So we didn't have transfers - but I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Li - she's from Hong Kong just like Sister Lau. There was some misunderstanding between Sister Lau and a recent convert in my ward so she was transferred to San Francisco. But things are going well! It's been crazy with moving Sister Li in and getting everything organized with very little time, but it was another great week - like always :)
I'll just give a little update on everybody:
Noelle - Noelle's doing pretty good. We saw her on Monday for a lesson that was really awkward - we taught her about eternal marriage and the law of chastity with a nonmember friend - a guy - in the room. It was mega awkward - but I think she listened. What made it worse is that I knew a few things about this guy and I knew he wasn't treating her right so I didn't really want him there. But she's figured it out and he's no longer in her life - I can't wait until she goes to Utah. She needs to get out of the California scene. We're working on finding her a place to stay while she takes her finals in May since her mom is essentially kicking her out and then she'll go to Utah after school's over. The ward loves her so much and is so willing to help her.
Joseph - We taught Joseph on Monday but we may have offended him. We can hardly get a word in when we're talking with him so Sister Lau essentially asked him to stop talking so we could teach. I don't think he took it too well since we haven't been able to get in touch with him since. I'm just hoping and praying we'll get another chance to teach him. My uncle offered the idea that we could give him the pamphlets to read and then have him teach us in order to help him learn and I'm hoping we get the opportunity to try that because he was SO GOLDEN. He even watched General Conference on his own and he believes that the Book of Mormon is true. So......we'll see.
Jackie - When we showed up for our lesson with Jackie on Wednesday, there was a note on the door from her mom that said she was in the hospital. We have no idea if she's out - we've tried calling multiple times and we're stopping by today. I just want her to allow the Atonement of Jesus Christ to heal her - but people have their agency. That might be the hardest part of being a missionary - knowing exactly what someone can do to be happy but watching them choose not to do it.
Barbara - We had dinner with her this week but she cancelled our lesson because she went out of town with her husband. She was feeling sick so she didn't come to church this week either, but she's still doing alright. She made us homemade pizza - we love her food. But we love her more.
Valerie - Valerie is still doing well health-wise and said she would come to church yesterday......but she didn't. Unfortunately. We talked about Quentin L. Cook's talk from General Conference when we were there last week about the personal peace that comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I didn't hear about the Boston Marathon incident until Wednesday last week but we talked a little bit about that. We'll never find universal peace because not all people will choose God and His commandments, but we can find personal peace as WE choose to follow God's commandments.
Sidenote about this: I've thought about this a lot this week. The Book of Mormon repeatedly says, "And he hath said that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence" (2 Ne 4:4), talking SPECIFICALLY of this land, America. As our country declines in religiosity and disregards the commandments of God, we're seeing more and more destruction through natural disasters, financial adversities, and threats from others. It's a huge motivation for me as a missionary to help people understand and live the commandments of God to bring just a little more peace into the world.
There's a scripture in Alma that illustrates my feelings about this (Alma 29:1-2):
O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!
Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.
That's why I am a missionary. I know that the gospel can relieve the sorrow and guilt we feel from our sin and can help us deal with all the personal challenges we face in life as we follow God's commandments.
Anyways, back to the report.
Chris - Chris is doing SO WELL. We're setting a baptism date with her tomorrow! She wants to learn, she does everything we ask, she LOVES church, she asks great questions, she understands everything, and she really wants to make changes and act in faith. We should see her twice this week and hopefully she'll be baptized next month!
The Garrison Family - We had another FHE with them. The dad taught the lesson about cleanliness and it was really good! They're all going to the temple THIS SATURDAY to do baptisms so we're super excited for that. Sister Ure will be there! She's been waiting for this day for a long time, and she'll get it one week before she goes home! She'll for sure be back for their sealing at the end of the year, and I should be allowed to go too :)
Dan - This is my first time seeing Dan since I've been back to Castro Valley. Sister Ure and I taught him a couple of times when we were here because he's the dad of our recent convert/less active Matt so we stopped by multiple times and ended up deciding to teach him! He's a strong Catholic and is curious but not necessarily looking to change. We had a lesson fall through on Saturday so we thought we'd swing by to see Matt and Dan was home so we talked to him. Noelle came a long and shared a little about her conversion story because she was raised Catholic. He likes to talk - a lot - but we were able to say a few things that peaked his interest. He's not sure if he believes what we said, but he's giving it a chance. We're going to see him this week and FINALLY teach the first lesson - this will be his fourth formal lessons with missionaries. It's gonna be fun!
Gerry - After a few weeks, we were finally able to see Gerry. His date is still on, but he has no desire to be baptized at this time. We just asked a lot of questions to see where he's at, and he acknowledged that the Book of Mormon has made him a stronger Christian but doesn't believe this is the only true church still. His wife really wants him to understand and I want it for him too! He's gotten his answer, but he hasn't recognized it. We were talking and he said, "I think I'm doing good" and Elizabeth asked him, "But what can you do to be BETTER?" None of us expected that question. But he's come to our church - not mass - for two weeks in a row so he's slowly improving. He may not be ready by May 11th but it can definitely happen this month. Sister Li and I are working to have enough faith in him that he'll do everything he can to receive and recognize his answer. So - still just waiting.
The VC was good this week - I gave a Spanish tour all by myself and the investigator had a nervous breakdown during the movie and had to leave. I hope I didn't say something wrong. Usually the VC is such a solid spiritual experience - I hope she's doing ok. We also had a lot of people who recently returned to activity. A couple of them were with missionaries and an investigator and their testimonies were so solid. I thought it was interesting that they both said "I didn't realize that I wasn't happy" while they were inactive. I think there are a lot of people like that out there - so don't give up on those people. Help them feel the joy that you have when you're with them so that they can recognize their unhappiness and find happiness again.
Not much else to say - we were at the VC almost everyday this week except Sunday and then we had church all day so we didn't get much time Sunday either. We have some great investigators but we need more so Sister Li and I are going to work really hard to find more people to teach. It's been strange readjusting with only two weeks left in the transfer but hopefully we'll both stay here for longer!
Have a great week!
Hermana Hunsaker
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
So little time
So......today my email is going to be extremely short as Sister Lau and I were locked out of our apartment for a couple of hours today so we're running behind on EVERYTHING. This week wasn't super eventful - a lot of our investigator lessons cancelled and we had to drop some people who weren't progressing anywhere, but things are still good. I'll just list a few updates here:
Christine: Christine dropped us this week - she tried dropping the missionaries two times while I was gone and so we let her go this time. It broke my heart, but she got to know a lot of the ward members who are still in touch with her and have talked with her about her decision. She knows it's true but she's worried about the commitment to "be perfect". We're going to give her a little bit of space and she'll come back on her own.
Chris: We were able to teach Chris again this week. She's not comfortable praying or reading aloud and we're trying to help her to overcome that but it's difficult. She suffers from anxiety and panic attacks so we don't want to push her......we'll see how that goes. But she came to church again! She loves church so much and LOVES Relief Society. She's signing up for all the service projects and everything - it's so great.
Paul: We taught a new investigator this week...except he doesn't count as a new investigator because we couldn't set a return appointment until he knew his work schedule. We taught him the first lesson and he's very active in his church, but he accepted the invitation to read and pray about the truth of the Book of Mormon so hopefully things will start happening this coming week!
Ashley (Noelle's friend): We taught Ashley about the Restoration! She's progressing quite fast - she didn't make it to church this Sunday though - but we're trying to get her a baptism date for the end of May!
And.....that was it as far as investigators go. Joseph, Sylvia, Richard, Gerry, Jackie - all bailed. But Gerry came to church! Apparently he hasn't been to church since I left the area so that's awesome! Hopefully he'll be ready for baptism May 11th!
Sister Armstrong: We started seeing the people on the widow list and Sister Armstrong was the first one we went to. She's been a member all her life and comes to church every Sunday still - she doesn't drive but her roommate Harry brings her every week even though he has no interest in religion. They were actually engaged a long time ago but she broke off the engagement when he told her that he would never join the church. She said, "I just couldn't take that chance." She married a member in the temple later and they had six kids. Exactly one year after he died, she submitted her papers to serve a mission and she served in South Africa! She was a proselyting missionary for about three months and then they needed temple workers so her mission president assigned her to work in the Johannesburg South Africa temple. She shared some great stories. You're never too old to be a missionary! I think I'll do that when I'm older to if the opportunity arises.
