New Adventures in Santa Cruz!

Hello! 

Oh my goodness, what a week this has been. 

On Monday (I was still in Watsonville) we did all of our errands and then went to the Church and played board games as a district. It was really fun. I mainly watched everyone play and worked on writing letters. They did, however, get me to play a little. It was fun. We then had a quick lesson with Joanne before going to dinner with Bro. Estrada. He is an older member in one of the wards who the sisters do service for. He is so nice! We had a great time eating with him. After dinner, we went and saw Mary and did some service for her along with sharing a spiritual thought. We then went home. 

On Tuesday, we had Transfer Meeting. Before every transfer meeting, the zone gets together and has breakfast, but no one in Santa Cruz could come, so we ate as a district. We then drove up to San Jose for the meeting. After some crazy traffic, we made it. It was weird to go to Transfer Meeting, and have to worry about where I would be or who I would be with. Hermana Robinson was transferred and Hermana Scarr's new companion is Hermana Snyder. We had a bunch of awesome missionaries transferred into the Zone, including an Elder I served with in San Jose! After Transfer Meeting, we went to lunch and then back to Watsonville. We then went and saw Joanne and shared a message with her. We then saw Mary, and then Vicki. After that, we had dinner before going home so Hermana Snyder could unpack. 

On Wednesday, we had District Meeting. We did some get to know you for Hermana Snyder and Elder Sundrud's new companion, Elder Barbosa. We then visited some people and came back home to take care of some things there. I had a really bad headache and took a nap. We then had dinner at home before going to teach Elsa. During Elsa's appointment, my headache was killing me and I had an upset stomach. Elsa noticed something was wrong and asked me about it. I told her that I thought I had a migraine. After Elsa's appointment, we went home so I could relax.

On Thursday, we loaded my stuff into the car and drove to San Jose so I could get my trainee. I was feeling sick all morning (mainly from nerves)! We made it to the mission office early, so we got my stuff moved to the car my trainee and I would be taking and got to talk to the office missionaries and other trainers who had showed up early. We then went into the meeting and waited. And waited (the orientation for the trainees was behind schedule). Finally, the trainees all came in and we had an opening hymn and prayer. Then, President Mella read off the companionships. My trainee is Sister Kelly. She is from Texas. We then had to get pictures and take care of all the things that I had to do my first day before we finally left to go get lunch. After lunch, we went back to Santa Cruz and I took her to Marianne's Ice Cream. We then went to see Carol Beth and had a lesson with her. We then dropped by the Swains to check on them. They moved to Utah this weekend. They will be missed. We then ran some errands and got Sister Kelly's iPad set up. We then went home to wait for the guy who was bringing my bed back up from Watsonville. It was an interesting day. 

On Friday, we had service at the soup kitchen. We then went and saw Adelaide. She had called while I was in Watsonville, to give us a referral! We met with her to ask about the referral (his name is Jose), and she gave us more of his information. After seeing her, we went to Jose's work and talked to him. He was busy, but he gave us his number and we gave him ours. Hopefully we can meet with him this week. After that, we came home and weekly planned. We then had dinner with some members in one of our branches. After that, we had some dinner and then went to an activity with our YSAs. It was a good day. 

On Saturday, we did some training before going to SLV. We tried to go find our investigator Sheena. I was told that she was going to the Aptos ward, but when I was there I asked the Bishop and he hadn't ever heard of her. We went to her house, and we found out that she moved! There was a lock on the door, a sign in the "yard", and the house was empty. I almost cried. I wanted to find her. After that, we went and saw Dottie and shared a message with her for Pioneer Day. We also saw Alice, and shared a message with her. She is getting ready to go to the temple, so we read D&C 110 with her. We then went and saw Sister Dallenbach. Always an adventure when we go there. We then went and did some service for the McArthurs before having dinner with them. We also showed Sister McArthur the movie "The Mountain of the Lord". It is super good! After that, we were going to see Krystal, but she wasn't home. 

On Sunday, I decided to take Sister Kelly through the eight hour stretch that we usually do. Soo, at 8h00 we were at ward council, and then sacrament at 9h00 and then sunday school at 10h00 because our other ward council was cancelled. We then had sacrament at 11h00 and branch council at 12h00 and then church from 1h00 to 4h00. We then came home and did some training and worked on the area book. It was a busy day!

Today has been good. We did our laundry and, after this, we are going to grocery shop and get some lunch before the zone activity. We are going to go play on the beach. Should be fun! :) 

Talk to you all later. Love you lots!

-Sara