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!

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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