Week Seventy-Six: Marriage Prep

Area: Delano Ward
Companions: Hermana Galvez and Hermana Ruiz

This week has been a doozy! It has been about a million degrees every day and I feel like we are about to melt into the pavement. I take comfort in the fact that when it is 112 degrees here in Bakersfield, it is 117 degrees in Las Vegas! :) We are drinking a lot of water and we are trying to stay in the shade during the day. Luckily, we have been able to be in a lot of lessons, so we are generally inside for those.

Biggest news of the week is that we were able to help the Victoriano and Luisa to get their marriage license. We got permission from President Layton to go down to Bakersfield with them and to help them through the application. It was so cute to be in the marriage license office and to see all of the people going through and so excited to be married. Victoriano and Luisa were super cute together and they are excited to be getting married! We went with Luisa during the week to help her get some wedding invitations made. She asked us for advise on her dress. The only problem is that she is SUPER short. I would say that she can't be taller that five feet, so any dress that she could buy would be way too  big. We were thinking about just looking in the First Communion dresses because they were closer to her size, but in the end, she decided to buy a dress and get all of the bottom part cut off. We are super excited for their wedding!

Aren't they cute?

This week, something truly tragic happened. I was getting in the car to back it up and Hermana Galvez and I saw a little kitten run underneath the car. I thought nothing more of it and got in to back up. As we were driving out, I felt a little bump. I thought that the front of the car had scraped up against the cement block. Hermana Galvez joked and said, "I think you ran over the cat Hermana Blau." I was sure that I hadn't. Then, right when Hermana Ruiz was getting into the car, Hermana Galvez said, "Hermana Blau, you really did run over the cat!!!!" It was lying on the ground, dying. There was nothing that we could do, so we just left. When we got to where we were going, I got out to check the wheel and found that the cat guts had gotten all over, so we had to go up to a lady that was watering her garden and ask her if we could borrow her hose. It was super sad! The worst part was that it was right outside of our parking spot and they didn't get around to picking it up for the next two days. Every time we came home or left, I had a reminder of the terrible deed.

We have also been teaching a couple of other people. One of them is the grandson of a less active that we have been helping to come back to church. He has returned to activity and he started taking his grand children to church with him. They are super cute and super excited to learn. They all came to church this week and had a wonderful time!

We also had Zone Conference this week. It was really nice. It was combined with all of the Zones here in Bakersfield, so we traveled down south and got to see everyone. We learned about faith and how we can overcome our struggles in the work. It gave me a renewed sense of purpose and helped me to know how I can help some of our investigators. 

On Saturday, there was a baptism here in the ward and we invited all of our investigators to come. Last minute, we decided to invite one of our investigators who likes us coming by but who has been really scared of coming to church. He was able to come and he really liked the service. After it was over, we were able to take him around the church building and show him all of the pictures. We ended up in the chapel and talked to him about the sacrament. He was able to feel the spirit and even asked us if we could meet in the church building for our regular appointments. He had a work commitment the next day, but he said that he would be there at church the next week.

Things have been going well for us here and I know that I am where I need to be. I am so happy to be a missionary and I am glad that I have the opportunity to serve. I am excited for what the last few weeks will bring and I am happy to work hard right until the end. I love being a missionary! I hope that you all 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 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.

Week Fifty-Five: Goodbye Julio!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was packed full of fun events, miracles, and rainy days. I think that it has rained more this last month than it has rained at any other time on my mission so far. We have been making it through, though. I found some boots that I forgot that I packed when I left home, so I am living the high life out here!

The week started out with a bang. We went over to Julio's house this week for our lesson. He is planning on getting baptized this coming Saturday, so we were planning on teaching a normal-type lesson to him. We started out the lesson and he was telling us of a dream about angels, just like he always does. Then, out of the blue, he told us that he was going to move to Lamont at the end of the week. Lamont is about 10 minutes outside of Arvin and is the area of our district leader. He will still be going to the Arvin group, but our hearts sank when he told us. I was doing a pretty good time holding myself together until Julio said the opening prayer for the lesson. In his prayer, he thanked Heavenly Father for sending us to teach him and for helping him to change his life. After that, Hermana Luquette and I were a total mess for the entire lesson. Julio tried to comfort us by giving us sodas and telling us that we could come and visit him when he moves back to Mexico. It was so sad. We had his baptismal interview the next day and he passed, but we were sad because we thought it would be the last time we would be able to teach him. Then, the next day, we got permission to keep teaching him down in Lamont for the last week before his baptism. It made me so happy that we will be able to help him during his last week of preparation for his baptism. Even though his is a really strange old man, I love him so much!

