5/18-5/24

Hey hey!

Well another week's come and gone! 

Some highlights from the week--->

Monday-- We played tennis as a district for P-day last week! :) It was fun.

It Rained Again!!!!!

We stopped by a less active family in the ward, the Moyes, and their daughter ended up doing her state and college project on Utah and BYU! haha so we helped out and then showed them some mormon messages. :) I really like their family, so hopefully we can help them come back and teach and baptize their children soon!

Tuesday-- ZONE CONFERENCE!

Elder Bruce A. Carlson of the Seventy came and spoke to us, as well as President and Sister Wilson ALL DAY. It was a dream come true! I loved every second of it. We learned SO many great things and just one of them was how we can better listen and observe while we teach people. It was so awesome! 

Wednesday-- We went on splits with the ward missionaries and had a good lesson with the Todd's. They are doing well.. just kind of on their own time.  Just meandering through life with tiny little changes here and there and the commitment is minimal. We tried setting a goal for baptism with Claudia, but she just didn't want to commit to anything. Things are going really well with them though over all. They have made a lot of progress, so it's great!

Thursday-- We went to take some dinner to a less active member that Sister Cook set up for us. Sister Cook showed up with some pizza and then the member wasn't home.. so we ended up having our own little pizza party at Sister Cook's! haha So a couple of weeks ago, we were talking (sister Hirschi and I) about how we just love pizza and no one ever feeds us pizza really... WE SPOKE TOO SOON hahaha we have been fed pizza 6 times in the last week and a half... Also we said that same thing about having breakfast for dinner... and then we have had that three times this week! I'm not meaning to complain at all because it is so awesome that people are so willing to feed us! Just a little overwhelming with so much pizza and breakfast. :)

We had a lesson with Ernie that day which went well.. but in the end he told us his concerns about coffee and then he went on to explain that he doesn't believe in Satan... so that detracted from the spirit and we weren't able to finish. Brother Hunter was going to go over there to help him yesterday night with everything, so hopefully it went over well! So I've learned so much about Ernie. He has a PhD and is a psychiatrist. He's done billions of studies and has traveled the world. He was on the team of people who discovered the structure of chromosomes!!! I am blown away by this man! He has a mind of GOLD! haha I'm so amazed at his accomplishments, it's quite amazing. I just know him as 84 year old Ernie though, so it is sometimes hard to understand his little grumpy and irrational bouts that he has. Anyways, he wrote a book on how he came to have a testimony of God and Jesus Christ and it is totally backed up with Science and such so I'm definitely going to read it when I go home. 

Friday-- I went on exchanges with the one and only SISTER DODSON!:) Holla! It was the best. I had such a good 24 hours with that woman. I love her to death! We found a former investigator named Sierra and she said she wants to learn more and that we could come back and teach her after we taught the Restoration on the side of the road to her! It was awesome. We went and saw some of the Garcia's neighbors and they were awesome! They let us right in and we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome. Hopefully we will have some success with them! They are such a nice family.

We didn't have a lesson planned at 8 (and we aren't supposed to tract in the dark at all) so we ended up meeting Sister Cook at Sonic for 1/2 off shakes with her grandkids and taught the Restoration at America's #1 drink stop. :) 

Saturday-- We stopped by one of Luke Krauss's (he's a boy in the ward) friend's house to try and talk to his family again. We tried a couple of weeks ago and talked to the mom and she was way nice! The mom wasn't home this time so we didn't get to teach any of them but a little 10 year old girl named Avery answered the door and told her brother's friend who walked in, "Go get Cooper. Tell him there are two nice young ladies here." hahaha and then she just left and the older brother came out confused.. so we told him who we were and that we would check back when his mom was home.

Sunday-- was such an awesome day! Church was so good and the spirit was so strong. The McMurtrey's son just got home this last week from his mission and gave his homecoming talk. It was awesome! The closing hymn was Families can Be Together Forever... probably the worst combination to make a missionary trunky! haha ;) We learned about the grace of our Savior and it was exactly what I needed. I am so grateful for a Savior who knows us perfectly and individually and knows where we are at, and who we can become.

