and hope you have a good week! If you could pray that it stops snowing soon that'd be sweet cause it's been snowing for like 3 days straight 

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez