Week Sixty-Seven: Change

Outside the Arvin building. I'm going to miss that place!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group

Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was crazy. We spent a lot of time talking to people on the streets and meeting cool folks and at the end of the week, we got transfer calls. I will be LEAVING ARVIN! It was the saddest transfer call of my life, but I am super excited for moving on into the last couple of months of my mission. More on that later.

With Lucas. He is such a cute man, and I'm glad I had the chance to teach him!

With Refugio. He is so cute!

We tried to take a selfie with Julio.
I don't know if he understood what was going on. haha

One morning, we were walking down the street and we saw a young mother outside. She was sitting with her two-month-old daughter and we stopped to talk to her. She just talked about how much her family meant to her and how much she felt like her young baby was a gift from God. We were able to talk to her about how the gospel really does bless families and how she could feel more of God's love in her life. It really made me grateful for the family that I have and for all of the blessings that I have experienced from the gospel. I know that my family will be together forever and I am so happy for that! The gospel gives me hope and courage!

We are still teaching Guadalupe and Rafael. It has been really fun to see them growing and changing as we have been teaching them. Every time that we go over, there are seven or eight people who are wandering through the house and Guadalupe always invites them to come and sit in as well. Rafael always gives us fruits. I think that there are about 50 oranges and at least 1.5 watermelons sitting in our apartment right now. :) That is the benefit of being in this area of California right now. All of the fruit is starting to grow, so people give it to us. Everyone here is so nice and they always help us to feel comfortable, even if they do not want to hear about our message.

With the Familia Ocampo. I love them so much!

With Juanita. She is the daughter of a less active family.

Selfies with Herman Navarro. She is a super cute lady!

With the Familia Navarro.

This week, we got transfer calls on Saturday night. I was really hoping that I would stay in Arvin for another transfer with Hermana Luquette, but when we got the calls, we learned that I would be going with Hermana Galvez to open up an area called Delano for sisters. There has been Spanish speaking elders there for a long time, but we are the first sisters to serve there in the mission's history, as far as I know. It is going to be an adventure. Delano covers the now famous McFarland, USA, so we are pretty much living in a I am super excited to serve with Hermana Galvez. She is from Guatemala and she is one of the nicest people that I have ever met. She only has a couple of transfers in the mission, but she has a lot of excitement for the work and I feel like we are going to have a good transfer. I am super sad to be leaving Hermana Luquette, but she is going to be doing a good job in Arvin.

After church on Sunday.

We got a watermelon from Rafael.

Being Watermelon goofy.

Sunday was one of the saddest days that I have had so far on my mission. I had to say goodbye to everyone in the Arvin group and it was so depressing. They are some of my favorite people in the world. During the meeting, we sat with Refugio and Julio. I was conducting the music and while I was leading, I looked out over the congregation and thought about how much I loved all of the people in the group. They are so precious and I feel blessed that I have been able to serve around them for as long as I did. During Sacrament Meeting, one of the members gave a talk, but she started out by talking about how much missionaries have blessed her life and how much her life had changed because of the gospel. It made me grateful to be part of such a great work and to be out on a mission.

Our district.

All of the hermanas in our district.

Hermana Luquette after our district meeting.

That is about it for the week. I am super excited for the changes that are ahead and I know that I will be helped in all of the surprises as I rely on the Lord. This week, I was able to study the last week of Christ's life in preparation for Easter and I really do know that he died for all of us and that through his sacrifice, we can be happy and whole! I love the gospel and I am so happy to be a missionary! I hope that you have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Me sleeping after a hard day of work. Fun times!

Week Sixty-Six: Time is Flying!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was a blur! I feel like time has been flying the past couple of weeks and I can hardly remember what has been going on, but I will do my best to give you the highlights! Things are going well for us here in Arvin.

One of the biggest events of the week was that we finished out all of our exchanges for the transfer! We had our last exchanges with the Hermanas from Experanza (Hermana Badger and Hermana Perry). I was with Hermana Perry and we had a blast! It was so fun to be back together with Hermana Perry and to work in Arvin. We taught a couple of our investigators during the night time. The next day, we were walking down the street and we met the cutest old man in the world. He was 92 years old and he told us about all of his stories of fighting in World War II (turns out he goes to the Veteran's Post where we have our church on Sundays). He was super nice and had lived a really interesting life. I want to be able to have such wonderful stories when I am as old as he was!

We closed out our exchanges by eating dinner with Julio. It is always an adventure to eat with him. He takes a lot of pride in the fact that his new apartment has a full kitchen, so he always makes us food, but he is almost blind. He is going to get surgery to fix his eyes soon, but in the meantime, he makes us the strangest food that I have ever eaten. This week, he gave us full chickens that he had bought from the corner store and fried up himself. All of his food is as salty as the Dead Sea and cooked just enough so that is can't be called raw. I love Julio so much, though, and it is always a pleasure to hear him tell us his stories of living in Chiapas and working as a bus driver through Mexico and Central America.

