Week 35 - I love being a missionary

Short part of Riley's email to me:

Hi! It was really good to talk yesterday! I'm probably not going to write a group email today because we had a zone activity for most of the day and then we had to shop and we're going to a lesson right now even though pday doesn't end until 6. But I'm really happy. I really really love being a missionary.

Week 34 - The one where we moved lots of stuff

Hellooooooooo!

This week was pretty great! On Monday we packed. We didn't move areas, We moved apartments! (Sneak peek into a future email: we're going to move again because our mission presidents wife doesn't want sisters living in this pad because it's so gross. Too bad for all the elders that have lived here ) So we moved on Tuesday! We lifted so many things and we live on the second floor in both apartments so it's a whole thing to go up and down all those stairs. But we did it! We got a text from a lady in our ward on Tuesday night asking if we could come by the next morning to help her with some things in her backyard so we said "Yes! Of course that'll be no problem!" We thought we would be gardening or something. Nope. She had a literal mountain of furniture under her back deck and it was up to Sister Bullock to do it. So we did and my arms felt all noodly but it was some good, solid, service. 

The rest of Wednesday was crazy. We had a ton of appointments and we didn't have the car, so we bused and walked and it was great! We had an appointment with this guy named Alejandro, and he is the sweetest man ever. He had never thought of the concept that God could answer his prayers and he was so excited that we had this message that was changing his whole view on who Jesus Christ is and what everything means. It was AWESOME. Then we met with Socorro, and she's this sweet Hispanic lady who said we could come by any time and talk to her about God, so we went over and we started into the restoration of the Gospel, and she didn't really want to. Talk about that so she just started making us sandwiches. These sandwiches were huge though. She used Texas toast and put so much stuff on there we had to eat one slice of bread at a time. We invited her to church and everything, and she didn't want to do that. I guess when she said we could come and talk about God, she meant in general. She's still a sweetheart though. 

On Friday we met with Eric. He's such an interesting fellow. He sings Christian music in front of Vons (grocery store) for a living and lives with his parents, but he's super cool. He was baptized three times already into different religions but so many of his religious leaders have ended up being pretty hypocritical and he's not about that. So we talked about how fantastic President Nelson is and Eric is game to read the Book of Mormon with us! He's read the whole bible a few times and what were working through now is that he takes every single thing in the bible completely literally. But we'll see what happens. 

Yesterday was awesome. We got to lead singing time in primary and it was seriously the greatest thing ever. Don't tell the ladies in my ward, but primary is about 10000 times better than relief society. Plus, the sweetest spirit comes into a room when a group of kids start singing about how much Jesus loves them. It's the best and I'm not sure it would be the same outcome if the ladies in relief society tried to sing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.  

That's all I've got for you!

Don't forget to read your scriptures! 

- Sister Dorrance 

our apartment before we moved

even though Socorro made us monster sandwiches, she still made us leave with bananas "in case we got hungry"

 the pile of stuff that sister Bullock and I moved

 the lid had to close for the company to take all of the garbage away and it wouldn't fit so I had to take one for the team. Gotta protect that face though

 we document when we have to climb hills of any sort and it was a steep driveway and the view was pretty

Week 33 - The one where transfers happened

we were on top of a freeway walking ram thing and we realized we sucked at taking pictures to send home

This week was great! There was this lady that walked into the church two weeks ago and asked some elders from the other ward if she could get some help from the Mormon missionaries moving some stuff from a storage shed so we helped her move a whole bunch of furniture and boxes and it was a good time! 

Transfers! Sister Bullock and I are staying in Hacienda Heights first ward! We are moving apartments though so we have to pack. I didn't have to pack for 6 months straight and now I have to do it two transfers in a row. But I get to stay here which is great! This ward is sweet! Other than moving stuff, this week was pretty standard! We knocked some doors, we talked to some strangers, we biked some hills, it was a good time! 

Oh, Sister Bullock and I spoke in sacrament meeting! We were the only two speakers so I had to give a big kid talk. It was even longer than my farewell talk so we broke some new ground on Sunday and it was pretty crazy. I talked on Elder Massimo De Feo's talk called Pure Love: the true sign of every true disciple of Jesus Christ and it is a really fantastic talk, so if you get a minute you should definitely give it a listen/read.

