The First Group of Nineteen Year Old Sisters

My dearest family,

We have had a great week! Sister Rollins is my new companion and she is from Washington DC. We picked her up on Tuesday from the mission home. She turned 19 in September! So crazy!... There were four Spanish sisters that came out early and two of them are already fluent in Spanish  Anyway, sister Rollins took a lot of Spanish in school and so she knows quite a bit and was in the advanced class in the MTC. She loves to play soccer and we have a lot in common. She also likes to run so we get good work outs in the mornings. I have really enjoyed working with her this week. Tonight I am going on exchanges with another one of the new sisters (Sister Corona) so that should be fun. She is from Texas and is fluent in Spanish  and she's 22 years old.

Well, the first night that sister Rollins was here we found a man to teach. He accepted a date to be baptized and said that he was going to come to church, but he wouldn't answer the phone Sunday morning and we still don't know why he didn't come. We are hoping to be able to find him again soon and hope that he is not avoiding us. We also found this guy on the street the other night who was in a rush and didn't seem interested but before he left, we asked him if he knew of anyone who was going through a hard time. 

He told us to go visit his mom and said that she would want to listen to us. Well we did and she was awesome! Her name is _________ and her two little grandkids sat in on the lesson. They were so excited to learn and really want to come to church. We are hopefully going to be able to teach their mom too because it sounded like she was interested as well. We have only met with them once though so we will see how things go. 

We have been doing a lot of finding this week because it is a pretty new area for both of us. I love it though and am so happy to be here!! The other day the assistants told us that they almost put us on bikes but they found a elders car that we could use... well, we decided that we really want to be on bike anyways and so they told us that it would be good because it saves a lot of miles on the car. My district leader and his companion said that we can borrow their bikes which will be awesome! We have been pretty much walking everywhere anyways so now we will be able to get around a lot faster! I'm excited!

That is cool that they are opening so many new missions. They are opening a new mission in Irvine California and we are not sure what will happen with our mission. I'm sure there will have to be some changes but we just don't know what yet. I think that all of these changes with missionaries right now is really cool. 

I am so grateful to be out here at this time and be part of this amazing work. I love it soooooo much!! I have seen so many blessings in my life for being here and wouldn't change this experience for anything! The gospel is true and I know it without a doubt. Love you all so much! :)

I Will Go Before Your Face

Hello family!

A lot has happened this week. Sister Minert and I got a call Thursday night from the assistants to train. I guess they had some sisters coming in early and so sister Minert is taking the west Anaheim area and I am taking the south. We haven't spent a ton of time over there and so I still have to get to know the area. It is actually a big area too. They said the sisters might already be fluent in Spanish and that's why they came out early, or they at least were in the intermediate or advanced class in the MTC. They are already in the mission home and we are supposed to pick them up today at four. 

I am changing apartments to an Elders apartment. I started moving some stuff in there today. Lets just say I will have to do a lot of cleaning... haha. I still will be in the same ward. Disneyland is in my area still and so I will get to see the fireworks every night. I am looking forward to all of the changes but am also a little bit nervous. 

Being the coordinating sister has been fun. So far I am just doing exchanges with the Spanish sisters and luckily there aren't a lot of problems so it has been nice. I actually think I learn more from the sisters I go on exchanges with than they learn from me. It's good to be able to be in different areas and get to see how different missionaries work. 

This week we had stake conference. I don't remember their names, but there were two members from the 70 there that spoke and it was really good. We also had zone conference this week and I learned so much there! It was all about having the faith to find and also working with members. I am excited to use what I learned there in the work. 

A few nights ago we were knocking doors and  had a lesson with a lady at the door and as we were praying another lady walked my and went into her apartment. About 10 seconds later she came back out and told us that she couldn't walk away from us because she knew that God sent us there. She said that when she walked by she saw a light over us and it wasn't the light that was in the hall. She said that it felt like there was someone else there with us and that she wanted to know more about our message. It was a really cool experience. 

We talked to her the other night though and she said that she cant talk to us anymore because her husband was really mad and was not happy that she wanted to talk to us. She seemed like she still really wanted to but couldn't. It was really sad when she told us that we can't come back. I was excited to teach her too.. maybe some time down the road she will find the missionaries again. 

Let see what else... I got separated from my companion today which was really weird but funny. We were trying to go up the elevator and for some reason the door wouldn't open all the way so we decided to just squeeze in. Well I went in first and as I turned around my companion was starting to come through but the door closed and I started going up. It was funny... but I guess it might not sound as funny unless you are a missionary... but hey we got a good laugh out of it. 

Well that's about all I can think of for the week. Have a great week! Love you all! :)

I Love Being in Lessons When the Spirit is So Strong

Hola familia!

Well it's been another great week here in Anaheim! Disneyland is right in the middle of our area now and when we drive home sometimes we get to drive right under the Disneyland fireworks. It's pretty cool. 

