Week #4 - Are Mormons allowed to Hug?‏

Hello Everyone!!

I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission right now :) I can't even begin to tell you the amazing things that have happened!! I love this work and can't wait to continue through my mission experience!! :)

So this week I left the MTC at 3:30 in the morning to fly to Detroit! That was an adventure!! I have never flown on an airplane before and I was flying all by myself with no one else going to New York. We arrived at the airport and I was able to call my family :) Best hour ever! I then flew on my first airplane ride EVER!!! It was so much fun! But so scary because I tried talking to people but no one really wants to talk at 7 in the morning. So I slept most of the way to Detroit. The plane ride was 3 hours long which isn't near as bad as a ride to Australia! But when I landed, I had no idea what I was doing. I wandered around for a little bit seeing if I could get the courage to ask someone for help..(not a good thing when you're a little to independant :/) I  tried to find it but Detroit airport is huge! So I finally found my gate and had a 2 1/2 hour layover. That was super exciting! I read my scriptures most of that waiting time and tried talking to people but wasn't really having success! Then these 2 guys sat down by me and were talking about religion! In my head I was thinking Thank you Heavenly Father! So they said a prayer and I lept for it! I told them what a wonderful prayer it was and then they started talking about how they were youth leaders in their church. It was an interesting conversation. One of the guys leaned over to me and said," Can you give hugs in your religion?" Weirdest question that I have had so far!!! Hahaha it was so great! I told him that I couldn't hug him as a missionary but I would gladly give him a high five! It was great :)

This week has been such a week of adjusting and seeing many many blessings!! I have never felt the love of Heavenly Father "so much" in my life!!

The people of Upstate New York are so very comfortable with where they are at in life with their religion and want nothing to do with the missionaries or the wonderful message that we have to share with them!! It is so sad but there have been many blessings in this area! The area that I am have struggled with finding people who want to hear the gospel and will let us teach them! So the day after I got here we were out tracting trying to find people that would listen to our message and we weren't having much success! We found a couple people that said we could come back but that was about it! The work is very slow but Heavenly Father promises blessings when you are obedient :) Friday we decided to go do some service for one of the ladies that said we could come back and help her with yard work but she ended up being sick. So on our way back.......We saw this sweet little lady doing yard work!!! Truly a blessing! We stopped and helped her for over 2 hours clean this yard and at the end we started talking to her about the Book of Mormon! I gave her one and read her the scripture Mosiah 2:17 (best scripture for just doing service) and gave her the book!! She was so excited to read more of the book and said we could come back anytime and help her with more service! We went back yesterday and talked with her! She said that she had read that scripture over and over again! So this time I asked her to read most of the book!! She said that she absolutely would! 

BLESSINGS ARE COMING TO THIS AREA!! 

We have 3 new investigators just in the time that I have been here and one who is now working towards baptism! How great is that?? :) 

One quick story!

SO...my trainer and I decided to go out tracting one night at 6. We found a young man to teach and he was very willing to hear about the gospel! That was a blessing because the woman that we were going to teach asked us not to come back..#sad. But she was just not ready to hear about it quite yet but will someday! So we continue walking along trying to find people and we are in this little village! It is such a cute place but no one is willing to listen. So we are going around asking people and not having success. So it is about 7:45 at night and we are trying to get back to our car. We look around and realize that we are about 2 miles from the car. Not that far unless you're walking!! We decided to take a 'short cut' never a good idea. We started walking along the highway thinking that it will be a shorter way to the car. We were so lost that we were just praying that we were going in the right direction. The town that I am in is filled with single soliders because there is a base in this area and most of them are either deployed, married, or single. As we are walking, lost in Upstate New York, it is getting really dark and really cold kinda like Idaho. And as we are walking we are saying prayer after prayer asking for help to make it back to the car safely. 

All of a sudden...this car pulls up behind us. Sister Stowell tells me to put the phone in my pocket and she grabs the key and puts it in her hand. We keep walking but this car doesn't leave. It stays right behind us not moving but no one ever got out of the car. So we kept going saying prayer after prayer. The car then leaves but then pulls in front of us so we are walking towards it now instead of away. I have never been so scared in my life!! I love my trainer and that she was able to stay so calm because on the inside I was freaking out! We got a little closer to the car but then it left and we have no idea who was in the car, what their intentions were, or why they didn't get out of the car. Heavenly Father Protects His Missionaries!!! 

I am so grateful for this chance to serve a mission and can't wait to serve the rest of my mission :)

I love you all and hope you all have had a great week :)

~Sister Rose

This is what Upstate New York looks like! This is the day we also did service :)

Sister Stowell and I :)

There are cemeteries around most of the corners...it is a little creepy at times!