our investigators are golden!

     So, I hit 5 months this last week...sick! That day (Tuesday) we had a new missionary meeting. I got to go in with the trainers this time. Imma just say, I hope I don't have to do that anytime soon. Training would be terrifying! I like being middle man. But since when has a mission ever let me feel comfortable? Ha! We did another exchange on Tuesday-the last one!- with Hermana Skidmore. She is just so fantastic. She is one transfer younger than me. Talk about a prepared missionary. I hope that I will be able to work with her one day!

     We had two lessons with Lili this week. The first one we were going to teach her about the Word of Wisdom, but it just went off in an entirely different direction. We talked about recognizing the Spirit. Lili also mentioned that she really wants to talk to her mom about being baptized but she is scared so we helped her to overcome a few things and gave her some advice about how to approach it. Lili started to cry a little. She told us that she always feels good when we come over :) It was very powerful! We also went over on Saturday and we were able to teach her and her sister Lesli "the Big 3" aka The Law of Chastity, Tithing, and Word of Wisdom. They both agreed to live them too! Even more fantastic: they both drink coffee sometimes but decided that they weren't going to do it anymore. Just like that! Ah! I love the mission! The Lord truly prepares his people :)

     We also are teaching another lady named Gleidy and her mother Antonia. They are from Guatemala. Gleidy has been taught before, but she was dropped because her mom had throat cancer and she was also going to radiation and didn't have time. However, her mother is now in remission! Gleidy has 4 kids and is actually married (a miracle in and of itself) AND says that she knows that The Book of Mormon is true! We taught her the Plan of Salvation and the Spirit was SO strong! She and her mother both loved it. She even expressed her desire to be baptized. She just wants to make sure that she is qualified. We are going to have a temple tour on Saturday. Pray for her! Our investigators are golden!

     There is another less-active family in our branch that has a ton of drama, but I love them SO much! So, the dad Carlos is married and has two kids: Daniella and Nuno. His wife is Blanca. Blanca has been in jail for the last bit because of drugs and being around the wrong crowd. She just got out of jail like 4 days ago and she loves us! Blanca's sister Caroline is 19 and moved in to the apartment to help Carlos with the kids a while ago. We visit with Caroline a lot. It's a bit crazy with her sister back, but they are more than willing to let us come over for dinner, to share scriptures, and they told us that they are going to start coming back to church this week. We'll see, but it's definitely a start. Caroline is very special to me so I hope so!

     Hna White has been sick this week and Hna Carlson isn't feeling so hot at the moment. Um, yeah, I am living off of Vitamin C right now. That's the only downside to being with someone 24-7. It's rough. However, I love my Hermanas so much! We have had several moments where we have been laughing so hard that I started to cry! I am so blessed that we get along so well. I can't believe that next week is transfer week. That means Man-up Monday. You know, cuz our P-days are usually Monday, but on transfer week they are on Tuesdays. Bonus: we are going to the temple next week! I CAN'T WAIT!

     Well, I love you all! MWAH!

Love always, Hermana Freestone

And then a bum took our picture

     Oh my, this week has seemed so long because of our severe lack of P-day time. There is a reason we have them people. Sundays are the busiest day of the week, therefore Monday is our day of rest. Hna Toro and I had a joke. The Spanish version of "Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning" starts, "Bienvenidos, dia santo. Ya podemos descansar." LIES!!! So we changed the words to "Bienvenidos dia santo. Ya debemos trabajar." Ha! We're so clever :) We had to make a bajillion phonecalls, face-to-face people, find rides, study, train, and a ton of other stuff that seems simple, but we were completely drained!

