11/17-11/23

Hey Hey! 

This week seemed like it was forever long, but also just so much happened!

Tuesday-- We got up super early and got to go to the TEMPLE! :) Sister Smith took us and it was the best experience ever. It was Sister Kay's birthday a little bit ago so we got to go for that.
The LA temple is so amazing. I just love it so much. I have been feeling a little overwhelmed with everything and trying to figure out how to be a better missionary and all of the other worries and stress that comes with missionary work. As soon as I walked into the temple all the worries in the world just washed away! It was so amazing to feel so renewed and the spiritual strength I was searching for was replenished. I am so grateful for temples! WE ARE SO BLESSED! We went to this local Brazilian restaurant called Don Juan's with the Ramirez's for dinner and it was super good. We love the Ramirez's!!! We talked to a former investigator that night and were able to understand some of her concerns of why she stopped talking to the missionaries and we have an appointment with her next week after the holiday! 

Wednesday-- We taught the Millers, the part member family we have been working with and it went super well! We talked about Prophets and the blessing of the Gospel, and things are progressing super well with them. We taught a few lessons that day that went well, lots of our investigators are gone for while because of the holidays, so that is hard, but it is all working out well! We stopped by the Smith's and made some cookies really fast that night, they always know how to cheer up some missionaries haha!

Thursday-- We were invited to go with one of our investigator's, Heather Mason, to sit with her at her kids' Thanksgiving/ Veteran's Day programs that were held at a baptist church, so we totally went and it was so awesome! Haha she was super happy we showed up and sat with her. We love the Mason's and they are doing so well! We will hopefully see them this week and continue to teach them!

Friday-- Some of our investigators told us not to come back, so that is always rough, but it is alright, the Lord will provide a way for them to find the truth some other time through other missionaries. Later that evening we decided to knock doors on a certain street, we prayed that we would find at least one person that would be interested. The last house we knocked on a young woman answered the door and she started to tell us about how she was a baptist, but that one of "our member's" actually lived at that house but he was gone. We had never heard the name of the guy before, so we were a little confused, but just went with it. I said that I had gone to BYU before coming out here and she told us that she had a lot of friends go there and then later on in the conversation, we realized that she thought we were Jehovah Witnesses! Hahaha so we cleared that up real quick and she got sooo excited that we were Mormons!! She told us all about how she grew up going to Seminary and had lots of friends that were Mormon and everything! We asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she didn't think so, so we gave one to her and she was so happy! We are going back to eat some tamales with her tomorrow! WE ARE SO STOKED! Heavenly Father totally answers our prayers, we asked for atleast one person, and voila! We meet Porsha!

Saturday-- We are starting to teach some recent converts, Zach and Darby, in the ward about the temple and helping them prepare for that so that was really fun to talk to them! We had dinner with the Nichols in the ward and they are totally going to their family's house for Thanksgiving this week in, you will not guess where, NAMPA, IDAHO!!!!!! Hahaha I about died when they said that! I was like WHAT?! That is my home! Hahaha they were not looking forward to the coldness up there at all haha but it was super cool! Small world!

Sunday-- Church was great! We had Alyssa, Jeff, and Robert Miller at church! Woop woop! It was a good time! :) We taught a new investigator named Charles who is a Vietnam vet, practices American Indian culture stuff like getting nakey in the woods and talking to animals and the birds and stuff for like 4 days, even though he is totally Polish and Irish. Haha and he totally loves the Book of Mormon, because it talks about the American Indian ancestors! Haha we will see how well he progresses! But isn't it super weird, we totally were teaching another man named Charles, who is a Vietnam vet, and also practices American Indian culture stuff like a few months ago.. Crazyyyyy sauce. We went over to Christian's after that and we got the best news ever! HE WENT A WHOLE DAY WITH OUT SMOKING! Holla! So exciting! We were so pumped! Progress! :) We got to meet his grand babies that were visiting from Phoenix and they were so cute! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!! You guys are the best! I miss you and love you all so much! :)
The church is true, I promise!

Much love,
Sister Loar

xoxo

11/10-11/16

Hello my favorite humans! :)

Not too much happened this week, it was kind of a weird one but still good just the same!

We taught Cathy a couple of times and decided that she isn't really progressing at all. She has a hard time retaining really anything we are teaching and she doesn't keep the commitments we leave with her to do, so we are sadly not able to continue teaching her, but we will go over there and do service for her still.

Abel is doing well! He didn't make it to church this Sunday because of work again, but we are looking forward to teach him on Tuesday! We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ- having faith, repenting, being baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end! He hasn't been religious before this so he is pretty hesitant on a few things. BUT he did pray on his own in between our visits with him and he said he will continue and start reading as well! :)

We found two new investigators, Cynthia and Alyssa!

