Week Forty-Five: Elder Bednar Speaks with Fire!

Area: Arvin Spanish Group
Companion: Hermana White

This week was pretty good. It started out with a couple of exchanges with the other hermanas and ended with a couple of conferences with Elder Bednar. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. I was able to feel the spirit really strongly and we have been working hard out here in little old Arvin.

Right now, we are working really hard with one of our investigators. He is a little old man from Chiapas and he is always really nice to us. I guess that Hermana White and Hermana Martineau had been working with him for a while before I came here, but he never seemed to be progressing (although he would always come to church and pray). This past week, we started working really hard on him to get him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. He has problems with his eyes, so it is hard for him to read. We were feeling a little stuck and we didn't know exactly what to do to help him when we had a lesson earlier this week. When we got there, he told us that he had a dream that told him to keep learning from us. We were super excited. When we came back later this week, he told us that he had another dream where an angel told him to read in the Book of Mormon to find answers, even if it was hard. He had been reading the entire morning. It was super cool to see!

Later this week, I was on exchanges and we were trying to talk to one of our potential investigators. Only Hermana White had the address written down and I was positive that I would be able to find the house when I got there. It turned out that I couldn't remember which house it was, so we decided to knock on the couple of houses that looked familiar. On the first one that we knocked on, a young woman opened the door and we started talking to her. We told her that we were looking for someone who was looking for greater happiness and peace. She said that we were probably looking for her and we started teaching her. She was awesome! We were able to teach her about the Restoration and she accepted it all. After we finished talking to her, we were able to find the potential. It showed me that we will always be led to the people who are prepared to listen.

The most exciting part of the week was definitely when we listened to Elder Bednar! All of the missionaries in the entire mission came in to Bakersfield and we had the opportunity to talk to him and listen to him for three hours. It was a surreal experience. The spirit was super strong! It was a little strange because in the moment it didn't feel too much more than a zone conference (except with an Apostle of Jesus Christ!) He told us that we could ask any question that we wanted to and that he was one of the fifteen people in the entire world who could answer them. He talked a lot about the Sacrament and the fact that we are here to act in this world and not to be acted upon. It was indescribable. I loved listening to Elder Bednar and being instructed in such a small group. Elder Bednar was so good. He talks with fire! He talked all about baptism and how we need to teach people like they are people who act and not objects to be acted upon. It was really good! He told us about a couple of false doctrines and how to combat them. He is super funny and really spiritual. I wish we could have listened to him for longer!

On the way to see Elder Bednar

The missionaries in our Zone got the opportunity to hear Elder Bednar again because he came to our stake's conference the next day. It was super cool. We were able to get a couple of our investigators to come and they really liked it! It was like he was speaking to them. Halfway through the meeting, one of the members came up to Hermana White and I and told us to come into a back room with him. There were a limited number of translation headphones, and a couple of people had come late and weren't able to get a set. For the rest of the meeting, Hermana White and I whispered the translation of the talk to a couple of recent converts. It was a testimony to me of the gift of tongues! 

That was pretty much our week. It was full of the spirit and we were able to see a lot of miracles in the work. I am still loving it out here in Arvin and we are seeing a lot of success working with the people. I love this gospel and I am so glad that I have the opportunity to tell the world about how they can find happiness and come closer to God. I am a happy missionary! I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Forty-One: My Jurassic Park Moment

Area: Buena Vista Spanish Ward
Companion: Hermana Zambrano

Howdy y'all! This has been a really good week and we have had a lot of adventures our here in the great Bakersfield mission. We have been spending some time teaching some really cool people and we have had a lot of conferences, so we have been able to receive a lot of inspiration and instruction.

One of the big things that happened this week is that we have started going to a place called Pumpkin Center. Our area is on the very southern edge of Bakersfield, so we cover all of the area surrounding that edge of the city. There are several little towns in las afueras that we haven't been going to very much because we have been trying to visit the main parts of the town, but we decided that it would be worth our time to stop by this week. Pumpkin Center is about 10 streets in the middle of a bunch of dirt, but a ton of Spanish speaking people live there. Despite the name, there isn't a pumpkin to be seen. We were able to talk to a ton of people who were eating at the taco trucks and hanging out in their yards. It is a super fun place!

We found an investigator down there named Francisca. She is a young mother of two and her family is super cute. The first time we met her, we walked into her yard and knocked on her door. The second time, the gate was locked. Hermana Zambrano asked if there was a dog inside and I laughed her to scorn because we hadn't seen a dog the last time. I walked right into the gate and made it to the door of the trailer when I heard Hermana Zambrano say, "Hermana, look out. There is a dog!" I turned around a saw a giant pit bull out of the corner of my eye. It hadn't seen me yet, so I was trying to gauge my options between knocking on the door and hoping that they opened it in time and sneaking around the car to get to the gate while not letting the dog see me. I chose to walk around the car. The entire time, Hermana Zambrano was telling me that the dog was walking around the car and about to see me. Picture the scene in Jurassic Park when the little kids are running away from the raptors and you would know about how I felt in that moment. I had almost made it to the gate when I looked and saw that the dog was right behind me. In the end, it turned out that the dog was actually super nice and friendly. We walked back and knocked on the door and I could still feel all the  adrenaline. I was shaky for a couple of minutes after that! jaja

We didn't have dinner one night this week, so we decided to go and eat at one of the taco stands that are all around town. We parked outside of the one that we had chosen, and the lady who ran the stand came out and stared at us while we were in the car. We were a little concerned about it, but we walked out and started towards the stand. She called out to us and asked us if we were missionaries. Then she told us that she was a member of the church and had recently moved from El Salvador. She hadn't been able to find the church and she wanted to go back to church. It was super cool how the Lord put us in her path! Also, she made us super good pupusas!

We have started teaching a couple of really cool families recently. We went over to teach one family and after the lesson, they said that they had some cake for us. We were super excited! They brought the cake out and cut the pieces for us. When we asked them what kind of cake it was, we discovered that coffee was one of the ingredients. After a quick word of wisdom lesson, we told them that we couldn't eat it. I felt really bad because they had gotten the cake special for us, but after we told them, the hermana said that she totally understood and got out some chocolate cereal for us to eat. It was super funny and we all had a good laugh. They are super cool!

Things are going well in the work. We had a member of the seventy (Elder Cook) visit the mission and we had a really good training with him. The next day, the South Bakersfield Stake had it's stake conference and Elder Cook stayed to train the Stake. It was really cool to be able to hear from one of the general authorities and to receive teachings from him!

That is about it for this week. We have been having nicer weather down here. It rained last night for the first time in about six months, so we have been enjoying the water. I hope that you all have a good week at home!

Hermana Blau