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 |
