Ebola-free and Lovin Life!

This is the best mission in the world! It was another AWESOME week here and even though the weather has been kinda cold people's hearts have really been warming up to the gospel! Oh yeah, our P-day got changed to Wednesday but I guess that's kind of obvious at this point. Also, I just read Brent's letter. Promise I will never complain about cockroaches again. Ever. 

On Monday we went to the Brooklyn Bridge Park again to play some rugby. It was cloudy and super nice outside. Not gonna lie I was pretty antsy to get our week started because we had found so many people last week and we had return appointments with all of them! Tuesday we set out to go see all of our golden investigators (we have 4 potentials all on the same street)..with a member...in a car...we had confirmed all the lessons twice...what could go wrong? Well, none of them were home, except Israel, who turned out to be the pastor for his church and told us he wasn't interested. Good thing the member we brought is a less-active, we just taught her instead! Remember how God makes His own schedules? Well he worked some miracles in these two missionaries' lives...although we had specific names to fill all of our goals this week (which we did reach) NONE of them were with the people we had planned! We had lessons with completely different people!...but I'll get to that later. Tuesday was (in our minds) kind of a flop. Well on Wednesday we did service. All the people from our district and Coney Island go do service at Prospect Park on Wednesdays. I'm telling you, I was just itching to go on the street corner and proclaim the gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, which is pretty do-able in Brooklyn. But as we were picking up trash I was talking to one of my favorite Sister Training Leaders of all time and I think she as having a bit of a rough day and after we were done she said talking had helped her a lot. It's sometimes difficult for me to swallow, but a lot of times the people who need our help most are the ones we are closest to. We always go to Wendy's after service and I knew that this was my chance to fearless someone! As we were walking out I passed a table with two middle-aged women. I got the "feeling" and knew I had to talk to them. I turned around and walked back to their table. "Hi I'm Sister Wadsworth (in my grungy paint-covered service clothes), a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, would you like to hear a message about Jesus Christ and His restored gospel???" I think I was talking really fast or something cause they just started laughing. Nope. They were members! You just NEVER meet members in NYC. But if you do, you think they look like  they need the gospel and you awkwardly fearless them. My inspiration game must be diminishing. 

It's okay because that afternoon we taught a referral from Pennsylvania and her and her two kids want to be baptized! They were asking GOLDEN questions, I was really impressed with them. I think we are on a every-other-day streak because we totally bombed Thursday. I mean, we had a lesson with a less-active but our whole night was spent on a bus which was stuck behind a garbage truck going the wrong way so we ended up in some sort of Brooklyn Chinatown and the people we were trying to look up didn't even live there. Sometimes Google Maps hates us. Well since Friday we were due (in a sense) for more miracles we tried our hardest to make them happen! We had so many lessons scheduled we had to find 2 members and go on splits! Well then half the lessons cancelled...but we were NOT about to let that get in the way because it's not every day you can get TWO members on the same night! So we set up more lessons and everything actually went so well! My comp went to teach a lady we had fearlessed last week and her and her husband liked the message and invited us back! My story was a bit more radical. So I'm with this super cool member and we have a lesson at the church. The lady comes walking up and she is like, quickly walking around the building looking at all the pictures, snooping in all the rooms. She was really hyper too. I'm bein honest I was slightly freaked out! But as we sat down to have a lesson it was evident that she really was searching for the truth. She has a Bachelors in Theology and had already read 1 & 2 Nephi and Jacob! She also watched the Joseph Smith Movie and the Emma Smith movie as well and read Mormon.org in its entirety! Well somebody get this woman a white jumpsuit! It was the weirdest baptismal challenge I'd ever extended because she has already been baptized into many different churches. After explaining that the priesthood authority has been restored on the earth I asked "will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority?" She jokingly was like "yeah, I'll just get my rubber ducky." Haha I was trying not to laugh during the whole lesson. So we got 3 new investigators in an hour and 1 with a baptismal date! Miracles to the max! The Lord always puts people there for us if the ones we planned fall through. 

