It Was The Best of Weeks... Its Was The Worst of Weeks

It was the best of weeks...it was the worst of weeks. I absolutely ADORED the pictures from when Ty and Jen came :) I hope Gabe had a great birthday. The pictures of Macie are absolutely gorgeous! I showed Hermana Dando and we were both just dying. Can't wait to hold her :)

So, we had the most amazing thing happen this week! We decided to go and see Myraim this week to see how she was doing. We rolled up to her house and she was actually there. I guess she quit her job because they were taking advantage of her and weren't paying her. She told us that she wanted to come to church with us on Sunday and that she really wanted to be baptized still. We told her that we would have to move her date and she picked next Sunday! Easter Sunday! It was so perfect! However, she had started smoking to help her get over previous addictions. We told her that she would have to stop smoking and she asked us when she should start. Her daughter looked at her and said, "Today." She agrees but asked us if she could just smoke one more cigarette. We said ok and she pulled out one more and gave the rest of her pack to her brother. We had her brother and her daughter sign little papers that said, "I will not let Myriam smoke." She was bound and determined to do it! We had to leave but not before we said a prayer. I helped her daughter say a prayer and we said Amen, got up and Myriam was crying. She said, "Here is my last cigarette," and handed Hermana Dando the remains of her crumpled up cigarette. We were all crying. Her little daughter gave her a hug and said, "Mommy, I don't want you to be like those people on tv that have to smoke through a hole and have no legs." It was SO powerful and the Spirit was definitely there! That was one of those miracles that you only hear people talk about when they come home.  :)

However, miracle was a little short-lived. We called Myriam on Sunday to make sure that she was going to be ready for her ride. She sent us a text saying that she wasn't going to be able to make it due to her father. Apparently, she was at a family party the night before and told her parents that she was going to be baptized and her father said he would disown her if she did it. Um, we were distraught! We booked it over to her house before church to try and see how we could help her. Basically, she knows that the church is true and she wants to be baptized but she loves her family and is scared...naturally. She was crying and we were crying. And then her brother, bless his heart, told her that if she were baptized then she would regret it for the rest of her life. Needless to say, she didn't come to church. Sister Potter came over to give her a ride and talked to her about it, and that helped a little. A ver que pasa con esto...I'm not sure if it was just the straw that broke the camel's back, or we were just so emotionally invested in the situation, but Hermana Dando and I just bawled...all the way to the church (which we were 20 minutes late for), all during sacrament, Sunday school, relief society, and most of the afternoon. On top of that, we were fasting so you can imagine how physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually drained we were. We crashed hard after church. So...that was basically what happened this week.

And now for the comic relief. It wouldn't be a true mission if you didn't do something stupid and ditzy once in a while. So, we bought a Mexican flag this week and I decided to hang it above our fireplace. We have no pictures in our new apartment and were in dire need of some wall decorum. Anywho, Hermana Dando and I were pinning it up and I was going to step off of the chair to make sure it was centered. Missionary Tip #93: when standing on chairs, make sure that they don't have wheels and spin in every direction. Yeah, I lost my balance and started to fall off of the chair. It tipped over, and I still managed to stay on my feet..but I was back-peddling to keep my balance. Conveniently enough, the exercise ball was right behind me. I bounced on top of that-folding myself in half-and rolled a couple of times to the side and finally came to a graceful halt on the wall. I'm not sure who was laughing harder...me or my comp. My only battle wounds included a nasty case of whiplash and some seriously injured pride. However, it proved to be the thing that kept us on our feet Sunday so it was well worth it. Oh the joys of a mission... :)

Love, Hermana Freestone

Fun Fact Week

15 Fun Facts From Week 52:

1. 2 mattress CAN fit in the back of a 2012 Toyota Corolla

2. 4 sisters moving an apartment is much more efficient than 4 elders

3. dying my milk green will make me sick to my stomach (and REALLY annoy my comp)

4. women do NOT need the Priesthood (thank you Elder Oaks)

5. No hay Santo como El Senor :)

6. The church is true

7. Hermana Freestone can learn to speak Spanish

8. Hispanics like to shove your face in cake when you celebrate your birthday

9. children need supportive parents in their lives

10. serving others brings more happiness than living life for yourself

11. drinking 64 oz. of a nasty health drink WILL throw off your bowel schedule...hardcore!

