elmiiiira

Things have been going well this week! Still adjusting to Elmira and trying to get to know people, but we truly saw so, so many miracles this week!

So, we set goals as missionaries to reach, right? And there are mission-wide goals as to how many lessons to teach, and so on. 

And for the first time in my mission, my companion and I REACHED THEM!

Booya :)

I was pretty psyched. 

The Lord was just kind of sprinkling miracles everywhere. When I first came to Elmira, we had zero investigators with a baptismal date, and now we have four! We also found four new people to teach this week!

One day at the beginning of last week, I was just feeling kind of blah. I was missing my Saratoga friends, and it was hard being so close to Owego and not being able to go say hi to my Owego friends. Sister H suggested that we go visit a mom and her son who had requested a Book of Mormon a few months ago. 

We did, and they let us right in for a lesson. After having an AMAZING first discussion with them, they both accepted the invitation to be baptized! We were able to set them with a date for September 27th. 

.....but literally the next day the mom was put in the hospital for some illness. 

Dang it. 

But we're still teaching them, so that's good!

Another one was a daughter of a less active member. The mom has been starting to come back to church, and out of nowhere, the daughter came, too. We were able to also teach her the first discussion, and when we asked her to be baptized?
"Well yeah, I think I'm ready!" 

Best day ever :)

Another is with a young girl. 

I'll be straight up honest with you, though. Our lessons with her are so scattered. Last time we tried to teach her about the Book of Mormon while she and her friend French braided our hair. Another time, we kept trying to teach her about Joseph Smith.  

.....well we DID manage to teach her in between her shoutings of: 

"WANNA SEE ME DO A COOL BIKE TRICK?" 

"HEY, LOOK AT THIS SCRAPE I HAVE ON MY KNEE!" 

"DO YOU HAVE A PRESENT FOR ME?" 

"WANNA SEE MY DOG?"

....needless to say, it's been interesting. 

We're also teaching a woman who's not quite getting it all. We taught her about Joseph Smith, and asked her if she'd be willing to pray to know if he was a prophet. 

"Dear God, is Jon Smith a Prophet? Please bless him to be a better man. Amen. Wait, is he alive?" 

"Um....no, but we still have a prophet on earth today named President Thomas S. Monson--." 

"OH HE'S DEAD! Dear God, is Jon Smith a Prophet? Bless him to be a better man. No wait. He's dead. SCRATCH THAT! Amen." 

"...........Amen."

Things are good. We have a dinner appointment every night in this ward. 

Guys, I'm gonna get so fat. 

One day our ward mission leader fed us and said, "Sister Stimpson, how long have you been out?" 

".....12 weeks." 

"Ah! Take a second piece of bread! You have enough time to gain weight!" he said. 

"She's been out 14 months!" said Sister H. 

"PUT THAT BREAD DOWN! YOU'LL GET FAT AND YOUR FAMILY WON’T BE ABLE TO RECOGNIZE YOU!" 

I ate it anyway, guys. 

I ate the bread anyway. 

Anyway, so much happened this week! But unfortunately I have to get going :) Life is good. Missionary work is THE BEST!

Love you all!

Hurrah for Israel!

Sista' Stimpson