The 4 "M"s

Well. This week was really interesting, lots of 'M's:

1. Mice

2. Mental Breakdowns

3. Mac Daddy

4. Mission Conference

So first off: YES WE HAVE MICE IN OUR APARTMENT!!!! We were home for like 5 minutes one day and Sister Maughan was in the bedroom and I was talking to her half in the bedroom, half in the kitchen. I turn around and saw this tiny grey thing run under the fridge. Needless to say, we FREAKED!!! Oh my word. We had to go get traps and everything and set them ourselves. It was hilarious trying to figure out how to do it. By now we're both pros at setting them (which is NOT a good thing). So like two days later, we come home and we saw that the trap worked! We got the mouse! So we were celebrating and then Sister Maughan found another one... it was stuck on one of the glue traps that we set. Elder Cook told us that the glue ones would kill the mouse but it didn't! So this poor little nasty mouse is stuck on the trap trying to get off. We were DYING! So we called the Smiths and they told us we needed to kill it with a shovel. So Sister Maughan built up the courage and wacked it TWICE with the shovel and it still didn't die!!! So we had to take it outside and I had to kill it with a rock!! Yes, ME!! I KILLED A MOUSE, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! Because I can't. We were so angry for the rest of the night. We set a few more traps because we're scared we have more. But how nasty is that?!!?

The second thing: I had my first mental breakdown this week. Wow it was a stressful week! One thing after another we just have so much stuff going on and I haven't gotten enough sleep lately. So in the middle of sacrament meeting I just broke down and ran to the bathroom. Sister Maughan came in and we just sat on the bathroom floor and I just cried. Missions are so tough!! Sister Maughan told me that she's glad it was me that had the breakdown because it would either be her or me. She was about to go into the nursery room and cry herself, and then she saw me leave. It was bound to be one of us! But Sister Maughan already had a breakdown this week. Haha in the middle of our weekly planning session she just got up out of her desk and said "NOPE. I CAN'T DO IT." And grabbed her blanket and just sat outside for a bit. We are so stressed out! We have so much to do and we just have had the busiest week. So yesterday we took a much needed nap. That seemed to help. But things are going really great! We are working on getting more organized so we can cut back some of the stress. And our branch members are INCREDIBLE at helping us out with anything we need!

One good thing this week though is we had our first MAC DADDY!!! It's a grilled cheese sandwich with mac n cheese and ham! Oh my goodness. It was heaven. We've had so many people tell us to go get one so this week we did!

Friday was awesome though because we had our mission conference in Liverpool! It was so weird driving there. We drove in the mission van with our district. We passed the Turning Stone, a casino and it was so weird. I felt like i was in the city again! It was a big building with lights! It kinda freaked me out. I'm getting too used to the country which is really weird. But I love it here. So we walked into the stake center and Sister Maughan and I were like "Wait. what's this? An ACTUAL church BUILDING?! With PEWS?! And more than  5 rooms?" Haha it was weird to be in an actual building cause we're so used to our little space in the medical center! 

But Mission Conference was so great!! I got to see a lot of my MTC homies (except Sis Campbell and Shulz and Reintjes ) But when I saw Sister Lee, I ran up and hugged her and she yelled "STEPH!!!" Hahahaha it was so funny but weird to hear my first name again! I love being surrounded by other missionaries! Elder and Sister Snow did an amazing job at teaching us. We learned so much from them. One of my favorite things he asked us is " Where can I find a better life than what I've had in this church?" And I really thought about that. It made me realize how blessed I am to have grown up in this gospel. And how truly happy it makes us! My favorite thing to testify of is how happy this gospel makes us. I have seen it in my own life and in the lives of our investigators, especially Lacey! It's so incredible how keeping the commandments truly brings us happiness. I absolutely believe that to be true. 

Funny Stories:

My favorite story from this week is from Sister Graver. We called her and told her about our mice problem and she told us to sprinkle Baking Soda and Paprika on our floor around the fridge and that would get rid of them! Well we didn't have Baking Soda so we used Baking Powder. A few days later, she told us she was joking and that we have a huge mess of Baking Powder and Paprika on our floor for nothing. Hahahah!

One of the Elders spoke in mission conference and said "God will throw you a bone!!" and he said it like 5 times and we were just like "What does that even mean?!" So now we always say that.

