Week Two of Transfer Four

Dear Family,

This week has been really hard.  It is a combination of the holidays, my depression, and the fact that I am just really struggling in the area that I am in. It is all going to progress though. I hope. I keep telling myself that sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. I kinda remember going through something similar to what I am going through at the beginning of my mission. Change is hard. I am taking much comfort in reading past ensigns, and reading the scriptures. They help a lot. There is something about reading the words of others who have gone through hard times, and who have struggled with those around them, that can bring comfort. There is a scripture in Jeremiah that I found today. It is Jeremiah 33:3. It talks about prayer, and how the Lord will answer our prayers. I like it a lot :)

Okay. So. This week has been full of us doing service, and giving our ward some TLC. Tender Love and Care. There are a few people in the ward who are amazing :) One of them is Sister Cisneros. She is a convert to the church, and reminds me a lot of mommy :) She is very sweet. She loves ice cream, and we get along great. :)

I am also in love with our home-shares! They are the Padgetts. I probably talked about them last week, but they are even better now :) They have a little girl named Lauren. She is 9 and reminds me so much of Abby! She is full of energy, and has an old soul is what her mom called it :P She is 10 years younger than her brothers. She is like having a little sister, and we are her big sisters to her. She loves us, and does whatever she can to help. Before I came, the sisters would go over to her house and play games with her, but since I came, we haven't been doing that. She kept asking us why, and finally last night I told her why. I told her what our purpose as a missionary was, and that we need to fulfill that purpose to help those that are around us. I told her that if she wanted us to play games, then we would need to teach one of her friends. She said okay. It was way cute :) Sister Padgett is great :) Last night we were at the church for a baptism  (I will talk more about that) and it showed on my face that I was having a hard time. I was doing pretty good at hiding it until that moment, and she was like, are you okay? I told her that I was fine, and then she gave me that mommy look. The one that means 'don't you dare lie to me, I know something is up'. I then told her that I had depression and was having a hard time. She got really concerned, and mentioned the holidays, and I said that it was partly that, and that I was struggling with other things. She then took me in a hug, and told me that she loved me. This sister, who has only known me for not even two weeks cared for me, and told me something I needed to hear. I have felt like I was just an outcast in this ward, and that not a lot of people could even begin to care for me. I needed to hear that. What was even cuter, is that Lauren was standing there and after her mom was done with her hug, Lauren wrapped her arms around me. She squeezed me tight, just like Abby does. It was really great :) They then both sat next to me at the baptism for the first part. It was really sweet of them. We are going to be spending Christmas with them. I can't wait :) They also can't wait to meet my family :) It is going to be very nice :)

Okay. Last night we had a baptism! Well, Sister Ferry and Sister Dowd had a baptism. I had only met the man who was being baptized like 3 times. He is Brother Padgetts Uncle. His name is John. He is really sweet. He had been waiting to be baptized for over 40 years. It is crazy. He has had a hard life, but is now doing great! His wife is a non member, but she was there totally supporting her husband. It was really touching.

Things are progressing. Life is getting harder, but will eventually get better. Sorry this is so short! I can tell you more about everything on Wednesday!

I love you all so much! Have a great week!!

Week One of Transfer Four

Dear...Well... Everyone I guess...

Hahaha. I know that this email is going to be posted to my blog, so I thought I would address it to everyone :) I hope that those who read my blog, and my emails are taking comfort from them. It is hard to be a missionary and be away from your loved ones, but I have also been on the other end. I know that it is hard to be at home, when you have loved ones on a mission. Things do get better. One of the most rewarding moments is to see them in the airport when they get home. :) No matter what you Christmas seasons bring, whether you have loved ones away, or you are away from them. Know that they do love you. The Lord is blessing those who turn to Him. Please, turn to Him. I know that He brings comfort. I have felt it in my own life, especially this week.

This is transfer 4. How crazy is that?? I am amazed at how the Lord has blessed me.

