IT'S ALWAYS THE LAST DOOR PEEPS!!

Um Hi! 

It had been SO HOT!!! Oh man... it was 100 at like 10.... welcome to Cali!  it's all good! I only have to endure one more of these summers so that's good! Haha. Everything is so beautiful though! It's awesome. I do love it here, just wish it was a little cooler and if our AC would blow a little harder it would be much appreciated. We're just happy we have ceiling fans and another little fan we can crank up.  I also had to buy a lighter blanket because I die of heat stroke.. I'm a bear if I don't sleep so that was necessary... 

This week was good! We switched our focus a little this week and focused on Less Actives! So we went and visited a bunch of them! That was cool. Some of them are so welcoming and kind. Kinda surprising sometimes.. haha. It will be cool because we are creating a big push for referrals here in our ward because that's where 80% of the baptisms in our mission come from.. so needless to say, it's much more effective. We also dropped a bunch of the investigators we have found. Plant seeds is what we do, but it's nice to reap the crop too.  so that's what we're working on! 

Miracles of the week!! 

Pam came to church and really enjoyed it! She's still solid and everything! It's just going to take a couple times of explaining things for her to understand! Which is totally good because we still have awhile until her date! So! That's awesome! 

So the other day, we hadn't found any new 'gators yet. We had gone home for lunch and I was doing something and I just had the thought "ah! We haven't found anyone yet!" So, I told my Mija we're gonna go find one today! After lunch we left and we felt inspired to go see Isabel. So we knocked on the door and a guy named Andres answered. We told him who we were and asked if Isabel was home, he said she didn't live there....that's super confusing because we visited her there twice...  but we did show him a video and stuff and he became a new 'gator!!!! I just thought it was crazy how we were determined to find one and the first door we knocked on, BOOM!!! Haha. Pretty cool. 

Another cool thing! So Sunday it was like 109.. but we had a lot of people to see so we couldn't just not.. plus that's just not what we do. So! We went out and everything because we were determined to find at least 1 new 'gator. So we were in a teenie tiny town and we decide to tract this circle! Yes... in 109 degree heat.... it was very exciting. It was Father's Day and a billion degrees out so no one wanted to love us.. But! The last house we knocked on, no one answered. So we were walking  to towards the car and a van pulls up next door. No one answered at that house so we decided to knock on it again!! We met Daylene. She was such a nice lady... no new investigators but we did get a potential out of it! It's always the last door peeps!! That's what I have learned in my past year of the mission life! ️ it was definitely a tender mercy! It was so hot..   

Welp! That's life these days! Nothing too insanely awesome! There were many miracles, nonetheless! ️ if you open your eyes they're always there. I love you guys! Thanks for all you do! ️ have a great week!! 

Love,

Sister Hood!!

PICTURES FOR YOUR PLEASURE & ENJOYMENT!!

BREAKFAST CREPES WITH MY SISTERS!!
SISTER HOOD & SISTER WHITESELL

I FOUND BUDDA!!
SISTER HOOD

TRAINER / TRAINING MEETING WITH THE ELDERS
SISTER HOOD ~ SISTER WHITESELL ~ ELDER PHELPS ~ ELDER YATES

ALWAYS SOMETHING SO PRETTY TO SEE!!

BEST DECISION EVER!!!

Welll! It has been an INSANE week! We have been super blessed with so many miracles! Greenies really do have fire! Lemme tell ya! Haha! 

So first! Here's a few of our miracles! 

Doug and Matt

He came outside as we were trying his neighbor. Started talking to him and Doug. We asked them if they had seen missionaries, they said they had seen the elders on bikes. We asked if they had ever talked to them, they said no. Shared Prince of Peace. Matt didn't really watch it because he was telling us about a yoga master thing that reminded him of something to do with the Savior. We asked if they were very religious. Matt said he wasn't but recently he had been going to a Christian church. He said his friends took him to church after he has recently trying to make big changes in his life. He said that some problems were really destroying his life. He told us that he is really trying to get out of it. Before that though, he didn't really give a lot of thought to God. He believes in a higher power but doesn't really know if it's God or not. Talked about the Atonement. He didn't really know what it was. We explained that the Savior doesn't want us to suffer and he has already paid for the hurt and sorrow he feels, but he doesn't have to live with that forever. We told him we could teach him how to overcome his problems. We promised that he would be able to get back everything that he had once lost. He asked what made us different from other churches. We gave him a Restoration pamphlet and invited him to read it. He said that he would. He was super cool. Doug was gone for most of that conversation, but he came back when we invited Matt to meet with us. Invited Doug to do the same, he said he would, ️

