Week 1 of English Work Down

Well this past week has been pretty crazy because sister fonua who has been here the longest of all of us has only been here 2 weeks longer than us so we are basically white washing, so we have been going to all the less actives and formers to see who even still lives here, it is super crazy! However we also have 1 investigator Leo and his girlfriend is a less active member but coming back to church and they have a 2 yr old daughter (Mary Ann) anyway so last week we committed them to something strange, we comitted them to be married on August 13th, being as that is a necessary step towards baptism for Leo. So little did we know that we would be semi wedding planners on our missions but it's great because the ward is willing to help. Oh I also I realized that the Spirit is super appointment because one night this week we were planning for the next day and we wrote down a members name and then the next day we were wondering why we wrote that name down and then we couldn't find the street of Where Linda lived, and the very next day we went to the Relief Society president and she said that Linda the mysterious member we wrote down had been wanting a blessing, which we couldn't give but could find someone, but it was in that moment that I realized just how real the Spirit is, it was amazing!  English work is much different than Spanish work but I like it. Since it was Pioneer day yesterday we had a stake celebration on Saturday, we were excited for it! It was fun because we got to meet some of the members and attempt to play soccer in skirts, that did not last long! Well also I had an opportunity to go visit some members in our ward and it was really fun because they just reminded me so much of grandma and grandpa Love and some of their kids were there and we discussed a lot about mission work because the Nelsons (in our ward) served a few missions and their daughter did also, so it was a good time! Well I am really looking forward to this next week and hopefully we can make a little more progress in the work here in Chino, in the San Antonio Ward. Also I had a great experience we had a dinner appointment with a lady from Mexico so I used that chance to use my spanish and she told me she thought I was from Central America, I guess I'm getting the language better than I thought. Well anyway I guess that is all for now I love you all and hope everyone is doing well!

Love, Sister Love

Transfers Happened!!

Well Transfers is the big thing for this week we got our calls on Saturday night and transferred this morning, I am still in a little bit of shock of what my call is. I actually am still in Chino but I moved apartments because I am in Chino but I am actually in an ENGLISH ward and in a TRIO! Wow! I didn't think I'd ever be sent to go to English work because I was only called English but they said it would only be for this transfer and then I will go back to Spanish work. I'm living with a member of the Spanish ward, (my last ward) and hopefully I'll get to talk to them a little, to keep my Spanish up and the President is letting me continue to have my hour of language study so that is very lucky for me, I hope not to lose the little I have learned thus far!

I really enjoyed my last area a lot and I loved the Ward. Jose who just got baptized got confirmed yesterday and already got a calling of ward missionary. He will do really great in that calling, he wants to serve a mission so bad although he cannot! Our district went to Jose's this past week and we had papusa's (salvadorian food) me and my last companion helped his mom make them it was super fun! Oh and because latinos are awesome we just had a ward fathers day party last week, don't worry I know fathers day was like a month ago and it had to be postponed, apparently they believe in postponing parties instead of canceling them but I was okay with that. Other than that this week was sort of a blur.

Well also my trainer flies home tomorrow which is weird, and my old companion is training this transfer and so is Sister Thompson from my MTC trio and then me and sister Cruz both got sent English this transfer but now a little bit about my companions I don't know much yet, but Sister Eggleston is originally from here but most recently from Provo Utah, and Sister Fonua is a Polynesian from AUSTRALIA! She is awesome especially her accent is super cool as well, It will be an interesting 6 weeks, but it will be good I am sure!

Well I love you all lots! I am praying for you all!

Love, Sister Love

Last Week of Transfers!!

Well from the title you can see this is the last week of my second transfer! Time sure does go by pretty fast! But so next time I email I may be in a new area probably in a trio with my MTC companions but I will know for sure when we get transfer calls at the end of this week. But anyway this week was pretty crazy! My companion wasn't feeling so great this week, and was sure that she would be going home at the end of this transfer or maybe even at the end of last week because she is soo sick! But on Thursday we met our new mission president and his wife! President and sister Becerra! They are way awesome! President Pike was super awesome and really prepared this mission to go forward and take off! President Becerra has a great enthusiasm for missionary work and really is getting our mission excited to continue in the work! He talked a lot about faith and basically says nothing happens unless we have faith and are willing to exercise our faith to find new investigators. Anyway I was super exciting!

Now going back to my companion after we had our meeting with President Becerra, she went into the interview planning on getting a date of whn she would return home, but because our president is awesome! She came out knowing she was going to stay! I was super excited for her! Because she is so close to being finished with her mission and she is a really hard worker! So she is going to stay and finish her mission so I'm super happy for her! Especially since she is such a great missionary and has a very good personality.

