Week Twenty-Four: Last Week in Palmdale

Area: Esperanza Ward
Companion: Hermana Van der Toolen

A lot of things have happened between the time that I last emailed and now. We went to the temple and we also got transfer calls. This transfer was only five weeks, so it felt super short. Start the drum roll. I am going to. . .BAKERSFIELD! I will be spending the next transfer in the Lacresta Ward in North Bakersfield. Things are going to be good!

Going to the temple was really cool. I have really missed being able to go whenever I wanted to, but I think that the fact that we are only able to go every six months made it really special. We got there a little early, so we were able to spend some time in the visitor's center. It was super interesting. We got there before any regular people were there, so the senior missionaries gave us a tour of the place. They offered to let us sit in on the training of the sister missionaries who work there. We didn't end up going, but it was super interesting being around other missionaries.

Being in the temple again was really nice. I love going to different temples, and the Los Angeles temple is huge! It was a beautiful building and I was able to feel the Spirit so much. I love the peace that I am able to feel while I am in the temple. It is one of my favorite things in the world.

This week, we had a ward party and one of our investigators, Carlos, came. It was super fun. I always love the parties that we have in the Hispanic wards. While we were at the party, we also had our (English speaking) district leader and his companion there on exchanges with the elders in our ward. It was super funny to see them reacting to all the people and the food. I forget sometimes how different everything in Spanish wards is from English wards. It is going to be a little strange going back home after spending so much time with the people down here!

With our investigator, Carlos

On Saturday, we met an interesting person while we were out. As we were walking down the street, we saw a guy who was sitting on his front porch and we decided to go and talk to him. He was Catholic, but he seemed pretty interested to learn more about the differences and similarities between our churches. It turned out that he had actually talked to the English sisters a week or so before. We were wondering why they hadn't given him as a referral (because his whole family is more comfortable in Spanish) when things started to get a little weird. He started to talk a lot about marriage and asking us strange questions like, "Do you think that Jesus was married?" and "Do you think that God could send someone into your life that would be your soul mate?" We started telling him about the Young Single Adult ward that they have in Lancaster, but he wasn't really interested in actually going to church. As we were trying to go, he said, "Who knows, maybe one of you would end up being my wife". What an interesting person!

Church yesterday was pretty good. We got our transfer calls on Saturday night. I am going to Bakersfield and Hermana Van der Toolen is going to Lancaster (about 20 minutes away from our current area). At church, we started telling everyone that we are going to be leaving. Hermana Van der Toolen would tell them that she was going to Lancaster and they would say that they were super excited for her. I would tell them that I was going to Bakersfield and they would get a sad look on their face and say, "Oh. That's . . . nice. Make sure that you stay in the shade and don't breathe in the dust". I have heard that when you go to Bakersfield, your shoes literally melt off of your feet and the dust storms can kill you. Hopefully, everything will work out. Hopefully I will not have melted by next Monday when I can write again!

One of our recent converts, Esther, brought her sister-in-law, Nahidi, to church. She is super sweet, but she has really bad Alzheimer's and is also a little frail. During relief society, Ester asked everyone to pray for her sister-in-law and everyone said that they would. After the class ended, we looked over and one of the less active members who had come to church that day had her hand on Nahidi's face, was shaking her back and forth, and was performing an exorcism. We just stood there in shock as it was all going on. She stopped in a little bit.

I am a little bit sad to leave Palmdale. I have made a lot of friends here and I love the people in this area. I have loved being able to teach the people in this area. I am sure that I will also come to love the people in Bakersfield as well. I love being a missionary and I am sure that the Lord is directing the work.

Keep cool at home. I love you all so much. You are all in my prayers!

Hermana Blau

Week Twenty-Three: In the Fiery Furnace

Look at the temperature! That isn't even the highest that I have seen it at. Sometimes it is a struggle to be out here because no one that we teach uses their air conditioning because it is too expensive.

Area: Esperanza Ward
Companion: Hermana Van der Toolen

This week has been crazy! We have been working a ton and trying to move the work forward in this area, and we have seen some pretty cool things!

I guess, first thing first, I should talk about the Licona family. I am pretty sure that I mentioned them a little bit in my last letter. We went over on Monday night to see them and talk to them about getting their marriage license. It turns out that they were able to go and buy the license during the day on Monday! That was a super big miracle. It has turned out to be a little bit harder to pick up the license because they both work in Los Angeles during every week day and have a hard time getting off work. Hopefully, they will be able to pick up the license during this week and they can keep moving towards baptism. I don't know if the entire family will be baptized all at once (the mom and some of the children are still super attached to the Catholic church), but the Lord is certainly helping them along the path!

We are still having a little bit of trouble finding people to teach right now, so we have been getting creative in our finding methods. One of the things that we have decided to start is an English class. We went over to the church on Tuesday night and set everything up, but we did not do very well with the publicity. In the end, we had one member and one investigator there along with the Spanish speaking elders in this area. It was super fun to teach English. It brought me back to the MTC. We were able to play some games and by the end, we all introduced ourselves in English. We are working on publicity and are passing out fliers for the class. Hopefully, this week, we will be able to have more people come and maybe we will be able to find some new investigators from it!

This week, we got a ton of referrals. It is always super fun to go and try to contact them all. Our area is huge. We cover the areas of four or five sets of English missionaries, so anytime they find someone who speaks Spanish, they just send them over to us. It's funny sometimes because the English missionaries can't really communicate with the people that they are referring us to, so sometimes we go over to see them and they are clearly not interested at all. Sometimes, however, we do get referrals to people who are super cool! For example, the other day, we went over to see a lady named Marlene who was a referral from our District Leaders. She told us to come right on in and sit down. She was super excited to see us and to learn from us. She already knows a lot about the church because some of her family currently attends the English ward in this area. She really likes the church and wants to come! Hopefully, everything turns out well with her.

One of my investigators drew this for me.

The weather here is super strange right now. For the first part of the week, I felt like I was burning up. It was so hot! The last half of the week, however, has actually been a little chilly. It is super strange. The other afternoon, I actually had to put on a sweater. I don't know if that is because it is actually cold, or if it is because I just want to believe that it is not a million degrees outside.

This week, we don't really have a full p-day. After we email, we are going to go right back to work, because we are going to go to the temple in Los Angeles on Wednesday! I am so excited! I love the temple so much and I have really missed going. It is also going to be really nice to get out of Palmdale for a little bit. I haven't left the city for four months! It feels weird to be going out into the big world again. I will be sure to send you some pictures of the adventure next week!

Not a whole ton of things have happened this week, but it has been a good one. I am so glad for this opportunity that I have to be a missionary out here in the Bakersfield California Mission. Even if it is like being in a fiery furnace all the time, I know that this is the area that I am supposed to be in. The people here are so nice (mostly) and I am able to see the hand of the Lord so many times each day. I love being here!

Thank you so much for all of your support! I love you all so much. Have fun back at home and have a good week!

Hermana Blau

My watch and feet tan lines. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself!
[Mom note: Savannah doesn't usually tan. She burns.]

Week Twenty-Two: Yo Estaba Muy Cerca a una Cerca

Area: Esperanza Ward
Companion: Hermana Van der Toolen

This week has been kind of slow, but we have really been seeing miracles! I think that I have learned more about how the Lord will always help us in this work this week than I have during any other week so far.

The most eventful thing that happened during the beginning of this week was that we finally won the victory over the miles! All of the walking and biking worked out and we were able to finish out the month of May with exactly 1100.4 miles. It was pretty impressive (if I do say so myself). The only problem is that the temperature has finally started to resemble what I imagined California summers would be like. During the days, it is 100 degrees or more with no clouds in the sky. When the wind blows, it feels like a blow-dryer! I can't remember if I shared this last week, but I have finally started to get sunburned. The difference here as opposed to Missouri is that my sunburns are turning into tans. It is the strangest thing.

One funny story. We were walking along the street the other day and I got really close to a fence. It turned out that the top of the fence was made of something sharp, so I cut my arm up. It wasn't super bad, but it started to bleed a little bit. Instead of taking one of Hermana Van der Toolen's band-aids, I decided that it would be a good talking point. We knocked on a door and I showed the lady my bleeding arm and asked if she would give me a band-aid. While she was helping me out, we were able to talk to her. She wasn't super interested, but I was able to tell her that I got cut because "yo estaba muy cerca a una cerca". [Translation: I was very close to a fence. (In Spanish the words for  "close" and "fence" are the same.)] That made me chuckle for the rest of the day.

Because it is so hot during the day, we have been trying to set up visits with less active members. It has actually been working out pretty well. We get to come in from the heat and the sun and we also get to teach people. There are a lot of people in the Esperanza ward who haven't been contacted for a long time, so it has been good to be able to see them. Hopefully, we will be able to start helping them to come back to church.

This week we had another lesson with Adriana. I don't know if you remember her, but she is the one that we almost dropped because we thought that she was Bible bashing us through text message. It turns out that she is super prepared. She loves learning about the Gospel and reading in the scriptures and she always keeps all of her commitments, which is a breath of fresh air. Her biggest problem at this moment is with coming to church. She works in a hotel as a maid and works pretty much all the time. We went over to teach her about the importance of the Sabbath day. When we asked her if she thought that her boss would give her Sundays off, she said that she didn't think so. Apparently, her boss is a bit of a jerk and doesn't like changing people's schedules. It is also hard because Adriana really needs to work to help to support her family. We shared 1 Nephi 3:7 with her and talked with her a little bit about faith and the importance of church. Afterwards, we asked her if she would be willing to go in and talk to her boss, and she said that she definitely would because going to church is so important and she wants to know the truth. It was super cool. She has so much faith. I think that my experience with Adriana has really gone to show me that God is always going to make sure that his prepared children receive the Gospel!

