WEIRDEST WEEK OF MY MISSION!!

Hello my friends and fam! 

Quite honestly, this has been one of the weirdest weeks of my mission! We haven't felt productive but all of our time was filled with productive things. Our schedule was just weird partially because we had District Meeting & interviews with President Ward on Friday instead of Wednesday. It has also FLOWN by. Super weird. 

Lemme share a SUPER funny story.  so! Here we are Tuesday morning. Linda texts us and lets us know that she will be late for service. But she wanted us to get started on getting rid of the "suckers" on the apricot tree. well. We didn't know what suckers were... so we got there and decided maybe she meant to prune dead branches off of the peach tree.. haha. Well, Linda showed up after awhile. She was like "what are doing? That's the peach tree not the apricot tree.. this is the apricot tree!"  She takes us over to the other tree and tells us again to get rid of the suckers but she is gone again before we could ask what suckers were. As she went to change, we just decided that the dead branches needed to be cut off. Because the tree was way taller than my little arms could reach, Sister Whitesell grabbed the clippers and started jumping up, grabbing branches and cutting them off as she came back down to the ground. It worked pretty well the first couple times. Then, you see, there was a branch that was a little thicker than the others. But oh no, that did not stop her! She jumped up, caught the branch and hung there just long enough for her feet to swing out from under her as the branch broke off. Suddenly before she knew it, she was on her back looking up at the apricot tree.  oh man, I wish I could've gotten that on video. I was only laughing because I knew she wasn't hurt. I was DYING! Hahah!! She was kinda butt hurt (no pun intended! ), but we always laugh at each other. That was a gem!

We have had some cool experiences with some people this week! 

Reed:

It was super cool! Erica was sleeping with the baby so it was just Reed. He said he didn't have time to read from the Book of Mormon or the pamphlet and he was super bummed about it. We felt prompted to share Reclaimed. The first thing he said when we asked him what he thought was that he needed to hear that. He told us about his past and how he had done things that he was not proud of. He feels real guilt. Things have happened to him and people have told him that he deserves it because of his past. We read the story of Alma the Younger and talked about how it all relates to him. We talked about how Christ already suffered for all of those things and if he sincerely repents and forgives himself, he can feel forgiven by himself and by God. He really wanted that. We started talking about baptism a little bit and invited him to a baptism next weekend. Before we could finished the sentence to invite him, he already said yes. He said we would love to come. He has such a sincere heart and wants to Forgive himself, so we invited him to pray and ask for forgiveness and for help to forgive himself. It was a super cool lesson. He said he was super glad we came today and that he told us about his past. It was awesome! 


Sorry I'm super lame. But I just don't feel like it! We do have Pam's baptism! Please pray for her.... okay?  love you guys! Have a good week! 

Love,

Sister Hood

PHOTOS FOR YOUR PLEASURE & ENJOYMENT!!

OH YA KNOW...JUST THE SMOLDER!!
SISTER HOOD & SISTER BAUM

THE HEAT OF THE GAMES!!
MY AWESOME CHICO ZONE

SERVICE PROJECT 
CLEANING THE WINDOWS
SPAR-KLY!!
SISTER HOOD

BOOK OF MORMON STUDY!!
SISTER HOOD & SISTER WHITESELL

SO PROUD OF MY MIJA!!

Oh Hello! 

It has been another week!! I'm only down to like 16 left according to Sister Baum...  it's crazy because you can feel that it's coming closer to the end. I really don't dig that. But, all good things must come to an end.. GOOD THING IT'S NOT OVER YET! 