After exchanges ended, things got back to normal. It has been nice being able to work full-time with Hermana Luquette. I really love her and she is so fun to serve with. I feel like during exchange season, we barely even see each other, but she is a good friend!

This week, we had Mission Leadership Conference and Zone Training Meeting. It was wonderful. We focused mostly on President Monson's Conference talk about the Book of Mormon and how it is our most powerful tool for conversion in our lives. We learned new ways that we can help people to learn how to read in the Book of Mormon and how we can better apply the power of the Book of Mormon in our own personal lives. I really love reading the Book of Mormon and I know that it is true. I have learned so much in my mission the power that the Book of Mormon has and I know that it has shaped me a lot during the past couple of months. I am glad to be a missionary so I can help other people to learn about that same power.

This week, we had breakfast with one of the recent converts in Arvin, Hermana Sigala. She is a super cute old lady and she loves to tell us all about her experiences that she has had with ghosts and spirits. When we went over for breakfast, she made us a traditional Mexican meal that people eat around Easter, cactus and shrimp cakes. It was a little strange, but overall it was really enjoyable. I never had tried cactus before my mission, but people eat it down here all the time and I actually really like it!

Hermana Luquette curled my hair one day. 

This week, we witnessed the cutest event that I have ever seen in my life. There is a less active family here in Arvin that joined the church in Idaho and have only been to the church here in California a couple of times. We go over to visit them pretty often, but they do not have a lot of contact with the ward. The mother of the family is really pregnant and she is due to have her baby in a couple of weeks. When the hermanas in the group heard about the pregnancy, they decided to have a surprise baby shower. It was the sweetest thing ever to see when Hermana Moreno walked in to the room when the baby shower was happening and started crying from happiness to see all of the decorations and gifts. It made her feel more ready for her baby to come and it was so cute to see everyone come together to help her out. I love all of the members here in the Arvin group! It was so cute to see all of the people from the group playing baby shower games. I was fed jello by another hermana and Hermana Luquette had to race to drink a baby bottle filled with soda. It was the most precious thing that I have ever seen in my life!

That is about it for the week! I love being here on the mission and I have really felt the hand of the Lord every day. I love being able to be here and to serve the people with all that I can and I have seen so many blessings through it. I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau

[In response to Mom's question about Easter traditions there] 

Easter traditions in Mexico are hardcore. We were actually talking to Refugio about it the other night. I guess that they choose from a couple of people who volunteer and they take them into the center of the town. Then they scourge the volunteer and parade him through the town, carrying his cross. When they get to the end of the walk, they literally crucify him in the public square. I guess that they take them down before they actually die, but it sounded pretty intense. After Refugio told us about his traditions, we told him that we look for colored eggs full of candy. There was a bit of a contrast! :) I don't think that I would want to do the Mexican version of any of the holidays that Catholics celebrate. They are pretty hard core!

Week Sixty-Five: Conference is the Best!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group

Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was pretty fun! I can't even really remember what happened because it all went by so fast. We did some more exchanges and had General Conference. It was so nice to be able to listen to the words of the living prophets. It really strengthened my testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!

We started out this week with another session of back-to-back exchanges. That is always a fun time! We started out the week with the Hermanas who are serving in Buena Vista, Hermanas Torres and Arceo. I went with Hermana Arceo and I had a ton of fun! During the night time, we had a lot of appointments set up, but they all ended up falling through. As a backup, we had planned to go and see a less active that we hadn't seen for a long time. We went to the apartment complex where he lived and I realized that I didn't really know which apartment he lived in. We decided to go by the Spirit to find the apartment. I knocked on the door where I thought it was and a lady opened the door. It turned out that the less active man didn't live there, but a lady who used to listen to the missionaries a couple of years ago and who had recently moved did. We were able to teach her.

The next day with Hermana Arceo, we spent some time talking to people in the streets and had some good time to meet people. Right as we were finishing up exchanges with them, the Hermanas from Little Rock came down for their exchanges with us. I was with Hermana Latimer. She is a really purpose driven missionary and it was super fun to go around with her. During the day, we spent a lot of time walking around in the sun. The summer has finally started to arrive here in Arvin (right when spring normally comes around in other parts of the country), so it was hot and sunny. I am starting to get a little tan from my shoes! We were able to talk to some cool people and to contact some referrals, so it was a pretty productive day.

This week, we also had interviews with President Layton. The talk in General Conference about beholding and loving people really reminded me of him. Every time I see him, he shakes my hand and stares into my soul. He is a wonderful mission president and I love being able to serve with him. He always inspires me to do my best!

We have still been teaching Guadalupe and Rafael. She is super sweet and loves to learn about Jesus Christ. Every time that we go over to teach her, her husband waits for us in the parking lot of the apartment complex and they give us giant bags of fruit. This week, they gave us a ton of oranges and cantaloupe. The perks of living in a place with so much produce!

On Friday morning, we got a call from our District Leader. Hermana Galvez, one of the hermanas who works in La Cresta, sprained her ankle on Friday morning and so the other hermanas were not able to make it to the District Meeting. Normally, we have District Meeting in Bakersfield, but both us and the District Leader's companionship live in Arvin. We decided to stay in Arvin for the meeting instead of driving into Bakersfield, but there wasn't any building where we could meet. We ended up meeting in the park next to our apartments. We actually had a pretty good District Meeting, even though we were surrounded by drunk men playing cards and cool kids at the skate park.

The highlight of the week was definitely General Conference. I always love listening to the words of the prophets, especially here on the mission. I was able to go into Conference with a lot of questions that I had and I was able to receive some specific answers. It was the best! I love the church and I know that it is true. I am so glad that I get to be here on a mission. I love you all and I hope that you have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Sixty-Four: Refugio!

These are pictures of the baptism. We didn't get any while he was in his suit. (They all came out super strange too. He looks like we just told him to go to his execution instead of his baptism). He was happy, I swear!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was pretty fun! We were able to see a lot of cool things. We had a couple of exchanges, the Women's Conference, and a baptism! Things are going well in the area and we have been seeing miracles!

This week started out with exchanges! Due to the fact that we had our baptism on Friday night and the Woman's Conference on Saturday, we weren't able to have exchanges over the weekend. Instead, we chose to do back-to-back exchanges from Monday night until Wednesday night! I had never done exchanges that way, but it was a lot of fun. We started out with the other Hermanas in our district who work down in La Cresta: Hermana Zambrano, Hermana Weaver, and Hermana Galvez. I was with Hermana Zambrano and Hermana Weaver. It was a reunion of three mission generations. We were able to find a couple of people to teach and we were able to teach a couple of our investigators. Also, Hermana Galvez knows how to thread eyebrows, so she threaded our eyebrows when we came in for night. Now, they are on fleek!

Right as the Hermanas from La Cresta were leaving, we started our exchanges with the Hermanas from Buena Vista, Hermana Melendez and Hermana Wright. I was with Hermana Melendez. It was a little bit of a miracle when they came over because we were a little out of food after our last exchanges. When the Hermanas walked in, they told us that they had some food that they wanted to give to us. We didn't starve this week! Exchanges with Hermana Melendez were really fun! I don't know why, but every person that we talked to was someone that I had already met before. It was strange. . . I guess that is what happens when you work in such a small place. Halfway through the exchange, it got really cold. It had been really warm and sunny, then we started talking to a man on the street (who I had met a couple of weeks ago :) ). Halfway through our five minute conversation, the temperature rapidly dropped 10 degrees. It was freezing. Then, it started to rain. Neither of us had brought a jacket and we didn't have any solid plans. We tried to visit a couple of less actives and recent converts, but they were either busy or not home. We spent a couple of miserable hours in the rain, but we were able to be led by the spirit and I felt like it was a good experience. Hermana Melendez told me that she wanted to work on being more persistent during the exchange, so I think that we were blessed with rain to help us to learn. We were able to talk to some cool people and we have gone back to visit a couple of them.

This week, we spent a lot of time working with Refugio to prepare him for his baptism. It was really fun to be able to see how excited he was for everything. Now that he knows about the church, he wants to share it with all of his friends. He lives in a house with a couple of his family members and other people from Guerrero that he has met here in California. He started inviting them to come and sit in with us. One of them, Filemon, has been listening almost every night and told us that he would like to be baptized as well. He told us that he would like to come to Refugio's baptism and that he would drive them both there in his car.

On the day of the baptism, we decided to meet up with Refugio and Filemon at their house and drive them into Bakersfield to show them where the church building was. We went over about and hour before the baptism was scheduled to start so that there would be enough time for us to drive thirty minutes to Bakersfield and give him time to change before the baptism started. When we got to his house, however, Refugio told us that he had had to work a late at his job that afternoon and that he had just gotten home. Filemon wasn't even there yet. We ended up heading out about thirty minutes late and we got to Bakersfield about ten minutes after the baptism was scheduled to start. There were three baptisms happening in the ward on the same day, so we had a big group baptism scheduled and we were worried that everyone there would be a little mad that we were holding everything up. However, when we walked in, everyone was sitting quietly and waiting for Refugio. It was sweet. It was a great service and Refugio was so excited and happy to be baptized. He has been such a joy to teach!

