Love teaching opportunities!

Hey everyone!
Our teaching pool is getting bigger which has been a huge blessing the last couple of weeks. We've spent a lot of time looking for people- checking on part member and less active members and contacting and tracting. I don't remember what I have shared with all of you already, so I thought I'd give a brief summary of the past little while and then start fresh with what's going on this transfer.
Past Little While:
John is now moved to Arizona but we still talk on the phone a few times a week. John is amazing. He has quit smoking since he got to Arizona. He used to smoke 8+ a day and now nothing! Miracles do happen....it seems like daily for John! He is coming into town next week which I am super excited about!
Ryan moved to Mission Valley and hasn't returned any calls from us. It is hard when you see someone get so close and then they fall away. He has the ward and mission info for his new place so it truly is up to him whether or not he will choose to act. He has his agency.
We had to drop our Filipino investigator Loreto because someone from his old church convinced him not to listen to us anymore and he won't answer the phone or the the door anymore for us-sad...
This Transfer:
Things started out a bit rough because everyone moved or we dropped them because they weren't progressing. There were a few days of lows but the Lord has blessed us. We have a bunch of new investigators:
Lillian and family (4 kids)...We found Lillian and her family when we were checking on a potential investigator who had moved. Lillian was living there now. She let us in right then and we talked to her a bit about the Book of Mormon and she told us to come back. We did and taught the Restoration. They all had a lot of questions about Mormons. They watch a lot of incorrect tv documentaries. They are from Congo, Africa!!! They are a beautiful family and all of the kids are so awesome and ask great questions. Jessica is 14-15, Brandon is 11, Joey is 10ish, and Marcel is 7-8. We haven't met her husband yet. They asked about church too! The hard part is that Lillian works full time and is going to school so we haven't found another time to go back yet but we did talk to Brandon about the Book of Mormon outside last time and gave him something to read! I'm excited for this family!
Veronica...we found Veronica at the park. We just walked up and started talking to her. She is in her late 60's and from Nigeria. She was so excited to hear that Christ visited the Americas too. She'd never heard that before and was eager to hear more. We sat and taught her right there and are meeting her again tomorrow!
One day this week we got 3 addresses and phone numbers to go back and teach people in a row. It was awesome- this never happens!
Last Wednesday we got a call in the morning from a lady asking if we could meet her at the park later and pray for her. I said sure which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but I felt good about it. We showed up and come to find out Latasha was baptized 5 years ago and hasn't really been active. Her dad is a baptist minister and she's been going to a baptist church for awhile. She wasn't on our ward roster so we were excited to find her. We have been teaching her and she really is doing well. I don't think she ever gained a testimony but will soon! We still have no idea how she got our phone number but hey!!!! we'll take it!!!!!
Anicita is a Filipino woman we met while checking about her son Lee. He isn't ever home or really interested so we started teaching her. We gave her the book of mormon in Tagalog and came back a week or so later and she was already in Mormon! She can't sleep at night so she reads!!!! How awesome is that? We have our Tagalog speaking friend Marlin come with us and apparently she believes the book is true because it makes her feel good- yehaw!!!!! That is what I say when I get hear something like this!!!! She is praying about being baptized.
We also found Tom and Kylie while looking for a potential who had moved and they were the move ins. He was way nice to us and said we could come back. They are young with 2 little girls. They are Catholic and had talked to mormons before. He had all sorts of hard questions which we are going back to answer later next week. It's cool because they are a couple that when you look at them they just fit in. You can just tell with some people that they will be converted....they have that ready look (Hint, if any of your neighbors move, send missionaries there it seems to work!)
So many opportunities to teach and share have come our way as we've worked our buns off. It's rad!
The weather is so beautiful but it is already starting to get hot some days and I'm not sure how fun summer is going to be. I am proud to report that I already have a missionary farmer's tan!!! Oh, so we were walking by a bunch of bushes the other day at an apartment complex and I got that"uh oh, somethings not right feeling" and sure enough I look down and 2 feet in front of me is this snake/lizzard looking thing. It was nasty. It was seriously a mix of a snake and lizzard and it blended in perfectly with the wood chips. Ugh.......that's all I have to say..... ugh.....heebie jeebies.... My companion was fairly entertained by the whole episode. Oh and Sister Bair, an older lady in our ward was all decked out in hearts for Valentines Day and kept coming over to us to give us hugs all throughout church. I'm getting braver and trying to let down my perfectionist guard a little bit. I think you'll all find I'm changing but don't worry, not too much.
Well, I love you all! Thanks for everything... Sad to report that I ran out of time to hunt down any girl scouts last p-day. So much for my thin mints. Well I love you all. Thanks for the prayers- keep em' coming!
Sister London

New Address and Pictures!

At a recent zone conference she had.


Glad to see Lori's passing on her good table manners.

Lori's mission office had changed locations, new address is:
Carlsbad California Mission
451 W. Bobier Drive
Vista, CA 92083

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