It has been a really good week! Sister Whitesell is blossoming and continuing to get better! So in training, week 11 is when they basically take everything. Well, it's only week 8 and we have decided to do that! That's how amazing she is!!! She's doing a great job. ️ so proud of my Mija! She has been working on recognizing and acting on promptings! Huge improvements there too! One funny experience with that! So we were going to contact Rebecca since we haven't been able to get a hold of her for ages.. we called her and Stressly's phone but no one answered... so! We decided to do the missionary thing and drop by! Well.... no one came to the door... I remember Sister Whitesell making a comment about opening the door.. haha. I just kinda laughed because... you just don't do that.. especially is certain situations... like this one.  As we were walking down the stairs the spirit poked me and reminded me that we are trying to get her to act on her promptings. I felt terrible. So I turned around and asked if that was a prompting. She said she thought so. So we marched back up those stairs and she turned that door knob and slowly opened the door... it was the most eerie thing of my life.. the room was poorly lit and the door did that squeaky thing just like it does in scary movies... it kept opening and we saw no one for what felt like an eternity.. we were both worried we were going to walk in on a murder scene or something like that. That was the feeling that was there.... wrong. Bad ju ju. Anyway, finally we saw a person!  Yaaay! It was Rebecca sitting at the table... she was like oh hey! Sorry I was in the bathroom and I just got out. I'm in the middle of transactions, can you come back later? We said we would. It was a very weird thing... she seemed to be hiding something and the spirit was not in her home..... I felt very off there. No bueno. We were going to have a little throw down and talk about life with her, but when we went back with the Elders, there was no answer... and no we didn't open the door this time.  

Samantha: 

Here's how we found her! It was super cool. So! We were going to visit Elizabeth. She told us it wasn't a good time. Whitesell was prompted to ask if she could think of anyone around we could visit. She sent us to her backdoor neighbor. Welp, he was just packing up to leave so he turned us away. We just continued to tract not having much success. As we were just walking down the street trying to feel the "poke" of the spirit. As I was feeling, the thought came that there was someone we needed to see. We didn't know it was on this street or somewhere else. But we felt prompted to walk back to the car. So as we were about to get in the key doesn't work... that's not supposed to be able to happen. But we decided to take it as Heavenly Father telling us something! One house caught my eye so we just walked over to it. It was actually super sketchy... but as we were just standing there on the porch waiting for an answer, I felt that we were actually where we were supposed to be. I haven't had it that distinct before. So that was that! 

She sleeps during the day and works at night time. She works as a CNA. She has 5 girls and her husband works in Monterey right now. They are a little bit religious. The girls go to a Christian church every Sunday because a bus picks them up. She goes when she can since she works crazy shifts. She has 4 days of work then 2 days off. We shared Prince of Peace. She really liked it. She asked what made us different from Christian churches. We talked about how we are Christian thru and thru, as in we worship Jesus Christ and strive to become like Him, but we are different because we believe in other things too like Joseph Smith. She hadn't heard of him but was interested in hearing that story! We told her we would love to come back. She said she would like that! Set a time for Tuesday. She said evenings are best because it gives her time to sleep during the day! She's awesome! Super open and kind! ️

Chelsea!

Oh my goodness! This lesson was amazing! She is so solid. We found out she was at church on Sunday but we didn't even see her!! But she said she was super impressed how kind everyone was. She really felt like it was a big family. We asked how much she really know about it all, she said she doesn't know much except for that which her friend told her. Her friend sent her some awesome scriptures from D&C that were super powerful to her! She shared one of them with us. Started the resto. She nailed every question. She said she just feels like everything we believe is common sense. She totally believes that the first vision happened. She was amazed that Christ came to the Americas too. We invited her to be baptized. She said she totally would. So we asked if we could set a date. She picked Aug. 26th!! So amazing! She asked how we baptize. Talked about that and what baptism represents. She also explained to us what it meant to be forgiven so she basically explained the whole repentance Process to us, she said she had felt it work in her life. We talked about prayer. She lives the simplicity of how we pray. She said she will pray about the Book of Mormon and about what we taught. She asked where the best place to start reading in the Book of Mormon is. We told her the beginning is the best place. Talked about the witnesses and maybe reading the intro again. She was really excited! She will be at church in 2 sundays because she is going camping this weekend! Set up a time for next Tuesday! ️

Pam:

Well. We talked about the sabbath day. Pam understood and she said she would live it. She will have to give up her shopping on sundays. She also expressed her concern that she sometimes needs to get out of the house. We told her walks are okay, just not shopping. We talked about Tithing... that was where she had a really hard time... she was really worried about. She didn't understand why she couldn't just give a few dollars her and there.. we explained that it's what the Lord has established. We invited her to just try it and see if He will bless her. We also invited her to pray about it... it was a little tough.

