7/27-8/2

Hey, hey everyone! :)

Hope you all had an awesome week! 

Monday-- We had dinner at the Haney's and they have a couple children who are grown that are also in the ward and they came too! One of the son's girlfriend's is not a member and we taught the Restoration lesson to her and it went really well! She seemed super interested, but she is super busy with school and work, so we aren't sure when we would be able to teach her again. She didn't seem to committed to anything yet, so we shall see!

Tuesday-- We went on exchanges with Sister Nemrow and Sister Larsen! They are such sweet sisters and I love them dearly! I went with Sister Nemrow and we taught a lesson to Teagyn at the church with 2 young women and it was great! Teagyn is doing so awesome. We met with her everyday this week to get her prepared for her baptismal interview this weekend and her baptism on the 8th!

Love love love Sister Nemrow!!

That night we went to the church to meet up with everyone to go on splits with the ward members and visit some people, but not enough sisters came out so Sister Nemrow and I just went and contacted some families that they needed us to see! We didn't have much success at the first home, but we were able to sit down and visit with the next one we went to. A quick background snippet to fill in some gaps--- Brother Haney served his mission here when he was younger, and ended up moving to Bakersfield after he went home! He taught and baptized, a now less active family in the ward, the Mayfields.--- So we went and knocked on the Mayfields door and they were SO nice! They invited us in and apparently the elders were starting to teach them the lessons again to help them come back to church and refresh on everything! They just loved us! We got to know Brother Mayfield and then he called in his 18 year old granddaughter that is about to move in with them. Her name is Samantha and she is so awesome! We immediately connected with her and she was sharing some awesome experiences she has recently had in her life that have built her faith in Christ! She isn't a member of our church, but she told us that when she was younger, probably 10 years ago, the missionaries taught her and she wanted to be baptized. Her mom had told her she couldn't so she never really tried again after that. We asked her if she wanted to be baptized now that she is older and she said YES! :) We taught her the restoration and Brother Mayfield bore his testimony about how he knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith translated it by the power of God. It was such a good lesson, the spirit was so strong and we were so happy afterwards. I totally did a happy dance when we got to the car. :) Samantha is so prepared! Also super cool part of this is that Brother Haney offered to pay for her college tuition if she went to BYU-Idaho! She's decided to go there and is super pumped about it! :)

Wednesday-- We went out with Sister Shimmins and nothing was working out. After not know who else to contact, she said, "why don't we go meet my friends down the street?" So we totally met her friends and taught them the restoration! They weren't interested at all but it was the coolest experience to have a member invite us to go see their friends! She has known them for 15 years or so and has a really good relationship with them. Even though they weren't interested, they were so kind and appreciative of us coming by. It was amazing to see her exercise her faith and give her friends the opportunity to learn!

That evening we had a lesson for Teagyn at the Martin's home. We talked about the Sabbath Day and watched some Mormon Messages, because that is what our family would do on Sundays. :) The spirit was so strong and some of the Martin's are converts as well, so they were able to share their experiences with Teagyn! It was amazing! :) 

Thursday-- We had dinner with Teagyn and her grandma, Sister Nowak! Teagyn had decorated a table and made it super special. She is the sweetest girl ever. :) Then that night we had a lesson with the Perry's! They are a less active older couple in the ward, and Sister Perry has been reading the Book of Mormon again as of late. She is progressing really well! We had a really spiritual lesson with them and watched a Mormon Message from the prophet, Thomas S. Monson, about daring to stand alone, to stand up for what we believe in. :) It was perfect and they said that it was exactly what they needed!

Dinner at the Nowak's!

Friday--We had a District Meeting with the other missionaries and we all committed to, "keep our line in the water" until 9 pm every night and record the miracles we see! To explain this here is a snippet from Preach My Gospel--- 

"'None of us should be like the fisherman who thinks he has been fishing all day when in reality he has spent most of his time getting to and from the water, eating lunch, and fussing with his equipment. Fishing success is related to how long you have your line in the water, not to how long you are away from the apartment. Some fishermen are away from home for twelve hours and have their line in the water for ten hours. Other fishermen are away from the home for twelve hours and have their line in the water for only two hours. This last type may wonder why they do not have the same success as others. The same principle applies to missionaries, whom the Master called 'fishers of men.' A missionary's line, should drop into the fishing water the moment he or she leaves the apartment.' (Dallin H. Oaks,)"

We had a shorter exchange in some sisters' area that night and tried to help them find some new investigators! It was good. I went with Sister Fifita from Tonga. Love her! :)

Saturday-- 

We got a call from the Mission President's wife, Sister Wilson that morning telling us that she needed us to role play at Mission Leadership Council this upcoming Wednesday in front of everyone a new, creative way to contact people at the door... We are going to have to sing a primary song, Families can be Together Forever, in front of everyone! and connect it to doing family history! And so my initial reaction was not so enthusiastic.. BUT we decided we should probably practice doing this in real life before we demonstrate it. 

