4 monthaversary!

Guys. I just had the single most disturbing thing of my life happen.

So, first off, our dryer's fixed. Secondly, we share the dryer with our landlord. Thirdly, our dryer/washer is in the hallway of our building. So today I put my clothes in the dryer and went about to do my business. Later, I hear the buzzer go off, signaling that my clothes were now done drying. I start walking to the door when I heard someone outside. So I'm like, "Well that's curious." and I go up to the peephole and look outside.....

To see my landlord in a speedo, looking in the dyer. 

So at this point I'm pretty disturbed. A MAN IN A SPEEDO WAS CLOSE TO MY CLOTHES!

I started pacing around the kitchen, horrified at what I just saw, the image of that man's speedo-covered-rear-end burned into my retinas, my mind, my soul. 

Then when I heard him load his clothes in the washer, I looked in the peephole again. 

He was gone this time, so I ran out, and grabbed all my clothes. They were still damp, but I didn't care. I just held them and cradled them and told them sorry that the man in the speedo looked at you. 

Then I hung them up to dry and we came here to do emailing and I'm now telling you all about this. 

Thank goodness I looked in the peephole. 

Kind of a dullish week again. Our lessons with our investigator and our new convert went well!.....then of course neither one of them came to church. 

Grump grump grump.

I've also had a hard time focusing on the work this week. It doesn't help when your Landlord is watching Star Wars and you can totally hear it. We were eating lunch, when Sister R and I were pretty dang sure we heard the sound of light sabers above us. To attempt to focus on the work, I started singing a hymn.

"There is beauty all around."

"You killed my father!"

"When there's love at home."
"No, Luke. I AM your father."

"There is joy in every sound."

"NO....NOOOOOOO."

"When there's love, at home."

My laws.

Wonder if he was watching it in a speedo. 

We also had another lesson at a family's house. The lesson started with us going in with their home teacher and sitting down. The wife began talking to Sister R and I about Plato's closet at the same time the husband started to talk about soccer with his home teacher. Somehow....by some blasted MIRACLE, in between talking about the Pope, Les Mis, dieting, Glee, politics (which Sister R and I had to say absolutely nothing about because as missionaries we can't talk about politics so we sat there awkwardly), famous LDS people (oddly enough the Osmonds weren't mentioned), a slew of almost every other religion EXCEPT Mormonism, and the husband, who isn't a member, arguing against everything we were saying, SOMEHOW we managed to talk about Amalikiah. Oh my laws. It was complete madness.

But that's pretty much how every visit with them goes. So that was fun.

OH. OH. OH. So Wednesday was like, national "Bash a Missionary Day" and we had a lot of mean people talk to us. And by the end of the day, I was like, "OKAY. ONE MORE MEAN PERSON IS GOING TO GET BASHED ACROSS THEIR HEAD." 

Seriously, people. 

I was seriously grumpy after Wednesday, but then Thursday came! We went to a nursing home to visit a woman, when we turned the corner and then BOOM there was a less active member we have had the HARDEST time contacting lately! 

Here's the story with her. The first two times we stopped by, she let us in and we had a good visit with her. Then after that, she disappeared off the face of the planet. We would try her all times of the day but she was NEVER home. So we were sad and came to the conclusion that we probably hallucinated her and that she doesn't actually exist and that the house we THOUGHT she lives in is actually abandoned.

Then two weeks ago, we were driving by her house and were like, "Meh why not." We stopped by, and she was there! We were like, "Hey! How are you!" "Not good, actually." Then she told us about how in the same day, both her uncle and dog died. We talked to her for a little bit and said a prayer with her and left. It was awesome!

Then she went back to that whole disappearing off the face of the earth thing. BUT ANYWAY. 

We turned the corner of the nursing home and BOOM there she is! She's one of the workers there! And she was like, "Hey!!!" we talked to her for a little bit and checked up to see how she was doing, then she was like, "Feel free to drop by anytime you're free!" 

So I was like aaaaaw she likes us! 

As we were leaving the nursing home, we were talking to this old guy, and as we said goodbye to him, she came up to him and said, "you just talked to two of the best ladies on this planet!" 

