Week Seventy-Seven: Sooooo hot!

Area: Delano Ward
Companions: Hermana Galvez and Hermana Ruiz

This week was a really long and really hot, but by the end of it all, I have felt spiritually uplifted and fulfilled. I have been seeing a lot of miracles during the past couple of weeks and this week they continued to come. We have been seeing a lot of progress with our investigators.

I guess to start it all out, I must talk about the heat. This week was insane! I think that it was around 115 degrees every single day for the entire week. I didn't know that it was possible for a human being to handle the extremes of the heat for so long. I don't think that I have sweated as much in my entire life! Luckily, our bishop told us a tip from his mission. If your face is super sweaty before you talk to someone, you can take your name badge off and use it as a squidgy and wipe your face with a handkerchief while you are speaking. That has made us a little more presentable! Even with all of that, I have been trying to take some precautions to stay out of the sun. We dash in between patches of shade to find people who are outside who we can talk to. It is like a game.

This week, we started out with exchanges. They were super fun! We went back down to South Bakersfield in Buena Vista and we were able to work out there. It was super fun being there and seeing the Sister Training Leader's area. I love getting to learn on exchanges. The first person that we talked to on exchanges was a lady sitting in her car. When we went up to her, we asked her how she was doing and she said, "I am fighting with my boyfriend." I heard, "I am finding my boyfriend" and so I said, "That's great!" That lead to a pretty awkward silence. After that, we were able to talk to her about how she can find comfort through Jesus Christ and how the gospel could help her. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was crying of happiness by the end. It was super sweet. I was glad to have that experience.

This week, we also had interviews with President Layton. It was a really nice experience. I was able to talk to him about some of the things that are going on in our area and about how we can better work with the ward and he gave me some great advice. He was talking to me about how there was a reason that we (Spanish speaking sisters) were put in the ward and about how we can do a lot of good. That really made me think. I feel that we are fulfilling our purpose here in this part of the vineyard.

On Saturday night, we had the pleasure of eating dinner at the house of one of the Filipino members of the ward. They were having a birthday party, so they invited all of the missionaries to come and eat the Filipino food that they had made. I don't think that I have ever eaten food that was more delicious in my entire life! I was so full of rice and shrimp when I left, but I wish that I could have eaten more. Luckily, we were able to take some to-go boxes with some food that we ate today for lunch.

This week at church was really good for us. On Saturday night and Sunday morning, we invited a lot of people to come to church and they all said that they would be there. We thought that it was just like it always is when people say that they will come to church, so we didn't really know what was going to happen. Then, during church, all of the people who said that they would come to church did come! Even the brother-in-law of one of our recent converts came to church. We had met him yesterday and he didn't have time to talk to us, but we asked him if he would come to church and he said that he would. By the time that they were saying the sacrament prayers, we had seven investigators in church. It was a miracle!

We have been seeing the hand for the Lord so much recently and we have been seeing a lot of progress in our investigators. I know that this is the work of the Lord and that we are doing his will as missionaries. I am so glad for this opportunity and I know that the church is true. I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Blau

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 Seventy-Three: Last Transfer

Area: Delano Ward
Companion: Hermana Galvez

This week was really good. We have been seeing a lot of miracles in our area and we have really been enjoying our time here in Delano. I can't believe our first transfer here in Delano has already come and gone! It has been a blast and things are going great. Big news of the week: Hermana Galvez and I are still going to be serving here. . . but we are also going to get a new companion. We don't know her name yet because I am going to be training again! It was super weird to get the call to train for my last six weeks, but I am super excited and I am grateful that I am going to be able to stay with Hermana Galvez, too!

This week was so hot! It has just been starting to get SUPER hot in the mission. I feel like I am sweating all of the time, but it it all okay! I am wearing sunscreen and trying to keep in the shade when I can.

This week, we have seen a lot of miracles with our investigators this week. For one, we had a missionary activity with the ward. We have been planning it within our district for the entire transfer, but we did a really bad job with the publicity because we had Stake Conference last week and we couldn't announce it over the pulpit. We have been working with word of mouth to try and get everyone to come. When the activity started, there wasn't anybody there and I thought that we were going to be sitting around all night long. We had decided to do a "Minute to Win It" type thing and all of the missionary companionships were in charge of a little game. We had all of our stuff set up and it wasn't until about 15 minutes later that people showed up. After that, it was a really fun activity. We were able to have a lot of people from the ward come and two of the families that we are teaching came as well. They had a lot of fun and it was really nice to see!

