Lost and Found

Service at the Lake!

Welcome to this week's episode of The Missionary. We've got some amazing stories of success, and, well, not quite as much success because who on earth has success all the time? You've stuck with us this long, watching how many Sister Whitesell moments have come along. Join us as we follow her story of this past week, and see what happens next, in the wild suburban lands of Rocklin.

(If you read that in an Australian accent then I'm glad, because that was the intent...if not, go back and read it again :) )

working to clean up the lake

This week was another amazing roller coaster ride of a mission! To start, let's begin with one of my biggest Sister Whitesell moments so far. One thing I've learned in the last while is that the apartment numbering systems in America make zero sense! Take me to Japan or something, it would be so much easier to figure out the number systems there! (from what I've heard.)

We had to find this apartment, 6601. Seems like a pretty high number. Sister Nield and I are only in the 900s or building 9, but hey, we got this.

Brother Pettey's last week as a member
of the Rocklin YSA Ward bishopric :(
He got released this last Sunday
and it may have been the saddest
Sacrament Meeting ever.
But also super happy because
Haley got confirmed!

Sometimes in YSA people leave
to go to school and it's lame

WALKING AND WALKING. I can kinda see how the buildings are numbered, and each building has 1-24, so we're all good. There are a lot of buildings here. We start walking, talking about the ridiculous dreams we had the night before, and we get to about building 33, and I'm just getting amazed at how large this complex is. We walk for another 5-10 minutes, and are eventually getting to buildings in the 60's...(holy smokes, walking that long in 75 degrees makes you sweat after you're used to low 60s for so long I know I'm weak, okay?)

But we finally get to building 65. (still looking for 6601) Then we get to the next building...67...huh? We go between and behind the buildings, 62. We walk all the way to the gate and get up to building 75, but no 66!

I look around and see the sign for the complex. Right above the big block letters with the name of the complex is...wait for it..."6601!" Yes the address for the WHOLE COMPLEX is 6601!

Good Ole Bro Petty w/Lauren, who moved
to Idaho this last week and I'm kinda
sad about it!

You might be able to sympathize with how much I did NOT want to tell Sister Nield we'd just walked so far for nothing. But I checked the area book, and lo and behold the actual apartment number (3212) was a few words after the 6601 address. Yup, I've been out of school too long, I know!

When you're in YSA long enough
that some of them come home
from their semester and ask why
you're STILL THERE
(but I kinda love it a lot!)

OUTDOOR SERVICE. We also had exchanges this week, and I had the opportunity to go to Granite Bay again. We got to do a lot of service too, which was amazing and I loved it! Plus pants. Let's be honest, that's my main desire for doing service. We went to Folsom Lake and helped clean up the driftwood, and then later helped weed at a nonmember's house. Plus it was just a fun day and we got to share a few messages, lift a few people, and talk to some strangers!

Haley's baptism

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? The reason I picked my title is because the apartment wasn't the only thing I lost this week. I'm sure most of you know that I rarely lose my voice. In fact, I've never lost it for more than about half a day. Well, Sunday morning I woke up to an inability to speak at my usual inside voice levels. This was kind of exciting. Also, side note: losing my voice is one of my favorite things ever, because it sounds so funny!

cleaning the font

Well, I talked a lot during the day because I'm a misisonary, it's what we do. This time around, probably because the initial loss was due to a cold, my voice was completely gone by early afternoon, and it's still gone! I'm having a bit of fun with it :) Sister Nield isn't the biggest fan cause sometimes she has to do more of the talking now, but hey, I'll enjoy it while I can!

CLEAN AND TEACH. But aside from that, this week has been amazing! I'll just explain some of the miracles of Wednesday, because it was one of the best days on my mission so far! It started out a little slow though, haha! We got down and dirty and literally scraped at the bottom of the baptismal font to clean it, because that thing hasn't been touched in decades. We left it as close to sparkling as our cleaning supplies would allow!

Haley's baptism pics

We had a lesson in the afternoon, and had an awkward 7 minutes or so to fill and I refused to sit there, so we decided to go visit a "potential" (someone who MIGHT be interested in hearing the gospel) who lived near place where we were going to teach the lesson. We'd been trying to reach him for awhile, but he just hasn't ever been home. Well, miracles! He was home, and interested in learning more! Then a stellar lesson, then on the way to the church we had to stop at another "potential's" house because we told them we would, and we shared "Because of Him" and a message, and they said we could come back next week! So if that wasn't already miraculous enough, we headed to the church building and I got to listen to a missionary's favorite noise, the sound of a font filling.

Sister Howell at 6:30 a.m. on exchanges

We were able to be part of an amazing night, as Haley Warner got baptized and made a promise to our Heavenly Father that she would do her best to come home to Him! We were so excited, and also had the opportunity to teach the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the 50+ people who came! The spirit was so strong, and despite the struggles we had practicing earlier in the day, it ran perfectly and we were able to teach exactly what was needed.

Hey she decided to smile about it!

I love this work and what we do, because the peace it brings to others is something I wouldn't trade for the world. It's crazy how much God trusts such young people (missionaries) to share His love to others. I'm so far from perfect, and yet Because of Him I can help create the perfect moment for someone else. Never underestimate how much you can do!

I'm sure you're each killing it, and it's always good to hear from you. This time next week, I'll know what's happening with transfers, so stay tuned!
Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

751 Central Park Dr.
Roseville, CA 95678

You don't know what you forgot until you can't remember it anymore

Rocklin Zone!

There have definitely been weeks where I don't know what to put in the weekly because I feel like nothing happened, or the week went by too quickly for me to remember anything of significance (even though every day has significant moments; I'm on a mission, of course it's significant!). But this is one of those weeks where I'm looking back and asking what on earth can I fit into this weekly, because SO MUCH happened!

YATES!

EMOJIS. So I guess the first thing I'll say is how revolutionary this week was, in the fact that we can now use emojis. Yup, our smart phones are official now, and when people send us texts, they don't end in little boxes! We can actually see what emojis they're using!

Exchanges!

That's it, that's the only important thing.

KIDDING! SO many amazing miracles happened, stay tuned. And I feel like my weeklies have evolved to slowly become more like the style of writing and talking my companions have had. But if anything, they are more entertaining for me to write.

One way some people get in all the details of their week is by putting in each day and telling what happened. That's not my favorite way of writing weeklies, but I have so many things to say. So I still won't be using that technique.

My Hawaiian parents (Bishop Etrada
and Mama Etrada). He's being released
so he won't be in the ward anymore :(

tribute to Sister Wright! We've
all been companions with her
and this is often her go-to pose

TANGENT. The title is in regards to the fact that I saw 5-10 plants on a run this week, that I used to be able to identify from my plants class (many of you know that class almost killed me). That was my last semester at BYU and I couldn't remember ANY of them.

THREE-ONE-SEVEN. I had exchanges on Tuesday with the amazing Sister Smith and let me tell you, we cranked it out! Not one, but THREE new investigators! Let's just look at the stats. We set daily goals because that's a helpful thing with missionaries, and they looked like this: 2 new investigators, 3 copies of the Book of Mormon given out, 1 service opportunity, and 1 dog. To give perspective, Loomis has been stereotyped one of the hardest areas to work in the mission, and while Sister Johnson was there for maybe 4 1/2 months, they got maybe 5 solid investigators.

Okay but look at the size of that thing
that Sister Smith and I helped dig
and pull out!!

You know you're home when you get the
fun Hawaiian shoes

So we go out and end up trying a YSA referral I thought of (multitasking on exchanges), and BAM New Investigator #1! But we're not done, we were determined to get Loomis 2 new investigators. Later, we talked to a few people and tried a former investigator Sister Smith thought of, who had been hard to contact, and BAM New Investigator #2!

So apparently this is just what people
want from me. It was awesome to see
3 of my 5 living (still on the mission)
companions at Zone Conference! The
other 2 eloped to Red Bluff, as far away
from me as possible it's fine, not bitter.
This is Sister King.

DOG WALKERS. Then we prayed and went to a mobile home park and tried to decide if we should be there or not but of course, we needed to be there. So we got out and I implemented my Dog Goal. For me, it's so much easier to talk to people walking their dogs 'cause I love dogs and it's a good conversation starter. But we saw a disabled man slowly driving his car with his dog running next to the car, so "walking" his dog. Of course I dashed over and said hi, and asked to pet the dog. Turns out he's super nice (both the man and his dog), and even though he wasn't interested at the time, he pointed us to a lady who could always use help.

Well we walked over, following his directions of "turn right, it's about the 3rd house down with the white picket fence." We ended up talking to her for a good 45 minutes about the Plan of Salvation and the peace this gospel can bring! She was suffering from a lot of health problems that made her have to stay at home a lot, but she was so prepared and it was amazing to feel that spirit of joy and comfort in the home, as we got to know her and bear testimony of what we do and teach! Miracles! And BAM New Investigator #3!

Sister Swenson

PLUS we got to do service, helping completely redo someone's yard, and we ended up also helping dig out a good chunk of concrete, picture included, no worries. By the end of exchanges we had THREE new investigators, TWO copies of the Book of Mormon given out, ONE service opportunity completed (love yard work), and...wait for it...SEVEN dogs! Aah, it was such a good day! It's been awhile since I've been able to just go at it all day like that.

Miracles Wednesday too, where we got 2 new investigators for YSA! And one just dropped out of thin air, we got a text that someone had referred her and to call her asap, so we did just that. We set up an appointment for later that day, and got to know her! She even came to church on Sunday, even though we told her we wouldn't be able to go to that ward (congregation) since we had to go to our other ward but she still came!

so many sisters

Then of course Zone Conference was amazing and spiritually uplifting, and so exhausting too, but we learned a ton. We got a lot of good advice on what to do for our baptism on Wednesday. And on top of that, I got to see so many good friends!

Sister Nield

To end, because this is already 3 miles long, I wanted to first have an excited "HALEY is getting BAPTIZED on WEDNESDAY!" pitch, because that is basically Christmas for missionaries! And second, I learned a lot about forgiveness at church yesterday. It's not something that comes all at once. And I know a lot of you already know that sometimes it takes longer than we want it to. I never made the connection that we learn in this gospel line upon line, just as we learn to forgive slowly and bit by bit.

He loves you enough that He sent his son to give you a way to come home! And remember, you are not part of a 'machine-washed' load. Christ took the time to hand wash you and your sins, so that you can have peace in knowing that he loves you more than you realize. He knows you perfectly. Every stain can be washed through his atonement!

Keep your head up this next week; it makes it easier to avoid running into things:)

Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

751 Central Park Dr. #321
Roseville, CA 95678

Are you smarter than a high schooler?

read the red letters...basically a mission
in a nutshell: "in case of fire,
pull handle firmly"
side note from mom: "??"

GUYS I GOT TO DO SERVICE THIS WEEK!! Like hands dirty in someone's yard service! Honestly at this point I'm just getting desperate to do some kind of service that isn't just sorting bags at a thrift store. So you bet, I was PUMPED to finally do some good ol' hole digging to move a tree in a church member's yard. :) There's nothing quite like seeing actual results come from the work you do. So yes, sometimes missionary work gets hard, with how rarely we get to see results of our efforts, but that doesn't mean the results we do see don't make the rest of it worth it!

Internet photo:
this is what 9 Square looks like

BLOOD PRESSURE RISES. Ok, so Sister Whitesell moment of the week. On Friday night we helped out with the ward youth conference and at the end, we played "9 square." I hadn't heard of 9 Square until Rocklin. It's basically 4 Square (but with 9 squares) and it's a funky looking setup, with pipes that raise that grid above your head. The goal is to keep the ball from touching the ground after it gets to your square. Hopefully that makes sense.

