Transfer 1 is done

I had my first awkward encounter with boys, except it wasn't with a
boy. We were walking home from Branch Council and this lady stops us
on the street cause she liked my skirt. So we are talking and I give
her a Book of Mormon and she like, wow, it's so refreshing to see nice
young girls! And then she's like, my son is a professional surfer and
he's performing today. We declined the invitation to go watch him
(whoever the heck he even was), and then stood there while she wrote
down his phone number, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook info on the
same piece of paper I had just got done writing Travis's name all over
during our 3-hour branch council. Wow I'm so ADD sorry guys. I don't
need no yuppie surfer boy. But thanks. No seriously, thanks.

It should be obvious to anyone who I'm close to that there are two
things I HATE. Dogs. And chicken on the bone. Turns out putting the
two together isn't a bad combination though. We are at a dinner
appointment and they're making us this legit Fettuccine Alfredo and
the smell is pretty much hypnotic. But they get the chicken out of the
oven and it's like all bones. I've been subtly kicking the little dog
that's been licking me for the last half hour so my cat is starting to
get pretty chapped at this point. So we're eating and she's like, just
throw the dog the bones! You got it lady. I think I ate a tablespoon
of chicken and gave the rest to that blessed little dog and he just
chomped it right up! Problem solved. Wish that option was available
for the fried caterpillars.

So I got called to speak what little English I know here in New York.
I don't think they took that into consideration for exchanges because
I found myself in the middle of Flushing aka chino land with Hermana
Lingenbrink. I tried to help her teach but it's a little hard when you
can only say "orange" in these people's language. Good thing we had
that Spanish computer game growing up...that filth saved my skin that
night. Anyway we are praying at night and we get this phone call. The
other sisters that live in this sketch building had someone break into
their apartment so they wanted to come spend the night. Holy sleepover
I felt like I was in 6th grade. Of homeschool haha too funny. Did
anyone know there is like a top 3 "mission crushs?" That's a thing. A
very real thing. I was so outcast on that conversation #zoningtime so
glad I don't have that problem. So other than that and the fact that
there were cockroaches and mice in the apartment it was a successful
exchange. They do this thing where the whole zone goes on a "street
sweep" or fearless. Oh heck Flushing basically flushes you of every
drop of hydration you have. Street sweep is like that plus murder. I
have literally never been so miserable and hot. It was just wonderful
in a dress.

We did another exchange on Friday, this time I stayed in the Harbor. I
was driving and if that wasn't a scary enough thought, imagine me
driving in New York not knowing where I'm going...and having a Sister
Training Leader in the passenger seat...and being away from Cosmo. We
were stopped at a stoplight when a guy in a really nice car in
oncoming traffic slammed on his brakes and rolled down the window. I
was sure he had seen our nametags and had finally found the church he
had been in search of his whole life. Nope you're wrong, I rolled down
my window with a pass-along card in hand and he just says "excuse me,
you are absolutely beautiful and I just HAD to tell you." Well okay
then. Let's keep driving.

A cool thing I learned this week about repentance...for some reason in
our church I gather that a lot of people think that repentance is
something done on a weekly or daily basis. President had talked about
something called "real time" repentance. When we do something, and we
feel like it was wrong, or we could have done something better, or we
just don't feel good about it, we can pray and ask for repentance
right there instead of carrying it with us till that night or till
Sunday. We can repent on the spot and continue onward and upward. Each
Sunday we can partake of the sacrament and unload everything. As we
repent often, we can feel the spirit more closely and be able to make
better choices. When we repent often we are changing constantly to
become like Christ and we are more humble through recognition of our
weaknesses. I had never looked at it that way so it was cool,
hopefully y'all think so too. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ
can help us through life with our different trials, because He knows
us on such an individual basis as His children. The closer we are to
Christ, the happier we'll be.

Love you all!
Sis Wads


Sister Sariah Wadsworth
New York New York South Mission

Fried Caterpillars and Crazy Drivers...Forget About It

This will be trippy but we have half of our P-day today and the other

half..(who knows when?...maybe Tuesday) because of some crazy

scheduling and exchanges...mind you I still expect my email to be blow

up haha.

