transfer week of transfers!

ALOOOOOOOHA!

Ha! Joke - it's freezing here. 

You'll be glad to know that people here are looking out for me. The following people have scolded me for putting off wearing a proper winter coat for as long as possible: 

(In my defense I was ALWAYS wearing a sweater/jacket and gloves.)

Person 1: "WHERE'S YOUR COAT?!" "In my closet." "YOU'RE GONNA BE FREEZING!" "No I'm not!" 

I totally was. 

Person 2: "Miss Sister Stimpson! Where is your coat?!" "I'm wearing it!" "That is no proper coat! That is a sweater!" "I have a long sleeved shirt on underneath!" "Sister R you make sure she wears her coat!"

Person 3: "YOU LOOK FREEZING! WHY AREN'T YOU WEARING A COAT?!" "I'm not cold!" "You're shivering! What are you--stupid?!" "I'm seriously not cold!" 

Now in that case I really wasn't......THAT cold. 

Person 4: "You look so cold! Don't you have a coat?!" "Yes." "Why aren't you wearing it?" "I....don't know."

Person 5: "Do you not have a coat?" "No, I do." "Why aren't you wearing it?" "It's not too cold out!" "You're going to get sick!" "No I'm fine!"

Person 6: "Where's your coat?" "In the car." "Why?" "I.....I.....yeah." "Well there's always ONE careless one in the group. Looks like it's you and Elder Z." (he never wears a coat, either.)

Person 7: "WHY ARE YOU NOT WEARING A SCARF?" "Hey, I'm wearing a coat at least!" "If you're not wearing a scarf next time I see you, you're going to get the beating of a life time!"

Sister R: "I can't believe you're not wearing a coat." "IT'S NOT COLD."

It totally was. 

I'm not wearing a coat right now, either. 

We got our first snow of the season! It was pretty. And pretty dang cold. It's the wind that gets ya. 

Our lessons with our new investigator have been......somewhat awkward. I swear she's the one person in all of NY who just doesn't TALK. So it's mostly silent. And we ask a question and she'll give a simple answer and I'm like, "Great. Are you a New Yorker or what?" 

Well I guess she's not technically. She did grow up in the south, soooo....

Our lessons with our other investigator have gone well, too! She likes comparing Mormonism to Catholicism. Cause she's Catholic. AND SHE'S SO SWEET I LOVE HER! 

Saturday came, and we eagerly waited for transfer calls. I was about ready to wet my pants. Er...skirt. Finally we went to see the lady with the donkeys instead. Right away she asks, "Any news on transfer calls yet?" 

"No." 

Then we heard our phone ring. RIGHT AFTER WE SAID THAT.

"TRANSFER CALLS!" 

We put it on speaker and the three of us huddled around it. 

First of all, Zone Leader kept breaking up because the lady's trailer is in the middle of nowhere. So that made it stressful. 

Zone Leader: "So who do you want to know about?" 

Us: "US." 

"YOU'RE BOTH STAYING!" 

Haha just kidding. 

Zone Leader: "Sister R! You've had a good run. You're going to Oneonta! Sister Stimpson, you're staying here, and Sister S is going to be your new companion!" 

CHRISTMAS WITH THE COX'S, BABY!

Me: "Do you know Sister S?" 

ZL: "Not really. Do you?" 

Me: "No...but we'll be BFF's!" 

Basically, I'm super excited to get a new companion and be staying in Owego! And at the same time.... I'M ABSOLUTLY HORRIFIED TO BE GETTING A NEW COMPANION AND BE STAYING IN OWEGO!

Sister S also can't drive. 

Looks the Lord is making me face three of my fears: 

1. Driving. 

2. Leading out a new area and trying to make decisions KIND OF on my own at the first. Like....that's horrific. I have to come up with all the plans, cause she doesn't know the area. HOW ARE WE GOING TO STAY BUSY????? AAAH. 

3. The New Elder whom I've struggled a bit with....is our district leader. 

I keep telling myself that if the Lord has trust in me to do this, then I should have trust in myself. But that's much easier said than done. 

oh also our new Zone Leader is Elder C. He made fun of me in middle school. I don't think he remembers me. But It'll be fun! I love him now, don't worry. 

Anyway. That's all from me! Love you all so much!

Sista Stimpson of Owego, NY. 

Wow, transfer five. That's a long time. That's okay though! I like it here.

I really hate comping up with subject titles.

Happy Happy Preparation Day!

And guess what!

