October 28

Guys I fear this letter is going to be totally lame. Because I literally have nothing to say. 

However! This week was a GREAT week! But nothing of vast significance happened. 

Well, okay, that's a lie. We had a great lesson with a young man about recognizing answers to prayers and the Holy Ghost. We read some scriptures with him about when people got answers to prayers and he was like, "WOW! I can totally relate to these guys! That's SO COOL!" 

The kid's 14. 

He's like a mini Joseph Smith. 

Love it. 

AND he came to church on Sunday! That was super exciting :) hoping to get his brother (who was baptized) back soon, too. 

Mama Cox's daughter also spent two days with us, just doing missionary work! It was fun! She leaves tomorrow for her mission :( She originally got called to Oregon, then it got changed to Washington, and while she was with us, it got changed AGAIN to California!!!! Crazy. 

We also met with Sister B and FINALLY found out her story! Turns out she was super, super active back in the day, then some things happened which made her stop coming. BUT she said she really wants to get back to church! We're going to start taking members with us to lessons to introduce them to her. But she's changing medication and is in a ton of pain. Like our whole lessons she just kind of sat there while we read the scriptures and occasionally said OW. But it was still a good lesson! I just love her. 

Let's see what else what else. 

We went back and visited the WHO-SENT-YOU-GUYS-ANYWAY lady! She was really busy, but she said, "Oh! It's good to see you girls! Come back another time, okay?"

Okay! 

I'm sorry, guys, I literally can't think of anything to say. OH. We had Zone Conference in Elmyra! And Elder Porter from the 70 came! He talked about Christ. And his wife grew up in this area! Exciting. She talked about humility. I like humility. Sorry--I took more notes so if you REALLY want to know what he said, you can write me and I can photocopy them or something ;) BUT I REALLY ENJOYED IT!!!! And the spirit was there. 

Also, it's hilarious how little things become so funny when you're a missionary. We were all saying goodbye to each other after Zone Conference, and my district leader and I ran towards each other in slow motion.....................then shook hands when we reached each other. 

Get it? Cause we're missionaries and can't hug people of the opposite sex? 

Yeah. Funny. 

Lastly, I'll leave you with a not-so-spiritual thought. 

Tuesday, we got a letter addressed to both of us from the church. How exciting! So we opened it.....and it was a letter basically yelling at our landlord to fix our floors ASAP else we're moving out. 

"....Well I don't want to give this to him!" said Sister R. 

"Well neither do I!" 

But we did, and this morning, the floor guys show up! So we had cleared out one room, assuming they'd work on one room a day, then they said, "You got a place to spend the night?" 

"Um..................why?" 

"Well it'll take until tomorrow. And we have to shove all your furniture in the office into your bedroom, too. You wont be able to get to your beds." 

"Oh.......yeah.............we'll um...........move that stuff." 

So in a mad rush, we gathered up an overnight bag, and the guys helped shove all our furniture into our bedroom. Then we left our apartment. 

And I forgot a toothbrush. 

Awesome. 

But now I won't get slivers from our floors!

Okay. Hopefully more events will happen next week. Hurrah for Israel! Love you all! Love this gospel! Love being a missionary!

Sista' Stimpson. 

Who SENT you anyway?!

What's up!

Oh man. This week.

The week started with a district activity of us carving pumpkins....which shortly turned into Elder F throwing pumpkin seeds at all of us, and all of us (meaning mostly me) attempting to get revenge by throwing seeds back but completely missing him every single time (or accidentally hitting Elder H or J instead) and then giving up and just chucking a huge chunk of pumpkin guts at him.
Then I got a huge chunk of pumpkin guts thrown back at me.
Guess I kind of deserved it.
But it was fun! I attempted to carve Batman. It was the most pathetic looking thing I'd ever seen. I showed it to Mama Cox:
Mama Cox: "What is that?"
Me: "Batman!"
Mama Cox then burst out in laughter and had to turn away.
Guess I wasn't practicing my pumpkin-carving skills in the Pre-Earth life.

