Day 3: Pepper Spray

Well this week has been one of the most interesting ones on my mission

by far. There have been so many adventures! It is ridiculous!

I think the best solution for this will just be to go through day by

day and tell you all about it!

So, Monday was pretty low key. We had a normal P-day and went about

our business. We had a member take us out to lunch though as a going

away party for me. I had a lot of those! We went to Applebee's because

Its my favorite and I havent had it in 6 months! I love the singles

ward! The evening was pretty boring, but we got to go to FHE which is

always fun!

Tuesday was a busy day of getting ready to leave. We had district

meeting, and took lots of pictures and ate lots of food. It was so

fun. Sister Rogers and I then had a meeting with David. David is

getting baptized September 6th! We are so excited for him. I cant get

updates on him anymore, but I will go to his baptism, so I will have

all the news on him then :) After out meeting with David we were

supposed to meet with Kenny, but he broke up with us :( He said that

after lots of thought and prayer, he didn't think that this was for

him. Its too bad. The sisters that are there have an appointment to go

meet up with him and try to work through things, so hopefully that

works out. Sometimes I don't know about this Agency thing. I am

grateful for it, but I just wish that everyone could see the beauty of

the gospel and have the desire to live it. After that we got to go

have my last meeting with Ernest. Ernest is a recent convert, and is

awesome! he works so hard and is the most kind person I have ever met.

Him and Andrea are so wonderful! I am going to miss them! We then got

to go and have dinner with some of our members at the church. It was

so much fun! They took us to chili's :) We then had institute which

was a fun last event :)

Tuesday night was interesting. Sister Lee, who also got transferred,

and I stayed up most of the night packing because we didn't really

have any time to on Tuesday. Brayden told me once that you aren't a

real missionary unless you stay up all night packing and then still

have to get up and work the whole next day. I guess I am on the road

to being a real missionary ;) Now all I need to do is ride a bike in a

skirt :)

Wednesday was a very busy day. We had to get up after about an hour of

sleep and drive to the mission office and then I had to drive out to

Fontana! It was a good day, but I cant say that I remember too much

because I was pretty tired. I don't think we ever catch up on sleep as

missionaries.

Thursday was the best! We did our weekly planning and then got to head

out to a great day of proselyting! Highlight of that day was picking

up the Soto family as investigators! The Soto's live in our apartment

complex. The Sister Young and her last companion met them last week by

the pool and they offered us dishes. We went by on Thursday and gave

them a Thank you note and they talked to us about how they were

looking for a new church and that they really wanted to find a way to

teach their children about God and how they could find their own

answers as well! Heavenly Father has prepared them so much! We are

going over for dinner tonight, and we cant wait!

Friday was also an adventure for one main reason. We had dinner with

the Gardner family in our ward. Sister Gardner is the Young Women's

President, and Brother Gardner is a cop. Well, we got to talking over

dinner about how we had pepper spray because southern California tends

to be a much more frightening place than Idaho or Utah. Brother

Gardner got started telling us about a bunch of cop stories and then

stopped and asked us if we knew what it felt like to be pepper

sprayed. We laughed and said that we did not and he told us that was

very unwise. If we were to spray someone and some came back to our

face we would be incapacitated as well because we wouldn't know what

to expect and wouldn't react well. He told us we really should try it

so that we would know what we might  get our selves into. So the

question that all of you are asking right now..... Yes, I did get

pepper sprayed this week. :) So, now when I face attackers I will be

okay :) Before you think I am too unwise all we did was put it on our

fingers and then touch our eyes. Brother Gardner even helped us :) An

experience worth having, to say the least, but not pleasant at all.

Probably not my wisest decision, but now I know :)

Saturday was a little more boring. We taught a few more people that

live in our apartment complex. There are a lot of people from India

that live there, so that has been interesting. I am not very good at

understanding accents, so that has been a struggle for quite some

time. This is a new one though. hopefully I can figure it out quickly!

