MURRY CHRITMAS

Temple Day!

HEY IT'S CHRISTMAS GET EXCITED!

GOT TO SEE THE FAM!

Teresa and Sister Johnson, from OUR end of skype

Also that means that I got to skype the family! Honestly it's weird cause I haven't talked to them in over 7 months. But they're all still alive and well which is definitely a bonus!

4 of our family

3 of the family in Florida
and BIG EYES in California

Don't ask

(Note from Mom...we were in Florida at Frank's parent's house, it was so nice to wake up in warm temperatures, and spend time with grandparents. Teresa skyped with us there, so Grammie D and Poppa Dave also got to see her! Sound was too quiet so we just told them about the call. We talked for just under an hour and she gave each of us challenges for the upcoming year. She looks good and sounds good. Awesome to chat, and learn some missionary slang. BTW "Nugget" is a good thing...haha!)

...when you get asked to move
with a 12-hour notice

FRESH APARTMENT. But, this week has decided to follow the trend of my last transfer and just be a little nuts. Remember how I finally got to settle cause after moving 3 times in a transfer, my mission president decided I could stay in an area longer than 9 days? We got a call Thursday afternoon and were informed that we were moving apartments. I cover all of Rocklin and Lincoln, and they moved us to Roseville, which is outside of our area even though we have so much area to cover. (Don't ask me, it makes no sense to me either.) My new address will once again be at the end of this email cause I've had 4 in the past month.

Christmas devotional and I got to see people!

Christmas morning!

TEMPLE VISIT. Aside from having to move within 24 hours, earlier that morning I got to go to the temple with Sister Johnson! Since the temple is outside of the mission boundaries, we can only go once every 6 months. I haven't been in 7, so it was amazing to go. The feeling you get from even just being on temple grounds is something that you can't get anywhere else. After being there, I was so much happier, and able to take on the week. The temple is one of my favorite places on earth, and I'm so glad I got to go with Sister Johnson too.

We were allowed to open one gift before Christmas:
Thanks, Bishop!

This weekly is probably gonna be a bit shorter, because it's Christmas, and I'm also getting lazy with emailing. The whole week was a bit of a blur but I know we did things!

Sister Johnson's amazing food-packing skills

GOING TO CHURCH. Oh, I've mentioned 2 of our investigators (both named Lauren) and they each had moments this week that make missionaries PUMPED! Lauren M came to church yesterday, and made the comment that she would never miss church because it's that important! So it's been cool to continue working with her and listening to her as her testimony grows.

Shout-out to Sister Orton
(may she RIP/she went home)
cause she's back on the east coast
now and way too far away
for my liking

Lauren R is someone who's been investigating for a long time off and on, and during our last session, she said "I honestly don't know why I'm not baptized yet!" (!!!) So because she's gone through the lessons twice already, we get to go off track a little and do our best to pick out the things she needs the most, to help her take another step of faith closer to Christ and our Heavenly Father. It's been so cool to work with her!

Shout-out to the best Mum out there
(best trainer), still looking out for
me even after she's dead (went home)

I finally unpacked my desk, the day before we
moved apartments...so now it's a mess again,
but I liked how it looked before!

HOLIDAY DEVOTIONAL. Final piece: Saturday was a half mission Christmas devotional, and yours truly was privileged enough to be a reader for part of it! Sister Swenson also read part, so I got to sit with and be with one of my fav people for that! I loved seeing people, and learning more of the story of Christmas that we all know so well. Being on a mission has 100% changed my perspective and understanding of so many things. I hope that each of you can continue to keep up the Service Mentality, not just in the month of December!

Talk to ya next year!
Sister Whitesell

teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net
751 Central Park Dr. apt. 321
Roseville, CA 95678

Dearly Beloved

We are gathered here today to mourn the tragic passing of this transfer. The lessons and chaos it taught will never be forgotten, but not missed. But the people I met and companions it brought gave priceless memories, timeless adventures, and instability that can only give someone the reasoning "There's no growth in the comfort zone." Your 5 weeks provided 5 companions, 5 days with areabook, 5 areas during my 5th transfer, and will leave me with 5 dead (gone home) companions (of the 9 Sister Whitesell has been so blessed with).

Santa!

Sister Hatch taught me that even when the work is difficult in a new area, you can persevere and find joy.

Sister Thorum showed me how to be yourself as a missionary, and that sometimes diligence is the necessary key for the work.