I didn't have any of this
before my mission, so great!

It was so fun! And as missionaries, the stereotype or unwritten rule is that we're peaceful and kind 24/7. This is obviously a good goal, but I'm kinda competetive. At one point I was in the middle square when this over 6-foot-tall 16 year old, volleyball player, uses his skyscraper wingspan to just grab the ball and slam it down into my square, leaving me ZERO time to actually defend my position. I about lost it. (But it's okay, cause the atonement is real and I don't yell at people younger than me during a game of 9 Square at youth conference.) I've grown a lot, guys!

This is Q, he's completely ridiculous in the best way,
even went shopping with us today. He's the Ward
Mission Leader of the YSA in another zone but
we see him at the Institute bldg all the time

We had a lot of miracles this week, though, and as always it's really cool to see what Heavenly Father does to make things a little easier. I'm not gonna lie, it was a bit rough this week because I'm still adjusting to taking over the area and teaching the area to my companion BUT I can do hard things! And so can you (cheesy line of the day)!

Monday trip to Petsmart of course!

We also did a facebook skype lesson! It was definitely entertaining, and it's so cool how much more work we can do with technology. Never thought I'd teach a lesson like that on my mission :)

Oh yeah, we got smartphones! They'll
be activated on Friday but for now
we'll just have all the technology

GREAT PEOPLE. One of my favorite times of the week, though, was when we got to teach one of our investigators named Richie. He's amazing, and it's so fun to teach him, and our biggest thing is helping him recognize the spirit because he hasn't been able to feel it for a very long time. But every lesson we teach shows us he's making progress, and it's just amazing to have someone who is so willing to learn. He knows that even if in the beginning he's borrowing the testimony of others, as long as it's enough to motivate him to change, then it's okay and eventually he'll feel it on his own.

exchanging back Tuesday evening

Another amazing person, his name is Jacob. As a missionary, you feel like there are some things that only happen in those missionary movies, or in our training videos called The District...where basically everything is perfect for them always, and it all works out in the end.

we finally found Lauren
again! It's been too long

Well, we have this kid who hit a point in his life a few months ago where he was at rock bottom, there was nothing left he felt he could do on his own, and just needed something. So he did what was only logical to him, and that was to google How To Pray. Eventually over time he learned about the church through his girlfriend, and they prayed each night and read a few church magazines, until we finally got to meet him on Wednesday!

exchanges, so of course we went to Arbys
because we are the only 2 sisters
on the planet who like it there

Our lesson went PERFECTLY, and he came to youth conference and then asked us 2 things that a missionary is completely shocked to hear:
1) can we meet twice a week? and

Easter basket #2, you can tell it
fits my persona perfectly

2) how soon can I be baptized? I think Sister Nield and I were stunned for a minute. His testimony is amazing, and I'm so excited to help him build that relationship with Heavenly Father!

hates crickets, and yet seeing a box of
them is too intriguing not to inspect

THEME FOR LIFE. I learned a ton this week and know that the work I'm doing is important enough that I'm willing to give up 18 months of my life. If you feel like you need some sort of direction, read the scriptures. If you need peace, read the scriptures. If you need hope, read the scriptures!

sometimes the roads in Lincoln are
pretty hard on the Malibu

Because of Him and the sacrifice of His Son, I have the courage and strength to push myself every day to do things that I never thought I would. Heavenly Father wants each of us to find our way back to him, and he's doing everything he can to help you! All we need to do is reach back.

You're each killing it!

Remember who you are, don't let it get you down :)
Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

751 Central Park Dr. #321
Roseville, CA 95678

Happy Belated Easter Fool's Day!

Our Easter bunny is tall, punny, and
almost looks like Brother Pettey
in the YSA ward!

