I Am AWAKE!

Good morning! 

How is everyone? I hope you are all doing well. Can you believe it is almost the end of September? We have about three weeks left in the transfer, too. Wow...But hey, we had a good week this week. Started out a little tricky, especially with zone conference, but it was a good week. :D Let me tell you all about it!

For P-day last week, we went shopping all over town looking for some more clothes for Sister Kelly. It was all right *shrugs* We didn't find anything, and I am not much of a shopper. After that, we came home and wrote letters before going to our dinner appointment. It was a pretty relaxed day. We didn't get to go to FHE, because we needed to clean our car (they do car inspections at zone conference).

On Tuesday, we had Zone Conference in Monterrey. It was really good. We talked about being consecrated missionaries and about "elevating" our work as missionaries. President Mella shared something really cool with us: Bald eagles have no enemies because they soar over them. He encouraged us to soar as well. It was neat. Sister Mella talked about scripture study and different ways to study the scriptures. The Assistants then did some training with us before we had a lunch break. Then, President Mella talked to us more and then we practiced teaching skills with our zones. President Mella then wrapped it all up and we were free to go. All in all, it was a little over six hours. It was great, though! Plus, I have friends in the other two zones that we met with. :) After Zone Conference, a ward missionary from one of our wards called us and asked us to come over to dinner the next day and teach one of her friends! We were so excited! That night, we also had dinner with the Branch President of our YSA Branch. That was fun. We then met with Krystal and had a great lesson with her. 

On Wednesday, we were busy! After the morning schedule, we met with Rina and read scriptures with her. After that, we had lunch before teaching Nicolette. We finished the commandments with her and next time we are having a lesson all about the temple! I am excited! We also met with a member named Tanya and her son. It was fun to share a message with them about families. We then went to dinner. The friend we were supposed to teach really wasn't interested. Oh well. We can't say we didn't try. After dinner, we went on splits with the Capitola ward. Well, kind of. Some of the members of Elders Quorum all met at the church and went out inviting people to the Elders Quorum Barbecue this weekend. Sister Kelly and I went, too, but we were together because we were the only girls. Hopefully, more people come to it! :D 

On Thursday, the coordinating sister training leaders came down from San Jose to spend the morning with us. They brought stuff to make pancakes, so we made pancakes and studied. We then had a talk about finding people to teach. That, and Zone Conference, really encouraged Sister Kelly and me with finding! We were supposed to meet with Michael that day, but he had to reschedule. Dang it. We then went and saw Glenna and taught her. She was talking with us a lot about emergency preparedness. After training, we decided to contact some old referrals and called up a girl named Liz. She asked if we could meet that afternoon! That afternoon, we waited for her at the park and she came! We sat down and had a chat with her and ended up teaching her The Restoration. She has a friend who is LDS, so she already knows some of what we believe and even has a copy of the Book of Mormon that she has been reading from! During the lesson, we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We set another appointment for Saturday. We were so excited! We then went and saw Renee. We were sent at a good time. She had just gotten some bad news from home and needed someone to tell her that God loved her. Thank you promptings! :) That night, we met with Brenda and had a great lesson with her as well.

On Friday, we weekly planned and had a few appointments cancel. Drat. We did, however, get to see Rhonda and have a lesson with her. We also did a lot of finding. Next week, we are hoping to go to the soup kitchen again. We haven't been in a couple of weeks. We had dinner with a couple in one of our wards, and they took us to ihop! I haven't been there in years! :D It was a good day, even with our plans all falling apart.

