October 12, 2015

Transfer week is a very long week, much longer when you're sick! The incoming group from the MTC brought a bug with them and unfortunately, this time, I wasn't able to avoid it!  This group of missionaries is awesome but they weren't very amused at Elder Fischer and my training on contacting people.  Maybe they were just nervous to be out in the field.  Usually we get lots of laughs from our role plays but this time we had a very silent crowd.

In other news, after three areas with Norco (AKA Horsetown USA), I have finally gotten out!  Our Bishop has been requesting Sister Missionaries in our ward for a really long time, and this time he finally got his wish.  So we gave the Sisters that are now in our ward the Norco side!  They'll do great, it's just harder for me to love someone when their horse is causing my eyes to itch and my throat to constrict.  Just kidding (about it being hard to love)!

We stopped by a Jehovah Witness the other day pick up a Jehovah Witness Bible that she had apparently offered us before.  We learned a lot of about "J-Dubs" while we were there.  AND we got a church invite, so now we can go to a Jehovah Witness service!  Should be fun.  While we were with her, we asked if we could pray with her.  Unfortunately she declined my offer because she said she had to cover her face when we pray. I was surprised but interested at why.  She said it's because men are apparently higher than women, "God created men first so they are higher than us and we have to respect them when we pray."  Interesting...  Good thing we don't believe in that!  It was a bit much to hear to be honest.  She said it's because Eve was taken from Adam's rib so therefore she's lower than men.  She didn't really understand my understanding of that being symbolic for Men being side to side with women, hence the rib being on your side.  But hey, not everyone gets it!

Pretty amazing how many blessings we're getting.  We had very limited proselyting time last week, and to put the icing on the cake, I was really sick.  But prayer works.  We were sitting in the car after a long day of training and office work and we prayed for help to find the ones that are ready to hear what we had to share.  Then we exercised faith and got out, despite the headaches, and BOOM, 20 feet from our car, this guy at a bus stop was just waiting to hear us.  We ran into three other people at an investigator’s house that wanted to hear more too!  Pretty grateful for the blessings we've had!

My bags are packed!!! NOT

Elder Pritchard, who lived in my apartment complex when I was in Riverside by UCR, at the mission home ready to go home

My zone leaders back in Jurupa

Feelin' sick

My Tom Yom soup for my sickness

One of our investigator's blue nosed pitbull puppy 

With my Bishop's son.  He just left on a mission to the Dominican Republic

October 5, 2015

We had transfer meetings all week, deciding where all the missionaries were going to spend their next six weeks in the mission.  It's interesting because before I was in the office, transfers were always a really exciting time to find out who was going where.  Now I know everything that's happening so it's not as crazy.  It's like making a movie instead of watching it, it's fun to see the results but you don't get that same excitement.

We had to prepare for a mission leadership council meeting this past week to add some extra stress to transfers.  We hardly had any time to actually do missionary work!  It's amazing to see the blessings we got though.  We've been praying for "who the Lord wants us to find that day" and on Tuesday, we were at the church building around 7 pm waiting for a member that was coming out with us.  This kid walked by us and said hey.  Turns out he'd been going to church for 6 weeks and hadn't been taught by missionaries yet.  So he just walked right into us!  

Later, we were in a meeting with our mission president, discussing transfers and we got a call from a guy who had been chatting to missionaries from the church online and was ready to meet with missionaries in "real life."  Miracle because he's been looking for a church for over a year and a half and he found us.

We were making transfer calls from the mission office Saturday night.  It was getting late and we walk outside to the car only to find this big black truck parked about 20 feet from our car across three parking spaces.  So naturally we look at each other, and run back in the office.  At this point we're freaking out because the truck wasn't there 10 minutes before.  So we spend the next 30 minutes scouring the office for weapons (for self defense of course).  Unfortunately no one got the memo to stock the mission office with things more menacing than a hammer, a yard stick, and a steak knife.  All this time we're checking the window to look at the truck, still parked there. 

Eventually we decide we need to turn the lights out so that this potential carjacker or threat or whoever it is, doesn't have the upper hand.  So we're freaking out in silent darkness for a while until we look out the window again, and the truck's gone.  Finally, to make a long story short, after many prayers and thoughts of all the possibilities, we summon up the courage to run outside with our hammer, yardstick (for range of course), and steak knife, jump in the car and drive away, safely.  The truck made a surprise appearance Sunday evening when we were doing numbers at the office, but luckily I had my really bright flashlight attached to my belt, to blind any potential attackers :) and nothing bad happened.  So moral of the story, always bring your flashlight, attached to your belt...

We'll be picking up the new missionaries tomorrow and starting a new transfer, so lots of excitement for that.  This is the first time since I started my mission that I've remained with the same companion for the second transfer! 

Next week is Columbus Day, apparently, so I will not be emailing on Monday... Probably...

Matching as usual for mission leadership council

Matching as usual for mission leadership council

Changed ties during lunch to see if anyone would notice...

Changed ties during lunch to see if anyone would notice...

Thank you mom and dad, now my apartment smells like Shangri-La

Smells like home

Not creepy, just too excited about the scent!

September 28, 2015

So I have decided to switch occupations again! We were walking on the street the other day, and there were a bunch of people outside.  Seconds after seeing us, doors slammed, garage doors closed, and suddenly everybody was gone!  So I'm thinking of enlisting in NYPD working in their riot division.  All I have to do is walk outside in my missionary clothes and boom, riot over! 

Elder Fischer and I acquired a bench press and weights on exchanges in Hemet, really far from where we live.  We expertly disassembled it, fit everything in our Corolla (the trunk is a black hole! It's huge!), and it is now sitting in our living room.

We had an awesome baptism of one of our investigators.  She's going to make a GREAT member.  

One of the family's we're working with right now is great! The kids love what they're learning and are incredibly bright!  The only downfall is that the father is totally against the church. He has never been inside one or met with missionaries and is still not letting his family attend or be baptized.  It's unfortunate that some people will just write us off so fast!

We were meeting with one of our recent converts here, and I asked about some of his friends, if they wanted to learn more.  He said, well they haven't really talked to me since they heard I joined the Mormon church, but I love my family at church more!  He wants to come out with us to teach people!  Our other investigators will love the tattoos :), it brings diversity to the lessons.

We have transfers coming up so it's going to be a struggle helping to decide who's going where in the mission.  I feel kind of like a manager on a sports team, arranging who's going where and who I want where.

Mission Leadership Council - before Elder Fischer and my training

The entire mission leadership council

Baptism! Elder Fischer is straight-faced

Driving selfie - I was bored, and tired

way back to the goodbye dinner at the mission home (the three missionaries on the left all finished their missions and went home at the end of the transfer)

Elder Dyer in deep conversation in the background

Sock tie for the temple

 Matching ties x 2

Matching ties x 4

Spring onion garden in our apartment

September 21, 2015

Huge news!  For my birthday I got TIWI's and a new phone! A TIWI is a cute little box that slides on the windshield that "mentors" our driving.  So if we go over the speed limit, we get a "check your speed."  Obviously a great birthday present.  THEN we got new phones.  We switched from Sprint to AT&T so now we can actually hear people when we call them, I just can't get used to the new keyboard.  It's a struggle.

We had two mission conferences, one for the north half and one for the south half for the TIWI installation, which lasted from 7am to 3pm on both days.  Elder Fischer and I had to train.  In our leadership training to the zone leaders, district leaders, and sister training leaders, we obviously had to announce we were getting iPads to everyone, wait for 15 seconds, and tell them we were kidding.  We have too much fun together.

I got three different cakes! Not good for my health but I'll have to eat them slowly.  I was in Corona, my old area on exchanges for Saturday, my birthday, so it was awesome to see some old families and recent converts there.  One of the families had an Apple pie, and so we sang and ate pie.  Then I get a call from missionaries in the office that there's a cake waiting there for me from my UNCLE! I just picked it up last night.  Thank you Uncle Glen! Then when I got home from exchanges, I find out some missionaries took our house key and snuck in and put a cake in the fridge! So I have lots of cake if anyone wants to eat some.

Elder Fischer decided to tell the whole mission it was my birthday, so I was getting tons of texts all day long telling me happy birthday.  He's a funny guy.

Birthday pie!

Nice autumn arrangement

Elder Foy's selfie

With the Corona crew

At my old ward mission leaders house for breakfast

Birthday balloons

Southern California does not do rain well

Rain in Riverside round 2

 Really tired after the second day of conferences

Three birthday "cakes"

September 14, 2015

Lots of driving this week.  We racked up 190 miles on the car in one day because we had to go on an exchange across the mission!  It's fun seeing all the different parts of the mission though.  You hear about these places and it's cool to piece together a map of the mission by going there.  

