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!

2/13, 2/21, and 2/27

2/13/12
Happy Valentine's Day loved ones! I hope that everyone's doing well. Things are good here in Folsom. My companion and I have been sick for several days now, but we were still able to see most of our investigators this week. Jessica is doing well. She's been investigating for a few months now but her husband just isn't on the same page as her so she doesn't want to move forward without him. We asked her husband to donate a service to the Young Women's Silent Auction this weekend (he used to be a pro golfer so we asked if he'd be willing to donate an hour-long golf lesson for people to bid on). He was way cool about it and even came to the silent auction with Jessica. We also got our ward mission leader to go over and have a chat with him and help resolve his concerns. I think we're moving in the right direction. Jo is doing great. We ended up having to move her baptism to Feb 24 because it turns out she's working on the 18th, but I'm just happy she's getting baptized at all. She made dinner for us a few nights ago and tried to teach me how to double crochet. I'm not very good, but I have big dreams. Also, my mission president is still on sick leave. He's recovering, but very slowly. I don't think he'll be back to the mission for another month or so. In the meantime, his counselor Pres Weston has taken over and is doing a great job. And that's pretty much my life in a nutshell. Transfers are next week and I am hoping to stay, but I'm sure it'll be fine whatever happens.



2/21/12
Hello loved ones! I'm out of time so here's a baby blog!

Transfer news: Sis Ratu and I are staying here together in Folsom for another transfer. I'm so glad I got to stay. I would have cried if they had transferred me out of here. I'm very attached to a few of my investigators. Jo is still on schedule for baptism this Friday, so please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. The ward has been awesome and many people are planning to come to the baptism. I'm so excited for her!! Here's to another great transfer!


2/27/12
Jo was baptized this Friday and it was the best baptism I've been to so far on my mission. So much love and participation from the ward. Jessica, the member who friendshipped Jo and invited her to church, had a major tragedy the day before Jo's baptism. I thought Jo might want to cancel, but her friend insisted on her going through with the baptism and even asked if she could bear her testimony at the service. It was amazing to see her at the baptism, looking heartbroken but so brave and faithful. She bore one of the most beautiful testimonies I've ever heard. Jo was so light and happy at her baptism and is excited to jump into membership in the church. I love her very much and I'm so lucky to have been a part of her conversion.

1/30/12

So Thursday I get a text from the zone leaders saying that we were having an emergency mission conference the next day. I was a little stressed about this because I had appointments I had to reschedule or cancel. I wondered what could possibly be important enough that they would need to see every missionary the very next day. So Friday, all 200 of us are in a chapel in Stockton together, and the assistants tell us all to stand, which we always do when the mission president enters. We stand up and look down the chapel aisle, where none other than JEFFERY R HOLLAND is making his way to the stand. It was so cool. Of all the apostles, it happens to be my favorite, Jeffery "The Bulldog" Holland as I like to call him. I was sitting in the second pew, so I was probably 10 feet away from him. He got up there and just gave a great talk in classic Holland fashion. He even yelled at us! "Don't you DARE even think about becoming inactive after your missions. THAT IS SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE" he roared so loudly the mike squeaked.

It. Was. Awesome.

We all got to shake hands with him and talk with him briefly. It was so nice that he took the time to do that. It was one of the best days of my mission for sure.

Also, one of our investigators, a woman named Jo who I have come to love very much, has tentatively accepted Feb 18th as a baptismal date. I am so happy for her. I've loved teaching her and getting to know her. All in all things are going good here!

1/16/12

This week I will hit my one year mark. I can't believe it's been that long. It really doesn't seem like it could have been a year ago that I was making my way into the MTC amid masses of other baby missionaries. And now here I am, an old, seasoned, one year old missionary. Crazy...

I survived transfers last week and I'm still here in Folsom. I got a new companion named Sister Ratu. She was born in Indonesia and came to the US when she was a child. She's nice enough. We're making good progress with one of our investigators, but the others are threatening to turn into eternal investigators.

Our mission president is still in the hospital and apparently will be for a few weeks. He's doing fine but the recovery process is long. I hope he's doing all right.