That night, it was 8:45 pm and our plans had not worked out and we weren't sure where to go next. We were trying our best to "keep our line in the water", so we decided to walk to the mailboxes at the end of the street and see if we could catch people walking to get their mail. We saw a lady walking with her baby stroller and said hi to her and shared a brief summary about prophets and the restoration, but she wasn't looking interested at all. So, Sister Long asked her if we could sing her a song about our beliefs! She said sure, and we began singing I am a Child of God and the lady's countenance changed and you could tell her heart was softened. She didn't invite us over to learn more or anything like that, but I hope we made her night a little better and a little brighter than it was! We were able to see a blessing from keeping our commitment to working hard and also using Sister Wilson's idea! :)

Sunday-- Church was great! Sister Perry came!!! :) Happy day! We walked with Teagyn and it was a good time with her. She ended up having her baptismal interview afterwards and she passed! She is so excited to get baptized! :)

Samantha Mayfield didn't end up going, so we stopped by that evening and we were able to talk to her briefly and set up a time for us to help her move her things into her grandparents house this week! She is really excited to learn more and I'm excited for the opportunity teach her!

The Lord truly blesses us when we humble ourselves and follow His commandments and guidance! I love this work and I love being a missionary.

Love you all so much!

Hope you have a good one! 

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo 

Sister Long wanted grilled cheese before bed.

 We do service at the Senior Center every week!  It's Great!!

We are actually going to be teaching one of the lunch ladies there!! :)

 Sister Long and Sister Loar

7/20-7/26

Herro herro my favorite humans! :)

Last District Activity

Whip Cream Challenge

Oh boy, I have learned so much this week. I hope I can squeeze it all in here!

Monday-- We took out the newbies that came into the mission! They were so cute and super excited to start working! :) One was from Middleton, ID! Woop woop!

We watched the Restoration movie in the Himle's theater room and it was so awesome! Jacob, Elizabeth, Chris, Emma and the McMurtrey's came. The spirit was really strong, and I just love that movie so much! :) I miss everyone in Stockdale so much.

Tuesday-- Transfer meeting was a bunch of mixed feelings. So sad to be getting transferred, and so sad to see all of my friends leave and go home! But also so happy to see some of my favorites. The missionaries on this side of the mission sang in a choir for it! We sang a song that an elder wrote while he has been out on his mission and combined it with the hymn, Called to Serve. It was so powerful. The spirit was tangible and it was hard to keep the tears back from the power that I felt by bearing my testimony of missionary work in song. I'm so grateful for the chance I got to be a part of that. 

Goodbye to Sister Himle

Small World - Summer was this sister's RA!!!!

My new companion! --> Sister Long is from Louisiana! Haha she is the funniest person. I just love her to death! Her Aunt grew up by the Bayou and she is just so hilarious with all of her stories about life. I love it. She's so entertaining, I just laugh always hahaha :)

 Sister Long and Sister Loar

We got to our new area, which is just in North Bakersfield, and settled in, went to the store, and went to an appointment! On Tuesday nights, the members in Highland Manor ward (my new area) go out on visits with the missionaries! It is awesome and they've seen some amazing miracles in the past from doing it. I'm pretty stoked about it! :)

Wednesday-- Sister Shimmons in the ward goes out with the sisters for the morning and it was great going to see people with a member! She is awesome and has such a strong testimony. 

That night we were trying to contact one of our investigators, Donisha, but she wasn't home, so we tried contacting people at the park nearby. There was this super fun family playing some basketball, so we started talking to the wife, Kawana that was just watching and she seemed semi-interested! So we gave her a pamphlet and then I started playing some ball with little Keenan! It was so much fun! Always a good day when you can play some pick up in a skirt. :) 

Then we tried contacting some other people, but no one was home or interested. We were stopped at a stop sign and I saw some words underneath the word STOP and I looked closer and it read, "Stop. Collaborate and Listen." hahaha YES!! Vanilla Ice is BACK! So obviously I had to pull over and take a picture of it. So as I was doing this I hear, "HEY! WE ARE MISSIONARIES!!!!" And Sister Long is running down some teenagers that were on some bikes! (haha classic Sister Long) So then I stopped, collaborated, and listened (and also joined in to teach) with them on the side of the road! They ended up being sooo awesome and pretty interested! When we were explaining the Book of Mormon and read some verses out of it, the boy, Isaiah was reaching for it and couldn't get it in his hands fast enough! :) We have an appointment set up for tonight, so hopefully that goes well! Heavenly Father KNEW that I would stop and take a picture of that sign and He knew Sister Long would be brave enough to run people down on the street! So cool to see how everything works out when you are in the right place at the right time. :) And also now I can't get that song out of my head.. 

