Adventures in the CLAM: PREACH WHILE WE'RE YOUNG (June 17, 2019-June 23, 2019)

Hey everyone!

I was just thinking about how sometimes I recommend sermons for you to read at the end of these posts, and I realized that I'm not sure I ever told you how to access them. If you just do a basic internet search of the sermon's name and the speaker, then it should be the first thing that comes up in your search results, likely on churchofjesuschrist.org. They're always things that I was reminded of during the week or things that have inspired me, so I hope they can help you too!

Enjoy!

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

We have now started car sharing in the apartment! So now if we coordinate with the other sisters, Sister Along and I can take the car whenever we want! I've been assigned as the designated driver for this companionship so catch me cruising the streets of SoCal.

Sister Along and I sing "Live While We're Young" by One Direction like every time we leave the apartment so we wrote a missionary version:

LET'S GO CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY WHILE WE SEE THE SUN

WE WANT TO TEACH ABOUT THE PLAN OF SALVATION

'CAUSE GOD WANTS YOU TO COME BACK HOME TO HIS KINGDOM

TONIGHT LET'S GET SOME AND PREACH WHILE WE'RE YOUNGG

Thank you for your time.

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

Sister Along and I got ice cream again on p-day so hey.

We had our last apartment inspection with Elder Whetten and Sister Whetten. We love them so much and we will miss them.

Met some super cool people (Chloe and Dan) at Operation Gratitude this week!

We had our last zone interviews with President Haynie and Sister Haynie. I love them both and have appreciated their insights and inspiration as I've worked with them. We also got a super good training from the sister training leaders and zone leaders about becoming consecrated missionaries and it was really inspiring. No big deal but I would die for them twelve times.

Had the funniest street contact roleplays of my life with Elder Reid and Elder Lee at district council this week and had a great training from Elder Burt about finding with faith.

I volunteered to sing with our ward choir! They are singing a super hard song that I've sung before and I honestly miss singing a lot so I practiced with them once and I'm super excited for that!

FRIENDS:

We visited the Curtis family to bring them some cookies and share with them one of my favorite scriptures (Isaiah 41:10) and the story of how I discovered it during one of the worst times of my life and how it helped me through.

We started teaching Sukki the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She is learning and growing so much.

We helped Dori and Danny throw some stuff out of their apartment because sadly they are MOVING! I love them so much and I'm really going to miss them but also happy for them.

We had a member training with Sister Graham about how inviting our friends to participate in gospel activities is the success, whether or not they accept! She also came with us to a lesson which ended up falling through but it was super nice of her.

We went to visit Tony! We talked with him about our missionary life and the importance of obedience.

We met with Jay, who had been taught by missionaries before and wants to be taught by missionaries and come to church again.

The C. family! We've been trying to track down their son Alex Jr. for almost the whole transfer. While we were doing that we met Alex, his wife Ophelia, and their daughter Giselle all of whom are super sweet! We knew we had to start teaching them. Last night we finally did! We told them what we teach about and introduced them to the Book of Mormon. They are going to read the introduction and we are all so excited to meet with them again!

This week I'd like to invite you to read a talk by Russell M. Nelson, "Ask the Missionaries! They Can Help You!" It explains the basics of what I believe and about what us missionaries do. It's really true. Us missionaries are here to help; it's what we love to do. Feel free to ask me or any of us for anything. We will do what we can to help you.

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Dori's Baptism! (June 10, 2019-June 16, 2019)

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

It's summer, so a lot of families and people have been out and about! Super exciting finding time for missionaries.

Last week in sacrament meeting our bishop announced the rules to the Relief Society and Elder quorum about feeding us dinners, so a TON of people have been feeding us lately.

Yes it is summer, yes it is super hot, but yet Sister Along and I also drink hot chocolate just about every day. So there's that.

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

We went to the stake's empty nesters family home evening! It was a good time getting to talk to all our friends from the stake and also get to discuss with them some people we/they need to visit.

Operation Gratitude this week preparing bear skins to be shipped, featuring Sister Pender, Sister Ruvalcaba, Elder Burt, and Elder Lee!

Exchanges were this week! I stayed in the area with Sister Despain while Sister Along went to the El Camino Real area with Sister Pace. I love Sister Despain so much. She helped me do a lot of good work, taught me a lot, and helped me get some stuff worked out. Sister training leaders are the best.

District council this week was amazing, featuring a training about staying motivated by Elder Evans, a talk on faith by Sister Along, and a training about having "the faith to reap" by Elder Burt. (More on that in a bit.)

Dori was baptized! It was a beautiful baptismal service and we are so happy for her. We are so grateful to all the amazing people that helped us prepare for this baptism. I was a little nervous for it because it was my first baptism as a senior companion, but everything went swimmingly, and we had a lot of support from our mission leaders, so that was great. I think the most exciting part about Dori's baptism is that it is a very conscious first step for her. She believes strongly in the gospel of Jesus Christ and knows that keeping the covenants made at baptism will cleanse her from her sins, and that receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost will guide her through her life as she remains worthy of it, but Dori's goal extends beyond even those remarkable and extraordinary blessings. Next year Dori plans to enter God's holy temple to make even more covenants and receive even more blessings, and then she will be sealed to her family for time and eternity. That means that as they make and keep covenants with Heavenly Father, they will live as a family FOREVER, even after death, thanks to the priesthood authority of God. I am so happy for them. There is no better thought than knowing that we can live forever with our families.

FRIENDS:

After someone gets baptized, us missionaries review all the lessons they learned with them, so we started that with Trinity this week. I am inspired by her testimony. Her love for God is incredible and she is a very strong young woman, who has started reading the Book of Mormon. We are so proud of her!

We had many miracles with Sukki this week. We taught her about the spirit world and how we get taught the gospel there if we didn't accept it, and at first she was only half convinced. The next time we came to see her, she told us that she was reading in the Bible and she read that angels preach the gospel to us in the spirit world, and she said we are so lucky to have the gospel preached to us in the spirit world! We taught about the resurrection and the three kingdoms and she was really curious about the celestial kingdom, and best of all, she told us how Jesus Christ died for our sins and Joseph Smith is a prophet. We are so excited to see her testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ growing.

We met with Steve and talked with him about why going to church is so important and how the sacrament blesses our lives. We saw him at Dori's baptism!

We visited the H. family! It has been awhile since we visited them so that was awesome. The kids weren't home so we just spent the night talking to Shane and Carolyn. I love them so much.

As I said earlier, this week Elder Burt gave us a training based on an awesome talk by Elder Wilford W. Andersen, "The Faith to Reap". It's about how it's good to have the faith to try something, but it's an entirely different thing to have the faith to actually have success. Faith to try involves believing in ourselves, but the faith to reap means believing in God and Jesus Christ, KNOWING that what He promises WILL actually happen, so much so that it's as if it has happened already. We often feel inadequate when faced with hardships or things that we have to do, that we know the Lord wants us to do, but we don't seem to measure up. But with the faith to reap, we'll realize we don't need to do it, because if we work our very hardest, God will make what needs to happen happen. As Elder Andersen was told, "He has the power to do His work, and if you will be worthy and work hard, He will do it. You will see."

Keep working hard. Keep seeking after your righteous desires. "He will do it. You will see."

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Surprise Baptismal Date (June 3, 2019- June 9, 2019)

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

So Sister Sanerive was a SUPER good cook and she would just cook all the time. So when she left, I was really panicked, like, what are we gonna do?! Long story short, I have taken it upon myself to be the apartment cook, and I'm actually a master chef now.

As a missionary you bake more cookies than you will ever again in your life. However, it's great because there's nothing better than seeing the happy reaction of friends and ward members getting cookies!

I may or may not have the best district leader ever, because he may or may not have sung "Year 3000" by Jonas Brothers for us over the phone during our follow-up call. So there's that.

Also, Sister Along and I realized that the more you sing it, the more you realize that the Pokémon theme song is actually about missionaries. So there's that too.

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

Besides lots of shopping last p-day, we were privileged again to get ice cream and made cookies for a ward member!

I hit my three months! That's the amount of time I was originally called for. The day I opened my new call, Sister Merkley and I were talking about how crazy that was, that that's a part of my life that is now over, completely. It is so great and so cool to be a missionary!

Putting together care pouches at Operation Gratitude with a bunch of other missionaries was a party!

We had a great district council where we learned about personal study as well as effectively using the Member Missionary Training Catalog. When he was giving his training on that, Elder Reid was talking about all the different trainings that missionaries go through: we all go to district councils every week, we all go to zone conferences every transfer, and then he said, "Almost all of us went to the MTC." And I realized that's probably not something that would've bene said in any other district council, and that's just super funny to me. One of the cool things about being a two-transfer missionary.