He really was happy. Really!

On Saturday night, we went down to the General Woman's Broadcast. It was great! I love the fact that we are able to listen to the words of the living prophets and the general authorities twice a year. What a blessing! I felt the spirit so much and everyone was speaking.

Church was great this week, too. We started teaching a lady named Guadalupe and her husband, Rafael. We went over for a quick lesson with them before church started and they came to church. The group members here in Arvin are great at fellowshipping and they said that they really liked it. Also, Refugio was able to be confirmed. He was a little late coming the meeting because he got called in last minute to work that morning, but he came in about 15 minutes late and they were able to do the confirmation.

This week was really nice. It strengthened my testimony that we are here for a specific reason and that the Lord directs this missionary work. I love the gospel and I love being a missionary. I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ! I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau 

Week Sixty-Three: Where I Need to Be

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week has been good. We have been able to work a lot with our investigators and we have been able to see a lot of miracles in the work. Exchanges have started up again this week and it has been great to be able to learn from the other Hermanas in the mission. Things have been going great!

Starting with something a little mundane: Last Monday, we discovered a hidden treasure of the East Bakersfield Zone -- Mercado Latino. We heard a couple of months ago that there was a place here in the city that you could buy a ton of Mexican things. We had been asking and asking people all around if they knew where the Mercado Latino was and they said that they didn't. Finally, the other week, one of our investigators was able to tell us where it was (and also told us that he could take us there for dinner at a future point!). Last Monday, we were finally able to go. It was magical. One of my dreams when I heard that I was coming to this mission was to get a poncho and it was finally realized!

On Wednesday, we had a combined Zone Conference with the South Bakersfield Zone. It was really spiritual and I was able to find new direction for our area. It was also really fun to be able to see all of the other Hermanas on this side of the mission. I love all of the people that I am serving around right now! We learned about spiritual power and how we can be better channels of the spirit in the work. I am so excited that we are able to share the gospel with everyone and to help them to change their lives.

Speaking of helping people to change their lives, we have still been teaching Refugio and he is so excited to be learning about the gospel and coming to church. Every time we go over to talk to him, he is always so excited about reading in the Book of Mormon and all of the things that he is learning. He passed his baptismal interview and he should have his baptism on Friday, with all luck. It has been a pleasure to be able to help him through the learning process. Whenever we go over, he always tells us about all of his friends that he knows and how much he wants to share about the Book of Mormon with them. He has already given us the names of a couple of friends that he has and he wants us to teach all of his family that is in town. He is the cutest man! He is going to be a great member of the Arvin group!

This week, we started exchanges! Due to the Zone Conference on in the middle of the week, we were only able to have exchanges with one set of hermanas. On Friday, we started our exchanges with the hermanas from Lancaster, Hermana Martineau and Hermana Perdomo. I was with Hermana Martineau. It was a fun time and we were both able to learn a lot from each other. She is a wonderful missionary and we went out and worked hard! It is finally starting to get a little hotter outside and we spent a little bit of time walking in the morning, so I am starting to get a little bit of a tan and my freckles are getting a little darker. The winter has made me such a baby. It was only 85 degrees outside and I was starting to sweat. I thought I would leave the mission before the summer came back, but I think that I am still going to experience the most of it!

We went over to see out investigator, Luis, on Tuesday night. When we went over for the lesson, we were talking to him a little bit about his life and everything that was going on. He recently started working as a bee keeper and has been pretty excited about that job. As we were talking, he told us that he was going to be leaving in the morning for two months to go work on a bee farm in Missouri. We were so sad that he was going to be away for such a long time, but we left him with a pretty good lesson and we told him to text us when he got to where he was going so we could send missionaries by his house. I was secretly hoping that he was going to move to Waynesville and go to church with my family. We didn't hear from him for a couple of days and we thought that he was avoiding us when we got a text from him on Friday during exchanges. He told us that they hadn't actually sent him out of town and that he was still at his house. It was a pleasant surprise!

That is pretty much it for the week! I love being a missionary and being able to share the gospel with the world. I know that I am where I need to be and I am doing what I need to be doing. Teaching the people is so rewarding. I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Sixty-Two: People Are Great!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This was a pretty good week. We have been working hard and seeing success from all of our efforts. It has been starting to heat up here. I must have been spending too much time in the cold because I am getting super uncomfortable in the heat. That is bad news because it is supposed to be in the high eighties this week.

This week has been a good start to the new transfer. Hermana Luquette and I are still together here in Arvin, so we are having a lot of fun down here. I am excited to be able to serve in this part of the Lord's Vineyard for the next couple of weeks. Everyone has been staying outside recently because of the pleasant weather, so we have been able to talk to tons of people.

