4/20-4/26

Hello!

Well here goes!--->

Monday-- We went up to Mammoth for an AWESOME last P-day with our district! So much fun! We got Dominos pizza for lunch and had a feast. It was great. Then we took the gondola up the mountain and then went to Convict Lake! It was awesome!

That night we took Angie with us to go see her friends she told us about! It was so much fun being with her, even though we could hardly understand what she was saying, since she was speaking Spanish haha. But we could follow along alright, and I could feel the spirit so strong as she bore her testimony to her friends!

Tuesday-Thursday-- Lots and lots of people cancelled our appointments.. but we were still able to see some people! We went to a little bit of Jr.'s band concert thingy that they invited us to! Champion of all saxophone players. And we talked to Rocio at the gas station where she works for about an hour and made some really good progress with her! :) 

The Brunners were driving through to go to Mammoth for vacation this weekend and they stopped and took us out to dinner! Love them! :)

Thursday night we got transfer calls.. well I did..

President called and asked if I would serve as a Sister Training Leader in Bakersfield, with Sister Herschi! I have been feeling like I was getting transferred a couple of weeks ago, so I've been praying for Heavenly Father to soften my heart and to make it ready to leave this wonderful place I've grown to love so much. It helped a lot to have been prepared to receive the call to serve in another area. I really feel this new area is where the Lord needs me, even though it is really hard to say goodbye to Bishop, CA and the people here!

Friday-- We were super busy getting everything ready for Meet the Mormons that night!

It all went well, but not as many people came as we were hoping.. but it's okay because we had about 5 people who came that weren't members! :) 

Saturday-- We had a good lesson with Perla and her girls! They still want to learn so things are going well! Sister Pierce invited us to drive down with her to Stake Conference this weekend. Sister Luddington and I stayed in the Sister's apartment there so it all worked out. 2.5 hours away is a ways to go for meetings! But it was a good experience and a wonderful conference. The spirit was super strong and I learned a lot of things! We made a new friend too on Sunday. His name was Noah! He sat next to us and was the most reverent of 5 year olds I ever did meet. So I gave him a CTR ring! He was so sweet and asked if it was for him to keep, and when I said ofcourse, he was like "That's AWESOME!" haha he was so cute!

Sunday-- Was a whole lot of goodbyes.

 I'm so sad to leave this place and these people! I will miss Bishop and the experiences I've had here! I'm so grateful to have served in this ward and I'm so grateful I've grown so much from it!

I'm going to miss Sister Luddington so much! We have become the best of friends. 

Love you all so much! Here is a week full of LOTS and lots of change.

Here we go!

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

4/13-4/19

Hello Hello!

What a week!!!!

Monday-- We had interviews with President Wilson and it went really well! I have a feeling I might be getting transferred... :(   We shall see this weekend what the calls are!

We then had a lesson at the Bragdon's! The new family we found! The mom is already a member and her kids were all busy besides Michael, so we taught him the Restoration and it went so well! We just love their family! Hopefully this week we will be able to teach all of them.

Tuesday-- We contacted Sylvia, a referral from the Rawlins! She works at Ben Franklin and we didn't hear back from her when we left her a message on her phone, so we just went in there and talked to her and she was great! We set up an appointment for later that week.

Then for lunch Robert Miller and his brother Gari took us to lunch at Schat's Roadhouse BBQ! :) It was so awesome to see him and talk to him more about his conversion story. His brother isn't a member so it was an awesome missionary opportunity for Robert to share how he felt and what he knows! :) It was probably the funniest thing to see us two blondies sitting across from those two big gruff men. Haha loved it!

Then we painted the fiesty old ladies' nails at the care center for service! It is always so entertaining going there. We then had dinner with the Smith's and we shared a message from the Book of Mormon about Enos, and it was totally led by the spirit! We then asked Paige (their 15 year old daughter) if we could start teaching her the lessons! She was super excited actually and said yes! She basically doesn't know any of the doctrine, so she was way curious. Brother and Sister Smith then began to relay all of the things that they didn't believe and that they had heard or read (lots and lots of anti material...) and it became super intense.. but all in all, we are still going over this week for dinner and a lesson again! Pray for us!

Wednesday-- We volunteered at City Hall and then helped Bob Shay write his first talk for Sunday!!! He is so hilarious I just love him to death hahaha.

Then we had a lesson with Chris.. he is struggling, but by the end of the lesson we had gotten it through to him that the Book of Mormon was the most important book that he would ever read in his life and that he really needed to read it seriously to find out if it was true and how it could bless his life. He committed to do that and when we checked with him the following day, he had read like 20 chapters in it! Woohoo! :) Go Chris!

Then we had the best dinner ever at Sister Huntley's! She is literally the best cook ever! The Daniels were there! Oh how I love Brother Daniels, he just cracks me up and just needs to join the church. He has such a strong testimony but just is holding himself back. Miracles will happen!

Then we helped with mutual night! It was good, but there was lots of miscommunication with everything so it was kind frustrating. 

Thursday-- We helped Bob with his talk a little bit more and then went up to visit Bob Lujan and he was home but sick, so we didn't talk too much. He is just struggling with finding a balance with work and life so if you could also pray for him that would be amazing and super helpful.

We had dinner with Sister McLaughlin, and I just love her :) 

Then we went to Farley's baptism! It is a man who the elders in Mammoth have been teaching. He just showed up at church one day and now he is getting baptized! He is the cutest little man, it was the best! We sang "Lord, I Would Follow Thee" at it and it went well... I definitely need more practice haha.

Friday-- We had a weird afternoon with lots of cancellations but we were trying our best to follow the Spirit. We were in this neighborhood that we knew a less active family lived in but couldn't find their house, so we prayed to find it and be able to talk to them and then set off to find their address! We had heard from previous missionaries and ward members that this family wasn't interested at all.. but we felt like we needed to go see them. We walked down this private drive where there are lots of beautiful houses and really amazing yards and finally found the house! We knocked on the door and the kids got their mom and then the mom was like "Oh geez, you have bird poop on your shirt Jen!" (to the little daughter) and then we started talking about the bird they have and they totally invited us in to see the bird. We then proceeded to talk to this AWESOME mom and kids about their amazing family and how they joined the church for the next hour! So super cool---- this family was the Schat family!!! :) The mom is a member and her in law's own the Schat's Bakkery here, and then they own the Schat's Roadhouse! We had seen the daughter working their just days before, so it was a really good visit and not weird at all! They have 11 kids together and like 7 of them are at home right now. We invited them to come to our Meet the Mormons movie night we are having at the church this coming Friday and they said that they would want to come! So hopefully we can for sure get them to come :) MIRACLES! 

That evening we had a lesson planned with Andrew and his mom, but Andrew's dad had taken him to play baseball so he wasn't there. :( Please, please, please say some prayers for the Steedle family. The dad is kind of keeping Andrew from being excited about baptism.. and things aren't looking as great as they were. We fasted yesterday for their family, and we have faith that Andrew will continue to have a desire to be baptized!

Saturday-- We helped the Bragdon's make treats for a fundraiser thing and that was good! They are so great! :)

Then we contacted a referral from the elders. Her name is Perla and she is a single mom with three young girls! Her daughter wanted a Bible and so they requested a Bible from off of Mormon.org when they got a card from the elders! It was awesome! We shared the Restoration with them and invited them to be baptized if they knew this was the true and living gospel of Jesus Christ! They accepted! So we are shooting for the end of June. Happy Day!

Then we went to Sister Spencer's to help finish a poster for the Meet the Mormon's night. She ended up finishing it on Sunday and it looks AWESOME! She's amazing! We went to Sylvia's for our appointment.. but she wasn't there.. we were super sad and disappointed and confused because she was so solid. We decided we would just go back the next day sometime to check and make sure everything was alright with her. 

That night we went to a lesson at the Romero's that went so well! Liea did their FHE lesson and it was on scriptures and we watched this awesome cool video about it! Then we went and played volleyball with everyone and 50 people came!! It was so crazy! But so awesome! so many families were there! Mostly families that the elders are working with, but it was awesome! I'll attach some pictures. Some boys who came, came in big sombreros so it was hilarious haha! Don't worry we got some great pictures of them with the Romero's. :)

Sunday-- No one came to church, but all of the meetings went well! After church Sister Luddington really felt like we needed to see Sylvia before going home, so we did and the Lord has the perfect timing! She wasn't home the day before because she had taken her dog to go get cremated... Her dog had died and she lives alone so it was so devastating for her. We comforted her and told her that all dogs go to heaven. I felt kind of silly testifying of that at the beginning, but as we followed the Spirit, it is exactly what she needed to hear! She had told us that other church's don't believe that we will see our dogs after this life and she didn't think that was true. Anyways, we shared the Book of Mormon with her and it was an awesome first lesson! We are going back this week :) She is so great!

