Every step is a step closer to your dream!

Dear friends and family,

OVERVIEW
This week was awesome! We did some really cool work in Home Gardens, that we hadn't really been to yet, and got to go on more splits. In a trio, there is really so much you can do-- so much multitasking can be accomplished-- especially on splits! I'm gonna be sad when Hermana Dulong goes home because this trio has been my most fun companionship yet! Our most solid investigator dropped us, but THANKFULLY two people we just started teaching this last week went to church so that was super cool. We're teaching this lady that works in a school for disabled students and she is so intelligent and curious and wants answers for everything and I love investigators like that cause I'm just the same. haha :P Also, just by the way, I love this zone. The sisters are super fun and the elders are nice, so it works out good. Also the zone leaders are really determined to get everything up and moving more so that's a nice motivation-- but also they are good at telling us when we've done enough/when we are working hard enough. Per example, the other day in our district meeting (the zone leaders are in our district), after the district leader talked about how our district needed to be the forerunners and set the example for our zone, because our areas are doing the best right now-- I jokingly said "Ok, that's it, no more lunch!" and the zone leader right away said "HEY NOW. Priorities straight. FOOD FIRST. " People have been complimenting us a lot recently on how well we work as a trio (cause sometimes trios don't work so well), and it feels super awesome. (haha trying not to get a big head though). Love my comps though, and my district, and my zone. Corona is hard but we help each other have fun through the difficulties. Per example, last night after walking and walking from house to house all afternoon, the sisters and I soaked our sore feet in a bubble bath. SO PERFECT. But you can be assured we are working hard, all day every day, and it feels really good and the results are coming-- slowly, but surely. Apparently there haven't been baptisms in this area in AGES and so hopefully we can get some at least by summer! :) (that is, assuming we're still here by then).

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT
There is this really beautiful video called "Because He Lives" that we are sharing for easter. We've only got a week to do it but hopefully it will really help us find people to teach and motivate those people to come to General Conference next weekend to hear more about our message about Jesus Christ! Share it! The video shows the end of Christ's life/his sacrifice; and then shows how that sacrifice applies to all of us. It's a beautiful description of how the Atonement applies to all of us at all times. For those that would like a better understanding of what the word Atonement means, here is a good definition:
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/atone-atonement?lang=eng (there is more to it but that is a good basic definition)

And here is the video! Enjoy!
http://www.mormon.org/easter

I love you all! Have a great week!! And maybe send me some letters for my birthday? haha :P As  I said to the kids I was cheering on for the 100 mile club service project we did
"You guys are awesome! You rock! You are super heroes! Every step is a step closer to your dream!"

With love,
Hermana Lindsey

"The future is not a gift, but an achievement"

Dear family and friends, 

Corona is HARD. It's gonna be an awesome growing experience, but after being here 2 weeks (and 1 normal one now in which I was working the whole week and not concussed)-- now I really know how spoiled I was in Moreno Valley. Things that make Corona hard: 

1) LOADS of members in our ward are inactive. Thus the ward is quite small, not many people want to come out to lessons with us, and a lot of our work is going to be reactivation. In a way though, it's gonna be a really awesome and special experience if we really succeed in reactivating a lot of these people! 

2) So now, I really have had doors slammed in my face. Many, actually. One day it took us 5 whole hours to get 1 single solitary lesson. But goodness knows, I wouldn't be a real legitimate missionary if I hadn't experienced that-- huh? haha :P

I guess that's my way of saying, for whatever reason-- people don't seem to want to listen here. I think part of it has to do with the fact that this is a more beautiful, higher income place. The humility just isn't there the same way it was in Moreno Valley! People don't understand what they could possibly get from God because their lives already rock! So many people tell us all the time when we promise them blessings that they don't need anymore...and in a way it's kind of true! They have so much!! BUT of course, they're spirits can always grow more-- and they could always be doing more for others and becoming better people! But most people can't see that when everything is really good. 

And with that-- the spiritual message for the day is-- COMFORT STUNTS GROWTH 

Or in other words, a reason to be grateful for the uncomfortable, the difficult and the ugly. I'm pretty sure it's not just a mormon or a religious concept that challenge leads to growth. Athletes, artists, and scholars are always finding higher levels that they can strive for so that they never plateu! And this is why we should be grateful when the Lord gives us trials. If we feel like our lives are always mountains-- then oh how God trusts us and loves us-- because he gave us those mountains to grow! It's not always easy to look at things that way; and in fact on some days it seems nearly impossible to be grateful for a new mountain to climb when we just reached the peak of the last one-- but if we try to keep things in an eternal perspective, and have the faith that God will help us to reach the very top of the very last mountain and to achieve exaltation (or eternal life and living with God and our families forever); then it is possible. 

One of the sister missionaries in my zone amazed me yesterday when she told me that her boyfriend died while she was on her mission. She wanted to marry him-- and she will never see him again in this life. But let me tell  you something about that sister! She is always finding something to laugh about and always making others laugh. You can't be sad around her for more than a few minutes! And she amazes me. Because she is in the period of grief. And she told me she does get sad and she cries but she tries to focus on lifting people up and as she does that God helps pull her through. I thought that was so beautiful. She is my new role model! Anyways, a couple days ago on the way to a service project, she shared some of her "inspirational music" (which is basically speeches put to like techno...haha they are awesome) and their was a quote in one of them that said "The future is not a gift, but an achievement!" I don't know who that's by, but I thought it was awesome. How important to remember in those times at which we must push through-- that the future is not our gift, but it is our achievement. And what the future becomes, is what we make it. So if we want a better future-- we gotta work towards it! And if we want to survive the next mountain better than the last one-- we better start working out! 

Hold fast to the word of God and God will pull you through. He will give you the energy to do what you need to do! And with that, I'll close with a scripture in 1st Nephi. In a vision that Nephi's father Lehi has, he compares the word of God to a "iron rod" that people hold onto real tight in order to get to "the tree of life" which represents the love of God. My favorite part of that vision, is this verse: 

And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.

May we all cling to the rod until we reach eternal life. 

And may we remember that the future is not a gift, but an achievement. 

Keep working hard! 

Love, 

Hermana Lindsey 

PS as a source 

Mountains to Climb, Henry B Eyring

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/mountains-to-climb?lang=eng

Concussed in Corona: The Work Must Go On!

Dear family and friends,

 This week was an exercise in turning 2 different obstacles into advantages and if I dare say so-- I think we succeeded! Let me give you a run down of how it happened:

Obstacle 1: Getting trippled in. Figured out on day 1 that it wasn't actually a new area, just an elders' area that had been turned into a sisters' area; but still. Nothing was organized and there were about 2 investigators. Let's just say we spent a LOT of time on the floor of the study space filing through papers.

Obstacle 2: Picture this. Hermana Lindsey is sitting on the floor with an ice pack on her head and her feet up on one of her suitcases. Her ride to corona leaves in about 15 minutes. Scene.

Nurse calls.

"Sister Lindsey? The medical advisor wants you to take off an entire week of work to make sure your brain completely heals." CUE TEARS. PURE TEARAGE. AN ENTIRE WEEK? In missionary life, a week is like an ETERNITY.

This needs a little back tracking. Hermana Lindsey thought she'd be real real helpful at a service project and decided to move all of the items out of a little tiny closet. Unfortunately in so doing, she happened to stand right up into the door frame of this closet. Two days later when her head still hurt so bad and it was so hard to remember things that she started crying after giving the restoration message at a baptism, her companion made her call the nurse. And thus...the above occurance.

Nevertheless, back to where we were. Basically, right before going to Corona; I got told I'd have to take the whole week off. Now; for the first day I had a TERRIBLE attitude about this. But then, on Tuesday, I remembered that book I had been reading right before I left for my mission-- "The Obstacle is the Way". And in that book, it tells you that you should look to make every obstacle an ADVANTAGE. And so I thought-- how can this situation be advantageous?

And here is what I came up with:

1. WE CAN GET TO KNOW THE MEMBERS REALLY WELL REALLY FAST and

2. WE CAN HAVE LOTS OF MEMBER PRESENTS (lessons in which a non full time missionary is there to teach and testify)

and so off I went to call loads of people so that we would have teamups for nearly every hour of the entire day after lunch. CUE: VERY VERY STRESSED FEELINGS but also A DESIRE TO CONQUER THE WORLD AND TURN MY OBSTACLES INTO ADVANTAGEOUS SITUATIONS.

I called literally 13 different people in our ward that first day before we got somebody to go with us. But when we did, I literally made noises of joy. They must have thought I was very weird. But, MAN WAS THAT SATISFYING! Anyways, and so it continued all week. And we didn't have the greatest/most successful week in the world but CONSIDERING OUR ADVANTAGES we did a pretty AMAZING job. And we went from 2 investigators to SEVEN. So there concussion and getting trippled in in the same week-- TAKE THAT!!!

Spiritual message:

Diligence is very important to our Heavenly Father. We can pray for a way to make something better, but until we act-- nothing happens. Heavenly Father works miracles-- but He does them THROUGH our hands. We have to work if we want miracles to happen. And sometimes that means we have to stretch  ourselves to the limit. Cause that's what creates miracles-- DILIGENCE.

I’m going to Corona!

Dear friends and family, 

 OVERVIEW/NEWS

I'm moving out of my greenie area! I'm going to Corona, where I am going to be in a trio. Hna Bjork, Hna Dulong and I are opening up a new area there which is a little CRAZY because it's one thing to open an area/to be doubled in (that is what they call it when two new people go into an area), and it's another thing to be in a trio. Haha but we are being TRIPLED INTO A NEW AREA. It's so crazy. But I know it's inspired, and I love both Hna Bjork and Hna Dulong. I'm especially excited to be back with Hna Bjork but also it will be cool to be with Hna Dulong cause she is on her very last transfer and has tons of experience-- but also she is just really sweet and really funny. We're going to have a blast I think! I am a little scared about opening up a new area, and I was SUPER sad about leaving Moreno Valley; but focusing on the good things and keeping my hopes up high-- we're going to have fun. There's no way we won't cause those girls are just so fun! Other than that; the week was kind of stressful and crazy but we reached the mission standard of excellence and we reached all of the goals we had set for the week (we always set really high goals) so that was AWESOME. It always feels good to reach standard even though you have to work super duper duper DUPER hard to do it. haha :P (actually, that is probably WHY it feels good haha :P) Last night, the Elders baptized this golden investigator named Angela. She had like read all the pamphlets and half the book of mormon by the time they found her! haha :P. Anyways, that was awesome. She is such a sweetheart! Other than that, we found a lot of new investigators and just in case I forgot to tell you guys; we had just started working with the uncle of one of the guys in our ward who had been KIDNAPPED AND SHOT IN THE HEAD IN MEXICO three years ago; and he's still alive even though the bullet is still in his head and he has a hard time reading and stuff. So yeah, I'll never forget working with him! haha :P 

REFLECTION ON MY ENTIRE EXPERIENCE IN MORENO VALLEY 

There is no way that I could explain to you guys how much I loved the people here. The ward (congregation) was AMAZING. The people just wanted nothing more than to serve the Lord (and eat loads of Mexican food) and they were all just so special. Then, as for my recent converts and investigators-- I know without a shadow of a doubt that God sent them to me. Missionaries (myself included) testify in lessons all the time that God sent them to that person. But I want to emphasize that God sent these people to ME. I mean, I know I helped them and everything; but the things that I learned from them-- and in helping them to overcome their struggles-- were some of the greatest lessons that I have ever learned in my entire life. All of my investigators had serious trials-- to name some I taught a homeless woman that is currently in a mental institution; the above mentioned man that got shot in the head; a woman with paranoia, a man that had just gotten out of prison and had a serious smoking problem, a man that was so terrified of commitment that he'd been living with a woman for over 10 years without getting married to her, a woman with breast cancer, a man so traumatized by his past that he couldn't move on, a half-atheist family and the list goes on... And I have loved them all with all of my heart. All of my heart. And you know how we are supposed to work with all our heart, might, mind and strength? Well, it has been hard. It has been very hard. But I can promise you that I did that here. I put it all on the table before I left; and these people got all of me that they could have had. 

But now, the people in Corona get to have all of me for at least the next 6 weeks. And I'm excited to learn to love them too! I have faith in the inspiration of the work, and therefore I know that God wants me to go there. I'll let you know how it is next week! 

All right, but WHAT KIND OF MISSIONARY WOULD I BE if I didn't leave you with a SPIRITUAL MESSAGE: 

Today's message is entitled: "IT'S OK TO ASK FOR HELP" 

The above mentioned man who is really afraid of commitment (BUT IS GOING TO PROPOSE TO HIS GIRLFRIEND THIS MONTH YES MISSION ACCOMPLISHED (almost)!! :) ) has this problem where he doesn't think he can ask God for help. And believe it or not, I definitely have also had that problem. Maybe, to some extent-- we all have. We think maybe it's selfish to ask God for the things that we need and want most. But, it's a commandment to pray-- and furthermore, it's a commandment to pray with a sincere heart. GOD WANTS to help us. And therefore not only is it OK to ask for help-- but he EXPECTS us to. And as we do, he will help us with everything that we need in our lives-- whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual. Also, as Dieter F. Uchtdorf once explained "God hears and answers the prayers of His children...but it is usually through another person that He meets our needs." Which means that sometimes, after asking for help from God-- we might have to ask for help from someone else as well. And that's ok. We're all here to help each other. It's a big part of our purpose on earth! And so if we don't ask people for help when we need it and God seems to be inspiring us too-- then we are only depriving someone else of an opportunity to serve if we do not ask them. So I guess to sum this all up, I'll leave you guys with this scripture: 

"Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." 

Matthew 7:6-7 

And, how on earth could I say goodbye without sharing with you our pictures from national fake moustache day. (Do not worry, these were not worn during proselyting hours) 

All the sisters in Moreno Valley 

and then this one, which I have become quite infamous for

TOP TEN COOLEST THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO ME AND HERMANA SPENCER THIS WEEK

Dear friends and family, 

Firstly because I haven't done this in awhile... 

TOP TEN COOLEST THINGS THAT HAPPENED TO ME AND HERMANA SPENCER THIS WEEK 

1. We taught a woman who very strongly believed she was a prophet in a home full of pentacostals. Let me give you a run down (translated into english) of what happened with her... 

Hna Lindsey: "Ustedes saben que es un profeta?" (Do you all know what a prophet is?) 

Profeta mujer: (with space in between each word for dramatic effect) "Yo soy un profeta." (I am a prophet.)

2. We started teaching a man that three years ago got shot in the head and THE BULLET IS STILL IN THERE. He's so cool. He just is gonna have trouble getting to church and stuff. Anyways, my life is so surreal that I am teaching him. 

3. The guy we're teaching that just got out of prison explained how he felt the Holy Ghost when he read the book of mormon. Seriously that 2 minutes was worth me going on a mission. He's not super excellent with words, but the way he described it was that it made his heart feel like and then he just used his hands to like show his heart getting huge/exploding. It was so cool. But what made it even cooler was the fact that he said the whole thing with his eyes glistening and this like half smile on his face. SOMETIMES THE INVESTIGATORS JUST LIKE MAKE ME WANT TO CRY BECAUSE THEIR CONVERSIONS ARE JUST THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME. I am the luckiest girl in the world to be teaching this man. After years of being in and out of prison and being married to a member and not wanting to listen, he has finally finally finally FINALLY come around. And I think he might just be the best thing that has ever happened to me. I'm gonna cry buckets at his baptism. 

4. Ok so another way investigators make me cry is when they are so rocking awesome and then they suddenly drop off the face of the earth. That happened to one of our investigators this week, but we felt we should stop by last night and HE WAS HOME AND HE HAD A FAMILY EMERGENCY WHICH IS WHY HE HAD BEEN GONE AND NOT ANSWERING CALLS OR ANYTHING AND I WAS SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY BECAUSE THAT MEANS HE'S NOT AVOIDING US LIKE THE PLAGUE BECAUSE HE DOESN'T WANT TO GET BAPTIZED. (cause that happens sometimes...) 

5. So the mom of the 9 year old boy we recently baptized (the one who broke her knee in like January, and is still recovering); just found out that her brother has cancer. When we visited with her this week, she talked about how she had shared her testimony with him about how Christ and his Atonement can help him overcome all things; and I was just so overjoyed because her testimony has grown SO MUCH through this trial she has had-- and I know that God prepared her so that she would be able to help her brother through this hard time... 

6. Ok so I tried to complete the Relief Society challenge to read the book of mormon in 60 days even though I'm on a mission and time is like not a thing that we have (although we have the 20 minutes at the beginning of our personal study to study scriptures for ourselves-- the rest is for our investigators and the lessons we are going to teach)-- and I just finished 4th nephi and even though I'm like a day over I only have like 80 something pages left so I'll def finish in like the next two days! :D Having a specific goal like that has given some extra energy into my life which is awesome... 

7. We celebrated national fake moustache day by taking pictures when we had district meeting. The pictures are pretty golden. I'll send them next week.. 

8. An investigator that had been out of town for the weekend CAME TO CHURCH even though he hadn't slept hardly at all and it was 9 AM. I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE ARE JUST SO COOL. 

9. We took out this really sweet couple named the Sotos to teach, and the person that we were trying to see WASN'T HOME. AWFUL because they lived like 30 min away and had driven all the way there just for that appt and they were dressed up and everything. WELL NEVER FEAR WE HAD AWESOME BACKUP PLANS and we visited some brand new investigators that had been talking the lessons online/over the phone from people in salt lake before we found them and so we had this really cool lesson that wasn't even planned...it was AWESOME. 

10. We met this lady named Angela who, as my companion put it, basically "fell out of the sky for the Elders" because she has already been to church several times, has read ALL the pamphlets for ALL the lessons we teach, is about halfway through the book of mormon and watched the restoration movie online by herself. She's like getting baptized next week or something. Sometimes the missionaries do alot, and sometimes the missionaries LITERALLY just put people in the water cause God already did all the work... 

So, yeah, that was our week. A lot of our week was spent being frustrated with people for disappearing and trying to find people by knocking on tons of doors; but I like to focus on the cool things that happen. So there's the top ten! 

Ok, now my spiritual message for the week is WE ARE SUPER DUPER DEPENDENT ON GOD. And that's basically the entire point of faith. We have this investigator that doesn't like to ask God for things in his prayers-- cause he feels like he would be bothering God to do so. Now as much as we need to not ask for silly things like cars or boyfriends or winning competitions-- when we are asking for good things in our prayers, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM WITH ASKING GOD FOR THINGS. And when I was planning the lesson in which we were going to explain that (because since he disappeared we weren't quite able to teach him that yet), I was realizing-- the whole ENTIRE concept of faith is that we are dependent on God. Everything we have, he gave us-- and everything we want to succeed in, we are going to need his help with. A lot of life, then, as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, is about humbling ourselves before God and realizing how much we need him. And the more we realize that-- and ACT LIKE IT-- the more he blesses us in our efforts, and the less we have to do everything alone. 

That born alone, die alone thing-- yeah, no. With or without God, life is a struggle. But, with God nothing is impossible (see luke 1:37), and so it's A WHOLE LOT BETTER if we've got him on our side. 

Stay strong, nourish your faith, and keep fighting with God on your side; 

WITH GREAT LOVE AND BIG HUGS, 

Hermana Lindsey 

We’re in the Olympics, champs

Dear family and friends, 

This week we had a multi-zone conference (which basically just means missionaries from 2-3 different areas all meet together to be trained by the mission president, the assistants to the president, the zone leaders and the sister training leaders); and at this multi-zone conference there was a space given in which those leaving their missions in the next three months would bear their testimony (it happens every time, they also give time for those that just came in-- I bore mine last time). I was most moved by the testimony of an Elder that had been serving in American Sign language, that said something like the following: 

"Often, people when they get up here say that their missions flew by. Flew is not the word I would use to describe my mission. The word I would use is 'full'" 

Since he said that, I've been thinking about what that really means-- for an experience to be full. I think it means that there aren't enough words to describe it. That you learn too much you can possibly explain all at once. And that their are so many people whose lives you weave in and out of that you couldn't possibly remember everyone. This week, has been, in that very word-- full. And I couldn't possibly tell you everything that has happened so instead, I will tell you what I have learned.

When we agreed to God's plan, when we lived with him before we came to this earth-- we knew it was going to be hard. We knew that it would by nature, quite often, unfair; and that the very purpose of our journey would be to struggle through the unfair things, remaining faithful to God throughout them, and enduring to the end. Sometimes I feel that missionaries are too quick to suggest that if we follow all the commandments, our lives will be easy. And that is a hollow promise, because it's simply not true. Job is proof that even if we are doing everything that our Heavenly Father asks of us; we can still lose everything we hold dear. 

I guess the way I like to describe life is that it is like the olympics. We work and we work and we work and we work preparing for the day that we have our trial. And the day that we do, we still have to push ourselves to succeed on through it. But-- where's the medal? Well, champs, the medal is eternal life. Exaltation. Living with God, his son Jesus Christ, and our families forever-- experiencing a fullness of joy. 

Now, why doesn't everyone endure to the end then-- if there is such a beautiful promise? Surprise, surprise, it's the same reason people give up on their dreams to win the gold medal at the olympics. At some point, they decide that the medal is not worth the work it takes to receive it; and thus they stop trying as hard to win the game. 

But here's what I know. I don't know what it's going to be like, when/if we succeed in enduring to the end and come into our Heavenly Father's presence. I don't know what it's going to be like for me and I don't know what it's going to be like for you-- but I do know that after all the fighting we will have done to get there, it IS going to be worth it. Because our Heavenly Father loves us, and He wouldn't have had us go through all these trials if it wasn't going to be for something wonderful. 

My investigators all have really complicated lives and really complicated problems; and what I've been learning as we've been dealing with all of their difficulties and trying to show them how much God loves them is that enduring to the end is really, really, REALLY hard. 

And it's hard specifically because sometimes life is so unfair. 

But it's Satan that wants us to get mad at God for that and quit trying. 

Because, in reality the PURPOSE of all these things, is so that we can get closer to God and someday win the medal of eternal exaltation. 

So to all of you-- whatever you're fighting and whatever you think is unfair-- God is there for you. He always has been, and He always will be. And if you get down on your knees and pour out your heart and soul He will help you get through every single trial and test you ever have. But don't let Satan fool you-- because He will keep on trying to-- your whole entire life. Hold fast to what you know and fight back and every little quip with the scriptures and with the Holy Ghost; because that is the ONLY way we can get through our trials in one piece-- and THAT is how we get CLOSER to God, rather than getting FARTHER AWAY. 

I love you all. If there is anything I can do for you, or anything you need, let me know. I miss serving all of you; even though I am super busy in the service of people here. 

Keep the commandments, take care of others-- and even though God won't take away the hard things; He will take care of YOU. 

Love always, 

Hermana Lindsey 

resources: 

Irony: The Crust on the Bread of Adversity 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/irony-the-crust-on-the-bread-of-adversity?lang=eng

Your Four Minutes 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/your-four-minutes?lang=eng

Hey man those are some cool shades!

Dear friends and family, 

OVERVIEW 

So this week was my first entire week "taking over the area" and at first it was pretty hard. I'd gotten to know where everybody was relatively well, but what had basically happened is that the work had been moving forward pretty quickly until about two weeks before I had to take it over and so now what we are mostly doing is finding. (people to teach) At first I found this frustrating because no matter how long we spent planning (and sometimes it was more than an hour) for the next day, it just seemed like everybody was either not home or they didn't want to hear from us. Everything started going up though after about Wednesday, because as we focused more on talking with everyone we came into contact with rather than just contacting our older potentials and formers that basically aren't going anywhere anytime soon-- we found more potentials, and I think God blessed us for making that decision/doing that work because we randomly started getting a bunch of referrals when we've been getting NONE. Get this-- my favorite moment of the week was that we got a referral from a lady named Sandra that literally has 10 pages of teaching records because she's been investigating the church for so long. She said "no tengo tiempo para bautizarme este ano" (I don't have time to get baptized this year) but we asked if there was anyone she knew that might want to know our message (which like, of course, we're expecting her to say no right?) and at first she said no but then after the prayer she said "You know what actually, I do have someone. My mom. She's in a wheelchair and she can't move so she's perfect. She can't run away from you guys!" I thought that was SO funny. haha :P Anyways, we visited her yesterday and she's awesome. She doesn't process things very well so if we want her to get baptized sooner rather than later we will probably have to see her a lot because we have to explain everything at least twice but she is AWESOME. Super funny, super sweet. Potentially my favorite investigator thus far (although I know I shouldn't pick favorites). As for my new companion- Hna Spencer is AWESOME. She's super driven and super focused, but also knows how to have fun. We have a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses so we can learn and grow together which is awesome. It's nice though that we're on the same page about how hard we want to work because we can just go at it like we're taking spiritual finals or something. It's AWESOME. 

GOLDEN MOMENTS 

So besides the one I already described above, here are some of my favorites 

1. The Mom of the boy that got baptized last week got her knee fractured/shattered (I think I may have mentioned that?) and this week she had surgery. We sent some of the elders over there to give her a blessing the day before and then the day of the surgery we dropped by in the evening to check on her and show her our love. We planned a little lesson too but she was way too drugged out to understand anything so we mostly just made small talk and gave her some big hugs. Once she fell back asleep, we were heading out to go see someone else but I felt like we should say bye to everyone else. As we did so, I found the girlfriend of Hna Martin's son in the kitchen and in I think one of the bravest moments I personally have had on my mission I just straight up asked her when we could come by and teach her more (cause I asked her how she liked the baptism and everything). Haha so I was super just like...myself awkward and dorky and way too excited to have an apt with her, but I made her laugh and we had a nice little encounter and then later this week we came back and taught her lesson 1 so that was awesome. Always act on promptings even if you don't know why you think you should do them! 

2. Ok so, in talking with everyone, my companion and I have decided to park far away from whoever we're trying and then we walk like 15 min to them and along the way pick up some new potential investigators. The first few times we did it it was totally ineffective because no one was outside! But this one time, we picked up like 4 potential investigators doing that and it was actually so fun because the new way we contact people is instead of just contacting them like salespeople and saying "Hi we're missionaries from..." We instead have to make some kind of clever conversation with them first, try to tie it into a gospel principle, then introduce ourselves/exchange information and try to set up an apt. It's really difficult and requires a lot more social skills than EITHER me or my companion have haha :P. But it was actually so fun because we started getting super creative. Examples-- Me: "Is that your plant? (signifying to the plant in their car"....; My companion (standing right next to the sign for Gamma St.): "Hey, um, we were just wondering where Gamma St. is because...oh wait hey, the sign is right here...but..."; My companion: "Do you restore cars as a hobby?.." (the transition here was very difficult. Ok, now but our favorite one, which resulted in absolutely nothing, which makes it even funnier was when there was this very tall kind of suave African American man walking towards us the other way on the street wearing a polo shirt and some sunglasses, because he was walking at a relatively fast pace and because I had like no time to think of something (he'd just come from around the corner and my companion had said "You've got this one!)....I said "Hey man those are some cool shades!" After which, he proceeded to smile/laugh, say thanks and WALK RIGHT PAST US LIKE WE DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING SPECIAL TO SHARE WITH HIM. hahaha but we laughed super duper hard. And then after that, my companion said... "You know, I think in some cases, it probably is ok to just ask someone how they're doing." But hey, now that guy will always remember the super white mormon missionary that made him laugh by telling him he had cool shades. Right? Right. 

3. On Sunday, two of the women in less active families that we visit regularly bore their testimonies in sacrament meeting. I like practically cried I was so happy! 

4. Ok so sometimes if you listen to the spirit timing just works out crazy good. I'd been putting off visiting this recent convert because last time we visited him he made me cry because he was basically saying that God was Big Brother invented by the government to make us obey rules and after sharing my testifying and sharing scriptures and personal experiences and everything for like an hour (him and I back and forthing), he said "I'm sorry, I've been taught to listen to older men" and after that I just had to get in the car and blow off steam for like the next 15 minutes because I was so upset. I mean REALLY???? But anyways, we had a bunch of other back ups planned for a certain time when one of our potentials wasn't home and I went.."You know what, O. lives here. We should go visit him." And when we drove up, he was literally just getting home from Las Vegas (suitcase and everything) and we were able to have a good lesson with him and my companion was not taking any funny business from him so that was awesome. 

5. So another little tender mercy. My absolute DREAM is to get in with Gloria's husband (meaning to be able to start teaching him). So after praying pretty much EVERY SINGLE DAY AT LEAST 3 TIMES that we would be able to get in with him, he randomly emerged when we were over there. We didn't get him to commit to a time to be taught but he was there and he shook our hands and he was fully conscious and so that was super awesome. He's had a lot of trouble and I just have this dream of helping him out. Also he's been obnoxiously impeding Gloria from going to church so we really want to put an end to that. We've determined the best thing to do is to make him breakfast (I've been learning to make a mad good chocolate chip pancake) and bring it over before church because his excuse is ALWAYS that he's hungry and he needs her to make him food (but he never tells her until right as she is leaving....UGH) So yeah, we'll be making some pancakes and bringing them over with whipped cream and everything and then if he does anything to stop her from going, he'll just know that it's wrong cause we will have been so nice. That's the goal anyways...Hna Pfiel (an STL)'s idea, not mine. Just to give credit where credit is due. 

6. We had a lesson with a super catholic former that isn't willing to really look into our religion at all, BUT she really loved our testimonies about how faith and the atonement help us to overcome our trials. It's funny how much I've been thanking God for all the crazy stuff that happened to me the past couple years because on my mission, my testimony of how God helps us overcome all things is probably the most useful tool I have besides the scriptures. 

7. So we haven't been able to get in with one of our investigators this week. He's been avoiding us ever since our word of wisdom lesson so we think he probably has a problem with it, which is totally fine because we love helping people overcome hard things!!! But if he NEVER OPENS THE DOOR, WE CAN'T HELP HIM! So that's a little frustrating. BUT the GOOD PART is that because we've been trying so much and he hasn't been home, we finally picked up his Mom as a new investigator so that was cool! 

8. There's this recent convert that is a little bit crazy who reads A TON A TON A TON and is sometimes reading things that lead him religiously in a completely different direction and after he went to Mexico for Christmas he hasn't been back to church and so after visiting him this week we were SUPER DUPER DUPER HAPPY to see him in church and even MORE awesome he gave us two new referrals which was awesome. We've had a really hard time getting referrals pretty much my whole time in CA so this week we've been on a roll (in comparison)! Tender mercies of the Lord! 

9. haha so this is mostly just funny. These formers we had been visiting a lot aparently moved, but we just found that out and the way we found it out was hilarious. So we went over to their house (PRAYING THAT SOMEONE WOULD ANSWER THE DOOR) and low and behold this 20 something year old lady opened the door and after talking to her for a minute or so she took out the sticky note (in spanish) that I'd written on and stuck on their door a few days before and said "People just don't get that he doesn't live here anymore!" and I shyfully took the note and explained that was us. Unfortunately she wasn't interested in our message, but it was just funny to think that I left a note in spanish for someone that didn't live there anymore and so there is no way she could have understood even what it said.... 

10. We taught the wife of a member that has been taught for a long time. She's also catholic. My like WINNING THE OLYMPICS dream is baptizing her...but she's really stubborn. But we brought over a member and so then, she let us in even though she was expecting visitors because believe it or not-- people have a harder time slamming the door on regular members of the church than us with the tags! haha....so it was awesome that we got in with her and had a good lesson and set up a return appointment. She is stubborn at the level of ridiculously stubborn and she hasn't even read the bible...but....we're having faith to try (out of like millions of other missionaries that have tried....) and see what happens! She's got to be ready SOMEDAY, right? 