Saturday was destined to be another off day because the wart (I named her Wendy...Wendy the Wart) came back on my foot so I had to go get it dug out again all the way in Forest Hills. So we were on the train for 1 1/2 hours there and then back again so about 4 hours by the time it was all said and done. I guess it was worse this time, and he said I have something on my chest that looks like skin cancer so I have to go back, but yeah...basically I can't walk at the moment so we spent the rest of Saturday making calls and watching the Restoration movie. That's okay! Cause on Sunday we had more miracles! We had 5 investigators at church!!! And we were able to teach a lot of lessons that day as well, and take members because most people don't work on Sundays. We had a particularly good lesson about the prophet. Everyday I realize more the importance of having a prophet on the earth. We are so lucky!  

This week I had a cool study about the first vision, I always likened it to the restoration but this time I was really looking at Joseph's prayer and the way in which he prayed and the circumstances that surrounded it. Oftentimes we feel like there is thick darkness surrounding us, whether it's a decision we need to make and can't find the answer, or a struggle we have and can't seem to overcome...I know there is always a pillar of light, even Jesus Christ, there, waiting to encircle us with light and truth and help us overcome the obstacles we face. When we feel these feelings of peace and joy we have a greater desire to share them with others. If you're wondering how to gain a greater desire to do missionary/family history work, PRAY. Prayer really does change our will to the Father's will...if we let it. I am so grateful for Christ who makes it possible for us to pray to the Father, and I know we are always heard and answered in His time. As we live worthy the "spirit teacheth (us) to pray" and we will know what to ask for. I know God lives and Christ is our Savior. This is HIS everlasting gospel and it is our duty as members to share it with all we can. I love this work with all my heart. 

Love you all!

Sister Wadsworth 

1. The sun came out! Not used to this kind of turnt up weather yet

2. Wendy wanted to be in a picture.

3. Some selfie action..why not if you're in all day? 

4. Cripple life

The Gospel is Beautiful!

Wow just another week!.....haha NOT. This week was actually really different/better than most weeks! I have been thinking about how beautiful this gospel is and how I want everyone to have it, but I could use some work on doing everything in my power to share it. I always talk to people...if it's convenient, but I needed to work on getting out of my comfort zone and talking to EVERYONE. So I set some goals for myself and some plans to go along with it since I'm just tryna be the typical sister missionary, and they worked!! We seriously found 15 new people to teach this week! And they were all "hand-of-God", "tender mercies", "best 2 years" status miracles. So the play-by-play: 

Monday we fasted with an investigator about her baptismal date. I never realized it, but pretty much everything on p-day is food-related, so we chilled most of the day because we couldn't do any of our normal activities. We broke our fast together at 5 and it was such a good experience! 

Tuesday morning during studies is when I was reading in chapter 9 about finding and got this slap in the face that I needed to be better at talking to everyone. So we went to District Meeting and la da de and we had a bible referral like an hour away so we went out there and fearlessed people the whole way. When we got there she was totally prepared! We had a good little lesson and then as we were walking away I felt like we should cross the street and walk on the other side. We found this other lady who was super cool and scheduled a return appointment with her, and then she told us to go talk to her next door neighbor, so we did, and got an appointment with him, and then we got some more people's information on the bus ride home! Well you know that set me on fire, I think the Lord knew I needed a little success to boost my spiritual metabolism haha. 

Wednesday we had pretty much a repeat: went to see another bible referral and met a ton of people on the way there and back, as well as had a great lesson with the lady who wants her whole family to join the church. It cushioned the blow when we went to our investigator's (with a baptismal date) house and found out she doesn't live there nor had they ever heard of her. Nice. Well we didn't have time to cry over it cause we were finding too many other people who were ready!! Side note: I promised myself I would make this the last week of stories about getting hit on, (unless there were some really good ones) so here goes: Wednesday I got hit on by every single bus driver...I seriously can't handle it. I walk to the back of the bus just dying because like, wow, you look so attractive in your bus driver uniform, it's a pretty hard pass bro. Then we were walking down the street and this guy yelled out "are you JWs?" So we turned around and in my mind I was like "JWs aren't this good-looking who are you kidding?" Hah sorry I get so sassy. Anyway we invite him and his friend to church and I was like, what's your name? "Mega." Haha I almost couldn't hold it in till the corner I was dying. Who the? What the? Why the? Only in NY, or more specifically, in Brooklyn, will you find this kind of weird and crazy. On the way home we met an educated, normal, white person and got a return appointment. That never happens. Yaaaas.

