2nd Transfer in Fontana!

     What a week, am I right?  On Wednesday we drove all the way to the mission office for transfers which is a crazy time.  There are a whole bunch of cars and even more missionaries walking around this church parking lot trying to get luggage and companions and bikes all figured out.  We dont really see the mission president there because he is busy trying to get all the new missionaries settled with their trainers.  I said goodbye to my companion and found my new trainer (who also went to Lone Peak, crazy right?), and we headed back to Fontana to start working!  I was already a little stressed about having to plan and know who/where/what to teach and then we realized that neither of us have a GPS so this week has been a real good adventure of learning how to use a real map haha.  

    On Thursday we had a zone conference almost all day so we got to go listen and talk with our mission president about true conversion.  We were asked to study and prepare a 5 minute presentation about a conversion story in the scriptures.  I didnt actually get to share mine but I learned a lot from all of the studying and preparing.  I chose Amulek and as I studied how he was converted and I think it all came down to his choice to act.  I know that this gospel is 100% real but I will never be truly converted unless I act on that knowledge.  So this week my goal has been to act with faith on every prompting I get and I have already been able to see the miracles happening!   

     A few weeks ago we went to borrow a mixer from a less active but hers was broken so she borrowed one from her neighbor and she told us about her and she seemed like an awesome potential so we were going to talk to her when we gave back the mixer but her scary husband answered the door but we have been trying to find a good way to talk to her again.  Then on Friday night one of our appointments and our back-up fell through and we felt like we needed to go visit this less active and we walked up to the door and the neighbor answers the door!!  We talked to her for a while and she is so great!!  We are going back to teach her this week!

   Yesterday my comp had a baptism in her old area so she was gone for about 5 hours and I went on splits with a returned missionary in the ward.  I had been really nervous about going out by myself because I still rely so much on my companion but it actually turned out really great and it was so awesome to get to see how she worked and taught as a missionary.  Everyone does it so differently and I am grateful for every opportunity I get to work with and learn from all of the awesome missionaries here!  I was only with her for the first half and then for the second half of the night I tagged along with the English sisters.  We made candy empanadas at a less active's house (unreal) and I got to use my Spanish to talk with her mother who isnt a member and doesnt speak any English which was pretty cool and she said we could come back and teach her!  Basically this week was a lot of being nervous and anxious about things and then every thing worked out incredibly.  We talked to everyone this week and got so many referrals and worked really really hard.  I have seen and felt the Lord guiding me and giving me everything I need to do my best and help the work move forward here in Fontana and I am so so grateful for the enabling power of the atonement .    I am SOOO excited for this coming transfer and can already tell its gonna be a great one!  Love you all so so much!

-Hermana Smith

 Companion #1

Companion #2

Week 6 In Redlands- Transfers!!

Nothing too exciting happened this week but here are some of the highlights-

-The elder who plays the piano has slowly been giving me all the assignments so I now play the piano for choir and yesterday I played all 4 sacrament hymns which was terrifying but I survived.

-The kids in our apartment complex are always playing outside and they love the missionaries!  One of them got a ripstick this week so I taught them how to ride it.

-We got a TON of awesome referrals this week who will hopefully all turn in to awesome investigators!

-We got lost on the California freeways on our way home from zone meeting and used up pretty much all of our miles for this month.

-Our dinner cancelled and we were so hungry so we had the most disgusting and random assortment of food for dinner

-One of our members taught us how to make hand-made flour tortillas and flan!

-We found out about transfers!! I will be staying in Fontana and my trainer is leaving!  We are both kind of freaking out cause we thought there was no way that we would get moved but now she is going to San B and I am staying here and taking over the area with my new comp! 

That's all for this week, love you all so so much!! 

-Katie 

Week 5 in Redlands- Dogs and Halloween Parties

First transfer is almost over!!  Crazy, right?  It feels like I have been here forever!  This week was a whole lot of crazy-

On Wednesday we had exchanges but this time I stayed here in our area with another hermana and that was a terrifying and stressful day but we did a lot of walking and somehow I survived and didn't completely destroy Fontana!

Who knew Halloween was such a controversial holiday?!  I guess I should have thought of that before but we did reverse trick-or-treating so we made like 150 cute pumpkin sugar cookies and decorated them and delivered them to people in our area and most people were really excited because oh how stinking cute the missionaries made us pumpkin cookies!  But then there were a few who were like offended and gave us 30 minute lectures on what a terrible holiday this is and how they cant believe that the church supports it by doing a trunk-or-treat.  Awkward.  But the people who do celebrate Halloween really go all out.  We stopped by a baby-shower/Halloween party which was easily the strangest party I've ever been to.  There was a bounce house and a dj and sooo much food and I didn't even see the baby.  Then on Halloween we had dinner at a member's home and she was getting ready for a massive Halloween party (obviously there was a bounce-house there too).  We had to be in our apartments by 6:00 so we took all of the good candy and went home to finish our weekly planning  wahoo!!  We also crashed a birthday party on Sunday and they fed me oysters with hot sauce.

This week was awesome because we saw tons of real dogs!  Butterball (aka el gordo) is my new favorite and he belongs to a member, the golden was just wandering around our apartment complex, and that rottweiler lives at a potentials so every time we go to knock on her door he barks and growls and tries to jump over the fence which is actually terrifying.  

We are working really hard this week on finding new people to teach.  We have a couple of really awesome potentials so we are praying that they are prepared and ready for us!  We spend a lot of our time working with our recent converts and they are awesome!  My testimony grew this week about involving the Lord in every aspect of my day, and I know that when I do, not only does everything go better but everything has more meaning.  We got to teach a Sunday School class yesterday about the ten virgins and we talked about how we can fill our lamps.  Every single day we all have experiences that can strengthen us but it's completely up to us whether we let them roll right past us or if we absorb them and use the Atonement to let them change us and make us better.  My goal this week is to involve the Lord more so that everything I do will have significance and will add oil to my lamp.  

Mexican Advice for the Week: Only let yourself eat two tortillas per meal until you're married, then you can eat as many as you want.

Hope you are having a great no-shave November without me because I guess that's not allowed on the mish.

Love you all,

Hermana Smith