Early on this week, we were walking down the road when we saw a man standing in his yard. We started talking to him and we noticed right from the start that he was a little strange. We told him that we were missionaries and he asked us if we had ever heard of Asaroth, the Angel of Death. We told him that we hadn't and he said, "Of course you haven't. They don't want you to know about him. But I got a picture of him on my phone." He proceeded to tell us that he stands outside of the retirement home and waits for people to die and then takes pictures of their windows. He showed us the picture that he took and it was just static. We told him that we couldn't see anything and he said that we must not be pure in heart. Awkward. . . Then, he showed us a picture that he took of God. It was another picture of static. After Hermana Luquette saw the picture, she said that even though she hasn't seen God, she knows that He is there. The man then said, "What do you mean that you haven't seen God? You just saw a picture of him!" It was super funny! You see and learn something new every day!

Early one morning, we were parked in an area and got out of the car to talk to people. There was a lady on the phone next to where we were parked, so we asked her if we could just give her our card. She said that we could. As we were writing out our information, we started to notice that there were tire marks all over the yard. The yard was completely destroyed and there was glass and broken car parts all over the yard. We found out that a car had been doing donuts in the street when it lost control and crashed into a parked car. We were able to help out a little bit and later, we were able to take advantage of the fact that everyone had come out to see the rubble in the street.

We were walking down the street on Saturday when we saw a man destroying a plastic rake with a hammer and a chisel. He never made it clear to us why he was doing that. We started talking to us and he started rambling about the Bible. He talked to us nonstop for about ten minutes. While he was talking to us, another man came up and interrupted our conversation. I started talking to that man and Hermana Luquette was left to talk to the man with the rake. While I was talking, I heard the man talking to Hermana Luquette. He said that he was looking for a wife and then he asked her if she would marry him. It was super awkward. We made a quick retreat!

This week, we started teaching a lady named Josephina. She is the friend of a member in the ward and has been to church a lot of times already. She is super sweet! The first time we went over to teach her, she was making lunch. She told us to sit down at the table and made some for us as well. It was sweet. We dined on sauteed cactus and scrambled eggs. Que rico! To top it all off, she gave us a stack of homemade tortillas to take home with us in a beautiful hand-embroidered towel. It was beautiful.

We are still teaching Refugio and he is doing wonderfully. It was nice to see him at church yesterday. We went over and taught him afterwards and he said that he was able to feel a special spirit there and that he knows that going to church is a responsibility and a blessing. He is so cool! I love teaching him.

I love being a missionary! I have been able to see the hand of the Lord in so many ways this week. I know that I am in the place I need to be right now! I love the gospel and I know that it is true! Have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Sixty-One: Fourteen Months Down!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group

Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was busy. We have been teaching a lot of people recently and we have been having back to back lessons most days. It is really fun to have so many people that we are working with and to be able to see everyone progress in their own little ways. Things have been going well and we have been seeing miracles everyday.

One of the people that we are teaching is named Luis. He is a young man and he works in the fields. He told us that his New Year's resolution this year was to hold down a job and that he felt like we have been helping him with that, so we are always excited to ask him how work is going. The other night, we had just gotten out of dinner when Luis sent us a text asking us to pray for him to get a new job. We assumed that he had lost his old job, so we told him that we would go over to his house and pray for him. When we got to his house, he opened the door and we said, "We are sorry to hear about what happened." Then he looked really confused and asked us what we were talking about. After some initial confusion, we discovered that he hadn't lost his old job, he was just looking for a better job working with the honey bees. We were able to say a prayer with him and he told us in our lesson yesterday that he got the job! Prayer works.

We also have started to teach another man named Ricardo. He likes to sit around his house and whittle old table legs into baseball bats. He also has about a million chickens. The other day, he let us hold a couple of his newly hatched chicks. So cute! We have been teaching him for about a week and a half and he has a real desire to learn about Jesus Christ and to change his life. The other night, we went over for our lesson and a lot of his friends were also sitting outside of his house. We started talking to the group, but a couple of the people were wanting to Bible Bash. We were trying to bear our testimonies and Ricardo started bearing his testimony as well and quoting from the parts of the Book of Mormon that he had read to answer his friends' questions. It was neat  to see!

Also, we started teaching a woman named Maria this week. The other week, I wrote about receiving a phone call from someone that wanted us to come over and about how we couldn't find their house. We thought that it was just a fluke and that the house didn't exist. Later, I was looking down at what I had written in my agenda and I found the address for Maria. It turned out that we had been looking for the wrong house all along. When we went over to her real address, we found Maria at home. She had a stroke a couple of years ago and as a result, she hasn't been able to walk for a long time. We went over and were able to share some scriptures with her that helped her to find a little bit of comfort.