I love this gospel more than anything. I love being a missionary. And I love all of you!

Love you long time!

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

5/11-5/17

Herro!

Monday-- Was a good P-day! We went to the Dailey's and taught them a lesson about the Plan of Salvation using this little wooden puzzle thing we have for when we teach kids! It went well! They haven't been coming to all of church lately, so we went to go see how they were! They have triplets! :)

Tuesday-- We had a study session with the Assistants to the President! It was awesome. Every transfer the STL's on this side of the mission get to have that study session to help us, help our sisters we are over. The AP's are Elder Matheny and Elder Crandell! I served with both of them in my first area in Palmdale and I just love them both so much haha. They crack me up. 

That afternoon was the start of my very first exchange! It was fun! I was with Sister Fuatia, from Western Samoa! She is great, and super fun! We didn't have too much success with finding anyone that day, but we did have dinner at the Himle's and then a lesson with Ernie our investigator! His lesson went SO well! We've started using the pamphlets more because he likes reading and learns better when he does. He's starting to really progress and we are hoping to set him with a baptismal date soon! :)

We visited a widow in the ward, Sister Nelson, that night and it was such a nice visit! we taught the Restoration and it was really awesome. She showed us her garden!! (Mom you would love it!!!) And she had some flowers back there that grow all over in Samoa, so we put them in our hair like some real Samoans! :) It was fun.

Wednesday-- We finished up exchanges and later went to a lesson with a less active member, Melissa Barker. She was super nice and fun! Sister Phillips came with us and it was really good to see Melissa open up since they are super good friends. We watched a really powerful and touching Mormon Message and it was great! She didn't make it to church, so we are going to try to start teaching her kids so they will want to come with her.

We ate at Cataldo's with Sister Cook and Sister Kraucyk.. my two favorite ladies in the ward :) They are hilarious. They remind me of the two geese off of Aristocats. :)

We then went to Ward Correlation meeting and it was so awesome! We went over goals and the ward is really starting to catch the vision! They are going to try to find us people to teach within the families that they home and visit teach! Lots of good things happening there! :)

Thursday-- IT RAINED!!!!!! MIRACLES!

Friday-- We had an awesome District Meeting! We learned about making sure Christ is at the center of all of our lessons. It was a very good reminder to always bring it back to why we do the things we do.

Then we went on another exchange! I went with Sister Cashin who is from Missouri and we were in the MTC together at the same time. It was a really good exchange! We found someone!!!! Her name is Erin, and she was babysitting at a house we tried a few days earlier. She opened the door and we introduced ourselves. She didn't know what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believed, so we told her sometimes people call us "mormons". She invited us in because she "has had lots of questions about Mormons and no one can answer them!" So we basically taught her the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ all in one lesson! It was amazing!!! She accepted a Book of Mormon and was super excited to read it and find out if it is true!! She then asked how long it usually takes for someone to become converted. Hahaha we about fell out of our seats! SHE IS SO PREPARED! We invited her to be baptized on June 20th and she accepted! :) Only thing is that she doesn't live in our area and she is 19, so we will have to give her to the Young Single Adult Sister missionaries... BUT STILL WE FOUND SOMEONE WHO WAS SUPER PREPARED! We prayed so hard for that! 

Then we had dinner at the McArthur's and Sister McArthur took us to go visit a sweet, sweet sister in the ward who just got diagnosed with brain cancer.. it was super unexpected and the whole ward has been amazing to rally the troops and help this sister and her family out during this super hard time. Her name is Sister Reeber and she is so strong! Her testimony is amazing! It made me really think about priorities and how we need to really appreciate life, every step of the way!

Saturday-- We went to a birthday party for Ernie! The Hunter's put it on for him! It was like a fiesta Luau! It was super fun! :) They are the best! He is 84! What a champ! The Hunter kids showed us their salamanders they found on the father and sons campout weekend!

Sunday-- Church was great! The Todd's came to all three hours and so did the Dailey's! It was awesome! :) The Todd's are a family we are working with! A young couple and the husband is a member, but less active and we have been teaching the wife! They are expecting soon!