FRIENDS:

So this week our friend Dori told our bishop that she wants to be baptized. So we got on that right away this week! Dori has actually been going to church for years and has been wanting to be baptized for months, but now it's finally happening. We had a lesson where we went over the baptismal interview questions with her, and then she had her interview later in the week. Honestly, Dori is so incredibly prepared for baptism. She has such a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She really cares about her family and didn't really like the way other people in the world viewed families, but when she read the Book of Mormon she was like yes, yes, yes! We love her and her family and are so happy for them.

We had a few good discussions with Tony this week. We aren't able to meet with him as frequently anymore but he is going to come back to church soon and we love him!

We talked with Sukki about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We also had the privilege of witnessing her receiving a priesthood blessing. Brother Dettenmaier and Brother Rodriguez came and blessed her and her husband and when I tell you the Spirit of God was there. They finished the blessing and she was just smiling so much, saying that was a beautiful prayer. Her husband was in tears. Brother Dettenmaier and Brother Rodriguez had never met them before, but in those blessings they addressed things directly that I knew mattered to Sukki and her husband. I know the power of God on earth is so real. Those blessings wouldn't have been possible without it. What a miracle. It also showed me how important it is to have ward members meet with our friends--Sukki loved getting to meet them and was so happy to know people that were in the area that could help her.

We were able to meet with Sylvia in her home! We had only met on her doorstep before. She asked what makes our church different from all the others, and we told her that Jesus gave His power to His apostles, and how the power of God was taken off the earth after Jesus's apostles were killed, and how now it's been brought back. She said she didn't know that, and she's really excited to learn more.

We shared a message from this week's Come, Follow Me with Steve!

We had a member training with the Dickson family. They love the gospel and are eager to share it with others. The story of how they found the Church is actually super cool and theya re so grateful to have it in their lives and to be able to be a good example to others.

We also met with the Bascara family which was super fun because they are from the same country as Sister Along! We talked with them about the power of the Holy Ghost and how we can take advantage of that gift as we pray for it and act on it.

One more thing: the most important thing you can know is that God is YOUR loving Heavenly Father. That's why it's the first thing we teach as missionaries.

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Happy Six Years! (May 27, 2019-June 2, 2019)

Hey everyone!

On the post for this week, I was celebrating six years on the blog on the last p-day of my second transfer. Being on a mission I was obviously pretty distant from you guys, but it was all worth it. What better way to celebrate It's an Adventure! than on the greatest adventure of them all?

I hope you enjoy hearing about the mission adventures as much as I loved living them. It was truly unforgettable.

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

So last transfer, every time the air would randomly shut one of the doors or something like that, we would say it was our apartment's ghost, right? we named him Chadwin. Flash back to the transfer previous, where we had a mission-wide deep clean. I had cleaned out my closet and saw something that looked like eyes in the back. It was too far back though so I didn't try to grab it, although I wondered about it many times after. It looked like a ghost to me. Flash back forward to the first day of this transfer. I noticed that the mysterious object I had always seen was closer to the edge of the shelf. So I grabbed it and what did I find? It was in fact a ghost! Chadwin manifested himself as a beautiful felt ghost and he is literally the love of my life.

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

Last Monday was a very significant day in my personal history. It was six years of It's an Adventure! The blog is the love of my life and I miss it frequently. However, I'm happy to be here and living one of the greatest adventures of all. The past year of blog life has been the most adventurous yet. I've experienced by greatest joy and my greatest pain. I have honestly loved it and I'm so happy to be where I am now. I spent the majority of that year with a big question mark as to where I would be at this point in my life, one that was only just recently resolved, and I am so happy with all of it, the process and the results. Every moment was beautiful and necessary. I was told in my priesthood blessing when I was set apart as a missionary that I would while on my mission look back on all the things I had to do to get here and would be filled with appreciation and gratitude, and it's true. I frequently think about how I am only able to accomplish what I am doing now because of all the work that went into submitting my application, and I am so grateful. It simply wouldn't have been possible otherwise. Thanks be to God.

On our last preparation day of the transfer we went to this ice cream place on Sherman Way that we had been looking at for awhile and it was SO GOOD. Sister Merkley and I decided we are definitely going back. There was also a ward activity so that helped us say goodbye to people in the ward. The day was filled with goodbyes and packing. We all miss Sister Sanerive.

The next day was transfer day! It was my first time getting a new companion so that was pretty scary. I love Sister Along! She studies literature so we have a lot in common. Our companionship is already so unified; we work together really well. For a few days I was really feeling the stress of being senior companion; it's not an easy job, but it never felt like something I couldn't handle. I feel pretty confident about it now though. We also spent this week walking and bussing because none of the bikes we had fit Sister Along; she is too short! However, later in the week a miracle occurred. More on that in a bit.

I was also super nervous for the first district council of the transfer because I am in a new district this transfer! But it was a great time; I love my district, everyone in my district is awesome and people that I already knew at least a little bit, and Elder Burt is a great district leader and super willing to help us with what we need. We can tell it is going to be a great transfer.

FRIENDS:

Sister Sanerive said goodbye to Sukki on p-day which was very beautiful and heartbreaking. We brought Sister Along to meet her the next day. She loves Sister Along just like I knew she would.

We said goodbye to Steve on p-day too, then came to visit him later in the week with Sister Along. We are going to start studying Come, Follow Me with him!

We visited with Margaret and Lydia and shared with them my favorite comfort scripture, Isaiah 41:10. It really is true that Heavenly Father is with us at all times.

We visited with Tony a few times this week, discussed some scriptures he had asked us to read, and taught him about how God loves us and placed us in families.

We had a member training with the Dickson family! They are awesome and it is clear that the gospel of Jesus Christ means a lot to them.

We visited a potential new friend, Kat! She is so sweet and loves Jesus Christ. She has gone to church her whole life and is interested in going to ours.

We had a member training with the Vittetoe family. It was awesome for Sister Along to get to meet the bishop of our ward and his family. They are so enthusiastic about sharing the gospel and we loved getting to talk about bearing testimony with them.

Our last member training of the week was with the Enos family. We talked about two of my favorite things--the gospel of Jesus Christ and theatre! When you're in a play, you are given two main materials to help you play your part: the script and the director. In life, our script is the scriptures and the director is Jesus Christ, through living prophets. If we follow those two things, we will know what we need to do next. The gospel is also like being in a play because it takes practice--and sometimes we do good and sometimes we have a bad run, but we are always trying to do our very best. And as we practice our part we have to take it to heart. If we don't believe what we're saying and doing, no one will. Once we've practiced it and made it a part of our heart, the time comes to share it with others. That can be REALLY scary. But when we do share it, we feel great, and people love it. Just like with a play, that's what we do with the gospel of Jesus Christ--we practice and study what we're given, we make it a part of our heart, and we share it with others! We had our miracle with the Enos family, when Sister Enos gave us a bike that fits Sister Along! We are so excited to be biking again because walking and bussing were really time-consuming and really tiring.

I hope you have a great week! Remember that YOU are a child of Go and even when we forget Him, He doesn't forget us. Ever.

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Senior Companion (May 20, 2019-May 26, 2019)

Hey everyone!

The past little bit has been really hard. I've been trying to put on a brave face and look like I'm doing great, but I've actually been struggling a lot. Real life has hit and it is nothing like the mission, and it's easy to compare the two and wish I was back there, but the truth of the matter is this is where God wants me to be right now, and I'm happy here. Today I decided to do things a little differently and I'm focusing on working on things in a way that doesn't overwhelm me. Thus far it has been super successful. I have a lot of great things going on, and I thank you all that have been helping me get through this super difficult time. Onward ever onward!

Enjoy!

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

For those of you that were wondering if we still name everything in our apartment, Sister Sanerive's bike is Sai, Sister Sanerive's other Google Maps voice is Charles, Sister Merkley's bed is Ernesto, our couch is Mona, our microwave is Walter, Sister Roberts's bike is Chaz, Sister Merkley's bike helmet is Teresa, and the old bike that we no longer have is Jason.

Just throwing this out there, bike rainstorms are the best! We had another one.

We have been doing a lot of street contacting lately, and it's super awesome.

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

Last p-day we went to the dollar store which was a PARTY. Also got to call my main man JACOB FOR HIS BIRTHDAY. I LOVE MY LITTLE BUDDY.

