Owego...Owego...

The heightened ratio of crunchy leaves on the ground to yellowish leaves on the trees is frightening. 

Fall's a comin'. 

So not much to report on for this week, really! Kind of a weird and uneventful week. When I first came to the mission, Sister R said to me, "Now there will be a day when ALL of your appointments cancel. And that will be the worst day ever."

That day was Wednesday. 

Even our service project canceled! Even our BACKUP plans canceled! We were so desperate we went to an elderly couple's house in the ward to do service! And then they talked to us while we moved a table around and then they gave us ice cream. Then talked some more. 

Actually a lot of this week has been focused on the ward. OH. GUESS WHAT I DID THURSDAY. STACKED HAY. Like I had a pitchfork and everything. We'd rake up a big ol' nasty stack of hay and toss it in the truck. 

And I realized how weak I am. 

So I stab this huge pile and I'm lumping on over to the truck, struggling to hold it, when the member we were doing it for shouts, "COME ON! USE THOSE MUSCLES YOUR IRISH ANCESTORS GAVE YOU!" 

My giggling caused a few hay pieces to fall. 

We also helped with construction on a house. I insulated an attic door! Best thing ever!  Oh and we raked up a ton of rocks and helped place grass seed. Apparently it only takes two weeks for grass to grow here. 

New York, man. 

Speaking of New York, one of the first things I noticed when I got here was the amount of random stuff people leave in their yard. So we're walking to the car one day, and someone left a really old sewing machine and a really old paper towel dispenser on the sidewalk with a sign that said "free." Now a lady in the ward loves sewing and repairs old sewing machines for a job. 

"Man wouldn't that be funny if we grabbed that for her?" I said. 

"Oh man that'd be hilarious!"

...........

Two minutes later I'm risking my dignity by running to the car with a huge sewing machine in tow. 

Okay, okay I'm a missionary. Missionary moments now. 

Tuesday we visited with our new convert. She's doing okay, and I know she'll come around, but it'll be a process. I'm still sad, but things will smooth out. I just wish I knew how to help her. 

We visited another family on Thursday as well! She got choked up and thanked us for all we do. She said she was planning on coming to church since her daughter got Sundays off of work!

Our other investigator also came to a ward game night and that was a lot of fun! She met some of the ward members and Sister R and I were the judges for a cupcake decorating contest. 

But we didn't get to eat all of the cupcakes :( We just judged them. 

Anyway, she said she'd be at church on Sunday.

(Also the Elders and us played the game PIT with all the little kids in the ward. That was fun. Except we got really loud so at one point Elder J goes, "Oh man! You know what game I love? THE QUIET GAME!" And it worked. Really, really well, actually.)

Anyway.

So guess out of all of those who came to church!

NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM. 

Well folks. I'm loving Owego, which is unfortunate BECAUSE TRANSFER CALLS ARE ON SATURDAY! The Elders and us ALL want to stay, so we're all wondering what's happening. It'll be an adventure, that's for sure. SO. For mail, be sure to send it to the PO box address in case I'm transferred :)

I love you all! Hopefully next week will be a bit more eventful. 

Milla

A Package!

Camilla and her companion had a great time putting together a package recently. Here's what she sent:

Yeah Sister ___ won't stop giving us hair things like these. Golden.

This was left in our apartment. Thanks, Elders.

These are Sister R's. President said to throw away or send home any face cards. Sister R's family hates face cards and won't keep them. So can we hang onto them for 17 months?

The previous Elders left this! President said to throw away or get rid of all board/card games. Happy house warming!

Library was getting rid of these gems! What!

 

This is a Table Cloth. It is from Sister R! You can put it on your table. It is also oblong and you can wipe it clean with a damp cloth.

Elder who previously lived here.

I find subject titles USELESS‏ (Okay, that was her subject line for the email--so it's now the title for this blog entry)

What a week it's been. Missionary work is HARD, man. 

We had exchanges this week and I stayed in Owego while our Sister Training Leader spent the day with me. It was a great day and we got to teach our less active member, along with a Baptist lady. So after I got Sister R back, we're in our apartment when we get a call from our recent convert. 