Transfers are coming up. This Saturday we get our calls, and Wednesday, the DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING, is the day everyone's moving. 

So Sister R and I basically have no clue what's gonna happen. Basically we've been warning people for the past three transfers that one of us might be moving and now we're like, "......meh maybe we'll break the mission record and stay together a fifth transfer." 

So who knows. 

I would remind y'all to send mail to me at the PO box address and not the Owego address, but hey, seeing's as I may never leave Owego, I don't think it's that big of a deal. 

I want to spend Christmas at the Cox's. 

Anyway. Let's get down to business. 

I have nothing of vast significance to report. Kinda. 

We have a new investigator!  She's so great. We talked to her when she was moving in, and she told us that one of her good friends is Mormon and that she wanted us to come by! So we did, and we sit down and she starts talking to us and said, "I've never met a Mormon I didn't like. I LOVE your guys's values system! I think if everyone was Mormon the world would be a MUCH better place!" 

SWEET. 

She's going through a divorce right now, and is pretty heartbroken. She agreed to take the lessons, though she told us she's a strict Catholic, but open to hearing us. Sadly she'll only be here until Christmas, then she'll be gone for a month, and then she's leaving after six months. BUT STILL. I'm excited to teach her!

ALSO ALSO ALSO ALSO: GO TO www.facebook.com/HolidayShowcaseOwego and find my picture. 

Oh what picture, you might ask? Well Sister R and I are walkin down the street and this photographer comes up and is like, "Oh you ladies HAVE to get framed!" 

Me: "OKAY!" ....what did I just agree to exactly?

Don't worry, it wasn't bad. They just had us hold a frame up to our faces that was advertising Owego, and said it'd be on facebook. 

I can't see it :( Find it for me? 

So we had an ...interesting... experience this week. Our landlord was redoing the tile in our bathroom and we came home to eat lunch while he was doing this. So he starts talking to us and told us about how he borrowed an audio version of the Book of Mormon from the Elders a while ago, and listened to, "The whole first book of Nehi!" but that he "didn't get to the Joseph Smith part of the book." 

The following is his retelling of the book of Nephi. all while standing there in his gray sweats, a black belly shirt, and uncombed, black hair that's shaved on the side: 

"So....who was the really, really bad dude in the beginning who was like....killing all of them?" 

"....Laban?" 

"Yeah, Laban! And oh my gosh! Did Nehi's and his dad have to leave because this city was........."

"It was going to be destroyed."

"Yeah! And but they had to go BACK to the city to get their stuff! I remember how Nehi and like....other people went to go get their stuff from Laban, and Nehi's friends went back to buy their stuff back, and Laban just tried to kill them! Then they were chicken, but Nehi was like, "No I'm gonna go buy our stuff back," and he did! And then didn't they travel around in a desert and find like, an oasis?" 

"Um....they traveled to America?" 

"okay, yeah!" 

Our landlord's listened to more of the Book of Mormon than some of our investigators. 

We tried to explain where Joseph Smith came into all this....but I don't think he really got it. He went back to tiling. 

Hmmmm well I'll end with one more cool missionary story. NO WAIT TWO MORE!

Okay so first, we brought a member with us to a less active member's lesson. Now I was super nervous about this, because I know some people in the ward have really bugged this woman, but she and the member TOTALLY hit it off! And they exchanged numbers, too! and I was like WOAH! 

Best. Day. Ever. 

We also went and tried a girl we met before. We found her while tracting, and her house was the ONLY house that answered. She lived on this really winding, dirt road in the middle of nowhere. The first couple times we tried her, she was super busy, but this time, she let us in. We talked to her for a bit, and asked if she'd be interested in taking the lessons. She said, "Yes, but it's more a matter of WHEN! I don't really have time....but I've been looking at religions lately. I want my son to get baptized. But again, it's a matter of me having time first!" 

We gave her a Book of Mormon, a mormon.org card, and our number. She was SO sweet! It was one of those instances where we recognized she probably isn't ready to accept the gospel quite yet, but she's getting there! And we left on good terms so maybe in a few months....who knows!

Well my familia and friendsey, the church is true! I love being a missionary and am SO grateful to have this wonderful, true gospel in my life!

Hurrah for Israel, 

Sista Stimpson. 

5 months since I landed in NY!

Good news everyone!

I am slowly learning to feel better about the new Elder!

But I refuse to waste my weekly email on this subject. So we'll talk about the successes. 

So, you're probably wondering why I'm emailing late in the afternoon. So let me tell you. It's because we were teaching the BEST. LESSON. EVER this morning!