Things have also been going well in teaching Refugio. He gave us dinner the other day. He doesn't have a lot of cooking skills, so he took us out to eat at the local Mexican Restaurant. It was super nice. He told us during the dinner that about his wife and children who are still down in Mexico. I guess he came here to the United States to make money and that after a couple of years, they will be able to come up here and join him. Then he told us about how we helped him to find peace and that we helped him to feel better about being away from his family. It was sweet!

We had Mission Leadership Conference, Zone Training Meeting, and Stake Conference this week. That all added up to be a lot of time in meetings, but it was nice to be able to learn from the spirit and to receive direction about the things that we need to be doing in our area of the mission and in life in general. I love this gospel and all of the things that it gives me. I know that I have so much happiness now because of the things that I have learned and the ways that I have come closer to Christ! I love being a missionary!

I love you all! I hope that you have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Sixty: Teaching, Teaching, Teaching

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was really busy, but we were able to do a lot of stuff and talk to a lot of people. I can hardly even believe that it has been a whole week since last p day, but things have been good! Time is really flying by!

We started out the week on p day by going up to Tehachapi and meeting together with all of the Hermanas from the entire mission. It was so fun! Hermana Luquette and I were in charge of planning it, but we didn't really have many ideas, so in the end we decided to tell everyone to bring their favorite snacks and to bring a white t-shirt to decorate. We decorated the t-shirts, ate the snacks, and talked to each other for a couple of hours. It was a really fun activity and it was nice for everyone to get to meet each other.

We taught a TON of lessons this week. I felt like we were either in a lesson with one of our current investigators or we were finding someone new to teach all week long. It was nice to be able to be able to see all of our investigators so much. I feel like we have been teaching a lot of people with a lot of potential this week.

This week, we got a lot of food from people. We were in dinner with a family from our ward on Tuesday and we were just about finished up when the husband came in from the backyard with a ton of cabbages in his hands. I guess he just started working in the cabbage fields and he sent us home with a ton of it. Later, one of our investigators, Luis, gave us a giant bag filled with elote. A couple of days later, we met a lady on the street. She talked to us for a long time about the benefits that come from working in the Grimmway carrot packing plant. I guess it is a pretty good place to work. The best part about the contact was that she let us teach her and after the lesson was over, she gave us a giant bag of carrots. I don't know how we are going to use all of the produce that we have been receiving. Maybe we will make some sort of stew!

We had interviews with President Layton on Wednesday. They are always a really spiritual experience for me. I love to be able to talk to him and to share my thoughts about the work in our area. He really is an inspired man!

We are still teaching Refugio and he is doing really well. He is a really nice man and he is really accepting of everything that we teach. We talked to him about all of the commandments and he was a champ while we were teaching. We asked him if he was going to have a problem with anything and he said that if we told him that was what we believed, that would be what he believed as well. It was really cool to see! It is really fun to teach him. On Saturday, we went over for our lesson and he limped out to see us. I guess that he sprained his ankle really badly. He wasn't able to come to church because of that, but he is really excited to learn more and to come next week.

During church, we were able to help one of the less active members of the ward to come to church with her younger brother. We have been working with their family for a long time and we are finally starting to see them putting their faith into action. We we called on last minute to teach the youth and we were able to share a message about the Gospel with them. It was pretty fun! I remember really stressing out about teaching lessons to the youth when I was in Young Women's, but I guess being a missionary teaches you how to teach on the fly.

This week was great! I love being out here on my mission. I can't believe that it is almost March and that I only have about four months left. I just want to work as hard as I can and to help everyone to accept the gospel! I love this church and that it helps me to come closer to Jesus Christ. I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Fifty-Nine: Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was really good. We have been working hard down here in Arvin and we have been seeing lots of miracles through it all. I feel like everything has been going pretty well for us and we have been able to see some of our investigators really start to progress. Life is good!

This week was the last of our exchanges with the Hermanas. They are all really fun and I have been able to learn so much! Early on in this week, we went on exchanges with Hermana Martineau and Hermana Arceo. I was with Hermana Arceo, who is just finishing up with training. It was really fun to work with her and to spend some time talking to the people on the streets. We didn't really have very many plans for the last half of the exchanges, so we decided to head out and see what happened. In the morning, we knocked a couple of doors before we knocked on the door of a really old lady. She wasn't very interested in listening to us and said that she was busy. We offered to help her out with anything that she needed and she accepted. We ended up helping her to organize some things for a garage sale that she was having the next day. While we were working, she told us that her husband of fifty years had just passed away and that she was moving out of the house where she had lived for most of her married life to be closer to her children. After we finished helping her, we offered to share a message with her and she accepted. It was really nice to see how service softens the hearts of the people. We were able to talk with her and help her to find Heavenly Father's comfort. Charity really is the true love of Christ! Also, she let us pick out anything she wanted from her garage sale, so I got a sweet proselyting bag out of it! :)