The new Elder, Elder Z, also came this week! He saw my pumpkin sitting on the front porch of the Cox's home and said, "What's that?" Then Elder J said, "It's supposed to be Batman."

Yeah.

But Elder Z and I are totes gonna be BFF's.

Tuesday was awesome! We had a good lesson with our first baptism and hopefully she'll come around back to church soon. Hopefully. We also had a lesson with a woman who was a referral from a man in our ward. She's pretty stuck on being Methodist, but while we were teaching her, the Jehovah's Witnesses (who she studies with pretty regularly, too) showed up and she was like, "Hey! I'm studying with the Mormons! Wanna hear a Mormon sermon?"
They didn't.
Ah well.
We've been trying to visit members in our ward, too, to try to get to know them, since we'll be here another six weeks and don't know all of them pretty well. We had some time on Tuesday, so we decided to stop by some members' homes. At one of them, their son, who has a band and has since moved out but was home for the weekend, answered the door. We were talking to him, and he told us he played guitar. My response?
"Hey, I can play the air guitar!"
I then made the most pathetic guitar-playing motion/noise. He kinda stared at me then said, "Yeah...I play that sometimes, too."

We then stopped by another member's house. Only the three youngest kids were home, so they came outside and we were talking to them about missionary work and Six Flags and stuff, then I asked, "Hey, so do you guys have any friends you want us to visit?"
"YEAH!" said like the....9 or 10 year old, "Go to the last house on the left! That's my friend!"
"Okay!"
So we do, and there's this really old guy sitting on the porch. Now, it was the last house on the left, but we were pretty sure it wasn't who she wanted us to visit. But we walk up and start talking to him. Turns out, he's totally a former investigator who took lessons a year ago! In the whole process of changing out missionaries, he kind of got forgotten and stopped getting visited. (Fun fact, we found his record when we first got here. The same day we found our first baptism was the same day we tried his house, but the record had the wrong house number written on it, so the people there, who we THOUGHT was the right one, but wasn't, told us they weren't interested.) But anyway. We sit down with him, and he says, "You know...something that really bothered me about the Mormon views is that...well my daughter died...and the missionaries told me she had to have someone be baptized in her place to get into heaven."
So we explained to him the Spirit World, and how right now she was getting taught about Christ and our gospel, and how - since we need to get baptized to go to the Celestial Kingdom - if she chooses to accept the message, someone can do baptisms for her in the temple and she can choose to accept that baptism. After re-explaining this, he goes, "....well I feel better already!"
It was awesome. He told us we could come back sometime. Also, near the end of our visit, his wife comes out and was like, "Who are you guys?"
"They're descendants from a Native American tribe!" he said.
"No they're not!" she said.
"You're right. Now, Christ sent these two girls to me because he KNOWS I'm not doing what I'm supposed to and they're supposed to be helping me with that!"
That's right, sir. That's right.
After, we ran back to the girl and her siblings who gave us the referral and told her the story.
Her response: "SO IS HE GOING TO COME TO CHURCH?!"
ME: "YES!"
Her response: "IS HE GOING TO GET BAPTIZED?!"
Me: "I HOPE SO!"
We'll see to it, little girl. We'll see to it.

Wednesday we had a....rather odd....lesson with a guy. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and asked him to pray about it last time, so this time we asked him if he did.
"Yeah, I did!" he said.
"Great! How did you feel about it?" we asked.
Basically we gathered that, if you have good luck the next day, then whatever you prayed about was right. So we tried our best to explain that sometimes it's how you FEEL that our prayers were answered. Yeah.

Our most recent baptism is doing well! She didn't come to church this Sunday, but usually she doesn't come because of health reasons. So I'm not too worried about that. We visited her Sunday and she was happy and excited!