Operation Gratitude this week was huge and awesome. In preparation for their event at the USS Midway we had six companionships there helping to organize and unpack stuff.

The last English class of the transfer, and the last one before Sister Thawornniwat goes home.

We had a wonderful district council about study and faith for our last council of the transfer.

We had ward correlation for the first time in awhile, because we just got a new ward mission leader! Brother Hernandez is awesome and was so willing to help us get our friends what they need.

Transfer call was last night. The week of transfers is always so stressful for us missionaries because we have NO idea what's going to happen. Well, I'm happy to say I will be staying in Reseda! My beautiful trainer Sister Sanerive will be moving on to a new area for the first time. I am now the senior companion! My new companion is Sister Along, a sister who came out at the same time as me and is currently in my district serving in the Northridge area! Sister Merkley is staying in the Van Nuys area, and Sister Roberts will be leaving us, to be replaced by Sister Tomkinson, another visitors' center sister who has two transfers left. We are super excited for next transfer; everything is really in order so we can just tell it's going to be awesome.

FRIENDS:

We visited Steve a few times and had our first elote with him!

We taught Sukki the first part of the Plan of Salvation this week.

We met with Tony a few times and talked with him about some things we studied together.

We got to visit our friend Sylvia and share some Book of Mormon verses with her!

We had a lesson with Dori! We love her and her family so much. Her husband Danny is the one that teaches the youth Sunday School class that we go to and teach so frequently. We went to the visitors' center with them a few weeks ago and it was awesome. This week we taught the Plan of Salvation. They are such a great family.

We also taught the Plan of Salvation to our dear friend Mary.

We got to visit Trinity and give her some of my world-famous garlic bread!

We visited with Lydia and got to know her a little better. She is so cool as is her whole family.

We had dinner with the Bambo family! The Bambos are seriously like our family in the ward. We love them so much and are so grateful for everything they do for us. Sister Bambo even made these necklaces for Sister Sanerive and I that have our home temples on them.

This week I've been learning a lot about ministering. It has been coming up so many times. I can tell you that ministering is so important. The Two Great Commandments show that: they're both about love, first to love God and then to love everyone else. As a missionary I see this: the first thing most of the people we teach need is a friend. Remember this week that everyone needs love, and I mean everyone. The people you think need it and the people you don't. EVERYONE should be loved!

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Mission Call (May 13, 2019-May 20, 2019)

Hey everyone. Today's post is about the week that my life changed a lot forever, honestly as much as it did for the first mission call that I got. This is the week where I was told I would be staying in the California Los Angeles Mission. Everything that happened to me since that day happened during this week. I am so happy that I got to stay. The California Los Angeles Mission is my home. The experiences I had and people I met there will be with me forever; it cannot be understated. I miss it every day and I don't think that will ever not be true.

Enjoy!

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

This week I saw the most beautiful sight of the transfer (besides President Nelson's signature at the bottom of my mission call--MORE ON THAT IN A BIT). It was a bus. And the WHOLE SIDE of it was covered with an Aladdin poster. Wow. I am amazed.

So I know this is the most Vegas thing I've ever said (besides that one time that I asked Sister Sanerive and Sister Merkley if it was legal to gamble where they live) but I'm still not totally sold on umbrellas? Like they're pretty nice and convenient but I just don't know sometimes? I don't know.

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

Volleyball p-day with the sisters from the zone!

That's not the biggest thing that happened last p-day though. I was able to get my mission call! My parents came from Henderson and a lot of my mission friends were there too, which was super cool, because how many people get to introduce their family to their mission pals... while they're still on the mission? It was awesome. Anyway, we opened the call in the visitors' center, and I am staying in the California Los Angeles Mission! I'll be speaking the English language and to make it even better, I won't be attending a missionary training center. I am so excited for the next fifteen months.

This week at Operation Gratitude we folded the jackets for the teddy bears in preparation for a big event they have in San Diego coming up, and this week we were there with all the sisters from the zone! What a party.

Zone conference was this week! (In case I've never explained zone conference, it's a day once every transfer where a bunch of zones from the mission get together and receive trainings on how to be the best missionaries we can be.) Zone conference is seriously the best. We learned a lot this conference because a LOT of changes were made to the way we do missionary work. We now teach the majority of our lessons in three weeks, meeting for thirty minutes every two to four days. We are so excited to apply the things we've been learning! This is an urgent work and us missionaries are doing what we can to make sure everybody gets a chance to hear the gospel.

District council was great this week! We learned about studying effectively and using our time wisely.

We went to the single adults picnic our stake has every year. It was a super fun event and so many families came! The person we were trying to meet there sadly didn't show up, but it was still good to help out there.

The youth Sunday School teacher was sick so Sister Sanerive and I got to teach the class! I love teaching the kids. They are an awesome and knowledgeable group with strong faith.

FRIENDS:

We got to study Come, Follow Me with our friend Margaret! She is loving the book and I loved talking about it with her and answering her questions.

We had another member training with the R. family and talked a lot with Rosa and her husband Edwin about following the Holy Ghost. They are an awesome family.

We met to the Okelberry family with the intention of having a member training, but instead we met their friend Servius! He is super cool and has a strong faith in Jesus Christ, so we talked a lot with him about what we teach as missionaries, and he is eager to meet with us again.

We spent some time with Sukki this week and introduced the teaching calendar to her! (This was one of the things we learned about at zone conference. It helps people keep track of their meetings with their missionaries, when church is, daily prayer and scripture study, things like that.)

We visited with Steve this week and started setting up his FamilySearch account! He is getting ready to do a lot of family history.

We met with Tony! Tony is someone who has been studying our gospel and meeting with missionaries for years. He was really excited to talk with us again and we're excited to teach him again.

The work of the Lord in the CLAM is really moving forward! We are so happy to be here!

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Mothers (May 6, 2019-May 12, 2019)

Hey everyone!

So you might be wondering (later in this letter)… WHAT THE HECK MADE IT SUCH AN INTERESTING ADVENTURE ON P-DAY???

I drove on the freeway for the first time in my life and had many other crises in the car including driving into open traffic. I feel like driving in the city was less wild than driving in Reseda. I also didn't yet have my mission call and it was the week leading up to that so I was an anxious mess. It was probably the second worst p-day of my mission, haha!

Haha, but anyway, enjoy!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

So most of you probably heard that I got my mission call but haven't been able to open it yet so I'll tell you about it next week HAHAHA.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

We went bowling with Elder Evans, Elder Paas, Elder Cox, and Elder Reid so like that was an interesting adventure.

Operation Gratitude with the elders was pretty cool.

It was my mission mom's birthday! Sister Sanerive is twenty-one! We celebrated all week and especially on her birthday. It was super fun.

We had a great district council about our missionary purpose, following the Holy Ghost, and using our time wisely and it was really amazing.

We had zone interviews! I loved talking to President Haynie and Sister Haynie. That's when they told me that my mission call was coming. We also got to go to the temple! It was awesome getting to be there in God's house. I haven't been to the temple for a few months so I really enjoyed it, especially being in a new temple. We had lunch there after and a woman working at the temple bought our lunch for us, and another temple worker, Sister Bambo's friend Marisol, gave us free macaroons.

We made cookies and got some flowers for our friends for Mothers Day. They loved it and it helped us get in contact with some people we hadn't been able to talk to for awhile.

I also gave a talk in sacrament meeting for Mothers Day about why we celebrate Mothers Day! I'm so happy that so many people in the ward enjoyed my talk and some people even asked for a copy of it!

FRIENDS:

We had a member training with the Curtis family. They are a super cool family that feel very strongly about the gospel and sharing it with others.

We got to visit Sukki a few times this week. She loved our Mothers Day flower.

We got to visit Steve a few times this week and even shared a message with his friend David!

Had a member training with the Bambo family. Ugh. I love them so much. Sister Bambo and I talked about theatre soo much because she had just found out I study theatre and she's been in like thirty plays! She asked me to help her with her next audition too so I was pretty much living it up. Their friend Roger was there too and we loved getting to meet him. We shared a message with them about how we can find hope in Jesus Christ.

Since I was preparing my talk for Mothers Day, I found a super cool talk that I invite you all to read. "Are We Not All Mothers?" by Sheri L. Dew talks about the divinity of womanhood. Gender identity is very important and sacred, and being born a woman means being born a mother--but that might not necessarily mean what you think it means. I'm so grateful to be a part of that. Being a mother really is the coolest responsibility.

