Happy New Year!

Hi everyone! I hope you are all surviving the post holiday season and getting back into the swing of things. I'm still here and it is getting really warm, 75 degrees most days! Finally time has started going by quicker. For awhile there it was going really slowly. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. It's a new year! I'm getting older because I distinctly remember what I was doing New Year's Eve 10 years ago. Heather [London] and I were sitting on the couch at our house with awesome "2000" glasses on and getting ready to pull a confetti popper when the ball dropped(and of course eating little smokies) Crazy how years fly by. New Year's eve we had to be in at 6pm and did weekly planning until bed time- pretty wild eh? Our Afgani investigator Najiba, who is such a sweetheart, made us dinner that we brought back to our place. It was rice and lamb with some kind of green gooey stuff- not too bad. Who knew I'd eat Afgani food while on a mission in California. Besides that fun, I made Sister Fesolai make New Years hats and wear them for a few minutes and our friend Anna (an rm who helps us out quite a bit) came over for some hat wearing fun! Sister Fesolai thought I was crazy for the hat thing- she hasn't seen nothing yet! We are getting along well and learning from each other. I still can't say I love being with someone 24/7 but we have fun. On Monday a drunk/crazy man rode up to us on his bike in a parking lot and asked us if we knew Jesus. We said yes and he pointed to the sky and told us to teach everyone to "chief luff bluff" So everyone.... "chief luff bluff" If any of you figure out what that means let me know! There are definately crazy people but it keeps things rolling. The work is slowing down. We had to ,what I call, "Lay Down the Law" this week with a few of our investigators because they just weren't getting anywhere.
Sadly we had to drop 3 of them. That is the hardest thing because you see glimpses of these people grasping concepts and feeling the spirit yet they aren't willing to change. We can't force them. One that just ripped my heart out was a man, his wife, and 3 year old daughter from the middle east. They are Hindu. They are so kind to us and love us to come visit. I've seen them understand and feel the spirit but they just won't change- it's too hard. It is so sad because we talked to them about eternal families and asked how they would feel if they could be with their family forever. The man replied that in essence it didn't make a difference because they believe that in the next lives you will be someone different with different family so in this life your family isn't extremely important because you won't see them again after this life. How sad to go though life with that belief, that all your time on this earth is for naught. It is very sad, especially when you look at their beautiful daughter. We've been able to do some work with reactivation which is going well. One of the less active families who live on the military base are the Jones. He is related to all the Jones, Creagors, and Pentz families in Morgan and Henefer so that was a fun connection. He grew up in Vernal but knew Morgan well. Small world. It's cool because that connection makes it easier for them to invite us in and trust us. We had 3 investigators who were supposed to come to church this week and none of them came- sad....:( That seems to happen a lot. Satan works just as hard as we do.)
One of the things that is the hardest is that we teach lots of single males and thus have to have another woman go with us to teach- a member. It is pretty difficult to find people willing to come with us at a few hours notice because that is all we have. I've been amazed by how much of missionary work involves the members. They are everything and we are very blessed to have such great member missionaries.
My first Zone Conference is coming up this week which is exciting. We were asked to memorize all 5 lesson sequences and a scripture for each which turns out to be about 50 scriptures and we're also supposed to be caught up in our Mission President's challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 75 days. Holy moly.....I have no time. We aren't supposed to do our reading during our study time in the morning so therefore the only time is the 2 minute break you get once a day and the 5 minutes before you go to bed. It's nuts!!!! I was very excited for a p-day today so I could catch up. The most exciting news is that Ryan is still doing really well. Because of stake conference, we had to move his baptism to the 23rd of January. The 23rd will be a busy day. The Overlie family is getting sealed in the San Diego temple (which I get to go to) and then we have to rush back for Ryan's baptism! His family are mostly Jehovah Witness and are not very supportive of his decision but he is a strong person. One thing I've seen, is that accepting and living the gospel is not an easy thing. I don't think it ever will be-for anyone. It just comes down to having to set all else aside to know that you are a child of God and that is all that really matters. When it comes down to it and you set aside your family and obligations you have to do what you have to do to return to live with God-that is everything. That is our purpose and his plan. I am growing to feel more strongly my Heavenly Father's love for me and for all of his children. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's church established on the earth again through a living prophet. I hope you all have made a New Year's resolution to be better at sharing the gospel. It honestly doesn't have to be scary. Try it!!!! I'll do it if you do it!!! I love you all and miss you lots.
Sister London