Email address (preferred):
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
We are finally moved into our new (old for me) apartment. Took forever, but we got that done. We also on Sunday had 5 lessons, the most we have had for the entire day out of this transfer, out of the week, or even at all. It has been most discouraging to have to move one's apartment, shuffle beds around (we had the bunk bed and no one wanted to be on it and it was needed elsewhere in the mission. Our apartment is just big enough for us to fit three beds in nice enough in). Made contact with lots of investigators, and at the very least met most of the less actives we teach. (Sister Montague approves of our teaching pool, she is so funny.)
Not much to report on since almost our entire week was family history lessons once again and moving, but we did help out with the St Irenaeus catholic Church's 52nd annual Fiesta (Olympiad theme this year) carnival. We were working in the Smoothie booth with two ladies and had a blast. It was especially fun since every time they had to clean out the blenders when there was a lull in a particular flavor combination and someone wanted a special one they had to empty it of it's contents. When that happened we got the extra's. I ate almost 3 smoothies, definitely was hydrated and had my fruit and dairy intake for the day! It was lots of fun just to talk with them and every now and again they would ask about our mission life and what we do without getting into doctrines or anything. it was fun! Unfortunately we could go only that one day due to family history lessons and other things going on at the same time, but I am glad we could help out that day. We also sang at the Anaheim crest nursing center to new people who recently came this last week and played lots of Uno with the residents at park Anaheim. Lately they have wanted to play Uno more than do art's and crafts, but that could change next week with the usual residents coming once again.
Our miracle of the week is that we were able to see Aarti again. When we first came, she had a bad headache, but she still wanted us to come share a lesson briefly with her. She even put some calls on hold that were important, because she knew what we had to share was more important than a phone call or two. Afterwards, she said her headache went away and said she would love us to come again and talk more with her. So good to see her again.
This week our companionship is considering a reboot on the transfer since the last three weeks has been madness. Hopefully we can get more things done in our area's and see more people.
Sister Bedford's birthday is today! Went to Ferrell's earlier to celebrate.
Monday, June 27, 2016
Monday, June 20, 2016
58 - Father's day and baptism!
Email address (preferred):
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
This week has been absolutely crazy with slowly moving Sister Bedford into our apartment, managing two area's at the same time, and doing several hour and a half long training's on family history this week for the entire mission. We made it through though and most everyone enjoyed the lessons, and it seemed to adequately work for simplifying family history lessons so that any missionary with good notes will be able to do what we do, possibly more even with their own stakes' family history centers.
We didn't have many actual lessons because they all seemed to fall through or they dropped us since Sister Price and Sister Hinckley left.... so we went around trying to even set return appointments for those people who we didn't have the phone numbers for or wouldn't answer their phone so we could see if they even wanted to meet with us anymore.
Miracle of the week was that Debbie, my recent convert gone less active, came to church! We were told by her husband that she didn't live there anymore and we were told that she was now a do not contact for everyone else living there. We then didn't bother going by and Sister Nau (a member in our ward) felt like she should come by and see how she was doing. We then found out she was sad that we didn't visit anymore and wanted to come to church but still doesn't have a car... and still lives there.
It was an amazing father's day program with children singing and lots of great talks (many were quite informative for ways we can help dad have a better Father's Day). Some examples I can remember were to say, "Sure thing dad, I would love to do [fill in chore here]," or to allow your dad to have 1 channel of the radio that is in his own car he lets his children use, have a desire to try out or enjoy your father's favorite songs, like [name bands and singers here], be nice to your father and his geeky haircut because he is trying to fit in with his fellow coworkers, not your friends.
Lots of other great stores like one of this father who is an engineer and his asking his wife the purpose behind a Wonzie for their baby daughter that had cute lace ruffles on the bottom. The wife said it was purely for looks and design, while the husband said, " Oh I thought it was to make it skid proof." Things like this make up fatherhood and the many fun and funny tales. Also they talked about our Heavenly Father and Abraham and how he had to wait for forever to have a son of his own, even though he showed for his time the best examples of fatherhood despite his own father trying to sacrifice him to idol gods in Egypt. He surpassed his upbringing to become a role model and got close to his Heavenly Father (God) and learned what it means to be a good and true father.
