Claim to Fame!

Hi!!! Well, the rain stopped!!!! Back to my beautiful San Diego weather. The Overlie family sealing this week was so amazing. Sister Overlie was sealed to her parents, then to her husband, and then to her 4 children. It was so great. Those 4 little hooligans have become really close to me and I love them. Seeing them all dressed in white kneeling at the alter with their parents was a sight I will never forget. I bawled like a baby- no big surprise! Ryan's baptism didn't happen because he isn't quite ready but I have faith in him. DeAndre is still my favorite buddy. That kid is amazing. Even though we had to turn him over to the Elders to teach (because he is under 30 so in singles branch) we still see him and eat lunch with him fairly often. He asks us great questions and accepts the answers so willingly. We talk as if he will be a member and just say things like "when you go on your mission" and "when you get married in the temple" and he doesn't disagree but just goes with it. The other day he asked how you pay for a mission and we told him. He then said that he better start saving his money!!! It is just a matter of time. Transfer meeting is today. I am staying in Scripps Ranch (Miramar) but Sister Fesolai is leaving. I am a little nervous about being the "experienced" one-aka the one who is supposed to know how to find addresses and where we need to go. I've never been so good with street names so we'll see what happens. I'll let you know about the new companion....Well, things here are going and I'm keeping up with it. Brother Kunz is still a favorite member. He is such a good man and really takes care of me here. I know I can call him if I ever need anything. I will try to send pictures soon of the Overlies and the temple. I hope all is well with you all. I love you lots. Oh and Ryon Bingham is in my ward and I'm eating there next month. He plays football for the Chargers- My claim to fame!!!!! I love you all!
Sister London

We're "serving" in the rain!

Holy moly....what a week! I don't know if you've all heard, but Southern California is getting poured on this week starting yesterday. It is expected that this week we'll get 20 inches of rain. I think we saw 6 inches of that yesterday, at least that is how much was gushing in the gutters. I'm not sure if I've ever been so wet unintentionally in my life. I don't think I like the feeling of wet nylons. Seriously, my rain coat goes below my waist about 6 inches so my stomach was dry but my skirt was soaked. Literally dripping water. It was pretty funny. My shoes squirt out water when I walk! We do have a car but we still walk quite a bit so we got soaked. It was fun the first day but I don't know if it will still be funny when I am soaking and freezing on Thursday! It was funny because we showed up to dinner and Sister Hill (a recent convert) was shocked by how wet we were. She lent us some clothing and we put ours in the dryer while we ate. I'm sure we were quite a sight but hey- memories were made.
So funny story- my companion Sister Fesolai has six brothers and is not a girly girl at all. She has never curled her hair or worn makeup but we have an investigator- Najiba- from Afghanistan who takes it upon herself to "doll up" Sister Fesolai. Last week she put makeup on her and it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Sister Fesolai was so scared. She kept moving further and further away from Najiba. I literally had to hold her head while Najiba put lip gloss on her and I had to use my muscles to really hold her still. It honestly was so funny. She was completely freaked out at the end with the result!
The Overlie family is getting sealed on Saturday and I am so excited!!!!! I get to go to the San Diego temple and see them sealed! DeAndre, our 18 year old miracle, is still doing awesome. Sadly, he is 18 so we had to turn him over to the singles ward elders- I must say this is a rule I have a hard time with...we can't teach anyone under 30 even if we find them and they want us to teach them. It breaks my heart because we have a really strong connection with him. I know he will be baptized soon and I hope I am able to attend. We still check up on him and are friends with him because he needs us. He has never had a real mother figure and as cheesy as it sounds I think we are somewhat that to him though more like a sister. I think the hardest thing of my mission so far has been giving up DeAndre to the elders. I really had a hard time with it but I'll trust that he and I'll be blessed for my obedience to the mission rule.
Stake Conference this week was amazing. President Uchtdorf and Elder Holland spoke about forgiving ourselves and resolving to live with the spirit of love and forgiveness. An analogy of going to the dentist was given....You don't want to go to the dentist(forgive) but you have to get the decay out so you can let the healing start. I still don't think I like the dentist but I feel justified in that because neither does Elder Holland!!! Loreto, a Philipino man, we recently found through a referral did something cool yesterday. We were teaching him for the 2nd time. The first time we mostly helped him register on ldsjobs.com so we haven't even taught the Restoration yet. We were just talking about 3 Nephi 11 that we had him read and the importance of baptism came up. We asked him if he thought it was important and he said "yes when can I get baptized? " We were very shocked because that never happens. He was dead serious. So between our surprise and our laughter we said how about February 20th and he said ok, that will work. So I guess Loreto is getting baptized on February 20th! There is such a contrast between the people we teach. Some need months to convince themselves and others are sincerely ready in 2 minutes because they know it is true. I love it!
Basically, I'm staying busy. Transfers are next week and Sister Fesolai is convinced she will be leaving because she's been here 6 months already and only has 2 left. Me, I hope I stay here. I am really growing to love the members here-they are incredible missionaries. I hope you all are doing well. Write and tell me about everything. I like to hear what is going on because it helps me realize that you are all ok. Otherwise, I assume you are all on hold wallowing in your sadness of missing of me!
I love and miss you all. Thank you for your prayers. Don't forget Ground Hog's Day is coming up!!!!!
Love ya, Sister London