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: It Begins (April 29, 2019-May 5, 2019)

Hey everyone, I really enjoyed reviewing this letter. In here I recall a spiritual experience that I had. I think it was the first of many experiences like unto it on the mission. For context, I spent quite some time planning for the talk I had to give, and nothing I prepared seemed to be quite right. That was how I knew that God would take over for me and that it would be amazing, because that's what happens when we try our best but our best is insufficient.

It seems in this letter I made the ROOKIE MISTAKE of not opening this letter with my signature "Hello one and all!" So let me do the honors here:

Hello one and all!

Enjoy!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LA LOVE:

All the sisters in the CLAM are supposed to carry pepper spray. We have some on our keys but had no idea whether or not it actually worked. Let's just say Sister Merkley confirmed that it does in fact actually work. No worries, nobody got hurt.

THE ALADDIN BILLBOARDS ARE UP! Which makes my heart sing and ache simultaneously. Would definitely be taking photos by them if it weren't for the "never look like a tourist" rule.

Before I got my mission call, I would frequently state in a panic about how I couldn't believe I was going to Paris or wherever I was panicked about going to that day. Well, we've been back to panicking about mission calls lately. (MORE ON THAT IN A BIT.)

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

We had a zone p-day on Monday! They tell you before your mission how much you're going to love the people there, but they don't tell you that those people include the other missionaries you are serving with. I seriously love my zone and had a good time playing games with them that day. Plus it was Elder Cox's birthday so we made him a super cool rainbow cake! And a bunch of other missionaries made treats for him too so we had a cute little party for him as well. (I cannot tell you all how excited I was about that cake; it was seriously so awesome.)

Operation Gratitude with the elders is always a party.

For those of you that don't know about my mission call, I was assigned to labor in the California Los Angeles Mission for three months, starting in March. In the last of those three months, I'm being evaluated on how well I'm doing in the mission field. On the first of May, Sister Haynie gave me a call and talked with me about that. Evaluations have started! Sister Sanerive and I filled them out yesterday. In about two weeks I will have another mission call!

English class this week was a party especially since we got to see Sister Thawornniwat! (ALSO SHE GAVE US SWEET NOTES AND COOKIES SO THAT WAS A PARTY.)

District council this week was super awesome. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how to keep our friends on date for their baptisms. I actually ended up giving a short talk about studying and applying the Book of Mormon and it was super awesome because it was one of those moments where I knew that God was speaking through me; I couldn't have said anything that good on my own.

I hit my two month mark! To be honest, months as a missionary go by slow but days and weeks go FAST. The transfer is half over and that's so crazy to think.

FRIENDS:

We gave Sukki a Book of Mormon this week, and had a very special moment when she gave a prayer with us for the first time.

We left heart notes on the front of our friend Mary's house! She loved it!

We visited Steve a lot this week. He gave us sparkling cider! Because he knows we love it so much haha.

We had two new member trainings this week, with the Vittetoe family and the Bascara family. They are both awesome and eager to share the gospel.

I was reading a talk from this last general conference, "Just as He Did" by W. Christopher Waddell, and I was absolutely amazed by what he said regarding the scriptures in Matthew 25. In that chapter, Jesus says:

"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

"For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in. ...

"Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

"When saw we thee a stranger, and took the in? ...

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

It had never before occurred to me that when we serve others, we are LITERALLY serving Jesus, because Jesus has suffered the EXACT same pains as all of us. His sufferings were literally identical to all of ours.
I was also reading in the book of Mosiah, and in the fourteenth chapter, third verse, it prophecies about how people will react to Jesus (He has yet to come to the earth at this point in the Book of Mormon):

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

I thought about how frequently that is true for us. When we see someone in pain, we turn away. Jesus suffered all our exact pains and was treated the same way.
But we are commanded to serve one another, and to lift each other up and support each other. Earlier in the book, Mosiah 4:16-19, it says:

"And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just--

But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.

For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?"

So it really doesn't matter the cause of someone's suffering, whether they brought it on themselves or not, no matter the circumstances, our job is to love and help. At the end for the day, we're all just trying our best.

Remember to look to Heavenly Father in all things and love just as Jesus did.

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Lots of Companions? (April 22, 2019-April 28, 2019)

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

Sister Roberts (Sister Merkley's companion) is finally here! She is a visitor center missionary doing her outbound transfer, and this is her second to last transfer.

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

We had service at Operation Gratitude with Elder Evans and Elder Paas.

Since we were still with Sister Merkley for two days this week, we did service at Hope of the Valley in her area.

We went to temple baptisms with the youth of the stake. Why? Because it was Trinity's first temple baptism! It was a great experience. To make it even better, it was Sister Sanerive's first temple baptisms too! So it was really special to get to see my companion do that for the first time. We also went to In-N-Out after which was a first for Sister Sanerive too!

An awesome district council about the Christlike attributes.

Had an adventurous exchange with Sister Despain! She came to my area and it was definitely an interesting day. (Let's just say a flat tire was involved?)

My first stake conference as a missionary! It was an awesome conference with great messages about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

FRIENDS:
A short visit with the H. family, in which we shared a message from the Book of Mormon, Helaman 5:12.

Had some good discussions with Sukki about premortal life and the gospel of Jesus Christ. We love her.

Had a member training with a family about following the Holy Ghost! I hope you are all having a great week, and remember, as referenced in Helaman 5:12, that no matter what storms come your way you can do anything as you rely on Jesus!

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Trio Life (April 15, 2019-April 21, 2019)

Hey team!

Upon reviewing this letter I noticed that at the end I reference a scripture from the Book of Mormon without saying where in the book you can find it. It is Moroni 10:32, which can be found in the last chapter of the book.

And for anyone that cares, there are some small Les Misérables spoilers in here too.

Thanks for coming, I love you! Enjoy!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

I have seriously loved living in an apartment of many cultures. We'll so frequently just talk about how things differ in all of our countries and it's a blast.

In our apartment we name everything, like literally everything. Our TIWI (the machine in all mission cars) is Janet, Sister Sanerive's Google Maps is Trixie, Sister Merkley's bike is Spike, my bike is Patricia, the gate to the garage of our apartment is Brance, the elevator in our apartment is Sheldon, and Sister Merkley's Google Maps is Paula.

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

We went out to get Thai food for our last p-day with Sister Thawornniwat.

Sister Sanerive and I have been in a trio with Sister Merkley this week covering Reseda and Van Nuys and it's been a party! We found out today that her new companion, Sister Roberts, will be coming on Wednesday. Because we've been covering two areas, this week we did a lot of stuff that we don't normally do.

We volunteered at Hope of the Valley to feed the homeless.

I officially have a TIWI card! (It allows me to drive mission vehicles.) I'm supposed to practice driving with Sister Merkley every now and then. Let's just say I'll be a pro at driving when I get home because the streets in California are NARROW.

First district council of the new transfer! We're sad to no longer have Elder Ormond and Elder Barton with us, but excited to welcome in TWO new companionships of five awesome sisters! And had a short training as a zone--I love being in the Granola zone.

We had an awesome sacrament meeting for Easter! The choir sang many songs and various youth in the ward described each day of the holy week. It was a wonderful time of learning more about the Savior's Atonement.

FRIENDS:

We et with Rafael from the Van Nuys area. He is super awesome and we had a great time walking with him and talking about temples, eternal families, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Manny is another friend from the Van Nuys area and I love him so much! We discussed a lot of scriptures with him this week.

We visited Sukki many times this week. We had many awesome discussions centering on Jesus this week especially about Easter. We also got to sing a song for her for Easter, "I Believe in Christ."

We went to the visitors center with the Boatman family from the Van Nuys ward and had a great tour with them, actually guided by Sister Roberts, Sister Merkley's new companion! We also got to visit them later in the week and share favorite scripture stories.

We met with our friends BJ and his brother AJ and their mom. We read a little bit of the Book of Mormon with him.

I hope you all had a great Easter! I am so glad we have a special day every year to remember the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because that happened to Him, it WILL happen to us all.

This week has allowed me opportunities to greater appreciate the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Savior, His miraculous and infinite Atonement. The other week I was contemplating "the world's most popular musical", Les Miserables, and I came to realize the deep symbolism of the bishop that Jean Valjean steals from, representing the Savior Jesus Christ. With that in mind, I now frequently sing the song "What Have I Done?" to myself in that context:

"How could I allow this Man

To touch my soul and teach me love?

He treated me like any other.
He gave me His trust.

He called me brother.

My life He claims for God above.
Can such things be,

For I had come to hate the world, 

The world that always hated me.

Take an eye for an eye,

Turn your heart into stone:

This is all I have lived for.

This is all I have known.

One word from Him and I'd be back,

Beneath the lash, upon the rack.
Instead He offers me my freedom.

