Priesthood Power :)

Well, it has been quite the week.To start off, a couple of weeks ago

for FHE in the ward we were playing volleyball, sounds pretty harmless

right? Well, there was a large hill behind where we were playing and

clumsy me decided to fall down it. I did not think too much of it, but

since then my shoulder has been really sore. Our Bishop's wife is a PA

and checked it out one night at an activity and decided that there

could be reason to worry, and that I should come in and get it checked

out. I did, and they ended up taking an Xray. Nothing was wrong-- with

the bone that is-- but we now have a reason to fill the ice trays in

our freezers :)

I have some pain killers that they prescribed me, and I am sure that I

will be just fine. It did give me an opportunity to have a cool

experience with the priesthood though. I have been able to learn

through this experience-- along with a few others before my mission--

what it really means to honor the Priesthood. Thursday morning before

I went to get my shoulder checked out I decided I wanted a priesthood

blessing, so my companion called our district leader, Elder Hevner,

for me and arranged so that the Elders could help me out. It is such a

huge blessing to have men, that hold the Priesthood Authority of God,

worthy and so willing to help us out in life's rough spots.

A couple of weeks ago while watching the "Finding Faith in Christ"

video it hit me-- the men in our church hold the same priesthood that

Jesus Christ held. They are able to perform those same miracles

because they have the same power. It was neat to be able to draw that

connection and see that these miracles are dependent on our faith in

the Savior. All of the wonderful blessings of the priesthood are done

in the name of Jesus Christ, and our faith is a witness to Him . The

priesthood is capable of anything, it is us who lack the faith.

While it may not seem like a mighty miracle that my shoulder is in

recovery and I will most likely be perfectly fine, I know that the

Authority that those men hold is real. I know that I am so blessed to

be able to call upon them and I am so eternally grateful that they

take the time to honor the gift that they have and live up to the oath

and covenant that they have entered in to. I love the priesthood, and

I am so indebted to the men that hold it, but more importantly, I am

indebted to my Heavenly Father. I am so thankful that He has not

forsaken us, and that He has again blessed His children with His power

here on the earth. I wish that every young man understood the

magnitude of his calling, but I will never overlook the beauty of one

that does.

In other news, This week Cameron and Steffan are getting baptized! Woo

Hoo! It is very exciting, and has been a long time coming. I love them

so much and it has been awesome to see them take the steps to be able

to witness unto Heavenly Father that they are willing to take upon

themselves the name of Jesus Christ and enter into the covenant of

baptism!  Heavenly Father truly does bless us so much :)

Its about to be another great week laboring in the vineyard! I love you all!

Sister Hope :)

Also, a funny moment from the week…..

How you know the Sisters have arrived!
(And, no I didn't park this car!)

How you know the Elder's have arrived!

Missionary Work?--No Way!--Missionary FUN!!

Well, another week in the mission field has flown by! It has been a
pretty good week though! In singles ward we get to go to lots of
activities. It makes the week super fun!

This week for FHE they played water balloon volleyball and we got to
participate! They ran out of water balloons pretty quickly though, so
really we just played volleyball. It was all great fun-- except that I
fell down a hill, but that is beside the point!

Tuesday was a pretty exciting day! We had Zone meeting in the morning.
At the start of this transfer President Van Cott rearranged all of the
districts and zones because he wanted them to be bigger. So, our zone
is now all of the missionaries serving in the redlands stake-- which
is about 20 companionships since there is multiple sets in most wards.
Needless to say it was a pretty interesting meeting. We talked a lot
about finding and teaching so that we always have a pool of
progressing investigators.

Tuesday night was what was really exciting though. We got to have
Elaina's Baptism! Elaina is pretty interesting. She had been
investigating for about a year, but had fallen off the radar a couple
of months before we got here. We went and looked her up and when we
stopped by her house she informed us that she had been meaning to find
the missionaries again because she wanted to be baptized in the next
two weeks while her boyfriend was going to be home on leave. So her is
her timeline:
Thursday: We meet Elaina,
Next Wednesday: We meet the now Fiance, Dakota and they inform us that
she needs to get baptized by June 11 so that he can baptize her
Friday: Dakota and Elaina go to the courthouse and get married and she
moves in over the weekend
Tuesday: Baptism!
There were a lot of little things that had to happen throughout the
week as well, and it kept us on our toes, but we had a lot of fun with
them :)

On to other things though. I am not sure if I mentioned this or not.
So, in this area we live in an apartment complex near the University
of Redlands. It's nice because there are lots of young single adults
nearby. However, we also live on the same street as all of the
sorority and fraternity houses, so that makes things interesting.
Luckily they are out for summer now and dont have summer classes. We
got to enjoy their end of the year party last week that went until
about 4am :) Any-who, the U of R is a non-denominational Christian
School. This week we got to go meet their Chaplin, and talk about ways
that we can get involved with them. There isnt much going on until
August, but it was fun to get to talk to him and have him be so
excited to have us help out with getting the students excited about
religion.

