"I LOVE JESUS"

Hello everyone! Another week down, and I can't believe it! 

We tract from 6-7 every night. Lately we've been getting in the car at 6 and looking at the gps or driving around trying to find somewhere to tract. By the time we would find a good place, it would be 6:20-6:30. I felt so terrible and just like we were wasting time. We decided that we should start pre picking places to tract while we do our planning and that way we will be more effective! I can't even tell you how many blessings we've seen from doing that. But I'll tell you two of them. We decided to tract 'Joy lane' one night. We get there and there are only 2 houses there (good thing we also planned for backup tracting places ) so we knock on this guys door and he's really just not interested, right before he shuts the door I do the typical "do you know anyone in the area that could use some service or any uplifting message?" (I'm pretty sure I've said that sentence more than any other phrase in my entire life, we try to ask literally EVERYONE for referrals.) Usually people respond with "ummm, everyone" or "not really" but this guy goes "actually yeah, my son would listen to you guys allll day. He loves this stuff." and he gives us his sons name and address and sent us on our way. We wrote down his information and continued tracting on our backup street. Later that night, our appointments fell through and we decided we would go contact this referral! So we knock on this guys door and he answers, he looks at my nametag and his eyes get HUGE and he goes "JESUS, I. LOVE. JESUS!!!" This guy was awesome! He's read the Bible three times and just really loves Christ. So we were able to teach him the Restoration and give him a Book of Mormon. He told us he'd love to hear more of our message and that he's gonna find out if it's true or not. It was awesome!

Then yesterday when we were tracting, we met this guy and he told us he didn't live at the house we knocked on but that he knew sisters in the past, I asked him what his name was and it turns out he's a former that we've been trying to get in contact with! He told us that we could come by and share more with him.  

This week my testimony was really strengthened that the Lord blesses us for our preparation. 

We also had an awesome fireside with the youth in our branch last night! And we got Baylie and Kylie to come with us!! (Brittni's daughter and her friend) they're both less active but we're really trying to get them to come back and the fact that they came last night was a huge step. They're the cutest girls! 

Finally I am SO excited for General Conference!! The womens session was awesome and I learned lots. I would love to encourage all of you to go into conference with a question. I truly know that if you have a question for Heavenly Father that you want answered, He WILL answer it through conference somehow. Be aware of the things being shared and the way you feel. I have my questions written down and I'm excited to see what Heavenly Father will teach me this weekend. 

Thanks for all of the love and support! Have a great week

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

Lady outside of Resale: "are you guys doing community service?"
Sister Ferrin: "No, we just do service... around.. the ... community..." 

HAHAHA still laughin about that one.

Ed: "It's aight dawg.... okay I'm sorry I tried to be ghetto and it didn't work" 

Larry: "he had a bunch of wives.. what kind of Mormon was he?" 

Elder Baker: "an ex communicated one" 

Pictures: 

1. Simple answer: The Book of Mormon

2/3. Two of my favorite places in one day

4/5. I held little chickies TWICE this week (my fav Brittni is in the second one) 

6. Manchester

Stellaaaaa

Craziest snow storm of my life. If you haven't heard, we experienced a true Nor'Easter called 'Stella'. It was the biggest snow storm Vermont has seen since 1993. We were stuck inside our apartment for almost 2 whole days. All of our district meetings and exchanges got cancelled and on Wednesday we were told we weren't allowed to use our car at all!

So funny background story: on Monday's we usually work an extra hour so on Tuesdays we can go shopping in Bennington at Wal Mart because it's a lot cheaper! Well, Tuesday we weren't able to go to Bennington so we decided we'll just wait till next week to do all our shopping. So, Sister Ferrin and I have gotten quite good at coming up with things to eat this week! We literally are out of bread, eggs, cheese, milk, yogurt, butter and a lot of other things. Ha! At this point we told ourselves we might as well just hold out until we can go to Wal Mart tomorrow, we've made it this far! 