We had a combined Zone Conference this week with all of the missionaries on this side of the mission. It is always fun to get together with all the other missionaries from my old areas. We talked about the blessings that come to our families that come from us serving missions. I hope that really is true. I know that I am constantly praying for you all at home and I hope that my mission is helping you all as well!

Our district right now is really small. There are only three companionships: us, the elders in Lamont, and the set of hermanas that is serving in La Cresta. This week, the La Cresta hermanas were sick on the day of district meeting, so it was just us and the elders. It was strange to have such a small district meeting, but it was a pretty spiritual meeting. Afterwards, we went out and bought some ice cream to take to the sick hermanas. One of them was Hermana Zambrano. We were able to talk to her for a while. I was really happy to see all of the progress and growth that she has been making.

Well, that is just about it for the week. It has been fun to be able to work with all of missionaries. Transfers are coming this week and there are a lot of new Spanish speaking sisters coming in. Literally every companionship except for Hermana Luquette and I will be training. It is going to be a crazy transfer, but I am sure that it will help the mission to grow stronger. I am super excited for the next transfer to come and I hope that all goes well. I am so glad for the chance that I have to serve a mission right now and I know that it is shaping me every day. I know that the church is true and that the path of Christ leads to happiness! I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Fifty-One: Baptisms and Temple

Lucas's Baptism

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana Luquette

This week was a doozy. Christmas was the best and we really did see a TON of miracles during the course of the week. The spirit of the Christmas really does exist!

We started out this week without a P day because we went to the temple on Tuesday. We spent that time trying to contact some referrals that we had been trying to see for a while. One of the referrals was for a couple of old ladies that a random man on the street told us to go and talk to. When we got to the door, we started talking to the lady and she wasn't super interested because she and her sister were about to have dinner. She was about to tell us to come back another time when her sister came up to the door and invited us in to eat. We weren't about to turn down a free meal, so we agreed. They actually ended up giving us some pretty yummy lentils and egg tacos and we were able to share about the Restoration afterwards. They invited us back last night. We went after our Christmas dinner with a member, but we discovered that they had prepared us an entire dinner for our visit. We tried to tell them that we just ate, but they told us to just eat one taco. That led to us each eating three tacos and some tamales. It was fun!

On Tuesday, we went down to the temple in Los Angeles. It was super fun going down there and seeing all of the hermanas from around the mission. I love the temple so much and it was a super spiritual experience. I am so grateful for all of the blessings in my life that come from the temples that we have!

At the Los Angeles Temple

It was a little swished in the back seat on our way to the temple.

Right after the temple trip, we went on exchanges with Hermana Zambrano and Hermana Badger. I was with Hermana Zambrano again! I always love going with her and getting to talk and work with her again. It is super fun seeing all of the ways that she has grown over the time that we haven't been together. She is super sweet. While we were out, we decided to go see one of our recent converts. When we went over to her house, she had some company over but she let us in. She invited her friend to listen to us, so we started sharing about the Restoration with her friend. It turns out that she already knew about all about it because our recent convert had already told her everything. She was already planning to come to church. It was super cool to see the member missionary work!

Friday was probably the biggest day of the week. In the beginning, we had a morningside with the Laytons. When we got there, we all had a big breakfast. Afterwards, we sat down and watched It's A Wonderful Life as a mission. It was so good. It was really strange watching a worldly movie for a little bit, but it is one of my favorite movies of all time, so it was a wonderful Christmas treat. Afterwards, we did a gift exchange. During the whole time, I felt so happy. It was nice to know that Christmas is a happy time, no matter where you are!

The hermanas at the morningside.

On Friday night, we had the baptisms of our investigators Jesse and Lucas. It was super cool. I was so happy that I was able to be a part of teaching them and helping them to progress to the point where they could enter into that covenant. We have been working with Jesse for a while to help him to overcome his doubts and his fears, so it was super special to see him get baptized. His mother is a member of the church, so he has heard about the gospel for a long time, but he was finally able to see all the ways that it could bless his family, so he decided to take the step of baptism. Lucas was super prepared right from the beginning and he has been super excited about baptism for a long time. Being able to teach him really let me see the way that the Lord has been preparing people. There were a ton of events that were leading him to the gospel before we ever talked to him. I felt really blessed to be able to teach them and to watch their baptisms and confirmations!

