Name of the week: Topramenisha

Say it slow {top-ramen-isha}
Okay I'm kidding but seriously, there are so  many weird names out
here. The baby name page in my journal is overflowing with names like
"Naquanna." Sorry Ma and Pa, your grand kids are outta luck. The power
went out, I almost had to use my pepper spray twice, and I almost got
my head shaved by some lady from Peru. Lotsa close calls folks. But
that's beside the point. So we got like 10 new investigators and we
were following up with them and got rejected by half of them at return
appointments after they seemed interested so that hurt because you
seriously get emotionally attached to people so quickly and then when
they don't want to keep learning about the gospel it's pretty
crushing. But that's okay because there are other people who are truly
prepared. We had 3 investigators at church! The family we are
teaching, and our girl Dia. I think the family was super weirded out
by our ward cause they come in and there are like 30 people, and the
talks were on self-reliance...I feel another drop coming on.

One of our new members brought a friend to church and we have been
teaching her all of this week. On Thursday night she asked us if she
could make an appointment to be baptized. I had the biggest smile on
my face, mostly because of the way she said it, but I just know that
baptism and this gospel will make her so happy and carry her through
her struggles. Oh wait let me back up ... We had a mission-wide fast
that each companionship could baptize 1 person and take 1 person to
the temple before the end of the month. We have 4 people who are
supposed to be baptized in the next 2 weeks but they all have some
sort of hang up with either word of wisdom, or they won't come to
church...whatever. But we had this fast and first of all we had 80
people at church which was a miracle in itself, but then this new girl
shows up and she's so ready to be baptized, it was just a crazy
testimony to me that fasting really does work!

We also went and talked to this sweet sweet lady, Joanna. Oh my
goodness she is absolutely perfect as far as the things of this world.
She has an impeccable, humongous house that is perfectly decorated and
a huge pool, she has a perfect body, hair, wardrobe, and her husband
is super jacked and a lawyer and makes lots of money and they drive
nice cars, but beside all that she has the biggest heart. You'd think
someone who looks like she does wouldn't be very friendly, but she is
constantly helping people on the streets and giving people help. We
talked with her for almost 2 hours about the miracle of forgiveness
and how she can live life to the fullest despite the temptations we
might face. I seriously don't know why she's not Mormon haha but she
is such a good example to me of the kind of person I want to be, she
would do anything for anybody. She's Greek and she gave us all this
Greek food which I'm obsessed with now. It's seriously so funny
though, people think we are perfect and never do anything wrong and
that we have all the answers to every question when really some of the
stuff she was saying helped me! I've just been thinking how crazy it
is, the things I learn from others on my mission.

I've actually been thinking a lot about education since everyone is
going back to school. Dude, I have two degrees, a lot of job
experience, and a pretty good resume. But seriously none of that
matters, because I have learned more in the last 4 months than I have
all throughout high school and college and all the jobs I've had, and
besides that the things I've  learned here actually MATTER! Please
don't let "education" get in the way of EDUCATION. Read your
scriptures, pray, get close to God. He will help you far more than a
tutor or a teacher. Don't take religion as an easy A, it can be of
real worth if you let it. I say all this cause I didn't do it, and I
can see the difference it would have made if I would have. Anyways,
sorry for being preachy.

On another note we drove past some construction and I saw a loader
using the quick-detach bucket and he just slid it right off and I went
off to Sister Cox for like 15 min about how much better Deere is than
Ford and how nice the quick-detach loaders are. You can take the girl
out of the country but you can't take the dang blasted redneck out of
the girl. It was seriously so embarrassed when I realized how much I
was talking about it. If I were her I would hard pass me but she loves
me for who I am so that's good. We have memorized all the lessons
together! Our teaching is so much more smooth as we build off the
points in our lessons. We have more comp flow and I have seen the
difference in the spirit as we teach because we are more prepared.

I love it here and am so grateful to be in Belle Harbor with Sis Cox,
she is the cats pajamas that girl. I know that the gospel is true and
that if we can live it it will bless our lives far more than we can
comprehend. I have also seen Satan working hard in the lives of some
of the people when he sees them about to do the right things. You just
gotta beat the satan bug guys he is real and he is smart, but if we
are on Christ's side we cannot lose,
I love ya all!
Sister Wadsworth


Pics:
1. District p-day, of course Sis Cox wasn't tall enough so I had to
lift where I stand.
2. Oh look, it's sister wadsworth when she doesn't do her hair and
make up! But we found this cool beach and I NEEDED a picture of it.
3. On second thought, I'll just take a pic of the beach by itself. Yay.
4. The gold chain was inspired by Mo Mo. It's all the rage here.
5. The Atlantic beach!
6. I couldn't get over the ocean on Friday, it looked like there were diamonds !
7. We came in for dinner hour and Sister Cox made pudding so of course
I had to teach her how to make cream puffs with it! She's a natural.