"Give me a kiss!"

Me: "Is there anything we can do for you guys before we go?" 

Chara: "No I think we're good!" 

Blaze (6): "Yeah! Give me a kiss!!" Hahah he's seriously such a ladies man. 

Okay well big news of the day: I'm going to be training a new missionary! I'm really excited but also really nervous! Hah so if anyone has any advice be sure to send it my way cause ya girl could use some help! 

Honestly I don't even remember what else happened this week cause transfers is the only thing that has been on our minds! 

Friday was the Trunk-or-Treat which was super fun. We had 2 investigators come which was awesome! One of them is Jackie. She's a former that has been taught A LOT in the past. Her brother is a member of our branch but he's kinda Less Active. Sisters in the past have dropped her because she doesn't want to get baptized and she wouldn't keep commitments. Well a few weeks ago she called us (we had no idea who she was) but didn't leave a message. We just saw that she was a former in the phone so we called her back and she said she called us on accident but we asked if there was a time we could meet with her and she said yes! We ended up meeting with her and established our purpose and set expectations really well. And since then, she's kept commitments!! She read from the Book of Mormon!!! (something she hadn't done before!) and she came to the fall festival!!! We walked in the doors and she was the first person we saw! Her face was seriously priceless she was like "I'M HERE!!! I CAME!!!!" and we were soooo proud of her! Haha she's such a sweetheart! 

Also good news: THE AUMICKS CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN!!!! THAT'S TWO WEEKS IN A ROW!!! And they're planning on coming next week and staying all three hours! Such a miracle. I really want to help that family get baptized. They are so cool and so so close to baptism. They have a lot of obstacles to overcome but they have seen how much this gospel has blessed their family. The primary program was yesterday so you know they had to have felt the Spirit then! When the kids were talking about baptism Sister Jenkins and I were like "@ all of our investigators here" haha and Payton and her mom and her moms fiancé came to church and the fall festival! This gospel seriously blesses families so so so much. 

The primary kids sang a song called "Choose Him again" and if you haven't heard it please go look it up! It seriously was so powerful and we felt the Spirit so strong. The lyrics say how we lived in Heaven before this life and we chose God's plan and in this life we will choose Him again. Ahh it was so powerful! 

One last bit of good news: Monise from Saratoga came to church yesterday!!!! let me refresh your memory: When I was there we had a really hard time getting her to come to church because she worked and her manager wouldn't let her get work off on Sunday mornings. She is probably the most golden investigator I've ever taught she has the most powerful testimony and so much faith. So we taught her a lesson on tithing and fasting and we told her we were going to fast so that she would be able to get Sundays off and she fasted with us well... GOD IS GOOD AND THE FAST WORKED!!!! she got Sundays off and went to church yesterday and is on date to be baptized next month!!!! I am so so so happy for her. I wish more than anything I could be there, but it doesn't matter as long as she gets baptized! 

Hope you all have a good week!

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

Pics: 

1/2. my mom and aunt sent me Half Birthday packages since my half bday was last Monday! Seriously the best. 

P.S. I dyed my hair but you can't really tell.. it's a lighter though and these are literally the only pics we've taken all week soooo

3. District pic

On a funny note: 

At the trunk-or-treat we saw some kids trading candy so I was like "oh are you trading candy?" and the kid looks at me and goes "Yes, we take this very seriously ma'am" HAHAHA I have never been called ma'am before in my entire life! It was seriously so funny.

Sacrifice

“a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation.”  -Joseph Smith

"Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven" 

I can't even tell you how many times I've met someone out here that has left their church because "it was too strict" "there were too many rules" "it was too hard to follow the standards". I always go back to the quote by Joseph Smith. People out here are constantly finding a church that "fits them" or conforms to what they think is easy or right. We met someone on Tuesday who attends the church she does now because it's not as strict as her old one. It blows my mind that people aren't willing to give up something worldly for God. We know our God is a God of order and a God of high expectations. He requires everything of us! If He didn't, how would we have faith unto salvation? I used to think 18 months was a sacrifice. But I realize it's not. That's easy, the sacrifice is giving it all to God. God doesn't want our time, He wants us. He wants our hearts, our thoughts, our desires, He wants us to align our will, with His.

"The best decision I ever made was to give up something I love, for the God I love even more. He has never forgotten me for it" Any small sacrifice that we make for the Lord, He notices and He immediately blesses us for it! (Mosiah 2:24) 

I think it's so crazy that some people aren't willing to sacrifice 5 minutes a day to read the Book of Mormon, or one hour of their time once a week to go to church, there are so many small things that God asks us to do, and when we do them we are ALWAYS blessed. 

