Deliver Us!

first picture of us together, wearing
some of the edible bling the family
sent (ft Frank, the drawing)

It's a new day, a new start, it's alive with the beating of a young heart! Yes, I still listen to the Spirit soundtrack in my head sometimes, even though I don't in the car. (*Spirit, Dreamworks movie: Bryan Adams sings "Here I Am")

This week was obviously one for the books! With transfers, everything's been crazy and amazing and is still going by quickly!

MISSING PEOPLE. I still miss Sister Johnson like no other, but that's life and I think the mission is just trying to teach me to get over it...or stop making friends...something along those lines. There is the 'pro' to that though, if you don't want to ever miss anyone, just don't talk to anyone! Makes things easier.

Kidding! Anyway, Sister Nield and I have become fast friends and she's AMAZING! She's from Florida, and by the end of our companionship I'll be very well-versed in some video games, and of course we have books to talk about too.

CC and DALLIN got married! First
wedding I've ever been to and it was
on my mission of all places!

THEME SONGS. I'm learning a ton from her because I still know very little and that's the point of life, to learn! But one of the things she very quickly discovered on my tablet was the soundtrack from Prince of Egypt (Dreamworks movie, story of Moses). 'Deliver Us' has become out new theme song, which has led to some entertaining singing moments in the car. Side Note: each of my companions and I have a song that seems to become the theme of however long we're together. Except Sister Johnson and I were comps so long we have like 8 songs, or 23, I lost track.

The last picture Sister Johnson and I
took together, can't have a normal
one of course!

FEED MY SHEEP. One of the highlights this week was the fact that yesterday, Sister Nield and I were both not wanting to sit inside after church for our comp study, so we sat on the fence between the church parking lot and a field...the cool thing? The field was full of hundreds of sheep and little lambs! We shared what we learned as we watched and listened to flocks doing their sheep thing. It was fun :)

becoming one with the fold :)

STRETCHING OUR MINDS. One thing with transfers, is more often than not, one companion leaves and the other one who stays behind "takes over" the area, as they help the other missionary who comes in, adjust and learn names and backgrounds. Well, that leads to Sister Whitesell doing all the remembering that two missionaries used to do, by herself...all while trying to keep Sister Nield from going insane with details! It's definitely a transition and she's slowly learning things, but holy smokes I'm exhausted! I know it's a common thing on missions for all this to happen, but I haven't taken over an area since Chico so it's a fun adjustment again.

Lunch with a ton of sisters in the
South, before everyone went their
separate ways!

HIGHLIGHTS. We taught Hailey an amazing lesson on the Plan of Salvation. She loves everything so far, and is on date (getting baptized) April 21st! She's just so solid, and loves everything, and is super enthusiastic. She's already been telling people about it! Ah, miracles like that. I don't know what I did to deserve them but I'm definitely not complaining! Do you see how many exclamation points I've been using in this weekly? Things are clearly going well :) Hard but good.

Look at the Fluff Ball Bear :)

We also had another investigator who has been struggling to feel the spirit in a way he recognizes, but this past week HE shared a story that brought the spirit to the lesson SO STRONGLY! It was amazing to listen as he told us about one of his encounters with a general authority (one of our leaders from Salt Lake), and the love and peace he felt! Missionary miracles everywhere, guys.

Rocklin is definitely picking up right now, and I love it so much! I'm learning that I'm becoming one of those missionaries that's just loves everything they do, and it's so cool because missions would be terrible if you didn't enjoy any of it. It goes to show that if you let Heavenly Father change you for the better, he does! That's a miracle in and of itself. But enough about me.

Last Zone pic from last transfer!

EASTER. I wanna talk about YOU. Each of you needs something, and can always use more joy and peace. That's why Easter is so amazing to me, because so many people can once again feel more of that joy and direction that comes from Christ and His gift of the Atonement. He gives us hope in times that seem impossible, peace in chaos, and love at times when no one else can truly understand the pain you're feeling. He went through so much, so that you could have those moments of relief from the world. He loves you and trusts you enough, that even when you make mistakes, He already suffered; you can have the comfort of knowing that perfection takes time, and growth can happen after you fall.

the lengths we go to make smoothies

more wedding!

This week, take a moment to remember just how much He has helped you! Take a moment to watch the video "Because of Him" if you can, too :) It's SO GOOD! And this weekend we get to listen to our prophet and his apostles teach us personally! Get PUMPED for General Conference on Saturday and Sunday! **Every 6 months we have "General Conference:" 2 days of inspirational messages from our leaders in Salt Lake City. This weekend is the April General Conference, AND it's also Easter! You can listen/watch it on lds.org this Saturday and Sunday, Mar 31-April 1.