On the way to church this week right when we left our area I saw a street and realized that it is the street that uncle Harold lives on. He lives so close to my borders!! I am so tempted to go knock on his door! That would be awesome  He probably wouldn't know who I was though and might now want to talk when he sees the missionaries. Maybe I can go with the English missionaries and introduce them to him.. That's the only excuse I can think of to go over there. Haha. :) 

Anyways, things are going good here. I set up my exchanges this week so I will be starting those soon. We had a zone meeting again and they talked a lot about the exchanges we will be going on. I excited for them! Right now we are still teaching la familia _______. They are doing so well! The mom has opened up so much and the dad has always been really open.

They have the best questions and have a sincere desire to know the truth. This week we taught two guys named _______ and _______. They both accepted baptism dates, but when we came back Jesus didn't want to listen anymore. ________ was open to listening still but it seems like he is having a lot of doubts now. Hopefully he will read and pray so he can get rid of those doubts. There was a baptism picture on his table. We asked him about it, and I guess his son was baptized into the church a couple of years ago which was pretty awesome. We also are teaching a lady names ______. She is amazing. She really wants to be baptized but cant right now because she is married to someone from Mexico and is living with another guy here. She has been trying to get a divorce so that she can get married to the guy she is with now but her husband wont sign papers. She has a very strong testimony and we are praying that she will be able to get everything figured out soon.

We also met a lady named ______ this week. We went in to teach but didn't really have much time at all so we were just going to share a scripture with her. We said the opening prayer, and before the end she was bawling. She opened up a lot to us and the spirit was really strong in the lesson.  I love being in lessons when the spirit is so strong and you know they are feeling it too! It's the best! 

Lets see... OK crazy story... We were teaching this guy named _______ and he was acting really interested (yeah, he was interested all right). He would always give us referrals and so it was really good. Well this week when we went to teach him he shook my hand and then tried kissing me!! I squealed and was like NOOO! But then he did it anyways... it was kinda on my hair because I was turning away trying to avoid it... I couldn't do anything about it. I never want to go back to that area! Uhh... so awkward! Well that's about it for the week. Love you all!!!! Have a great week! :)

Drive By Shooting

My dearest family,

So today we had transfers. I really thought that I was going to be staying in Anaheim with sister Longoria but she got transfered out.

Sister Minert is my new companion  and she came out the same time as hermana Longoria. Eric did you ever meet her in the MTC? Sister Henrie got her visa on Wednesday and is on her way to Spain right now. 

This week was great and super busy. Our area just grew a lot because the borders changed and I guess we have many of the Elders investigators now. We have been teaching the _______ family and they are doing really well. The dad really wants his whole family to listen to us and always has them come in when we come over. We have been very blessed to be able to teach a lot of families recently. 

This week we had zone meeting which was so good!  The assistants basically just talked about how we can help the missionaries and this mission. They also focused a lot on teaching families and working with the members in the ward. I am excited for this transfer and for the exchanges that I will get to go on with the sisters. We didn't have any new Spanish sisters come in this transfer but there were a bunch of English ones. It is so cool that so many sisters are coming out now! 

Well this week we had a ward activity that the missionaries were in charge of. The Elders did the lesson and we did the activity. We couldn't think of anything to do and didn't have much time at all and somehow we decided to play balloon volleyball with the families. I was worried that it wouldn't turn out, but they ended up loving it. It was sooo funny to watch! We had about 10 balloons and all of the members were really getting into it. I wish I got it on video because it was so funny!! 

Last night we went to a street that most of our investigators live on, and I guess right before we got there, someone drove by and was shooting at the apartments. There were a bunch of kids and teens outside, but luckily I don't think anyone ended up getting hurt. There were police everywhere and everyone told us to get out of there because they thought the guys might come back. As we were driving away we heard some more shots which was scary but I really hope everyone was OK  That's the street that all the interesting crazy stuff happens on... too bad we are teaching so many people there...haha! But no worries we are safe!  I love being here and know that this is the Lords work. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and am so grateful for the Atonement in my life. Thanks for everything, love you all! :)

That is soooo amazing to hear that Kelsey is going on a mission!!!!! I can't stop smiling because I am so happy for her. It is such a life changing experience and she is absolutely going to love it! She will make an amazing missionary too. I can't wait to hear where she is going!! :) Also, Christina and Erica Marley are going too!! That is so awesome!!!! That's pretty cool that Christy and her husband are moving into our ward. They are going to love Bend! :) Mom, fast tract sounds good. I think that would be smart to do. I bet I could get a little job there too and work before I go. Also that's funny that you got Just Dance. We are totally doing that together when I get home. :) You are going to be my companion and I am going to follow you everywhere. I hope that's OK with you. :) Sister Poulson is staying with us tonight and she leaves the mission to go home tomorrow morning. Sister Breitenstein is here on more transfer and she is companions with a 65 year old lady this transfer who only speaks Spanish  Cool huh? They didn't want to close the area because there are so many sisters coming next transfer so they just had her come in for a little bit. Well, that's about all the news this week! Love you! :)