Sunday I have decided that this is the Area where I am pretty sure I

will learn Spanish. I have come to realize that I understand a lot

more than I thought I did. In our ward there are a ton of Spanish

speaking people. Its a little strange because there is a Spanish ward

as well, but oh well. We also meet a lot of Spanish people. It keeps

things interesting for sure. I can pretty much tell people who I am,

what church we are from, what we do and can ask if we can send

missionaries that speak Spanish to come visit them. I figure  that is

enough to get me by, but I sure wish that I spoke more. Sunday night

we also got to have a lesson with the Baptist family. they are so fun.

Sister Baptist is a member, but Brother Baptist is not. We taught them

about the Plan of Salvation and committed him to be baptized at the

end of September. Hopefully all works out for that :) Sister Baptist

is super funny though. They are from the Caribbean, Valise I think,

and have pretty thick accents. We talked about crying at one point

while we were chatting and she was telling us about her daughters

weddings-- She said, "I would drop a tear in a hot minute and wouldn't

even care, darlin'!" It was pretty funny. They are awesome and I cant

wait to keep working with them!

Well that has pretty much been my week! I have really enjoyed being

here in Fontana! I think it was a change that I didnt know I needed :)

I am excited to keep working with Sister Young. Her and I have been

getting along great! Its good since we have an apartment to ourselves.

Its a little strange with there not ever being others there. There are

other sisters that live in the complex though, so that is fun :)

Well, I hope that all of you are having a great week! My invitation to

you this week is to have a transfer in your life. As a missionary we

get to pause every six weeks and take a step back to evaluate where we

are and where we are going. How are your studies going? How is the

work going? Are you living up to all of the covenants that you have

made? Are you working to live worthy of the next covenant that you

need to make?

If you are having trouble coming up with questions to ask yourself and

finding things to fix, be sure to read Alma 5 :)

Well I love you all! I cant wait to hear from you and I hope that you

are doing all that you can to bless the lives of those around you!

Love,

Sister Hope :)

This is David. he showed us his ears without his gages in this week! Yikes!

A going away pie at FHE :)

My last district :)
Elder Hevner, Elder Armstron, Sister Rogers, Sister Hope, Sister Lee,
Sister Rivera

Sister Lee and I at the beginning of our packing!

"For the experience. And now you can say, 'I did it on my mission'"

Sister Young :)

"It matters, I care."

Sister Lee and I since we were kind of matching

 

 

Family and Friends,

This week has been interesting. There have definitely been a lot of
adventures. I dont have too much time, so this will have to be quick.
I think the biggest thing that happened this week was that Sister Lee
had a severe allergic reaction to something and when we stopped by the
apartment we ended up having to rush her to the emergency room. So
thats been fun. She has been saying lots of funny things since then
and they are trying to figure out what she is allergic to.
Also, this week is Transfers! I had a pretty good feeling that I was
going to be staying in singles ward, however, I was wrong. I will be
moving out to Fontana. My new companion will be Sister Young. It will
be a fun new change, but I really am going to miss The YSA ward.
I also had to say goodbye to brother Hayden this week. That was sad. I
love that old guy :) He doesn't believe that the gospel is true, but
he kept telling us this last time we met that we reminded him of a man
that had "It matters, I care" on his grave stone. That is exactly how
I feel about this gospel. It matters and I care. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ is such a wonderful thing. The Atonement is real. Repentance is
possible, and the Priesthood works. I love this time! I love my
Heavenly Father I love all of you!
Well, that's all for this week! Enjoy some pictures of some members of my ward!
Love you all!
Sister Hope

We made some paper cranes at the women of faith workday :)

This is Rebecca, she is getting ready to leave on her mission to
Scotland/Ireland in 3 weeks!

This is Kelsey. She will forever be famous to me as having the four
things we need to do to deal with adversity:
1. Cry
2. Pray (focus on what you can control)
  -for understanding
  - for strength
  -for guidance
3. Find someone who you can talk things out with
4. Serve Others- this is what Christ teaches us

J.J. He was in vocal point. and Danny- he is a GREAT missionary!

 

another week

Well, this week has actually been a little boring. but I am running

short on time, so here is a list of adventures from my week! Please

Enjoy :)

- This week we went on exchanges Tuesday and Wednesday. Sister Moberg

came here, and we got to have a lot of fun. We taught a lot of our

investigators, and committed David to be baptized on September 6!

