LAST BLOGGGGG

I'm going home to be a civilian again in 2 days. It still hasn't really sunk in yet and I don't think it will till I get on the plane and California starts moving away from me. Some memories from the last 18 months of my life:

 

--MTC days, laughing with my companions Sister Everett and Sister Braithwaite, going to the MTC Bookstore every day and buying candy, drinking Fresca at every meal, intense four square.

--North Sacramento, Tala'ofa ward, tracting in the rain every single day my first transfer and learning to do hard things. Having to let go of the Fagapuleia's, which broke my heart. Teaching Filiga and realizing that this was going to be okay.

--Manteca, relaxing and getting used to mission life, talking about Lord of the Rings and Batman with my companion and roommates, ongoing Easter egg hunt. Walking and talking to people on the streets for hours every day because the sun was so nice, Sister DuQuette and I promising each other we would never become less active. Loving Sialei and Leah and realizing how attached you can get to your investigators.

--Stockton, hot, busy, teaching constantly, learning ASL, being amused but frustrated with Greg and Brandy, trying to figure out how to be a senior companion, the miracle of Maria, loving life.

--Fair Oaks, tracting and walking in the heat every day and learning to do hard things again. Training my lovely baby. Getting thicker skin.

--Folsom, stepping up and helping Jo realize she was ready for baptism, getting to know and love Jessica and her family, Jessica's text on my birthday that said she was ready to set a date for baptism, going on runs on the forest trails, Amy's unexpected decision to meet with us, Amy's beautiful baby girl, Tina's readiness to move forward, Zack's miracle baptism, fun families who loved us like daughters, great zone, praying every day that I'd be a better missionary than I was the day before.

 

Goodbye California Sacramento Mission. It has been a pleasure.

6/18

Hello there! I'm coming up on my last full week as a missionary, and I'm determined to use it to find some new investigators so that Sister Agavale will have people to teach after I'm gone. It has been very difficult for us to find investigators here in Folsom, but we've come up with some new plans. We've worked really hard to come up with some non-member friendly FHEs, and we sent around a (very cute!) "FHE with the Missionaries" calendar for members to sign up on. Our plan is to call the members who've signed up a few days before their FHE and challenge them to invite a friend. We've had great participation from our wards- 15 families signed up for this month and next, and we have our first one this week. We're excited to see how it goes, and I'm hoping that this brings us some new investigators. Great week ahead!

6/12

Hello world. Greetings from Folsom. I still love it here. I still love my companion Sister Agavale. I still love my wards, Folsom 3rd and Folsom 5th. I still love the hills and the trees around here. These are all things I will miss. But I don't want to dwell on that right now. We were able to pick up 2 new investigators recently, which has been great especially because we lost Zach, our teenage investigator. We found out that he lives JUST outside of our boundaries so we had to turn him over to the elders this week. So sad (I guess it's only sad because I'm being selfish and want all the investigators to MYSELF). One of our new investigators is Tina. I think we're kindred spirits. She is married to a member and she comes to church with him every week, but she was scared off by the missionaries last summer because she says they were pushy with her. She's decided to give us another chance and it's been going great so far. I'm so excited to teach her this week. We have some good things in store. For her, and for our area in general. I want to leave this place in ship shape for Sister Agavale, so we are working on filling up the teaching pool again. Wish us luck!

5/7 and 5/15

5/7
Hello loved ones! I hope your May is looking as gorgeous as mine right now. California is so beautiful in the spring. We also added a great new investigator this week. His name is Zach and he's a senior in high school. He has two good member friends who brought him to church and he agreed to meet with the missionaries last week. The lesson went so well. He is a really good kid and he's so open to the teachings. I'm excited to see where this goes. I think a baptism's a-brewin'. Our recent converts Jo, Jessica, and Amy are all doing really well too and I'm excited to see what happens with them in the future.

In other news, a mysterious bug is eating my companion alive. She wakes up with new bug bites all over her FACE every day. It's awful and really funny. This bug took a little nibble of my leg but apparently I'm not as tasty as Sis Ratu and so he's continued his campaign against her face. That is all for now.

Also, spring pictures!!

5/15
So the verdict is in. I'll be staying in Folsom for the last transfer of my mission. I can't believe I only have 6 weeks left here. You just never think the end is going to come, and suddenly here it is. I'm happy to stay in Folsom-- the work is slow and difficult but I have many people I've gotten to know and love and it'll be nice to spend the little time I have left with them. The best news about transfers though is my new companion--none other than Sister Agavale, a sister I served with about 6 months ago. I love her to death and I was keeping my fingers crossed that we'd get the chance to serve together again. She gets here tomorrow and I'm so excited! This transfer is going to be my best one yet I think.