In other news, I have to go because my zone is going to sculpt ice cream or something. Have a great week!

12/26/11

Happy birthday baby Jesus!! I had a great missionary-style Christmas yesterday. Talking to the fam was of course a treat among treats, and I got lots of love from the ward as well. We spent Christmas Eve delivering cookies we decorated to recent converts and less actives, and then that night I went to a zone bonfire, where we sat around the fire telling each other riddles. It was a good holiday.

This week we also picked up a new investigator. His name is David and we found him tracting last week. He's fairly legit! Actually, all of our investigators are. I have a lot of hope for this area. It's good to be in Folsom at the moment.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years Eve! What are your resolutions? (MINE IS A SECRET!)

12/19/11

There is something so MAGICAL about Christmas, even on the mission. My zone is having a bonfire in the foothills on Christmas Eve, which I think is pretty great. CHRISTMAS FIRE! Almost as good as being home with the family (okay, maybe not). I hope everyone's enjoying the holiday season and the family time and the Christmas magic. I am, even though all the Christmas magic in the world couldn't undo the topics brought up in church yesterday in front of my investigator, including but NOT limited to:

1) Heavenly Mother
2) How God was a man before He was God
3) The three degrees of glory in the Celestial Kingdom
4) Black people and the priesthood

Yay for deep doctrine in Gospel Principles class! Merry Christmas everyone!

12/5/11

So a few days ago I was shipped out to Folsom, where I am living in the nicest apartment I've lived in as a missionary. Score! Basically everyone here works for Intel and so they're quite well-to-do. But the people here are really nice. It's probably because this area of the mission has a LOT of members and so just about everyone here apparently knows or works with a Mormon. They treat the missionaries very kindly, although not many are actually interested. But we have appointments set up to see our progressing investigators in the next few days and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. We're really hopeful that one of them will be able to be baptized in December. That would be a great Christmas present. Hope everyone's doing well! Love you all!

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.

10/24/11

Items of business:

Samoan Uso-- Sister Agavale is great. I love her and we've been doing good work together. We were even able to add a maybe semi-decent investigator this week. I've been enjoying getting to know her. We are both

• Nail biters
• Light sleepers
• Dessert protesters

Man vs. Machine-- Two days ago I figured out how to turn the brights off in the car I've been driving for over three months now. People have been flashing their brights at me every night and I felt so bad but I just didn't know how to turn them off. But it turns out that it's the same as in every single other car! Who would have thought?? I was so pleased that I did a victory lap around the car.

Frozen Vermin Part II-- You were wrong if you thought I was going to ignore the counsel I was given by the investigator who lovingly gave me a dead squirrel: "Don't waste the squirrel meat. Don't waste the squirrel meat." I am NOT AFRAID of dead animals. I washed it, cut it up, fried it in butter and made my roommates eat it. I didn't think it was bad. Kind of like tough, slightly gamey chicken. I've included pictures for your viewing pleasure.

 

 

8/29-10/17 (Whoops)

8/29
Sorry, things are so slow right now that I really don't have anything to say for a blog! I guess we'll skip it this week. I am alive and well and so is my companion and we don't really have any investigators, but we're looking looking looking. Love all of you and hope you're well.

9/6

Here's some stuff.

--To all the return missionaries on BYU campus who I judged for their receding hairlines: I'm sorry. I understand now. No, I am not balding but I have found 4 legitimate grey hairs on my head. How long is the grey grow-out? About 7 months worth, AKA the amount of time I've been on my mission. The mission is making me old before my time.

--Transfers were yesterday and although Sister Langirik and I are still together, there are some changes. We have so many new missionaries coming in this transfer that they have to increase the number of areas in order to accommodate them all. So one of our wards has been given to some elders (we used to have 2 wards). Our work has been cut in half, and there really wasn't that much to start with. But I know that we'll find a way to get some missionary work done.

--Also, we are being kicked out of our cozy little member's home. The elders are movin' in, and we're going to go live in an apartment with the ASL sisters, Sisters Larson and Williams. I am actually really excited about this. 