On Saturday, we learned that one of our investigators that we have been working with, Eliceo, just came back into town. He told us a couple of weeks ago that he was going to go to Los Angeles for a day or two to get some stuff taken care of with the court. We called him on the first day that he was down there and he said that he was staying with his sister and that he would probably be back in the next couple of days and that we should call him the next day to see when he was coming back. Thus began the phone chase that continued until Saturday. Every single day he told us that he was coming back in the next couple of days. We got so desperate to teach him again that we started teaching him over the phone some days. When we finally saw him on Saturday, I could hardly believe that he was actually there! We were able to teach him a little lesson and invite him to a baptism that was happening in the area.

The baptism on Saturday was really nice because there were a lot of people there. We invited one of the families that we have been working with and they came and enjoyed it. It was nice to see them there and to help them to learn about the importance of baptism. We have been seeing a lot of progress in the area and we are super excited about all of the people that we are working with.

I can't believe that I am getting ready to start my last transfer in the mission. It seems almost unreal that the time has gone by so fast! I am super excited that I am getting to stay here in Delano during my last couple of weeks in the mission and that I get to see the end of all of our work here! I am super hyped to be out here in California and to see everything that is going on. I love being a missionary and serving the Lord!

Hermana Blau

Week Seventy-Two: A Doozy of a Week

Area: Delano Ward
Companion: Hermana Galvez

Oh boy! This week was a doozy. We worked really hard and we were able to see some miracles as a result. It was really cool (even though it is starting to get really hot here!). Things are going well and we are having some success here in Delano.

Like I said, it has been getting really hot the past couple of days. We have been spoiled by an unseasonably wet and cool spring, but summer is now coming on with a vengeance and it has been really, really hot! For some reason, a lot of people here in Delano don't have air conditioning. It has been the struggle of life. Every time we step outside of the door, we start to sweat and we don't stop until we get back in our house at night. Even with all of the sweat, the heat is nice because everyone is outside their houses and we are able to talk to a lot of people!

Last week, we had exchanges and one of the things that they suggested that we could do in our area was to look for more opportunities to do service. We have been wondering for a while what we can do to help out the community, so we set aside a morning to go on a service hunt. We went to the city hall and the Chamber of Commerce to get some ideas for places that we could help out at. They gave us a long list of phone numbers to call and we made every attempt possible and we were still not having any success. In the end, we decided to go to funeral homes and hospitals in the area and put our names down as clergy that people could call on if they needed help. Hopefully, all of our hard work will pay off and someone will call us back to let us come and help them! :)

We have been working with a family that the elders were teaching for a while. The husband has been taught everything and the only thing that he needs to be able to get baptized is to be married. We have been working on that for the entire transfer and we have finally been having some success with getting the wife on board. This Wednesday, we went with them to talk to the Bishop about what they needed to do to get a marriage license and how the marriage ceremony is going to be. Hopefully, they will be able to get the license this week and they can get married soon after. It has been really cool to see them working towards their goal!

Something a little creepy has been happening to us recently here. A lot of the people that we have been talking to on the street have been saying that they have talked to missionaries in the past couple of weeks. They are tall and have white shirts, ties, our name tags. They also say that they speak Spanish and they ride on bikes. All of the people that we have talked to have been super specific about all of the details and they all match up. The only problem is that there haven't been any missionaries that match that description for the past couple of months. We have talked to the other missionaries in the area, and they also say that they have heard people talking about the same missionaries in their areas. We don't know what has been going on, but we are conducting a low key investigation. Mission drama!

This week at church was really nice. A couple of the families that we have been working with were able to come to church and afterwards, we were able to do a small church tour. It was really spiritual and I feel like it helped our investigators have a renewed desire to come to church and feel the spirit there!

That is just about it for the week! It has been a really good one! I love being a missionary and seeing all of the miracles that the Lord gives in the work out here in California. I know that the church is true and that this truly is the gospel of Jesus Christ! I love teaching and learning all the time! I hope that you all have a good week and that all goes well for you!

Hermana Blau

Week Thirty: Following Impressions

Area: La Cresta Spanish Ward

Companion: Hermana Perry

This week has been pretty crazy! All of the area around Bakersfield has been catching on fire, so the smog is really bad right now. We always go running in the morning out in the hills and we see a new burned patch every couple of days. When we are out driving, we can't even see the mountains that surround the city. Hermana Perry and I have been joking that we are going to become so accustomed to the smog before the end of our missions that we will leave and gain super powers like Superman did after he left Krypton to Earth (if that is too nerdy of an analogy, feel free to take that out Mom!) I love it here!

