Love General Conference Weekend!

Hello Family, 

How is everyone? :) This week was good. The week leading up to Conference is always awesome because we try to get everyone excited for Conference, and we get to go to the temple! :D Let me take you through what happened. 

For FHE on Monday, we went laser tagging with our YSA. It was really fun! I never try to win or anything; just try to hit more people than people hit me. After that, we got dessert and then went home. It was great. 

On Tuesday, I hit eleven months. I have a feeling these next seven months are going to be even quicker (for me, anyways)! It seemed to come so quickly. I don't feel like I have been on a mission that long! Anyways, that morning we had District Meeting. For part of it, we shared our favorite scriptures and why they are our favorite. I shared Isaiah 41:10. It was great. :D After District Meeting, we went and got açai bowls. They were yummy! We then had an appointment with Nicolette. We talked to her about the priesthood. It went really well. We then did some service for a woman named Elva in one of our wards. We went over to her house and helped her clean. The elders were there too, and that was fun. That night, we had dinner with the Jones. It was just Sister Jones and she took us out, and we ate on the beach. So fun! It was a great night. 

On Wednesday, we went to the temple! A member in SLV drove us there and we went with a couple of other people, including Alice. :) We also ended up going to the same session as the elders in our Zone! They recently remodeled the Oakland Temple, and it looks so beautiful. It was really really great. After the session, we got a picture outside the temple with our district. (It was actually raining in Oakland!) After the temple, we all went and got lunch, before heading back to SLV. We then drove home to Santa Cruz. Once we got home, I made dinner (enchiladas! yay!). After dinner, we went and saw Krystal. It was a great day!

On Thursday, I had an amusing phone call with someone. We got a woman's name from the referral system with a note that said that she had requested a copy of the Book of Mormon. So, I called her. 

Me: Hello, is this [name]?

Her: Yes

Me: Hi, this is the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. How are you doing today?

Her: Good.

Me: We got your number and a note saying that you wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon?

Her: Yes. I hear there is a musical?

Me: Umm...

Her: I wanted to order tickets.

Me: Oh, no. We don't work with the musical. We have the book. If you are interested in that-

Her: No, thanks. My friend is a minister. I know what YOU do!

Me: ....have a great day. Good luck with your tickets.

So, if mormon.org comes out with a disclaimer that says that ordering a copy of the Book of Mormon will NOT get you tickets to the musical, now you know why! I keep hearing so much about that musical here. Apparently it is/was playing in San Jose. *facepalm* 

In the morning, we saw Glenna. We shared President Uchtdorf's talk from the Women's Session of Conference (I have read all the talks now. They are great!). She loved it. We then saw Rhonda and her son, Joseph. We had a good lesson with them about charity. We also went and saw Renee and had a lesson with her. We didn't have a dinner that night, either, but I had leftover enchiladas (Sister Kelly didn't like them, so I had the whole pan to feed me this week! I just finished them yesterday!). We then had a lesson with Brenda. I enjoy lessons with her. She always makes me think.

On Friday, we went to the soup kitchen! Yay! They were all super excited because we had a TON of pizza this time. :) After the soup kitchen, we took care of some things at the apartment before trying to see Tanya. Unfortunately, she had to cancel. So, we went and did more service for Elva, cleaning her house. She found out that we didn't have a dinner that night, so she fed us too! It was so sweet of her! After that, we came home because it was about time for daily planning (we were cleaning for a long time). 

On Saturday, we had Conference! We went over to the McArthurs and watched both Saturday sessions. The Saturday Morning session was really good. I enjoyed President Uchtdorf's remarks about not making our discipleship too complicated. There were a lot of themes in that one. Multiple times they were warning us. After that, I helped Sister McArthur in the kitchen with getting lunch ready, because they had invited the YSA Branch over to watch the Afternoon Session. That was a great session, too! I loved Elder Holland's talk on mothers! I totally cried! *hug a mommy* I was also so excited about the new apostles! I remember meeting Elder Rasband! I think one of the others spoke in a BYU-Idaho devotional when I was there. After the sessions, we had a late lunch. Afterwards, we watched the press conference with the new apostles and Sister Kelly and I headed home before going to a dinner appointment. We ate with the Kings (love them). 

On Sunday, we watched the Morning Session at the Church. I was worried about President Monson! He did not look well! I really enjoyed Elder Nelson's talk, too. I feel like so many of the talks this time were addressing things I had heard on my mission! I couldn't help but think of people/areas I had served when they spoke on certain topics! Henry B Eyring's talk was great, too. We then had lunch before going to watch the Sunday Afternoon session with Renee. That was so much fun! I really enjoyed Elder Christofferson's talk. Same with Elder Bednar. I also loved Elder Durrant! I want to try ponderizing. :D As you can tell, I loved it. Lots of warnings, though. They also talked a lot about obedience and hard times ahead. *fastens seat belt* After that, we had dinner with Brenda. It was so fun to eat with her and talk about conference! 

Today has been a good day. We did our laundry and now we are emailing. We have some errands to run, including getting our car fixed (just an oil change). Hopefully we can rest before dinner and FHE. I am super excited for FHE. General Conference Trivia. Notes Allowed. :)

Well, got to run. Love you so much! Have a great week. *hugs* 

Love, 

Sara

Singing on the Streets

Good morning!

How is everyone? We sure had an eventful week this week! Can you believe September is almost over? That is so weird to me (it also doesn't help that we are still having summer weather. It is probably hotter in Santa Cruz than home for once!) Let me take you through the week. :D

On Monday, we had a good P-day. we ran our errands and then I took a nap because I was still tired from my sleep study. I was out for three hours! Then, the Seaside Sisters came to Santa Cruz to get their car fixed, and we took them to Mackenzie's (the chocolate shop) before taking them back to their car and heading off to our dinner appointment. We had a good dinner and then planned on going to FHE before Liz texted us that she wouldn't be able to come. So, we decided not to go to FHE (it was pretty far away and we couldn't really justify going that far without someone). That night, the Seaside sisters called and said that they had been talking to people at the store before they left and they found a less-active who wanted to come back! They sent us her name and number and told us to call her! :D 

On Tuesday, we had district meeting. It was really good! We talked about bearing our testimonies and practiced. The elders also asked us to sing at a baptism they were having this weekend! After that, we had lunch and met with Nicolette and had a lesson with her all about the temple. She had a lot of questions, and we were able to answer most of them. We then met with the less-active who the Seaside sisters sent us. Her name is Anyaleese. She was so happy to meet with us! :) Later that night, we met with Brenda. 

On Wednesday, we met with Liz. We had texted her on Tuesday asking if we could meet with her because we were concerned about her not coming to FHE. We met up and she told us that she is getting a lot of opposition from home. We were able to talk with her about it, and we also taught her The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Nicolette came with us and was able to really encourage Liz. :) After Liz, we had an appointment with Rina. We read Alma 32 with her and talked about faith. She really liked it. We then met with Tanya and reminded her about Conference. After that, we went to see Renee. She was doing better than the last time we saw her. We had a great lesson with her about patriarchal blessings. Later that night, we met with Krystal.

On Thursday, we tried to see Glenna, but she was sick, so we couldn't. So, we went to see Rhonda. We had a good lesson with her about trusting in God. We then went to the Volunteer Center to see if we could find more service opportunities.We gave them our information and they gave us some places to try, too. We tried one, and the lady working there told us that we weren't allowed to proselyte and that if we volunteered there, we would have to remove our tags. We probably won't be serving there. Oh, I also had a little accident when we were at the Volunteer Center. I was backing Sister Kelly into a parking spot and I tripped over one of those cement things that you stop your car behind. I haven't done that since I was seven! Anyways, I scraped up my arm and that was it. Now I have a story, though! :) After that, we went and saw Nancy Jo and had a lesson with her about the Spirit. It was fun.

On Friday, we were back at the soup kitchen! Yay! Nothing super eventful happened. Just that there were A LOT of people there this time. Some of them were new to the place, too. We then came home and took care of some things around the apartment before going finding with Brother J. It was so much fun! We went onto a super super busy street where there are lots of people and shops. Then, Brother J started to play his accordion and Sister Kelly and I sang. I was also handing out mormon.org cards to people who wanted to know what we were doing. We even invited some people to church and had a street lesson! I loved it! :D Afterwards, Brother J bought us pizza. It was a good night! :D

We also got a text from the Zone Leaders that our day to go to the temple is this Wednesday! Yay! 

On Saturday, we weekly planned, because we didn't have the chance to do it on Friday. We also took some time to clean our apartment. We are getting rid of all of the junk that previous missionaries have left behind! After that, we went to see Sister D and helped her put puzzles together. She was so funny. She was confused as to what time of the day it was and answered the door in her pajamas. She also told us that she wouldn't be surprised if two handsome young men showed up on her doorstep looking for us to marry us! XD After that, we went and saw Alice. She got some bad news that week and we shared the mormon message "Good Things to Come" by Elder Holland. We then helped her make dinner and we had dinner together. After that, we made it back to the church just in time for the baptism the elders were having, but missed the women's conference. The baptism was great. Sister Kelly and I sang "Abide With Me". President Mella was there, too. :) 

Fast Sundays are super hard for me. Anyways, we were in church from 8h00-5h00 (because we had Break the Fast after our YSA branch ended at 4h00). After church, I took a nap because I was so wore out! We then did training and then Sister Kelly and I tried to figure out a ride to the temple (we can't drive there because it is out of the mission). We also tried to see the moon, because we heard that something special was going on that night. But, it was cloudy. Oh well. 

Today has been a good day so far. We did our laundry and I got to play with the cutest puppy ever. I can now say that I have been attacked by multiple dogs on my mission. But not hurt :3 Today should be pretty laid back. We have errands to run, a dinner appointment, and then FHE. Should be a great day. Love you lots!

Love, 

Sara

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