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