We also got told this same week that Sister Bedford is our official companion now and we are a Trio. We got to pick which car to drive (we picked the Toyota over the Chevy for many reasons) and which district to go to for meetings, and preference of apartment... in the end that wasn't our call unfortunately. we will be moving AGAIN to the more central apartment, but its louder, has a loud parrot squawking next door 24/7 and loud everything. We do get to see Knott's everyday though. The other one had faster travel due to freeway which made up for the fact it was outside our boundaries. So frustrating to move back and forth.
We had a Baptism! It was Sister Price and Sister Miller's one, but they both left so it became ours and at least I got to teach a few lessons for it to feel like I did teach Guillermo. He is just old enough that we could teach him even though his mom is a member and help him get baptized (and get his mom active again coming to church). Everything that could have gone wrong did, but it worked out well and lots of his family that aren't LDS came and even had church tours of the building. That was real fun to do!
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
This week has been absolutely crazy with slowly moving Sister Bedford into our apartment, managing two area's at the same time, and doing several hour and a half long training's on family history this week for the entire mission. We made it through though and most everyone enjoyed the lessons, and it seemed to adequately work for simplifying family history lessons so that any missionary with good notes will be able to do what we do, possibly more even with their own stakes' family history centers.
We didn't have many actual lessons because they all seemed to fall through or they dropped us since Sister Price and Sister Hinckley left.... so we went around trying to even set return appointments for those people who we didn't have the phone numbers for or wouldn't answer their phone so we could see if they even wanted to meet with us anymore.
Miracle of the week was that Debbie, my recent convert gone less active, came to church! We were told by her husband that she didn't live there anymore and we were told that she was now a do not contact for everyone else living there. We then didn't bother going by and Sister Nau (a member in our ward) felt like she should come by and see how she was doing. We then found out she was sad that we didn't visit anymore and wanted to come to church but still doesn't have a car... and still lives there.
It was an amazing father's day program with children singing and lots of great talks (many were quite informative for ways we can help dad have a better Father's Day). Some examples I can remember were to say, "Sure thing dad, I would love to do [fill in chore here]," or to allow your dad to have 1 channel of the radio that is in his own car he lets his children use, have a desire to try out or enjoy your father's favorite songs, like [name bands and singers here], be nice to your father and his geeky haircut because he is trying to fit in with his fellow coworkers, not your friends.
Lots of other great stores like one of this father who is an engineer and his asking his wife the purpose behind a Wonzie for their baby daughter that had cute lace ruffles on the bottom. The wife said it was purely for looks and design, while the husband said, " Oh I thought it was to make it skid proof." Things like this make up fatherhood and the many fun and funny tales. Also they talked about our Heavenly Father and Abraham and how he had to wait for forever to have a son of his own, even though he showed for his time the best examples of fatherhood despite his own father trying to sacrifice him to idol gods in Egypt. He surpassed his upbringing to become a role model and got close to his Heavenly Father (God) and learned what it means to be a good and true father.
We also got told this same week that Sister Bedford is our official companion now and we are a Trio. We got to pick which car to drive (we picked the Toyota over the Chevy for many reasons) and which district to go to for meetings, and preference of apartment... in the end that wasn't our call unfortunately. we will be moving AGAIN to the more central apartment, but its louder, has a loud parrot squawking next door 24/7 and loud everything. We do get to see Knott's everyday though. The other one had faster travel due to freeway which made up for the fact it was outside our boundaries. So frustrating to move back and forth.