Magic

Sister Foster asked me to post this. It's a photoshopped picture of her as a unicorn that I made her for her birthday. Enjoy.

3/19-4/30

3/19

Time is very short, but here is a little blog for ya!

Last Friday was my birthday. It was a good day and I felt very loved. But by far the best part of the day was when my investigator Jessica called me to tell me that she had talked to her husband and picked a baptismal date!! She sounded so excited and happy. Her baptism will be on March 30th in the evening. I can't wait! It's moments like these that make all the hard stuff worth it.

 

3/26
Hello gang! Things are still going really well here in Folsom prison blues. Jessica is still set and excited about her baptism this Friday. I think half the ward is going to show up. It's going to be great and I am PUMPED! On top of that, we set up another one of our investigators with a baptismal date! Her name is Amy and she is married to a member named Ron. She's been investigating on and off since last summer and she decided that she is definitely ready to move forward and be baptized. She's chosen April 13th as her date. The only possible hitch is that she has a PICC line in her arm right now because she had a very serious blood infection last week, and if they need to keep it in, she may not be able to be baptized that day. But we'll adjust if necessary. I am so happy for her and Ron. They have been really trying to do all the right things and her being baptized can only help them more. Life is good! Transfers are next week and it's definitely a possibility that I'm getting shipped out of here. I hope not though. I really love Folsom and my investigators. We shall see.

4/3
Greetings from Folsom! Again! I survived another transfer and I couldn't be happier about it. Sis Ratu is staying here too, which is a little unusual because this will be our third transfer together. But it's fine. We had a baptism on Friday and it was perfect. Jessica was glowing the whole time and I felt so lucky to be a part of it. There were like 100 people there! I love the wards in Folsom. So supportive of recent converts.

 I hope everyone got to catch GenCon this weekend. It was the last one of my mission, which felt a little sad. I have really enjoyed watching General Conference as a missionary. You just feel a part of things. I don't know how to describe it. Anyway, the prophets and apostles gave lots of great counsel and I would encourage anyone to watch the talks on lds.org

 

Happy Easter everyone!

4/16
Hello there! Greetings from beautiful, sunny California. Good things are going on here in Folsom. We have a baptism coming up on April 24th, a woman named Amy who recently married a member. I love their family and I'm so excited for them. After Amy gets baptized, I will have pretty much baptized my teaching pool and I'll be back to square one. Yikes. Hopefully we find some new people to teach soon!

4/30
So this week we were privileged to attend Amy's baptism, which was wonderful. Many people came, and she was very happy. And she burned me the whole Harry Potter books-on-tape series as a thank you (for after the mission of course)! I've loved getting to know her and her family. I feel so blessed to be here in Folsom around such wonderful people. I love my converts, I love the members, I even love our crazy downstairs neighbors who drunkenly yell until the wee hours of the morning (actually, I don't love them. I hate them.)

3/12/12

Greetings from Folsom, CA! Things are going well here. Jo is doing great since her baptism. The ward has already assigned her VTs and HTs and she's been visited by auxiliary presidencies from the ward. I love wards that love converts. Another one of our investigators is very close to setting a baptismal date--her name is Amy. She is married to a member of the ward and she's been investigating since last June. She didn't want to rush into it because she wanted to make sure her decision was for her and not for her husband. She's decided that the time is right and she's very ready. Now all that's keeping her from setting a date is she needs to find a weekend she'll for sure have custody of her son, who is 5 and very cute. Looks like she'll be an April baptism! I'm very excited. Another cool thing that happened this week is that our investigator Jessica's husband came to church with her for the first time. He's a nonmember and is supportive of her investigating, but he hasn't wanted much to do with it till now. I'm hoping that this gives Jessica the hope she needs to move forward with baptism. I'm really hoping for two April baptisms. How great would that be? Tracting/finding has been fairly discouraging lately, but we're pressing forward. Hope everyone's doing great!

Addendum: I can't believe this, but I almost forgot--another Apostle came to speak to us this week! I got to sit in the very front row as none other than L. Tom Perry spoke to us! It was amazing! He is so funny and sweet and very passionate about getting the wards involved in missionary work. I love him, and I feel so lucky!