That night we went over to Mitch and Angie's for a lesson and we weren't sure what they needed for the lesson so we just went by the spirit and we were able to talk more about Meet the Mormons night and then they started calling all of their friends when we were sitting there with them to invite them to the movie! It was the best thing ever! They are so excited about sharing this gospel! It was seriously the coolest experience ever. Now we have some appointments tonight with Angie to go visit her friends! :) So great!

This gospel is amazing! I love it so much and so grateful I'm able to share it with everyone I meet! 

I love you all and so grateful for all of your prayers and support!

Hope everyone has an amazing week! 

Love always,

Sister Loar

xoxo

All of Bob's koolaids!   We gave them to the elders! hahaha 

And Sister Luddington and I were twins at District Meeting hahaha so hilarious.

4/6-4/12

Hey hey!

So I don't have much time, so I hope I can fit everything in!

Monday-- We played ultimate frisbee with our district so that was fun! And I learned how to make homemade tortillas from Angie! yayayay :) Love that woman.

Tuesday & Wednesday-- Sister Luddington got really sick, so we stayed in. I was able to get a lot of letters written and caught up on all of the studying I was wanting to do, so that was awesome! We watched all of the Life of Christ Bible videos that you sent me for Easter family, and by George, thank you so much for doing that! My testimony really grew by watching the Bible come to life through those videos and the Life of Christ. I understand things so much clearer, thank you! :)

Thursday-- We talked to a family we have been trying to catch at a good time these last few weeks and finally did! They are awesome! The mom ended up actually being a MEMBER! Holla! Her whole family has never learned about the church before and they have three teenagers who were all super nice, so that was awesome! We have a lesson scheduled with them tonight, so we are super excited! Pray for us that the spirit will be there and that all will go well! :)

We also had an awesome lesson that wasn't planned with Chris! We helped him organize his life a little bit with a calendar and some personal goals he wants to set (thanks dad for helping me gain such a testimony of goals at home!) and it all went well! :)

Friday & Saturday-- We went on exchanges, all the way in Tehachapi again. Such a long drive! It took us like 4 hours.. but exchanges were good and I love those sisters! We got to go to the baptism on Saturday! They all ended up keeping it a secret from Robert and Charlotte so I surprised them and they were both crying!! Sister Kay was able to come back for it as well! She spoke at the baptism and Sister Luddington and I shared the Restoration of the Gospel with everyone there. It was SO POWERFUL. Boy do I love the spirit and do I love this gospel with all of my heart. We got to go out to lunch with Sister Kay, and the Ramirez's! PHO for the win! :) Love that place. It was so fun to be back in my old area with all of the people I grew to love so much. 

When we came home we helped sister Wilson and then went to volleyball! There was a super hilarious little chunky hispanic kid there, it was the funniest thing of my life! Everyone loved him so much! 

Sunday-- was great! Fast and testimony meeting was amazing, the spirit was so strong and I was able to bare my testimony. My mission has seriously saved my life in so many ways, and I'm so grateful for everything I've learned and for the testimony that I have of our Savior and the Atonement and the Plan that Heavenly Father has for all of us to return to live with Him again. WE ARE SO BLESSED. 

ALSO CHRIS CAME TO CHURCH! :) He stayed all three hours! We had to teach Gospel Principles last minute and then we were asked to teach Relief Society, so we were super busy. But Relief Society was all about Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. So once again we were able to strongly testify of the truthfulness and reality and great magnitude of the Restoration of the gospel. My favorite thing ever.

We had a good lesson with the Romero's and did visits with Brother Elkins, so it was a wonderful end to a great and exciting week!

I love you all so much!

Thanks for all of the love and support!

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

 

3/30-4/5

Happy Easter!!!!!

Hey hey!

What a week! It was so long but so great! :)

Monday-- we went hiking up the same trail as last week, but we went with the Romero's and the Fitt's and it was super fun! At one point we lost the trail and had to scale the mountain to get back to it! It was so entertaining hahaha :) We were EXHAUSTED afterwards... cause we had to run back to get back in time for dinner again... haha we are so smart, I know. ;)

Tuesday-- We ended up talking to ALOT of people! it was great! We did service at the Care Center and painted old ladies' nails! It was great :) We were walking around to different places and started talking to our neighbor who was moving out. His name was Berto and he is 20! He was pretty awesome! We just started talking to him and he asked us some questions about missionary life, and we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and how it can bless his life and he asked some pretty solid questions and we were able to leave him with a chapter to read and pray about and then a Restoration pamphlet as well! I just love being a missionary! Too bad he is moving..

