January 18, 2016

I know I always say that this week was full of miracles but IT REALLY WAS, I SWEAR.

We went on exchanges with the Bakersfield 5th sisters, Tidwell and Castro, and they're just about the funniest people on the planet. We had a blast! And on exchanges we found 8 NEW INVESTIGATORS with them, and for the week WE FOUND 18!! Madness, utter madness. 

Sisters King, Larsen, Tidwell, and Castro
Bakersfield, CA January 2016

This week we'll be sifting through finding those who are ready. We managed to find 2 families, but all broken up. We found this one lady knocking on doors, then we found her nephew walking home from school, then we found his cousin when we asked for him because the father speaks Spanish and wasn’t sure who we were asking for. And we found this other guy, a different family, knocking on doors, went back to see him, and then found his step son, and went back again and neither of them were home but the first guy’s brother was. Does this make sense? They’re all so cool!

When we were teaching this 13 year old boy, we told him how the Book of Mormon was translated from an ancient language into English and his eyes bug out and he goes "WHAT? NO WAY, THAT'S SO COOL," he was very animated the whole time, it just reminds me how exciting the gospel is! It IS cool, my word.

We met a girl who had a ton of dogs, so we just taught her through the screen door. The only problem is the fact that the screen doors here are all metal, so we can’t see in. She said how she'd been looking for truth and wanted to be baptized, but I still have nooo idea what she looks like. We'll find out tomorrow!

We have this other investigator who was just so interested in what we were saying, we took out a pamphlet (a PAMPHLET, not even the Book of Mormon yet) and she just lights up and asks "is that for me?!" We taught her about how there wasn't a prophet to lead the church and help the people for a while, but we shared the story of Joseph Smith and how we have a prophet today. She interrupts us and asks "I've always wondered why there weren't people to talk for God anymore but you just answered my question!" It's so refreshing to see people just love the gospel, especially when it's so new to them.

Also, this one guy told us how sad it was that Mormons were persecuted so much and he felt like they were so cool and hardworking, withstanding all of that and going west instead of fighting. But he told us this not knowing we were Mormon. When we informed him that he was speaking of OUR religion, he just goes "Dang, more power to ya!" It was so funny.

On Thursday when we were weekly planning, I texted, wait for it, 35 PEOPLE about setting up appointments and lessons. My hands were cramping, but it's a testimony that all those hours texting in HS have paid off! I came out on top!

"Kenzie is my twin and best friend"
Bakersfield, CA, January 2016 

 Anyway, this week was awesome. Especially Saturday, we had STL companion study with the APs and it was at my old building when my old ward was having an activity so I got to see everyone. I almost cried, it was so great! And at that comp study we had to role play doing things that make us awkward, such as going up to large groups of people and telling them all about Jesus. But the rest of the day, we kept running into these awkward situations so we had to suck it up and just go for it. There's no growth in a comfort zone, and I think God keeps laughing His head off when he sees me go be awkward in strange situations, but it's all worth it in the end! All the miracles I've seen on my mission have come from doing things that make me uncomfortable.

As STL’s, we now have a lot of calls to make in the evenings, so it’s the evenings that get lost, which means less time for journal writing and letters. It’s really great though, it’s nice getting to know and help the other sisters. 

Sister Goodall, "an absolutely amazing family"Bakersfield, CA, January 2016 

 The APs came to our district meeting on Friday and we got paired up with them to do a role play. They did an absolutely TERRIBLE job and Sister Larsen and I were so concerned. We gave them feedback and afterwards they go "yeah, we faked being bad to see how you sisters give advice. You're way to nice, you gotta be more blunt." WHAT? I felt so deceived. I don’t appreciate being tricked, but I learned that we can't help people if we don't let them know what to do, how to progress and what they can improve on. I won't get any better if people just sugar coat things that I’m doing poorly in. It was a weird lesson to learn.

Sorry if this didn't make any sense, my mind’s a bit scattered today.

Nothing too fancy planned for today, we’ll be hanging out with the other sisters in the district and I’ll be desperately trying to catch up on letters and writing and whatnot. 

I love you!!