Diane: 

So, we read from the Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 10-11 and answered the questions she had, many of them logical. Then we  asked about what things rubbed her the wrong way about the church and she opened up and we talked about some of that stuff, such as baptism being a deal breaker and not seeing her family if she chooses otherwise, and a few other things, 100% spirit talking. She's going to spend some time to ponder each night after her prayer and will hopefully get an "ah ha!" moment over time but it takes time and patience. But the spirit opened her up and will hopefully help her progress out of the eterni-gator phase

It was SUPER COOL!! It was seriously Sister Whitesell asking these amazing inspired questions. I literally said like 10 words.. it was super cool to see the Spirit work through her. She has been working on that for a long time and that's something she really wanted and this week was FULL of that! 

Violetta:

Intro to her... she used to be a member but removed her name from the church records. Since than everything had literally blown up. She lost her husband, her daughter, her home, literally everything! She had been super depressed and struggling, which is totally understandable. She contacted us and we were finally about to meet with her. Last time it was super hard because she just threw all of her problems on us. I mean, we can take it but it just makes it awkward and hard. But this time we met with her, and she dumped more of her issues on us for the first 45 minutes.. I was super tired and I was trying so hard not to fall asleep, so needless to say, I wasn't in the greatest position to feel the spirit.. shame on me. But Sister Whitesell started asking inspired questions and slowly we got things out of her and made her realize that she was mad at God and she has a lot of things she needs to work on. It was SO cool to see the spirit slowly soften her heart! I have never seen anything like that! She even said our closing prayer and took a Book of Mormon...  I seriously can't even tell you... she went from being mad at the church and never wanting to come back to being willing to pray on her own and with us...AND SHE TOOK THE BOOK!!!!  After she prayed such an amazing prayer, she opened the Book of Mormon and started reading... she came to Alma 34:35.. which says "For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked." Ahhhh!!!   she started reading and my jaw hit the floor.. hah! It was NUTS! This was probably the craziest thing on my mission.. it blew my mind.. 

It's cool to be able to understand more fully the impact of the miracles like this that happen. Violetta's lesson actually brought me to tears.. Sister Whitesell was super amazed but it didn't hit has hard. Haha. Super cool. 

But yeah! That's life these days! I can't believe that I only have 5 months left... that terrifies me.. haha. 

Welp! It's been good! I love being a missionary. So many miracles and experiences happen that I would've never had otherwise. Best decision ever! ️ 

Love you all! 

Sister Hood

PHOTO'S FOR YOUR PLEASURE & ENJOYMENT!!

SISTER'S HARD AT WORK!!
SISTER HOOD & SISTER WHITESELL

TIME FOR THE ZONE TO PLAY!!

WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!!
SISTER HOOD AND THE ZONE

WE MADE IT TO THE TOP!!
SISTER HOOD & SISTER WHITESELL

CHECK OUT THE VIEW ~ WORTH THE CLIMB ~
SO BEAUTIFUL!!
SISTER HOOD AND THE ZONE

LOVE FEEL'IN THE SUNSHINE ON MY FACE!!
SISTER WHITESELL & SISTER HOOD

WOAH!!!  WORDS CAN'T EVEN EXPRESS THE BEAUTY OF HEAVENLY FATHER'S CREATION!!

THE CLOUDS ROLLED IN AND THE RAIN'S CAME DOWN!! SO AMAZING TO ME!!

THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAV ADVENTURES ON P-DAY!!

SHE IS GLORIOUS!!!

Well Fam and Friends, 

I now have a child. She is glorious bouncing baby girl!!  Just kidding!!! But only kinda... she is a girl.. hahah. It was a crazy week! My life was flipped upside down, basically! So on Tuesday, Sister Singleton, me, and Sister Gill drove down south! That was super sad but fun! Sister Singleton is now down in Granite Bay, which is super close to C-Heights. The houses are just on steroids there. Haha. She seems to really like it though. After I spent Tuesday with her and her new comp, we caravaned down to the mission office Wednesday morning so I could pick up my child!  i was so nervous when I got there... AH! It was bad. I was talking to President Marston right before the greenies came in and he was like "Sister Hood... don't look so nervous!" And then I freaked out a little because I thought I was hiding it. Haha! So he came over took my under his wing (literally, but only as much as a mission president can with a sister...) and calmed me down, haha. It was cute. I love Pres. But my nerves seem to chill out as the day went on. We had presentation and training for training.. haha. That was helpful. But Pres. made me nervous again when he told us "I'm giving you these babies.. they know nothing about the mission." He's right though, their minds are so fresh and the imprints of bad and good will stay! That's the scary part because I'm not perfect by any means! Haha. 

Anyway, let me tell you about my "Mija". ️ Her name is Sister Whitesell (white-cell). She's so chill! I appreciate that... haha. The word she used to describe herself is Obedient. Yaaay!!!  she's way cool though. She loves nature and actually went to BYU for a couple years for the wildlife conservation degree. So that's pretty cool! We're gonna have a fun time on our PDays!! She's from Wayland, Massachusetts which is like 25 minutes out of Boston. So that's super cool. We have fun. She just wants to learn everything and she's amazed at how missionaries just talk to people. Haha. I was the same way though. I remember when Seely Weely would just talk to this random person it would blow my mind because I just couldn't do that for the life of me at that point. How the tables have turned! Haha, Sister Whitesell is adjusting pretty well. It's interesting to just lead by example and then she'll follow.. like the other day! She told me to get to the prayer carpet to start comp study! Haha!! I laughed. ️ It's so cool.. she's awesome!   #Blessed. It's also super cool to see her figure out what the spirit feels like and what promptings feel like. She told me it's crazy to her that I just talk about the spirit and how he told me to do something just like it's a normal thing. Haha. I didn't even realize that I made it so nonchalant.. I guess you just kinda get used to promptings and stuff so you just go do it. Haha, I dunno, it just kinda blew her mind. ️ But it's been cool to see her recognize the spirit and follow it. She has made some really cool comments that members have needed and testified with the power and authority a missionary has. So it has been awesome to see her start to see everything work! Training has taught me sooo much in this past week.. oh my goodness. It's comforting though because I realize I know what I'm doing more than I feel like I do, even though at the same time I don't. Haha. It's always interesting.. 

Our days have not been normal really so it's been hard for her to get the feel of what it's like because we have had random meetings and everything. So Saturday was our most normal day. It was awesome. She got to help me teach the Plan of Salvation to Pam. That went well. Pam is so cute. Haha. We found out with her that in 2012, someone pushed her down backwards and she smacked her head on the pavement which obviously caused some brain damage.. breaks. My. Heart! Who does that!! ☹️ she's the sweetest lady... but I'm grateful that we felt inpired to knock on her door.  We also invited her to come to a baptism the other ward was having. So Sister Bohan picked her up and took her to that. She said her favorite part was when he went into the water! How cool is that.. ️ 

We also invited Mariah to come to the baptism too! It was awesome for her! She's so cute. I'm so excited for her. We had a lesson about the restoration with her this week. She told us she had already read the Book of Mormon and had prayed about it. We asked what she felt and she said that she had felt a lot of peace. Haha. She is SO prepared, it's insane! ️ I'm so proud of her! She's so great! Please continue to pray for her! We still have to figure out her situation with her baby girls daddy.. so! That will be an interesting chat. Haha.  

Something super cool that a member in our ward talked about last night at dinner blew my mind. So we were talking about forgiveness and she, being a seminary teacher, comes up with these super cool analogies and stuff. She drew the earth with the veil around it. She made the point that the veil kind of skews our prospective because we can only understand with what our senses tell us. Then related it to us and our sins. Us being the earth and our sins being the veil. Our sins skew our prospective of ourselves and of others and their sins. The part that really blew me away was when she talked about how the Lord sees us. He sees us completely separate from our sins. To Him, our sins do not define us. He says that He cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. But He doesn't look at us that way. He looks at us as His child. Though we have sinned and done things wrong, He sees beyond that. He sees what we can become as His children. It reminded me of on my very favorite scriptures. Romans 8:16-17--

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." 

We are potentially "joint-heirs with Christ" who are on our journey thru mortality. We are potential Gods and Goddesses clawing our way to the top. That's how our Heavenly Father and our Savior see us. Not as some sinner who is so vial that the Lord cannot even look at us. We are His children and He knows what we can become! I just thought that was super powerful! 

I love you guys! ️ 

Love, 

Sister Hood

PHOTOS FOR YOUR PLEASURE AND ENJOYMENT!!

LOVE MY NEW COMPANION ~ SHE IS SO GLORIOUS!!
SISTER HOOD & SISTER WHITESELL

AWKWARD!!
Sister Hood & Sister Whitesell

OUR LAST P-DAY TOGETHER
Sister Hood & Sister Singleton

SUCH A BEAUTIFUL PLACE ~ LOVE IT!!
SISTER HOOD & SISTER SINGLETON

I'M ON TOP OF THE WORLD!!
SISTER HOOD

GIVE SAID THE LITTLE STREAM ~ GIVE OH GIVE!!
SISTER HOOD & SISTER SINGLETON