Noelle: Noelle's doing pretty good. We've been helping her pack up her room in order to move to Utah next month after her finals are over. And she's going to the U, not BYU. I was disappointed to hear that......but anyways, she's doing ok. She went to the singles' ward yesterday so we're going to see how it went when we see her tonight!
Valerie: Valerie's health is getting better everyday. She didn't come to church yesterday but she says that her and Nicolas are coming next week! We were able to lift their spirits up a little bit and teach them about the Family Proclamation - Valerie had never heard of it because she's been going to church on and off for the past thirty years.
Barbara: Barbara made it to all three hours of church for the first time since I came here in November! She enjoyed it, but snuck out right when church ended so she didn't talk to anyone. We'll work on that - she needs some good solid friends in the ward. She made us tri-tip steak this week which was SO GOOD and we helped her make her earrings. I just love her.
Sister Shooter: Sister Shooter can't make it to church because of her work schedule so we visited her. She grew up in the Ivory Coast and was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and her and her husband joined the church in Milan, Italy. They went back to the Ivory Coast and then came to the states to Missouri and she ended up here a few years ago after their marriage ended. She's so talkative - she spoke a lot of French to her son and I couldn't understand a lick of it. Oh well - it'll come back someday. She fed us food even though it was 3:30 in the afternoon, and then we had dinner that night with a member at 5 AND THEN during our weekly planning that night, the owner of our apartment building (also a member) brought us pizza! So we had three dinners that night. It was the craziest thing.
Garrisons: I love this family. We didn't have dinner with them this week like we normally do, but we had FHE. It was still hard and crazy with their two little girls, but we had family prayer at the end and the girls were completely quiet and still! It was a miracle!
And now a couple quick stories from the VC.....
Sally: The elders from the Cambodian branch brought Sally to the VC. She's less active but she is so solid. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ and His Atonement and she was very emotional. She didn't really know if she could repent, if she could change, but we read Ether 12:27 and helped her feel God's love. She mentioned that every time she comes to the VC, she feels that same love. It's amazing the difference that God's love can make - people can feel it so strong, especially at the Visitors' Center.
Jennifer: Jennifer came in with her boyfriend and their little boy after I waved them in. They had just been walking around the grounds and had never been inside the VC before. They didn't have much time, but they listened to the Christus narration and had some great things to say about it. They were really open and receptive to learning more but they had to leave. I'm just praying everyday that they'll come back.
We got a couple of awesome referrals this week and we're meeting with them next week! The work is moving along great here in Castro Valley.
I love you all - keep working hard!
Hermana Hunsaker
Christine: Christine dropped us this week - she tried dropping the missionaries two times while I was gone and so we let her go this time. It broke my heart, but she got to know a lot of the ward members who are still in touch with her and have talked with her about her decision. She knows it's true but she's worried about the commitment to "be perfect". We're going to give her a little bit of space and she'll come back on her own.
Chris: We were able to teach Chris again this week. She's not comfortable praying or reading aloud and we're trying to help her to overcome that but it's difficult. She suffers from anxiety and panic attacks so we don't want to push her......we'll see how that goes. But she came to church again! She loves church so much and LOVES Relief Society. She's signing up for all the service projects and everything - it's so great.
Paul: We taught a new investigator this week...except he doesn't count as a new investigator because we couldn't set a return appointment until he knew his work schedule. We taught him the first lesson and he's very active in his church, but he accepted the invitation to read and pray about the truth of the Book of Mormon so hopefully things will start happening this coming week!
Ashley (Noelle's friend): We taught Ashley about the Restoration! She's progressing quite fast - she didn't make it to church this Sunday though - but we're trying to get her a baptism date for the end of May!
And.....that was it as far as investigators go. Joseph, Sylvia, Richard, Gerry, Jackie - all bailed. But Gerry came to church! Apparently he hasn't been to church since I left the area so that's awesome! Hopefully he'll be ready for baptism May 11th!
Sister Armstrong: We started seeing the people on the widow list and Sister Armstrong was the first one we went to. She's been a member all her life and comes to church every Sunday still - she doesn't drive but her roommate Harry brings her every week even though he has no interest in religion. They were actually engaged a long time ago but she broke off the engagement when he told her that he would never join the church. She said, "I just couldn't take that chance." She married a member in the temple later and they had six kids. Exactly one year after he died, she submitted her papers to serve a mission and she served in South Africa! She was a proselyting missionary for about three months and then they needed temple workers so her mission president assigned her to work in the Johannesburg South Africa temple. She shared some great stories. You're never too old to be a missionary! I think I'll do that when I'm older to if the opportunity arises.
Noelle: Noelle's doing pretty good. We've been helping her pack up her room in order to move to Utah next month after her finals are over. And she's going to the U, not BYU. I was disappointed to hear that......but anyways, she's doing ok. She went to the singles' ward yesterday so we're going to see how it went when we see her tonight!
Valerie: Valerie's health is getting better everyday. She didn't come to church yesterday but she says that her and Nicolas are coming next week! We were able to lift their spirits up a little bit and teach them about the Family Proclamation - Valerie had never heard of it because she's been going to church on and off for the past thirty years.
Barbara: Barbara made it to all three hours of church for the first time since I came here in November! She enjoyed it, but snuck out right when church ended so she didn't talk to anyone. We'll work on that - she needs some good solid friends in the ward. She made us tri-tip steak this week which was SO GOOD and we helped her make her earrings. I just love her.
Sister Shooter: Sister Shooter can't make it to church because of her work schedule so we visited her. She grew up in the Ivory Coast and was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and her and her husband joined the church in Milan, Italy. They went back to the Ivory Coast and then came to the states to Missouri and she ended up here a few years ago after their marriage ended. She's so talkative - she spoke a lot of French to her son and I couldn't understand a lick of it. Oh well - it'll come back someday. She fed us food even though it was 3:30 in the afternoon, and then we had dinner that night with a member at 5 AND THEN during our weekly planning that night, the owner of our apartment building (also a member) brought us pizza! So we had three dinners that night. It was the craziest thing.
Garrisons: I love this family. We didn't have dinner with them this week like we normally do, but we had FHE. It was still hard and crazy with their two little girls, but we had family prayer at the end and the girls were completely quiet and still! It was a miracle!
And now a couple quick stories from the VC.....
Sally: The elders from the Cambodian branch brought Sally to the VC. She's less active but she is so solid. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ and His Atonement and she was very emotional. She didn't really know if she could repent, if she could change, but we read Ether 12:27 and helped her feel God's love. She mentioned that every time she comes to the VC, she feels that same love. It's amazing the difference that God's love can make - people can feel it so strong, especially at the Visitors' Center.
Jennifer: Jennifer came in with her boyfriend and their little boy after I waved them in. They had just been walking around the grounds and had never been inside the VC before. They didn't have much time, but they listened to the Christus narration and had some great things to say about it. They were really open and receptive to learning more but they had to leave. I'm just praying everyday that they'll come back.
We got a couple of awesome referrals this week and we're meeting with them next week! The work is moving along great here in Castro Valley.
I love you all - keep working hard!
Hermana Hunsaker
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Sweet is the Peace General Conference Brings
Hello everyone! I'm feeling perfectly rejuvenated after General Conference - I hope you all had the chance to see it! If not, watch it here. There were so many good messages that we can all learn - I'll talk a little bit about it at the end of my email. I say this every week, but I've got to make this one quick. I just don't know where the time goes on preparation day!
Monday: P-day and the VC. Not much news there - the VC was mega slow because it was a Monday night. Monday nights are dead there.
Tuesday: Exchanges! Sister Oa and I stayed in Castro Valley - it was marvelous. I got to see Jackie again and we set a new baptism date with her!!! May 25th. She's so good at progressing really fast then tanking then progressing again then tanking, so we're giving her enough time to help her understand and slowly progress towards baptism so that it will stick this time. For dinner, we went to see the beloved little Garrison family and then we saw Joseph after dinner. Sister Lau and Sister Mitchell found him after I left - he referred himself on mormon.org. He's been to church twice already but this was my first lesson with him. Sister Oa had met him before on a previous exchange in the area. He knows a lot about the Bible but he just LOVES to talk so it's pretty hard to teach. We're teaching him again tonight so hopefully we'll be able to teach him about the restoration. He watched General Conference on his own this weekend and is really showing potential. We want to get him involved with the ward and then he'll accept the gospel in no time. He's from Persia, but has a 100% Christian background and wants to help Muslims learn more about Jesus Christ. But he's got to learn first, and he is so willing to understand more.