Anyways, Tuesday we stayed inside alllll dayyyyy. We weren't allowed to leave. We got 3 different text messages from our leaders saying all missionaries had to go home and leave their cars. If we did leave the apartment, we had to be 3 minutes away from the apartment. That night we had a phone lesson with Kathy and Wendy, and also (yes, we braved the storm and left) walked over to our neighbors who is a less active and his wife isn't a member and watched 'Finding Faith in Christ' with them. It was nice to get out of the apartment! Wednesday we weren't allowed to use our car at all. We had some service at a nursing home so we walked about a mile to get there and back. It wasn't too bad, just so much snow and really cold! It was fun though because over those two days we probably got at least 6 hours of studying in. It's awesome! We did a lot of contacting people on the phone and updating the area book, cleaning the apartment, and getting organized. Being a missionary in the NYUM is always an adventure

So last Monday, we saw my dear friend Ram. He's an investigator from Nepal and has a hard time understanding who God is. We stopped by and I asked him how his applications were going. He applied to 10 different schools for his Masters program and he told us he didn't get accepted to any of them. He was really upset and told us that he doesn't believe in God. That God doesn't have a plan for him. "no more God. No more God" He kept telling us. It seriously broke my heart. He wouldn't even let us say a prayer with him before we left. He tried telling me that in 5 years I wouldn't believe in God either. I told him that I don't know what the future holds but that I bet I would still believe in God. We made a deal that in 5 years if I still believe in God, I'll message him on Facebook and he'll let the missionaries come teach him and his whole village! So y'all best believe that in 5 years the missionaries in Nepal (if there are even missionaries there idk) are gonna get about 20 referrals from ya girl! It's sad to see Ram struggling but I definitely know that God has a plan for him and in 5 years, he's gonna get baptized.

This week I've been reading two conference talks a day from last conference in preparation for this coming conference! Something really stood out to me this time from Uchtdorf's talk "O How Great the Plan of Our God" He said: 

"Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Belfast, Northern Ireland. While there, I noticed the Belfast Coat of Arms, which includes the motto “Pro tanto quid retribuamus,” or “What shall we give in return for so much?”

I invite each of us to consider this question. What shall we give in return for the flood of light and truth God has poured out upon us?"

The phrase 'Pro tanto quid retribuamus' now sits in my Book Of Mormon as a constant reminder of what I'm going to give in return for so much. I'd like each of you to think about that this week as well! We are so lucky to have the gospel in our lives. 

Funny quotes of the week:

Janet: "you know Jason? (her boss) I always ask for Sundays off. He calls me and says 'you're on the schedule' I say 'i know. but i am at church.'" haha isn't she awesome? She goes to the Baptist church but wants to come to church with us this week so we are stoked!

Sister Ferrin while tracting: "have a good dinner!" 

Guy: "you too!.. err.. umm.." *Shuts the door* 

Pictures: 

1. When Coach is like "Hello Spring" and God's like "lol here's 3 feet of snow" 

2. So. much. snow.

3. Shamrock shakes for St. Patrick's day!

4. Ed took us out for pizza and a lesson on Monday: VT pizza isn't as good as NY's, but still better than Utahs so I'll take what I can get 

5. MORE SNOW

We're not in Utah anymore

You know you're not in Utah when you leave your apartment by 4:15 to get to a 7:00 stake meeting...

haha we're just lucky we were able to attend! The Broburgs took us to the adult session of stake conference in Albany Saturday night, it was about an hour and half there and back (we had to make some stops along the way so we left a little early) then Sunday morning the Brownlees took us and our investigator Ed there and back. Lots of traveling this weekend but Stake Conference was worth it! (And I got to see Sis Camp so of course it was a blast) It's funny because most people from the branch went to the leadership and adult sessions of stake conference and then just stayed the night in a hotel and came to the general session the next day. Definitely different than being in Utah where it's a 2 minute walk to the stake center! 

Cool experiences this week. We got to help volunteer at "the Living Library". An event that we helped people register for at the library. They had many different speakers come and tell cool stories. In between signing people up, the ladies from the library told us we could go watch some of the stories. We went and watched Stephen (he works at the library and we volunteer with him so we know him and thought it'd be cool to watch his story) and he told all about how he's a modern day witch - a Wicken! It was really interesting because that's something I've been wanting to learn about since being out here. Anyways, afterwards he came up to us and said "I was so nervous when you guys came to mine! I didn't want to offend you!!" haha it was really funny. We also listened to a guy tell us about his service in Iraq with the Marines, and a woman tell us of her experience helping refugees in Greece. It was so cool. I learned so much. 

