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. 

The Classy Side of Brooklyn

First off, I'm super proud of our boy Berny in Africa! Yet another testament that we are all called to the mission that is best for our growth. I would have been headed home after the first day. It's cool to think about him, Kate and Melissa, and Travis and how different all our missions are, but how we are all learning the things we need to to become who the Lord needs to build His kingdom. So grateful to be in families who love the gospel and who support our work out here.

So many good things happened this week! Probs not gonna go day-by-day like I usually do since Tuesday-Saturday was spent in bed sick haha but it's all good now I am better and it feels  so good to be back at work! It was kinda great cause the Laryngitis I originally had came back along with some other things but for some reason I was scheduled to sing in both the Saturday and Sunday sessions of the Brooklyn Stake Conference. It was pretty much a miracle that I felt good just in time to do both numbers. Stake conference here is amazing, I love it so much. The Saturday session was in Park Slope aka hipster heaven and instead of a regular meeting they did a panel of about 4 people and we talked about counseling in the church within councils. As we were talking about counseling I thought about how we counsel with God (Alma 37:37) and how our communication and relationship with him are so important. The discussion definitely didn't apply only to those who serve on a ward council. I sang "Come Thou Fount", it was supposed to be with some other missionaries but they bailed half an hour before so...solo? Haha it went good especially considering my state haha. I learned so much from the speakers and reflected on how I had seen Ward councils in past areas bring people back because of the unity they had. This is all about bringing people back to our Father.

The Sunday session of conference was unlike any other stake conference I'd been to, that's for sure. It was in a super fancy Marriott, right next to the Brooklyn Bridge. Needless to say I felt pretty high class. There were fancy chandeliers and the whole set up was just really uh...expensive. We sang "Let Us All Press On" with a few of the RS sisters and that went well. The talks were so good! One woman got up and talked about facing adversity. Last year she was pregnant with twins and they came at 24 weeks weighing about a pound. Only the second one lived. I was bawling through her whole talk, it was so sad and so hopeful. This gospel has an incredible power to change trials into powerful learning experiences that help us grow closer to God. 

Sunday night we had one of the best lessons of my mission. We had a recent convert and her sister (who is investigating) come to a member's house for dinner. Our last lesson with the investigator had kind of been a brick wall...she knows she wants to get baptized but wasn't willing to set a date. We weren't sure where to go with her and had been praying for 2 weeks on what we could say to help her get her answer about what date she should get baptized on. We had a lovely dinner and then the father who was baptized at 16, pulled out his scriptures and asked if we could read the first vision. We had planned something but felt that he could help her so we read through JS-H and likened her to Joseph Smith's experience. She was still hung up on not choosing a date. So we pulled out Mosiah 18 (what have ye against being baptized?) and it was sooo quiet after we read that. The father asked her if she would pray to know if the priesthood is real because we kinda figured out that that was her real roadblock. But when she said "yes" you could just tell that she already knew. I can't wait till we meet with her again. The family whose house we went to is so amazing. Both parents are RMs and the spirit in their home was so strong. You could tell they both served missions cause there were visions, goals, and plans all over the place about missionary work, finance, and fitness...classic. I love seeing others raise their families in the gospel and teach their kids how to know the truth. This gospel is truly ideal for families, and even if we aren't in a family or a mother or a father we can still practice those qualities with all those we see. I try to practice being a mother and let's be honest the more I practice the more I see the need to improve, but I was thinking about Ether 12:27: "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Ever since I have come on a mission (or come unto Christ) I have felt more inadequate and weak than I ever have in my life. Because we come unto Christ He shows us our weaknesses. I have realized that He gives us these to help us become what He wants us to be by being humble. So I hope that if anyone is going through a hard time they won't wonder what they're doing wrong....it's what you're doing right! He's showing you your weaknesses because you're following Him! The true test is if we will use the atonement to turn those things into strengths. We have to recommit and follow Him a second time, and then comes the beautiful promise that all the things we struggle with will become the things we can master, through our Savior. I'm so grateful to be here and to have this gospel, I am more amazed every day how much it can do for each one of us because of our Redeemer. Thanks for all your love and support! 

Sister Wadsworth

1. Waiting for the train!

2. With the Spanish Sisters and Gerie

3. Unique to our mission: the double selfie

4. Outside the Marriott

Conference, Baptism, and SPRING!!

Wasn't conference SO GOOD??? Like why do I need to write anything else about this week? It was pretty normal (because normal now means crazy), and it was so great cause Roneld got baptized!!! This whole letter is probably gonna be about yesterday haha. 

