Week Seventy-Nine: I'm Coming Home!

Area: Delano Ward
Companions: Hermana Galvez and Hermana Ruiz

WOW! This week was an amazing week to end off the mission. I can't believe that it has already been eighteen months. We have seen some AMAZING miracles this week!

We celebrated the fourth of July this week in typical missionary fashion -- we went into our apartments early to avoid all of the drunk drivers and did our studies. It was okay though, because we were able to eat a festive dinner with a member before hand and to watch the fireworks through the window of our apartment. The only downside was that the air conditioning in our apartment has been really flaky this entire week and it was out on Tuesday night. . . it was a really sweaty time!

The biggest thing that happened this week was the marriage of our investigators, Victoriano and Luisa. It was one of the most exciting things that has happened to me on my mission. When we first came here to Delano, the elder that was leaving the area told us that Victoriano and Luisa needed sisters. Victoriano had been learning with the missionaries for a couple of transfers, but had not been able to be baptized because he was living with Luisa and they weren't married. Luisa had never talked with the elders and she told them that she only spoke Mixteco The first time that we talked to Luisa, she told us that she wouldn't get married until they were able to go back to Oaxaca and have a big Catholic wedding in three years. Over the course of the last couple of months, we have been working with them and have seen a ton of miracles with the family. Ever since they decided to get married, they have been super excited!

This week, we spent a lot of time working with the family. One day, we were in talking to Victoriano's brother, Gabino, and teaching him about tithing. Right in the middle of the lesson, Victoriano and Luisa drove up in their car. They hopped out and and ran to the trunk and pulled out five or six live chickens. They had driven all the way from Bakersfield to get chickens for the mole they were going to make for the wedding and on the way back, the chickens had started to get heat stroke and to die. Victoriano started putting them in the kiddie pool to cool them off, but it wasn't working. They had to kill the chickens before they died so that they could cook them, so they started stringing them up right in the yard and cutting off their heads. The entire time, we were just watching them. Needless to say, we needed to invite the spirit again after that! :) It was super funny!

Speaking of Gabino, we have been working with him a lot and he was able to get his baptismal interview this Saturday. He passed! I am super excited for him. He is going to be baptized this Saturday (a couple of days after I leave, but it is okay!) He is going to be a really good member of the church.

On Friday, we woke up really early to go down to the departing temple trip in Los Angeles. It was really nice. I was with Hermana Perry again. It was a bizarre experience to be living what we talked about a year ago when we were companions. I learned a lot as I went to the temple and I am super excited to go back when I get home.

Biggest moment of the week was the wedding. We were running around all morning long helping them to set up. It was pretty sweet. Right before the wedding, we were at Victoriano and Luisa's house and they told us that they wouldn't have time to fill up balloons, so they asked us to go and get them filled with helium. We figured that we would have enough time, so we went to the flower shop. When they gave us the balloons, we pretty quickly realized that we didn't really have any space for them in our car . We ended up squishing them all in the back seat with Hermana Ruiz. It was a fun ride!

The wedding was so cute! Our stake president here drove all the way from Bakersfield to preform the ceremony because Bishop was out of town. It was really nice! He doesn't speak Spanish and they don't speak English, but they were able to have some headsets and someone to translate for them during the ceremony! It was so beautiful. I am so excited for them to continue to learn so that they can go to get sealed in the temple some day.

This has been a really strange week, but I am so happy! I have loved my experience as a missionary and I am sad that it is over, but I am also happy with all that I have done. I know that I have served the Lord and I don't regret my decision to serve a mission one bit. I love the work and I love the gospel and all of the blessings that it has given me and everyone that I have shared it with! I hope that you have a good couple of days. I will see you soon!

Hermana Blau

Week Seventy-Eight: My Last Full Week!

Area: Delano Ward
Companions: Hermana Galvez and Hermana Ruiz

Where do I even start. I feel like the time is flying by so fast and I can't believe that I am in the last full week of my mission. This week was pretty good!