I feel my shame inside me like a knife.

He told me that I have a soul?

How does He know?

What Spirit comes to move my life?

Is there another way to go?"

There is another way to go. "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God."

Thanks and much love.

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: First Transfer Call.... (April 8, 2019-April 14, 2019)

Hey everyone!

I guess I forgot just how much I got asked about my two-transfer mission call when I was actually in my first two transfers. I do know I was a lot more accustomed to explaining it back then, because I pretty much had a whole speech prepared because people asked about it so much. I did notice towards the end of my mission whenever I found myself having to explain it that I had grown a little rusty and wasn't as good and quick with my answer. For those of you that are still curious as to exactly how my mission went down (because it is a little different from a typical missionary's experience), you can check out a post about it here.

Let's just assume from here on out that I edit out typos, spelling errors, and emojis because I don't hate myself or any of you. Thanks, I love you all. Enjoy!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

Okay so everyone go listen to "Noyana/Come, Come, Ye Saints" by Vocal Point because that's my mission song, like that is what the mission sounds like.

So I am constantly flexing being from Vegas, whether it's because I don't think it's hot outside or because I'm used to city life, and there's a 500% chance it drives Sister Merkley crazy HAHAHA.

The mission is reading the Book of Mormon together and we're going to finish it in July before President Haynie and Sister Haynie leave. We are marking every mention of repentance and I am loving it!

I had a friend ask this past week about how long I will be serving. I will be serving for eighteen months because I will be extending my mission and receiving a second mission call after this transfer, but my current mission call is only for three months, just as a trial run to see if I am able to handle the stresses of mission life. I'm going to extend fifteen months after that, but right now the only release date I have in my future is six weeks from now. When I get the second call I'll let you know!

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

We went to the mall for p-day which was actually kind of weird being a missionary in a mall haha.

Someone in our ward has a family home evening once a month for anybody who wants to come and Sister Sanerive and I led the discussion this month! We talked about how the gospel has changed our lives and how it can change the lives of others as we follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. It was a really great night.

Operation Gratitude with the district was a party, and a chaotic party at that because many other people including other missionaries from the zone were there this week!

Last English class of the transfer.

Last district council of the transfer! It was honestly super sad; I love being in my district and the Granola zone. We work with a lot of great missionaries and I love them so much.

We had a mission-wide apartment deep clean where we decluttered the apartments, in which I inherited a sweater that previously belonged to Sister Fukunaga (Sister Sanerive's trainer) and we found an MRE and WE HAVE BEEN EATING IT SLOWLY BUT SURELY HAHAHA.

This week was my first transfer call, where at the end of the transfer the zone leaders tell us whether we stay or move for the next six weeks. I will be staying in the Reseda ward, and so will Sister Sanerive! We are excited to serve another six weeks in this area together. Sister Merkley will be staying in the Van Nuys ward, but sadly Sister Thawornniwat will be moving on to a different area. We are sad to see her go. The crazy thing is, though, that Sister Merkley's new companion, Sister Roberts, will not be coming for more or less a week. So until that happens, Sister Merkley will be in a trio with us, and we will be double covering the Reseda and Van Nuys areas! It's going to be an adventure for sure.

FRIENDS:

Sukki gave me a pen this week which was so sweet because she knows I love writing. We tried reading a little bit from the Book of Mormon this week and discussion a bit more of the Restoration.

Visited Steve and did some Book of Mormon reading.

We had met with a lot of other families in the ward this week, some just for lunch or dinner and even more for member trainings! These member trainings are really starting to take off, and now our bishop knows about them and he is all for it!

I'd like to share a verse of scripture that I found while reading the Book of Mormon this week, a simple call to action delivered by Nephi in 1 Nephi 7:12:

"Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him."

Let us be faithful to Him indeed! He is a God that never fails!

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: We Were All Homesick (April 1, 2019-April 7, 2019)

Hey everyone, be patient with my commentary because I am feeling truly emo about the CLAM today and missing everything about it, so I guess I have a lot to say.

In the week this blog post is about occurred the FIRST BIG CRISIS OF THE MISSION. Y'all are finally allowed to know the full story of what happened.

Missionaries live a lot crazier lives than a lot of people probably know, so sometimes wild and sketchy things happen to us. We don't typically write home about these things because if we don't get hurt then we don't want people to worry about us and be scared for us. (I promise you, no one is more protected than the Lord's missionaries.) The reason we had to stay at someone else's apartment for the weekend was because a man came to our apartment and wouldn't let us leave. He wanted someone to stay with him because there were some guys outside trying to kill him, and he said if there were people with him they wouldn't hurt us or him. We helped him call the police and it turned out he was just on drugs. But I mean, it was a wild adventure for sure!

That's the short version of the story. Maybe I'll tell the full version another time.

I also talk about my love for the Disney Princess franchise. For those of you that are new or that like rereading your favorite blog, if you need evidence of that, here it is.

I mention having photos in this week's email, but those will be posted to my personal Facebook page. Feel free to follow along, but I don't accept friend requests for people I don't know personally. You're all still blog family and I love and adore each and every one of you!

Upon reviewing this post it fills me with joy to see my testimony of the Book of Mormon. It truly is a book that's changed my life. I highly recommend it to everyone who is trying to come closer to God or live a better life. I can't really say enough about it, everything in the gospel of Jesus Christ is so good!

Edited some emojis and typos out of this letter to make my life easier as well as your reading, probably.

Also, did it hurt me to read about how my two-transfer mission showed me how hard it would be to leave the CLAM? Maybe. I was already so obsessed with those people and I was only a month in. Oh girl, the love is going to get so much deeper from here. Missions are simply the best.

Enjoy!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

When I got my mission call to the California Los Angeles Mission, my dear friend Sister Shandalene Fletcher of the Texas Dallas Mission said that she felt like California was the perfect fit for me because I am "all beautiful and tan". Haha well let me tell you that with being out in the SoCal sun all day on a bike, I am in fact getting VERY BEAUTIFUL AND TAN, like I'm impressed tbh.

So as you all know my favorite writer and musician of all time is Alan Menken. I miss him frequently. Well at the apartment we have question sessions while we're eating and we just get to know each other. Sister Thawornniwat once asked everyone's favorite Disney Princess. You guys also all know that I am a huge fan of the franchise so that was a fun one for me. Sister Thawornniwat loves Belle, Sister Sanerive loves Pocahontas, Sister Merkley loves Rapunzel, and I love Princess Jasmine. Well you can imagine my joy. When I realized ALL OF OUR FAVORITE PRINCESSES ARE ALAN MENKEN PRINCESSES. There really isn't much better than that.

I have some miscellaneous photos from the transfer! Enjoy these shots from my first English class (which is right by the temple), apartment comp study at the park, all of us wearing pants (we planned it so like it was actually a big deal HAHA) at Operation Gratitude, lunch with the STLs and Sister Latouche after Trinity's baptism, and exchanges with Sister Rydalch!

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

On p-day we went to the Japanese Gardens with the other sisters from the apartment as well as Sister Roth, Sister Rydalch, and Sister Latouche! And had a tiny birthday party for Sister Roth which was super fun! Photos attached of that.

Operation Gratitude with the district is always a party.

I finished the Book of Mormon for the third time! During this read I gained a much better understanding of the story of the sacred record, and as I marked the places where He was mentioned, I learned more than ever how the Book of Mormon truly is another testament of Jesus Christ.

It was my first zone conference! We learned so much and I'm definitely a better missionary for it. I also finally got to meet Elder Durham! As requested by both my fans and his, a photo of that is attached.

I hit my one month mark! It has been a long month but also (and mostly) incredibly short. Honestly being a two-transfer missionary has put the whole of my mission into a really cool perspective. I am nearly halfway done with my mission already and time has flown by. I have no time to waste! It also makes me realize how hard it will be to leave the CLAM. For two-transfer missionaries, as I understand it, we spend each transfer in a different area with a different companion. So when I think about leaving my companion, my apartment, my district, my zone, and my STLs so soon, I am so sad! It's definitely not going to be easy but I'm glad for the time I've had with everyone and for the time I have left in the CLAM.

We had an awesome district council about receiving revelation from the Holy Spirit, something we can all do if we live worthily and seek after it.

