Adventures in the CLAM: "I'll See You on the Other Side" (August 24, 2020-August 30, 2020)

Hello everyone. Writing this today feels rather somber.
I feel like I'm mourning my death all over again. I feel like I'm at my child's funeral. Celebrating and remembering the death of something I loved and gave my everything for. I've spent time reminiscing and laughing and crying and feeling pretty much all the feelings as I've remembered what a beautiful thing this was in my life. And now that the remembering is over, I feel scared. I feel a new kind of heartbroken. Because it ended long ago. But now that the official remembering period is done, it feels like a new kind of really over. A really over that has come in so many stages, and this is another one.
But, and as funny as it might sound to say this because I'm pretty sure either no young adult women or all young adult women think about this man as much as I do, I am entirely serious (probably) when I say it reminds me of the classic David Archuleta bop:
"I see you in the morning light.
I see you in the midnight sky.
I feel it everywhere around me,
never have to say goodbye.
It doesn't matter where I go.
I feel you in every memory.
I hold them till I see you again
through the cracks of heaven."
I see missionary work in everything now. I see California in everything now. I see Jesus in everything now more than I ever have. Remembering is never really over. This was a significant part of my life. I literally cannot let it go. It is a part of me. Just about every return missionary I know says that is true. None of us ever really forget. It was that sacred. It was that special.
This week at church out of absolutely nowhere I was flooded and overwhelmed out of absolutely nowhere by what a tender mercy my mission call was. I know so many missionaries have it so much harder than I did when applying to be a missionary, but I would be lying if I said it wasn't very difficult to get out on a mission. When I got a mission call, it had been about a year since I had started my application. It was the most amazing feeling and the greatest miracle. I remember sitting there and having to tell myself over and over, "This is real." When I got in that moment that I had dreamed of for years, I couldn't believe that it was finally happening. I still can't believe how perfect that assignment was for me. While I was waiting for my call, people would always ask me where I wanted to go. I always told them that I didn't know, but I could tell that God had one place for me that was the perfect place to me, and I didn't know where that was, but I knew that when I found out I would know it was perfect. It would be the place for me. I had no idea how true that was. LA really was my one place. The only time during my missionary service when I left the California Los Angeles Mission boundaries was for a Dodgers game just down the street from our mission. Most missionaries go to a missionary training center. I did not. The whole time I applied to be a missionary I talked about how much I didn't want to go to a training center. It didn't sound appealing to me at all. Some of it even sounded scary to me. I was never assigned to go to a training center, and I know that's because God knew it wasn't right for me. The more I learn about the training center, the more I realized how much (in particular at the beginning of my mission) the environment would have upset me, the number of missionaries there would have scared me, and the eating situation would have absolutely paralyzed me. I would not have been able to function. I would have fallen apart, and I was not meant to do that. I was meant to stick it out. I was meant to make it to Los Angeles and teach people about Jesus Christ and His gospel. God didn't let me go to the places that would break me. As a two-transfer missionary, even once I was in LA as I was assigned, there was no guarantee I would stay there. There was in fact no guarantee that I would stay on a mission at all. But I couldn't even imagine leaving LA. It fit me like a glove. The entire mission lifestyle did. It was incredible--it was like the first time in my life that I had felt that level of comfortable in my own skin. God knew that when I got another mission call to extend my mission, it needed to be in Los Angeles.
Can we talk about how amazing it was to be in Los Angeles at all? It was love at first sight for me when I first went there at age fifteen. When I made my second visit my freshman year of college, I spent the trip thinking about how alive I felt when I was in LA. I felt like I was where I was truly meant to be, exactly in my element. That was about one year before I reported to my mission. I had no idea exactly how true those thoughts were at the time. But God did. I wish I could even begin to describe how much that angelic city means to me, but to be honest, I think that would take up a post of its own, so I'm not even going to try.
I left for this incredible journey at the exact right time. I had waited so long and I remember that effortful wait being so excruciating at certain moments. I remember wondering what was wrong with me and just being in pain. But I also remember the Spirit of the Lord making it clear to me at multiple times during that process that He was buying me time. I needed to wait so that the right thing could happen for me and for the people I would meet on my mission. Leaving when I wanted to just wasn't right. I am so glad I stuck it out and that I trusted that God knew the right time for me. While it didn't make sense to me at the time, I needed that time to learn and grow to become the woman God needed me to be in order to be a missionary. When I got to Los Angeles, I had the exact right experiences at the exact right time that I needed to have them. There are even experiences I had and people that I met that I desperately needed in my life that if I had left any sooner, I would have missed them entirely.
I faced a lot of health challenges that nearly prevented me from serving a mission. But as I contemplate this, I am reminded of a Bible story. This is John 9:1-3:
"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."
Jesus went on to heal this blind man. This miracle was a testament of His divinity. I was born different too, and the reason for that is so God could heal me and show the world a miracle, and also so that I as a missionary (and, by following the Spirit, for the rest of my life) could perform miracles in His name.
I guess that in short it was an overall miracle. The mission was a miracle. The message is a miracle. My ability to heal after adversity and thrive as a missionary was a miracle. Being in Los Angeles was a miracle. Being comfortable in my own skin was a miracle. Making friends that felt like family was a miracle. There's nothing about it that wasn't absolutely astonishing.
It felt perfect, and nothing in mortal life is. But when I was a teenager people used to call me perfect all the time, and it really bothered me. That probably greatly attributes to how hard I was on myself back in the day (and sometimes still, to be truthful). But I was praying last night and I was praying about how needful God is. I was praying about the grace of Jesus Christ and how it is Him that makes us whole. And it really hit me that He not only fills my every gap, but every perfect thing about me is Him shining through. When people see something good in me, I can feel good about that. When we see something good in anything, we are seeing Jesus shining through. Truly all things testify of Him. (Alma 30:44)
Enjoy!

Hello one and all!
I'm going to warn you right now, this will be a long-winded one. I've had a lot on my mind and have been going through about a thousand grief cycles every day. I don't want to lose a single moment of this precious final week, so it is all coming down here. This is my final statement before I conclude this incredible and life-changing journey. Stay with me.
LA LOVE:
This week was a miracle and I don't think enough of that will be featured in this letter if I don't say it straight, so I'm just saying it straight here. The week started very dry with very little teaching people, and it was pretty devastating. But I realized near the end of the week that I was not running on very much faith. So I prayed and begged Heavenly Father for miracles in finding and teaching. The weekend was incredible and full. The Lord always provides if we just let Him, and if we just accept what He has to offer. His plan is always a lot better than mine.
Something I"m going to really miss about LA, besides, like, everything, is the movie billboards everywhere. I know movie posters exist other places, but they're absolutely everywhere here, especially further north (there's not a ton of that going on in South Bay, but it's also significantly further from the industry than the valley and the city so that makes sense). I simply adore this place.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
We had a fantastic time going to the mission office so I could apply to be an MTC teacher! And it was Sister Allred's first time walking around the temple. Plus makeup shopping and a spa day with the sisters? Sounds like a great day to me!
I had the best birthday ever! It was on the day of district council, so I requested to have it in person so I could see my district family one more time before I go home and so I could throw a little birthday party for them. We ended up pretty late because the sisters' car's battery died, and it's a new hybrid, so we had to figure out how to jump it. (Fun fact: it takes six missionaries plus two senior missionaries over the phone to jump a RAV-4. If you need to know where the battery is, it was hidden in the very back of the car. We had to dissect the entire trunk of the car. Wild times.) But we did finally make it to district council and it was great. I didn't even get too emo, not even when we sang "God Be With YOu Till We Meet Again" for the closing song, so I thought I was gonna be able to keep it cool the entire time, but then we said a closing prayer and I just sat there and wept. As soon as the prayer ended I blasted off so fast so the elders couldn't see me cry haha. I got my homemade gluten-free ice cream cake out and we just hung out in the kitchen and had a little party. The sisters couldn't attend in person so we had another party at home with them later. Then Sister Wall and Sister Payne called us that night and played a ukulele hymns concert and it was the most beautiful thing ever. It was the best day ever--I am twenty-one, and I got to spend the day with my district family.
We had an English conversation class with Haruka! I love her so much. Sister Allred even got to share a little bit of our beliefs with her in her native language! It was fantastic.
We had a teach for understanding training about the creation of the world and the fall of Adam and Eve, which I loved because in my opinion those are extremely underrated principles, very important to the Plan of Salvation.
I had my final interview with President Cordon. It was lovely. He told me that I could tell people I had completed an honorable mission. He said I have faced a lot of emotional challenges but that I didn't quit. We talked about how to live an honorable life after the mission. He gave me advice for my MTC application. We are both very happy for me. Even though leaving the mission is sad, as the missionary Aaron said about his brother Ammon, "the Spirit of the Lord has called [me] another way." (Alma 22:1-4)
For the last Makeup with the Sisters, I designed a California Love look to celebrate my favorite place.
I had my last sacrament meeting with my dear missionaries. I remember putting my makeup on that morning hoping it would last through the day. It lasted a maximum of an hour, hahaha! Elder Mangum, who conducts our sacrament meetings, asked me for every song what my favorite opening/sacrament/closing hymn was. It was super heartbreaking. I again wept as we said the closing prayer, then blasted off to cry my makeup off in the bathroom. Then said goodbye to my friends. They have all been super supportive because listen up, we are the CLAM FAM.
We had the pleasure of watching this month's mission fireside! President Galorath, President Cordon's first counselor, shared the story of how he became converted to Jesus Christ and it was awesome.
I had my final congratulations call with my zone. Wow, I love them so much. We have some great missionaries here. I got to share some final words with my team. I told them there was nothing more important that they could be doing with their lives. I told them Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I told them that there is no way I will be able to express how much I love them; that I pray for each and every one of them by name every night and I probably will for a long time; that in premortality Heavenly Father probably, when presenting who I would be serving a mission with, pulled back a curtain and revealed THEM and I was simply overjoyed that I got to serve with the best of the best. I told them they had so much to give and especially because they had the priesthood on their side. The sisters sang a special goodbye song for me. It was emo, but it was all true. What a good bunch I have here.
FRIENDS:
Craig has simply turned into a spiritual giant. His prayers are so faith-filled, he can identify the Spirit, and he knows that the gospel is true. He learned about fasting and he decided to participate in his first fast soon. He also wonderfully understands the doctrine of the Sabbath day as we discussed that this week. We also talked a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and just how incredibly deep it [is]. He knows he will get baptized someday, it's just a matter of when. Keep our dear friend in your prayers. God is ready for him.
We had a great time reading scripture stories this week with Beverly. One of the things we read was about the Sabbath day and she described the Sabbath as a breeze blowing through your mind and heart to refresh you for the rest of the week. It was so amazing!
We met with Cathryn and she is so wonderful! We taught her about the Sabbath day and she told us about the care she puts into it to make it a special day for the Lord. We love her.
We talked about the concept of eternal families with Andre. He doesn't yet understand resurrection so it's hard for him to understand, but we are looking forward to him learning more about this. He gave me some advice before I go home to so that was so sweet.
We taught our new friend Christina pretty briefly about the Holy Ghost, but she loved it. She has a strong knowledge that we come from God!
Cindy joined us with John and Craig for a Sabbath worship experience. We read from Mormon 7 but ended up talking a lot about resurrection. Cindy loved knowing we can see our family and friends again after we die.
I have a lot I want to say to conclude my final letter home from the California Los Angeles Mission, because my heart is so full. I have shed a lot of tears this week and even this transfer, but it is all okay because that at least means I had something beautiful to cry about. I have wanted to be a missionary for a very long time. It has been more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. I don't know what I was expecting from this experience, only that I am lucky that this is the experience my God chose to give me. It has brought me so much joy!
I want to say a few goodbyes to all the things and people that matter.
To my calling. There is nothing more special. Talking to Sister Allred the other day, I noted that it doesn't matter what I do in the rest of my life, I will never be more famous than we are now. NO matter where we go, we catch everyone's eye, and nearly everyone is happy to see us. I had someone tell me once that before we even started talking to her she saw us all the way down the street--we were glowing like angels. I have felt my smile light up wherever I am in a way I definitely didn't know how to do before. I have said words that I wasn't even thinking that were carried out of me by the Spirit of the Lord. I have learned so much about spiritual things and how to teach them, and I know I am teaching the truth. Today we were driving by our local park and saw what at first glance was a group of teenage boys playing sports together, but Sister Allred looked again because she noticed they were different; they had a special light. Upon second glance they were our elders. There is something very special about being a missionary. We are called by and given the power of God to do His work. It is an absolute honor.
To my city. I went to LA for the first time when I was fifteen and it was love at first sight. Three years later, one year before I reported to the mission, I found myself there again. I remember being in Hollywood and noting how alive I felt there, how when I was there I felt like I was where I was meant to be. I had no idea how true that was at the time. LA, you mean the world to me. You are holy ground. You are the soil in which I was planted and absolutely bloomed. I know exactly why you are called the City of Angels.
To the local members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thank you for loving us and taking care of us. I remember moments on my mission where I was so overwhelmed with love from you and for you that I didn't know what to do. Thank you for letting me be a part of your family. This is a home to me.
To the people I have taught. You have changed me. Your examples of repentance inspire me. I have watched your very countenances change as you have accepted Jesus Christ. I see how much He has blessed you as He has blessed me. Keep being faithful. I know I was your teacher, which was my greatest joy--I love teaching and I love the gospel, so what a wonderful combination--but I hope you understand how much you also taught me. Thank you.
To my fellow missionaries. I really wasn't expecting you to be my favorite part of my mission. You are my brothers and sisters. No one can be there for a missionary like a missionary can. It is such a wildly unique experience that no one else can even really know how. You have taught me so much and become my family.. There will never be a time in my life or in eternity when that will not be true. When I was set apart with this calling, I was blessed to have angels literally on my right and on my left. I know without a doubt that many of those angels were from heaven. But I also know they were you.
When I think of you I think of a favorite lyric from my favorite song from my favorite play, "Letter from the Refuge" from Newsies: "On the rooftop you said that a family looks out for each other, so you tell all the fellas for me to protect one another." I know I was the mom friend, and I will do what I can from 200+ miles away, but please take care of each other. Companions, districts, zones, and missions are some of God's greatest gifts to us. Be there for each other.
I am also reminded of a scripture about one of my favorite missionaries, Alma, and his missionary friends, in Alma 17:1-2:
"And now it came to pass that as Alma was journeying from the land of Gideon southward, away to the land of Manti, behold, to his astonishment, he met with the sons of Mosiah journeying towards the land of Zarahemla.
Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel first appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God."
I anxiously await that day.
To my God. This is no goodbye because You're always with me. I love You so much. You're the reason for every good thing in my life. On to the next adventure!
And to everyone everywhere, I must share an invitation in scripture more eloquent and accurate than anything I could ever say, Moroni 10:32:
"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."
I know this is true. I know that God and goodness have no stopping point, no limit, no expiration date. I am overjoyed to be His. I have done what He asked me to do, and I am happy. I know Jesus Christ lives and He lives for us all.
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: "A Band of Angels Coming After Me" (August 17, 2020-August 23, 2020)

Hello everyone!
In this letter I write about a friend named Nick. Sister Allred and I were teaching him, but we passed him off to the YSA missionaries because we thought it would be better for him. I went home about two weeks after that, so I didn't get to be much a part of Nick's progression in the gospel after that. I did, however, about a month later get to attend his baptismal service over Zoom. Nick is doing great and he loves the gospel of Jesus Christ. I guess I wanted to share that because I think that we don't always see the end of the story, for a lot of things in life. As missionaries, friends, family, teachers, mentors, all sorts of things, we don't see how people progress in their faith journeys sometimes, even people that really mean a lot to us. In many aspects of life, when we try our best to make a difference but don't always get to see the big picture. I wanted to remind you that little miracles are happening all the time, and you're a part of them. My favorite scripture from the Book of Mormon is Alma 376-7. I'd loved the first of the two verses since I first discovered it as a child, but the pair of verses together took on a new meaning when I became a missionary:
"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."
The context of these verses is a father (and prophet) speaking to his son about the plates that the scriptures are written on, how he needs to maintain them and have them retain their brightness. While it might have seemed like a simple thing, it was still extremely important. I know that firsthand, because since those plates were maintained now we have the Book of Mormon. It was simple, but that didn't mean it wasn't great.
As our dear friend Cinderella once said, "Have faith in your dreams, and someday your rainbow will come smiling through."
Enjoy!

 

Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
I feel that most of you don't know this about me, but angels are a very important part of my life. In almost every priesthood blessing I get angels are mentioned, promising that they will be with me if I just ask for them. When I was set apart as a missionary, I was blessed to have angels literally on my right and on my left. There have been many times on my mission when they have been with me, but this week was very special. Sister Allred and I walked into our apartment and Sister Nault asked (they practically live with us at this point because our apartment has the wifi), "Does anything weird ever happen here?" We said no. :She said, "Something's definitely here." That made us nervous, but then she said it was something good. She heard voices whispering, saying, "Jesus, we love Him!" She did some investigating and just felt the most beautiful feeling. Sister Allred said, "Oh, it's Sister Day's angels." I've heard them since then and so has Sister Allred. So yeah, we have angels living in our apartment! I feel so blessed by the Lord. He really does fulfill His promises!
Another Congratulations Call tradition is Elder Mangum singing "Hallelujah" as a special musical number and leading the team in song. It is pretty much the best.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
For p-day we had an awesome day of makeup shopping, picking up a new RAV-4 for Sister Nault and Sister Goodrich, and doing a spa day with all of our sisters!
We had the best zone conference ever this week. Pretty emo when I realized it was my last one, but such a bop. I feel like a common theme of zone conference was needfulness, which was awesome because I LOVE the concept of needfulness. As a missionary there are a lot of ways we can study, teach, and find, but we need to make sure we are doing the most IMPORTANT things and doing those things the BEST we can. It is not enough to just study, we need to study things that will help us invite others to come unto Christ! It is not enough to just teach, we need to teach in a way that will really help our friends understand the doctrines of the gospel and prepare to make covenants! It is not enough to just find, we need to find in a way that is effective and strengthens our area! "There's a right way in everything you do." We also talked about the importance of doing service so we are going to be focusing a lot on that as a mission! I am so grateful that I had the great opportunity to learn how to help y area for my remaining time here.
We had a great district council this week about improving the way we extend commitments (again it's not just about doing it but about doing it the best we can) and do Sabbath worship experiences!
We had a great Bible storytime this week where we learned about prayer!
It was Rohan's last mission prep class this week. Pretty emo. He reports the day I go home. He is so prepared and we are so happy for him to get to serve his mission. We love him so much!
The Redondo 1st ward hosted an event about being with our families forever! All the people who participated shared the most beautiful testimonies of the reality of eternal families. And I had the privilege of singing a song for the event too!
We had a great snow queen theme for Makeup with the Sisters this week!
FRIENDS:
This week with Tomm was pretty crazy. We had a lesson with Elder Mangum and Elder Creighton about the Holy Ghost but it didn't end as we expected. He is definitely facing a trial of faith, but we think as we follow the spirit this crisis will be the answer to prayers to grow his faith. We felt like we should start memorizing scriptures with him and that this will be an important part of his spiritual progression!
We love Beverly so much. We got to share Helaman 5:12 with her and she loved it! She knows Jesus is the foundation that we must stand on.
We taught Khiara and Sophia about the laws of tithing and fasting this week. She is so amazing! She really understands the concept of sacrificing for the Lord.
We went with Elder Mangum and Elder Creighton to give Nick a priesthood blessing. He loved it so much! We taught him together about the gift of the Holy Ghost and he has recognized moments of feeling the Spirit in his life. We also taught him about baptism and he says that he would like to work towards baptism! It was so amazing and exciting. We taught him about the sacrament so he could be prepared to go to the YSA ward which he loved. We are no longer Nick's missionaries but we are so happy for him. We know that YSA is what he needs and he is already doing so well there!
We made a new friend Cindy! She is John's friend and so awesome. She said he gave her a Book of Mormon but it was super strange because he treated it like a treasure. So we explained why that was! She is so awesome and we already love her so much. We are looking forward to reading the scriptures more with her!
We had the pleasure of teaching Lupe about the divine mission of Jesus Christ this week! We taught about how the scriptures can help us with that and we are looking forward to doing more scripture studies with her!
We had a great lesson this week with Craig where we talked about the different reasons people fear commitment. He has so much faith. I wept as he prayed for me to have a beautiful life after my mission. We also talked about premortality and how we already promised to follow Jesus back then--now we just need to follow through. Craig said it's time to snap into shape!
Cathryn is doing so good! We talked about repentance in the context of godly sorrow. She didn't know what that was before so she loved learning something new! We talked about how it applied to her life and how now that she knows about it it can give her so much more power.
I just want to close by talking about the concept of agency. This is a beautiful gift. When you break down the word and really think about it, you realize the root of the word is "agent", something capable of producing a certain effect. Agency is the gift to choose from God. Imagine: God could be a controlling God, but He never would. He loves us more than that; He knows how important it is to choose. Agency is the ability to choose, while accepting the consequence. When we follow God and do good, we receive positive consequences. When we go against God and do evil, we receive negative consequences. God never forces us to do anything. He just tells us what to do and what the consequences will be, whether we choose to accept or reject His ways, and He lets us choose our own fate. God doesn't really punish us. He tells us the options, and we choose our own end result. My dear friends, I implore of you to choose God's way. His delight is to see you happy. It is mine as well. And I can testify that God's way is THE way! This is the way, and there is no other way. (2 Nephi 31:21) Come join in on the happiness!
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Makeup QUEENS (August 10, 2020-August 16, 2020)

 

Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
Update: Sister Allred has a favorite Phineas and Ferb episode. She has still never seen Phineas and Ferb. The other day we watched Meapless in Seattle--which means I describe the episode in vivid detail to her so it's as if we are watching it.
Elder Jones and Elder Judd tried to prank/bless us by having us call a prayer hotline, but it ended up reminding us taht we needed to schedule an appointment to have our wifi set up (we cancelled our first appointment because we had corona), so it ended up actually being a huge miracle. God works in mysterious ways.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
For our first p-day out and about, we went to the beach with Sister Nault and Sister Goodrich! We had a huge miracle where Sister Nault finally got to live her dream of seeing dolphins! Then Sister Allred bought eye makeup for the first time! She has decided that she only has a few weeks left of living with a makeup queen so she is going to take this opportunity to learn. We have been having a lot of fun being makeup queens together!
We had a great district council this week where we learned more about how to help people make commitments. Commitments truly are the glue that hold missionary work together. This helps people convert to Jesus Christ and prepare to make covenants. What a joy of missionary work.
We got a training about how to teach about premortal life for understanding. To share one fun tidbit for you, we will say that we were given the precious reminder that all of the friends we're teaching already accepted Jesus Christ in the premortal world--every person on earth, in fact!
We told the story of the ten lepers at Bible storytime this week!
We had a great mission prep this week and it was so amazing to hear Rohan, who is leaving for his mission in a week, tell us how prepared he feels for his mission and how much the class has helped him. We are so happy for him.
We had an awesome Makeup with the Sisters where we did a split face Jekyll and Hyde theme!
FRIENDS:
We had an amazing lesson with Craig about the priesthood and he learned a lot. It was very helpful for him. We also taught about the nature of faith, how it is born from belief and humility and how it creates action and power. Plus he had a great moment where he totally unprompted held his own in a scripture study we had with John, sharing the verses that stood out to him! He is so wonderful.
We had the opportunity to teach Nick about Jesus Christ's mission and Atonement. We talked a TON about faith and exactly what that includes and he understands it perfectly. We also talked a lot about priesthood and prophets and he really gets the idea.
We taught Khiara about the Sabbath day this week and it was so beautiful. She has such a perfect understanding of it and she even made a goal to do something spiritual and productive every Sunday! Sadly Khiara had to drop her baptismal date but she is very excited for when the time comes that she can be baptized. We reviewed the baptismal interview with her (plus some teaching of the law of chastity) so she could know what she had learned and what she needed to review and she was so happy to learn that she knew more than she had previously thought. Please pray for our girl to be baptized soon because she is so ready. We simply love her.
We had the most amazing thing happen with Beverly. She requested stories from the Old Testament, so we read from Isaiah about how God teaches line upon line, which she hadn't understood before. She told us about the cool things we can learn from the Bible--like how you can be saved AFTER you die. And we were like Beverly we believe that too! So we had a cool discussion about that. Also had the privilege of telling her the story of Samuel and his example in following the Lord.
It's been so cool to see Tomm progress in his knowledge of God. As we talked about Heavenly Father this week, he said, "He must really care about us a lot." That is awesome! We started teaching Tomm about the Word of Wisdom this week and he didn't take it well, but it was awesome because there was no doubt that it was what he needed to hear so the Spirit was extremely present. We had Elder Mangum and Elder Creighton join us for the next lesson and they totally hit it off! We discussed the importance of being receptive to the Spirit.
To close, I wanted to share a beautiful piece from the Bible Dictionary that Sister Allred and I read the other day about prayer:
"Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them."
I invite you all to strive more to align your will with God's. The promise here is that you will end up happier. It is that simple. That does not mean it will necessarily be a quick and easy happier. But I know as we align our will with God's as we try to make what we want into whatever he wants, we will be blessed beyond imagination.
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: I Put Someone in Jail?! (August 3, 2020-August 9, 2020)

