Sister Riley Dorrance's California Arcadia Mission: Week 16

Alright kiddos, I can remember this week very well (it comes with age I guess?) So we are just going to start.

On Christmas we had lunch and dinner with members and then we went caroling as a district. Some people were just confused but a lot of them were super excited! We just sang the same three songs for every house but it was a party. On Tuesday I officially finished training! That's right, your home girl is officially a full fledged missionary

We went and played scrabble at the assisted living home this week. We were all talking about the little necklace things you can put on glasses and they really liked mine, so thanks mom! We had two dinners that night because we had to combine two ward dinner calendars. Its really not a bad problem to have but holy smokes was I glad I wore a stretchy skirt! Anyway...It's been super fun having such a big area because there's so many more people to talk to about the gospel! It's great and it makes me and Sister Allen feel more productive which is just swell.

We've been teaching Juan and Juliana this week. They are referrals and they have the sweetest little girl named Nadine and they are on date for baptism! They are so cool and we asked them to come to church yesterday but Juliana had to work and Juan never came. All is well though. They ask so many great questions and they are loving the Book of Mormon so I'm pumped.

Yesterday we had to be in by 8, which is alright because after five hours of church we get pretty beat. We had a rager last night. Well, we put all of our mattresses on the floor and drank a cup of martinellies before bed. I guess you could say we live on the dangerous side. #megabed (Mom note: It's tradition in the Dorrance house for the kids to put all their mattresses together in one room for Christmas Eve and they have always called it Megabed)

Alright, so now for the coolest day of the week so far. Today we went to the Rose Parade which was pretty sweet! I had heard about it but I wasn't really sure what it was so it was pretty cool to see! The captain from Forest Gump was there and the guy that yelled "move that bus!" on the home improvement show, and the flowers were really pretty so that was a plus.

This afternoon we went and got our nails done. Sister Allen and I received some Christmas money from some lovely and generous members of our ward and so we decided to spend it on us five sisters! We were just going to have us five sisters go, but we were telling our district leader about it and he and his companion decided to come! Then we invited the zone leaders and they came too! Then they invited elder Cho! His companion didn't want to come so they went on splits. It was seriously the funniest thing in the whole world because none of them have ever been into a nail salon and they didn't know what to do. They all ended up getting some super bright colors and it was so funny. Mostly because they didn't know how to walk in the little sandals. It was fantastic.

I think that's all I've got. Missionary work is the best, I know the church is true, Heavenly Father loves us all.

Happy New Year!

Don't forget to read your scriptures

- Sister Dorrance