Well, this week was interesting. The first part of the week was spent saying goodbye to people, and the last part was saying hello to people. It was weird. and very different. The ward I am in now is fun :) They are a young ward. Which means, lots and lots of little kids! The ward is so noisy!! It is good though :) I have missed seeing a bunch of little kids, so it is nice to see them all again. The kids all love missionaries too. One little girl yesterday came up to me, tugged on my skirt to get my attention, and then started asking me questions. It was so cute!! I love kids :) They are all going to be the best missionaries too. So fun :)

My companion is great. Her name is Sister Ferry. She has been out for 15 1/2 months. She has this transfer and one after until she leaves. She goes home in March. We think that she will be ending her mission in Yucapia. Se has already been here for 7 1/2 months. It is so crazy!! She is great though :) She is from Sandy, Utah. She has 7 older brothers, and is the youngest. She is also a twin. Which is way neat :) We are both directionally challenged, which means that I am getting really good are making U-turns. Oh, I am the driver. Which is amazing!! I have missed driving a car :) It is nice to be behind the wheel.

We kinda sorta live with members. It is called a home-share, but it is nothing what I thought it would be.  They have a huge property, and on the property are 3 houses. We live in one of those houses. It is way neat/weird. The house we are living in has had missionaries in it for the past 8 years. It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, one kitchen, and a living room house. 2 of the bedrooms are full of paper work, so we don't really go in them. The neat thing, is that I have my own bathroom :) It is so nice to be able to go in my bathroom in the morning, and just get ready without having to worry about getting out as fast as I can so my companion can have the bathroom. I am able to get ready in 40 mins because of that :) I like it :)

Umm... Not sure what else to say. Christmas is next week!! That is going to be great! I will get to skype with my family :) it is going to be fun to see you all again.

Things are going good. Emotionally I am having a hard time, but I knew that was going to happen. It isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Which is way nice :)

Oh, really neat thing. I was able to go back to Highland last night!! Last night, Sister Diamond got baptized! I was able to receive permission to go to that. It was so neat!! She is the sister that we have been working with to get her ready to be baptized. She is amazing!! The Skoy's picked me up, and Graham was also there!! He is the amazing investigator that we were teaching. He is Brother Skoy's best friend. He is amazing! He said that he loved the baptism, which was great!! The Spirit was so strong! It was also amazing to see everyone again! I really miss Highland. But, after being there last night, I really felt at peace. I know that the work I did there is done now. I know that I am supposed to be here in Yucapia. There is so much work that I have to do here.

Oh, cute story. When we were at the baptism we had to wait for Sister Diamonds family to show up. I was sitting in the front row, right in front of the Bishopric. Brother Young, one of the members of the bishopric, looked at me and smiled. I had been smiling, because it was so nice to be back. He looked at me and said "I miss seeing your's and Sister Young's smiles. They always made me so happy. I am glad to see you smiling today. Never stop smiling." He really liked my smile. It made him happy to see me happy. I didn't realize how powerful a smile can be. I knew that it is part of missionary work, and I teach that, but I never knew just how powerful it could be. It made me really feel good :)

Well, I hope everyone's week goes well!! I love you all so much! You are all in my prayers!!!

Stay safe, turn to the Lord, and don't look back on the past.

I love you!!

Week Eighteen End of Transfer Three

To my loved ones,

hahaha that kinda sounds like I am writing a goodbye letter. I promise that it is not! Just thought that I could change things up a bit :)

Well, this week is a total blur. I know that we saw Graham (Mission leaders son's best friend) and we also picked up Robin again this week. Other than finding out about transfers, I can't remember a single thing. All well. I can elaborate on the lessons that I do remember :)

So, we taught Graham twice this week. It was amazing! When we teach him, he asks questions, and really wants to learn more. We taught the Plan of Salvation with a visual (getting that is a story in and of itself). It was amazing!! We taught him the lesson, and he was so interested. He said that it all made sense! He loved learning about it! It was amazing!! :) He taught us the Plan of Salvation, and when we saw him, again, we told us that he taught it to his mom!! How amazing is that! Graham is just the perfect investigator!! We love teaching him! He is 19, and just loves to learn. It is amazing to watch him go from not believing in any God, to be turning to our Heavenly Father for strength and comfort. It is fantastic! Monday we taught the Plan of Salvation, and we asked him when the best time would be to see him again and he said everyday! It was funny :) We ended up seeing him on Wednesday. When we saw him, we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We were planning on an hour lesson, and it ended up being 2 hours! it was so great though! Graham totally understands! The entire time we were teaching him, we were waiting for him to tell us that he wants to be baptized. He didn't say it, but we think that he is going to tell us that he wants to be today!! It is amazing! Graham is just perfect!! :)