 SPIRITUAL MESSAGE 

So my spiritual message today is gonna be kind of simple but it's about goals. In Preach My Gospel it talks about how setting goals is an act of our faith. I know that it's not the first week of January and I probably should have given this message then, but here it is anyways-- and it's never too late. My companion and I in our weekly planning made a goal to contact 4 referrals next week. At that point in time we had NO RECEIVED referrals and we'd received two in the entire 3 months that I had been training. I at first thought it was a RIDICULOUSLY UNREALISTIC goal, and so therefore I didn't really have the faith to make that goal. But as my companion and I talked it out, we determined it would be a good act of faith and that as we worked towards it and prayed for it, God would help us accomplish our goal-- and he HAS! We have gotten 3 referrals already (and only contacted one) and I'm sure that we will be able to get the 2 we need to meet our goal next week. There's this song on one of my companion's cool CD's that is entitled "Believe" and it's the kind of thing I probably would have DESPISED as a freshman in college, but I love it now. It says "Believe that traffic lights are sometimes green when you need to be, that sometimes wedding days are clear and sometimes rain comes right on time to wipe away your tears...." basically the gyst of the song is that even though it might be "stylish" to be  cynical, being optimistic is way more fun; and I really enjoy it. I think that's what faith is sometimes-- in terms of faith in ourselves and our work. We have to believe that we can reach our goals in order to work towards them as fully as we possibly can. My mission is my olympics and I am going to "WIN"---not in that I'm going to baptize everybody or that I'm going to reach "standard" every week but just in that I'm going to give every day my absolute best shot and go to sleep exhausted every night and I'm going to plant as many seeds of happiness and hope as I possibly can while here in CA-- and while doing so I am going to learn that working hard and having fun are not mutually exclusive things, and that God actually wants us to have fun. 

 Yeah, so it's awesome here. I'm loving it. I'm so happy. I really can't imagine what my life would have been like on the mission and while I've definitely had some hard times, things are looking UP! :) 

Love you all, 

Hna Lindsey 

Rocking in Riverside

Dear friends and family,

OVERVIEW

Ok so as of this very day, I am officially a fully trained missionary. This is my 3rd transfer in CA and my "Mom" (my trainer) is leaving me and I am getting a new companion. I get to "take over the area", and I am pretty excited-- because I think it is going to be SUPER FUN. We have some pretty awesome investigators to start out the transfer with and Hna Gates and I ended off my training with the baptism of Robert Ramos, the 9 year old grandson of one of our less active members and I'm just so excited. Everything ended so well and is starting off so beautifully that I really could ask for nothing more from the Lord. I've been noticing lately how many tender mercies God really has given me that I haven't been paying attention to. I mean, just think-- in my 3 months in CA-- we baptized FOUR PEOPLE. That's a lot. That's way more than I ever expected-- especially just for the first three months! I think the problem is sometimes my high expectations of myself ruin my ability to be thankful and truly enjoy the good things that come; and so I'm learning to be patient-- and what I've been realizing is that as I take the time to feel gratitude and express it to my Heavenly Father-- he gives me even MORE blessings. I mean really, I'm just really ridiculously lucky and I don't know why I forget that so often. Probably though, I should admit, a great reason that I am feeling so much better is because I finally saw a doctor and that man is currently one of my favorite humans in the world because within 15 minutes he diagnosed me, gave me a medication that has completely made my chest pain go away, and gave me a packet of foods to eat and foods not to eat in order to feel better all the time. Aren't we just so lucky to have the medical assistance that we have in this day and age? Yeah, I may be hot and cold about how much I like doctors but this week I LOVE THEM. I finally don't feel like death after every single dinner and that's just AWESOME. Oh yeah, so I had/have gastroesophogeal reflux disease (or just really bad/every day heartburn). My Dr. gave me something called pantoprazole for it and it is literally saving me so much. I finally feel like a fully functional missionary again and it's just the best feeling in the world. Aren't we just so lucky to have healthy bodies when we have them? YES YES YES WE ARE. I love having a healthy body when I have one more than anything else (and perhaps I've had to experience all the weird health things I have to appreciate it...). Which brings me to

SPIRITUAL MESSAGE NUMERO UNO: The Word of Wisdom

Ok so, fun fact-- the word of wisdom isn't just a big list of no-no's. Actually, as I discovered one day this morning in my personal study-- in the Doctrine and Covenants section 89 in which the Word of Wisdom is described, there are 5 verses about what we should not consume and EIGHT VERSES ABOUT WHAT WE SHOULD. Who woulda guessed, right? It's just crazy. It tells us how we should use fruits and vegetables, wholesome herbs, meat of all kinds (which by the way it says that we should eat meat sparingly not once but TWICE no wonder all that carne was totally killing me-- it also even says that "it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or of famine"-- and it also says that almost verbatim again-- do you think God wanted us to get the point that eating a lot of meat would be bad for us? PROBABLY...), and grains. I seriously could just keep studying and studying it. It's awesome. Guys, I guess my spiritual message is wherever you go for health needs-- always eventually end up at the Word of Wisdom, cause God gave us this law not ONLY so we wouldn't be addicted to alcohol or tobacco or caffeine or any of those crazy illegal drugs out there-- he ALSO gave it to us so that we would eat healthfully and grow up with healthy strong bodies too. That definitely was one of my major revelatory moments of the week so I thought I would share it. (haha :P) Oh and also, fun fact, at least for a while I have been dr. ordered to give up chocolate so guys-- my moment has come-- I'm going clean. I gave all my chocolate to the elders. It was a really hard moment but, it happened and....I'm moving on. hahah :P So if anything this unfortunate chest pain like death while being a missionary experience will hopefully result in me being healthier for the rest of my life. Hey-- don't look at me like that-- it's very possible! (haha :P)

SPIRITUAL MESSAGE NUMERO DOS: The Atonement=the center of the gospel

Ok so really gospel smart humans reading this are going to be like, "seriously, she JUST figured that out", but yeah, seriously, I just realized this week that the Atonement is actually the center of EVERYTHING that we do-- because without it, nothing would be possible. Without it, repentance wouldn't exist and thus salvation wouldn't be POSSIBLE. Without it, baptism would mean nothing, the Sacrament would mean nothing, and we would be left up to our own means to overcome everything in our lives and IT WOULD NOT WORK. The Plan of Salvation would mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING because NO ONE would be able to make it back to our Heavenly Father. I don't know why but that just really hit me this week. I'd been thinking a lot about repentance-- about how we just have to keep doing it all the time because we're so imperfect and I was thinking about how importance repentance is to our salvation and then it just hit me smack dab in the middle of my brain that THE ATONEMENT IS THE ABSOLUTE CENTER OF THE GOSPEL AND THE ABSOLUTE ONLY REASON WE CAN RETURN TO LIVE WITH GOD AND THE ABSOLUTE ONLY REASON WE CAN GET OVER OUR SINS AND TRIALS IN THIS LIFE SO THAT WE CAN BE HAPPY WHILE WE ARE ON EARTH TOO. It was like, you know that part of a movie where someone's been coming to a realization for awhile and then it comes to them all at once in this huge wave of memories and thoughts and patterns and waves like KABOOM! Yeah, that was this moment for me. And after I made this realization, I was just filled with this overwhelming sense of gratitude for my Savior Jesus Christ and how much He loves all of us and even more so-- I was just blown away by how epic of an act of love the Atonement really was. I mean, it's kind of incomprehensible to really understand how it works! I think the more we understand about the Atonement, the more we understand that it is completely beyond our human brains to understand/process. Anyways, the same day I suddenly made this realization (much thanks to a talk that the STL I had went on exchanges with sent me-- GOD BLESS THE STLS THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL WONDERFUL HUMANS SENT AS ANGELS TO SAVE NEWBIES FROM FEELING LIKE FAILURES), we were driving to an apt with Robert/la familia Martin because it was a few days before their baptism and they were helping them fill out paperwork and write their talks, and as we were driving I just looked around and everybody that was walking on the sidewalks and sitting outside their garages and I thought-- Christ paid for all of their sins. And theirs. And theirs. AND theirs. AND THEIRS TOO. And even as I write it now I feel almost like crying because the crazy incredible thing I realized that day is that Christ paid for all of our sins and suffered for all of our trials-- EVERY SINGLE HUMAN IN THE ENTIRE WORLD THAT LIVES NOW AND EVER DID LIVE-- whether they decide to use it or not. And an important realization I made in that is that, that very fact is the REASON we need to talk to everyone. Because Christ ALREADY atoned for them, and so if we don't give them that chance to accept what he's already done-- well THEN we're doing something wrong. We don't have to have the perfect speech figured out, we don't have to be the most socially awesome human that ever graced the planet--all we have to do is just TRY. Because they deserve that much-- and more so, the Savior deserves that much from us. Because He gave us all this beautiful gift-- but unless we talk to the people he puts in our path, they may never know that the price has already been paid and that they-- they, can FINALLY move on. Watching people repent, forgive, overcome and get baptized is probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life; and going on a mission-- I know I am blessing the lives of others, but the life I am ultimately blessing the most is my own. Because I never would have understood this much about the Atonement if I hadn't had the privilege of seeing so many people use it in their lives and I'm just so grateful. I use the Atonement every day in my own life. Missionary work would be impossible without it! But the really amazing thing, is that the Atonement is for EVERYONE. And OH WHAT HOPE THAT BRINGS-- OH WHAT HOPE THAT DOES BRING! To quote the STL sitting behind me reporting her numbers-- "God is so good." Good is so, SO good.

And that's a wrap for the week guys. As for our investigators, we've got one that needs to get married and give up alcohol but LOVES the Gospel and LOVES coming to church, we've got one that has finally decided to forgive everyone that's hurt him, that wants to use the priesthood to bless other people's lives (thanks to a lesson in which I TESTIFIED ABOUT HOW THE PRIESTHOOD IS A VERY REAL LEGITIMATE THING THAT HAS BLESSED MY LIFE TANTO TANTO TANTO-- WHAT'S UP!) and is ON DATE TO GET BAPTIZED FEB 15th, and we've got one with a lot of baggage that keeps everything inside that I just can't wait to crack because he's just so awesome and last but not least-- we've got the crazy lady in the ghetto who knows that everything is true but just doesn't want to do anything. So basically, our work is rocking and never boring and always so much fun.

Next week on... "The Crazy Twisty Windey Missionary Life of Hermana Lindsey" look forward to hearing about: Hermana Spencer, her awesome new companion; all the people above, and WHY SHE JUST REALLY WANTS IT TO SNOW SUPER BAD AND IS CRAZY JEALOUS OF YOUR BLIZZARDS

Have an awesome week all you awesome people.

You're all just so cool.

I love you so SO much

Hna Lindsey

rocking in Riverside, CA

I'm gonna grow out my hair and learn to like chili

Dear family and friends, 

This one is going to be more like an essay. I guess my regular form of emailing doesn't always work for what I artistically/emotively feel I would like to express, and thus CAMBIARE DE VEZ EN CUANDO (it will change from time to time). When I opened my call and learned that I was going to CA, my first reaction was-- I am going to be SO WEIRD. I think it's pretty safe to call Southern California the opposite of New York, and though I'm not exactly a New Yorker, I am definitely an east-coaster, and I definitely stick out. I guess the really important thing I've realized this week is that, God sent me here to change. He didn't just send me here to help other people change their lives, God sent me out here so I could change ME. I may have mentioned that before in the MTC, but this was a very different kind of realization. In the MTC, I realized how much more Christlike I needed to be; and that's a lot of what the first few weeks of training were. But the last few weeks of training have been more about me learning to accept that 1) I'm human, and I am not perfect and that 2) one of the reasons God sent me to California is so that I could learn to have FUN. What? Rachael Lindsey went on a mission to learn to have FUN? Who woulda guessed! This past week we had interviews with our mission president and in mine, he said (and I quote) "Sister Mullen and I want you to ENJOY your mission. We want you to have FUN. Missionary work should be FUN." I literally was so blown away by that. Here I was, driving away at the plough thinking that I needed to be doing more, and my mission president tells me I need to be having fun. Now of course, it's not that he doesn't want us to work hard-- he just wants us to have fun while we are doing it. And in the past few days I've been thinking about meaningful ways I can do that. I've even made a few jokes! (Who knew I could even do that?) And yesterday, I made an important decision, that I guess I am putting in this email so that I will be accountable not only to myself, my companion, and my mother-- but also to the greater circle of my world. I AM GOING TO GROW OUT MY HAIR. Yesterday, we were in a lesson with a recent convert couple who have a relative that is dying from cancer. As the father who is the brother of this woman showed me a video of her in the hospital...I made this slightly stressful realization that I never got over my experience with cancer. Everything that happened in 2012. I never got over it. I thought I had after my trip around the world, but I hadn't-- not really. All of that was just preparation for this. Sometimes I wonder why God would have let me ravel myself up only in order to be unraveled again after the end of two years-- but maybe that is the only way I would have been able to understand that, as a sign in the mall said today-- "FUN MATTERS." In 2 Nephi 2:25 it says, 

"Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy." 

If the very purpose of our existence is joy-- then I must be doing something wrong if I am fighting against it-- no? What does my hair have to do with all this? Well, as my lovely friend Laura Wanamaker so cleverly figured out, I was cutting my hair because I was sad. And so, perhaps, if I want to be truly happy, I need to let it grow out. And, finally, I need to, (now quoting the infamous "Frozen") "LET IT GO!" 

They're having us do zone activities once a week, and today we went bowling. Last week we went hiking. Who knows what we'll do next week! These activities are kind of an enforced way in which I HAVE to be doing something fun for 3-4 hours, so if I don't have fun at it-- that's my agency-- but if I'm gonna be there anyways, then I might as well have fun!! 

And Hna Gates and I are coming up with even more ways to enjoy the missionary journey. Interpretive dancing in the car is usually involved. Oh yeah and by the way-- a guy selling funions asked us to marry him the other day. Apparently even being on a mission can't save you from proposals! haha...but you know what. WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITHOUT FUNNY MOMENTS LIKE THAT? You'd go crazy. That's what. Missions are so hard that you just have to have fun. Cause if you don't you really do go crazy! And with that... some updates 

1. We're still teaching the part member family with the atheists and the boyfriend who will probably get baptized next month. Teaching them is literally one of the craziest experiences I've ever had in my life but it is AWESOME 

2. The 9 year old boy we've been teaching (his mom is a member) is getting baptized next week and we've basically reactivated their whole family which is AWESOME. I CANNOT WAIT 

3. We've found 2 new solid investigators. This is a MIRACLE because we have been really struggling with finding the past few weeks of this transfer. 

4. We got a referral from a couple of atheists on the street. Just goes to prove that you shouldn't ever forget to ask "Is there anyone you know who might benefit from this message?"-- cause even if they don't think they need it, they might know someone else-- who probably does. I thought that was AWESOME. Plus it was the first time I actually said to random strangers on the street "We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (because Hna Gates usually says that part and then I explain a concept or something) so that was cool 

5. We have transfers coming up so next week I could be in a totally different area, though probably what will happen is that Hna Gates will go somewhere else and I will stay. But WE WILL SEE I WILL KEEP YOU POSTED!!! 

oh and PS this week I ate a jalapeno pepper because I was like "Well, might as well take this having fun thing seriously" hahahahah man I just realized how paradoxical that sounds. 