On Saturday, we had our second lesson with Liz! It was great! We met up at a cafe and had brunch before teaching her The Plan of Salvation (in a coffee shop! Ha!). She really felt the Spirit and started to cry when we were teaching her about after this life! At the end of the lesson, we set a baptismal date with her for October 10th!!!!!! We were soooooooo excited! :D We told the whole zone and they were super excited too! After that, we went to SLV and met with Alice. We had a great lesson with her about service (we used the talk "Our Personal Ministries" by Hugo Martinez). We were then going to see Sister Dallenbach, but she wasn't home or something (no one answered the door). So, we came back to Santa Cruz and did finding. All in all, it was a good day! :D 

On Sunday, we did our eight hour stretch of church. In Santa Cruz ward, they did the primary program and that was super cute. We didn't get to hear the speakers in Capitola, because we needed to get lunch. The speakers in Ocean Branch were both from the Stake, so I had heard one of their talks at least twice already. They were good talks, though. In Sunday School, we talked about Christlike Attributes and studied from Preach My Gospel Chapter 6. In Relief Society, we read Ezra Taft Benson's "Beware of Pride". I definitely had a lot to think about when we left church! We then went and saw a member named Fether and had a lesson with her before going to dinner with the Kings. I love them! :D After dinner, we went home and prepared for my sleep study. 

I got to the sleep lab half an hour early for the appointment and they had me wait a little bit before getting all of the wires on me. Holy cow that is a lot of stuff they put on you! My sleep tech then helped me into bed and I tried to sleep. I felt like I laid awake for hours when I asked if I could go to the bathroom. My sleep tech helped me get into the restroom and I cried because I thought I hadn't slept and I was ruining my chances to have the study done. When I came out, she came back with a CPAP  mask and told me that I had been sleeping, and that I met the "respiratory requirements" for a split study: meaning that I got to use a CPAP machine for the rest of the night! Apparently, my breathing was so bad that I couldn't tell that I had been asleep (which has happened before)! Anyways, I got the mask on, practiced with it and then they let me go back to sleep. Which I did! I woke up and I didn't feel like I had a "sleep hangover". No headaches and I was AWAKE! They then took all the wires and stuff off me and sent me home. My follow up is in a couple of weeks. I am glad that I finally got the test done! Hopefully I can get a machine and get the sleep that I need! 

Random quotes for the week:

*practicing a baptismal invite with Sister Kelly, using my iPad as a fake investigator*

Me: There. Now you try.

Sister Kelly: *groans*

Me: Will you follow the example of missionaries before you and invite my iPad to be baptized?

Me: I am just going to go into it with low expectations...

Krystal (a member we see): I do the same thing with people...

Me: Man, if Bre did that to me I would be so mad! I would be like "No kidney for you!" 

*random guy in front of Sister Kelly and me whirls around and stares at us in confusion*

Me: Satan makes the GPSes! 

Well, that is about all for here. I haven't had a nap since my test, and I know that I am going to crash soon, since I only slept a couple of hours with the machine. We are going to do our errands and then I am going to take a nap. The sisters in Seaside may be coming up, and we have dinner and FHE, but that is about it.

Have a great day, and a great week! :D

Love, 

Sara

Just Another Week in Santa Cruz

14 September 2015

Hello Family!

How are you doing? Today has been kind of dreary. It is trying so hard to rain. Hopefully, it will. We are supposed to be cooling off from our "heat wave" (we were actually in the 90s). This week was good, though. We did a lot. 

On P-day last week, we hurried to finish our errands before heading down to Monterrey. We met up with the Sisters there and had lunch at a sandwich place I used to go to in San Jose. It was so good! We then went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. We didn't have a lot of time, but we went through it and looked at the different exhibits. It was so cool! They have tons of things. I took some great pictures. I loved that they had these giant fake whales hanging from the ceiling! :D We saw some octopus, penguins, otters, jellyfish, sharks, rays, and more! :D Seriously, so fun! I would love to go back there when I have more time! Also, when we were waiting outside for the sisters, a group of people walked by speaking French! I didn't chase after them, but it was so nice to hear someone speaking French! :) We got stuck in some bad traffic on our way to Santa Cruz, but our dinner was totally understanding. It was super fun. 