Wednesday: Wednesday was a day of zeroes. We had all our study time and then district meeting and then the VC. At district meeting, we talked about helping people attend General Conference. It was a great training, as usual.
Thursday: This may have been the craziest day of my life. We had VC training for a couple hours where we got to practice how to introduce a few of the resources at the VC. It was good practice and it helped me throughout the week with others who came into the VC. Then we had our shift. It wasn't super busy, but Sister Lau and I ended up taking SEVENTEEN tours in our six hour shift. That may be the highest number of tours I've ever given in one shift at the VC. There was one family from Castro Valley who had a lot of questions - the woman had take her kids to our ward a few time years and years ago. They weren't interested in learning more, but we told them about General Conference so hopefully they'll watch it. We don't get too many people from Castro Valley for some reason so it was sad that it didn't work out, but sometimes as missionaries we just get to plant the seeds for the harvest of others. After the VC our 3:30pm appointment fell through. We returned a call to one of our members from a couple days before, Sister Stellman, and her friend Chris was at her house so Sister Stellman invited us over! Chris has been coming to church since right before Sister Ure and I left and we were finally able to add her as a new investigator this week! That's the power of backup plans. We had dinner with the Sister Hall, the Relief Society President - Brother Hall got home from work right as we were leaving. All of their children are inactive but they are just so steadfast and immovable. Their 21-year-old grandson is moving in with them this week for a bit until he leaves for the Air Force so we're all hopeful - Grandma and Grandpa included - that he'll come to church and we'll be able to teach him. We had one other lesson that night with Christine - we taught her the Word of Wisdom and committed her to live it. Right as we were leaving, I felt inspired to ask her if there was anything in her home that we could take off her hands to help her keep the Word of Wisdom. She brought us her decaf coffee and we proceeded to dump it in the trashcan. It was my first Word of Wisdom raid! I'd heard about a lot of other missionaries doing that but it was my first time! We're still working on getting Christine a baptism date, but she is progressing and working towards it.
Friday: We saw Barbara on Friday - it was my first lesson with her since I've been back because she was sick for a bit. She is doing okay but it's hard to see the sweetest woman in the world get walked all over. She's been coming to church regularly still, even if she can only make it to the first hour because of her back, so I'm glad she's still pushing through, pushing ahead. We're having dinner with her this week. At the VC, the Modesto Stake Youth came for a temple day and so we gave some tours to a group of rowdy, pretty disrespectful kids. It was well organized, but it was hard. And then during the tour, my skirt ripped a couple inches in the back. It was starting to get thin but I thought I could get one more wear out of it....but no. Luckily, another VC sister, Sister Hill, had an extra skirt in the car because she was going on an exchange the next day. Thank heaven. I don't have many embarrassing moments - and when I do, I can't remember them - so that one tops the charts for now.
Saturday: GENERAL CONFERENCE. I can't even express how much I loved Conference. I left my notes from the Saturday sessions at the VC because we were on shift that day, but I loved every second of it. I especially loved the talk from Elder Craig Cardon - "Jesus Wants to Forgive." Jackie was out of town so she didn't see Conference, and I think that's something she needs to hear. Quentin L. Cook's talk about peace through Jesus Christ's Atonement really stuck with me too, and I think that's a huge theme that a lot of speakers touched on as well. We missed most of the Saturday afternoon session because we had a tour. Then we had dinner with Sister Passadore, Bishop's wife (the Bishop was at the priesthood session). We went to see Sylvia but she was cleaning her carpets so she rescheduled for Monday (today!) and then we saw Noelle. We talked to her about the temple - hopefully she can get her recommend in the next couple of weeks! She's doing ok - it was good to finally meet with her. Her friend Ashley who came to her baptism and to church called during the lesson and Noelle invited her over, so we were able to finally teach her and add her as a new investigator since she cancelled our lesson this past week. Which leads perfectly into Sunday.....
Sunday: On Sunday, we watched the Sunday morning session of General Conference with Noelle and Ashley. We loved President Monson's talk, and Elder Perry's talk was pretty legit. I'd never seen that side of Perry! But it was needed - even as members of the church, sometimes we downplay the importance of obedience because we have repentance. But if we're not striving to be obedient, we can't repent - that's a huge part of it - and then we can't take part in the gift of Jesus Christ's Atonement. And don't forget to go back and read Elder Anderson's talk about member missionary work! This is the Lord's work and we're all in this together, missionaries and members alike. Noelle signed up to make us lunch, mostly so that we could stick around for longer after Conference. That girl - cheating the system. For the Sunday afternoon session, we went to Sister Stellman's home and watched it with her family and Chris. So we got to watch Conference with our two brand-new investigators! It was pretty great. I also loved Elder Kopischke's talk - as human beings, we're all looking for love and acceptance. As we learn to recognize that acceptance from God is what will really bring us happiness, that's when we will learn the peace and joy that comes from following God's commandments. And I loved Elder Christofferson's talk. Just a few that I think we should all go back and read again. Overall, obedience was a huge theme of Conference. I also loved the emphasis on the importance of both men and women, highlighted by the fact that two of the prayers at Conference were given by women for the first time in the history of General Conference. After Conference we had dinner with the Thompson family and FHE with the Garrisons. It was a great weekend - I learned so much and it helped me recognize the areas in my discipleship that need improving.
I'm excited to start another week here in Castro Valley. Good luck with everything this week!
Monday: P-day and the VC. Not much news there - the VC was mega slow because it was a Monday night. Monday nights are dead there.
Tuesday: Exchanges! Sister Oa and I stayed in Castro Valley - it was marvelous. I got to see Jackie again and we set a new baptism date with her!!! May 25th. She's so good at progressing really fast then tanking then progressing again then tanking, so we're giving her enough time to help her understand and slowly progress towards baptism so that it will stick this time. For dinner, we went to see the beloved little Garrison family and then we saw Joseph after dinner. Sister Lau and Sister Mitchell found him after I left - he referred himself on mormon.org. He's been to church twice already but this was my first lesson with him. Sister Oa had met him before on a previous exchange in the area. He knows a lot about the Bible but he just LOVES to talk so it's pretty hard to teach. We're teaching him again tonight so hopefully we'll be able to teach him about the restoration. He watched General Conference on his own this weekend and is really showing potential. We want to get him involved with the ward and then he'll accept the gospel in no time. He's from Persia, but has a 100% Christian background and wants to help Muslims learn more about Jesus Christ. But he's got to learn first, and he is so willing to understand more.
Wednesday: Wednesday was a day of zeroes. We had all our study time and then district meeting and then the VC. At district meeting, we talked about helping people attend General Conference. It was a great training, as usual.
Thursday: This may have been the craziest day of my life. We had VC training for a couple hours where we got to practice how to introduce a few of the resources at the VC. It was good practice and it helped me throughout the week with others who came into the VC. Then we had our shift. It wasn't super busy, but Sister Lau and I ended up taking SEVENTEEN tours in our six hour shift. That may be the highest number of tours I've ever given in one shift at the VC. There was one family from Castro Valley who had a lot of questions - the woman had take her kids to our ward a few time years and years ago. They weren't interested in learning more, but we told them about General Conference so hopefully they'll watch it. We don't get too many people from Castro Valley for some reason so it was sad that it didn't work out, but sometimes as missionaries we just get to plant the seeds for the harvest of others. After the VC our 3:30pm appointment fell through. We returned a call to one of our members from a couple days before, Sister Stellman, and her friend Chris was at her house so Sister Stellman invited us over! Chris has been coming to church since right before Sister Ure and I left and we were finally able to add her as a new investigator this week! That's the power of backup plans. We had dinner with the Sister Hall, the Relief Society President - Brother Hall got home from work right as we were leaving. All of their children are inactive but they are just so steadfast and immovable. Their 21-year-old grandson is moving in with them this week for a bit until he leaves for the Air Force so we're all hopeful - Grandma and Grandpa included - that he'll come to church and we'll be able to teach him. We had one other lesson that night with Christine - we taught her the Word of Wisdom and committed her to live it. Right as we were leaving, I felt inspired to ask her if there was anything in her home that we could take off her hands to help her keep the Word of Wisdom. She brought us her decaf coffee and we proceeded to dump it in the trashcan. It was my first Word of Wisdom raid! I'd heard about a lot of other missionaries doing that but it was my first time! We're still working on getting Christine a baptism date, but she is progressing and working towards it.
