Well everyone, another great week serving the Lord!
I sent a million pictures today that can better express my week then I can (are you putting those on the blog mom?)......but I'll still do a top ten just for fun :)
1. Sister B and I are now back to normal functioning health. But, last week when I couldn't sleep because I was coughing so hard, I looked at the clock and saw it was about 1:30 am. Then Sister B started coughing above me. After a moment of silence, she says, "Want a cough drop?" I said yes and her hand flops down with a cough drop. Then I said thanks and we went back to sleep. The next morning we were peeing our pants laughing about how funny it was that in the middle of the night we just knew each other was awake and had a cough drop swap and then went straight back to sleep. Haha loves it.
2. The other day we were having companion study and I started to share something personal with B (yes, it may be disrespectful to not call her by her full name, but I'm just expressing my love for her this way), cause that's how we roll. And then I pulled out this piece of paper that I had taped on the wall behind a picture....aka a hidden compartment. She looked at me with the funniest face and said something like, "Wait? Did you just pull out a secret paper from behind a picture?" Haha we were laughing so hard. For a long time. But yes, I do hide things and I'm not ashamed to admit it. But now B knows all my secret places.
3. Hermana Rodriquez (the one that got sealed a few weeks ago) is hilarious. We went to her house to ask her about some in-actives (about 60% of our ward is inactive) and every time she saw a name she'd say, "Oh I don't know about them. Let's just call." And then she would call them and say, "Hi, this is Hermana Rodriquez from the church. We're just worried about you and we want to know why you haven't been coming to church. When can we come visit you?" Haha and it works. I was seriously laughing so hard. We're going to visit someone with her tomorrow that she bullied on the phone. I LOVE the members here.
4. Wow. Again on the amazing people here. Sarah* (*name changed), who I have told you about, seriously blows my mind. We went and visited her this week and we were all crying. Her life is so hard yet she is one of the strongest women I've ever met. And as she sat here in this tiny NY apartment, she told us she was trying to save any extra money she had so that one day her children could all serve missions. We found out her husband has other children living in their country from his past life before he joined the church and they call him and beg for money and he tries to give them all he can. And they have 5 children from this marriage so they already have a lot going on. And here she is sharing her testimony with us and cooking food for us, when she hardly has enough for her own family. And to her, she only cared about her kids being strong in the gospel and serving missions. It really just made me grateful for everything that I have and also made me realize how easy I have it. My life absolutely rocks and I have it better than probably about 99.9% of the people on this earth.
5. I LOVE sister mamon. My surgery has healed nicely and I haven't had any weird side effects......yet. But another Mamon story of the week is that on Friday they left for District meeting (they're in another district than us) and they came back inside after 2 or 3 minutes. So I said, "Oh, that was a fast district meeting." and Sister Mamon tops me with, "Yeah, it was such a good district meeting that we ended up finding 10 new investigators during it.....and they all have families! And they all asked to be baptized! So yeah, it was a good time." Haha maybe you had to be there but it was so funny. Sister Mamon rejuvenates me every day.
6. Sister B and I are so united we dream the same things. The other morning I was telling her about my dream and I said, "B, it was horrible. I was sent home early. And everyone in my family was all excited and I HATED it. I didn't even know why I was being sent home and I felt so out of place and I kept crying that I just wanted to go back (probably a 18 month flash forward ahah)" And here I am expecting her to feel bad for me and she says, "No way. I had a dream you broke a mission rule and were in HUGE trouble. I know why you got sent home." She finally told me why and lets just say I was laughing. I would NEVER break this rule but it was funny nontheless and we laughed for a bit about it. The dreams here are killing me!
7. We went to the kid's Halloween party and it was super fun. I decorated my heart out and B killed many brain cells blowing up balloons. We had 2 investigators there and it was awesome. Until the music started to be really good and I was tempted to dance. In real life I don't even like dance so I knew it HAD to be Satan haha. So B and I looked at each other and said, "We have got to go!" Overall, good times. We dressed up as missionaries.
8. NY is awesome. The other day someone gave me change back and I ended up with 10 pence instead of a quarter. Cool huh? I am so cultured :)
9. We went to Brooklyn. This number will be the longest because this is going to be a snapshot of my day yesterday. But I know you'd like to know this kind of stuff Mom so here goes: At church yesterday we had 5 investigators! That's huge for this area, let me tell you. So we were SO excited. But we had to leave right after sacrament meeting to head to Brooklyn for the baptism of Isabella (someone B taught last transfer). So we assigned ward members to each investigator and said a prayer!
It took 3 trains and a little over an hour to get to Brooklyn. The best part of the trip, besides the dog-sized rats running on the tracks, was that we got to enter Man-Zone. (side note: "Train", "Metro", and "Subway" are all the same thing. There is a train and it goes under and up ground and there are buses. Two things, that's it) Man-Zone is where only the Elder's can serve because it is too "dangerous". Of course, B grew up in Chicago and she said she lived in man-zone type areas so it's nothing, but we're still not allowed. But we had to go through it to get to Brooklyn and I felt pretty cool. The train windows had more vandalism and there were more black people and less asians and hispanics but besides that it seemed like Richmond Hill.......but I still sucked in as much dangerous-man-zone air as possible.
Then we got there and the area is SO different from Queens but it was fun. We hung out with Sister Unga and Sister Reed (see picture) and Sister Unga said to tell you that she loves you Mom and tell G-ma love and hello too (I used to read her grandma's letter every week and she misses it).
Anyway, it was an awesome trip but I am so grateful for where I am now. I love Richmond Hill, Queens!
10. Well, my spiritual thought this week is actually kind of a special-highlight. We can learn so much from those around us and we never know how someone else's life is or may have been, so we have no right to judge. Sister B is seriously one of the most amazing women I have ever met and I love her so much. We have really similar personalities and so sometimes there's just too much of our similar strengths and weaknesses floating around :) Thankfully we have the spirit so I can honestly say we've actually never fought, which again shows how Christ-like she is because we know how feisty I can be :) But I've really learned so much from her as we've shared challenges we've both gone through and how Christ has helped us. Everyone is carrying their own rocks and we can really learn so much from them if we give them a chance. I love Sister B and I know with a surety that the Lord's hand put her in my life this transfer. She has been one of the biggest blessings from the Lord for me personally. It is my testimony that the Lord will never leave us alone. He will never forsake us and He is always waiting to comfort and strengthen us. And He uses His righteous children to strengthen those that are weak. This week I am especially grateful for His righteous daughter, Sister Banaszewski, and the amazing person she is. How blessed we are to have friends, family, and loved-ones!
This week's shout-outs go to: Mom, Dad, Grandma, Laura and Jackson (I LOVED the card. And I am so jealous you get move to England! Whoa!), Em, Bug, Cheryl (wow, LOVE you so much. Sometimes I wish I could call you up and vent to you! Haha or just eat ice cream and laugh! Give everyone a hug for me!) and never least, Aunt Di!
Love the mish. Be the mish.
Hermana Winfield
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