Church is True, Book is Blue

Time is flying! Sis Batsuuri is done training and I hit my 10-month mark on Saturday! Oh and I'm getting transferred so say goodbye to Queens YSA!! What a great area.

This week was super fun! We did a zone-wide exchange and I got to be with Sister Andersen, my MTC companion! It was a pretty uneventful exchange, I went to the doctor so they could dig out whatever was in my foot. It was pretty swollen the rest of the week so good thing we have a car! We had a ton of fun and it was cool to see how much we have changed in the last 10 months. Something I learned from her is that it really isn't about the success you have as a missionary, but the effort you put in. You could invite everyone you see to be baptized and never have a baptism, but that doesn't mean you didn't do your job. I firmly believe the most important person to convert on your mission is yourself. 

We did a train finding activity as a zone where we had 4 missionaries each read a verse of scripture super loud and then we gave out a bunch of Book of Mormons, I had 2 really cool (and 1 creepy) experiences. The first person I talked to was an adorable old catholic lady, Grace, and she basically grabbed the book out of my hands after I told her about it.  Our conversation ended with a hug cause I guess we were "there" in the relationship. It's funny how a 2 minute discussion about the gospel can make two strangers in New York best friends. The second lady was a little more aloof so I went for the "families are forever" approach...works every time. Just tell her this life is about families and that the gospel is meant for families...she was all about it. She practically grabbed the book from me too. Church is true, book is BLUE!! Afterwards the senior couples in the office bought our zone Panda Express because of the stellar job we did cleaning the church when the General Authorities came. 

The Astoria ward had a talent show and our elders signed up the whole district for something so we did a skit that actually turned out really funny. We had the greenie Elder Robinson knock 4 doors, at one of them Sister Batsuuri came out screaming at him in some kind of Asian language and swatting him with a broom. It was hysterical. I'll try and send a video. 

There is this guy in our apartment building who sees our name tags so I think he assumes we are nuns, every time we walk past he says "hallelujah!" "Praise the Lord!" And all this stuff that's pretty hysterical and makes me laugh. The other day he walked past and didn't say anything so I was just like "praise the Lord, brother" and he was like "hallelujah" so I was like "amen" and we just kept going back and forth, it was seriously so funny. We have the weirdest people in our apartment. Esp the maintenance guys haha. Our drain in our bathtub broke so we were forced to ask them to fix it. My trophy wife skills aren't to the plumbing level quite yet. Anyway he tried to get us to make him breakfast after he fixed it and so I opened the door and was like "wow thanks so much, have a great day!" And he just got the most shocked look on his face and walked out. Hahaha. 

I had a cool experience at the mall on Monday. We were at Sephora and I wanted to talk to the lady about the church but I didn't know how so I asked her to teach me how to do eye make up (which I already know how to do haha), we had a really good discussion! I taught her the plan of salvation (without her knowing it) and she really liked it! I love talking to people about the gospel in a "normal" setting with no pressure. I used to be so intimidated about bringing the gospel up in regular settings, but talking about God is something everyone can relate to, whether they believe in Him or not. The best part was when she told me to try doing on my left eye what she had done on my right eye and I did it like I normally do and she was like "wow, you're really good!" And I was like yeah, do you wanna be baptized? Haha jk but it was a fun experience. We can talk to people about our religion guys! The only way to get over our fear of doing so is PRACTICE. Sorry not sorry but that's the only way.  

Sunday was the best thing ever because Richard finally set a baptismal date! It's been almost 4 months of teaching him, but he is finally ready to take the plunge! I am seriously so excited for him. It is so incredible to watch people make changes in their lives for the better! It is also cool to see the progress from when we were first teaching him and he claimed to be Atheist. I can tell he wants to follow Christ's example.

This week I was studying about anger. I know that's kind of a weird topic, but I was talking to a less active girl about it(she was telling me a story about how she punched someone at work..legit) and decided I wanted to learn more about how we can control our anger. There are some excellent talks and scriptures about anger, one entitled "Agency and Anger" and something I learned from it is that no one can ever make us angry. Becoming angry is a choice we make, and it is similar with being offended. I thought "oh well I never get offended" but right after that I pretty much got called out by Elder Bednar:  "When we believe or say we have been offended, we usually mean we feel insulted, mistreated, snubbed, or disrespected." I was like, oh yeah haha actually I feel that way sometimes, and I realized it's because I choose to. We are in control of how we feel, but we have to take control. I know choosing to look past hurtful things and looking for the positive in others and in life will bring us the most peace and happiness. Amidst all those talks I found one "Trial of your Faith" based on a study of Ether 12:4. I love what Elder Andersen said: "With faith come trials of faith, bringing increased faith." Its a good way to look at trials: an opportunity to increase our faith. I know this gospel is true and happy lives are possible because of it. 

Love you all, thanks for the support! 

Sister Wads

PS ...a scripture a day keeps the devil away

1. Our District + the ZLs and Spanish Sisters!

2. Macy! 

3. MTC besties reunited!

4. S H O V E L I N G