We had a pretty good week for finding and teaching. I feel like all of our investigators are doing really well. A couple of months ago, when we first came to Delano, the elders had been teaching a lady named Laura. She is super cool and she loves to read the Book of Mormon. She had been learning for a while and we were able to teach her about three times before she told us that she had to go to Mexico to help her husband finalize his visa to come to the United States. When she left, we helped her to refer herself to the missionaries over in Mexico. This last week, she came back with her husband and we started teaching them again. They are a super cute family and they love learning about the gospel. The missionaries in Mexico didn't go to visit them, so we have started teaching them all over again as a family. They know a lot about the scriptures and they really want to change their lives.

While we were walking around this week, we met some interesting people. One day, right before we were about to head back to our apartment for dinner, we met a lady and her husband working on their car. We started talking to them and the next thing I knew, we were sitting in their back yard drinking home-made blueberry juice, eating chips covered in hot sauce, and listening to her tell us about some little smurf houses that she had made for her garden. I found myself looking around and wondering how I had even gotten into that situation in the first place. It was bizarre, but nice. :)

Me with a member of the ward named Brother Morales. He is super funny!

Also, this week we have continued to teach the Luisa and Victoriano. They are super excited for their wedding on Saturday. When we went over the other day, Luisa was telling us about all of the food she was going to make: tamales, posole, mole, things like that. It sounds like it is going to be great! We have continued to teach Gabino and he is super excited about learning. He loves to read the scriptures and he is really good at keeping commitments. He is pretty much a golden investigator.

This week, we had a missionary activity in the park. We decided to have a little picnic and to draw the Plan of Salvation on the sidewalks. It was really fun. Gabino was able to come and he really liked it. It was fun seeing all of the little kids playing with the sidewalk chalk and learning together. It wasn't a really big activity, but it was effective!

On Wednesday, we went to the temple! It was so nice. Because the temple day replaced our p-day, we decided that we would go to the earliest session possible so that we could come back and have time to do our laundry and to go to the store. We wanted to go to the 8:00 session. The only problem is that Delano is about three hours away from Los Angeles, so we had to leave at 4:30. It was so early! We got a ride down with one of the members from our ward, Sister Intok. She is Filipino and she brought one of her Filipino non-member friends with her. It was fun listening to them speak Tagalog while we were on our way. Sister Intok is a lot more of a defensive driver than I am and she was weaving through the LA traffic like no one I have ever seen. It was an adventure.

While we were at the temple, we had a great time. There weren't a lot of people in the session that we were in. I think there were only three other women who were there, apart from us. It was nice because it kind of felt like we were in our own personal session. :) After we were done, we were able to go and do initiatories. I love the temple so much. I was able to feel the spirit really strongly and to find answers to some of my questions. I am super excited to go back next week for my departing temple trip!

Things are going well and I am looking forward to working really hard for the last week of my mission. It is strange to think about, but I know that I have done my best and that my mission has shaped me so much. I love the mission and I love my Savior. I know that this church is true. 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 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 Three: Halfway Through ... the MTC!

My district (and Hermano Gomez) at the temple.

Area: Mexico MTC
Companion: Hermana Katie Neeleman
Hermana Neeleman's Blog Post: Week Three

This week has felt super strange. It feels like it has been forever since I have written home (probably because our p-day was switched from Tuesday to Thursday. More on that later). Anyway, life is good here at the CCM. I'm starting to feel like I am getting the hang of things here. We'll have to see how things turn out when I get to the mission field.

On Wednesday, we watched a big world-wide missionary devotional. Lots of apostles and other general authorities spoke, and I feel like I really learned more about what I should be doing to better teach the people that I have been called to serve. Right before the meeting started, they were going up and down the aisles asking if anyone knew how to play the piano and Hermana Neeleman volunteered me. I got her back by volunteering her to lead the music. Anyhow, they asked us to go up and lead all the missionaries in two songs. We both thought that one would be the opening song and the next would be the closing song, so after we finished the first song we went back to our seats. It turned out that there were two opening songs, so everyone was looking around to tell us to come back up. That was an awkward walk back up the aisle.