Anyways, I'm studying the art of fun for now. Learning from all these hispanics, and then of course from the Elders. Considering that usually when I put my mind to learning something, I learn how to do it-- I will probably legitimately know how to have fun by the time I get home. 

haha anyways, I hope you all are doing really great. I miss you guys more than I'd like to tell you. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES 

LOVE AND BIG HUGS 

Hermana Lindsey 

Hope

Dear family and friends, 

I hope that the new year has brought you hope. Something I have realized about hope recently-- and honestly, faith too, because hope is very related to faith-- is that it constantly needs to be renewed. There will always be people and things to break our hearts. There will always be the failures that were practically unpreventable. There will always be the days that feel like really bad dreams. But I guess one of the tests of life, is that AFTER that happens-- AFTER we get our hearts broken and our bodies beat up and we've lost the fight-- we have to STILL BELIEVE we can win the next one. I guess a lot of missionary work is about that-- it's about constantly rekindling your faith and your hope after getting your heart broken over and over again by people that just aren't ready yet, and/or by people that are just far too satisfied making the wrong choices. The world is a hard place to live in these days-- wars and conspiracies and shootings and bombings on the large scale; then abuse and discrimination on the 2nd tier; and then on the lower scale level of problems there will always be unkindness, unfairness, lack of love. Faith-- faith is believing that in spite of all of those things; there is a world more beautiful than the one that we have waiting for us-- if we WORK FOR IT. Faith is believing that God will prevail in the end. That the injustice and cruelty of the world that we live in will ultimately be what falls-- and not the other way around. Faith is believing that WE CAN make a difference in all of that. But also, at the end of the day-- we have to have patience. Because as Mother Theresa once said; 

"We can not do great things. We can only do small things with great love." 

In terms of what's actually happening here, we're getting a little 9 year old boy for baptism and teaching him is one of the coolest experiences. I kind of plan on teaching all my kids all the missionary lessons before baptism now too, because then I think they will understand so much more before they make that crucial lifetime commitment! Other than that, we are doing a lot of finding. We have a couple of families that I love very deeply that we are working with that we hope will progress, but it is likely we will have to drop them. I think in those moments on what the stake president said in my setting apart-- that I would continue pursuing people and not give up on them. It's hard though because missionaries are very geared towards dropping people when they are not progressing and finding the "elect" people; which in certain ways makes sense. But I know part of the reason God sent me here is because I would fight for those people that need a little bit more. We're working with quite a few people suffering from mental health issues, and as would make sense, that makes it very hard for them to keep commitments. But hopefully I can get them to fight for their lives AND FOR THE GOSPEL so that we can keep bringing them more happiness and light in their lives. But then again-- when someone you love bangs the door in your face? You still have to leave them.... at least when you are a missionary. 

Scripture of the week: "In your patience possess ye your souls" Luke 21:19 

I love you all so much, more than you could ever know. Take care of yourselves, and stay strong to the faith, even when the world gives you so many reasons to lose hope. 

xoxo 

Hermana Lindsey 

Boots

Dear family and friends, 

OVERVIEW/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT 

This week was a really successful week, even though it was also a really hard week. I'm really thankful for what an exceptional example my trainer sets for me because even though she has dealt with a lot of the same exact problems that I'm having; she has gotten through them and only has 3.5 months left in her mission. She is such an inspiration for me because she helps me to know that I can do it if I am patient with myself, find joy in the work, and realize that perfection is something we have an entire lifetime to attain. Last night, we did our weekly planning because we had missed it on Thursday due to THE FULLEST DAY EVER (meaning we ate both lunch and dinner in the car and had appointments from 1 until 9), and when we did companion inventory we just laughed and laughed and laughed and it was like the best thing in the world; because her and I both have this problem where we'll get too serious and too hard on ourselves (though me more than her most of the time, because as perhaps can be expected, missionary work is really bringing out the perfectionist inside of me) and just as one of the grandpa's in the ward reminded us "laughter IS the best medicine", and sometimes we have to find a way to laugh-- even about the hard things. ex. Hna Lindsey joke sample no. 1 "You know you have a problem when the butterflies in your stomach turn into GIANT BATS." My companion laughed so hard at that. In fact, she thought it was so funny, that she laughed again this morning about it for like 5 minutes. haha. Oh man. ANYWAYS. It's funny because her and I have made standard several weeks, and we've had three baptisms, and somehow we're still stressed out and unhappy with ourselves a lot of the time (again me more than her obviously because I'm the greenie and haven't gotten used to having to deal with the perfectionism inducing stress of the mission...)....last night we were mostly just laughing about HOW RIDICULOUS THAT IS and how much we just need to "CHILL" and have a good time. I mean obviously we still need to be super diligent, but we don't need to-- and in fact CANNOT let that good quality turn into a bad one that has the potential power to ruin peoples' lives. Because perfectionism, though on the surface may appear to be a good thing, often leads to bad things like constant feelings of guilt and constant thoughts of self-deprecation. And GOLDEN LIGHTBULB MOMENT NOW LISTEN UP, I have realized (once again, but more profoundly) that those thoughts do not come from God; they come from Satan. The devil is the one that wants us to feel like we are worthless and that we never get anywhere and that we can never change. The devil is the one that leads us to feel overwhelmed and to focus on the wrong things. The devil is the one that leads us to live in "the downward spiral" (as Ben Zander calls it). And most importantly what I have realized is that, if we live like that-- always mad at ourselves, always feeling guilty for silly things like forgetting to write down someone's phone number or putting it in the wrong place, and never EVER EVER celebrating our successes or acknowledging that we have done ANYTHING GOOD for the Lord on our missions/in our lives; if we live like that-- we are not having faith in the Savior's atonement. THE WHOLE POINT OF THE ATONEMENT is that we don't have to be perfect RIGHT NOW TODAY. THE WHOLE POINT is that we can use it whenever we want, all day long, to get better and to become more like our Heavenly Father. And yes, feeling bad about something we do wrong is part of the repentance process-- but it DOES NOT NEED TO LAST A SUPER LONG TIME, and in fact-- IT SHOULDN'T. In Jorg Kleingbat's AWESOME talk in general conference that I cited last week, he talks about the importance of repenting quickly/efficiently so that we do not have to feel great pain. Something I've realized too is that repenting quickly means forgiving ourselves quickly because forgiving ourselves is a VERY IMPORTANT PART of the repentance process!!! I've been learning a lot about that, about forgiveness of self; because just as you can't work very well if you are constantly mad at others, it is perhaps even harder if you are always mad at yourself! Anyways, the chest pain seems to be getting a LITTLE better, and I have been able to eat some normal meals so that is cool. I have been talking to the nurse and making plans to potential see both physical doctors and some kind of counselor so hopefully I can get to doing both of those things so that I can heal more quickly, though I have realized that a big part of this will be waiting/having the patience to be healed in the Lord's time and in the Lord's way. I have to be patient with the fact that life DOES have trials and challenges, and I have been learning A LOT about that... Oh and also, I got a priesthood blessing for this yesterday and I put off asking for one because I HATE feeling like I am inconveniencing other humans in order to deal with a problem that I have, and I generally don't like to ask for anything; but my companion is a big believer in using priesthood blessings for our benefit and so she helped me to get over being freaked out (and frankly, prideful/overly self independent) about it and we called the spanish elders and got one done yesterday in between our two dinners (theirs and ours...). I think I did it in the least inconvenient way possible, and besides I was really super duper grateful because in the blessing I was told a lot of things I really needed to hear, mostly about God being happy with me and how my service is incredibly worthwhile. So putting my two cents in, priesthood blessings are really a wonderful gift we have and ESPECIALLY as girls, I think it is important for us to ask for priesthood blessings when we really need help because it will help us to really recognize that the priesthood IS for EVERYONE, and not just for the people that hold the keys. Getting that blessing definitely helped me with my testimony of the priesthood, especially because there is absolutely NO WAY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH that the Elder who gave me the blessing could have known that I needed to hear all those things, but God did, and so He made sure that that Elder told me what I needed to hear, even though he had no information to work with himself... 

TEN REALLY GREAT THINGS THAT HAPPENED 

1. We got an atheist to admit that she is CURIOUS to know if there is a God or not 

2. We got into a less actives house that we have been trying for MY ENTIRE TIME IN CA THUS FAR AND BEFORE THAT, and in so doing took on two new investigators, one of which is the girl above... we did this by baking cookies for them (fun tip, if all else fails, BRING PEOPLE FOOD!) 

3. We picked up a new investigator who is an INCREDIBLY ENTHUSIASTIC man with a huge parrot, and then we got to hang out with his parrot a little tiny bit at the end of the lesson. Believe me, I will never forget telling the story of Joseph Smith's first vision and suddenly being interrupted by a very large parrot suddenly screaming for food... (also fun fact, don't know if other missionaries experience this but EVERY SINGLE TIME I TELL THE JOSEPH SMITH STORY I GET INTERRUPTED, and I feel like it's a small sign of opposition in the work and I just find that interesting...obviously it's important if weird things like parrots are always getting in the way-- cause goodness knows stuff gets in the way of the important things 

4. we ALSO picked up the son of a potential we've been trying a lot...HE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY! :D We went over to his house to check and see if he was going (for church at 9 in the morning) and he was already all ready and all dressed up and we had only had ONE real lesson with him...HOW COOL IS THAT??? 

5. we've been finding a lot....so, we also picked up the daughter of the man with the parrot. She's going to be a little bit complicated to teach logistically because she goes back and forth between two houses, but she is awesome and really, really, REALLY ready for the message... 

6. Oh also the man who is the boyfriend of one of the less actives came to church as well, with his eldest daughter. So that was awesome! :) He dressed up too, which was great because then everyone we had at church was well-dressed/well-prepared, which rarely ever happens.... (no matter how much you might talk about it...) 

7. one of our recent converts, Elizabeth, BOUGHT US BOOTS, which is SUCH A HUGE BLESSING because it's been getting super cold...besides they are ROCKING BOOTS and we love them. Now we get to be twins too like, everyday haha :P Also we talked to them about doing F.H.E and they are going to do it on Saturday every week and they've invited us to share a little message at their first one this week so that makes me SUPER happy. They're becoming such strong members!! 

8. haha ok, so with our other recent convert, she invited us over for lunch this week so we went and she made us AMAZING tamales (that by some miracle, I was able to actually eat) (by the way, I LOVE tamales, as an unexpected fun fact about Hna Lindsey, they are actually SO YUMMY!!!), and she was all super concerned about these conspiracy theories. Because my companion is awesome, we brought it right to the holy ghost and related it to her recent confirmation and how she can be safe because the holy ghost warns against danger, and how God will also bring her comfort through the Holy Ghost. It is amazing just how much everything is ultimately related to/solved by some aspect of the gospel... 

9. THIS WEEK MY COMPANION TAUGHT ME TO PLAY SOCCER AND I PLAYED SOCCER WITH HER AND THE ELDERS. WHAT. 

10. we deep cleaned our apartment on the first day of the year during our study time because apparently they do that every year. I might make it a personal tradition when I get home. It felt SO GOOD!!! And also, it was nice to take out my perfectionism on physical things. (I mean I cleaned out the door runners and the refrigerator so, we kinda went crazy...it was AWESOME haha :P 

Conference talks of the week (that hopefully KIND OF go with my spiritual message), both from Dieter F. Uchtdorf: 

Grateful in Any Circumstance https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/grateful-in-any-circumstances?lang=eng

Continue in Patience https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/04/continue-in-patience?lang=eng

and then of course, I'll re-attach that gem from Jorg Kleingbat: 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/approaching-the-throne-of-god-with-confidence?lang=eng

All right guys, have an amazing week and remember you are all children of God and that God loves you so so much and that you don't need to worry a lot or think you're not super great. 

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH 

HUGS 

Hna Lindsey 

God is close to us

Dear family and friends, 

This email is going to be a little bit different than usual because I have learned three very important lessons this week, and I want to spend quite a bit of my time/space focused on explaining them. As I was going to sleep last night, I felt strongly that I needed to share these lessons, and not simply write a more casual/simple email. This is in truth the conglomeration of learning from at least the past two (if not three or four or more) weeks, but the clarity of these answers to my prayers and questions really only came to fruition this week, so I am excited to share! :) But before I do that, I'm going to have to tell you all something-- not to worry you, but to make sure you don't make wrong assumptions about where all this is coming from. About a week before Christmas (or two Thursdays ago) I started having consistent pain along my ribcage and collar bone again. For those that went to Foulger/NYU with me, they will know that this is not new and has happened before. For awhile it was actually very difficult, and it hurt a lot more after eating the big mexican meals I have to eat pretty much every day. I talked with the nurse and based on the fact that I played the violin for the first time in several months right before the pain recurred; we are just having me take motrin regularly for a little while to see if it passes. I have been able to work just as hard as usual and besides the motrin I just eat liquid/soft foods to prevent that same kind of pain that was happening via the big meals, and then I ice myself after we're home and have finished planning at night. I have also had trouble with stomach pain due to stress, but I've been able to keep it under control with this diet, and thanks to the mexican meals I have to eat anyways, I am definitely not going to lose weight. In other words, I'm not dying, nothing drastic is happening, this is not new, I do NOT want anyone to freak out, but this is where the first two of three big lessons are coming from and I just wanted to make that clear. 

Note: All of these lessons have General Conference talks, ensign articles or BYU CES talks that go with them. They will all be attached at the bottom of each and I highly suggest you each read at least one of the talks because they are BEAUTIFUL! 

Lesson no. 1: God is close to us. 

I had this problem for a little while in my mission where I felt like I was asking God a lot of questions and I wasn't getting a lot of answers. I also felt like above all the stress and physical reactions to stress, it was sometimes hard to feel the spirit. For awhile, in all honesty, I felt frustrated because I felt like God was leaving me alone in a time that I really needed Him, and it didn't make any sense because I was trying my best to be a great missionary. This week, as Christmas approached, I humbled myself and thought of it less as "Why is God leaving me alone?" and more as "What am I doing wrong that God cannot be with me the way He used to be?"; and the answer came as my companion and I were getting ready for the Christmas Eve party and she turned on her collection of General Conference talks. I have no doubt that it was absolutely no coincidence, but rather a tender mercy from God, that the talk which came on was Henry B. Eyring's beautiful talk: "Where Is the Pavilion?" Rather than explaining what hit me in my own words, I will now quote his: "Many of us, in moments of personal anguish, feel that God is far from us. The pavilion that seems to intercept divine aid does not cover God but occasionally covers us. God is never hidden, yet sometimes we are, covered by a pavilion of motivations that draw us away from God and make Him seem distant and inaccessible. Our own desires, rather than a feeling of “Thy will be done,”2 create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God. God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time." And that is when it hit me-- God couldn't talk to me, because I was not willing to listen. Early on in my mission I started to realize that God's plan for me and my future-- not in my mission, but also after-- were VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY different than my plans in certain ways. And I really quickly started to reject that plan and fight against it. Not in any kind of rebellion against mission rules or anything terrible like that but in my MIND. In my MIND I kept saying NO, THAT'S NOT FAIR, I WANT TIME FOR ME. I'M GIVING YOU THIS YEAR AND A HALF AND THEN AFTER THAT I WANT TIME FOR ME. And in that moment, when I heard Elder Eyring say that, I knew what was wrong. For people that know me really well, I have this problem with chivalry. I didn't used to, but after about a year and a half in NYC; I really just stopped enjoying when men would open doors or pay for things because there was always this voice in my head saying I DON'T NEED YOU, I CAN DO THIS MYSELF; and what I have realized is that in a weird way-- I was kind of doing that with God. God was trying to show me how I could be happy and grow and stretch and become so much cooler than I was before and I just kept saying NOPE I DON'T NEED TO DO THAT I CAN JUST STAY THE WAY I AM I'M COOL; I CAN DO THIS MYSELF. And so the barrier I for years have put between me and men that want to help me, was put between me and God and let me tell you to have a barrier between you and God as a missionary is NOT A GOOD THING. In Elder Eyring's talk, he describes how one of his daughters really wanted something and kept praying and praying for that one thing, feeling distanced from God as she did; and then when she said a prayer giving up her will to God and asking what HE wanted her to do, he says that "The prayer removed the pavilion and opened the windows of heaven (for her)." I felt really inspired after that, and said a prayer of my own, and every day when I pray now, I pray trying to understand God's will rather than trying to shove my own. I'm learning humility on my mission. I'm learning that even though I don't always understand, God's ways ARE higher than my ways, and that when I submit to His will, rather than constantly trying to get Him to understand how my will is SO MUCH MORE RIGHT-- THAT is when God can be close to me, and THAT is when the miracles happen. 