Thursday we had all these great appointments, but they all got switched up. I don't wanna say they fell through necessarily because what actually happens is we schedule stuff and it's not who God wanted us to meet with so He does a little scheduling of His own and it all turns out! We had a lesson with a less-active family and fearlessed a million more people and did some bible drop offs. In case you haven't already caught on, we get like 5 bible referrals from Mormon.org every week. If you wanna keep your missionary friends busy, share Mormon.org on your Facebook or by giving out the little cards. GOL-DEN. 

Friday was great but it was the same drill so I won't go over it again. Saturday we went to Ellen's baptism and she is SO cute. I didn't know anyone there but I got asked to lead the music so I lead it and there was lots of awkward eye contact since it was a small group. My fake smile game is so strong these days. Haha jk it was such a beautiful baptism and the spirit was so strong. Love it. There was food afterwards, and at each of our 3 appointments afterwards which always happens on Saturdays so we were absolutely stuffed. 

Soooo member missionary work. About that...we brought a recent convert with us to teach an investigator and basically our investigator has like this arch-enemy who lives above her and flooded her apartment and won't pay for it. They hate each other. This neighbor happens to be the best friend of the girl we brought to teach with us. So uh background, I had had a very strong prompting that this was the right woman to bring with us. So we get in the lesson and they figure out they have this common acquaintance and I'm sitting here like "God, didn't you tell me to bring her? Of all the people, it had to be one who is friends with her enemy?" But the very distinct thought "it doesn't matter" came clearly into my head, and I remembered that the gospel is for everyone, whether they are friends or not. Before the discussion of the neighbor went any further I butted in and said "we have come today to teach you about the gospel of Jesus Christ and about repentance and forgiveness, I will say the prayer." And we proceeded to have one of the most powerful lessons about the atonement, forgiveness, faith, and repentance I think I have ever been in. The member testified boldly, and our investigator responded positively and even came to church the next day which is amazing, considering that had been a struggle previously. God knows what He's doing folks. 

Sunday was a blessed occasion, as always. Our investigators came to church, it was a nice day, and everything just went beautifully. Sometimes I feel like Sunday's are like a wedding, we spend so much time preparing people to come and we hold our breath until the moment the song starts because we want so badly for people to come and enjoy the spirit of the sacrament meeting. It always blesses those who attend. I am so personally grateful for the sacrament and for the atonement of our Savior and Older Brother Jesus Christ. Without Him there would be no hope nor healing in this life. 

Sunday evening we went to set family mission plan goals with a member of the bishopric and his family. The only reason I'm telling you about them is because I have never walked into a home and immediately felt the spirit so strongly as I did in that home, all the way until I walked out the door. I love seeing examples of saints such as these who give their all to building up the Lord's kingdom here on earth. I hope I can be like that someday. People like them remind me of you Mom and Pa, you guys are amazing and such great missionaries to everyone. 

Something I particularly enjoyed from studies this week was "The Music of the Gospel" from the last general conference. That is something I have been striving to do my whole mission, help people not just understand what the gospel is, but how to live it. Living the gospel brings joy beyond imagination, especially through the hard times. I am so grateful for a gospel that allows me to by myself, but better--who God wants me to be. I know turning our lives over to Him will help us understand the wonderful vision He has for us as His children. I am so grateful to be out here, because I feel like I have been able to see a tiny piece of what that plan is for all of us. I love this work!

Thank you all for helping me be out here by your support, I am so grateful for wonderful family and friends. 

Love you!

Sister Wadsworth

1. Just to mix it up: my beautiful sister

2. I told you the fake smile game was strong

3. Jenn Blosil is kind of a big deal, look her up on iTunes 

4. When the humidity gets the best of hair, skin, and you smile anyways

"I'd have him call in a pizza..."

First of all, it was so great to talk to everyone!!! You are all awesome and I am so blessed to have the best family ever! Still can't get over how big Don is...

