Monday, February 2, 2015

Back in the Filthy Far Rock








Monday we woke up to beautiful snow falling! It was beautiful for about 2 hours and then I was over it. Mondays are always a spiritual hangover because our Sundays are always so incredible. I love church. We spent our p-day with Sister Lugo and Sister Pablo eating chicken noodle soup and backing up the 7,000 pictures I have taken since coming to New York. The weather got really bad that night, so we stayed in and made phone calls to random people in our phone who we don't know...that's always a party haha. Tuesday we shoveled snow for about 4 hours (ok it was probably like 2, but 4 sounds right for the way my back feels right now) and then had district meeting. Our District Leader is going home Tuesday and he is the most rigid missionary I have ever met. But we had just come in from shoveling and we're all in normal clothes and were run to the ground. So we sat on the floor in a circle and just had a good old talk about the area, our investigators, and then he gave an amazing workshop. It was one of the best district meetings I have been to. We brought Sister Hawkins and Larsen home and made them chicken noodle soup cause they were sick, and then took them home and went to our lesson with JeongAh. We were supposed to take her to the temple Saturday but it's closed for maintenance! It opens on the 4th, which is the day she leaves for Korea so we aren't sure if that'll work out. We talked about the temple and eternal marriage and she is so solid! I hope I get to see her again one day. I don't think I ever mentioned this, but we teach most of our lessons in the church. Well it was FREEZING in there, so we went in the mother's lounge to teach her and it was like a sauna! And there were rocking chairs so...ideal.  


Wednesday we did this thing with the other missionaries where you have to do certain things in a certain amount of time, like give out a Book of Mormon, 5 mormon.org cards, 5 English class cards, get some contact info, and do an act of service. So me and my comp walk out of the church (ok we were running cause I'm competitive) and this guy is de-icing the sidewalk. I walked right up to him and gave him one of everything and got his contact info. We even had a shot restoration lesson! We walked around the corner and gave out the rest of the stuff, and for the act of service I told this lady to quit smoking and she did. Haha. We did it within 10 minutes! We went back to the church and wrote our name on the board and then went and got 2 more people's contact info cause for every one you get after you finish takes 5 min off your time. The winner gets dinner made by the Zone Leaders (don't know how excited I am for that haha). That night we went to a turbo kick class with some of the members who "never have time to meet with us." It was super fun and I felt like we were able to "bond" with them as we all just about died from the intensity of it. The lady who teaches it is the wife of one of our councillors in the branch presidency and she is doing it as a missionary tool which is awesome! We can all use our skills to bring others into the church. 


Thursday we exchanged and I went to the Rock with Hermana Welch. Home sweet home! We taught a lesson in Spanish (*she taught the lesson, I sat there nodding my head) and then we taught English class that night! She really impressed me, she's been out a month and she can handle the area and the language and everything perfectly! The Lord helps us so much in this work to be what we need to be. It was a super fun exchange and when we got back we went and sang on the train! The one guy tried to hand me $20 after our song and I was just like "oh awk what do I do.." And then he told me I was enchanting when I sang so I was super uncomfortable haha. Luckily his stop was right then so he got off and I kinda just stood there not sure if I should be flattered or super creeped out. It was good though, we talked to lots of people! We will be sad when Elder Turley is home and he can't play the guitar when we sing...I dunno how A Capella would sound. That night we taught some awesome lessons and then went to FHE. I seriously love the people in the branch so much! Never wanna leave. 

Saturday we went with a member to help her run some errands. It's so funny here, if people don't have time to meet they just ask you to come along with them wherever they're going! After that it was look ups for the rest of the day. It is soooo cold! And of course Sunday was great, Sunday's are my favorite. Some of the girls in the branch have taken it upon themselves to "teach me how to wear lipstick" so one of them brought some bright red MAC lipstick to church and put it on me. Dude makeup is just not my thing...I felt like a clown. Haha! As soon as she left I went to the bathroom and washed it all off. Anyways testimony meetng. The spirit is ALWAYS present in fast and testimony meeting, and we had 5 of our recent converts get up and bear powerful testimonies! It was so beautiful. We also had a few awkward testimonies because you know if you're in YSA that there's gonna be some dating drama so people get up and talk about how no one will date them. I think it's hysterical. I love living life not having to worry about dating and watching other people worry about it...it makes me laugh. 

As I was studying about the Plan of Salvation this past week I was thinking a lot about the war in Heaven and how it continues on earth today. Something I have looked over in the past is that the war in heaven wasn't among strangers...it was among our bothers and sisters. It's so important to keep our eye on the prophet who will never lead us astray. Even those close to us can be deceived or convince us that small discrepancies are okay, but if we always follow the words of the prophets we can be sure of eternal life with God. With that, it is so important to live what we know. Satan was one of the greatest people in the pre-earth life. He probably knew a lot. But what we know does us no good if we don't live it. If we willfully rebel against the instruction God gives us we are no better than Satan. Anyway that sounded really dark, but when we understand all of this it brings us so much happiness and joy to be followers of Christ and cleansed from sin. I am especially grateful for the atonement and for its healing and enabling power that allows us to be much better than we could ever be on our own. I love this gospel so much. 

Love y'all! 
Sister Wadsworth

1. Snow crew!
2. Our zone mama is being transferred ): 
3. View of the city from Rockaway..the blessed A train graced my picture with its presence. 
4. On top of the roof at the sister's pad. 

5. "Welcome to filthy Far Rock" with Sister Welch

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