I say hello, to which she says, "I can't do this anymore. I'm done." 

I am so grateful for companionships because I felt so sick I couldn't speak. I couldn't stand. I just sat there like a gaping fish. 

We talked to her a little on the phone, and she wouldn't change her opinions, but she agreed to keep our appointment for that week. We took Brother C with us, and were able to talk to her. I want to say the appointment was effective. I'm TRYING to convince myself that. She at least agreed to continue to have us over so that we can discuss some concerns she has about some of the aspects of the gospel. But she didn't come to church on Sunday and it was ROUGH. SO many ward members were coming up to us asking what was wrong, and why wasn't she here? How on earth do I explain this to them?

Mostly I was disappointed in myself. From the beginning I was DETERMINED to make sure my investigators would stay active even after they're baptized. And now here I am, and my recent convert has already pushed the church away. It's like someone punched me in the gut. Sunday was SO hard! I felt (and still kind of feel like but am trying not to feel like) I let this ward down. This is an AMAZING ward and I didn't want to burden them. 

So that was the low point of the week. Missionary work, man. Sunday was also not that fantastic of a day, because we were expecting another person as well! There was a BIG stake activity on Saturday that she came to with us. It was awesome, actually - the night before we were really struggling to find anyone to come with us, when she texted us asking if we wanted a ride to it. Um, YES! She brought her daughter and had a great time with us, the Elders, the bishop's family, and some other investigators from various areas who came. It was awesome! She told everyone she'd see them at church!.....

Then she didn't come. 

Sunday wasn't completely horrible, though! Our other investigator and her granddaughter came. So, we had a baptism date set for this investigator, right? We were really struggling because we knew we had to push that date back. After this whole other fiasco, we're even more determined to make sure she will stay active after we go. 

So Thursday comes and we go to her house and sit down on her couch, all prepared to tell her that we're going to have to push back her date, when she whips out a picture of her redheaded granddaughter and hands it to me saying, "That's my granddaughter. She reminds me a lot of you, Sister S. I know even after you'll leave I'll ALWAYS think of you whenever I see her. And that prayer rock the two of you gave me? It was the best thing you ever could've given me! I always remember to say my prayers, and I just told my husband that when I die, I want to be buried with that rock.  I'm REALLY going to miss you girls when you leave." 

I was about ready to leap out the window. This woman who has touched my heart from the first day we met her has now shown me that we actually DO leave impressions in people's lives. Oh man. I was dying. How could I tell her we had to move her baptismal date?

Again, I'm grateful for companionships, because Sister R explained that she needs to attend church both before and after baptism to make sure she'll be active even after we leave. Her response, "Okay. I was actually thinking that I'm not sure I'm ready quite yet." 

So, we moved the baptism date to September 28th. I'm excited, but at the same time kind of nervous. After this last baptism, I want to be sure she'll stay active. Hopefully our meetings will continue to go well. But it just really showed me how much of an impression we do leave in people's lives. I seriously had NO idea. 

She came to church Sunday, and we hope she'll keep coming. After church, Sister R and I felt kind of down. We went to a less active member's house and visited with her for about forty-five minutes. We were still feeling blah and had an hour until our dinner appointment that was in the area. So we were like, "Well guess we can go tracting."

We found this random country road on the top of a hill with a BEAUTIFUL view. We knock on the first door and introduce ourselves and give a little spiel. The man politely listened then said, "You know, I'm actually a minister at my own church--." 

I'm pretty sure he thought I was insane cause I burst out laughing right there and couldn't stop. I can't even tell you why it was so funny, but it was! He said he'd pray for us and he appreciated what we were doing. 

Next house. HUGE dog was barking at us, then a man answers. I say, "We're missionaries---." 

"Uh, yeah I'm actually a retired minister. My father was a minister, my grandfather was a minister, so we're pretty set in our ways." "Oh...well....That's great!" And we went on our merry ways. 

Next house. I knew this one wasn't gonna be too good, because there was a big ol' cross in the window. But we tried it anyway. An older lady answered and we talked to her about the flowers, about fall, then we introduce ourselves and she says, "Oh my husband is actually a pastor and I'm pretty set in my religion. I do appreciate the work you girls do though! I know you'll find someone. I'll keep you in my prayers that you'll be able to find someone." 

