Week 5

This was a very fast week :) Where to start? We had mission president interviews on Tuesday and I sat down thinking he was gunna ask me a bunch of stuff and he goes, "so what do you want to ask me?"... I was not prepared and I was like, "uhh... I dunno, what do you want to ask me!?" haha, oops, next time I'll be better prepared. We talked for a good 20 minutes though, I was positive but wish I would have talked about our investigators instead of talking about myself.

We had a very successful week, our numbers were the highest in the zone which I guess is good, I still think we could have done more but Sister Kang and I are working in unity and President Pike told me an inferior plan is better than a superior plan when you are united- and I totally agree obviously.

We did quite a lot of service as my favorite family moved out of our ward (in the pic I sent of all of us at church)- Angelica just got baptized 2 months ago and Jorge her husband is being stubborn and doesn't want to give up drinking, but they are the COOLEST. We spent a lot of time with them so that was sad to see them go. This Sunday they wrote in my journal thing and Jorge said I was the coolest missionary he has met- that made me feel good, then I thought, "that probably means I need to be more spiritual". I'm still trying to figure out how to be Laura and Sister Christian- it's kinda tricky. We ate at their house for the last time and they dared me to eat a chili and I took the smallest one thinking it would make it easier but they told me after when I was dying that the smaller ones are hotter. haha I had tears streaming down my face and they said I turned bright red... it was hardcore! The other foto is of us helping Manuela Silva getting her stuff out of storage- trying to get her fridge into her house was nearly impossible, I felt really bad for the elders because they were in their missionary clothes and sweating like crazy with all the stuff we had to carry. Service is fun though, I love it.

We have transfers this next Monday- wowwww, I'm anxious. I don't want to leave this area, I'll be fine if I stay with Sister Kang, I'm fine with whatever so it'll be exciting to see what happens.

The world cup is overtaking the earth. That's all everyone is talking about, so I have actually stayed really informed on what's going on with all that! A lot of investigators didn't come to church this Sunday cuz of the Mexico game haha- silly.

Gotta go, loveeeee you tons. XOXOX. take care, thanks for your emails, I print them and read them after my email time cuz we literally get zero time on here ... thanks for everything. LOVE YOU. Laura

Week 4

Wow- what a week. So Sunday the electricity went out in our apartment right before we were leaving for stake conference so that's why I sent a pic of me blow drying my hair in the church building (I realized I didn't explain that one haha). Tuesday Sister Kang broke her bike, Wednesday three of our potentials dropped us via phone call (tragic) and Edgar's girlfriend answered the door and said she wanted to get a restraining order on us and was yelling for like 5 minutes straight, "WE ARE CHRISTIAN" (couldn't help but think it was ironic that someone would yell at a total stranger that they are Christian, veryyyy Christ like haha),
Thursday we ran over a nail and learned how to change a tire and spent 3 hours in Pep Boys,


Friday I passed out on the curb, I was hanging out the open door cuz I wanted to throw up then next thing I knew I was bent over the curb bawling my eyes out hahaha, classy- I didn't have any energy and I just died, I slept for 2 hours then went back out and felt fine though so no worries, Saturday I got the biggest sore on my tongue (yeah its gross) and now my tongue is huge and I can't really talk without drooling (very attractive haha), and Sunday Juan our new investigator- we decided that he is probably gay. That's a little obstacle, it was actually really funny cuz I was like, "Do you think that Juan is..." and Sister Kang goes, "gay!?" haha then she goes, "I don't know how to teach gays!" It sounds rude but she is so innocent so it was actually just super funny. He is super nice so we are really excited about him and this other investigator named Eduardo (actually I'm mad at Eduardo because we have an appointment with him at 2 today so he is intruding on my Pday! haha oh well). So despite all of that, this week went by so fast! It was fun and I am starting to feel a lot more competent- yay!

Last Monday we went to a Korean market and that was super cool- bought pot stickers, Korean yogurts that I used to eat with Izzy all the time when I was in Taiwan , and some cute Korean stationary, oh and a wedding present for Emily and Don haha. . This week we went and taught English to a family from Nepal and they just have mattresses in their living room and we had given the cute old man a pass along card (the one with Jesus on it) a few weeks earlier and it was sitting there on the desk stood up next to his bed- it was really cute. They had nothing yet they were giving us snacks and soda- it was really touching.

I am feeling so good. I am in the most strict mission, haha we have rules that I've never even heard about, but it's cool, I'm not being a rebel don't worry. I am learning a lot and feeling so light, like without worries, it's a really good feeling. Also, we area pilot mission so they try different ideas out on our mission, like church tour, bilingual program, and the new one is that we are all receiving handheld DVD players to watch the Preach my Gospel DVDS in our apartments in our down time... kinda cool. I hate how much time we spend driving all over the place, I would have been good to walk through the jungle from house to house... but I'm here for a reason and that brings me comfort when this experience is different than I expected or wanted.

Love & miss you tons, take care
Laura.

Cali Week 3

Wow, I got a whole lot of emails this week which is so cool but then leaves me with little time haha, I need to figure out how to speed up the process. Sounds like everyone is doing good :) very glad to hear! So another week has passed by, I have noticed that they are long days but fast weeks- not really sure how that works but that's how I feel. All is well here, this week has been good and Sister Kang and are tearing it up in Covina Spanish area! Yesterday was Andreas baptism and that was deff a highlight thus far, it was really nice and she looked so pretty and her boys turn 8 soon so it's cool to see how this can change their lives for the better. The depressing stat they told us in the MTC is that only 30% of the people we baptize stay active in the church- I'm not sure why they told us that statistic- deff not my idea of a motivational speech! Also Edgar is my favvvvorite person ever and he had a baptismal date for this Sunday but then dropped off the face of the earth then we finally caught him at home yesterday then taught him last night and now has a new baptismal date- sadly its a month from now because he said he was feeling a little unsure about everything, but still!

Yesterday we had stake conference which was really good, the sister missionaries I met were not overly friendly but you can't judge a book by its cover so it's all good. I realized how big my zone is, there are so many missionaries here! whoa. Tomorrow we have my first zone conference so I am excited to find out what that's all about. Already picked out my outfit haha, I'm not joking. Clothes and shoes are still good, and my hair is looking more shiny then ever haha, I swear! We are biking a lot, we have super cool bikes from the mission home, they are the blue ones in the pic I attached. I love biking, I am really loving running in the morning too, I am dropping weight like crazy which is pretty cool. Maybe I would have gone on my mission sooner if I had realized that it's a great way to lose weight! We get fed by members maybe twice a week, so not much. Went to In-N-Out the other day, the food was great but I still feel a little self conscience in public as a missionary so I felt a little weird. I'll get used to it though. It was funny actually, as I was feeling extremely conservative in my clothing this 15 year old girl walked in with the smallest cheerleading costume I've ever seen and I thought "oh no, I wonder if her mom knows she goes out in public like that" then her mom entered in the door right after her then I decided that the second coming must be soon haha. I also decided I was better off in my missionary clothes just in case it comes faster than we think!

I am in the top bunk and have been ever since my first sleeping arrangements back in the MTC. It's cool, so cool that it deserves it's own paragraph haha.

I am feeling really good and grateful to have such a wonderful loving family & friends. I've met quite a few people that don't have that support so it makes me really glad to have you guys.

Cali Week 2

My comp, Sister Kang cracks me up; every morning she yells “turtles” when we walk to our car and I figured she was just being weird or something but it turns out she was always pointing at snails and calling them turtles, so now every time I see a snail I call it a turtle. It's classic. She crashes a lot on our bikes, we bike a lot and I love it. We run every morning and I've already lost 5 pounds in the 2 weeks I've been here (that's after the 8 I put on in the MTC haha oppps!). We get fed a lot so no worries there.

Missionary work: Andrea is getting baptized this Sunday so that's my first baptism I get to be a part of in the mish! She is sooo awesome, mother of 4, they've been teaching her for a while I guess but we read 3 Nephi 11 then watched the end of the testament and we were all crying and I asked her what was stopping her from being baptized and before you know it we had a baptismal date for this Sunday. Something nearer and dearer to my heart is her mother in law Hermana Castillo hasn't come to church in 20 years and said she didn't want the missionaries to teach her etc (to my comp last transfer) and I didn't know that and Andrea and her kids live with them and we went to teach Andrea and I got talking to Hermana Castillo and totally hit it off with her and my comp was like " that is so weird, she normally hates missionaries" soooo... then she came to church the following Sunday and she came yesterday too and requested the Bishop to get her transcripts in the ward and stuff... then it gets more complicated because Andrea wasn't getting baptized because Hermana Castillo said she shouldn't but now Andrea is ok to get baptized because Castillo is now coming back to church. Hopefully that made sense. So this work is great, learning a lot. Realizing how crazy it is that we all have such different lives, my life has been so easy in comparison to a lot of the lives of people I am meeting and I wonder why. Interesting. The people are great though.


