I'm not old...I'm ancient

The subject title is from Sister Dorsky, FYI. Finally got a good picture with her....see below :) she's like 90 and is still kickin. 

This week went by wayyy too fast!! Sister Lemmon turned 20 on Monday!! So obviously we had to party so much. I took her to a thrift store and we got some fun stuff for cheap. Also went to 5 guys and had a real burger for the first time in like a year ha ha. This week consisted of basically all of our plans falling through which was fine with me cause some incredible things happened instead!
So there is this girl, Karen, who's family moved from China so they could worship, even though they don't have a church. She lives right by our church so she started coming and has been coming (unbeknownst to the missionaries) for the last 3 months! Well it's Brooklyn Stake Temple week and she wanted to go but as it turns out, you actually have to be a member to go to the temple so now she wants to get baptized!! Holy cow what is life?! So we are working with her and hopefully she will get baptized soon. We have also been working with a 10-year-old boy whose grandma is a member and he is SO HARD to teach. Like the ultimate A.D.D. child here. But thank goodness for ios9 and the drawing feature on notes, we have him draw pictures of what we teach while we're teaching and it is the first time missionaries have been able to teach him all the lessons! You should see the poor kid's teaching record, every companionship was like "maybe when he's older" and stuff like that but DING DING DING we taught him everything so he is getting baptized next week! And of course Peyton got baptized yesterday so that was the coolest thing ever. She pretty much bears her testimony of the restoration non-stop through church it's so presh. I'll save that story for later.
We are also teaching this lady and it's been so cool to see her boyfriend's heart soften:
1st visit: we ask if he wants to join the lesson and he walks into the other room
2nd visit: sat there through a video about Jesus
3rd visit: waiting on the couch with the Plan of Salvation pamphlet in hand and was more responsive than his girlfriend.
Haha!! I love what the gospel does to people, they just can't help wanting to know more. Oh and a random funny story, we often walk past a waste management facility and Sister Lemmon is always like, suffocated, and I'm like, so happy cause it smells like a dairy...you can take the girl out of the country but ya can't take the country out of the girl!
We had an amazing MLC mostly talking about patience and setting goals for next year but I will skip over that to tell you a story about poor Elder Paterson. He is from Cardy and knows all of Travis' family...pretty much a hysterical Canadian. Well we had a break and so everyone was walking back in but he tripped over the Assistant's MacBook cord and almost fell into his seat so we were all kinda joking about how he tripped and having fun. So we have a tradition where when Sister Reynolds walks into the room we all stand up out of respect. So Elder Paterson tries to stand up but something went wrong and he fell down and his chair folded up so he was flat on his bum on the ground and we were all just dying laughing. Seriously everyone in this mission feels like my close family now. It's like I have 120 little brothers and 80 sisters. And President and Sister Reynolds are like the parents, it is SO FUN to be a missionary in the NYNYS Mission.
So let me skip to Sunday cause it was cray. Reminded me of when I was in Belle Harbor there was so much happening! First of all, we had 10 INVESTIGATORS at church.All progressing, most have been coming consistently...what the heck? In NYC? Fuhgeddaboutit. Seriously couldn't even keep track of them all. We attended Young Women's because 4 of them are in there. After church Peyton got baptized! The RS room was overflowing and the spirit was amazing. Most of our investigators stayed for it! She was so happy and was crying and smiling and our hearts were so full! President and Sister Reynolds came as well and it was so fun to have hem there! They are THE CUTEST thing of my entire life. Right before the baptism a young lady from Malaysia walked in and said she was looking for a church to join. She knew a few things about our church so she said she would like to be baptized....I was like...uhhhhh...the font is full so uhhh....haha. We got her contact info and have an appointment. AFTER the baptism Heavenly Father sent us another new investigator. She is from Japan and she googled churches near her home and thought ours looked nice. She came and our members basically jumped on that and welcomed her in so nicely. We had a lesson that evening and she LOVES the restoration. She was in a crazy church that was making her vomit on command and all this really weird stuff we were like "yeah we just have green jello and that's about as weird as we get..." Ha ha. Met with her again last night and set a baptismal date. I don't know why we are being blessed so much!! I know it's not about us though, these people are ready whether we are or not, so we are trying to pull ourselves together and catch up to God's pace!! I seriously LOVE missionary work and being here in NYC and being with Sister Lemmon and working with all these amazing people! Life couldn't be more perfect. LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Sister Wadsworth



Pics...one from the dr's...I got mah flu shot
Some vintage clothes we got at this cool store....
And some guy with some nast dreads on the train he kept flipping his hair and it was touching my comp...sick.
And pics taken by Lemmdog
And PEYTON'S BAPTISM

and President and Sister...the cutest things ever.

And the Laundrymat

New Tires

Well Howdy!
This week started out golden!! Last Sunday we stopped by Anna's house, we found her on the subway a few months ago and she said she'd never join cause she believes we can have more than one prophet. We stopped by anyway and she was walking out the door with trash so she invited us in and we small talked for a few minutes and she showed us her incredible shoe collection from Aldo.,,seriously like 55 pairs it was impressive. Anyway we started talking religion and she kinda broke down and said she didn't know if her efforts as a single mom were enough. We showed her the video "you never know" and she seriously bawled through the whole thing cause obviously the spirit was telling her she should join our church haha. She thanked us profusely as we walked out and asked us to come back the next week. She made it clear she did not want to attend our services. BUT she texted us the next day: "Hello. I asked God last night why did he allow our paths to cross. I'm trying to understand it.  Is your objective as a missionary for your church to bring people to your church?  Because if its not, and it's more about teaching people about Jesus, perhaps we can get together when you have time to talk about God and Jesus. I'm steadfast in my beliefs mainly because it is what I was taught, but also my personal relationship with God. The things he's revealed to me.  I've heard him literally speak to me.   With this being said you are always welcome in my home to teach my daughter and I the word of God. You can read from your bible. I can read from mine.  ;-). Please send me that video I watched yesterday. I may stop by your church one day, but I will never stray away from what I was taught and what I believe to be true. I do have many questions about the bible and God, so maybe we can share knowledge and ideas. I'm totally down for that." It was like music from heaven! This was one of the coolest things of my mission to see her heart slowly change and now she is willing to give it a shot! I KNOW she is going to accept our message, and it might be sooner than we thought!



We had an exchange Tuesday, I was with Sister Jenkins who is a total riot and we just get each other. It rained so much but we just had a good old time in it! She is an angel and let me borrow her rain boots. We went to a dinner appointment and the lady fed us (straight up) 3 HUGE hamburger patties with a bunch of rice haha I felt like a boy eating that much meet but it was good! Haha. We had interviews with President. We made him and the assistants some "special brownies" so that was fun, right afterwards we exchanged with the ASL sisters. I was here with Sister Barker and  we had such a good time! She is going home when I do so it was good to relate about feelings and stuff. I went to the foot doctor! Guess what??!! WENDY THE WART IS GONE FOR GOOD. There was a bit of a callous but the podiatrist shaved it off and my foot feels sooo good! It's like I went to Les Schwab and got new tires and am lovin walking again!! #blessings Sister Lemmon had a bit of a rough exchange haha. She was with 2 new missionaries so she had to drive and their car overheated so Sister Barker and I ended up going to the mission office to exchange back. They are know without a car but I have my Lemmdog back so all is well!



For Halloween we had to be in at 6 and we were cleaning our house but realized we couldn't go take out the trash cause obviously someone would murder us so we opened our window and I chucked the trash bag as hard as I could and it made it into the dumpster! So that became a bit of a game...we also made some yummy fajitas but I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this cause no one cares.



The highlight of this week was Sunday, we had 8 investigators come to church, and the elders had quite a few as well! The gospel principals class was super full, and Peyton's baptism is next week! Sister Lemmon is singing a song and I am playing so it will be great we are super excited for it! We are also getting people to the temple this week so the work is going AMAZING. This area is on fire. I love the gospel so much and I am grateful for these past few weeks, I have learned so much about the Lord's plan for us but more importantly how much He loves and cares about all of His children.



Love y'all!
Sister Wadsworth

A Nice Cup of Tea

Sorry I didn't write a ton last Monday, we were getting our hair done! We had a ton of meetings this week, 2 Zone Training Meetings and of course exchanges but there were a few really cool things that happened:

We went to teach this cute lady who we are trying to take to the temple. We decided we needed to just go in and ask her about herself. Well little did we know she had quite the story! She married someone from Iran and moved there with him when she was still pretty young. I guess in that country the men sit around all day and the women do all the work-basically second-class citizens. She put up with it for quite a few years before she moved back to the states by herself. She got her master's degree and had a good career teaching special ed till she retired. What a lady!! I felt ridiculous telling my story: I have a perfect family and haven't really had a hitch in my life. Her faith was amazing to see shine as she talked to us. 