Love you all, and good luck with whatever this next week brings!

Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net
751 Central Park Dr. #321
Roseville, CA 95678

The End of an Era

Zone Conference--thank you, Sister Chamberlain,
for taking this!

amazing steak, it was HUGE

"beware the dog"?

And start of a new beginning! Yup, this week's gonna be cheesy but short.

To start with the cheesy, I had exchanges on Tuesday with Sister Hales, and in the downpour she suggested we knock on one more door (of course!). When we knocked, a man opened who'd talked to missionaries a few times before so he was pretty nice, and we had a good discussion on some of the things he disagreed with. At the end, he asked us if we wanted any pizza, and we figured why not, seems like a trustworthy guy. So we got some pepperoni pizza that he had "doctored up" with some parmesan, olive oil, and pepper flakes," and it was just as delicious as it sounds! Thanks Landon! And there you have the cheesy part of this email. :)

parking ticket from Quinn

pi day so of course :)

This week was stellar as usual, crazy as usual, and miraculous as usual: that we helped people, that we survived, that we found new people to talk to, that Rocklin hasn't gone up in flames yet (take it as you wish)!

HIGHLIGHTS. Include obviously the pizza. That's about it.

Kidding! We have a miracle new investigator. She actually found the missionaries, and sought us out after hearing about the church from a recent convert! She's come to literally every Mormon thing she can, since hearing about the YSA ward. Our first lesson was amazing, and the spirit was very strong, and she's just excited and so ready to learn more! And on top of that, holy smokes, SHE had the craziest week...

the one and only Brother Pettey
and Bishop Strata

a sweet picture Sister Johnson took

CAR PROBLEMS. She went to church in another ward/congregation last Sunday (8 days ago), and stayed all three hours despite not knowing what was going on! The missionaries in that ward referred her to us since she's 23 or so. She came to the Family Home Evening (FHE) and volleyball activity two days later. Her car got stolen while she was at FHE (??!?!?!!!what) and it had everything except her phone in it: wallet with license, money, credit cards, literally everything.

Sister Puempel left my room
better than she found it,
after exchanges where she
used my bed :)

Her phone also died in the process of trying to figure everything out, then she was still excited for us to teach her Thursday! On top of that, she lives maybe 2 hours from Rocklin and it moving here, that's why she's being taught here. But she drove those 2 hours, to get to FHE, then to have her car stolen. And she still came to church again on Sunday. Talk about diligence. But we're so excited to keep working with her!

best promposal, thank you Sister Puempel :)

DOG DOCTORING. Oh yeah, another fun story with a different investigator, Teri :) We didn't get to teach her this week, because our time visiting with her was spent doing service...for her dog. Keep in mind this dog could very easily fit in a microwave (shoutout to my dad for that mental picture). The dog needed an IV, so we held the dog and fluid bag for the IV as Teri poked a needle into Dolly's neck scruff. We filled her up with a good 15 oz of fluids. Yup, never thought I'd do anything like that on my mission! So those were some adventures and miracles of the week!

post pizza from Landon!

CHANGES. Also, transfers are unfortunately a thing, and that's where the title comes in. Sister Johnson is leaving me for the Red Bluff area up in Anderson, with none other than Sister Wright!!! I'm so excited for both of them, but I've also come to love working with Sister Johnson, and it'll be a weird transition. (Pro Tip: don't make friends and you never have to say bye to anyone.) But I know she's gonna kill it up there and I'm excited to start this next transfer with Sister Nield on Tuesday!

Welcome to Granite Bay

I'll leave you all with a scripture. Alma 26:12 "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."

by far the best text from any ward
mission leader ever:)

There is so much I've been able to do on my mission that I could never have done on my own. So many amazing changes that I've seen because of Christ's atonement and the hope I can find through his strength. I know that if we're open to letting him help us, he will! We don't need to make sure everything inside us is perfectly clean and spotless to let him in. His purpose is to help us clean up. Often our mistake is thinking we have to be perfect before he can come in and make it better. Let him help you find answers and change! We can't go through life alone, and thankfully, we don't have to!

...and just a super-cool cloud because I am
entertained by the small things

Good luck this week, and hopefully those of you with snow, can either send some my way, or at least keep your electricity while it snows. Or both :)

Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net
751 Central Park Dr. #321
Roseville, CA 95678

She passed!