Nick: 

He's a cool guy, we tracted into him with Hood's warmer colder spirit guideance. But he said he doesn't usually open the door for people like us but he did for some reason today. He like to learn about religions and picks what he likes from each. Doesn't affiliate with any one church though. Talked about his basic beliefs in Christ, He led by example. Wanting to gain Christlike attributes is a goal, everyone has trials in life and not everyones are the same. He doesn't know what exactly to call God but believes in a higher being. He's a way cool guy and very chill, fun conversation too. Oh and almost everything he was saying was in line with what we believe. So it was super cool! 

Welp! That's about it for the week!! I love you guys! Have a great week!  

Love

Sister Hood! 

SOME PICTA'S 4 YOU!!

Sister Whitesell & Sister Hood

SOME PRETTY SPECIAL LADIES!!
Sister Hood ~ Sister Hood ~ Pam ~ Thelma

Typical Sunday after our companion study
 ~ we just can't get up!!
Sister Whitesell & Sister Hood

Sister Baum is the BOOM!!
Sister Hood & Sister Baum

JUST MOWING LAWN'S ~ BENEFITS OF BEING SENIOR COMP ~ HA!!
SISTER HOOD & SISTER BAUM

WHERE'S JAZZIE?
SISTER HOOD BEHIND THE
ALOE VERA PLANT

TWO THUMBS UP
SISTER HOOD

THE DIABETE'S PLATTER ~ YUM!!
SISTER WHITE SELL & SISTER HOOD

WE HAVE 21 LESSONS!!

Hey Everybody!! 

Welp! Today is one of those PDays that you really don't wanna email! Haha. So! Here's some of my week and some miracles! 

It's still hot here and we still are seeing miracles happen! We have 21 lessons planned for this week... plus fitting in studies. That probably means nothing to you but I will send you a screenshot of our schedule. Haha. 

Jacob

First of all, we were one our way to visit someone. They didn't answer so when we went back to the car, he was standing there so we were planning on talking to him. But we didn't have to initiate the conversation! HE asked us what we were doing! Haha. So we talked with him and he was super interested! We invited him to meet with us. We text him a couple days later and set a time. We also invited him to church. He said he would make it! Ya know, that's cool and everything, but we don't really hold our breath. Call it a lack of faith or just protecting ourselves from discouragement. It's just that people talk but you don't believe it till ya see it! But guess who showed up!!!! GAHHHH!!! It's was awesome!! So here's what happened in Gospel Principle. 

We did the whole Restoration. He's actually a pretty spiritual guy already. Knows that there's a higher being and believes that He listens to us and helped him out of a rough spot in his life, guided him away from joining the army. He wants to be a tool for God and help improve others lives. He believes that Joseph Smith could have received that revelation because when we ask for things it's all depending on our intent as to if we get a response. Overall amazing lesson and he seemed receptive and answered our questions openly and honestly, he's looking for what to believe in regarding the details of religion. Understood the apostasy very well too and how it's all part of a bigger plan. He just lets God guide him when he doesn't know what to do next. 

Elizabeth

It was awesome! She is a super cool lady! We stopped by and she invited us in. Shared Because of Him. She liked the music and that it reminded her that we need to become Christlike before we can be in heaven. It was awesome. She had a really good understanding of that. She was totally excited to come to church in our ward. she also said she was happy to meet with us. We asked why she chose the LDS church. She said she hadn't tried it and there was just a lot of people going to it. She knows some in the church but they aren't very friendly to her... but she doesn't let that deter her. She's super cool! She said the closing prayer and quoted the preamble and the pledge of allegiance! It was awesome! ️

(The Elder's lesson with her)