Hey everyone!
This letter brought back so many memories. This was such a great area, such a great group of friends and missionaries, and such a wonderful time for amazing miracles. My faith grew so much there.
I mention a talk given at a general conference for my church at the end of this post. I seriously implore you, whoever you are, to give this one a read. This being the Christmas season, this is the perfect time to think of Jesus. Whether you believe He is the Son of God and the Savior of the world or not, I know that learning about Jesus Christ can bring a lot of peace to our hearts. He is such a good man. He's a radical. He stands for selfless love whether people deserve it or not. The reason that is so beautiful because I can't think of a single person that genuinely deserves love. We have all made vile mistakes and all hurt people. But we're all trying our best and we all want mercy. So when you think about it, none of us deserving love is the reason that all of us deserve it. Jesus was all about loving and helping people. I think there's a vile impression given in the world that God loves to punish and isn't very caring. As I've studied the scriptures, the exact opposite is apparent to me. When I read things like the Bible and the Book of Mormon, all I can see is a message of love, compassion, justice, and mercy. It is amazing. It shocks me how much God cares for us.
I keep thinking of the story of the woman caught in adultery. This woman had been caught in the very act of committing a sin. There was no denying that. People brought her to Jesus and told Him what had been done. The law required that the people throw stones at her. They asked Jesus what He thought of that.
Jesus told the people, "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her." (John 8:7)
Everyone is guilty of something. Everyone has done something wrong. So when Jesus asked that, all the people condemning this woman left.
When they left, Jesus asked the woman where her accusers were. They were nowhere to be found. So Jesus told her to go on and sin no more. He told her that she was forgiven; in fact said that He, Christ the Lord, did not condemn her. He told her to move on and do better things with her life.
That's what Christ does. He cares for us, He loves us, He defends us, and He shows us how to become the people we genuinely want to be. He lifts us out of our rut.
Read the sermon linked at the end. Or even better, watch the video. It will change your life, no matter what you believe. There's something we can all learn about that level of love.
Enjoy!

Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
Okay, so one of our friends called us one day. His best friend and her boyfriend were over and he really does not like this boyfriend. We talked to him for a little bit and let us just say that he is, to describe with a tame word and not go into too many details, fiendish. As we were saying our companionship prayer that night, we included these two children of God in our prayer. I felt very shockingly prompted by the Spirit to ask Heavenly Father to smite this man as He did Alma the Younger, who, before becoming the greatest prophet since Moses, was "the very vilest of sinners." (Mosiah 28:4) If you don't know the story of Alma, this man sought to destroy the church of God. His father (the high priest over the land), along with many others, prayed for a miracle to change his heart. One day Alma and his friends were visited by an angel and smitten, so overcome by the Spirit that they fell to the earth. Alma's friends recovered pretty quickly, but Alma was left in a spiritual coma in which he cannot move or speak for three days, all the while pondering the horrific nature of his sins and the fate of his soul, until he is saved by remembering the Savior Jesus Christ and changes his heart. I didn't expect to say that, but I felt strongly like I should pray for that, and when we follow the Spirit in prayers, great things happen. So I said it. The next day Sister Allred asked if I thought we would ever find out the results of our prayer of faith. I said probably not. Well, we were wrong. We called our friend that night and he told us that his prayer was answered--the man had left! He said his best friend and her boyfriend had gone to her parents' house for a minute, and when they were outside, the police were there! They arrested him and took him to jail. I literally jumped off the ground. I couldn't believe it. A mere few hours after our prayer of faith, it was answered, and we even got to find out what happened. It was a huge testament to me. The power of a prayer of faith is real.
We decided that a group of missionaries is called a "blessing" (similar to unicorns) as our district rolled up in an epic squad moment to a guy who was fixing his flat tire that had previously Bible bashed our sisters to offer help to him and show Christlike love, and if that's not the most missionary sentence you've ever heard, I don't know what is.
I just wanted to let you all know that Sister Allred has a favorite Dr. Doofenschmirtz quote and she has never seen Phineas and Ferb.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
It was our last dependent p-day of the week! Sister Nault and Sister Goodrich bought groceries for us one more week and then we were set free on Wednesday! We are COVID-free queens! Which featured us going outside for many adventures, including our sacrament meeting held in the courtyard of our church (no indoor meetings are currently allowed).
We hosted an English class where we practiced words in preparation for Haruka's baby!
We had a great district council this week where we focused on how we can find part-member families, and what will best help them. Sister Allred and I gave a short review of the conference talk that we read with our Preach My Gospel implementation calendar. More on that in a bit.
We had a great Bible storytime where we taught about Jesus feeding the five thousand!
A wonderful mission prep where we learned about leaving something behind. It was really cool to work with our elders and sisters and see everyone use their talents to teach mission prep this week.
I had my fateful My Plan interview this week. I literally had the whole district pray for me becuase I was super nervous haha. But it was honestly very wholesome and wonderful. It was a great reminder of how good my life is going to be, the great opportunities I have, the things I have to work on.
We had a great Makeup with the Sisters this week! A lot of my missionary friends came so it was a super fun time. Plus Sister Goodrich let me borrow a makeup palette of hers so we had a great time experimenting with new colors!
Sister Allred and I got to go to a virtual tour outside the Nauvoo temple hosted by my dear friend Sister John! It was beautiful. I miss that girl and I miss Nauvoo too.
FRIENDS:
We made a new friend, Nick! He is wonderful! He was a referral from a former friend a few months ago that never responded. We called him awhile ago and he finally answered! So we set an appointment with him and he is great! He has a beautiful faith in God. He's been through a lot and is hoping he will get an answer as to why these things have been happening. He is in need of more spiritual experiences, so we figured the solution was to tell him about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and reading the Book of Mormon with him! He is loving it so far!
Kris is amazing. He said that when he prayed to feel God's love for hi that he felt it immediately, even before he started his prayer. We were blown away by Kris's testimony. We had a lesson about the Restoration and he fully believes it. He says he feels that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was blowing our mind because he was so prepared. He is very good at studying his scriptures every day. He had watched the film Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration the night before our lesson. He used words we had never mentioned to him before. He asked us to join him in a fast the next day. (We had never mentioned that to him either.) We love Kris; he is so awesome.
Tomm now understands the necessity for authority in baptism! He is looking forward to being baptized somebody! The main focus with Tomm this week was on how to hear the voice of the Lord featuring prophets, the Holy Ghost, and praying to know the truth.
As we promised by the Spirit of th Lord, Craig's desire to break the Word of Wisdom has been weakening! It is getting better all the time. He is so awesome. Please continue to pray for him. We talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon this week!
Some great stories that we shared with Beverly this week were of the man who was born blind and Jesus's final words to His apostles before He ascended into heaven!
We had a great lesson with Sophia where we just read our favorite scriptures with each other. Then later in the week we had a lesson with her and Khiara together! We dropped off some of my famous mac and cheese before the call so we had a little lunch together over video. We learned about the importance of the commandments.
We passed Raquel off to her local missionaries this week by teaching the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She is such a gem. She just knows the gospel is true. We are going to miss her, but she will do great with Elder Shaffer and Elder Hjorth--who are actually going to be my missionaries when I go home too!
To close, I just wanted to strongly invite you all to listen to the previously mentioned talk that our mission studied this week. Please check out "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane" by Bruce R. McConkie this week. Elder McConkie was terminally ill when this talk was given. He knew these would be his final words on earth as an apostle of the Lord. He knew the most important thing he could speak about was the atoning power of our Savior. Listen to the final words of a special witness of Jesus Christ who knew the time was not far distant that he would be with the Lord. I know the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the center of the gospel. It is the most important thing that has ever happened, the most important thing to understand. That is why I am here.
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Come and See (July 27, 2020-August 2, 2020)

 

Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
This week's district council marked fifteen days with corona for Sister Allred and twenty days for me. As we discussed and celebrated this fact, our fearless district leader Elder Judd said, "I never thought anyone in my district would get corona. I'm so proud." On that note, Sister Allred and I are improving very well. It just takes a lot of rest and diligence.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
A blessed rest p-day.
We had a great district council this week where we had the privilege of learning about developing the faith to find people to teach! The truth of missionary work is that it will all be successful if we just rely on the Lord. So we worked really hard this week at relying on Him to find, and as a result, as Elder Jones noted on the Congratulations Call, we found!
We hosted a watch party for the youth music festival! It was so awesome! The theme was "Hear the Voice of the Lord" and it was so beautiful to hear and see children in the Lord's youth battalion from all over the world praise Him in song, including some from the Palos Verdes ward! I love the youth of the world, and I loved getting to participate in this festival with them in even just a small way.
We hosted our first Bible storytime for children this week! It was really successful and Sister Allred is a natural at this sort of thing. We already have a lot of people interested in coming to the next one.
This week we had a great mission prep and Sister Allred and I had the honors of teaching the class! We talked about repentance and addiction and developing the faith to find!
We had a Breakfast at Tiffany's themed Makeup with the Sisters this week! It's my favorite look I've designed for the class so far.
The elders of the Redondo 2nd ward hosted an interview with Brother Compton! He is a recently returned member of the ward with a very strong faith, and he is a stuntman for films, so it was super cool!
FRIENDS:
We had some great lessons with Beverly this week! We read the parable of the wicked husbandmen (my favorite of Jesus's parables) and the story of Jesus inviting Peter to feed His sheep. She loved them both; in her own words, she loves any story that reminds her of Christ.
Tomm is doing so great! He is understanding more than ever before. This week we learned the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow and how our hope comes from Jesus Christ. He is truly repenting! He sees that repentance is lowkey the answer to everything haha. He is starting to get a better understanding of who God really is and how the priesthood works.
We made a new friend, Kris! It is ridiculous. The minute we heard about him Sister Allred and I knew he was so prepared, and he really is. He is such a spiritually insightful person. His friend Riley had converted to the church about three years ago, and Kris saw the good it did for him in his life, so when Kris started going through a hard time he reached out to Riley for help. He started learning more about the gospel from Riley and Elder Shoff (a missionary friend from the Palos Verdes ward currently serving in the Kansas Wicheta Mission) and now he is meeting with us! We talked about how the gospel of Jesus Christ is the way to happiness. God loves us, so He provided a Savior to help us along the way!
In December, during my first transfer in Palos Verdes, we found a friend named Lupe who didn't have a record in Area Book but had been learning the gospel with her late son. I had bee thinking of her for a few days but have had trouble contacting her by phone in the past, so I didn't do anything about it. This week Lupe called us. I was shocked to hear from her but so happy! She said she just found our phone number in a journal that she hasn't touched since her son died. We have enjoyed talking about God's love for us and the healing power of Jesus Christ together.
We had an incredibly spiritual lesson with Craig this week. After a lot of discussion on the matter, Craig decided he would be willing to give the Word of Wisdom a try, especially if it meant getting to be with his son forever. We promised the boldest of blessings, which is always such an exhilarating feeling, because we could give the most specific promise in the world and have no fear, because we know the Lord will fulfill anything we say led by the Spirit. We are excited to see what progress he has made.
We taught Raquel about the Plan of Salvation! Wow let me tell you this girl is so cool. She understood so well God's love behind this plan and how He gave everyone a chance to be happy and saved.
Everyone, this week was so full of miracles. I love being here, I love serving the Lord and preaching His gospel, and I love the people I get to serve around. I testify that missionaries do have spiritual power given to them from God. You would not believe what these young men and women are able to do--honestly, sometimes we can't believe it either, but that's because it all comes from God. One of my favorite quotes from the first chapter of Preach My Gospel is as follows:
"Do not be afraid or shy about fulfilling this commission. Just as the sons of Mosiah, you are to teach with the power and authority of God.... Your power and authority should be evident as you work and teach. Power may be manifest in many things you do, such as... expressing love for the Lord, your family, fellow missionaries, and the people you serve."
It is so true. Everything we do as missionaries is about love. I have learned more about that than perhaps anything else on my mission.
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: "The Resting Grind Cannot Stop" (July 20, 2020-July 26, 2020)

 

Hello one and all!
(Today's title an iconic quotation from Sister Price. Thanks for coming.)
Alright, before we get into our normal routine, I figure I better update you on the COVID situation. We are doing a lot better! We still have to be very careful because if we go too hard at any point we will be set back in our recovery. Keep us in your prayers! This is an interesting version of missionary work and my only hope is that our area and work can continue to progress even while we're in this condition. Pray for the Lord to do His miracles, because He will.
LA LOVE:
I'm bad at answering texts on a good day, so let me just say my ignoring texts game is STELLAR with corona.
Here in the California Los Angeles Mission as with missionaries all over the world, we have the privilege of receiving a lot of new missionaries during this pandemic time. However, that also means that these poor missionaries are being thrown into a mission--and a zone--with a quirky culture of its own, with no explanation. Elder Jones sends the snowman emoji randomly, Sister Day speaks French randomly, and we all say "la pina" on every Congratulations Call, and that's just the way things are. We only realize these things are weird when one of the new missionaries has to ask why we're doing this.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
It was a tiring p-day. Corona. I'll leave it at that.
New transfer new us! The zone hasn't yet changed from last transfer so it can sometimes feel like nothing happened, but this is actually my last transfer. That's a sad thought honestly but it's all good, because the work of the Lord is moving onward and I still get to be a part of it!
We had a great district council about the importance of the doctrine of Christ, how this needs to always be the focus of our studies as missionaries. I loved getting to hear my fellow laborers testify of the simple truths of the gospel. Some of my favorite comments made were Sister Nault nothing that only when Cathryn understood repentance did she desire to be baptized so that is what makes all the difference in our friends preparing to make covenants, and Elder Judd testifying that the promises the Lord makes to people who follow Him are real. I know this is all true as well. The doctrine of Christ is the way, and there is no other way! (2 Nephi 31:21)
We had a great zone conference this week. We all learned so much. We learned about creatve finding and about the joy of repentance. One of my favorite parts, though, was learning about how we can acess the power behind the authority of our calling by relying on revelation from God. If I know anything, it is that mine is a sacred calling! There is nothing quite like being a missionary for the Lord. I know we have a special power granted to us to preach the Lord's gospel, and when we rely on Him, we have access to it! There is nothing I want more.
We had a great mission prep class this week! It was Elder Arnold and Elder Utley's first time teaching the class, and they felt prompted to invite Diana to join us! (Elder Arnold and Elder Utley are covering Redondo 2nd so it is the same Diana I used to teach.) We talked about the priesthood authority and it was the first time Diana had really understood how the priesthood was lost and then restored! It was the most amazing thig to witness. God definitely knows the best way to reach all of His children.
Another great session of Makeup with the Sisters with a blue and orange summer look as requested by Diana!
We had a super great fireside this week featuring musical numbers by some elders of the CLAM and bestselling author Liz Wiseman about how to be an effective leader!
FRIENDS:
Tomm has progressed so much this week. He is learning more about repentance every day and is starting to realize that everything in the gospel comes back to repentance. We talked about the power of the Savior's Atonement, different ways God answers prayers and why, why obedience to the commandments is important, and what the Book of Mormon is! Our man is thriving out here!
Khiara learned about the World of Wisdom this week and she LOVED it. She really understood why God commands us to take care of our bodies. She is glowing and so prepared for baptism in a month. We love her so much!
Everyone, this week was crazy with Craig. We finally told him that the reason he isn't getting an answer to his prayer on what to do now that he has accepted Christ is because he is not willing to accept the answer. We told him that he has repented a lot, and once we repent the next thing to do is be baptized. We had a super hardcore prayer session with him right in the middle of the lesson. It was spiritually exhilarating. President Nelson always talks about how thrilling it is to labor with the Spirit for personal revelation and I definitely learned that he is right. We were praying about a specific day that he needed to be baptized, and the date August thirteenth jumped out at me, like it was screaming, like it was urgent. It seemed like an odd date, but who am I to say no to the Spirit of the Lord? I proposed the date to Craig. We invited him to pray about it until we met up next. We said a prayer right after the lesson and the Spirit told us that we instead needed to do something to increase Craig's faith. So we taught about the Word of Wisdom. This was a tough love lesson for sure. We told him the truth: this is a way to increase our faith and show our love for the Lord, and HE CAN do it. We told him to decide on a day to be following the Word of Wisdom entirely. In shock, I realized that was the date that August thirteenth REALLY was supposed to be--the day by which Craig would be fully following the Word of Wisdom. God works in beautiful and mysterious ways. He agreed to start giving it a try.
We talked about how prayer and scripture study help us be more receptive to the Holy Ghost with Cathryn, and invited her to participate in the prayer inventory activity in the fourth chapter of Preach My Gospel! She loved it!
To end today, I just wanted to say a word about the new and improved version of missionary work. Missionary work is happening primarily online right now. I fear some people think this is temporary due to current circumstances, or, as President would call it, "survival mode." I want to make it clear to you that this is rather what President Cordon would call "discipleship mode--adaptation." This is what missionary work has become. This is what we do now. This is our new normal. The Lord is making wonderful things happen even during the current circumstances. It is working wonderfully well, so while missionaries will in fact go outside again eventually and do in-person proselyting work, we will not go back to a less effective way of working. We will do in-person AND online proselyting. Why do one when you can do both? As the Lord said in Doctrine and Covenants 88:72-73:
"Behold, and lo, I will take care of your flocks, and will raise up elders [and sisters] and send unto them.
Behold, I will hasten my work in its time."
I testify in His name, with the sacred calling that I hold, that Jesus is the Christ, He lives, and we, the missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and doing His work.
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: COVID-19 More Like COVID-9QUEEN (July 13, 2020-July 19, 2020)

 Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
Here in the Palos Verdes zone, we express love to each other by sending the snowman emoji (for we all hope to one day have a love as true as Elder Jones and the snowman emoji). We have full conversations of just sending the snowman emoji. This is the purest form of love.
Also, they way my missionary friends show affection for me is by calling me Hermana Dia. It's just the best feeling when they call me that because you can feel the love in that statement, hahaha.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
Okay, I'm going to preface this by saying that I am entirely fine. I am happy and I am doing well. But I would be crazy if I left this part out of my account of the week, because it is pretty much the biggest thing that has happened to me this week. I didn't tell you all last week because I didn't know what was wrong, which is very typical of me because I have a difficult time understanding pain. But last week I got very sick, and I didn't realize t for many days. I had a severe headache, my throat felt like it was on fire and constantly dehydrated, and I felt too weak and exhausted to do anything. Us missionaries only work over the phone right now, and I felt too tired to even do that. I would pass out pretty much as soon as we got a break every second. Even more sneakily and subtly (my pain sensitivity is very low, do not judge me for my density), it was slightly hard to breathe. On Sunday I had finally realized that something was more than just a little off, something was in fact very wrong. I racked my brain for all manner of illnesses I could possibly have. Then Elder Jones sent a text to the zone stating that a missionary in the mission had flu-like symptoms and had been in contact with other missionaries. They were still waiting on their test results and all missionaries were quarantined for two days until the test results were in. But the crazy thing is, my friends, that the second I saw that text, I had an oddly spiritual experience because I just knew. I knew that was what I had; I had COVID-19. Sister Allred had me contact the mission nurse and I told President the next day, and he had a doctor reach out to me. I was told to wait it out for that day, but the day after, Sister Allred had me contact the mission nurse and I told President the next day, and he had a doctor reach out to me. I was told to wait it out for that day, but the day after, Sister Allred had developed my symptoms. So then there was NO MORE ignoring the fact that we had COVID. They ordered a test for us that day, and we were no longer allowed to pick up our new companion so she got assigned to a companionship in LA 3rd, and all the sisters in the Palos Verdes zone were put in quarantine. We took the test in Beverly Hills on Wilshire Boulevard (so that was a big tender mercy for me). President Cordon called us frequently and helped us treat ourselves--he said we were going to assume that we had COVID, which was nice because it really was a spiritual experience--I knew I had it, and I could tell President knew we had it too. WE got the official test results the following morning, which pretty much involved waiting around anxiously for President or the assistants to open it for us because our internet access is limited as missionaries. When we finally got the call from the assistants they told me my test results were negative. I just sat there and cried. I knew I had the illness, but even if by chance I didn't, I knew I wouldn't get medical attention if I didn't have COVID even though I was in fact very sick. President got the results. I cannot even begin to tell you how relieved I was when he said, "There are a lot of things that we don't know about the virus. In order to take care of both of you we are going to assume that you may have COVID-19. We will continue with your quarantine and monitoring your symptoms." President and I had a short little phone call together and pretty much decided we have COVID-19. I'm not saying a lot, I'm just saying this: this illness is unlike any other I have ever felt, I match the symptoms perfectly, and there is a 30% false negativity rate. Yes, I have corona. We had a virtual meeting as a mission right after I talked to President about working together in unity since so many wards now have multiple companionships. At the end of the meeting President asked if he could say a few things. After making a few statements about the importance of unity when doing the work of the Lord, he made sure to reemphasize the importance of maintaining good health practices during this time. I sat there and watched as my president told all of the missionaries in the CLAM that two of our number very likely had COVID-19. And then he told the elders and sisters, and his tone shifted the way it does when we are about to receive a very serious invitation to act, he called them to pray for our health, that they didn't need to know our names because the Lord knew who we were, but that they needed to pray for our health. It meant the world to me. To add even another tender mercy to that, Sister Sanerive said the closing prayer for that meeting, so I got to hear my trainer pray for me. So yeah, that's how I became the first missionary in the CLAM to get the corona virus! If we thought the version of being a missionary when other people had the corona virus was weird, I promise the version of being a missionary and actually having the virus is even weirder. I beg of you to not worry about me. It of course has been an interesting week, and I have indeed been sick, but I am getting better all the time. There have been so many tender mercies. People (those who know and those who do not) have been showing so much care for us. Our friends, who do not know we are sick, have been praying harder than ever for us, especially for our health and safety. To restate that, the Spirit has literally been prompting our friends to pray for our health that they do not of themselves know is poor right now. We have the prayers of the entire CLAM behind us! And now, I know we have your prayers as well. With that said, I implore you, do not tell anyone in the South Bay that we are sick. We do not want them to know; they will worry about us too much. We are doing quite well. Between President Cordon and Sister Cordon, Sister Malcom and Elder Malcom, Sister Galorath, Sister Eddy and Elder Eddy, Sister Price and Sister Wall, Sister Nault and Sister Torkornoo, and Elder Jones and Elder Judd (not to mention the rest of the missionaries in the Palos Verdes zone), we are well taken care of. We should be quarantined for about another week and a half--we'll keep you posted!
We had a wonderful last district council of the transfer. It was over video call again not just because all of the sisters in the Palos Verdes zone are in quarantine, but also because all indoor activities in California have been prohibited. We learned about developing the faith to succeed, not just to try out best. I love my little district; they are absolute angels. We have a lot of fun together and learn a lot from each other.
We had an incredible Makeup with the Sisters themed "Green: I am a Tree". Enough said.
Also a fantastic mission prep where we learned about many things, one being How to Begin Teaching, which many of you know I feel very passionately about because it is the only thing I didn't properly learn how to do before my mission and didn't properly learn how to do until my FIFTH TRANSFER. (For those of  you that don't know, that is a LONG TIME to not know how to do an essential teaching skill.)
I got my last transfer packet of my mission as I prepare to start my final transfer. I always pictured this being such a dramatic moment of my mission, receiving my final assignment in the CLAM, but it was undoubtedly the least dramatic transfer news I've ever gotten. I am staying in Palos Verdes with Sister Allred, which was of course entirely expected. I knew we would not be transferred because we both have corona. Adding to the anticlimactic nature of this transfer call was the fact that we have been getting new missionaries every week for the past few months, so assignments are changing all the time. That does mean I could end up getting an assignment change again before the end of my mission, but I don't see myself leaving Palos Verdes. Leaving Palos Verdes feels the way leaving the CLAM did when I was waiting for my second mission call, not even realistic at all. I could not imagine it actually happening, and so it is with Palos Verdes. I cannot see myself finishing my mission anywhere else. It has become a home. I have experienced my greatest happiness and my greatest sadness in Palos Verdes. I have built a family here unlike I have anywhere else. I HAVE SPENT THE ENTIRE SECOND HALF OF MY MISSION HERE. I have to end it in Palos Verdes.
FRIENDS:
We shared the story about when Jesus visited the people of ancient America with Beverly this week. She really enjoyed it and also expressed her concerns to us. She is progressing in a very interesting way, but she is indeed progressing.
Cathryn is doing wonderful. We talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost and the process of learning how to recognize it. She is so amazing.
Khiara and Sophia are absolute angels! We talked about the divine mission of Jesus Christ. Sophia described how her conversion to Christ led to her realizing he is her friend that is there for her, and Khiara referred to Jesus as the friend that gives really good advice. We also talked about how we can pray anytime, anywhere! A lesson I learned from my parents that I am forever grateful for.
Things are starting to get real with Tomm. We brought up the concept of fasting, which was a really good way to introduce that sacrifices bring HUGE blessings! We also talked about eternal families and how to obtain those, and of course it all comes back to repentance. These are all great things we talked about! It all comes down to showing Tomm he can exercise his faith and see the miracles follow.
Craig has come to the point where he has decided to accept Jesus Christ! So we talked more about repentance and what that means, and how it fits into the gospel of Christ. Craig wants to be able to see his son again, so we are trying to help him know how to make that happen. Now that Craig has made the best decision he will ever make, we challenged him to pray to know what to do with his acceptance of Jesus. He said he has prayed but he has not yet had an answer. We made a list of things we can do to come closer to God. We told him that sometimes Heavenly Father withholds answers from us if we aren't willing to accept WHATEVER answer He gives us--why would He give us a gift we are going to abuse? So we told him to think about that. We are praying for him to come to the right answer, because I'll just say that we know what it is, but we feel like he needs to come to the conclusion on his own.
We had a conversation with Lisa, who I met on an awesome Bible study group I'm a part of! She is SO sweet. She told us her stories about how faith has helped her through her challenges in life and how it is important to turn to God in everything. She wasn't interested in learning more with us, but she said our conversation really made her day and it was good to see two young women standing strong in the faith! I love Lisa!
We had some amazing lessons with Raquel this week. We talked about the significance of the sacrament, which was a nice preparation for our Sabbath worship experience with our friend Eli the next day! We read the story of the prodigal son the next day and talked about repentance--then I realized we had made a fatal error, because repentance makes no sense if we do not first explain the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We talked about the depth of the Savior's gift to us, and how it enables us to all be made whole and free. One of the best have ever had together. I love the joy of repentance.
Today I wanted to invite you all to check out the speech we read for district council this week: "Developing the Faith to Reap" by Wilford W. Ansdersen. (You can hear the full audio on byui-media.ldscdn.org.) I have loved this speech since I first read it in my third transfer. It has opened my eyes to the TWO kinds of faith: the faith to try, and the faith to do. If we really believe in the Lord, we will always believe Him when He says we can accomplish His will.
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Couch Gang (July 6, 2020-July 12, 2020)