Elder Gary Stevenson from the Quorum of the 12 apostles came to our mission this week!!!!! He shared about how we have the authority to promise people specific blessings. The Lord does it all the time in the scriptures to us! He shared D&C 4 with us (a scripture that every missionary has memorized) and the last verse he said if God didn't promise us blessings it would read: "Ask...knock...Amen." instead of: "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you, Amen." I've really been working on trying to promise people more blessings. This week I've reflected on how keeping the commandments has blessed my life. I've tried to pin point specific blessings that I receive from following specific commandments. They are COUNTLESS!!! Seriously. When I miss a day of reading the Book of Mormon, something is off. But when I do read, I feel so so so much peace. When I keep the commandment of praying daily, I feel safe and my relationship with God improves. When I go to church and partake of the Sacrament, my entire week is better. There is nothing in this life that has brought me more peace than the Savior has, especially as I feel it as I take the Sacrament. I never want to live without the Lord's blessings and I know that by keeping the commandments (which is sometimes a sacrifice) we are able to come closer to Christ and receive answers to questions we have. I can't even put into words how much this gospel means to me. I have no idea where I'd be without it and I luckily I don't have to know!

Cool experience!!! So there's a Part Member Family in the branch that we've been seeing. They've been taught for FOREVER and they are so close to baptism (the dad is) the 12 year old daughter is the one that's baptized. Last week we committed them to come to church and they didn't :( we were so sad. We didn't know how to help them if they weren't going to come to church. Apparently the dad was super close to baptism a while back. But they haven't been to church since DECEMBER! So this past week we weren't able to see them bc they live 5ever away and we have no miles. So yesterday we were waiting for our investigators to come to church. We had a family promise us they'd be there and they didn't show. Jennifer also promised she'd be there and she didn't show. So we were sitting waiting for the meeting to start, and Sister Jenkins grabs my arm and  GASPS SO LOUD and I look up. THE PART MEMEBER FAMILY WALKED INTO CHURCH. WE COULD NOT STOP SMILING!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously all day we kept saying "THE AUMICKS CAME TO CHURCH!!!" So many branch members ran up to them yesterday and just hugged them and welcomed them because they want them to get baptized so bad. Kenny (the 12 year old that's baptized) recently got into Young Women's so the leaders went over this week and welcomed her. I KNOW it was that simple act that got them to church. We had been inviting and inviting but hadn't seen them this week. It was when the branch members went over and saw them that they came! For the first time in  almost a YEAR!!!! It was seriously incredible. 

I want to invite each of you to think of someone that you haven't seen at church in a while. It could be a friend, a family member, someone in the ward, a non member, anyone that you haven't seen at church in a while. Thought of someone? Now reach out to them somehow! Take them out to lunch, send them a text, call them, like their latest Instagram picture, who cares, just reach out and show them some Christlike love. Let them know how missed they are and tell them you've noticed/felt their absence! We need everyone in God's choir, every voice is needed!!

Okay this email was literally all over the place I'm so sorry but you get the jist of my week. But of course I have some funny stories: 

-we left Horseheads at 4:45 am for a 2 1/2 hour meeting and got back to Painted Post at 6:30 pm :)))) on the Brightside the car ride was the funniest thing of my life and we also witnessed Elder Berry punch a bee. Definitely a highlight.

-On Sunday we had fliers for the trunk or treat and this primary girl was like "What are you doing with those?"

me: "We're giving them to people so we can invite them to come!"

her: "Oh that's a good idea! Then they'll see how fun it is and want to join the church!"
me and sis Jenkins: "That's exactly what we were thinking"

- My favorite funny story of the week was last Monday. We email in Corning so we took the bus. Well we left PP and only had enough money to get to Corning, we were like "once we're in Corning, we'll get money to get back on the bus to come back" so of course we're both really stupid and forgot to get more money to get back on the bus and we realize the bus is coming back in 10 minutes. hahah so we scavenge our purse for spare change and found enough money for both of us to get back on the bus!! Except we were .25 cents short. So I start PRAYING that we could find a quarter on the ground somehow and we start searching and searching. Sis Jenkins was like "there's no way we're going to find a quarter" and I was like "yes we will!!" well of course, we didn't. Hahah we looked up and saw a 7-11 and ran over to get cash back! We asked if they did cash back and they said yes so Sis Jenkins grabs the first thing she sees (bubble gum) haha I was like "you can't even use that!" and we got cashback and got safely on the bus. That's the time I witness Sister Jenkins under pressure and it was the funniest thing of my life. I love being her companion. 