We went to Korean barbecue today which I hadn't ever had but it was really good and I figured that was important to put into my email to everyone.

Don't forget to read your scriptures!

- Sister Dorrance

there was a sketchy chair so we had to sit in it

Korean barbecue! Sister Gibb goes home this week so we had to celebrate!

Week 32 - Someone's baptism, a terrible church tour, and IKEA!

 we biked up a really big and really steep hill and then our appointment cancelled, 

but we needed to document for posterity or something. 

You guys. Missions are seriously the weirdest and most amazing thing ever and I don't think I truly understood that until I came out here. But it's all good. 

On Monday we had a miracle! We finally met the Flores family! The elders were working with them forever before we got there, and they all told us to keep working with them and they're so ready and so we stopped by a ton but they were never home, or all of their cars were there and we heard people but no one would come to the door, but we were tracting a couple streets over and it was super unproductive and so we said "this is dumb, let's ask god" so we asked him what we should do and he said to try by the Flores family so we did and they were home! We talked with them for a while, we met the whole family, they said we could come back, it was great! Dad Flores (I forgot his name) said he was always bummed because none of the elders could work on cars, so were buds because I can help with his truck. Probably won't because I'd get mg skirts dirty, but it was cool. 

This week was a lot of visiting people and a lot of people saying no, or not being home, but we gave Hayro a church tour! (We gave two this week so stay tuned for the bad one.) This church tour was fantastic. We did the whole thing started talking about the whole church and how everything runs, hayro was super interested in everything and he said everything makes sense, it was great. At the end we were talking about everything and answering a couple questions and he was asking about how it all gets paid so we talked about tithing and then he was joking about alcohol and asking about that so we talked about the word of wisdom, and then he said, " but do you guys have any more rules?" So we just taught him the law of chastity right there too and it was wild. 

Hayro came to a baptism on Saturday! There was a baptism in the Rowland heights ward and his name is Darrin and his story is really cool but I don't got time for that. But Hayro came! It was awesome and Darrin bore the sweetest testimony afterwards, and it was the greatest. And Hayro came! Its the best when people do things that make them feel the spirit. I love baptisms. They are just the sweetest experiences in the whole world. 

Alright. So our second church tour. Not as good as the first. It was with Anthony and it  was rough. He was an hour late to start out with, and he was being a grumpy Gus which doesn't really add to the spirit, but we decided to work with it. The Chinese ward was having a sports night that night so there were a ton of people walking around and lots of things going on in the gym but it was all good, we could handle that. Then we found out that they were cleaning the church as well. So we were in the chapel and this wonderful member that had great intentions to keep the beautiful building clean started vacuuming in the middle of us talking about the sacrament. So we figured we could move on and save it, and it got worse. Not only was our good friend Anthony grunting every time we would move and laughing a little bit at the doctrine we would teach, but we got to the baptism font and he said it looked like a "Jewish holocaust shower." So he asked to move on pretty quick from that one. awkward. Then at the end we were talking to him and asking if he had any questions, and he asked, " wait, are you trying to convert me?" And then we asked him why he wanted to be baptized and he said he liked the rebirth aspect of it. But he wanted to stay Catholic and doesn't ever want to go to church. Them he started yelling and saying that we were teaching/asking questions like we had an agenda and we were being too pushy and then it was over and he left and we were there and we still don't really know what to think about it, but it happened so I hope you found the story humorous!

To end on a lighter note, we went to the swap meet today and IKEA! Sister Robinson and Sister Bullock hadn't ever been to IKEA! And Sister Bullock and I had never been to the swap meet! It was a great p day! 

we got burgers right before the baptism and we were running late so we hid in a back classroom and scarfed them down so fast. It was awesome. 

coolest lady ever. Sister Faubus is my hero and she bought us horse bracelets and she fills our dinner calendar. 

More at the top of the hill..

 IKEA!  Gibb, Bullock, home girl, Robinson

Still IKEA

Week 31 - Zone conference, and a good week!

Bedhead and Cheerios!

Helloooooo!

