10/20-10/26

Hello familia & friends!

This week was really great! We had lots of great experiences!!

Tuesday-- We had a lesson with Abel, he is 26 and told us he wanted to learn more when we knocked on his door last week! We had our neighbor with us, her name is Nyssa and a returned missionary. She was awesome in the lesson! She shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon, Alma 7:11-12. It's about the Atonement. We talked about the plan that our Heavenly Father has made for us and that the Atonement of Jesus Christ, (the sacrifice, suffering, death and resurrection of the Savior) is central to that plan. He had never heard these things before, but he told us he felt they were true. He prayed with us for the very first time in his life. It was a humbling experience to be a witness of a lost child of God, turning to His Father in simple prayer. I love being a missionary.

Wednesday-- We had a difficult lesson with an investigator. He said he wasn't interested afterwards and told us we didn't need to come back.. it is hard letting go of these people, because we know how happy and blessed their lives would be, if they only prayed to find the truth! We went and did some service for Cathy our investigator and it was great! Anytime we do service for her, no matter the time of day, she always, ALWAYS feeds us SO much food.  Ohhh how I love this life. That evening we were invited to decorate glitter pumpkins with the Young Women in the ward at Nyssa's apartment. It was super fun! I don't feel like I am 20... I feel like I should be 17 again with all of these girls! :) One of the girls is 13 and she reminds me of Maddie (tall, skinny, and a little spastic hahahaha) I love her so much!

Thursday-- We taught a lesson to Sister Miller in the ward and to Robert her husband who is not a member! We talked about the Book of Mormon and about the story of the vision of the Tree of Life! It was awesome and they both really liked it :) 

Friday-- We went to the chiropractor (a lady in the ward has an office down the street from our apartment and she does adjustments for the missionaries for freeeee! :) So we got our backs cracked a little and will probably go again soon haha) After District Meeting, we went to lunch with the Ramirez's! Nyssa and Enzo her husband are so awesome! They took us to a place called Blue Ginger PHO! You've had the noodle dream Po!!! Hahahaha Pho is a Vietnamese noodle dish and it is DELISH. We are currently obsessed with it and will go get some for lunch in a few minutes haha. We taught Jeff another investigator and he is progressing super well!! Doing awesome! We had a lesson with Cathy too and it went well!

Saturday-- We went over to Abel's and caught him at a good time! We talked to him about the Restoration of the gospel and invited him to be baptized on November 22nd! He said yes!! Wooohoooo!

Sunday-- Abel came to church!! :) He had to go to work, so he could only stay to take the Sacrament, but it was so awesome to have him there!! Jeff our investigator also came to church, so that was a great day! We had a fireside yesterday for the end of the 40 Day Fast that our ward was doing. Boy was that an awesome meeting! The spirit was so strong and we were all able to share the miracles that we were able to see throughout the last 40 days about sharing the gospel with those around us. The experiences were small but amazing! So awesome to see the ward so excited to share this wonderful message with their friends, family, co-workers and neighbors! :)

I am so grateful to be able to experience all of these things! This church is true! I love it with all of my heart and I know that it is true through the sweet witness of the Spirit. I know that our Heavenly Father loves each of His children, I know he answers our prayers and that by faith we can do all things! :) [Ether 12:6]

I love you all so much! I hope you had a good week!

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

PS: It has gotten pretty chilly here in Tehachapi!:) this is our friend, Bartoch (bat from Anastasia) 

We also found an old creepy cemetery! :)

When we read the cemetery sign and it said 1858--- Sister Kay and I were like, WOAH that was only 14 years after Joseph Smith died!!!!!!!!!  Hahahahaha!!!  Only missionaries would think of that stuff.   Hahaha!!  Love Love Love being a dorky missionary.  The longer I have been out, the more I just want to be as awkwardly obedient and dorky as in totally being righteous and not caring what anyone thinks!!

PSS:  Letty's husband Allen was baptized this Saturday!!!!!!!      SO AWESOME!

I emailed Letty and told her that I would love to come back after my mission and go to their sealing in the temple and she was like, "We will wait for you!"  So that is what I will do!  I am going to come back and go to the temple with them after my mission is done!  You guys should come too! and you could meet them!!!!! Wouldn't that be so awesome? :) I am so excited. 

10/13-10/19

Hey-O family and friends! What a crazy week! I can't believe we are half way through the transfer already, crazy sauce I tell you, crazy sauce!

Welp we had some awesome lessons this week.

Missy-- she is a young mom with two daughters and is totally living a righteous life! She has all of the right ideas about everything, so teaching her is more like agreeing with what she already believes in! It's great! We have a lesson this coming week as well with her, so we are looking forward to that.

Christian-- His wife is a member of the church and he has been investigating the church for their entire marriage- 12 years - We had a good lesson with him and brought a sweet old man in the ward, Brother Beach who answered a lot of his questions. It was great. Christian came to church this week so that was awesome!