We had an awesome lesson with Jacob-- he has been meeting with the missionaries for four months now and he is 17. His parents won't let him be baptized, so his baptismal date is in September when he turns 18! He comes to church and activities every week and is so awesome. He is planning to apply to BYU for winter semester next year! So awesome! 

We had dinner with the McMurtrey's! One of my new favorite families! :) They are so awesome! They are way stoked, their son gets home this week from his mission in Michigan!

We were walking around trying to find someone to talk to and Brother Woodruff was sitting outside with his neighbor and invited us to sit with them and we chatted a little bit and shared a message and Brother Woodruff said a prayer and it was just the best experience ever! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. 

Sorry this was kind of scattered! So much more happened I just don't have time to include everything this week!

Hope everyone has a splendid week! I love you all! :)

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it."

--Ferris Beuler 

Our Bishop's wife made this mini Jerusalem for her seminary class!

She knows Aaron Hansen! 

Her name is Erin Christensen!

She just got back from her mission and she is in Brimhall ward!

Love small world stuff!

5/4-5/10

Hello!

It was SO GOOD seeing all the family yesterday on Skype! Loved talking to you guys! Everyone has grown up so much, in just the last year. It is crazy to see all the changes that have happened while I've been gone. My babies are all grown up and savin' China! 

This week was great!

Monday-- We had an awesome lesson with Brenden, the newest of our investigators right now. He had read the Restoration pamphlet the sisters left him the week before, and he basically quoted the first vision to us right there when we asked about it! It was so cool! He already has a testimony of the Restoration, it's amazing. He was really excited to start learning more. Hopefully we can meet with him this week. He is kind of hard to get a hold of!

Tuesday-- Happy Cinco de Mayo! We went out to lunch that day to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate... but we were like the only ones who were aware that it was Cinco de Mayo in all of West Bakersfield it seemed like. So we were kind of really bummed. No taco trucks on this side of town! :( We didn't have any lessons with investigators that day, but we met a couple of cute families in the ward and taught their kids the Restoration lesson and they were so good to answer the questions we asked! 

Wednesday-- We went to Mission Leadership Council meeting in Tehachapi that morning. It was such a good meeting! We set goals as a mission, and we did so by the spirit. After discussing some ideas of what one of the goals should be, we would all kneel down, all 35+ of us missionaries along with President and Sister Wilson, and pray to Heavenly Father to ask if it was the right goal that we should set. We would all receive a good feeling of the spirit confirming the goal and then we would move on to the next goal! It was amazing! Such a powerful meeting.

We had lunch afterwards and it was fun seeing mission friends! And old companions! Sister Kurtz is a STL too! :)

We did some service at the Almond guy's house and he gave me a teddy bear! Haha he gives all of the sisters that do service for him teddy bears.. it's a part of his logo or something.. I don't know. But we were able to share a Restoration lesson with him so that was good! He isn't really willing to change his beliefs or anything so, that's too bad.

That night we went to an activity at the church. Glen Klepic, (we are teaching him- his wife is starting to come back to church) was teaching a self defense class! He knows Karate and stuff, so it was pretty fun! :) Brought me back to the days of Self Defense class at BYU. Then we got a call that one of the sisters we are over was sick, so I took them my teddy bear and we visited them to see if we could do anything for them. 

Thursday-Saturday-- Sister Hirschi and I were asked to do a training in Zone Training Meeting about "Sacrifice" and being willing to sacrifice things that we are holding on to that might be holding us back from achieving our goals. It was a good opportunity! We had dinner with the Klepics and that went well! We had a lesson afterwards on Temples and it was pretty good!

We had a lesson with Ernie. This man is going to be 84 this week! What a champ! He is doing well. We went over the baptismal questions with him to see what he understands so far, and we have a ways to go. But he is still excited to keep coming and get baptized eventually!