Then we ended up the week with a baptism yesterday! it was such a super nice experience and really spiritual, because Jose the one who got baptized is soo awesome! He went from a crazy life, to when the missionaries in english work found him he was smoking a pack of cigarettes a day and by the time a week later they passed him off to us, to 3 a day to completely quitting 2 weeks after we met him, and then also the first time he came to church in sneakers and the next time in dress shoes to just this past week he bought a suit and he said the only time he had ever worn a tie before is when he got married and now he bought ties and a suit instead of paying his tickets so he could get his license back. Missionary work is soo awesome all day yesterday he was talking about how he was soo happy and he is already working on helping his family receive the gospel and come to church. None of his family came to the baptism but I feel he is setting a great example for his family!

I love being a part of this work and being able to help others have happiness in their lives! Well I hope all is going well for everyone back at home! I love you all!

Love, Hermana Love

First 2 Baptisms!

Well this past week was quite an eventful week and also quite an interesting week, I actually wrote down stuff so that I could remember, so here it goes:

Monday - Last Pday we played ultimate frisbee inside the church glow in dark style it was pretty sweet, and also we got pranked by the Elders, on monday night because we were in a war with pass along cars on windows of our car but they ended up getting us pretty good they ended up getting into our apartment while we were gone and took our mattresses and put them in our tiny bathroom, but it was pretty hillarious and creative, they ended up coming and putting them back for us while we sat on our porch but it was super random.

Tuesday -  We had a lesson outside with an investigator and in the middle of the lesson I thought wow my leg is stinging, and then I looked down and realized their was a bee on me and had stung me for real, I stayed super calm and then my comp. and our investigator were freaking out hoping I was okay and I just laughed. This investigator (Jose) he also gave us eggs from his chicken coo it was so random, He also has a baptismal date in the next 2 weeks! Exciting!

Wednesday - Sister Christian decided she was curious about how long it took to walk to our area from our apartment and we also decided if we did that we would be more grateful for our car, and so we walked and realized it took 20 mins. to get to the church but 50 minutes to get to our area, we were thinking it was not bad, we walked to a members home hoping that we could share something with her and she could drive us back, but she wasn't home so we knocked for a while and then walked back home! We were soo hot and dead by the time we got home, but we really were very grateful for our car now!

Thursday- is proving to be a brain block for me but I'm sure it was an awesme day.

Friday - was pretty normal as well I guess we just had weekly planning and some lessons so it was good!

Saturday -  I tried Curry for the first time, and we also went with a less active member to cleans someones house but she wasn't home but it was still super random!

Sunday - The best day we had a baptism for 2 9 yr. old twins, they have some kind of disability but they are really intelligent but we were really worried because one of the twins got there and was crying because he was so nervous and afraid of going in the water but it ended up just working out fine, and he calmed down for the actual baptism! it was a neat experience!

Also Jose our investigator with abaptismal date had his last cigarette on Saturday we were soo excited!

Well I love you all, and hope everything is going good at home!
Love, Hermana Love

Another Week in Good Ole' Chino

Well Hello all!
It was yet another great week in Chino it turns out last transfer I didn't pay very much attention to where Sister Ence was driving so needless to say this first week with Sister Christian we got a little lost sometimes (or took maybe a "detour") because our area is huge, but it's coming along and I'm starting to actually learn my area, plus sister Christian is awesome!

However, one of the highlights of the week was we had a ward talent show this week, and some of the elders said they would do something in it and well I had no plans in performing in the talent show, but then Sister Christian decided the night before talent show that we really have to do something and put ourselves out there so the ward will love us more. So we were trying to come up with something and eventually decided we would rap, so she wrote a rap in spanish in just a night. Don't worry it was definitely a mission rap, about knocking on doors, being tired, getting attacked by dogs and checking the mailbox to find it empty and how we love mexican food and stuff. Needless to say the ward loved it and actually they made us do it again later on in the talent show. It was fun and I think it's a good way that the ward could get to know us. We also sang Army of Helaman as  a district so it was good, and lots of them had awesome talents, our Chino ward is awesome and really rises to the occassion I love them.

Also we discovered this week that these 2 twin boys we have been teaching are 9 and actually get to be counted as converts but we thought that they were going to be member baptisms they are soo cute. Also one of our recent converts named Ybon, who we love so much her sister actually just got here this week from Mississippi, said she wanted to be baptized so the day we went to meet her, we got there and she told her husband that we were going to give her the lessons because she was going to be baptized. So that's simple enough. I'm pretty excited about it! it seems promising, I just hope she is willing to make the changes that are necessary.

Also my new companion has convinced me that I should drink these protein drinks so we'll see how that goes. It turns out half the mssion is like on this protein kick it's kind of funny! Well anyway I'm excited for another week! I love ya all and hope things are going great for you all!

