Weird to think I've been here like...a week? Almost two weeks? I can't decide if it's gone by fast or slow!

 

So let me tell you - I live in this weird paradox where discouraging things happen yet I'm consistently happy. It's pretty great! That being said, let's start with the beginning of the week:

My companion and I decided to go to a bunch of former investigators and see if they were interested in taking the lessons again. Here's how it went: 

1 - "Not home"

2 - Abandoned house.

3 - Moved

4 - Moved

5 - Not home or abandoned house. Not really sure.

6 - Us: "Hello! We're looking for Dave?" 

"He died about a month ago."

"Oh."

7 - The address led us to a graveyard in between a Presbyterian church office and a Catholic chapel. Explain that one.

8 - Door slam/ received the meanest glare you have EVER seen.

9 - Not interested

10 - Not interested

11 - *please say in heavy New York accent* "Who're you?" 

"We're from the Church of--" 

"Oh. MOM IT'S THE MORMONS! Yeah we're not interested."

12 - "We're Catholic, but you girls are doing such a good thing! Good luck!" I wanted to hug that woman.

13 - We couldn't find the blasted house! It was to a guy named Bob. We seriously walked/drove along shouting, "BOB WHERE ARE YOU?!"

So all in all, pretty unsuccessful. We were super discouraged. We were scraping to find work to do!

 

So one day we were driving to a neighboring town when we drove past an apartment complex. Sister R pointed to them and said we should try there.

"Fiiiiine." I said. I was pretty sick of unsuccessfully tracting/trying to find formers. So we park and start knocking on doors, and everyone is either "not home", or the people without peepholes in the door weren't interested. So we finish building 1, and I eye the car, longing to go to it, but knew we should probably hit building 2. So we walk over there. About the fourth door in, a woman answers. I say my spiel, then the woman's eyes get really big and she says, "You guys from the church in Owego?" 

"Yes, we are!"

"Oh I didn't know they had girls. I have a Book of Mormon. I've read it, I started it again."

................ (those were my thoughts)

By now my mind is rushing. And that deer-in-the-headlights look kind of takes over me. She let's us in, and as we sit down she says, "I took lessons about a year ago. I had a baptismal date and I dropped it but...I don't know why...I mean...I didn't mean to. I guess I just felt like I wasn't ready."

Then she said, "It's funny. I prayed yesterday that someone would come, and then you guys show up."

It was SO great! She came to church Sunday. We're teaching her again tomorrow.  I REALLY hope things continue to go well with her! You can really see how excited she gets over the gospel and when she feels the spirit. We were so blessed to have found her :)

Then later, we went to go visit a less active family. We were visiting with the mom, when the daughter (she's like...twenty) walks in, points at us and says, "Hey. You should teach my husband. Thursday work for you guys?"

"Uh...yeah!"

It was awesome.

Overall things are good. We're still struggling to find people to teach, but the Lord seems to be putting people in our path for us! 

 

 

Weather here is getting really sticky and really hot. Quite the adventure, really. Also, people keep commenting on how we don't eat as much as the last set of elders.

ONE OF THE LAST ELDERS HERE WAS SAMOAN.  DO I LOOK SAMOAN  TO YOU?

 

Well. I love you all, goodbye.

I really do love you all soo much :) and I LOVE getting your emails/letters/updates! I am so grateful for them!

-Sis Stimpson

MTC Pictures

[These pictures just came today, so they're out of order time-wise.]

HELLO MY PEOPLE!

How's it goin? I love getting emails/letters from y'all! It makes me happy :) Oh, and letter wise: just send them to the PO mission office box thing. That's the fastest way to do it. Apparently it's faster to send packages there as well. Hmmm. And...don't panic when I tell you this...but pepper spray has been advised for the sisters here.

Okay, so update on life. Let's start from when I landed in New York.

So I was kind of in a daze that whole night. Everyone in my district was like, "OH MY GOSH WE'RE HERE THIS IS SO EXCITING!" and I was like, "Yeah....I'm just gonna do what you tell me to do cause I kind of feel like I'm just floating through this so....yeah." I have a very weird way of processing things.