We received the biggest surprise of this week yesterday. There is a family that the Hermanas in this area have been teaching for a really long time named the Liconas. They have had all the lessons and have been coming to church regularly for a long time and all of them really want to be baptized. The only problem is that the parents aren't married. For a long time, they weren't able to get married because of a lack of money to buy the marriage license and some relationship problems. Recently, they haven't been able to get the license because they can never get time off of work to go to buy the license during the week. Yesterday, we texted the father to ask if we could come over on Sunday night to teach a lesson with them and he said that we should come over on Monday night because he got a day off of work. It turns out that they are going to go and get their marriage license today! After that, there is nothing stopping them from getting baptized. We have been fasting and praying for them to be able to get the license for a long time, and it looks like it is finally going to happen!

This week has been a little bit interesting, but I have definitely been able to see the hand of the Lord in this work. I am so glad that I am a missionary and am able to see all of the positive changes that the Gospel brings to people's lives. I love this church!

I love you all and I am hope that everything is going well at home. Keep cool and have fun at home!

Hermana Blau

Week Twenty-One: Girl on a Bike on a Mission

Area: Esperanza Ward
Companion: Hermana Van der Toolen

This week has been crazy! I guess that I will just start from the beginning.

We have been working really hard to find more people to teach right now. It is a little bit harder to find Spanish speaking people who want to hear the message here than it was in Littlerock. Because of that, we have been trying to get creative in our finding methods. We called up all the mortuaries and hospitals in this area to get on their list of clergy. We have been talking about family history. It has been going a little slowly, but we have been getting more interested investigators!

Funny story for this week. We had found an old Catholic man last week and set up a time for a return appointment. When we went by for the appointment, we were saying a prayer in the car right before we went up to the door. Right before we got out of the car, the man who we were coming to visit walked out of his door to smoke. He saw us and we saw him and we made awkward eye contact for about ten seconds before we started to get out of the car. Between the time that we saw each other and the time that we made it out of the car, he had disappeared. We went to see if he was by his door, but when he wasn't there, we decided to go to our next plans. As we were getting back in the car, we found the man. He was crouching beside his car, trying to hide from us. It was so awkward. We talked to him for just a second and then got into the car. He could see us through the windows, so we had to keep our composure until we made it around the corner. Then Hermana Vander Toolen and I burst out laughing. We were laughing about how awkward the situation was all night long.

[Translation: WARNING ... The driver will disappear in the Rapture]

This week is the end of the month and Hermana Vander Toolen has been a little stressed out about miles. We are a little close to our limit, so we decided to become BIKING MISSIONARIES! That's right, I have been on a bike for the last couple of days. If you think that sister missionaries biking in skirts sounds a little silly, let me be the first one to tell you that it certainly is. We were on exchanges this week (With our new Sister Training Leaders, Hermana Martineau and Hermana White) and Hermana White and I were back together. The Dream Team. We started out biking on the first day and it was actually really fun. We were able to talk to a lot of people and we could actually get around pretty well. The second day, it was not as fun. We had decided to go to an area that is a little bit farther away than the first area that we biked in. That was problem number one. Problem number two was that we were biking in a pretty mountainous and deserty area. At one point, we realized that we had been going the wrong way and that we had to turn around and walk the bikes through the desert. When we got to an area where we could start to bike again, we realized that we had a third problem. Hermana White's bike tires were full of goat heads. I can't remember if I have already written home about them, but goat heads are little thorns that are all over the place. They stick in your shoes and are super sharp! Because of the goat heads, both of the bike tires popped and we had to wait until someone could come and rescue us from the desert. Eventually, we were able to make it home and get back in the car.

Hermanas Blau, Van der Toolen, White, and Martineau

Before we started the exchanges, we were praying to find people and listening to the impressions of the spirit to see what kind of investigators that we would find. Two of us were feeling pretty strongly that we were supposed to find a single man while the other two were feeling that we were supposed to find a family. While Hermana Vander Toolen and Hermana Martineau were out on exchanges, they ran into some people who fulfilled both of the requirements. Carlos, who we have started to teach, is a single man who's wife died a couple of years ago. He has one son and lives with his brother and sister-in-law and their children. It turns out that he had received a copy of the Book of Mormon from one of his relatives and that he had been reading it for over two years. He said that he had been waiting for missionaries to come up to his house and talk to him. When they told him where the church was, he was super excited that it was so close. I guess that he has always wanted to come to one of our services.