The Rohe's-- We have been teaching Christine, the wife a few times and her husband has just started to sit in on the lessons! They have lots and lots and lots of questions, which is great! But it sometimes makes things difficult. I'm learning to really rely on the spirit to help me understand how to answer the questions and I am trying my hardest at following the spirit and what Heavenly Father wants for this family know.

Cathy-- has been sick these last few days, so we are going to check on her tomorrow to see how she is doing. We got her a gigantor Book of Mormon because she is basically blind when reading anything... so hopefully that and her magnifying glass will help! 

We were trying to find a way we could include the ward in the missionary work more and I thought of "Boo"ing them! (You know the paper we sometimes get from the neighbors that says you have been booed! and then you have to take treats and the same sign to a couple other neighbors?) Well we decided to use this genius idea and put pass along cards in all of the bags of candy that we were booing the members with! So they could boo their neighbors and hopefully spread the gospel at the same time! We are hoping that it worked!

Also we had exchanges this week with the Sister Training Leaders. We met half way between our areas in a place called Jawbone...? hahaha if you blink you miss it. It's literally a truck stop and that is all. I stayed here in Golden Hills with Sister Weiman. It was fun! I like exchanges - freshens your views and keeps you focused on the purpose of bringing others closer to Christ. 

We just got a call that our miles on the car are being cut down, so we are going to be walking as much as we can to save miles. We decided we would spend all day Saturday knocking the apartment buildings around where we live. We prayed really hard before we started and ta-da! MIRACLES! We have 15 people with solid return appointments and are just the happiest little missionaries you ever did see. Super excited for the work to continue to progress!

I love being a missionary, sometimes it can be hard and discouraging, but what a privilege it is to wear this name tag and share the good news of the Restored gospel of Jesus Christ with these people. :) 

I love my Savior and Heavenly Father and I love this gospel. I know its true and that it can change our lives if we allow it to work in and through us. 

Love you all so much! Thanks for all of the love and support -
you guys are great!

Miss you lots!

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

10/6 - 10/12

Hello!

This week was so great! SO MANY MIRACLES happened! Most were very very small, but they were answers to our prayers and we were able to see the Lord's hand in our lives as well as the lives of the people we met this week.

Monday-- We got to see Meet the Mormons with the rest of the missionaries in Bakersfield at a church building. It was such a good movie! PLEASE EVERYONE SEE IT & TAKE YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY. It was so impressive and I really enjoyed it :) After the film was over, our mission president said, "Don't we belong to such a great church?" By golly that is an understatement! We are so blessed to have the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ through out the world.

Tuesday-- We met with Cathy (we are meeting with her every day and reading the Book of Mormon with her!) She is doing awesome. We set a baptismal date with her and are super excited to see her progress! Sister Kay suggested that we walk around most of the day on Tuesday so that we could meet more people and talk to more people who were outside. MIRACLE! <<So we taught a friend of a member's a couple of weeks ago, and it didn't go too well because he was kind of getting into a Bible bash with us about some questions he had. We told him that we would need to start with the basics in order to answer his questions and that if he really wanted to find his answers we would definitely teach him. So we left our number and hoped he would someday call us back.>> So we were walking around on Tuesday and a car pulled over and waved us down, we couldn't remember the man so we started to talk to him and found out it was Jim the friend we had taught a couple of weeks ago! He said he saw us walking and thought he would invite us back to talk to him! It went alright and we are going to teach him this week, so we will see what happens! But seriously we wouldn't have been able to teach him again if we weren't walking around! Coincidence I think NOT! haha 

Wednesday-- We had a few good lessons with people! We had dinner at the Smith's house and their grandkids were there-- the cutest humans in the world. We taught a short lesson about the Plan of Salvation with cutouts and pictures and when we talked about how our families can be together forever, I taught the munchkins to say "forever" like Squintz in Sandlot..."FOREVER" hahaha it was hilarious. Don't worry mom and dad, I am teaching these children great life lessons :)

Thursday-- We did some planning and met with a guy who had talked to many different missionaries but they had never came back after he asked his crazy questions. Haha so Sister Kay and I- the conquerors- did some homework and studying and went back to his house and answered some of his questions.. We don't think he is very open to the answers he received though. So we will see if it goes anywhere.

Friday- We met with a family who are all members of the church as of 2 years ago besides the dad. His name is Jeff and is super funny! He finally started to read the Book of Mormon and we are meeting with them alot! We had another lesson with them on Sunday and it is going really well! This hasn't been happening recently so it was definitely a miracle he even read! :)

Saturday- We were so busy! Busiest day of our lives! Haha it was so awesome! We went over to Heather's house and she has two young kids. They are so great!!! We left a Book of Mormon with them the last time and they had been reading out of it! We taught the Restoration of the gospel and about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and the spirit was really strong! They said they would come to church this next week so we are praying that they do! We also taught a woman named Missy and her daughter Rosie! We talked about the Book of Mormon and it went really well. We have another appointment with them this week! Also, we were walking in a neighborhood and saw that someone was having a yard sale so we went to go talk to the people there. They were super nice and gave us some squash out of their garden! It was awesome. We also bought a million paper clips for a dollar... there are literally a million paperclips in the bag not even joking. So yeah now we have paper clips for the rest of our lives.. We will find a way to use them haha.

