Sister Riley Dorrance's California Arcadia Mission: Week 50-52 - The one that makes up for not emailing for a few weeks??????

Finally got a real haircut after a year out

Hello everybody!!

I've been really enjoying not writing a weekly email for a little while, but I've received complaints from my mission resources department (aka. Mom) so here we are again!

I've been great! I was in a trio all of last transfer and it was a magical time! We all managed to get pretty sick in different ways but all at the same time at the end of the transfer so that was cool. We got to know the doctors office in Glendale pretty well.

People we're working with!

ALISA! holy smokes this story is a trip let me tell you. She has the sweetest testimony ever. She's this sweet southern lady that was excited to talk to missionaries because she missed talking about Jesus with people and she knows the church is true because our tithing doesn't go to preachers and the book of mormon answers all of her questions about the bible! So we've been working with Alisa for about three months or so and we taught her the word of wisdom and she's a smoker of about 15 years and a coffee drinker for about 40 years and she just about kicked us out of her house when we told her that God wanted her to quit both. She's also from Oklahoma so when we told her that included sweet tea she almost cried. It was really sad. But we've been meeting with her a few times a week every week and so we know her pretty well. She calls us her Jesus girls and it's the greatest. So we taught her that and she said she'd think about it, but that she'd have to talk it over with God because she wanted to be sure. She says she has an open line straight up to heaven and she's tuned in 24/7. She's going to be a powerhouse when she gets the gift of the holy ghost. So we taught her that and we were helping her work through her questions and things. We did a full 24 hour fast for her to stop drinking coffee and smoking and i kid you not, the very next day after 40 years, she didn't even want her cup of coffee. MIRACLES. Then she got a blessing from the elders! That was one of the sweetest blessings I've ever witnessed, and she LOVED IT. She still talks about it and it was a couple weeks ago. But then everything changed when her preacher attacked (only jokes, her preacher didn't actually attack).

The elders gave her a blessing on a Friday and that very next morning her preacher took it upon himself to send her a whole bunch of anti-mormon stuff about polygamy and race and all of this stuff and it shook her so bad she was in bed for two days questioning her faith. Then when we came over and talked to her about it she wasn't so much worried about the church not being true, she wanted to pack us into her car and take us back to Oklahoma to keep us safe from the creepy men marrying little girls. It was sweet really. But we talked her through that and helped her see that if we actually believed those things then we would've gotten into the car with her. So she was good for a week and she had worked up the courage to come to church the next Sunday and THEN IT HAPPENED AGAIN and her friend from Oklahoma was texting her about this being a cult and a bunch of other stuff and it put her back in bed for two days again. So that was sad. She actually told us that she was going to just stop meeting with us and have church in her apartment on Sunday mornings. But then we told her that sister vanSon and sister kang were both getting transferred (oh yeah, I have a new companion), and she said she wanted to say goodbye to them! So we got back into her house and we talked her through it again and put her on date for October 7th!

But then yesterday morning she texted us and told us she's moving back to Kansas and she's just going to find the true church there. So we went over yesterday morning just to drop off little notes to say goodbye and not push her to join the church or anything and she caught us so we went inside and it turns out that she didnt want to find a different true church (which is an oxymoron) she wanted to find the real true church in Kansas because she hates LA. So that was a relief and she's still going to get baptized and I just love her to pieces and I'm sad I won't be there for her baptism, but she's the greatest ever. So that's Alisas story and she's going to do fantastic things in Kansas and in the world and she's going to be a great member of the church when she does get baptized.

Hmmmm that's all I really want to write about....

We're working with some other cool people, but most of them have stopped talking to us.... So we're working on finding. If any of you happen to have any really good friends that live in the Glendale area and want to learn about the true gospel of Jesus Christ, then you can use that handy dandy referral button on lds tools and send them our way! We're over the singles wards right now. Just fyi.

Oh! My new companion! Her name is Sister Escalante and she's from Toronto Canada and she's great and we're working hard!

Don't forget to read your scriptures!

Sister D'orrance