We had a Baptism! It was Sister Price and Sister Miller's one, but they both left so it became ours and at least I got to teach a few lessons for it to feel like I did teach Guillermo. He is just old enough that we could teach him even though his mom is a member and help him get baptized (and get his mom active again coming to church). Everything that could have gone wrong did, but it worked out well and lots of his family that aren't LDS came and even had church tours of the building. That was real fun to do!
Monday, June 13, 2016
57 - People can change eventually
Email address (preferred):
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
This week has been crazy busy with Sister Hinckley and I having to meet up almost every day to put together the training for the mission on family history. Why they split Sister Hinckley and I is beyond me. We all are wondering and scratching our heads.
During the week Sister Price went home unexpectedly so Sister Bedford is our temporary companion until further notice. Good thing with that is that we are in the same ward so it makes life so much easier. What is hard is that we have to share areas and so the amount of teaching in our area is much smaller than usual and on top of that we had and will have more service so things are going to be crammed for time. For now things are OK, but a bit up in the air.
The service we did that was fun was helping a less active move into his apartment/car garage workshop. We were so confused getting there since it is in the business district in our ward, then they explained he would be living above the garage in a nice loft space. We moved several 300 LBS car engines, metal presses, furniture, fish tanks, and other appliances out of a big truck that took 8 days for elders in another zone to pack and 3 hours to unload for our whole zone helping out. It was also fun since his father who is in Whittier stake was there with a fork lift to assist in moving the heavier objects around. Definitely the most greasy and fun service for moving thus far!
Other than that, I had meetings, driving around the mission, singing service at Anaheim Crest Nursing Center and arts and crafts/UNO game day at Park Anaheim as usual the whole week..... and helping Sister Bedford move into our apartment until further notice.
We did however teach a few lessons and found some new investigators and even a former I met almost 8 months ago who said we can come back. Last time was another story.... Goes to show that people can have a change of heart, especially when they listen to us for a moment and understand what it is that we share or offer to help them with.
Not much else to report though, but it has been an interesting week!
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
This week has been crazy busy with Sister Hinckley and I having to meet up almost every day to put together the training for the mission on family history. Why they split Sister Hinckley and I is beyond me. We all are wondering and scratching our heads.
During the week Sister Price went home unexpectedly so Sister Bedford is our temporary companion until further notice. Good thing with that is that we are in the same ward so it makes life so much easier. What is hard is that we have to share areas and so the amount of teaching in our area is much smaller than usual and on top of that we had and will have more service so things are going to be crammed for time. For now things are OK, but a bit up in the air.
The service we did that was fun was helping a less active move into his apartment/car garage workshop. We were so confused getting there since it is in the business district in our ward, then they explained he would be living above the garage in a nice loft space. We moved several 300 LBS car engines, metal presses, furniture, fish tanks, and other appliances out of a big truck that took 8 days for elders in another zone to pack and 3 hours to unload for our whole zone helping out. It was also fun since his father who is in Whittier stake was there with a fork lift to assist in moving the heavier objects around. Definitely the most greasy and fun service for moving thus far!
Other than that, I had meetings, driving around the mission, singing service at Anaheim Crest Nursing Center and arts and crafts/UNO game day at Park Anaheim as usual the whole week..... and helping Sister Bedford move into our apartment until further notice.
We did however teach a few lessons and found some new investigators and even a former I met almost 8 months ago who said we can come back. Last time was another story.... Goes to show that people can have a change of heart, especially when they listen to us for a moment and understand what it is that we share or offer to help them with.
Not much else to report though, but it has been an interesting week!
Monday, June 6, 2016
56 - Getting to know each other
Email address (preferred):
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
Somehow I managed to stay in Buena Park and Sister Hinckley is going to YSA in Whittier and family ward in Santa Gurtrudes. (She is the ultimate YSA magnet so this will be great for her.)
My new companion will be Sister Montague, and we will be the Family History sisters for the entire mission still. That was a complete surprise, especially since Sister Hinckley and I will both be doing trainings for family history specialized training in a few weeks for the whole mission all at once.
I will miss her a lot. We finally got along completely and understand one another, and now we get transferred. Reminds me of Nanny McFee and how when you learned as much as you can and get along, you now don't need to be with one another. I know I need to be with Sister Montague for family history, and Sister Hinckley for YSA, so it will be OK. We got along by overcoming obstacles in our way and helping one another get over them.
Goes to show there should be troubles in any relationship in life, because then we can grow closer to one another, whether that is friendships, family, or marriages. Without trials, we do not grow.
Elders Bruce E. Ghent and Robert C. Gay came and spoke to us. We had a mission conference this last week where for the first time ever that I have seen in my time in the mission, EVERYONE came to the single meeting to see two general authorities from the Quorum of the Seventy. Elders Bruce E. Ghent and Robert C. Gay came and spoke to us. Elder Gay told us a story I would like to share. (The people's names may or may not have been changed.)
This is a true story of Brother James. He was born in Idaho to a family who where members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. At age 15 he left home and joined the Hell's Angels group, and for 20 years he traveled with them. One day he woke up in a motel in New York not knowing how or why he was there and then started to rethink his direction in life. He decided to then travel to California to a safe house that the Hell's Angels owned. That home was guarded by two very well trained Doberman pincer dogs that were chained up and had just long enough chain to stop any intruder coming in and intimidate just about anyone who got close enough to the fence. While there, he was out the porch one day when two elder missionaries came past. He thought it would be interesting to watch and see what happens when the young men tried to possibly come in to talk to him and proceeded to try to come up to the gate. The elders came to the gate and immediately the dogs pounced onto the fence and the elders then went on their way. A few moments latter they stopped, talked among each other; and turned back to the gate once again. This time the dogs both got down, walked over to their patch of grass, and laid down almost as if sleeping. One elder came to Brother James and told him they felt prompted to ask him if he knew someone. The someone was none other than his father, and he asked how he knew that man. The elder then said that he was brother Jame's brother he never met because he left home before he was born. He then said something to this effect, "Is this not the hand of God in this work to bring a man from New York, to California, so that he can meet his brother he never met?"
Just recently brother James has gone through the temple for himself and is fully active to this day!
I know that God sees the divine potential that each of us has, and knows us each on a personal and loving level. He knows all the things in this life we can come up and accomplish, in this case he needed Brother James to realize his divine potential as a son of God and all the blessings he could have. He needed to have him see that the life he was living kept him from the infinite possibilities and blessings he had waiting for him. We all deserve more than what the world gives, and we deserve all of God's blessings as we follow his commandments. May we all be well to remember that change can bring us to higher ground if we allow that to happen with God's help and Christ's example. God loves us and never ceases to want the best for us. (Conveniently that was the theme of the stake conference was about, so I tied it into this neat story we were told.)
Have faith and remember, God is at the head of all we do as missionaries.
Miracle of the week:
We were able to meet lots of people everywhere with members and on our own. It seemed this week we found more when we were JUST about to leave and had little time, but then people wanted us to come back and talk more, AND they showed up to their return appointments (most of them anyways).
My favorite story is of Sister Tucker and how I felt prompted to visit even though it was after dinner, and she said not to visit since her family is always doing things together (I love that her family does so much together, many families I meet have never done that even a single night a week regularly). The rest of her family aren't members and aren't interested, but we caught her right as her husband was heading out to pick up some things. She let us in for a few minutes and we only shared a brief scripture when they came back, and we ended up staying for a while longer getting to know everyone else in the family. We even got a book that her husband wrote, and he signed it for us. We got to talking, and he was quite interested in what we do as missionaries and offered to have us as a guest for his podcast called 91 reasons (which is named after the 91 freeway that is close by that he used to take 2 hours back and forth every day for work at Knott's. Very famous road for taking FOREVER to get anywhere on..... almost as bad as the roads so people suffer through it to get around long distances). We have to talk with our mission president if we can do that, but it is neat he is interested in doing that! He wants us to talk about what we do, what life is like, and things like that. Either way I hope to continue to see them; I love that family so much! Opportunities to teach and share come in the most unexpected places and ways!