We were able to have a training meeting with the senior couples, APs

and President on Tuesday. President said that, like parenting, we

would never appreciate our trainers until we became trainers, and then

told us to stop judging our trainers. I'm just sitting there like,

dude I need to stop worshiping Cosmo and then start judging her so I

can do like President said and stop judging her. Seriously though, she

is the cat's pajamas that girl. I could tell you good things about her

for days. It feels like we've known each other for years, not weeks. I

just wuv her. Wow this is fruity I should probably cool it.

So we go to this lady's house, she used to be a JW but she in the YW

presidency now and super cool. She starts talking to us about her

college days, and before we know it she's pulling out her belly-dance

performance videos. She insisted that we come back to learn some

moves. She also told us that belly-dancing originated from an exercise

for pregnant women to sooth the baby. I'm like seriously considering

starting a class for pregnant mamas when I get back. But we are

sitting on her couch for what seemed like forever watching this stuff

and then she's like getting out the bells and the scarfs and shiz. We

were so slayed we couldn't stop laughing. She almost convinced me it

was an art after we saw a gay guy do it. Uh not. Not quite converted

to that yet hah. We talked to her about For the Strength of Youth,

she's in YWs and has never heard of it haha oh my goodness I'm just

dying thinking about it. We also went into a bar for one of our

service activities cause they were feeding us there. Like seriously,

the stuff you do as missionaries is just a riot.

The members here are crazy. Everyone in the branch has been baptized

for under 5 years, so it's like Grand Central recent convert Station

at church each week. When we got out of the temple my first week here

one of the ladies who just went through was like "oh are you new

girl?" I said yes and she's all "aw hell yeah girl!" Inside I'm like

dude we just got out of the temple cool your jets that's like a swear

word and I'm homeschooled. It's so funny but cool to be around, they

are all so pure in heart, their prayers are all so sincere the spirit

is really strong in church each week. Especially when no one gets lit

on fire. Like literally. The members here feed us too sometimes! We've

had fried caterpillars and cow intestine/goat/fish soup with fofo. I

hope you can sense my enthusiasm all the way from F-town cause it was

nastayyyy.

The weather here cannot make up it's mind. Seriously just like a

woman. When we did service we broke the rules and went swimming....IN

SWEAT. It was so hot. Then the next day when we took the ferry to the

temple it was cold and windy and raining. As if I already didn't have

a hard enough time deciding what to wear in the morning sheesh. Okay

but the ferry ride though? SO BEAUTIFUL. We went past Coney Island

(#dreamy), Staten Island, and NJ and got off by the Brooklyn Bridge on

Wall Street and took the tube up to the temple. The temple was amazing

as always, and we had a little time till the ferry left so we went to

Chipotle. While we were walking down the sidewalk we see all these cop

cars and a person on the sidewalk with a sheet over them. I guess the

lady jumped out of the 8th floor. It was so sad to see that people

have so little hope for their lives. We saw a lot of other crazy

things too sheesh. Wall Street is so cool. If I wasn't gonna be a

trophy wife I'd def jump on a job there. Being in the city makes you

realize how lucky you are to live in the country though. A lot of

people tell me they hate it here but they stay because they make a lot

of money. It's like they're trapped in their own life. All about that

redneck life doe. The Stach of Lib is pretty legit, and it was so cool

to see in person. I saw Central Park too! It's like everything

happened on one day opsies shoulda saved some for the rest of the

mish. I seriously love it here though, it's so pretty in it's own way.

And. The traffic. When I first got here I thought all the missionaries

were completely irresponsible drivers because they did the most

ridiculous things, but holy cow, they were being defensive drivers! If

you don't go fast, you die. End of story. And your life if you're not

careful. We got hit yesterday by this blonde chick (self-explanatory).

We were stopped and she just slowly pulled into our car! She knocked

our mirror in and Cosmo was honking and the elders are banging on the

windows but she kept slowly driving into us! Like dude you are just

chapping my cat right now. Pay attention! Then she just drove off. See

ya lata ya home and car wrecker. Forget about it.

But we are alive so that's ideal, and we have had an amazing week, I

got to teach my first real lesson! We found this girl Jah'Leah, she's

like my age, and her dad is a bishop for a diff church, but she said

that when we came and were telling her about how the Book of Mormon

would change her life she had a good feeling, so we taught her the

Restoration on Friday night and saw her again Saturday and it is going

really well! She "lost" the five Book of Mormons we gave her and her

family (there are like 15 of them in the apartment) but I'm pretty

sure her dad threw them away haha we'll see how that turns out. Other

than that we have been in Belle Harbor, chatting it up with people on

their porches trying to get them comfortable with the Mormons so that

they might come to church someday. Cug. It's been amazing to be able

to study every morning. At first I didn't know how I'd use up a hour

by myself but now it's not enough time! I'm learning so much and it's

seriously such a blessing to be out here. It's weird cause I could

write to y'all all day long about the things I've learned, but that

means nothing. People have to learn and study for themselves to truly

understand the gospel. I hope y'all can take some extra time out of

your lives to study the scrips some more, it really is a blessing to

have the word of God on the earth today through a living prophet. The

church is truuuuuue!

Have a great week kiddos.

xoxo

Sis Wads

Sister Sariah Wadsworth

New York New York South Mission

First Month Madness

I promised myself I would never become that sister missionary. The one
who wears no make up, doesn't fix her hair, or puts no thought into an
outfit for the next day. Cosmo and I just aren't like that. We try to
look our best all the time. But maybe we try too hard sometimes. It
all started with Mo's (Cosmo, Morgan, Sis Myers, it's all the same)
hair. She wants to be blonde and tan for summer, and of course you can
sign me up for that filth. So we decided to dye her hair. Last week's
p-day was our first failed attempt. We bought all the stuff and came
back to our pad to do the deed. Well, you couldn't even tell I spent
two and a half hours doing a beautiful weave because the color didn't
show up. So we tried again the next Monday....this time with bleach.
We had another sister come and do it because she knew what was going
on. Well, we thought she knew what was going on. Long story short,
there was extra dye and she looks at me "do you want some blond?"
Being the young, wild, restless, yolo, dumb blonde chick that I am I
thought "what could some blonde dye hurt?" Um. A lot you idiot. I wish
I would have inherited a few things from my father...like common
sense. It looks like someone poured a can of yellow paint on top of my
head. Soooo hawt. I look pretty brofessional as a sister mish.

But press forward saints, so we went and sang for the GA (Gifford
Neilson) the next day. It was an amazing meeting I wish I could share
everything from it! One thing he said that I loved was that "the
reason we go on missions is so that we can be excellent parents." We
sang our song and it turned out pretty good. It should be moving up to
1 million views on YouTube soon so keep an eye out. We rode home with
Durkin and Beautiful J (Jensen) and got into a heated discussion about
grass-fed beef. Jensen is kind of a hippie I think, and was set on
grass-fed beef...completely convinced that corn is bad for cows...I
had him turn to D&C 89:17.  We really can find answers to all our
questions in the scriptures #puredoctrine folks

Service this week was hilarious, we hung drywall in a sketch part of
town, and came out pretty much safe from it! Mother I'm glad I
inherited you looks, but when you gave me the
klutz/trip-over-everything gene I don't think that was very nice. I
think our supervisors are dating so Cosmo and I just make jokes about
their love life the whole time cause we don't really have our own. Oh
speaking of eternal love, Travis made it to Australia! I think he is
biking in downtown Adelaide so I can't decide what is more sketch,
that, or the pee in the elevators. But he's alive so that's what
matters right?

One thing that has been hilarious is seeing how people view us out
west. The initial reaction to me being from a farm is disbelief. No
really, they don't think that I'm a farmer, and the reasons why are so
dang funny! One guy said in his Jamaican accent "are country girls all
really manly?" I almost died. Pssssh well it's not the first time I've
been called a man. Another question was: "do country girls only like
guys with big trucks?" Wait what. Not even gonna try answering that
one. And people don't know what hay or alfalfa is so when they ask
what I do it's pretty much hopeless trying to explain that one.

A huge thanks to Val for teaching me how to lift properly. I've made
friends with a lot of people at the gym in the morning because they
wanna know why I'm so yolked (wow why am I so funny) and we have given
out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon there! One lady I gave one to came
up to me this morning and said she had read my testimony in the front
and it made her cry and she wants to know more! I love doing
missionary work in a setting I'm comfortable with, even if it's with a
bunch of huge Africans who are obsessed with Lebron. And the Heat just
chap my cat so it's good practice for me to talk to them and stay
calm.

