New Year. Keep Improving.

Well this week has been busy with lots of crazy things! We were able to have so many different adventures and I have enjoyed it so much!

So, to start off. Last Monday we got to do an awesome Pday activity! We went up to Oak Glenn for Sister Lee's last Pday. It was way fun! A member of our ward, Lori (Whose maiden name is Beach and has family history stories that sound very similar to moms... Interesting, but I will have to let you know more about it when I actually know more than that) took us up to go have lunch and do some sight seeing. We were able to enjoy ourselves a little and have the best apple pie ever.(Oak Glenn is a huge apple orchard touristy place.)

We went to this cute little restaurant and they had some nice mascots :)

Frosty, Sister Hope, Sister Lee, Lori, Sister Decker, Rudolf :)

Yum :)

We took a lot of trio selfies... We must have enjoyed ourselves or something ;)

Also, Wildlife... What the??Over all, it was a very fun trip! I can officially say that there really are cool things to do in our mission!

I am sure that you are all dying to know how Christmas was. It was wonderful! We got to spend it with many families in the ward having a grand time. Over all though, it was a pretty slow week. We spent a lot of time visiting people that Sister Lee wanted to see one more time. It was fun, but We are definitely ready to get to working really hard. All of the investigators in the area were baptized, so we are looking for more of those. 

The other highlight of this week was that we were able to have a mission conference this week! Woo Hoo! It was pretty fun to be able to see all of the missionaries! As President Van Cott always says, we really are a peculiar people. A bunch of kids in Sunday best gathered together early on a Saturday to study about Christ? A little strange, but I am so grateful to be a part of it!

We talked about being Christlike missionaries. There are so many things that we can learn from The Savior. A member of our mission presidency told a nice parable of the men at the pearly gates. i am sure that you have all heard it before, but one more time cant hurt: 

There were 3 men that passed away and were met at the pearly gates where they were told that they would need to prepare to go into a room with an interviewer and account for their lives. 

The first man went into the room and sat down. The interviewer asked, "What do you know about Jesus Christ?"

This man was not very religious but had heard about Christ and responded that He was a man that had lived in Jerusalem and was crucified for the sins of the people. After the man finished his comments, the interviewer thanked him and showed him to a door.

The second man entered the room and, after being seated, was given the same question, "What do you know about Jesus Christ?"

This man had been pretty religious in his life. He went to church on Sundays-- Unless the Superbowl was on. He talked of Christ and told of the many miracles that had been performed. How He had fulfilled prophesy and was the Son of God and The Savior of the world. When he was finished the interviewer again thanked him and showed him to a door.

The third mad entered the room. This man had been humble in his life, but had given everything that he had to help others find happiness and peace in this life and hope for the life to come. Upon walking in the room and laying eyes on the interviewer, he fell to his knees and cried, "My Lord, My God!" and bathed His feet with His tears. 

How well do we know our Savior? Is the spirit of Christ with us always, or is it just a fleeting moment in late December? Can we confidently say that we have done all that we can to truly KNOW our Lord and Savior. To know His sacrifice. To know his Atonement for us. To know that He knows us personally and really can carry us through our trials?

John 17:3

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

Joseph Smith told a story (and I hope that I get it right) about a dream he had when the apostles were out on missions teaching people. He dreamed that he saw the apostles all standing together in a circle. They were distraught and discouraged because they hadn't been accomplish everything that they had set out to do. As they stood and wept their heads hung in despair. The Prophet Joseph watched from afar off. He saw the apostles, devastated, but he also saw something more. He saw the Savior standing over them-- weeping and trying to help them so see the greater perspective. To know that He felt their pains, and was capable of helping them to overcome them. To feel buoyed up by his Atoning grace. The prophet Joseph saw these things and was trying to shout to the Brethren-- To tell them that Christ was there, that he was strengthening them, but he woke. He woke himself up shouting. 

How wonderful it is to know that our Savior weeps for us. He feels our pains and he is there to strengthen us. Consider all of the times that Christ prays in the scriptures. He Prays for US. For those who desire to humbly follow Him, to be His servants, bot be strengthened by His merit, and His mercy. 

We are coming to the start of a new year. A time to reflect and know how to be better. As we come to know our Savior we can have Eternal life. Never lose the testimony that you have, and in spite of trials and heartache, keep moving forward. The Lord will grant you with the strength that you need to be the best that you can be. We must remember that we will never attain perfection in this life, but we can certainly move from grace to grace slowly but surely coming to know our Savior, and therefore being more like Him, and allowing ourselves to be Perfected in Him. 

Take it from Jeffrey R. Holland. We must hold on to what we have won, no matter the size of the victory. Then always be better. Take the time to know what the Lord expects of you personally to be better. I know that this will bring strength and comfort because we have divine help in achieving this worthy goal.

I am so very grateful for the experiences that I have and the knowledge that I have attained. I pray that I will continue to grow so that I may truly know my savior, and I pray the same for all of you.

I love you and I hope that you all have a wonderful new year! Let the Spirit of this time of year stay with you continually!

All my love from the best mission in the world!

Sister Hope

Goodbyes and Hellos and Goodbyes

Well, It has been quite the week of change. Monday we got the call about transfers and such and were planning out the last few things that we needed to do since our area was being closed, and staying mighty busy. We got a call around 3 that we would need to be at the mission office on Tuesday morning at noon rather than the usual Wednesday morning. That meant that we were only able to let a few people know that we were leaving and we were off. It had its pros and cons. I hate telling people goodbye, but we seemed very thrown out of our area.  It was a bit strange. 

