Sister Riley Dorrance's California Arcadia Mission: Week 17 Elder Oaks, addiction recovery meetings and Golf

Where's Riley?

As per usual, nothing super duper noteworthy happened until the latter end of this week, so we'll start in the middle. On Wednesday we played scrabble at the retirement home, and not much has changed but now I'm really good friends with a deaf lady named Helga.

We had a mission wide conference with Elder Oaks and it was so amazing to hear from an apostle. He answered some questions that I had, and it was pretty stinking great. Plus, it was in Glendora and the only Cafe Rio in the mission is in Glendora so we went over there right after the conference which was great. Sister Gillman and I had been talking about cafe Rio since the mtc so it was a stellar day all around. I'll attach the picture from the group, see if you can spot me. My first picture with an Apostle of the Lord.

Sunday was crazy. We had to be at the church at 7:45 am for our first ward council and then go to sacrament meeting, and Sister Allen went to the other ward council while I sat with our investigator in sacrament meeting. But then we had someone that we didn't think was going to come to sacrament say he was coming, but then he didn't actually end up coming except a less active member that said she was coming didn't get there until halfway through the meeting. Then we had two more hours of church. BUT. Miracles.

There's a less active family in the East Pasadena ward that we've been trying to get in contact with forever and they were at church and the Dad came up to us and told us that we've been slacking off with the unannounced visits and we need to work harder if we're going to keep their family active. We can definitely do that and they are going to be active for sure.

Miracle #2: the less active woman that came to church is Hispanic and she wants to come to church and we were trying so hard to communicate and help her during the lesson and she wasn't sure if she wanted to go to the Spanish branch or not and this very nice lady came and introduced herself to our new friend and it turns out that she could speak spanish, and she was talking to her about the Spanish branch and holy smokes, it was divine intervention because sister Allen and I dont know anyone yet and we couldn't have planned that better if we tried.

Last night we went to an addiction recovery meeting with Steven and it was the most amazing and spiritual experience I think I've ever had. It was so fantastic to see the the atonement and the repentance process in action. I can't even put into words how much light and love was in that room with these people that feel so down in their lives. It was so amazing to gain that perspective. Don't hesitate to ask for help if you need it.

Today we went to a driving range for a district activity (plus our zone leaders) and I'm really bad at golfing, but it was super fun! Maybe I'll work on that when I get home because it was sweet. See attached.

I think that's all the important stuff for the week. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!

Don't forget to read your scriptures.

-Sister Dorrance