One of my favorite parts about being a missionary is that people notice we're different. They're not sure what it is, but they like it. We had an awesome lesson with Ed this week. He always tells us that he's not sure if this is the path he's going to take, but he likes what he's learning, and his life has gotten better since meeting with us. He also always tells us he notices something different about us. It's really cool because the gospel truly answers any question we have. He's constantly saying "that makes sense. I like that" He has lots of questions but luckily, the gospel of Jesus Christ answers all of them! He really makes me want to study and understand the gospel better so I've been spending a lot of time in Preach My Gospel and the pamphlets that we hand out. I've definitely noticed a difference in my teaching as I try to understand the doctrine better. We're also going to lunch with Ed today! He wants to buy us pizza (which I haven't had in so long, like for the whole 2 months I've been in Manchester, so I'm a little nervous it's not gonna be as good as NY pizza, but we'll see) and have a lesson so I'm excited! He is seriously so genuine and sincere. He keeps his commitments and is very serious about learning. He really is a great guy! 

We also had a lesson with Shayna last night. She was telling us how her dad is giving her all of this anti stuff and saying we're a cult. She was like "But I don't know. You guys just seem to be different. I don't know what it is but you just have this light, and you're both always so happy. I want that" It's incredible to see that as we live worthy to have the gift of the Holy Ghost, it truly can be with us always, and that others really do recognize us. We stand out and we're different. So my invitation for all of you this week is to share that light with others! It truly blesses others lives. Look for little ways of doing service, compliment a stranger, invite someone to church, smile at a friend. There are so many ways to share the light we've been given. That's why we have it, so we can share it with our brothers and sisters. 

Funny stories: 

We were tracting apartments and there are two doors in each little area. We knock on this one door, no answer. We knock again, no answer. We leave a pass along card and turn and knock on the other door. Suddenly, both doors answer. I quickly turn around and start talking to the lady to the left while sister Ferrin is talking to the one on the right. Our backs are to each other and we're trying to preach in this small space and tune each other out but not wanting to say the exact same thing haha it was pretty funny!

We taught Ed the Plan of Salvation this week and he pointed to the Celestial Kingdom and goes "that's where I'm goin! See you ladies there." 

We went to a lesson with Garth and Kenneth (an older Jamaican guy) was there and simply fist bumped us and said "respect". He's true homie. 

Anyways! Love you all and hope you have a great week! Thanks for always being a good example to everyone, never forget your divine potential as a son or daughter of God. He lives and love you!

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez

1. Ed and us on our way home from stake conference

2. Sister Tesch goes home at the end of this transfer so this is the last time I'll see her :(

3. Sister Jones

4. Sisters of the Saratoga Zone (minus my comp who was in her interview and the Fonda sisters AKA Sis camp and Sister Johnson who weren't able to come) 

5. WHOO 

A Manchester Sister

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for all of the prayers this week, I really have been able to feel them. My testimony of the power of prayer has grown so much! 

So I realize I haven't told y'all too much about Vermont! So:

-Everyone uses the side doors. If you go to someones front door, it will freak them out more than if you go to their back door.

-There are Jamaicans everywhere!! I have no idea what it is, but for some reason Vermont is the gathering place of Jamaicans. We teach a lot of them and they're all somehow related to each other. For example: we teach this guy named Garth. A few weeks ago, we met this girl Oneicka and she told us she's related to Garth! We started teaching her. Then a little bit after that, we met this girl Shamoy who lives in the same trailer park as Garth and one night we went over there and Oneicka was there and was like "Shamoy is my sister! This is our dad!" It blew my mind.