 

Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
This week I started My Plan, a program to help missionaries make goals and plans for their future in the six weeks before going home. Most missionaries are afraid of doing this because most missionaries are afraid of going home, but it wasn't bad at all. Maybe it's because I'm an extremely decisive person and have always had a vision of what I want in life, but it was an awesome way to prepare for what's ahead and a swell reminder that it's actually a good thing.
The other day we got a knock on our door. We opened the door and it was Sister Nault and Sister Torkornoo. All they said was, "Come out. Come out now." They were smiling so I knew it wasn't bad, but I definitely wasn't expecting Elder Mangum and Elder Breinholt to be carrying a couch up the stairs when we came outside. It was the most confusing few seconds of my life. But I mean, now everyone in our little family has a couch, plus Sister Nault and Sister Torkornoo got a return appointment out of it just by taking this free couch, so we'll take what we can get.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
We went to the beach with our sisters on p-day!
Elder Mangum and Sister Allred had birthdays two days apart from each other, so we had a little family birthday party lunch! I made a gluten free red velvet cake (both Elder Mangum and Sister Allred's favorite) and we had lunch and cake on our balconies on the day between their birthdays. I love those two missionaries.
President had us watch a seminar by Elder Bednar about repentance and we learned some beautiful truths. I really enjoyed what we learned about repentance and just got to have an enjoyable spiritual morning together as a mission.
District council was a great one this week! We have new members of our district, Elder Arnold and Elder Utley (we are seriously getting new missionaries here in the CLAM all the time). We learned about using all of our lessons to help our friends understand repentance and the principles behind the Sabbath day.
We went on exchanges! It was Sister Allred's first exchange and she loved it. She went to Cabrillo with Sister Wall, and I stayed in Palos Verdes with Sister Price. She is awesome! I learned so much from her. She is such a knowledgeable missionary and a great teacher. We had a great time working in the Lord's vineyard together that day, including teaching a great Makeup with the Sisters and mission prep!
We woke up Sunday morning to a TRANSFER EMAIL. Let me be clear my friends: IT IS NOT TRANSFER WEEK. But due to all the new missionaries we are getting all the time, there are still transfers... literally every week. This week Sister Allred and I found out we will be in a trio! We are receiving Sister Sanchez and we are so excited to have her. We pick her up this coming Tuesday.
We had the privilege of teaching the online Relief Society lesson this week! We have a great ward. We discussed "A Perfect Brightness of Hope" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and "Let This House Be Built unto My Name" by Elder David A. Bednar. Both are amazing talks that can teach us a lot, about present life and the future. I highly recommend giving them a read.
FRIENDS:
Khiara is so amazing. We taught her about baptismal covenants now that she has made that decision and she understood them perfectly. We also taught her and Sophia about eternal families and the role that temples play in that, and they loved it! It was so beautiful to watch them talk about how excited they were to give the gift of the gospel to their future children.
Craig is doing wonderful. We taught the Restoration pretty briefly, and in the middle of the lesson, he just called himself to repentance and said that he needs to read his scripture more. He decided he was going to take time to read every day, and he has read more on his own than he ever has now! This led to us testifying of the Book of Mormon and how we can come to know of its truth, which led to Craig asking what the difference between the Book of Mormon and the Bible is. We spent the next lesson talking about the importance of the scriptures and the similarities and differences of the Book of Mormon. For our last lesson of the week with him we did a Come, Follow Me study and it unexpectedly turned into a discussion about how there are only two sides of the fight: God and the adversary. Craig said he definitely knew what side he wanted to be on.
Cathryn is amazing! This week we learned about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and Sister Anderson came with us.
Tomm is fantastic. He is progressing a lot. We taught him about a lot of things--the Fall of Adam and Eve, baptism, the sacrament. It came up that these things must be done with proper authority. Tomm asked if we go to our different churches and never know which one has the authority. We told him there IS a way we can know, and then taught him about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We got to teach Jan with the elders of Wilshire 3! He was really receptive to our message and had a lot of questions about our beliefs, and he committed to keep meeting with the elders! It was fun to get to teach with an old friend of mine from Wilshire and to see Jan grow and progress so much in just one lesson.
We talked to Beverly this week about the Book of Mormon. She said she wasn't interested in reading it but didn't know what it was about, so upon explaining, she said it sounded nice, and that maybe she would read it someday, but not today. Stay tuned, folks. The Spirit of the Lord works in many ways.
To close, I wanted to share a scripture that Sister Price shared with me on exchanges that really blessed me. She and I are both going home very soon, which can be a scary thing to face as a missionary. But she read this scripture to me, 2 Nephi 4:26. It was written by the prophet Nephi, after experiencing great sorrow but also reflecting on the amazing blessings he's seen from the Lord. He wrote:
"O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?"
This verse is more fitting for this week than I can say. I have seen many great things out here, everyone. There is so much to rejoice in. I can't afford to be weighed down with sorrow. The Lord is on our side!
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: Keeping the Family Together (June 29, 2020-July 5, 2020)

 Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
We had a breakthrough in our cute little family of missionaries in the Casa de Oro apartments. One day we get a knock on the door. When we open the door no one is there, just a walkie talkie. A few minutes later, we hear the elders say, "Sister Nault?" Sister Nault's mom sent us walkie talkies so we can talk in our little family. It's been a pretty good time. And, when Elder Judd was at the elders' apartment for lunch with the boys (their words, not mine), he was disgusted to find out that we had had walkie talkies for multiple days and didn't have code names yet. So for those of you wondering, yes, we do have code names. Mine is Mrs. Potts.
I love that I've gotten to the point in my relationship with the Palos Verdes zone missionaries where Sister Allred can have the SIM card and not have any contacts saved in her phone, ask who wrote the text, read the message to me, and before I can check the number I say, "Probably Elder Judd."
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
The world's craziest p-day of running errands.
We had a wonderful district council this week about making goals and organizing Sabbath worship experiences. I love my district family.
I hit sixteen months on the mission! For those of you that were wondering, that is a terrifying number. My STL's wished me a happy sixteen months though, and it meant the actual world to me. I spend many of my days thinking about how much I don't want to leave the mission. I have the most amazing life right now.
We had the best Independence Day ever! We had a special 4th of July makeup look for Makeup with the Sisters, and then we had a family dinner together as an apartment! Elder Mangum and Elder Breinholt live in the apartment right below Sister Nault and Sister Torkornoo, so we went to the sisters' apartment and we all went out and sat on our balconies and ate dinner together! Everyone made food so we dropped food off for each other before dinner and just had a great time together as a family. I love my little team of missionaries.
Sister Allred and I did a live Book of Mormon study on Facebook! We read Alma 24, one of my favorite scripture chapters. It is one of the most beautiful stories of faith, conversion, and sacrifice taht I have ever head. I simply adore it. You can still check it out on my page.
We had a special Independence Day fireside in the mission! It was beautiful! I had the privilege of participating in singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" with a few other missionaries! And let me just say we had a good time making that video... but that's a story for another time.
FRIENDS:
We had a lesson about faith with Cathryn! She is thriving post-baptism and so eager to serve. She made an incredible note about how when she obeys the laws of God, it grows her faith.
The WORLD'S LARGEST MIRACLE happened with Craig this week. First of all we taught him about tithing and talked about the beautiful doctrines and purposes behind this divine law! He really loved it! Later in the week we were thinking about him and wondering what we could do to help him. We really wanted Craig to grow in faith and humility. So we decided to say a prayer of faith. I won't go into the details of the prayer right now, but I felt the Spirit strongly urging me to use very specific words in the prayer. It felt crazy, but I did it. The long story short of the prayer is we asked for something to happen that would shake him enough to grow his faith tremendously. Again, not going to go into the details, but in our next lesson he said he had had a really bad experienced that really humbled him and opened his eyes. AND HE USED ALMOST THE EXACT SAME WORDS I USED IN MY PRAYER. It was amazing, and we prayed right after the lesson and thanked God for answering our prayer. Craig's heart has softened tremendously. We are so happy for his process in conversion. Things are going great and Craig himself said he needs to change a lot of things about his life.
We met with Leticia! She referred herself to us awhile ago and is interested in developing a relationship with God!
We started teaching Beverly the Restoration this week! We have been wanting to do that for a long time and it has already proved to be amazing. There are so many miracles lined up here. We can't wait to finish the lesson and see what she thinks.
We had a lesson with a new friend, Jan! He has a very strong faith and shared his convictions with us. We taught a little bit about prophets, dispensations, and the priesthood. He told us where he lived nad he lives in the Downtown/Filipinotown area. Wilshire! When I tell you I was overjoyed to hear that. I can see the exact place he's talking about clear as day in my mind. I miss it every day. So we have been working with one of my old friends from Wilshire to pass him off to his missionaries and it has been the greatest joy to work in Wilshire again even in this small way.
We talked about the character of God with Raquel this week! A common note that came up in our discussion was how He is loving and always is showing us the right way. Raquel is so amazing and I love her.
Tomm is doing so amazing! We dropped a Book of Mormon off for him at his house and we talked a little more about what it is this week. The lesson covered a WIDE variety of topics but was SO amazing. Tomm is really starting to understand the Savior's sacrifice for us, and is understanding the steps we need to take to accept him. We also talked about what it means to be clean enough to enter into God's presence and the role Jesus Christ plays in that.
To close, I wanted to say that we have sacrament meeting together every week as a district, and I sit there and weep every single time, but for a different reason every week, so I wanted to share my specific reason this week. My companion has health issues that make it difficult for her to take the sacrament, so we have to take special precautions to make sure it is safe for her. This week my district leader and companion used gluten-free bread; broken, blessed, and passed in a plastic bag; carefully washed the tray that the plastic bag sat on; and still asked her if she wanted to use her own Corn Chex that she brought just in case. I was overwhelmed by the love that my fellow laborers had for  my companion (because listen everyone your companion is your entire world), I couldn't help but cry. There is nothing like the love missionaries have for each other. We are saving the world together, serving Christ together, seeing everyone (including ourselves) for who they truly are for the first time together. As Addison Pratt so accurately wrote about his own mission: "I have friends here that nothing but the bonds of the everlasting gospel could have created." In short, we are learning to love like Christ together.
It reminds me of a scripture, 1 John 4:7-9:
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him."
Our Heavenly Father and His Son set the perfect example of love for us. So beloved, let us love one another, for then we will know everyone, including our loving God, for who they truly are.
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day

