I'M A SISTER TRAINING LEADER!!

Well HELLO my lovely peeps!  

I hope all is well in your lives! I also hope none of you are dying from what is going around here.. haha. It spreads like wildfire thru all the missionaries! I, luckily, got something different before that got to me... haha. Poor Baum has been dead this week. We stayed home a couple days again this week.. it's really hard when we have Missionary Correlation Meeting and we have like nothing to report except a couple visits and lessons... Awkward.. but!! We try our best!!

Transfers are actually tomorrow! And our ZONE is being broken up..  even though we will still be the only sisters, the elders who are leaving were an important part our lives.. they will be missed.. One elder who I have known since my birth is going up to Shasta and the other elder I have known since birth is dying..  it's a sad cycle of life sometimes. BUT!! I also found out that a super good friend is also coming down here to be our District Leader!! I'm so excited!! He's one of my favorites!  oh!! Also, just before the transfer boards came out, Sister Marston called me and asked if I would be the Sister Training Leader for our zone! So that's exciting! It bothers me when people say that we are "over" the sisters... NO!! We have the opportunity to SERVE them.. no one is over anyone.. they just have different responsibilities.. but yeah!! So that will be a great experience to go to Missionary Leadership Council and work with the other sisters... well. Kinda. Because we're the only sisters in our zone... so!! We will see how that will work... haha. But that's the news for transfers and stuff!!

It was a good week this week! We did have a few lessons and stuff!

We met with Mia and Araceli last night! We just read the Book of Mormon with them and helped them understand it. It was awesome. Mia brought our popsicles so we had popsicles and just got closer to each other.  I haven't felt that at home since Corning. So that was a tender mercy.  

We also met with a Spanish investigator, Virginia, and her husband Fransisco. They speak ZERO English... so I'm still no help at all except to bare a SUPER simple testimony.. haha. Baum taught them the restoration. They didn't say anything... literally nothing the whole time... I wanted to ask questions but I couldn't because I don't know the words.. so that was a little rough. They invited us back But we are planning on having Hermana Perez come with us. She is a super good member who comes with us to see Maria. So that will help!  

We had a lesson with our other Spanish investigator Maria. She has so many questions about what church is really true. She says she knows a lot of them say that they have prophets and everything and she is sincerely looking for the truth. She has been Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah's Witness, and Catholic. She is searching and she is being prepared. We are fasting for her on Thursday. She will come around. 

Then we finally got to meet with a less-active. Her name is Heather. We have been trying to meet with her since I've been here. She's just super busy. But we finally caught her and she said she has no faith, basically and that she felt like when she would ask questions when she had just joined the church that everyone would just kind of ignore it.. so that's kinda what she felt. But we are going to keep seeing her hopefully. 

Then we just had a Book of Mormon class with Becky. That was good! She just brings up the most awkward analogies.. hahaha!! I won't even repeat it but it was hilarious.  oh Becky... we didn't get to meet with her because we have been sick and she went to Seattle.. so we haven't addressed the smoking thing yet.... but hopefully very soon...  

But yeah! That's pretty much the week! We went to an arcade/mini golf place today because one of the Mission presidency counselor owns it! Haha. It was a RIOT!! I will hopefully remember to get pictures from that. Haha. It was super fun though!! 

Quote I love: "If we don’t try, we’re just latter-day sinners; if we don’t persevere, we’re latter-day quitters; and if we don’t allow others to try, we’re just latter-day hypocrites. As we try, persevere, and help others to do the same, we are true Latter-day Saints. As we change, we will find that God indeed cares a lot more about who we are and about who we are becoming than about who we once were." --Elder Dale G. Renlund

And these quotes are just amazing!! All of them just tugged at my heart strings!  maybe because I can relate to ALL of them more than I would care to admit, these days.  

Love YOU ALL!!

Sister Hood

HIGHLIGHT OF WEEK ~ TEMPLE!!

Well hello there!!

This week was an interesting one! Haha. So y'all know I was starting to get sick last week. Well, Monday I was dying all day at P-Day, then I just slept all day while Sister Baum did a puzzle and woke up with calluses the next day. 😂😂 One of the elders had some honey and lemon juice that he made me into tea on P-Day that helped my throat A TON!! It was awesome! So that helped a lot, I think! But then I just slept a lot but I also started moving around more and was able to get out! We were both going crazy in our tiny one room loft for those 2 days! 😂 It was good though. I feel like it helps to get that fire back a little, ya know?  But it's never fun being sick! Haha.