So here's the scoop: We were planning for our day on Thursday, and we had kind of a sketchy plan. And I KNEW we were gonna have to go tracting. I didn't want to go tracting. I mean, no missionary LIKES tracting, but I KNEW we were going to have to do that Thursday. 

So the next day Sister R and I prayed to know where we should go tracting, and we both felt downtown Owego.

Lemme tell ya. Tracting downtown Owego is so awkward. Everyone has already seen us, and everyone already knows who we are. Most the time when we go tracting they say, "Hey we've seen you around town!"

Of course you have. Cause how many people walk around Owego dressed up all nice? 

Oh, about two people.

A lot of people are also either on drugs or have other issues, so we run into a sketchy crowd sometimes. But both of us felt SO strongly we had to tract a certain area of downtown Owego. So I was thinking, "Great. Here comes a big ball of awkwardness." 

We picked out two streets off of the main road here in Owego, and start tracting them. I was seriously ready for them to open the doors and I'd declare, "YES. IT'S US. IT'S THE MORMONS. I KNOW YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE. YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD AVOID US FOREVER, BUT YOU CAN'T."

And you know what happened? 

Nobody. Answered. 

Actually that's a lie. Two people answered. One lady was super old, and she lived right by the train tracks, and the train came by RIGHT in the middle of my spiel, and it was too loud to hear me. So the three of us just stood there reeeeeally awkwardly until it passed. Then she wasn't interested. The other guy wasn't interested either. OH NO WAIT THREE PEOPLE ANSWERED! The other lady was nice. But wasn't interested.

So we finish tracting those streets and I was kind of sad. Sister R and I felt we needed to tract this area. We start walking back to our car, when Sister R says, "Hey, let's hit that house on the street that connects the two roads." 

Okay. So we walk up, and there's a huge dog gate blocking the door. We just stared at it, then I said, "Um....let's just go to the next house." 

So we knock, and a mom and her five-year-old little girl come out. We introduce ourselves and she says, "Oh yeah, I know who you are!" 

Of course you do. 

"Have you seen us around town?" I asked. 

"Yeah, one time you girls were at the library and I pointed out to you where the restroom was!"

I know exactly what day that was. It was the day we got locked out of our apartment and I REALLY had to go to the bathroom, so we went to the library. 

But I didn't tell her that.

Maybe one day. 

SO ANYWAY. Sister R starts her spiel, and she interrupts us and says, "I know who you are! My sister's LDS." 

".....Really?" 

"Yeah! I investigated with her when she joined, but....I never joined. I don't know, why, really. There wasn't a specific reason. Maybe I just wasn't ready." 

Then the little girl turns to her mom and says, "Mommy I don't like this idea." 

And I was like, GREAT. THE LITTLE CHILD HATES US. 

But anyway, we continued talking to her. She was a little hesitant to let us in, then she said, "I prayed a few weeks ago and I REALLY felt like I had to start going back to church. I've been going to the Methodist church, though..."

I said something along the lines of that our message adds to the truths she already knows. We asked if we could come in and share our message with her. 

The little girl looked at her mom and said, "I think they're okay." 

So we go in, and the mom starts organizing things. We start talking to the little girl about how old she is, and how she likes school and stuff. After she told us what her favorite color was, she said to her mom, "Mommy! They LOVE me!" 

Her mom: "They're missionaries, honey. They love everyone!"

Yes. That's true. 

We had a really good first lesson with her, and she said we could come back. This morning, we went and had another lesson with her and it went REALLY well. She brought up some concerns from when she was investigating the church before, and we were able to address them. At the end, we asked if she wanted to be baptized. She said, ".......I want to be able to say yes, but I really don't know. I want to know that these things are true." 

I'll take it! 

She said she'd read and pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it was true, and she said she really felt like she needed to do that. We're going back on Tuesday!

As we were walking out the door, she said, "How did you girls even decide to knock on my door, anyway?" 

We told her about tracting the other roads next to her, and she said, "Like, nobody even LIVES on those roads! That's too funny! Well...I don't think it was a coincidence you found me."

But wait! the week gets better!

Sunday came, and I was talking to a guy in our ward. As he was talking to me, I see this little figure at the door of the chapel. I look at it and thought, "Hmm....looks like our first convert lady." 

Then I keep talking to the guy. Then the little figure walked inside the chapel. And I hear Sister R call her by name.

So I whip around, and it WAS her!!!!!!!!!!!!

I KNOW RIGHT?! BEST. SURPRISE. EVER!

The poor guy I was talking to was cut off as I ran and hugged her. We go into the chapel and sit down with her, and who walks in but our second convert lady! So she sits behind us and we introduce her to the first one and she says, "I know you! You came to my baptism!"

Second convert: "Yes I did! I got baptized a few weeks ago!" 

First convert: "Oh how fun!!" 

First convert lady told us after church that she really wants to be able to go regularly again. She hates when she gets in ruts and can't come to church. 

BEST. DAY. EVER. 

We also had a phenomenal lesson with our current investigator. She is making a lot of big life decisions right now, and told us that, if things go according to plan, she could see herself committing herself fully to church again. 

UM. WHAT? 

But we're talking with her about her biggest concern. 

So pray that goes well. 

I love being a missionary. 

Anyway, I love you all soooo much!

Almost as much as I love New York. 

Whoop whoop.

Hurrah for Israel! 

Sista' Stimpson. 

#missionarydrama (From November 4, 2013)

This week was dripping with insanity. 

And I wish I could say it was missionary insanity but NO. IT WAS JUST INSANE ALL AROUND. 

Now before I begin my adventures, I will say that from the beginning of my mission, I really wanted to be realistic in my letters. I wanted to be open and honest about how I was feeling and my experiences I was having. 

Well you're gonna get a big ol' bag full of honesty today. 

All right. Since I came on my mission, I've been surprised by the amount of love I've felt for others! It's been incredible! And I have LOVED it!

....and then Saturday happened. 

We got a new elder.  He's struggling a bit.  I don't blame him. He just got uprooted, and placed in a new area with a new companion who doesn't know the area. He isn't happy

I think I'm mostly frustrated, because this area was kind of infamous for having not-so-good missionaries in the past. This area needs a lotta love, and he is NOT loving it yet. 

All I can say is, if I'm having this hard of a time with an Elder who doesn't love my mission area, how on earth am I going to react when my child gets bullied at school? 

Someone's gonna GET. MA. WRATH. 

Yeah I'm struggling. 

Mostly I'm like, stressing cause a) this was unexpected b) Elder Z doesn't know the area and c) I don't know if either one of them really like this area and d) We were good friends with Elders F and J, and now they're both gone!

BUT THEY BETTER LEARN TO LOVE THIS AREA. 

I know I'm gonna get some sort of lesson from this. It is DEFINITLY going to make me learn to love EVERYONE.

Now I know. This is not good. I REALLY need to fix this, but MAN. IT HAS BEEN SO HARD. 

So that's been fun. 

This week was also insane, because, like I mentioned last Monday, we kinda got kicked out of our apartment. It was originally supposed to last one day...haha....try THREE days. I felt like such a hobo, bumming to various members' homes to sleep. 

Ever tried working in an area without an area book? IT'S HARDER THAN YOU'D THINK. 

But now our floors are squeaky clean and I will no longer get slivers from them!

Now for missionary moments!

OUR YOUNG MAN INVESTIGATOR HAS A BAPTISM DATE! December 21st. He wanted it to be his Christmas present. SO excited! He went to a ward service project and the Elders said he kept talking about how excited he was to be baptized! I really, really hope we can get his mom back to church.

The other day, we were walking down the road and offered to help move a woman into her house. She said she got it, then asked, "Hey, you girls the Mormon missionaries?" 

"Yes we are!" 

"My good friend was a Mormon! I think he was like a preacher or whatever it is you call them." 

"Bishop?" 

"Yeah! I went to a few of his sermons, actually. Drop by sometime this week and we can have some coffee, okay?" 

Well we dropped by, and she let us in and said, "You actually caught me right as I was leaving! I'm going on vacation, but I'm coming home Wednesday. PROMISE me you'll come back, okay? I'll give you girls some tea." 

....we're gonna be taking some hot chocolate packets with us when we go back to visit her. 

ALSO ALSO! one of the days we were homeless, a ward member referred us to his neighbor. He said she had met with missionaries when the last sisters were here. I went to the door and we did a tracting approach, and not only did she take a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and said that she'd read them, but she told us to come back! YAY! We're gonna be doing that this week :)

I love the little miracles I see. And that I get to retell them to you all!

Okay well time's up. Hopefully things will smooth out, and that I will learn to love this new Elder. 

But he doesn't think my jokes are funny. 

WHAT KIND OF PERSON DOESN'T THINK I'M FUNNY?

Okay I guess people with a sense of humor do. 

Hurrah for Israel!

Sista Stimpson.