It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. 

Anyway, nothing else new to report. Hopefully something good happens this week. I'm really, really hoping :/ 

Love you all!

Sista Stimpson. 

What up

What's up!

Here's my personal shout out to Mama Cox! 

Nothing of vast significance happened this week. Well kind of. We had a baptismal date for our investigator set for the 28th. REAAAAAALLLY long story short: a woman in the ward told us that there may be a problem. So we go over and ask our investigator and she proceeded to cry and say how she's feeling VERY excluded by the ward. It's SOOOO frustrating! We've tried so hard to fellowship her but things just aren't working out because of some family issues, so it's been really, really hard to find people who are willing to come with us to lessons. We had to push back her date to the 12th and I'm still nervous for that date. If we don't find someone who will be her friend I really don't know how she'll stay active. It's so frustrating! She is trying SO hard to get to know people and if just isn't working out. I seriously am clueless as to what to do :/ 

Our new convert was supposed to come to church on Sunday, but she got sick. That was discouraging.

Hmmm what else, what else. We did quite a bit of tracting this week (including Holmes road. I love Sherlock Holmes!) and I'm pretty sure EVERYONE in all of New York has at LEAST 2 dogs and cats. One day I go up to this glass door and knock on it and BOOM this dog leaps up and starts howling at us. So I'm staring at it and am like, "Stay calm....just.....stay....calm....."

It won't leave, and no one is coming to the door. I knock again and BOOM the dog leaps back and jumps on the door once again, to which I go, "aaaaaaaah" and run away. 

I'm kind of a pansy. 

Then one house had this HUUUUUUGE black lab standing in the driveway, just STARING at us, growling. We looked at it, said nope, and scurried quickly away. 

Again. I'm kind of a pansy. 

But in my defense I didn't have my big scriptures on me, which I like to think I can use as a weapon against dogs like that. 

Then one door had a long, glass window next to it. We could see the top of a couch through that window and laying on top of that couch.....was a chihuahua. It was shaking, and its beady little eyes were glued to us. We get to the door, and Sister R said, "Oh. This one's gonna blow." We knock, and sure enough - BARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARK

I think you get the picture.

So THEN we go to this house, and there's this guy sitting in kind of a mess of just......stuff.....that's all scattering out of his garage. So we go up to him and I'm like, "Hey, how're you doing?" 

"I'm separating copper from iron. That's how I'm doing." 

"......sounds like a fun activity."

He then proceeded to tell us his life story. We heard all about his childhood (he learned to speak Greek, Latin and Hebrew) and his post-high school years (he joined the army and was with four other Mormons in his branch or something like that).

So he said we could go back! That was exciting. Other than that, kind of a busy but boring week. The leaves are at this awkward stage where half the tree is yellow/red, and the other half is green. I tried to take pictures, but it just turned out to look like a big ol green mess. Ah well. I'll send them anyway. 

Love you all!

Hurrah for Israel,

Sista Stimpson!

Trust me, I'm a Dentist

Hellooooooo family! And friends. And the general good people of the world.

So P Day is on Tuesday this week! Last Tuesday Zone Leaders were like, "Oh by the way we have ZTM on Monday so you wont be emailing your family." 

Thanks, guys. 

So I'm emailing you now!

Also in other news, we use our landlord's washer/dryer to do our laundry and our dryer totally broke. So we have a huge wad of clothes scattered throughout our apartment. And it's hard for clothes to dry when the air is humid here. 

Anyway.

This week was SOOOOO much better! We had 11 lessons as opposed to the 3 last week! And it's so cool to see the progress we've had with our recent convert. We met with her yesterday and talked about the importance of Christ and his Atonement. At one point she paused and went, "Oh....OH....I get it!" Sister R asked, "So...has anyone explained the atonement like that to you before?" "No! Just....give me a second for me to digest that......wow....that's really nice." 

Hopefully her anxiety will ease and she'll be able to get back to church. It was really cool!

