Friday, November 20, 2015

November 16 Email

Another week has come & gone, huh?

You might be surprised for me to say it but it was another grand week! You know how I've said my WHOLE mission that time just flies by??? Well, for some reason, since I've been in Wrightwood time has been pretty normal; not slow, but not fast. It is however, getting progressively faster. This week in particular went pretty speedy. 

Last Monday we had a zone activity at a park in Adelanto. We played football & I just gotta say, I got an interception then ran it in for a touchdown!!! Wooooo! Then we played kickball that I'm not the best at, but at least this time I didn't fall & scrape my knees like last time. (Back in April we played kickball for a zone activity & Sister Otuafi kicked the ball & Elder Fullmer got it & tried to throw it at her to get her out, but I stepped in the way & Sister O ran me over, causing me to scrape my knees pretty bad...bad enough that I STILL have scars from it haha.) But NOT this time! It was super fun. Our whole zone came plus the ZLs from the other Victorville zone, one of which was in our zone last transfer, plus a couple investigators from Adelanto came to play!
 
Then we had dinner with Sister Hancock & L! I LOVE them. :)

Tuesday we had zone meeting & the other victorville zone also had their zone meeting in the same building because President & Sister Hobbs + the APs came to show us the new Christmas initiative -- A Savior Is Born. The initiative kicks off on November 29th. If you remember, last year the initiative was He Is The Gift. This year they have a new video & we'll be getting pass along cards. I'M SO EXCITED!!!!! Christmastime is the BESTTTTTT. Make sure you check out the new video on the 29th!
 
Zone meeting was super great! The ZLs set a goal for us to hand out 10 cards every day in unplanned situations. Due to that goal, we had about 15 minutes before dinner & we walked into town. I saw two guys smoking & in my past life I wouldn't have talked to them, but I'm a changed person & we contacted them & ended up talking to one of them for about 15 minutes & were a little late for dinner...oops. After our scripture study class we had our first ward coordination meeting with Brother Herb Anderson! idk if I told you, but he is Elder Anderson (Deloy Anderson from Phelan)'s brother.

Wednesday morning Sister Cecilia Quinn texted us asking if we could come help do some house cleaning for the Yoakums. Sister Yoakum has had a slipped disc for like 3 weeks & finally asked for some help. She & brother Yoakum were very appreciative of the help. Later in the day, we went over to Brother & Sister Young's so they could take pictures of us doing missionary things. They said they can make a cd of the pictures they take & give it to us! I knew you'd like that mom. haha
 
 


A couple of the "funny" pictures, all we have so far...
 
We had dinner with Sister Abbott & her friend C. She is very nice & LOVES dogs--so much that she currently has 26 of them (one of them just had 11 puppies). Whenever she sees stray dogs she HAS to pull over & pick them up. We're going to go by her house sometime this week to see the puppies! 
We stopped by the LaFond's. Sister LaFond is active & her husband is not a member. We had a good conversation with Brother LaFond about his Tesla! If you don't know anything about that car, I'd suggest you do some research & your mind will be blown! 

Thursday was full of service & studies. At night we had a few minutes before the ward dinner/talent show. We were driving down the street & saw a house with SUPER COOL lights on it & in the yard. It was all laser. We decided to stop & tract into them. We met M & one of his daughters. He & his wife have 6 kids!! They weren't jumping on our message, but weren't opposed to us coming back. So that's cool.
 
So like I said, our ward had a dinner/talent show. It was actually a soup dinner! Yes, we did sign up for the talent show. Sister Anderson & I sang "Count Your Blessings" & I played guitar.
Bishop Jorgenson posted a 20 second video on Facebook. Sister Latham recorded the whole thing, so we're gonna see if she can send it to you & Sis Anderson's mom. It was super fun! Afterward we didn't have anything planned, so we went over to the VanHouten's to pick out the song I'm going to sing in sacrament meeting on November 29th. I think we decided on "thy word is a lamp unto my feet" :)
 
 
 

Friday we were supposed to weekly plan with the ZLs in Adelanto at 10:30. We left the house at 10am & got there at 10:40ish & as soon as we got there the ZLs called & said they had to cancel due to an emergency. So we were on our way home & I was turning left onto US 395 & TURNED INTO THE WRONG LANE. I was going the wrong way down the highway!!!!! AHHH luckily no one was in that lane & I was able to get over the small median into the correct lane. My adrenaline was pumping & a little ways down the road there was a highway patrol car...luckily it was all good! hahaha
 
Saturday--Miracle of the week!

Rewind to 2nd week of transfer 1 in Wrightwood. We saw a cute family consisting of a mom, dad, & 3 small children walking & they said hi to us. Sister Anderson & I both thought how they are adorable & could be on the front of an Ensign magazine. So naturally, we waited in our truck, watching which house they would turn in & subsequently got their address & decided we would "tract" into them some day. Fast forward a couple weeks, we knock on their home, but no one answered. We figured they're probably out walking. We left a Family Proclamation & our card on their door & left. Get this, just down the road, we saw them walking! 
 
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. We go back to their house to follow up on the pamphlet, but we saw that our card was still in the door, but the pamphlet was gone....we didn't know what to do so we left haha. On Friday we went back & our card was STILL in their door. I opened the screen door & tried grabbing the card, but the door started to open so I quickly shut the door & rang the doorbell. A cute Vietnamese lady opened up & told us to come inside because it was cold out. She opened the door & our card was STUCK on the door. Weirdest thing ever. How have they not noticed for almost a month? Or are they just playing a trick on us?? hmmmm... So we told her who we were & that we wanted to teach her family how the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses our lives. She told us that her husband was sleeping, but to come back tomorrow because he speaks better English. 
 
So Saturday we went back & she excitedly told us to come in & that they had friends over! We walk in the kitchen & see her husband and a couple friends + like 8 children. "have you had dinner?" "no, we're eating a little later" "do you want to try some Vietnamese food?" "YES!" So she gave us a bowl of this yummy Vietnamese soup & told us to sit & eat. We weren't able to teach them a lesson, but we got to talk to both of them separately. She was raised with Catholic & Buddhist parents, but embraced the Catholic religion more. She hasn't gone to church since having a family, mostly because of her husband. She seems very open to us & I think she'd come to church if we can get him on board. He doesn't have too much of a religious background, but his dad is pentacostal, which has turned him away from religion altogether. We knows quite a bit about our church but hasn't read the Book of Mormon, so we gave him one & he said he'd read it. They invited us over for dinner this Saturday for egg rolls! Plus she knows a member of the ward & invited her & her family to come for dinner, too :)

Since they fed us dinner, we got 2 dinners that night because we had dinner with Rosie & Jill Smith! Sister Smith gave us a message from Brother Anderson asking if we could teach gospel principles, and then at about 7:30 we got a text from Bishop asking if we'd each be able to take 5 minutes in sacrament meeting...hahaha yikes.

Sunday was really good! Our talks went well with the little bit of preparation we got. I talked about when Elder Fallabella came to the mission & what he had to say about keeping the sabbath day holy & about keeping our focus on Christ as we partake of the sacrament. My favorite thing that he said was "Now that you know this, be careful, because you have to do it"

Sounds like your little trip was fun! I bet Jordan & Jonathan were happy to be back together for a short while. Hmmm I can only imagine what they were saying about me. Cool pictures too!
Wow, this email is SUPER long, so I'm gonna quit now.

I just LOVE being a missionary. I learn new things every day. I can't imagine what my life would be like without serving a mission. I know I'm where I'm supposed to be & when. Thanks for all your love & support. Make sure you're showing the missionaries in your ward LOTS of love & support as well! 
 
xoxo Sister Viraldo

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