China, Crystal, and Surprises!

Hello everyone!

So this week was pretty good. We taught 17 lessons. Dropped 6
investigators. Tried having Facebook lessons. And tried to be
enthusiastic about the work each day!

Monday we had a great lessons with our recent convert . We did a
primary lesson about missionary work and she loved it! Primary lessons
are so fun! We had her be a missionary with me and Sister Thatcher was
the investigator. It was a giant role play pretty much! So fun and Kim
answered Sister Thatchers questions so well!

Tuesday we had a lot of appointments fall through so we bus contacted
and tried to talk to lots of people. Then we did service for a
nonmember and then had dinner and had a good lesson with one of our
investigators . We read 3 Nephi 11 and talked about the
importance of baptism. She's had a hard time understanding recently so
we have to teach more simply.

Wednesday we had some good lessons. We had the relief society
president come with us for a lesson . Our investigator
loved the lesson and was so excited to have the relief society
president come. She said it was one of her favorite lessons cause we
talked about the 3 degrees of glory. It was so great to hear her
testimony of the plan of salvation! We then had a good baptism lesson
with another investigator . She agreed to pray about a specific
baptism date and we are so excited for her! Everything is falling into
place for her! She just needs those answers to her prayers. Which we
believe will come as she comes to church. Then after dinner we had a
great lesson with another investigator . She is the one who
recently believes in God. We taught about the restoration again
because of her different perspective and she is more open to it now.
It was good.

Thursday was awesome! We had such a good district meeting where we all
got pumped to do work and talk to everyone and do Facebook lessons and
enthusiastic! It was so good! I then had an identity crisis so we
went to get lunch at Panera and got ice cream at Mcdonalds. For some
reason Satan likes to make me think I'm worthless and stresses me out
and makes me forget who I am. Recently I have felt so lost as to who I
am. What my personality is and if I'm turning into a missionary robot.
It's been hard to talk to other people about non-missionary things
like bus contacts and stuff. So Sister Thatcher made me answer
questions and I couldn't answer anything with missionary related
things. Like what am I passionate about and I said service and helping
others and she made me re-answer. It was good! There is also an awesome
talk by Elder Callister from BYU speeches called our identity and
purpose. So good!! That helped a lot too. So after our heart to heart
lunch we did Facebook lessons, had a less active lesson, and went bus
contacting and were excited and invited others to be our Facebook
friends! Then we had another good lesson with our investigator 
all about Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. We were going to
simply teach the first half of the restoration again but she's going
out of town for a week so we decided it would be better if the lessons
were closer together.

Friday was good! We had a fun weekly planning session and for
companion inventory we had raspberries and flowers on our table like a
date! Haha we're silly! We used real crystal glasses for the
raspberries too. The members we live with let us use their china
cabinet for our dishes so on my mission I eat off of china and drink
out of Crystal glasses! No big deal or anything! It was fun! Then we
went out and worked! We did a little Facebook then went to a potential
for a lesson but he was on the way out of town so we rescheduled. Then
we had a lesson with our recent convert  and had a ward potluck
in the park then had our ward mission leader meeting. It was a good
day.

Saturday was long! But went by super fast. We dropped the Jewish
family. Which was sad but the father said he received an answer to his
prayer about which direction to take and he received go back to the
beginning to he took his wife and son who had never been to a Jewish
temple before. So he exposed them to that so they can make a better
decision between Judaism or Mormonism. We showed the Mormon message
wrong roads and the son was like oh I get it! Judaism is that 400 feet
to a dead end so we know for sure Mormonism is the right road!! He
gets it but his dad still needs time. So we asked if he wanted a break
for a bit and he said yes but come by when God tells us to. I pray for
them daily they can come to know this is the truth I can see them
being sealed in the temple and the son going on a mission, that'd be
amazing!!
Saturday morning we did service to help with a street fair near our
home. We didn't plan to help but they needed it and they welcomed us
back later. It was fun! They gave us tons of coupons for Claremont. We
had some other good lessons as well!

Sunday was a day for finding! We need more than anything people to
teach! So after church and studies we went out to find! We found a new
investigator!  She was a referral from the elders. She was
taught by the elders about a year ago but didn't understand anything!
She eventually told them to stop coming by and ever since she has felt
bad about it. She met the elders in our district on the bus and she
got talking to them and they referred her to us. We never had her
teaching record. I feel like there are a lot of people we don't have
the record for. So important to update and keep records! But we talked
to 20 people yesterday and ended up having three lessons when we
scheduled none- we just scheduled finding. So that's always nice! Also
I got a surprise visit from Brian, Teresa, and Chloe! It was so nice
to see them! Chloe is so big now!!!!

This week is going to be awesome! I'm so excited to work hard this
week! I know more than anything that this is the true gospel and that
The Lord has restored his church. I love being a missionary and
helping people come unto Christ! (Moroni 10:32) I also finished the
Book of Mormon this week and I love it! I know it is true!

I love you all!

Sister Riches