Roneld's baptism was sooo special. The culture here is a lot different during meetings. It's really loud. There were a lot of non-members there and every time someone said something good everyone would be like "amen" or "hallelujah" and they would clap after the talks. Sorry but I was dying. It was so funny. It was very good, her family was there to support her even though they aren't members, and they were all crying as she bore her testimony after she was baptized. Her daughter is like 2 and seriously lost it when she went under the water. She was screaming and crying cause she didn't know what was happening to her mommy. That was kinda funny. There were 80 people there and it was seriously ridiculous. We had a potluck after and that was pretty different too. No one brings salads or vegetables just stuff like ox tail and rice and beans and tea (awk haha). As we were watching conference I was seriously staring cause there were so many white people in the conference center. That's something I really love about this Ward in particular. It is so diverse. There are many different ethnicities and personalities (haha but seriously) and it is good practice in trying to understand where people are coming from, figuratively and literally. 

So this past week...I feel like every day of my mission I have has at least one clarifying moment in which a situation I am in testifies to me of the truthfulness of the gospel. Sometimes the situations are very funny. We were on the bus on the way to a lesson and we're trying to share #becausehelives with everyone we possibly could. I shared it with a lady who told me she is a pastor for her church. She seemed more concerned with reciting her resume to me than watching the video. That's okay, we are here to listen to people. She told me of her degrees, her accomplishments, and her qualifications. She casually mentioned that she holds the Melchezedick priesthood. I was like "hold up...you WHAT??" She was like "yeah, I have the priesthood!" I was like "oh really, and who gave it to you?" She proceeded swiftly around the question by telling me about another degree she was getting in humanities. I didn't want to bash, but I really was curious where she got her so-called priesthood from so I asked again. She gave me an awkwardly blank stare and said "this is my stop". That was one of those such moments where I knew that our church is truly God's true church on the earth because we have the priesthood and the power and authority to act in God's name, and although I don't hold that priesthood I am so grateful I benefit from every single blessings it offers. This moment was also a time in which I pondered how people can be so misled when looking for truth. Satan will distract and deceive all he can to lead them away from the truth. If we honestly seek for truth I know we will always find it. 

Let's see, some more highlights were helping our Ward Mission Leader fix his deck and making dinner for their family, service at prospect park again, and sharing the Easter video with everyone we could. We did especially well with it one day. We shared it 10 times on the way to a lesson! That afternoon we went to an elliptical designed to share the video some more. It started off really well, before we even got on the train I shared it with a family of 4!! After that I'm not sure what happened, but we attempted to share it with almost 50 people and every single one of them rejected us. I was so confused, IT'S EASTER!! Why don't people want to see a video about Jesus Christ?? As we went home that night I realized that maybe I was supposed to feel a very small part of what Christ felt as He suffered for us. I have no idea what it was like for Him, but I do know that I am so grateful I can experience a small part of rejection or hardship...we can learn so much from our trials. I am so grateful for the hard things that have happened on this mission, I used to think people were so weird when they prayed for trials, but I understand now why they do so and I have found myself doing the same thing.  

One thing I especially loved from conference was one of the talks from Saturday, the speaker talked about how we must become the masters of our bodies, not the servants. It really reminded me the training we had on our iPads and I had the thought that maybe we were given technology to practice having control over something, and if we can gain control over our use of it we can better gain control over our bodies. I have this weird thing where I like to study words because it helps me understand how they relate to each other. Two I got really interested this week were "disciple" and "discipline." I think it's safe to say that we can't be a true disciple unless we are disciplined in keeping the commandments and following Christ. I feel that the best type of discipline stems from a deep love for our Father and His son, our Savior. Missions are such a blessing in the way that they are the practice round for obeying, committing, and bringing forth the works of true discipleship. Sometimes I wish I could be out here longer because I need more than 18 months of structured practice! But something I've learned is that we should not measure ourselves by how close we are to being perfect. We should measure ourselves by how much we have improved. I love what President Uchtdorf said: "Salvation cannot be bought with the currency of obedience." Our progress depends on how much we rely on the Savior. I'm so grateful we have a living prophet and that we can receive personal revelation today. I love this gospel!!

Thank you for your love and support, I couldn't do this without you.

Sister Wadsworth

Brooklyn Crooklyn

This place is sketchy! But this week was so great, we had lots of miracles, and lots of crazy people, and lots of laryngitis. 

So on Monday we were on the subway for an hour trying to get to the grocery store and we ran into this super sweet lady with 2 kids who we talked to for a bit and gave her our number. She didn't have a phone or address cause she was in a shelter so the only way we could teach her was if she calls us. So we prayed every night for like 3 nights in a row...nothing. And then finally on the fourth day the phone rang!!! Yaaaas. She is so golden. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President. They only happen every 12 weeks so it's a super special day. I love President so much, it seems like he always knows the perfect thing to say to me. Looking back over the last few months and all the things that have happened I have realized something: the only thing worse than going through a trial is going through it and not learning what God wanted you to. I've begun to see trials as opportunities to rely on the Lord and as stepping stones to the person we want to become. Something President said to me is that a good way to measure someone's conversion is to watch how they act during the sacrament and what they wear to church. It's so true, that hour once a week is a good reflection of how we put God first in real life.