On Tuesday morning, we got a referral! So, we tried to go see her as soon as we could. Unfortunately, she wasn't home. After that, we tried to see a woman (Wendy) who the Relief Society asked us to see. We caught her at home and set up an appointment for later in the week. We then tried to see some more people and even dropped in on our potential, Danielle. She answered the door! We chatted with her and she told us everything that she has going on. She told us that she would have more free time this week, so we are going to try her again this week. I hope we get to start teaching her, too. We then did some finding before dinner with a family in Santa Cruz. It was fun. We then tried to visit someone else that the Relief Society asked us to see. We made contact with her, too! Unfortunately, she is not interested in being in the church anymore. We then had a lesson with Krystal. We talked with her more about forgiveness. She was supposed to come to church this week, but she had to cancel. Drat. 

On Wednesday, we tried to see our referral again and got her contact information from one of her neighbors. We then had an appointment with Tina, but she had to cancel. We then met with Rhonda and her boys and had a lesson with them. We talked about the things that we need to do to be closer to our Heavenly Father. One of her boys really liked it. We then met with Renee. She wasn't able to go to church on Sunday, so we talked to her about what we learned in Church. I love going to see her! She is also planning on asking the bishop for an interview for a patriarchal blessing. Yay! We then went to Sister Massey's house and did service for her before having dinner. Sister Massey LOVES to talk, so we were there for a while! :) We then tried to visit someone else, but she wasn't home. 

On Thursday, we had ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) in Santa Cruz. It was all about obedience. Sister Kelly and I were in charge of the activity. We also got to meet the senior couple  that will be helping out in SLV. That was nice. :) After ZTM, we all got lunch and ate together. After that, Sister Kelly and I had appointments. We met with Wendy and got to know her better. She has a lot going on in her life! We then had an appointment with Nancy Jo and answered some of her questions. She volunteers making catholic rosaries, so she always has questions about what she hears there versus what we believe. After that, we had some training and dinner. We then dropped by Rina's (a less active) house and dropped off a Spanish Book of Mormon. We thought that that would be all, but she asked us to say a prayer with her and if we could meet this week! :D Yay! We then tried one more time to contact our referral. We got her, but she was really rude to us. According to what we had, she referred herself. Apparently not. She wanted to know how we got her number and demanded that we get off her property. Yikes! I wasn't very happy after that. I try to remember something that Elder Holland said. He said that missionary work isn't easy for us, because it wasn't easy for the Savior. If people rejected Him, of course they will reject us.

On Friday, we were in San Jose most of the day because Sister Kelly had Advanced Orientation (a training that you go to your second transfer). This time, they had the trainers stay for it, too. It was really good. I remember a lot of it from when I was in training. It was a pretty long meeting, and they fed us lunch. After that, we drove back to Santa Cruz (about a 45 minute drive) and weekly planned until dinner. The couple who was feeding us lived in the Alma Branch (about halfway to San Jose) but they asked if they could feed us in Capitola because it was super hot in their house (it was really hot in San Jose, too). We were just fine with that! It was a good night. 

On Saturday, we went to SLV. We visited Alice and did some service for her. We then went and saw Sister Dallenbach and helped her. They are both doing well. We then came back to Santa Cruz and did finding. We then had a quick dinner before spending some time with our YSAs. We also tried to visit one more person, who we found out had moved. Ugh...

On Sunday, we had a lot of church. At 8h00 we had Santa Cruz ward council. Then at 9h00 we had Santa Cruz sacrament meeting. The last speaker spoke about marriage, and it was awkward because I couldn't relate. Haha. We then had Capitola ward council at 10h00. That was really good. Capitola just got a new bishop, so we got to meet him and talk to him about what we were working on. He seems like a great guy. We then had Capitola sacrament meeting at 11h00 before going to Ocean Branch Council at 12h00. After that, we had a fast lunch and then went to sacrament meeting at 1h00. We then had sunday school at 2h00 and then relief society at 3h00. In Relief Society, the lesson was on chastity. We just picked the wrong Sunday to come to these wards! XD

In other news, Michael got in touch with us. Hopefully we can meet with him this week!

