Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
I am in constant awe of the beautiful scenery of California. This is the most beautiful place. The birds are always singing, the weather is always lovely, the grass is always green. I have always loved it here, so can we really imagine me serving a mission anywhere else? This was the perfect assignment. I love living here. I am going to miss it when I'm gone.
We have spent a lot of time making videos for our wards! Our Redondo 1st bishop requested we make a video message for the ward, we made a video for Redondo 2nd (MORE ON THAT IN A BIT) to introduce ourselves, and in Palos Verdes we made an Easter video for the ward of all the outbound and recently returned missionaries in the ward, edited together by my amazing mom! It's been a good time and a lot of work haha.
Since we can't get together in person, we have spent a lot of time together as a zone over video call. We had a family home evening this week where we played scripture story Pictionary, and had a zone dessert another night, for which Sister Cordon joined us! Wow it is the greatest joy to spend time with my missionary friends, and especially to see Hermana.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
On p-day we did a shopping trip where we bought a four-week food supply, so we will not go grocery shopping again until May. It was also our first time wearing face masks in public, which by a tender mercy we found a box of them in our apartment, so we could have some for us and everyone in our zone. Honestly we did a pretty good job at shopping, and it's a relief to not have to go shopping for awhile. Plus I bought a lot of stuff for me to try new recipes, so catch me being a cooking queen for the next few weeks.
So this week, to our surprise, we found an additional area randomly appear in our Area Book. After many phone calls to the assistants, we finally found out that we are now covering THREE wards. We have added Redondo 2nd to our area. It isn't super easy whitewashing into an area when you can't even go visit the people in it, but we are having a good time with our new area and of course we are doing a lot of work! The members are already so kind and we have made a lot of good contact with friends and potential friends there.
This week we had a good district council, and I used to remember what we talked about in it, but now I don't. So there's that.
We celebrated a beautiful Easter! We met together as a zone and read scriptures about the Resurrection together, and bore testimony of the Savior and that wonderful event together, all getting super emotional to be honest. Sister John and I had a fancy dinner of potato casserole like a real family would, and we colored plastic eggs that my mom sent us too. It was a great day! Of course the best part is talking to our friends about the Resurrection and hearing their testimonies of it, whether they are just learning or have been learning about it for awhile! Easter has become one of my favorite holidays as I've gotten older. I am a girl who loves any and all holidays, and holidays about Jesus are of course just outstanding, but to me, out of them all, Easter just kind of shines like the sun. Christmas is exhilarating, the realization that the Savior of the world is finally come, but Easter is just a peaceful and glorious joy. His purpose was accomplished--He overcame the world. I love pondering and celebrating that.
FRIENDS:
We did some good scripture studies this week with John, and invited him to be a member present at a lesson with Craig! More on that in a bit. But he accepted, and to prepare we talked about the Holy Ghost!
We had a lesson with Letty where we talked about the purpose of life and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. While we talked to her she had a lot of questions and thoughts about how we can know the Bible is true and how we can trust that a church is true, so we knew exactly what to teach next! We found out awhile ago that Letty has moved out of our area, so we invited her new sisters, Sister Semenyuk and Sister Perez, to join us for the next lesson! We talked to her a little bit about dispensations and apostasy, but she mostly had a lot of questions about why bad things happen to good people, so we helped her understand that instead. Letty's new sisters are awesome and we know she will have a great time and learn a lot from them.
Craig is doing so great! He LOVED general conference and thinks President Nelson is the greatest. We have talked a lot about the power and the structure of the priesthood. When we told him John was going to come to our next lesson, he was pretty nervous, but when they had the lesson together they totally hit it off and now are best buds! John gave Craig a lot of advice that really helped him resolve his concerns, and since we talked about the Holy Ghost, a topic Craig has been interested in since he first learned about it, John was able to share a lot of his cool experiences with the gift of the Holy Ghost and help Craig understand it better. It was the most perfect lesson ever! We also taught Craig about the Sabbath day and how the sacrament is the reason it's so important to go to church, and he was all in! We shared an Easter message with him about the Resurrection on Sunday and he loved it. He is amazed by the miracle of it. We love Craig and are so proud of him and happy for him about what he's been learning.
We shared a message about hearing Christ through service with Robin, an inactive member and the only member in his family. He was really cool and nice, and he even said we should send him the link to our Easter study material so he could do some Easter activites with his son!
Monica is doing great. We are constantly impressed by the strength of her testimony. She has really strong knowledge of the Savior and the Resurrection. We love her and we love getting to feel the Spirit from listening to her insights.
We talked to Cathryn and Sister Kakazu this week! We talked about all the things we loved about conference. Cathryn has a strong love for fasting because that is one of the main ways she connects with God, so before conference happened, she said that she was shocked that there wasn't a fast to prepare for conference. When the worldwide fast on Good Friday was announced, we all thought of her! Cathryn knew another fast was needed! She was so happy about that as of course all of us were too. I love those women.
Our sweet Sophia is doing so good! She was so happy to hear Sister John is back! Haha the Golden Trio reunited. We got to talk to her about how we became missionaries and answer her questions about, and then on Sunday we got to share with her an Easter message! Wow I swear we learned way more from Sophia than she ever learns from us. You've never heard a stronger testimony, and you've never met a better integrated convert. She never ceases to amaze us. She is just absolutely wonderful.
We got to meet our recent convert from Redondo 2nd, Ariana! She was baptized two weeks ago and is so amazing. She studies the scriptures faithfully every day. she is so sweet, and she and i bonded really well because we both love children and want to be teachers! She wants to learn more about how she can hear God's voice in her life so we are excited to teach her more about personal revelation!
We met Diana, a friend in the Redondo 2nd area! She is awesome and so knowledgeable. When we first called her, she said the only ting wrong with her experience with the missionaries is that it ended too soon! She always shares so much cool knowledge from the scriptures with us. We got to know her and what she had been studying with her previous companionship. She has been reading a lot out of the Book of Mormon, and she knows a ton about Jesus's Resurrection!
We got in contact with Robert and Katherine this week! They loved general conference. Robert said they prayed a lot about their baptism and they think they will be ready to be baptized on the sixteenth of May! We are so excited about that! They even participated in the worldwide fast, and we taught Robert more about it because he didn't know much other than what the prophet said at conference. He loved it though and said it brought him a peaceful feeling. We also go to share a message about Easter with them. They didn't know a lot about the Resurrection, so we taught them what it means. They were filled with joy when they heard about it. Especially when they learned what it meant in particular for Katherine--Katherine is deaf, but someday she, and everyone, will have a perfect body.
We got to meet with Eugenia! She has been super busy but it was great to share a special Easter message with her. She has a great love for the Savior and it was great to read from the Bible together and learn more about Him.
This week, I invite you all, in celebration of the Resurrection of our Savior, to read one of my favorite talks from this conference "Hosanna and Hallelujah--The Living Christ: The Heart of Restoration and Easter" by Elder Gerrit W. Gong. It really highlights what the season is all about.
If you don't really know the Savior, or if you do and want to know Him better, or if you are anyone anywhere in the world, I invite you to read the Book of Mormon. I have been pondering today on what a great testimony of Jesus Christ that book is. Everything in it--everything in this world, really--screams His name, boldly declares that He is. It is the greatest joy to know. I want you all to know for yourselves.
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day
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