July 13-15
It's been a normal, crazy week again!
Valerie was baptized so on Monday we started doing some family
history with her so she can take some family names to the temple.
The only thing she needed help with was setting up her
account...from here she took off and now she has a TON of names to
take with her! She is amazing, and bishop already called her to be
the Gospel Principals teacher! The highlight of being out here is
people like her, she will make a huge contribution to the church.
On Tuesday we took Elder Shippen and
Elder Resinelli (from Italy!!) to a lesson with us. We have been
teaching a mother and her son, but we kinda got the impression that
the son needs elders so he can focus more on the lessons haha he is
in his 20s and single so obviously he can't resist our 300-pound
mission bodies we got going. It was so funny and awkward during the
lesson, I think the guy was confused as to why we brought elders
with us, when we walked in they looked like our body guards but it
ended good, he was interested in meeting with them further and we
had a great Plan of Salvation lesson.
Another exciting story: we have been
teaching this cute little family for a while now, and the mom and
son have baptismal dates but the daughter has been holding back.
She comes to YW and they convinced her to go to girls camp! We just
had to get mamas permission. It was awesome cause the mom probably
would have said no to her daughter but we asked and she was like
"okay!" And signed the permission slips right then and
there. I think this will really build her daughter's testimony and
we help her move towards baptism. I remember gaining a lot of my
testimony from those few days at camp. I remember my 3rd-year hike
when Sister Koenig taught us the 5 points of a testimony...I used
them in a lesson the other day when we were teaching our
investigator what a testimony is, it was super great!
We exchanged with the STLs on
Thursday, Sister Barnes came here with both of us so it was trio
life!! We were standing at a bus stop and this random dude comes up
and starts dancing up to us. We were like "what the...?"
He asked if we knew the "bus stop" (apparently that is a
dance or a song or something...?) we were like "uhhhh no
sorry" so he danced away. Hah! So many weird people...
We saw two less-actives and had
really great lessons, exchanges are fun!! On Friday we got a new
investigator, it was weird cause she is 21 but she is at such a
different place than I am. Scares me to think about who I'd be
without the gospel. But she is excited to learn more and was super
sweet!! We exchanged back and then went to pick up a recent convert
to take her to the temple. That experience kinda scared me as far
as being a mom. 15-year-olds are so dramatic and they walk really
slow! Haha. It was a super great experience for her and her cousin
came as well (we took him for the first time a few weeks back.) I
love the temple.
Saturday haha. We had a meeting at
8am with the Assistants, it was really cool!! We basically had a
council with each other as a district to figure out what is slowing
the work in the area and how we can fix it. We came up with some
pretty good ideas and I think the work will really pick up in the
next few weeks! It is exciting to be here at this time. Then we had
interviews with President Reynolds and while we were waiting our
turn we got to talk with Sister Reynolds and learn more about her.
I seriously love them so much, they are the cutest little couple I
have ever seen. And they're like, so in love haha it's adorable. We
went to some appointments and also to a finding activity on
Flatbush (the main drag) and then like all this stuff happened and
it was super hot but basically at the end of the night we went to
teach a less-active and she ordered us each our own pizza and I was
so stinking hungry I ate the whole pizza! Like, a large pizza guys.
My bad haha.
Oh my heck SUNDAY. I am gonna be
laughing as I write this whole paragraph. It was SO CRAZY. We showed
up to church and Valerie was getting confirmed and I was giving a
talk and we had to figure out some stuff for a less-active so it was
already crazy. Well we start sacrament meeting and first of all
there was no one to lead the music so the guy at the organ just sits
there looking at bishop. This is like the 4th time this has happened
so I know the drill haha. I jumped up and went up there to lead it.
Then it came time to confirm Valerie. The guy doing it was doing a
fabulous job, until he almost closed it without confirming her a
member haha. It was a close one. I was all smiles though, it is the
most beautiful thing to see someone you helped teach have that
experience and grow in the gospel. It is the happiest feeling I can
imagine. So I go back and sit in the audience and Elder Hwang is
sitting across the isle from me. All the sudden I hear "Sister
Wadsworth!" I look over and he is pointing to this girl a few
pews ahead of him and she is wiping her eyes and crying kinda
loudly. I was like "what am I supposed to do about it?"
And he was just like "uhhhh SOMETHING" so I have to
explain this girl first. I've seen her 3 times at church in the 5
months I've been here. The first time she was wearing a wedding
dress and bore her testimony about how she wanted to marry her
brother or something. The second time she had some other weird
outfit on and was completely wasted, and this time she smelled like
throw up and weed. So I went and sat by her and patted her back and
asked if she was okay. She cried louder. I asked if she wanted to go
in the foyer and talk about it. She grabbed her stuff and barreled
over me practically screaming as she sobbed. It was super awkward.
When she got to the foyer the RS president was standing there so she
took her outside and I was off the hook. Holy cow, it was dramatic!
I went back in just in time for my talk which went ok, I was talking
about the Parable of the Sower and used a lot of agricultural
examples which the city folk enjoyed. I had a few come up and tell
me I didn't look like a farmer. I think they expect overalls and a
straw hanging out my mouth. Oh New Yorkers! So oblivious to where
their food comes from, I think in their mind they see the word
"organic" and automatically equate it to "sustainable"
and "I'm a wise environmental steward." by buying this. So
great.
After church (there are a million
other things that happened that I didn't even mention) we went to a
members house to teach her how to do family history. We had Victoria
with us (the one we did a Mormon message with, it comes out in a
month or so) and it was THE COOLEST THING EVER to fill out some of
her family names and set aside the work so she can do it herself.
The spirit was so strong in the room as we talked about the gospel,
I know the spirit of Elijah is a very real thing, and I hope y'all
are doing family history work! It's so rewarding and it's fun!!
So yeah, that was it!! Transfers are
this next week so it'll be fun to see what happens! I love it here
but I will go wherever I need to. I was reading a talk by Elder
Holland, he talks about how the whole history of the church has been
running from evil and establishing good (brother of Jared, Lehi, the
early saints) but he says that: "In these last days, in this
our dispensation, we would become mature enough to stop running. We
would become mature enough to plant our feet and our families and
our foundations in every nation, kindred, tongue, and people
permanently. Zion would be everywhere--wherever the Church is. And
with that change--one of the mighty changes of the last days--we no
longer think of Zion as where we are going to live; we think of it
as how we are going to live." I love that, because it
is our responsibility to build up righteousness wherever we are, not
just wherever we go. It's being what we believe. And
honestly, that's the happiest way to live! Nothing else will bring
us true joy and satisfaction in this life other than living the
gospel. I know this is the true church and that it is Christ's
church. I love my Savior and am grateful for all He does for us.
Love ya all, have a great week!!
Sister Wadsworth
1. MTA life, photo cred: the beautiful
Morgan Myers
2. Exchanges!
3. The temple with Lor, the pic
explains everything haha
4. Jesus is my boss....literally.
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