The Smog ... gross!

The last couple of days have been really hot. The thermometer in our car said that it got up to 111 degrees the other day. The people here are really nice about the heat, though. They are always helping us out by giving us water bottles and free fruit. Everyone has fruit trees in their yards and they will tell us to go and take what we want! The Lord really does send us tender mercies in our times of need.

Hermana Perry and I have been trying to work on following the Spirit. This week, we were driving down the road and I was joking with Hermana Perry that we should knock on the door of someone who would give us grapes. Then Hermana Perry said, "If we turn right, we will find grapes, but if we turn left, we will find a prepared person." We both laughed. We actually had someone to see on the right side, so we turned right. Our appointment fell through, so we decided to start walking to the left. While we were still on the right side of the intersection, we saw some grapes spread all over the ground. We laughed again. When we crossed to the left side, we knocked on a door and this lady opened and was super interested. At that moment, I realized that Hermana Perry was a prophetess! haha

The other day, we met a couple outside of their house while we were walking around. This week, we went over to see them again and we were able to talk to the wife. We talked to her for a long time and she told us that she really has been trying to make changes in her life to help her come closer to God. She wants a family that is close and loving. She was super cool and she loved talking to us. GOLDEN!

A couple of weeks ago, we picked up an investigator named Teresa. She was the one who saw a vision just like Joseph Smith (I think that I wrote home about her). We lost contact with her right after we talked to her, but we felt impressed to keep trying by her house. The past couple of times that we have gone over, her husband has answered the door. He told us that she had a stroke a couple of days after we talked to her. She finally came home this week and we were able to talk to her. She was super frail and sick, but we were able to talk to her some more and share with her about how the Atonement can help her through her trials. It was nice. Hopefully, we were able to help her out!

On Friday, we went up to have exchanges in the STL's area, Arvin. It is pretty much little Mexico! It is just a little town right in the middle of all of the fields, but pretty much everyone there is Spanish speaking. We went out running in the park in the morning, and there were a ton of old Hispanic people and they all said, "Buenos dias" to us. So cute. Hopefully, I will be able to go there for real someday. Dream area!

Yesterday, we were walking down the street and an old man was mowing his lawn. He started talking to us. It turns out that he wrote the book on butterflies and he has a giant collection. He was telling us about how there are a ton of butterflies out in the mountains, but how they are all in the same area as the marijuana growers. It really made me want to get into the butterfly scene after I get back.

That was pretty much it for the week. I hope that everything is going well at home. I am really enjoying my time here and I know that I am doing the things that the Lord wants. I love being a missionary! Have a good week!

Hermana Blau

Week Twenty-Nine: We Get to Wear Sombreros!

Me and mi novio [boyfriend], the Joshua tree!

Area: La Cresta Spanish Ward
Companion: Hermana Perry

Another week, another email. This week was super crazy and SUPER hot, but it was also really cool. We were able to see a lot of miracles. I think that I am just starting to get to the part of my mission where everything starts to go by really fast, because I can't even believe that everything has gone by so fast.

Speaking of the heat, I looked at the weather on the missionary website and it said that it was going to be about 110 degrees for the rest of the week. I heard that some parts of the missions are just randomly catching on fire. One part of our area was actually part of a pretty bad wild fire, but it is about 30 minutes away from everything else in our area, so we were really safe. I think that we will probably be okay in the heat. Recently, they changed the dress standards for missionaries so we can wear wide brimmed hats, so Hermana Perry and I went out last P day and bought some sombreros. It has completely revolutionized our street contacting. We actually have a lot of our appointments for the next couple of days set up for when it is going to be blazing hot, so I guess that the Lord has been blessing us in more ways than one. 

In the spirit of companionship unity (and also because our apartment is really hot at night and we were getting tired of wearing our pajama pants to bed. . .) Hermana Perry and I decided to get matching nighties! Here are a couple of pictures that we took of them in our excitement!

It is so interesting to be in Bakersfield for the summer. We have been getting so many grapes from the people that we talk to that work in the fields. I don't know how I ever survived without eating so many grapes! During the days, all of the streets are pretty dead and everyone asks us why we are out walking in the heat. When it cools down at night, everyone comes out and every street is a giant party. We see mariachi bands practicing and people practicing for their fancy party dances.