So we ended up having to stay at the STLs' apartment for two days this week. Sister Sanerive and I stayed with them while Sister Thawornniwat and Sister Merkley stayed with some other sisters in the STLs' zone. We literally missed the so much! We feel incomplete when we aren't with our other companionship. We met up with them at general conference (MORE ON THAT IN A BIT!!!) and we both couldn't get over how much we missed each other after being separated for like ten or so hours HAHA. We also all missed being at our apartment so much, we all kept talking about how homesick we were for the apartment HAHAHA. We are now back at our apartment which we are all so happy for. Attached are photos of that adventure, including Jamba Juice before we got to the STL apartment, Sister Thawornniwat walking down the stairs and feeling like a princess, and Sister Sanerive asking me to turn around and take a photo of her too haha!

General conference this weekend was the best! I loved all the counsel about being exact in our actions, exercising faith, and about the pure love of God and Jesus Christ. If you were watching, tell me your favorite part! If you weren't, it's not too late to check it out at churchofjesuschrist.org.

FRIENDS:

This week I am overjoyed to tell you all that we started sharing the message of the Roestoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ with Sukki. I know this is a message that can bless her life and everyone's.

We had a great time reading the Book of Mormon with Steve. We read from Alma 37:36-37 and 3 Nephi 13:25-30, about how God will take care of us if we look to Him in all things and do what's right.

I invite you all to read those verses and ponder on that as well. God loves YOU!

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: First Baptism! (March 25, 2019-March 31, 2019)

Sorry for the late night posting, everyone. I think I finally understand how it feels to be a college student. I am drowning in reading. I am exhausted. But I am coming through for the post. Some edits made for typos' sake, but that would be all. Thanks for coming, I love you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello one and all!

LA LOVE:

Sister Thawornniwat couldn't believe it when I first said this because to her LA is so dry, but CALIFORNIA IS SO HUMID. NOTHING EVER DRIES. I WASH MY MAKEUP BRUSHES AND CAN BARELY USE THEM THE NEXT DAY YIKES. Problems that come with being from Vegas.

I want you all to know a favorite quotes list IS being made for the CLAM and will be posted in about seventeen months! We have some gems so far!

Also, I know you have all been anxiously waiting on photos. I will have some for you next week. I apologize for the wait.

I've nicknamed Sister Thawornniwat Zeke from High School Musical because she is literally obsessed with baking. She's constantly wanting to make cookies and loves presenting them to us. She once started cheering and jumping for joy because there was yeast in the freezer. She's obsessed with food in general. Whenever someone brings us treats she gets so excited and whenever anyone in the apartment is thinking about eating more food she will say (even if she's in another room) "Yes!!! Do it!!! Eat more!!!" ONe time I was pointing out the resemblance between her and Zeke by saying "she bakes, she loves to bake" and she responded with "Yes I do!!!" We love our apartment mom.

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

P-day was spent cleaning in preparation for my first apartment inspection. Sister Sanerive really wanted to get a celestial apartment (a perfect score) WHICH WE DID.

District service at Operation Gratitude. I love our district. We live to roast each other and it's the best.

Sister Rydalch came to the Reseda rea with us to do a small twelve-hour exchange with both me and Sister Sanerive and it was so awesome to have her with us for the day!

We helped Sister Wall in the Chatsworth ward clean her house so that was awesome.

We had a great district council about introducing ourselves as misisonaries and using the Book of Mormon in our teaching, which was especially awesome because Sister Sanerive and I got to practice the skills we learned right after when a person we met started asking us about our religion!

TRINITY'S BAPTISM!!! More on that in a bit.

FRIENDS:

We stopped by and got to visit with the H. family (I'm not to give out full names) and we got to talk for awhile with the wife/mother of the family Carolyn, a member of our ward. It was awesome getting to meet her and her family.

We had an awesome experience with Sukki this week. We finally got to read some of the Book of Mormon with her! I think she really enjoyed the messages in the verses.

The Northridge YSA elders joined us for a lesson with Jose. Elder Cameron and Elder Kao are the sweetest missionaries you will ever meet! It was awesome getting to work with them as we read the Book of Mormon with Jose. He has some awesome missionaries teaching him now and I know he will have a great time in the Northridge YSA ward.

We had an awesome member training with Sister Fornelli! She is a strong woman of faith and we love her willingness to help us with everything and with sharing the gospel. (I also got to talk to her about her daughter's theatre program!!! They are doing Sister Act this year and Little Shop of Horrors next year! TWO ALAN MENKENS IN A ROW. I got a little too excited tbh.)

An awesome dinner and member training with the R. family! We met with Rosa and her three kids, Jacquie, Anthony, and Christian. (Another theatre side note, Anthony is in his school play too so we spent a ton of time talking about theatre too and wow I didn't realize how much I miss it until I got to talk about theatre the whole day.) They are a powerful family. They bore testimony to us about the power of sharing the gospel through love and being an example.

Trinity had one more review-type lesson with us this week and then her baptism was on Saturday! The Spirit of God was definitely present as she made her first covenants with Heavenly Father. The next day at church she received the gift of the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. We are so happy for her.

We got to visit Leilani, Efren, and Sebastian and deliver some gifts to them! Efren told us he read about God in the Book of Mormon that week. Awesome!

We met a new friend, Lanee! She was referred to us by the sisters from the Hawaii visitor center and she is the best! WE gave her a Book of Mormon and got to talk with her a little bit about it and our religion. She is so sweet and so excited to learn!

This week something very special is coming up. We have general conference, an awesome opportunity twice a year to hear the words of God's representatives on the earth! I am so excited to hear the messages we will receive this week. In preparation for general conference, I want to invite you all to read a previous general conference talk by Tad R. Callister, "God's Compelling Witness: The Book of Mormon". It's about, to me, how Joseph Smith, the first prophet of this new and last dispensation, was just an ordinary man, but it was the power of God that made him a prophet and allowed him to translate the Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith nor any other prophet would ever say it was their own knowledge or talent that allowed them to preach as they did/do. It is all a sacred power and calling from Heavenly Father.

With that said, I would also like to make a statement regarding President Russell M. Nelson, our current prophet. Since President Nelson was called to be the prophet just over a year ago, many changes have been made in Church policy that are beautiful and exciting. Many people refer to them as "President Nelson's changes". President Nelson is an absolutely wonderful man, and a very well-educated man at that. However, I testify to you all that they are in fact no President Nelson's changes. No mere mortal man could come up with anything that effective and powerful. They are God's changes, and President Nelson, as God's prophet upon the earth today, delivers them to us for Heavenly Father. I love and sustain President Nelson. I know he was perfectly called to be the one to deliver these changes and words to us and has the energy, personality, and experience Heavenly Father wanted his words to be delivered with. When President Nelson speaks as a prophet, he speaks on behalf of God. These changes were not his own idea, they were revealed to him from Heavenly Father and given to us at the time we were ready for them. And they are beautiful.

I know that God has not abandoned us and truly provides living prophets. He also provided the Book of Mormon, containing the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was translated by the first living prophet of the last dispensation, Joseph Smith. If the Book of Mormon is true, then the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. It is all or nothing.

President Ezra Taft Benson, another prophet of God, said, "...All objections, whether they be on abortion, plural marriage, seventh-day worship, etc., basically hinge on whether Joseph Smith and his successors were and are prophets of God receiving divine revelation....

"...The only problem the objector has to resolve for himself is whether the Book of Mormon is true. For if the Book of Mormon is true, then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was his prophet, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and it is being led today by a prophet receiving revelation."

We should keep that in mind this weekend as we hear the messages of God. Preach My Gospel says on page 115, "For example, sincere people might object to what you have taught about the Word of Wisdom. Help them see that their real question is whether Joseph Smith was speaking as God's prophet when this commandment was renewed in this dispensation." If Joseph Smith had just been a man saying not to use tobacco and other substances, that would have been different. But he was actually a prophet of God telling us Heavenly Father's will. That's why it matters. And we can know he was a prophet by reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know of its truth.

Similarly, if the prophets and apostles of today say things that confuse or trouble us, the real question is whether or not these people are speaking as representatives receiving revelation from our Father in Heaven. If they are not representatives of God, then what they say doesn't matter. But I testify to you that they are. They speak for Heavenly Father and deliver His will to us. Because that is true, which we can know by praying about and acting on their words, then what they say matters and we must follow what they say.

Jesus is the Christ, God sends us living prophets today, and that is all true because the Book of Mormon is true. You can all come to know this by following the promise in Moroni 10:3-5:

"Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: SALT (March 18, 2019-March 24, 2019)

Hello one and all:

LA LOVE:

So every night we text "home" to our zone when we are in our apartment and the reason for that is the district leaders (who most people text home to) text the zone leaders once everyone in the district is home. Then the zone leaders text the assistants to the president once everyone in the zone is home. And they message President Haynie that the mission is home, and once the whole mission is home, President Haynie goes to sleep! He says he has the biggest  mission in the world (for real, like 200 missionaries) in the second biggest city in the United States; he needs to make sure all his missionaries are home and safe before he can go to sleep!

Last week in our interviews with President Haynie he told us that it's pretty rare that two brand-new missionaries are living together, so he said we should try doing companion study as an apartment! We can't always do that because of our busy schedules but we try to and it's a great time!

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

Last p-day we (the apartment) went to Burbank with another companionship and had lunch and went shopping with them. Also had ice cream at the church so that was a party.

New missionary orientation was awesome this week! We had a few trainings and y favorite was about training ward members on how to better share the gospel. More on that in a bit.

There was a day where we were out trying to visit someone and we could tell it would rain SOON so we had to hurry home. Well it rained a little bit and it was awesome. Then it started really raining. Then it stated POURING. Then it started HAILING and we were not even close to home! Sister Sanerive had never seen hail before so she thought it was snow! So just to set the scene imagine me biking down a crazy busy street, hands freezing cold gripping my bike, arms turning red from being pelted with tiny pieces of ice falling from the sky, barely able to see from all the rain in my eyes, dress LITERALLY DRENCHED trying to get home as quickly and safely as possible hahaha! Tbh it was a super fun adventure.

This week was supposed to be exchanges (Sister training leaders each come stay with one of us and spend a day with us). We got the call for exchanges and found out I WOULD BE STAYING IN RESEDA and Sister Sanerive would be going to the STL area. I WOULD BE LEADING THE AREA. Hahaha tbh I was so excited! So Sister Roth came that night and was my companion for the night. Well exchanges pretty much just ended up being a sleepover because Sister Rydalch, Sister Latouche, and Sister Sanerive in the STL area ended up at the emergency room all night. (No worries, everyone is okay.) So they had to rest like all day and we were up for a lot of the night with them too, so exchanges will be reschedules hahaha.

I learned a lot at ENGLISH CLASS this week because I am a total geek.
District counsel was great! I gave my first training of the mission on the power of prayer! Everyone was so nice, they were like "...that was a lot of knowledge" and Elder Evans said "now I know why I felt like Sister Day needed to give that training." I have the best district ever.

So there was a bit of a debate in the apartment this week.... The other sisters really wanted to make cookies. But we had no salt. WE FOUND OUT THAT SISTER THAWORNNIWAT IS EXTREMELY PASSIONATE ABOUT SALT. Sister Merkley wanted to see what would happen if we made cookies without it. She felt VERY STRONGLY that we did not need it but Sister Thawornniwat was not having it. Long story short we now have salt and a LOT of cookies.

We had a zone service at Operation Gratitude building teddy bears! All the sisters decided to twin and wear pants together so we were super cute.

FRIENDS:

Sukki is doing pretty well. She gave me a sardi so that's super nice. She said the last time we came "you are my children I have to feed you", she is so sweet! Trinity had two lessons this week and her baptismal interview! She spent a lot of time preparing for that and did great! It's go time!

We met with a new family in our area, Leilani, Efren, and Sebastian. We talked about the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Jesus Christ with them.

We read the Book of Mormon with Jose this week and he came to church yesterday and had a good time! He will be going to the YSA ward from now on but we will meet with him one more time to introduce him to the missionaries serving in that ward.

I met Patricia, she is in a family we visit and got to talk to her for a bit.

We met with the McCaleb family, a family in our ward and taught them how to share the gospel with their friends like we learned about at new missionary orientation! We will be meeting with them again later this week.

We got to visit with Steve and talk with him for a bit. Our week doesn't feel complete if we don't go visit Steve.

We had dinner with the Bambo family, another family in our ward, and got to talk with them some more about sharing the gospel with our friends too!

I love being a missionary. I get to help people learn about Jesus Christ all day. I get to help people realize He is the one source of lasting peace in life. Through Him, we can get through anything and become the person we want to be.

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: A Full Week (March 11, 2019-March 17, 2019)

Hey everyone! Just as a short introduction to today's post, I think I may use a little terminology that is just used among missionaries in this post. Please let me know if I need to make any clarifications and I will post them in the comments.

(Also edited this one for emojis hahaha.)

I also just wanted to say that upon reflecting on these old letters it's been very nice to look back because I am really seeing how much I grew over the course of my mission. It is so interesting to see a young missionary's perspective as compared to mine now. I am loving this series and I hope you are too.

Thanks, I love you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi one and all!

LA LOVE:

Sometimes I'm still in slight denial that I am on a mission because it just feels way more like normal life than I thought it would.

In the Los Angeles area there are just a ton of movie billboards everywhere! I love it so much! They're at almost every bus stop and on a few large billboards as well. The ads for Us are soo awesome and spooky hahaha.

The California Los Angeles Mission has a lot of history behind it; for example we were the first mission to use the black name tags that are now standard for all missionaries!

EVENTS OF THE WEEK:

District p-day (preparation day). We went to the institute and played games with the elders in our district. I learned how to play pool and spike ball, kind of... as much as I ever learn how to play any game hahaha. I'm not very good at either HAHAHA

Interviews with President Haynie and Sister Haynie! We have interviews with them once a transfer and I loved getting to talk with them! We also had a training on testifying of the Book of Mormon.... More on that in a bit.

District counsel was awesome this week.

We had a ward activity that was a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for the Young Women! It was so sweet because we were told so many ward members volunteered to buy our tickets so we could come, but we got in for free! But it was so nice of so  many ward members to volunteer to help; we have the best ward.

We got to teach the youth (Beehives/Deacons) Sunday School class so that was the best! I love working with children!!!

FRIENDS:

Trinity, she is well on her way to baptism and when we were teaching her she was practically teaching the lesson for us! She is doing great. AH WE LOVE HER

Sukki, she gives us sooo much! She gives us food every time we come because she says we serve God all day the least they can do is feed us. She had me put coconut oil in my hair and had Sister Sanerive braid it and she said "you can write to your parents and tell them a crazy Indian woman made you put coconut oil in your hair" hahaha! We talk about the Bible with her and read it with her and pray with her and I love it soo much, and she does too. We love Sukki!!

Jose, we got to teach him a few lesson and even went to the visitor center with him! (Which means I got to be in the city and y'all know how I feel about that) He lovvved the visitor center and it really helped him understand more about the gospel.

We had lunch with the Wood family! They were sooo nice and they are very musical so they played some music for us! And they even had me sing for them so that was really awesome

My scripture for the week is another one of my favorites that kept coming up this week, Alma 37:6:

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small nad simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

Even though we are mere mortals that cannot do a lot, through God our small things can be GREAT things!

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day

Back in Cedar City

Hello family, friends, followers, fans, and fandomeers!

Today was my first day of school in Cedar City. As I said earlier, I have been living here for a few days. I moved here shortly after arriving home in Las Vegas from my year-and-a-half-long mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Let me tell you something about return missionaries. Our first few days/weeks out of the mission, we don't want to be anywhere other than where we served our mission (for me that was Los Angeles, California). Our missions are really sacred and happy experiences for us. We miss our friends and our new home. We miss getting to teach people about Jesus Christ all day and getting to live away from the evil and chaos of the world. If you all know me, you know I love my hometown. So after living in Henderson for three days, I was starting to get okay with the idea of living in Vegas. (Because the first few days I wasn't sure. I really wanted to be in LA.) Right at that time, I had to move to Cedar City.

I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. When I was seventeen, I started applying for colleges. I was really looking into Utah Valley University for awhile, but it got to the point where nothing was seeming to work out in my favor for that school. I stopped desiring to study there. It was very apparent that that wasn't where I was supposed to be.

Then Southern Utah University came into my path. This is the university that my sister attended, so I had visited it before. The first time I visited campus I knew that it was a university I definitely didn't want to go to. (God works in mysterious ways and His plan is always better than ours, I'll leave it at that.) But when I got to the point in my life where I needed to choose for myself what post-secondary school to attend, strangely enough SUU seemed to have all the right things. Upon searching for colleges, I realized that most universities don't have a creative writing program, and those that do typically have a poor one. SUU was one of three or four colleges I found that had a suitable program. It's also the Shakespeare capital of the world (or at least the United States), and of course you know I love that. I also around this time decided to minor in theatre and film. SUU has great programs for both of those disciplines, so I would be getting an unbelievably sound education in all of those areas. I was so excited! What really sold it is the Jumpstart program. Many places have programs to help students advance quickly through their post-secondary education, but Jumpstart is entirely unique to SUU. Other universities have looked into it to potentially adopt the program but have backed out because of how difficult it is. In this program, we are in one class of about fifty students for one year. We do all of our general education classes (except for math since the requirements by major vary so much for that class) in this one class, taught by many professors. Any professor can chime in at any point of another professor's lecture to make it more of an integrated learning experience and show how all of the different subjects of the world connect. Along with that, we study all of these things with a certain emphasis. My emphasis was in theatre and film. (I write a little bit more about it in a blog post from that time.) It's an incredible program, and it meant for me that I would have all of my general education done in one year, so after I served my mission, I would be entirely prepared to just get started on my major. It all seemed so divine, and I want to note that I knew that at the time. SUU was a gift from God to me. I was super excited about it.

