Best week ever

Best week ever! Cause it was Christmas! And I got to see you guys! Hurray!

As y'all already saw, I was driving past a salon, and said, "Sister S. I want a perm." 

Then BOOM four hours later my hair was curly AND I LOVE IT! I've gotten a lot of compliments on it too. Except from one lady who said, "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAIR?!" 

"I permed it." 

"BUT WHY? YOU HAD SUCH PRETTY STRAIGHT HAIR." 

"Yeah I had to deal with said straight hair for twenty years. It was time for a change." 

But the popular girl in young women's complimented me on it. 

Does that mean I'm popular? 

I always wanted to be!

Speaking of church, we had a combined Relief Society / Priesthood meeting in which we talked about goal setting. Us and the Elders had to teach it. We broke it up into four different topics: what is a goal? why are they important? how do we set them? and how can we achieve them? 

So Sister S stand ups there and says, "So....what is a goal to you guys?" 

chirp.....chirp.....chirp......chirp......

SOMEONE RAISES THEIR HAND AND GIVES A SHORT COMMENT!

chirp.....chirp.....chirp.....chirp

Two minutes later she sat down. 

Then Elder Z got up there and asked a question. A man responds and Elder Z then says, "Wow.....you actually just quoted the talk I wanted to talk on. Um.....so now Sister Stimpson's going to talk about how to set goals." 

Great. Five minutes down, 40 minutes to go. 

Elder C leans over and says in a whisper-yell, "YOU BETTER TAKE UP A LOT OF TIME." 

"Oh don't worry. I got me some personal stories." 

Somehow I managed to get people rambling. And I rambled myself about personal stories, and then somehow I rambled some more.

New Yorkers, man. They're totally rubbing off on me. 

But then I managed to kill twenty minutes, and Elder C finished the rest of the time!

GO TEAM GO!

We has a wonderful Christmas in which I took away the Elders' agency by making them participate in acting out the Nativity. Elders B, W and Z were the wise men and Mama Cox had to teach them how to make a turban out of a towel. Elder C was the shepherd, and I was a sheep and I wore a hideous, long, old, bad smelling, black fur coat and baa'd a lot.  Mama and Papa Cox were Mary and Joseph, and their dialog consisted of this:

Sister K, the narrator: "And she was great with child..."

Mama Cox: "WHERE'S MY BABY?"

Elders: "WAIT WHY ISN'T SHE PREGNANT?"

*I throw pillow at her*

She held it in front of her stomach, and Papa Cox lovingly patted it. 

Sister K: "And she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger...." 

Elders: "Hold up! Where's the baby? Why don't we have a baby Jesus?" 

Me (I got assigned as the director) : Just use the pillow! 

Mama Cox cradles the pillow, and Papa Cox patted it lovingly. 

Then the Bishop's son, who was the Inn Keeper, had a southern accent. 

But that's a whole other story. 

Then the next day happened. Sister S got sick in the night, and I woke up SOOOOOOOO tired. When 6:30 came along, we rolled out of bed and Sister S got sick again, took some Tylenol and laid back down. It took me a half hour to do like......10 jumping jacks and 10 sit ups. I was SO. TIRED. 

So I studied until eleven, then curled up on the couch and slept until Sister S woke up. She was like, "Mmmmmmur I don't feel so good."

"Yeah you don't look so good either." 

"I threw up." 

"Yeah I heard. You up for going to teach a lesson?" 

"Yeah, I think I can." 

We went and taught a lesson, went and got a prescription, started weekly planning, then she stood up and said, "Ugh. I have to lie down. I feel really sick. I'll be back in five minutes." 

........my thoughts?

Yeah, she so isn't coming back in five minutes. 

That was at 5 o' clock. 

I read some scriptures until 6 o' clock, then I watched some cheesy church videos from the 80's. 

That lasted until 7 o' clock. Then I ate some yogurt and all my Christmas candy. Then I felt like a super fatty and did some real jumping jacks and sit ups and push ups, then ran around the apartment. 