Saturday and Sunday were stake conference! SO much fun! We went to Ithaca for the Saturday session. Didn't really get to see much of the city except the WalMart. OH, OH AND RANDOM SUBJECT CHANGE! The girl who I found on exchanges with the Sisters in Vestal? SHE TOTALLY HAS A BAPTISM DATE!! I'm taking part of the credit since I knocked on her door. Ha. I'm super excited.

Pres and Sis Wirthlin also came to our stake conference! So that was fun.

Sunday was also awesome! We were really struggling with coming up with how to keep ourselves busy, so we finally found a less active member whom we had never met before. Well, we show up at his house and ask for him, and this woman comes to the door and was like, "I don't know anyone by that name....he doesn't live HERE anyway. Who are you girls?"
"We're missionaries for--."
"HOLY (long list of expletives). Really?"
"Yes."
"Like really?"
"Yes!"
"I'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT GOD ALL DAY!"
Apparently her daughter just got out of rehab, and recently started going to church and turning her life around.
So then she says, "that's just crazy! out of ALL the days you guys showed up, it's TODAY! I'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT GOD ALL DAY TODAY! You guys Jehovah's Witnesses?"
"No, we're Mormon."
"OH GOOD! So what's your message?"
We told her a little about the restoration, then we were like, "We also believe in the Bible and the Book of Mormon--."
"Do you have a copy?"
"Uh...yeah!"
We gave it to her, and starts explaining it then she says, "Yeah I'd LOVE to read this! oh man. This is CRAZY! I can't believe you girls just showed up! Who SENT you here anyway?! How did you find me??"
The Lord, woman. The Lord sent us here.
She said she has a crazy work schedule, but that we can come back! So HOPEFULLY we'll be able to catch her!
It was a fantastic way to end the evening....and THEN. We stopped by the church to print something off, when a guy from the Vestal ward showed up and said, "Hey! Come here, want to see something cool?"
"Yeah we like cool things!"
So he takes us to the stake president's office, and pulls out the shovel that was used for the Palmyra Temple Dedication! It's just been sitting in our stake building for years! I don't know WHY, but it's engraved and everything and just hanging out in our church building.
President Hinckley used that shovel.
Hey I know how to use a shovel!

Hopefully we can stay busy this week! I like and hate good weeks. It always means the next week is gonna be hard. BUT I WON'T MAKE IT THAT WAY!

Hurrah for Israel!
Sista' Stimpson.

Sister Stimpson's Broadcast Journalism Debut

Transfer 4

Well, to start out, I must say, THIS HAS BEEN THE MOST EVENTFUL WEEK OF MY LIFE.

Okayokayokay. So. Awesome lesson with an investigator on Monday! We taught her son on Wednesday, and he told us he wants to be baptized! Not really sure how we're going to approach this, but okay!

Also we went inside a crypt on Monday. No big deal. 

Also on Monday, we were walking down the road, and there's this old guy sitting, measuring stuff on the grass. So we ask him if he needed help and he goes, "No...but we're planting trees tomorrow morning if you want to help with that!" So we thought, eh....why not!

We go the next morning to the meeting place....and the news crew shows up. They're interviewing the old guy we had talked to previously, then he points at us and says, "Here. Talk to them, too. They're volunteers all the way from Utah and Arizona!"

The news anchor turns to us and says, "....and you guys came all the way out here to plant trees?"

"No.....I'm a missionary!" I said, as if it was the logical answer. So she interviews us, and let me tell you. I could talk about missionary work all day. Trees? I've got nothing. So my answers were pretty lame. 

After they interviewed me, another worker came up to the news anchor and said, "You interviewed the mayor, didn't you?" 

"Yeah, he told me to interview these girls, too."

Sister R and I looked at each other.

....that old guy is the mayor of Owego?

Yup. We're totally buddy buddy with the mayor now.

Perks of being in a small town I guess.

But anyway.

Sister R and I were assigned three trees to plant, and when we showed up to one, the news team shows up again! They pull out their cameras and are like, "We're gonna film you while doing this." 