Other cool experience - Since we first got here we've been meeting with a particular woman. It was interesting how we found her. Her family hasn't been active in about 8 years. When we first got here, the Bishop gave us a list of less active family members we can visit, and their family wasn't one of them. Honestly we don't know HOW we ever knocked on their door, but we did, and she was the one that answered it. Her reaction was priceless: "HONEY! HONEY! THEY BROUGHT SISTERS BACK! THEY BROUGHT THE SISTER MISSIONARIES BACK!" So we were like cool! Someone likes us! She was taught by the last sister missionaries.........10 years ago. 

So we visited with her, and her husband kept walking in and out, saying something a little hostile, then walking out. Turns out we're the first missionaries he's even allowed IN in at least 4 years, and before that he wouldn't let missionaries in either. He has a really hard time with missionaries. I guess the ones that baptized him stopped talking to him after they got transferred and he took it really hard. It was sad. But anyway, our first 4 visits with her were really frustrating for me. They were debates. And I was getting sooo frustrated. Then two times ago, she finally opened up to us and told us everything on why she hadn't been coming to church, and the really cool thing? She totally still has a testimony. 

However, while she's finally opening up to us fully and honestly, her family was watching Lord of the Rings. Afterwards, we listened and talked with her. And she said, "You girls are the first people I've told since the last sister missionaries came to visit me." 

We visited her again yesterday, and it was incredible to see the difference in her. I guess she had a really spiritual experience the night before and told us about it. She was calm. She listened. She didn't argue. We listened to her. She talked to us and was completely open with us. And she even said the closing prayer! She hadn't ever been willing to before, but now she was. I still feel like it'll be a long road for her coming back to church, but it was AMAZING to see the difference between how she started, and where she is now. And the thing is, I feel like I didn't do ANYTHING to do that. It was totally the Spirit! All I did was listen to her. And the Spirit testified to her that she could trust us. And since then, she has grown so much. I am so grateful and completely amazed still by the power of the Holy Ghost testifying of truth and comfort. 

Oh and her husband said hi to us. We felt loved. 

ALSO ONE MORE COOL EXPERIENCE! There is a recent convert who has recently stopped going to church and EVERYONE has had a hard time contacting her - us included. Well before transfers, we texted her asking if we could see her again before transfers, just in case one of us were leaving, and she said she was willing to. It was there that she completely opened up to us again about why she stopped coming. And at one point she said, "I don't even know if I will ever come back!"......we were silent for just a few seconds, then she said, "Well.....I guess I'd LIKE to come back...." 

Thank you Spirit. 

But like seriously. 

A few days later she texted us again and asked if we'd be willing to meet/give her a missionary lesson. And we were like WOAH sure! So while we're giving her the lesson, we started talking about the temple in the middle of it, and baptisms for the dead. She started talking about how she found a huge book of old pictures of her ancestors, then in the middle she said, "....I think I need to start working towards getting back to the temple. I need to do family names." 

yyyyyyyyyEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS you do. 

Yeah I still feel like this totally isn't our doing. This is completely the Lord's work. 

On the sad news, there's a new preacher in town....whose religion will remain anonymous....but he doesn't like Mormons. One couple we were teaching used to attend this congregation....and we got a text from them saying they were no longer interested in learning about Mormons or our bible. 

Um, c'mon guys. How many times do I have to tell you? THE BOOK OF MORMON DOESN'T REPLACE THE BIBLE. YOU CAN'T HAVE ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER. DEAR GOODNESS. But we sent a nice text to them back and we ended on good terms....but I was still super bummed :'(. 

But anyway. This week was a lot better, and I hope this next week will be, too. 

And now for possibly the highlight of my week. It started Friday. We were walking to the eternal investigator of Owego's house, when I looked at my foot and noticed I had a rash. Hmmm. Curious. It was itching like the devil, so I called Sister Wirthlin and was like, "Hey....I gotta rash...what should I do?" she told me a special itch cream that might help and I was like, "Thanks!" and went about my merry way.

 After our lesson, we headed over to a lady's house to give her a lesson. As we're teaching her, I looked at my foot. Completely swollen. COMPLETELY red, puffy, and swollen. And I'm like, "Well.....this can't be good." 