We also were able to pick up Robin again. Robin is the sister that we met at the beginning of my mission. We taught her all the lessons, and she was having a problem with smoking. Well, she dropped us about a month ago, and then Sister Young and Sister Mucke went and saw her to deliver a letter on Thursday. She told us to come back on Friday, so we did. We aren't sure what to do with her though. We are going to try and figure out what it is she really needs. It will be good though. Things are going to be great :)

Okay. So, funny story with the visual. We had lost my Plan of Salvation Visual, and I was planning on making me a visual on P-day. Well, we didn't have a lot of time for that. We were going to copy Sister Mucke's visual, and just use that for the lesson, well... we forgot to get that from her... Which meant that we went to our dinner appointment, then rushed to our lesson. Well, we had to run home, and attempt to create a visual. We had called the sisters and they were in Redlands, with the visual that we were going to copy. It was a mess. We rushed home, and started drawing and cutting out the visual. it was a mess! I was in the car with scissors while Sister Young was drawing cutting out these tiny visuals. It was crazy. Well, we were almost there, and the sisters called us. They said that the thing they were doing was done in Redlands, and that they were headed back to Highland and would meet us at the Skoy's. That was such a relief. The sisters ended up making it from Redlands to Highland in 5 mins. We then taught an amazing lesson. Afterwards, we found my plan of salvation visual. Guess where it was?? Your guessed it, in the trunk of our car. It was crazy.

So, I just thought of another funny story. On Thursday, Sister Young and Sister Mucke had a training. It meant that me and Sister Anderson were together for the day :) Which was awesome :) I love her :) anyways, We had a day full of appointments, and we did our studies and our training's, and we headed out the door at 10:45 for our 11:00 appointment. Well, we had an issue. We couldn't find the keys to the car... The other sisters had used the keys to go and get something from the car that they needed, and then they were going to bring them back to us. Well, we couldn't remember if they had brought them to us or not. We ended up trying to call them, and they were in their meeting, so, no answer. We called the mission office, to have someone in the office go and ask the sisters if they had the keys. Well, they did. I guess when Elder Houser (senior missionary in office who just left) went to ask the sisters, they reached down into their purse, and the keys were there. They ended up just getting up in the middle of the training, and booking it down he hallways and to the car. They then sped to our apartment, where we were waiting on the road to get the keys. It was a little stressful. But is was good :) Added some excitement to our day :) haha

Those were some great experiences though. I had a blast :) It was perfect :)

Best thing that I ate this week... hmm.. Well, we were going to have dinner at a members home, but the Sister in the home called us, and told us that she wasn't going to be there. Which meant that we weren't going to have dinner. Well, at least that was the case until she told us to go by her house, and pick up lettuce wraps from her husband. It was great! They tasted like P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps, but homemade! We loved them :)

Well, I am not sure what else to tell you. I am being transferred to Yuciapa, and I will be living in a members home. I guess that they are pretty well off, and that they have a lot of animals on a farm, and that we will be taking care of them. My companion is Sister Ferry. I don't know a lot about her. It is all going to be great though :) It is time for me to have new experiences :) Sister Young is going to be staying in the same ward. :)


I love you all so much! Have a great week! You are all in my prayers!!

Week Seventeen

Dear Family,

This week has been full of ups and downs. Things are going well though :) It was just crazy. If you were to look at our numbers for the lessons that we have taught, you would see that it was really crappy. But it was still good. We knew that things were going to be tough this week because of the holiday. No one seems to want to open the door when there are strangers standing there, and they have family. All well :) We were also on exchanges for two days this week. It was just crazy. Also, I some how caught a cold. I was doing fine yesterday morning, and we went to church, talked with President, and then we went home for our studies, and bam! I got a hit with a cold. My whole apartment is sneezing, sniffling, coughing. it is just crazy! We will all get better though :) We are going to get some medicine today, and I am praying that it is not the flu!

Anyways. This week was different. We had our planners full of people that we could go and see. We would parallel park, say a prayer, get out of the car, knock on the door, ring the door bell, leave a note, and go to the next house. It was crazy! The Lord is preparing people though. We just need to do other things to find them. It will be great.

Well, this past Sunday I had an interview with President Van Cott. I needed some extra help, and just being able to talk with him was great. it is like talking to a parent. They really care for you, and are there to help you with whatever! It was so nice! He is full of the spirit, and is really funny too. It was nice to hear from someone that I am doing well. He isn't worried about my depression, and has asked me to do a few things. One of them was to find the desire of my heart. He asked me what I would need to make everything better. I looked at him, and thought for a moment, and realized that I didn't know. I have decided that I am going to find out. I also ask all of you, what is one thing that you could have, that would make everything okay? What do you truly desire? Take a minute and think about it. It is crazy to think about.

On this past Tuesday, Sister Young and I were able to make dinner for a less active member of our ward. She is 88, and has a bunch of health issues. We try and visit her about once a week, and this past Tuesday, we made her dinner :) it was a lot of fun. We made her favorite. Baked potatoes, salad, and then at Walmart there are mini pies, and got her favorites. Pumpkin, apple, and peach. It was so much fun! She was so thankful! We loved it as well. It was nice to be able to serve her, and to help cheer her up. She was in the hospital for a couple of weeks, and her kids hadn't come to visit her. She lives alone, and was really down, so we helped cheer her up :) It was just great!

That night we also had dinner at a members home. They have lived in the same house since 1993, but she was less active and didn't come to church. Now she is a temple worker, and is serving in the Relief Society. She is great. Well, her husband is a non member, and he loves corvettes. So, we went to his garage, and took a couple of pictures! it was great!! We had tons of fun!

It has just been crazy. Not a lot of progress in the work, but we are working on it. I have a really cool story about one of our investigators though :) It is about Graham. He is the one we went to dinner with at our ward mission leaders home, and said that we were really different, and wanted to learn more. I wrote this to President, and it is great, so you get a copy of it too :)

Tonight we have a lesson with one of our investigators. We found him through our ward mission leader. He is great! We saw him about two weeks ago, and taught the Message of the Restoration to him. The lesson went great! He even prayed at the end of the lesson which was awesome. Our investigators in the past have told us to say the prayer, so it was great that he agreed to it. Well, we then weren't able to see him because of the holiday, and he is in college, and had finals this past week. But, we were told a really great story from our ward mission leader’s son, who is our investigators best friend. We were told that while our investigator was at Thanksgiving, his sister stopped breathing. He immediately thought of the lesson that we taught, got on his knees, and prayed. He said that as soon as he did that, a fire truck come to his home. No one had called the fire department, but they still showed up. Our investigator was an atheist, but now he believes in God. We were also told, that he has read part 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, and that he is really studying the Restoration pamphlet that we gave him! Isn't that so exciting? We are really excited about it. Our investigator also told his friend, that he wants to put a ring on a girl's finger, and raise his kids in the church. It is just amazing! The Lord gives us blessings when we need them the most!!

Isn't that awesome!! We are so excited!! I can't wait to hear what he says!! We think that if it feels right, we are going to ask him to be baptized this week! Haw awesome!! It is gonna be great!!! :) :)

Other than that, nothing big has really happened. We are just going about working, and trying to see people. I cant really think of anything funny, or really anything this week. Well, besides Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving started Wednesday night. We went to a member's home for dinner, the Frosts. When we go there, we found out that we were going to be having Thanksgiving dinner with their whole family! They had also invited another family over, and we were all going to get to eat and just be with each other that night. It was so great!  It was nice to be a part of a family :) It was going to be hard not being home, but I really felt loved. It is amazing the difference there is when you feel loved in a ward. I have really grown close to this ward, which probably means that I will get transferred. We are hoping not though! Well, on Thursday we were going to have lunch with the Skoy's and then have dinner with the Christensen's. Lunch with the Skoy's was great! We have sandwiches, and were able to just chill with everyone. We even played apples to apples which reminded me of when we were at the Brown's for Thanksgiving, and going to play that game :) It was really neat. We had all the missionaries in our district there, plus the Spanish elders. They live with the elders, and they tend to tag along a lot :)

That night we had dinner with Elder and Sister Christensen. They are one of the senior missionary couples that work in the office. They also live right underneath us. They are great! They call us their girls, and they are our mom and pop :) It is fun :) So, we went and had dinner there. It was great. We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner :) It was so much fun!! All the missionaries were there, and we got to get to know each other a little better. We played Sudoku, and just chilled for a little while. :) It was a lot of fun. That day we also did weekly planning, and tried really hard to keep it a normal day. It was hard.

Well, our thanksgiving didn't end on Thursday, of Friday we went over to the Whitaker's for dinner, and we had leftovers for dinner =) it was great. We enjoyed it :) i know that was what would have been eaten when I was home, and probably what you all ate :) It was great :)

I love you so much! Have a great week, and know that you are in my prayers!! Love you love you love you!! <3 <3 <3 <3

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Sister Randall