This week, we decided as a district to work on finding new people to teach. As part of that, we were doing a district fast. All week long, at least one companionship in the district was fasting at any given point. I have really gained a strong testimony of fasting on my mission. We were able to find a lot of cool people in the last couple of weeks.

One of the things that has also been helping us to find more people to teach is that we have started walking. . . a lot! Following our mission president's advice to use our car like a bus, we have been parking our car at least half a mile away from all of our plans and walking to them. It has made a huge difference. We talk to so many more people.

On Tuesday, we were about to go back to lunch after walking around all morning. Right when we got next to the car, we decided that we should try to knock on one more car. No one answered the door, so we were going to go back to our car when a guy walked out of his house and called out to us. We started talking to him and he was super cool. He learned a lot about religion and the Bible while he was in prison. We ended up talking to him for a long time. When we finished talking, he asked us if we could come by the next day. We were able to stop by again the next morning and we had another lesson. It went really well.

One night, we passed by an old man's house. We were talking to him and he said that he was a little busy at that moment but that he would love for us to pass by again. Most of the time, that is the signal that we aren't wanted there, but we set up a time to stop by again. When we went back for the return appointment, we weren't very hopeful, but when we knocked on the door, he opened it right up and we were able to have a really good lesson with him again.

We worked a ton this week, and we were able to see a lot of miracles in our area. We were really able to see the hand of the Lord and many prayers were answered. I love working with the people in this area. They are so loving and they always want to help us out! I am so glad that I get to help them to receive the Gospel in their lives!

I hope that you all have a good week and that you are able to stay cool! 

Hermana Blau

Week Twenty-Six: New Mission President

Our adventure that we took today in making tortillas. They actually turned out pretty nice.
Someday I'm going to be a sweet old abuelita!

Area: La Cresta Spanish Ward
Companion: Hermana Perry

This week was pretty good. It has really started to get hot. Unfortunately, in our car, the air conditioning goes out if it is over 100 degrees. We told the manufacturers about it, but I guess that it is something normal for the type of car that we drive. I feel like that is just about the worst design flaw that could ever exist in an air conditioning unit, but we just have to live with it.

Other than the heat, everything is going pretty well. The past couple of days, we have been trying to contact some referrals that we were given by one of the members from the Young Single Adult ward who lives in our area. We have been able to meet some pretty interesting people that way. We talked to one of the people who we were referred to, but he was super tired because he had just been working a night shift, so he asked us to come back another day. When we came back, we met his three daughters. One of them is about five and any time we walk down that street, she follows us around. She is super cute! It turned out that their dad wasn't very interested, so we don't go over to their house anymore, but they always talk to us when they see us walking down that street.

One day this week, our dinner appointment cancelled. We hadn't been expecting it, and it was the last day of June, so we didn't have any money that we could use to buy some food for dinner. We were a little concerned about what we were going to eat, but we decided to just continue on with our day and see what happened. While we were visiting with a member and his sister-in-law, they offered to feed us some quesadillas. They actually gave us quite a lot of them, so we were grateful and a little full. After that, we had a lesson with one of our investigators, Rocio, who works in the fields. Right now, it is grape season, so while we were over there teaching her, she gave us a huge bowl of grapes to eat. They were super good! After that, we were feeling even more full. While we were in the lesson, we got a couple of calls from one of our members. After we got out, they told us that they had made us food, so we went over to their house to have some more dinner. It was super good food! After we were done, we had had three dinners and I was so full, I could hardly walk to the car. I had to take a second to let all of the food settle in my tummy before we could go back out. I guess that just goes to show that the Lord will always take care of his servants.

This week, we were back on the street where the dog attack from last week happened and we were going to see a member. While we were there, the family who owned the dogs was back outside. We felt impressed to go back and talk to them some more. We walked up their driveway (making sure to avoid the dogs who were now safely chained up) and we met the mother of the family. We started to talk to her and she was actually super cool! She has had a hard life and has struggled with drugs and finding a stable relationship for a long time, but she really wants to become a better person and be a good example for her children. She said that she wished that she was more like us and we were able to teach her a little bit. She doesn't really speak Spanish, but she was super cool and we were able to tell the English missionaries about her. 

This week, the mission changed a lot. President and Sister Wilson are now home, so now our new mission president is President Layton. I haven't met him personally yet but I have heard tell that he is a giant man and that the only thing bigger than his hands is his heart. I guess we will have to find out. We have a Zone Conference this Thursday, so I guess that we will meet him there!