After the meeting, our branch president, Presidente Machado, pulled me and Hermana Neeleman aside. He asked us if we wanted to be the new Sister Training Leaders. Now, we have been trying to get to know the other Hermanas in our zone. Hopefully, we will be able to help them make it through the MTC.

I know that I have been talking a lot about how nice the weather is here. There is one downside to this, and I will tell you in the form of a story. Sometimes, during the afternoon, we will go outside to do our group Book of Mormon study. This week, when we were outside, I noticed something on the side of my scriptures. I thought that it was the gooey grass that you get when you mow the lawn, so I wiped it off with my hand and wiped my hand on the grass. It took the gold paint off the sides of my Spanish scriptures. I didn't think about it anymore. . . until I got back in the room. Hermana Leslie looked at me and said, "I am sorry that a bird pooped on your scriptures." I was so grossed out, I thought that I would throw up. Even thinking back on the moment, I start to feel a little sick. I washed my hands so many times that day!

I think that I had the saddest experience of my life this week -- p day was moved back. One of the Elders in my district is staying in Mexico, so he had to go to the consulate today so that he could remain here legally. However, that meant that we all had to have our p day on Thursday instead of on Tuesday. We learned this on Monday. That morning, Hermana Neeleman and I had just been talking about how much we were looking forward to p day and how it would make the entire week go by faster. When we heard the news, we were heartbroken. I felt like it was Christmas Eve and someone came and told me that Christmas had been moved to February. In the end, it turned out fine. 

My gross knuckles. I don't know if you can see it very well in the picture,
but my knuckles have been drying out and cracking like crazy.
Maybe it is payback for all the times that I have talked
about how nice the weather is down here.

I think that I have realized that my experience on my mission has just been one awkward experience after another. For example, we are teaching two "investigators" right now, Mario and Rodrigo (really Hermano Hernandez and Hermano Gomez). We teach one each day, and normally the lessons go fairly well. Both of them have agreed to be baptized! Anyway, the other day, we were teaching Rodrigo. Right before we went in to go to the lesson, Hermana Neeleman asked me to confirm the name of who we were teaching. I laughed at her a little, so I guess what happened next was karma. During the lesson, I said the opening prayer. However, instead of praying for Rodrigo, I started praying for Mario. After the prayer was over, Hermano Gomez looked at me and asked, "Who is Mario?" That would have been embarrassing enough, but later in the lesson, I was trying to be serious and get a point across, so I looked "Rodrigo" right in the eyes and called him Mario again! Hermana Neeleman and Hermano Gomez made fun of me all day long for that.

Later that same day, we were sitting next to some Latina sisters during the devotional. I made some polite conversation with them before the meeting started. During the meeting, I glanced over and saw that the Hermana who was sitting next to me had really nice handwriting. Then she saw me looking at her notebook. I wanted to assure her that I was not trying to peep at what she had written, so I tried to tell her that she had beautiful handwriting. However, I think that what I ended up communicating was that I thought that what she had written was beautiful. She gave me a weird look, and we didn't say anything else after that.

I have been feeling pretty good about my life lately. Yesterday, I realized just how far I have come in Spanish. We were helping the incoming missionaries and one of them asked me how learning the language was coming. I told her that I came in with almost no Spanish and that now I am able to go into my lessons without having to write down a script of things to say. I just take in my Spanish scriptures and a outline in English. I know that my Spanish is not even close to perfect, but I do feel like I have been progressing. I am so happy to be here and I am even more excited to be able to go out soon and to serve the people in California. I am so grateful for the influence that the Gospel has had in my life and I hope that I will be able to spread that influence with others.

I love you all and I hope that you are all doing well.

Hermana Blau

Week Two: Time is Flying!

The hermanas in our zone right before Hermana Adair and Hermana Taylor left to go to Oklahoma City.

Area: Mexico MTC
Companion: Hermana Katie Neeleman
Hermana Neeleman's Blog Post: Week Two

This week has actually gone by really fast! After last week, I thought that my time in the CCM would be really long, but by it was already Sunday before I knew it. I am loving my stay in the most beautiful campus I have ever been in. Seriously, I am so glad that I am here instead of in frozen Missouri! For the last couple of days, me and Hermana Neeleman have been going outside to do our study instead of staying inside the classroom. She sits in the sun and I sit in the shade and we both have a really good time.

The days have all started to sort of blend together. Every day, we start with personal study. Then we go to breakfast and prepare for our first "investigator". After that, we do a lot of language study and more reading the scriptures. At some point during that time, we go to gym and eat lunch and dinner. By the end of the day, I am always so tired! But it is the good kind of tired. I am happy in my work.

I think that all of the time that we have spent reading the scriptures has really been getting to me. At night, we read the Book of Mormon in Spanish as a district and we all follow along in English. We just barely got through the story of Nephi getting the brass plates, but every night I start to think of funny backstories for all of the people in the stories and I start to get giggly. I don't know how long that will continue, but I don't know if it is a bad thing.

I feel like I have already learned so much more than I knew before. I am still not fluent and I can only understand about half of what everybody says, but I am so happy that I am not totally lost in everything. In our lesson yesterday, I didn't even look down at my paper once for hints on how to say things (I can't guarantee that this means I was saying my words totally right, I was just able to be understood). I am excited for a time that I will really be able to speak the language. Right now, I feel like I am losing my English way faster than I am gaining Spanish. I make so many spelling and grammar mistakes when I write my letters. Oh well.

On Wednesday nights, we go as a district and do our service project. Guess what we get to do every week!? Greet the new missionaries and help them to get to their casas. It was so fun to be able to see all of the new missionaries coming in and to talk to them about their flights and their lives. The only thing that was a little stressful about the experience was that the people who were helping were not supposed to speak English to each other. That basically meant that I could not speak unless I was helping out the new missionaries, but it was okay in the end. By the time that we started helping them take the luggage to their casas, we started to speak in English to each other.

This Sunday was super fun and really spiritual. I don't remember if I told you this in my last e-mail, but we have to write a five minute talk in Spanish each Sacrament Meeting and when we get there, we are randomly called on to give the talk. It is a little stressful, especially because the Spanish I do have is very broken. Anyway, I was called on this week to give my talk in front of the entire zone. It ended up being better than I thought it would be. I am just glad that I prepared even though I thought that I would be exempt because I was playing the piano :). Later that night, we went in to Sunday Movie Night. There was an extremely odd selection of movies that were shown: The John Tanner Story, an old movie about the Crucifixion, and the informational video about temple clothing. I was still glad for the break from classes and Spanish.

Hermana Neeleman and me outside the Mexico City Temple.

This morning, we got to go to the Mexico City Temple (which is why I am writing to you so late in the day). It was so nice. It was a little strange going through a Spanish session only knowing a little Spanish, but I am glad that I had the opportunity to go. I don't know when I will next be able to go to the temple, but I am grateful for every opportunity that I get to go to the house of the Lord.

I think that my biggest revelation that I had this week is that the CCM is a little bit like a prison. There are tall walls around the perimeter that have barbed wire on the tops, the time is very scheduled, and we can only communicate with the outside once a week. Despite the similarities, I have been feeling very content in my life lately. Every day, I feel the spirit so strongly. All of my teachers are so good (although one had been nicknamed Hermano Rapido because he speaks so fast). I am so excited to be a missionary and I feel constantly that this is the right place for me to be. I am really excited to be out in the mission field, but I am happy to spend a couple more weeks in the CCM.

Hermana Blau

The parrots that hang out on the palm trees here in Mexico.