Sunday- Cathy and Jeff came to church! It was super awesome! She said it was interesting and said she felt good :) Cathy is so funny she cracks me up! She always tells us so many stories about her life, her neighbor's lives, her friends daughter's lives, hahaha it is the best thing ever. When she is surprised In her stories she always says "Whaaaaat!?" hahahahaha and it sounds just like the minions off of Despicable Me and it is the funniest thing of our lives. We love Cathy so much! hahaha! What a woman :)

Welp, sorry for the novel, but I love you all so much and hope you had an awesome week! :) The church is true, I promise.

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

Pictures:  We are in Golden Hills... I guess they named this place that for a reason. 

And there was a fork in the road.... hahaha ...... literally a fork was in the road hahaha ;) 

And we went and got ice cream at this super good ice cream and candy shop in Bakes after Meet the Mormons. LOVE YOU ALL

Week of 9/29-10/5

Hello my favorites!!! :)

What a week! Here is a recap of a week in the life of Sister Loar and Sister Kay! 

Tuesday-- We taught a girl named Sarah for the first time! She is living with her boyfriend with their two little kids. We have been trying to meet with her for the past couple of weeks, and never have been able to. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and about faith. We read in Alma 32 and talked to her about how we develop faith and have happiness in our lives. We asked her if she wanted to be baptized if she found out if these things are true and she said yes! Nov. 15th is the goal and she seems super happy about it! We were jumping for joy when she closed her door after we left. Golden Hills hasn't seen a baptismal date for a really long time!! Holla!

Wednesday-- We taught a woman named Christine, she and her family are very religious and attend a non-denominational Christian church. She has a lot of questions about the nature of Jesus Christ and how we know that He and God are separate beings. She isn't too interested in joining the church, so we are warming up to her slowly and I know that the Spirit will touch her heart sooner or later. We also met a new FAMILY! And they are AWESOME! The Masons are so much fun and so nice. They were super welcoming and they said they are going to come to church this Sunday! :) Happy day! They have two little kids who are super cute too. 

Thursday-- We did some planning and also visited a less active member. Her name is Charlotte and she is probably the sweetest of the sweetest. I love her so much! :) She is so excited to be coming back to church. She really enjoyed conference this weekend too! We also taught Sarah again and she is doing well! We invited her to watch General Conference with us and she said she would come! But one of her boys got super sick and she couldn't make it sadly, so that was a bummer. But we are excited to meet with her this week!

Friday-- We taught Seminary! haha it was pretty fun! Those crazy high school kids just crack me up. It was their homecoming week so they were pretty stoked for life. After that we went to a Zone Training Meeting in Bakersfield, road trip! hahaha it's like an hour drive so we jam out to Hymns on the way there. :) When we got back to Golden Hills, we taught another new investigator! Missy is also a young mom with two daughters and she seems super receptive. We have another lesson with her this week, so hopefully it goes well! Then we painted a fence! Haha a member needed some help painting their super long fence that is on their mini farm/ ranch thing and so we went over and helped them out!

Saturday-- The countdown to GENERAL CONFERENCE was finally over! I have been looking forward to this weekend for far too long!!! Hahaha and now we have to wait six more months until the next General Conference! We went to the church to watch it and it went by way too fast! I could sit and listen to the Prophet and Apostles for DAYS! I love it so much. We ate dinner that evening at Sister Benjamin's from the ward. Her husband is named Christian and he isn't a member. They have been married for 12 years and he has been going to church for those 12 years. They are awesome! So funny and really great cooks!

Sunday-- More conference! Happy day! We also stopped by Cathy's house to talk to her about how she is doing and about the Book of Mormon some more. Boy does that woman know how to carry on a conversation! Haha she talked our ears off, but I loved it! She is the cutest little thing. We are going to be meeting with her every day hopefully and reading from the Book of Mormon with her! :)

Welp, that is our week! So much fun and so great being able to watch conference! I miss all of you and love you all so much! Hope you are doing well and that you have a good week! Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and His church has been restored to its fullness. There is no other source of everlasting bliss and comfort in this life. I know it's true and I am so grateful to be here spreading the Good News! Help those around you in your circle of friends and family and acquaintances find the gospel. Some just don't know where to find it! 

Love always,

Sister Loar

xoxo 

PS: The pictures-- Our neighbors are members in the ward and they just came back from visiting Japan so they brought us back some Japanese candy that are super delicious! :) 

And we also made Conference Pancakes yesterday morning!