On Monday we went to the Brooklyn Bridge again except this time we invited like half the mission so there were a TON on missionaries there. Wish I cared haha the only one I wanted to see was my BFF Sister Cox. It was super hot...maybe summer is finally coming? We also brought a recent convert with us so that was a party as well. We did lookups and stuff all day Tuesday and Wednesday, we also did some weeding at prospect park. We told one of the volunteers about Mormon messages so if we go this week I'm gonna see if she's watched any of them. Those things are so cool and help so much with teaching. 

Thursday was the BEST. The assistants came and picked us up in Midwood and drove us to the mission home for Zone Conference. President and Sister Calderwood's son just got home from his mission in Russia and gave an excellent workshop on prayer, along with the assistants who talked about extending baptismal commits and listening. Every time we go to a training it's not some new big thing. I think sometimes we get in the mindset that when the next big thing comes out its gonna solve all our problems. Like, we have iPads, we can baptize everyone in 2 weeks!! Nope. We do the Lord's work but doing the small and simple things consistently. We had a break for lunch and President busted out the BBQ. Seriously the best burger of my entire life. President and Sister Calderwood then talked about some more tools we can use to do the Lord's work better. They challenged us to keep all of our lessons under 30 minutes, which is really hard, but as we have done it we have already seen the blessings. They are truly inspired and I'm gonna miss them so much when they leave in July. 

We had like 5 appointments on Friday but every time we got to each persons house we would wait FOREVER and then they would eventually call and cancel or not get back to us at all. At the end of the night we went with a member to this 98-year-old woman's house for dinner. She stuffed us so full I still don't know what to do with myself. We shared the message of the restoration with her and she actually come to church yesterday!!! 

Saturday was sooo packed. With lessons and with food. I don't know why this happens but no one will feed us for a month and then everyone wants to feed us on the same day. We went to Juniors (the cheesecake place) with an investigator in the morning and taught her, then went to a part-member family's house and they had us pick up pizza on the way. Then we went to teach the 11-year-old and her aunt made us this ground turkey and dumplings thing with like 4 cups of vegetables so at least it was nutritionally dense, and then we went to play soccer. Well, we watched with our investigators and less-actives we brought....the elders played though!

Sunday is always a spiritual experience. I remember in primary people would always say how church "recharged" them every week and I didn't get what they meant, but now I do! All the talks were about mothers, but they were more focused on how motherhood doesn't mean having a children. I personally know many women who have influenced me and aren't married with kids. I am so grateful for ALL the women in my life. We handed out roses to each woman on the congregation and there were some leftover so my comp wanted to take them home. I remember when I got flowers for prom and as they were dying on the countertop Brent and Don would tease me and say "they're dying, just like his love!" Haha I thought of that and told my comp I didn't want to take any home, I wanted to give them out as we walked home. We passed many different women, one sitting on the grass on the median of the road, a Muslim woman pushing a stroller, and an old lady by the bus stop. I gave them each a rose and wished them a happy Mother's Day. Seeing the smile light their face was much better than having the roses on my kitchen table. You never know which woman doesn't have kids to say that to her, or who isn't able to see them because they are in a different country. Giving is always so much better than receiving. 

I taught the youth in Sunday School. OH MY HECK. It was so funny. We were talking about prophets and I asked this kid Elijah what he would ask Moses if he was on the earth today. He was like "I'd have him call in a pizza" I was like DUDE you have problems but that was so funny right now I seriously can't handle it. 

Sunday afternoon we taught a girl who has had a baptismal date for 3 months but keeps putting it off because she wants her grandma there. We asked if we could fast with her that her grandmas health would get better. She burst into tears-she is only 13-seriously, what a sweet little girl. So we are fasting with her today and we hope her grandma will get better so she can get baptized soon. Then of course we went to our favorite Filippeano family's house for dinner and there were lots of people there. They make the best food! And then it was time to Skype you guys! It is always so good to hear from you because it reminds me of what a blessing it is to be serving a missionary don to have a family who supports me. I am so grateful for each one of you. Congrats to Jared and Laurel on getting engaged and Jesse and Whitney's wedding this week. So happy for you! 

Something I learned this week was from the bible. Whenever I had previously heard the story of the loaves and the fishes I had always focused on the miracle that Christ had performed. When I was reading it this time I thought more of the boy who offered the small amount of loaves and fishes. Clearly they were not even close to how many were needed, but he, with faith, came foreword with his offering. And because he did, Christ made the bread and fish enough. How often do we withhold what we had because we feel it isn't enough, when if we would just offer our all, Christ will MAKE it enough. I have seen Christ make me "more" many times, and I am trying to not withhold any part of my offering to Him here in the mission field because I know that by doing so He will compensate for my inadequacy. It is the same in life. It is never about how much we do but how much we rely--on Him. I am so grateful for my Savior, "And Christ truly said unto our fathers: If ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me." I love this gospel and the joy and peace it offers in these troubling times. 

xoxo

Sister Wadsworth

1. My #1 girl Cox

2. At the Mission Home

3. PREZ & Sister C

4. Bus stop shenanigans 

It looks like I got a little behind with Sariah's posts. I have been busy with wedding stuff for our son.  Sorry for the late posts:)
Annalee :)

All Day, Baby...All Day!

I think there must be a rule in the white handbook that says "if you have a certain amount of miracles in one week you are subject to extra creeper experiences." Cause that's kinda how it went down this week. It was one of the best weeks as far as finding and teaching, but other than that it's been kinda weird! I won't bore you with every unusual happenstance, but some of them I just can't resist. So we didn't get transferred right? Well we had to go to transfers anyways cause my comp needed to see the mission nurse. On the way home we were on the train for 1 1/2 hours. About halfway home there was almost no one on our car. This guy dressed in all black with chains and rings and all kind of ornaments sat down across from us. I should say sprawled I guess. He was taking up the whole bench. He was staring at us and reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a wad of $100 bills and started counting them. Each time he counted one he would look up at us. Then he got packets of weed out of his pocket and chewed on them. I have no clue what he was doing but we were glad when he got off. 1 stop before we got off a young Jewish man in his suit and top hat got on. There was no one else on the train...plenty of extra seats...yet he came and sat right next to me and just stared at my face. He was right next to me so it was kinda uncomfortable. People in NYC stare all the time, but usually not when they're right next to you. Whatever. So he puts his hand on my shoulder and asks if the train is going to Coney Island. I replied yes and then it was our stop so we got off. As we were walking the platform I told my comp how creepy that was. She didn't hear me and said "what?" But I turned slightly and he was right behind us! I started walking faster but he caught up and put his arm around me! I'm sorry but if your name isn't  Travis Hartley then it's illegal to put your arm around this girl the way he did. I shrugged out of it and turned to face him. I was like "what do you want?" And he asked if the train was going to 57th street, a stop that doesn't even exist in Brooklyn. I was done with this Jewish fool so I was like "that isn't even a stop dawg" and we turned around and walked away. I thought Jews weren't allowed to talk to women? The heck is going on in this world. 

We went home and ate and then headed to an appointment. We sat on the bus next to an older man, and I felt like I should talk to him. He had a different look to him, and for some reason I couldn't open my mouth. I felt like I needed to though! I was confused. He got up at the next stop and as he was getting off he turned around and told me I was Satanic. As he walked away he flipped us off. He was clearly pretty angry. I don't know why I couldn't talk to him but I'm grateful I didn't, who knows if he woulda blown his top or something. We transferred to a train and I sat by an older Jewish man. He looked at my tag and started a conversation. He was pretty nice and said "God bless" before he got off. Maybe this day would turn around! Nope. 2 old Russian women sat across from us and gave us the dirtiest looks, I smiled at one of them and she turned up her nose and looked away. I almost snorted trying not to laugh. She looked like one of the stepsisters on Cinderella. We transferred to one last bus before our appointment and it would have been fine except it smelled like weed. Was it national weed day? Who knows. That night we went to drop off a bible for someone and her and all her friends were drunk so we sent up a return appointment. She was nice! Just wasted. And that all happened on Tuesday. 