Today has been good so far. We have some errands that we want to run today, but that is about all. Should be relaxed. Unless shopping takes forever. I have already warned Sister Kelly that I am not much of a shopper.... Tonight we have FHE, too. It should be super fun! 

Have a great week!!!! 

Love you lots, 

Sara

Owee for Sister Kelly

7 September 2015

Hello!

So, two years ago today (7 September 2013), was the day I punctured my foot at the river in Rexburg. I had no clue that two years later I would be on my mission. Or, that I would be in California. Or, that I would be training a new missionary. I can't believe how much has changed! Or, how one little event (okay, it wasn't little, but you get my point) can change my life so much. 

  

How are you all doing? This week was definitely an adventure. A little challenging work-wise, with the holiday coming, but it was an adventure. Speaking of the holiday, they are expecting at least a thousand people coming in! So, Sister Kelly and I are not going to be in Santa Cruz much today! 

On Monday, we mainly relaxed at home. It was nice. Plus, I got to take a nap. :D After P-day, we had dinner with Lillian. She took us out for pizza. She also fed us on her birthday, so we celebrated her birthday, too. It was really fun! After that, we went to the beach for FHE. They had a bonfire on the beach. It was fun.

On Tuesday, we had district meeting. It was really fun. I got to teach some of the missionaries a fun game that I learned in my first district. :) We had a lesson all about our purpose as missionaries. It was great. After district meeting and lunch, we had some training. I was training Sister Kelly about the Book of Mormon (how to use it, how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together, etc.). It was fun. I remember when I was doing that part of training. We then had an appointment with Nicolette. We are almost done going over the commandments with her. After that, we went back home so Sister Kelly could rest (she was sick). We then met with a less-active named Karen (the elders asked us to see her). She was great. She actually had a lot of the same interests as Bre, so I knew how to talk to her! :D After that, we had dinner at home and did more finding. 

On Wednesday, Sister Kelly wasn't feeling well, so we continued to take it slow. A lot of the people we wanted to see, however, weren't home. *sigh* Later that afternoon, we decided to go see Nancy Jo. We went to her house, knocked on the door, and no one answered. So, as we were turning to leave, Sister Kelly did something to her knee. All I knew was one second she was turning and then she was sitting on the front step holding her knee and crying. We sat on the front step for a while and then we called Sister Conner, who suggested we go to an Urgent Care. So, we went to the Urgent Care (the same one that I saw for my hand, she even saw the same doctor I saw!). After waiting for a couple of hours, we were finally seen. It turns out that Sister Kelly bruised her meniscus. Thankfully, all she has to do is ice it and take pain medicine if she wants. We got our of the Urgent Care late and had to run home and inhale a fast dinner before running off to our appointment with Krystal. We had a great lesson with Krystal about forgiveness. It was an interesting day. 

On Thursday, we saw Glenna. We shared Elder Bednar's talk "Therefore They Hushed Their Fears". It was really good. I enjoy going to see Glenna. :) After that, we had lunch and then tried to visit people, but they weren't home. Drat. Later that evening, we had dinner and then went to see Brenda. Her Visiting Teacher, Sister Pearson, came with us. Brenda is doing better than when we last saw her. Things are really starting to look up for her! :D We had a great lesson with her on Trusting in the Lord. She loved it.

On Friday, we didn't go to the soup kitchen. We figured Sister Kelly wouldn't be able to stand for that long. So, we weekly planned. After weekly planning, we had lunch and then tried to see someone, but they weren't home. We then did some finding before going to our appointment with Carol Beth. We have decided to drop Carol Beth. :( Anyways, we had a lesson with her and we have now dropped her. I am sad about it, but it needed to be done. We then tried to visit some people before going to see Rhonda and her sons. We had a good lesson with them about families and listening to eachother. After that, we had a rally fun dinner appointment. We had dinner with a young couple in the Santa Cruz ward. They are both students at UCSC (University of California Santa Cruz), actually. (Fun Fact: The mascot of UCSC is the banana slug. I have no clue why...). Anyways, we ate dinner with them and their neighbors, who aren't members of the Church. The neighbors couldn't stay for the message, but they asked the couple feeding us to tell them all about it. :) After that, we did more finding. 