I pick up my shovel, put it on the dirt....then realized I've never dug a hole in my life. 

So glad they're documenting this. 

Then I thought, "Oh! One of our members was making fun of the elders previous to us because he was doing a really bad job at digging a hole and he said he didn't step on the shovel! I've seen people step on the shovel in movies! I can TOTALLY dig a hole!" 

And I DID! And the HOLE time (haha--I'm so funny) they filmed us! Including mine and Sister R's bickering over where to put the pile of dirt, and if the hole was deep enough. So great. 

The next morning we walk downstairs, and the owner of the antique shop below us runs out and shouts, "GIRLS! GIRLS! I SAW YOU ON THE NEWS! YOU GUYS WERE ON THERE FOR LIKE, 1O MINUTES!" 

We've heard from MULTIPLE people that they saw us on the news! Apparently the anchors couldn't find any other tree diggers and used our footage for the whole time. So we're pretty much famous. I guess it's online! Binghamton News, I think either channel 16 or 12. It's called rooting community or something. 

Look it up cause I can't :'(

[I think this is what she was talking about -- you don't hear her, but it's fun to see her! Rooted in the community]

We also went on exchanges this week. And oh. my. gosh. Miracles were just being THROWN UP all over the place! I was in Vestal with Sister G, and we went to try a referral that she had tried MULTIPLE times before, but no one was ever home. So we decided to try it, and this woman answers! Right away she starts talking to us, then right away asks, "So where's y'alls church at?"  Um. What! She agreed to take the lessons, and Sister G told me yesterday that the first lesson with her went really well and she's liking everything! As we walked away from her house I said to Sister G, "So...does that happen all the time with you guys?" "No!" 

Then we were walking to go visit a less active member's house, when this guy walks by us and stares at us. So we say Hello and ask how he's doing and says, "Good....you girls church folks?" "Yes!" He gives us his number and starts talking to us about the church. Then he says, "Haha, it's funny. Yesterday I prayed to God to help me know how to be closer to Him....then you girls cross my path! Call me Sunday to remind me to come to church, okay?"  Sister G said he didn't come....but he hopefully will in the future! :D We also visited with a less active member, and the lesson was SOOOOO good! The member we brought (who related a lot to her) did most of the talking. After, the less active woman was really quiet then said, "So....church is at ten....right?" 

Skadoosh. 

Now with transfers coming up, Sister R and I did a lot of time saying our goodbyes to people. We called up the lady with the donkeys and asked if we could come for a lesson and take pictures with her donkeys. She was super, super excited about it. We go over to her house, and help her take the donkeys out and tie them up so we can get a picture with all three of them. 

Now here's what I discovered: Donkeys like attention. When donkey's AREN'T getting your attention, they push on you. 

I wasn't giving them enough attention. 

Two of them were shoving their noses against me, and the third was pushing the owner INTO me. 

Have you ever had three beastly animals crowding around you and pushing you against a trailer? 

I thought I was gonna die. 

I ran away. 

Now let's get to Friday. 

We were walking down to visit our investigator (her last visit before her baptism) when this 30ish-year-old guy steps out in front of us and shouts, "WOAH! YOU LADIES ARE BEEEEEAUTIFUL!" 

So he runs up to us and we say, "Thank you." 

Then he points at me and says, "Especially YOU! You are BEAUTIFUL!"

".....Thank you...."

"What are you guys? Church people?" 

"Oh, yeah we're---." 

"I'LL COME TO CHURCH IF YOU GUYS WILL BE THERE!" 

"Well....we will be!" 

"Alright! what time is it at?!" 

"9:30."

"Well if you give me your number I'll come!" 

"..........we can give you the church address!" 

"Okay!" 

So Sister R writes down the address and gives it to him then I said, "So...what's your name?" 

He tells us.

"Oh it's nice to meet you." And I stick out my hand for a handshake. 

"I'm not a hand shaker I'm a hugger!" 

So the man hugged me. 

I think it's been so long since I've hugged a man I've forgotten how to. 

So. Uncomfortable. 

Oh and he didn't come to church. 

Now for the moment you've all be waiting for: Transfers. 

We were sitting in a restaurant when our calls came. Quickly we ran outside and the Zone Leader says, "All right....who do you want to know first?" 

"Us!" 

"You can't know where you're going first."

"DUMB. Fine, the Elders!"

"Elder J is staying and Elder F is going to Herkamer." 

:''''''''''''''''''( 

RIP Elder F. I'm gonna miss ma little Elder F. 

So then I said, "Okay where are we going?" 

"Okay, you ready?" 

"Yes." 

"You sure?" 

"YES." 

He does this every transfer. So annoying. 

"Hold onto your socks, okay? You're both staying." 

.............."WHAT?" 

"I KNOW!" 

"BUT IT'S BEEN FOUR TRANSFERS!"

"I KNOW!" 

"THIS NEVER HAPPENS!" 

"I KNOW! You must be doing SOMETHING right!"

Or something horrifically wrong that president is like, "Ah man. Don't wanna spread these two around." 

Joke. 

So Sister R and I will be in Owego another six weeks! Cra cra. 

Don't know who the new Elder coming in is, but apparently he speaks and writes fluent Elvish. I had to promise Elder J I wouldn't make fun of him. 

And I won't! 

But Mama Cox might. 

Then the BAPTISM!!! It went SOOOO well! We had a lot more people than we thought would show up come! She was so excited and happy. Right as she sat down she turned to me and was like, "Oh wow I feel a difference already!!" 

I was so happy! And so was she! Everything went really well and she only had to get dunked once! We hoped things go more smoothly than the last baptism. I sure do love her! 

Welp. Church is true, y'all. Hope these next six weeks bring great success!

Hurrah For Israel. 

Sista Stimpson. 

Occcccccccccccccctober

This week has seemed so long it's like I can't even think of what happened this week!

But in casual small talk, the leaves have been breathtaking! It's like all the trees are Mike-n-Ikes. Just that deep green, deep red, deep yellow or deep orange color. Y'all should be jealous cause I have the prettiest mission EVER. Seriously breathtaking. But then this big ol' nasty rainstorm happened and a lot of the leaves fell off :( Still though. It's pretty!

And humid.
I hate humidity.
And so does my hair.
Since I've started my mission I've tried to be more positive in life, but that is one thing I will consistently hate.
Humidity.
Frizzfrizzfrizzfrizzfrizz.
Dumb.

But anywayyyyy

Monday evening we had a GREAT lesson with a less active member again! I just love her! It has been AMAZING to see the progress she's made since we started to meet with her. We've seen her go from debating everything we said, and not taking any of our commitments seriously, to seeing her rediscover her testimony, feel the spirit, and actually say, "I seriously meant to read the chapter you left me!" We committed her to watch conference AND SHE BETTER HAVE CAUSE THERE WERE LIKE FIVE TALKS THAT I WAS THINKING, 'SHE NEEDS TO SEE THIS.' We're meeting with her again tonight so hopefully we'll see some continuing progress.  I can't say if she's super close to coming back to church, but I know we're making progress. She keeps saying she's making baby steps towards coming back, but I don't think she realizes the huge, bounding steps she's already made.

On a side note, I've eaten so much food this week it's disgusting. It was like national 'feed the poor, little, already-full missionary' week. Will you all still love me if I'm fat? But I really do appreciate it! And the food was good!

Tuesday was a great day to be a missionary. Sister R and I taught district meeting and it went really well! Then we had a lesson with our recent convert and the bishop came with us. It was fantastic. She even bore her testimony! We talked to her Sunday, and she said she didn't watch Saturday's General Conference and I was thinking NOOOOOOOOOO because, again, there were like five different talks where I was like SHE NEEDS TO HEAR THIS.  You'd think that prophet and those apostle guys were inspired or something.  But it's good to see her making progress!

