No Longer a #Teen??

Birthday crown made by Sister Nelson

Okay before I get into this week, I just need to say THANK YOU to all of you for the sweet birthday wishes and for thinking of me. If I didn't respond to you, I'll get you next week, but I am truly just so overwhelmed by the love I received this week. Thank you for making my day so special! Plus, being spoiled all day by my companion and the sweet members, it truly was such a wonderful day.

Pretty frozen lake!! Pictures don't do it justice, man

Now, onto the week! Probably the most exciting thing about this week, were all of the referrals we got. You guys, one day this week we received FOUR different referrals, and throughout the week we got even more. That is absolutely insane!! Some of them have been more promising than others (hahaha), but this has really shown me that if you are working hard and doing everything in your power to find people, the Lord will provide. He truly is so aware of us and our efforts!

We tried to take a power nap in the car for lunch,
but it didn't work out too well

As I said, some referrals have been more promising than others....one of people we met this week was a woman named Rosalind. Oh man, what an interesting lady. I don't even know where to begin. So this woman was a referral from a member who met her over the phone through a mental health prescription organization. She was talking to him about some struggles she was going through with her current living situation and family struggles. Apparently her grandparents were from Italy and she was interested in learning more about them and the property that they owned there so the member decided that Family History was a good way to introduce the gospel to her! She was super interested in what he was saying and so he got into contact with us and we went over. She hasn't had human interaction in a few weeks, so she was VERY excited to talk with us, and kept saying that we were truly angels sent from, God to help her. She also invited us to a 5 day bed and breakfast getaway with her, but sadly, we had to decline. Long story short, she talked to us about her crazy family and all the horrible things she went through as a child and the restraining orders that all of her children have against her. After a one sided 3 hour discussion we were able to give her a book of Mormon and she said she would try to read it. We went back the next day (she wanted our next possible appointment time hahaha yikes) and she had a read part of the book of Mormon that talked about "the land of his inheritance" and she decided that that was God way of telling her she needed to get to Italy ASAP. She convinced herself that Sister Nelson and I had the means to legally prove that her grandparents orange groves rightfully belonged to her, and after a very rough conversation we were able to explain to her that family history work is not going to give her what she wanted. She still didn't fully understand, and she got pretty upset over just about everything we said and finally we just had to leave. On our way out we tripped on a light bulb she had chilling on her stairs (????) and she decided that the devil had jumped off her land lady (who she thinks is a witch) and onto us. So she tried to rebuke Satan and said all these prayers over us and walked us out to our car. She has since moved out of that house and we have lost all contact...What a woman. Sorry, that was a really long story and probably made no sense.

On the other end of the referral spectrum, we set up an appointment with a woman who received a Book of Mormon 2 years ago and she and her sister have some questions and are currently praying to know whether or not they should be baptized. WHAT!? So, that should be really exciting and hopefully end better than our encounter with Rosalind.

Celebratory picture after we dug our car out

Fun Stories from the week:

- During church I was cracking my knuckles and Banana literally leaned across my companion just to slap my hands. Classic Banana

- On our way to church yesterday we got a flat tire... luckily we were able to make it to the church and we had lots of priesthood help. It turned out to be more difficult than most tires (just our luck) so enjoy this picture of lots of people trying to figure out what's going on. There was even a rare sighting of a man pulling out an instruction manual *GASP*

- We got to Ellis Island a little early and so we were walking around looking different exhibits. We saw this group of girls and they stopped right in their tracks and one of them said "we just found the coolest thing in this entire museum....Sister Missionaries!" I just kinda awkwardly laughed and waved and said "yup, that's us!" and they walked away. I still don't know if they were mocking us or legitimately excited to see us but I will tell myself that we had some actual fans.

Pre Birthday dinner at chilis... I may be 20 now but I still act like a child

- We were knocking on day and met this middle Eastern man. When he opened the door he just looked and me and made this weird face and called for his wife to come to the door. She comes too and they both say something to each other in a language I didn't know ahaha. Finally they tell me that I look just like their sons girlfriend, and even pulled up a picture of her on Facebook to show me the resemblance. So that was really weird.

Anyway, sorry this email is a mess, hope you all have a wonderful week!


Sister Yocum