Okay sorry this email is 5000 years long but I'm doing good and loving life!! Have a good!!

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

Pics: 

1. It's not everyday you get to see SIS CAMP

2. Seriously my favorite people ever. THE GANG (all together for the first time in over a year) 

3. Sister Hall

4. Sister Hall and Elder Joy

5/6 Folkman and DG go home in a week 

Sister Jenkins and I in our natural habitat (public transportation)

One of our investigators randomly came outside with a snake, so we held it!

Thy Will Be Done!

I love being a missionary, especially when members randomly give you 2 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts.

Fullness of times...how lucky are we?

I'll start off with a funny story this week:
We were at the Torrence's (a family that got baptized about a month before I got here) and we were saying a prayer before we left. Blaze, the 6 year old, wanted to say it but needed help so he was copying what I said. I said "And please help us to have a good day at church tomorrow" and Blaze said "And please help us to not have to take a bath tonight" hahahaha well, God answers prayers and they didn't have to take a bath that night! Hahaha it was so funny!

Anyways, it's been a great week!!

Last Monday for P-day Sis Jenkins and I went to the Corning Museum of Glass! It was so cool, I'll include some pics. Corning is apparently famous for glass so we got to go see all these cool art pieces made of glass and it was so cool!! 

Tuesday we had Zone Conference in Owego which was way fun. (Sis Jenkins and I also won a prize for having a clean car and nothing in our glove box so whoo!) The rest of the day was kinda weird. We sat and talked with this guy who's a preacher at a different church and he was just not making any sense. He was telling us how we believe in a 'different Jesus' (if I had a dollar every time I heard that...) All we did is bear solid testimony of the Book of Mormon. He kept saying "well I'm not sure what you think about this" and we were like "IT'S CAUSE YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK OF MORMON" we literally said it like 12 times. He was like "I know, and I'm going to" so we really hope he reads and prays about it but it's just amazing how the Book of Mormon truly does answer all of our questions. I'm grateful for the knowledge that I have of the Book of Mormon and the testimony that I have of it as well. Then we went to Kens house (the guy that came to Conference) and he dropped us, hardcore. It pretty much sucked and we felt crapped on. The whole night was just a little rough but we decided to try a family that said we could come back, so we went over and they let us right in! We were able to give them a Book of Mormon and explain what it is. We asked if they'd be interested in reading and learning more about it. The dad turns to his daughter and goes "Well yeah I would, wouldn't you?" and the daughter said yes too! Hah it was such a great response!

Wednesday we had exchange in Elmira/Horseheads (a place I've been wanting to see for forever so I was way excited!) I got to work with Sister Moore so that was way fun! We taught some guy the 15 step program to quit smoking and he said "wait one sec" and ran inside. 2 minutes later he came out and handed us his ashtray an lighter!!! We were pumped to throw those suckers away.

The rest of the week was pretty good! We have a lot of cool people to see and teach. This area has so much potential and so many earnest seekers of truth. One of the most frustrating things I've come across on the mission is when people don't see a need for the gospel. Or when they know it's true and won't do anything about it. We've been working with a couple of Part-Member families, meaning at least one person in the family has been baptized but the rest haven't. We saw one of these families last night and they just did not see the need for this gospel and it honestly broke my heart. We asked if they had a desire to know if these things were true and they told us they couldn't answer at this time. We walked to the car and I was just so sad cause they don't know what they're missing! Sister Jenkins and I have been talking a lot about the truthfulness of this gospel. That we are the only true and living church on the earth. We have the Book of Mormon, another Testament of Jesus Christ, we have priesthood keys to do things in God's permission such as blessing/passing the Sacrament, performing baptisms, and being able to seal our families together forever, and we also have a living prophet! Take a second to think about how incredible that is. When I step back and think about it, I am amazed. We are so lucky and so blessed to have this gospel in our lives. It is so sad when people turn us away or don't see the urgency for this gospel because I know how much it can bless and change lives because it has absolutely changed mine! I would not be who I am today if it weren't for this complete gospel and most importantly our Savior, Jesus Christ. Because of Him, we can start over, we can have second chances, we can be anything we want in righteousness. I absolutely love this gospel and am amazed at how much goodness we have. One of my favorite quotes to share with people is "Heavenly Father's generous compensation for living in perilous times is that we also live in the fullness of times." 