Nothing could have prepared me for the type of missionary work that we
do here. They should have a special MTC for people who go to Belle
Harbor. I thought missionary work was knocking doors, teaching
lessons, and sharing your testimony 34/7. Nope you're wrong Sister
Wadsworth, all we do in Belle Harbor is try to tell people what the
church IS. We've had maybe 4 actual lessons since I've been here?
These people need something different, they need to trust us before
they are gonna let us into their homes for a lesson, so we stop by
people's houses and chat with them, trying to build relationships with
them. Sometimes we get in a scripture, sometimes we don't...and it's
hard to accept that this is what missionary work is here. But when we
begin to see people open up and have questions about us and our
church, we get to tell them what we believe.  And there is nothing
more beautiful in missionary work than telling people how the gospel
has changed your life, and how it can change theirs too, if they let
it. We were having a serious conversation with a lady about the Plan
of Salvation when she asked if we date people when we get back from
the mish..I think she thought we did arranged marriages??? People
think we're aliens or nuns or something. I PROMISE IM NORMAL GUYS DO I
LOOK LIKE A NUN? I also got asked if I was Canadian....yessssss. Just
slays me every time.

Well we had a great weekend, the Branch President's wife got baptized
along with this guy who lives in the house above them. They are both
just stellar in the gospel and were so ready to make that covenant.
The Lord prepared His people on His own time, we just have to be ready
when they are. We met a great family in the Rockaways (sketchhh) and
they are excited for a return lesson! It is great to see how the
gospel can bless families, speaking of which, every time I show people
the family pic they like fall over in disbelief. And then you have
farmers on top of that, and then homeschooled jungle freak? New
Yorkers would have a hay day...oh if only they knew what hay was. The
only things that grow in New York City are weeds and weed.

I know this gospel is true, and that this is the only true church on
earth. The Lord is hastening His work in his own time. I wish I could
stay here my whole mission, I seriously love it here! It is such a
blessing to be able to serve a mission. Hope you all have a great
week!

Loves ya all,
Sis Wads

Sister Sariah Wadsworth
New York New York South Mission

Missionaries Set On Fire This Week: 1

So after I wrote on P-day last week we went to the beach for a little

volleyball. I think the Lord is trying to humble me cause I got the

ugliest tan lines out of everyone from here to Breezy Point. The weird

thing is that I'm not even mad about it haha. We might have done a

little shopping at this janky boutique and I might come home wearing

some crazy New York clothes....you'll still accept me for who I am

right? We knocked a ton of doors but people either wouldn't let us in

or else "weren't home." Finally we came back to the church and

practiced our song for next week. A General Authority is coming so

talk to us. I'm pretty sure if we mess up they'll send us home (just a

heads up). Sorry Mom and Dad.

Tuesday we had district meeting and then went to the Mission Home in

Rego for an iPad instruction thing. We came back and visited two of

our ladies with baptism dates the 8th and the 15th. We are so excited

for them! On Wednesday morning I started talking to a lady at the gym

and she said she'd come to church!!! It's so fun finding people

unexpectedly. Cosmo and I get checked out/yelled at/commented on

pretty frequently (in the ghetto usually). I say this because it goes

to show that you can be hot while being modest...ha ha. #creepedout

#daily

So like Wednesday is our service day and I wish I could say that it

was better than our experience last week with the bug spray but uh it

wasn't. We went out to Breezy Point to help remodel houses with

Friends of Rockaway. So Cosmo and I are working with this chick and I

don't wanna be mean but she was a vegetarian and that says a lot about

a person. So we are putting in laminate flooring and she is just

hovering like a helicopter this girl. Man I love hippies. Anyways she

finally left and Cosmo and I finished up the floor in like 2 hours! I

almost killed a guy with the table saw but it was just some internal

bleeding so he should be fine. IM KIDDING GUYS COME ON. So anyways we

get home and we are just covered in filth. I notice that my knees are

wet? It's probably just sweat right? Nope you're wrong my knees are

covered in blood. Praying is funner this way. Oh and my face is

peeling from being burned on P-day so I'm sure people are gonna be

totally receptive to the gospel when it comes to them in this form

right? Anyways if anyone wants their floors redone just call the Belle

Harbor sisters k? We pro.