Later, while I was still with Hermana Arceo, we went to go visit a couple that we had talked to a couple of weeks ago. We had a couple of hours, so we decided to park a couple of streets away so we could talk to the people who we met on the streets. We started out walking and working our way towards our original purpose, but we kept meeting people who were walking. They told us that we could talk to them while they were walking, so we would follow them all the way across town. We were able to meet a couple of cool people that way. It was really fun. We started walking up an alley to get back to the main road and we discovered that the alley was full of houses as well. We found whole neighborhoods that we had never seen before. Arvin is always full of surprises. I think that I could walk around for three years and not talk to all of the people who live here!

It has been raining a ton! I never thought that I would have to deal with quite so much rain when I learned that I was going to Bakersfield. Everyone on the streets tells us that all of the dams in California are breaking. Here in Arvin, there is a ton of flooding. The other night, we had an appointment with someone that we met on the street. We parked next to where we thought her house was and prepared ourselves to get out of the car. It was raining as hard as I have ever seen it rain out here and it was really cold. We figured that we would run to her house and run back to the car, so we got up the courage and got out of the car. When we started looking for her house number, we realized that we were on the wrong street. I figured that it wouldn't be that far of a walk, so we decided to start walking instead of getting back in the car. It turns out that it was a little ways away from where we were. It wouldn't have been that bad if we hadn't have been trudging through the rain. When we got to the lady's house, she told us that she was getting ready to get in the shower and that she couldn't meet with us. We thought that it was all for nothing that we got all wet and we started walking back to the car. On our way back, one of the people who works in the Subway that we go to all the time pulled up beside us in her car and offered us a ride. We were close to our car by that point, so we told her that we were fine, but we took a little time to share a little bit of the message and to give her our card. She told us that she had met with missionaries before and that we could come by her house. We went back to the apartment cold, but happy!

We also went on exchanges with Hermana Zambrano and Hermana Weaver during the later part of the week. I was with Hermana Weaver, who is just starting out on her mission. It was really nice to be able to work with her. She is a super sweet hermana and she likes to work hard. We were able to teach a couple of our investigators and we had a really good time!

The other day, we got a call from a random number. It was a lady who told us that she had learned from missionaries before and that she wanted us to come by. We didn't know her, but we decided that it couldn't hurt. We were a little late and we were having a hard time finding her house, but we finally found the address that she had told us. We knocked on the door and a woman answered. She told us to come in and she gathered all of the family around. We asked her how long ago it was that she learned from missionaries and she told us that she had never seen missionaries before. It turned out that it wasn't the person that we had talked to on the phone and that no one with that name lived in that house. The lady was super nice and pretty interested. Later, we tried to call the person who called us and she never answered us back.

Things have been going well for us here and I have been able to see many miracles. I know that the Lord is in charge of this work and that he leads us to where we need to be. I am so glad that I am able to be here on a mission! I know that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ! I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Fifty-Eight: Exchanges

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was interesting. It was full of even more exchanges and Zone Conference. We have been really busy, but we are working hard and we have been seeing miracles every day!

Our first exchanges of the week were with Hermana Torres and Hermana Dye from up in Little Rock. Hermana Torres and I had a really good night and we were able to talk to a lot of people. We had a couple of appointments, but most of them fell through at the last moment and we ended up walking around in the rain for a while. I liked it because it made me feel like an authentic missionary! :) The good thing about Arvin is that there are always people outside on the streets, even when it is dark and rainy.

We had exchanges again at the end of the week with the Hermanas from Esperanza who are in a trio and I went with Hermana Badger and Hermana Galvez, a new missionary. It was really fun. It makes me a little sad that I have never really experienced the trio life for real. We had lessons with almost all of our investigators, so it was nice to be able to teach that much.

Because Julio lives in Lamont now, we are letting the elders that work there teach him his recent convert lessons, so we had a combined lesson to hand him off. I was still with Hermanas Badger and Galvez and the elders are currently in a trio as well, so there were a ton of missionaries at the lesson. We decided to teach Julio about prayer and to teach him how to say simple prayers. We have taught Julio a million times that we pray to God, but each time that Julio prays, he prays to Jesus Christ. We decided to teach by demonstration, so each one of the six missionaries that was there said a short, simple prayer. Then, we went over one more time how to say simple prayers and we asked Julio to say one. We all had our fingers crossed that he got the lesson, but he again addressed his prayer to Jesus Christ. There was an audible groan from all of us. He is a work in progress, but he is still happy to be baptized!

