August 25, 2014

Hey there family of mine!! How are y'all? This week was super awesome and simply crazy busy! 

First things first! 
Sister Ellis was transferred this week, so my new companion is Sister Richardson! She's from Utah, and so far she's pretty awesome! We were just put together today, so we've only known each other for a few hours, but as of right now, we get along great! Hopefully it will stay that way! She's been out for just over a year, so she has a lot to teach me! 

We weren't able to meet with Dawn this week, and she wasn't able to come to church so we have to postpone her baptismal date. We haven't set a new date yet, but we're praying that all will work out! She was really upset that Sister Ellis got transferred, but we have an appointment to meet with her tomorrow.. So hopefully all will work out!!! 

We also went on exchanges this week, so I was in Victorville for a day! That was super fun! It was actually an area that Sister Cobabe served in, so I met a couple of the people that she would tell me about! So that was super exciting! 

I ALSO MET AN APOSTLE THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHH!!! Super duper cool right? 
We had Mission Conference, so all the missionaries serving in the Rancho Cucamonga Mission met together to receive training and instruction! Pretty cool right? 
Well, at the conference, Elder Russel M. Nelson came, along with Elder Larry Kacher, which was SO cool! As soon as they entered the room, the entire atmosphere of the room changed. The Spirit was so strong! SO AWESOME!!

Elder Nelson spoke of several things! One thing that really stood out to me was that in order to make our prayers more meaningful, we need to pray!!!! We can't just expect our prayers to be meaningful if we don't put any effort into praying! 
   I KNOW that when we pray, God hears our prayers. He listens to us, and he answers us. We may not get the answer we like, but he will ALWAYS answer us. He's never too busy, he's always there, and he WANTS for us to pray to him! He wants us to talk to him, and when we pray, we truly do speak with our Heavenly Father.  GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS. 

Elder Nelson also spoke about obedience. How When Peter denied Christ three times, he was being obedient to Christ. Christ told Peter that he would deny him. And he didn't. Now does that mean that Peter isn't worthy of Christ's love? NO. We're ALWAYS worthy of the Love and the grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ. 
No matter how often we mess up, we can continually try to do better, to be better, and become the person God wants us to be. We will ALWAYS be worthy of Gods love. 

I love being a missionary and learning these things. I just thought I'd let y'all know that. 

As of a funny moment this week, it actually happened this morning when I got my new companion! As we were taking a picture, like missionaries do, everyone stopped for a second and looked at us and all pointed out that Sister Richardson and I look alike!  Everyone commented at the same time and it was simply funny that everyone pointed that out! 
SO apparently I look like my new companion? I think it's because we're both super white.... Haha!

Anyways, I sure do love all y'all!!! I can't believe I've been out on a mission for SIX MONTHS! CRAZY!!!! In one year, I'll be home! But that's not for a long time, so I'm going to continue to enjoy every second of being a missionary!! 

Love y'all!!!!! 

Love, 
Sister Bond