Well, that is about it for the week. Today we have all day Preparation day because the mission doesn't want us out proselyting with all the drunk and crazy people during the Fourth of July. We hardly know what to do with all of our extra time!

I hope that you all have a good week and that you can have fun during the Fourth of July. Make sure to light a firework in honor of me. Stay cool! I love you all so much.

Hermana Blau

A picture Hermana Perry took of me while I was driving. It is an adventure!

Week Twenty-Five: Hello, Bakersfield!!

Area: La Cresta Spanish Ward
Companion: Hermana Perry

This week was my first week in Bakersfield and everything is going great! It is super hot, but the people here are super cool and I love being companions with Hermana Perry. She is the greatest. We came out at the exact same time, so we already knew each other a little bit from the first day things. We are the youngest Spanish speaking Hermanas in the mission, so we have been having a great time and working a lot.

This week has been a scorcher! As soon as I got down here, the air conditioning in our apartment broke. It was so bad. The first night, I woke up completely drenched because it was so hot during the night. Weekly planning was almost unbearable because we were inside the apartment for a couple of hours. Luckily, we were able to contact the apartment management and they came by to fix it. I never appreciated the magic of modern technology until I felt that sweet air conditioning again.

This is a great area and we have been working really hard. We are in the La Cresta Spanish ward in East Bakersfield. There are a ton of Spanish speakers here. It is really nice and I have had lots of opportunities to work on the language. It is a little funny because Hermana Perry and I have about the same amount of experience in speaking Spanish, so living with the language barrier has been really fun. One day this week, we were calling one of our investigators to confirm our appointment with her. Towards the end, she said something that neither of us could understand. I thought that she had said, "I love you" which seemed a little weird, but I told Hermana Perry. She responded to Rocio (our investigator) "I love you, too!" She sounded really surprised. That was when we realized that she hadn't actually said I love you. Awkward! Despite that, we have been able to do pretty well with the language together.

We have been working really hard to follow the promptings of the spirit this week. When we get to any area, we pray to see what we should be doing and who we should talk to. We have had a lot of adventures and some really cool experiences.

One day, we were going to go and see one of our potential investigators. When we pulled over to the side of the road to pray, a lady walked out of her house and started looking at us really strangely. We finished praying and she started to walk towards our car, so I rolled down the window. She introduced herself and started talking to us. After a second, she told us that she was going to get into our back seat so that she could talk to us better. Then, before we could say anything, she opened the back door of the car and hopped right in. We were sitting there in shock, but she just kept asking us questions. It was really strange! She told us that she was schizophrenic and bipolar, which explained a little bit about why she would do that. While we were talking, her mom came out, saw that she was in our car, gave us a strange look, and walked back into the house. I wanted to talk to the mom, so I asked the lady in our car if she would go into her house to get us some water. When she got out, I turned to Hermana Perry and told her to grab her stuff, then we just followed the lady into her house. We didn't end up talking to her mom, but we were able to talk to her sister-in-law and we did a little bit of service and helped them to pack up for their move later this week. It was a little strange of an experience, but I think that we were able to meet some people who were prepared.

Another experience where we had an adventure because we followed the spirit. We were walking down a street where we have been a lot this week. One of the houses on the street had a couple of really big and scary looking dogs that were kept on chains. They had looked so scary that we decided that we probably shouldn't try talking to the people in the house. As we were about to get in our car to leave the street, we decided to knock one more house. They weren't home, but from the porch, we could see that one of the scary dogs had gotten loose and that all of the family from that house were outside in the streets. We both felt prompted to go and talk to them. Right before we got up to the house, the dog that had gotten loose started running up towards me. I saw my life flash before my eyes. It sort of jumped on me, and then it ran away. Nothing happened (but I did have some dog slobber on my watch). The dog's owner came out swearing up a storm and apologized so much. We gave her our card and were able to talk to her about our message. Her mother came out and started talking to us to. It turns out that she is actually an extremely less active member. We were able to talk to her a bit and she said that she wants to start coming back to church. We probably wouldn't have been able to find her if we weren't listening to the spirit (even though the prompting didn't make much sense!).

I am super excited for this transfer. It is going to be seven weeks long, but I am sure that we are going to be able to do a lot of good work during this time. I have already seen a lot of miracles during my first week here. I am positive that they are going to just keep on going!

I love being a missionary and seeing the difference that I am able to make in people's lives. I am sure that I am where the Lord wants me to be and I am trying more and more each day to be doing what he wants me to be doing. I love you all and I hope that you have a good week back at home. Keep cool and have fun!

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