Before church started, we called Carlos to see if he was going to come and he said that he would. Sacrament meeting started, but he still wasn't there. We texted him and he said that he was on the way. When the sacrament hymn started, he texted us and said that he was outside and that he didn't know how to come in. We ran out side and did a lap around the church building until we were able to find him. Eventually, we were saw him and we all quickly, but reverently, walked into the chapel right in time for the sacrament to start. It was super cool! Last night, we were able to go over and teach him about the restoration. It was a super good lesson. He has a lot of questions and I think that he really has a sincere desire to learn more. Hopefully, he will continue to come to church and make commitments. He is really cool!

Well, that is about all for this week. We are starting to teach some people who are really interested and who have a sincere desire to learn and to change. We are already starting to see a lot of success in this area. We are doing pretty well here and I have felt my faith grow each day! I love being a missionary. Keep up the good work at home! I love you all.

Hermana Blau

Week Twenty: A New Area

Area: Esperanza Ward
Companion: Hermana Van der Toolen

This week has been really busy and I feel like we have been working super hard. It has been a little strange adjusting to a new area and trying to get to know all of the people here. I kind of feel like I am back in the first week of my mission. . . Except this time, I know just a little bit more about everything that is going on, so I am not completely lost. Overall, I really enjoyed this week.

First of all, my new area is super cool. The Esperanza Ward is super big and it has a lot of really cool members. It is really interesting because while I was in the Littlerock area, I used to live in the Esperanza area boundaries. We have actually gone out working down by our old apartments. It is really strange now, though, because everything is different now. In my new area, I work a lot more in neighborhoods in the actual city. It is a good thing, because there are now a lot fewer dogs that wander the streets and the houses are a lot closer together, so we are able to talk to more people. The bad news is that it is a lot harder to find Spanish speaking people in this area. We really have to search for people to teach, but we have still been able to find some.

When I first came to the area, we had almost literally no one to teach. This week, we have been spending a lot of time finding people. We have been able to have a lot of cool experiences and meet a lot of interesting people. One thing that we have been trying to do is pray specifically for inspiration in places to look and people to talk to. It has actually been really cool. One day, we set aside an hour where we had prayed and felt impressed to go to one particular street. However, when we got there, we weren't having a lot of success finding anyone. Right before we needed to leave, we found a person who was really interested and wanted to learn more. I was really able to see that the Lord will bless us as we follow inspiration.

I think that I told you about how much of a problem miles were in Littlerock. They are even more of a problem in my new area. We had so few miles at the beginning of the week that we had to drive our car to around where we were going to work, park the car, and walk literally everywhere that we needed to go. It was intense! On Tuesday, we walked for literally 7 hours straight. By the end of the day, we were both super tired. It was nice though, because we were able to talk to a lot of people. I actually really like walking because we are able to speak to everyone!

This week, I realized how much my Spanish is improving. I have really started to be able to talk to people about normal things instead of just about the Gospel. My dream is to be able to tell people that I am from Guadalajara and that they will actually believe me. I don't know if that is going to happen while I am on the mission, but I am sure that I can get my Spanish to be really good if I just keep working on it every day and praying for help in the language!

Yesterday, we had a really cool experience. On my first day in the area, we texted the only investigator that was there before we came. Apparently, she was super golden, but when we texted, she started to argue with us through text. She told us that she only believed in the Bible and that she wanted us to accept Jesus in our lives. We told her to have a good day and we were planning on never going back to see her again. Last night, we had a lot of appointments set up with our new investigators, but every single one fell through. At the end of the day, we found ourselves with nothing to do. When we were thinking about all of the people that we could go and see, I felt the impression that we should go and see Adriana (the investigator who we had dropped earlier in the week). I had been feeling a little off about the whole experience the entire week, but I didn't know why. We decided to go, and when we got there, she was super excited to see us and learn more. She asked us why we didn't contact her and hadn't tried to teach her earlier. That was when we figured out that we had texted the wrong number trying to get a hold of her. Adriana is actually super cool. We taught her about the Word of Wisdom and she said that she had already been keeping it, but now she knew why. It was super exciting. I really felt the love that the Lord has for all of his children and how he will make sure that the people who are prepared receive the gospel. I also learned that we always need to follow the inspirations that the Lord gives us.

Well, that's about it for this week. It was a super long one, but it was also a good one. I know that I am where I am supposed to be and that I am doing the things that I am supposed to. I love this restored gospel and the opportunity that I have as a missionary to share it with people!

Have a good week at home. I pray for you all everyday!

Hermana Blau