Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

April, 13, 2015

And it came to pass that in the commencement of the 5th week of the
transfer I could find nothing of great value to share with my brethren
in the land of my fathers. And thus, I shall find it sufficient to
recount in no great detail the proceedings of the week.

And now behold it was the custom of the members of the church to go
without food or drink and offer mighty prayer unto the Lord for one
Sunday each month. And it came to pass that by the end of this
fasting, my stomach did growl with mighty hunger, that it might be
consoled, yea, even with food. And it came to pass that my stomachs
great cries were answered as we traveled to the home of Irma, who had
joined the righteous men and woman of the church of God. And I was an
hungered and said: will ye give to an humble servant of God something
to eat?
And she went and brought with her food that she had prepared, and O
how she had prepared to feed us even unto the filling of our bellies
because of the dinner calendar which had been passed to all those in
Relief society prior to that time. And she did serve us Korean bbq and
quinoa. Yea and the rejoicing of my stomach was great therein.

And it came to pass that we also found an investigator of the church
in her home as she too was preparing food, that she might eat and that
she might give thereof to her fellow man at a celebration. And behold,
this was a miracle wrought forth by the hands of God, because of the
struggles that we had previously had in the finding of this woman. And
we did expound unto her the word of God and did exhort her that she
might read and ponder the words every day. And the spirit did touch
her soul, yea, and she did commit to do this thing which we had asked
of her. And we did praise God for the imparting unto us of His spirit
and we did offer up prayer that she might keep the commitment with all
the energy that she possessed.

And it came to pass that in the fifth day of the week there was a
meeting to be held at the office of the mission for those new
missionaries who had embarked in the ways of the lord, that they might
be trained further. And, now, when we had left our apartment to
journey to this meeting we found that our Steele beast was dead. Yea
and it would not turn on. After much labor and diligence we called
upon our sister training leaders, that they might take us to the
meeting. And they did speedily answer or cries. And it came to pass
that after the meeting had commenced we did take another car and
journeyed back to our apartment that might again jump our first car.
And behold it came to my rememberance the method of how to jump the
car. And behold our car did cease to keep running, even that we had to
jump it a second time and drive as speedily as the laws of the land and
the Steele beast would permit to the land of Orange to have the car
inspected. And it came to pass that on this journey we did name our
car "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" for the sounds which it did continue to
make tirelessly.  And we remained in the Chevy car dealership for the
space of two hours as we awaited the repair of our car. And after much
labor our car was restored back to its original frame and we did drive
home with safety.

And thus ended the fifth week of the transfer in the land of Anaheim
California.

Love
Hermana may

Proof of our homemaker skills! Yep, Spaghetti is so hard, we didn't even use a recipe!

some random crazy guy made us this bouquet of flowers that he
picked from random places and tied them together with grass. He sure
was crazy, but he's talented when it comes to flowers.

the humongous potato bug we found on Easter.

Easter

April 8, 2015

So this week was just peachy. General Conference was great! It's always great . . . Especially on a mission. I just feel so inspired when I watch it. Good thing we have them. I was sad Elder Scott didn't speak though. I like him. My favorite talk, well one of them, was the last one about Keeping the Sabbath day holy. Good stuff. 

Yesterday we went on exchanges. I stayed here and sister Galicia came with me! It was so much fun. We get along so well. We probably had too much fun, but at least we were working . . . Except for when we killed the car. I don't even know how, we didn't leave our lights on... And I'm not sure what else kills a car but the battery was dead. We had to wait for the zone leaders to come and fix it. On the bright side I now know how to jump a car in case I find my self in that situation. The black cord is negative, like satan. Boo yah. 

Today we got to go to the temple. Yay temple trips! Man, you just can't beat the spirit in the temple. We had to get up at five though so we could get ready and drive there for the seven o'clock session. So I'm so tired. But on a happy note I feel like I can successfully get around Orange County now. We had to take three different highways to get to the temple that's only half an hour ish away. Sheesh. 

Afterwards we went out to eat at Denny's as a zone. Good bonding times. The elders were telling all sorts of crazy stories about seeing dead bodies and getting knifes and guns pulled on them and things like that. None of that has ever happened to me- perks of being a sister missionary. You just have to worry about getting stalked. 