Love, Hermana Love

First Transfers!

Well this past week was a super great one, me and Sister Ence had some good times this past week! We contacted a lot but one of the exciting things that happened this week, is we decided to go to Rite aid to get ice cream, and we got there and parked next to some guy sitting in his car with the window rolled down, so I gave him a card and we talked to him for a while we was actually in the process of moving here from Chicago and he was super nice. We also have an English class at the church but no one comes so we've been working on advertising it a little bit more. So we told him about it because it was actually happening that night but he didn't come, but anyway comes Sunday (yesterday) were at church and the elders were asking who some random guy was there and we look and it was Martin the guy we met at Rite Aid! He only stayed for Sacrament but he liked it and we are going to try and meet with him sometime this week! He is a very promising potential! That just shows that the Lord really does work in mysterious ways! Who knew us going to get ice cream could lead to such a great potential, really you can find people anywhere it's so awesome!

Now the second big thing is Transfers were this weekend! We get calls on Saturday night. So we sat there after planning just waiting to see if we would get a call and it was about 10:15 and we still didn't get a call so we thought maybe we are staying together and Sister Ence will die here in Chino because she only has one more transfer left. Then we got the call that Sister Ence is transferring to an English Ward in Diamond Bar which we cover as part of our Spanish area so it's crazy she is not going very far at all! She was super sad because she really came to love the people and we worked well as a companionship but things have to change here in The mission. So my new companion who I met up with this morning is Sister Christian. She is from Maryland and actually she has been out over a year and has about 3 transfers left but this is only her second area. she Was in Covina her whole mission it is super crazy that she was there for so long, but she seems way cool and I am excited for what is to come, it will be an interesting transfer because like Troy our new mission president is coming at the end of this month too, so the mission will change now! But It will be super awesome!

Oh also something random the 2 boys from here left on their missions this week and so last Monday we had a noce de hogar as another farewell kind of thing but anyway and it was there that I tried Menudo, which is a soup with cow stomach! it did not taste very good at all but I had to try it just to try it, but I probably will never eat it again! Oh and we contacted some cool people Nick and Claudia but we referred them to the English Elders yet again, but it's okay because we got a referral of this old man who is reading the Book of Mormon but his daughter is hard core atholic so we can't really make appointments with him, but he said on June 19th he will come to church because he wants to read the Book of Mormon first it is very promising! Well things are slowly but surely staring to pick up here in Chino so all will be good!

well love ya,
Hermana Love

Happy Memorial Day!

Well another week has come and gone and lucky for us we got to come to the church to email today since the library is closed. So it's pretty awesome! Anyway so things are going here in Chino, it's a little slow but things are coming around me and my companion are trying to see the positive in every situation. We have no progressing investigators right now except on Saturday one of our old investigators called, but he didn't want us to come to where he was staying and wont tell us either but he ran to a park a little bit a ways from his apartment to meet with us, we brought Lily (a member) with us. It was pretty good. Then on Sunday we told him we could get him a ride for church but he found his own ride and came on his own, so hopefully this time he is ready to progress! And on top of Luis coming a recent convert/less active teenager came with his family, plus another less active lady we have been visiting.

Also there are 2 boys in a family here that are both leaving on their missions on Wednesday they are not twins but they are leaving the same day, they are a convert family. But I guess they don't have papers or something so they are serving in different missions here in California and they are going straight to the mission since they can't travel to the MTC! But anyway it's exciting but they do farewells a little different here on Saturday night they had their despidida (farewell) at the church and it was like a scrament on a saturdday night like the Bishop conducting and we had hymns and the 2 missionaries spoke and another speaker. However it seems that us sister missionaries are the go to in the ward and so I was the chorister at the meeting it was embarrassing because we all know how I am at music. But it's okay. I'm glad I can help in the ward.

On Sunday it was the 5th sunday, which in this ward apparently means missionary sunday. So that means 3 of the elders in the ward and myself had to speak however they were super nice to me and only made me give my testimony so that was good, its something I can do because I learned my testimony the 2nd day at the MTC, plus the 2 boys leaving bore their testimonies also. It was great! I just can't wait to be able to understand the meetings at church, at least I know that the spirit is there.

So I know as we put forth our effort and do our best the lord will help us out, I'm so glad that the definition of a good missionaryt is whether you have investigators or not because some of our best days this week we have only taught maybe one lesson, but we had good contacts and it feels soo good knowing we are doing our best even if people are choosing to reject our message! My testimony and my faith are getting a little bit stronger everyday! I know that people are being prepared and The Lord really is mindful of each and everyone of us, and prayers are answered maybe not in the way we think but they are!

This past week has probably been my best week! I love missionary work!

Love, Hermana Love