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
Somehow I managed to stay in Buena Park and Sister Hinckley is going to YSA in Whittier and family ward in Santa Gurtrudes. (She is the ultimate YSA magnet so this will be great for her.)
My new companion will be Sister Montague, and we will be the Family History sisters for the entire mission still. That was a complete surprise, especially since Sister Hinckley and I will both be doing trainings for family history specialized training in a few weeks for the whole mission all at once.
I will miss her a lot. We finally got along completely and understand one another, and now we get transferred. Reminds me of Nanny McFee and how when you learned as much as you can and get along, you now don't need to be with one another. I know I need to be with Sister Montague for family history, and Sister Hinckley for YSA, so it will be OK. We got along by overcoming obstacles in our way and helping one another get over them.
Goes to show there should be troubles in any relationship in life, because then we can grow closer to one another, whether that is friendships, family, or marriages. Without trials, we do not grow.
Elders Bruce E. Ghent and Robert C. Gay came and spoke to us. We had a mission conference this last week where for the first time ever that I have seen in my time in the mission, EVERYONE came to the single meeting to see two general authorities from the Quorum of the Seventy. Elders Bruce E. Ghent and Robert C. Gay came and spoke to us. Elder Gay told us a story I would like to share. (The people's names may or may not have been changed.)
This is a true story of Brother James. He was born in Idaho to a family who where members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. At age 15 he left home and joined the Hell's Angels group, and for 20 years he traveled with them. One day he woke up in a motel in New York not knowing how or why he was there and then started to rethink his direction in life. He decided to then travel to California to a safe house that the Hell's Angels owned. That home was guarded by two very well trained Doberman pincer dogs that were chained up and had just long enough chain to stop any intruder coming in and intimidate just about anyone who got close enough to the fence. While there, he was out the porch one day when two elder missionaries came past. He thought it would be interesting to watch and see what happens when the young men tried to possibly come in to talk to him and proceeded to try to come up to the gate. The elders came to the gate and immediately the dogs pounced onto the fence and the elders then went on their way. A few moments latter they stopped, talked among each other; and turned back to the gate once again. This time the dogs both got down, walked over to their patch of grass, and laid down almost as if sleeping. One elder came to Brother James and told him they felt prompted to ask him if he knew someone. The someone was none other than his father, and he asked how he knew that man. The elder then said that he was brother Jame's brother he never met because he left home before he was born. He then said something to this effect, "Is this not the hand of God in this work to bring a man from New York, to California, so that he can meet his brother he never met?"
Just recently brother James has gone through the temple for himself and is fully active to this day!
I know that God sees the divine potential that each of us has, and knows us each on a personal and loving level. He knows all the things in this life we can come up and accomplish, in this case he needed Brother James to realize his divine potential as a son of God and all the blessings he could have. He needed to have him see that the life he was living kept him from the infinite possibilities and blessings he had waiting for him. We all deserve more than what the world gives, and we deserve all of God's blessings as we follow his commandments. May we all be well to remember that change can bring us to higher ground if we allow that to happen with God's help and Christ's example. God loves us and never ceases to want the best for us. (Conveniently that was the theme of the stake conference was about, so I tied it into this neat story we were told.)
Have faith and remember, God is at the head of all we do as missionaries.
Miracle of the week:
We were able to meet lots of people everywhere with members and on our own. It seemed this week we found more when we were JUST about to leave and had little time, but then people wanted us to come back and talk more, AND they showed up to their return appointments (most of them anyways).