That lasted until 8 o' clock. And I was getting REALLY stir crazy by now. So I called some members to see if they could come to our lessons tomorrow, then I cleaned the apartment, put away the Christmas decorations, studied Preach my Gospel, contemplated making cookies, realized we didn't have any eggs so I didn't make any cookies, then I sat down at 9 o' clock and planned for the next day and wrote in my journal. 

So then 10 o' clock comes and I crawl into bed, and Sister S sits up and says, "Oh my gosh what time is it?" 

"10 o' clock." 

"WHAT? I ONLY MEANT TO LIE DOWN FOR TEN MINUTES!" 

So she got up, went to the bathroom, ate some cereal, came back, and fell asleep AGAIN. 

Yeah, she was pretty sick. but the next day she was completely fine, aside from a small headache! 

Hahahaha. Yeah let's talk about the next day. We had FIVE lessons planned! FIVE! Three of them had a member present for them, and guess how many of them actually worked out!

..........none. 

Zip.

Zero. 

None. 

Sister B:  Oh hey! I forgot you girls were coming. Come in and sit down!

We didn't get to teach her, we just chatted with her about life, set up a return appointment, and went to our next appointment.

Investigator: Oh sorry ladies! I forgot you gals were coming. Um...can you come back next week?

We set up a return appointment, went and contacted some referrals, then went to our next appointment. 

Other investigator: MY MORMON FRIENDS! COME IN AND SIT DOWN!

We didn't get to teach her, she just chatted about her life to us, then we said a prayer with her and went to our next appointment. 

Next one: *knock knock knock*............................................"Knock again." *knock knock knock." ................................................ *Sister S opens the door and looks inside* "Oh my gosh. His TV's on, his hat is sitting there, and his cat is on the couch. He's dead. He's got to be dead." 

"Okay, then, let's leave because I don't want to be the one to find him."

We went and visited a less active, and went to our next appointment, which was dinner/a lesson. 

Less-Active Member: "Hey ladies! I can still do dinner, but I'm going to have to reschedule the lesson. I have to get my phone fixed." 

Awesome. So we walked to an investigator's house, knocked on her door, she wasn't home, and by then it was curfew. 

Now DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE ONE GUY! We went back yesterday, and HE IS ALIVE! He apologized for not reading the chapter we left him, and said he's really been thinking about church! YES! Hopefully he will come soon :) Then he continued to talk to us again about how much I look like his granddaughter.

Anyway. Also had an awesome dinner with some members in my ward. Never in my life have I laughed so much at a dinner appointment. I may or may not have spit up water at one point. 

May or may not have. 

Yes, that's Sister Stimpson. Keeping it classy. 

Unfortunately, Saturday is transfer calls :/ everyone is convinced I am leaving. EVERYONE. Except myself. 

Elder C: Yeah, you're not staying here another transfer. 

Me: YES I AM.

Elder Z: You've been here five transfers, and SEVEN months. You're so leaving. 

Me: NO I'M NOT I'M STAYING. 

Elder Z: You're just saying that cause you want to!

Sister S: I think you're leaving. 

Me: I HOPE NOT!

Sister S: Well I hope not either!

Sister Cox: Yes....I think you're leaving. 

Me: NO. I'M STAYING. 

Sister Cox: Well that's what I'm hoping for too!

So we'll see :/ I mean....it's no big deal.....cause I'm staying. 

Well I must bounce. Love you all!

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder C said that the other day. I yelled at him for stealing my punch line. Then he gave me a weird look and I remembered he doesn't read my blog. 

Sista' Stimpson

Fear Not Little Flock - D&C 6

A spiritual subject title? Since when? But that was a scripture I REALLY liked this week. 

This was a fantastic week! Unfortunatly I am super pressed for time....BUT I WILL SEE YOU WEDNESDAY SO I CAN TELL YOU AAAAAALL ABOUT IT! 

We went caroling as a district! The first three houses were super awkward. First, the people answered, left the screen door open, then walked away. We finished, then they poked their heads out and said thanks, and we scurried away. 

The next guy tried to give us money during the song. I think he wanted us to leave. We didn't take the money, though. Told him to donate it to Salvation Army. 

You're welcome, Salvation Army. 

The third guy was Jewish. He looked through the window, then next thing we know, we hear the door locking and all the lights are being turned off. And he's still looking at us through the window. 

Point taken. 

But the next houses went really well! One lady, a Christian woman from India, said that she used to go caroling all the time in India, but had never seen carolers since she came to the USA, so she joined us! 

Another old couple gave us cookies and said they hadn't seen carolers in years. And a Catholic lady gave us a bunch of HUGE candy canes, which we then regifted to a little seven year old at another house, because it was her birthday! So we sang Happy Birthday to her. Then an old guy sat on his porch and listened to us while trying to control his dog. 

Caroling was very humbling. I will never make fun of carolers again. One of the members who came with us was super excited about caroling. So much so, she made us surround a family getting out of their car and carol to them. 

I pretended to not know the words so I could look at the music and not make eye contact with them. 

I did the same thing when an attractive guy answered the door. 

ANYWAY. 

We had an incredibly awkward lesson with our young man investigator this week. Ever taught the law of chastity to a fifteen-year-old? 

Well I guess this is just getting me ready for parenthood. 

Actually I was pretty quiet throughout the whole thing and Sister S took over. 

But he came to church yesterday!

IT was just a fantastic week. Everyone is in a happy Christmas mood. Yesterday we went tracting and handed out candy canes with a Christmas message on them. Our number one conversation was this: 

Person: "Oh so they have girls now? It's usually the guys who come around. I'm really not interested." 

Me: "But we have Candy Canes and a picture of Jesus!" 

Sister S: "No commitment required!" 

Person: "......Okay then!" 

I consider it seed planting. 

I also fear I may actually be becoming friends with the new elder. I MADE HIM LAUGH ON WEDNESDAY! AND WE ACTUALLY HAD A CORDIAL CONVERSATION! AND WE FIST BUMPED YESTERDAY!

Either that or we're just getting used to each other. 

I'll take that, too.  

SO excited about my new nephew! I keep telling everyone about it. I think everyone's getting sick of it. 

I think they're just jealous. 

LOVE YOU ALL AND I AM SO SO SO EXCITED TO TALK TO YOU ON WEDNESDAY. 

I don't know what I'm gonna do after Christmas. This is like, all I've been looking forward to for the past month and a half. 

Look forward to Mother's Day I guess?
I did the math and I'll be talking to you guys every six months. 

First time was the airport, six months later it's Christmas, six months later it's Mothers Day, six months later I'm home. 

CRAZY. 

Loves!

Hurrah for Israel!

Sister Stimpson

You oughtta be in pictures -- wawa

Yeah so um, there are so many awkward moments as a missionary. Like so many moments that are just a big, dripping ball of awkward. And this week was full of them. 

We'll start with one of my favorite conversations this week.

So we're walking down the street and see this older gentleman. 

Us: "Good morning!" 

Him: "Good morning! How are you ladies?" 

Me: "Really well! How are you?" 

Him: "Great! I see your badges...what are those for?" 

My thoughts: Oh my gosh. This is it. This is the big Ensign moment EVERY missionary has, when they find their GOLDEN investigator who just approached them on the street and was looking for them!

Me: "I'm a Mormon Missionary!" 

Him: "Hmph. I'm Knights of Columbus." 

And he marched away. 

Me: ".....I STILL WANNA BE YOUR FRIEND!" 

He didn't turn around. 

Sister S: "Ah. Every day my heart gets broken....Hey look a cute dog! My heart's not broken anymore." 

Speaking of Sister S, we're getting along well! She's from Utah and went to hair school before her mission. She also wants to be a flight attendant! She's been out for a transfer longer than I have. And we're so different. She's also part Mexican and is like the darkest person in Owego. Okay that's a lie -- there's like three other black people. 

Awkward Moment #2 was Tuesday. First, we went to go pick up our laundry from a member who does it (she's so sweet!) because she didn't get it done Monday. Well I thought, "Ah, she only lives a half mile away. We can walk there!" 

It didn't occur to me that we'd then be walking down Main Street carrying a big bag of laundry. 

That was uncomfortable. 

Then it was district meeting. Sister S and I were in the parking lot, finishing our McDonald's ice cream, when this big, red van pulls up in the parking spot in front of us and who walks out? President Wirthlin. 

Our reaction: 

"AH." 

So we shovel the rest of our ice cream down and walk all calmly out of there and say hi to President and shake his hand. 

We then walk into the church, talking about how weird that was that President showed up to our district meeting, and we open the door to our meeting RIGHT in time to interrupt someone getting a priesthood blessing. We shuffled out of there, looked at each other, then said, "Maybe we should just hide in the bathroom." 

So we go in the bathroom, and come back for district meeting. 

Now, normally when you put at least two sets of missionaries together, let alone 4 sets of missionaries together, for district meeting, everyone's BIZARRE side comes out and all chaos happens. 

Then you put President in the room and it's just full of tension. 

Everyone was sitting reverently reading their scriptures, and the new elder (it was his first time teaching district meeting) stood tensely at the front of the room, looking at his watch. 

Meanwhile Sister S and I opened our scriptures and kept giggling to each other about the whole situation. 

Then I had to lead the music, and I got SUPER off while leading, then Sister S started laughing, which made President Wirthlin start laughing, which got me laughing. 

It was just bad. 

Then the meeting was SO tense and I'll just put it this way: New Elder got quite a taste of humble pie, and he is DEFINITELY learning how to teach. 

But that's all I'm gonna say. 

Awkward Moment #3: 

A member had us over for dinner. He answers the door and says, "Hey! My wife had to go, so I invited two of my friends to introduce you ladies to!" 

We sit down, and I look at his friends.......and one of them was a teenager we tracted into. And she very firmly rejected us. And it was kind of an awkward door approach.

Great. 

So I start thinking, "Please....that was like, two months ago....there's no way she remembers me." 

Then rational Sister Stimpson thought: "You're a missionary who knocks on peoples doors, who offers to teach them about Christ, who has FLAMING RED HAIR, and people who never even have spoken to you know who you are. She definitely remembers you." 

So then we kept making eye contact, then looking quickly away. Then making eye contact again, then looking quickly away. Finally I just said, "....Did I knock on your door a couple months back?" 

"Yeah you did." 

"I KNEW IT! Nice to see you again!" 

"Yeah.....you too."

Oh geez. 

Just embrace the awkward. This is what my whole awkward life has been preparing me for. My mission. 

Awkward Moment #4: 

We go and visit the lady with the donkeys. She feeds us cookies with gluten in them. Sister S hadn't had cookies in ages, so she ate four cookies. 

Then we go tracting. 

We get to like, house number 7. I knock on the door. We stand there a minute....

Then Sister S leans over and throws up in the bushes. 

We look at each other....then ran away. 

So that's been my awkward week. Unfortunately, three of our investigators have disappeared off the face of the earth, and we're gonna have to push back one of their baptism dates cause he's stopped coming to church :/ but it'll work out. 

However, two other investigators are doing great! The one guy showed me a picture of his granddaughter and I look FREAKISHLY like her. It's creepy. He says he wants to bring her to our next appointment so that we can meet. He and our other investigator have both committed to baptism!....just neither one of them want to come to church. 

Geez, guys. 

It's been incredible to see the difference that this gospel has made in my life, and in the lives of our investigators. I saw this guy go from hopeless and lost and depressed about his daughter's death, to filled with a small, but growing, sense of hope. 

I saw the lady go from being completely God-less, confused and angry, to humbled, soft hearted, sober and hopeful. 

This really is what our Gospel is filled with: hope. 

AND OUR OTHER LADY IS AMAZING! Today she said she's been praying every day and night, has seen Heavenly Father's hand in her life, and that she's been so much more open to the spirit! She went from saying, "IF I ever come back to church" to "WHEN I come back to church." It's incredible! 

I love this gospel. 

Well, hope all is well with you! I've been a wee bit homesick with all this Christmas stuff coming up. Wish I was at home to go to the DI with you guys and buy weird christmas presents for our extended family. 

Next year, man. 

Next year. 

Love you all, goodbye!

Hurrah for Israel! 

Sista' Stimpson. 

HOPPY Thanksgiving.....get it? Hoppy? [an old family joke]

Oh my dear goodness guys. This week has been CRAZY.

P-day last week consisted of us bowling as a district, and then me wandering around the grocery store saying, "I don't know what my new companion likes to eat! I hope she doesn't have food allergies!" 