On Saturday we had a going-away party for one of the senior couples.

It was from 5-9 and we didn't start eating till 7, so I guess you

could say it was getting crazy. People were hungry..it was hot..the

usual. There are like 50 people packed in the bottom floor of the

building we use for church. There are like 20 people in the hallway

kitchen. All the sudden one of the ladies' shirt caught fire and

before we knew what was happening she started stripping. So we have a

half-naked lady in the kitchen, stuff is starting to catch fire, and

nobody can get out. I might have been getting nervous at this point

cause I'm at the back of the kitchen. So she's waving her shirt around

trying to get the fire out of it when she lights Elder Durkin on fire

in a very bad place for a guy to get lit on fire. {shake my head} this

is going nowhere good. The fire finally got put out and there were

only some minor burns...I can guarantee that wouldn't happen at no

Fallon 2nd ward party.

We have been in the sketch part of town a lot more this week, we went

to the tenth floor of one really crazy place to look up a referral

with the Branch President's daughter and as we stepped into the

elevator we all pretty much threw up...I looked down at my feet and I

was standing smack-dab in a puddle of pee on the floor. I didn't know

I could hold my breath for so long but I totally did. Everyone has to

hear the gospel, no matter where they live, so I should probably get

used to it haha. I had Jamaican food, it's really good...especially

the ox tail. Yum yum?

Remember how I hate to play the piano? Well once again The Lord is

humbling me because I play in sacrament meeting, Sunday school, and

RS. Good thing I'm so good at it???...eh.

So I dunno if I told y'all this but my companion is seriously the

best. She is a great trainer and an even better friend. I wanna cry

when I think about leaving her, but that's a long way off so it's

fine. She is the most considerate person I've ever met and she is such

a good example to me. People would be stupid to hard pass her if ya

get what I'm saying.

Well if I get killed in a sketchy elevator this week I just want y'all

to know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that this gospel is

true. It is crazy to think that there are 1 million people in our

stake and we are lucky if there are 5 or 10 families that come to

sacrament meeting each week. There is so much work to do here but He

is preparing His people to receive His gospel in His own way and time,

Cosmo and I just have to be the ones that give people that choice. We

know that if we are doing the right things and being obedient we will

be led to people who are ready. I am forever grateful for the

knowledge I have of the gospel and that I can tell others about it. So

happy I have a family that is freakin cool and I wanna be with

forever. You are awesome keep it up!

xoxo love you! Sister Wads

If you want some bomb meatballs, this is Sister Dibble's recipe. You

won't regret it.

six pound bag of costco meatballs

2 bottles of Heinz chili sauce

32 oz bottle grape jelly

Combine sauce and jelly in a large crock pot.  Whisk together until

smooth.  Heat for 3 hours or until hot. Crock pots vary in size and

heating speed.

Belle Harbor, New York

Okay y'all are probably gonna think I'm lying when I tell you the stories from this last week, but it is amazing and I have been super blessed in every way. This is the most amazing work out there and I am so glad to be a part of it! On Monday we got up bright and early at 2am to head for the airport, miracle number one: we actually made it to Atlanta, and then New York without dying or passing out or having our luggage sent to Peru or all of the above so that was cake. I met a lady on the plane from Atlanta to New York. I think she totally would have read the Book of Mormon, I'm so mad I didn't have a copy! I talked to her about the Plan of Salvation and gave her a pamphlet. It was a good practice round for Fearlessing (street contacting) on the streets of Queens haha. We got to the mission home at 4 and had a dinner and fireside. President Calderwood is an amazing man and cares so much about the people here. He did like 1-minute interviews with us so he could determine where he should put us. The next morning we woke up and did our studies and exercises like usual. At 10 we left for the mission home and got there at 11. It's 10 miles away so if that tells you anything about the traffic....haha. We got there and they had AMAZING NY pizza for us...it's as good as everyone says. Anyway, this leads me to the greatest part of this whole story....my area assignment and companion!

