Mommy! I am on TV!

Transfers are over and now it’s free sailing for the next few weeks. Yay! This week President is going to a mission president’s seminar down in Monterey and so we are going to be mission presidents for three days. Reign of terror. :) It was fun to send off some more past companions this week and it’s been a great little run. Lots of office stuff this week but things are going to be getting a little less busy as time goes by there.

Spiritual: We were on the news this week! The Lord uses any means he can to accomplish his plans. President and Sister Mella had us come over to help with some service. The church landscaper was coming over to make the mission home more drought resistant by putting in better less flowery landscaping. They had missionaries help because it was a pretty big job and we were happy to lend a hand. We went over and started working. The motive behind the change was the fact that the mission home was already known in the neighborhood as the "church house" and with all the flowers out front in a huge drought it didn't put a good rep on the home. When we were working the landscaper said to us that he needed some sprinkler parts. He ran out to the store and while he was gone we had some pizza. (Don’t worry we saved some for him :) He gave us a call and said that he was on his way home and that channel 7 was following close behind him. When he walked into the store channel 7 news was sitting there at the sprinkler parts section looking for someone to walk in doing drought resistant landscaping. Who walks in? The Mormons. :) They came over and interviewed President Mella and filmed all these missionaries doing service. The coolest part is that this all happened the day before the huge day of service in California. A huge day of service where the church throughout the state does community service. It was a cool event and President did a great job in letting the news know about that taking place. The Lord works in Mysterious ways!

Funny: This week we took the new missionaries out contacting for their first time. We normally take them around San Jose State but this time we decided to take them into the Almaden area because it was such a small group coming in. We went with Elder Wei who was straight from mainland China. What a powerful spiritual giant! We were excited to see huge miracles as we went out contacting. Of course one of the first people we met was a dis-fellowshipped Jehovah's Witness. Oh boy. Sigh. Luckily we don't think Elder Wei understood a ton of English. When we were walking away he said things like "oh. In China people don't believe in anything. Here people believe in other religions. Oh." We really built him up and gave him so good confidence boosters and he will be fine. You never know what will happen though when you go out to contact.

Where I am at: Other than a surprise visit from a past Elders Quorum President, things are pretty normal around here. We are working at building up the teaching pool and getting the investigators to meet with us. I am happy, I am healthy, and I love this work. The Lord lives and Loves us. I love you all!

The 30 Minute Change

This week was crazy. Lots of planning for transfers and lots of meetings. All is well now and things are going great. Still trying to find time to meet with the investigators, but the way the Lord is doing things I think that things will work out just grand. We fasted yesterday for both some more people to teach and for the way to be prepared to meet with our investigators. Low and behold we found a new investigator yesterday and one today. Boom. It’s been great. The Lord hears our prayers. That is so certain in my life. Wow. Lots of spiritual things have happened this week. Not too many funny things that would go well in an email.

Spiritual: About three weeks ago some of the Spanish elders from Redwood City called us up and asked who around their area would be able to do a baptismal interview for someone who spoke Spanish. Since my wonderful companion does in fact speak Spanish, we volunteered for the job. We went over there to the woman’s store to do the interview. The interview was only about 20 minutes long and in the mean time we sat and talked to the daughter of the person who was going to be baptized. The daughter was 16 years old and was lukewarm to the thought of joining the church. Being new to the situation I went in guns blazing. Before I went in, I had the thought come to me that this was the time to be bold! We went in and with the Spanish elders and we had a "Real Talk." A lot about why church was important and a lot focusing on the fact that she was a daughter of God and that He has a Plan for her and that He truly loves her. It was an incredible experience. I can honestly say that for myself I did nothing. I just sat back, did what I was supposed to and Let the Spirit guide. Everything that we said was confirmed by the Spirit that it was the right thing to do. We just put our own thoughts and desires on the shelf and let the Spirit tell us what to do. It was so much fun! AH! The biggest difference between this visit and others was the fact that the Spirit confirmed the words we said. It didnt look like she had been very impacted by the expression on her face and her demeanor, but we knew something had worked in her. This past week we went to her baptism. It was a testimony to me about the moment we decide to give up ourselves and let the Spirit in and trust in God more than ourselves will be the moments that make a difference. 30 minutes of speaking with the Spirit can change a life. :)

Funny: When we finish numbers sometimes late at night we will take a drive thought the drive through at McDonalds. (Always past midnight so we don’t break the Sabbath.) We have gotten to be good friends with the one anti-social guy who works the late shift. His name is Devon. We always talk to him and are super nice to him. He probably thinks we are crazy being so happy this late at night. A few weeks ago we gave him a because he lives pass along card and then last week we followed up with him and HE WATCHED THE VIDEO!!! Hahaha; now we have a progressing investigator at McDonalds. Once a week, and he is keeping commitments. :)

Where I am at: Things are great. It’s a great time to be a missionary. Transfers are this week and I am so happy that things are well. I am loving life and enjoying being a missionary. I seriously don’t know how things could be better. Adrian who we have been working with for a long time got baptized this past week. Yay! Cool experience. I love this work. I love you all! 

The Tongan and the Toothbrush

This week was busy busy busy. We had zone conferences and all sorts of things to do so we did not get the chance to do a ton of missionary work this week but we feel like our mission is almost more to the missionaries than it is to the non-members here. We hope we are doing a lot of good. We were training on how to take the average time for a person to be baptized from about three months down to about three weeks. It was a fun training to do. I loved being with all the missionaries and seeing how a lot of them are really growing up. 