Our investigator also had her baptismal interview on Friday and is good to go! I hope the ward supports her and that she'll be fully friendshipped. But her baptism date is set for this Saturday! We dropped by yesterday and helped her set up conference on her ipad. Hopefully she'll watch the whole thing.

We also had a good experience after conference on Saturday. One of the members fed us dinner! She brought us to her friend's house. We've visited with the friend a little in the past and have become good friends with her. The friend also invited her friend over. As we're eating dinner, the member's friend started talking about her previous studyings with another religion, and her friend was like, "Hey I belong to that religion!" and we were like, "No way. That's awesome!" And she said, "Yeah....but there's a lot of questions that they can't really answer....but their main stuff I believe!" Somehow, later, we managed to get on the topic of the member's friend's son who passed away, and how, through her various studying with other religions, she's really not sure what happened to him. We shared a scripture (Alma 40) about the resurrection, and asked if both of them would be interested in learning about the Plan of Salvation, and what we know happens after this life. They agreed! They both said they're open to learning, and although they may not fully study the gospel, I'm excited to at least tell them the message and plan Heavenly Father has for us. So hopefully that works out.

Thursday, we went tracting. We met a nice woman who was Catholic, but she gave us water and let us pet her dog, Lucky. I thought of Monique's doggy. Then after a lot of uninterested, but pretty nice, people. We knock on a door and this woman dressed in a fancy outfit answers. So I'm like, "Oh...looks like we caught you guys heading somewhere." "Yes we have a meeting on missionary work for our religion tonight." And I was like, "HEY WE'RE MORMONS!" And she goes, "Oh! See both of us go door to door." She wasn't interested. But she was nice. And had a nice blouse on.

Friday was discouraging. Things didn't go well with the lesson we taught.

Then CONFERENCE! Saturday we watched both sessions at the church, and Sunday we watched the sessions at a member's house! Saturday's sessions were AMAZING! I definitely connected better with them. And my WHOLE life...well okay not my WHOLE life....I've always been like, "Man. Elder Holland is EVERYONE'S favorite apostle/speaker. I respectfully refuse to make him my favorite apostle because he's everyone's favorite!" So I see Elder Hales get up to speak and I was like, "Ah yes that's my man. He's totally my favorite." Then Elder Holland spoke. Yeah....he's now my new favorite. Tears. Tears everywhere. AND ELDER UCHTDORF! AND ELDER CHRISTOFFERSON! AND SISTER STEPHENS! AND ELDER BEDNAR! WHY ARE THEY ALL SO GREAT? IT'S LIKE THEY'RE APOSTLES AND PROPHETS OF THE LORD OR SOMETHING! WHY CAN'T EVERYONE JUST WATCH AND ENJOY CONFERENCE AS I DO???

Anyway. I'll leave you with this story:

After conference, while at the member's house, I saw a squash. So, naturally, I picked it up and threw it at Elder F. So then he threw it at Elder J. Then he threw it at Sister R, and we got a game of  'toss the squash' going on. So then, naturally, we started using T-Rex arms and acting as dinosaurs as we did so. I mean, what else would you do with a squash? In the whole process of this, the squash got pretty destroyed. (Sorry, Mama Cox.) So, naturally, we all stepped outside so that we could watch the Elders punch it. So as they're punching it I'm like, "Well I wanna punch the squash!" So they hold it out, and I muster all my strength and threw my best punch at it!
And it didn't make a single impact on it.
Lame.
So then I'm like, "Not cool. Trying again."
So I muster my strength again, throw my best punch at it, and totally slid, head butted the squash, and for a split second I was absolutely horrified that I might accidentally fall on Elder J (who was holding the squash).
SO. EMBARRASSING.
Needless to say I'm VERY glad that didn't happen.
Shabadoodoodashabadoodooda another awkward moment.