My favorite story is of Sister Tucker and how I felt prompted to visit even though it was after dinner, and she said not to visit since her family is always doing things together (I love that her family does so much together, many families I meet have never done that even a single night a week regularly). The rest of her family aren't members and aren't interested, but we caught her right as her husband was heading out to pick up some things. She let us in for a few minutes and we only shared a brief scripture when they came back, and we ended up staying for a while longer getting to know everyone else in the family. We even got a book that her husband wrote, and he signed it for us. We got to talking, and he was quite interested in what we do as missionaries and offered to have us as a guest for his podcast called 91 reasons (which is named after the 91 freeway that is close by that he used to take 2 hours back and forth every day for work at Knott's. Very famous road for taking FOREVER to get anywhere on..... almost as bad as the roads so people suffer through it to get around long distances). We have to talk with our mission president if we can do that, but it is neat he is interested in doing that! He wants us to talk about what we do, what life is like, and things like that. Either way I hope to continue to see them; I love that family so much! Opportunities to teach and share come in the most unexpected places and ways!
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
55 - Family history, service, vacations
Email address (preferred):
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
This week we had so many last minute meetings with President Tew trying to figure out if we would have a training on family history with the whole mission, or if we were going to do something else, then what would it be on, and what would be the next big step to helping the mission with retention of information and new converts.
Lately it has been hard with so many new converts who have little to no access to the temple or family history centers, but we hope to reverse that and hopefully help people not only stay active in the church, but happy and progressing to the full blessings that the temple can bring to their lives. In the past it was very hard for converts to get a limited use temple recommend and a calling, now we hope to have that are available right after baptism. So many people we teach and meet are so thrilled to have the opportunity to serve others and go to the temple to serve as well. We even have been trying now with President Tew to see new converts go through the temple fully after 1 year of baptism too. That is the most exciting thing ever to help with, that is really the end goal as missionaries, not baptisms so much. Lately, missionaries have forgotten that and haven't helped other missionaries' recent converts with their progress towards the temple for themselves as well as they should be doing. It is lack of experiences with recent converts and lack of passing on knowledge to the next generation of young new missionaries that could be the cause.
We also want to help with the newly made family history center in Huntington Beach that is a miniature visitor's center for family history for the entire family. They have tons of great learning materials and things to show and share. It's the first of it's kind in the world so it should be interesting to see what happens in the future.
Other than family history, we had to let go of Librada sadly. Due to lack of diversity in our particular ward (which was quite diverse considering all things) and lack of a full on bible study, she decided to go back to her church. We are happy to hear she is going back to a church, just sad it ended that way. I worry it may have also been due to some comments in a class we had, but that can't be helped. everyone is on their own spiritual journey back to Christ, you just have not take offense of what others say because the gospel is true, people are flawed.
Everyone is having vacations, so almost every lesson has cancelled this week. We did however help out with a member who is moving soon and needed help weeding her back yard and fixing a palm tree which needed trimming badly from a neighbors yard hanging over. (I figured out I really dislike palm trees; messy, pokey, dirty trees that really look horrid if you don't trim them regularly which cost an arm and a leg to get done. They also don't like to be trimmed without a chain saw, and their leaves are designed to repel any attempt to cutting the branch off from the tree. We had to use tree nippers) We had a third of the zone there to help clean up the place, and by the end we almost had no weeds left.
We also helped Sister Spencer paint her home, literally, and put in mulch and a garden so that they could put their home up for sale. They had to move out by Thursday, and so half the zone came to help tackle the project. Brother Spencer got a job designing theme parks for universal Beijing, so he will leave for Florida for two years, then to China for the rest till the park is finished I imagine. I don't think I could ever do a move like that, and I took Chinese for a year. I will miss them in the ward, they are great.
The Dlaguits moved, but thankfully it was just down the road a ways to a house instead of an apartment and are still in the ward. Sister Fox is leaving soon as well for Colorado, I will miss her, too. Everyone great in the ward is leaving it seems this summer.
We have already seen some fireworks shot off, during the daytime mostly. We even caught a glimpse of the fireworks at Knotts as well. Boy do they celebrate here in California, everything gets decked out in fourth of July decorations in June. In Utah not so much, but then agin, most people are going to the gravesides and cleaning them instead of vacationing like here (as far as I have noticed).
