my weekly of emails

So it seems like this week is the week that everyone has finally realized how long I've been in Saratoga.

While volunteering at the soup kitchen, one of the other volunteers said, "So....you've been here a while. Do you know when you're leaving?"

"Nope...."

We visited a less active woman who we hadn't seen in about a month. Her reaction when she saw me was, "You're still here? You've been here forever!"

"I have not! I've only been here since January!"

"You've been here forever!"

A family who was in the Hill Cumorah Pagent this week came back. The dad saw me and said, "Hey! You're still here! Do you know when you're leaving?"

A family came back from their vacation in Georgia. The two daughers ran up to me and said, "YOU'RE STILL HERE!" and the mom came up and asked, "So when are you leaving?"

The Bishop in the ward asked, "Sister Stimpson how long have you been here?"

"About 7 months."
"HERE for seven months?"

"Yes."

"Wow."

The ward mission leader said, "Yeah Sister Stimpson I think you're the next one to go."

"WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP SAYING THAT?"

"Because you're been here since January!"

Guess we'll find out on Saturday. Transfer calls are this week.

Everyone seems convinced that it's time to leave....except me!

This week was really good. We had a lesson with one of our young adult investigators this week at the church. She held the door open for me and I caught a glimps of her hand.

"Wait -- is that a CTR ring?!" I asked, seeing the tiny, green shield on her finger.

"Yeah! I found it on the Deseret website."

I smiled :) Like this: :D

We sat down for our lesson and began talking about the importance of reading the scriptures when she said, "Yeah I've been so much happier since I've really started getting into this. Sometimes I look at other people and think, "But you're just not happy! You think you are, but you're only happy in the moment!"

Why is she the best?

Our other investigator had his baptismal interview this week! He passed, but his date has been pushed to the 23rd to give him more time to look for an apartment to move into. Ever since then, he's called and texted us a good few times to tell us how excited he is to get baptized.

Why is he the best?

Elder G, who did the interview, called us afterwards (we were in Utica that day, so we weren't able to go) and said, "Man....he talks really fast."

"You should've seen him before he was off of coffee!"

We had Sisters Conference this week! Sister L and I got to do a training on modesty and helping the sisters better follow the standards of missionary dressing.

The whole theme was "Rise to the Hastening." At the end, President and Sister Wirthlin gave us each a balloon and we released them to symbolize "rising" to the hastening.

It was very poetic.

Anyway. Transfer calls Saturday.

No comment.

I love you all!

Hurrah for Israel!

Sister Stimpson