On Saturday, we did some work in Capitola before going to SLV. First, we went and saw Alice. She is doing so well! We talked to her about her trip to the temple a couple of weeks ago. She loved it and she wants to go back. I encouraged her to get a "temple buddy". It helped me to have someone who already went consistently! :D We then went and saw Sister Dallenbach and helped her put some more puzzles together. She was doing better this time. She had less that she was worried about. It's always fun going to see her. :) After that, we had an interesting dinner situation. So, our ward mission leader had a brilliant idea. There was a couple he asked to feed us and they said that they couldn't because the wife isn't well. So, he asked if WE could bring dinner to them and all eat together! It was awesome! So, after seeing Sister Dallenbach, we went to the restaurant that the ward mission leader told us to go to and we ate there before taking the rest of the food to them. We then sat on the front porch and talked to the husband for a while. I found out that the husband speaks some French, too! It was fun to talk to him! I hope we go back there this weekend. :) 

Fast Sundays are always hard. However, two of our ward councils cancelled, so we didn't have to leave sacrament meeting early this time! So, we tried to sit in the congregation. Nobody really sat by us, because a lot of people were out of town, but we tried! :) So, we had our first sacrament meeting at 9h00 and then we went to sunday school at 10h00 before sacrament meeting at 11h00. During that meeting, a Bishop from out of town bore his testimony and told us all what we need to do to end the drought. I looked at Sister Kelly like "Didn't we just hear this?" Oh well. A lot of people were fasting for the drought. :) After that, we had Branch council at 12h00 and then our branch from 1h00-4h00. I learned a lot, but I was so tired by the end of it! We also stayed for Break the Fast. It was Mexican themed. People brought enchiladas, tortas, and all sorts of great food. :D 

Today is going to be a great day. As I mentioned, we are going to be leaving Santa Cruz. The sisters in Seaside (Monterey) invited us to come down for the day, so we will be going down there. We plan on getting lunch together and then going to the aquarium. I am super excited! :D 

Have a good Labor Day. Have a wonderful week. I love you all so much. *big hugs*

Love, 

Sara

Sister Palmer vs. Iguana

Hello, 

How is everyone? I hope you are all doing well! Things are going well here. What a week we had! :D 

I have a lot I want to tell you, so here goes! 

On Monday, as I mentioned last week, we were at the beach. We were there with a recent convert who came down to see Elder Staker and the Livermore Zone. We had lunch and played on the beach. I got to hang out with Sister Lytle and Sister Pattison, and some people I served with in San Jose. It was awesome! :) After that we finished our errands. My sunburn is about gone too, after peeling (haha). I will be better about sunscreen. That night, we had dinner with the McArthurs and read scriptures with them. We didn't go to FHE, because it was in San Jose.

On Tuesday, we did service for some members in one of our wards. The community they live in is having a rummage sale, so we went and moved things out of people's homes into a truck and then from the truck to the place they were having the sale. I really enjoyed it. They also fed us lunch, which was nice. We were there with some of the elders in our district, too. After that, we had a lesson with Nicolette. We taught her the commandments. It went really well. We then had a lesson with Rhonda, Phillip, and Joseph. We taught them about the Spirit and listening to the Spirit when we make choices. After that, we did training. I am training Sister Kelly on how to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ (lesson three). She is doing really well! After that, we had dinner with a couple in Santa Cruz ward. It was fun. :) 

On Wednesday, we did more rummage sale service. This time, we were sorting things and helping price them. Some people are getting rid of cool stuff! After lunch, we had an appointment with a less-active named Rina. We then tried to see some people who the Relief Society asked us to see, but they weren't home. We also tried to do some finding. We then had dinner before going to see Krystal. During that appointment, I won a fight with her iguana. 8D Her iguana, Taylor, was bobbing its head at me and I wasn't about to take that. So, I walked up to the cage and we had a stare off. I then did my "suspicious face" and it fell over and ran to the other end of the cage. Victory was mine! For our lesson with Krystal, we talked about answers to prayers. She really wants to come back to Church. We are super excited. :D 