Wednesday we had District Meeting with our new district, they are all super cool! It is now us and 3 sets of elders. Remember in your call packet where it states that your mission president can adjust your language to fit needs? Well we now have a bunch of Spanish people to teach cause they blinded out the Spanish district. Somos Missionaries la inglesa de Jesu Christ de Los Santos Los Ultimos Dias, Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo al ayudarlas a que reciban el Evangelio restaurado mediante la fe en Jesucristo y Su expiación, el arrepentimiento, el  bautismo, la recepción del don del Espíritu Santo y el perseverar hasta el fin. That's all I got. I can say "do you want a pamphlet?" as well just sayin. Jk I probs didn't spell any of that right lets be real. Anyways it's interesting to try and teach someone when you have no clue what they're saying! I'm sure Brent has the same experience haha. We played "hotseat" as a get to know you activity. Basically you sit in a seat in the middle and everyone can ask you questions about yourself. The Zone Leaders found out I was homeschooled so one of them, as soon as my rear hit the chair asked "what was your high school mascot?" I sat there blank for a sec...."a tractor...?" Haha so now they all know I'm homeschooled and it's quite the joke for them. Glad I can entertain people I guess haha. After District Meeting we went to correlation at our WML's house. He always cooks us Filippeano food like chicken feet but we convinced him to let US cook for HIM. We grilled him up some of the best hamburgers of his life and he was quite impressed! His face was the best thing ever. We had correlation which is always a party in itself, especially since we have a bunch of cool things happening in the work here, which I'll get to next!! 

Thursday we had weekly planning of course, and we got pretty down and dirty about why some of our people aren't progressing and how we can help them. The struggle here is getting people to church. We came up with some legit solutions and we had a member going with us that night to see the lady who was drunk last time we came over. On the way there we taught a lady on the bus and set up a return appointment. We got there and taught our lesson, one of the best lessons ever because the spirit was so strong and she was so prepared, and we set a baptismal date with her! After that we were going to take a dinner hour but we decided to drop off the other bible referral first. It was a rough decision when you're hungry. We took it to the lady and she was also very prepared! She had 3 kids and told us of how she was trying to understand the bible and had googled some questions and had found Mormon.org! She wants to raise her kids in the gospel. She loved what we had to share about the restoration and we set up an appointment to come back Sunday. THEN we went to dinner and I had Popeye's for the first time. There are more Popeye's here than there are temples in Utah but for some reason I hadn't tried it yet! Best fried chicken of my life. Anyways back to missionary work, MEMBERS ARE THE KEY!! Every time we bring a member they are able to connect with who we are teaching and there are ALWAYS miracles. If you have time, go with the missionaries, because you can make such a difference in these people's lives! Friday was basically a repeat, we went to see a less-active and she went with us to drop of another bible and the lady was so nice! She had a "Families are Forever" sticker thing on her wall and I was like "are you sure you aren't Mormon?" Haha. 

Dude Saturday was the truth. The Lord is truly with us here in the work. Last week at a baptism I met an 11-year-old girl and she wasn't a member! I was like duuuude the font is already filled lets getcha in there! So we set up an appointment for Saturday and when we went over with a member and she was seriously smiling ear to ear. You know I couldn't hold in the bap commit so we sat down and I was like "sooo you wanna be baptized by someone holding the priesthood?" She seriously jumped off the couch and started dancing she was like "yes yes yes!" It was so cute. I think the reason this story is so touching to me is her background. She was 6 years old when a hurricane hit her country killing her mom and 3 older siblings, as well as taking her leg. Her dad is moving to America soon so she is living with someone else for now. She's 11. Like seriously, the strength and fortitude in her eyes is so inspiring, and she is so happy and has overcome her trials with a good attitude. She said she wanted to be baptized so she could "be closer to Jesus." Literally the most precious thing of my life. Now I know why Jesus wants us to become as little children. 