Oh well.....gee thanks! It was awesome. 

Next house. Guy answers. He too wasn't interested (went to the church down the street) but he said, "Appreciate your guys's work, though. You'll find someone. Good luck."

Best. Tracting. Ever. No joke, though. 

So then we go to our dinner appointment. We're currently teaching one of their friends, and the wife of the dinner appointment came with us to teach their friends after dinner. It went AWESOME! The lady with us is a returned missionary AND she's their friend, so we were able to have a great discussion with them! The spirit was so strong as we taught about the restoration and Joseph Smith. At the end, as we were leaving, the husband said, "I appreciate you girls. You're a blessing to me, and I REALLY mean that, you know that."

That was a great ending to our Sunday. We hope they continue to want to learn and progress. I love my mission so much, but sometimes I wish I were doing better than I am. But hey, I'm trying. 

Fun stories - our downstairs neighbor gave me a plant. I named it Aaragog after the spider on Harry Potter. We'll see how long it lives. 

We got yarn and decided to roll it up in a ball. I thought it'd be a great idea to unroll it all before we rolled it in a ball! It ended up getting incredably tangled and we had to spread it ALL throughout the apartment to untangle it. Our closets, kitchen, bathroom...seriously. Good story though. 

Well, this week should be a good one. I love and miss you all so much! Your letters/emails are always really helpful to me. I hope you realize that!

Hurrah for Israel. 

Camilla. 

Unable to come up with clever title

THIS WEEK WAS SO DISCOURAGING! I'll be straight up with ya there. I'm pretty sure I'm the worst missionary ever! Can't talk with people to save my life. NEVER know what to say! Nope. Almost wish I was learning Russian so then I had an excuse for not being able to say anything.
 

Ha that's a good joke. I'm so glad I'm not learning Russian.

We met with our investigator and she swore she'd be at church this Sunday AND THEN SHE WASN'T. So we're all like, "Awesome." we'll probably have to push back her baptismal date, which I feel SOOOO bad for, because she wanted to get baptized during this transfer so that we could both be here for it, but if we baptized her now she just wouldn't be active! And let me tell you. The more less actives I meet with, the more I want to make SURE our investigators stay active! So then our new convert didn't come. We're not really sure why. Usually she's just sick when she doesn't come but I'm still paranoid. 

BUT. We did have a few cool experiences! So I've mentioned a little bit about this family before, but we had kind of a cool experience with them this week. The ward referred us to this family who is less active, but the mom has an AMAZING testimony, and they want her back! Mostly, she can't go because she's usually watching her granddaughter while her daughter is at work and she isn't healthy enough to chase the daughter down at church when she runs away. SO. In the beginning, we went over to visit with the grandma, and we did! But she introduced us to her daughter, who has the granddaughter that our person watches. Make sense? After our initial visit, The daughter set up a time with us to meet with her husband, who isn't a member. We've met with him a couple times, but there were a few times when we'd go over, and visit with the daughter instead. 

Anyway.

Thursday came, and we went to visit our person. Well we show up, and she's watching a movie with her other daughter and was like, "Oh, go visit with my daughter, why don't you? Or her husband!" 

Okay. So we're like, "We'll see how the husband is!" (He wants to work towards being baptized.) We go to the daughter and she's like, "He's actually asleep. But hey, do you want some grilled cheese sandwiches?" 

Can't refuse a good sandwich. 

We eat, but the house was SO. LOUD. So she goes, "Um, let's go talk outside. He will be down soon."

So we sit outside and are talking to her, and then she's like, "So...I was on youtube yesterday..." and it turns out she got ahold of some pretty bad anti-mormon stuff and she was concerned about it. We were able to address some of her concerns, when her husband showed up. He sat down, but we weren't really finished talked to the wife, so we're like, "Well...what other concerns do you have?" we ended up spending a lot of time talking to her and addressing some concerns she had about her faith!

It turned out to be an AMAZING lesson!

