Off to New York to serve the Lord.....: Happy (late) Mothers Day!

Hello Everyone,
First of all I would love to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful father! I will be thinking of him all day! This week was another interesting week. My companion and I didn't have the car on Tuesday so we enjoyed the opportunity to ride our bikes again. This time our tires were pumped so we were able to make it to our appointment. The women we met was so happy we road our bikes to still make it to the lesson. She had done all her readings before hand and was so excited to talk about them. It took us 40 minutes to get to her house which wasn't bad at all. It was actually fun and the weather was really nice. We might actually do it more often even if we have the car. So lucky me on Wed morning after our run I went into my room and on my bed was a little bug. I yelled.. "SISTER!" Sure enough it was a bed bug. That was it..I'm not sleeping there anymore.These bugs just won't go away! We called our mission office and the landlord was going to get an exterminator to come on Friday. That means two more nights with the bugs.. I was actually considering sleeping in the car. That day was wasted to cleaning our apartment and getting it ready for the exterminator. We spent all day washing our clothes again. I would rather be out teaching people the gospel. The exterminator came, but there is no guarantee that the bugs will go away. The spray only kills the live ones not the eggs. I sleep with long pants that tuck into my socks. I sleep with a flash light so if I feel something crawling on me I can find it in the night. I usually wake up in the middle of the night and once that happens I'm to scared to fall back asleep. When the exterminator came he basically sounded like they will never go away. He said they live off of our blood and will be anywhere we are.(hmm thanks thats comforting!) It takes me extra long to get dressed in the morning because I have to check all my clothes to make sure bugs aren't on them. Its not a fun way to live at all! If ANYONE knows how to get rid of them let me know! I can't live like this for two more months! Ewwww Wednesday night we had a great night with Mike Sullivan. He and his family made us a great dinner and we had a great lesson about the desire of our hearts. We read the talk in Conference by Desire I dont' remember who it was by at the moment. It was a great lesson. I think that we first have to have a desire before wanting to know if something is true. So that is what we are working on. I'm not kidding I love their family. At dinner all we do is just laugh and laugh. Mike has one of those contagious laughs that once you hear it you have to laugh. When the time comes to be transferred leaving them will be like leaving my own family. The Lord has really blessed us this week because of the bed bugs. We picked up one new investigator and we got three investigators at church on Sunday. It was amazing! Timmia finally came and I believe she was happy to be back and going. I think she is getting excited for her baptism. We changed her date to the 21st because we wanted her to come to church a little bit more. But its still on and were both really excited. It will be Sister Zwicks last baptism of her mission. Sad! :( This week we went to the grocery store to buy grocery bags for our clothes and this women approached us. She saw our name tag and saw that it said Jesus and she started asking questions. You could tell she had a strong belief in Christ. It was weird because people usually dont' approach us. We chatted with her for about 20 minutes and she was nice. She told us that she could see the Spirit of Jesus in us. We told her about our church and she then backed down. She didnt' want anything to do with it, but was nice about it. She wouldn't give us her information so we left. Two days later we went to walmart (completley diff store) and as we were walking in we saw her. Coincidence... I THINK NOT! We started talking to her again and she was again so nice and chatty. She told us about her daughter and family. After awhile she asked for our number. Were not sure if she wants just a friend thing or if she would really listen to what our gospel has to offer, but we took the number. I'm pretty sure the Spirit lead us to her twice and I hope she will open up to hear our message. So I thought that was a cool story. That usually doesnt' happen...seeing a person like that twice in one week.. So cool! We had a great lesson wtih Melanie on Saturday. She is the girl our age who goes to Union College. We brought Sister Anderson a lady from the ward who is in charge of the single adults. So we think were going to try and get her around lds kids her age. She was so excited by the idea and I can't wait. I think this will help her with her Word of wisdom problems to be around good kids. At first she wasn't going to meet with us because she was going to go to this concert on campus, but she called us back and told us she needed spiritual guidance in her life. She is so cute and I love being around her. She also is amazing at writing poems and performing them. (I thought of Nick) She performed some poems for us and it was awesome! I just love her so much! It was a great lesson! Of course I didn't forget it was Mothers day and I did call home. I'm not going to lie I was a little nervous. I didn't want to get off the phone with them and be homesick. Its my first call and I believe the first call is the hardest. It was so great to have them pick up the phone and hear all their voices. It seemed just like yesterday I was with them all. It was so great to talk about the people here in New York and talk about missionary work. I also LOVED that they were asking questions about people I have met with. It makes me feel so good that they read my emails and follow along. It makes me feel like there with me everyday when I'm with these people. Its amazing how much I love my family! I feel so blessed to have their support! I thought it would be sad, but I just realized how lucky I am to be here and there support really helped me to refocuse and get out there to preach the gospel. I love my family and it was so so so great to talk to them and hear from them! Its weird to think that the next time I hear their voices will be in December. It was a great Mothers day! I'm so thankful for my mother and all she does for me! I feel so blessed to have her support and encouragement. She always gives the best advice and I consider her one of my best friends! I love you mom! Well I love you all! I feel like I'm repeating myself because I talked about most of this stuff in my phone call yesterday. I'm so happy I'm a missionary! I'm so happy that I can serve the Lord and be an instrument in his hands! I'm also grateful for phone calls home on Mothers day! Our Mission President told us that the numbers always go down the week after Mothers day. Well me and Sister Zwick are going to prove him wrong! Our numbers are going to be high this week!

Love you,
Sister Stacey

pic 1: Its a rule we have to wear bike helmets..