Friday: We saw Barbara on Friday - it was my first lesson with her since I've been back because she was sick for a bit. She is doing okay but it's hard to see the sweetest woman in the world get walked all over. She's been coming to church regularly still, even if she can only make it to the first hour because of her back, so I'm glad she's still pushing through, pushing ahead. We're having dinner with her this week. At the VC, the Modesto Stake Youth came for a temple day and so we gave some tours to a group of rowdy, pretty disrespectful kids. It was well organized, but it was hard. And then during the tour, my skirt ripped a couple inches in the back. It was starting to get thin but I thought I could get one more wear out of it....but no. Luckily, another VC sister, Sister Hill, had an extra skirt in the car because she was going on an exchange the next day. Thank heaven. I don't have many embarrassing moments - and when I do, I can't remember them - so that one tops the charts for now.
Saturday: GENERAL CONFERENCE. I can't even express how much I loved Conference. I left my notes from the Saturday sessions at the VC because we were on shift that day, but I loved every second of it. I especially loved the talk from Elder Craig Cardon - "Jesus Wants to Forgive." Jackie was out of town so she didn't see Conference, and I think that's something she needs to hear. Quentin L. Cook's talk about peace through Jesus Christ's Atonement really stuck with me too, and I think that's a huge theme that a lot of speakers touched on as well. We missed most of the Saturday afternoon session because we had a tour. Then we had dinner with Sister Passadore, Bishop's wife (the Bishop was at the priesthood session). We went to see Sylvia but she was cleaning her carpets so she rescheduled for Monday (today!) and then we saw Noelle. We talked to her about the temple - hopefully she can get her recommend in the next couple of weeks! She's doing ok - it was good to finally meet with her. Her friend Ashley who came to her baptism and to church called during the lesson and Noelle invited her over, so we were able to finally teach her and add her as a new investigator since she cancelled our lesson this past week. Which leads perfectly into Sunday.....
Sunday: On Sunday, we watched the Sunday morning session of General Conference with Noelle and Ashley. We loved President Monson's talk, and Elder Perry's talk was pretty legit. I'd never seen that side of Perry! But it was needed - even as members of the church, sometimes we downplay the importance of obedience because we have repentance. But if we're not striving to be obedient, we can't repent - that's a huge part of it - and then we can't take part in the gift of Jesus Christ's Atonement. And don't forget to go back and read Elder Anderson's talk about member missionary work! This is the Lord's work and we're all in this together, missionaries and members alike. Noelle signed up to make us lunch, mostly so that we could stick around for longer after Conference. That girl - cheating the system. For the Sunday afternoon session, we went to Sister Stellman's home and watched it with her family and Chris. So we got to watch Conference with our two brand-new investigators! It was pretty great. I also loved Elder Kopischke's talk - as human beings, we're all looking for love and acceptance. As we learn to recognize that acceptance from God is what will really bring us happiness, that's when we will learn the peace and joy that comes from following God's commandments. And I loved Elder Christofferson's talk. Just a few that I think we should all go back and read again. Overall, obedience was a huge theme of Conference. I also loved the emphasis on the importance of both men and women, highlighted by the fact that two of the prayers at Conference were given by women for the first time in the history of General Conference. After Conference we had dinner with the Thompson family and FHE with the Garrisons. It was a great weekend - I learned so much and it helped me recognize the areas in my discipleship that need improving.
I'm excited to start another week here in Castro Valley. Good luck with everything this week!
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| First - and last - official companion picture |
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| Christine's WoW raid! |
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| You can't see it - but the coffee is going to the dumps! |
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| My favorite view in the world right now - sunset over San Fran |
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Good to be Back
Happy April Fool's Day! And Happy Easter (one day late)!
I was fortunate enough to skip winter this year, unlike many of you, but even here in California, I can tell that it's spring. It's slowly getting warmer and warmer. Once I realized it's already April, that made more sense. I'm slightly worried for the heat of the summer but I think I have a couple more months before I have to deal with that.
It's been SO GREAT to be back in Castro Valley. It's different with a new companion but it's great to see the familiar faces of the ward members and many of the investigators I was teaching when I was here before.
For my last night in Oakland last Monday, we went to see Myriam one more time. It was her sister's birthday (her sister passed away a couple years ago from breast cancer) and so we were planning on having a nice dinner with them, but Myriam was sick so we just stopped in for a few minutes. We said goodbye and then went to see Ron and Helga (he's a less active member, she's not a member) and said goodbye to them too. Last we saw Jason, a recent convert in the ward. He was so nice - I hardly got to know him but he gave me a card thanking me for my service. He's so golden and sweet.
Tuesday=transfers. It was crazy - always is - but not as crazy as my first transfer day. At least it didn't rain this time. We got everything home and unpacked pretty quick. My new companion is Sister Lau - she's from Hong Kong and she's so great. She works really hard and took really great care of the area while I was gone. It felt like coming home - we didn't do too much except unpacking and updating and then we went to the VC that afternoon.
Wednesday was our full-pross day! We went to see Valerie, a less active in our ward who just got out of her rehab center after having some serious medical problems around Christmastime. She is doing much better and wants to start coming to church! Her son Nicolas was baptized when he was 11 and the Young Men's President brought him to church last week - and from talking to Valerie, I found out that I know the missionary who baptized Nicolas from my home ward up in Conifer. Small world. But it was cool to have that connection and I'm really happy that they're going to start coming to church again. We also saw Jackie - she looked fine and her health seemed fine, but I don't know if she remembers anything that we taught her - it was so long ago. I'm sure there are many reasons I was supposed to come back to Castro Valley, but I'm sure that Jackie is one of those reasons. We helped her clean up and sort her mail - I just want her to be happy. We had dinner with Brother and Sister Hipps at Dino's, a local Italian restaurant. I had salmon - it was delicious. I'm so glad I overcame my aversion to seafood - I don't eat much of it, but I LOVE salmon.
So that was a tender mercy this week. We went to see one other less active that night, Sister Ortiz, and then we went to see CHRISTINE! She went to church every Sunday when I was gone, but she stopped meeting with the missionaries for a couple weeks and then resumed lessons again and then tried to stop again - but Sister Lau and Sister Mitchell didn't let her :) we talked about faith and obedience. The two really go hand in hand - you can't be faithful if you aren't obedient, and it's super difficult to be obedient if you don't have faith that God loves us and gives us commandments for our happiness. As I've been reading in the Book of Mormon, especially about the Anti-Nephi-Lehies in Alma chapters 22-24, I've learned so much about faith and obedience. We hope this prepares Christine to be obedient and choose to accept baptism and commit to living the associated commandments.
Thursday was good - we didn't have any time to go out and teach because we had our study time, then district meeting, then the VC but it was a great day. I have had more time for language study than in the past and so I feel better prepared for the VC and everything else. It's made a world of difference. Our new district leader is Elder Arauz and he's great - he's from El Salvador but he's in an English area right now. He taught himself English on the mission - he's only been out for a year but his English is so good. My previous district leader in this area, Elder Watson, is now in San Francisco serving as a zone leader - he's going to do great out there.
Friday was VC and contacting potentials until dinner - we found one former investigator that wants to take lessons again so that was good! Her name is Jan and we're seeing her on Tuesday. We had dinner with the Garrison family - oh how I've missed them. That night, we just did our weekly planning so it was a nice Friday night in.