- We do a lot of service here! Thursdays we volunteer at a thrift shop and then later at a food cupboard (literally my favorite place ever, it's awesome!), Fridays we volunteer at the Library! (okay the Manchester Library is so beautiful I'm obsessed), and on Saturdays we volunteer at Resale, it's part of Habitat for Humanities (a program that helps build houses for people) that sells used furniture. We also talked to this lady about helping with 'neighbor to neighbor' where we'd visit a lot of lonely people in the community, and we've talked to a nursing home about doing volunteer work there too! We can do up to 10 hours of service a week so we're trying to figure everything out, but it's awesome! Definitely something I want to continue throughout my life. Volunteering is one of my favorite parts about being a missionary. Helping the community is an incredible feeling!

Those are a few of the main things, but I'm sure I'll come up with more later.

 

This week was awesome! So we have an investigator named Kathy. I've never met her because she moved to Florida to help her mom with some family stuff but since I've been here, we've been doing lessons over the phone with her. Well a few weeks ago, we called and her mom answered and we asked if we could read a chapter from the BOM with her (Wendy) and in the middle of it, she stopped us and told us she was crying. Fast forward to Friday night, Kathy has quit smoking and coffee for almost a month, Wendy and Kathy are progressing SO well and committed to a baptism date of April 1st!! We found out that they're planning on staying in Florida and not moving back up here which we thought they were going to. So they've been meeting with the Elders in Florida and went to church yesterday! I am sooo proud of the progress they have both made! I haven't met either of them but from doing phone lessons, my love for them has grown so much. They have the strongest desires to follow God's plan! 

We also met with Brittni she's my miracle story. The one that we knocked on her door the same day that she told her mom she needed help. She's a Less Active that we visited with Sister Martin this week. We watched the Restoration video with her and her kids. Bailey is 16 and her best friend from Logan just moved up here to live with them for a while. Her friend, Kylie was baptized when she was younger but doesn't remember much. They both felt the Spirit so strong during the movie and said they'd pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. We asked them how that knowledge would help them and they gave sincere answers of how it would help them be on the right path and lead and guide them in their lives. I LOVE TEACHING TEENAGERS. It's amazing because this is such a crucial time in their lives where they really need the gospel and it will help them towards an amazing future. I'm super excited to help them come back to church.

Also we met with my main man Ed this week! Ed is super cool. He's been closed off to God for years now but Sister Folkman and DeGoyler OYM'd him a while ago and Sister Folkman and I started teaching him. He always said there was something different about us. He has questions about EVERYTHING because he's such a deep thinker. It's awesome. He says he's not sure if baptism will happen or if he'll choose to go down this path, but since meeting with us, his life has gotten better and that he likes what he's learning. My favorite thing is when we teach someone something and they say "that makes sense" because yes it does! The gospel. just. makes. sense. Also last night, we were reading from the Book of Mormon and Wendy said "this is weird. But I feel like I've heard this before. It's familiar" I'm like "IT'S BECAUSE YOUR SPIRIT KNOWS THIS. YOU KNEW THIS BEFORE YOU CAME TO THIS LIFE" YOU GUYS THE GOSPEL IS INCREDIBLE. 

One of the best parts about being a teacher is when you see your student have the lightbulb go off for them, the moment when an idea makes sense to them and they understand something! Well, the best part about being a missionary is similar. When they get the confirmation that this is good, this is true, this is familiar. It's incredible. 

One last thing! There's a Less Active that sisters have been meeting with consistantly for YEARS and she hasn't come to church. I've only met her once since being here because Sister Folkman wanted to give her a break to see if she would notice the difference between when the sisters are there or not. Well, yesterday, that Less Active came to church for the first time in YEARS. Our branch president said that's the first time that he's ever seen her at church. That was a really cool experience. AND we found out that this Less Active is our investigator, Ed's aunt! They were both at church yesterday. We set up a time to go see this LA and Ed said he wants to come to that lesson with her. IT'S AMAZING HOW GOD HAS A PLAN AND PUTS PEOPLE IN EACH OTHERS LIVES AT A SPECIFIC TIME FOR A SPECIFIC REASON. GOD IS GOOD.  

Funniest story of the week: 

Sister Jones at District Meeting: "Sister Rodriguez! We got the cops called on us this week! And I was like 'I feel like a Manchester sister!'" hahahah isn't that cute? I LOVE SISTER JONES. It was really funny. We have a reputation here. ha, I really do love Vermont though. It is beautiful! The weather is about as bipolar as Utah's but we're surviving. 

