I Traveled Across the Sunny Valley!

Hello everyone! As you can tell I'm alive and I have made the journey across the “Sunny Valley” all the way to Elk Grove. Just a quick little update. I've been sent down to as my mission President says to, "clean up an area."

We had a zone conference at the church with President and Sister Black (In the blue and white shirt). At the zone conference we had a Hot Wheels race. It was a great day filed with fun and spiritual messages!

Above-This is me outside my old apartment in Eastern Avenue as I was getting ready to leave and transfer to my new area.

Below- Me at the Sacramento Temple. We were able to go to the Temple this last P-day and it was a wonderful to have that opportunity.

I've been sent to an area where I'll be learning much about humility, love, and patience. My companion is someone who came out to the field with me, and my other companion is someone who's been out for six weeks. I'll be joining their companionship; they were together last transfer. When I arrived, I was quickly told that I had been placed with individuals who hadn't done any work for the past 6 weeks. There were mostly 3-hour dinner appointments and lots of scrolling on Facebook. The crazy thing is that they had a total of four people baptized. It showed me that the Lord's work will go on despite inadequacies and missionaries. However, I know that the work can be much greater and will go forth when we are obedient and willing to serve. One family that I will be working with was baptized prematurely. There was a language barrier. I learned that my companionship had only met with them a few times and then only 10 days later they were baptized. The Mom and Dad were not married, don't ask me how that got through the cracks, but it did. They only went to church once and haven't been taught any of the lessons. This has helped me realize I cannot judge, that can only be done by Jesus Christ and so I'm trying to move forward. I have discovered a few other situations like this, and it has taught me humility and I have had to work to help some of these recent converts understand better what they converted to. I realize the need for humility. At first, I thought wow I'm such a strong missionary, the Lord can trust me by putting me in a hard companionship. I'm so good, I'm so strong. However, in actuality, I am nothing without Jesus Christ. I prayed a lot the past few days and every single day it seems like I have more strength than I thought I could. I think I'm here to serve my companions more than the people. But I also know that I'll serve the people in the meantime!

Me with many of the people we are teaching and some of the other sisters in the area.

On another note, I was able to be with Sister Bailey again! She was my trainer and an amazing missionary. She is the Sister Training Leader in this area, and we have been able to go on splits together. I love serving with her and I were excited to continue serving with her and see how much growth she's had! We had so many cool miracles where we were able to have super spiritual doorstep lessons because we followed prompting! I know that if we follow promptings within the framework of revelation miracles can happen.

Here I am with my companions and some members that invited us over for Sundae Sundays! In this picture the girl with the green sweatshirt and red hair is named Levi. She is on date to be baptized on Oct 14th. She asked us the other day after a spirit filled lesson," What do I need to do to get baptized?"

I invite you to make one of your prayers this week a prayer of gratitude. I know the Lord will show you that everything you have truly comes from him. I am grateful for the opportunity to talk to my family. Below is a picture of my sister Olivia and me talking on P-day. I am grateful for her and that she takes the time to talk to me and send me emails. She always has such great wisdom and helps me think through things. I love her and I am grateful she is my sister!