Where is the Pavilion? https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/where-is-the-pavilion?lang=eng

Lesson no. 2: Most of the time, pain is not a punishment. Pain, most of the time, is simply a TEST. 

Perhaps it makes sense based on my conundrum described above that for awhile I felt like my random pains and aches (that I have dealt with before) were MY FAULT, like if I could just HAVE MORE FAITH, they would go away because I would be stressed less. For a little while I really did feel like I was being punished for my lack of faith and that the day that I figured it all out I WOULD BE HEALED. What I have come to realize in the past week or so, thanks to two different BRILLIANT talks, my AMAZING trainer, and my scripture study is that pain is a part of life. It is, in fact, an ESSENTIAL part of life. And more than that, we KNEW we were going to experience pain in this life. We knew that we were coming here to be tried and tested, and frankly I think that means we knew it was going to be hard. Most of the time when we go into a test, we know it is not going to be easy! I guess the thing is sometimes I forget that life is a test, and I get confused when I continuously have the same sorts of problems. Something that I really liked from Jorg Kleinigbat's talk "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence" was when he said this: "acknowledge and face your weaknesses, but don’t be immobilized by them, because some of them will be your companions until you depart this earth life." I don't want to say I'm going to have problems with stress and my physical body until the day I leave this life, but something that occured to me when I read that is that I might. I'm going to work hard to overcome those personal weaknesses but I am not going to let them make me feel guilty or as he described it "immobilized" because I know that that will not help and that as God helps me to get through these things, I will get closer to Him and come to understand better His will and His plan for me, and will develop "The Character of Christ" and THAT is the real point. The lesson I have been learning best from my trainer is that it is possible to focus on others no matter how we feel. She is one of the most selfless people I have ever met and even though she has her own trials (that I try my best to help her through), she is always so focused on other people, and especially I have been touched by how many small and simple things she has done for me. There is not one single day that has gone by that she has not exhibited "the character of christ" to me, by being selfless-- even when she herself is suffering. If I can accomplish one thing on my mission, it will be to become as wonderful as Hna Gates! The fact of the matter is that suffering, sometimes, whatever level of suffering we are experiencing-- is a refiner's fire. One of my favorite scriptures that I have started sharing with almost all of our investigator's is this one: 

"For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." 1 Nephi 20:10 (see also Isaiah 48) 

When I explain this scripture to people, I tell them that when we experience trials in life it is because God TRUSTS us with those trials. That is why it says here that we are "CHOSEN". That is another thing, I always knew what I had experienced BEFORE my mission with health problems and emotional problems would help me to know how to succor other people in their infirmities. What I didn't realize is that I would have the opportunity to learn even MORE how to succor others while ON my mission... Before I left for my mission I read this book called "The Obstacle is the Way" and what I have been realizing is how true that statement really is. Whether we like it or not, the obstacles will be there and if we see them as OPPORTUNITIES rather than obstacles, we will not in fact be turning them upside down-- we will be seeing them for what they really ARE. So if you don't get anything out of this whole long schpiel that is probably not organized well at all, please I hope that you get that OBSTACLES are OPPORTUNITIES. We experience pain so that we can grow to be more like Jesus Christ and know how to succor others better, and PAIN IS NOT INHERENTLY A PUNISHMENT. (obviously there is pain that occurs when we sin, but that is not the pain that I am talking about) 

The Atonement covers all pain https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/the-atonement-covers-all-pain?lang=eng

The Character of Christ http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/Transcripts/ReligionSymposium/2003_01_25_Bednar.htm

Lesson no. 3: In God's plan, women are just as important as men. 

Ok so this lesson might seem unrelated to the others, and perhaps it is, but it's nevertheless one of the big three and so I've got to share it. One thing that was circling the news for a while before I left home was about how certain women wanted the priesthood. I did not really empathize with them at that point in my life, but on my mission as I have shared all the 5 lessons in preach my gospel, studied them daily, and then dealt with Elders on a regular basis, I have had my own questions about God's plan in terms of gender roles. In all honesty, it has been the hardest thing I have had to deal with my mission, and perhaps because I was NOT AT ALL PREPARED to emotionally deal with that. But I found this really amazing talk this week, and while it did not answer all of my questions or give me all the solutions, it helped me to know that women truly are just as important to God as men are; and that the priesthood isn't meant to make them higher than us in any way. Of course, as this article/talk describes, there will be men that misunderstand this God-given power as a superiority mechanism, but that is not inherently what it is. And as I have been learning more about that from my companion, and from the Lord, I have been able to soften my heart and get closer to Him and in so doing, work with the Elders I am around better, and stress out about this whole thing a lot less. I'm running out of time so that's all I can say about that, but I have received the strong and clear answer to my prayers that even though I might not understand exactly everything, I know without a doubt that I am just as important to God as any Elder; and because of that I am able to work my hardest and give everybody out here in CA all of my love! 

Men, Women and Priesthood Power 

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/09/men-and-women-and-priesthood-power?lang=eng

Ok so I hope you guys have been touched by one of these lessons, and aren't suddenly worried about me cause I've decided to pour out my soul now that I have some answers. Yup, that's right. Missionaries are humans. They hurt themselves and have questions, and they figure it out. I never knew it before, but I know it now. Missionaries are humans...and maybe, that's actually the coolest part! 

Love you all so, so much; KEEP WARM!!! 

Hna Lindsey

Feliz Navidad!

Dear family and friends, 

So, we all knew this time would come. CHRISTMAS. And as I've mentioned, I really resonate with that "He is the Gift" video the church came out with and has been using all over the place this month because I think sometimes I don't focus on the true meaning of Christmas. It can be really stressful! Last week, my companion and I were running around all over the place buying gifts, wrapping gifts, finishing knitting gifts and then sticking them in boxes at the USPS office while in line to send them. IT WAS CRAZY. And this week, we are trying to finish some gifts for our district as well-- and then of course we have the stress of trying to get out all our "El es la Dadiva" cards and trying to get as many new investigators and referrals from that as humanly possible. So, to make a long story short, stress is a thing we are feeling as well. We are not exempt from the stress of Christmas. Last night, in fact, though this is just missionary stress and not Christmas stress, we had this horrible faux-pas in which we called the wrong people to fill up the font for our baptism and so when we got there thirty minutes before the baptism, THE FONT WAS EMPTY. My companion and I practically hyperventilated. Then, thanks to the grace of God, and to the bishop who opened the font, and to the zone leaders that came rushing over to help fill it up with buckets as well...the baptism started late, but not as late as it would have! And, even though I was super stressed at first about it, as people just kept being super nice and super helpful and also super complimentary of our work with these two people (because they have been seeing missionaries for like 5 years, and so people were saying we must be special or something to have got them to the point of being baptized haha :P); I was just overwhelmed with gratitude and it hit me in a very profound way that God does not want me to be stressed about this work. Obviously, He wants me to do my best, and He wants us to continue to have great success, and He wants us to call the right people for the font next time, BUT He wants me to focus on what's important. Which in that case, was that we BAPTIZED TWO PEOPLE, and now that family is almost all members and if we baptize the last girl, then they can all get sealed as a family next year for time and all eternity. THAT'S what I should be focusing on in missionary work!!! And on that note...

 las 5 mas bonita momentas de mi tiempo de navidad (The most beautiful moments of my Christmas season (thus far)) 

1. One day a couple weeks ago, I let the little sister of Investigator X (an adorable little 7 year old girl that has been sitting in on lessons with us and reading the Book of Mormon on her own as well) borrow one of my pashmina scarves. (the baby blue one) She LOVED this scarf, but when it was time to go, she gave it back to me. The next lesson she borrowed it again, and forgot to give it back, but the next day we had another lesson and she gave it back to me, even though she had worn it to school haha :P At the end of this lesson, I felt impressed that this little girl could use this scarf more than me. They live in the poorest part of our area, and though she has great style, she often wears the same things over and over because that is all she has. I could see how much she loved this scarf, and how much she enjoyed wearing it-- and honestly, it was the most natural thing in the world to say "Amy, do you want to keep this?" and with her soft nod, I just got filled with the most overwhelming feeling of joy that I could give something so simple, and have it mean so much. As we drove away that day, she was sitting next on the side walk next to some little boy neighbors of hers wearing the scarf I'd just given, and I think I'll always remember how happy she was when she waved at me. And every time I see her, she is wearing the scarf. Giving is, indeed, the most beautiful feeling sometimes. 

2. We are now teaching a family in which the father is a man who is unemployed, and suffering from alcoholism. (note this moment made me cry (after the lesson, no worries), so watch out, it's a *tear jerker*) When we went over to their house last time, he was completely and totally drunk, his eyes were all red and his hair was all over the place. His wife was also, visibly distressed. As we taught though, this suffering, sad man took out a notebook and a pen to take notes so he wouldn't forget what we were teaching. For a couple minutes though, the notebook simply sat by his side. Then-- and this is the moment that got me-- as we were reading Alma 32:21, he grabbed his notebook with the passion of an inspired artist and wrote in big capital letters across the top of the page "TENER FE-- TENER ESPERANZA" which in English translates to "HAVE FAITH-- HAVE HOPE". The reason this touched me so much, is because it really does hit me sometimes how lucky I am to be doing what I am doing. Obviously, I love motivating people to come to the waters of baptism. But also, I just love saving depressed people from the monster that could lead them to end their lives. And I keep getting the opportunity to play some small part in that. In fact, I enjoy it so much, that the other day Hna Gates (my companion) asked me if I would want to like...work in that area (as in psychology, social work..etc.) haha...CRAZY I'd never even really thought about it. We'll see what actually happens in my life, but I'm really loving the opportunity I have now to work with all these people that REALLY NEED HELP and to give them the hope of their Savior Jesus Christ this Christmas season. And honestly, this wasn't just one of the most beautiful moments of my Christmas season, this was one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENTS IN MY LIFE.My companion and I were talking about it, and how crazy it is that every single investigator we have I can relate to in this really deep and profound way, and we were talking about how everything truly does happen for a reason and I know, without a single doubt in my mind, that God needed me here in this time and this season and that THESE PEOPLE NEEDED ME. And the more I work with them, the more I'm thankful for my life-- everything in it, both the good things and the bad things-- because even though sometimes I think I'm crazy-- the fact of the matter is that a lot of people are "crazy." And those "crazy" people are the people that need "crazy" me; and even though sometimes I feel like the black sheep when I'm hanging out with the missionaries, I just have to remember that I literally AM HERE because I am the black sheep. It's like the quote I stuck in the very middle of my journal for some random reason but I guess actually because God knew I would need it-- "Why fit in when you were born to stand out", haha and this quote has underneath it a picture of a bunch of normal sheep and then a GIANT RAINBOW LLAMA. So I guess that you should know that, I'm the giant rainbow llama of the Moreno Valley Zone. Haha...and PROUD OF IT. ahah :P 

3. Ok so, parents, you will enjoy this. One day after my violin arrived, the Relief Society President of our ward asked if I could play for a musical number. And, it's a really long story, but here's how it ended up. Me on the violin, El Mock playing the ukelele, and all the other missionaries singing "En la Judea, En tierra de Dios." (Far, far away on Judea's Plains I think in english...). Oh how fun that was! I have a little video. I don't think I can send it, but I'll send the picture and then someday when I'm home and reminiscing we can watch the video! haha :P 

4. Right before her baptism yesterday, Elizabeth was all dressed up in her white clothes, and she'd done her hair up all nice, and...well, to understand how cute this is, you have to know that she is like a 50+ year old woman. She was sitting in her chair, waiting for the font to fill up, and she just had this GIANT smile on her face, and she was bouncing her feet up and down like a kid waiting to go on a rollercoaster. Ah, that was just one of the moments that made me realize that the font mess didn't really matter, and that God was happy with our work! AH SHE WAS SO EXCITED IT WAS THE CUTEST THING IN THE WORLD! 

5. Ok, so I may have mentioned, but the people in this ward can't really sing in tune with each other. It's really adorable and endearing and everything, but it really is a very true fact that they can't sing in tune. I think the cutest thing about it, is how much they don't know that they can't/don't care that they can't. They sing as loud and as enthusiastically as if they should be on broadway. And yesterday, as I was listening to them sing this way as they sang "La Primera Navidad" (The First Noel), I was just overwhelmed with love for them and for how God looketh not on the outward appearance (or the in tuneness of the song), but on the heart. I just love them all so much. I've never been anywhere in the world where people are so enthusiastic about serving the Lord! I think a lot of it is because a good portion of the ward is converts (believe it or not in this ward they had something like 50 baptisms this year alone! Isn't that CRAZY????) 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT 

So I guess it's kind of been coming through in all of this, but I guess what I've been learning is how to have faith that things are going to work out always, and to have the patience to see it work out. Mostly I've been learning to realize that I'm not the one running this work and neither are any of us-- God is. So of course we need to work hard and we need to be dilligent every single second of our lives-- but at the end of the day, we have to give it to the Lord. Because He's the reason anybody EVER gets baptized-- not us. I'm hoping that what I've been learning will help me to stress out less/cope better. But either way, I've been super humbled this week by the great blessings I have been given from the Lord, and the great opportunity I have to serve. I encourage you all, wherever you may be, to think about Christmas not from the perspective of everything you HAVE to do, but of everything you GET to do. Service is a privilege, and Christmas is one of the absolute best times we have to serve. 

LES QUIERO MUCHISIMO!!! FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!! ( I love you all so much!!! Merry Christmas!!!!!) 