Adventures in the CLAM: August 22 (June 22, 2020-June 28, 2020)

 

Hello one and all!
LA LOVE:
Why is Elder Judd the best district leader of all time, you might ask? Not only does he tell us he loves us after every district council, but he also leaves little notes saying he loves us in random places, like at the bottom of our district council agenda or the bottom of our creative finding planning spreadsheet. What a guy.
EVENTS OF THE WEEK:
We had the craziest p-day ever. I feel like we've spent so much time lately running around and just trying to get everything together. Wild times.
Cathryn was baptized! It was a small baptism and super weird because it felt like we didn't have to do anything. The people attending this baptism have been waiting so long for this to happen, they prepared so hardcore. They definitely didn't need us there but it was nice to get to come because we're her missionaries haha! Cathryn has her eye on the prize--Sister Kakazu said Cathryn kept texting her while picking out a dress to wear to her baptism and asking if it was a temple dress. Haha! I love that! I am so happy for Cathryn, finally seeing her baptized like she has been waiting for for years. One of the best parts is that Sister Kakazu felt prompted to make a video of the missionaries that taught her over the years. Cathryn told us missionaries that she still remembers each one of those elders and sisters, so to not get discouraged, because we don't know the impact we have. I love her so much. What a sacred experience.
We had a great zone conference this week! Amazing calls to repentance came in so many ways. A big focus of our mission lately has been mission culture, because we have been receiving so many missionaries serving all over the world. Sister Allred and I gave the funniest roleplay of all time about having love and humility; we literally made President laugh so hard and the elders we live [in the same complex] with said it was the highlight of zone conference. We also talked about the principles of true repentance, how to increase our effectiveness of finding online, and the importance of actively and humbly seeking after revelation from our dear Heavenly Father. It was great; we have a lot of work to do!
What a lovely district council we had this week. I feel so blessed to be in such a great district with the most awesome missionaries. Elder Judd told us more about how to create an online finding plan, Sister Nault gave a training to prepare our friends for Sabbath worship experiences, and I had the privilege of giving a discipleship moment about having the faith to find, so I talked a lot about humility because that is the key to faith. I love my district.
We had a great Makeup with the Sisters this week with an awesome turnout! It was so fun with so many people participating.
We got to attend a Relief Society meeting in the ward which was nice to hear everyone's insights on some words from this year's general conference!
This week's Sunday night fireside was great! It was about essentialism and putting God first, by bestselling author Greg McKeown. It was a pretty interesting experience because he actually visited our mission at my third zone conference! I loved his insights on how to prioritize God and family and his shoutouts to Steven R. Covey of course, haha!
FRIENDS:
We had a first lesson with a guy named James who really just wanted to engage in a Bible bash. Haha. So, there's that.
Tomm is doing great! For one of our lessons he called us two hours early because he just wanted to talk to us. WE taught him the Restoration and it REALLY moved him. We read some from the Book of Mormon with him and he loved it, and he said he can tell we really have the Holy Spirit with us. We started introducing the gospel of Christ from there because he's really interested in having the Spirit with him, and we explained further the need for proper authority in baptism. He told us he's had a lot of people close to him die recently too--he said God's hanging out with all the people he used to hang out with haha! So we told him about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and life after death too. Tomm is really interested in learning more; we love him.
This week with Craig was a roller coaster. I know I always say that but it keeps being true. our first phone call this week started pretty sad. He was saying a lot of things that he sayd frequently, but we could tell something was different; something was wrong. We asked Craig what he was saying. He said maybe we needed to take a break for awhile. That was obviously really devastating. But we talked with him and asked if he wanted us to share a lesson that day. He said yes. So we prayed and shortly after he said he felt so much better and he didn't actually want to stop talking to us. We had a great lesson about faith and he is eager to keep learning. Craig learned a lot about opposition in all things that day. We said God isn't the only one that wants him on His team--Satan wants Craig too. So he will work hard to discourage him when he does good things, but we will not be stopped! The next lesson we invited him to be baptized on the sixteenth of July. He has his reservations, but he said he will be wanting to do that. We know the Lord wants Craig baptized. We told him if he reads and prays every day, he will know the right thing to do.
Khiara and Sophia are so great! We read from Enos and talked more about how prayers can bring us closer to God. Khiara said her first prayer in the group and just cried so much. She had been having a bad day but meeting with us made her feel better. The next lesson was incredible. I want to preface this by saying that a few weeks ago, when Sister Nault and I were discussing baptismal dates for our friends, Sister Nault said the number twenty-two had been jumping out at her everywhere. We decided on August twenty-second for a baptismal date for our friend. This friend declined, but that day has stayed in the back of my mind ever since. I didn't know why, but it felt so important. It felt like someone was really supposed to get baptized on that day, but I couldn't figure out who. Well, in the middle of Khiara's Sabbath worship experience, the date August twenty-second was SCREAMING in my mind. I KNEW somebody was supposed to get baptized on that day. I started racking my brain; I was mentally scrolling through our friends list, trying to figure out who that day belonged to. Well, Sister Allred and I had planned a simple Come, Follow Me message for the worship lesson that day, from one of my favorite Book of Mormon stories. We read Alma 19:33-36. When we planned the lesson, our intention was to focus on repentance and the change of heart that occurs. Well, when we were in a lesson, we ALL noticed the obvious truth: these verses perfectly outlined the principles and ordinances of the gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. WE had a great discussion about how all of those things lead to the others. Khiara said she felt like it was time to tell us what she's been talking about with Sophia. She wants to join the Church! At that moment the dots finally connected in my mind: the August twenty-second baptismal date belonged to Khiara. I explained the spiritual experience I'd been having to her, and Khiara accepted the invitation to be baptized on that day! We are all so excited. What an incredible miracle.
To close, I wanted to yet again share some words I shared earlier this week, this time with my district, about the Sabbath day. Upon reading "Deep and Lasting Conversion to Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" by Elder Quentin L. Cook (check that one out) as a part of our mission's Preach My Gospel implementation calendar, I think the main takeaway from this talk was the spiritual emphasis on the Sabbath. Perhaps in the past we as members of the Church and then as missionaries for the Lord a focus was on merely getting to church, something very physical. I know I have had people we teach communicate similar sentiments to me in the past. Pretty sad. The Lord has forced us into a  position to really take into consideration His new church meeting schedule. We have ONLY our home worship to sustain us on the Sabbath now. We have to really put in our effort to make the Sabbath a delight more than ever before. As missionaries, we are forced to teach our friends the beautiful doctrine and blessings of the Sabbath day. What a joy. As they learn the true principles behind the Sabbath, when the time does come when they can attend church, they will see why coming to church truly matters. Their joy will increase. I feel so blessed to be a missionary at this time. WE could have been a missionary anytime, in any place, but we are right here right now. Thanks be to our God. I love Him.
Thanks and much love!
--Sister Day