So what happened that made me less than eager to go back this semester? Well, a lot. I moved out of my parents' house two months before my eighteenth birthday, and I did not take it well. I had the most charmed life at age seventeen. I had gained a new understanding of where I wanted to go in life, I lived in a city that I adored (I am a huge city girl, so anything smaller than Vegas is a no for me), I was doing stellar work in all of my performances and had finally reached a really good achievement level, started feeling comfortable in my own skin, and had amazing friends. I had it made, essentially. Which, from God's standpoint, is of course the best time to shake things up so more growth can happen. I was going through the crisis of growing up. That in itself is very difficult, especially for someone who was as emotionally out of control as I was.

When you take that into account, I had a very difficult time making friends. I am a pretty naturally closed-off person, so it wasn't hard for me to just close myself off from the world, resent everyone around me, and pretty much be bitter all the time. I didn't have the best living situation that year, so that definitely didn't help either.

If all that wasn't enough, I had just recently started to overcome a health crisis and was doing good, but when you take the above into account, my health declined very quickly. I sometimes forget just how bad my anxiety and depression were at the time, but they were very, very bad. My eating disorder behaviors that I had tried learning how to improve shortly before I moved away came back so much worse. Very few people know just to what extent my health dropped, but it was genuinely terrible. I have traumatizing memories from that period of time that I had shut out for about a year until they randomly came back to me on my mission. I do not have healthy memories of this place.

I was just very bitter at Cedar City as a whole. It was always dreadfully cold, it was a tiny town in my city girl eyes, and Utah has never been one of my favorite places; the culture there is very different from my adored hometown.

So, long story short, I was not in a good place and thus it was not a good place for me. But it wasn't anything in particular wrong with the university. I remember at the end of the school year at our Jumpstart party and looking around at everyone. They were all so close to each other. I loved all of them and they were great friends of mine. But I knew I hadn't developed even close to the relationships that they had developed with each other. I felt terrible. That feeling soon turned into a lot of regret.

And even a lot of guilt. I told people on my mission about it because it troubled me that much. SUU was God-given. I knew that. And my circumstances and state of mind didn't change that fact. Instead, I felt like I had abused the gift God had given me. I let resentment fill my heart towards the gate to my future that was gifted me. It was the most terrible feeling.

After that, I was determined, without a doubt, to never make that mistake again.

So yeah. Was pulling up to Cedar City, right after returning to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, in particular exciting? Was I happy to be around that culture again? No. I remember pulling into Utah a few days ago, looking around, and thinking to myself, "I have absolutely no desire to be here." I still have a hard time talking to people. I still prefer life without snow. All of those things have remained true.
But I also recognize that I am a stronger person than I was three years ago. I recognize that I learned how to overcome a lot of challenges during my time away from Cedar City. I have come more into who I am. I have learned to let myself enjoy people's company if I want to. And it hasn't been easy, especially since I'm making such a big transition right now. But like I said, today was my first day of school. My classes at the school are French, educational psychology, methods of teaching grammar, acting, and tap. All of my professors are so awesome and I am so happy. I can tell I am really where I am supposed to be. I haven't said goodbye to friends from Las Vegas or friends from Los Angeles--I still talk to all of them. But I am also okay with being myself here. It's not the town I ever picture myself living in, but it's everything I need right now. And life is never not going to be hard, but that doesn't mean it can't be happy. I am happy.

One more thing before I head out that has really helped me navigate this experience. Because trust me, it has been really hard at times. My mission therapist told me that I have a backburner confidence, so it's just time to bring it forward. It doesn't matter how inadequate we feel, how much we feel we don't fit in, how incapable we seem to be, or whatever else we don't seem to measure up on. Confidence comes from realizing that we all have the potential to be astounding. No human was born naturally worse or better than another. We all have the potential to be something great. It's okay if we're not perfect or even if we're anywhere close. As long as we are progressing and trying to do our best every day, good things will happen.

Whatever you're going through, you can do this. We got this!

Thanks and much love!

Adventures in the CLAM: BIKES?! (March 3, 2019-March 10, 2019)

 Hey, before we get right into it, for those of you that didn’t see yesterday’s post, I am going to be posting (every day) letters from my mission, telling about the adventures I had there! I’m super excited to share this with all of you. If you have any questions, please drop a comment! I’d be happy to explain things further. Enjoy family, friends, followers, fans, and fandomeers!

—————————————————————

Hello one and all!

The CLAM is amazing! I love it here! A little bit about the mission before I get into my area and the details of the week:

Sister Haynie (mission president's wife, she is the best and I love her) told us before we got here and said the mission was very international, which I figured just meant that it was Los Angeles so a lot of people are from a lot of different places, but no, all the missionaries are from all over the world too! Just in our apartment we have four sisters from three different countries!

In our mission we aren't allowed to eat dinner with ward members except for on weekends because during the evening is the best time to proselyte and visit people so if anyone wants to send me easy recipes missionaries could easily make that would be awesome!

Whenever we are asked to pray at a meeting we are supposed to pray in our assigned mission language, so so far I have witnessed prayers in Spanish, English, and American Sign Language.

Okay so let me just say as a missionary THE FIRST DAY TRULY IS THE WORST DAY. Once you get into the actual mission part the mission is sooo good.

In our interview on my first night in the mission Sister Haynie said that some companions you get along with no problem and you just click with, others you have to work a little hard to get along with, but she hoped my trainer was the first kind of companion. Well she IS!!! My trainer is Sister Sanerive. She has been on her mission for three months, which means she just finished her training and is now training me! She sings all the time and she seriously is such a Christlike example to me in how she serves me and everyone around me, you couldn't believe how kind and giving she is. Also she tells pretty much everyone "she didn't go to MTC!" because she was so shocked by that haha!

We live with one other companionship, Sister Thawornniwat whose release date is the same as mine (May 29), and Sister Merkley who just came from the Provo MTC!

I am serving in the Reseda area in Reseda, California! I got to meet some ward members this week and they are all super nice!

Well guess what Sister Sanerive told me when we got assigned. We are riding BIKES. Needless to say it was rough going at first but now I'm doing pretty good and I actually really love the bike!!! 😍

So some things we did this week is service at Operation Gratitude. We stuff teddy bears for children who have parents serving in the military every week so that's pretty awesome.

Sister Sanerive and Sister Thaworniwatt have an English class every week and let me just say I LOVED ENGLISH CLASS. To the shock of no one but dang I love studying the English language.

We also had a sisters conference with a special guest, Sister Eubank from the Relief Society general presidency! It was great getting to meet her and hear her speak about how we are the "first responders" of the people we are teaching, how we are the people that show them the peace and safety of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I got to share with everyone at that meeting why I love Isaiah 41:10, how it helped me get through my mission preparation to know God was always with me making me strong and how that is why it is the scripture on my mission plaque. To make it even better it was on International Women's Day! 😍

Some friends I got to meet this week were:

Trinity, she will be getting baptized in about a month and we got to teach her the Plan of Salvation this week.

Steve, he was baptized in September so we read some Book of Mormon with him and spent some time with him.

Sukki, who LOVES Sister Sanerive so much haha!!! She just loves us and always gives us food and is so sweet to us. Yesterday we had a really good talk with her about Jesus Christ, the first time she had really talked about that with us so that was amazing.

I got to meet the Hernandez family for a bit but we don't have an appointment with them until this week.

Also don't worry because we are well taken care of! Our ward mission leader Brother Hart is so helpful and kind and he even buys some of our groceries for us because he says he hoped the ward members were taking care of his sons when they served missions, so he figured our parents are hoping they are taking care of us! He is seriously the best.

To close I'd just like to share the scripture we discussed with Sister Eubank this week, Isaiah 41:10:

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee: yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold the with the right hand of my righteousness."

Remember that this week. God, our all-powerful Father, is with YOU.

Thanks and much love!

--Sister Day