Hermana Lindsey 

THE MOST FUN DAY OF MY ENTIRE MISSION

Dear friends and family, 

OVERVIEW/LESSON OF THE WEEK 

This week was INCREDIBLE. My companion and I had this talk during companion inventory in which we decided that I need to be more confident and share more and take charge more; because I had been holding back as the junior companion-- mostly following suit, rather than taking initiative. TO MAKE THIS SO POSSIBLE/NECESSARY God had me go on exchanges and "take over the area", something that apparently "greenies" (or "sprouts" as we are now supposed to be called instead) don't do very often. LET ME JUST TELL YOU IT WAS LIKE THE MOST FUN DAY OF MY ENTIRE MISSION. We just went wherever I wanted and saw whoever I wanted to see all day. And at the end of the day we had 6 lessons, one of which was one of the most intense experiences of my life-- and one of the best. Basically, we have an investigator we started working with a few weeks ago that originally we didn't know the gender of. We couldn't tell if they were a girl or a boy because they dressed like a boy and had super short hair, but they had slightly feminine facial features and their name was most likely female. We were guessing female, but weren't sure. Long story short, earlier this week we figured out it was a girl; and I started to make the realization (based on all the many previous experiences I had with people at Walnut Hill and NYU) that this woman was probably a lesbian, or a bisexual. HM. This was another moment where I knew that God had sent me to this person for a reason-- or that,in other words, not many other people could teach her with the sensitivity and consideration for differences necessary. Now, here comes the crazy thing I did on the day of exchanges. We had decided, based on the possibility of her being of a different sexuality, that we should probably teach The Law of Chastity fairly early on. And when making plans for that day, I decided to plan in that lesson. We role played it in the morning, and decided that the best way to teach it would be to focus on her identity as a unique daughter of God, and on the beautiful promise of eternal life with a stable family. She has hardly ever had a father figure in her life, and based on the way Freudian psychology works (and I know he didn't get everything right but nontheless..) I kind of extrapilated that her negative experiences and male neglect, along with her closeness to her mother; probably had led her to a huge distrust of men, and a preference to women. And so we decided to focus on the positives. The positive blessings that she could gain from following this law. And the love that her Heavenly Father has always felt for her, even if her earthly father has never ever been there. When we got to her house-- she wasn't there, and her mom said she was at the park. We went straight over to the park as fast as we could to find her and thanks to the grace of God she was there. This lesson was literally one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. I never, ever in a million years had imagined that I would be teaching The Law of Chastity to a lesbian and that it would be a good experience. I had a hard time, in high school, understanding what problem my church had with people of different sexualities marrying who they wanted to marrying and loving who they wanted to love. I honestly didn't personally understand my own take on it-- so whenever anyone asked about it, I explained that God loved people perfectly and unconditionally and that even though people had to be married to someone of the OPPOSITE gender to get into the celestial kingdom, I was sure that they would make it to one of the other ones and that as they were such amazing wonderful people, surely they wouldn't go to Hell and besides my church doesn't believe in Hell, it believes in Outer Darkness and only SUPER DUPER wicked people go there. I was SO HAPPY after all my struggles with this topic internally and externally, that I was able to explain to this poor, beautiful girl that God wanted something more for her than she had had growing up; and that even though it's hard and sometimes it doesn't make sense, God created women and men to work TOGETHER and not apart. I talked with her about what kind of family she wanted to have, and what she wanted for her children. She sometimes has a hard time staying serious for the whole lesson cause she is super funny and has a great sense of humor but this lesson she was super serious and focused and she gave us all her attention and at one point we almost made her cry. I told my companion the next day when she came back that "I feel like God has been preparing me to teach Investigator X my entire life" (I've decided I will make all investigators anonymous in my emails from now on to maintain privacy) and it was just the most amazing experience. About a year and a half ago  Investigator X broke off a lesbian relationship in which she put in way more than the other person, and the other person had basically used her and created a whole lot of unnecessary drama in her life. Investigator X has such a big heart that I can totally see how that would have happened to her, though it just breaks my heart. Recently this woman (the woman she was in a relationship) got in a car accident in which she damaged half her back, and Investigator X missed church because she was trying to take care of her. To explain how messy this situation really is, let me just say that the ex-girlfriend of Investigator X is MARRIED. Poor girl. Anyways, in the closing prayer, Investigator X asked that she would be able to leave all of the drama behind and that she would be able to move on with her life and start fresh with this new baptism. (in that lesson we also put her on date for the 4th of January). I really cannot explain to you how special that lesson was for me. It's funny-- I never imagined that I would gain a testimony of marriage and eternal families on my mission, considering that I wouldn't be living with a family and that I wouldn't be in any kind of relationship with any male human in any shape or form-- but, I can testify that I do. I have that testimony. I don't know all things, but I know that God created families in a certain way for a certain reason; and though I would NEVER EVER be ok with anyone making anyone else feel bad about their sexuality as it has come to be throughout their life; I do now for sure believe in eternal families. Now what that means in terms of what God is trying to prepare me for, I really don't want to know because I'm still planning on being in school for like 5-6 years before I even attempt to tie the knot with ANYONE HOWEVER, all may be at peace. Hna Lindsey, the previously cold-hearted, walled-off, potentially eterna-single persona; now apparently believes in eternal marriage. Ok woah. Moving on! OTHER AWESOME MOMENT OF THE WEEK-- she came to church for all three hours and she LOVED it. She met a bunch of people and they were super nice and NON-JUDGEMENTAL which was THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD. Side note-- many years ago, Investigator X came to church and people made her feel uncomfortable by treating her badly and making fun of her. I BETTER NOT HERE OF THAT EVER HAPPENING TO ANYONE AGAIN. OUR MAIN GOAL AS MORMONS SHOULD BE TO SHOW PEOPLE CHRIST LIKE LOVE. ALWAYS. NO MATTER WHAT. 

Ok so that obviously isn't everything that happened or everyone that we are working with but working with Investigator X I can honestly say has been one of the best experiences of my life. I have felt God's love for her and as I have studied for her, I have grown myself. And teaching her that lesson when on exchanges was just AWESOME. My companion was SO PROUD. Now I know I've been awful about doing top ten, but I did give some stories in there. Since I've been so bad on top ten, I'll update you guys on who we are teaching. Everybody will get a letter, except J and E because I'm pretty sure I already told you guys about them. 

Ok so 

J and E-- GETTING BAPTIZED THIS WEEK!!! :D They are awesome. They have no problems with any of the commandments and they read together every single night in the book of mormon and they pray together. Only problem is they can't go to all three hours of church because E's Dad is blind and has a dialysis so they have to babysit him and their daughter can only babysit him for that one hour on sunday. We were SUPER HUMBLED when we figured out that was why... 

Investigator A-- Is suffering from depression and feelings of suicide. Is having trouble in his marriage with his wife, and is trying to make up for something he did. Suffers feelings of guilt. We have been teaching him a lot about the atonement, about the repentance process, and I have been talking with him about how my faith helped me overcome my own depression. We haven't quite been able to put him on date yet, we are trying to be sensitive and not stress him out considering how much emotional stress he is under right now. I don't know about my companion, but my first priority with him is helping preserve his life. 

Investigator B-- Is a single mother of 8, whose husband died in a car crash last January. We have been teaching her about the plan of salvation and about how families can live together forever. She was going to get baptized on January 4th, but she missed church. We are still definitely going to keep working with her though and I pray we won't have to drop her because this would bless her life SO SO SO SO SO MUCH. We brought a really sweet member over named Hermana Jeronimo and she was super helpful. She rocked her baby the whole time so Investigator A could focus on the lesson. AH PEOPLE ARE SO BEAUTIFUL I JUST CAN'T HANDLE IT 

Investigator C-- Is a truck driver who took lessons before. His wife works in plastic wear at night and at Carl's Junior during the day. They have 3 or 4 kids. His wife is super busy and super Catholic, we are worried he won't progress much until she gets involved so we are trying to schedule a lesson with the both of them. 

and then of course Investigator X, who has been our main concern this past week, besides of course J and E who are getting baptized! We are super excited! And I'm not stressed about this baptism (at least not yet) so that is great. 

Ok SPIRITUAL THOUGHT 

comes from D&C "The worth of souls is great in the sight of God". This week I have learned a lot about that. For myself and for others. Here I was thinking I just needed to follow my companion like a sheep, when in fact, we have had way more success as I have begun to act more proactively. God didn't call me here to be a sheep that just followed a rote plan. God planned me for MY TESTIMONY, MY EXPERIENCES, MY PASSION FOR THE GOSPEL AND FOR MISSIONARY WORK, and God needed ME. Therefore, the more I put into this-- the more investigators we find, the more investigators we keep, and most importantly-- THE MOST SOULS WE SAVE. I cannot tell you-- I cannot express to you-- how much I love these investigators. I thought it wasn't possible for me to love people as much as I loved my friends back home but as I have worked with these people, I have come to love them as much-- or even more. I can't wait to see what happens with all of them!!! And to teach them all about how special they are to God! AH! It just makes me feel this small piece of how many people God loves and how much He loves them and it just.......it's like my horizons are opening and I can see the incredible, unconditional, incomprehendible love that was always there and I THOUGHT I understood.....it's so unexplainable. I think I would have to play a symphony to explain how it feels. Maybe I'll write one or something. 

All right champs, Christmas is coming up. Give people your heart. Give people your love. But most importantly give them-- or rather, show them-- God's love- because that is what they really need. 

I love you all so, so much; and I'm definitely going to miss you on Christmas, but let me tell you-- this is the best Christmas season of my life; because it is the first time I have been able to do nothing but give my heart. I know that people are sending me things because my family is awesome, but that's not what I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about the Savior-- and trying to be more like him, and in so doing-- I am learning how to really love people with all of my heart and give them everything I have. And you know what-- it really honestly gives me the warm fuzzies every day. Obviously it's hard when people don't listen and the other day I threw my heart at a guy who joined the church and then hasn't been in months and I cried and motioned my hands everywhere and made his eyes get all big and scared and understanding that I was serious and then he still said he wouldn't come to church but the thing is If you put your heart out there every single day all the way-- the people you will ultimately remember are not the people like him, but the people like Investigator X. The people that made it all worth it....

And with that, Have a wonderful week everybody and to all whom this applies-- GOOD LUCK ON FINALS I AM SURE YOU WILL ROCK THEM!!! 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!! 

xoxoxox 

Hermana Lindsey 

Hola familia y amigos

Hola familia y amigos, 

Disclaimer: I'm going to give you a little window into the missionary world before I start this email. Emailing in the missionary world is a bit like suddenly realizing that the bubble you are living in is now the world as it is, or the world as you know it, and that people do all these super normal things while you are gone that are no longer in your life vocabulary. So it's a little hard in that way. Especially if you've been staying REALLY FOCUSED; which I have been trying to be. That being said, I will try to not be awkward in this email. 

Ok OVERVIEW 

This week feels like a turning point. We had this meeting for trainers/trainees with President Mullen and the AP's and in that meeting they said a few things that made me realize how I can change my attitude for the better in missionary work. Point no. 1) We develop Christlike attributes by using the Atonement. I had never even THOUGHT of that before, and it made me super happy because one of the most stressful things about being on a mission has been comparing myself to Christ everyday and realizing almost constantly how UN-Christlike I actually am. To know that we don't have to do it alone/relying on our own strength (which I guess I should have understood) made me realize that I can become more Christlike, step by step, as I exercise faith in my Savior and His Atonement, and have patience with myself. Point no. 2) This one isn't as easily squeezed into one sentence, but I sort of realized that if I am as exactly obedient as I can be and as diligent/focused as I can be (improving every day), then I won't feel bad about the things that don't work out. This has translated into the changing of a few behaviors that I believe are going to really help me/us (because we changed a few of them together as a companionship) become much more effective missionaries. Now of course it's not that we were these huge rebellious rule breakers before, it's just that there were a few little things that we needed to tweak and we have DEFINITELY seen the blessings of doing so. And in terms of diligence, mostly I have been trying to improve the effectiveness of my personal study. I was really motivated by the training that the AP's did on effective companion study and I have been inspired to make some changes to my personal study because of it. Buying a watch has definitely helped me with this too, because every 15-20 minutes I can move my study to a different topic for a different lesson/person. Some of you may be wondering now how on earth I survived without a watch. The answer-- you are always within sight and hearing of your companion and if they have a watch you are ok, therefore I was always fine. But I determined that for TRULY effective personal study, I was going to need a watch of my own! Anyways, I guess the point is that I have realized that if I put forth my 100%, then I can deal with the rejection and I can deal with having to drop people and being dropped by people and everything else along that line. I didn't realize it UNTIL THAT MEETING, but I was really stressed because I didn't feel that I was doing EVERYTHING POSSIBLE for these people, and now I feel like I am. It's actually pretty funny, our mission focus for the month includes having more effective planning, and the other night our district leader was surprised that when he called us (he's a good district leader and calls every night to see how our day went and remind us to send in our numbers) we were still planning. Our planning sessions have started to be almost an hour long every day and while that has left less time for journeling and has basically cut out my bedtime snack (but goodness knows I can do without that!); I have truly seen how we have been blessed by it, especially in the past few days and I can testify that I have strong faith in good planning and effective planning sessions. Per example, we got 11 NEW INVESTIGATORS THIS WEEK. All from being prayerful and taking time to plan about what potentials and formers to visit!! missionary vocabulary translation moment-- Potentials= people that we met (or previous missionaries met) on the street, in a park, in a parking lot or at a store or something that signified interest to one level or another and provided a phone number and or an address. Formers= people that were taught before but were dropped/dropped the missionaries that were teaching them for one reason or another. I LOVE sifting through formers while planning. It is like my absolute most favorit-ist thing to do! I just love the idea that we could finish someone's journey. There is actually one lady that has like literally 6 pages of reports dedicated just to her that was dropped and re-picked up like a million times and it is my secret dream to baptize her before we leave Moreno Valley. Unfortunately, she is not usually home... 

SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB OF THE WEEK 

All right, now that I've admitted my dorky attraction to the area book, let's move on to what I learned spiritually cause the fact is it is directly related to the more temporal(ish-- cause let's face it, even the temporal stuff is spiritual on a mission...) lessons learned above. I've decided that I've got to exercise more faith. I may have mentioned last week that something I found in the bible dictionary (under the definition of "faith") said "Faith is a principle of POWER." (capitilization and colorization courtesy of moi)  This has become my new moto. I jokingly used it to motivate myself and others at thanksgiving, but in the end it actually helps with absolutely anything. You know that phrase "If you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right." ? I guess that's what this goes under. It's weird because LOGICALLY whether or not you THINK something is going to happen, should not affect whether or not it is actually going to happen; but there are to things I have to say about that 1. Let's face it-- Missionary work, logically speaking, would never work without something more than logic at play. Because if we all had only considered logic, and never listened to the spirit (which does not often speak in the most logical/realistic of terms), none of us would even BE HERE. 2. THERE ACTUALLY IS A LOGICAL EXPLANATION FOR WHY IT WORKS. If you believe something is going to happen-- or that it is likely to happen-- you work harder for it. And I had my own arguments to this logic at first, until this week when I exercised faith and saw this concept at play. If you have hope that any of the work you are doing is actually going to count/make a difference, then you have more emotional strength to do it. AND THUS SEE HOW EVEN IN THE LOGICAL/SCIENTIFIC/BIOLOGICAL WORLD IT IS CLEAR THAT FAITH TRULY IS A PRINCIPLE OF POWER. I hope that made sense. I think it's really cool anyways... 

JOKE OF THE WEEK 

Ok so remember my constant problem of needing to eat the hugest dinners in the world every night? I HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION. Oh haha, ok so to explain the solution I have to explain a constant situation that I have left out of my letters. Elders. I had no idea, before my mission, how much I would have to deal with Elders. I thought, for some reason, that since you are not really supposed to interact with members of the opposite gender in a romantic way that they would keep us all pretty far away from each other. BOY WAS I WRONG. We have meetings with them at LEAST once a week, the district leader (as I mentioned before) calls us every day, and pretty much every person we ever need to report to about anything ends up being an Elder. SO MANY ELDERS. I actually thought about writing to you guys about this in the MTC but decided not too because it wouldn't have been funny like this. There was a point in the MTC at which I was absolutely pulling all the hair out of my head over this situation. Because let's face it, under those suits and ties and name tags, Elders are just boys and for anyone that knows me really well-- I'm not that good at dealing with boys. Guess that's a lesson I'm gonna learn on the mission; fortunately or unfortunately. haha Anyways, my point. So one day, we went to zone conference and I like had my usual bad reaction to being in a room with 6 sisters and like a bajillion elders in it, and right afterwards we went to lunch. I ate (and I kid you not) an entire bowl of chicken soup, half a plate of mashed potatoes filled with spinach, half a plate of white rice, and 3 pieces of pork in like-- less than 20 minutes. I finished before all the other sisters, and THEN downed a thing of jello. So my new solution to eating all this food is that I just think of the annoyance of Elders before I eat and then I am granted the magical capability of being able to eat everything way faster than anybody else. hahaha... No worries though I'm not gaining weight as far as I can tell, and besides I don't really have a choice. I have to eat it either way. Running and zumba and small morning meals are saving me from getting huge, I think/hope. haha but anyways I thought people who knew me really well might think that was funny! haha :P 

Sorry to quit out on the top ten again this week. What you basically need to know is that this week we took on 3 new families and as a preview for next week we are working with a guy named J now who I think we will basically be able to work a miracle with. He said we came at just the right time! Unfortunately I've got to send in my weekly report now before my time's up, but I'll fill you in on all our new investigators and the actual stuff that we are doing next week. Sorry I just really wanted to tell you all the cool stuff I am learning first! Just know I am doing really well and I'm pretty sure that it is all uphill from here!!! :D 

Love you all buckets! 

Hermana Lindsey 

My First Big Mexican Thanksgiving/My First Baptism (what can I say, it's been a big week)

Hi Guys!

