Hello my favorites! :)‏

I can't believe another week has come and gone! Busy times are the best times :)

Monday-- Before going to FHE to teach a lesson with a couple families in the ward, we stopped by a family we have been trying to teach. They have the cutest kids and we ended up teaching them some primary songs to them and singing with them! It was by far a highlight of the week and I absolutely loved it more than anything.

Tuesday-- We were able to do some service for the Vickrey family and help her in the house with some things, which was great. We ate dinner with them and had a New Member Lesson with them at the Martin's (their next door neighbor) and it went well. We taught Letty and her husband later that night too. We dove right into the scriptures and talked about the story of Abinidi the prophet and the covenants we make at baptism found in Mosiah 18 in the Book of Mormon. It was a really good lesson about serving those around us and looking for ways to help. Letty is so solid and really looking forward to her baptism this coming Saturday! :)

Wednesday-- We went to this place called S.A.V.E.S. to volunteer for a couple of ours! We just filed some things for them and helped in the office- it was fun. :)

We had an awesome lesson with Lynn, a less active member who has been coming back to church and definitely so much more happier because of it! We talked about the temple and the blessing that come from preparing and going there for her and for her deceased family members. 

Thursday-- we had scripture study class and it was awesome! The Elders taught it and it was about how we can us the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives to help us through our trials and hard times that we have. Afterwards we gave Letty and her husband a tour of the church and it was really good! We had dinner at Sister Jaggi's-- she served her mission in Bolivia and has THE RADDEST stories ever. She shared just a few of them and the spirit was definitely there. She always talks about how she learned how much Heavenly Father loves His children on her mission and in turn how much He loves her. What a woman. I love her so much, as well as her cooking :)

Sister Loar and Sister Kurtz (MTC Companion)

Friday-- We went to Zone Training Meeting and it was really great! We learned lots about how we can have personal victories in our daily routine and focus on things we need to work on to be completely obedient. Those personal victories will then help us be able to have public victories like being able to reach more people and teach by the spirit. After that we helped set some tables and chairs up for a wedding reception this weekend for a girl in the ward! 

Friday we also did exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders! Sister Welch stayed with Sister Barney and I and Sister Nemrow went with Sister Lazarroto to their area. It was super fun! Sister Welch is amazing, and a really great missionary! I learned a lot and had some awesome experiences. She looks like Rapunzel from Tangled... She could be her. I swear. Haha

Sister Repunzel (Welch) and Sister Loar

Sisters Barney, Welch, and Loar

We got to do some service for some less active members and they took us out for lunch (mind it was just two hours before we had dinner scheduled) Right before heading to dinner, the Evans who were feeding us told us to meet them at Outback! hahaha so we had a lot to eat that day-- but who's complaining ;) it was great, I love the Evans!

After dinner we went and talked to Hannah, and we had a super great lesson with her! We talked to her about its definitely her choice if she wants to be happy. We have the answers and a perfect recipe of how to be happy in this life, she just needs to choose to accept it and act on that recipe! She is super stubborn and it was super hard for her to accept that. BUT SHE PRAYED AT THE END OF THE LESSON FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FRONT OF US AND IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER AND I AM JUST THE HAPPIEST PERSON BECAUSE OF IT. :)

Saturday-- we taught a few people before meeting the other sisters to exchange back to normal. We went to get some gas in the car and met this awesome and interesting man! He has a Saint Bernard dog and he works for Hollywood? Haha he was hilarious and had a little bun on top of his head and it was just the best ever. Letty had her baptismal interview and passed! :) YAY! We are so excited for her, she is just the best and so happy because of the life she has chosen! The baptism is at 5pm this Saturday, Sept. 13th and she is getting confirmed the 14th (BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER :)) and we are just ecstatic! We are combining the baptism with her mom because she wants to get baptized too! We are practicing a song to sing at the baptism, so hopefully it works out! :)

We taught Hannah while we curled her friends hair and helped them get all ready for the Stake or Regional dance that was that night! :) It was so awesome to see them so excited to go! One of the kids in the ward was taking them to the dance and they were really happy! They seemed to have fun when we talked to them about it!

