Sister Stephani Rodriguez: We are 1 years old!!!!!

Sister Park and I are still in shock that we hit our ONE YEAR MARK this week!!! Her fam sent us the cutest package so we've been celebratin all week. But it seriously does not feel like it's been a year. Time has gone by SO so so fast. I can't believe it's already Monday again.

I've said it before, but Saratoga is seriously the promised land. I feel so blessed to be here. Life is so good. The members are amazing, we seriously get fed every night, which I am not used to but it's amazing.

Cool experience of the week: Sister Park and I met one of the 3 Nephites (we're convinced). There's this guy in our ward that won't tell anyone his name. He just got done walking across THE UNITED STATES, from Florida to California he WALKED. And he's just really mysterious. Anyways, one night we called an investigator to see if she could meet with us and she said yes and was trying to decide if she wanted us to come over, or meet at the church and she eventually decides she wants to meet at the church, so we meet outside at this pavilion. Well like 5 minutes later, this mystery man walks up and sits down and joins our lesson. He was so bold and upfront with her and I was trying so hard not to laugh cause it was just crazy. She has so many distractions in her life that are preventing her from being baptized. One of the distractions is she wants to go visit her mom in another state. He gets out his phone and maps it all out for her and tells her to do it. If you've seen the Shia Lebouf video of him saying "just do it", yeah it pretty much went like that. Then after TWO HOURS, he just gets up and leaves. Sister Park and I probably said a total of 10 words. I've never had a lesson go that long and it was crazy. The only logical explanation is that he is one of the 3 Nephites. It was super cool though because at the beginning of the lesson she said the prayer asking to hear something she needed to learn. At the end, she said another prayer thanking Heavenly Father because she heard everything she needed to hear. We're still prayerfully deciding if she needs more time or if we should put her back in the Lord's hands for now. We'll see.

For the 4th of July we volunteered at a race that the city does and it was super fun to get involved and be apart of that! We really didn't do anything else super exciting (besides District Meeting, that was fun!)

We also met this really cool lady that recently moved up to Toga who was meeting with missionaries in Mississippi and wants to be baptized next month while she's up here!!! And our investigator Karie is on date to be baptized next month as well and she's been living the word of wisdom but her biggest struggle is getting to church because she has to work, but today she called us and told us that she got someone to work for her on Sundays!! So now she can come to church!!!!! It seriously is a huge miracle because she has been praying for this for so long!!!

Oh and one more thing, I read Mormon chapters 8-9 this week and holy cow. They have SO much power to them! I was like freaking out while reading them. They were the coolest and definitely strengthened my testimony of the Restoration. Personal study is for reals the best.

Earlier today we got a call from Sister Martin in Manchester that was going to be in Saratoga today and she wanted to take us out to lunch! It was soooo much fun to see her! I have seriously met the most amazing people while out here serving the Lord's mission and I feel so blessed. Hope y'all have a great week!!

Funny quote:

Sister Park: "way to drop a bomb and not have a lightswitch!"

me: "what?!"

Her: "I don't know why I said that, but it was in my head and I had to say it..."

Pictures:

1. Ya girls kicked the elders trash in Missionary Feud this week!