White Christmas in Big Bear 1/02/2013

Dear Family,

Hello!  How was everyone's Christmas?  It was pretty awesome up here!  So glad we got to have a white Christmas!  Big Bear is still great.  Heavenly Father has done a great job with nature.  It's beautiful in the mountains. 

Anyway, I know there is a lot to talk about from the last two weeks, but sometimes when you sit down to actually write about it, it all just slips from your mind.  So I'll do my best. 

Actually I'll just write about the main events.  So on the 21st we had a mission party.  It was way fun.  We all gathered together and had dinner and then we had a talent show.  There are lots of missionaries who play the guitar it turns out.  Then we all sang some Christmas songs, during which Santa (Pres. Godwin) showed up.  It reminded me an awful lot of the Rowley family Christmas parties.  Those were good times.  Yes, I even was forced to sit on Santa's lap.  I have a picture, but I'm not sure I'll be able to have the time to send it upon this day. 

On Christmas Eve we had dinner at our ward mission leader's house.  He's so awesome!  He had Andy there as well and we were able to teach him a second lesson.  We taught him the restoration.  He like it so much.  In addition to Bro. Nielson, his wife was also there, as were his parents.  They're all converts to the church, so at the end, they ended up being the ones to invite him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon because that's how they all got their answers.  The spirit was really strong during this lesson.  It went so well.  At the end I invited him to be baptized, to which he said he needs to check out his ex-wife's church before he can make that commitment.  BUT then on Thursday Bro. Nielson called us and said that Andy called him and asked what he needs to do to join the church, to which Bro. Nielson said finish taking the lessons and be baptized.  Andy didn't say no, so we were hoping to meet with him soon to talk to him more about that.  I say 'were' because a couple days ago, Andy slipped on some ice and got a concussion.  Shortly after taking him to the hospital, he was life-flighted down the mountain to a hospital in Riverside, where he had brain surgery!  I hope he gets well soon.  That didn't sound to good to us.  Please keep him in your prayers. 

Christmas day was fun!  We had district meeting in the morning, and then went over to the McCutcheons to have a Christmas lunch feast.  We spent a lot of the day there, because that's where we skyped from.  After that we went over to another woman's house in the ward and had a dinner there.  And there's a family from Anaheim who own a home up here, so they were here over Christmas and they really wanted to have us over, so we also went over there.  It was a good day. 

The next day snowed a ton. :)

Today we got to go to the temple with all the sisters in the mission.  I love that we get to do things like that.  Some missionaries never get to go to the temple during their mission.  But we usually go about every other transfer.  I'll probably even get to go twice next transfer, if I stay in the Apple Valley zone.  I love the feeling in the temple.  It is the most peaceful place on the earth.  And it was neat to be able to go with all the sisters.  There were about 24 of us there.  It was packed!  I always feel the spirit so strongly while I am there.  I am excited for when I can go whenever I have the time. 

Well, I guess those are all the major things that have happened.  So I'll just tell you about something cool, that I don't think I've mentioned yet.  We have another investigator named Blake.  He's the kid living with Bro. Nielson.  He's been coming to church every Sunday, and I think he really likes what he's been learning.  We haven't been able to meet with him again yet because he's busy and so is Matt (Bro. Nielson's son that he's really good friends with).  He wants Matt to help teach him, but their schedules don't always match up.  So that's one of the holdups.  But Bro. Nielson asked Blake 'So if Matt baptizes you, who are you going to baptize?'  and he said he would baptize another one of his friends.  That was cool, because we haven't even talked to him about baptism yet.  Bro. Nielson is so awesome at sharing the gospel with others and helping us with the work.  Hopefully we can meet with him soon!

Here's another cool thing.  This one doesn't have to do with the work, but it does have to do with Big Bear.  I hope I haven't told you about this yet, either.  We were helping a member do some service in Onyx and he took us to some one's property who trains lions.  And tigers.  And bears.  And panthers.  And wolves.   He trains them for movies.  His lions were on Gladiator.  We want to help feed them sometime. :)  We got to see them and it was pretty awesome. 

Well, that's about it for this week.  I hope all is well with everyone wherever you're at!  Love ya!

Snow In Big Bear 12/17/2012

Dear Everyone:

Hello!  How was the week?  We had a great week up here!  It snowed!!  We were so excited.  We first shoveled ourselves to our car, and then drove over to people's houses to then shovel them out too.  In our skirts and flats, no less!  It was fun. 

Well last week we had our final lessons with Kevin.  I love teaching people who just really want to learn and do whatever it takes to be closer to Jesus Christ.  He was really sick on Friday and Saturday, so the bishop and ward mission leader suggested that we postpone it until he was feeling better.  So we asked him about it and his answer was (we asked him the day before)  'Even if you have to bring me in on a stretcher, I AM getting baptized tomorrow night'.  Good answer.  He was so excited.  The water heater wasn't working, so he got baptized in liquid snow.  BUT he said he also felt like he was just walking on cloud nine and didn't care at all that it was freezing.  It was so fun to teach him and I'm excited to go through all the lessons with him again.  He's going to be Santa Claus at the ward Christmas party on Friday.  Perfect man for it.  He's 6'5" or something and we had to call the Polynesian ward to find a jumpsuit big enough for him haha. The only thing he's lacking is a white beard.  Other than that, he looks just like Santa. 

We had lots of appointments set up for last week, but almost everyone cancelled because they were all sick.  It seems like everyone is sick right now.  So we're really hoping that this week we're able to find some new investigators.  There are a few people that we've been trying to see, so hopefully this week is the week!  It's hard to find people with spare time the week before Christmas.  We've been trying to share a quick Christmas message with people.  I love how the meaning of Christmas has changed for me.  I understand so much more about Jesus Christ and just how much He's done for us.  I love that we have a whole month basically to enjoy the spirit of Christmas.  If we pause for a minute and ponder the birth of the Savior in our hearts, just as Mary did, we will experience the true joy of the season.  I read this awesome book by Emily Freeman called 'A Christ Centered Christmas' about the nativity.  She goes through every figure of the nativity and talks about what we can learn from them and then at the end of every chapter there are spiritual things to do that will help pull our minds and hearts closer to Jesus Christ. 

I wish I had more to talk about from last week.  It was kind of slow with all the illness and snow.  We were able to do a bit of service, though, so that was fun.  We are going to do all we can this week to teach lots of people and stay busy.  It's a hard week, the week before Christmas, but as long as we're doing all we can to best represent Jesus Christ in this area, then we will have a great week no matter what. 

I love you all!  Have a great week!

Someone KNEW I was coming to the mountains!

Our sweaters for the zone ugly christmas sweater party we're going to be having.

Kevin's baptism.  He looks like Santa Claus!  And the guy on the left is our ward mission leader.  He's so awesome!

Me and Sister Davis.

Love, Sister Stacey

Best Transfer Ever! 12/10/2012

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

Transfer Time 12/03/2012

Dear Family,

Hello everyone!  How's the week going?  It's only Monday, I know, but something cool may have happened!  Our last week was fantastic because it rained every day.  It's been in the 70s every day, which is pretty nice.  But also...don't make fun of me, but I've been COLD!  Utah is going to be a shock to my system!  I've very much acclimated to SoCal. 

So we got transfer calls yesterday and we are both leaving. :(  I really like this area and we have so many people to work with here.  So I'm sad to be leaving.  AND we JUST got a brand new car.  I was very excited to be driving in a car that elders have not yet chonched.  But oh well.  I broke it in at least.  It's been hard saying bye to people, especially the people I was able to start teaching and stay around long enough to see them baptized.  My hope is that I get to go to Big Bear with Sister Davis.  But I don't know if they're taking sisters out of there or not yet.  Either way, I'm pretty sure I'll be with Sister Davis.  We'll see what happens though.  I am excited to see what happens tomorrow!  Wherever it is, it will probably be my last area.  Which is weird.

Well I did a first ever this last weekend.  Upland had their annual Creche festival and as usual invited the missionaries to sing songs.  One of the sisters called me a couple weeks before to see if I wanted to sing a duet with her.  O.O  I said I would.  So intimidating!  I've never done that in front of people.  But it ended up being okay.  Don't know that I would do it again, but I faced my fears.  It was a pretty song called Christ Child, Christ Child.  Look it up. 

We wanted to see Miguel last week, but when we called his house, his mother said that he moved.  But we're not sure if she's saying that because he really did move, or if she's saying that because she doesn't like us.  (she's catholic)  So he's MIA at the moment.  Hopefully the missionaries that come here after us will be able to locate him.  I don't like both of us leaving when we were working with so many people.  I just hope that none of them get lost in the transition.  Especially Veronica.  She took the news not so well.  Hopefully she'll learn soon that all missionaries carry the same message and can help her feel the same spirit. It's not just us. 

As you may recall, we were supposed to have a couple baptisms this last weekend.  Neither of them ended up happening.  Turns out Esai was not entirely interested in the church, and the situation ended up being better for elders.  And Lupe and Manny are still not married.  They won't be able to be until around May, so she'll get baptized next year.  It's sad that that's how that ended up working out for both of those. 

And now it's December.  Wow this year went by crazy fast.  At times I wish it would have gone faster, but a lot of the time I wish it would slow down.  I love being a missionary.  My black hole year is almost over. (an entire year from January to December spent on a mission)  That's just weird.  I think of where I am now compared to where I was a year ago.  I have learned so much!  And I still have so much to learn!  In a way I wish sisters also had the option of serving for two years.  18 months is just not enough time to accomplish everything you set out to do!