I was on an exchange with Sister Park and we went to see one of our investigators who is getting baptized. The elders taught her and set a baptismal date and then gave her to us to teach. We talked about her baptism and she told us how she wasn't ready to be baptized and how she felt pressured by the baptismal date. Well Sister Park is a convert of about 2 years and she explained how she felt the same way. She invited our investigator to pray and set her own date. It was a miracle because she seemed like she didn't really want to be baptized but when we asked her to set her own date she got really excited about it!! It was so cool that of all the days we teach her on we taught her when Sister Park was here. Church is true. Oh and ya know the old lady who always feeds us on Tuesday?? The one who is deaf and you have to yell the prayer? (And everything else) Well she always makes us herbal tea after dinner and she was pouring some into my teacup and she spilled it alllll over my dress haha it burned my leg it was the funniest thing of my life she didn't even really notice cause she can't hear anything...sooooo funny.

On Thursday and Friday we had Zone Training Meeting for Zones 2 & 3, Sister Lemmon and I were supposed to give a workshop for the second one but we COMPLETELY forgot so we were livin a little up in front of everyone but it turned out great! We did 2 trio exchanges and I went with Sister Lewis and Jahnel, I absolutely adore both of them! Sister Jahnel is from Paraguay and made us the most amazing empanadas I have ever had. And Sister Lewis just gets me so it was a great time. 

We helped one of our less-actives clean her house on Saturday, it was quite lovely haha. She was asleep on her bed the whole time so we did our thing. NY homes can be so awk, people sleep in what would be the living room back west and everything is just super open so there's no secrets! ....most of the time that's a bad thing haha.

I feel like Sunday is always the week's highlight, or maybe I should say delight, we had 6 people come to church, they are all progressing, and most of them are well on their way to baptism! It's so fun to work with our lil investigators, I love them all so much!! We also found some new investigators this week and set them up with baptismal dates so it's a pretty exciting time to be in Bensonhurst! Peyton is going to be baptized on the 8th and the whole ward is super excited, she is basically already a member! Ok this is too random but I hate the smell of weed. Someone in our building smokes it so sometimes when we get home at night it's like suffocating is its SO disgusting. I heart the Word of Wisdom FOR REAL. 

A scripture I have been lovin this week is in Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." We all need direction wherever were at in life, and that direction comes as we obey the Lord and put Him first in our lives. I love the gospel so much! It brings life to life.

Thanks for everything, I love ya all!

Sister Wadsworth

New hur don't care

Life with Lemmon=HAPPINESS

Rudy. He for reals has a mullet. Cutest kid ever.

Our mission nurse Sister Peterson! So cute...and my compie <3

My girl Sister Van (:

This guy was legit dancing around the mall with a clock on his chest...

iPad probs...haha I love Sister Lemmon

All the girlies we exchanged with..and Elder Banta #whywedontaskelderstotakepictures 

My Name is Sister Wadsworth: I'm a Missionary, A Hurricane Survivor, and I'm a Mormon

10-5-15

Time is going by so fast! Probably because we are so busy, but it's crazy!! For preparation day we seriously just took a break from life and stayed in our pad most of the day because of my foot and we were just tired. We had a lesson with our investigator who is getting baptized next month. We took her to a member's house and these poor members!!! I have never seen saints get persecuted as much as they do here in NY. Their neighbors were like, super mad for no reason and the straw on the camels back was when they said (after some other unpleasant things) "AND you're Mormon!" Now I see why some people might say New Yorkers are mean....they sure can be if they want to! 

Tuesday I went to Bushwick with Hermana Lewis, oh my goodness we had quite the exchange.  I'm not really sure why I have the flu but I think it's because of not ever fully recovering from my foot (although my foot is a lot better now!! #yessss) but I go with this sister to a member's house and I was seriously passing out from NyQuil and then the people's cat came up to Hna. Lewis so she petted it but she's allergic so her eyes got all bloodshot...we were both a wreck. The member was cooking us some Hispanic food but it seriously took her the whole time so from 7-8:30 we sat there, dying. She made stuff with shrimp in it and obvi I will throw up if I eat it so when I told her I was allergic she started making something different...bad mistake. So it took even LONGER and then when we finally got to the lesson she left the room and we couldn't even teach her! So we taught her daughter and then left. It was quite the evening, let me tell ya. People think the hardest part of missionary work is rejection but I would have to disagree, it's acceptance and then being openly ignored ..... 