So I got a bunch of bagels, frozen pizzas and frozen stir fry and chicken nuggets and what not. Stuff I don't even really like (except bagels) but I figured she would like. 

Tuesday was pretty much us saying our goodbyes to people, and walking around in SO. MUCH. SNOW. There was also AAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL this talk about a HUGE blizzard that was supposed to hit our area, and Sister R and I were kind of freaking out cause neither of us wanted to drive in the snow. After saying goodbye to several people, we called up the zone leaders and were like, "Can we PLEASE spend the night at the Greene sisters' apartment so that we don't have to drive there in the snow tomorrow morning and we're already halfway to Oneonta?" 

They were hesitant...but Sister R kind of kept insisting that this happened, so finally Elder N said, "Okay, fine.  Just do it and text President!" 

So we did. We speed on up to Greene, and spent the night there. The next day, Sister R was off to Oneonta, and Sister L, one of the Greene Sisters, was off to Utica. I spent the day in Greene with Sister J, and you know what happened? 

It didn't snow. At all. 

DUMB. 

Well kind of. 

The whole day I kept stressing though. I was thinking, "I just KNOW it's gonna snow! I just KNOW we're gonna slip off the road and I'm going to get in ANOTHER car accident!" 

But the fact that it didn't snow was such a blessing!

So the evening comes, and Sister S pulls up to the Greene sisters' apartment with the new sister who's coming to Greene.....and we just kind of stared at each other. 

I'm pretty sure the whole first scene from Wicked, when Elphaba and Galinda first met ran through both of our heads. 

We. Are total. Opposites. And I was SOOOO certain she was going to hate me. 

We'll fast forward a bit to the conversations we had in the car: 

Me: "So....what do you like to do?" 

Sister S: "Well I did cheer in high school. And I really like to run. And I was into drill team and ballroom. What about you?" 

Me: "Erm..........I was in the band.......oh and the yearbook and journalism staff! And....I like.....had friends and stuff." 

Later....

Me: "So what's your favorite food?" 

Sister S: "Well I just found out I'm allergic to wheat." 

Me: "CRAP." 

There went my bagels, frozen pizza, stir fry and chicken nuggets plan! 

Poor Sister S has been eating rice, rice chex, and left over chinese food this whole week! 

So basically, we're driving, and the whole time I'm thinking, "Man. This girl is gonna hate me. We're nothing alike. She's super, super, super pretty and I'm some stick, pale redhead who is lucky if she straightens her hair in the morning, AND she's had like a billion boyfriends! All I've had is a cardboard cutout of Snape!" 

And you know what?
WE GET ALONG SO WELL!

Seriously. These past few days we've gotten along great. And she has been SO patient with me. This whole leading out the area thing has been super uncomfortable. It's not bad....but it's not good either. Bascially I like to pretend like I know what I'm doing, but in reality I totally don't. And Sister S has been so patient with me as I kind of stare at our area book/map and am like, "OOH! Let's visit this person!....no....wait.....let's visit this person instead!" 

Basically I'm just a mess right now. Again! It's not bad! But it hasn't been good either! It'll get better once I'm in the routine of things, but man these past few days have been a rollercoaster for my stress. Basically every morning I've woken up and have been like, "Nope.....nope can't do this. I have no idea how I'm going to plan this day. Nope. Nope. I'm the worst missionary ever. I'm going back to sleep."  Then I get up (ON TIME, I might add.) and I'm fine. Just gotta take it a step at a time.

So I am SO grateful that Sister S and I are getting along and that she's been so patient with me. And I know she's my companion for a reason!

Driving hasn't been bad at ALL either! A nice sixth month break is just what I needed. 

That and I'm in upstate New York. There are more cows than drivers anyway. 

Thanksgiving was good. We had breakfast with a member, dinner with another family, and dessert with the ward mission leader's family. Planning for Friday, Saturday and Sunday has been pretty bad, and our plans were kind of sketchy. But again! I hope they'll get better once it's in the routine of things. 

Wellp. That's all for me. 22 days until Christmas! Love you all! AND SERIOUSLY WISH ME LUCK. 

Hurrah for Israel!

-Sista' Stimpson.