This weekend was a miracle weekend! Literally. We went over to teach Gerry - him and his wife have been taking lessons for years but she was baptized last summer. He's a tough cookie - he knows the Book of Mormon is true, but he is very Catholic and thinks it doesn't matter which church he's going to as long as it's church. We've been trying to help him understand the authority but it's difficult to help him understand that our church is the only church with the true priesthood authority from God so it has all the pieces of the puzzle. It's a touchy subject - his wife Elizabeth knows it's true and wants him to know so bad, but she doesn't want to push him at all. Usually she defends his attitude (we call it baptism blocking) but on Saturday, she didn't say anything to discourage him or us. We just pushed through with the baptism invitation and after some restating of the question and some thought, HE ACCEPTED A DATE! We set his date for May 11th and promised him that he'll know the truth by then if he continues to do those things we ask him to do, especially come to our church. But I don't know if he's ever even had a date before so it's huge progress! The pressure is on to really study up and help him receive his own spiritual confirmation that everything we say is true and to receive the desire to baptized - he needs to recognize why it's different. I hope the Spirit can testify of my words to help him understand that. I love this family, and I want nothing more than for them to be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.
After Gerry's lesson, I made my first Spanish contact! I haven't run into many Spanish speakers outside of the VC, even when I was in Oakland which seems odd, but I talked to this guy German outside while he was painting and he wanted missionaries to come see him! My broken Spanish was awful, but we understood each other just fine and my zone leaders should be going to see him soon! That was prett cool. We were at the VC for the rest of the day. I have a lot of cool experiences at the VC but I haven't been writing them down for the past couple months. I need to fix that. Saturday night at the VC was super busy because the Lamb of God was going on at the Interstake Center across the street. So things were crazy but it's better than being slow.
Sister Lau and I had a great Easter. All our missionary meetings were cancelled so we simply studied all morning and then went to church at 12:30. Our meetings used to be at 10:30 before I left the ward and then at 9 in Oakland so 12:30 church is going to take some getting used to. One of the speakers in sacrament meeting, Brother Ribeira, asked a rhetorical question during his talk that has stuck with me: if Christ hadn't come and did all that He did, where would I be right now? It's a big question that I've been reflecting on and I'm planning on taking some time to write that down in my journal. Jesus Christ still had his agency - He could've chosen to live a normal life. But where would we be if He had done that? Similarly, I think of my own life. Where would the people in our lives be if we had made different decisions? No man is an island; we are to become more like Jesus Christ as we help each other. Where would some of the people I have taught in the past six months be if I had not chosen to serve a mission? Where would I be if my parents hadn't taught me the gospel? We can't know the answers to those questions specifically, but if Jesus Christ hadn't come to the earth and suffered all that He did and died for us - if he had not done these things, none of those other questions would have mattered. Our lives would not have mattered. We owe everything to Him - our faith, our loyalty, our obedience - in exchange for His decision of sacrifice because of His love for us.
We helped out with Primary sharing time for the rest of church, totally missing Sunday School and only staying for half of Relief Society. For sharing time, we had a trial where witnesses who knew Jesus Christ came in and bore testimony of Him and His life and His mission. Sister Lau was the bailiff and I was the judge - I got a mallet and everything. And I got to see Noelle!!! She's doing ok, but it's hard joining the church at her age. I want her to start going to the singles' ward, but she's moving to Provo in June so only a couple more months. It'll be a much better environment for her there. She's totally going to be married before I get back to Provo. We're about to start teaching her friend Ashley who came to her baptism and has come to church a couple of times now so I'm excited for that! We're all watching General Conference this weekend at Noelle's place. We also had one more investigator come to church - his name is Joseph. We're having a lesson with him this coming week so I can get to know him better and see where he's at. Both Christine and Gerry were out of town so they didn't make it to church but it was a great service.
After church, we went to see Sister Van Elk, a less active woman in our ward. We think she's only less active because of her health - she invited us in immediately and was so sweet. We had dinner with Sister Chadwick and Brother Cashion afterwards (they're married but kept separate last names) and their son Will and their 2-week exchange student from Austria (I can't remember his name for the life of me). Sister Chadwick made a great meal and apple pie and then gave us little Easter baskets! It was so sweet of her. We had FHE with the Garrisons and then went out to do some contacting. I was dreading it because it was raining super hard but as soon as we got out of the car, it stopped! Heavenly Father knows how much I hate rain and using umbrellas. It was a pure miracle. And by some miracle, we got in the gate to see a potential investigator named Sylvia that Sister Ure and I had tried to contact HUNDREDS of times. When we rang the bell, she opened the gate because her daughter was supposed to be coming over so she was surprised to see us. She didn't have time to talk but we set up a return appointment for next week! Also, we ran into our investigator Richard who lives just a couple doors down - Sister Ure and I had taught him once but after that we never got a hold of him and neither did Sister Lau and Sister Mitchell - we knocked on his door after Sylvia let us in and he wasn't home but we ran into him in the parking lot on our way out to the car! So it really was a night full of miracles. As long as you're willing, Heavenly Father guides you to where you need to be and you'll be placed in the path of those that are ready to receive the gospel. Always in His time, not our own.
But anyways, that was the week! March is already over and April is just beginning! Time is flying still but I'm so happy to be back in Castro Valley. I know there's more than one reason that I'm here, and I'm going to make sure I found out every reason so that I can do the things I need to do for the people in this area.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Hermana Hunsaker
I was fortunate enough to skip winter this year, unlike many of you, but even here in California, I can tell that it's spring. It's slowly getting warmer and warmer. Once I realized it's already April, that made more sense. I'm slightly worried for the heat of the summer but I think I have a couple more months before I have to deal with that.
It's been SO GREAT to be back in Castro Valley. It's different with a new companion but it's great to see the familiar faces of the ward members and many of the investigators I was teaching when I was here before.
For my last night in Oakland last Monday, we went to see Myriam one more time. It was her sister's birthday (her sister passed away a couple years ago from breast cancer) and so we were planning on having a nice dinner with them, but Myriam was sick so we just stopped in for a few minutes. We said goodbye and then went to see Ron and Helga (he's a less active member, she's not a member) and said goodbye to them too. Last we saw Jason, a recent convert in the ward. He was so nice - I hardly got to know him but he gave me a card thanking me for my service. He's so golden and sweet.
Tuesday=transfers. It was crazy - always is - but not as crazy as my first transfer day. At least it didn't rain this time. We got everything home and unpacked pretty quick. My new companion is Sister Lau - she's from Hong Kong and she's so great. She works really hard and took really great care of the area while I was gone. It felt like coming home - we didn't do too much except unpacking and updating and then we went to the VC that afternoon.
Wednesday was our full-pross day! We went to see Valerie, a less active in our ward who just got out of her rehab center after having some serious medical problems around Christmastime. She is doing much better and wants to start coming to church! Her son Nicolas was baptized when he was 11 and the Young Men's President brought him to church last week - and from talking to Valerie, I found out that I know the missionary who baptized Nicolas from my home ward up in Conifer. Small world. But it was cool to have that connection and I'm really happy that they're going to start coming to church again. We also saw Jackie - she looked fine and her health seemed fine, but I don't know if she remembers anything that we taught her - it was so long ago. I'm sure there are many reasons I was supposed to come back to Castro Valley, but I'm sure that Jackie is one of those reasons. We helped her clean up and sort her mail - I just want her to be happy. We had dinner with Brother and Sister Hipps at Dino's, a local Italian restaurant. I had salmon - it was delicious. I'm so glad I overcame my aversion to seafood - I don't eat much of it, but I LOVE salmon.
So that was a tender mercy this week. We went to see one other less active that night, Sister Ortiz, and then we went to see CHRISTINE! She went to church every Sunday when I was gone, but she stopped meeting with the missionaries for a couple weeks and then resumed lessons again and then tried to stop again - but Sister Lau and Sister Mitchell didn't let her :) we talked about faith and obedience. The two really go hand in hand - you can't be faithful if you aren't obedient, and it's super difficult to be obedient if you don't have faith that God loves us and gives us commandments for our happiness. As I've been reading in the Book of Mormon, especially about the Anti-Nephi-Lehies in Alma chapters 22-24, I've learned so much about faith and obedience. We hope this prepares Christine to be obedient and choose to accept baptism and commit to living the associated commandments.