What a weekend! Easter and April Fool's and General Conference, all in one. Don't know how much more my heart can handle! But of course, I hope each of you were able to remember Christ and His amazing sacrifice for us this Easter.

we actually got a nice picture of the zone

Sister Nield and her photophobia
day 1 after the concussion

EGG HUNT WITH CLUES. Having April Fool's Day on Easter usually means that that holiday flies under the radar a bit. There weren't any jokes at General Conference (that we know of) BUT, our trusty Zone and Sister Training Leaders didn't forget! So in honor of Easter, we had an Easter egg scavenger hunt! Of course I was excited, since I'm a missionary and my bar for entertainment has only continued to drop, plus who doesn't like a little hunting?

the Elders doing the cooking as the Sisters enjoy
being served between sessions of
General Conference on Sunday!

Well, we followed the trail of eggs around to a few different places in the building, some with candy and also with a clue at each stop. Finally, we got to the end destination and found a box in one of the rooms with our "prize!"

One thing I haven't mentioned much about is that our mission is getting smart phones and they're finally here, so our "prize" was the smartphones! The boxes were nicely stacked, and each of us got to take one, to replace our brick phones.

Had to get a nostalgic "Rocklin Zone"
pic after the pass of lesson for Lexi

Obviously I was pretty excited about that, albeit a little skeptical because we aren't supposed to get them until next week. But still! Then Sister Nield opened the box and...yeah, some of you probably saw this coming...APRIL FOOL's, they were just the empty boxes with the phone battery packs. It was a pretty elaborate joke, and definitely made Easter that much more entertaining!

But really, we'll get the smartphones sometime between now and our next zone conference in a week or two. So stay tuned!

It's been awhile since I had a new
companion, but that doesn't mean I
forgot about the pose :)

UNEXPECTED SLOWDOWN. Missionary work is crazy busy all the time when you're working your hardest. Even when there's time that needs to be "filled," there's always someone else to talk to, or another direction Heavenly Father needs you to go. Really there's no down time, and sometimes we'll even work past our bedtime since there's so much! But this week was a bit of a change, as Sister Nield got a concussion and we spent a lot of the week resting.

All the missionaries reading this are cringing because when your companion is napping, you can go a little stir crazy! So I had to adjust from doing absolutely everything, to almost nothing. I cleaned the entire apartment, multiple times, read from the old Ensign and New Era magazines missionaries have built up over time, wrote in my journal, studied the Book of Mormon, basically anything I could think of that was productive.

we tried, okay?! :)

Can't believe that was
over a year ago now!

STILL WORKING. However, despite all the down time, we still saw miracles! We did a lot of phone contacting, basically reaching out to people via text. A lot of them were former investigators or people who had some interaction with missionaries in the past, but then stopped after awhile. But, there were actually some people who responded! We even got a lesson set up from it, and a few others said they'd be around next week. And of course there were some nice "wrong number" texts, and even a call. Missionary work never ceases to entertain :)

this house had about 30 cats
(no joke, we asked the owner)
so it's no surprise one ended up
on top of the car!

GENERAL CONFERENCE. The best part of the entire week!! As a missionary, it's one of the best weekends ever! I loved hearing the talks, and especially sustaining our new prophet, President Nelson! It's amazing to know that we have someone on this earth today who can receive revelation that can help all of us come closer to Christ. We have the promise that the priesthood will never be taken off the earth again.

SUCCESS. One of my favorite talks was by Lynn G. Robbins, and it was about success and failure. The most important phrase that stuck out for me was "success isn't the lack of failure, but moving from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." Time and time again I've failed; it's more than a daily occurrence.

Yet Heavenly Father isn't expecting us to do everything perfectly. He just expects us to get up again after we fall and continue to move forwards, despite adversity. So don't let a failure hold you back! Failure only teaches you how NOT to do something :)

Sophisticated Sisters (Ft. Loomis sisters who
we've just adopted into our zone)

Good luck this upcoming week, and even though Easter won't be for another 364 days, keep remembering what you can do Because of Him!

Sister Whitesell

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