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.)