Elder Staynor! Haven't seen him
since Chico

OUCH BUT SOMEHOW POSITIVE. So, many of you are probably thinking the subject line is about "passing" a test. Or maybe even thinking outside the box, and assume "passing" a car, or a ball on the street. Nope, none of the above!

On Tuesday I was able to go on exchanges with the one and only Sister Crowther (ok, she's one of two: her 3rd cousin Sister Crowther was also in this mission a few months ago). It was amazing and hysterical and productive day, full of talking to everyone, learning from each other, and even picking up a new investigator! But the funniest event of the day by far, was when I became an Aunt...(only funny because Sister Crowther herself made it funny) -- Sister Crowther passed her kidney stone!

Brother Pettey is ridiculous in the most
amazing way (thanks Bro. Pettey!)

McAnelly was passed at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 6 measuring 4-5 mm and weighing .0001 oz (kidding; I don't know how much it weighed). Sister Crowther is just such a good natured and funny person. She went on about being SO excited and enthralled by the kidney stone, it made light of the whole event. The coolest part is how hard working she is, in spite of pains like passing a kidney stone. She's had 5 on her mission. Her quote of the day was, "you know how they talk about childbirth and how some births are easier than others? Yeah I understand that now."

I matched the door! nuff said

 We had a lot of fun the rest of the day, learning from each other and swapping stories, while also being guided by the spirit and talking to a lot of new people.

NEW FRIENDS, OLD FRIENDS. As for the new investigator, we found THREE this week! It's amazing to see the work picking up in the whole mission, as people are changing. Motivation continues to go up, since some of the distractions we used to have aren't there anymore with rules changing. There was just so much that happened this week.

We also had Zone Conference, and I saw some of my good friends, which was so exciting! Unfortunately Sister Swenson is in Citrus Heights now, so I didn't get to see her (lame). When I get pictures of that I'll send them; it usually takes a little time.

fun in the rain

UNEXPECTEDLY INTERESTED. One of our new investigators is named Ian. He's about 10, and the whole situation was just funny. We were driving down the street, and he was with a few of his friends practicing scooter tricks. He shouted, "What's up homies" as we drove by. Sister Johnson and I continued down the road, stopped at a house where we both felt like we should knock but no one answered.

Sister Crowther

One of Ian's friends had a dog, and let me just tell you that dogs are my biggest motivation. So we walked back down the street, honestly to just pet the dog and see where it went. Well, we ended up giving Ian a Book of Mormon! His friends were kind of laughing as we had our interaction of giving it to him. He asked if we could sign it too, and we did, plus putting in a sentence or two of just our personal thoughts.

We asked if we could come back and he said sure, Friday at 5, while his friends busted up and just made jokes that he had a "date" with two older girls. We left after suggesting that he read a little bit out of it before we came back, and also told him to make sure he had perfected his jump, too. From how it went, since neither we, nor Ian seemed to take the whole situation fully seriously, we didn't have much of an expectation when we went back on Friday.

not great lighting for McAnelly but
he is alive and well

I still had hope, since we only ran into him in the first place because of a prompting to go a different way to get to our dinner appointment. Well, when we came back on Friday, he had actually read some! We taught him about the restoration, and he actually asked us questions, so he was genuinely curious! It was so cool to see how even though the initial contact had not seemed legit, he really did want to learn more. Never guess who God has prepared to make a change in their life!

BOTHERSOME BITES. Tangent off that lesson, though. The first interaction with Ian, I got 6 mosquito bites, for the sake of giving away a Book of Mormon. And all of you know how much I loathe mosquitoes! Well I was hoping the next time we went back it wouldn't be so buggy, but guess what: Heavenly Father tests us in a variety of ways. And since we were there on his porch for a good 30 minutes, I got not 6, or even 10, but 27 bites on my legs alone! So clearly I have a strong belief in what I do, or else I would have left the scene in a hearbeat.

signature one of the YSA used for dinner...
even has some birds in there

Never let bugs stand in the way of somebody's opportunity to increase their faith! And, sidenote, shaving off a bugbite doesn't make it itch less, Fun Fact. It was unintentional don't worry, but still annoying.

TAKEAWAY. So I guess my thought for this week is find something you believe in so strongly you're willing to be attacked by mosquitoes for the sake of sharing the joy it brings you with someone else! That's the one thing I love while I'm out here. Even though we sometimes do ridiculous things that push me out of my comfort zone, I can do them because I know what I'm teaching can change someone's life. And if all I change is one perspective, and then get rejected after planting a seed, then that's enough to keep me pumped to keep going!

never a bad time to remember the joy in Christ

You guys are all stellar humans! Enjoy the start of spring, maybe? I don't know...it's been in the 60s and 70s for almost a month already here. I'm enjoying it before it gets too hot!