Thursday-- We planned and them planned some more!

We did have a lesson with Teagyn--- This girl is so awesome! She is 13 and she is Sister Nowak's grand daughter. She just started living with her grandma and she is going to be baptized on August 8th! :) She's doing so well! We have a lesson with her almost every day to help her be prepared!

We had a lesson with Kathy and her 7 grandkids who are now in her custody-- 5 of them are boys and are all named Martin... hahaha so they have different names for each one of them! There's Tracer, Marty, Jr., Little Marty, and Seven... hahaha their dad and their grandpa are also named Martin. So Seven, is Martin #7. It is pretty much my favorite thing ever. They have a pretty crazy life and have had a rough upbringing. But we shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with them and they are little sponges and want to learn about God and Jesus Christ sooo much! Kathy.. the grandma (who has lung cancer and still smokes and blames the cause of her cancer on the Bakersfield air quality..) is holding them back from really progressing! She said she would bring them to church this week and she didn't.. and also she started to ask us ridiculous questions and kind of started bible bashing with us in the lesson..? But we had a secret weapon! Sister Lindley (the Primary President in the ward) came with us to the lesson and she would just testify and it was so amazing! She is such a great missionary! So glad we had her with us!

Friday-- I had to do a training in District Meeting and it went well I think! I focused on how developing Christlike attributes can help us become consecrated missionaries. Something I needed!

When we knocked on the door of our dinner appointment with a member-- we got the wrong door! But the girl who answered was really interested! :) Miracle! She doesn't live in our area though.. she was just babysitting.. So hopefully the missionaries on her side of town will get a hold of her! We sent them her info so they could!

Saturday-- We tried contacting someone Sister Long had met briefly and they didn't answer, so we went and knocked on their neighbors house and a young mom named Tracy answered the door! She was a little hesitant to talk to us at first but really loosened up at the end. She told us that one of her ex boyfriends was a Mormon and she knew a lot about the church but never looked into it. She has two kids, one is a baby and her last boyfriend just walked out on her in December.. She doesn't have a job and is in a really tight situation. We are going to get her some info for the Church Employment center in Bakersfield to hopefully help her out! :) She was super grateful for that. We are hoping to start teaching her this week if she is willing to listen!

Sunday-- I was asked to give a talk on Sunday and I talked on something similar to my training I did in the meeting earlier that week. I focused more on the differences between sin and weaknesses and how we can overcome both through the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The whole reason why any of that is possible is because of not only what Christ did for us, but WHO He was. He experienced everything we would ever have to endure in this life. So when we recognize our weaknesses we can rely on the enabling power of the Atonement and pray for help and strength to change and become better and more than we are by ourselves, we can BECOME more like Him. We receive a peace and joy that is indescribable. 

That night we went to go see Donisha, and started talking to her neighbor, Randy and his brother, Pierre that was outside! They started asking us the REAL questions. Questions of their souls! Randy was struggling a lot. He was going to lose their apartment the next day, and he didn't know where him and his girlfriend were going to go. So we taught the Restoration and testified using scriptures from the Book of Mormon. One of them being Mosiah 24:12-16. We talked about how in our trials and circumstances the Lord can lift our burdens and make them feel light so we can endure to the end! It was just the coolest teaching experience. I love being a missionary!

This week I struggled a lot. I felt very fatigued and tired, and I didn't feel adequate to fulfill my calling as a missionary. I prayed each time I felt those things and EVERY time I was able to overcome my weaknesses and be strengthened to be able to endure. I know, with all that I am that Christ lives. He is our Savior and He can help us overcome any trial or weakness that easily besets us every day of our lives. I know we can become better people and become the person He wants us to become.

Sorry this is a lengthy email, So much more happened and I wish I had time to include absolutely everything! I love serving and I'm so grateful for all of you for making this such an amazing experience. 

Love,

Sister Loar

xoxo

7/13-7/19

Hello hello!

Welp-- I'm out of time and this week has lots of news and change and all kinds of good in it so I'll do my best to sum it up real quick!

P-Day - Last Week!!  We wanted our almond milk real bad......

so we had to reach for the last one on the shelf.

Mickey Mouse waffles for dinner at the Kraucyk's!!!

