21 July 2014

Hola,

This week was an average week, lots of fun, but also lots of struggle with our actual area! I never realized how long term hard opening an area will be.  I am trying to stay positive and upbeat because I know I am supposed to be here in Willits.

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I know I said last week we had an appointment with that awesome family, but ... they weren't home. We spent a lot of time finding, finding, finding!

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On Tuesday we decided to check out Laytonville (click), an additional city to our area! We had high hopes of maybe finding some pockets of Hispanics, but we couldn't find them. We did talk to 2 of them and one of them said that there aren't many Hispanics there so we will see how much we go in the future! The best part was that the drive was beautiful! It was just up the 101 and I really enjoyed the woods we saw along the way. Right before dinner we started our exchange. I went out with Sister Andreasen! She is from Tehachapi California. She is so much fun! We served around each other in Fairfield so now we are just the best of friends. We laugh and joke all day long! The funny thing was that we went back to Laytonville for their appointment, because I was in the English sister's area! It is a less-active family and they invitde the young men neighbors to come over too! It was a really open lesson. We first watched Finding Faith in Christ for the younger kids and then talked with the young boy/investigators. The sad thing was they have had really hard lives and they don't think that they have a loving Heavenly Father or a Savior! They have lost that trust in Him, but I think we had some beginnings of future development!

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On Wednesday we taught a whole bunch of lessons, when I was in the English sister's area. They are working so hard and they have really wonderful investigators! It was nice to just be able to teach with Sister Andreasen and back her up. My favorite thing about exchanges is asking the really bold questions! For some reason they just come easier when this is the first and maybe last time you will be teaching someone!  I switched back to be with Hermana Hooton and we had our awesome point of the week, because we started teaching Jose.  He is our new, and one and only investigator! We were so excited when he said he had time to talk, and it was a good experience. We are excited to see what happens with him! Oh, the funny story of it all was we went up to his door and a young boy answered the door. I asked if Jose was there and he said he didn't live there.  I told him his last name and he was still a little confused. He turns to whoever was in the room with him and said " Wait, isn't that my Dad's name!" We found out it was the right house and we then  met with Jose after that!

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On Thursday we had Zone Conference -- always a wonderful experience. We had been reading the entire Book of  Mormon for preparation over the last 3 months and so we had lovely presentations from the Albas on relating the Book of Mormon to those things we do in missionary work! It was a great day of instruction. We also talked about how serving the members would help them help us, with things like coming out to lessons and fellow-shipping investigators.

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Friday our planning went pretty fast.  We got a lot of things set in our week so that the ideas were flowing. We had dinner at the Bishop's house. They are a young powerhouse couple. They have so much spiritual knowledge it is amazing. One thing we talked about is how amazing things come out of the mouth of babes, like how they explain things about the pre-mortal existence because they are just so close to that time. She read us some of her experiences!  We were kind of having a slow night.  We saw this kite really high up in the air so we decided to follow it. SO we talked to the boy flying the kite and he and his dad were not interested in talking to us.   I asked for a referral and he gave us one. The directions were the red house by the grange. We tried to look for it but it got too late so we went home.

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On Saturday we are doing Facebook and we were looking up pages of things in Willits.  In my search I found a page called the grange and so we found out where it was and so we went right away to the red house. The first red house we see we go out and knock on it. It is a young mom and we ask if Joey was there and she said no one by that name lived there.  We offered her a house blessing and she said yes! (Side note: they were watching the show Wild Kratts so now I finally know a little bit more about what it is!) It was a great prayer and she accepted the idea of the English sisters visiting her in the future. We asked if she knew of a Joey in a red house.  She said no, but that there was a red house next door. SO we knock on that house and Joey is there! His Mom was very sick, which is why the boy told us to go there.  We went into meet her. It wasn't the best living situation.  We offered a house blessing and she said,  "no". We asked her for any referrals for other people that might need help and they gave us 2. Latter that night we went to see Cici, one of the referrals.  She let us right in and said she had been expecting us and that so and so told her we would be coming. After talking for a while we realized that the person who told her we would be coming and the women we met were not the same person.  Apparently one of her friends, that is a Jehovah's Witness, was going to send her friends to come and talk to her, but we got their first! We had a house blessing with her and she is ready to receive the gospel! Another awesome win for the Sisters! We finally met our assistant ward mission leader, who is one of the only members that speaks spanish.  He will also be the new Oakland Temple President in November! He was the kindness and most gracious man. He served us desert afterward and Sister Andreasen commented that we were being treated like princesses and that is how it really felt!