We taught the Chans that night and it was great! :) They are awesome and I love them. We are really trying to get the ward to help out with fellowshipping them into the ward!

We stopped by at the wedding reception that we helped set the tables and chairs up for and it was the hardest thing not to bust a move and go crazy dancing! Probably the hardest temptation I have while on the mission-- not dancing when I hear good beats... oh boy definitely a big temptation! hahaha ;)

SUNDAY THE BEST DAY EVER-- Free came to church! And so did Letty and her husband! FREE BORE HIS TESTIMONY IN SACRAMENT MEETING AND IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER. He said that he feels like this is his home church and that he feels it is true! HOLLA! PAY DAY FOR THE MISSIONARIES TO HAVE HIM  DO THAT! :) Loved every second and the spirit was super strong. Also Lynn Brant stayed for all three hours and I just love her so much! The ward was soooo helpful today! They definitely welcomed everyone into the ward and it made all the difference. it was so awesome to see everyone step in and become friends with these new faces. Later that evening we went to "Shaved Ice @ the Martin's" which occurs every Sunday evening around 7 and they have a legit shaved ice machine and families from the ward come and enjoy each others company and its great! :) Some members brought Free,

and Hannah came and so did Letty and Alan her husband!! When the ward helps out like this, it makes missionary work go so much smoother and everything is hunky dory :)

Welp sorry I wrote a novel! Love you all so much and miss you all like crazy! :)

Hope you have a good one!

XOXO

Love,

Sister Loar

What a crazy week! :)‏

This week was great, and oh so crazy!

Monday we found out from the other set of sister missionaries that live near us and serve in a ward close by that one of them was going home the following day because of medical things and that we would be taking the other sister under our wings and now we are a tripanionship! We call ourselves the Sister Trio :) People dig it hahaha.

So Tuesday we moved all of our belongings into Sister Nemrow from New Mexico's apartment because it is bigger and we got a car back! Sad day saying bye to Sister Liljenquist-- it was hard for Sister Nemrow, but we love her and hopefully our love will heal the sadness of losing her companion! 

We locked our keys in the apartment the first time we shut the door-- thanks to me :) heehehe so Elder Billings got on the roof so that he could break into the apartment through the sliding door on our baby porch thingy. Funniest thing of my life hahaha! Love the Elders and sisters in my district!

The Great Key Rescue!!!

We helped out with the mutual activity and took Hannah Vickrey with us (she is an investigator and 16 and super cute) She doesn't like social things and isn't too keen on the church, but after that activity she enjoyed it and really opened up :)

We are starting to teach the New Member Lessons with the Vickrey's who have been baptized at member's homes. This week we went over to the Dalton's and it was a good experience! We are excited to continue helping the ward fellowship the Vickrey's as well as continue to help them strengthen their testimonies!

We ate dinner at Letty's on Friday! :) And we got to meet her husband finally! He isn't in any of the pictures but we did meet him and he is awesome! We taught the Restoration to them after eating THE BEST ENCHILADAS I HAVE EVER HAD(Sorry mom, but Virginia-- Letty's mother-- is from Mexico and she is an amazing cook) 

We also played some air hockey and a heated game of foosball.

During the lesson, Letty totally bore her testimony about why she was getting baptized and how she has received answers to her prayers. They went out of town for the long weekend so they weren't able to come to church this week, but they said next week, so we are super super super looking forward to that :)

We finally taught Free!  A 16 year old kid who has been to church a few times but we haven't been able to teach him officially yet! Before the lesson even started he asked when he could be baptized! This never happens hahaha we were all in shock but the happiest little humans you could ever see! He has planned to be baptized November 8th, so not for a while but now we have a goal to work towards and purpose to everything! It is such a blessing and a miracle. Happy day! :)

ALSO WE TAUGHT HANNAH AND ROB VICKREY (the dad) AND SET A BAPTISMAL DATE WITH THEM OF NOV. 15! Oh how joyous was that day! :) Hannah also came to church and wore a DRESS! (This is huge, she never wears dresses to church) It is amazing to see the countenances, attitudes, and everything change in a person because they give space for Jesus Christ to come into their lives!

Sunday is my favorite day of the week for sure. The spirit was so strong and it was just awesome to see families there together. I love this gospel more than anything. These last two months have changed my life forever. I can't wait to see what 16 more do. This church is the true church and I am so grateful to be a part of sharing it with the people of Cali. Love you all so much. Thanks for everything you do in your lives, keep doing what's right and being the best you can be :)

XOXO

-Sister Loar 

PS:  

I SAW SISTER KURTZ TODAY AT THE STAKE CENTER BEFORE PLAYING SOME BBALL WITH MY HOMIES.

I love her so much.

PSS:  

I might have a slight black eye from Elder Duckworth while playing basketball.  But it's fine.  Hahaha!!  But really it is fine, I just thought it was funny to tell you.

PSSS:  It' s not even a black eye.  It is a baby bruise on my cheek bone.   Hahahahaha!

2 MONTHS DOWN---whut?!‏

So um today is my 2 month mark and I am not so sure how that went by so fast!

But all is well in Palmdale and I couldn't be happier serving the Lord in Cali! :)

This week was good! First week on bikes-- so that was an adventure for sure! We have figured out that we bike around 16 miles a day, at the least. BURNING CALORIES HOLLA!  Since the members feed us so well, this whole bike riding thing is going to save me a lot of money buying clothes that would fit! ;)

We live about 4-5 miles outside of our area, so we get to bike those miles uphill every afternoon (about 40 minutes) and bomb down those hills every night! (don't worry mom I will be safe hehe) At least I am wearing my helmet always and I look super awesome. (but we just look soooo ridiculous and it is hilarious hahaha helmets, skirts, bags, the whole shebang and it is so funny)

This week was awesome though! 

Monday-- we bought our bikes and got all situated for the week. We had Family Home Evening at the Vickrey's again and played spoons! They hadn't played before so they loved it!

Tuesday, we lived in fear the whole day because our car was going to be taken at some point throughout the day and we didn't know what time. But we were blessed and got to keep it the whole day! :) That evening we went over to the Evan's home for a lesson with Letty (our ever progressing investigator whom I love so dearly and will forever be friends with) She was taking a big exam the following day to get her Loan license and has a lot of other things in her life that she needed some comfort and guidance in and so we had Brother Evans give her a Priesthood blessing! It was the coolest experience. When we were walking with her back to her house, she was explaining how great that felt and that she felt the spirit and that she has faith that it will all work out.

Wednesday we got to teach a woman who found one of our Family History pass along cards that we put in people's doors if they aren't home with our cell phone number on it just incase they have questions. She called us that morning and wanted us to come over and teach her about family history and how to use it because she is trying to find her father! She doesn't know if he is alive or dead and it is just cool to see her so excited about her genealogy. We took a member, who is awesome, with us to help her out. MIRACLE-- they ended up knowing each other from doing PTA when their kids went to elementary school together! So awesome! :)  

Funny thing-- all day Wednesday we were struggling on our bikes (cause we thought it was the first day and it was just hard) but little did we know that our brakes were hard core rubbing on the rims of our bikes making things so difficult so we were hating our lives. But the elders fixed them and now we love riding our bikes everywhere :) So it is a good thing we had it rough the first day so that we are now forever grateful for functioning bikes :)

Thursday-- we went over to Letty's and she TOLD US SUCH GREAT NEWS! She passed her test and got news of a possible job opportunity that she went to interview for the following day and the other issues she was dealing with in other areas of her life are clearing up and she received SO many answers to her prayers! Also she was struggling with the idea of giving up coffee and caffeine, but she got test results back from the doctors that she could no longer drink coffee or caffeine because it would cause her to develop a condition! She was like, alright that is definitely an answer to my prayers! So awesome! She called us her angels because we showed up to her house at the perfect time she needed the gospel in her life.

Also Thursday evenings (I don't know why I haven't included this in my emails before because we have this every week) we have SCRIPTURE STUDY CLASS! It is the greatest thing. The elders and us that serve in the same ward together alternate teaching each week about a subject or chapter found in the scriptures and we learn with each other and from each other about how the scriptures have everything we need in them! From the Bible to the Book of Mormon we are able to find the fullness of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our investigators and other ward members come each week and participate and learn more about the scriptures in general. It is a really good experience and I really enjoy it :)

 Friday-- we had our District meeting (about 4 sets of missionaries all together) and we got a new District leader this week! He transferred from the Sierra Leone mission in Africa because of that deadly virus that is now spreading in NY I guess!? Crazy stuff! But he is super awesome and from Utah.

Also Friday our dinner appointment didn't work out so Sister Sarabia made us some sammiches and chips and fruitsnacks! :) And we ended up eating it on a member's driveway because we didn't want to bike a million miles and also because the member wasn't home haha. But it was an awesome picnic. :)

Saturday we went over to Letty's again to teach her and let's just say the Lord truly knows each of our individual situations!! MORE OF HER PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED! Seriously anything is possible if we have faith!! :)

She got a job and got a call to start a second job soon as well! And then she told us that she wants to be baptized on September 13th! And she wants to do it with her MOM! :) Her mom only speaks Spanish so she has been learning from the Spanish elders this whole time! HAPPY DAY! It was so awesome! I just can't even contain my joy and happiness!!!!!!!!! :)

We also met a new family-- the Davis family! They seem pretty interested and are willing to learn more! Definitely super stoked to start teaching them more!  

I love this work so much. I would not change my life for anything.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE LOVE AND SUPPORT!

Stay strong and true! Love you all so much and I am so grateful to be surrounded by your virtual and spiritual love ;)

The church is true I promise.

Love,

Sister Loar

PS: We also played basketball again today and it was wonderful and I loved it and we also helped someone move in today so that is one of the pictures. Yay for wearing normal clothes! Haha XOXO

1 Transfer down!‏

Oh my heavens, where do I begin!?

This week was a fantastic week! A lot of people keep rescheduling with us and are never home when they said they would be, which is understandable, but it did cause us to not teach as many lessons as we have been. But that is A okay! Life moves on and so will the Lord's work!

Last Monday, we had Family Home Evening with one of the families we have been working with, the Vickrey's. We just had a short discussion about prayer and answered different questions that they had for us. It wasn't anything fancy or elaborate, but the Spirit was there and the family was happy! :) It was so good to see them together as a family and HAPPY. The Gospel of Jesus Christ does that to each of us. Despite the hard times we are going through, the Gospel brings light and hope into each of our lives.

THE BAPTISMS--

This weekend was the best weekend of my life! I didn't get to watch any new movies that came out or go swimming or anything like that. I got to witness 5 people (2 from the Spanish branch and 3 in our ward) make a promise with Heavenly Father and follow a commandment from Jesus Christ and be baptized!!!  How amazing is that?  I would not have changed this weekend for anything in the world. I'm so grateful and humbled to be a small part in these people's conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Alfredo and Hilda

RJ

 At the baptismal service, Sister Barney and I and another girl in the ward, sang a song, "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul". It was such a cool experience!! I've never sang like that in front of people, so it was nerve racking but the best experience ever! Loved bearing my testimony through a song! Everything else turned out super well and there were a lot of members that came and supported everyone getting baptized!

So much happiness! Sunday-we were able to witness these 3 people get Confirmed-- or receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! :) Happy day!!!!!

Words can't do justice to the joy that I feel!

Today, we got to play basketball with a couple of the elders in our zone and Sister Evans in the ward! She is 40 and a flat out beast! She works for the LAPD and it was such a blast playing with her! WE SCHOOLED THE ELDERS! Haha we definitely won the majority of the games we played and it was such a blast!

Welp, I get to stay in Palmdale for another 6 weeks and I couldn't be more grateful and happy! We are switching from a car to bikes tomorrow though, so that will be an interesting adventure in itself. Hahaha yay!

Farewell to the car!!!!

Love you all so much and I am so grateful for all of your examples and love and support! Keep being the best people you can be! :) LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Love,

Sister Loar

The Chan's took us out to eat this week! SUSHI FOR THE WIN

Missionary Apartment Life - Outside

Missionary Apartment Life - Outside

Remember Little Foot?......Here's a TREE STAR 

Where has the time gone!?‏

Hello everyone! It is so crazy how fast this week was and how fast this first transfer went by! We are starting the last week of my first transfer! It does not seem like 5 weeks have passed by!

This last week was great and hot! Last Monday we played some basketball with the elders in our district and I beat them in a game of 21... hahaha I guess the Lord is strengthening me in ways I didn't think about! Haha the elders I played against were both really surprised! After that we had dinner at Sister Jaggi's house and she made us some of her favorite food she ate growing up in Missouri! I tried fried green tomatoes for the first time and they are super good! (Mom you would be proud hahaha) Love that woman! She served her mission in Ecuador! :) (Jordan you would love her stories) That night we had Family Home Evening with the Vickrey family. (Who we are working with and a couple of them have been baptized and RJ will be baptized this Friday!) We watched a video about Finding Faith in Christ and then played some games outside with the family! This was HUGE progress for them, because they have a super dysfunctional relationship within their family and don't necessarily enjoy each other's company. So seeing them play Ninja on the front lawn together with us was a super awesome experience. :)

We taught Tiara, one of our investigators about the Plan of Salvation and the Law of Chastity. She is currently living with her boyfriend Saul and they just had a baby boy a couple of months ago. Saul is a member of the church but hasn't come since he was a teenager. She is receiving all of the lessons we teach her super well! She is really open to everything. We brought up how they need to be married in order for her to be baptized. We are now trying to work with them to set a date for their marriage so that we can have a goal to work towards! I am hoping they have faith and get married sooner than later.

We taught an 86 year old black man named Moses this week! He is the cutest human ever. I just love him hahaha he talks and talks and talks about the countries he has visited and the wars he was in and the languages he knows. He loves the Bible and everything about Heavenly Father and talking to him was super fun. Hopefully he isn't too set in his ways and can open his heart to receiving even more truth!

We had Zone Training Meeting on Friday and I got to see Sister Kurtz my MTC companion again! HAPPY DAY! I just love her so much! I am a horrible person and forgot to take a picture! I was so mad when I realized I had forgot to do that! President Wilson and his wife came to that meeting so it was a big surprise but super great to see them!

We have 3 baptisms for this upcoming Friday evening! Super stoked is an understatement!!! They are about to make the best decision ever because they are following a commandment of God and He can't wait to bless them for it!!!! Say some prayers for the Chans and RJ to make it because I know that Satan is aware of the choice they are about to make and is not happy about it. We have already seen some frustration in the plans that we are making in order for the baptism to happen and he is trying his best to make it so they don't happen. Please pray for them!

Saturday we went to the Chan's Grandma/ Mom's memorial thingy. Since she was Catholic they had a ceremony of that order. It was interesting, definitely different and definitely a really good experience to see how other people worship. They fed us lots of delicious Filipino food with all of their Filipino family and friends and it was awesome. I love their family!

