10/26

10/19-10/25

Alright so this week was a good one!

Monday-- I dyed my hair! :) Well Sister Livingston did, and it's so fun! While she was dying my hair, Sister Long made our Halloween costumes.. stay tuned for some pictures. 

Everytime I looked in the mirror this week, Skuttle's voice from The Little Mermaid comes in my head, "Ariel!! ARIEL!!!!" hahahahaha since it has some red in it, I felt like Ariel. haha

Tuesday-- We went on an adventure with Sister Hillhouse up to the Rudd's in Glennville! It's about 50 miles from Oildale/North Bakersfield and it is way pretty up there!

We ate some lunch at the Rudd's and then they gave us an awesome tour of Sister Rudd's family Ranch! It was so rad! I loved it! They have summer camps during the summer up there where kids from all over come and spend two weeks and get to explore and have a good time! Harry, a 29 year old, worked as a cook up there this last summer and is staying with the Rudd's, trying to decide what he's going to do next. He isn't a member of the church... yet ;) haha before we left, we shared a message with their family. It was the message of the Restoration and we invited Harry to learn more and to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and to come to church and to be baptized adn he said.... he'll think about it. Haha it was super intense! Afterwards Sister Rudd sent us a text that said, "Halfway through I smiled and thought wow, this is the first discussion lol. Good job girls." hahaha it was awesome! I LOVE THE RUDD'S. Sister Rudd is like my lost long sister. She and Aunt Sherri would have a BLAST together hahaha they are so awesome! I love it!

That night, when we got home, Sister Long went to bed super early because she wasn't feeling good. 

Wednesday-- Sister Long didn't feel well so she took a nap and then we went out that afternoon. We were talking to a less active lady in the ward on her doorstep, and Sister Long started to collapse. She has hypoglycemia, and she wasn't watching her blood sugars at all and she basically went into a diabetic-like shock and thank goodness I watched Steele Magnolia's so many times so I knew what she needed! I asked the sister, if she had any juice. We got Sister Long some juice and she came out of it and was able to become coherent again. Scariest moment of my LIFE!!! The ambulance came, but Sister Long was well enough not to have to go to the hospital, thank goodness. We stayed in for the next couple of days until she was better. She was super sick and had a hard time recovering.

Friday-- Sister Long was still not doing well, so we took her to Urgent Care and got her some meds to help her out. 

We stayed in all day Friday too. The ward was AWESOME. Seriously so many people asked us if we needed anything. Brother Bey brought us a bunch of food that Sister Long could eat and the Shimmin's brought this bomb soup and homemade scones! SO GOOD. I just love this ward. They are so amazing!

Saturday-- Sister Long was feeling a lot better, so we were able to go to the AP comp study with the STL's it was SO good! They gave us sooo many good things to work on! Here is an acronym they came up with to help us out (lots more was learned along with the acronym, but lack of time, I can't explain all the way!)--->

T-Teach

R-Remind

A-Ask Questions

I-Inspire

N-Never be complacent

Then they talked about a "growth cycle". If we exercise our faith and do things that are out of our comfort zones, the faith of others and the Lord will help us and give us the strength to do it, then we see the evidence of our exercised faith, and then our faith and knowledge GROW! :)

We went around and invited everyone to come to the Trunk or Treat Halloween party that the ward was putting on that night! It was fun! We found a new investigator, Delia while we were out!

The Halloween party was super awesome!! Brooke took us in her car and Cody took the elders in his jeep! It was out in some almond orchards the church owns and it was SO fun! Everyone's costumes were great and festive. We had a good time! And our costumes were a hit! (literally kids were punching our boxes hahaha)

Someone thought my costume was a garbage can!!!

Sunday-- WAS THE BEST!

Church was so amazing. EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED. It was the Primary Program and SHOLANDA CAME!!! :) With her grandson Duane! It was so fun!

That morning I read another talk about the Sacrament that changed my life. Here's a link to it! https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/the-sacrament-and-the-atonement?lang=eng

Sister Rudd taught the Relief Society lesson and words can't describe how much I needed it. It was so inspired and I'm so grateful. It was all about the conference talk, Waiting for the Prodigal. Sister Rudd came up with some steps for inviting family and friends to church that really touched me.

1. Lovingly let them make their own choices.

2. Never stop caring for or loving them

3. Pray for them

4. Never lose hope

5. Continue to reach out to them

6. Continually try to reach out again.

7. Reach out to their family and friends.

8. Support them in things you can 

9. Listen for and obey promptings

10. Don't judge we all fall short!

Pay attention to what repeats in the steps, and do them! That's my invite to all of you is to invite someone to church. :)

That night we had dinner at the Jorgy's (Jorgensen's) and the Rudd's were there! It was a Ruddly weekend. :) and it was riot. I love those families.

Afterwards we went to Leann and Heather's to try to teach them a lesson, which wasn't successful, but we ended up singing primary songs and teaching them to the 3 little boys. They are so crazy, but so cute. They just need to come to church!!! :)

This week I had so much time to study, a little too much time hahaha. I was ponderizing the scripture, Doctrine & Covenants 121:45-->

45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. 

and in 3 general conference talks and an ensign article I felt impressed to read, there that scripture was! Tender mercies and revelation! :) SO AMAZING.

"Dew moistens and cools whatever it forms on. Because of this, it can help plants survive hot, dry summers... We live in a world that is hostile to faith and testimony, but our Heavenly Father never leaves us to wither. When we allow God's word to "distil upon [our souls]," we can be refreshed and kept alive spiritually, and we can then thrive, grow, and bring forth the fruits of faith-- a change of heart, a love of God and our fellowmen, and good works."

Hope you all had an amazing week!

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

10/12-10/18

Hey-O! :) 

Monday-- We went shopping for P-day hahaha it was weird! GMO! Girl's Monday Out! ;)

Tuesday-- We got to drop Sister Bryan off at transfer meeting and then I sang in the choir! It was such an amazing experience. We sang, "Beautiful Savior" and it is now one of my favorites. So awesome!

After eating at the Dickerson's (such a cute little family) we were walking to our car, and we were a little late to getting to the church for splits with the ward, but there was a man walking his dog and I felt impressed to say hi to him. So we did, and guess what? HE'S A LOST SHEEP! He is a less active member that just moved back into our ward boundaries! Coincidence, I think not!

Wednesday-- Sister Farar, our dear sweet granny, invited us over for lunch! She is so good to us! I just love her!

We went and saw Eleanor Miner, a less active member, and met her boyfriend(?) Lee and ended up teaching the Restoration! He is Pentecostal, but the sweet 80 year old man told us to come back, because he enjoyed talking to us! We'll see where it goes! :)

That night we were walking and started talking to a guy that was outside emptying out the back of his truck. We taught the Restoration and he said we could come back! We gave him a Book of Mormon and set an appointment with him for the next day. His name was Edgar and he was pretty nice! Then, right after that we met another guy that was outside. His name is Jason! He started to tell us about his life and how rough it was and the situation he was in. He said he was going out of town for some work this week, but that we could come back the next Thursday! We'll see how that goes! :)

We went by to see Sister Nowak and she's doing so much better! She's really progressing in her testimony of the gospel!! Things are really starting to click and she understands what she needs to do in order to start really progressing. :) It's really cool to see the change of heart she has had.

That night there was THE most legit thunder and lightening storm!!! IT WAS SO COOL! Twice the thunder made car alarms go off it was SO loud. I was loving every second of it haha! I took a video of it, because my picture taking skills never are able to capture the lightening.. so one day I'll show you guys! 

My attempt of getting the flash of lightening in the picture! 

Me watching the lightening!

