Faith in Every Footstep Miracle

Familia Brinkalink,

Yep, new name. A member called me Hermana Brinkalink a few weeks ago. Hermana Toro gets off easy with her name. It's short, Spanish, and means bull. Oh, I don't think I told you about this. When Sister Schow first met Sister Toro, she looked at her name tag and said, "Toro... Toro. Sounds like a bunch of bull to me!" hahah That's why Sister Schow and I get along so well. She's always making off-the-wall comments. When she's leaving she likes to say, "I'm off like a herd of turtles" or "I'm off like a dirty shirt."

This week I went on exchanges with the ASL sisters, which was so neat! Sadly the appointment they had set up cancelled--actually, they had called her on Tuesday night and everything was good to go and then Wednesday her son told them that she was in Mexico. Now I could see how that would be more plausible with one of MY investigators, but still it was a little random. Ah, such is missionary life. So we just visited potentials and referrals, and I learned how to sign, "I don't know sign language." Instead of texting their investigators to communicate, they have a video phone with camera and everything so they can see them on the TV--just a big version of Skype. I was blown away. And the sisters cover the Roseville Mission as well as a lot of Sacramento. They have a lot of work today and a lot of challenges! 

We had a ward activity on Friday night. We had dinner and there was a violinist and a pianist/harmonica-ist who played pioneer songs. There were a few members of the ward who spoke about how they're pioneers in their families. We have a lot of pioneers because the majority of them are converts/the first members in their families. That was neat being able to hear about how they themselves are the pioneers--and then when we went to the English ward last Sunday with Re we heard about English members' pioneer heritage. Two very different backgrounds with the gospel of Jesus Christ as the common link.

I went to Deseret Book last week and made a dent in my checking account. I got a few CDs, bought a General Conference on CDs in Spanish, bought scripture cases for my English and Spanish scriptures, got some magazines--maybe that's all I should admit. I was a happy camper last week! Deseret Book is dangerous for any member but especially for a missionary. Yiikes. I think I told you about how Re went to Deseret Book and bought a scripture case and a little hymn book and a bookmark for her scriptures she bought from DI. Another one of our investigators, whose daughter is a member in our ward, got a hymn book from Deseret Book. I guess people really do like it that we start out our lessons with a hymn! And the Ro family were talking about how they needed to get a hymn book--I think they'll be making their way over there pretty soon. :)

We had a new missionary meeting last Tuesday for trainers/new missionaries. I wasn't able to go to it when I trained Sister Beale because President Lewis was recovering from his surgery in Utah and I was emergency transferred out of the area when she went her second transfer. President taught about the doctrine of Christ and asked us why we think he always trains on that. He said that he can read 2 Nephi 31 and 3 Nephi 11 over and over again and still get a thrill of out it. We have a sisters' meeting/luncheon today at the mission office and after talking to President and Sister Lewis, Sister Schow is coming with us! After all, she is a missionary--she knows most of the sisters anyway.

Oh yeah, we had a lesson on Saturday with Re and asked Sister Druyon, the executive secretary of the mission, to come to the lesson with us. She served her mission in France and her first companion was Sister Brinkerhoff. She treated us to Cheesecake Factory afterwards. We were really spoiled on Saturday!

Love you all,

kates

September baptisms

Querida familia,

Well we didn't have any baptisms this week. The cool news is that we have a baptismal goal of 67 for this month in the mission, and last week (two days ago--Saturday) we had 66 either baptized or with dates. President asked us to fast as a mission so that we could reach our goal of 67, and there are 69 planning to be baptized this month. Although we weren't able to have any in July, we have a few lined up for September! Yeah, we need to work on August still.

We're teaching an English woman, Re, who lives in Rancho Cordova. We actually got to go to her ward yesterday before our ward at 11 am. She accepted a baptismal date of August 4 but had to change it since her daughter is having an operation that day (and her daughter was the one who hooked us up with her mom--she wants to drive in from Idaho for the baptism, so we pushed it back to Labor Day weekend, September 1). Looks like I'll have at least one English baptism on my mission--I'm really excited! I love Re so much. She's really cute--she went to D.I. and bought skirts and tops for Sunday and scriptures. She then went to Deseret Book and bought a scripture case, a bookmark, and a hymnbook. (I forgot to mention that her husband is a member.) She is really getting into this! It's amazing to see the change.