Our lesson with Elizabeth was fantastic. We first walked in and she was incredibly jumpy. She was very nervous, but we told her that we were just regular people, and she had nothing to worry about. As she was preparing the dinner, she decided to teach us a little bit about her back story. She's apparently a Freemason. And she is trying to find her rite that she will one day inherit because she traced her lineage back to some royalty. She then proceeded to talk about how she had some real estate that she was hoping to benefit from in a court case. And then she very abruptly proclaimed to us that she will pay her tithing on the money that she shall receive. After we settled the fact that the church didn't necessarily want her money, and that it was a personal contribution, she then proceeded to take out a Bible and read the entirety of John 10 to us. She read it as if it were something out of Hamlet, and it was fantastic. We talked a little bit about priesthood authority, and how each member of the church that is a priesthood holder can trace their authority and power back to Christ. After that, we basically taught the entirety of the restoration from the point of the saviors earthly ministry onward. After hearing the verse about "other sheep I have", I then proceeded to pop out of the house and head over to the car to grab a copy of the Book of Mormon. We gave the copy to her. We read her Moroni's promise, and told her that if she were to read and ponder and pray, she would find the truth as well. For a closing prayer, she gave a wonderful prayer asking for safety. And then she started reciting the priest prayer from the Catholic Church. It was amazing. We then parted ways. 

Needless to say, were pretty pumped about her!! She didn't come to church though because of her eyes. Something no bueno was happening.. 

Matt:

It was awesome. We followed up with repenting with the pamphlet. He didn't get to because his roomies threw it away. But he said he did pray a couple times. He didn't feel different but he believes that his prayers were heard. Recapped repentance. He got that it was asking for forgiveness. Introduced the Book of Mormon and read about Alma the younger. He was kinda in and out of it the whole time and pretty indifferent sometimes. But he said he could relate to Alma in some ways. He was a little indifferent about being able to become clean. We bore testimony. He asked if "it worked" if we still think about our past sins. We explained that it works if we repent sincerely. But the adversary likes to make us feel like it didn't work. Talked about the Atonement. Invited him to be baptized. He said he already had been. Acknowledged that that was awesome act of faith but talked about the priesthood. He also asked things like how we baptize, etc. it was really good, he agreed to work for Sept. 2nd. we know he has things he has to work on before he can be baptized and needs to gain a conviction. But he was willing to work towards it. He said he would pray about the Book of Mormon. 

Bernadette:

We were going to see Josh but Bernadette was home and glad to see us so we taught her instead (Josh wasn't home). She's had a rough past few days, trying to stay positive but it was getting to her and she brought up that she was questioning if God was there. We invited her to pray about it and showed her the Prince of Peace video. She got emotional and told us that she needed everything in that video, a good reminder for her and that answered her prayer. Just us being there was amazing for her. She's determined to be at church Sunday since it's been a while, such a miracle! So cool that we got to see her tonight when she really needed it!

So! That's it!! God is good and so many miracles are happening!  Thanks for your prayers! They are always felt! ️ have a good week! 

Love,

Sister Hood

SOME PHOTOS FOR YOUR PLEASURE & ENJOYMENT!!

PICKING FROM THE TREE OF TRUTH
Sister Hood

WORKING SISTA'S
Sister Whitesell & Sister Hood

DO'IN SOME SERVICE
Sister Hood

WE ARE SO BLESSED HEAVENLY FATHER GAVE US A BUSY SCHEDULE THIS WEEK!!

INTENSE MIRACLES THIS WEEK!!

Well Hello!! 

It's been a great week!! Kinda weird though. We have had everything from amazing miracles to food poisoning to meeting our new mission president to roofing adventures to transfer calls!! Haha. Busy busy week! 