Quick "Hi"

Hi everyone. I just spent 40 minutes writing an email and then my computer shut out of the program so sorry- no news this week. Things are going well. We found DeAndre- he's 18 and so ready for the gospel!!!!! I love you lots!

Sister London

[I also got some pictures from Lori that I posted, I apologize for the layout--I'm still new at this blogging. I don't know the explanation for the twin outfits, the middle picture is the 10 minutes of New Year's Eve fun they had with party hats and all, and the bottom picture is from their Christmas Eve emergency room visit.]

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

Happy Holidays!

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great Christmas! It was so great to talk to all of you on Christmas. I'm sad I wasn't there but I'm sure you all thought of me while you were eating my turtles!!!! Thanks for those by the way mom....my comp thinks I'm crazy because I was so excited and I ate two in a row. The Quinns- the family we live with- gave us each a box of chocolates and my comp thought I was again crazy as I took a bite of each one so I could find the caramel one. Can you believe that there was not one caramel one? So I just ate another turtle. I think I like caramel. Thanks all of you for the great packages. It really did make it easier to handle being away. I can't believe the difference it makes when I get something in the mail. It really does keep me going another day because believe me...it's not always easy. Because my companion had kidney stones, the days after Christmas were not as structured as usual and it got us off schedule a bit. [Lori and her companion spent most of Christmas Eve in the emergency room because of the kidney stones] We have finally gotten into the swing of things again. Our Native American investigator came to church which was a huge miracle. He was sent by his tribe to find a church and told he couldn't be baptized. He is perhaps the most in-tune man I have ever met. He looks into your eyes to see if you are telling the truth and there is so much power there when we teach him. The other day we had a really spiritual lesson with him. Sadly he is moving in the middle of January. Yesterday when planning I got the impression that we need to ask him to be baptized tomorrow. It was such a strong feeling. He is up against huge odds. His tribe, family, and entire lifestyle could be in jeopardy. I know he knows the church is true. He will accept. He has to. One thing about missionary work is that we as missionaries have to have faith strong enough to support our investigators. If we believe it can happen, it will. Ryan is also progressing well. He is a very interesting man. I'll try and send a picture soon so you can know who I'm talking about. The story of how he came to be an investigator is pretty neat. At a zone conference the mission president gave all a challenge (before I got here) to take a Book of Mormon and go in 2 hours and find a new investigator. The two sisters went to Ryan's neighbors house to check on an old prospect. They turned to leave and felt an impression to knock on Ryan's door instead because the other man wasn't home. Ryan answered- a huge man with a giant scar across his head. The sisters were a bit taken aback but continued talking and told him about the Book of Mormon. Ryan told them that it was a miracle because he was studying religion and there was only one book out of 20-30 that he didn't have and was looking for- the Book of Mormon. He let them in and they continued teaching him. He dropped the missionaries twice and when I came back he'd called and asked us to come again. One week later he decided to be baptized. He still is learning and growing but there is no doubt he is where he needs to be. Oh, it's so cool!!!! Believe me these things don't happen everyday. Tracting and contacting yield little but it is all worth it when something like this happens. If Ryan and John are the only people I teach on my mission it will be more than worth it. Thanks for all of your love and support. It is what keeps me going on. I hope you all have a great holiday break and that New Years is tons of fun. I love you all lots and lots!
Love,
Sister London