Also the scriptures are truly amazing. I read Alma 26 last week and truly felt like that was my experience in Manchester. Ether 12:27 has made a huge difference in my life.  

Love you all! Have a great week, xoxo

1. I was terrible at taking pictures this week but here's a selfie with the Valentine Sister Campbell gave me. I think it's pretty funny the rest are just random VT pictures :) 

The country club of the mission

President Wirthlin (the mission president here before President Rogers) apparently called Manchester the "country club of the mission" haha it's a little true. The area is so rich, it's ridiculous!

Well, I don't have much time today because we're always rushing off somewhere! But alas, it was an alright week! Okay, so this week was one of the hardest weeks of the mission so far. I've really struggled with inadequacies and stress. Taking over the area has been something that's really hard for me. I still feel like I have no idea who half of these people are! The shoes that Sister Folkman left behind seem too big to fill. All of the sisters that have served here are INCREDIBLE and I just feel so stressed trying to keep up all the hard work they've put in. I just really want to keep the area thriving and do my best! It's been harder than I thought, but I look back on the days and just see how truly blessed we are. The Lord is taking care of us! 

This week I read "the Fourth Missionary" A talk that I've been meaning to read for forever. I finally printed a copy and read it. It has changed my whole view on missionary work and the type of missionary/person I want to be! It's all about how I can better myself and rely on the Lord and His Atonement. How because of Christ, I can change. The whole Plan of Salvation is designed in my favor. To become all that Christ wants me to become. 

A few of my favorite quotes:
"life is hard, not the gospel"

"The whole plan of salvation is designed in favor of your success"
"He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create an ordinary man. He will create a God." I have the strongest testimony that that is true! If we give everything we have to the Lord, He will make so much more out of us! 

I forgot my funny quotes book at home, but my favorite funny thing that happened is Sister Folkman bought a Justin Bieber book for $2 at the Bookstore. I'm still laughing. I LOVE HER AND MISS HER SO MUCH. 

Have a great week, thanks for all the love/support/letters/emails. God loves you and so do I!

Pictures: 

1. My adopted grandma for the selfie Sister Hoyt

2. JB

3. Last pic w Sister Folkman!

Sunny and 49*

Hello, hello!

Well it looks like all of your prayers paid off because the past few days the weather has been beautiful!!! (and by that I mean 49* so that's literally amazing)

Well on Thursday, President Rogers gave us a heart attack and called us. We never get calls from President so we were really worried something at home was wrong. We hurried and called him back and luckily it was just transfer calls! He was like 3 days early but that's alright. We found out Sister Folkman will be going to Carthage to open and train!! Holy cow I'm so happy for her, she's going to be amazing. And I will be staying in Manchester and get Sister Ferrin as my new companion! She was my STL my last two transfers in the Utica Zone so I already kinda know her! And she's from Taylorsville! 

