We Had a Party!

Hello friends!

Its been a great week! Except that I got sick so I slept for 2 days, but other than that its been good:) The highlight of my week was Saturday! You guys are going to think we are super disobedient missionaries but it was all a big accident...haha so! What happened is our investigator Hillary had a birthday! He wanted to have dinner with us. So we said yes of course and we suggested that we have it at a member's house so he can get to know people! Then all of his nieces and nephews wanted to come too, so thats 4 more people. Then we invited Sister Brown who is this sweet lady that loves Hillary. So we basically threw a party. And of course we had to make a cake.. so we spent Saturday baking and running to the UPS store to ship my companion's bike and then we had to go to the store to buy stuff and then we had to help the member cook dinner. Then! we had the party and it was sooooo fun!!!!! It was great I loved it!!!! and Hillary is getting baptized this weekend on Saturday!!!!! YAY!!!!! We are also teaching his nieces and nephews too:) I love them soooo much! I will send pictures:) 

That same day we went and saw an older lady named Sister Mackay and she made us go find her pine cones. That was the weirdest service project haha. There's not very many pine trees in Southern California! And I heard its been cold in Utah and Colorado.. well its still in the 70's here! So weird. It's literally the same everyday. I'm not complaining:) 

Well I have some extra time, let me share a scripture with you all. I read this this morning and I thought it really explained my purpose as a missionary. It says,"And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to His will. And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people." And i love that because it is true. I am here to bring everyone to Christ. That they can have the same hope that I have. That they can find happiness in their life because they will know how to make choices that lead them to meet their potential. The message we share of Christ helps people come closer to their families, it helps people know who they are, it helps everyone be "delightsome". Im so grateful for the Gospel that we can have truth in our life that leads to happiness in our lives. :) I love you guys, have a great week!

Our party!

A selfie with Sister Brown:)

My companion and I made a two story cake for the first time! :D

John 15:18

So Heavenly Father blessed us a lot this week. But since the time change, people are in their pajamas at like 7 o'clock (I don't blame them) but it is hard to go see people because they get mad that it is too late. So we have had to get creative. Last night we were able to write letters to people that we used to teach and members of our ward and we went and taped them to their doors:)...that was fun. On Saturday we helped with a city parade and we got to see all the highschool band, girl scout and cub scout troops, and the JROTC. It was super fun to see all the color guard outfits! It was also a huge miracle because we happened to run into some people that we had contacted earlier and we felt like Heavenly Father was trying to tell us that we need to teach them! We also got a really nice tans that day though we were really exhasted from being out in the sun for 5 hours! 

Hillary (our investigator who is getting baptized on November 22nd) is doing really good! He is so solid and he is so excited to get baptized:) We are excited too because we know the joy that it will bring into his life. We were teaching one of our less actives and I told him I liked to shoot guns back Colorado, so he proceeded to show me all of the guns he has. He was really excited because no one in California likes guns...haha! Twice this week we had pass-off lessons with the Elders and it was really cool to see how the Elders teach! I was very impressed:) 

We had a really awesome miracle day on friday! We were knocking doors because we have this potential investigator who lives on this particular street who seemed really solid but we didn't have their house number. So I told my companion we would knock all the doors so we can find them! (My companion hates knocking doors which is good because Heavenly Father always blesses us when we do it!) So we start knocking and it was pretty typical, people not home or not interested but then we came across a house and a guy answers the door. He told us he was already baptized! We were like "what no way!" It turns out that he is a Mackay (a really famous family in Cypress because it is such a big family.) Anyways, he is engaged and his fiancé's family had moved to Utah and joined the Church there. He said that he and his fiance were thinking of coming back to Church. He wants us to come back and teach his fiancé! We were so excited and we didn't even know he lived there. It was a miracle straight from Heaven! I cant remember if I told you guys this story, but last week we were knocking doors because I told my companion if we knock this whole street that Heavenly Father will bless us with an investigator (I was kind of bluffing but I was praying hard it would happen) and then when we got to the end of the street there was girl carving pumkins and her brother was preparing to go on a mission and she had some questions! I guess her brother joined the Church about a year ago. We got to answer her questions and she was really interested in learning more. But she was 18 so we had to pass her off the the Singles Ward Elders. But we were there for that lesson and it was so powerful:) 

I love my mission. I am so grateful to be here and I know it is the work of God to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. In order to live with God again we need to have faith is Christ, repent, be baptized by someone holding the proper authority from God (because who wants someone to baptize then without the proper authority?) and then to endure to the end (which means never give up!) and thats all we need to do!! I'm grateful that I know who I am and what my purpose is on this earth. I just looove the Gospel and I looove the people in California, even if some of them can be mean. A scripture that really helps me when I face rejection is John 15:18 ,"If the world hate you, ya know that it hated me before it hated you."  This is Christ talking I feel like He is telling me,"Don't worry if people hate you for no reason.. they hated me too." Im grateful for the scriptures. I hope you all have a great week! Miss you!