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Sunday, no one came to church, but it was a lovely Sunday. We got to go in to help with the piano in Primary, so it was fun! 

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Oh, the Church is true everywhere you go and there are always amazing member to be found. I love the continued discovery of the virtues of all of God's children! Oh, missionary work is awesome. You sacrifice, work hard, have a lot of fun and are part of the change in people's lives for the better. Even though I wouldn't relive many of my experiences, I will never forget those I have had and also those I will continue to have on my mission and when regular life hits me again. The joy of it all is that we have the love of a Heavenly Father and the empathy of kind brother and that we never have to do it alone, no matter how hard, sad or strenuous it all might be.

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Oh, I hope you all have a wonderful week! I will constantly pray that the Lord will be with you and I know he always will. Les Quiero!

Hermana Cornwall!

14 July 2014

Hermanas Hooton and Cornwall

Hola,

So this week has been crazy! Saying goodbye and saying hello are all very hard things to do! I am so sad to leave Winters, but I am also so happy to be here in Willits. Hermana Hooton and I have been saying all week how we have felt that we know we are meant to be here.  It will still be a hard long process! So Here is my week!  [Click here for info on Willits]

Monday was a pretty crazy day! I said goodbye to quite a few people and then in the evening we went to a lesson with our investigator Sonia. We taught our normal lesson, she was so nice as always, and then at the end she told me that before I left she had to tell me something. She was not very happy that I was leaving already, but I knew it was time. She told us about her experience at church. She told us that she was very worried about eating the sacrament bread because she has been having this horrible pain from her cheek to her head and she hasn't been able to really chew, or at least without a lot of pain.  She took it and it wasn't hard to eat. Then of course I told you all about going up to bear my testimony... so, while I was up there Sonia was praying for the answer of whether to keep going to church or not.  She felt a spiritual confirmation, from the words I said (or really that were translated to her), that she needs to keep going to church! Then she said the next morning that she could eat breakfast with out pain! Not only was she healed, but she received a confirmation that what she was doing right! We were so amazed and so happy for her. Then she made sure that we took a picture together before we left! Anyway, Hermana Vance and I decided that I had to be leaving so that I would bear my testimony and so that she would have to tell us the story! It was so wonderful to hear all of that from her and I am overjoyed to hear about her future progress! 
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Tuesday I said goodbye some more and I taught my last lesson to the Lopez family. They were my one regular connection to the branch and after 9 months total I was said to say goodbye, but I do love them so much!
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Then the big transfer day on Wednesday! It was so wonderful to see everyone again, but sad to say goodbye to Winters, Hermana Vance, the Woodland Stake the whole east side of the mission! Then of course when we were there we had to find our car, get a phone, get supplies, move our stuff and everything else.  It went well! After getting everything organized we head off on our way and as we were stopping for lunch we decide to call the Willits Sisters, Sister Becker and Sister Andreasen, currently serving in our area to ask about things like Walmart and dinner and everything.  We realized that our phone isn't working right. We call another number and it doesn;t work.  We thought maybe our phone wasn't connected yet.  We go to lunch at Mcdonalds and try to get the Sprint number from our Ipads.  It didn't come up with anything.  We go back to the mission office.  There was something legitimately wrong with the phone so we were glad we went back. We hung out at the mission office for a while and that was fun. We finally got on our way, with just enough time to make it to dinner! We get in town a little early so we stopped at the church, which is like the first thing you see. (P.S. no Walmart in Willits, by the way) and one of the doors happened to be a little bit open so we snuck in! We went to dinner, unpacked, went to a member lesson with the Sisters and had a meeting with the bishop and came home! It was a crazy, amazing day!

Thursday was fun too. We grocery shopped at the Safeway (which I think is the equivalent of Pavilions). We skyped with our new district leader/old district leader Elder Olmos! And then we had a full day of finding, which is quite a big change from the past. Usually when you come into an area you have the area book with investigators, potentials and former investigators, but for us we had literally nothing, it was empty. There have never really been spanish missionaries here and the whole first day we only met 2 hispanics out of almost 30 people that we talked to! That was exciting! In the evening we met the second counselor of the bishop and his family. He has 13 children, with only 5 at home  We came to find out on Sunday, his 4 boys are the whole Aaronic priesthood! Anyway, it was fun to just get to know each other!

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Friday we had district meeting in Ukiah! It was fun.  Our zone in super spread out so I am trying to come up with ideas for Zone unity! When we got back to Willits we had Weekly planning! It was about the shortest and simplest weekly planning I have ever done.  We finished it all quickly and went to work that night! We had a house blessing with someone we had talked to the day before.  This was a little weird because of drug use and her home situation, but we were glad to at least try to help her have the spirit in her home.  We hope she will have the correct environment to accept the gospel in the future! We went tracting in the one area we had heard there were Hispanics and we actually found some. Never have I been so happy to see a Hispanic in my LIFE! We did a house blessing with la familia Hernandez, with an appointment for tonight. They loved are willingness to help and bless them.  They were so kind in return. Also the funny thing about talking to Hispanics here is that they have never really talked with missionaries before.  We are making their first impressions of who missionaries are! (And they are usually a little bit more open!) We gained a little bit more hope for our little area of Willits Spanish.  [For info on Willits demographics click here.]

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Saturday we just decided to go out, find and work hard! At the end of the day we had talked to 56 people with a high majority being Hispanic! We happened to find a few Hispanic gatherings going on.  We were just filled with hope that there are people here to find! We found in the same area we had been in the night before, so we were starting to get worried that this was the only place that there were Hispanics. We met someone that lived in another neighborhood so we had hoped to find more.
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Sunday was wonderful! Hermana Hooton and I spoke. I spoke on remembering the Savior always.  It was a good lesson for me to find out how do we always remember Him! In the evening we decided to go in the area where that new man lived.  I had picked a street  the night before. To the left it was very country, spread out and things, but one house had their name out on the street and it was Hispanic.  We parked went up to it.  They were Hispanic and we made an appointment with them for tomorrow. Then down on the other side the houses were closer together and we found 3 Hispanic houses in a row! It was great!
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SO needless to say there is hope for our area. We have decided that anything we do will be amazing.  We want to do our best.  Hermana Hooton and I have thought that we would never serve in Willits, because it didn't exist until we got here.  We are very happy to be here! (by the way Hermana Hooton still has 2 transfers, oops!). The one thing I am most happy about is that through it all I have remained happy. I don't see this area as unfruitful and I am accepting of how hard it is going to be. I am excited to just take all of the skills I have been given and really put them into use!  I am happy missionary [work comes] with a few struggles and I am so excited for this next week and all the things that could possibly happen!
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I love you all so much! Keep up your amazing work because you never know what is going to happen!