When we all got to the airport, President and Sister Wirthlin were there to greet us! As we were putting our luggage in the trailer, President grabbed five girls in my district that I was talking to and said, "Okay, you five are going to ride with my wife. The rest of your will come in the van."
Yay!

It was also pouring rain, and my hair was just a big ball of frizz.

So we go to dinner at a delicious pizza place, and then we start towards Utica, where Sister Wirthlin says, "Okay. So we don't have enough room for all the sisters at the mission home. But I'm going to have you five stay in the mission home and the rest will stay with members."

My thoughts, "Yesssss!"

What I actually said: "Oh, thank you!"

Some of the girls who had to stay with members tried to argue and see if they could swap. Sister Wirthlin wouldn't have it. I was secretly very gleeful.

So after getting things organized at the stake center, our district of girls climbs in the car and Sister Wirthlin asks, "So, who here is above 5 foot 7?"

Pause. "...Meeeeee." I said.

"Great. You get the general authority room."

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS BUT AWESOME!"
"It's your own room with the biggest bed. The rest will share."
"YES!" Guys. I had my own room. On a kind sized bed. To myself. It was the single most glorious thing I have ever slept on.

The next day we got assigned our area/companion. I also saw Elder Taylor that day! We were friends in high school.

My companion is awesome!! She's only been out 3 months so we're both kind of learning how things are, but she's great and we get along really well. She's from Arizona. 

So when I heard I was being assigned to Owego, I was picturing the scenery from Napoleon Dynamite and thinking, "Great. This is gonna be awful. There's just gonna be cows and a bunch of Napolean's and Pedros."
Nope.
Owego is BEAUTIFUL! The whole thing is ma-and-pop shops. I didn't know towns like this still existed! The nearest WalMart is a 30 minute drive away, and we can't really go to it cause it'll use all our miles. Our back yard is the river Joseph Smith got baptized in! We also live above an adorable antique shop. I love it so much. We're also the first sister missionaries here in 10 years! They've completely white washed the area, so we have a new set of elders as well. The ward is very excited. I feel like a celebrity.

So...let me tell you about how the apartment was when we got there. The Elders lived here before us. LAYERS of dust! Like, thick, thick black layers. Disgusting. Rotting food was on the counter AND in the fridge, including a stick of butter with dead bugs stuck to it. No joke. Who knows how long it had been there. Trash was everywhere. The floors were nasty. It was just...it was bad. There was also rotting fruit sitting in a bike helmet. WHO DOES THAT?!

But they cleaned the bathroom! Yay! Oh, and through all this mess, there was one thing in order: a stack of cans. They had just this neat stack of perfectly arranged soda cans sitting in one of the cupboards.

Also, if I die here, there are gonna be two reasons why:
1. The cats. Everyone has a cat. We're teaching a less active/new convert who has a VERY friendly cat. By the end of the visit I almost couldn't talk my sinuses were so congested! Thank you for inhalers, though!
2. The floorboards of our apartment. I just KNOW we're gonna step inside one day and go WHAM through the floor and into the antique shop. It's pretty sketchy. But now that we've gotten rid of most the rotting food (we still find some under the sink and above cupboards still. Ugh.) and cleaned up the place, it looks really nice :)

Ah! so much to say! So ever since we got here, everyone was talking about the Strawberry Festival that was going on. It was Saturday, and basically it's the only big thing that goes on around here. They set up a bunch of tents and sell a bunch of strawberry-related stuff and have live music. My companion and I decided to go street contacting here. It was both our first time doing anything like that and it was HARD! Most everyone here is either A) Already religious and not interested B) Don't really care for religion at all or C) Already religious and REALLY not interested! We were talking to this couple and I SWEAR they were gonna start hitting me with a bible! It was great :) And believe it or not but we've become friends with the Jehovah's Witness missionaries in the area. They were street contacting as well, and I was actually trying to talk to them about the gospel but they stopped me and said, "We're actually Jehovah's Witnesses, so we can really relate to you guys." And we just talked to them for like 10 - 15 minutes! They're great! We've seen/talked to them a couple times since. So hey, we've made a friend.

People here are different. Many people are missing most of their teeth. I placed my first Book of Mormon and I'm pretty sure the lady was missing a few wires but hey...I placed it! I love the people here though! Overall they're really nice, even if they're shutting you down :) A lot of people have also told me I'm pretty. Mostly it's old and/or drunk people, but hey it's a nice self esteem booster. I thank the fact that I have all my teeth. "Excellent teeth."

Anyway, we're trying to get started working but it's been hard. The past two sets of Elders haven't kept any teaching records, so it was hard to know where to start. But we're starting to meet more with Less Active members, so hopefully we'll have some success there.

I still feel like an AWFUL teacher! People will ask me a question and I'll just give them this deer-in-the-headlights look! Oh man it's been hard. I know, I know, the spirit will help me, but still. Mostly I'm just like, "Uh...."
Yeah hopefully we'll get some improvement with that but man. It's been so frustrating!
Also, I discovered that I have a secret superpower.
My hair can tell me when it's going to rain. No joke, about 20 minutes before it starts to rain, my hair goes POOF and gets REALLY frizzy. It's great. Okay it's not really great my hair is unmanageable here.
Anyway, I love you all :) continue to keep me updated on things, I LOVE hearing news with your life!

Hey family/everyone who isn't related to me but reading this!
The first week has been so weird. Like seriously, it's been good, but weird. I've been consistently peaceful and cheerful, but man has it been hard! Time is warped here. Days feel like weeks, weeks feel like days, this week has gone by so quickly but it feels like it's been a month already. Yeah...it doesn't make much sense but anyone who has been in the MTC can probably testify that that's true.
...did I seriously just write 'testify that that's true'? Wow.
There are 8 sisters in my district, all going to Utica! All the Elders in my district are going to Uganda. In our zone, all the sisters are going to Utica and the Elders going to Utica OR Uganda. It's awesome! My companion is from a really small town in Utah. She had never heard of Einstein Bagels until today. She's VERY sweet and kind and SO loving and things have gotten better since the first few days and I am grateful that we're companions.
Oh man. Now for the Elders. The number one question ALL of us ask ourselves (except the Elders) are: "Where are the Elders?" They're always late or missing or don't show up! It's hilarious! The first day they didn't show up to anything because they got the schedule and room location mixed up. There are four elders in our district. Two of them are VERY quiet and serious. And I think I freak them out. The other two are the complete opposite of them.
Everyone in my zone tells me I look/ sound like Emma Stone. EVERYONE. I told them they could start calling me Sister Stone...but... they didn't. Sorry my thoughts are so random! I don't have much time and am trying to tell ya'll everything quickly.
My old roommate lives 5 doors down from me, so we see each other all the time! It's so much fun!
Guess I'll end on a spiritualish note.
Sometimes if you pray to know and overcome your weaknesses, Heavenly Father WILL show them to you.... Sometimes all at once. We had to teach a fake investigator yesterday, and man was it a MESS! I seriously walked out and stood in the corner and said, "I....am going to make....everyone hate the church. And I'm going to be the worst missionary. Ever." I was SO discouraged, especially ‘cause everyone else in my zone was like, 'WE'RE GONNA BAPTIZE THEM AND WE'RE SO READY TO BE MISSIONARIES." Thankfully, my AMAZING teacher, Sister Stanford came and talked to me and told me that the same thing happened to her the first time she taught! After she said that to me I felt so much better!  Our other investigator lesson went fairly well, thankfully.  But man was that rough!  I live in this weird paradox where I'm stressed and frustrated yet still happy.
Just know that I really love and miss you all so much. I have loved my experiences at the MTC and have grown to know the importance of the Book of Mormon and Bible!
I also wanted to add on how amazed I feel that I'm supposed to be here. You know? Like this is where I'm supposed to be, even though it's hard.