Week 48-49 - This one's a good one

Aaron! My buddy! 

Baptism! Left to right: Rick (ward mission leader), Manuel, Sister Kang, Sister vanSon, yours truly, Victor

Alrighty kiddos. 

This week was so funny. Thats kind of all I can explain it as... SO. 

I didn't write an email last week because I didn't want to, buuuuuuut we put Manuel on date two weeks ago, AND HE GOT BAPTIZED YESTERDAY. It was truly a beautiful day he's so cool. For those of you that don't read every single one of my emails (aka everyone except my mom and my grandma), Manuel came to church because he talked to missionaries a year and a half ago and decided he was missing something in his life so he thought he'd check it out and we put him on date for baptism his first lesson but he got super busy and wasn't able to meet with us for about a month but THEN HE DID TWO WEEKS AGO and we put him on date for yesterday and it was wild. We had his interview on Saturday and our mission president recently made a rule that people need to be keeping the word of wisdom for two weeks to be baptized but because we had put him on date for such a close date we weren't able to teach him that principle until last Monday but he wasn't even addicted to coffee, he had no problems whatsoever keeping it but he had drank coffee on Sunday and so our district leader told him he had to make a new goal to be baptized and he was so sad and so we set a new date and everything but we were like "heck no, he needs to get baptized tomorrow" so we called our mission president and told him the whole story and he WAVED THE RULE. It was a miracle and a tender mercy if I ever saw one and it was the greatest. So he got baptized yesterday and it was BEAUTIFUL! 

Thursday was pretty funny. So we went to visit Alisa because the second ward was having a garden party and we wanted her to get to know the ward better so we went over there to get her to go and she wasn't going to go because she hated her hair and she didn't have anything to wear and so we said, "well, sister kang knows how to dye hair and sister vanSon knows how to sew so her son Eric went and got some hair dye, and Sister Kang dyed her hair and sister vanSon waved her magic sewing fingers and fixed a little romper thing into a cute tunic type dress thing! I was in charge of moral support and comedic relief and despite some of my worst work, we got her to go to this garden party! It was a beautiful day and they had this peach lemonade there and it tasted like unicorn pee or something it was so good. 

On Friday we went to the weirdest birthday party ever. It was for one of the people we're teaching and they had completely authentic Chinese food so I got to try chicken feet and pork stomach and cow liver and bamboo and pork with the skin still on and it was all pretty gross but that's okay because the lady topped it off with some apple juice and cheesecake. So that was interesting. Our friend really enjoyed himself though so that was good!

Today we went to the Korean market! It was so fun! Sister Kang was so excited because she found all this stuff that she used to have when she was little and we got some really good Korean food at this food court thing and it was a party and a half. She's gonna cook us dinner! 

Alright, I'm out of time! 

Don't forget to read your scriptures!

- Sister Dorrance 

Cool mural!

We found some cute glasses to to drink our tampico out of

Home girl with some really tasty Korean drink

Week 47 - The one where I turned 21 🍻🍻🤘

Heyyy not a lot of time but. I'm 21 now. Which means one step closer to being able to sing Taylor Swift's song "I'm Feelin 22" without being a poser. My birthday was a party though! I can now buy alcohol so we had ice cream with a member to celebrate! I was also feeling dramatic so I figured I would run over a curb and blow a tire just for kicks and giggles. That's exactly right. All on purpose. Anyway.... 

This week was good though! Alisa came to church! She was so cute. She was so excited to come to church, and she's from Oklahoma, so she said, " you know, I been need-in to come to church so bad that if y'all hadnt come and got me I'd a walked." And she stayed for all three hours and she LOVED IT. It was the cutest thing in the whole world and I was so excited that she came! Because Alisa goes to the family ward and we're over the singles wards, we went to the family ward at 9, mid-singles ward at 11 and young-singles ward at 1. It was a full day. It was SO so good though. Most of this week has just been finding. We stopped teaching a bunch of people because they weren't really putting in any effort, so we talked to a ton of people and some of the people we found are actually really awesome! We also got kissed on the cheek by an Armenian man this week, and it was just really awkward. He was really old and shorter than I am, but it was so funny. He's such a sweetheart. We also has a lady tell us that she's married to Jesus. I don't know where they met, but I hope she's happy.  

Don't forget to read your scriptures!

- Sister Dorrance

Here's me with my tire, and me with some ice cream

Week 46 - The one with 25 bug bites😅😅

This week was busy! On Tuesday we packed up all our junk and sister Swapp and I said goodbye which was super sad, but we'll see each other tomorrow at MLC so all is well! My new companion sister Kang (pronounced Kong) came and we all went to our new apartment in Los Angeles! Sister Kang is from south Korea originally but lives in nova Scotia now. We live right across the street from Forest Lawn where Michel Jackson is buried, so I guess you could say we're livin fancy. We had a lesson on Tuesday with a lady named Maria who's super cute and she wants her sons to stop fighting with each other so she invited us back! Her son Lloyd is 11 and he was STOKED about the Book of Mormon. It was the greatest. We're passing them off to the family ward elders, but it was so fun to talk with them, and we had a fantastic lesson with them too! On Wednesday we picked up Sister Vanson! She's from Alberta Canada! I'm gonna pick up an accent and start calling the bathroom the washroom, just you wait. It's a party and a half though. By Thursday I somehow managed to get 25 bug bites and I'm not sure where we went, but it was a pretty itchy situation. () 

This week was pretty busy with getting people and things settled in and all of us figuring out how to do stuff but it was good. We had some solid lessons with Alisa this week and we got her a dress so she could come to church and that was so cool. She was so excited to come to church! She got all ready to go and was in her car on her way here and the plastic thing under her car broke and she couldn't come. It was SO sad. We're going to have to move her date back, but it's going to happen for sure. She wants to be baptized so badly! 

We put Davi on date for baptism! She's been coming to church all on her own for a couple of months and just recently decided that she wanted to be baptized so she could go to the ward temple trip and do baptisms for the dead in October! She's so awesome, and she's so excited and ready to officially become a member of the church. It's the greatest thing! 

We finally were able to set an appointment with Manuel! He wants to get baptized, but his work got super duper busy and he's been coming to church every week but he lives kinda far away and we just haven't been able to meet with him but we set another appointment with him! It's gonna be great! Out appointments on my birthday too so happy birthday to me! Haha

This week was really good though and our trio is so fun and this transfers gonna be a blast 

Don't forget to read your scriptures!

Sister D'orrance

Here's the best picture we got this week! #thathighlightthough #itsactuallysweat #humidityisnoonesfriend 

Week 45 - Picture Emails!

This week we've got a lot of pictures. Sister Swapp is getting transferred  but I get two new companions! Sister Kang (pronounced Kong apparently) and one from the MTC! Ill report back on her name next week! They're putting elders into our pad, so we've been packing and cleaning all day. 

This week was really good though!

There's lots of pictures. The one with the bread is hermana Mejia and I with Tim! He runs the food pantry that we volunteer at once a week and it's so fun! 

One of them is Los Angeles. The air quality is terrible but the sunsets are fantastic. Side note: my new pad is going to be in L.A. so I'm actually going to be able to say I lived there. 

Lots of thumbs ups because how could you have a thumbs down when you're working in the Lord's vineyard???? I also don't know what else to do with my hands in pictures. 

One of them is a selfie in front of our church building 

One of them is a selfie with a couple of members from g7. We made Smores on their porch which I'm not sure if that's allowed in their apartment, but we did it. 

One of them is with Jocelyn! She's a member and we meet with her and she shows us her awesome piano skills. 

One of them is when a member took us to dinner and took pictures and sent them to us. Sorta... 

There's also one with the member that took us to dinner! #koreanbbqisthebestbbq

This week was so awesome though. One of our investigators almost died, but she didn't and that's great, Perla wants to get baptized, we met this guy named Osman who's super into following Jesus and that's super awesome, and it's been great.

Don't forget to read your scriptures! 

- Sister Dorrance 

Week 44 - The one with lots of pictures!

Alright kiddos. There was a few things that happened that were pretty cool this week. We're going to make a photo email of sorts! 

We had zone conference! There's sister Swapp and I teaching at zone conference! There's our whole zone! WE ARE THE ONLY SISTERS. #loners. Zone conference was a party and they had good food though!

Free slurpees!! Happy 7/11!!

We were street contacting with a member and they let us hold puppies!!! (Member or personal photographer?? You'll never know....)

Other notable things that happened this week! 

Manuel, one of the wonderful people we're teaching brought a friend to church! He turned out to be a member that hasn't been to church in a hot minute and it was a great time. 

Sister Swapp and i sang a song at a YSA missionary fireside on Sunday! My knees were shaking and I'm not sure how great it was, but it happened and the spirit was there! 

Don't forget to read your scriptures!

Sister Dorrance

Week 43 - The week where it got to 120 degrees 😲

This week was slow. It was also really hot. 

Some highlights!

Alisa decided she wants to quit smoking because cigarettes are too expensive! We haven't even taught the word of wisdom! 

Manuel decided he would like to share his testimony in sacrament meeting. He's not even baptized. How exciting!

And a member brought three friends to church on Sunday to hear him speak. I think we all need to get on his level of member missionary work. They're so cool too!

And it was also really hot on Friday. It hit 120 and sister Swapp and I talked to this lady named Elizabeth about her belief in Aliens and I think the heat kind of affected everyone. 

Don't forget to read your scriptures!

- Sister Dorrance 

Pictures we took waiting outside for Elizabeth to go get her friend. Neither of them ever came back out of the house. The house probably had air conditioning...... 

Week 42 - The one with all the beautiful blessings!

 There's a guy in one of our wards that told us he owns a recycling plant as a joke so they've been saving all of their water bottles to give him for his birthday! 

This week was insane. I don't know how to even start. Well first off, WE PUT MANUEL ON DATE. I have never before seen a miracle like Manuel. He met missionaries a year and a half ago and they told him about our ward so he just decided to show up last Sunday because he felt like he was missing something. He stayed for the linger longer, he was talking with people, and honestly we thought he was a member because so many people go in and out of our wards. But he isn't! YOU CAN NEVER ASSUME. So we set up an appointment with him on Wednesday and it was such a good lesson. We taught him the whole restoration and he just ate it up he was so excited. He accepted a baptism invitation and he's gonna get baptized  he says that he was feeling like something was missing and that he prayed and he knows that the church is true and that he needs to be baptized. Seriously the greatest miracle. It was a crazy crazy week. We talked to this girl named Marselene who had just come from Florida. She had decided that her job was not what she wanted anymore so she took everything that she owned and moved to California in her car. She has no job lined up, and no apartment lined up and she's just going on faith and living in air bnbs. She's seriously the coolest person. We have another appointment this week! 

Let's see...... oh. We hadn't found anybody to teach by Sunday and we were a little bummed because we had been talking to a ton of people all week and just none of them wanted us to come back. It was so sad! So we really felt that there were three people in our area that we really needed to share the gospel with on Sunday and so we went to church and I kid you not, by the end of church we had three new people to teach that genuinely wanted to know about the gospel. We had set up a return appointment with someone we had met during the week, someone who had been coming to church every week for months has finally decided to get baptized, and a member brought her friend who is very interested in the gospel! IT WAS A COMPLETE MIRACLE AND NO ONE CAN TRY AND TELL ME THAT ALL OF THESE THINGS HAPPENING WAS NOT DIVINE. God is so good. He's the absolute goodest. 

We had a zone activity today! Fun fact, Sister Swapp and I are the only sisters in the entire zone. So its a little weird, but it's a party! We had a couple of the housing inspectors take us to this pizza place called big mamas and papas pizza and they got this MASSIVE pizza. It was beautiful. Sister Swapp and i got our own pizza because we can't eat bread, but it was some dang good pizza. It was a good time! I might have to send pictures of that next week because I don't have them. 

Don't forget to read your scriptures! 

- Sister Dorrance 

Sister Swapp got her very first ticket this week!

It's just pretty. Don't ya think??

It was also sister Swapps birthday this week so I made her wear a tiara while we volunteered at a food pantry!

this sign was on someone's doorstep and I just thought it was really funny 

We did studies at a park this week and it was beautiful!

Two different people made our salads.... My guy was new...