The next day we had our Zone Training Meeting in Midwood, it's always good to go back to the motherland! People always think that I can play the piano for these things but I still can't play so it's always embarrassing but whatever, it was a good meeting. One of the sisters gave a workshop about being a consecrated missionary and it was so good, it totally applies to normal life, we should be giving our all to God wherever we're at in life. Oh and we were notified that there's going to be a hurricane. Not like we needed to be notified because it seriously already WAS a hurricane outside it was raining so hard! After the meeting I came to Bushwick with Sister Cox and Sister Skinner (yaaaassss) we had a great night, i.e. We got cancelled on for everything so we walked around in the rain trying to find people who would let us in. No one did ha ha. Probs got pneumonia but it was a good night anyways! Something I love about these two sisters is that no matter the circumstances they are ALWAYS happy and laughing about everything. Attitude is seriously everything in this work. Next day we went to THEIR Zone Training Meeting ha ha so many meetings!! And then the hurricane hit..

So it kinda hit the night before, but when we came out the meeting it was full on war between the rain, my hair, umbrella, and me. It's like trying to walk through a pressure washer in a dress holding your luggage cause you're on an exchange plus an umbrella that doesn't do anything to keep you dry, wearing the raincoat you got from someone who is half your height because you're an idiot and sent yours home because OBVIOUSLY it wasn't going to get cold before November 25th, all the while your hair is stabbing you in the eyeballs cause the lady who cut it when you were 15 didn't do the layers right so now they don't fit into a bun....you get the picture. And hence the title of the email seeings as how I am quite proud of myself for being alive to write this. I walked around with Sister Skinner and Cox for a few hours in this but we finally made it to back to Bensonhurst. I made em sit down while I made soup and biscuits. I was blending the soup and the round little plastic thing that goes in the lid fell THROUGH the lid into the blender so the carrot curry soup turned into carrot plastic soup. Also it's like 20 degrees outside but our landlord won't turn on the heat so I have been sleeping with like 15 million pairs of socks...yeah It was just a bad day. My comp got back from her exchange in Staten Island and we went out for an appointment. Well of course the bus wasn't running so we waited in the tropical storm for 30 minutes before we called a less-active to see if we could come over. She said yes! We went and had an awesome lesson, the spirit was strong and her and her husband both felt it. It was the best! The best worst day ever! Except for the day after that, Saturday haha. This doesn't end guys I'm just getting started. 

Obviously Conference is the best thing of my life. In between sessions one of our members was kind enough to make us some legit Brooklyn Italian food. Too bad it made us sicker than sick haha. We got on the bus to our investigator's house to watch the second session and had to get off twice to throw up. That doesn't even make me mad! I'm only mad because we missed the first of the session when they called the new apostles. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. ah. But we had massive miracles the remainder of the evening, we went to look up a referral and the person who referred them said that they wouldn't be too interested but the lady was so nice! We had a lesson and she invited us back! Then we had a miracle with prayer. One of our members was having some family struggles and asked us to pray for her. I usually pray when I get home at night but I asked Sister Anderson if we could pray right then. We did and the member texted us a short time later and said that things had worked themselves out!

Around 8:50 we arrived in front of our house. We both still felt sick from the food and motion sick from the bus. I was about in tears but me and my companion decided we wouldn't go in till 9. I wanted to go home. Not inside the gate and up the stairs...I wanted to go Nevada home. I felt sure that no one cared which is so dumb but that's just what I felt. As we walked I started to tear up for a different reason...how dumb was I being? I felt like the Savior was walking right next to me and He definitely cared. He was feeling everything I felt in that moment, and He wanted to help. I still wondered why we had to stay out in the terrible weather. There was no one in sight to talk to but we walked across the street to go see a woman I had met last week. We didn't have her apartment number so we said a prayer and called her. After about 10 rings she answered! She had already said she wasn't interested so I wasn't sure why we should try again but I just asked her how she was and she said she was sick. I told her conference tomorrow would cheer her up and we would pick her up the next morning. She agreed! 

OK I KNOW THIS IS SO LONG BUT THIS IS THE BEST PART!!!

We went to our investigators church and it was the most hysterical thing of my life! It was like EFY haha they had us stand up and sing while we clapped and danced. It felt weird to do that and then go into the chapel of our church and listen to the living prophet ha ha. The spirit definitely speaks quietly! The picture of her is the best, she was all gussied up and it was sooooo great, yaaaaas. I also see why our investigator is so confused. Their church didn't really teach anything, they just danced and messed around. We are so lucky to be in a church where people GET IT. I heart our church so much. It requires somethings of our soul...it isn't just a happy-go-lucky concert experience 1 hour each week. It is taxing, fulfilling, and joyful all at the same time. It is a lifestyle, not a Sabbath Day commitment. I love the gospel and the God that it leads us back to. I'm grateful for a Savior who loves us enough to let us go through hard things, so we can LEARN!! 

Love you all,

Sister Wadsworth

1. Exchange #1 of the week. These girls>>

2. Exchange #2: bro pic

3. Hurricane survivors!

4. CAROLINE.