She came to church Sunday with her daughter - the grandma had to go out of town - but she was so social and saw a lot of her friends. I hope she'll be able to get Sundays off in the future and that she'll keep coming!

We had a women's conference in Utica this week! We talked a lot about obedience (the first law of heaven) and we saw a leaf bug! It was a lot of fun to see all the girls I went in the MTC with, oh and I saw a Sister I knew from high school! So that was a fun activity. Spirit was awesome. We also learned how to lead music and the pencil I was using flung out of my hands. Embarrassing. 

Last story - Tuesday at district meeting, it was car inspections. We had four Elders all hovering around the hood of the car pretending like they knew what they were doing. In reality, they were all pit puttering around the hood tilting their head this way and that looking for the power steering. Well Sister R and I joined them and stared at the hood as well. Sister R pretended like she too knew what she was looking at, and I made stupid comments to make the boys feel better abound themselves like, "That's the thing that shoots out the window cleaner thing. I filled that once!" Finally, after about ten minutes of staring at random things, we finally got out the owner's manual and discovered that....our car doesn't actually have power steering. I think that's what we were looking for. Whatever it was our car didn't have it. And I didn't fall for the, "Will you check the blinker fluid?" trick. Nope! So I do know stuff about cars. 

I love you all so much! Also fall is starting to come to NY. I saw a crunchy leaf on the ground. Say whaaaaat? 

Hurrah for Israel! 

Love, 

Sister Sssssssssssssssssssss

As the Mission Turns (8-5-13)

Well this week was fuuuuull of Drama. Which is kind of expected, cause we had a baptism, so of course Satan's working hard on all of us.

Tuesday morning - we met with a recent convert's daughter.
Scariest thing of my life.
Basically she comes in and starts attacking us about women not being able to hold the priesthood, how she thinks her mom joined a cult, how she doesn't want to go to hell, and how she thinks its stupid that we can't drink coffee.
And the list went on but those were the highlights.
I seriously forgot how to speak in that lesson. It's like...ah....em....er....companion....
SO BAD.
And SO discouraging! I was kind of down the rest of the day, like, "Man I just got confident in my teaching and now it's being torn down again!"
Dumb.

Wednesday -
We met with the lady with the animals again. Somewhat frustrating....but these things kind of always happen to us during lessons with her. She'll start saying why she doesn't want to come back to church....
and then she'll completely change the subject back to her donkeys.
I'll hand it to her, she has a real gift for doing that. So we STILL don't know exactly why she hasn't come back to church, but hey. We're still visiting with her.

Then the real drama unfolded.
We got back from doing a service project, and we had a missed call from our investigator. We call her back, and she said that she wanted to cancel her baptism.
We asked why and she said she just had a nagging feeling.
"Well can we come talk about it?" I asked.
"No I'd rather just let you guys go now." she said.
Silence.
You have GOTTABEKIDDINGME is what was running through my head. And I almost started to cry. I'M SERIOUSLY NOT USUALLY A CRIER ABOUT THESE THINGS.
So then Sister R says, "Well we're going to talk about this face-to-face."
"...well....okay..."
So we zip on over to her apartment. It was actually the weirdest thing. Something was different about her. I could just SENSE it. I can't really describe it....but I can always tell when investigators feel the spirit cause I can see it in their eyes, and she did NOT have that in her eyes. It's the only way I could describe it.
We talked to her for a little bit, and addressed her concerns. She was still really, really struggling when we basically told her, "Alright. We're praying right here, and you're going to ask Heavenly Father if this is the true gospel."
We knelt down and she said the most beautiful prayer. The whole time during this I'M praying that she'll recognize an answer. Her prayer ends, and we just sat there for a second, then she says, "Yeah...it's true. I need to get baptized."
Relief. Huge, huge sigh of relief. And I could see that light return back to her eyes. The difference was really noticeable, but it still takes me by surprise every time.

Thursday-
We were still a little shaken from the whole investigator situation. Like we had PTSD or something (speaking of which - we did meet with the owner of the dog again. He offered us coffee. Tea. A beer. We politely declined.)
Later we met with a less-active family, and we were teaching one of the sons-in-law (whose wife is less active) and he said that he wanted to start working towards baptism! And then Sister R swallowed a bug and I had to try to take over and teach while she kept coughing and coughing.
Anyway.
Mostly we need to focus on reactivating his wife first.