     On Tuesday I did an exchange with Hnas Washburn and Clonts in North Sac. We did a LOT of tracting! My door approaches are getting pretty fantastic. We all had to stretch ourselves a little bit because we're all still learning :) I love Spanish!!! I have a sneaking suspicion that Spanish is the language that we all spoke in Heaven...just sayin. I can definitely testify that the Lord is helping me because I took 2 years of Spanish and just learned the bare essentials. I've been on a mission for 5 months and I can, at least, have a halfway decent conversation with someone. The gift of tongues is real! :) Really though. On a serious note. I know that he is helping me every step of the way :) We did another exchange on Saturday. Hna Carlson and I were with Hna Hanson. It was great! We taught some really great brothers Jose and Eusavio. They are from Mexico :) They are very deep searchers and are going to get baptized...they just don't know it yet. We taught a fantastic Plan of Salvation lesson with a member and they were both like, "It makes so much sense!" One of them even said he felt like he'd heard it before. The gospel is so great!!!

     On Thursday President and Sister Lewis took us to breakfast at IHOP because our zone broke the high water mark for baptisms in South Sac. it was 10 in one month and we hit 11 :) We were all eating or fluffy pancakes and President had us go around in a circle and talk about our baptisms. Well, after we went around we only counted 10 people. Everyone was looking around and the zone leaders were frantically counting numbers in their planner and President was like, "Did you really not break the mark?" We were all freaking out! Then, some blessed child of God Elder realized that he was counting for the wrong month and we really did have 11. Mini heart attack right there! We all went out to take a picture after and President asked some homeless guy to take our picture. His name was Gabriel. Talk about an eventful morning....

     We have really been trying to strengthen the ward here. The retention isn't all that fantastic so we visit a lot of less-actives. Honestly, I love it! I love listening to their conversion stories and reminding them that they truly do have testimonies! It also builds mine. One thing I am learning every day is that everyone has their story. People are so complex and yet we are so quick to put them in boxes and criticize them for their faults. The Lord loves us all individually. Once we learn to love people the way Heavenly Father loves us, we will be so much better!

     I just love my companions. We laugh SO much! We are all different from each other and I think that is what makes it interesting. Last night we were laughing so hard that we were crying. My stomach hurt so much! I was laying in bed laughing uncontrollably. The Lord truly knows what He is doing when he puts people together :)

Love, Hermana Freestone

on the move missionaries

 This week has been so crazy busy and there are no signs of slowing right now. I did another exchange in North Sac with Hna Clonts and Hna Kennard and it was so much fun! I just love working with the other sisters. Funny story: we went to dinner and the member made some super spicy food. I'm not talking spicy like, "Oh, I need some water." I'm talking like so spicy my lips were turning red and it burned both ends if you catch my drift....On Saturday we had another exchange and I finally got to stay in my area. Hna Hanson came to party with Hna White and I. We did some service that morning. There is a lady in our branch that cleans houses and one of the houses that she cleans had a gigantic orange tree in their backyard and they wanted us to come and pick them. I thought it was just to help them gather them all up, but they let us take home all 10ish bags that we picked. Hna Hanson was climbing all over the tree, I was on a ladder, and Hna White has a nifty little picker. It was great and we were able to share a scripture with the people that lived there :) We also taught quite a few other lessons that day. We were definitely "On the Move" missionaries. 

     Thursday was Zone Conference. It was my first one. Apparently, you have to get your cars inspected and if you don't pass you could lose your driving privileges. Well, the sisters hadn't cleaned that car for almost 3 transfers and it was a disaster. You probably could have filmed an episode of "Hoarders" in there with all of the junk and nastiness. I don't know how we drove it to be completely honest. After one run through the car wash, 6 rounds of quarters at the gas station vacuum, and an hour of spot-cleaning, dusting, and window washing our car was sparkling! You could definitely feel the difference. Anywho, training was fantastic! We talked about being "on the move, on point, and on purpose" missionaries. They actually changed the dress code for the elders. It's pretty nifty. I learned a ton from it. I love our meetings as missionaries! You just have so many spiritual experiences!