Cynthia has four kids and one of them has Leukemia, so it has been super hard for her and her family to deal with. She goes to church at another local church and really likes it! We started asking her questions and we told her about the Book of Mormon. After we finished talking about the Book of Mormon and what it is and what it answers for us, she asked us, "Well do you have one of these books?? Can I read it??" It was so awesome! We are going to try to find her at a good time this week and teach her more!

Alyssa is a sweet, sweet girl! She is 21 and living with her foster grandparents who are members and who have recently moved into the ward. They aren't really active in the church so we are trying to love them and serve them so they feel welcome in the ward. Alyssa has Aspergers but is highly functioning and super excited about learning more about the Gospel. She came to church this Sunday and it was super good to have her there! 

We went over to Heather Mason's house and she is so awesome! Her kids are hilarious. She is totally interested and loves having us come over and "teach about Jesus" (as her kids say) haha! We are hopefully going to meet with them this week sometime!

Christian, is still struggling to quit smoking, but he is doing so much better! He used to smoke 20+ cigarettes a day and now he is down to 4! We gave him a few more ideas of how to stop so hopefully that will help him completely stop! 

This week was a little rough, but I am learning a lot! I'm so grateful for this wonderful life we have been given and for the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I love you all so much and am so grateful for the support and love you give me and send my way! Thanks for the prayers and letters and emails, you guys are the best!

Give Sister Merkley a hug for me! So exciting that she is coming home from her mission! 

Love and miss you all to pieces,

Sister Loar

xoxo

11/3-11/9

Well hello friends and familia! 

Such a crazy week, I feel like so much has happened!

Monday-- We went to the zone activity and it was super fun! We played charades and I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, so it was great. :)Then we played some basketball which I always love so much!

Tuesday-- We had appointments almost every single hour, it was awesome! Not to mention that like four of them rescheduled or forgot haha but still! It looked good in our planners ;) 

We had an amazing lesson with the Millers! Sister Miller is a member and her husband is not, and hasn't really talked to missionaries before-- I think I've mentioned them a few times. They are just the greatest! We talked about the Book of Mormon and read the Intro to it. Robert read it and started to get choked up while reading it and he didn't seem to understand what was happening to him. (This guy is like the manliest of men haha) and so he quickly brushed it off but it was just such a touching experience! He totally accepted the challenge to read 3 Nephi 11 about the experience the Nephites had when Jesus Christ visited the Americas and he was super excited to read it. It was just such a cool lesson. I guess you had to be there haha. Then we talked to a new guy we met named Mario-- the first time we met him he had hair that stood up like 2 feet above his natural height hahaha it was hilarious. It was like he stuck his finger in a light socket or something haha! He rescheduled with us, but he told us he really wanted his whole family to listen to what we had to say, because he was impressed with what was making us come out and serve like we were! Super cool guy! Then we stopped by a guy named Scott's house. We had knocked on his door like 2 months ago, and we finally were going to see if he was interested at all. He opened the door and we talked to him for a while on his doorstep and gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it to know more! Scott is awesome! Then we went to a guy named Chris's house and taught him the Restoration of the Gospel! It went pretty well! He is really interesting, he has long hair down to his waist and is a Jujitsu instructor! Pretty rad dude! We met Nicole, a former investigator who we had tried to meet but she never was home! So it was good to finally meet her, even though she was a tad tipsy on a Tuesday night... Nonetheless she made an appointment with us and let us come back! Then we met with the Perryman's they are some members we haven't met yet! They are so awesome! They told us we could play racket ball in their indoor court they have! So cool! We are going to hopefully play today with the other sisters!

Wednesday-- We had interviews with President Wilson and his wife. They went super well! They were up here in Tehachapi for a Leadership training meeting with the mission leaders. I got to see my old Zone Leaders from Palmdale and it was so good to see them and talk to them about how everyone is doing in Palmdale!!! :)

Thursday-- We planned for the upcoming week. We also talked with Abel and we decided with his school and everything going on that we should move his baptismal date to December, so that he will have more time to learn and everything. 

Friday-- We woke up SUPER early to get ready to teach seminary! We taught the freshman and all of the skinny lanky boys in there reminded me of Mason and his little chums. Super crazy to think they are the same age as him! We then went to Zone Training Meeting in Bakersfield. That was SO GOOD! I loved every second of it. One of the Hermanas that is going home next transfer talked about obedience and how that has blessed her life and she has seen so much more success when she finally humbled herself and chose to be exactly obedient! Then one of the Assistants to President Wilson, Elder Collins, is going home this week, gave us a training on how we can better teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can simplify things even more. He focused on how we can fulfill our purpose as missionaries and how we can be the best we can. He said he figured out how to be a successful missionary 2 months ago, and that he is super sad he didn't figure it out for his whole mission! I, on the other hand, was so grateful he taught that training, because I still have over a year left and I get to have that for the rest of my mission! :) That night Sister Kay got bit by a crazy chihuahua.. hahaha it was a really intense experience, but now afterwards, it is quite hilarious! She is find, just a tiny chunk of skin is missing from her foot. It will heal nicely though. 

