I'm Here!

First week in Sacramento.

We flew into Sacramento. There was a whole an airplane full of missionaries. Sixteen people flying into the Sacramento California mission and another six or seven going to the Santa Rosa mission. Once we flew in and landed, we proceeded down the escalator. We were greeted with wide arms and hugs by President and Sister Zimmerman. In addition to the Zimmerman's the APS and the sister training leaders for that area. They called us all by name and gave us big hugs. And they were so friendly. Although I was kind of disappointed, I wasn't able to place a book of Mormon on the plane due to the fact that I sat next to a bunch of missionaries LOL so much for the $6.58 I spent on the Book of Mormon at the MTC gift store.

We landed and then went to the mission office. It's a chapel in Fair oaks. We were instructed with some of the basics of the mission, and it was so cool to see all the senior missionaries there that have been helping prepare us. It's like they all knew us by name and have been awaiting our arrival. I felt so loved. Then we went to the mission home. We had a good dinner with all the missionaries that had arrived with me for this transfer. After dinner we gathered to have a devotional. We studied more about covenants and the importance of exact obedience. After that we went to a sister home that is one of the local wards. She has all the sister missionaries stay at her house when they fly in. Her name was Sister Beck and she's been to Ethiopia many times which I thought was cool.

My good friend from BYU (Mona Shepherd) flew in later that night and so we got to sleep in the same room and be buddies. What a treat!

DAY TWO

FRIST DAY IN THE FELID

It was an early morning thanks to the fact that California is one hour behind Utah. I had forgotten to set my clock back one hour. My 6:30 alarm went off at 5:30 lol but it was a good way to start the mission haha. We went to the mission office did personal study and learned a little bit more about the importance of the calling we have. President and Sister Zimmerman amazing at teaching from divinely appointed sources. The importance of Preach my Gospel, The Book of Mormon, and Standards of Discipleship, as well as the words of living prophet cannot be emphasized enough. All you need on your mission to be a successful missionary are those three things along with the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The time arrived I met my first companion! They lined up all the trainers on one side of the parking lot and all the new missionaries on the other. Then they would call out the trainer and then the missionary. We would all scream and run to each other. (See picture).

My trainer is named Hermana Bailey. She just finished her first 2 transfers of the mission. So, she is brand new!!! She also is a Spanish speaking sister!! She is from Knoxville Illinois about 2 hours from Nauvoo.

We went up to the Sacramento Temple to take pictures and then we were off to teach my first lesson with a woman named Kat. My First area is EASTERN AVE. And we're shot gunning the B River City YSA. There are six sets of missionaries in the River City YSA Ward and only myself and my companionship in the Eastern Avenue ward. It's been pouring rain for the entire month here in Sacramento. It has not stopped since I arrived a week and a half ago.

LOTS OF MIRICLES THIS WEEK. IM LEARNING LOTS!

Week two

Today we had an awesome lesson with a member.

It's special to see how the promise in Preach My Gospel that says "as we teach other the doctrine of Christ, their desire to want to share the gospel as member missionaries will increase" is being fulfilled. We taught her a lesson about the Plan of Salvation. Every time we go into a lesson our lesson can be completely the same or completely different. But there are two or three things that come to our mind through the power of the Holy ghost. This time Sister Bailey was inspired enough to suggest the Plan of Salvation. At first discussing this didn't feel right. However, as we continued, I felt that there was a different reason that we needed to teach it to her. When we got there, I remembered that she had a caretaker that came to help her. The caretaker recently had a death in her family and has been struggling because her husband was also deployed. The Plan of Salvation pamphlet was exactly what she needed. As we strengthened Sister Reaser's testimony she developed the courage. Later that night she called us and told us that she'd given Barbara the pamphlet.