Here are a few last pictures from Fontana :)

The Schultz Boys :)

Brother and Sister Schultz

Venus, Erika and Elizabeth

Dori

This week has also been a week of Hellos! It is a bit stange to be back in Redlands, but I am loving it already! My area is Mostly Loma Linda. I know that doesnt really mean anything to most of you, but its fine. Loma Linda Medical School Is here, so we have a lot of medical students and Residents in our ward. It is pretty fun :) Lots of cute Young families! 

It has also been fun to be reunited with Sister Lee and Sister Decker. We are having so much fun together, and things are going surprisingly smoothly for a trio. We have lots to do and have stayed very busy. 

I got to come just in time to celebrate Sister Decker's 22nd Birthday! 

We are enjoying the Christmas season and it has been great so far. 

We have been able to do a lot of caroling, and that has been fun. It is so nice to be able to share the Christmas spirit. I am loving every minute of it.

Over all the week has been great. 
Do you remember Travis from singles ward? Well him and his family live in this wards bounderies. WE were able to go and visit them and it was wonderful. We have heard that Travis wsa almost set for baptism, but that his family wasnt very supportive. We are hoping that this is the time that that may be able to change. We had a very nice visit with them and we are going to try to start teaching them again :)

This coming week is looking to be very busy as well. With Christmas and Sister Lee going home one week from today. We re pretty booked for the week. It is wonderful! It is a little weird knowing that I am someones replacement and being here together for a few weeks. I am not sure that I like it yet, but we are having a wonderful time, and there is lots to do.

I love you all! I hope that you have a wonderful week! and MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

Sister Hope

Transfers

Well, this has been an interesting week. It has flown by, that is for sure. The transfer itself has flown. It is crazy! It has only been a 5 week transfer though, so I guess that it makes sense.

We had a pretty good week. We were able to meet with a few of our investigators. It was great fun.
We had a really awesome lesson with Dori this week. We talked about prayer and the power it can have in our lives. She prayed for the first time and it was very exciting! We love her so much! She was supposed to come to church on Sunday, but her birthday was on Saturday and so that didn't work out. 

It was sad, but hopefully it will work sometime in the very near future. It has been so neat to work with her. She has the light of Christ burning so bright within her. Whenever we share scriptures with her she always talks bout how familiar they are and how she knows that they are true and from God. She is wonderful! 

In other news, this week has been a little slow because I finally caught the plague that all of the other missionaries in this ward have had. Yikes! I kind of forgot that cold season would come with or without the cold. 

Despite the illnesses going around, we sang in a missionary choir this week in church! We have 3 sets of missionaries in the ward, so it was us and the two sets of elders. It was fun! We sang "Come unto Christ." It was the Youth theme song for 2014, and it was great. I even saw a few people crying, so by Andrea's standard we must have done our job right :) 

I guess I should have said that this ward "had" 3 sets of missionaries. We got our transfer calls this morning. Sister Rogerson will be going to Colton, and I will be going back to Redlands! :) The Alder ward is losing their sister missionaries :( It is sad to leave, and there are so many people that I will miss here, but I am excited to be headed back to Redlands. I will be in the Mountain View ward. And, I will be in a TRIO!! Yikes! I am kind of terrified. It will be okay though. I am going to be with Sister Decker, who replaced me in the Mill Creek ward, and Sister Lee, that I was roommates with when I was in YSA. Sister Lee goes home on the 29th so that will be fun! I will get to help her finish her mission! I already know and love both of them, so I am very excited! It will be interesting though, that is for sure :) 

Well, I dont have too much  time because Sister Rogerson and I have LOTS of packing to do! I love you all and I hope that you have a GREAT week!

Merry Christmas! Share the spirit with someone today :) 

Sister Hope

Christmas

Hey everyone!

I hope that all of you have had a super wonderful week! It is great to hear about all the Christmas fun! 

This week has been pretty slow here. Sister Rogerson was sick most of the week, so we spent a lot of time at home. She has recovered, so we are picking back up :) 

I think the most exciting thing about this week was learning about the "He is the Gift" initiative! It is way awesome! I hope that all of you take the time to ponder on this message that is being given to us/

Elder Jeffery R. Holland once said, "a simple reminder that this Church is always only one generation away from extinction. That does not change however many decades old we are now. It was true in 1840, it was true in 1891, and is true in 1981. We are always just one generation away from extinction. All we would have to do, I assume, to destroy this work is stop teaching our children for one generation. Just everybody stop, close the books, seal up your heart, keep your mouth shut, and don’t bear a testimony. In one generation it would be 1820 all over again."

It is a pretty scary thought. 

I think that is one thing that has surprised me most about being out on my mission. The overall lack of attention that people give to our savior. It is not uncommon at all to come across people that have little idea about why Jesus Christ is such a big deal or why so many people will devote their lives to him. Even more astonishing is that more and more often we come across children who dont even recognize the name "Christ," and havent a clue about who he was. 

It is so troubling to me that there are people that go through this life with all the trials and tribulations that come from mortality without a knowledge of the peace and happiness that they could have. 

This Christmas season I hope that each and every one of you is taking the time to share the gift that you have. Dont let your brothers and sisters all around you go another day without knowing that you have something that could bring them happiness :) 

You have all had the opportunity to discover the gift (at least I hope so :)) so now it is time to embrace the gift and to share it. Jesus Christ was the greatest gift ever given to this world. We know about Him and we have the opportunity to help others discover this also :) How Wonderful!! :) 

He is the gift!! How special :) 

I hope that you all go take the time to watch this video and share it with others to bring their hearts back to the true meaning of Christmas! Share it on all of your social medias :) I love you and I hope that you have a great week feasting upon the words of Christ and drawing nearer to our savior :)

"Redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.

"Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.

"Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be throught th emerits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead."
2 Nephi 2:6-8 (emphasis added) 

"Our duty is to preach the Gospel to all men... That is what God expects of us." 
-President John Taylor

I love you all, I hope that you have a wonderful week! 

Sister Hope