I can't believe September is here and gone. October is going to be great though, I can feel it!
Sister Hernandez is by far my
favorite cook out here. Mmmmm.. Last night we had dinner with her. She
made her homemade Hamburger helper soup. It's to die for. She's gonna
teach me how to make Horchata finally next time! And she's gonna make
us tamales soon! No one makes tamales until Christmas, so sadly I
haven't had any yet. But she said she will spoil us and make em. :)
We had to drive to Merced (~45 min away) to watch
it at the Stake Center. We invited one of the Recent Converts in the
ward, Juanita, to come with us and we got a ride from Natalie Montes in
the ward. She's from Morgan, UT! She served her mission here and met
her husband and is now married and in Los Banos again. So we had fun
talking to her on the ride down of her mission and stuff. I think I
mentioned her before. I never remember what I've put in previous emails
and what I haven't. Sorry! But the 4 of us were the only ones there
from our ward. Of coarse. :( But the 4 of us had fun and we really
enjoyed it. I think we need to do better at keeping our covenants
wouldn't you say?! :) I took from it that we can't be hard on ourselves
in thinking we're not keeping our covenants when really we are through
our service. We are here to nurture and care for those around us. It
made me think of one of our investigators who doesn't understand why she
can't have the priesthood. I thought of her and realized myself that
we as woman have equal qualities and assignments just like men but in
different ways. We can't all do the same task of paddling on one side
of the boat. We as women are given the task of paddling on the other
side, and together with the priesthood, we go forward.
This week has been good but challenging as well. I
don't want to be rude or judgmental, but do not like the Elders here at
all. I'm so hurt to see how they spend their time and how they are
treating the investigators and converts Hna Miller and I worked with.
They are great Elders, and I know they are sent here for a reason. I
just wish they would see that and get working. One of the Elders came
from the South where Hna Hammer was previously serving and I guess
talked bad of this area making fun of all the missionaries that got
called here. So he gave Hna Hammer a hard time when she got called here
saying "You're going to the crappy part of the mission. Let's hope you
get along and love your companion a lot because the area sucks and
you're gonna be miserable if your companion sucks too." As you can
tell, in the mission, no one wants to serve here in Los Banos or
Colinga. Both have that hard stereotype. So this particular Elder is
throwing a fit being here and is sitting back till he gets his way. A
lot of the members are already coming to us thinking we're still part of
the ward and can help them instead. Sadly it's not our area any more.
Hopefully the coming weeks will get better and these 3 Elders
straighten things out. Sorry to vent. It's times like this though that
your realize how much you love something. I love this area and just am
afraid other missionaries are going to come in and destroy it all right
when we were getting a good foundation.
We had a lot of cancellations this week and so we
were not able to see any of our solid investigators. We did see
Montserrat, but she sadly is making her way down the ladder instead of
up like we had going. I don't know what more we can do for her. She
doesn't see a problem in drinking coffee and tea. They're good for you!
With Cheryl Kaplan (our less active we've been helping) stopped
drinking for 4 days, but then picked it back up to be rebellious. She
is comfortable where she is at and just can't change. That just didn't
settle with me so I told her she can't say that until she ran it by with
the Lord. How sad it is to see people get comfortable with their lives
and refuse to change. I'm not telling them to change, it's their
Father in Heaven. I don't understand how you could be so hard-hearted
like that and turn your back on God. Back to the Relief Society
broadcast, are we keeping our covenants? We have them to protect us,
give us true happiness, and to lead us back to our home above. We're
here trying to rescue her from a fire and she's just sitting there
saying "no thank you, I don't want to leave the comfort of my couch."
not realizing the house walls are burning down before her! I am truly
seeing this week the need to call people unto repentance. We can not be
satisfied with life. It's always changing. Satan tells you it's okay
to do the same things every day. God is the one telling us we need to
keep moving forward and not being idle. I read back in my journal this
week when I hit that point of not wanting to go on a mission because I
didn't want to leave my comfort zone and sacrifice everything a
missionary has to sacrifice. How grateful I am to say I did not let
that keep me from coming out here. How selfish that would have been of
me. It's hard having to sacrifice things we love so much. But when we
love God, we will have no difficulty sacrificing all we have. He will
bless us. I want all of you to think of something you can sacrifice
this week after you read this, and go 7 days without it. Some examples I
thought of if I were still back at home would be: not going on Facebook
for 7 days, waking up early in the morning and not sleeping in, avoid
eating snacks, not watching TV all day, etc. Whatever it is, do it and
replace it with something wholesome like; writing your favorite
sister/daughter on her mission, reading an article in the Ensign,
exercising, cleaning the house, making a gift for a friend or neighbor,
etc. I want to know what all of your sacrifices are and how you
accomplished them or how you did or are doing. My sacrifice this week
is snacks. During studies and lounging at home, I nibble a lot on food.
So I am not going to buy tempting snacks at the store today so I won't
be tempted this week!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
- hermana Sorensen
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