Sister Stephani Rodriguez: The Promised Land

Y'ALL I'M GOIN TO TOGA!!! Soooo we've been waiting for foreeeeeveerrrrr to find out transfer news and we finally got them! Sister Hall will be staying and training a new missionary in Manchester! She is going to be awesome and her greenie is so lucky to be trained in such an amazing place. And transfer news for me is that I will be a Sister Training Leader in Saratoga Springs.. New York, not Utah ;) haha my new companion will be Sister Park who I just love! We were in the MTC together and last time we went on exchange we got a parking ticket cause of our stupidity... so we'll see how this transfer goes...

It's awesome though cause I've been saying that if I were to move back to New York the place I would want to move to is Saratoga and now I really will be moving there! I'm sad to leave Sister Hall and it's going to be super weird leaving Vermont after the last 6 months. Saying goodbye to the people in the branch was really hard and sad. I've made so many friendships here and it's always hard to leave. But I will be going to a WARD which will be weird instead of a tiny branch, but I've heard awesome things about the ward and the members that i've already met there are awesome!

Super funny story... on Sunday everyone was asking me where I was going and when I would tell them Saratoga THREE different people at three different times responded with "Hey there's a Target there! You're gonna love it!" So apparently I'm known for complaining that Vermont doesn't have a Target and everyone knows I love it

but for reals I'm excited to be in a city!! Going from small rural towns to a city is gonna be different but I'm super stoked.

Not too much happened this week. The LoPianos took us out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and all I can say is I love the East but they do not know how to do Mexican food... at all.

Good Mexican food is like the main thing I miss about the West!

Oh we picked up two new investigators this week! They're both formers that we've been trying to see for a while but it's just never been a good time for them. But on Tuesday they both let us in! The first one sat outside and talked with us and really just opened up about how life has hit her hard and how God has really been there supporting her all the way. It's incredible to see how when we're faced with challenges and trials in this life, some people turn away from God and blame Him, and others are truly reliant on God and are able to make it through with faith and come out with a stronger testimony. It's incredible because that's really the purpose of trials. She first came in contact with missionaries in 2005 so we're hoping that this time is the right time that she'll be ready to accept the gospel in it's fulness. Another thing I noticed in that lesson is the gospel really applies to our lives. As I've tried to focus on teaching people, not lessons, it's cool to see how when we listen to what they're saying, the message we want to share relates and something they say really does open an opportunity for us to testify of the Savior and relate it back to the gospel. ..I don't know if that makes sense but that's what stuck out to me!

And one last thing, we went and visited a Less Active this week and she came to church on Sunday! In Gospel Principles we talked about Baptism and we had a lot of converts in that class, including the LA, who were able to bear their testimonies on how this is the true and complete gospel. I really felt the Spirit and so did she. It was a great Sunday!

Oh! And one more super cool highlight. We were tracting this week and this guy told us he knows he's going to Heaven because he watched his wife die and basically cross the veil and he was describing all this stuff to us and it was so cool to hear his testimony. We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he said we could come back. So we finish tracting and walk back to our car up this super long hill. I'm driving down and as we pass his house we see him flag us down so I slam on the breaks and he runs out towards us with two ice cold water bottles in his hands! He was like "I wanna thank you girls for knocking on my door tonight. When I share that story, most people don't believe me. But I can tell you believe. I looked out my window and saw you two walking up the hill and I knew you'd either need water or air or both, so here!" it was seriously the sweetest thing!!

This was a really funny week, but then again Sister Hall and I just laugh at everything. But hopefully I can remember some funny quotes:

Elder: "Comp inventory is like a fart. If you have a problem and just hold it in it gets worse and stinkier. You just gotta let it out. It's best for everyone."

Okay all the other funny things take way too long to explain, so this'll suffice for now

Pics:

1. Comp face masks