On one of the exchanges, I was in a Spanish area again, and I got to attend a Spanish baptism which was fun.  I'm slowly improving my Spanish so nobody in Riverside County can pretend they can't understand me.  And so I go to a Spanish area after I'm done here.... just kidding!  It was fun going out contacting though.  Having a Spanish elder with you is great because if they try to pull the "no hablo ingles" on you, they just step up and blow their mind with Español.

We were walking to visit a referral we got for this guy and we saw two adults and a kid in one of those big above ground pools.  We asked if they knew this one guy (the name from the referral) and the little girl blurted out "YEAH YEAH HE'S RIGHT..." and got silenced by the guy who said he wasn't there and hasn't been to that house in months.  It's just so ridiculous to have people lie right through their teeth.  It's also nice to see how truthful the little children can be - if only we could become like them.

One of our investigators got baptized on Sunday.  It was so awesome to see him enter the water because it was the result of changes in his life that are going to bless him for a long time.  He was just so excited to be baptized it was adorable seeing him smiling ear to ear.  Interesting sight to see the contrast of the white baptism jumpsuit with all his tattoos.

Love his smile!

With his mother

Matching while visiting a zone meeting. totally not planned. we have too much fun

September 7, 2015

Another long tiring week! 

We had to prepare for our mission leadership council with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders, which involved a lot of Microsoft Excel and numbers.  It's crazy how my eyes just get tired so quickly now!  I guess that happens when you've been away from screens for that long!  But we were in the office a lot more, and a lot later than usual.  It's weird how the tiredness hits me too.  We were on exchanges the next day, and I was fighting to not fall asleep in the passenger seat of the car!

One of our investigators right now looks like the exact opposite of what you would think of if you thought of a "church-going Mormon."  He has tattoos all over his arms, is missing teeth, and has a ponytail, but he has such an uplifting spirit about him.  He used to be in a biker gang and is pretty clean now.  His house is full of people who use drugs and smoke, but he has asthma.  Every time you bring that up, smoking, he gets really annoyed about how his family members just never listen when he says they can't smoke!   He had his interview for baptism and is worthy!  When he finished the interview with one of the other missionaries in the area, I heard a big "THANK YOU JESUS!!!" and he came running out saying how proud his grandma (who passed away a couple days ago) would be of him.

We were teaching him the Word of Wisdom, and for some reason he was under the impression that we couldn't drink any caffeine.  When we told him we could, he just shouted “YES!”.  He's big into Dr. Pepper!  Then we were talking about healthy things we can eat, and for some reason we got on the topic of milk.  He said, if I can't have my milk I won't be able to live, I need my milk and cereal every morning!  Good thing milk's okay.

I have to go on ten exchanges every transfer, one with every companionship of Zone Leaders.  I had my first one in a Spanish area.  It was cool to be able to understand a lot of what they were talking about.  I also understood more of how it felt being on exchanges with me when I was in a Chinese area.  It gets kind of boring when you can't understand where the lesson is going.  

Elder Fischer and I were driving to an area and we saw this Mexican guy pushing a cart, so we obviously had to stop and get out of the car.  He was an "elote" (sp?) guy - selling the corn with mayonnaise, cheese, and chili (you know, from Nacho Libre).  So we parked and started following him.  Boy was he hauling... We couldn't catch up to him after maybe a quarter of a mile.  Finally he heard me whistling at him and he stopped.  The elote didn't really live up to the hype, though.  

We were knocking on a door of a referral and we hear, "Mommy, the Mormon's are here."  Then the reply, "I'll handle it."  The lady that answered the door suddenly couldn't speak English!  It's funny how if you just keep speaking English, though, they understand, but reply in Spanish!  California mission life.

Surprise of the week.  We're in our apartment after church, and we get a visit from none other than my favorite Elder Murray!  He was visiting for the Labor Day weekend and they stopped by to say hi! (He was with his family).  Knowing my weakness, he obviously dropped off Ferrero Rocher chocolates - he knows me too well.  THEN, around 9 pm, I hear a big loud knock on the mission office door.  None other than Elder Murray with MORE Ferrero Rocher (he's trying to get me fat), and food from the potluck he just left in Eastvale with all the members.  So thank you Elder Murray, or should I say Dexter.  Love you <3

What do I do with my hands? Sunday night numbers woooo!

Surprise visitor Sunday afternoon at our apartment! (It's Elder Murray!)

The Surprise visitor came back again for round two, this time with more chocolate and Chinese food!

Couldn't go to the Norco fair so we obviously took selfies from afar

my homemade kale chips - so healthy

perk about this apartment is I can cook again. but then I just get tired...

still tired...

Numbers yay!

That's my disappointed numbers face