Sister Andersen gave me a perspective of positivity and made my transition to my final destination much easier than it could have otherwise been.

All 3 stayed strong until the end and showed me how to serve to your best capacity.

Sister Chamberlain! It made me
so happy!

The other 2 are thankfully still going to be here for another little while with me.
(Okay, I'm done with my dramatic eulogy for now :) )

Guys it's Monday! This week was another stellar week!

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. Hopefully all of you are really getting into the Christmas Spirit like they are here in Rocklin. Just some background: Rocklin is known for having a bit of money, so there are tons of people who go all out with their Christmas lights, which I'm totally fine with!

Most of my companions from this transfer
(L to R: Swenson, Johnson, Thorum, Andersen)

Good News. Since it's the end of the transfer (well, good AND bad, since I hate sending people home), I now know what I'll be doing for the next 7 weeks and for now, should not have any uncertainties about where I'm staying and who I'll be with!

SAME AREA. I'll be in the Rocklin YSA (Young Single Adult) ward/congregation for at least another transfer with Sister Johnson, who has very quickly become one of my best friends, and I'm so excited to see what we'll get to do with the area. If all of this sounds cheesy positive, it's just cause I'm PUMPED and happy about it. Anyways, on to the craziness of this week.

Us pretending we're normal for a picture

NEW PEOPLE. We had not one, but TWO exchanges this week, because one of the mission rules is that every Sister missionary goes on an exchange with one of the Sister training leaders, and it can't be your companion. So on Monday night I created yet another trio (this is like 6 or 7 if you're including exchanges, I've lost track), but we had an amazing day and Sister Johnson and Walker actually picked up a new YSA investigator! We have 2 Lauren investigators now, and you guys all know how good I am with names, so having the same name only confused me more regarding which Lauren we were talking about, but hey it's all good.

As promised, Sister Andersen on my
shoulders! Shoutout to Sister Walker
on the far right

REJECTION OF THE WEEK. Or area, or transfer, or however you want to rate it, but this was one of the best I've had :) My turn for exchanges was Thursday with Sister Walker, and since it's a 24 hour thing, we did dinner Wednesday to dinner Thursday. Well, we got a few good contacts in, and had zero normal interactions with people Wednesday evening. The best, though, was we went to go talk to a former investigator. In her defense, it was getting close to 9, but still that's not justifiable for her reaction.

We knocked on the door quietly and waited a minute. Then all of a sudden we hear a SLAM of a fist on the back of the door, that's strong enough to make the door knocker rattle a few times. "WHO IS IT!" We take a second to regroup. "It's the Sister missionaries." "NOT INTERESTED!!" We didn't take our time running back to the car because we could barely hold back the laughter. Honestly it's the rejections like that that make all the other rejections worth it.

Exchanges! (one of them)

You have to find joy in the little things, and getting a good rejection at the end of a long day can sometimes be all you need to make it through the next day! I know it sounds backwards, but it's true. Sister Walker and I had an amazing day, and worked hard while having fun. Even got Rocklin 5th Ward a new investigator. Miracles!

TENDER MERCIES. Speaking of miracles (see that transition: so smooth), I ran into someone I never expected to this week! Before I left, Lexie Chamberlain (currently on a mission), one of my adventure buddies in college and in my major, told me that her family was moving to Rocklin from Texas. I had actually kind of forgotten that they were in the mission, because I figured it was so unlikely that I'd run into them.

Raking party: I promise
Sister Andersen had fun

Well Friday we did our weekly planning at the church, and Rocklin 1st Ward was setting up for their Christmas party. This nice lady comes up to me and Sister Johnson (Sister Andersen was at the temple since she's being rude and leaving us) and asks us our names. "Sister Whitesell." "...Teresa? Teresa Whitesell?"

*confusion at the fact that a stranger knows my first name*

"Yes?" "I'm Sister Chamberlain, Lexie's mom!!" And so we got to just talk for a bit, and it was a huge tender mercy that I was so grateful for!

The Rocklin 1st Ward went all-out
for their Christmas Party!

YARD WORK. One thing we've been doing in this area with the other sisters that live in our complex is raking. Some ward members gave us rakes. We find a house in our neighborhood that needs raking, and get to work. It's actually been really fun and productive, believe it or not. But the coolest miracle with it so far was when we went to a former investigator's house and got to work.