We sit down on her couch and I take off my shoe cause it's totally digging into the rash and making it HURT, man. After a while I look down and see that my pinkie toe is blue. I'm guessing because A) it's become blasted cold here and B) it wasn't getting any circulation because of the swelling and I couldn't bend my toes. 

So I'm trying to listen to the lady's concerns but in reality I'm thinking, "Oh my gosh my toe's going to fall off."

After, we went into the main town of Nichols.....I mean the main cluster of houses cause there really is no such thing as a large town here..... and I REALLY had to use the bathroom. By now my toe was back to a normal color, but my foot was still nasty looking. So we stop by a member's home, who also happens to be on the high council. He let us in to use his bathroom, and I take off my shoes. At one point he asks, "So....are you having foot problems?" 

"What? Oh. Kind of. Yeah I woke up with that rash but it should go down in a day or two."

"Oh my goodness. That thing looks infected. Sit down." 

So I do, and he sits down and just starts staring at it. After a minute, he goes, "I'll take you to the hospital right now." 

"What? No, it's really okay!" 

"It looks infected. Trust me, as a doctor I really think you need to get this looked at!"

The guy's a dentist. A retired dentist. 

"It's okay," I said, "I called Sister Wirthlin. She gave me some cream to put on it." 

"Well here!" he runs over to his medicine cabinet and pulls out a BUNCH of medication and says, "What kind of allergy medication do you use? Have some Benadryl." 

"Oh, um....Benadryl makes me really tired. I'll be fine, I promise." 

"Are you sure? I know one of the doctors at the hospital and he will see you in a split second! AND he's a foot doctor."
I REALLY wanted to point out the fact that if the guy's a foot doctor, he probably knows nothing about rashes and will tell me to put some itchy cream on it. But he could probably fix my flat-feet problem. 

Instead I said, "I'm really okay! I'll call Sister Wirthlin if I have anymore troubles." 

"I'll cover any expenses." 

"Thank you, but I really think I'll be okay."

"Oh my gosh! Is it a bug bite?!" he says as he starts poking it again. 

"OW! Okay yeah it's probably a spider bite or something! I'm probably allergic, it'll be FINE." 

Meanwhile, his wife - a retired nurse- is standing by him saying, "Honey. She's fine." "Honey, take it from the retired nurse. She's fine." "Honey. She'll take some allergy medication tonight. She's fine." 

After a few more minutes of him poking at it, I think he finally was getting the point that I would NOT let him take me to the doctor. We had a nice chat with him, then we went about our merry way and I thought it was over.

Then Saturday came. 

We're driving to a less active member's house to invite him to church, when the phone rings. Who was it? Sister Wirthlin. Curious. So I answer and she says, "Hello, Sister Stimpson! How's your foot doing?" 

"Oh, it's still pretty swollen and itchy, but it's gone down a lot."

"Okay, because a member of the high council called me last night.....he said he was a dentist?"

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" 

She then proceeded to tell me how he called her last night, and proceeded to tell her how I NEEDED to go to the hospital, because he's pretty sure it's infected and that I needed to get on antibiotics ASAP. The whole time Sister Wirthlin was saying, "Okay, well we have to take certain steps first. It's probably a bug bite she's allergic to and it'll go down in a few days so we'll try basic creams and medication first." 

"All right, but it looked REALLY bad. I think she needs to get to the hospital soon! Trust me, as a dentist I would advise you to get her on antibiotics soon!" 

"If it doesn't improve in the next couple of days, THEN she'll get on antibiotics." 

Meanwhile, President Wirthlin overhears this conversation and says to her, "Her foot's infected?! We need to get her to the hospital! She should get on antibiotics!" 

"Okay now just everyone hang ON! There are rules we need to follow!" 

So she tells me all this then asks, "So is your foot REALLY okay?" 

I'm busting up by now and I'm like, "YES! It's FINE! I DON'T need to go to the hospital!" I told her about our visit with him and said, "I swear as soon as he saw that he was ready to whisk me off to the hospital." to which Sister Wirthlin said, "I KNOW. He was telling me to whisk you off to the hospital too!" 