OVERVIEW 

This week was super intense, but super good. The two main things we focused on this week were 1. Gloria (Ortiz) getting baptized (which happened yesterday :D) and 2. the Christmas initiative based on the new Mormon video: "He is the Gift" (or in Spanish, "El es la Dadiva"). Now, for everyone of my musician friends' amusement-- I am going to compare the nervousness I had for yesterday's baptism, to the performance of a student. Anyone who has taught lessons, or had siblings or children play in a concert knows that it is WAY more nerve-wracking than playing on your own. Why? Because, ultimately, at the end of the day, YOU HAVE NO CONTROL. You can push them to practice well and to work hard and to stay focused, and then help them find ways of not being nervous the day of the performance but who goes up there on that stage? NOT YOU. That's how this baptism felt, and about the 48-72 hours before. I've started using knitting as a way to deal with stress, which is awesome actually because I'm like halfway done with a scarf by now, but let's just say...I started that scarf on Thursday. Haha... I literally have never been so nervous about any one specific event in my life. Except, maybe, college auditions. Except in that case...I had more control. Haha. ANYWAYS, it was REALLY AWESOME when all the opposition was got through (CAUSE BELIEVE ME IN THE 72 HOURS BEFORE THE BAPTISM I SWEAR I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE DEVIL WORK SO HARD) to see her get in that water and get baptized. It's honestly like the best feeling I have ever had in my life. Just to illustrate how ridiculous it is to judge missionary work by numbers, putting a "1" by the word "baptism" for this week could absolutely in NO WAY describe the happiness and the beauty and the wonder that was felt by everyone in that room. Yup, I've decided I'm just about done focusing on numbers. This work is not about numbers, it's about love. And if Gloria is the only person I ever bring to the waters of baptism I AM COOL WITH THAT because you know what, I WOULD HAVE CHANGED HER LIFE FOREVER AND GIVEN HER THE OPPORTUNITY TO REACH ETERNAL SALVATION AND EXALTATION, so yeah, in my mind that is way cooler than the number "1". Sorry for my rant, but now you know. I'm focused on what actually MATTERS. Other than that, we have continued working with Maria, and recently picked up her son, Alex, as an investigator. They're doing really well, and I'm excited to see them progress together; but it's a little difficult because the husband/father is really non-supportive. Hopefully we can get him on board soon! :) Of course, we are still working with Juan and Elizabeth too, but they've been really sick this week, so it's been hard getting ahold of them! This upcoming week will definitely be focused on finding, which is actually exciting now that we have this really cool video about Christmas to share with everyone. Oh and I forgot to tell you about thanksgiving. It was RIDICULOUS. We had 3 THANKSGIVING DINNERS at 3 different members homes. And then they all send us home with more food. It was absolutely bonkers. But it was actually super special also, cause one of our dinners was with a less active family whom we brought back to church and answered a huge question/doubt they had about Joseph Smith's first vision, so that was super touching and awesome cause they just love us so much. (They sent us home with literally like a PAN of food...and we ate it for lunch like, all week, and there is STILL MORE) And then we got to have dinner with a less active recent convert and according to Hermana Gates I totally shut him down and made him listen which apparently never happens, so that was cool. I explained to him that going to church is about other people, not just him-- which he had never thought about; so I was pretty happy to be able to (hopefully) have affected him for good! Then lastly, we went to the Tenorios whom I have probably mentioned and they always feed us SO MUCH FOOD so I was terrified, but somehow through the grace of God I was able to finish by reminding myself that "Faith is a principle of power"(see the Bible dictionary...). We ran like we were training for a marathon all this week, so hopefully that made up for the amount of food we ate! haha :P 

SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB 

Ok so here's where I'm gonna talk about the Christmas initiative, cause I'm sure you're all wondering about that cause I just left it hanging at the top of the paragraph up there! Haha...Anyhow, I'm going to tell you about MY experience with the video, before I explain how we're trying to use it, or what we'd like members and nonmembers to get out of it all around the world. So there is this member of our ward that has a house that basically time warps you to December 25th because her house is literally COVERED in Christmas decorations. She has been collecting ornaments, nutcrackers, and an entire little village of christmas houses for YEARS. Along with that she has a nativity set that is the size of the top half of my body, and all the chairs in her kitchen are covered in little sock-like things that say "Merry Christmas" on them. For those of you who know me super well, Christmas used to be my favorite holiday, until 2012 when a bunch of hard things happened right around Christmas and then I episodically connected Christmas with despair. So needless to say, I had a really emotional response to this lady's house the first time we went there. And we went there like twice in the past two weeks, and the second time we went was like Thursday-- when I started being super stressed about the baptism... To make a long story short, let's just say internally I was resembling something close to Scrooge and my Christmas spirit the week of Thanksgiving points were like... 110 degrees below zero. Cue Friday morning, we go into Riverside for a presentation on the Christmas initiative. Watching this video, my eyes just got super filled up with tears because out of all the super weird feelings I had been having about Christmas; the one thing I HADN'T been focused on was THE SAVIOR, which is what Christmas is all about. Granted it still is gonna be hard for me to talk about Christmas in all our finding activities all day long, but it's not going to be as difficult because as I push through those feelings and focus on what Christmas REALLY is about; I know I will feel that deep burning desire to share the Savior's love with everyone. And yeah, rejection during the Christmas season (which inevitably comes in finding activities) is going to be hard. But Christmas is not about what you get-- it's about what you give. And in fact Christmas isn't about YOU at all! It's about THE SAVIOR. Anyways, the video is like 3 minutes long, but the church is using it in all finding activities the entire month, and they want us to be getting out 10 of the "El es la Dadiva" cards every day if possible so we'll be working really hard. I'm assuming that members will hear about this incentive from the missionaries in their wards, but basically they have 9 pass along cards in every copy of the Ensign and the challenge is for all members to try to get out AT LEAST ONE, if not all 9 of those pass along cards, by Christmas; to share this video and to get it to be seen ALL OVER THE WORLD. The video has a strong impact just from watching it, but the First Presidency is really hoping we can use this as a strong missionary tool to get people really interested in hearing about the church-- and I already have seen it working, and I get filled with this sense of wonder thinking about how much it could really do if we all do our part. So I hope we can all do our part!!! And then, to all you nonmembers out there, the challenge I want to give you is this-- If a missionary or a friend gives you one of these little cards with their phone number on it, watch the video and call them back. We have so much more to give you then just the warm and fuzzy feeling you will get at the end of that video!! AH SO WHY JUST TALK ABOUT IT HERE'S THE THING WATCH IT AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK!!!! 

http://www.mormon.org/christmas (just click view the video right on the front page) 

Okie dok so since I did a pretty good overview and I'm crunched for time and I've got to send in my weekly report, I'll skip out on the top ten today; but to make up for it I'm going to send you some really awesome pictures! REMEMBER HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU!!! 

xoxoxo 

Hermana Lindsey 

Rubix Cube Souls...

Hi guys! 

OVERVIEW/SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB/OBJECT LESSON 

All right, so today, I'm going to start by telling you about a strangely spiritual experience I had with a rubix cube this week. Now, I know that before I even get to saying what it was my parents (and other mathematicians round the world) are going to be thrilled by the fact that I had such a special experience with a puzzle. So while you are all standing there with your mouths gaping open at the phenomenon that Hmn Lindsey appreciated a mathematical object with deep profundity, let me explain what happened. This week I've been thinking a lot about the conversion process-- about what it really takes for a person to gain a testimony and desire to be baptized. I guess it would make sense that I would be thinking pretty seriously about this considering I'm a missionary. Anyhow, for those of you that aren't familiar with the process, general missionaries try to get a person from the first lesson to baptism pretty quickly-- actually, as fast as-- four weeks. The day I found that out I had such a rebellious little fit about it because I didn't at all understand why that was fair because NOBODY GAINS A TESTIMONY IN FOUR WEEKS. Members of the church and non members both can understand that right? It's a huge change. That's why we use the word "CONVERSION." To change your heart? Your desires? YOUR ENTIRE WORLD VIEW. Yeah...nobody does that in four weeks! Anyways, as I've been sucked into the vacuum bubble of missionary thinking, about last week I was forgetting what I'd always known about conversion (that it takes a long time)-- and I think that is why I was so frustrated with the fact that we had to drop Miguel. So Saturday of this week, when we were talking about how incredible it was/is that G (our MARVELOUS investigator that is getting baptized THIS UPCOMING SUNDAY if all goes well!!! :)) has progressed so quickly, I made the realization that one of the reasons she was so ready is that she had talked with missionaries before-- and I started thinking about how that was only ONE of the things that had prepared her, and how there are so many millions of little moments in which she recognized God's love and was pointed towards God's light that we would never be able to know all of them-- and then I made that realization and said in the passenger seat of the car to my companion-- "The thing is, nobody gets converted in 4 weeks." It's funny cause I'd known it for what seems like my whole life, but it hit me then in a way that made me realize that we can't beat ourselves up when we have to drop people etc. Ok, second part of the story-- the one with the actual rubix cube-- yesterday morning as we were getting ready for church we were listening to a talk given by a young man who had converted to Catholicism to Mormonism when he was in college after studying to be a priest for many years. He described a lot of the little pieces. During part of that talk-- I sat down to work on the rubix cube that I have been trying to solve for days. I find it soothing, for some reason. And as I was sitting there, listening to this talk, trying to solve this rubix cube and wondering why I liked doing it so much because I am DEFINITELY not a math person (as you all know)-- I started to think about how every day when we go into lessons we solve puzzles-- we try to figure out what pavilions people have between them and God and how we can break down those pavilions so that they can accept his love. I started thinking about how our relationships with God are like those rubix cubes-- and if we have perfect faith, then we're a perfectly solved rubix cube with all the colors on the right sides; and if we're super mixed up and have no idea what to believe in or who to believe in or if we should really believe in anything at all--- then we look like the rubix cube that was in my hands. Different mismatching pieces of our soul all over the place. And as I was thinking about that, the complexity of the conversion process suddenly became very simple.

I think the problem is because of love or because of pride or because of empathy or because of the desire to be the winner-- I want to be the one that solves all the puzzles and baptizes all the people-- but the fact is, I am not going to do that; and quite frankly-- that is not what I am supposed to do. Missionaries solve parts of the puzzles-- NOT all of them. We're actually meant to just be the hands at the very end-- that put together just the last few pieces to get people ready for baptism. And THAT'S why we have the 4-6 week deadline. And somehow, in that moment, sitting there with my rubix cube-- I didn't care that I had only solved part of the green side, because in reality I had solved something much bigger and I had found a way to have peace in my heart. 

I guess what I would really want you guys to take out of this is that if we are going to have success in the work-- the Lord needs more than the people at the end of the table to finish the rubix cube. He needs an assembly line! And you better be there-- working out the puzzles in your friends' lives to help them get closer to God!! 

And for all my lovely non member friends reading this, I might as well tell you the one way in which the rubix cube analogy is flawed-- Rubix cubes can't solve themselves. They have to be solved. But people are different-- and the fact is that in the end, missionaries don't convert anybody. Friends don't convert anybody either. At the end of the day, this process of conversion is between God and you. And unless you make the effort to figure out how to reach Him (or to recognize how He is reaching you)-- then nothing anybody ever does will make any difference! 

So go solve some rubix cube souls and strengthen all those relationships with God!!!! (and remember that the first conversion you should seek is your own!) 

TOP TEN MOMENTS OF THE WEEK 

1. We had 6 investigators at church this week-- which is all of our progressing investigators plus 2. To give you an idea of how good this is....the mission standard (which is really awesome to reach) is 4. We were thrilled! It was an answer to all of our prayers. Not for the number itself OBVIOUSLY, but for the fact that 6 PEOPLE were brought closer to their Savior Jesus Christ by making the often very difficult decision of going to a new and very different church for the first (or 2nd or in the case of G--4th) time. It was AMAZING!!! 

2. We have been teaching the grandchildren of a less active member lately, and they are the cutest. Their names are P, J and J. The youngest, who is 4 and is a self-declared atheist (I know, incredible for a 4 year old) prayed with us this week. That was a BIG step with him!!! AH IF ALL OF OUR INVESTIGATORS ARE RUBIX CUBE PUZZLES I WANT TO SOLVE HIM THE MOST!!! 

3. yesterday in church, for the first time I understood our entire Sociedad de Soccoro (Relief Society) (which is of course, entirely in spanish). It was actually such a perfect lesson because it was about being patient with ourselves and being happy in all circumstances....me and my comp are definitely working on that!!!

4. We had a ward potluck on Friday. They did some seriously impressive dancing-- man I am going to learn something from these Hispanic ladies! haha :P Although of course, we could only watch them dance...

5. Playing for Multi-Zones was great, and also at multi-zones we had a testimony meeting so it was kinda crazy cause I gave my testimony first and of course cried like a baby and then RIGHT AFTER they were like "and now we will have a special musical number from Hermana Lindsey..." hahaha oh dear that was an emotionally draining 15 minutes haha :p 

6. we got two references from a family this week and one of the ladies we are going to visit has cancer. God is really humbling me with all these cancer patient investigators!!!-- He is showing me how lucky I am to be a survivor and also how inspired my call is/was! 

7. we taught M her first lesson at her yard sale after helping her set it up...and that was pretty cool haha :P It's nice cause we have had a hard time getting to her cause her husband has been not so supportive of the lessons....BUT after inviting him to the potluck (which he came to) he has been WAY more friendly! YAY! 

8. one day this week we read the new testament in our comfy chairs with popcorn. Haha it was kind of like a bonding companion movie night, except with the scriptures. It was EXCEPTIONAL :D 

9. we found two new investigators this week in the more sketchy part of town and one of them is CLEARLY on a search for the truth, so I really am feeling hopeful for her...Their names are Myra and Nico. Nico is the mom, and she is not as interested but Myra is very interested and super nice so that is great! :D 

10. we started this week by reading "Having the Faith to Find" from P.M.G....I feel like that really helped me...and we did well on our talking with everyone goals-- we street contacted like 35 people, which isn't a ton, but it is more than we were doing because in all honesty we are usually in appointments which is definitely a blessing!! 

Ok so that's it for this week! All is well, I'm feeling better-- dealing with stress better I think haha :P-- and obviously I am learning more about patience, the attribute I always seem to be learning about! haha :P 

I love you all so much. Take care of yourselves please, and remember God loves you!!! 

xoxoxo 

Hermana Lindsey

Dorothy is not in Kansas anymore!