Thursday-- Edgar wasn't home... So we tried a few other people and ended up meeting a gay couple and one of them is a member of the ward. Her dad was in one of my past areas and he was actually in town and came and brought us all JAMBA JUICE! hahaha :) I had this pumpkin one that looked like it could have been food for a baby but it was out of this world. Celestial Nectar. It changed my life for the better. :)

THEN WE CAUGHT TAMMY AT HOME! She was so happy to see us! It was awesome! We set up an appointment with her to see her and her husband for Saturday.

We stopped by the Mayfield's and read the Tree of Life story in 1 Nephi 8 and 11 and it was so good! He told us some really spiritual experiences he had this last week. He said that the scripture about seeking first the Kingdom of God, kept coming to his mind and that he knew it was God letting him know that he needed to start coming to church and reading the scriptures more! So awesome! Such a change! So amazing.

Friday-- We did some service for Sister Alvis. She hasn't been to church in a really long time, and is now in a cast, because she fractured her foot. So we helped clean her kitchen! 

Later we tried contacting someone but they weren't interested, so we felt we needed to walk down the next street, McCray st, and here come Zack riding his razor scooter! (Zack is an 18 yr old kid we found a couple of months ago and he said he wasn't interested) We talked to him for a bit and he told us he was trying to gain a relationship with God again and that he had opened the Book of Mormon again! Say whaaaat?! So we got super pumped, but he continued to be bum about not receiving answers from God... and we were like, "Um, don't you think He is answering your prayer by sending us to run into you on the street??" He said no.. it didn't even cross his mind. Nonetheless we were able to schedule an appointment for the next day with him and he said he would come to church and give things a chance. Woot woot! :)

We went to the Taylor's that night for dinner! :) The best!!

Sholanda cancelled her appointment that night, but she said she would come to church! 

We had 30 minutes before our appointment with the Perry's, and we felt impressed to go see Everly and Tony, a great family that we met some time ago that had just moved. When we knocked on their door Everly talked to us for some time and she told us she had just come back into town from being with her family. Her grandma had just passed away that day and she was having a super hard time. We weren't able to share anything with them right then, but they asked us to come back the next week. They will be really prepared to hear the Plan of Salvation! MIRACLE TIMING!

God is so aware of us!!! 

Saturday-- Aaron Burdick (a young man in the ward) came with us to the lesson with Zack that we had at the park. It was a good lesson... haha a difficult one, but it went decently. Aaron was a champion! Then Sister Despain went with us to Tammy & Tony's but they ended up not being home, but low and behold Cody pulls up in his car next door!!! (we met him a few weeks ago!) and he was THRILLED to see us! Thank goodness he shaved his heinous neck beard hahahaha but it was good talking to him and good news he is actually moving into our ward boundaries! (the elder's are though) So we shall see how this works out!

That day, we talked to a lot of difficult people and one of them told us that Joseph Smith was a false prophet. Well, sister, I just studied all about Joseph Smith that morning, so I was NOT going to sit there and let her tell me that. So I just strongly and boldly testified that Joseph Smith was a man chosen by God and was a true prophet of God and that through Him Christ's true and living gospel was restored. It didn't change her mind, but I did what I am called to do, and that is enough for me.

Sunday-- We tried SO hard to get everyone to church.. but no one came. Sholanda was sick and everyone else didn't want to come or were lazy and didn't want to get ready.

I did, however, have an amazing experience at church. It's such a blessing partaking of the sacrament each week! For studies that morning I read Sister Cheryl A. Esplin's talk about the Sacrament. Some parts that really stood out to me and changed the way I look at the Sacrament now are--->

"Our wounded souls can be healed and renewed not only because the bread and water remind us of the Savior's sacrifice of His flesh and blood but because the emblems also remind us that He will always be our "bread of life" and "living water.""

"Aaronic Priesthood holders represent the Savior when they prepare, bless, and pass the sacrament. As a priesthood holder extends his arm to offer us the sacred emblems, it is as if the Savior Himself were extending His arm of mercy, inviting each on of us to partake of the precious gifts of love made available through His atoning sacrifice--gifts of repentance, forgiveness, comfort, and hope."