I'm a Spider Ninja!

Ok, so Halloween wasn't that great, we had to deep clean our room and then we had to go to a meeting where everyone was SUPER heated about making goals. But! the Halloween Carnival for our congregation was on Wednesday and it was seriously the best night of my mission!! We were with our investigator Hillary.. I cant remember if I said something about him before but he is 29 and from Nigeria! He has the coolest accent! And he is so passionate about life! He is in a wheel chair because hewas paralyzed when he was 4 from a spinal cord injury. Anyways, we went to the carnival and we played all these games, like decorating a cupcake and eating a donut with no hands.. the usual things. But it was so fun with him!! We also had a chili cookoff that night and we got 3rd place out of like 20 pots of chili!! It was so cool. We just threw a bunch of stuff in the pot. While we were making it I was literally like.. "Well it looks like chili.." haha and then we got 3rd place and we got really weird prizes:) So that was really awesome and totally the highlight of my week.  

A miracle this week.. my companion hates knocking on doors. But I like it because there is always the possibility of someone really needing you right in that moment (like all the stories you hear "the missionaries came knocking on my door..") So I always have hope for a moment like that! Anyways,we didn't have any official plans because all the people we are teaching cancel last second. So I told my companion,"If we knock this whole street Heavenly Father will bless us with an investiator..." I was kind of bluffing but I definitely hoped He would! and He did! At the end of the street there was a young girl carving pumpkins and her brother got baptized not too long ago and is preparing to go on a mission!! So we taught her and she was super prepared! It was so cool:) Heavenly Father is REAL. He hears our prayers. 

Oh my goodness, yesterday it RAINED! I died laughing when I went outside to see our neighbor was squeegee-ing her windows...hahahaha it was so funny! People literally dont know what to do here when it rains! Another thing that was funny.. so Sister Lindsey calls one of our investigators and her name is Janice. So her brother answers the phone. and my companion is like, "Hey is Janice there?" and he's like,"Ya that's me." But we knew our investigator was a female and not a male so we were confused.. but my companion was like, "Oh, hey Janice, we were just calling to make sure it is ok if we come over tonight?" and the guy on the phone is like, "who is this?" and we were like,"we met you yesterday and you said we could come over?" and he is like,"no I didn't, I didn't meet you." My companion was like, "This is Janice right?" He was like,"ya?" He goes,"Maybe you are thinking of my sister." We were like,"What is your sister's name?" He was like,"Janice." Hahaha, so we were like,"You and your sister are both named Janice?" Anyways, it turns out that his name is Denise.... hahahaha 

...I know Heavenly Father is real and I know He loves each of us. He hears your prayers! Keep praying to Him no matter what religion, of course. And if the missionaries knock on your door.. pretend that they are me! I love you all!

The spider web was our missionary booth! We were being ninjas! Also, our prizes from the chili cook off and our investigator Hilary!

I Finally Feel Like a Missionary!

My week has been great and my talk at zone conference went alright! I need to be better at speaking in front of people, I told President (Mission President who looks after a specific area of missionaries about as large as a area code) I want to develop that skill and let me teach again! So we will see. 

We have found some really awesome investigators!!!!! I think we are going to baptize soon!

Hilary- an africian american male from Nigeria! He came to church two weeks ago because his friend from Utah told him to. He loved it and wants to take the lessons! We are going to try to set a baptism date for November 22nd!! He could be my first baptism!! haha!

Thomas- a 17 year old who is very spiritual! H has been taught by missionaries before, already knows the Book of Momon is true! We are going to try to set a baptism date with him too!

Janelle- she has a huge family!! We are already teaching 3 of them.. they have a crazy past.. and are still kind of wild but I think we could help them change that and they love God:) 

So I'm so stoked about our investigators!! 

This week has been really good! I tend to gravitate toward old and sick people...lol...so I get alot of service hours and it's also how I know I am supposed to be a nurse. Saturday was rough because we had like 6 or 7 lessons planned and they all fell through! I am really feeling like a missionary now. I walk up to people's doors and talk to people on the street like its no big deal anymore. ha! 

Something funny that happened this week..... I had a mom moment. lol I accidentally introduced myself with my companion's name. I said,"Well here is this pamphlet and my name is Sister Lindsey if you have any questions you can give us a call!" and I didn't realize what I had done so my companion was like,"Sister Miller.. I'm Sister Lindsey." in front of this guy and it was awkward.. haha!!

We played the lipstick game!! haha!! The Elders look so funny! We also carved pumpkins!