Dear Family,
Hello! Oh man this is going to be the best transfer ever! I am emailing you from a small library in Big Bear City. So many reasons why it is so awesome to be here. First, there are a lot of cool people to work with up here. Of course. So many unique personalities. It's fun. Second, I am with Sister Davis, and she is awesome. Third, we made mission history. Before her and Sister Fairbourn were transferred here, sisters hadn't been up here in about 15 years. And they've NEVER been left here during the winter. So naturally everyone assumed that I would not be transferred here. And now I am! This is the most wanted area of the mission. All the elders were bummed that we were coming here. :D We're going to have a white Christmas! It's so fun to be in this little ski town. No snow yet, but they say it will snow this weekend. I love being in the mountains. The altitude has been a little bit of an adjustment because I got very used to being down the hill. Now we're at 6000+ feet. Some people are at 8000 feet. So it's a little different. I was hoping they would still have a truck here, but they took that away and gave us a jeep. As long as it has four wheel drive I'm happy! I love it here and I hope I'm here next transfer as well. We'll see.
Here are a couple of the people I've met so far. First, there's Kevin Manor. He's getting baptized this weekend. He's friends with a woman in the ward and when he started coming to church and seeing what Latter-day Saints are like, he knew that this was Christ's true church. When people get that witness, they will do everything the Savior asks of them. He's quit smoking and drinking coffee and he is so excited that he's found a church where the members actually live what they're taught. He's a really neat man. I'm happy I've been able to be here for a little bit of it. OH YEAH we also live right by Big Bear Lake and we were going to go fishing with him today, but he had to work. So I guess we'll go next week.
We also went to do service for a recent convert up here named Ed Stanik. We helped him dig a well and bury a cat at some property he owns near Onyx summit. WAY different service than what I've done every where else. I'm definitely not in Fontana anymore. Soon we'll be able to help people shovel snow and whatnot. I'm pretty excited.
We got a referral for a girl named Natasha who we called and she sounds very nice. We accidentally called her twin first, and her twin sounded really excited for her to be able to meet with us. So hopefully we'll be able to see her soon. She is busy this week and doesn't know what her schedule is for next week, so we weren't able to set an appointment with her yet.
So my birthday was spent up here and I could not have picked a better place in the mission to be. We were able to teach some great lessons that day. We went over to a member's house to have a little dinner. Her husband is not a member. Before when missionaries would come, he totally ignored them and would go to a different room. But since sisters have been here, he's started opening up a lot. He sat and talked with us for a while and he's a really nice guy! I didn't think too much about it until after we left and Sister Davis told me about how he was at first. We're not currently teaching him the lessons because he doesn't want them, but the fact that he's opened up so much to the idea of missionaries being in his home is wonderful. He even invited us over for Christmas. So maybe he's one of the reasons that sisters are still here. Some people need elders, some people need sisters. Maybe he's just needed sisters. We'll see. We also have a few other we hope to be able to start teaching this week. There's Blake, a kid living in the ward mission leader's home, Andy Griffith, who is friends with the ward mission leader (our ward mission leader is AWESOME), and James, a guy who randomly called Sister Fairbourn and Sister Davis saying that he really wants to change his life and come closer to Christ.
Anyway, that's basically what the last week has been like. It's COLD up here but that's okay. I still love it. I love the people up here. It's kind of weird being in a vacation ward. They say the number of attendance doubles during the summer and winter. The ski slopes don't have too much snow on them, but it got cold enough last week so they could shoot some snow on the hills. It's cool. They've got a pipe system that takes water from the lake and turns it into snow. So when it melts in the summer it just melts right back into the lake.
I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!
Love, Sister Stacey
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