It made me have a different perspective of the purpose of the Sacrament, and my love and appreciation for our Savior really grew this week. I am so grateful for this gospel and my mission!

Taylor Bey came out with us that evening and we had an awesome lesson with Leann and Heather. Super psycho loud there with all the children, but we were able to get through the Plan of Salvation with them. :)

We had dinner at the McMullin's! Love their family!

Then we went out with the one and only Sister Burdick, my favorite! :) We had a short lesson afterwards with her family and they are just awesome. 

It's been such a blessing to be able to kneel down with these families and offer prayers, pleading for these families and their homes to be blessed. I love being a missionary!

Love you all! Sorry this was so long.. but I just needed to tell you all these awesome experiences!! :)

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

In the middle of October... 

...and then we got some pomegranates! 

9/28-10/4

District activity at Hart Park!

Hello!

Monday-- We had a really fun District activity at Hart Park that's not too far from where we live. We had a BBQ, walked around the park and just enjoyed the good weather. It's finally starting to cool down! Afterwards we went to the Haner's for some dinner and we helped them herd their geese into another garden they have. They have a miniature farm! It's pretty rad. :) 

Tuesday-- We had exchanges with the Snow sisters and that was fun! We got to talk to quite a bit of people, some interesting ones, but we got to meet Sandy! So we were trying to contact some people we had met a few weeks back on this one street, but no one was answering their doors. So we turned around and both looked at the same house and both said "let's try that one!" So we did! A woman opened the door and was pretty dang nice and said she hadn't had anyone knock on her door since she lived there. She would see the elder's ride their bikes down the street throughout the years and no one would knock on her door. She seemed hurt by it for some reason, so we were like well, here we are! :) Haha so we taught her the Restoration briefly and invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. She was stoked to learn more about the Mormons! So that was awesome. She said she would want to be baptized if she found out it was true! Yay! :)

That night we went on splits with the ward, and we went to visit some less active members we hadn't met. It was a race against the daylight! It's starting to get darker earlier so we were rushing from place to place. It was exciting haha. We met the Logan family! THEY ARE AWESOME! We just got to know her and set up another time to go and see her. (Stay tuned for that following appointment in the coming days of this email)

Wednesday-- We got to teach Kim with Sister Huff again! Another great lesson, this one being on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We read from 3 Nephi chapter 11 and it was amazing. She really is starting to get it. They are moving into her sister in-law's house this week we think, so they are going to be busy. Good thing they are still in the Ward boundaries! :)

We were walking out to our car after grabbing something from the apartment, that we usually don't go back for. There was some people moving into an apartment near by, so we offered to help and surprisingly they said yes! (usually doesn't happen for us, when we offer service) The woman moving in, is named Whitney and she is super nice! She said she'll have us over for dinner when she gets moved it! Woo woooo!

Thursday-- We went to Sister Livingston's and taught a lesson to Jenni, her friend and she brought her cousin too so we also started teaching her too!! It was great. Member missionary work is the way to go! :) 

That night, Brooke came with us to a few of our lessons we had planned, but they all kind of fell through. We talked to Sandy for a bit, and she said she is WAY too busy so we will see how much we get to teach her. We went to the Logan's and had an awesome visit with Sister Logan! We met their 10 year old daughter too, Katie, who isn't baptized yet! She's good friends with another girl in our ward that is 10 and we are so excited to start meeting with that family and start teaching their daughter so she can make the decision to be baptized or not! :)

Friday-- I had to do a training in District Meeting and it was a really good experience for me. I talked about teaching everyone you meet and talk to and the importance of inviting everyone to be baptized. I was able to train them on how we need to give everyone a chance to become a new investigator and learn for themselves that the Restoration is true. I realized that I'm the second oldest (in mission time and also I'm the oldest there in real life.. weird) in the District and that I actually had some counsel to give these younger missionaries! As I taught, it made me realize that I have been out for some time.. and that I've learned A LOT as I've served. I've grown so much. I can't explain the change that's happened to me, but it's a good one. :)