Spiritual: One of the big events happening in the mission recently is the fact that this round of zone conferences we got the DAP program. The Driver Accountability Program is like a flight recorder that you would find in an airplane. The mission is now starting to monitor how the missionaries are driving. To install that project Salt Lake sent us a few people from the Missionary Vehicle department to help train us and get us up and rolling. One of the men they sent out here was named Russ. Russ was here from Monday until Friday. He was there at every zone conference and presented at every single one. The message Russ had to share was not liked by everyone. He was the messenger telling the missionaries to slow down on driving and from most people’s perspective he was like Big Brother watching what the missionaries did. He was not well liked before he came but after he left he was loved by everyone that would actually listen to him. He talked about how he had several missionaries pass away during his time doing his job. It was actually very emotional for him and after getting to know him we could tell that the tears that he shed were genuine tears of concern and grief. It was so interesting to see him go into every zone conference and have all the missionaries up in arms about the program that he was sharing. A lot of eye rolling and deep sighs, but after it there was still a little animosity but the missionaries knew that this was the way things had to be and there was a spirit of love in that meeting. It was so interesting to see Russ at the very last day of Zone Conferences when the deed was done and it was time for him to leave. He actually was pretty emotional about going. The friends he had made and the lives he had an impact on he would probably never see again. I saw this as a parallel for my missionary labor. We come in and are not loved by everyone. Our message is good for people but it is hard on the ears of those that hear this message. This is the most beautiful message we can possibly share. Its true and its really happening and some day we all will have to leave. Sometimes not even knowing the impact we have had. 

Funny: The other big thing that is happening this week is that the San Francisco East Stake, the Polynesian stake in the area, is having a Huge mini-mission even with all of their youth. 21 Youth are coming to San Jose for a weekend experience. We are the ones who are in charge of getting it all set up on the SJ side. We had a meeting on Saturday where we put the youth with the missionaries. It was like a pre-transfer meeting where we just made the assignments. This week they will actually meet up and start working together. We are really excited for it. There was a big meeting and we had one of the Tongan brothers speak to the youth about what they need to bring on a mission. He bore a powerful testimony about the power of missionary work. He paused for a moment, the tension was building. He said "What do you need to bring on your mission. Just as important as Scriptures and a Preach My Gospel, (the tension in the room was thick.) A toothbrush. Do not forget your toothbrush." I completely agree. 

Where I am at: Recently we have been going all over the mission putting out fires and driving to zone conferences. It’s been really fun. Elder Matthias are such good friends that most of the time we don’t even listen to music. We like each other so much that we just sit and talk. Just for a point of reference, most missionaries get between 700 and 1200 miles a month that they are allotted to drive. Just this week with all of our errands, we drove 800 miles. I love this place. I am so happy here. I have such a strong testimony of the Savior and His Grace as well as the reality of the Spirit in our lives. This church is so true! I love you all!

 The missionaries are holding the cards for the driving program Ammon mentioned in his letter.

Taking notes during General Conference.

He would like to make sure that it is known that the three bowls of ice cream are not all for him. 

He told us that he love love loves the senior missionaries. He says they are a really funny group. 

Prayers that Work

This week was full of conference, miracles, lots of fun and the Hand of God. It’s been a good week. I am really enjoying being companions with Elder Matthias. I love the man. It’s really fun to be part of the exciting things that are happening in the Church. It was game changer General Conference. I loved the feeling that was there. The Lord answered our prayers and we never watched alone. It was so cool. We watched it with some friends of a member and we taught them after. Lots of cool experiences this week.

Spiritual: We were able to teach our favorite Vietnamese family this week right in between conference sessions. This was the first time we were able to teach the entire family. We were in a little bit of a rush because we had to go to a less active members home and watch. (That was so neat because after conference she made us Flautas. Oh be still my soul. She also made us some super good Saviechie. Literally we got to see a taste of heaven during conference and then we got to actually taste heaven as we ate. It was SO SO good.) But before we were able to eat with this returning member family we had a lesson with the Lam fam. They are truly amazing. They have three kids. The kids are all incredibly smart and very interesting. The thirteen year old daughter had just graduated high school and was currently enrolled in college. Wow.  We taught them Sunday afternoon between the sessions of conference so ringing in our ears was the talk by President Eyring about prayer and revelation. We came in and did not have a ton of time to teach so we decided to teach a principal. We taught the principle of prayer as it pertains to revelation. These people did not have a Christian background so we focused a lot on how when you pray you can discover for yourself through answers from God that He is real and He is there. It was a powerful lesson. I am so happy to be in this place and doing this work to bring souls closer to Christ. Prayer for me has recently changed as well. God gives us a portion of His time to listen to us when we speak and He is willing and anxious to help us with our concerns and our trials. Prayer is how we bring our will and our needs to the throne of God to have Him help us with our trials. He always answers and loves to bless us. We give him respect and our attention through prayer and our actions and He blesses us. I know this principle allows us to access the divine help that God wants us to receive.

Funny: We also got the chance to teach a hippie. After conference Saturday morning we taught a friend of a member. As I share this experience please remember that we are in California and that this is not an unusual experience. We taught Randi. She is a therapist for kids and works to help them with their problems. We talked to her about coming closer to the source. It wasn't that weird for us, it was a just a very Californian view on things. Just another example of how everyone starts from somewhere. And how we all have things to learn. She is actually progressing now! We will be meeting with her this next week. Yay!

Where I am at: Almaden is blowing up. I am so happy that things are finally picking up. We are still teaching Lori and Sam and we are meeting with Madison as well. Things are great. This week is zone conference. Yay! We are really excited about that. It’s kinda fun being where I am. We have been down to Monterey every week this transfer for errands and other things. For example we went tracting special with the Vietnamese Elder this week down there to help them find some work. It was really fun. I love this place. I am very happy here. I love you all!