Thursday was good - we didn't have any time to go out and teach because we had our study time, then district meeting, then the VC but it was a great day. I have had more time for language study than in the past and so I feel better prepared for the VC and everything else. It's made a world of difference. Our new district leader is Elder Arauz and he's great - he's from El Salvador but he's in an English area right now. He taught himself English on the mission - he's only been out for a year but his English is so good. My previous district leader in this area, Elder Watson, is now in San Francisco serving as a zone leader - he's going to do great out there.
Friday was VC and contacting potentials until dinner - we found one former investigator that wants to take lessons again so that was good! Her name is Jan and we're seeing her on Tuesday. We had dinner with the Garrison family - oh how I've missed them. That night, we just did our weekly planning so it was a nice Friday night in.
This weekend was a miracle weekend! Literally. We went over to teach Gerry - him and his wife have been taking lessons for years but she was baptized last summer. He's a tough cookie - he knows the Book of Mormon is true, but he is very Catholic and thinks it doesn't matter which church he's going to as long as it's church. We've been trying to help him understand the authority but it's difficult to help him understand that our church is the only church with the true priesthood authority from God so it has all the pieces of the puzzle. It's a touchy subject - his wife Elizabeth knows it's true and wants him to know so bad, but she doesn't want to push him at all. Usually she defends his attitude (we call it baptism blocking) but on Saturday, she didn't say anything to discourage him or us. We just pushed through with the baptism invitation and after some restating of the question and some thought, HE ACCEPTED A DATE! We set his date for May 11th and promised him that he'll know the truth by then if he continues to do those things we ask him to do, especially come to our church. But I don't know if he's ever even had a date before so it's huge progress! The pressure is on to really study up and help him receive his own spiritual confirmation that everything we say is true and to receive the desire to baptized - he needs to recognize why it's different. I hope the Spirit can testify of my words to help him understand that. I love this family, and I want nothing more than for them to be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.
After Gerry's lesson, I made my first Spanish contact! I haven't run into many Spanish speakers outside of the VC, even when I was in Oakland which seems odd, but I talked to this guy German outside while he was painting and he wanted missionaries to come see him! My broken Spanish was awful, but we understood each other just fine and my zone leaders should be going to see him soon! That was prett cool. We were at the VC for the rest of the day. I have a lot of cool experiences at the VC but I haven't been writing them down for the past couple months. I need to fix that. Saturday night at the VC was super busy because the Lamb of God was going on at the Interstake Center across the street. So things were crazy but it's better than being slow.
Sister Lau and I had a great Easter. All our missionary meetings were cancelled so we simply studied all morning and then went to church at 12:30. Our meetings used to be at 10:30 before I left the ward and then at 9 in Oakland so 12:30 church is going to take some getting used to. One of the speakers in sacrament meeting, Brother Ribeira, asked a rhetorical question during his talk that has stuck with me: if Christ hadn't come and did all that He did, where would I be right now? It's a big question that I've been reflecting on and I'm planning on taking some time to write that down in my journal. Jesus Christ still had his agency - He could've chosen to live a normal life. But where would we be if He had done that? Similarly, I think of my own life. Where would the people in our lives be if we had made different decisions? No man is an island; we are to become more like Jesus Christ as we help each other. Where would some of the people I have taught in the past six months be if I had not chosen to serve a mission? Where would I be if my parents hadn't taught me the gospel? We can't know the answers to those questions specifically, but if Jesus Christ hadn't come to the earth and suffered all that He did and died for us - if he had not done these things, none of those other questions would have mattered. Our lives would not have mattered. We owe everything to Him - our faith, our loyalty, our obedience - in exchange for His decision of sacrifice because of His love for us.
We helped out with Primary sharing time for the rest of church, totally missing Sunday School and only staying for half of Relief Society. For sharing time, we had a trial where witnesses who knew Jesus Christ came in and bore testimony of Him and His life and His mission. Sister Lau was the bailiff and I was the judge - I got a mallet and everything. And I got to see Noelle!!! She's doing ok, but it's hard joining the church at her age. I want her to start going to the singles' ward, but she's moving to Provo in June so only a couple more months. It'll be a much better environment for her there. She's totally going to be married before I get back to Provo. We're about to start teaching her friend Ashley who came to her baptism and has come to church a couple of times now so I'm excited for that! We're all watching General Conference this weekend at Noelle's place. We also had one more investigator come to church - his name is Joseph. We're having a lesson with him this coming week so I can get to know him better and see where he's at. Both Christine and Gerry were out of town so they didn't make it to church but it was a great service.
After church, we went to see Sister Van Elk, a less active woman in our ward. We think she's only less active because of her health - she invited us in immediately and was so sweet. We had dinner with Sister Chadwick and Brother Cashion afterwards (they're married but kept separate last names) and their son Will and their 2-week exchange student from Austria (I can't remember his name for the life of me). Sister Chadwick made a great meal and apple pie and then gave us little Easter baskets! It was so sweet of her. We had FHE with the Garrisons and then went out to do some contacting. I was dreading it because it was raining super hard but as soon as we got out of the car, it stopped! Heavenly Father knows how much I hate rain and using umbrellas. It was a pure miracle. And by some miracle, we got in the gate to see a potential investigator named Sylvia that Sister Ure and I had tried to contact HUNDREDS of times. When we rang the bell, she opened the gate because her daughter was supposed to be coming over so she was surprised to see us. She didn't have time to talk but we set up a return appointment for next week! Also, we ran into our investigator Richard who lives just a couple doors down - Sister Ure and I had taught him once but after that we never got a hold of him and neither did Sister Lau and Sister Mitchell - we knocked on his door after Sylvia let us in and he wasn't home but we ran into him in the parking lot on our way out to the car! So it really was a night full of miracles. As long as you're willing, Heavenly Father guides you to where you need to be and you'll be placed in the path of those that are ready to receive the gospel. Always in His time, not our own.
But anyways, that was the week! March is already over and April is just beginning! Time is flying still but I'm so happy to be back in Castro Valley. I know there's more than one reason that I'm here, and I'm going to make sure I found out every reason so that I can do the things I need to do for the people in this area.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Hermana Hunsaker
The crazy life of a missionary
You really never know what's going to happen in the field. This week has been full of surprises - most notably: transfers. I am not staying in Oakland. I've only been here for five weeks and I hardly know ANYONE but we were finally starting to find investigators right in time for me to leave. My companion is not staying in Oakland either - I think I'm cursed. Every area I go to gets shotgunned by other missionaries when I leave. Sister Sia is training a new missionary this transfer in the Berkeley singles ward - she's going to do awesome. I probably mentioned this before, but we went into the MTC the same week but she's one transfer ahead of me because she didn't have to learn a language. That means it's her 5th transfer. This is my 4th transfer. I could be training next transfer. That's a frightening thought but with how many new sisters are coming in over the next three transfers, it's almost a guarantee. So we'll see. Sister Sia has been in this area for her entire mission and it's been really hard for her to leave - I think I was supposed to help her with that as well. I can't sum up exactly why I came here to Oakland, but I think it was mostly to help me learn to overcome my fear in finding people to teach and to help Sister Sia prepare for training in a new area. I'm just hoping and praying that those prepared people that we found stick with it and stick with the new sisters!!!
But here's the real crazy thing: I'm going BACK to Castro Valley. Where I was just five weeks ago. My first area. And the ward that broke my heart to leave. And now, after Noelle's baptism and closure from everything there......I'm going back. I'm so excited but so in shock that it doesn't even feel real. And it almost seems too easy.......transferring to a new area should never be easy. I'm sure I'll have a few curveballs while I'm there. We'll see how it goes! There are a few people I know I have to teach: Elaina/Ariel, Jackie, Christine and Gerry. They're all ready and so close! So it'll be nice to be back home in Celestial Valley :)
I want to do this last week justice by writing every single detail, but I still have so much packing to get done. Hopefully this will suffice.
And now that I think about it, not too much happened. Sister Sia woke up sick Tuesday morning and slept in until we went to the VC that afternoon. It was slow, like it usually is on Tuesdays. On Wednesday, we were at the VC from 9-5, like a full-time job. Sister Sia was planning for a training with Sister Garcia and so I spent some time with Sister Cooper. She came one transfer after me, and I just love spending time with her. It's nice to hang out with another American who understands everything I say haha. That doesn't happen often now that I'm not with Sister Ure.