About halfway through, the mom opened the door and asked, "Who sent you?" as she cried at the service. Later, we got a voicemail from her, telling us that that morning before we came, her husband had lost his job and they'd had to cancel the gardener because they couldn't afford it. She said she didn't know how we'd happened to come that day, but I know it wasn't a coincidence. It's moments like that where I'm so grateful to be a missionary and out doing hard work. It's hard a lot of the time, but then it's also so worth it when you have those moments of pure joy from seeing the fruits of your labors.

Polar Express theme...

Take the time to do a little service this season! Today's message is about forgiveness. I know that as we forgive others, we're giving them the opportunity to be relieved from guilt. In turn, we get to feel some of that Christ-like love that He has for each one of us! As Christmas gets closer, we tend to be caught up in the physical gifts. On a mission, I get to be caught up in the gifts we can't hold, and see a completely new side of a holiday I love!

...plus a tri-tip/funeral potatoes/
salad/roll dinner!

Don't give up; you're helping someone more than you know! Good luck this week and of course, thank you for all the support and updates :)

Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

Sister Whitesell
2013 Meridian Way
Rocklin, CA 95765

The One Where I Lost What Are The Odds

Hello, Again!

The scouts fed the missionaries as their service,
which was really cool...

So Sister Whitesell is starting to learn what every other missionary experiences at some point on their mission, and that is the laziness and lack of desire to 'write a weekly.' I kinda slacked off a bit on timing and cut myself short this week. But it was still a great week!

what we do in our free time after 9 p.m.

EXTRA PROTEIN. OK--this is probably one of the biggest Sister Whitesell moments I've had so far! We (the zone) had the opportunity this week to do a service at the home of a 'non-member,' (someone not part of our congregation). We helped her with tons of gardening and yardwork, which was really satisfying, to get my hands dirty. Side note: the majority of service we do in Rocklin is working at old people homes, so I was pumped to do physical labor again!

Christian was my helper and
we had a blast!

Anyway, as we gardened, one of the Elders found a worm. (If you connected my email title with that last sentence, you probably know where this is going...) Since I was talking to him exactly when he found it, he asked me What Are The Odds, that I ate the worm. (Mom side note as her stomach turns: "What Are The Odds" is a 'dare game,' I don't know the exact rules.)

This is Sister Johnson. Sister Andersen's will
be next week, don't worry!

I wasn't planning on doing it, until another elder said "you won't," so of course I had to prove him wrong. So we played, and as soon as we said our numbers I knew I'd made a mistake. We both said 12...so I got to really become one with the gardening as the zone watched me swallow the worm that the Elder dropped in my mouth. (Missionaries still do dumb things. We're still sorta normal people sometimes.)

GOOD CONVERSATIONS. On a better note! We did so much this week! Monday night we had 'exchanges,' and it was another time (only second time ever) where I was the "oldest" -- the one on my mission the longest -- in a trio, and that was fun. After a long day of trying to contact people and many unhappy responses, we knocked on the door of Kayla and she was super cool, cause as soon as she opened the door, she started talking to us, and we got to show her the Light the World video. We'll be able to stop by again this week, and see how everything's going! Miracles!

Daniel and I made a fortress because
houses are too mainstream

FHE Tuesday was creating ginger bread
houses then destroying them

Friday we also did a 'zone blitz' in Granite Bay. A zone blitz is when everyone in the zone gets together and then just goes all out in one area. So we're in Granite Bay, and literally every door we're knocking on is a negative response, but at least they answered. Then we get to the last door, and this 16-year-old and her friend (Makenna and Julia) open the door, and they were so excited to be talking to missionaries and watch a video about Christmas! We talked for a bit, and then they said we should come by tomorrow afternoon when their parents are home. Makenna even said that she'd make sure they stayed home, so they'd be there when we came back. It was so cool! Diligence and hard work pays off, even when it's little things or even just friendly faces.

awkward family Christmas pics

HIGHLIGHT. Okay, honestly I'll just skip to the best part of the week: Sunday! Background: in the YSA (Young Single Adult) congregation, it's really hard to pick up investigators, because you cover a huge area, and end up giving other investigators to the other congregations. (To be in the YSA ward/congregation, you have to be 18-24, so anyone we talk to who is interested who isn't that age, we 'refer' to other missionaries, who support a family congregation.) Our investigators are never the right age for us to 'keep.'

I got as close to the peacock as I could
before it hopped/flapped away

Well, at our service day at one of the senior centers, we started talking to this worker named David, he's super cool from Ukraine, and was looking for a church in English so he could keep practicing. We gave him our number because none of us could remember the address of the building (don't do that, guys), and then he actually texted us later! THEN, this was an even bigger miracle, HE CAME TO CHURCH, and sat all by himself and just stayed for the whole meeting! So we talked to him afterwards, and were able to set up a time for a Bible study class on Thursday. I am pumped!

Sister Andersen lost her toothpaste for about
4 days...then as she was preparing her talk
she found it! Being prepared brings miracles!

SUNDAY MIRACLE #2. There is a girl who goes to church and has been going for months, Cece, she's not a member but we've been told not to say anything really, or pressure her, because her fiance is the church member and he's working with her slowly. Well, Sunday she came up to Sister Anderson and said, "I want to take the lessons so I can get baptized. Also I'm to Mosiah in the Book of Mormon, but I'm only like halfway done..." It was SO COOL! So yeah, miracles happen every day!

We found a bull, so obviously
had to get a picture while tracting

zone: service awkward family photo,
post-eating-of-worm 

To finish, I just wanted to express my gratitude for the amazing companions I've had that are willing to work hard, and we can see that the efforts we put in do pay off. Sometimes in ways we don't expect or even recognize, but when you're faithful and diligent, people notice. If you do your best to improve every day then you're doing exactly what we came to this earth to do.

Miss everyone! Good luck with all the various things going on this week! Keep killing it!

Sister Whitesell

teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

8583 Watt Ave.
Antelope, CA 95843

Still using the mission office address until we know what's happening next transfer (we find out Sunday!)

O Christmas Trio, The Natrivatrio, Whiteson

Hello, All--

Party with Swensen
and Thorum!

What's up! It's Monday again! I think, honestly my days are so mixed up because this week was yet another crazy one, but it's always good, no worries. As you can see, I'm in my third and final companionship for this transfer, which happens to be another trio! In the title we have Sister Johnson's nickname, then Sister Anderson's nickname, then mine. We try to be creative. Well, I try, and they succeed pretty well, ha! Anyway. Lemme walk you through the insanity and miracles that made up this week.

Johnson (L), Anderson (R)

INSTAFRIENDS. First off, Sister Anderson is from Gilbert, AZ, and is the 4th of 7 in her family. She did a semester at BYU-Provo and is crazy musically talented and is just a stellar human all around. Sister Johnson is from Japan, yeah you read that right! Her dad works at IBM so she's just moved around a lot, and since her dad didn't fight it when IBM asked them to stay in Japan, they've lived there the last 16 years.

She's also an amazing human, and she's super cool, and also went to BYU-Provo for a year before her mission. We discovered that I'm the glue, because I was in Provo while both of them were, except Sister Anderson (she's going home in 2 weeks) was a freshman when I was a freshman, and Sister Johnson was a freshman my sophomore year. That was cool fun fact. But they're both amazing missionaries and I'm excited to work here in Rocklin!

Merry Christmas I guess?

I've learned that missionaries are just basically instafriends, and you do random stuff with random people because you're all serving, and you may as well have some fun with it. So the missionary moment of the week was at half-mission zone conference Friday. I was "backing" Sister Swensen (standing outside the car, making sure she is clear before she backs out), and I heard my name being called by two missionaries I didn't know. Elders Brown and Green called me over so that we could all take a picture, because we had colors in our last names. (Re-reading over that, it doesn't sound that interesting, but I thought it was funny 'cause I didn't actually know either of them.)

Exchanges in Gridley!

EXCHANGES. This week there was Missionary Leader Conference, that Sister Thorum needed to go to. Sister Swensen and I drove up to Gridley to drop her off, and pick up another sister for "exchanges," where you trade companions for a day. I had done an exchange with her (Sister Jensen) her very first day of her mission! I looked forward to seeing how she'd changed since then.