We have had a few lessons this week! We had a lesson with Blair again. We taught the Plan of Salvation to her and I used my little puzzle thing! Thank you Sista Fitz! 😍 #ShoutOut! 😉 it was good though! She really liked it and it really helped her understand what happened with Adam and Eve. She said she always heard that we were all sinners when we're born and she always felt like that was wrong because a baby doesn't know what's right and wrong! So we talked about that and it was good! ☺️ 

We also had a lesson with Araceli and Mia. They're a less active mother and daughter. They're super cute!! We talked to them about reading the Book of Mormon and marking everything having to do with the Atonement and Jesus Christ. We just shared some of our favorites and stuff. I love testifying!! Especially of the Book of Mormon and the Savior. The spirit is always there and it just makes me happy! 

Then we saw Julisa! That was good. We just talked about the Book of Mormon and how it's the keystone! We stressed the importance of reading it and praying about it to know it's true because everything else weighs on that! So yeah! She didn't come to church though... ☹️ that was sad.. 

But we also had a lesson with Ruby. I don't know if I have told you about her! She is a less active girl. She was baptized a little while ago as the only one in her family.. She's only like 10 and doesn't really remember why she was baptized. So we taught her the restoration and talked about her praying about and reading the Book of Mormon. We told her that she will be able to remember why she was baptized as she reads the Book of Mormon. So we gave her a chapter to read and told her we will stop by again. 

Then there's Becky!! Hah! Oh how we love her! 😂 she's a funny one. Our lesson with her was good! So we are trying to help her to quit smoking. I don't know if you have heard of the 15 step program that isn't the churches but they encourage us to use it. It's the one with grapefruit juice and cinnamon toothpaste... 🤔 I dunno if that rings a bell. But it's supposed to have AMAZING results! They can quit IN A WEEK!! 😃😃 so! That is our plan with Becky! We introduced it her and she is going to try it is when that's going to start! Though I have faith, I know it will be interesting... haha. We fasted for her today. But will you all just keep her in your prayers! She also needs to have faith that quitting her dancing job is necessary.. especially because she is going to start working at the DI... but... she's worried she's not gonna be making enough. BAH!!!! Sometimes I just want to quit for her..  but that's not a test of her faith... so!! All we can do is pray for her! ☺️ 

That was pretty much our teaching this week! My Spanish is getting better! I can pray a lot better. I think the rest of it is just confidence. Because I can think up some good sentences but I just can't get them to come out. Haha. I guess I just need more faith in the gift of tongues!! It will come! I have another transfer here so that will be good! ☺️ 

The highlight of our week though was the TEMPLE!!! YYAAAAASSSS!!!😄😄😄 Yahh!! It was so great! We got to hit a Spanish session. Our Ward Mission Leader from the Young Single Adult Ward and Courtney took us. It was so great! There is nothing like the temple... ☺️ I was also able to receive some pretty amazing revelation as well! So! Haha. That's always awesome! We took a selfie outside! It's not super awesome, so I apologize but it was as good as it was get'in. ☺️ 

Everything else is great. It rained like nobodies business all STINK'IN week!! My black boots are already dying... ☹️😩 when I walk, water squishes into them and they squeak SUPER bad. 😂 it's pretty funny. But I'm bummed that they didn't last longer... 😔 but it's all good! Life is good! 

Sister Baum was tickling me in the car because she just discovered it was a thing and it was bad.. haha. I got stuck between the waist part of the seat belt, the dashboard and the seat. Haha 😂 it's just so violent when I get tickled, I guess. 😂 too funny! 


Thank you all for all you guys do!! I love you all so much! Have an amazing week! 

Love,
Sister Hood

I LOVE TO VISIT THE TEMPLE!!

WE GOT TO ATTEND THE SACRAMENTO TEMPLE ~ RECEIVED PERSONAL REVELATION ~ THE BEST SPIRITUAL FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT!!

SISTER BAUM & SISTER HOOD

THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL!!

Hi!!

Welp! I will warn you now. This will be kinda short because I'm a sicko and don't wanna write a ton. So!! That's that!! 😁 

This week was good!! We went to see Taylor a less active. That was quite the lesson..... so he doesn't really believe in God. What really appealed to him was the chaos theory. Where things just happen for no reason.. 🤔 it was interesting to talk to him. All was great and the spirit was there until his mom came and sat in. She flat out told him he had no faith. And other things that were not helping the spirit to stay. It got a little heated. But we were able to get the spirit it back by testifying of the Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation. It was interesting... she told him that no matter what he chooses, if they were faithful to their covenants he would still he pulled into the celestial kingdom... even if that is true, there was a MUCH better way and time to say it.... it was pretty interesting... we both felt like we should just not go over again this week because we don't want to cause contention. It seems to me that he is not ready yet. He needs to go through some things in life to really have his eyes opened. But he was also super kind and good to talk to. 