Later we met with our other investigator. Again, we were still kind of shaken and down, and she said that she wanted to set a date for August 31st, but that she had a few things she wanted to talk to us about before then. Unfortunatly, we weren't really as chipper as we should've been. Mostly we're just worried. But she wants to have a long talk with us about baptism on Tuesday, so hopefully we'l be able to talk about it then.

Friday -
Weird how much the tables turned. We went to go meet with the recent convert's daughter again, but she wasn't there, so we met with her mom. We had an AMAZING lesson about Adam and Eve and the second coming and it was AWESOME. Then we had another lesson with our investigator. It was AMAZING to see the change in her. She was all smiles, and still a little nervous, but excited as well. We had a member who was a convert as well, so she gave some helpful insights, and we felt SO much better afterwards about the baptism.
That night, we had ward correlation at a family's house with the elders, and when we left...THERE WERE FIREFLIES!!! So the Elders, Sister R and I start chasing them like crazy, and I CAUGHT ONE!....but got a little excited in the process and accidentally killed it.
RIP Frank the Firefly.
So I was feeling in MUCH higher spirits that night with all our good visits.

Saturday -

BAPTISM! Such an amazing experience. Elder F baptized her and Sister R and I sat with all the little kids in the front to watch. Her toe popped up the first time, so they had to do it again. Her reaction was, "Wow I get a two-for-one deal!" Our other investigator came as well to watch, but had to leave early so we'll have to talk about it with her after, but it was still exciting! Our investigator then read her favorite verse from Ruth and bore her testimony. So amazing!
Also, she's obsessed with pineapple.

We were so grateful to have found our investigator. It seriously is incredible how much the Lord prepared her to be baptized. Such an amazing experience!
That night, we did service and helped a member remodel their house. The daughter served in Taiwan and told us all the crazy stories of the stuff that happened to her there.

I love missionary work! 

Sunday (sorry...I'm quickly wrapping this up cause I'm outta time) -
The lady who was baptized on Saturday was confirmed! And we had an AMAZING testimony meeting. All the missionaries bore their testimony and gave each other fist bumps after the meeting. She was so happy and smiling the whole day!
Later that day, we went tracting. A nice man tried to save us and tell us that we need to accept Christ in our lives.
I kind of already thought I had accepted Christ in my life but......We're just glad he's worried about our salvation.

Hopefully this week will be a bit less drama filled. I have LOVED my mission so much! Can't decide if these two months have gone by fast or slow....crazy.

I love you all so much! And am praying for y'all.

Love,

Sista Stimpson 

Happy Two Monthaversary (7-29-13)

One sign that you're on a mission: You analyze Emperor's New Groove and decide what aspect of the gospel each character needs.
Kronk: He seems pretty unloved. Knowing he's a child of God could help.
Kuzko: The atonment. And where are his parents? The Plan of Salvation could help.
Yzma: The atonment. The 10 commandments......repentance.....Law of the Land....where to begin, really?
Patcha: GOLDEN. INVESTIGATOR. Eternal families! We need to find him and convert him!

Yes, that was a conversation my companion and I had this week.
Anyway.