Side note: This quote is by Elder Stevenson who just so happens to be COMING TO OUR MISSION ON SATURDAY!!!!! We're having a WHOLE MISSION CONFERENCE so that means EVERYONE is going to Utica on Saturday. The whole mission hasn't been together the entire time I've been out, this rarely happens. I mean it kinda stinks cause we have to leave here at 4:45 am that day and drive 3 and a half hours for a two hour meeting and then turn around and drive 3 and a half hours back and then get back to work, but I DON'T EVEN CARE I'M SO PUMPED. THE CHURCH IS TRUE. 

HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD WEEK LOVE YA BYE

XOXO

Sister Rodriguez

P.S. we're teaching an investigator, Jennifer, tonight and we're going over the 15 steps to stop smoking. She's been a chain smoker since she was 12 and has never been able to quit. She wants to be baptized but knows she needs to give up smoking first. So tonight we're going over the program with her and if you could all just say a little prayer that she will be able to overcome this habit to be baptized, we'd really appreciate it! It's gonna take a lot of faith! Thanks!

pics: 

1. If you don't recognize me cause I'm 300 pounds when I get home, this is why.

2-5 are pics from the Corning Museum of Glass!

Spanish Restorations

Cool experience this week: We were driving trying to find a Prospective Elder on our branch list and we'd never met him before. The GPS ended up taking us to a dead end but there was a small road next to it, so we went down that road hoping it'd take us where we wanted to go. Well it turns out it was someone's driveway! Haha I got out of the car so I could back Sister Jenkins up while she turned around. I was about to get in the car when the Spirit told me to knock on this persons door. I ignored it because I felt super creepy because this house is basically in the middle of nowhere. Again, the Spirit prompted me that we needed to knock on this persons door. I honestly felt like the person was just going to yell at us, but I doubted that missionaries had ever knocked on this door before. I open the car door and tell Sister Jenkins we were gonna go knock on this door. So we get out and knock. We say how we're sharing a message of Christ and the lady asked if we were Mormon, we said yes and asked if she'd met Mormon missionaries before, she said YES. She told us that she was baptized Mormon about 20 years ago in Pennsylvania! WHAT?! Haha she said she'd never been to church here in this area because she didn't know where it was. She didn't remember much of the message we share so we were able to teach her the Restoration. She told us that last week her friend invited her to a Bible study and now we were here knocking on her door. She said she knows God is trying to tell her something! I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and God being so patient with me when I'm stubborn and ignore promptings the first time. We should NEVER ignore a prompting the first time it comes. That's something I've really been trying to work on. Luckily God sent the prompting to me again and I listened the second time. This Less Active then pointed us back down the right road and we were able to go see the Prospective Elder who also hasn't been to church in years but was glad we showed up and wants to come to church! 

The rest of this week has been filled with lots of service and hard work. I love being companions with Sister Jenkins. She is such a hard worker and has taught me so much. We have seen so many miracles and there are just so many people to see and teach her, we are so so blessed! 

There's also a really cool woman that we're teaching named Jennifer. The sisters in Elmira started teaching her while she was there, but she recently moved back to Painted Post so we started teaching her and she is so incredible and even came to church yesterday! She's in a wheelchair and has lots of health problems so she has to have an aide with her 24/7. This whole week she's been bending over backwards to make sure she had an aide that would come to church with her and got a ride to church. The only ride she could get was someone that dropped her off early and had to pick her up early. So she came for just Sacrament meeting and she showed up an hour and a half early! It really showed me how much faith she has. Most people make the lamest excuses for not coming to church (case and point: one of our investigators didn't come to church because he had 'paint on his hands and didn't want to make a bad first impression') and here's Jennifer who actually has legit excuses for why she wouldn't be able to come to church and yet she planned in advance and went out of her way to make sure she would be there. She has the sweetest spirit and I'm grateful to know her!

Funny stories of the week:

We are fresh out of copies of the Book of Mormon and fresh out of Restoration pamphlets! We literally have no supplies, it's good cause it means we've given them all away but seriously we feel so weird walking around without a copy of the Book of Mormon or a Restoration pamphlet in our hands. Also when we teach about the first vision I love to show the depiction from the pamphlet of Joseph seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ. Well.... in our car we found Restoration pamphlets!!... but they were in Spanish! Hahaha so we walked around with those and when we would teach people, we would just show them the picture from the pamphlet cause luckily the pictures are the same hahah.

