March 3, 2016

Dear Family,

I forgot to tell you on e-mail, but on the 12^th, next weekend, ELDER BEDNAR is coming to speak in our mission!!!  I’m so excited, that is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Should be so cool!  And yah that’s Bray’s b-day too.

So finally last night we got to actually go shopping!  I didn’t get to shop for everything due to time, but I finally got some stuff. By the way if you, Mom, have a good buttermilk pancake powder, I just don’t know what to add to make it.  Got it a t Winco, grocery store kinda similar to Costco, they carry bulk foods.

Anyways, thanks for having Joshua send me his talk, I really needed to hear it.  Definitely made me cry.  It was so good. He’ll be such a good missionary!

Thank you for fasting and praying for me.  I’ve really needed it.  You guys are the best family I could have ever asked for.  It’s still very hard to be out here in a place I don’t like too much, with people I don’t really know, having to try and share something with people who usually don’t care what we have to say and missing you guys so much.  But like Joshua said, if Christ went through  much worse, can’t I suffer a little for him and let it strengthen me?  Sheesh, I’m tryin' Fam.  I love you!

Dad, thank you and Mom thank you for all the very highly inspiring emails you wrote.  They made me cry of course and miss you guys even more.  You’re the best parents.

Every Thursday morning from 10am-12pm we help out at the homeless shelter here in Victorville.  Lots of missionaries from our zone go.  It’s not a big facility and it’s not the best well run but we help whatever we can, sorting and crushing bags of trash, clothes, shoes, etc.  (Don’t worry I definitely wear gloves).  The temple was so good.  So pretty.

It’s warm during the days here, but after the sun starts to set we need jackets.  Today was a bit colder all day though.  My companion is the designated driver that means I can’t ever drive until I’m names designated driver.  You’re usually only that once you’re a senior companion. S o yeah I have to be the backer-outer…so much fun.  Tell Rand this also: you’d be proud of me what I ate at a member’s for dinner, cooked broccoli, cooked asparagus and just a chicken breast, (no not breaded) and I ate it, all of it, just fine.  Had Del Taco for the first time on Tuesday.  It’s supposed to be better than Taco Bell, but their quesadillas didn’t have the good jalapeño sauce like Taco Bell.  Haha.  I’m sure everything else is better though.

Oh I never got to tell you, our investigator at the MTC who we really did think was an investigator committed to be baptized so we told the Resource Center and I think she really is!  We swapped emails!  That was way cool cuz we had so many so spiritual lessons with her.

There’s this guy Hank though, lives out on a desert road and he really want to hear about the gospel, we’ve been by twice and he started in on the BOM hopefully he’ll continue, he seemed really excited.  We extended the baptismal invitation; he said next week we can teach him about that and what all that means so he’ll have to see.  He’s younger, pretty cool.

Another guy, Jose we found the other day trying to find his brother who was in our area book. HE and his girlfriend are looking for a new church, we gave him the Restoration pamphlet, and he was working on his car, so we’ll follow up this week.  He seemed very open and curious.  So cool. 

We visit so many less actives, most basically inactive and there’s so many that just have these wacked ideas and believe what they believe and I can tell don’t want to change or come back, or even try.  I really don’t know how to help those ones at all!

The bishop seems super cool.  He’s probably in his 60’s, Hispanic, super nice.  He’s super sweet and funny and cares about us.  There’s some cool members, just hard to get to know people.  So yeah this weekend is their, our, stake conference.  They’re getting a new presidency!

Next weekend Elder Bednar is coming to speak to us!  Awesome!  Maybe I’ll see Esther there, that will probably be the only time.

We get 2 hours of mormon.org time a week.  Just to get familiar with it, if we want.

District meetings are Tuesdays, that’s when I’ll get any mail from the mission office from that week, cuz our zone leaders get all our mail on Mondays.

Oh yeah, this girl Cassie is really interested too they’d met with her “she loves Jesus” we gave her a BOM and she was so excited to read she just wants to “follow Jesus what he wants for her.”

I’m doing alright.  Trying to understand how I can grow from this trial.  It hurts; I miss you guys so much.  But I need it.  Hopefully I can figure out how to be the missionary God need me to be. 

I hope you like the pictures, I love you all!

Love, Sister Day