Christmas picture for my
third trio

Huge miracle for the day...we were trying to knock on a former investigator's door, who didn't end up being home. We decided to knock on the next door over, and Sister Swensen knocked, so the other Sister talked. I've never been more proud and stoked in my life! This nice lady who opened her door, listened to the message long enough for us to: share a passalong card (inspirational message), play a Light The World video for her, and then she STILL listened as Sister Swensen bore her testimony of the truth of the Book of Mormon. She also accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and that copy had a Restoration of the Gospel pamphlet in it :)

no explanation

We set up a return appointment, and she and her little son who had been poking his head out every once in awhile, each time with a new toy, are going to have the missionaries over next Tuesday. It made me so hyped to be a missionary. The past 2 weeks had been difficult. Every lesson and contact had either dropped or said no in Auburn, so finding a new investigator in Gridley was so exciting! I was so hyped, just ask Sister Thorum or Swensen!

I got to see Natalie's dog
before I left Auburn!

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT. Saturday (I was in Rocklin at this point), there was a Lighting of the Trees in downtown Rocklin. All the Sisters got together and tied candy canes to pass along cards, and prepped about 150 or so to pass out. Between the 7 sisters, it didn't take too long. And I know it sounds so cheesy to put candy canes on cards, but honestly I've just embraced being a sister missionary.

It's weird if Elders give someone cookies, but we're sisters so we can. People appreciate it, and I may as well use it to my advantage. Anyway, we were able to hand out all of them! The only sad part was the number of people that said No to "can we offer you a candy cane and a service challenge?" (Guys, it's Christmastime--just get pumped to serve people!) It was fun and a little overwhelming, but as they say: "No growth in the comfort zone!"

You thought I wouldn't get my
shoulder pic with Sister Thorum...
nice try

REUNION OF SORTS. The other big thing this week was Zone Conference, and just Friday in general. So not only did I get to see friends serving in the southern half of the mission (only happens twice a year or so), we were lucky enough to have Elder Dube come and teach us at conference. He had so many amazing tips, and he talked about a lot of important points.

FAITH. One thing that I wanted to focus on was the importance of having faith in our Heavenly Father. Often times, we don't know where that line is, between being faithful and being realistic. As we push ourselves to trust him, and believe in the plan that He has for us, then we'll come closer to Him and our goals can become reality.

Awkward family photo

When we focus on Him and do our best to set goals that He knows we can achieve, then we'll be able to achieve that potential we have. It's hard to give everything to Him. I still haven't been able to yet, and I've been on a mission which is gospel 24/7 for almost 7 months now. It's hard. But that doesn't mean we can't incrementally work on ourselves every day to work toward that potential we each have, learning to fully trust Him and have that faith that it will work out how it needs to, will make our goals a reality.

I hope this week is filled with Christmas cheer, and singing loud for all to hear, and glitter and all the Christmastime-y things. (Kidding about the glitter...honestly, I don't know why that stuff exists?! It gets everywhere. But it's Day 4 of the Light the World calendar! Go help out a neighbor! Good luck :)

trio life is exhausting

Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

For now, we'll keep my address the mission office, because transfers are in two weeks and who knows if I'll be staying here.

8583 Watt Ave
Antelope, CA 95843

4 Wards Covered, 3 Thanksgivings, 2 Times Moved, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Hey Guys--

Welcome to Alta Sierra; this is the
sign they have

Happy Thanksgiving! Merry official start of the Christmas season! One of my favorite times of year because of all the Christmas lights--get excited! Hopefully you all got as stuffed as you wanted to on Thanksgiving, but as always I hope it was more "Thanks" than "full." Or a good combo of both. And I can't believe it's already the end of November! I got here basically yesterday so idk where the time went.

The mission Christmas card pic that
Sister Hatch and I took

So many deer in Alta Sierra and
Lake of the Pines: I loved it!

SHUFFLING AGAIN. So remember how I've said a couple of times that "This week has been the craziest of my mission?" Well, as time goes on, I keep having more crazy weeks. I'll go through the title one bit at a time. Last Monday I finally was making progress with Sister Hatch, and she was opening up so I was learning how to help her, and figuring out how we could work together to take over Alta Sierra and Lake of the Pines. Well, Wednesday she unfortunately had to go home early due to some health problems, so I got transferred back to Auburn 3rd and Foresthill: trio life again!

I think it was foreshadowing
what would happen the next day

Turkey attacking: like a heart attack

And for a few days, the 3 of us were covering FOUR wards (congregations). More than a bit of driving, but we managed until things got figured out. Thank goodness they situated things before Sunday, because we had 3 ward council meetings we were supposed to be at, in 3 different buildings. Crisis averted, with the Zone Leaders taking Alta Sierra and Lake of the Pines, so now THEY are covering 3 wards, but it makes more sense, with how they've organized area locations.