Us tracting: "We're sharing a message about how Christ's church is again on the earth today being lead by a prophet and 12 apostles!"

Lady: "I'm sorry, I really just don't care" *shuts the door* 

Haha anyways it was a great week! Love you!

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

Pics: 

1. THERE'S A 7-11 IN CORNING I HAVEN'T HAD A SLURPEE IN SOOOO LONG SO THIS WAS THE BEST DAY EVER.

2-5. Views

Boom... Roasted

I honestly cannot believe it's already P day again! This week has gone by so fast but of course it's been a great week! 

One huge highlight was Conference of course!! It's always so weird to see Salt Lake, but it just adds to the love I have for this church! So this week we were tracting and met this guy named Ken. He listened on his doorstep to us teach him the Restoration. When we told him we have a living prophet on the earth he was amazed!! We then told him how this weekend we were having a conference to hear the leaders of the church speak to us and he was super excited and said he'd come! Well Saturday he didn't show up, we were pretty bummed. So Sunday morning before Conference we went over to his house to remind him to come. Then for the Sunday afternoon session... KEN CAME TO CONFERENCE!!!! He said he felt peaceful! It was seriously so cool. We're super excited to start teaching him more, I love love love when people actually keep commitments and do what they say they're going to do!!

We also met this girl Brittany and set her on date to be baptized next month so we're excited to help her work towards that!

Wednesday we had interviews in Elmira with President Rogers, afterwards he took us out to lunch with Sister Rogers as well so that was super fun! And they even gave us permission to go to the MALL (since we were in Elmira cause Painted Post doesn't have one) so one of the Elders could buy new shoes and so Sister Jenkins could buy a new coat, so lunch with pres and shopping all in one day aka best day ever! 

Saturday we volunteered at the wine glass marathon happening here in Corning, we got free shirts that said "Wine Glass Marathon" so that was really fun putting my nametag on next to the word "wine" hahaha probs not the most appropriate but it was good to help out! Then later that night we went and saw Joey (the guy that we taught last week with his mom) and he READ FROM THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!! He had a lot questions and we were able to help answer some. Sister Jenkins bore the most powerful testimony and promised him that if he read from the Book of Mormon everyday that he would without a doubt know that it was true. I felt the Spirit so strong. It reminded me that we have been called and set apart to do this work and represent this church and the Savior, which means when we feel prompted to promise a specific blessing, we have the authority to do it! Sister Jenkins is teaching me so much and helping me be reminded of so many simple things! I just adore her. Joey was awesome and said he would read. His mom was there egging him on and encouraging him to take the challenge! He said that sitting and talking with us was more enjoyable than any church service and it's helping him evaluate his spirituality. We are so so excited to keep teaching him!! 

A lot more happened this week but honestly I'm so tired of writing weekly emails haha it's getting old so I'll leave it at that this week! 

But I do have some funny stories for ya: 

We were out tracting and this lady answered the door, before we could even say a single word she goes "Sorry I'm putting my daughter to bed, it's not a good time. Also I'm a Born Again Christian. I'd hope to see you in Heaven but I doubt if I will" and slammed the door in our face HAHAHAHAHA IT WAS LITERALLY THE FUNNIEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD I WAS LAUGHING SO HARD. I'VE NEVER BEEN SO ROASTED IN MY LIFE. Our mouths just dropped open so wide and all we could do is laugh. Then literally the next door, this guy listened to the first vision and was super nice. He wasn't interested but he was like "I'm a Methodist, and we'll honestly see each other in Heaven" hahaha the difference between the two was so night and day. 

We also OYM'd this 15 year old boy who wouldn't stop texting us and it was the funniest thing of our lives. 

Me: "what's your favorite animal and why?"
Sis Jenkins:" A raccoon. Their tail is so cool and they have a built in mask, you can't beat that" (it's true)

We also started teaching the daughter of a Less Active who's 7, so she wants us to help prepare her daughter for baptism. He showed her a picture of Moroni burying the gold plates and asked if she knew who it was and she goes "I don't know, maybe Tom?" and all of us just started laughing hahaha she was seriously so funny the entire lesson. 

Well that's all folks, love ya lots!!

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

Pics

1. Your typical German Pancakes Conference pic

2. Our friend Michael who's a double amputee and the coolest guy. He moved to Bath, NY so that was our last lesson with him

 

The rest are just pics of my fav place: New York