It's really neat to see all the work that Sister Mills and I were able to accomplish during our 18 weeks together.  She is a very hard worker and helped this area blossom so much.  I hope she has the same effect in her next area. 

Well my birthday is on Wednesday (thanks for all the happy birthday wishes! )  and I'm a little dismayed it will be spent with strangers.  But that's okay because people instantly love sister missionaries anyway, so I'll feel lots of love that night I am sure.  I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Sister Stacey

Four Thanksgiving Dinners 11/26/2012

Dear Family,

Hello everyone!  How was Thanksgiving?  We had four dinners that day.  I tried to eat as little as possible while still being polite, but got way too full at every one's dinners.  They were all just so good!  And....ididntgetanypicturessorrymom.

BUT it was a great week.  We had a lesson with a man we tracted into a few weeks ago named Miguel.  We've been trying to meet up with him for a very long time.  We read through the doctrine of Christ with him and halfway through he asked if it would be okay for him to be baptized if he was already baptized into another church.  We were so surprised!  But also way excited!  He is going to be baptized on December 22.  He was really excited.  He's had some problems in his growing up years but now he's completely turned his life around and wants to get closer to God, but wants to do it the right way.  He's so awesome!  He realized a couple weeks ago (before we'd even taught him a lesson) that he knows he needs to go to church on Sundays so he quit his job.  He wasn't able to be there this Sunday because he had to take his dad back to Mexico.  At his lesson, we brought a girl in the ward who has been undecided about if she wants to go on a mission when she turns 19.  She had so much fun and now she's really thinking she wants to go!  It was fun to help her out as well.

We also taught Angela.  Finally.  She's been having a lot of doubts lately.  There have been a lot of things happen to her in the past and she's having a really hard time dealing with them right now.  She started smoking again, which is too bad, but she can still overcome that.  She hasn't read in a while, but she read after we saw her last night and read again this morning and she said she's feeling a little better.  I think there are three things that really help us to feel the spirit and to stay in tune.  Those things are reading the scriptures, saying our prayers, and being obedient to all the commandments of God.  That's something that I've noticed.  If people start to struggle spiritually, they're not doing at least one of those three things as well as they ought to.  Especially with being obedient, if they're not going to church.  I've realized that our spirits are like muscles and if we don't keep exercising them by church, prayer, and reading, they're going to become weaker.  So we talked to her about getting back into those good habits and how doing those things will help her through all the hard times that lay ahead.  She's a strong person and I think she'll be able to overcome all of her doubts and worries.

We had dinner with the Hernandez's on Thanksgiving.  They won't be getting married any time soon, unfortunately.  They COULD, but there are a lot of reasons why they are going to wait.  Until April-ish.  :(  That's so far away!  We're going to keep working with them, though and see if we can help them to move that up a little sooner.

Anyway, not much else to report on for this week.  We have transfers coming up this weekend.  I'm sure things will be changing up a little bit, so I'll let you know all about that on next Monday. 

Love you all!  Hope you enjoy being in cooler weather while it's still 80s-90s here!  Happy almost December!

-Sister Stacey

Baptisms and First Lessons 11/19/2012

Dear Family,

Hello everyone!  I'm sure you all noticed that I did not email last week.  There is an explanation.  You see, libraries were closed on Monday and plus also it was sisters exchanges again.  There was no time!  And we were man busy the rest of the week. :(  So now you get an update on two weeks.  Lots of stuff happened, but I shall not bore you with all of it.  Just the good parts.

And I also forgot my planner, which my life revolves around if I want to remember anything, so you may not get as much as I thought.

People who will hopefully be getting baptized:

Lupe:  We found out last week that there is something that may or may not prevent her from being baptized on the first, which made her way sad!  She started crying and we talked to Manny about it for a while.  We'll find out on Wednesday whether or not she will be able to be baptized on Dec. 1.  She is so prepared and really wants this.  She knows it's important for her to be ready for this and she understands that it is a commitment we make with the Lord.  She is definitely ready.  We're praying so hard that she'll be able to be baptized on the first!

Owens children:  We've got their last couple of lessons this week!  They'll be getting baptized on Saturday.  They learn way fast and they seem to have had fun.  We've been trying to get the family a little more involved, since this is something that could definitely benefit all of them, but they are usually busy doing something else every time we go to have a lesson.  We told them tonight's would be more of a family home evening, so hopefully they'll all be there.

Veronica:  I don't remember if I mentioned that we set a baptism date with her, mostly because I don't remember what week that happened.  Either way we set a date with her!   She was so excited we asked her and she started crying a little.  And now we can't get in touch with her.  We had an appointment set up with her last week, but she called us an hour before and left a message saying that she needed to reschedule because she was having a hard day.  And then she wasn't at church yesterday either. :(  We're persistent though, and we won't get up!  We'll get in touch with her one of these days. 