We also have been teaching Cameron and Steffen. They are doing
wonderfully and are still working towards a baptism date here in a
couple of weeks :) On Saturday Night we had a lesson with them at the
temple, but much to the dismay of the sister missionaries their was a
very large black widow spider that enjoyed our lesson too. "All
Creatures of our God and King"!  Cameron and Steffen are super smart
though, and informed us all about spiders during our lesson as we
watched it catch, paralyze and eat a junebug. Yuck! I guess as long as
it's not close to me :)

Well, I believe that is it for this week. We found a lot of potential
investigators this week, so hopefully that will mean that I have lots
of new investigators to tell you about next week! Until then--
Remember who you are and what you stand for! Live up to the covenants
that you have made and uphold a legacy of righteousness! :)
Love you all!
Sister Hope

Don't worry-- I haven't gained any missionary weight yet! I have
leftovers of shame :)

The singles love to take us out for food! This morning we went and had
pancakes at a local café -- Yum!

Happy meal :)

I <3 MISSIONARIES :)

This is most of our mission!! One of few maps that covers our area
right now! We get Mentone, Redlands, Loma Linda, Yucaipa, Banning, and
Beaumont-- and everything in between!! :)



Elaina's Baptism!!
Elder McNees and and Elder Bolinbroke were her first missionaries.
Dakota, her husband, baptized her, and then me and Sister Dowd :)

The Lord's Timing

This week has been so much fun!
We have been super busy still trying to get to know members of the
ward and recruit more to come out to singles ward, and prepare our
investigators for baptism!
One of our investigators, Elaina, is going to be baptized much sooner
than originally planned. She is all set for baptism tomorrow, so that
is exciting.
We also have Cameron and Steffen who are preparing for the end of the
month. It is all very exciting.
On Saturday I got to go to Carolyn's baptism and celebrate with her.
Sister Gillespie and her new companion, Sister Decker, actually did
the planning and such for that though.
Sorry for the Short letter, Hope that everyone is having a good week! :)

Sister Hope

First time at in-n-out. I am told that it is a big deal :)

Carolyn's Baptism!!
Brother May, Carolyn, Sister Gillespie, Sister Hope, Sister Decker

Crafton Hills Singles Ward

Well, I can honestly say that when I left on my mission I did not
expect to be in singles ward again for at least 18 more months. It is
looking like I am eating my words though.
This week has been pretty fun. My new companion is Sister Dowd. She is
from Utah. It has been pretty funny-- every time anyone introduces us,
people always think that it is Sister Hope and Sister Doubt. It has
given some pretty good laughs!
Other than that, I am not sure what to say about the week. We got
whitewashed in, so neither of us really know the area. We both know
bits and peices, but since we cover two entire stakes, it doesnt do us
too much good. Most of the week has been spent just trying to meet
people in the ward.
We have 3 people preparing for baptism just from going through former
investigators, so that is pretty exciting. Heavenly Father sure does
bless us! It is going to be pretty fun working here. This ward didn't
really have missionaries last transfer, so we are working on building
a teaching pool! It is fun!

One of the things I liked that I learned this week was from fast and
testimony meeting yesterday. One of the members of the stake
presidency got up and related a story about a marine in boot camp. In
the story, the marine said that sometimes the most satisfying thing he
did all day was make his bed. He knew that if he made his bed
perfectly as expected that there was at least one thing he could be
proud of for the day. He likened this back to the YSA ward by telling
them to do the little things that you can find happiness in. Pray,
read your scriptures, go to chuch, keep the covenants you have made.

So, if you want to be happy, make your bed. (or do all those other
little things to make yourself happy )

Love you all so much!
Sister Hope

Sister Gillespie and I on our last morning together :( We decided to
be twinners :)

This is the Arnott's. LOVE them :)