We had an awesome lesson with our investigator who is getting baptized soon and about froze to death going to and from her house...why is it still winter?? Oh something else I was thinking about when I was studying charity: when we do service are we doing it to bless or impress? If we do it to bless we have the pure love of Christ "the greatest of all the gifts of God" if we do it to impress...we have our reward. 

Wednesday we did service in Prospect Park cleaning stuff up and raking leaves. It was so pretty there! When I go places like that I think "hmm maybe I could handle living in the city" and then we walk back to the subway and in my mind I'm like "who are you kidding Wads, you wouldn't live here if they paid you." Hah. That night we had correlation. Our Ward mission leader is the most hysterical person of my life. He is Filippeano and lets just say his mission was very different than ours...in his mission if they had 100 baptism per transfer they had a water fight party as a zone lol. A lot of the time is him telling us how our mission should be...it's really funny. I asked him if he had the white handbook on his mission and he just gave me a blank stare....lol. But he is so great and helps us so much. 

Thursday we did service for this lady, she called us on the phone and was pretty salty, so we were expecting the worst from our dear Irene. But when we got to her apt we came to find that she's just a regular sassy NY woman, and that she wasn't to be messed with. We had a ball dusting her studio apt, most people call us cause they're hoarders, but she called cause she's a neat freak, and her back won't allow her to dust under her bed and such. She was hysterical, just ranting the whole time about how much she hates NY, but she's never gonna leave. I feel like that's everyone here haha. That evening we went to "Lola's" for dinner. She's like the missionary grandma here, she makes a big dinner and then the missionaries come in shifts of half hour intervals. Sis Christensen is gluten-free and she ate some so we were praying she wouldn't get sick. We went to see a part member family, it was the mom and her adorable boys there and she's not a member so we taught her an awesome lesson, she is so prepared and has a lot of faith. She accepted the invitation to be baptized!! Her boys were sitting there gnawing on chicken bones it was the funniest thing. Most kids have pacifiers, but they had KFC! 

The only thing I remember about Friday was that we practiced a song we have to sing for Stake Conference and we met this super cool lady but it took an hour both ways to get to her house. Oh just kidding that was the day we managed to find all the crazy people in Brooklyn within like 2 hours. The first was this toothless Jewish guy on the subway..he was grinning (can you even call it that if you don't have teeth?) at me so I gave him a card and he asked me if I went to college so I said yes and he was like "why are you wasting your time being a missionary?" I was like hold up brother...! But I didn't wanna get angry so I just smiled and told him I loved it and I love the gospel. He snickered (don't think you can do that without teeth either) and I just got off the train sups over it. Then I saw him at the fruit stand later and just got the "aaaahhh" feeling. Don't talk to me dude. Anyways on the bus ride home these boys got in a fight with an older man and he pulled out a gun so we were like "aaaahhh" so we got off the bus it was really funny but kinda not at the same time. Oh goodness. I don't think you can even pack (legally) here so I dunno what was going on. Cug. 

Saturday we went and saw a family but it took 1.5 hours to get to their house. We made them pancakes and taught a lesson, it was super fun! This kind of leads up to our Sunday. The son was the one who got baptized last week, but since they are always late to church we arranged for me and my comp to come get them before church the next morning so he would actually get confirmed. Imagine this if you will: we are both sick, me with laryngitis and Sis Christensen with gluten girl probs. We wake up at 4am and get on the bus for an hour. There was no one out so the bus got there like an hour early. We get to their porch at 5 and it's dark and freezing. We called them. We knocked. We rang the doorbell. Nothin. So we sat there in the freezing cold. For an hour. In dresses, not carhartts. I've never felt that frozen in my life. Seriously ready to "let it go." Finally at 6:15 she came and opened the door and we sat on her couch trying to thaw. We made breakfast and got the kids ready and barely made it to church on time. It is kinda funny now that I'm writing about it. It wasn't then haha. The rest of Sunday was a blur. We didn't really stop working after that cause if we would have we would have just conked out right there. We had a super great lesson with a new investigator and a family in the ward. We are going around helping people make their own family mission plans. It's super cool to see the families get excited about how they can help with missionary work. Members want to help, but they don't always know how. Even just doing your home or visiting teaching helps the missionaries soooo much. So grateful for your example mom, you definitely go above and beyond...you probably fearless more people than I do! I am so grateful for missionary work and temple and family history work. The apostles and prophets have promised that when we engage in this cause we will feel our own testimonies being strengthened, and we will be better able to resist temptations. I love it here and am so grateful for the support from all of you! Have a wonderful week! 