Talk to you next week,
Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net
751 Central Park Dr. #321
Roseville, CA 95678

100 people, 42 nuggets, I don't know how to end this

Guess what!! So remember a few weeks ago, how I talked about how we set a baptismal date for one of our investigators, and then didn't say a ton about it after that? Well, it's been a HUGE roller coaster of emotions and concerns and overcoming fears for both her and us! This last Saturday (as a celebration for my dad's birthday, too), she made the decision to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Let me tell you I've never seen a bigger baptism, or been more stressed to teach the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all 100 people who showed up!

Too many nuggets!

KIDDING, RIGHT? NO. First, obviously, some of my Sister Whitesell moments for the week. Really just one important one, and that was on Friday. Lauren (yes, the same one, who I'll talk about for most of this post) had the bright idea to do a chicken nugget challenge where Sister Johnson, a friend Pele and I would have 30 minutes to eat 50 McDonald's chicken nuggets. I'd like to preface with: I don't even like those, but only did it because Lauren really wanted to.

my drawing of how the nugget challenge went
in regards to my brain 

Believe it or not, eating that many nuggets is really hard! And gross if you think about it too long. But I started off really slow, and paced myself, which led to everyone else doubting me. I took some from random boxes, so I couldn't really see how many I'd eaten until the end. But we did our 30 minutes of eating, and the final tally was Pele 36, Sister Johnson 38, and Sister Whitesell pulling ahead with FORTY-TWO NUGGETS! And three very upset stomachs...it was something I'll never do again, but I can brag about it later! Okay now to the important stuff :)

one of the people we're teaching
made the BEST cheesecake-filled
strawberries!

CHALLENGING JOURNEY. Lauren has been investigating for about 3 years. Her whole extended family are already members, and she's been trying to figure out what's best for her that whole time. This past month especially, I've been able to see firsthand how hard the adversary works on us when we're about to do something that can bring us a lot closer to Christ.

I've never seen anyone more content

Until last Tuesday, we didn't know if the baptism was happening or not, because she had so much pressure on her of not knowing for herself what she truly believed, and not knowing how to differentiate between her own voice in her head, the adversary making things harder, or our Heavenly Father helping her make a decision. On top of that, we hadn't been able to get hold of her all the previous week.

the trees think it's spring already

Even talking about baptism stressed her out too much because of all the pressure. Her entire family came, and many of them were flying or driving out from other states, some even cleaning out their bank accounts to make it over, partially for a family reunion but more so for her baptism. Of course they weren't pressuring her, but family is so important to her that she didn't want to let them down in any way. It still added a ton of pressure on her! Then there were a lot of people asking her if she "was really gonna do it this time" since she's had a baptismal date twice before but didn't feel prepared. Overall, there was just more stress and pressure on one person than I've seen for any of the other baptisms I've gone to or helped out with.

baptism!

EXTRA SUPPORT. We made an effort to see her every day this week, whether it was just a quick drop by to see how she was doing, or to plan for the baptism. Each time we saw her she was feeling better and better about it. Tuesday we had a lesson and we prayed together, and she made the decision to go on with the baptism!

(I was so happy)

It was amazing to be a part of the actual service Saturday evening, as Sister Johnson and I watched one of our closest friends make the next step in returning to our Heavenly Father. She had so much support there, and it was wonderful to see how happy she was and feel the spirit so strongly! I've never taught in front of so many people before (100), but I know that it wasn't just me speaking. The spirit was there, and helped me teach and testify of the truthfulness of how Christ's church was restored on this earth today through the prophet Joseph Smith, and that the Lord still works with us. He wants us to recognize him as he helps us today.

more baptism pictures!

JOY AND COMFORT. Seeing Lauren receive the gift of the Holy Ghost as she was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was amazing. I know that the work I do as a missionary is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing right now. I wouldn't still be out here if I didn't believe what I teach. There's been so much joy and comfort that has come from the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ that have helped me. I know others are looking for it too.

even missionaries go to the
dentist. Dr. Pettey and a defeated/
numb Sister Whitesell (two
fillings redone!? party...)

If you're struggling right now, just know that Heavenly Father is always there, waiting for us to reach out so He can help us grow. The book is blue, the church is true :)

Good Luck next week!
Sister Whitesell

teresawhitesell@myldsmail.net

751 Central Park Dr. #321
Roseville, CA 95678