I'm actually going to write an email this week! Its too bad there wasn't a whole lot that happened.... But we had a really cool phone call with this guy named Jameson on Tuesday. It was hot as the devils armpit outside and we didn't have the car so we took a bus and walked to the church and we called a bunch of people! We talked to this guy named James and he's a retired veteran that had met with missionaries before and it was wild. We called him and he was like "I've told the missionaries before you guys that I'm not interested, I'm done searching for a religion because I don't like it. I've done my studying."  so we said "oh alright, well we know, this can help you... yada yada yada" but then we were about to hang up and I was thinking about how I didn't want to go back outside anytime soon and I said "well, what are your problems with religion?" And we talked to this nice man over the phone for almost 45 minutes about Adam and Eve and agency and why God lets Satan tempt us, and it was a whole thing. He was so cool though. After the whole conversation and sister Bullock and I searching lds.org for some mad doctrine while we were on the phone, we asked him if we could stop by and HE SAID NO. But he said we opened his eyes and answered his questions differently than any pastor ever has #WIN #PLANTINALLTHESEEDS so that was pretty cool. 

On Thursday we had meetings. We had district meeting in the morning which is pretty cool, but then we changed up Thursdays with some Five Guys for lunch. But then we had to go back to zone conference for the rest of the night. It was an awesome conference though. It was all about working with the members and how to utilize ward council and use technology in working with the ward and then in the evening all of our ward councils came and the stake had a devotional type deal where they talked about member missionary work and how the missionaries are there to help the members not the other way around and it was about team work and there were inspirational stories, and it was a whole fantastic thing shoved into an hour and a half and it was the greatest. 

So I'm now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think I've actually talked much about the people were working with very much. We had a couple people drop us this week and we had to drop one person (sad day in the life of a missionary) but the Lord has blessed us for trying to use his time wisely! We found Hayro a couple weeks ago and he's the coolest. He's a psych student and he said he is just interested in learning about the church for intellectual reasons and such but he reads everything we give him, and he said he wants to come to church and asked us if we could have a lesson at the church. So as of right now our plan is to rain down some truths on him and see if we can get him to believe that God loves him. It'll be great. 

This week we found some really amazing people! I'm pumped to see what next week has in store because it's gonna be rad and were gonna find more people and teach more people about Jesus Christ! 

Hacienda Heights is fantastic. The gospel is the most amazing thing in the world and I love being a missionary. That pretty much sums up my life! 

Have a good week! Don't forget to read your scriptures! 

- Sister Dorrance

 three weeks ago at yogurtland!

Sister Gibbs friend from a previous ward took us to lunch!

softball and barbecue last week!

Week 30 - No time, but it's been a good four days!

The subject line says it all. But fun news! Anthony, the guy we've been meeting with says he wants to get baptized! So there's something to lighten your day. Also, we found this guy named hayro knocking doors which actually works in this area for some strange reason and were meeting with him again on Wednesday, but he's super interested and it's great! He said he has questions! We also have an appointment with this 14 year old girl (found knocking doors) and we went back for our first return appointment, her mom told us to "please come and teach my children about God because they need it in their lives and I don't know how to teach them" so hopefully we can get the whole family interested! #miracles

Love you lots! Here's another picture of my zone on another jungle gym! We played softball today and had a barbecue and I actually hit the ball so I guess you could say I'm going pro pretty soon.

Don't forget to read your scriptures!

- Sister Dorrance

Week 29 - Conference and the temple!

Temple Trip - Sister Bullock

This week was super awesome but I need a nap so here's my favorite quotes from conference!

 "Whenever you feel far from God, you need only to turn from sin and face the savior."

"Following other's footsteps only works in sunny weather. It is not enough."

- Elder Wilson

"In the garden, He was the one who needed help but he loved the Father and us more... the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of love."

- Elder Defeo

"We have received the spirit. Our job is to open our hearts to it."

- President Eyring

Here's some pictures!

Mailing Stuff Home

Transfer/Moving Day

Indoor Easter Egg Hunt

Lots of Chaos and Popping Balloons at the end of the night.

We got a new set of wheels to ride around in! #homelesslife