A few interesting experiences this week! So on Monday, we went to a referral's house. The woman was busy and told us to come back, so we turn around, and there's this guy with his dog staring at us. We introduce ourselves to him and say hello, and goes, "Uh....so yeah um....my dog wanted to say hi to you guys."
Okay.
So we said hi to the dog. We start to leave, and the guy keeps walking by us and we're talking to him. He tells us that he just got back from serving in the war and had pretty bad PTSD. We're talking to him some more and ask him if he's ever heard of the Mormon religion, to which he says, "No...but to be honest I'm kind of religion shopping right now."
SWEEET.
Then things got weird. We started to tell him a little bit about the church, and we're pretty sure something might've stressed him out that kind of triggered his PTSD, because all of the sudden he's hugging us and saying we're so great and fun. And he's crying. Well okay, he hugged Sister R like three times and me once, because after the first time I think he could tell I was super uncomfortable (I kept thinking: AH. WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO HUG PEOPLE. WHAT DO I DO. PANIC! but I hugged him anyway) because he was like, "Oh. I'm sorry! Here!" *puts hand up for high five.*
Great.
We walk with him back to his house where his girlfriend told us we could come back another time. So he gave me one more high five and Sister R another HUGE hug and then we left. We kind of turned to each other and said, "What just happened?"
A couple days later we went back and visited with him and actually had a nice conversation! No hugging. Just sitting on the porch talking about the gospel. Like normal missionaries do. He told us we could come back again another time to teach him some more, so hopefully we'll be able to get a lesson in - this past time it was hard to teach him anything cause he got on a lot of tangents about his dog. But who can blame him. The dog was pretty cute.

Later in the week we went and visited one of our other investigators again! We were teaching her about prophets when all of the sudden she asks, "So, when could I do that um interview thing for the baptism?"
..................... Did she just ask that?
"Because I really want to get baptized before you girls leave."
And then she started to tear up! And I'm sitting there thinking, "Wait......these things actually happen?? I thought this happened to OTHER missionaries!" She then went on to tell us that she was so grateful to have seen the Elders a year ago, when she first started to meet with missionaries. She said she was glad that all these sets have been patient with her and have taught her all these things and then she says, "But since you girls came I really feel like I'm starting to understand it! And I'm so glad that you girls keep teaching me!"
IT WAS SO GREAT! Looks like we'll be picking a baptismal date for her (hopefully) on Thursday. Now if only she'll keep coming to church...

Thursday we went and visited an eternal investigator. This woman has been meeting with missionaries for ten blasted years. We usually talk to her for about a half hour around every other week or so. She's AWESOME and Jewish, and she keeps wanting to meet with missionaries because she loves learning about some of the aspects of the gospel.
And she likes to talk.
Like every other person in New York.
But anyway, she was asking us how the success has been in the area and we were like, "It's going pretty good! We have a fair amount of people to teach and we have a baptism on Saturday."
And then she goes, "REALLY?"
"Uh...yeah..."
"You're being serious?"
"Um....yeah...."
"No, you don't understand! That seems really rare for this area! I've talked to so many Elders who get frustrated because they can't find anyone to teach here! You girls are doing SOMETHING right! That's amazing!"
We then invited her to the baptism and she goes, "Yeah I'd love to go! I've never been to a Mormon baptism before! This'll be cool!"
She's awesome.

ow I just hit my elbow on the desk and it hurt.

OKAY. SO. Speaking of baptisms, our investigator had her baptismal interview on Friday! It went really well and she was SOOO excited! We talked with her after and taught her another mini lesson and got the program ready. She kept jumping up and down in her seat and talking about how ready she was. All of us were SO excited for her!
And then came Sunday.
And she wasn't there.
PANIC.
Right after sacrament, we run out and gave her a call. Turns out she was sick.
Panic level: medium.
BUT we're still going to be keeping in closer contact with her this week. Cause Satan's stupid and will be getting to all of us this week.
Dumb.

Sunday we had dinner with a non member family. One of the members in the ward set it up so we could have dinner and get to know them. First of all, BEST. COOKS. EVER. They made the most DELICIOUS Thai food. Like seriously. I don't think I've had homemade food that good since I've gotten here. They were a nice young couple with an adorable two year old who ran around with goggles and and refused to take them off. It was awesome to talk to them! They weren't interested in the church, but we still got to tell them a lot about the gospel, missionary work, and some of the service activities the church provides.
Seriously though if every member set up opportunities like this there would be a lot of happy missionaries. 

The ward in Owego is AWESOME! They are SO supportive and help out so much. It's amazing to see how they're openness towards us and sharing the gospel in general has grown since we've gotten here. I love serving here.

Also random tidbit: I watched a tomato plant commit suicide yesterday. It jumped off its second story window and all the little tomatoes broke off the stem and rolled into the street.

Rest in peace, my little tomato plant.
Rest in peace.

I love you all!

Sista' Stimpson