So! For the 4th we had fun... I guess. Haha. We had to be in by 7 pm. So we did our normal thing all day until about 5:30ish then we went to din din! They had a BBQ outside and it was fun. The food was good! Until about 12:30am...... I wasn't affected but Sister Whitesell got wrecked. She was up from about 12:30-7:30... I didn't even know all this was happening because I was dead to the world! I woke up at 6:30 and saw that she wasn't in her bed and I about had a heart attack!!!  but of course, I was mostly asleep still at that point. Haha. I went looking for her in the bathroom and sure enough, there she was laying on the bathroom floor on a ball.  I was very confused.... haha. She explained what happened and asked for a blessing. So we called Elder Call and Elder Grayson over and they gave her a blessing. It was one of those times I was super grateful for the priesthood, more so than normal. ️ other than that though, our 4th was quite exciting! We really wanted to do something fun. So we went to the store to see if we could find any sparklers or anything chill like that. Well, we asked the guy and he said that sparklers were illegal in Chico.....  what.. haha. Sparklers... illegal... in Chico... yes. That makes sense.  goodness me. So, we just bought some popper things and had our own little party.  I'll send a little video of our adventure with that! 

So this all happened the morning that we were supposed to meet our new mission president and his wife! Well, it was a miracle we made it there. Haha. I love getting together with the other zones because I get to see some of my favorite missionaries!!  so many super good friends!  It was also a great meeting! President and Sister Ward are amazing!!! Ahh! So much wisdom! Not to mention, they are both HILARIOUS!  I also really love the accent. They're from Chicago so they say things funny! I love it!! When he said consequences it sounded like caaansequences.  yeees!!  I look forward to my 3 transfers left with them. ️ something amazing that he taught us was what he learned as he was in the MTC. He talked about the weight of callings. So a pillar it seems like it holds up a roof. But the roof makes the pillar stable. That's how a calling works. The weight of a calling stables is in our spirituality and in the church. I thought that was amazing!! So think about that! How does your calling stable you?  

We helped Linda this week!!! It was awesome. We helped her take off part of the roof on one of the homes she is working on! So that was awesome! We attacked that sucker. I enjoy manual labor. ️ we also got to take off paneling inside the house. My destructive self came out a little...  the Elders were like "whoa Sister Hood!"  it was funny! 

Oh man!! There have been some INTENSE miracles this week! I'm pumped to tell you about them! Here ya go! 

Ron:

Ron is the guy we met last week who didn't leave!!!! That was a miracle alone... but he met with us at the church on Friday! AH! It was incredible! Here's our lesson report: 

Asked if he had read from the Book of Mormon. He skimmed over some of it. He said he is really looking for direction in his life. He was never religious until recently. He knows God has a plan for him and he is willing to do whatever it is God wants him to do. ( GREAT START!!) He told us a lot of his background which was really rough. He has come lasting mental effects that he is overcoming. He really wants to be accepted and feel loved (crazy because that's what we got when We studied for him that morning! ) He wants to come to church but won't until he has some nicer clothes so he can feel more comfortable. He is super smart. He has studied about Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. When talking about the Saviors ministry, he knew what happened when and where. He loves history. We taught some of the restoration but he interrupted us and told us that he really feels like he can trust us and feels super comfortable with us. It was really cool. He was telling his friend he thinks he is going to join the LDS church and he felt like she was looking down upon him for it. So he said he is going to drop her. He is really serious about this whole thing. He feels joy with us and like he can be himself. He is awesome!! Super solid! ️ 

Okay... well. This alone is UNHEARD OF!! I wish you all coulda been flies on the wall.. that woulda been alotta flies.. so maybe not. But it was amazing! He is most solid new investigator I have ever taught in my missionary lifetime!! But, the catch is that he is actually in the Elders boundary... so they will end up teaching him unless he feels more comfortable with us. But, it will most likely be them. So that's great because we know they have struggled and we are all on the same team anyway! But ah!! He's so amazing! I'm so excited to see where this all goes! Please keep him in your prayers! 

Mariah

She was one of our investigators on date, but unfortunately, due to the situation we had to take her off for a minute. It's okay tho. She should be back on soon!! That part of the miracle!! So she is the one who is living with members and had a baby with their son, Will. Will wasn't at all into getting married. So our dilemma was that Mariah needed to find a place and get a job or marry Will. It has been rough because she is in school, can't really find entry level jobs in a college town because they're reserved for the college kids and she has to take care of Julia all the time! So! It's been interesting. Here's the lesson report for this week! 

It was a good lesson. We talked about her life and how things have been. She said she still has not had any luck with the living situation or a job. We talked about the Importance of doing our part and working hard. She let us in on a couple things that have been hard for her. She has a really strong desire to be baptized because her life isn't easy right now... that's what she told us. We talked about Satan putting hardships in our way, especially when it's something very necessary for our salvation. Talked about fasting (again, what came to us during studies), the purpose of it and the power it brings to our lives. Sister Woodward bore her testimony on fasting. Invited her to fast with us for 2 meals on Sunday to have confidence in the Lords plan and to make everything  work out okay. She agreed. Also invited her to read the Book of Mormon daily. ️ she's awesome! 

So!! We reminded her to fast and everything. She unfortunately wasn't at church.... but we did go about our day fasting as well for the same purpose. So around 5 or so we felt like we should text her to let her know we missed her and ask about her fast. She said all went well so we asked if anything had changed since Thursday. Then she hit us with it!!! Her and Will are getting married!!!!!!!!!!! What the what!!!! This is NUTS! We were freakin out! Fasting absolutely works... man! Nothing super insane like this has happened like this when I have fasted because, I guess I never had a strong enough need before! So that was a huge testimony builder for me and SUCH a huge answer to our prayers! Such a miracle! ️ 

Are you ready for more!?!  Can you handle the MIRACLES?!!! Because I can't! HAH!  

Stressly

I don't know if y'all remember Stressly! This is Rebecca's boyfriend. We have been teaching them both with the Elders, which apparently has been going great! So! We went over with the Elders this week and Rebecca had a crazy migraine so she didn't come out. So we just taught Stressly! So, his situation is interesting. Rebecca is a Less Active. That's how we met him And he was only really there with us because of Rebecca. But slowly his heart is changing! We have been reading the Book of Mormon with them and they have on their own too. So we asked Stressly about what he read. He asked some very good questions! It was impressive. He said that the Book of Mormon really intrigues him because it's about his ancestors, since he is Native American! Later in the lesson, HE brought up baptism...  WHAAAAAA?!?!? Okay. Now this doesn't happen people!!! Especially with this man! Ha! So he said that he remembered when we invited him to be baptized but he said he wasn't really interested. But he said that he would be interested in following through with that in the future!! Hah!  guys! This is amazing!  Then Saturday we stopped by because it was his birthday and Rebecca told us that he had been reading the Book of Mormon out loud! She said he read like 3 and a half chapters!  this is nuts.. haha. 

Ok!! Last big one! 

Pam! 

Aww.. she's just the cutest! ️ I love her so much! We hadn't seen her in a couple weeks and if was kinda freakin us out! But luckily we ran into Stephanie who told us she wasn't home and to stop by later. (Miracle!) But when we did stop by, Pam gladly let us in! So we planned on just reading the Book of Mormon with her. So we read the intro to her and she really liked it. We talked about the promise of the Book of Mormon and what it means to have real intent! We invited her to pray about it right there since the spirit was strong! Man... it was the simplest prayer I have ever heard... this is what it consisted of: "Dear Heavenly Father....(jumbling of words..).... is it true?........ in Jesus name.."  the spirit was SO strong at this point. So we asked her if she felt different. She said she did and we asked how. These are her words: "like it's true.." that really got me. Man! She knew. The spirit was there and it was so powerful. we bore testimony and promised her that that feeling will deepen over time as she reads it every day. So that's what we invited her to do. I made her a cute little prayer rock to help her remember to pray. ️ so cute! I love her so much! She is such a pure and special spirit! ️ we changed her date though because we need to make sure she gets everything she needs. So that's no on Aug. 5th, at least that's what we're shooting for.  this was also something that has never happened on my mission. I have never seen someone receive a witness that the Book of Mormon is true like this. It was amazing. Sister Whitesell's jaw literally dropped.  it was awesome. 

We have been SO blessed! It's been such a great week. I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing us so much. Man. It's incredible. ️ too much. 

Well, I'm really sorry this is so long! If you are reading this part, you're a champ! Hahahah!! It was worth the read tho, eh? ️ thanks for everything! Love you guys! 

Love,

Sister Hood

 Let Him shine through you!