We knocked on lots and lots of doors on Saturday and there wasn't much success from that. But it's okay, we talked to our Ward Mission Leader and hopefully we will start to get the Ward members on board with inviting the people they know to listen to the missionary lessons! It would be a miracle and quite frankly just amazing when that starts to happen. That is the way the Lord designed this work to go in these last days! It's the only way! :)

Sunday-- THE COUNTDOWN hahaha. It was so hard to stay focused because we were SO excited to talk to our families! Everyone asked about it at church and we were just trying to stay busy until we called! It was a good day though, we were able to contact a few people and also the Himle's had us over for lunch/dinner and it was super fun! Love them! :)

That night after talking to the fam, we had to go pick up a sister at the Mission Home. She was going home because of illness the next day and she needed to spend the night in our apartment. So we got to have a little sleep over. It was a sad one, but she is an awesome sister and I just love her to death haha. :) She was serving in Palmdale in my first area before she left! So fun hearing about people in that ward!

Then we also got a call from the same sisters that were sick earlier this week. One of them went to the ER to get checked out for a possible appendicitis. Luckily it wasn't that, and they are doing well! We were up talking to them in the middle of the night and had to get up at 4:30 to send the other sister off to the airport.

It's been exciting to say the least!

In Sunday School yesterday, we talked about Jesus Christ and the miracles he performed and really who He was. It was amazing. We talked about the woman being healed by touching Christ's clothes and about Him raising Lazarus from the dead. It was an amazing lesson and I love how it explains the true love that Jesus Christ has for his brothers and sisters. In John chapter 11 it explains the whole story regarding Lazarus. 

Verse 33-When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.

34-And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

35-Jesus wept.

36-Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!

Even Jesus, who understood that death wasn't the end, wept with his brothers and sisters because of the loss of one of his close friends. He has been through everything we have, and we can turn to him when we are going through the rough patches and sometimes unbearable moments in our lives.

I love you all so much! I love this gospel more than anything.

Hope you all have a wonderful week and look for opportunities to serve those around you and to show them just how much you love them by inviting them to hear this restored gospel! :)

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo  

 We had semi- matching shirts for Mother's day! :)

And this was in a member's bathroom haha, love it

4/27-5/3

Hey everyone! I have like no time left... so this is going to be a lame email.

This week has been great! It was soooo sad leaving Bishop. SO SAD. I miss that beloved place more than I thought. So many people there that I just love so much!

Goodbye to Sister Luddington

Stockdale-- is my new area/ward! 

It is HUGE compared to Bishop. I'm pretty sure I'm experiencing some culture shock this week, especially after going to church yesterday and the whole chapel being filled. It was overwhelming to say the least. But, they are all such wonderful families and really strong in the gospel, so it is definitely refreshing! 

Lot's of successful people in this area, so lots of big houses and people who don't seem to "need" the gospel.. so we will keep searching for the prepared people, who are searching for it! :)

It's hit 95 to 100 degrees every day this week.. luckily there has been a slight breeze to lighten things up! Didn't think I would be so grateful for that breeze!

We are teaching a few people.. nothing too crazy or solid yet, but I'll keep you posted next week on how it all goes!

I got sick when I was packing up to come here, and have been struggling all week with a bad cough and I forgot my wallet in the Bishop sisters' car... so they are getting that to me this week, but in the mean time, Sister Himle has been taking care of me and totally brought me some medicine! Life saver!! Love her so much. She has been such a blessing and it's been so nice to see a somewhat familiar face!

As a Sister Training Leader, I am responsible to help encourage and inspire the other sisters. We are over 4 companionships, ONE OF THOSE BEING SISTER DODSON!!!!!! SO STOKED ABOUT LIFE! We will be able to go on exchanges together! :) Happy Day! We called to sing her happy birthday this week and I about died! I JUST LOVE HER! I've missed her dearly!

There is this less active guy in our ward here that has a small almond business! For service every week we put the almonds in little sample bags.. and we get to eat as many as we want! Holla :) We look like lunch ladies.

It has been a good week! Sister Hirschi is super nice and great! Sometimes hard to get her to loosen up, but things are going well! She loves to run, so that has made things way fun! We ran about 7 miles this morning, since we could do a longer run because its P-day!

Hope everyone has a good week!

Love you all SO much!

See you in less than a week on skype! :)

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

 There was a street called Lords Ave.