Tuesday people just kept texting and calling us telling us they had stuff for us?  This is what we collected and came home with that day!  :)  The best!!

We ate a lot of grapes :)

Tuesday-- We had Zone Conference and it was really good! We learned about how to become more consecrated missionaries-- I definitely needed it. We then had a lesson with Charles & Brittney! They are doing well, the gospel and everything about God is super new to them, so we were just answering their questions and Brother Noall came with us! It was great. They are still interested, just work on Sundays for the rest of the month-- next month they will come! Earlene's family came into town a week early, so she cancelled the appointment we had with her.

Wednesday-- We went on exchanges with Sister Fuatia and Sister Simmons! We did a shorter one, so they just went home in the same day they came! After that we met Emma at the church! We taught the Plan of Salvation and we drew it out on a big board for her and it was soooo much fun teaching her because she is SO eager to learn!!! :) SHE JUST GETS IT.

Thursday&Friday-- We did a service project helping out at Cal State University Bakersfield (CSUB) making the beds in the dorms for the athletes coming into the country that are participating in the Special Olympics in LA next week! It was super fun! :) Sister Himle came too and we had a great time. I just love that woman!

We went to Sister Nelson's and helped her dig out some trees and then shine her silver tea set! It was super fun! She's such an amazing lady.

Emma texted us and asked us if she could meet and get the Doctrine and Covenants from us! Um, yes! Of course! :) So we met with her and talked to her for a little bit, this girl is on FIIIRE! :)

Saturday-- We got transfer calls-- Sister Hirschi and I are both leaving! :( We were so sad.) We did not expect that to happen at all. We really thought we would stay for one more transfer together in Stockdale. So many good things are happening in this area and we've seen so many miracles with all these people! I LOVE THIS AREA SO MUCH. AND I LOVE THESE PEOPLE LIKE THEY ARE MY OWN KIN. It's going to be so hard leaving this blessed land! I'm being transferred to Highland Manor ward in North Bakersfield still as an Sister Training Leader and Sister Hirschi is going to Palmdale for her last 6 weeks.  

After we got those calls we drove around like mad women trying to talk to all of our investigators and members and letting them know that 2 new sisters will be coming in. The transition is so hard, so we sure hope it all works out and that no one falls through the cracks. Goodbyes are always so awful. I just keep telling myself these are "see ya laters" not goodbyes!

We went to dinner at the Bliss's that night and when we sat down to share a message on the Sabbath Day, we heard some scurrying in the curtains in the window behind us. When I turned around (expecting to see a cat), THERE WAS A SQUIRREL IN THEIR HOUSE!!!!! hahahahahaha I just died laughing and Sister Hirschi jumped on the couch and then the squirrel ran under the couch and we were freaking out! hahaha for the next half hour we were all chasing this squirrel trying to capture it and put it outside! We had no idea how the squirrel got in there and we ended up coercing it out the dryer vent in the laundry room to the outside world! Hahaha the best. SO-- analogy! As we are trying to keep the Sabbath Day holy, don't let the world distract you with the everyday squirrels that come into our lives! Just like the dog, Doug, off of the movie UP, we can't let ourselves.. SQUIRREL!..  get preoccupied with chasing the squirrels in life. :)

We went to Dewar's with the Mortensen's and the Newman's! Such good ice cream and company!

I got a balloon at Dewar's and it thunderstormed!!

Jumping in the puddles when we got home that night :)  It was so fun!!!

Sunday-- Emma came to church! :) She is so awesome and so solid. Her mom is giving her a lot of resistance and trying to convince her not to come and continue to learn. Emma is staying sooo strong though! We told her about Meet the Mormons movie on netflix and she texted us that afternoon and said she watched it! 

We spent the rest of the day saying goodbyes.......    The Horror.    I hate goodbyes!

Tonight we are watching the Restoration movie at the Himle's with Emma and Jacob and some other members and investigators hopefully! It will be such a good day! :)

I'll let you know how it goes next week!

Hope you all have a good one!

This work is amazing! I know the Lord has a plan for me, and that He needs other sisters here in this ward. I love this gospel! Being a missionary is the best, even though the heartache and change is so hard.

Love you all!

Sister Loar

xoxo

Saying Goodbyes 

Elizabeth, Jacob and Chris

Antongiovanni's!

Williams!

Rodriguez's!

Earlene <3

Porter's!    (the Bishop! He said he can't wait to meet my parents some day :))

The McMurtrey's

The Boss'

Cathy

Sister Nelson!

A fraction of the Krauss's

P-Day today - We ran to the mission office this morning for our last run together!