So the highlight of my week (after missionary work) is nothing short of miraculous. So there's this recent convert named Angelica, 25, super cool and has the prettiest hair ever, so she shared her secret with me, she puts birth control pills in her shampoo and apparently the hormones or something makes it shiny and strong and grow faster haha, I didn't believe her but then she gave me some on Sunday so I put them in my shampoo and I swear I will do this for the rest of my life! haha, so just a heads up- Emily you need beautiful shiny hair for your wedding, so get on it!

Week 1 of Cali

hola de california! como estan? That’s just a sample of the hardcore Spanish that’s taking place down here in Arcadia haha. I arrived Tuesday- met President Pike, cool guy, suuuuper quiet- I didnt hear everything he said but he is very pleasant. There were 6 of us that arrived this transfer, apparently that is a very little group as most groups come in 16 or 20. We sat around for a lot of the day in orientation stuff where the APs sucked the life out of me. My interview went well and he said I was the first whitey in the mission that already spoke Spanish and he seemed really impressed. I was really stoked to meet my trainer, hahah, shes so nice BUT she does not speak Spanish very well as she is from Korea. Her name is Sis Kang, and even though she was called Spanish speaking, she just recently got put into a Spanish ward for the first time, soooo this has been the source of frustration. Its good though, I need to learn patience, we all know that is an attribute in which I am extremely lacking, so cool. We live in a members apartment, we have a car and a cell phone, I am in the Covina Spanish ward and they are great. Bore my testimony on Sunday and sang in church so Im basically a celebrity around these parts haha, just kidding, but for real, the members are great, we have quite a lot of progressing investigators which is the source of my happiness right now, I LOVE teaching, everything else is alright, but those are the moments where I really feel like this was the right choice to be here. They are wonderful people, even contacting we meet the coolest people, I havn’t really had a bad experience yet, oh except for this one lady that said “I I believe in Jesus because the letter J hadn’t even been invented then” and I was like “maam, they didnt speak English in Jerusalem back then, they spoke Hebrew so it is just a translation...” she closed the door. We have a max # of miles we are allowed to drive and I guess we were close to the max so we have been biking for the past 2 days BAHAHA, its been interesting. I feel like a tool wearing a helmet but whateverrr, I already feel weird in a skirt all the time so whats an extra piece of plastic on top of my head. Pix attached. We had a zone activity and I met some elders... everyone is nice enough. Its weird with sister/elder relationships though, I feel weird talking to them because I feel like they feel weird... in one word its just weird. Sister Kang and I are starting to become friends though so thats good, I am going to try harder this week to understand and get to know her. My mission is weird in that we cant count something as a lesson unless its taught at the church... so I feel like that makes something hard (getting into peoples houses) even harder because now we have to get them to the church building, A lot of ppl work all day because they are Latinos and many do not have cars or phones... so it makes it a lot trickier. I am learning the ways though, Sis Kang does not contact people (like talk to ppl on the street or whatever) so I have started doing it just to see how it goes and Im a natural bahah, not really, its hard because I still feel weird talking about religion 24 7, but its really cool, Im learning a lot and instead of calling mom and complaining, I have to turn to my Heavenly Father, should have done that before but I must admit it is a lot easier when you have no one else to turn to.

Thanks for your constant support and letters etc, I LOVE THEM! I LOVE YOU!

-Laura. (but my friends call me Hermana Christian)

Leaving MTC!

We did not receive a letter this week as Laura left at 5am on “P-Day” and so did not have access to the MTC computers. However, we did get a phone call and it was wonderful to speak with her. (When missionaries leave the MTC and are at the airport leaving to fly out to their mission area they are allowed to phone home.) We were impressed with her strong desire to serve and, in true Laura style, she was excited and happy to be starting a new and wonderful adventure. For us as her parents it was a bitter-sweet moment as we knew that our next conversation would not be until Christmas.
The Mission President (President Pike) phoned us that night to say tell us how impressed both he and his wife were with her preparation. They also informed us that her Spanish speaking ability was way beyond what they would normally expect and that she would be helping her more senior companions to improve their Spanish!
Laura’s first area where she is now serving is the city of Covina (About 22 miles (35 km) east of downtown Los Angeles and with a population of about 50,000.) Having not heard from her since her arrival in California we do not know much about her companion; the Mission President, during his phone call to us, told us that she was Korean. We look forward to updating you when we hear from her this week.