She said she'd let President Wirthlin and our ward member know, and made me PROMISE her I'd tell her if my foot got any worse. 

I'm glad I'm at least cared about!

So then Sunday came. We're driving into the parking lot and Sister R asks, "....Is that President Wirthlin walking in the church?" 

"What? No, that's Brother H." 

Then I turn to my left and look at a man sitting in his car.

"But THAT'S President!" 

"AH! OUR CAR HASN'T BEEN WASHED! WE'RE PARKING ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE LOT!" 

We go inside the chapel and sit down, and a few minutes later President and Sister Withlin walks in. He shakes my hand and says, "How's the foot?" 

Oh my gosh. 

"Gooooood." I said. 

So glad I'm known for that. 

Sister Wirthlin came over and asked to see it. And you know the sad thing? The swelling had gone down COMPLETELY by now. So it looks so wimpy. I showed it to her and said, "I SWEAR! It was big and nasty looking yesterday!" 

Anyway. My foot's fine. We had ZTM in Owego and that's why President and Sister Wirthlin were in town....though I WISH it were to check up on my foot. That'd make me feel special. 

Hope this week brings success! I love you all SOOO much!

Hurrah for Israel,

Sista Stimpsonian 

Bark, bark, bark (from September 9)

THIS. WEEK. WAS. SOOOO. HARD!

Firstly our investigators are dropping like flies. We went from having 8....to having 1.....all in a week. We had THREE lessons this week. THREE. That was a new low. Like the lowest of the lows. It was sooo discouraging. 

Tuesday we went to our new convert's. We had an excellent lesson with her and I totally thought she was up for coming to church this Sunday then she was like, "Actually....I think I want to try another religion." 

If that wasn't a punch in the gut I don't know what is. She's still going to meet with us but man. I was, and still am, so discouraged, disappointed and embarrassed. We go home, and I was like, "Well, at least we have a lesson with our investigator. Her lessons are always awesome." 

Guess who wasn't home! 

First time this has ever happened. 

So I went home and cried. I had been SO proud of myself before - I haven't cried very much since my mission, but after this I was like, "Nope. Not holding this in." And BOOM. I cried. But Sister R and I discovered a great thing. Bubble Baths. I took a bubble bath, and felt SO good after. Who can't be happy when they're swimming around with a bunch of bubbles?

The next morning I was feeling a little better, but still not good. But has been amazing to see the little miracles the Lord provides to us.

Sister R and I had a long list of former investigators and less actives that we wanted to visit in the morning. So we gather our things, and head on out, and I look in our mailbox and it's PACKED! This last week they were holding all the mail because of transfers, so we got all our mail at once! And I was like WOOOAH. 

Mail truly is a blessing to missionaries. Like for real. 

The first person on our list was a less active. When we first saw her address, we were like, "That's weird. She lives right by us, why haven't we visited her before?"

We go and knock on the door, and a pug, a yorkie, a german shepard, a rotweiller, a pitbull ALL jump on the door and bark, and bark, and bark. And I was like, "Well great. I'm going to get eaten alive." Then a woman answers and says, "HELLO! I'm Sister____. Come back in an hour and you can tell me when church is and stuff." 

.......Wait did she just say that?

So we happily skip down the steps, and go and visit our list of former investigators. Four didn't answer, but one told us we can come back! Yay! So that was exciting. 

We go back to Sister ______ and she lets us in. She had shoved the dogs in the back room, although you could still hear them back. We got talking to her and she tells us, "I moved in about a year ago, then got really, really sick. I haven't met any ward members and I don't know if they stopped by, because if they did I wasn't healthy enough to get to the door. And my dogs scare away most people." 

That's VERY true. 

"I just recovered last week, and would like to start coming back! I can't come for the next couple of weeks because of my health, but if I could get a ride I'll come." 

We were SOOOO happy! We're hoping to see her this week or next and see if she's up to coming to church. 

That held our spirits the rest of the day when we had no work to do. It was really hard! Going from a good amount of former investigators to try and a good teaching pool to virtually nothing was SOOOO hard! I was having trouble being happy about staying in Owego, and I was having trouble just keeping a positive attitude in general. 