For Easter sister Howard and I dyed Easter eggs! That stupid Crayon thing didn't even work so nothing I wrote on the eggs worked. Whatever. They were still colorful. And we ate so much candy. We were like monsters. We couldn't stop ourselves. So now we are on a strict no candy diet. So no one send me candy. I will throw it away or give it away if you do.  But thanks for the package mom, it was delicious while it lasted. 

Anyways, that's about all for today. Our investigators are doing pretty good. We lost a date this week, but hopefully once they work our the issues they'll be able to be baptized and all will be well. Life is easier when you keep the commandments. So do it. 

Have a splendid week! I love you all! 

Love hermana May

Our Easter Eggs

Our Easter Eggs

Easter Bucket Irma made us!

Hand made chocolates that were in our Easter bucket. Cute!!!

Temple trip

  

New Foods

March 30, 2015

This week was good.
Sister Howard and I are getting super good at cooking.yep we made corn
chowder this week. Look out. Every week is a new thing.

Sister Howard cut her hair today. It looks cute. I'm still growing
mine out so I can win Mandy in our hair growing competition. It's on.

We finally got one of our investigators on date this week. She seems
really excited. I really like her. Her name is Elizabeth and she just
believes everything we teach her so quickly. It's cool:) I hope she
makes it on her date. I'll keep you updated about her.

We went to the temple tour on Saturday this week. It was really good.
You always feel the spirit there. But the temple tour ended kinda late
so we just had to stay in Newport Beach and watch the women's
conference with a bunch of white people from the Irvine mission. It
was good though. I had been looking forward to that all week long.

I've been trying new foods lately. I've eaten pho a few times. It's
this Vietnamese soup. It's really good. You should try it sometime. Or
you can just wait for me and I'll take ya'll. Delicious. I'm getting
pretty good at chop sticks if I do say so myself.

Sister and Howard and I are going to have movie day. We are going to
watch the testaments and eat oven pizza today to finish off p-day.
Super duper fun stuff going on here in Garden Grove.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying so hard to find stuff to write
about, but I really just don't have much for you. I feel like I say
that every week... But it's still true.

I love you! Have a good Easter!! And conference!
Love hermana may

Irma's Baptism!

March 23, 2015

So this week was great! Because we had a baptism! The baptism of Irma.
She is just great!! We love her! The setting up and getting everything
ready for the baptism was a disaster and our president showed up so
that just made it more stressful, and man, there was so much confusion
and everyone was upset with me for one reason or another. Ay ay ay. I
had the biggest headache. But it worked out in the end because she got
baptized and the spirit was there and that's all that matters? Right?
Right.

Sister Howard and I made potato casserole this week. It was delicious.
We are practically home makers. And we made enough to last us the
month. Perfect. I thought you'd be proud mom.

We went out to ice cream with our sister training leaders this week so
that was just great.  They had some red velvet ice cream so that was a
win.

Today we has a special activity with David Artchuleta. . . I don't
know how to spell his name. It was really good. He shared some good
stories and sang really amazingly. We were edified. We got pictures
too, which I don't have but I do have faith one day I will get it. And
I shook his hand. So I'm basically a celebrity now too. Nbd.

We got a baptismal date this week. She is super hard to find though,
so we will see how that goes. But other than that we are just finding.
Pray that we will find someone to teach that needs the gospel. Thank
you. :)

I can't think of what else happened this week. I'm sure stuff did. But
I don't remember.

I remember. We also celebrated saint Patrick's day with green jello,
pistachio pudding and a shamrock shake. Be jealous.
Pictures of our potato casserole.

Have a super duper week.
Love hermana may

Irma's Baptism

I'm a Homemaker!!

Our potato casserole

New Companion

March 16, 2015

So this week was good. Transfer meeting on Monday left me companion
less, so I hung out with sister Russell who was also training. We stayed
at her apartment which is in my old ward and on Tuesday we went and
visited Patricia! Remember her? She is my favorite. Still going
strong, so that's good. I love her.

And later on Tuesday we went and I picked up my new trainee. Sister
Howard. She is super cute and sweet and probably one of the nicest
people I've met. She's a good missionary and her Spanish is pretty
great too. So that's good. We get along real well. We both love names
and want to be Nancy Drew so it's going just swimmingly. And we are
going to learn how to cook together. Which reminds me, we need a
recipe for lasagna...because we don't know how to do that. So will you
send me that mamma?

This has been pretty abnormal because we've had so many meetings for
the new missionaries, but luckily they're all settled now and we don't
have another abnormal meeting for another month. I hope.

We went to a baptism on Sunday. One of our investigators showed up!
Hopefully that will help him progress. We made some big headway this
week too with one of our other investigators. Hopefully that will go
somewhere. Finding lately has been really hard. Knocking has proven to
not be so effective as it used to be. So we are turning our efforts to
getting referrals. Which is soooo hard. No one gives us referrals.
Which we don't know why, they always work out so much better. You
should give referrals. Don't have anyone? Pray for experiences and
mean it and someone will be placed in your path, okay? Don't make me
chastise you. In a tender loving way, of course.
But we are working a lot with members. I like it fine though, so
that's alright.

We are super excited for saint Patrick's day. Don't know what we will
do, but we like any reason to celebrate. So maybe we will dye our food
green or something. Who knows.

I think that's all the excitement for this week folks. I love you all!
Have a stupendous day.
Love hermana may. (I'm a poet and I didn't even know it)

Patricia

My New Companion, Sister Howard

New iPads

March 9, 2015

So transfers today. Yeah so Thursday night we got leadership calls.
I got called as a trainer. Again. It was the last thing I was
expecting.  I'm staying in garden grove. I think I'm going to
finish out my mission here, because after training I'll only have one
transfer left, so why would I be transferred my last transfer. That's
just silly. Anywhoo. That's the news here.

I'm not really sure what else happened this week. I feel like it's all
been blurry. Oh. Actually we got new iPads this week. We had some big
training on Tuesday and they told us how we should be using our iPads
and gave us some books and whatnot. So that was a good meeting. Then
later we actually got the new iPads. They're nice. 32 gig and all that
jazz. I didn't pay for mine since I'm going home in the next few
months so that was good. I don't get to keep it, but whateva.

Today sister Russell and I are hanging out since we don't have
companions. She is in my old area, so that should be fun.

Not too much else to say. Not too much has happened since we've had
four meetings this week. What can ya do?

Well I love yall. Have a good week!   Hermana May

So these pictures are of my old district and wars mission leader, one
of our cute members we re activated, my "mission dad" and our
dinosaur.

Aloha

March 2, 2015

This week was just swell. It rained, so that was fancy. 

I was still sick the whole dang week. I got a stupid head cold and I couldn't breathe out of my nose for five days. Ay. I just can't catch a break this transfer, can I? Hopefully I don't get sick this week too. 

Last week of the the transfer by the way. So if next week there's only a short sad email, it's because transfers are crazy. 

So not too much happened this week apparently because I just can't think of anything to write. Sister Johnson had a few funny moments though haha. I had an LSU shirt on and she made a comment about it so I said "maybe I'm an LSU fan." And then she goes "but I thought you were a Dodgers fan." Haha I just laughed for a minute. Maybe it's not that funny, but when you're a missionary, almost anything will crack ya up. Oh and the other funny thing she did this week was while we were at a lesson we had everyone write down two things they want to do in their lifetime and she wrote down "retire" guess that's her dream. 

We did a lot of service this week. We spent a half a day working on a yard of some house they're building completely by volunteers. So that was fun. And we volunteered at the Red Cross again which was kind of boring because you just sit there for a few hours and give people cookies and juice. We also went to the old folks home and we're talking to this little old lady who started telling us about her life, apparently she was a drug runner back in the day. Haha I love old people. 

Everything with Irma is going super well. She is still solid and we are so excited for her to be baptized. We started teaching about keeping the sabbath day holy and she was all "yeah I heard about that so last Sunday was the first Sunday I've ever gone without going out and buying something. It was a nice relaxing day." Haha, she pretty much taught herself keeping the sabbath day holy, we just read a scripture. So then for the commitment we just had to go "um...will you continue keeping the sabbath day holy?" Man, I just love her. 

So this week I re-realized how awesome prayer is. For real. Whenever I pray with real intent and make it sincere and all, God always answers my prayers. I've seen it time and time again for my entire mission. If I pray really hard that we can reach a goal and then actively do something about it, we always reach our goals. Just makes me wonder why I don't pray more about everything!

Anyways. That was my life as a missionary this week. Can you believe it's already March? Time is just flying by. Crazy crazy. It's almost Easter! I love Easter. I like every holiday. I'm especially excited for Memorial Day. 

I love you!

Love hermana May