Hasta Luego,

Hermana Cornwall

Some families from Winters

The Osburns

Natalie Osburn

07 July 2014

Hola,

I am headed our of Winters! My time here is up, but I have had a very good time of growth and development and I am excited to move forward. So, I am opening a new area in Willits! [All about Wilits in next week's post.] My new companion will be Hermana Hooton and this is her last transfer, I am also the STL! So I am looking forward for what the future now brings! After all this time, there isn't really a fear of the work being hard, but I am interested to see what it will feel like to start with nothing and build my way up. When Sister Alba told me on the phone she said, the Lord needs you in Willits, so go make a group of hispanic members and then make it a Branch.  It sounds like I have a lot of finding and baptizing to do! 

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So this week was interesting. The whole question of whether I would stay or go was, at times, really distracting! On Monday we had a crazy day because we drove with the Elders for P-day, in order to try and save miles.  It was fun! We also went bowling! (pictures included). It was a fun last official p-day of the transfer! We did some good finding when we got back and we had a lesson with Diana. She is a newer investigator! She was at the member's house when we went over to make bows with her daughter and so we did some tag teaming. I made bows and Hermana Vance taught a lesson! It was fun!

The Zone

Tuesday we had our last meeting as a zone! We talked more about the house blessings, because President Alba asked the President from Riverside and he said the reason was because of the house blessing and they were doing it a little different then we were so we are changing it up a little bit. The big change is that we use more specific words to start the blessing, so it is different then an average prayer and we make sure to schedule an appointment soon after in order to get the fire of the spirit going! Me and Hermana Vance have been trying it and it has gone really well! Then in the evening we met with Maria, our young recent convert who is awesome! We usually just talk to her mother when we are there, but we just had a one on one with her! It was good!

Wednesday we did service at the community center for the senior lunches. It is so fun to just help them out with those things that they need and to serve the seniors, I like it! This week we also got to help with the deliveries of meals on wheels! That was great too!

Thursday we had a house blessing with this brother and sister. It felt nice to be able to bless them with those things that they need as set apart servant of Jesus Christ! It just it that opportunity to bless them with those things they need from Heavenly Father! 

 

Friday, Independence day, was crazy but fun! It started earlier than usual because we volunteered at the Fire station for their pancake breakfast. Right as I was getting in the shower I noticed a little worm on the floor, not like those outside worms, but like a trash worms, then I notice there were quite a few more, so I went to the trash and it was literally moving, because of our crazy week we had not taken out the trash so we took care of that and then got ready to go to the fire station. It was really fun to help out. They didnt have much for us to do, but ti was good to be out in the community! We planned the rest of the day. Taught a lesson to a new family! They are a family of 4 and they live in this tiny little trailer. They really liked the plan of salvation and we are excited to teach them more. Then we had dinner at the Osburn's/Nichol's! Always fun! We went home early for the night to keep planning! It was a very good day. The weird part was thinking of how I was near Winters the last Fourth of July and it is just funny to think that these next few months will feel similar.  I have served around this time before, and yet different! Oh and I almost forgot, that we got transfer doctrine.  That was a fun addition to the sound of fireworks! 

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Saturday we had a great day. We went to a blitz in Woodland. It was so hot and no one was outside, but it was fun! In the evening we taught Sonia, our new investigator, the Restoration! It went really well! Then the big miracle was that at the end her husband came home and so we got to meet him. He was very kind and we actually had him say the closing prayer.  It was really wonderful! Then we had another house blessing for this house of men, because one of their house mates passed away last week.  It was great just to bless them and pray for their needs!

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Sunday was a sad day. I wasn't very excited to say goodbye to all of these people and it was fast Sunday so I felt the need to bear my testimony too them. I was already crying before I got up there, so it was a rough testimony, but I was so grateful to thank them for the love they had shown me and how I would share that love in my new area. Needless to say, I am very excited that in a few short months I can see them all again! Then I played for choir, which was a good experience. It always amaze me how my little bit of skill is so greatly appreciated everywhere I go! 

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So there will be lots of new beginnings this week and I will be sooooooooo excited to tell you ALL about them next week! Until then, I love you! I hope you are all doing well! I hope that you remember Christ this week!

Les Quiero,

Hermana Cornwall

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