Sunday we woke up at 6 (I dunno why that seems so much earlier than 6:15, but it does) and went to pick up an investigator for church. The bus never came so we walked a few miles haha. Not gonna lie, I was pretty grumpy. I guess not grumpy, but I wasn't in the mood for comments about being a snowflake. After walking a few miles, running and missing a bus, and starving and it's not even 7am, when someone made a comment about how we looked I was seriously done. But it's okay cause then our investigator came to church and she loved it! We had 3 people there today, it's been a while since that has happened! We had an interesting meeting. A homeless lady got up to bear her testimony about marriage...she was wearing a wedding dress. #awks it was so funny. NY is just so accepting though, everyone just rolled with it! After church we had so many lessons we had to go on splits and taught 4 lessons in an hour! We also went to see the 98-year-old woman in the nursing home. I think she has dementia but I sang her some hymns and read from the Book of Mormon. I seriously love the Book of Mormon. I am learning to use it is my "escape mechanism" instead of technology or anything else and it has been such a positive experience! Too often we reach for our device when we are bored or tired or in an awkward situation. Why do we turn to that for comfort when we have the Book of Mormon?? Anyways it has been an absolute bomb week and I love it here so much! Being a missionary is the biggest blessing of my life and this gospel is like coming home to a fireplace and hot chocolate on a cold winter night. The gospel of Jesus Christ is home for me, so no matter where I go or what is going on in life I can always feel "at home" when I live the way I'm supposed to. This life is really just a practice round at being like our Heavenly Father, I love this quote by Elder Oaks: "the Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts--what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts--what we have become." So grateful for the atonement and the opportunity to change and be better every day. Thank you for all your support and love, I have the best family out there! 

xoxo

Sister Wadsworth 

1. One of my favorite senior couples is going home :( the Dibbles were in Belle Harbor with me and I love them soooo much. 

2. Dude "Popcorn Popping" is the real deal. Also, I now understand the phrase "the driver on the buss says move on back." 

3. Ward Mission Leader partayyy. 

4. My fav 11-year-old in NYC

5. We got compie PJs from H&M :) 

#missionprobs

I can't believe it's already been 6 weeks since coming to Midwood!! It used to blow my mind that people could meet and marry their spouse in like a month, but I kinda see where they're coming from now! You can fall in love with people so fast! I love the people in this Ward and the investigators we are teaching SO MUCH. It's been a crazy last week of the transfer but I think we were able to do everything we needed to.  

We spent our P-day in Williamsburg, AKA hipsterville. We went to Brooklyn Charm and I got like 50 million stickers for my collection haha *nerd alert.* we did a lookup that night but she wasn't there and it took an hour to get there and an hour to get back so that's that! Tuesday we had back-to-back lessons from 10 till 9:30 and skipped lunch and dinner. Not a good idea. Wednesday we had more lessons, District Meeting, and we took a member to the temple. Whenever we take a member to the temple the stress level goes up by like a thousand. The session was at 6:15 and it was 5:45. The member texted us and said she was just leaving her house which is like an hour away....awk. So we called President and he said we could go to the later session which would get us home at like 11 so we waited and waited for the member. She finally got there and everything went good, it was a very good time and so special to see her face, she really love it. It is always worth the stress to get to the temple because of the peace we can feel there. 

Thursday we did some online training for our iPads which included watching the district again and some other boring videos. Then we got an email stating that the software is corrupted and all the missionaries in test missions would have to redo the online trainings we had previously done. Haha! That night we had correlation at our Ward mission leader's house. He is Filippeano and probably my favorite person here. He is the essence of hysterical. Anyways there is us and 2 sets of elders so he made us this big pot of rice soup stuff that was scorching hot. After we ate it me and my comp started to feel sick. Just another day for us haha when have we not been sick this transfer? We had the bag of 3 leftover containers of soup and I was trying to tie it shut but one of the containers fell out and splattered all over their super nice kitchen. We went into panic mode. We motioned for one of the elders to distract the member, and his daughter helped us wipe up the mushy rice, mop and dry the floor. The member still doesn't know haha. 

We got on one bus and it took us halfway home but when we got off to transfer the second bus never came so we started walking....we ended up walking the whole way home! Just as we walked into our apartment the bus that was supposed to come passed by. Oh side note: everyday you have a wake up call that you're in New York, but some days they are more jolting than others. As we were walking home we heard "elders!" So we turned around to see a nice lady and she started talking to the 6 of us. She explained how she grew up in Utah and was no longer a member of the church. Elder Choi gave her a card with the address of the church on it just as another woman who looked like her daughter walked out of the convenience store we were standing in front of. "Hi honey." Was the first thing the lady said. It must be her daughter right? As the second woman approached the one we were talking to introduced her as her wife. By now we are all pretty good at hiding our shock when stuff like this happens, but there was def a pause in the air. We graciously said goodbye and were on our way *quickly* haha.