Saturday-- The other sisters in our district that are serving in Tehachapi had a baptism of a whole family! It was a mom and her three kids :) It was so beautiful and such an awesome service. Sister Kay and I had to share the message of the Restoration of the Gospel while the people who were baptized were changing. It was super intimidating because the Zone Leaders were there, and President Wilson and his wife were there! But we prayed super. super hard and Heavenly Father did not let us mess things up. The spirit was super strong, and that is the most I have ever felt it while sharing that message. I'm really grateful for that experience of sharing those things. That night we stopped by to give Robert Miller his Gospel Principles book for class on Sunday and he and Sister Miller surprised us with HUGE and super warm blankets! They had our favorite animals on them--> obviously mine has lions on it!!!!!!! It is SO RAD!!! They are the sweetest people ever! 

Sunday-- The power went out at the church! So we had sacrament meeting in the semi dark and the speakers had to really project their voices haha! But it turned out to be an awesome meeting! We were super sad that the last two hours were cancelled because the power outage, because Robert Miller and Sister Miller and our other investigator Jeff Evans was going to stay for all 3 hours!!! But it is okay, everything worked out. Oh and it was Sister Kay's birthday yesterday, and I secretly told everyone I could in the ward, so lots of people got her little presents and some good food and made cakes and made dinner for us! It was awesome! :) We also got transfer calls last night and found out we are both staying here in Golden Hills!!!!! Woohooo! We are super happy about that! :)

Anyways, it was a super crazy week, sorry it is such a long email. Just know that I love all of you and appreciate all of the support! You guys are the best. This is the true church and the Gospel HAS been restored to its fulness! I love it with all my heart!

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

PS-- sorry there are no pictures, the card reader we have been using has been deleting our pictures when we use it... so until i find a better way to put pictures on here, I wont be able to send any for a while! LOVE YOU ALL!

10/27-11/2

Hello all!

This week was great, and hard, but it ended with miracles, so all is well :)

Tuesday-Thursday-- We taught a girl named Estefana! She is so awesome! She is 17 and a senior this year and she is friends with one of the boys in the ward. We taught her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and she had a lot of questions answered. We are meeting with her tonight so we will see how everything goes! :) We also taught Missy and talked to her about the Atonement and how baptism is essential and we set her with a goal of December 13th, to be baptized! She was a little hesitant, but over time and lots of prayers to know if these things are true, she will be able to know for sure if it is something she wants. We carved pumpkins with Abel and the Ramirez's next door! It was super fun! We carved the Salt Lake City temple in ours. :)

 Friday-- Halloween! We talked to a guy named Chris and he said he had a Book of Mormon and asked us if it was basically a witness of Jesus Christ in the Western world and if the Bible was one for the Eastern... we were like "Uhh yeah it actually is!!!" Haha, we have an appointment with him this week, so we are pretty excited to see what happens! We helped out with a little bean bag toss booth at the downtown Halloween Trunk or Treat Carnival in Tehachapi. It was super fun! All of the non-profit organizations, including churches, can have booths in this carnival, so us and some people from our ward helped with it! It was super fun to see all the little munchkins in their costumes. We saw a few of the people we were teaching there and it was super awesome! One of the family's in the ward dressed up as the cast from Frozen! IT WAS AWESOME. Little Olaf man was my fav. We had to go home at 7pm to be safe that night. 

This kid is the cutest thing EVER! I am so obsessed with how hilarious and cute he is! His grandpa is in our ward too and he calls him Tweety bird! 

Saturday & Sunday-- We taught Jeff and he is doing well! It was a super cold and rainy day so the Ramirez's took us out to get some PHO! :) It was perfect. Church was super great, we had an awesome testimony meeting and the spirit was super strong! :) We taught Primary and had one of the boys dress up like Samuel the Lamanite in the Book of Mormon and the little kids reenacted the scripture story of the people throwing rocks and arrows at him with cotton balls that we gave them! It was super funny! They were all really cute :) We gave them all little "Future Missionary" tags and they were so excited!! It was awesome. That evening we went over to Christian's and talked with him and his wife about their plans. His wife is already a member of the church and we set up an appointment to make a plan of action to help him stop smoking and to get baptized. :) Which was exactly what I had fasted and prayed for that day. So I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and helps us achieve our righteous desires! I've learned a lot about patience and I am trying to catch myself when I get frustrated about silly things. The Lord is definitely helping me out with that. I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much and that He has a plan for all of us. 

I love you all and hope you had an awesome week! Love you!

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo 

Happy November! The trees are all changing and are super pretty! :)