Then we had a lesson with Blair! It was a really good one! Here's the lesson report: 
"We followed up with the Word of Wisdom. She said she has been living it! Woo!!! We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Talked about the Atonement, she didn't know what it meant. Shared the post analogy with repentance. She asked about baptizing little kids. She said it didn't really make sense to her. Invited her to read Moroni 8 about that. Then talked about the Sacrament and shared the blind fold analogy, she said that made a lot of sense. Then we invited her to pray about a date to be baptized. She said she had thought about it and she's really scared because all her life everything good has been taken from her. She said she loves what she has learned and wants to be a part of it. But she is just worried. So we invited her to pray. It was a REALLY good lesson. We all felt the spirit. She is coming along really well. 😊" 

Then we also taught Maria who is Spanish. That was interesting. We were glad we had Hermana Perez with us. She's fluent and is well seasoned in the gospel. For me and Baum it was definitely a relief. It was good though. She is progressing towards her date too. ☺️ 

We met with Julisa and Blanca. The first time, Julisa didn't open the door because she can be super shy, haha. But we just talked to Blanca and went back another time to teach them the Word of Wisdom. We also changed Julisa's date to February! Yes.. my birthday. 😁 that's the date that she wanted so we rolled with it. 

We also did some Young Single Adult finding and stuff. Taught a few people here and there. It was good! 

Then we had Stake Conference! It was super good too! They talked about faith, temples and missionary work. ☺️ It was really good. Becky and her boyfriend, Maurice came to that. We are working with them too. Maurice has come to church and he is super vocal in class and fits right in. Sooo we will hopefully start teaching both of them. We are also going to help Becky stop smoking. We talked to her about that and she said she would have an answer whether she wanted to do it or not. So!! Hopefully that goes well!! 

We "practice taught" with a less active named Abish. She came home from her mission early and she has completely kinda fallen off the face of the Earth. So it was good to practice in Spanish with her. She told me at the beginning that my Spanish was really good... so that was cool! Ahah. ☺️ The gift of tongues is real! But we will be working with her every week to get more practice in Spanish. 

Welp! That was pretty much the week!! Thanks for your prayers and support. I feel their power daily. ☺️ 

Love you all! Have a great week! 

Love,
Sister Hood

HAPPY 2017!!

Hello Everyone!!

HAPPY 2017! 😱 can't believe that just happened. Haha. Well this week has been really good! We have had a lot of adventures and miracles!! I'm stoked to tell you all about them! 😁

So! It was an interesting day on Tuesday! We had this gallon of milk from some Hermana and it was going to go bad. So I decided I didn't want to be wasteful... haha! So I drank THE WHOLE GALLON in 3.5 hours! Haha, but. I didn't get all of it at once... haha! I had like 3 swigs left before the milk baby couldn't grow anymore... I felt a million times better after that but then I just went back and finished the last little bit. Hah!! It was super gross but I will probably try it again sometime. Not for awhile though because.. yeah. 😂 so that was the first adventure!

Then we had a lesson with Blanca, our recent convert, and her daughter Julisa. She is 12 and has SOO many super deep questions! It's pretty crazy. But she just soaked in everything we were teaching, which was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then she started asking A TON about things pertaining to the Plan of Salvation! Which was really cool because we answered all of her questions! (Except the ones about aliens 😂) then we just invited her to be baptized and she said  YAAS!! 😁 she set the 14th.. so we went with it. But then she didn't come to church this week so we had to push it back to my birthday. 😏 but it's super cool. She's so cute and wants so badly to learn. She has also been praying by herself and stuff. So it's super cool! That's the first miracle of the week!

Then! Another miracle! We went to see a Spanish 'gator. Her name is Virginia. We had gone to see her a few times and haven't really had a ton of progress with her. I think because before, they didn't really have like sit-down lessons. They more just shared a thought. Which is good if she isn't open to letting us in. But anyway, we just decided that it was gonna be do or die. So we would tell her that the message we have to share will bless her and her family's lives. And that it's how she can find true joy now and later. So that was the plan! She also speaks ZERO English. Soo... yeah. Haha Baum usually takes that on and I usually just smile and nod because I can understand a bunch of  the conversation just can't really put sentences together too well. But it was cool. At the end, Baum looked at me to add something... haha. Welp. I just kinda opened my mouth to say something. And I just bore my testimony about baptism.. hah!! I really don't even remember what I said, just that baptism was important. It was awesome! We..  well, Baum... also invited her to be baptized and she said YES!!! 😱 SO that was cool!! No date yet. But she was interested in learning more, obviously! So that was a couple cool miracles! 