So Saturday we decided to go to another area and try out some people there. WE had a HUGE list a former investigators....and only one of them answered. But he set up a time for us to come back! Yay! Then we went to go visit a less active on our list. We're driving......turn a corner.....and see a Welcome to Pennsylvania sign. Our reaction was, "AAAAAAAAH." and pulled off to the side of the road. We sat there and just busted up for a few good minutes, then drove back after realizing that woman's house is now an empty lot! So funny. 

We also went tracting Saturday! I placed my first Book of Mormon while tracting! I felt cool. We've placed Book of Mormons, but only one other while tracting. So it'll be interested to see if this girl will be interested in the future. 

Oh and I held a caterpillar.

This week really was very, very hard. But it was SO good to see all the blessings that come from missionary work. We were scraping for work to do, but the work we did brought miracles. We also got a blessing from the Elders and it was so comforting. I love this gospel!

If only other people did, too. It's like c'mon guys....we're only talkin' about your salvation and stuff....

hehehe. 

I love you all soooo much! Keep sending mail, doing your thing, and Hurrah for Israel!

Sista' Stimpsonian.

24601

I still hate subject titles.

Dear Everyone, 

So I only have an hour to write today (actually more like 45 minutes now-- we're going mini golfing  so we don't have as much time) so if I don't respond to everyone's email sorry!!! But I loved them all and I really appreciate them. You seriously don't know how helpful your emails/letters are to me. So keep writing. 

Okay. So this week was super eventful, but I'll cram in some of the highlights since I don't have much time this week. 

So first off I ate road kill. Seriously. Road kill. We're at a dinner appointment eating some sort of chicken pot pie thing, and the woman's like, "Oh and this is deer meat!"

"Oh how'd you get the deer meat?" asked Sister R, while I'm sitting there thinking, "Don't ask that...don't you dare ask that...I don't want to KNOW how she got Bambi on my plate." 

And she chuckles to herself and tells us this story about how she was driving and saw a guy hit a deer. Now, in NY, whenever you hit a deer, it's illegal if you don't call the cops after doing so. SO. She pulls over to the guy and the cop and says, "Hey, can I take the deer?" and the cop said she could. So she did. Then she skinned it, got the meat, canned it.....and now here I was. Eating it. 

Tasted like pork, in case you were wondering. 

So I ate road kill. 

Second of all, transfer calls. The zone leader calls us, and says, "Are you sitting down?"

Us: "Yes." 

ZL: "You sure?" 

Us: "Yessss!" 

ZL: "Okay. On transfer days. You're going to wake up."

Us: "Okay."

ZL: "You're going to do your morning program. Then you're gonna get in the car."

Us: "Yes?!" 

ZL: "Then you're gonna drive." 

Me: "OH MY JUST TELL US." 

ZL: "You're gonna drive around your area cause you and the Elders are staying here!"

So we both are either doing something horribly wrong and the Mission president wants to contain it to this area....or we're doing something right and the Mission President wants us to keep doing it! So Sister R and the Elders and I will all be in Owego for another six weeks!

SO. Let's talk about Sunday!

Our investigator came! But not our recent convert :( it makes me really sad. Every week she promises she'll come. 

We had a good fast Sunday with good testimonies.

After church we went with Sister W to visit a couple. She's good friends with them and was honest with us when she said that the wife really isn't interested and might pull the husband away too - who was originally interested. So we go to their house, but they said they were busy so we didn't get to visit with them :(

So Sister W took us to visit her niece, who is 22. I totally forgot what it was like to talk to someone my age not about missionary work. It was awesome! Except we talked in the yard and it was full of mosquitos, bees, a dozen cats, and no shade. It is seriously a blessed MIRACLE I didn't get any sort of allergic reaction. I was praying the whole time we were talking to her to just not get any sort of bite, hive or burn.

Blessings of being a missionary.

It was a good week mostly visiting less actives, because our investigators are dropping like flies.

Hopefully we'll pick up some sort of investigator this next week. Wish us luck!

Sista' Stimpson.