11/29/11

I hope everyone's doing great and had a wonderful Thanksgiving and has begun celebrating Christmas in their hearts. I know I have since Halloween. Every time it's my turn to pick the hymn we sing when we study as a companionship, Sister Agavale knows that it's going to be a Christmas one. Again.

So we got transfer calls yesterday and looks like I'm heading out. I'm going up to Folsom, which isn't too far from here and is quite affluent, more so than here supposedly. So it looks like it will be similar work to what I've been doing in Fair Oaks- lots of finding. Hopefully people's hearts will be open as we approach the holiday season. I'm going to be in a temporary tri-panionship. My permanent companion is Sister Konou, who is from the Marshall Islands (yep, my previous companion was from there too). My temporary companion is the daughter of someone in the mission presidency. She's serving a mini mission for 3 weeks or so.

What else, what else. I am just about out of time and I can't think of anything interesting to say. So goodbye everyone!

11/24/11

Happy Thanksgiving friends and family! Here's last week at a glance:

• Formerly mysterious fruits-- I have discovered the pomegranate and I think my fingers may be permanently stained pink. I can't. stop. eating them.
• All dogs go to heaven-- A less active family asked us to come over and pray for their sick dog. We did not use the priesthood and bless their dog, although that is what they indicated they were hoping for.
• Rose cones-- There's a certain kind of coniferous tree that grows here in Northern California that produces these fragile cones. When they fall to the ground they break into a million pieces, and the top few layers usually stay together and form a perfect little brown rose. I've collected over a hundred of them. I know they will come to good use someday. I'll show you pictures another time.
• Still chuggin' along-- We have been working closely with the presidents of the ward auxiliaries to get names of part member families that are likely candidates for baptism within the next month or so. We're very hopeful that we'll see some fruits from this. Other than that, we've been using our time to show the Lord our diligence by putting in LOTS of time tracting and street contacting. Nothing yet, but we'll see.

And that's life! I love you all and am grateful to have you in my life!

11/7/11

Happy daylight savings time everyone! Fall backward! Wooooo! That was nice, especially since I had ward council this Sunday at 7 IN THE MORNING as usual. The weather is beautiful here right now. It's in the high 40's or 50's most days and fairly autumny looking. And I get to wear tights, cardigans and scarves everyday! What more could a girl want? Well, some baptisms would be nice. But other than that, I'm good.

We tried to get our couple of semi-decent investigators to progress this week, to no avail. It's sad, but that's just part of the missionary game I guess. We're still doin our best to get out there and find those people who are prepared to hear the message. We know they're out there. But sometimes it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. A beetle in a beer rack.

Well brothers and sisters, sorry this is so short (as usual) but my time is gone and I must depart. So long! Farewell! Allvied...alviederzen....alvidersehn....! Good night! Adieu! Adieu! To you and you and you!

10/31/11

Happy Halloween everyone!  Today is one of my favorite holidays and I don't even get to dress up. BUT I did make myself a crown of leaves I collected. I will wear it to the zone activity tonight, which we are doing instead of proselyting. I think we're watching 17 Miracles, that movie about the Martin handcart company that came out recently.

Not much going on this week. Despite the difficulties I've experienced in this area, I am learning to love being a missionary more for the work itself than for external success. I feel like I've become a much better missionary in the last few months, which has been a blessing. We've been working as hard as we can, and that brings a great satisfaction despite our lack of a teaching pool.

I must run! I hope that everyone has a fun Halloween and takes advantage of the fact that you can wear a costume, as some of us cannot.