Friday was a bit rough because of the whole food poisoning thing so we didn't get to work as much as we had hoped to. Saturday we were feeling absolutely terrible and decided that this had to be the flu, probably given to us by one of the families we visited or at the hospital. We finally got up the strength to go out around 2 'o clock and as soon as we got to our appointment we decided we had better go back before Sister Christensen threw up all over New York. On the bright side I read lots of good conference talks! I've had enough of hospitals and sickness and staying in the pad but I've kind of come to terms that this is the germ-iest city and I need to deal with it haha.

Ok can we just take a few moments and appreciate how weird New York is? I cannot even handle how many crazy things I see in one day. I don't even notice half of them anymore. People-watching on trains and busses is the truth when all is said and done. Even just listening to people's conversations is the funniest thing alive. My favorite is listening to some ghetto sophomores on the bus talk about their high school drama. Except it's not just drama, it usually sounds like WWIII is about to go down in East New York. Like people here get in major fights all the time! I love watching cat fights I think it's hysterical. One girl pulls of the other girls wig and then all hell breaks loose. Anyways I want to just video it but you really have to come visit to get the full effect. Sometimes I don't even feel like this is America. We walk down the street and no one is speaking English and people are wearing turbans or whatever the heck those things are and we are the only white people in sight. Murica. I love it. Oh and fast Sunday here is the worst thing ever because the whole city smells like food and everywhere you go there's food. Food food food. That's probably why we always get so many blessings on Fast Sunday is because there's so much temptation. 

Sunday was so great. We had a regional broadcast from SLC and Elder Hales and Anderson spoke to us. They spoke a lot about the atonement and about living what we believe and sharing it. It was such a spiritual meeting. A girl from Oxford, England was visiting and I had a nice talk with her. Afterwards we had a baptism for Marcel. It was probs the most awkward baptism I've been to in a while, just because the guy who was conducting didn't have anything to do while they were changing out of their baptismal clothes so he called on me and my comp to teach everyone about the restoration. We took about 1 minute cause obvi you don't want to go into depth in that situation, and then we just stood there awkwardly so I was like "let's sing some songs!" So we sang like 4 hymns and then they finally finished changing. It was great haha. We were still sick and afterwards they had hatian food and some lady pretty much forced us to eat the fried bananas so we were dying and went home and threw up some more before our appointments that night. By the end of the night we felt a lot better and today we are doing pretty good. As long as no one makes us eat for a few days we should be fine.

Something I have been studying this week is Enduring to the End and the Plan of Salvation. I see people who are about to finish their missions and they are so strong and stalwart in the gospel! I admire them and look up to them. How are we motivated to be our best? On a mission, at work, within our families, in our wards? I think one way is staying in the moment. We can't live for all the things we want to happen. We must be where we are and work from there. I was randomly thinking about the bell curve (at least I remember something from college). I had the thought that In the gospel of Jesus Christ there should be no bell curves. We should never have a "highest point" only to regress to where we started. Because of the atonement we can always move upward. There shouldn't be any swan dives into Babylon. I love the scripture "Use boldness, but not overbearance; and also see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love; see that ye refrain from idleness." Sometimes it is hard to hold ourselves back from the things we want. I have learned that the best way to bridle passions is to let someone else take the reins. I think of Carrie singing "Jesus Take the Wheel" but I think this is a little deeper than that. We don't just quit and let him handle all our problems. We look to His gospel as a way to overcome the things we struggle with. "Refrain from idleness" is a pretty good motto to live by. Anyways I sound like a preacher by now but I do want to say I am so grateful for the restored gospel and especially for the atonement which allows us to be so much more than we could ever be on our own. I love being a member of this church and I love being a missionary even more. Thank you all for your support and love, I am grateful to have such an amazing family! 

xoxo

Sister Wadsworth

1. Some classy graffiti

2 & 3. The temple! This humidity though...the lions mane is real. 

4. Met some cute sisters at the temple(: 

5. Love this family!

Rainbows after Rain

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.