Sister Stephani Rodriguez: EIGHTEEN MONTHS.

What a week!! Honestly I will never get used to how weird the mission is. My life is so weird and literally anything could happen. Like this week! So on Wednesday we got a text from our mission president saying that we needed to be really careful on Friday and Saturday cause it was supposed to be super cold. We weren't allowed to be out for more than 15 minutes, and we were all supposed to be home by 8 both nights (that never happens) so we were like "okay" but then on Thursday night we got another text from President Rogers saying that the weather was supposed to be so cold and LIFE THREATENING that all missionaries had to stay INSIDE our apartments ALL DAY on Friday AND Saturday. We weren't allowed to leave for any reason. Holy macaroni what an adventure. That's the first time I've been bored in 18 months (that's right, ya girl hit her 18 month mark this week!!!) but it was nice cause we were able to get caught up on all our journaling and lots of other stuff around the house.

We did a couple of phone lessons, weekly planned, alphabetized the area book (it was actually really fun I

area book work lol), cooked really good food, we found a board game in our apartment called "What Would Jesus Do" so we played that, took baths, baked a cake, worked out, did laundry, blew bubbles and watched them freeze outside, etc. etc. Haha it was one of the weirdest weeks of the mission by far.

But even though we were stuck inside a lot, Heavenly Father still blessed us so much with lots of miracles!!

Brittany's baptism interview was scheduled for Saturday, but we couldn't leave our apartment, so we had to reschedule it for yesterday and she PASSED!! So we're all set for this Saturday for her baptism!!! We're so excited for her.

Yesterday was really awesome too, we picked up 4 new investigators!!! This family that we tracted into, let us in and loved the message we shared! The 18 year daughter was like "I see your nametag says Sister. Are you guys sister missionaries?" and I was like "yeah, that's exactly who we are! We're not nuns though..." (everyone gets us confused hahaha) and she was like "yeah okay! I saw a video about Sister Missionaries clothing throughout time so I thought that was about you guys!" So cool!!! That little bit of exposition helped her recognize who we are! She even prayed at the end and said she's excited to learn more, and we're excited to teach her more!!

Oh we also met with this girl Diana who seemed SUPER prepared!!! She had already downloaded the Book of Mormon and read the intro and all the testimonies BEFORE we even met with her and she loves it!! She accepted a baptism date for the end of this month, but things happened and she kinda called it off.... (the boy that introduced her to us is going back to school and leaving and said they're just friends, so we think she just wanted to be baptized for him...) but she still loves the Book of Mormon and wants to keep meeting with us so we're excited for that! It just shows how God really does prepare people for us to teach.

One thing we've been struggling with this week is opposition and persecution. I have NEVER seen so much persecution from Satan before. He is literally attacking every single person that we're teaching. It is SO hard to see the people we love be tempted and go through trials, but we've been praying and fasting for these people and we know that they're in the hands of the Lord and that He will not allow them to be tempted more than they can handle. But if you could all keep Brittany and Meaghan in your prayers, that would help us out a lot. I have the strongest testimony of prayer, I know it helps a ton.

The weather is supposed to warm up a bit this week so we're excited about that! It's in the 30's and 40's all week... #blessed. (I hate that the 30's is warm hahah thanks upstate New York, thanks).

1. Ricos pizza is hands down the best pizza I've ever had. We eat it weekly lol