One more: we were driving with the Smiths and a huge buck ran in front of the car and into the woods and Pam FREAKED! She was like "MIKE. LOOK AT THAT BUCK. Oh that's got to be a 6 pointer. I gotta call Adam!!" And she was freaking out hahaha it was hilarious.

Sorry my email was so long this week! And my funny stories weren't too funny this week. But life with Sister Maughan in Hamilton is seriously the best. She is the greatest companion and one of my best friends. This transfer has gone by so fast! I need it to slow down!  Thanks everyone for the love and support. I love hearing from everyone!

Pictures: 

1. Baking Powder on our floor...

2. Sister Maughans mental breakdown...

3. Sister Maughan decorated my desk for me while i was sleeping cause I had a bad day. I LOVE HER

4. Sister Stowell and I at Mission Conference! 

5. New York has my heart you guys

MTC buddies minus Sis Campbell

My bff Sister Maughan

Sister Lee and Sister Park

Our car selfies on the way back from mission conference

BEST. DAY. EVER.

Okay, more like best WEEK ever, but still! Transfer 3 has definitely been the best transfer on the mission! But this week was the best because.... LACEY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! Oh my goodness it was amazing. The best thing ever has been able to see this gospel change her life. She is not the same Lacey I met 3 months ago. I am so proud of her! After her baptism I gave her a CTR ring, just like mine and it was a little small (I asked her mom what her ring size was but I guess she was wrong) but she was SO excited! I told her I could send it back and get her a bigger size and she was like "NO! I love it! I'm not giving it back!!" It was so sweet, I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!! It was also super cool because our investigator Catherine got to come to her baptism as well! Lacey and Catherine are on the same volleyball team so having that friendship in and outside of the church has been great! Lacey came to a lesson with us for Catherine this last week and after the lesson lacey goes "When I was speaking I felt really warm in my heart and in my stomach" MISSIONARY WORK IS THE COOLEST!!!!!! We get to see things like Lacey experiencing the Holy Ghost. These little things that as members of the church we take for granted. Lacey is just the best. We taught her about eternal marriage this week and she said "If i ever find someone like me. I mean Mormon and with the same standards" She's just the best! She truly loves this gospel so much and I'm so grateful that I was able to come and see firsthand how it has changed her life. 

Another reason why this was the best week ever is cause last Monday was Halloween! Sister Maughan and I aren't really too big of fans of Halloween but we got permission to go to Oneida and carve pumpkins and go shopping at Wal Mart with the Oneida sisters! Sister Christenson and Sister Graver. They have grown to be two of my closest friends! Sister Graver and Sister Maughan were past companions and they're like best friends so we always have so much fun when we're together!! 

Also this week we had ZTM in Utica which means... TARGET SHOPPING TRIP!!!! It was awesome, but ZTM was great too! I love meetings with other missionaries. The times I've felt the spirit the most powerfully has definitely been in meetings with other missionaries. The NYUM is filled with so many incredible missionaries! 

So many great things happened this week. Justin and Jessica (lacey's brother and mom) both came to Sacrament meeting to support Lacey and her confirmation! The Spirit was so strong in that meeting as it was fast Sunday and the members bore solid testimony of how the gospel has blessed their lives. Lacey never fails to recognize God blessing her. It was such a great meeting for Justin to attend. He is doing so great! Also a lot of the gang came to support Lacey on Saturday! It was awesome!!

Funnies:

So first off, after the baptism we were playing 3 hit kill with the Oneida Elders and Elder Cook ripped his pants!! hahaha that was awesome.

Sister Graver: "Just because they throw tortillas instead of graduation caps, doesn't make them Mexican" 

So Sister Maughan was showing Justin some of the pictures in the BOM and he goes "Wait! This has pictures in it? This just got SO MUCH better!!" hahahaha 

Also Caleb (he's part of the gang, he's like 4) decided instead of going to the bathroom, he would shave a section of his head! We came over like 10 minutes after that happened, it was hilarious!

Last but not least, Sister Graver. She is always messing with us! So on Monday we were at lunch and she got up so we stole her keys and hid them. And when we were leaving she was searching and couldn't find them and she called us and we were like "did you throw them away?" and she was like "oh no..." and ran inside and started digging through the trash to find her keys! Hahahaha we drove around and just held them out of the window. It was so funny!! She's the best.