Miracle of the week:
We bumped into George who we met a long time ago with Sister KJ, and he said he would come to church. HE DID! Not only that, but he said he loved how genuine everyone seemed during the talks given, and despite the children all around us, he said he would like to come again. Next time he would make arrangements to stay longer! It is a rare day someone keeps their word when they say they will try to make it to church, so I am impressed and thrilled.
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
This week we had so many last minute meetings with President Tew trying to figure out if we would have a training on family history with the whole mission, or if we were going to do something else, then what would it be on, and what would be the next big step to helping the mission with retention of information and new converts.
Lately it has been hard with so many new converts who have little to no access to the temple or family history centers, but we hope to reverse that and hopefully help people not only stay active in the church, but happy and progressing to the full blessings that the temple can bring to their lives. In the past it was very hard for converts to get a limited use temple recommend and a calling, now we hope to have that are available right after baptism. So many people we teach and meet are so thrilled to have the opportunity to serve others and go to the temple to serve as well. We even have been trying now with President Tew to see new converts go through the temple fully after 1 year of baptism too. That is the most exciting thing ever to help with, that is really the end goal as missionaries, not baptisms so much. Lately, missionaries have forgotten that and haven't helped other missionaries' recent converts with their progress towards the temple for themselves as well as they should be doing. It is lack of experiences with recent converts and lack of passing on knowledge to the next generation of young new missionaries that could be the cause.
We also want to help with the newly made family history center in Huntington Beach that is a miniature visitor's center for family history for the entire family. They have tons of great learning materials and things to show and share. It's the first of it's kind in the world so it should be interesting to see what happens in the future.
Other than family history, we had to let go of Librada sadly. Due to lack of diversity in our particular ward (which was quite diverse considering all things) and lack of a full on bible study, she decided to go back to her church. We are happy to hear she is going back to a church, just sad it ended that way. I worry it may have also been due to some comments in a class we had, but that can't be helped. everyone is on their own spiritual journey back to Christ, you just have not take offense of what others say because the gospel is true, people are flawed.
Everyone is having vacations, so almost every lesson has cancelled this week. We did however help out with a member who is moving soon and needed help weeding her back yard and fixing a palm tree which needed trimming badly from a neighbors yard hanging over. (I figured out I really dislike palm trees; messy, pokey, dirty trees that really look horrid if you don't trim them regularly which cost an arm and a leg to get done. They also don't like to be trimmed without a chain saw, and their leaves are designed to repel any attempt to cutting the branch off from the tree. We had to use tree nippers) We had a third of the zone there to help clean up the place, and by the end we almost had no weeds left.
We also helped Sister Spencer paint her home, literally, and put in mulch and a garden so that they could put their home up for sale. They had to move out by Thursday, and so half the zone came to help tackle the project. Brother Spencer got a job designing theme parks for universal Beijing, so he will leave for Florida for two years, then to China for the rest till the park is finished I imagine. I don't think I could ever do a move like that, and I took Chinese for a year. I will miss them in the ward, they are great.
The Dlaguits moved, but thankfully it was just down the road a ways to a house instead of an apartment and are still in the ward. Sister Fox is leaving soon as well for Colorado, I will miss her, too. Everyone great in the ward is leaving it seems this summer.
We have already seen some fireworks shot off, during the daytime mostly. We even caught a glimpse of the fireworks at Knotts as well. Boy do they celebrate here in California, everything gets decked out in fourth of July decorations in June. In Utah not so much, but then agin, most people are going to the gravesides and cleaning them instead of vacationing like here (as far as I have noticed).
Miracle of the week:
We bumped into George who we met a long time ago with Sister KJ, and he said he would come to church. HE DID! Not only that, but he said he loved how genuine everyone seemed during the talks given, and despite the children all around us, he said he would like to come again. Next time he would make arrangements to stay longer! It is a rare day someone keeps their word when they say they will try to make it to church, so I am impressed and thrilled.
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