Jesse's baptism with Hermano Rodier, who performed the baptism.

Saturday was a super interesting day. We were walking around outside during the day because we didn't have a ton of appointments. It was cold and people were not acting super interested, so we were feeling a little discouraged. Our one hope was that we could convince someone to watch Joy to the World with us. It is about 45 minutes long, so we thought that we could combine a good teaching experience with an opportunity to get out of the cold. Before we left the car, we prayed that someone would let us watch the movie, but everyone we talked to was semi-rude to us. While we were talking to a group of men fixing their car, it started to hail. We thought that it was just the cherry on the ice cream to our day. Right after that, we saw a lady unloading groceries from her car. We offered to help her and she let us. After we brought in a couple of things, she asked us to share a scripture. We did and then offered to share the movie with her and her family. To our surprise, she said that we could. We were able to talk to the family until our next appointment and they were super nice. It was a Christmas miracle.

Exchanges with Hermana Zambrano

Christmas day was super nice. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and his sacrifice that he made for us. I am so happy that we can have happiness in this world through Christ and I am so grateful for this gospel in my life. I love you all and I hope that you have a happy last week of the year!

Hermana Blau

Christmas skyping with the family!

Week Forty-Seven: Happy Thanksgiving!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana White

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you all had a good time and that you were able to think about all of the things that you are thankful for. We were able to see a lot of miracles and to witness many good things in our area, so we definitely have a lot to be thankful for out here. Things are good out here in good old Arvin, California!

A new cold front moved in and it has been raining down here in Arvin and snowing in the surrounding mountains. One cool feature about Arvin is that any time that the weather changes, the wind picks up and all of the dirt from the surrounding fields flies up into the air and moves in an ominous cloud towards the town. It is pretty scary! We were able to make it into the house of a recent convert and so we were safe!

This week, we started things out with an interesting exchange. We went on exchanges with the hermanas who are currently in Little Rock. It was really strange to go back there and see all of the places that I used to go to when I was training. I have been able to go on exchange to all of the areas where I have previously served, but I think that it was definitely the strangest to go there. We went out to a lesson with one of the hermanas's investigators and we took Hermana Lopez (the Relief Society President) as our member present. It was super cool to be able to see some of the members from the branch. The exchanges were super fun and we were able to learn a lot! We only have one exchange left this transfer and then we will be able to rest for a little bit before we start back up again.

This Thanksgiving, we were able to have a lot of fun and to celebrate in style. We started out in weekly planning for a while in the morning. We went out tracting for a while and tried to contact some referrals while all of the families were at home. Then, we had dinner with the Navarros (a family from the group). It was super good, although a little bit different from what I was used to. Instead of eating turkey, we ate posole (so yummy!). Afterwards, we all went around the table and talked about what we were grateful for. It made me think about Thanksgiving at home, but I am super glad that I am out here as a missionary. I love being able to help people change their lives and to come closer to Christ!

On Saturday, we were able to go to the baptism of one of the people that we have been teaching, Daniel. He was taught for a little bit by Hermanas White and Martineau before I got to Arvin, and then I was able to teach him for about three weeks while I was up here. The week before the baptism, we decided to let the English elders start to teach him because he speaks English much better than Spanish and he wanted to go to the English ward. It was a little sad, because he got baptized just a week later, but it was still a really good service and we were able to feel the spirit a lot. We were able to go to the sacrament meeting in the English ward to see the confirmation the next day, as well. It was super cool!

Daniel

This Sunday, we were able to see a lot of our investigators at church. A couple of people that we found on the street and didn't have the opportunity to teach showed up on their own as well. I met one of the guys a couple of weeks ago on exchanges outside of a restaurant when we were about to go to eat. He called us over and said that he had been taught by missionaries a couple of years ago and he had gone to church with them in Bakersfield. He didn't have a phone number and we didn't know his exact address, so we didn't think that we were ever going to be able to talk to him again. Imagine our surprise when we walked into church and saw him there. He said that he just decided to come and he walked there by himself. It turns out that he is friends with one of the members and that he wants to start coming to church every week. It was a Thanksgiving miracle!

Well, that is just about it for the week. We saw a lot of miracles and we were able to give thanks in style. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission and to come closer to Jesus Christ and to help others to do the same. I am so grateful for the Gospel and for the sacrifice of the Atonement. I love all of you at home and I am glad to be out here. I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau