Missionary Maren: Hello!‏

HELLO HELLO! :) I miss all of you so much! It's been so good to hear from you! Thank you for the emails and love and support! XOXO

I had my birthday this week! One month on the mission! So crazy! We went to Coldstone to celebrate! We call it birthday surprizzle! :)

This week was busy busy busy! We contacted and taught a couple new investigators! A couple of them are moms with lots of children and they are so hopeful and such good people! Cathy has three daughters and she lives with her aunt. Her husband is in rehab for drugs-- so sad. Her daughters are so adorable! SO adorable! One of them really liked us sisters and was talking to us a lot. I think she is 5 or 6 and I asked her if she knew she could pray whenever she wanted to and she didn't! I told her Heavenly Father loves her SO much and wants her to pray to Him. She had the biggest smile on her face and said she would pray. I can't believe how much my life has been influenced by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I grew up always knowing that I had a loving Heavenly Father and that I could always pray to Him for anything. I am so grateful for this opportunity to share these simple divine truths with everyone. How different can this little girls life be knowing she can pray... It just amazes me.

We are also teaching a boy named RJ--he is 11 and has a baptismal date for August 16th! He is super funny and really crazy! We have been reading the Book of Mormon war stories with him and he is enjoying it very much haha he has been taught a lot by other missionaries so he knows his stuff, but never had the desire to get baptized. Now that he does have that desire to follow Christ we are REALLY excited to help him reach his goal! :) We drew out one of our lessons using side walk chalk with him (all of those years coming up with creative things to do for babysitting paid and working for A & R paid off!:)) It worked really well!

One of our Less Active members we visit, Lynn Brant struggles with mental and emotional issues and has a hard time attending all the meetings at church because of anxiety. We went to her house and shared with her the power the Atonement can have in her life, but leaning on Jesus Christ because He suffered for ALL pains and sorrows in this life. It was a really great lesson and we figured out the reason why she doesn't stay for all three meetings is because she doesn't want to get picked on to read during classes because she can't read that well. We told her that she has NOTHING to worry about and that she won't have to read if she doesn't want to! It was a miracle we found that out!

Thursday night we had a big ward Pioneer Day party with cobbler and ice cream! It was super fun and a BUNCH of our investigators showed up! BEST DAY EVER! We had a great time and got to know the ward better.

Friday night we ate dinner at the Evan's house (I love this family so much!!!) Both parents work for the LAPD so they are super intense and super awesome! I freaking love them. We had quesadillas so it was a great day. hahaha their daughter Emilee and her friend Bianca came out with us sisters to a few lessons and it was super fun! We taught a new investigator named Sonya and it went really well!

We ran into a retired couple cleaning up a house the rent out and they weren't very interested in the message we had to share but were definitely interested about how the whole missionary thing works out and how we get assigned to the different areas and what we actually do on a mission. Towards the end of the conversation the husband was like "we have two sons and my wife has always wanted a blonde and blue-eyed daughter!" hahahahaa so hilarious, we both just laughed!

Both Maren and her companion could be that daughter!!!!

SUNDAY! The greatest day ever! Letty (our investigator we have been teaching and who also came to the activity on Thursday) came to church! So did this new investigatory Free! He is 16 and wants to get involved with the Youth in the church! Happy day! And then Lynn Brant came to all 3 meetings and she was so happy and I just love her so much! She is kind of crazy, but it makes me love her that much more. RJ also came to church! He read an Article of Faith in primary and we got to watch him to that, which I think meant a lot to him! :)

Welp, I love you all so much and I am just loving being a missionary. I know I am in the right place at the right time. Heavenly Father loves each of us and knows us individually! He answers our prayers. THE CHURCH IS TRUE. I PROMISE. :) XOXO

Love,

Sister Loar