All the new missionaries stood in a line facing the trainers and we stepped out one by one when our name was called and received our assignment. It was like when you're picking teams to play a game...of course I'm the homeschool kid that was gonna get picked last #storyofmylife. First was Sister Wang from China...I'm like freaking out here but then President called my name second and said that I would be working with the beautiful Sister Morgan Myers (Cosmo) serving in Belle Harbor!!! I didn't know how cool this was at the time so I just went along with her  freak out, hugging and questions. Little did I know, Belle Harbor is like the most amazing area area aside from Bermuda, we actually call it Bellmuda. We have this cush pad that is right across the street from the ocean. What really slays me is that for our work outs in the morning we can go run the beach. Oh except we don't need to because somehow we have a gym membership to the YMCA a couple buildings down. It is seriously the nicest gym I've ever been in. So yeah, it's frighteningly delicious to be a missionary here. 

Don't let all this riff raff get in the way of the most amazing part about this place, because the best thing about being here is the people. We took my bags home and immediately went to work visiting members and less-actives. I LOVE THEM! There are 6 missionaries all assigned to this branch/area, the APs, Durkin and Jensen, and myself and Sister Myers. I love the African Americans, Peruvians, and million other different nationalities that are represented here. Church is held in a building that is supposed to be a house. It is TINY. There is an average of 50 people who come to church each week. People here just have a hard time because they are all soooo busy with life that they have a hard time leaving space for God or putting Him as their first priority. Our main job as missionaries is to fellowship and build up the branch. We visited a lady and her husband who are active in the church. He is from OK and she is from Hati. Her mouth fell open a mile wide when I told her there are 10 kids in our our family. She seriously couldn't believe it haha. On Wednesday we did service for this older lady, she has a house that she doesn't even live in but she wanted us to redo her yard. What a janky dump eh, that place was like the secret garden before they fixed it up. It was like a spider and mosquito-infested swamp. So we are getting eaten alive after 2 hours so she comes out with this spray cause  Durkin is allergic to Mosquitos so she DRENCHES him with this "off" spray and we all get sprayed down. She goes back to the front and we go look at this rank bottle of stuff. It's not human mosquito spray, it's like this crazy air mist for your yard. The bottle reads: "do NOT get in contact with clothes, skin, or food" so Durkin and Jensen FLIP OUT  and we sped raked the rest of the grass junk up and left as fast as we can get to the shower. We all itch so bad haha. 

On Wednesdays we go play beach volleyball on Rockaway Beach. Because of Sandy we are sponsored on a team with some other people because people in Belle Harbor LOVE us after the help they got with Sandy...and it is a great way to talk to people. We have gotten quite a few people from it. Durkin was/is on the BYU volleyball team so he kills it and that might be why they like us as well haha I talked to a Jewish lady (Revelations 2:9) on our team and she was able to tell me a little about what they believe. She was super cool and friendly, but I guess almost everyone here is from my experience. I also talked to a guy Steve, he really takes care of the missionaries, even though he is Roman Catholic. He calls me and Myers "Cosmo and Blondie (or Reno, depending on the day)" He is a spiritual guy and believes in God but doesn't want to be Mormon. Someday hopefully? He gives us food like 10 times a week and takes us to really nice restaurants cause his kids don't talk to him so he feels like we are his kids (the Elders and Sis Myers and I). On Sunday he came to church, bore his testimony, and then left. It was a riot I think he cussed like 4 times on accident, but he loves the Mormons and only had good things to say. Apparently we go to his house on all the holidays and his wife cooks for us. Oh that is another thing, the members feed us all the time and it is AMAZING. The cheesecake is like divine manna sent from heaven. We have had some quality food here that's for sure. Whenever we go get food somewhere people are open about asking after the church and what we are doing. I gave a Book of Mormon to a guy in the bagel shop on Thursday! A lot of people listen because they are in awe that we would take time out of our lives to share the gospel. I don't think of a mission as a sacrifice anymore, it is an amazing blessing that I can share my testimony so often in one day, it strengthens me so much. 