I feel like the definition of a missionary should include psychologist, therapist, and wedding planner after this week hahaha. It has been awesome to be able to hear everyone's life stories and the problems they are facing in their lives right now. Isn't it so comforting to know that no matter what situation any of them are in or any thing we are facing in our lives at this point, the Gospel of Jesus Christ-- the Atonement, can help us see the light and endure these hard trials? I am so grateful to be a part of this work, to help these people realize that there is a point to all of this crazy madness in this life. I am so grateful for the Savior. For everything He has done and continues to do for us. I love Him and am trying to be the best representative of Him that I can.

I'm pretty sure I ate a piece of lasagna that was the size of Texas this week. I was polite and ate all of what Brother Moser put on my plate... but I am pretty sure it was coming out of my eye balls by the end the hour. I think it is difficult for the members who feed us to understand that we are not like the Elders and that it isn't physically possible for us to eat as much as them either. Hahahaha we are so so so blessed and so grateful for the members for feeding us though! We love them!!! :)

Love you all, and hope it was an awesome week!

Love,

Sister Loar

PS: Letty (Someone we are teaching and whom I love dearly) has three Maltipoos! Just like Macy! :)

Holy Moly - another week has gone by!‏

Hi Everyone!!!!

It has been so good to hear from all of you! I can't express my appreciation in words! the love and support is over whelming, but keep it coming! :) It is the best feeling in the world! I could not be here and doing what I am doing if it weren't for each one of you and your prayers and support!

This week flew by! The days are starting to mush together and it kind of scares me because I am still only in my first transfer! But crazy crazy this is my 5th week in the field!!

Lot's of people cancelled their appointments with us this week, but we still were blessed to teach a lot! Such a blessing to have appointments and people to teach!

We helped make some homemade peach jam with Sister Dalton in the ward (the cutest woman ever--she served in Spain and her husband served in Brazil) They just moved here a month ago and have two cute little kids! they totally remind me of Heather and Tyson and Aiden and Addy! they are so awesome! So Sister Dalton invited a neighbor over and another young wife in the ward over to make this homemade jam from the peaches on her peach tree! We also made some peach mango salsa too! It was super fun to get to know them better! We gave some of the jam and salsa to our investigators! Later in the week we had dinner at their house and they invited the same people over and it was the greatest thing ever! So many faces to meet and hopefully in the future we will be able to introduce this beautiful gospel to them. They are all young families and have such good standards for living life! It is so exciting!:)

MOM&DAD-- thanks so much for teaching me how to work hard. I owe it all to you! We were trying to find ways to serve this week and we have been so blessed to find opportunities! RJ one of our investigators is the son of a woman who recently joined the church. The mom was going to be gone during our lesson so we had the lesson outside with RJ and afterwards we said bye to RJ and then talked to one of their neighbors that is a member in the ward and he helped us mow their lawn (because we found out their lawn mower got stolen the day before) and then I weeded one of their flower beds at the fastest pace I have ever weeded! We were trying to finish before the mom got home so it would stay a secret! We succeeded and it was the greatest feeling ever!

Then we volunteered at an elementary school helping the secretaries finish up the bulletin boards before school starts this week! I think we are going back tomorrow too! they were the sweetest ladies ever too! :)

Letty and the Chans came to church yesterday! And so did Free! We haven't been able to teach Free yet, but he is more than willing to come to church so hopefully we will get to this week! :)

Sundays are the best days ever. I just love them so much!!! We have a great ward who helps so much! There are so many members willing to fellowship all of our investigators and become friends with them. Be sure to be that friend that those missionaries need for their investigators! :) It helps so much and is essential to help them feel welcome in the Lord's kingdom. PLEASE DO IT. :)

My patience and faith are definitely being tried, but I know that through Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, my prayers are being answered and will be answered in the Lord's time!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! I can't imagine life as a non missionary right now... this is my life now and I love it more than anything. it is the best thing ever and I don't really ever want to go back to reality.

Love,

Sister Loar

PS: Today we got to do our laundry at some member's homes! The Smiths! Basically my favorite family, their kids are hilarious! We made some cookies for our investigators too! :) Shelby is the sassy one eating the cookie dough :)