Getting lost in Foresthill with
nice sunsets

5K prep

THANKSGIVING DAY! We (Sister Swensen again, Sister Thorum, and I) started the day off with a nice 5K walk in downtown Auburn to support the Food Closet, then proceeded to "Turkey Attack" people. We weren't really supposed to proselyte that day, which makes sense (lots of people focusing on family time during the holiday). Instead, we got creative and did a few heart attacks, only with turkeys, and other Thanksgiving themed paper cutouts.

More 5K on Thanksgiving pics

Then came the 3 dinners :) -- the perks of covering 4 congregations! Our first was in Auburn. It was pretty good, but the best was yet to come. Sister Swensen also saved the house from burning down by putting out the little fire that started, when the candles were near the flowers.

Look I moved again, and we took the tree with us

Best Ward Mission Leaders! I'm
gonna miss the Fardoses

this is the entrance to Alta Sierra

Dinner #2 was the favorite, and the family was amazing: the Jenkins live in Lake of the Pines. It was just a fun atmosphere, and it felt very homey. We really appreciated it, plus all the food was stellar!

The third was at President Merrill's house. We rated them as 2nd best, but the very best part there was 100% the green bean casserole. It was one of the dishes I was looking forward to! All three dinners were amazing, and we managed to eat basically a full plate at each dinner. Overall a pretty good Thanksgiving, and we all rolled out the door of our third one. Somehow Sister Swensen ate a full 3 plates too; we were all surprised!

Sister Swensen just added one word to the board

Our drive to the apartments in
Alta Sierra. See the speed bump?
Yeah, I got to drive over two of those
every day n the SUPER low-riding
Corolla...very well planned

You can't see the smoke as well as I had hoped
but it was super thick

TWO TIMES MOVED. I had to leave the Alta Sierra apartment and go back to the Auburn 3rd apartment, where believe it or not I did have a mattress the first night! We shunned Sister Swensen back into the little cave that the bottom bunk becomes, when the frames are stacked...okay she actually chose it, we aren't just mean. I got top bunk again, and there's no ladder, so it's a fun obstacle course to get on and off every day.

From what we know, this Friday I will actually be transferred to Rocklin YSA Ward, and be in another trio with Sister Johnson and Sister Anderson. Currently I'm the floater missionary with no real home, but things will settle down eventually I'm hoping!

the succession of desks: mine's the furthest one

One of the miracles of this week, was Saturday up in Foresthill as we were contacting people. Side note: it's nice knowing people in this area, and kinda weird how I can help out and yet not officially be in this area for long. Good to be back, though. We were in a mobile home park, and had knocked on the referral door, and decided hey, why not, we'll check out this one nearby.

5K in a skirt!

fabulous pumpkins, 1 month later

A little girl, maybe 12 or so, Haley, opened the door smiling and just invited us into the house, so we tentatively walked in because that literally never happens. You could hear her mom, a little concerned, in the background, asking who we were, and who her daughter had just let into the house. But to Haley it was all good, because "they're from CHURCH!" and "they have name tags." So we got to talk to them a bit, and show them the Light the World launch video. Not new investigators, but Haley was excited about the advent calendar, and was very willing to serve, so that was really cool. It's been a crazy but good week. I'm still learning a ton!

Some of the area we covered in AS...
find the deer I didn't even realize was in the shot!

Ok ok ok ok ok guys get PUMPED for the #LightTheWorld initiative!! You may have seen the church's video last year, with service each day starting December 1st, until Christmas. Well, they're doing it again this year! But it's BETTER cause I'm on a mission! You need to check it out on mormon.org. The video is amazing, and every day there are little suggestions you can do each day, because it's Christmastime! We've got to get into the Christmas spirit of serving! 'Cause really, when you help others, you feel better too, so why not do it? I'm stoked to see how much we can help others with this season. Sister Fardos is a genius when she says, "while we CAN give, we WILL!"

what your room looks like
as a mission refugee sister

Get ready for an amazing month! As always, I love hearing from you guys, and I hope your past weeks weren't as crazy as mine. Keep it real!

Sister Whitesell

For now, just use the mission office address because my life is so unsure right now...I don't know where I'll be, for how long or anything:)

Sister Teresa Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

California Roseville Mission
8583 Watt Ave.
Antelope, CA 95843