We had dinner with Sister Hall, Sister Palfreyman and her daughter Mandy. We don't get dinners here as often as we did in Castro Valley (I'm looking forward to that), but the difference is that dinners ALWAYS include dessert which probably isn't a good thing. Sister Hall made strawberry shortcake - we left there feeling sick. We went to see Chameka after dinner - I don't know if I've mentioned Chameka before. Sister Sia was visiting her before I got here, but lost touch with her soon after some of her ex-boyfriend's family members came and beat her up in her own home. Chameka showed me the pictures - she looked awful. She said that the Bible and the Book of Mormon were sitting on her dresser the whole time and she got through the ordeal because she could see those two books. She is looking and feeling so much better and is starting to read again. She's finally going to come to church this Sunday, but neither Sister Sia or I will be there. We talked to her about faith and repentance, but it's been so long - the new sisters will probably have to teach her all the lessons all over again. We saw Jerome that night for a few minutes, but Sister Sia wasn't feeling well so it was a quick visit before heading home for the night. Jerome is the less-active member that we found just by going through the ward list and contacting people that nobody knew. It's such a cool story - he's so ready to turn his life around and come back to church. He wants the priesthood and he wants to go to the temple. He's going to do just great, we know it.
Thursday was full of trainings. We had VC training in the morning then a power nap for Sister Sia and then a meeting for all the new trainers and their companions that afternoon before the VC. I don't know much about Sister Sia's meeting, but mine was really great. We learned about listening and asking the right questions in order to teach to the needs of our investigators. Sister Sia and I applied that concept a lot this week, especially with Angel and Myriam.
We added a new investigator on Friday! We finally met with Anthony, the guy we met watering his front lawn after a cold welcome from the wife of a referral a couple weeks ago, and he seems pretty solid! He makes his own schedule right now as he's starting up a new company, but it's still hard to get a hold of him to set up a time to meet. Hopefully the new sisters will be able to get in touch with him! After seeing Anthony, we went to Sister Hawkins' home for lunch. It was just soup and sandwiches but it was a great meal. She's 91, has 6 children, 18 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren, lives on her own in almost perfect health and looks like she's 75! I don't think I'll have that much luck but we'll see. If so, I have no problem living past 80. We visited a lot of people but weren't able to meet with anyone. We mostly went to visit all of our African-American investigators and potential investigators to invite them to a special event: a Why I Believe program where African-American converts shared their testimony. We found out about in only a couple of days before the event, so we scrambled to invite everyone. One of our potential investigators came out in practically no clothing so that was interesting. We also got to see the daughter of our other investigator Angel making out with her boyfriend in front of the house as we talked to Angel. So...it's a different world out here. But it was good to see Angel - and we learned more about how she needs the healing power of the Atonement. Her husband had two daughters with another woman while they were married and the daughters were coming into town so she told us. She needs the gospel so much and she says she is keeping an open mind - we're praying for her.
Saturday and Sunday were both mad dashes. The VC was busy all Saturday morning - a group of Cub Scouts came without a reservation and hung out for three hours. There was just so much going on. Afterwards, we ran over to see Myriam - it's breaking my heart to leave Myriam and her daughter Emma. I'm SURE I've talked about them both, but we learned so much about them on Saturday. Myriam totally opened up and told us EVERYTHING. She needs the gospel so much. We found out that she has early on-set Alzheimer's - she's only 42 years old and she has two young kids at home. She was so tired when we came over - she is so stressed with her older daughter being in town. The Alzheimers started because Emma and Jeremy's father beat her into a coma for six months and so she suffered an aneurysm. Despite everything she does to help people around her, despite her very limited means, she has no friends. She has no family - only her dad and her kids. Her parents got divorced and her dad got her mom deported back to France. Her mom died without her even knowing. Her one sister Rachel died two years after suffering from stage IV breast cancer for eight years - she died when she was 36. Her whole life is just so sad, but she seemed so happy. That's the biggest thing I've learned this week: everyone has a story and we don't know it. But as a missionary, I need to be able to find their stories in order to help them. Heavenly Father is the only one the knows every person perfect but as we listen with the love of the Savior, we will know their needs and know how to help them like He would and like Heavenly Father will. We ended up talking about the Book of Mormon a lot; she mentioned that Jeremiah was her favorite prophet and so we showed her in the Book of Mormon where Nephi mentions Jeremiah. We invited her to church and she said she'd be there - she told us to call and remind her several times in the morning, but she said she'd come.
We had dinner that night with the Cupp family - they're a part member family. The wife Kim was an investigator for awhile but stopped investigating when she was unable to quit smoking. In the past couple of weeks though, she's been coming to church on her own! She may be ready soon and hopefully the whole family will keep moving towards higher church attendance. After dinner, we went to the Why I Believe event. There were some great testimonies -Sister Sia's convert Barbara spoke and Jerome came - and it was an interesting perspective coming from African-american members of the church who went through a lot of trials before joining the church. It was super interesting, but some of the speakers spoke very slow. It drained all my energy just to stay awake at times. After the program, we rushed home and waited for transfer call. Sister Sia recorded it - she knew where she was going but I had no idea what was happening. My reaction was pretty typical - I totally jumped with surprise. I never expected to go back to Castro Valley so soon. But it'll be good!
We had a really cool sacrament meeting where we shared our favorite hymns - we sang some of my favorite ones but there wasn't time for me to share my hymn. This isn't even my favorite hymn - everyone who knows me knows my favorite hymn is #193 - I Stand All Amazed. But instead, I want to share #335 - Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. I love this song, and it's really been an important one for me to remember on my mission, and especially in this area where a lot of people have really hard lives. But the gospel saves every wandering seaman, looking for the light along the shore. Another thing about the lighthouse along the shore is that it can't move - when the sailors see it, they steer their boats in that direction. The lighthouse cannot force anyone to come - as missionaries, it's the same. We can invite people to embrace the gospel of Christ, but we can't make them do anything even when we know how much it will bless them. Myriam didn't come to church yesterday and it was incredibly frustrating. But she knows what she needs. And when she's ready to put in the work to get to that lighthouse, she will be so happy. I can only hope and pray that will happen soon for her - there's not much more I can do.
The rest of church was great as well. Sister Sia said her goodbyes - she was just going to sneak out but I didn't let her - and I stood there. I didn't know too many people well enough to give them personal goodbyes. It felt like my first Sunday in the ward again. After church we went to the VC. Once again - super busy. We were able to devote some specific time to a large family that came in - a mom, a dad and NINE children. We took them all around the VC and we took pictures and then they sang "I Want to be a Missionary Now" for us. It was so fun. I don't think I could handle nine kids, but I love seeing big families come into the VC. After the VC we went to dinner at the Pritchett's home. Brother Pritchett teaches institute for the UC Berkeley students and Sister Pritchett teaches in Relief Society - she has taught some really great lessons. They are both very intellectual and teach in very different ways. Brother Pritchett taught an institute class about Mormonism in art and the letters of Paul. They are pretty cool. We ate mushroom barley - despite my hatred for mushrooms, I got through it and it didn't taste too bad! They were so sweet - they were the perfect members to have our last dinner here with.
We rushed out of there and went to see the Lamb of God at a Catholic cathedral in Oakland. We met Angel there but she left early and got there super late so we didn't get to tell her that we're leaving the area. But the performance was beautiful and the building looked so cool! It was nowhere near the feeling I get in the temple, but the performance filled that huge room with the Spirit. It was absolutely beautiful.
I can't believe I'm leaving this area and these people that I was just starting to fall in love with. But the Lord has a bigger plan for me that I can't understand right now. I'll figure it out someday.
Have a good week everyone!
Sending all my love your way -
Hermana Hunsaker
But here's the real crazy thing: I'm going BACK to Castro Valley. Where I was just five weeks ago. My first area. And the ward that broke my heart to leave. And now, after Noelle's baptism and closure from everything there......I'm going back. I'm so excited but so in shock that it doesn't even feel real. And it almost seems too easy.......transferring to a new area should never be easy. I'm sure I'll have a few curveballs while I'm there. We'll see how it goes! There are a few people I know I have to teach: Elaina/Ariel, Jackie, Christine and Gerry. They're all ready and so close! So it'll be nice to be back home in Celestial Valley :)
I want to do this last week justice by writing every single detail, but I still have so much packing to get done. Hopefully this will suffice.