This week, during planning, we decided to shake things up a little bit. Normally, we look through our records for people who stopped learning from the missionaries a while ago and plan them in to see. Normally, they are either not home or not interested, so we decided that we were going to call the numbers that are listed on their records. The first person that we called that way was named Refugio. He was taught by the missionaries here right before I came to Arvin. When we called to set up the appointment, he was super excited and told us that we could come over that night. We went to see him and he told us that we could sit and talking to him on a tree stump that was in his yard. I felt like I was in a fairy tale or something. He told us that he didn't know why the other missionaries had stopped coming by and that he wanted to be baptized. We asked him if he still wanted that and he said that he did. He is super cute and has a lot of faith. He has trouble reading, so we have gone over every day since then and read from the Book of Mormon with him. On Saturday night, he told us that he wouldn't be able to go to church this week because his boss told him that he had to work. We told him that we understood, but we were praying with him for a miracle that would let him come to church. On Sunday morning, right before church, he texted us and told us that he got off of work earlier than he thought that he would and that he was able to come to church. He got there a little bit late, but he really liked it!

Things are going well here. I am so happy that I have been given the chance to serve a mission here in Bakersfield and to meet all of the people that I have. I love working here! Every day, I am able to see the blessings of God on the work and that he really cares about us all. I love the gospel and I love being a missionary. I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Fifty-Seven: Julio Got Baptized!!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

Hello! This week was pretty good. We have been seeing a TON of miracles and the work is really progressing down here in Arvin. The Lord has been blessing us a lot and we are living the life.

Biggest news of the week: Julio got baptized! I never would have expected him to have gotten baptized when we first started teaching him. At the beginning of the week, we went over to Julio's house to talk to him about baptism again. He told us that he was finally done waiting and that he wanted to go through with it. The entire time leading up to the day was full of miracles. From the very beginning attempts of trying to set Julio with a day to be baptized, he always told us that he didn't want to be baptized when it was cold outside. He made it a little hard for us, but we told him that if he set a date to be baptized in January or February, he would see a miracle with that. As we started this week, the weather was beautiful. It has been raining pretty much nonstop for the last couple of weeks and it has been cold and miserable outside, but on the day of the baptism, it was unseasonably warm and the sun was shining. The spirit was so special at Julio's baptism and you could tell that he felt excited (even though he was trying to hide it) We asked him how he felt after he was baptized and he told us that he just felt warm. It was so sweet!

We went over for one of our last lessons with Julio before he got baptized. Despite looking for one of the sisters from the group to come with us, we couldn't find anyone. We ended up just going, knowing that we wouldn't be able to go inside his apartment. When we got there, Julio invited us to go inside and we told him that we couldn't because of the mission rules. He got super sad and told us that he had gone to Bakersfield to buy pots and plates and then had walked all over Lamont to buy groceries in order to make us mole. He was sad because he thought that we wouldn't be able to eat it with him because there wasn't a table. In a sudden moment of creativity, we decided to turn over a couple of cardboard boxes form a table and we ate the food there. It was the cutest lunch/dinner ever!

At Julio's makeshift table eating rice and mole.

Speaking of our investigators, we started teaching a person named Luis. He is young man who recently returned from serving a mission for the Catholic church. We started talking to him after we saw a dove in a cage on his porch and he let us hold it. We have had a couple of lessons with him and he really liked reading in the Book of Mormon. This Sunday, we invited him to come to church, but we didn't really expect that he would come. Imagine our surprise when he walked into the church building right after it started! He was wearing a giant cowboy hat and told us that he had walked all the way to the church building. He also was friends with one of the members and her nonmember brother who we are also currently teaching. We went over for a lesson after church and he said that he really liked it. He tried to pay to take one of the Gospel Principles books home so that he could study it, but they ended up giving it to him for free. 

At the Mission Leadership Council.

This week, we started the exchange season again. We had two different exchanges, but both with new missionaries. Our first exchanges were with Hermana Wright and Hermana Melendez and I went with Hermana Wright. She is such a good missionary and has a strong testimony. We were able to teach some good lessons and find some cool people to start teaching. Later this week, we went on exchanges with Hermana Latimer and Hermana Perdomo. I was with Hermana Perdomo. She is from Honduras and has been living in the United States for the last couple of years. It was super fun to be able to practice my Spanish with her. Plus, both she and Hermana Melendez knew Laney from the MTC, so we talked a little bit about her. That was really strange, but it was fun to be able to talk to them!

with Hermana Wright

with Hermana Perdoma

That is just about it for the week. We have been seeing the Lord's hand in the work and I am more and more grateful everyday for the chance that I have to be a missionary here. I love that I get to study and teach about the Doctrine of Christ every day of my mission and that I have the opportunity to truly change people's lives. I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Frozen yogurt we got during some extra time on P-day.