We went to the temple Friday with 3 people from the branch going for the first time. I was able to be an escort! It was so cool to see how happy Natasha was, and it reminded me of my first time.  I thought she was gonna rip my had right off, she held it so tight the whole time. Manhattan was CRAZY. It took 2 hours on the train to get from Arverne to Manhattan and the train was super janky I'm glad we didn't die. This crazy guy got on and was yelling and doing weird things and then he went to one of the doors and stuck something to it?? Cosmo and I were sure it was a bomb and this was it for us, but we're here so it's all good eh?! On the way back it was us, the APs, and the DLs Durkin and Jensen. We were Fearlessing on the train and talked to some ah interesting people. We gave out pass along cards. Well, they gave our pass along cards. I tried 4 different people and they all just looked away or down or anywhere else it get away from me hah. Better luck next time eh?! So we took the train to the mission home and then the APs drove us home...another near-death experience...we were horizontal on a 6-lane road trying to get to Wendy's because we hadn't eaten in 10 hours. Aaaand we almost got hit twice. I couldn't deal.

BUT. We are all alive and the work is moving forward. 

Saturday was like a roller coaster. Marsha was supposed to get baptized in the ocean on Sunday but she kept being wishy-washy and it was really stressing us out :(  so it was kinda a bad day but we went to look up some referrals and found 2 new investigators! That turned our day around, they seemed super excited about our next lesson. One was in a really janky part of Far Rockaway, and we're walking out of the house and we pass this totally gangster dude so we smile and say hi and he says hi back and then says "y'all look good too" in this black guy voice. Prolly cause he was black? After the day we had we just got back in the car and started DYING laughing. It shouldn't have been that funny except he walked into the house of our new investigator! I'm telling ya, it's the little things like that. 

The work is going phenomenal, the Branch President's wife is getting baptized on the 15th with two other people, there is a family of 8 who are all setting baptismal dates for the next month. They became interested in the church because the Branch President's wife bore her testimony of Joseph Smith and the church to them. I think they think she is a member but it'll be funny when the get baptized on the same day hah. There are 4 more kids who were adopted that are all getting baptized on July 5th in the ocean. Too bad all 10 of us couldn't have gotten baptized in the Ocean on the same day. The struggle is real. The Lord is preparing people to receive His gospel and it is amazing to be able to be a part of their discovery of a relationship with their Heavenly Father. There are so many people who need the gospel, and it is difficult trying to help them see why. Many people have nearly everything they could ever want in life, and don't see the need for religion, or if they do they don't see the importance or feel the need to commit. I hope we can find a way to convey the blessings of the gospel to them in a manner that will help them understand, and fill a hole in their lives that they aren't aware is there. It just rips the fur right off my cat when people can't understand how much the gospel would help them. Cosmo and I have been going around visiting members and trying to get them to church. Most families come every other week. We share a scripture and try to bring the spirit into their homes. I think the most effective thing we can do is expose people to the spirit so that they learn how to pray and talk to God for themselves. In my opinion, nothing happens in conversion until one learns how to receive revelation for themselves.  

Well, I absolutely love it here and wouldn't trade these experiences for anything. It is hard caring for so many people and seeing them make decisions you know will hurt them. However I feel so blessed to be a part of this incredible work. The Lord puts words into our mouths in hostile venues when we would otherwise be confounded. He takes seemingly insurmountable problems and turns them into lessons and ways to experience growth. He knows my needs and the needs of the people here. Thank you for your prayers on behalf of the missionaries (PMG pg 94 is amazing, check it out). I know that we fulfill our prayers by our own actions, and that if we pray for something we often have to do some sort of work in order for The Lord to answer that prayer. We answer our own prayers by our actions. We are blessed most when we are obedient, and I believe The Lord will help us as we strive to keep His commandments, and follow the rules of the mission "Our faith is made perfect through works, our love is made whole through obedience." 

I know that God works in us according to our faith (Moroni 10:7) and will give us the righteous things we desire. Thank you Dad and Mom for your amazing example of missionary work in our ward, I am constantly telling people about you and your commitment to the gospel. You are so busy doing The Lord's work, within and outside of your home. I am so lucky to be in a family that values the gospel teachings and lives by them. Thank you for your support and love, I think of you and pray for you every day and thank my Heavenly Father for the blessing of families. Keep it up, I think you bless a lot more lives than you think. 

Love you always!

Sister Wadsworth

xoxoxo

Ps I've had Katy Perry stuck in my head all week (Revelations 3:15).

 This is the New York Temple.

 This is where their apartment is, as well as the Branch Church.