And now that I think about it, not too much happened. Sister Sia woke up sick Tuesday morning and slept in until we went to the VC that afternoon. It was slow, like it usually is on Tuesdays. On Wednesday, we were at the VC from 9-5, like a full-time job. Sister Sia was planning for a training with Sister Garcia and so I spent some time with Sister Cooper. She came one transfer after me, and I just love spending time with her. It's nice to hang out with another American who understands everything I say haha. That doesn't happen often now that I'm not with Sister Ure.
We had dinner with Sister Hall, Sister Palfreyman and her daughter Mandy. We don't get dinners here as often as we did in Castro Valley (I'm looking forward to that), but the difference is that dinners ALWAYS include dessert which probably isn't a good thing. Sister Hall made strawberry shortcake - we left there feeling sick. We went to see Chameka after dinner - I don't know if I've mentioned Chameka before. Sister Sia was visiting her before I got here, but lost touch with her soon after some of her ex-boyfriend's family members came and beat her up in her own home. Chameka showed me the pictures - she looked awful. She said that the Bible and the Book of Mormon were sitting on her dresser the whole time and she got through the ordeal because she could see those two books. She is looking and feeling so much better and is starting to read again. She's finally going to come to church this Sunday, but neither Sister Sia or I will be there. We talked to her about faith and repentance, but it's been so long - the new sisters will probably have to teach her all the lessons all over again. We saw Jerome that night for a few minutes, but Sister Sia wasn't feeling well so it was a quick visit before heading home for the night. Jerome is the less-active member that we found just by going through the ward list and contacting people that nobody knew. It's such a cool story - he's so ready to turn his life around and come back to church. He wants the priesthood and he wants to go to the temple. He's going to do just great, we know it.
Thursday was full of trainings. We had VC training in the morning then a power nap for Sister Sia and then a meeting for all the new trainers and their companions that afternoon before the VC. I don't know much about Sister Sia's meeting, but mine was really great. We learned about listening and asking the right questions in order to teach to the needs of our investigators. Sister Sia and I applied that concept a lot this week, especially with Angel and Myriam.
We added a new investigator on Friday! We finally met with Anthony, the guy we met watering his front lawn after a cold welcome from the wife of a referral a couple weeks ago, and he seems pretty solid! He makes his own schedule right now as he's starting up a new company, but it's still hard to get a hold of him to set up a time to meet. Hopefully the new sisters will be able to get in touch with him! After seeing Anthony, we went to Sister Hawkins' home for lunch. It was just soup and sandwiches but it was a great meal. She's 91, has 6 children, 18 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren, lives on her own in almost perfect health and looks like she's 75! I don't think I'll have that much luck but we'll see. If so, I have no problem living past 80. We visited a lot of people but weren't able to meet with anyone. We mostly went to visit all of our African-American investigators and potential investigators to invite them to a special event: a Why I Believe program where African-American converts shared their testimony. We found out about in only a couple of days before the event, so we scrambled to invite everyone. One of our potential investigators came out in practically no clothing so that was interesting. We also got to see the daughter of our other investigator Angel making out with her boyfriend in front of the house as we talked to Angel. So...it's a different world out here. But it was good to see Angel - and we learned more about how she needs the healing power of the Atonement. Her husband had two daughters with another woman while they were married and the daughters were coming into town so she told us. She needs the gospel so much and she says she is keeping an open mind - we're praying for her.
Saturday and Sunday were both mad dashes. The VC was busy all Saturday morning - a group of Cub Scouts came without a reservation and hung out for three hours. There was just so much going on. Afterwards, we ran over to see Myriam - it's breaking my heart to leave Myriam and her daughter Emma. I'm SURE I've talked about them both, but we learned so much about them on Saturday. Myriam totally opened up and told us EVERYTHING. She needs the gospel so much. We found out that she has early on-set Alzheimer's - she's only 42 years old and she has two young kids at home. She was so tired when we came over - she is so stressed with her older daughter being in town. The Alzheimers started because Emma and Jeremy's father beat her into a coma for six months and so she suffered an aneurysm. Despite everything she does to help people around her, despite her very limited means, she has no friends. She has no family - only her dad and her kids. Her parents got divorced and her dad got her mom deported back to France. Her mom died without her even knowing. Her one sister Rachel died two years after suffering from stage IV breast cancer for eight years - she died when she was 36. Her whole life is just so sad, but she seemed so happy. That's the biggest thing I've learned this week: everyone has a story and we don't know it. But as a missionary, I need to be able to find their stories in order to help them. Heavenly Father is the only one the knows every person perfect but as we listen with the love of the Savior, we will know their needs and know how to help them like He would and like Heavenly Father will. We ended up talking about the Book of Mormon a lot; she mentioned that Jeremiah was her favorite prophet and so we showed her in the Book of Mormon where Nephi mentions Jeremiah. We invited her to church and she said she'd be there - she told us to call and remind her several times in the morning, but she said she'd come.
We had dinner that night with the Cupp family - they're a part member family. The wife Kim was an investigator for awhile but stopped investigating when she was unable to quit smoking. In the past couple of weeks though, she's been coming to church on her own! She may be ready soon and hopefully the whole family will keep moving towards higher church attendance. After dinner, we went to the Why I Believe event. There were some great testimonies -Sister Sia's convert Barbara spoke and Jerome came - and it was an interesting perspective coming from African-american members of the church who went through a lot of trials before joining the church. It was super interesting, but some of the speakers spoke very slow. It drained all my energy just to stay awake at times. After the program, we rushed home and waited for transfer call. Sister Sia recorded it - she knew where she was going but I had no idea what was happening. My reaction was pretty typical - I totally jumped with surprise. I never expected to go back to Castro Valley so soon. But it'll be good!
We had a really cool sacrament meeting where we shared our favorite hymns - we sang some of my favorite ones but there wasn't time for me to share my hymn. This isn't even my favorite hymn - everyone who knows me knows my favorite hymn is #193 - I Stand All Amazed. But instead, I want to share #335 - Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. I love this song, and it's really been an important one for me to remember on my mission, and especially in this area where a lot of people have really hard lives. But the gospel saves every wandering seaman, looking for the light along the shore. Another thing about the lighthouse along the shore is that it can't move - when the sailors see it, they steer their boats in that direction. The lighthouse cannot force anyone to come - as missionaries, it's the same. We can invite people to embrace the gospel of Christ, but we can't make them do anything even when we know how much it will bless them. Myriam didn't come to church yesterday and it was incredibly frustrating. But she knows what she needs. And when she's ready to put in the work to get to that lighthouse, she will be so happy. I can only hope and pray that will happen soon for her - there's not much more I can do.
The rest of church was great as well. Sister Sia said her goodbyes - she was just going to sneak out but I didn't let her - and I stood there. I didn't know too many people well enough to give them personal goodbyes. It felt like my first Sunday in the ward again. After church we went to the VC. Once again - super busy. We were able to devote some specific time to a large family that came in - a mom, a dad and NINE children. We took them all around the VC and we took pictures and then they sang "I Want to be a Missionary Now" for us. It was so fun. I don't think I could handle nine kids, but I love seeing big families come into the VC. After the VC we went to dinner at the Pritchett's home. Brother Pritchett teaches institute for the UC Berkeley students and Sister Pritchett teaches in Relief Society - she has taught some really great lessons. They are both very intellectual and teach in very different ways. Brother Pritchett taught an institute class about Mormonism in art and the letters of Paul. They are pretty cool. We ate mushroom barley - despite my hatred for mushrooms, I got through it and it didn't taste too bad! They were so sweet - they were the perfect members to have our last dinner here with.
We rushed out of there and went to see the Lamb of God at a Catholic cathedral in Oakland. We met Angel there but she left early and got there super late so we didn't get to tell her that we're leaving the area. But the performance was beautiful and the building looked so cool! It was nowhere near the feeling I get in the temple, but the performance filled that huge room with the Spirit. It was absolutely beautiful.
I can't believe I'm leaving this area and these people that I was just starting to fall in love with. But the Lord has a bigger plan for me that I can't understand right now. I'll figure it out someday.
Have a good week everyone!
Sending all my love your way -
Hermana Hunsaker
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