25 August 2014

Hola,

So it is funny how sometimes it takes direct communication to really make things clear.  Luckily I am still learning that! So... I will get to the story about almost getting emergency transferred, but just know that this week I had a new resolve to work hard and to be happy! I realized that at times that is harder than others, but it really makes a difference for yourself and all the people around you!

This week we decided to share our new idea with the ward. To get them all the basics of finding people that speak spanish for us to teach! It went over really well.  I am excited to tell you how they all went!

Monday we had a great day.  The amazing thing was that everything we had to do that day, that we had to accomplish happened. Though it didn't happen exactly how we wanted it to, it still happened. The lesson we taught last Monday was to Brother Munson - I don't know if I have told you about him, he is an older member in the ward and he was in the hospital for a few weeks and now he is recovering at home and he struggles with depression and anxiety and so the English Sister missionaries go to visit him every night. They were going to be in Santa Rosa and so we stood in for them! It was great. He has such a happy spirit even when he is struggling, it is just a joy to be with him! Then we went to get the information for a new couple in the ward. The cool part was that they told us they are both fluent in Spanish! We have been praying for them to come into the Ward since the Southwicks are leaving.  We are really grateful for them and they don't even know it!

Then on Tuesday we went looking for service at the hospital and the senor center. The hospital people needed more long term things and so we couldn't help.  But now we are going to be volunteering at the senior center thrift store! It was nice to fill a need. Then we presented our spanish idea to the Bragden Family. They were all for it and were happy to receive the materials to do so! Also they are so much fun! We just laugh and laugh when we are there, so it was some good bonding time too! We came home to the new sister, Sister Murphy, we were so excited to be complete again!

Wednesday we showed up for our first day of Volunteering at the thrift store. We started by organizing things inside the store, then going back and preparing the donations to go out. It was a little weird, but it is really good publicity!  In the evening we went up to Laytonville to meet with the Hill family. They are ward missionaries and that was good. Members have such interesting questions about how to do missionary work. They are all specific to their needs and situations, but they never really say no to it! They were very warm and welcoming and we are excited to get them involved with the work too!

Thursday we went to the Walczykowski's home in the afternoon. (I promised I spelled the name right) They were the really amazing find because he said that 50% of the people he works with are hispanic and so he was all for having the materials to talk to them and interest them! We are excited to see what fruits come from his labors. They were so supportive of us reaching out to everyone for help!

Then on Friday we had our first district meeting of the transfer. I have just such a good vibe for our zone. We all get along really well already and it was so fun! I am really grateful for the support of other missionaries and how, even though it sounds cheesy, we are all in there together! Then in the evening, we walked around putting up  English [class] fliers. We are really trying to advertise heavily for the class, so we are excited to see who shows up tomorrow.

Saturday we were finishing our planning and we got to the step of filling out the progress report, and we realized that though we had taught all of the active members that week, we didn't have anything to put on our progress record. So we thought of what we could do, because this was the 3rd week in a row that we had nothing to really report on. So we were going to stake conference in the evening and President Alba was going to be there, and so we asked if we could meet with him, really just to ask what we could do to help our area have a little more success. He said yes and we just kept thinking of what we could say. SO we decided that the best way to be prepared for it was to go out and work hard! So we did. We found a trailer park outside of town we hadn't been to before and we knocked every door and talked to 21 people! And did 1 house blessing and set an appointment for a house blessing for someone else the next week. So when we went to the meeting with Pres. Alba, after a few minutes of talking, he said that they thought about where to send us and they weren't having any success thinking of place for us to get sent to, when for us we just wanted a little counsel. It was kind of funny to think that I could have been moving to a new area right now, hence almost getting emergency transferred but I am glad I didn't and I know I am supposed to be here in Willits, even if we have no real investigators.

SO then we had a lovely Stake Conference weekend. I guess we are far enough apart that we can have it the same weekend as you! I kept thinking about how we were doing the same thing at the same time! It was fun to think about! Then we had a lovely Sunday afternoon, we worked hard, taught another member lesson to the Relief Society President and her husband and he made us a sign for English class and it was just a good day.

One of my new goals after meeting with the Albas  is to work hard and to not hold anything back. Sometimes that is really difficult, but I know I wont regret it. Also the lesson I had confirmed for me this week was about trials and disagreements. Sometimes we have challenges and it throws a wrench in our machine called life, sometimes we want to be so mad at the wrench, but it doesn't do any good, the wrench can't do anything about it now. The beauty is that when we take the wrench out there is a lot of damage, but we are able to fix it and make it even better than before! We clean our old parts, maybe get some new ones and have a better working machine after than what we could have imagined. We have to put work and time to it, but it is always worth it! So the moral of the story is, challenges help us learn and grow!

Also I wanted to explain a little of the presentation we are doing for the members. So we are giving them Spanish pass-along cards with our information on them and then we show them this video, to get them excited about doing the little bits of missionary work:
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-09-53-elder-bednar-in-england?lang=eng

I love this video, It inspires me every time! The Way to build the kingdom is one by one, so just go get one, That is all you have to do and you will have fulfilled the Lord's purpose! Have a wonderful week! Les Quiero!

Hermana Cornwall

P.S. by the way I didn't feel one thing from the earthquake beside having a safety check from President Alba, so thanks you all so much for your love and concern!