I have a lot of cute pictures I want to send but don't have time to upload those today. I actually don't really have more time to write. This week I got to go on exchanges with the sisters in El Dorado Hills. It's really fun getting to go to areas of the mission that I would never get to serve in because they're English only. The hills are incredible! And the houses are ENORMOUS! And there are so many gated communities. Wow--that was a fun day. Because the companionship is a trio, I didn't want to walk around with them in a group of 4. So we split up the day, and I went out with each sister one at a time to tract and teach. I was nervous our little Toyota wouldn't get up some of the driveways--they went on forever and were steep! And I didn't know if my legs would make it up to some of the houses. We went to dinner with a member couple--the wife has been in about 30 movies and lots of commercials and magazines. She was a nun in Sister Act 2! haha and sadly I can't remember all the other movies she's/they've been in. They live in a beautiful home with a view of the gorgeous lake, and we got to see a family of about 10 deer! She fed them corn tortillas. I almost died. 

A member in the ward made a dress for me and I wore it yesterday. We got a picture together and I got a LOT of compliments on the dress. It is too cute! I wish I had time to send pics. I love this ward and this area so much. Just when I said that last time (in Manteca), I was emergency transferred, so I need to watch what I say! But East Sac has become a very special place to me. I love the investigators, the people, the Spanish members, the English members--I love it all. I like it when people say that the areas you serve in during your missions become sacred ground--that's really true.

Love you all,

Kates

Stiffnecked Missionary

Buenos dias familia,

This week was great! We almost reached all of our goals with lessons and finding new people to teach and so on. I suppose I failed to mention the past few weeks that I am still an exchange sister although I'm training. And Sister Toro is a trooper! If I were in her shoes I would be completely stressed out having my trainer leave, but she is such a natural missionary and determined and focused that I'm not even worried about her--okay, maybe a little just because it has been only three weeks! But I don't think I've stressed enough how completely amazing she is. WOW! Heavenly Father blessed me this transfer--He seems to do that a lot. Having said that, I went on a split exchange with Sister Romero in Sacramento and her companion Sister Ashton came to East Sac where she served for 6 months, which is nice because this is her last transfer and she got to see a few people before going home.

We had an amazing miracle on Friday morning. We decided to call a woman who was investigating the church with her children but has since been dropped because she's not married and because of issues with becoming a resident and marriage delaying that process even more, she decided not to be baptized with her children in January. Her youngest is turning 8 in September and she has decided to be baptized with her!!!!!!! When we texted her (oh yeah, we were texting), we were just asking when we could meet with her because I've been feeling this urge lately that we've needed to visit her and prepare her for baptism (teach the lessons again and everything). She asked if everything was okay and if there was something we needed to meet with her about. We said that we just wanted to see them and then finally asked if she's been thinking about baptism lately. She said, "Hermana, I just decided that I was going to do it and I told myself I was going to get baptized with my daughter in September. It's like you read my mind because I was just thinking about it and wanted to tell you, but I was going to wait to do it in person." Wow!!! That's the Spirit at its finest! Sister Fernandez is probably freaking out right now--you know who I'm talking about! We're having a baptism in September!

Also this week we started teaching a woman in English. Re lives in Rancho Cordova and since there aren't any sisters who live close to there, we get to teach her! Her daughter was baptized last year in the young single adult ward and has since gotten married and moved to Idaho, but has been sharing the gospel with her mother. When we leave her reading assignments, she and her daughter talk over the phone and her daughter explains what she's reading. :) Actually, I just got a phone call this morning while emailing from another English woman in Rancho Cordova who wants sister missionaries. Looks like we're taking over English work... Just kidding.

Oh, something really important. On Saturday morning I was getting ready and was going to put on mascara (I really should leave that part out of the story because it makes me sound really pathetic) and whipped my head back to get my hair out of my face and heard a "cuuuhh" in my neck and felt a really horrible pain. I grabbed my head to keep it balanced so my neck wouldn't have to support the weight and laid on the bed for a good half hour before Sister Schow found me there. I ended up lying on the bed for about three hours, received a blessing from the elders and the mission housing coordinator who happened to be in the neighborhood helping other elders move in. My neck is super sore, and it took me a long time to get up because my head would just pound. I've been taking Ibuprofen and doing a therapy that the mission nurse told me to do. I might see a chiropractor this week. We went to a baptism Saturday night (Elaury, Gloria's Jose got baptized! And the Camachos' father who's 82.) and people were calling me a robot and Sister Schow said that I shouldn't be so stiffnecked. Ouch. The elders said my posture was so good I could balance a book on my head. It's getting better slowly--I just have to turn my whole body to look at someone to the side. And I have a cold, so that makes things a whole lot more fun!

I love yall! I feel like we're going to see a lot more miracles really soon. First a little opposition had to enter the picture. :)

Love,

kates

Here comes the sun

Buenos dias familia,

This week was pretty good--pretty typical, which is a good thing. The only thing that's a little different is that I've been extremely exhausted this week (and the past few weeks--maybe it's been my whole mission;). This week I've felt like I've needed to be dragged to walk to any doors. Wow, it's no wonder boys 19-21 years old are the ones who are supposed to serve missions! Those are my thoughts pretty much every morning because I just think "ohh my body." And good thing elders are the ones who serve for 2 years--18 months sounds good to me! Thankfully Sister Toro is a napper, too (just like Sister Novakovich!), so we get to eat lunch really quickly and use the rest of our hour to take a little snoozer--never enough!

A theme from our district meeting this week was, "Have we been on our knees enough?" That's been a question on my mind this week--have I been praying enough with faith that Heavenly Father will hear and answer my/our prayers? The motto for the month in the mission is Faith in Every Footstep, which I obviously love because Stace, Jo and I sang that at my farewell. Yeah, remember that tear jerker? Oh boy was I a mess. Anyway, it's neat to think about the pioneers this month (we got to watch 17 Miracles on the 4th of July in our zones) and how they sacrificed so much for this work. Well we're involved in the same work as we find new people who will be pioneers in their families for generations to come as they accept and live the gospel. Last month we had a goal of baptizing 55 people in the mission and we baptized 60. This month the goal is 67. We had a miracle yesterday at church--we worked all week to find someone (a family) to come to church, but it didn't look like it would happen (but we still had faith that after doing all that we could, the arm of the Lord would be revealed). And it was! There's a man named D who lives with (or is just always at their home--we don't really understand) a less-active family. We taught them this week and invited him to church. After calling the family about 10 times Sunday morning before church to wake them up (we warned them we'd do it if they gave us permission--it didn't work, by the way), we thought it was a lost cause. And then they came! And D loved church and loves learning! We're hoping that he's our July miracle. 

We had a stake correlation meeting yesterday with stake leaders and ward mission leaders and missionaries in our zone. I appreciated what one of the counselors in the Stake Presidency said about having faith that our prayers will be answered, after doing all that we can. Oftentimes we conjure up the faith that things will happen if we truly believe with all our hearts that it will without putting in the effort to do it. President talked about how Heavenly Father can do anything, of course, but He expects us to do our part, to really think about it and study it out and put forth the effort. Only after that do we have the promise that he will make things work out for our good (if that's His will). But we're the ones who need to get things moving first. That's something I need to work on a little bit--I pray earnestly with the best intentions but sometimes I don't study it out enough and think of what I am capable of doing first before the Lord takes over and the miracle happens.

Another focus for our companionship right now is family home evening. We printed off family home evening packets to give to every family in our area and cute sheets of paper where they can make family assignments so everyone gets involved. So far we've been able to teach three or four families about FHE and will be following up with them on that! We want to follow up with them every week about it because I think it's something that will really help the families in our ward (well, it doesn't hurt that it's a promise from the prophet and apostles that it'll strengthen the family). Make sure you're doing your family home evenings! I always think about my siblings and their families when I'm teaching this and hoping y'all are doing it. :)

Love you all. Thank you for your prayers and letters and emails and pictures!

Happy birthday Millerman and Scottie!!!

Love,

kates

Happy 4th of July

Katy's email home this week was an email in photos. Here they are, enjoy!

1. Turtle in a front yard of someone's house. Name is Shady. How could we not get a pic? They've had it for 12 years...

2. Irvin--the most energetic 2-year-old I've ever met in my life. His family are members of the church. Every time we go by to visit them, he tries to steal our hymn books and is all over everywhere. But he's really cute.

3. Angelica's--eating dinner as a district at a member's home. These are some members that ate with us!

4. Hermano Pallares--always has to get pics with the missionaries, so I have a lot with him! He's the high priest group leader (I think that's what it's called--maybe not) and is a great help to us.

5. Carlos--Carlos Chavez. Hi Carlos! He was our ward mission leader until he MOVED to San Jose. There he is with the zone leaders (I think--I can't see the pic), Elders Watko and Jensen.

6. District pic fail.

7. District pic blurry but worked that time.

8. Elder Rizo--David Archuleta actually came to California, not Chile. (jk... he just looks like him)

9. Sister Novakovich's sister drew this cute pic of us haha

10. Peek of Sister Schow's home!

11. Reaching for Celestial Way.

12. When we went to the temple last week!

13. Rafael, Jonathan, and Ari--Rafael's shirt says "We reserve the right to arm bears." He doesn't understand it :)

14. The Rodriguez Christmas--opening their scriptures. They loved them!!! Thanks, Mom!! They said many many many thanks to you.

15. 4th of July games!

16. Here we're playing a game, but in the morning we ran a 5k game. I just ran in circles around a sister while she ran/walked because I had to stay with a companion :)

17. Sisters up north in Sacramento!

18. Elder Dahl--this is Kevin's son. I worked for Kevin for 2 years in Utah. And now his son and I are in the same mission!

19. President Lewis and Sister Toro and me.

20. We had the activity at the Mormon Center, which is the chapel next to the temple.

21. With Hermana Estrada and Mason who I love.