Sister Wadsworth

Pics:

1. We have this thing with eating veggie straws and cottage cheese...

2. Crazy Irene haha...we had to take a selfie with her.

3: Face Timing with our investigator but her daughter always grabs the phone. 

4. Sister Urizar from Guatemala, her and Sister Placheta live next door on our floor so we usually party it up

The Big BK

Oh my I can't hold this in!  I live in Midwood, Brooklyn!!! Obviously it's the coolest thing ever. Right before they said my name I could just feel it, it was kinda creepy how that's happened both times I've been transferred. I am with the darling Sister Christensen from Cedar Hills, UT, she came out 2 transfers after me. You know we already be turnin it up in this hood! The "hastening" of the work just turned into the "hatianing" ..... there are so many Haitians here and we're the two white girls on the bus. We are on foot (I would say "feet" but after the doctors appt last week it's singular until that heals). I love walking though! It has been freezing wind and snow so far, but I love waiting for the bus and having my hair stab my eyeballs!! Jk I'm sure the snow will stop soon. The first few days were a little rough because of the weather and we both got strep throat the second day so still trying to get over that...haha. It snowed 2 feet on the "first day of spring" go figure. 

Let me start with transfer meeting. It was probably the best thing of my life. Got to see all my old comps who are going home and President gave the most incredible talk about removing the "accursed thing" from our homes, from our devices, and from our minds. A different twist on repentance that had a huge impact on how I view that part of the gospel. He talked about how Joshua and his men were defeated at the city of Ai and after their loss their "hearts melted" and they lost their faith. Basically the Lord told them they needed to be better at keeping their covenants and told them to remove the accursed things from their homes and from their lives. We can do this as families, we can go into our homes and get rid of video games, movies, apps, or habits that aren't in harmony with the gospel. We can then rededicate ourselves and our homes to the Lord and recommit ourselves to do His work. This has been an incredible experience for all of us missionaries as we have gotten rid of things that don't belong in missionary life. In normal life it might be getting rid of a song with lyrics that aren't completely wholesome, or letting go of a grudge and forgiving someone who hurt you. Whoever we are and wherever we're at in life we can give up things that are keeping us from being true disciples. The enemy will have control over us until we are fully keeping our covenants. 

Brooklyn is the straight up hood. We were doing a finding activity and we saw somebody get shot and saw the shooter ran away. I've seen so many hipsters and hippies and homeless people...I have never felt so white. Our Ward is mostly Haitians, we meet in a 100+ year-old catholic building so it feels like we're in mass on Sunday haha. But it's cool, I love this Ward so much! The members are so great, I already love them so much! Family Ward is different haha, one lady offered to let me hold her baby and for a split second I started to go for it and then remembered its a no go in the white handbook so I had to say no....hardest thing of my life, she was the cutest baby I've seen in a super long time. There are like, a ton of crazyish people here too, members and non-members. We were walking down the street and this guy saw our tags and just started cursing at us and looked like he was gonna attack us...I was pretty freaked out, not gonna lie...so we ran away. That was the first time I had to run on my mission, it was sketchy man. 

So a bit about the people we are working with...! We had a baptism yesterday, a young man, Christian, who is so precious! We also have another baptism set for Easter Sunday, the most pure woman ever, she is so ready to be baptized! I was so lucky to get here when all these things are happening! I'm already so attached to these wonderful people. We have like 4 temple trips scheduled that we planned out yesterday so uh, siiiiick! This area has miracles growing on trees! At church we had a less-active mother come who doesn't have too many friends but one of the ladies took her in and talked to her and got her number. It was such a blessing, because good fellowshippers are really hard to come by, but this lady is golden, and the less-active woman really needed a friend at church. I love seeing member missionary work in action. *annalee* 

I've learned a TON this week in studies, I never know how to condense it because we learn line upon line, so I learn different little things that add to my testimony of so many different concepts. I think it's cool how everything always comes back to the basic doctrine: the plan of salvation, the restoration, the commandments, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and most importantly, the Atonement. I have noticed lately how much Christ uses literal and figurative things to explain His doctrine. I love these verses in Moses: "That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory; For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified;"(Moses 6:59-60). All of the physical attributes we gain by receiving a body can remind us of spiritual things we need to gain to have exaltation (baptism, the Holy Ghost, and the atonement). Major shift of gears but I have such a testimony of fasting. Our hunger when we fast reminds us that our bodies have to rely on food, yet it can also remind us how desperately we need the "Bread of Life", our Savior, to sustain us spiritually. I love this gospel so dearly and it is such a blessing to share my testimony of it with others. It is such a privilege to come on a mission, it is the best education you could ask for. Thanks for all you do to support me, I love you all so much!

Sister Wadsworth

1. View of the city from BK

2. Selfie with Prez...why is he so cool??

3. Our *Catholic* Church

4. Christian's Baptism!!