Esai:  Okay I know you don't know about him.  After we were done emailing last week, as we were leaving the library he stopped us to ask a question because he thought we worked there.  Then when he found out that we were missionaries he got really excited and said that he talked with a couple elders once and liked the things they talked about.  So we shared the restoration with him and he really felt the spirit!  We set up a time to go and teach him more and invited him in that first lesson to be baptized.  He really wants to!  Or I guess I should say wanted to.  Oh man.  Last week we taught him the restoration more thoroughly and he didn't like the quorum of the 12 or the first presidency because they look like republicans (what?)  So we told him to watch the prophet on lds.org and stuff.  He enjoyed it, but is still unsure about there being a prophet on the earth today.  Yesterday at church he came to give us back the Book of Mormon we gave him, but we told him to keep it.  And he kept looking in the sacrament meeting room like he wanted to go in, so we invited him to stay.  He stayed for all three hours.  And really felt the spirit again.  He still wants to learn and we think he believes it's true. We're not sure what the real concern is.  Hopefully we'll find out soon.  It's been an adventure.

We also had lots of first lessons with people and got a few new investigators, so we're excited to see what happens with them over the next couple weeks.  I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving!  This month has gone by crazy fast.  It's been so good though!  We've been working way hard and finding lots of people.  Missionary work can be so much fun.  Especially as you just lose yourself in the work.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week!  Love you all! Happy Thanksgiving! 

-Sister Stacey

Highlights 11/05/2012

Dear Family,

Hello, everyone!  I'm glad to hear that my east coast family is all safe and didn't experience any damages.  But while you've been having crazy weather, it is still hot here.  Which is okay I suppose.  It's A LITTLE cooler. 

This week was crazy!  Highlights:

-We had a lesson with a girl named Wisdom who set a baptism date for the 24th!  It was our first time meeting with her, and she seems very excited about it!  Problem:  she moves.  A lot.  In fact she may or may not have just moved to Chino.  She doesn't really have a place of her own, so she lives with various friends.  We were explaining to her that she's going to have to be taught by missionaries wherever she is at, and she seemed a little sad about that.  We're still confused about the whole situation, but hopefully we'll get it sorted out soon.

-Halloween was fun!  We went tracting earlier in the day and met a few people who seem really interested!  We'll go see a few of them this week.  We did set up a return appointment with one of them for later in the week which has almost never happened for me.  So we were excited!  Except for when we got there, all he wanted to do was bash. -_-  He asked us what we wanted to talk to him about, and literally after 8 words, he interrupted and started telling us we were wrong.  And then wouldn't stop talking for the next 75 minutes.  I don't love it when that happens.  When he paused I just briefly shared my testimony of the Book of Mormon and how I came to know it was true and that started him off again.  But we FINALLY got out of there.  I am sad for those people.  I don't like how the spirit just completely leaves during those conversations because they drive it away.  But I also knew that I would have the spirit back once we left his house.  I'm thankful for my testimony.  I'm thankful that I know what it feels like to feel the spirit.  I liked in conference when someone said that a witness from the Holy Ghost is more powerful than even seeing a heavenly being.  It made me think of Laman and Lemuel.  They saw an angel, and still weren't converted.  Having a witness from the Spirit that something is true is something I just can't deny.  Hopefully he'll understand what that feels like one day.  He prayed for us to stop being 'gullible'.  We may not know everything, but we know our message is true. 

-We also are teaching a family that has two children who aren't baptized yet.  Nosa and Tyler.  They're good kids and it's been fun teaching them.  They also have a baptism date on the 24th.  Yesterday their dad asked what he needed to do to become and elder, and also when the temple prep classes will start up so they can go to the temple.  YEY!  It's awesome when people decide to devote themselves more to the Lord.

-We also set a baptism date with Lupe Hernandez.  She will be baptized on Dec. 1.  We were very excited about that.  She is so sweet and she was able to get sundays off! 

-We had a lesson with a woman named Veronica who lost her daughter about three years ago and was filled with so much sadness all this time.  She asked people questions all the time about what was happening with her daughter and whether she would see her again, and everyone gave her different answers and none of them seemed right to her.  We taught her the plan of salvation, and she said for the first time in a long time, she felt happy.  She felt so much peace and said she knew what we were saying was true.  It's so wonderful to see people feel the spirit and experience the peace and joy that comes with that.

-And besides all that, we have so many people we met last week who set appointments with us for this week that seem very excited to learn.  Can't wait to let you know about them. 

Well I hope you all have a great week!  I love you all!

-Sister Stacey