- We went to dinner at this house where the family had a pet bird that

was not kept in a cage. They let it just walk around their house. They

also had a teacup yorkie that they pulled all of its teeth. So, that

was weird. They were a lot of fun though :)

-Travis invited his family to start taking the missionary lessons, so

we are now teaching him and their are family ward sisters working with

his parents.

- We picked up a new investigator-- Alex. He is friends with a guy in

the ward and has come to church several times already. He is super

awesome and practically taught us the Restoration this week!

-Also, I got glasses....

- This week for church we had a regional YSA conference. There were

over 800 young singles in our building. The service was so awesome!

They had the Sacrament still which was pretty interesting. There were

5 tables to prepare and pass! It was crazy. President and Sister Van

Cott were our speakers. They are awesome! I love them so much! I think

the only thing stopping President Van Cott from being called as a

general authority is that he cries every time he speaks.

- After church they opened up the temple grounds for us to go walk

around. We got to take all of our investigators that havent been yet

and explain all of the cool things about this temple and some of the

symbolism on the outside and such! It was wonderful!

Hmm. that is all I can think of that I would like to share from the

week. Just know, that I truly do have a testimony of this Gospel. I

know that the work I am doing is not mine, It is my Heavenly Fathers.

Missionary work is just an opportunity for us to be able to enjoy

blessings. Heavenly Father could accomplish all of this without us. He

gives us the privilege to participate. Rise up to the callings that

you hold and remember how much the Lord loves you.

In 2 Nephi 11:16-17 An angel asks Nephi if he knows the condescension

of God. In other words, Does he know how God shows Himself to us? Do

we?  The scripture continues by Nephi answering and saying that He

knows God loves His children, but he does not know the meaning of all

things. This is us. If we know God loves us, we dont have to know the

meaning of all things. However, As the angel continues, we know that

God shows His love to us by sending our Savior here to allow us to

learn and grow and progress. Jesus Christ and the mercy of the

Atonement are how God shows Himself to us. Christ is how He shows His

love for us. We are all able to enter in to the straight and narrow

gait of baptism and continue on the path to eternal life.  To close, a

quote from Bruce R. McConkie that President shared with us this week:

"We don't need to get a complex or get a feeling that you have to be

perfect to be saved.You don't. There's only been one perfect person,

and that's the Lord Jesus, but in order to be saved in the Kingdom of

God and in order to pass the test of mortality,what you have to do is

get on the straight and narrow path – thus charting a course leading

to eternal life – and then, being on that path, pass out of this life

in full fellowship. I'm not saying that you don't have to keep the

commandments.I'm saying you don't have to be perfect to be saved. If

you did, no one would be saved. The way it operates is this: You get

on the path that's named the "straight and narrow." You do it by

entering the gate of repentance and baptism. The straight and narrow

path leads from the gate of repentance and baptism, a very great

distance, to a reward that's called eternal life. If you're on that

path and pressing forward, and you die, you'll never get off the path.

There is no such thing as falling off the straight and narrow path in

the life to come, and the reason is that this life is the time that is

given to men to prepare for eternity. Now is the time and the day of

your salvation, so if you're working zealously in this life – though

you haven't fully overcome the world and you haven't done all you

hoped you might do – you're still going to be saved. You don't have to

do what Jacob said, "Go beyond the mark." You don't have to live a

life that's truer than true. You don't have to have an excessive zeal

that becomes fanatical and becomes unbalancing. What you have to do

isstay in the mainstream of the Church and live as upright and decent

people live in the Church – keeping the commandments, paying your

tithing, serving in the organizations of the Church, loving the Lord,

staying on the straight and narrow path. If you're on that path when

death comes – because this is the time and the day appointed, this is

the probationary estate – you'll never fall off from it, and, for all

practical purposes, your calling and election is made sure."

I love you all. Stay strong in what you know to be true :)

Love,

Sister Hope

The bird and the glasses :)

Temple walk :)

These pictures are from the

service that we did up in the mountains. We had some crazy storms and

flash floods, so we got to go clean up after some land slides