1st Week in the Field

It is weird not to have snow. We went caroling last night and it was so odd not to be freezing while doing it- I didn't even need a jacket. Well, I'm here in California. I am serving in the Skripps Ranch 1st ward area which is in San Diego(it is the very beginning of the mission from the southern end) My companion is Sister Fesolai from New Zealand/Samoa. She is pretty fun and according to everyone I talk to, the best sister missionary in the area. We have a military base(Miramar) in our area and also many rich neighborhoods and other average income housing. The ward members are amazing. I can't believe how much they do. If we need a ride for one of our investigators we just call and they are on the job. It is pretty amazing because I've never ever in my life seem members who are so dedicated to missionary work which is exactly how it should be. There should be no need for full-time missionaries because the members should be doing it. It is a huge blessing. I am very blessed because we have about 10 investigators right now- 3 with baptism dates and one family being sealed next week! I was thrown right into it! We live with the Quinns- ward members, who have a mother-in-law apartment where we stay. I'm told that I am being spoiled because never again will I have such a large room and shower. It has been really nice. They are a very nice family, I believe he is a doctor of some sort. The most exciting news of the day is that Ryan- a 40ish year old man is getting baptized on January 17th. This is so awesome because finding him was a miracle for the sisters before me and it continues to be. He comes from a family of Jehovah Witnesses and was worried about what they would think. He also has some addiction problems. He is such a smart man. He really studies the doctrine and asks amazing questions. He is so funny and you can't help but love him. We weren't expecting him to agree to baptism for awhile and the other night we got a call from the ward mission leader telling us that he set his own date!!!! Julie is also getting baptized in January but is struggling right now from some things that have happened recently. She is our greatest challenge right now because we spent so much time trying to help her. She has a son who is already a member. John is special. He is a Native American who was sent by his tribe to find a church. He has been searching for about a year and doesn't let anyone come into his home very often but he always lets us in and is so kind to us. He is a very humble man and I know he has a testimony. He can look into your eyes and you know he is looking at your soul. He has found the truth but knows his tribe will not be accepting of it so he is caught in the middle- keeping the traditions of his people and sacrificing most of that to be baptized and attend church. I know he will be baptized one day. He is so wise and humble and much like I would imagine the Savior to be like. We are also teaching Najiba and her son Ahmed from Afghanistan. They are so nice but not very willing to keep their commitments and read from the Book of Mormon which is the only way they will gain a testimony. I pray they will change their ways soon so that we don't have to drop them. The work is definitely here. I am absolutely exhausted but it is good. All I want for Christmas is a nap but no such luck. We don't really get much of a Christmas- we have weekly planning for 4 hours in the morning and then are expected to go out tracting. Hopefully we will find someone who is alone for Christmas and searching for something more in their lives. Pray that we will find such a person- what better gift than the gift of the gospel? I hope you all have a great Christmas! I love and miss you all! Remember how lucky you all are to have the gospel in your life- to know that God loves you and that Jesus Christ is his son. There are so many who don't know these things. We are very blessed.
Lots of love, Sister London

MTC is still awesome!

Hey everyone! The MTC is still awesome. I am learning more than I ever thought possible and making great friends. Elder Holland came for Thanksgiving which was incredible. I love holidays in the mission field. I miss traditions and all of you but there is a spirit here that isn't anywhere else. My companion and I continue to get along. We have some pretty fun times together and we tease each other a lot. She eats kelp bars and seaweed- how could I not tease her? There are 10 in my district- 4 sisters and 6 elders and we are becoming good friends. I have done a lot more teaching this week and am amazed by the spirit of the Lord and how you know what to say at the exact moment you don't know what to say. This is the Lord's work, there is no doubt. Nothing would ever come from missionary work if it weren't for the Lord's hand in it. Already I have seen people's eyes light up when they gain a new found testimony of something whether it be a fellow missionary or an investigator. I've been memorizing scriptures which I do by drawing pictures so I can see it in my head. It works so well but I tried to share it with another district and I don't know if they agreed. I think it was cool but they didn't share my enthusiasm. I'll work on them. It's been amazing to me how much the scriptures have opened up to me. Everything I read seems to pertain to my role as a missionary and I am so happy to be here now. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I love you all! Remember as this Christmas season comes closer John 3:16- God so love the world that He gave His only begotten son!!!!! How blessed we are!
Sister London