A super cool miracle happened after that. I'm really trying to develop the line in Preach my Gospel.

on page 187 under teaching skills. The subheading of listen from Elder Jeffrey R Holland. "He says more important than speaking is listening. I promise you that something in what they will say will always highlight a truth of the Gospel about which you can bear testimony and about which you can then offer them if we listen with love, we won't need to wonder what to say it will be given to us by the spirit and by our friends." Instead of just going up and trying to talk to people I need to talk with people and listen. People who are truly ready to hear the restored gospel will discuss it with us. As we were leaving sister Reasor's house we started to talk to one of the employees at this apartment complex. She said that she didn't speak English and we asked her what language she spoke. She said Spanish. Sister Bailey lit up. She was so pumped she was able to practice and use the Spanish that she has been learning. That is how we met Monica. It was so cool to see how Monica was super excited to speak Spanish with someone and also that God put her in our path. Then we talked to another guy on the way out. Although he wasn't interested, we were friendly, and it helps us to get to know more and more people.

In another story, today we were doing our weekly planning where we make contact with those who we have interacted with throughout the week to set up a short lesson. One of the contacts that we had been talking to always would flake or cancel on us. It was about time to drop him. But before we did, we decided we would give him one more chance. So, we called him twice and left a message. We decided it was probably best to not make any more contact for the time because he had showed no interest or follow through. About 2 hours later we got a call from him. We asked him if he'd be interested in meeting with us so we could get to know him better and talk a little bit about Jesus. He then asked a question that opened my eyes. He said, "so what do these meetings look like? What do we do at them.?" It was a very valid question I realized in that moment that most people don't just meet up to talk about Jesus. We realized we needed to adjust back to square one. So, we said and be like to meet with you and teach you more about Jesus." We explained it better than that, however as I write this, I cannot remember everything. However, I realized that he just didn't know what to expect. People get uncomfortable when there's unknown and so our job as missionaries is to make things as comfortable as possible. However, change is uncomfortable sometimes, and the only way we can help others be more comfortable is explaining better and then helping them know more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Christ will help them find comfort and give them exact guidance and direction for their situation.

Onto the next miracle. We went to go teach Shaun the law of tithing. It is a required lesson for baptism. It's important to help others understand how the church can do so much good. When we were walking to her house we saw Shaun, Shaun's daughter and Shaun's granddaughter unloading groceries. We help them carry the groceries in and then we talked about African American hair and how it can get messed up so easily. (peep Adam) His girlfriend was cutting his hair while we talked. Here name is Shaniqua. She is an OG and fixed him. I tried to match her energy and I think it honestly helped her feel more comfortable. So, as we sat down to teach the lesson, we started talking about 1 Nephi 2… I refer to this when I'm teaching others about the Air Jordan chapters maybe it's sacrilegious but I'm pretty sure they have the equivalency of some sort of hype shoes) in those days. It was a super cool Miracle because the night before at Book of Mormon study we read first Nephi 2. The ward Mission leader was also at the Book of Mormon study, so he was able to give some good insight. We asked Shaun to read it. So, everybody was on the same page. Then his Girlfriend started to ask questions about the Book of Mormon. We were prepared to teach tithing but took a complete u turn dropped the law of tithing and taught the Restoration. Another member was with us. His name was Palmer. He bore beautiful testimony about how his wife started to get to know the church and wanted to know for herself, so she took lessons from the missionaries and prayed and came to the realization that it was true.

Marco, Miracle Part 5. We had Book of Mormon study yesterday and it didn't seem like anybody was going to come I mean I'm talking about down to 5 minutes before we had exactly one or two people committed, the ward mission leader and possibly another girl but only if we could find her a ride. Then Sister Bailey gets an inspired idea and chooses to follow it. She said, "we're going to go visit a half active family in the ward." We pull up and the aunt is outside. She has been having a difficult time with life. we were able to pray with her asking for comfort. After we were finished, all the kids ended up coming over to Book of Mormon study with us. Another girl showed up and she was able to give Aria a ride, so we originally had only two people confirmed. However, by the end of the night we had eight people there not including us missionaries it was a miracle.

We have been meeting with a wonderful woman named Kathy. We met with Kathy and her caretaker. Kathy shared her testimony. She shared with us that as we teach her the things she was taught as a child they started to come back to her. She could remember the lessons and stories. It made me realize that even as members, we must be taught and retaught the same lessons. If you have not met with the missionaries lately you should definitely reach out to the missionaries and invite them over. Not only will it strengthen testimony, but it will help you better answer investigators and your friends' questions about our church. It will help develop and strengthen your desire to be part of the greatest and most important work going on here on Earth.

We have another investigator named Kat. We called h

er and it went to voicemail, we wondered when she called us back if we should we asked her about how her sleeping had been going. She had had been experiencing a lot of difficulty sleeping the past a month or longer. Yesterday we prayed with her and the night before we had some members in the ward come over and give her a priesthood blessing. She told us she was able to get the best sleep ever and sleep the whole night. She knew it was by the power of God. She is starting to recognize God's hand in her life, and it is such a beautiful realization. Eastern Avenue is going to rise up like the stakes of Zion. And even then, we shall be fulfilling the prophecy that all kindred and tongue shall hear the word of the Lord whether they choose to accept it or not.

Today was the sabbath.

I ate some funkyyyyy food on Friday night and my stomach has been making some ferocious noises! I am pretty sure the people that sat next to me thought there was something living inside of me. ANYWAYS I'm trying to figure out why I'm feeling this way it could be a load of things.

1. The restaurant a member took us to definitely was not keeping their food at temp.

2. We don't have a dish washer so the dishes could not be getting fully clean. (Doubt that is it)

3. The amount of secondhand smoke makes my tummy flip.

4. Petting stray cats

But no that was not it. I realized Monday I had picked up the stomach flu! YUCK! so, I slept basically all of today. Apparently to update you all, there isn't something living inside of me. I just caught a bad case of the stomach flu. I slept in and could hardly get out of bed, but in the afternoon, I made myself get out of bed and we shuffled over to the district and zone council.

ALOT of our time is spent in reactivation efforts. The amount of people that have faded away during covid and never came back is great! The thing about this church

is that it does so much good. But if there are not members in these wards to keep the wards functioning the church will be in trouble. COVID has really had an effect on the church here, as it has everywhere. In addition, as the news has reported there are a lot of people that have been moving out of California and church members moving has not been an exception. The Prophet President Nelson came and talked to all the stakes in California (this was a little while before I got here.) He told the members in California that they needed to stay. California is at a spiritual crossroads and that they are needed here to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today we visited a lot of people around the ward. We had two people cancel on us. We will call one of them Ranch. Ranch has been taught a few times. We thought after not being able to contact him that we would stop by. He asked if we would come back tomorrow at 3:15. We showed up at 3:15 and guess what...... he was out of town and his friend was their watching the Dog. His friend with blood shoot eyes was like "no thanks" and shewed us away…. that happens a lot! People just shew us… like we are literally a fly… they don't even say anything just move their hands…. weird.

The mission is full of work and SO MANY MIRICLES. We called this girl yesterday. her timeline in our area book said that every time the missionaries called and said who it was, she would hang up! So, we were a little hesitant. We called her and guess whatttttt? She said, "I don't live in the Sacramento area anymore and I've been baptized!" She said when the missionaries found her in her new area, she felt like it was a sign. As a missionary I cannot be afraid that I might annoy people. I need to put myself out there and let God handle the rest.

Spiritual thought! Mosiah 5- I learned that just because we are

baptized It doesn't mean we believe in God. WE ALL ARE CHILDREN OF GOD BUT WE BECOME CHILDREN OF CHRIST WHEN WE TAKE ON HIS NAME MAKE A PROMISE TO REPRESENT HIS NAME AS HIS BELOVED CHILDREN.

We called somebody that had formerly been in contact with the missionaries. She had moved to North Carolina. And she was going to a different church, but she was so kind and told us that she would reach out to her friends back in Sacramento. Today I decided to be the most diligent missionary I could be. I would work until I couldn't work anymore, I'm going to use the Lord's help to do all that I can do and then do more through him.

Love you all! Sister Frasier