--But it will also be weird because I'm moving back into the exact same bedroom that I was BORN IN, aka where I started my mission. Remember my Tongan days in Tala'ofa Ward? I sure do. Malolelei! and all that.

--That's pretty much it. Oh except that also, we lost the part of our area that has the chicken park. Sad sad day.

 

9/12
Greetings! Nothing too new here in Fair Oaks. We still don't really have any investigators, and our area is the tiniest of tinies now. But we're still getting out there everyday trying to find someone new to teach. Hopefully soon. We've been doing a lot of work with less actives and recent converts, and we're hoping to increase the retention in our ward. Right now active membership in Fair Oaks 5th is about 45%, which is no good. Anyway, that's life right now. I'll let you know if we find someone great to teach. Bar lo yuk! (That means see you later in Marshallese. I think.)

9/19
Hello all. Time is short so I will tell you about this week in bullet form.

• Frozen Vermin--Awhile ago we went to say goodbye to one of our investigators in the ward that was TAKEN from us by the elders. His name is Myron. He was so touched by some things that we talked about that he presented me with a dead frozen squirrel so that I can make squirrel stew. His last words to me were, "Don't waste the squirrel. Don't waste the squirrel."
• Disgusting Conversations--We went to visit an older lady who is a less active member of the ward for health reasons. We were rewarded with a 2 hour long conversation about her disturbing health issues, including a full blown description of the color, amount, and texture of her poop.
• Catholic Basher--We found a lady who we felt was destined to be baptized. She approached US on the street, which was a first for me, and she was so nice. She invited us to come to dinner the next night and tell her about our church. We eagerly came to the appointment, visions of a baptism in the not-too-distant future in our heads. We were a little wary when we came in and Catholic literature was all over the table. The evening ended after her complete refusal to listen to anything we had to say and a forceful effort on her part to convert us to Catholicism. We declined.

9/26
Hello all! I hope that my female readers were able to catch Relief Society General Broadcast this weekend and hear the SPLENDID talk by President Uchtdorf that reduced my roommate Sister Larson to a puddle of TEARS. A lovely broadcast for sure. I took many notes and drew many pictures of forget-me-nots in honor of President Uchtdorf.

Not much is going on this week and I have some people I need to email so I will take my leave, but I hope that everyone is doing well and that all of my recently married friends are loving married life and that all of my not married friends are loving not married life. Love you all, happy fall! That rhymed!!

 

10/3
No blog post

10/10

Greetings! I have very little time so this will probably be a little lame. But I wanted to say that a) nothing has happened as far as new investigators go, but we're still doing our best and b) General Conference was so wonderful and I loved it and I can't wait to read Elder Holland's priesthood talk because I heard it was pretty bold. I hope everyone's doing well and enjoying October and being good! Talk to you next week! Hopefully I'll have something new to report. 

10/17

 Two important events in my life:

1. Transfers--I am staying in Fair Oaks. I have mixed feelings about this. Sister Langirik is going to the Marshallese branch in south Sacramento, which is going to be awesome for her. My new companion will be Sis. Agavale, my second companion from Samoa. Talofa!

2. Cockroaches--Sorry Mom, but it's true. My apartment is infested with the creatures who must not be named. Terminix came and sprayed but besides the fact that coming home to that was DISGUSTING (think massive bug graveyard in our kitchen) it doesn't seem to have put much of a dent in their numbers. No wonder cockroaches have survived through the millenia.

8/15/11

Greetings from Fair Oaks. The work is slowly moving along here. We *probably* have a baptism on Thursday (that's Dakota, our teenage investigator), which is wonderful. He's been investigating the church for a long time and has had a lot of obstacles to overcome, such as waiting for several months for his mom to agree to write a permission slip. We've been very happy to be able to help him along on the way to his baptism. Other than that, not too much to report. This area has been a little difficult for me, to be honest. Not very much teaching at all--no teaching pool. We spend most of our day trying to get in touch with potential investigators (people we or the previous missionaries from this area have talked to who expressed even a small interest in learning more) or knocking doors. Very seldom do we actually get to teach someone. But we keep trying. Hopefully we'll find someone soon who wants to learn. I'm hangin in there, hope you're all doing the same :)