Monday, March 23, 2015

Okay so yes yes and yes plane was fantastic... don't have a lot of time to say a whole lot about that.  I slept well that night though :3

So I am assigned to the East Bakersfield Stake zone?? Yeah.  I'm in a little area called Tehachapi, CA and its adorable.  It's just a little bigger than Rexburg I believe and it's got fifteen million windmills on the hills.

I was put into a trio of sisters so we call ourselves the Tehach Trio :) Awesome.  Sister Anderson (from Canada) is my trainer and she's awesome! And Sister Liebelt (Leebelt--from Utah) is my other companion :) We all laugh and have a fantastic time.  We're getting to know each other a lot better and it's so much fun to talk and laugh with them.

So I'm the one who loves cooking and cleaning from our companionship and I have to say it's the funnest thing ever.

On Mondays and Wednesday mornings we go to the Mullay's house and work out with Sister Mullay.  She's a beach body builder.  The mere mention of her name makes my body tense up and get sore ;) okay it's not that bad. so far.  We've done a lot of yoga :D YAY!!!

So the members feed us every night and it's wonderful.  The ward is sooooo missionary minded and we've never taught a lesson without a member there.  it's so wonderful!

So our investigators are Felipe (baptismal date set in September), Israel & Aracely (baptismal date for Israel on April 17 or 18th can't remember), and Taylor (we're setting one this week with her.  she's 15).  So Israel and Aracely don't really speak any English so we have an interpreter from our ward there to help teach the lesson in Spanish.  They are not married, but they've been together for 45 years and they have children and grandkids together.  So they're getting their marriage license.  When they went to get it the first time, Aracely's purse got stolen and they dealt with identity theft for a while, but now all is well.  So close to getting their license and then Israel can be baptised!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He loves this church so much.  As soon as we told him the Word of Wisdom and such, he quit things immediately because he said, "Whatever God wants, I can handle."

So WOW! incredible man!

I haven't met Felipe yet though.  He's been busy. Darn it.

We had a really solid lesson with Taylor and she loves the gospel too.  we're going to commit her to baptism this week and I know she'll do it.  When she prayed about God's love.  she felt like as soon as she asked "Do you love me?" arms wrapped around her.  HOLY COW! She's so amazing! I love her.

We are trying to make contact with two more potential investigators too :) So yay!

I don't have a lot of time, but this week has been super hard but fantastic!

I'm like 45 minutes from Bakersfield :) and on our way up there are just orchards and orchards and like Isaac said, it smells so incredible and citricy and wow. Yeah. 

Oh cool thing this week.  While we were out knockin on doors, this one older man came up to his door and asked, "What do you want?!" All of a sudden I felt tense and we didn't know what to do, but then the Spirit told me to ask about his military career.  So when i did, he totally lightened up and asked how did I know, and i just said he reminded me of my grandfathers.  We talked a long time about the military and then when we asked him, "In all that time in the war, did you feel God's love and protection?" he got teary eyed and told us stories of times when he felt God was watching out for him.  We didn't get invited back, but that's okay :) He was exposed to the LDS missionaries and sometimes that's all they need.  He was really nice and it was sooooooo nice to talk about military things :) Reminds me of Daddy's stories <3  

Lots of people have also thought I look like Emily Deschanel YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Ummmmm anyhow, this week has been cool! It's been fun to learn about a new side of the country and how things work. It's been hard. but I never in my life would regret it.  I love the people here and i'm excited to get to know more of them.  I am so grateful for God and his mercy.  I am especially proud to be a representative of Jesus Christ.  This church is the restored gospel on the earth today.  It's the same church that Christ himself established while he ministered on the earth 2000 years ago.  I urge all who listen to come unto Christ and to feel of his love.  There is nothing more incredible than this.

I love all of you so much!

Talk to you next week!

Hugs kisses and lots of love,

Sister Hannah Weaver