Pictures: (warning: I have TONS of pictures this week...)

Our cute pumpkins that we carved

Sisters Graver and Maughan, my two favorite people

Parker requested a pic of Lacey and I dabbing

I've been in NY for 100 days?!!?!?!?

Oneida sisters at ZTM

Brother Morgan and Lacey

My bff LACEY!!!

Some of the gang: Edna May, Jessica, Lacey, Justin, Nikki holding Arianna (Edna May's baby), Kayden and Nick!  I love these people!!!

"Trevor will you take a selfie with me?" "yeah. Over here. by this." "Okay".

"It blew over like a fart in church!"

Lacey's baptism is this Saturday!!! We are so excited for her! We were supposed to have her interview last week, but the Elders mixed up the time and didn't show up  so now we're super stressed trying to figure out a time to do that and get everything ready! Man this week has been crazy! But we are so excited for her. 

This week was the coolest experience. We've been trying to help Justin pray and everytime we asked him if he did, he says no. So this week we really focused on that and helping him with his concerns and then a few days ago he told us he actually prayed!! He said "It was kinda weird. I felt like I wasn't really talking to anyone. I just kinda talked... but I felt good afterwards..." I had the biggest smile on my face!! Something as simple as that just made my day. The power of prayer is real and it is so important! Justin is still working towards baptism next month and he is doing awesome!

Well this week the weather has definitely been rough. We got our first taste of snow! It lasted only a day and it wasn't too bad but still! It's been getting really cold.. I'm really nervous for this winter. It has been raining a lot and the skies are grey as usual! Which is a bummer, but oh well! 

This week my companion had a doctors appointment in Albany and so did one of the sisters from Oneida, so they went together while I spent the day with Sister Graver! Oh my word. She is the funniest person I have ever met. My cheeks were literally sore after being with her all day from laughing so hard! She's in our district and she used to be companions with my companion! We all get along super great and Sister Maughan and I are actually heading into Oneida today to go carve pumpkins with them for Halloween! It should be really fun! 

We did some tracting this week (of course!!!!) and it's so cool how people just really open up to you if you ask them the right question. Random strangers will just start telling us their life story because they know they can trust us (or they're just crazy, either way). But it is really cool to see the blessings that come from tracting and working hard. I love missionary work!!!! 

This week we spent some time at the Gangs house and Nikki made meatball subs for dinner one night JUST for me casue she knows i them them! It was so sweet! I love her so much. 

Another highlight of my week is that we got to go visit Leta. We see her every Tuesday but this time we got to go over friday night and help her with some things. She's an active member of our branch but she's housebound cause she's so sick. I absolutely adore her! We just helped make dinner and cleaned some things around the house for her. I love spending time with her! She's got the coolest stories and the best family history so we could just sit and chat for hours! 

Well sorry this letter was so lame! The work is going great and things are super busy which is awesome! I'm so grateful for the love and support you all show me! Have a great week! :) 

"The Book is blue, the church is true, and God. Is. Mormon." 

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

Funny quotes/stories:

"It blew over like a fart in church!" -Keith talking about how Thanksgiving lasted for 7 minutes one year 

"O. M. G. Sister Rodriguez!" -Kayden being sassy to me 

"what do we do if our investigator is lesbian and in love with your companion?" "you kill them and do baptisms for the dead" -Elder Cook

It's time to crap or get off the pot!" -Steve

Pictures:

So in NY everyone just rakes their leaves to the curb and then these big sucker things come out and suck all the leaves up!

I made homemade bread last Monday and it was sooo good! But I put it in the crock pot in the oven and then accidentally melted the handle... oops!

SNOW!!

Sister Maughan got a package and her mom sent her the cutest games! This one is called "ward fish" and you have to collect all the ward members! 

She also included cute slippers!!!

HAMILTON SERIOUSLY HAS MY HEART YOU GUYS I LOVE IT SO MUCH

When your companion spoils you and makes you the best meals!! (like all the time, seriously I'm so spoiled)

Our tracking selfies? (then we call Pam to come pick us up cause we were cold and exhausted and didn't want to walk home)

SOS I'm addicted to Maxwells ice cream!  Seriously its so good.