Dear friends, 

OVERVIEW/SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB 

Ok so, I'm sure you were all wondering when it would happen, and it has. Homesickness is a real thing that I probably haven't felt since....I dunno since I first went to camp in like 8th grade? It must have been building up, but it hit me one night when I was kneeling by my bedside in prayer and as I was praying for all you guys, I just started to cry uncontrollably. AGH. The difficulties of being a girl. I'm sure elders don't do that. haha, or if they do, they probably don't email about it. ANYHOW, now you know, I miss you guys. But after that day I determined I need to just really accept the fact that I am here, in Moreno Valley, and I am going to be here for at least the next 3 months. This week has been pretty humbling, as I've realized how self-centered I still really am. At the start of the week I was totally occupied with the terror of becoming obese from all this mexican food, and I spent way too much brain energy trying to figure out how I could eat less during all the rest of my meals and work out SUPER INTENSELY for the only 30 minutes of a day that I have to exercise, in order to not get fat. And then I would anticipate in absolute and total TERROR my dinner for the day for like an entire lesson before, and then after the dinner I would just feel horrible (both physically and emotionally) about how much I had eaten and I was just obsessed with this idea that I was going to get fat no matter what and it's not even my choice and I just could not stop focusing on how unfair this was. Then on the other hand, I realized during our weekly planning that I was focusing on NUMBERS rather than PEOPLE which just appalled me because I had promised myself that I would never, ever, ever, ever, EVER do that. Then, we lost M. One night we went to set expectations again and see if we needed to drop him, and just like that-- before we could even open our mouths-- he dropped us. That was really hard for me. That was the night that I realized my homesickness too. I just had such high hopes for him, so it was really sad. I had these beautiful dreams about how I was going to change his life, and then somehow, it all ended in just a few words, and then we just had to move on like that. Let me tell you, it is HARD to be as selfless as you need to be as a missionary. Because what I've been realizing is that true selflessness-- the kind of selflessness that we need as missionaries-- doesn't focus on how things are going to affect us. True selflessness doesn't focus on how all the mexican food you are eating is going to make you fat or on how you are never going to be on that list of people who made standard or how rejection is going to feel when it hits you again and again. In other words, a truly selfless person DOES NOT THINK OF THEMSELF. This has been such a hard concept for me. This concept of how much MORE christlike I really need to be because I KNOW it is going to be so hard. It is going to be so hard to give out my heart every single day, with the understanding that people ARE going to break it. It is not a question of "if", it is a question of "how many" because EVERY DAY there is going to be AT LEAST one person that is going to say something along the lines of "I don't care." And what they are not going to realize is what kind of effort we are putting into sharing the message they don't care about. They are not going to realize that literally every single second of our day is going into trying to change their lives, and they are going to be able to throw away that opportunity without understanding how much it is going to hurt us. But that's part of it, isn't it? I never realized before the mission, but missionaries don't just sacrifice their time and their schooling and their career and their relationships and their families and everything material for 1.5 to 2 years. They also sacrifice their HEART. In D&C 4, it doesn't talk about giving the Lord your time or your money, or anything like that, what it says is that we need to serve him with all our "heart, might, mind and strength." I thought I knew what that phrase meant before my mission. In reality, I had no idea. I remember in the CCM there was a day when I came up with a motto for myself, that I meant to write down somewhere. It was: "God doesn't want PART of you, God wants ALL of you." I think I haven't written it down and/or hung it up because I have been trying to avoid the fact that it's true. But the thing is, it is true, and I need to start really acting like it is. Because if I don't focus all my thoughts and give up all of my heart for these people, then I won't be able to realize their agency as the cause of them not accepting the message-- I will ultimately blame myself. I need to give more of myself! This is going to sound very budhist of me but I think I need to learn how to empty myself of myself so I can just think and behave like Christ in all ways, because as much as I try to-- Rachael is still here inside of Hermana Lindsey. The Rachael that wants to be an amazing violinist and wants to be super attractive and wants to be really incredibly smart and wants to be the BEST missionary in the world in terms of NUMBERS. I've got to erase that person. I've got to be more like Christ. And I guess that's what I realized this week. Missionary work is not a thing you can do halfway. You're either in, or you're out. And this week, I decided I'm IN. I am ALL IN.  But in all reality, that was a hard decision to make! 

TOP TEN/GOOD THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK 

1. We picked up a new investigator this week named C. He took a Book of Mormon and said he would read, and he agreed to a baptismal date as a goal which is always exciting! He's super sweet and he has three kids, so hopefully we will be able to meet with him and his family this week! 

2. One day I felt really impressed that we should see this part-member family near the end of the day. The lesson that ensued afterwards was INSANE. The nonmember in the family is a super strong Christian and he has talked with us before. But the thing is, we decided to focus on the Book of Mormon this time. He was NOT HAVING IT. He just could not accept that God would have revealed another book of scripture besides the Bible and He felt like we were demeaning the Bible by saying the Book of Mormon was equally important to it. He said some actually pretty offensive things but AT THE END OF THE DAY, he said he would read it and he would read it side by side with the Bible to find out if it was true or not. He didn't sound confident that he would ever believe it was true but knowing that he is going to make an active inquiry, if he really tries as hard as he says he will-- I know it will be impossible for him to NOT find out it is true. So I'm praying for him pretty hard to find the truth!!!! 

3. Ok so this was a tender mercy for me dealing with stress and being sad and being homesick and just feeling crummy all around-- the zone leaders got me a violin to have for the week so I could practice for and play in multizones. I haven't been able to play very much/at all yet but hopefully I will be able to play today! (multizones are thursday so I will NEED to haha :P) 

4. One night, at one of these dreaded dinners in which they feed us way more than I am actually physically capable of eating, I got to play a little bit with their kids who were both under 10. According to the white handbook we're not allowed to hold kids or anything like that but I just talked with them and played this game called "spin" where we'd all hold hands and run (very slowly) in a circle. That was so fun. It was bittersweet though because I had to be so careful not to break the rules. I really miss playing with kids!!! 

5. we had a really great lesson with G this week (who is doing really well by the way) in which we explained to her the answers to all her questions about the plan of salvation and also about how she could recognize the spirit, and the answers to her prayers. This week she was really frustrated because she was praying to know if the church was true or not, and she wasn't receiving an answer-- so hopefully that lesson helped her out! She's still reading and praying and going to church and everything though so we really have super high hopes that things will work out for her!! 

6. ALSO we FINALLY got in with EH's husband J yesterday. It was a total tender mercy. Him and her are both preparing to be baptized the 14th of december, and mostly we just need to help them with church attendance. It's kind of funny, EH had never accepted the missionaries for years and then she started having all these dreams pointing to the fact that she needed to. She tells us about them, and they actually are so intense. It's really interesting, I've never really met anyone that receives inspiration through dreams the way she does!! 

7. I don't know if I mentioned this cause I can't remember if we started this this week or last week? I think it was this week. Anyways, everyday during comp study we study the New Testament together and I just love it. The New Testament is so beautiful. It's complex too, but so beautiful. The  mission president gave us the goal of finishing it before christmas so we're getting on that!!! We read like couple chapters every day... 

8. one day at dinner, this lady was telling us about her struggles with cancer and depression, and in our message I was able to share about how I overcame both those things by relying on my Savior Jesus Christ and really focusing on reading my scriptures, saying my prayers, and trying to remember all the good things as I wrote in my journal. This was such a special experience for me, and it made me feel a little bit better about eating like......an entire plateful of enchiladas! (oof haha) 

9. one day in my personal study, I rediscovered this scripture: "For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." (1 Nephi 20:10, compare Isaiah chp 48) In that moment, I remembered what Yoshie had told me about how God chooses His toughest soldiers for His hardest fights; and furthermore I felt in my heart that though it is going to be hard and painful all the difficult things on my mission and in my life are going to (as it says in D&C 122) "give me experience, and shall be for my good" (thee and thy replaced with me and my) (vs. 7). This was a really important concept for me to remember... and in fact, it's really important for all of us to remember as we all go through trials! 

10. I found out last P-day that one of my friends is in downtown Boston for her first transfer! Her name is Hermana Turner and she's awesome. If any of you guys spot her let me know (and say hi for me)!! :) 

All right pals, that's it for now. I love you guys so much!! 

Take care, 

Hermana Lindsey 

Miracles, mexican food and dreaming in spanish under a $4 blanket

OVERVIEW 

So this week was AWESOME. It was like literally what dreams are made of! It's funny, I was anticipating the worst week of my life after all of our rejection experiences in the Mexico City airport, but everybody is so nice here and even if they reject us they are really really nice about it so it basically doesn't hurt at all. And, honestly, we don't experience that very much because we have so many good new investigators, and 3 really good progressing investigators. I can't tell you about everybody, though I love them lots-- so I'll let you know about the progressing ones. 

1stly, M: He is having a really hard time right now. He is trying to stop smoking and drinking, and that is pretty difficult for him-- especially since him and his grandmother are having tons of disagreements these days, and she kicked him out of his house so now he sleeps outside of one of his neighbor's houses in their backyard with their permission. SO SAD. Anyways, he also doesn't have a job right now so we are trying to help him find both a job and a house and are praying that he can because we know that it will be less tempting to drink and smoke if he has a more stable lifestyle-- because he basically uses drinking and smoking as a way to escape the bad things in his life. However, he pinky promised (haha) that he would keep the Word of Wisdom last week and thus far he hasn't had problems yet! He is definitely our most difficult progressing investigator, but I love a challenge so I have really and truly enjoyed working with him. 

2nd, G: Ok, so G is AWESOME. She has come to church twice now and she keeps her reading commitment and she is praying to understand everything and know for sure that it is true. She has agreed to prepare to be baptized on the 30th of this month so we are really excited about that and yesterday was her birthday and so when she came to church we brought her cookies and a card. I thought it was awesome that she came to church even though it was her birthday. She was catholic before/her whole family is catholic. Catholicism is really super prevalent here. Basically everyone is catholic, so that is probably are biggest obstacle most of the time...However I really do believe she will be getting baptized soon which is AWESOME!!! oh and she was the first person I asked the baptismal question in spanish too!!! 

3rd, E: He is a nephew of one of the Hermanos in our ward and they took him to church yesterday. At first he didn't want to talk to us at all, but thanks to Hermana gate's AWESOME follow up, we got an appointment with him after church and he said he liked it alot. It is amazing how much his mind was changed in only a few hours!!! He has agreed to prepare for the 30th as a baptismal date to prepare for as well and he said he was really going to "focus" on preparing for it which I thought was awesome!!! He is really intelligent and had tons of questions. He is super fun to work with! Can't wait to see him again on Tuesday! 

Ok other than that, everybody feeds us tons of spanish food. So much so that I need to work out like A TON. We've been doing these crazy push up- sit up- squats- repeat things and I hope that will combat all the rice I am eating. OH MAN BUT THE FOOD IS SO GOOD!!! And all the people are SO NICE!!! They all give us huge hugs all the time (only the women of course, though I had a close call with somebody's grandpa the other day) and they're super friendly. I love our ward, it's the best. Haha so there are also some sketchy parts of our area, mainly one, that we try to stay out of at night. My favorite/funniest moment of the mission thus far was when Hermana Gates warned me as we were walking up to a part member house in that area at night this way she said "you gotta hurry to the door cause otherwise the dogs will get you" and on cue about nine little ferocious watch guard dogs came running towards us and unfortunately I wasn't quite fast enough and one of them scratched me so I have a funny looking s shaped scratch on my right hand that will probably be gone by next week (I hope haha :P). So yeah, we pray for safety when we go to find/visit people there. hahah :P 

SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB 

I don't know if this quite counts as a spiritual lightbulb, but I've made some progress on HOW to study the scriptures this week. Hmn Gates and I listened to this talk by Hank Smith called "Scripture Power" recommended to us by the english sister missionaries in our ward. It was so cool, I recommend it to everybody. He talked about how we need to read looking for a principle and then we need to think about how we could apply that principle. To give you guys an idea of what kind of principles he is talking about, I'll give you some examples from my study of 1 Nephi 17 and 18 this morning (nephi builds a boat and then they travel to the promised land). I came up with about 5, here they are: 

1. God will help us to build big things-- no matter what others may have to say about it 

2. If we do our part, the Lord keeps his promises 

3. All things are possible with God's help-- NOTHING he asks us to do is impossible 

4. Sometimes following the spirit requires us to hand over the steering wheel 

and lastly 5. If our faith is unshaken, we will not complain about our difficulties to God-- no matter how hard our life may get. 

In my journal I wrote down these principles and the verses that inspired me to write them, but I will leave those out of this entry and invite you all to read those chapters and try to find where I got them from. Next week, I will provide you with the answers! haha :P But really, I will. To sort of describe how to apply a principle, I will take the 2nd one and apply it to M. M is trying to stay faithful to the promises he has made to God (and to us) about not smoking and not drinking, even though he doesn't have a home or a job, and his grandmother won't even talk to him. On surface, this looks like a practically impossible thing to accomplish. But if we think of the fact that with God nothing is impossible (see Luke 1:37), then we can help  M to understand that if he trusts in the Lord and relies on the enabling power of his Atonement he will be able to do ALL THINGS with God's help. I'm praying that he starts to really understand that. I am hoping that the effort we have decided to put in by sending him a verse and reminding him to keep his commitments everyday in the morning before our meeting with him or after will help. Also we have a lesson with him like every single day, so that should help him I HOPE. Pray for M guys, cause we really want him to be able to overcome his addictions, enter in the pathway to eternal life and with God's help (and ours)-- find a job and a housing situation that will work for him!!! 

Ok lastly, TOP TEN. It is hard to pick because I have had so many good things happen this week but here goes... 

1. FINDING A $4 BLANKET. It is way too comfortable for how cheap it was. But it is the most beautiful thing. And yes as the title to this email suggests, I really have started to dream in spanish. Like, almost every night. And we are always knocking on doors in my dreams. GOOD TO KNOW I AM FOCUSED ON THE WORK hahaha :P 

2. finding R. She is a new investigator with breast cancer. She is AMAZING. 

3. Also we found this really great family in the sketchy area. I don't know all their names but the people that are most interested are named Placida and Jennifer. We are going to see them again this week and I will let you know how it goes! 

4. one lesson of M's this week we brought this awesome kid from church named Mo. It was the best idea EVER cause they clicked so well. Member present lessons are always awesome (try to go when the missionaries ask you! <3) but this one was just MAGICAL. 

5. haha ok so I have been getting a lot of compliment's on my spanish but the other night my companion told me it literally sounded like I had already been out here five months...that made me SO HAPPY ah she is the sweetest....I still can't even conjugate like 3 or 4 tenses and I mess up my tenses all the time but everybody is really nice about it haha 

6. ONE OF THE OTHER SPANISH SISTERS IN MY AREA PLAYS VIOLIN ONCE WE BOTH FIND INSTRUMENTS WE'RE GONNA PLAY A DUET I AM PSYCHED 

7. We went over to this sweet girl named Liz's house yesterday and we got to talk to her a little bit about missionary work and we're excited cause we think she is going to give a copy of the Book of Mormon to one of her co-workers. YES! :) 

8. We visited a reference named V this week and had some really great lessons with her. She ultimately decided that she didn't want to have any more meetings with us, but we left her with our phone number and after feeling prompted to give her the family: a proclamation to the world I left it...and it was just sweet, because though we were parting I knew that someday she would talk to some other missionaries again cause we hadn't been too pushy or anything like that, but we had tried our best. Ending on a good note is always exceptional if it can be managed! 

9. We gave M a journal to write in this week and wrote him little letters in it to help him out. I loved being able to tell how writing in a journal changed my life, and I can't wait to see how it will change his! This was after reading the PMG section on addiction recovery during my personal study in which I realized that if he was going to overcome this then we REALLY NEEDED TO HELP HIM MORE!!! So I am glad that we did, and that we have been and that we will be even more!!! 

10. Ok so lastly, my companion and I bond on so many levels. Last night after everything was done we just chatted and ate popcorn and receeses peanut butter cups on our little sofas and I just felt again how much God has blessed me with perfect matches. It was AWESOME. We have so much fun all the time, but that was nice, because for once we could truly relax since Pday was on its way over.... 

All right guys, that's it for this week. Just know that I am being way blessed here and having tons of success and that if all goes as planned we will have 3 baptisms on the 30th of this month!!! 

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! 

BE GOOD AND HAVE FUN! 

xoxoxoxo 

Hermana Lindsey 

Letter From Mission President

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Rachael with President and Sister Mullen

6 November 2014

Dear Brother & Sister Lindsey ,

We are so grateful to have Sister Rachael Lee Lindsey join us here in the California Riverside Mission! It was exciting to meet her at the airport. I had the opportunity to interview your missionary and we were able to hear her testimony before having dinner together. We have been impressed with her testimony and desire to serve. It has been a privilege to get to know her.

Sister Lindsey is now hard at work in her new area, the MORENO VALLEY Zone with her companion Sister Gates.

Preparation day is Monday; most missionaries choose to email their family on that day. We encourage you to write or email weekly as well. Thank you for keeping your letters positive, uplifting and encouraging your daughter to work hard and take advantage of the time spent here in doing the work of the Lord.

As we visited with your daughter and asked what she was most excited about her mission she said, “Touching peoples’ lives and bringing them greater happiness.”

We look forward to a wonderful experience together with your missionary.  Thank you for preparing one worthy to serve.  May God continue to bless you.

Sincerely,

John H. Mullen, President