Haha it's raining soooo much right now.
This has probably been the most up and down week ever. I guess a lot
of stuff similar has happened since I've been here but I try not to
write about the "hard" things, but I guess I feel the need
to talk about discouragement because it isn't all fun and games all
the time. Like it is most of the time, but not all of the
time, just sayin.
So Monday was basically Murica to the
max. We went to Wall Street and took the Staten Island ferry past
the Statue of Liberty, that was fun and we got lots of good pics. I
fearlessed this 90-year-old man who gave me a physics lesson and
talked to me about history for pretty much the whole ride...he
wasn't about that gospel life though. Afterwards we went to the
Brooklyn Bridge Park and played rugby. The highlight of that was
probably me making mad yards only to get tackled by my comp and we
both went sliding and were sore for days. It was def a bonding
moment. The elders seemed to think it was pretty funny...us limping
off the field. Haha jk but that park is sooo pretty. We got tons of
great pictures. I also have a new hobby! People put random stickers
over the back of all the signs and me and some of the elders have a
competition to see who can get the coolest stickers. So we spend
the whole trip getting some rad stickers and having a good time.
That night we watched Meet the Mormons with some investigators and
less-actives so it was a pretty fun day and they all liked the
movie.
Tuesday we spent some time cleaning
up the 111 referrals from church Headquarters that have built up in
the area over the past year. So yeah that was our Tuesday. If
you've served a mission ha know what I'm talking about. That night
we exchanged and I went to Coney Island with Sister Snow...I love
her! We totes had a miracle, we went to see a lady they had been
trying to see for like 6 weeks, she let us in and we taught the
Restoration and she agreed to get baptized!! We also did service at
Prospect Park and some other lookups so Wednesday was a full day.
Thursday I went to the temple for my year-mark temple trip. It was
such a good experience and I appreciate the temple so much more now
that I can't go whenever I want (speaking of which, we are going 3
times this week to take less-active returning members so
uh....haha). Yeah it was great. I hope ya'll go to the temple as
much as you can.
Friday we met an investigator for
breakfast at Juniors Cheesecake, the most famous New York
cheesecake place! We had eggs and bacon but my stomach couldn't
handle it haha. I have had oatmeal for breakfast every single
morning since I came out. We went from there to Zone Training
Meeting (ZTM) I gave a workshop about fearlessing and I have pretty
much concluded that we cannot share the gospel unless we feel the
power of the atonement in our own lives. After that happens sharing
the gospel is an instinctive part of who we are. We also had a
great lesson with our LA family. We are trying to baptize them all
so they can get sealed haha. We taught the 7 kids the Plan of
Salvation and it is SO HARD to get them to sit still. I was so
grateful for the visuals you made Ma, they helped soooo much. They
were into it and answered questions! And we sent a baptismal date
with the 10-year-old!! I love families so much.
Okay Saturday was like a millennium it
was soooo long. We got up and started off by going to see a member
who had surgery. We talked to her and her husband fed us some weird
food. We headed to the church to have correlation over FaceTime but
when we got there my com threw up all the weird stuff he had fed us
and then correlation got cancelled and we kinda wanted to go home
since she was practically dying. But we decided not to and went to
see a 98-year-old woman in the hospital. We waited in the heat for
like an hour and the bus finally came. Totes worth it cause we found
some money on the ground haha. So we got there and saw her and then
I started to get dizzy cause we all know how I am about hospitals.
Anyways, so the lady who got baptized 2 weeks ago was supposed to
get confirmed but she hadn't been texting us back #badnews. So we
went to drop a note by her house but on the way there we seriously
had 4 run-ins with drunk men on the street. Every time we would
cross they would come over to the side we were on and say something.
Like it wasn't the same group of men, it was 4 different incidents!
You know it's bad when they're like "I don't mean to start any
trouble but it's my birthday and I like white girls....." Hah
go jump in a lake bro. I know the Lord protected us, we just looked
ahead and didn't say anything. After the second time I pulled both
things of pepper spray out and we walked armed and ready. Seriously
you don't wanna tick us off cause we were ready to spray anyone who
even looked at us by that point. So we took her the letter and did a
few more lookups and actually found someone! Miracle. I appreciate
Jewish neighborhoods so much now. Jewish men won't look at you, let
alone talk to you, so we were in the clear. It was a beautiful
spring evening and we had a great time walking home.
We got home and our recently-baptized
friend called and said she doesn't want to be confirmed. Like,
pause. Here we are, listening to her tell us reasons why she doesn't
need to be confirmed and she kinda doesn't need an organized
religion. As a missionary, you feel like a complete failure because
they are going back on everything you thought you taught them! We
were both bawling our eyes out by the time she hung up. The elders
came and gave us blessings and we bawled some more, sorry I'm not
hot when I cry like on the movies. I was sobbing like a little girl
and probs looked scary. Our elders are seriously always there for
us. Well, we decided to fast and then we went to bed cause we were
both sooooo done. We woke up the next morning comforted, confident,
and trusting that the right thing would happen. She didn't come to
church and I was trying not to tear up the whole time. The chorister
didn't come so they started playing the opening hymn and I hurried
and ran up there to lead haha. By the end of church we both felt
better and decided we were going to revamp our pool. The Lord
seriously showered more blessings on us than water when it rained
today! We were able to meet with a lady who we have been trying to
contact all transfer, we taught her the restoration and set a
baptismal date! She is so happy. We met a family and they said
they'd come to church next week, and we taught a less-active who has
never let us a teach her a lesson before!! We were overwhelmed with
everything and by the time we got home were completely depleted from
not eating all day and from all the spiritual experience we had! I
was reading in Genesis this past week about Noah and I couldn't help
but think that after every storm there is a rainbow.
Whew! It was cray cray. So for studies
this week I have noticed a lot of I guess "temporal"
things about Christ's character. He never wasted anything. He didn't
waste the loaves or fishes, he didn't waste His time, and he never
used more of God's power than He needed. He "always did those
things which pleased His Father." When he raised Lazarus from
the dead he could have swooped the tomb door open and made the
burial clothes come off but those things can be done by regular men,
so he asked them to be done by regular men. He only used His power
for what was needed. It made me think of our iPads and technology in
general, if we use it unwisely, we lose power over the adversary,
but when we are in control of our tools we can use them to further
God's work. I love being in this mission because I feel that it is
preparing me to meet the challenges of life after I return home. I
am grateful for the Holy Ghost. Half the reason I was bawling when
we were on the phone with our person is because I know how much the
Holy Ghost has blessed my life and I couldn't understand why she
would say "no" to it! God is in control, and He has a
purpose and plan behind everything that happens to us.
I love you all, thanks for your
support and love!
xoxo
Sister Wadsworth
1. Uh my new hobby...goin for the
stickers. PS being tall here is good for 3 things: sticker hunting,
running from creepers, and catching busses.
2. In front of the city with the favs!
3. Temple Trip.
4. The tree behind us was blossoming
but I guess you can't really tell in the pic.
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