Then! We had a lesson with our 'gator Blair. She is super timid and quiet. This was the first time I met her. But we hadn't seen her for a long time. So we found out that she is engaged. Their wedding is in 2018... 😳 we all know what that means... 😑 so! We will have to nip that in the bahookie if she is going to be baptized. But for now we will just keep teaching her, of course. 😊

Then!!! We had interviews with Pres and that was AMAZING! Ah! I just love my time with Pres. It's seriously also so uplifting and just the boost that I need every time! It's so great! And always improves my situation, especially this time. 😊 he told me that I probably won't be Spanish forever. He said probably in March, if we get more Spanish sisters I will be booted! He also said that he wanted us to go to a Spanish endowment session. It does have English subtitles and the verbiage will be in English so I was totally down! I don't care what language it's in I just wanna go! Haha. So that will be happening in a couple weeks. 😊

Our New Years was rather exciting.. hahah! So... we did service for this lady all morning and she made us waffles and took us to mickey-dees after we helped out. But then we went to tried to see people and stuff. I think that's when Virginia happened. But then we had dinner... Welp, if was definitely a new experience. When we started eating I was like "oh, okay. It's just pork or something." Welp... it probably wasn't. And I realized it when I started chewing... all I got was fatty squishiness... I gagged like 4 times.. since I couldn't really eat it with the spoon they gave us, I decided to just eat it with my fingers. Well, you see, I couldn't even do that, haha. But I noticed it had waves in it and when I pulled it apart all it was was cartilage.. it was at that point that I realized that it was tripe... I didn't/couldn't eat anymore after that. Haha. It was GROSS! Baum and I were both dying after. We came up with a sound that describes exactly what our stomachs feel when digesting authentic Latin food. 

Love Ya'll

CHRISTMAS PHOTOS

YUM - ANY DAY IS AN ICE CREAM DAY!! My new companion Sister Baum ~ is the BOMB!!
Sister Baum & Sister Hood

CHRISTMAS HOT CHOCOLATE!!
Sister Duncan & Sister Hood

YES!!  I LOVE ICE CREAM ~ IT MAKES ME HAPPY!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hey Homies!!

MERRY belated CHRISTMAS!!

It was so awesome to see all y'all! It was great! I don't have a whole
lot to say because I told y'all everything yesterday... so I will share
some of my studies with y'all!

Here's a quote by Neal A. Maxwell I read this morning that really made
me think...

“Premortality is not a relaxing doctrine. For each of us, there are
choices to be made, incessant and difficult chores to be done, ironies
and adversities to be experienced, time to be well spent, talents and
gifts to be well employed. Just because we were chosen ‘there and
then,’ surely does not mean we can be indifferent ‘here and now.’ …
“In fact, adequacy in the first estate may merely have ensured a
stern, second estate with more duties and no immunities! Additional
tutoring and suffering appears to be the pattern for the Lord’s most
apt pupils. (See Mosiah 3:19; 1 Peter 4:19.) Our existence, therefore,
is a continuum matched by God’s stretching curriculum. …
“Agreeing to enter this second estate, therefore, was like agreeing in
advance to anesthetic--the anesthetic of forgetfulness. Doctors do not
deanesthetize a patient, in the midst of what was previously
authorized, to ask him, again, if it should be continued. We agreed to
come here and to undergo certain experiences under certain conditions”
(in Conference Report, Oct. 1985, 21; or Ensign, Nov. 1985, 17).

I have had to read this like 5 times but finally it makes so much
sense. Because we were strong and valiant in the preexistence, we are
able to withstand more heat and more trial... interesting...

We all kept our 1st estate (choosing to come to earth) and now we are
in the in-between of keeping our second estate (choosing, still, to
follow Heavenly Father and our Savior here on earth). With that choice
to keep our first estate we authorized Heavenly Father to put us in
the fire to test our strength and dedication to Him and purify us of
the fallen state that we came here to overcome through our Savior,
Jesus Christ. Luckily though, we aren't ever alone. We were provided a
Savior to make that purification and sanctification possible. This is
just such a perfect plan. We are so blessed to have this knowledge!
Ahh!!! So grateful! It just blows my mind how merciful, just and
loving our Heavenly Father and our Savior are. So blessed.. 😊