This week we've been doing a lot of tracting and OYMing (shocking!!) It's awesome though. Because every single night as we go out in faith and really get over ourselves, the Lord shows us a miracle. On Saturday night I just was not feeling it. I was being selfish and really didn't want to be out OYMing. I've been sick the last few days and had a major headache and really just wanted to go home for the night. I said a little prayer and told Heavenly Father how I felt. I told him I didn't want to be out that night, I wasn't feeling well, and I wanted to go home. I asked Him to forgive me for feeling this way and to help me get over myself and get to work. I asked Him to show us the blessings that come from being obedient and working hard. Sister Folkman said we should go try and see if Wendy was working at Subway so we head over that way. We saw some people walk out of a pizza place and so we start to talk to them and asked them if they had a belief in Christ and they said yes but they were from out of town and they had their own religion and just weren't really talking to us. They walked away and we could hear them laughing about those "Mormon Girls". We walk into Subway and saw Wendy helping some customers so we waited and then we were able to share a little message with her! She told us how the first time we walked into Subway to talk to her, she told us that her life was falling apart and she wasn't lying. Then she told us that as soon as we came in to talk to her, things in her life started getting better. Little by little she can see the Lord blessing her and helping her put her life together. She told us some really personal things and I'm crying even thinking about it now. The things she shared really taught me that the Lord has a plan for everyone and told us to talk to her for a reason. Her and her family are now ready to receive the gospel! It's incredible. We left the shop and only had a little bit more time for OYMing and didn't meet anyone else so we were able to go home at 9. It was such a tender mercy to see the Lord truly blesses us when we are obedient. Getting over myself and fully submitting my will to Gods has by far been the most challenging thing on the mission. But everytime I do, I see His hand, His love, His mercy. etc. I am soooo thankful for my Heavenly Father and His Son. They truly live and absolutely love us. I am SO thankful to be apart of this work and bringing His children home. I'm super nervous about taking over the area, but if I've learned anything, it's that this is the Lords work. And nothing will stop it from progressing. Something my trainer said has been in my mind this week. "The Lord calls imperfect people to help with His perfect work" The Lord knows my inadequacies and yet still called me here. He can and will help me through anything! I am just so lucky to have this knowledge. I want to quickly give my testimony that the Lord is mindful of us. We are God's children and He loves us so much more than we can comprehend. He truly has a plan for each and every one of us and as we live righteously and are obedient. As we truly submit our will to His, He will make us into someone we never thought we could be. I've absolutely seen that. I love my Heavenly Father and know that as I put my trust in Him, I can do all things! 

I hope y'all have a good week! Don't forget to follow the promptings of the Spirit. Put the Lord first and everything else will work out. LOVE YOU GUYS.

Also omg literally the funniest tracting experience ever happened this week. We knocked and this little kid comes to the door and it took like 30 seconds for her to open the door. So when she does I was like "Hi! Is your mom home?" and she just nods. I was like "Can we talk to her?" and she just nods. So then her 5 year old sister comes over and was like "My mom's at work" so Sister Folkman was like "Is your dad home?" And she goes "He's pooping" HAHAHAH WE LITERALLY LAUGHED SO HARD AND WE WERE LIKE "okay we'll try back another time" and then just walked away laughing our heads off. Oh man I love little kids.

Also we met this girl named Lillian and she was soooo funny. We knocked on her door and she let us in and she was crackin me up, here's a few things she said:
"Not gonna lie I didn't know people did this.. I thought that was like a fake thing only in the movies and yet here you are, at my door talking about the Book of Mormon!" 

"One time I had a dream that I emailed the Virgin Mary asking her if she liked cows"

*in her prayer* "Back to you Lord! .... hey. My prayers are like a news report. Thank you Holy Spirit for the weather report over Jerusalem, now back to you Lord!" Oh my. We were dyin. 

Pics: 

1. eye LOVErmont (see what I did there?)

2. Happy Valentines day!

3. "Take the Book of Mormon. Just do it." I"M GONNA MISS FOLKMAN

YOSO

Y ou

O nly

S erve

O nce

Something I learned at Zone Training Meeting this week. Whenever I'm nervous to do something or when we have a potentially awkward situation, I just think "YOSO" and get the courage to do it!

A week of blessings! The Lord truly does bless us when we're patient and keep the faith, even through trails.

I used to think that trials or testing periods would come and go. If you just hold on and endure, then the miracles will come and the trials will be over. I have learned, however, that that is not the case! Even though we've been tested and kept the faith and continued to work hard, and the blessings and miracles have come, that doesn't mean that our trying days are over! The work has picked up and increased here sooo much but we still have so many struggles. It's the little miracles everyday that keep me going!

 

This last week was incredible because we picked up ELEVEN new investigators! A lot of them are families, which is so incredible. They have so much potential but of course, nothing is solid or progressing super well.

 

Remember last Sunday how our plans were changed because of the Super Bowl so we walked around for hours just OYMing and we met that cool girl Wendy? We went over to her house this week for our return appointment and she wasn't there, but her kids were! We were able to teach her 15 year old daughter and another guy in the house. We went over there again on Thursday and watched the Restoration video with them and picked up Sana (15 year old daughter), Rashawn (17 year old son), and William (one of her daughters boyfriends who's a christian). They wanted to come to church this week but it was snowing super bad so they weren't able to. Sana prayed in our lesson, and Wendy and Rashawn committed to baptism dates in April!! It was awesome!! I'm super excited for the potential there.

Also, my favorite experience this week was on Thursday. It was a snow day so everyone was out of school and work (literally the whole state shuts down and everything closes when it snows) so we decided it would be a perfect opportunity to try this potential Russ. He's a young dad with two kids that we haven't been able to see lately. We went over and he said we could come back later that day at 4. So we had a lesson outside in the snow with him (because there wasn't another woman home) and he just had ALL of these questions and problems with religions and everything and we had all of these awesome answers for him and he wouldn't even let us say a word! It was super frustrating because we would start to answer his questions and then he would just bring up something else that he had a problem with. But at the end of the lesson he committed to read the Book of Mormon and we were able to testify of how the BOM answers ALL of the questions he had. Towards the end of our lesson, his ex wife and her friend pulled up to the house. We started talking to them and Russ went inside. Well the friend, Kara, was telling us how she's Christian but hasn't been to church in years because she just wasn't sure which church to go to (SOUND LIKE ANOTHER EXPERIENCE SOMEONE HAD IN 1820?) we were able to tell her about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith's experience. While we were reciting the first vision... holy cow. I can't even tell you. Her reaction was PERFECT. Her jaw dropped and her eyes were WIDE OPEN. She was absolutely feeling the Spirit and she was like "Are you serious? How have I not heard about this? Could you imagine?! No one would believe you!" and all this stuff, it was incredible! It really reminded me of the scripture in John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me". She truly recognized that this message is true and it's from the Savior. She gave us her number and address and wants us to come and teach her more and she said she's going to bring her daughter to church next week!

Ahh, God is good. Miracles are so real! Even though we've still been struggling and the work is still slow, God is truly blessing us and helping us every step of the way. 

One more thing! It was super cool this week, we had ZTM and it was all about talking to everyone and OYMing. Afterwards, the elders and us went to McDonalds for a quick lunch before our drive home. We were walking up and saw some people outside. Sister Folkman and I turned to the left and started talking to this guy, I looked up and saw that the Elders were to the right of us talking to someone as well. It truly gave me strength to know that missionaries are doing this same amazing work all over the world. There aren't very many times when we get to see other missionaries working and sometimes it seems like it's just you and your companion against the world. But this experience showed me that there are always missionaries doing this work at the same time even when we don't see them. We don't stand alone in this work. 

I can't even tell you guys how funny Sister Folkman and I are. We laugh ALL the time. Like seriously I don't ever want her to leave. She is the BEST! She's constantly pushing me to be better, she truly leads by example, and is a dear friend to me. We have the hardest time going to bed on time because we could just stay up and talk and laugh for hours! It's the best. A few examples of how funny she is:

"I'm so glad I know the 'i before e except after c' rule, otherwise I'd be so lost in life." 

"They're like 'life is so easy for you, you're always happy!' and I'm like 'It's cause I'm not sinnin girls!'" 

"How do you spell quesadilla?"
me: "q-u-e-"
her: "WHAT"

me: "did i just blow your mind?"
her: "YEAH"

Pictures:
1. "the thug life didn't choose me, I cho- oh wait, no" 

2. I'M SO SO SO LUCKY AND BLESSED TO HAVE SIS CAMP IN MY LIFE WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT HER

3. Literally my favorite people in the whole world

4. We went to the most AMAZING Thai restaurant this week and got mango sticky rice  Thank you Folkmans for the treat!

5. This picture was taken outside a Jewish mans house. He talked to us for like 20 minutes and told us to question everything and how The Messiah hasn't come yet and all this stuff. WE said something about Jesus Christ and he was like a three year old and jumped up and down and was like "NO! NO! NO!". He was really cool though and sang us a beautiful prayer in Hebrew so that was sweet! 

Love y'all and hope you have a good week! If you could pray that it stops snowing soon that'd be sweet cause it's been snowing for like 3 days straight 

xoxo

Sister Rodriguez