CDSM Transfer 2

Week 1

Well...I'm running short on time and I don't have much to report so this'll be short and boring. Sorry!

My new companion is Sister Cho. She's from Hawaii so that's super cool. Turns out, she trained sister Smith (my MTC companion if you don't remember) and got to know sister McBride (one of my MTC roommates) this past transfer and also was in the MTC with sister Harshaw. Basically, she knows all my friends. Crazy! Anyway, it's been quite an interesting change but we're excited for all the possibilities we have together! That sounds really cliche, I know. As for any interesting events this week, nothing interesting to report. We're just getting used to each others teaching styles. Oh, we did go to sonic because sister Cho was super curious about how free Sonic worked. I think she had her doubts that it actually would but it really does!

It's officially Christmas time so check out the church's Christmas website. Christ's birth should be the focus of this season and everything on this site helps you learn all about it. Watch the videos. They're really good! 

www.mormon.org/christmas 

Happy December!

Sister Webster

Week 2

So apparently because last week was pretty boring it had to be made up somehow. This week has been almost too exciting. It started Tuesday when we decided that we should probably take our car in because the engine kept overheating. Turns out, there was some kind of leak in the coolant or something like that. I don't know much about cars but, nothing good. The car had to stay overnight so we had another set of sister missionaries pick us up. We stopped at Cafe Rio for lunch because at that point we had been gone for a few hours. The woman in line in front of us happened to be a member of the church and her son is on a mission right now so she insisted on paying for our lunch. The sisters were just going to drop us off at our place but when we got there I realized I hadn't taken the house key off the key ring so we were locked out. We went to their house to eat lunch. We got rides from members for the rest of the day which added an extra step to our planning. Our last meeting of the day was to watch a video with a less active we are working with but when we got there, I realized the DVD wasn't in my bag like I thought. We had no car to run home or a key to get into our house. We were so exhausted at that point that we didn't even care anymore. Thankfully, the sisters who had given us a ride lived in the same ward as our housing coordinator and were able to get us a spare house key. We got our car back the next morning in time to make it to all our appointments.

Us and our rescuers-the Fruitvale sisters.

But wait, there's more. Thursday we were finishing up exchanges and we were driving back to the Spanish sisters house to exchange back. It was dark and the road was long and OH WAIT THERE'S A DEER IN FRONT OF US! I was able to slow down enough that I only clipped its heels which left a couple scratches and a bent license plate. Also, I didn't get a TIWI violation (TIWI is the driving monitor on each missionary car), so the situation ended about as well as it could've. 

The ward activity was this Friday which was super fun. Sister Cho and I, as well as the elders got to be in the play. It turned out pretty nice. There is a video of it so maybe one day I can get a hold of it and share it. Maybe. Who knows.

Pictures on the set after the play.

OK so actual missionary work. It's changing a lot here. We've had to drop quite a few people this week which is really hard. We we love these wonderful people so much but when they don't progress or keep commitments, its not worth our time or their time. We have come in contact with some new people this week that have great potential and we're hoping to be able to share with them our message. So many changes bring stress and excitement at the same time!

Out of time. Hope you all have a great, pre-Christmas week. 

Sister Webster

Week 3

It's been another crazy week. Not quite as crazy last week but still exciting. We now have 8 people on date for baptism. Most of them are some pretty crazy stories. There are a lot of personal details that I feel like I need to leave out so, sorry if the stories don't make sense.

We got a referral for a family who is going through some pretty tough times. The 12 year old daughters father passed away a couple weeks ago and she found him dead. She is now living with her mom full time and they are struggling both financially and emotionally. We started teaching them, as well as the moms fiance and they accepted what we taught along with an invitation to baptism readily. 

We have started teaching another family who the parents have both been in and out of jail but they want a change in their lifestyle. Their 9 year old daughter soaks everything in that we teach. She shushes the people who aren't listening so she can hear. 

We also got an investigator from some missionaries in another ward that had started teaching her before they realized that she actually lives in our area. She's so excited to get baptized. She stays up until all hours of the morning researching gospel topics and loves church. Basically, THE golden investigator of all missionaries dreams. 

Last week we had to drop a lot of people and that made room for the people who were really ready this week. So basically, we're super excited. Merry Christmas to us! Sorry, does that sound too prideful? Not my intentions at all. It's just really cool to see miracles. That's basically all my interesting stories this week. But good news, we took some fun pictures.

Christmas karaoke.

Christmas devotional with President and Sister Murdock.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Sister Webster

Week 4

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I'm pretty sure this has been the most anxious I've ever been for Christmas to come...especially to open presents. Not even joking. Sister Cho had to reprimand me multiple times to not open my presents until Christmas. Christmas morning we opened our presents when we should have been working out. Disobedient I know *hangs head*. But it was fun because we put our beds by the tree and slept there for the night and just sat up and started opening presents (after praying of course). Once we did personal and companionship study we went to a zone breakfast but got there super late so there wasn't much food left but we enjoyed the time talking and singing. Then we went to the members who let us use their tablets to skype our families. It was great but way to short. We're only allowed 40 minutes which zips by in what feels like 2 minutes. We spent the rest of the day visiting people and caroling. Well, tried to carol. Sister Cho left her hymn book at the breakfast and I don't have one so we sang to the best of our memory. We ate dinner at a members house and they took us to see lights. If you ever happen to be in GJ during Christmas time let me know because there are some really cool displays. 

 I don't have much else to report. I went on exchanges in the Spanish area again but there wasn't a whole lot of Spanish spoken until dinner time so I didn't go home with a headache this time. Oh but for dinner we had Famous Daves. Mmmm I love BBQ. Other than that, we had a white Christmas and it's been bitter cold since. I know I'm spoiled because this is the warmest place in the mission and it's been bitter for weeks everywhere else but...nevertheless, it's cold. Thank heavens we have a car and the heater works now. Counting my blessings.

Happy new year!

Sister Webster

Week 5

This week has been full of helping people move and giving church tours. Some of my favorite families moved this week so that was hard. But the church tours went really well. The two families who are on date to be baptized loved the tours and are excited to work towards their date. 

And then there's Mel. We LOVE Mel! We've been teaching her for two weeks and she had been taught by some other missionaries two weeks before. She will be baptized this coming Thursday and she is SO excited. She is the investigator of every missionary's dreams. She researches everything we teach her, tells everyone about it who will listen and refuses to let the devil get to her. And he really has been trying because she's been dealing with some difficult things in life. Thursday can't come fast enough. 

It's been a great week but not much else to say. Hope everyone is enjoying 2016!

Sister Webster

Week 6

Well, I hit the 3 month mark, had a baptism and went to juvi this week. It's been a good one! Oh...and I'm getting transferred. I shed a few tears over that one. Pear Park ward has been wonderful and it's truly home to me. But, the Lord has plans for me that I don't understand so it's ok. It'll be great, wherever I'm going.

But, yeah we had a baptism this week! Mel was more excited than a child on Christmas day. It was a stressful day leading up to it because we had a lot scheduled and I was asked to give a talk which I had no time to prepare for but, it turned out well.

As for juvi, we've been trying to visit this girl for awhile because her parents requested us to but getting into a high security building isn't easy if you don't know exactly what you're doing...which we didn't. We finally did tho and were able to meet her. She's is so sweet and I'm really bummed that I won't have the chance to get to know her better. 

Well, back to everything being transferred takes. It's a bit of work but I'll make it. 

Sister Webster