     We were able to teach Lili again this week and  it was fantastic! She is so ready and I just keep praying that she will receive an answer and that her family will support her. I have never heard someone pray so genuinely. She almost made me cry again! We were also able to teach her older sister Lesli. She got framed for something a while ago and got out of Juvie around the same time I arrived here and is on house arrest. She is 17 and told us that she has been praying for her sister to get baptized because she knows that Lili really wants to and she also told us that she wants to come to church because of how much Lili loved it! Ah! I am so excited for them! Other than that, it has been really hard to get ahold of people this week. La semana que viene will be better though :)

     So, fun story. Our branch president is President Beus. After much digging yes, we are related. His great-grandpa and my great-great grandpa are brothers. He has a book of the original Beus family and all of the following generation up until the 80's. Yeah...dad's name is in the book. I took some pictures of what it looked like. I was kind of awe-struck in their living room for a few minutes :)

     Today we had a huge activity "El Campo Esta Listo." It was for all of the Spanish population in the mission. We have been planning it for a couple of months now. We had it at the temple grounds. We had carne asada, brincolines, zumba classes, un torneo de futbol, and a ton of other stuff. We were so excited for it and were expecting a lot of people. Well, you know how it hasn't rained since I've been here? Yeah, the heavens opened and the rains came down and the floods came up! We were drenched. However, "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing" and we still had a huge turnout! Like, over 800 people. I love this work! I was also really excited to see the other Spanish missionaries again. I got to see all of my Hermanas today :) It was a big success and I know that we were blessed because of it :)

     Well family, I love you all and am so proud of you! Congrats to Kris and Lori! So excited! Keep staying great! Happy Birthday today Ali. MWAH!

Love, Hermana Freestone

Yay for Exchange!!

 We started exchanges this week. YAY for exchanges! Hna White wanted to bring the sisters into our area so she and Hna Carlson stayed here in South Sac and I was the one that got to party in another area. On Wednesday I went to North Sac with Hna Kennard and Hna Washburn while Hna Clonts came here with my companions. We had a super fun day! We were able to teach a couple of lessons-one was super awkward-and add a new investigator for them. They are super funny! Any time we talked in English we spoke with a British accent all day long! It was really hard to quit when I came back. At the end of the day Hna Kennard decided to pluck my eyebrows while we waited for my companions to come back (they were running late). You'll have to look at the picture...she looks like she killed me. Ha! On Saturday I went to East Sac with Hna Skidmore and Hna Thomas came here. Hna Skidmore is fantastic! It is her second transfer and her Spanish is so great and she is very outgoing. I hope I can actually be her companion one day :) We taught this man named Pepe and the spirit was so strong! We also ate dinner with the East Sac-Carmichael sisters-Hna Hanson, Hna Cardullo, and Hna Jensen (visa waiter). It was so fun to see them again! 
     We are teaching a girl named Lili and she is seriously the best things since...EVER! We had a couple of really good lessons with her. She is praying about being baptized but she is a little hesitant because she will be the only member in her family and she is only 16. However, after we talked to her for a bit about all of the people that will in the ward to support her she felt a lot better! She says the sweetest prayers. They are so sincere and I actually started crying yesterday while she prayed. She is so strong and has a ton of faith! Pray for her to receive an answer! Fun note: we also helped her with her math homework...that was interesting. I hope I never have to take algebra again because I would fail.
     Oh! Ok, so people here are nuts! They will do anything to get money...even try to get hit by cars. Hna White has had a couple of times where people have just walked out right in front of her and she had to swerve to miss them. They want to get hit so they can get money out of it. So, the other day we were driving and watched a man hit a guy on a bike on purpose. They were trying to get another car involved. We pulled over and called the cops. We know they did it on purpose because right after it happened the biker put his bike in the back of the car and they drove to the hospital. It was super sketchy! Joys of a mission!
     I love this area! There is so much work here and we are working with some amazing people! I know that, with the Lord's help, we will be able to help them come closer to their Heavenly Father. I love this work so so much! There's nowhere else I'd rather be! I love you all SO SO SO SO much!
Love always, Hermana Freestone

P.S. Kris and Lori, CONGRATS!!! I love you and am so excited for you! MWAH!