Well as you've heard, there is a big fire
going on up in Yosemite. Luckily it's about 2 hours away from us, but
we can definitely see the grey clouds from it. I don't hear much else,
but hopefully they can get it under control. A lot of our ward members
have family up there so hopefully all goes well. It's harvest season
here of coarse and so we are getting loaded with fruits and veggies. We
were given a Canary Melon this past week! Not to bad! The tomato
trucks are still driving in and out of town loaded. We helped out at
the vineyard again this Saturday. Funny story though!!!!
We got to the church at 6am
to carpool up again. Well from the Los Banos ward, it was only Hna
Hammer and I along with Bro Biehl and Bro Stevenson. The Mercy Springs
ward started meeting at the church and we asked if we could ride with
one of the sisters since we could ride with the 2 gentleman from our
ward w/o a sister. So we road to the vineyard with Sis Tauheluhelu.
They go off and work on the Mercy Springs row, and we start working on
the Los Banos row. We thought our rows wouldn't take long since we were
just here last Saturday. Boy were we wrong. It took us 5 hours with
the 4 of us. We were the very last groups/wards to finish. As we were
walking back, we noticed the Tauheluhelu's car was gone. Didn't take us
long to realize they left without us! Here we are at the Vineyard with
the 2 guys from the ward and the owner. Our phone, keys, everything
were left in the car. We started calling our old area numbers asking
for Pres Gelwix number and others to get ahold of and let them know and
see if we could get permission to ride home with the 2 guys. Another
hour later after sitting around, we were told Bro and Sis Fairbanks were
on their way to get us. (They live 1 and 1/2 hours away). Bro Biehl
and Stevenson left as we waited around to be picked up. The owner Bro
Hansen was nice though and took us on a tour and showed us all the
different kinds of grapes he's growing. He had grapes that tasted like
peaches, blackberry, and just yummy other flavors. So needless to say,
we atleast didn't starve to death. We waited and waited and finally
were picked up at 4:30. We got home at 5:30. Hurry took showers and cleaned up and were at the church at 6:00
for our ward movie night. Fasts shower ever! Ha ha.. When the
Fairbanks took us to the Tauheluhelu's to pick up all our stuff, Bro
Tauheluhelu just came to the door staring and finally was like "We
forgot about you!". I just nodded my head smiling. (I was pretty upset
but couldn't help just laugh at the pure dumbness of the situation).
Almost 12 hours of Vineyard work, we were home. But we still laugh
that we were forgotten and stranded at the Lord's Vineyard.
For the ward movie night we watched The Other Side
of Heaven! We only were allowed if we had a progressing investigator
there, which we DID! Montserrat came and she loved it! So glad we are
starting to have more ward activities where we can bring friends and
families that are not members. Our Ward Mission Leader brought their
neighbor Shen (which we will now be teaching!!!), and a girl in the
primary brought her friend Ali!!! So it was a success!
We were able to have FHE at Natalie and Junior
Montes' house and had Montserrat and Joshua over. It was so cute to see
Joshua and Natalie's stepson Adrien play. I think Montserrat enjoyed
that too. She never gets out much so it was something new for her to
do. We just can't seem to break down Montserrat's wall she has about
being baptized. But it is good to slowly take it down piece by piece.
I know down the road she will.
Sister's Conference was this last Thursday. It was
fun. We now have 52 sisters and just under 300 total. This next
transfer we will be over 300. It's growing!
This Sunday Hna Hammer and I had to speak in Sacrament meeting. I didn't find out till Saturday night. Luckily I had a little time Sunday
morning to come up with something. I talked on obedience. I related
our vineyard experience and how it seemed harmless to just ride with the
2 guys from our ward back home at such an emergency like that, but how
we kept mission rules and obeyed our leaders and waited till a woman
could get us. Because of our obedience, we will be blessed and those
that helped us stay obedient will. Everyone loved our talks. We had 3
potential investigators at church (Shen, Ali, and April), and 3
Less-active families (the Wright's, Palmer's, and Pineda's). I was
SOOOOOO happy to see the Pineda's there. Hna Miller and I have been
working on them for months along with the ward to get them to come to
church. This last week we stopped by and told them we wanted to see
them at church. They said they'd come but honestly I just figured it
was them saying it but won't come. Sunday morning we got a text saying she was ready for church and that her husband wasn't yet so they would be going to the 11:00
meeting. We saw them and I bout cried. It was so wonderful to see
them and for them to hear us speak. We got a message from Sis Pineda
afterwards saying:
"Sisters, I have never seen you two in such the right place at the
right time. You are strong as I once was. Thank you so much. Heavenly
Father used you today to bring me back." -Susie Pineda. My heart just
melted. Seeing them there was the greatest highlight of being here in
Los Banos. :) I love helping others come back to Christ like that.
Not a whole lot more happened this week sorry! OHHH!!! Just got back from the temple!!!! I loved the new
video!!!! :) Have you seen it yet?!? I can't wait to come back and do
sessions with all of you!!!!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Take care!!!
- Hermana Sorensen
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