Then we met Marshall Shay at the park--- pretty positive he was on drugs and he wasn't really committed at all.. so we will see how that goes.

We walked with Chris Jones to the church for a lesson and some pizza that Sister Whitman brought for us! It was a great lesson on the Restoration and we committed him to read and pray every day to find out if it's the truth! 

Wednesday--The Romero's invited us to join them at the park with them and Pops for some hamburgers, croquet and bean bag tossin'! It was super fun! :) 

Then we tried to contact a referral from a member in Bakersfield and saw a little boy named Wade riding his bike trying to transport his grandmother's bird bath on his bike. We pulled over and offered to help him and his little brother thought we were abducting him and it was just the funniest of situations. We ended up taking the bird bath in our car and followed him to where he needed to take it and he was so funny. It was just the most hilarious. Then we went to the Smith's for an AWESOME dinner and spiritual lesson! We watched the new Easter video-- THE BEST THING EVER-- at HeLives.mormon.org and it was so great. Some day they will come back, I know it. We just have to keep loving them!

Then we had an awesome lesson at the Steedle's about Easter! We then went to Mitch and Angie's and they had made enchiladas and made us eat so much food hahaha they could have rolled us out of there. I was full to the brim. But I just love them.

I was so full of food that day... so much food!

Thursday--We went to go see Rocio and she was home and we had THE best lesson with her! Her boyfriend she lives with was going to jail the next day... so we had an amazing lesson on repentance and just read in Alma 36 and it was really good. She was really touched and super stoked to keep reading and praying. Then Sister Himle came through Bishop again and took us out to eat and gave me the best Easter package from my family! So cool that it is such a small world! :)

Friday-- We went to ZTM in Lone Pine and that was good! We ate at Burger Barn afterward --- the best burgers you ever did taste.

Then we had a lesson with Chris and we walked over to the hcurch with him again and Sister McLaughlin came too. It turned out great and we shared the Plan of Salvation and hopefully were able to answer his questions. Chris is such an odd duck haha he cracks me up. He is in his 60's and just the smallest and skinniest little man who is obsessed with books. :) We asked him to be baptized and he said he would be willing to work towards it! So end of May is when we set his goal.
Saturday--Conference was great! Loved every little bit of it! It was so powerful and so good to hear from the prophets and apostles!! We are so blessed to have modern revelation and guidance from them!! :) 

We went to the Spencer's and colored easter eggs with them and she made us a wonderful early Easter dinner :) They are the best! That night we stopped to see Joe and his family (we met him last week) and we ended up meeting his wife and daughter and they are SO NICE! They said we could come back this week, so we definitely are. :)

Sunday-- We watched conference again at the church and then went to lunch at the Rawlins-- we brought Sister McLaughlin and Chris with us. It was a struggle getting Chris there.. he doesn't like coming out of his house... it is interesting. But anyways after an interesting lunch with him hacking up a lung in the bathroom during the meal hahaha we went to the afternoon session of conference. Man was that so good!!! I just am so obsessed with conference. It is the greatest!! :)

Then we went to dinner at the Steedle's for Easter dinner and it was so great! During dinner, Andrew announced that HE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) HAPPY DAY!!!!!!!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!! Prayers answered! MIRACLE! :) He came up with that decision all on his own! His dad was frustrated he didn't tell him before that so there was a little family dispute at the table.. It was basically an awkward scene from a movie.. I tried changing the subject.. and Chuck still was super angry.. but anyways it turned out great and it was a wonderful day! Happy happy happy! :)

Welp, I love you all! Thanks for all the love and support and letter, sorry I'm so awful and writing back! This week I will be better! :)

Love you!

Sister Loar

xoxo

Cardboard Missionary Maren

Grandpa Marv was the first to want to take a picture with Maren!!!!

Our Family Picture

Cardboard Maren and Summer Reunited!!!!

This is the real live Missionary Maren

Corrine and Maren - The Match Makers for Mitch and Sarah!!!!!!

The Cousins!!!!!  Kiley and Heidi!!!!

Dallas decided to ask Cardboard Maren to Dance!!!!  There's not too many missionaries that get to dance at their brother's wedding reception!!!!