On Thursday, we did some training and practiced for our lesson with Michael. We were a little early to the appointment, but so was he! We sat down and had a chat with him, learning more about him and his religious background. Also, to wait for the member who we had asked to come to the lesson to show up. He came, and we started the lesson. It was super good. We taught the first half of the Restoration and he is super interested. We invited him to come to church, and he said he would get back to us (he works every day). When we left the appointment I was so excited! He was so awesome! He wants to know more! He is interested! :D We plan to teach him the rest of the Restoration this week and invite him to be baptized. Heavenly Father has a plan for his children. They are looking! Even in a crazy place like Santa Cruz! :D After that, we had District Meeting, which was super good. We then tried to visit more people.

On Friday, we had anything but an ordinary day. We had to get up early so I could get to my doctors appointment  at the sleep clinic and fill out paperwork. After a conversation with the doctor about everything that I am feeling, she said that it sounds like I have sleep apnea and she wants me to get a test as soon as possible. So, once the clinic and insurance get things ironed out, they will call me and I can have an appointment! I am so relieved to get a sleep test! I want to sleep again! We then had personal study and companionship study before running off to the soup kitchen. The soup kitchen was a little calmer this time. One of the homeless people told me that I have pretty eyes. ^_^ A couple also thanked me by name. It was nice. After that, we tried to visit some people before going finding. For this particular finding activity, we went to a FANCY art show. We met a woman on the beach about a month ago who was painting and she invited us to an art show she was displaying at. It was at a country club and there was all of this fancy art along with hors d'oeuvres and complimentary wine. Anyways, we found the woman and chatted with her about her art and about when we saw her on the beach. Don't know if anything will come out of it, but it was nice. (Side note: We are having an Indian summer here! It is starting to heat up into the 90s. Apparently, the Indian Summer is normal. The "high heat", not so much. Everyone is talking about El Nino, too. We will see what happens.)

On Saturday, we were in Watsonville on a day exchange. We did studies with the sisters and then went to work with them in Watsonville. Later in the afternoon, Sister Kelly and I were back together, and we went to SLV. We tried to see Alice, but she wasn't home, so we went to Sister Dallenbach. She was outside, sweeping off her front porch and driveway, so we helped her with that. I also took her little dog for a walk around the driveway. We then went inside and helped her some more with her puzzles. She has a lot on her mind right now, poor thing.

Here is something funny that happened. We are never sure what she is going to say or do. Today she scared the snot out of me! Here's how it went:

Me: *working on puzzle*

Sister Dallenbach: I'll kill you yet...

Me: *looks up in alarm* ?!!!!!

Sister Dallenbach: *walking away from the window* where's a fly swatter?

Me: *realizes she was talking to a fly*........Whew!!

After that, we had dinner in SLV. That was fun, too. We ate with a woman who works in the Oakland Temple, so we got to talk about temple things. :) 

On Sunday, we went to sacrament meeting in the Alma Branch. That was interesting! At the end of Sacrament, someone in the Branch Presidency got up and proceeded to tell the congregation that rain was linked to righteousness and that if we wanted to end the drought, we all needed to repent. (I avoided asking him why Heavenly Father flooded the earth, considering that wasn't because of people's righteousness!) You never know what you will get when you go to church in the mountains! After that, we went back to Santa Cruz for lunch and then sacrament meeting in Ocean Branch. After that, Sister Kelly and I went to the ER because she was having trouble breathing (it had started the night before). They told her that she had a respiratory infection and gave her some medicine. After that, we came home and Sister Kelly got some rest. 

Today has been good. We are running around getting our errands done, and then we will go home so Sister Kelly can rest. All we really have today is dinner and then FHE. We will see what happens. Should be good. :) 

Have a great week! Love you sooooo much! *hugs*

Love, 

Sara