We had a lesson with Ashley (Sister Shaw and I met her on the street a couple of weeks ago) and she is awesome! She said she would come watch conference, but she never came. We had dinner at the Taylor's and that's always great! We got sad news that Sister Bower's son died.. and her other son, who doesn't usually like anything to do with the church, called us to come over and say a prayer with them. It was an honor and quite the experience. These kind of trials really soften people's hearts and you can see them yearn for the spirit more in their lives. We all yearn for that.

That night we went to the Laurelglen Sister's area to go on exchanges over there. We didn't get to see Teagyn :( but we saw Julie!! :) She's doing well, Teagyn's hanging in there... she hasn't been going to church though, so that is sad. We will figure something out, to help her go!

We taught Moises, one of their investigators who got baptized a week ago! HE IS AWESOME! We started reading in the Book of Mormon with him where he last left off and it was PERFECT. We read Mosiah 2 and it was about King (and Prophet) Benjamin talking to the people and we related it to General Conference and it was just perfect. As we were reading that chapter, I could really feel the spirit strongly and I knew I was supposed to be there in that place at that time, to hear that same message from the Book of Mormon.

#ldsConfnerds

Our excitement for General Conference! :)

Saturday & Sunday-- WE GOT TO WATCH GENERAL CONFERENCE! Oh I was giddy with excitement and couldn't get to the church building early enough before it started. It was so amazing hearing the Prophet and apostles!!! When the new apostles that were called were speaking, I realized that I had read and quoted in my last email part of Elder Gary E. Stevenson's talks! He's now the new apostle! So rad! :) I had so many favorite things, I'll have to "ponderize" what my favorite one was and share it with you guys another time! 

 A gecko! .....and Sister Mayfield is scared of it in the back....hahaha!!

We planned outside because it was BEAUTIFUL! :)

After the afternoon session we went out proselyting and were knocking in this little neighborhood full of grouchy people who all said, quote, "I'm not interested, and I don't want to talk to you." Alrighty then! We were DETERMINED to find someone on that street that would listen, and soon enough as we were talking to one of the grouches, a man in a little jazzy wheel chair came speeding up the driveway! We got talking to him and he was trying to sell us a little book of coupons or something, but then he started asking us questions. Long story short, his name is Tanner, and he is physically handicapped and has a speech impediment, which makes it hard to understand him sometimes. He loves God, the Bible and believes strongly in what it says and that God loves all of His children. Tanner is in his 30's and as we taught the Restoration to him, he explained how amazing it was and that he felt goose bumps when we told him the First Vision that Joseph Smith had. He said he knew it was true! We gave him a Book of Mormon and we got his information. We found out he lived in the elder's area that are serving in our ward, so we had to pass him over to them. It was such a neat experience meeting and talking with Tanner! HE'S AMAZING! He also told us that his friend in high school was Mormon and ended up serving a mission, he told us what an impact he had on his life! 

You never know the influence you have on others, so live your life like you are going to make a difference, because YOU DO! :) People recognize when you have the spirit with you, "the light in their eyes", as President Monson talked about in his talk. Share the light with others! People notice and are searching! :)

Well I love this gospel and I love preaching it to all nations and people I meet. 

God DOES love ALL of His children. I know with all my heart that the only way back to Him is through is Son, Our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know this is His restored church back on the earth and that only through the saving ordinances performed by His power, the Priesthood can we receive all of the blessings He has in store for us.

I love this work. It's a "marvelous work and a wonder", and I'm so grateful to be a part of it!

This was how we ended call-ins last night... complete exhaustion by the end of the week... HaHa!!

The most hilarious card, Aunt Sherri sent me for my birthday hahahaha! so awesome I LOVED IT.

I love you all!!!!

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxoxo