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First time eating Starbucks!!! It's a non-caffeinated chocolate milkshake thing!!
(We got it cuz Hna Zambrano had a REALLY bad day, so we went out for a treat :) )
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| We found rocks to paint with some recent convert kids that we are teaching the recent convert lessons to. |
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| We made prayer rocks them :) |
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| Painting prayer rocks with the kids!! SO FUN!!! |
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| Prayer rocks! |
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Olvidate de ti mismo y ponte a trabajar.
#lametadelamision
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2:42 PM (6 hours ago)
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Dear Everyone!!
Casi Feliz Navidad!!!
This week was a good one!!! We got to do some service and other fun things and saw lots of tender mercies!!
So a cool thing that happened is that we got a referral for a less active member that moved from a different part of Bakersfield. We decided to visit her and turns out she was a less-active from the La Cresta ward that I visited with Hna Pincock, and she remembered me from clear back then!!! And turns out her husband and 8 year old daughter are not members, so we will hopefully with time be able to teach them!! But she came to church yesterday so that was cool!!
We also got to visit one of our member's sisters who is our investigator. We can only see her once a week because her husband is very anti-religion, but she is very interested in learning because her sister was a convert and she has seen the changes in her life. So we are excited about her!! Her name is Norma!! We also got to do some service for her and help her clean her garage :)
Then on Saturday we took out that member to a lesson with a new investigator who wasn't home :( but her 10 year old daughter was home cleaning up tree branches and leaves so we offered to help! We got it all cleaned up, then we saw a man across the street doing the same thing so we went over and helped him too. The miracles with that were 1. he let us help him (we offer service to almost everyone and they all say no) and 2. is a few days ago he found one of our Jesus the Christ cards that we give out on the ground and he told himself that if he picked it up and kept it that he'd get a blessing. Now a few days later, there the missionaries and a member are cleaning up his yard!! We are going to try by him sometime this week and teach him so that we can send him off as a referral!! (he only speaks English) But that was cool!! Then we helped a member make some invitations for a ward party coming up :) So lots of service this week!! It was so much fun!!! I always pictured my mission being full of service, cleaning, raking, etc. but turns out most Californians don't want help, but this week they did!! It was really fun and felt good! It just feels good to serve!!
There were a lot of miracles at church yesterday too because there were a lot of non-members there!! In gospel principles class it was almost all non-members and missionaries which was really cool to see!! Non of our investigators were there and there were some people there that were invited by members that don't live in our area, but that's ok because the ward is seeing success!! Our area is getting there!! We just gotta build it up!! I feel like this week was a building week and that in following weeks we will see things start to actually happen!!
Another super cool miracle that happened is that we were able to teach that same member's parents and pick them up as investigators!! So this wonderful member is Connie and her parents NEVER talked to the missionaries when she was learning. Apparently her mom only started warming up - kind of - to Hna Zambrano and Hna Blau not too long ago. Well Connie told us to go over and pretend like we were looking for her even though she wasn't home and see if we could share something with them. We did and it went well! We talked to her mom then she invited us for Sunday dinner yesterday! After dinner we taught the plan of salvation and how families can be forever through the restored gospel and her mom seemed to really like it. Her dad who is a hard-core Catholic and has never liked the missionaries listened and accepted to learn more too!!! The Spirit was very strong and it was a very special moment!! We are going back tomorrow to teach a FHE :)
So things are looking up for the area!! And the Christmas cheer is definitely there :) We are getting in the spirit and all is well!! And I did get the package and I really appreciate it so much!! You didn't have to get me that stuff!! You are so sweet!! <3 I love you all so much!! I feel so grateful for all that I have and for all that Heavenly Father gives me. I know that I am so blessed. I am super blessed because I get the opportunity to go to the temple on Saturday with the Arvin group!!! So President Layton made a new rule that the 2 missionaries that had the most influence on a recent convert can go with them to the temple when they go for the first time and if they have family names. On Sat. the Arvin group is going and Berto and Roberta are both going to the temple and I don't know about Roberta, but Berto has family names!! So Hna White and I get to go just before she goes home!! So that will be so fun!!! But it's kind of crazy because we don't get p-day today, Sat. becomes our p-day for the temple, but we still get to email :) It might be a bit longer of a week because we don't get to have a p-day, but then we'll have p-day on Saturday and I will go to the temple with Hna White and then we get another p-day next Monday!! I am so excited!!! :) The Lord is so good to me <3
My new "life motto" that I am using every day in my journal is "I like today" so every day in my journal I write "I like today because..." and it really helps me to look at the good there is throughout the day rather than just feel sad when people are rude. Heavenly Father truly is always there for us.
Isaiah 41:10 <3
I love you all and I hope you have a happy Christmas month!!!!
Les quiero a todos ustedes muchisimo!!!
Que tengan una buena semana :)
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Martineau :)
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