12. life really IS learning how to dance in the rain-even if the rain is hail and you and your companion are soaked to the bone

13. you never know how much you love someone until you have to leave them

14. eventually, you have to start thinking about going home (Hna Dando got her first set of trunky papers-which means mine come next transfer)

15. Seeing recent converts thriving in the church is the proudest moment you can have as a missionary

So, some of these will go without explanation, but it was a LONG week! We had exchanges and I was able to go back to Lodi with Hermana Thomas. She is an AMAZING missionary! We were able to see Alejandro and Susana and I just wanted to cry the whole time because I was so happy to see them! They are doing so well! I didn't want to leave. They asked who they had to call to get me sent back there. Sweethearts! :)

We moved. It was rough. We were depressed (as in couldn't get out of bed for a while, moped around the house, and cried all day) for a couple of days, but it's starting to wear off. We had a good second half of the week and we still visit because we are in the same complex.

We went to another Christian church on Saturday night. It was, as a lady in Lodi best explained it, Rock and Roll for Jesus. We lost a little bit of our hearing, but we're coming around. It was very interesting. I felt bad, because I didn't feel the spirit at all. Not that it was bad or anything, it just was very loud the entire time and I couldn't feel the peace that I feel when the Spirit is around. 

General Conference was UH-MAZING! I wish I could write about everything that I loved, but there's too little time. My two favorite talks were Elder Holland's and Sister Reeves'. I listened to the Sunday morning session in Spanish because the people that we went to church with came to that session of conference. I liked what I understood. You just don't get the full effect in another language. Also, it's a different voice-it takes away some of the magic for me.

Well, sorry I didn't get to write a lot. It's been a great week though and we are working with some amazing people! This church is true and I love it with all of my heart! 

Hope you all have a good week!

Love, Hermana Freestone

1. dancing in the rain

2. alex and susana

3. thomas, cardullo, yo, dando

4. us at church (blurry :(...)

5. coolest cake EVER!

6. "que muerda la torta!" (the elders really enjoyed this)

7. package from home!

8. sushi lunch

9. 22!~

I Don't Know About You, But I'm Feeling 22!

Can I just say that I stinking LOVE my companion! I am going to cry like a baby when transfers come...we try not to talk about it.

     So, this week has been so great! Last P-Day we went with the Potters all day to visit sites around Stockton. There is a Buddhist  temple here and it was the neatest thing ever! They are getting ready for the Cambodian New- Year and they are beefing it up with lots of color and decoration. We walked around and got to see a lot of neat statues and monuments. I wish we could have known what it all meant, but it was a very neat thing. We also went to see this really cool place where the very first Mormon pioneers landed in the port of Stockton on a ship called "The Comet." We saw the memorial and walked around in the little dock thing they have there. While we were in front of the memorial we sang the first verse of "Come, Come Ye Saints." It was pretty neat :)

     So, Myriam...we love her very much...bless her heart. She got a job last week and started last Monday. I'm just worried because she is working 12 hour days-at least- and she has kids at home. I am learning more and more on my mission about the importance of having at least one parent home with your kids. Before my mission I didn't really get that. Going into other people's homes I see the importance of a mother's influence and I can also see the effect that it has on children when they are alone. It's not pretty. So, back to Myriam-we are really hoping to be able to get ahold of her sometime soon. Pray for us!

     We also had our Spanish conference this past week. I was beside myself because I got to say hi to all of the Hermanas :) Hermana Crane and Kennard go home at the end of this transfer and I am super sad! I will miss them both-especially Hermana Crane. We learned a lot of good things about "embracing the culture" which we do a great job of because any Spanish event we've been to never starts on time. President Lewis usually has 1 or 2 heart attacks because we're not exactly on schedule :) Presidente Martinez spoke about things that we can to "find when we teach and teach when we find." It is actually a fun little activity that I am excited to do with the members.

     Quick update on the Spanish. Hermana Dando and I have taken SYL (speak your language) to a while new level. The other morning she asked me in Spanish if I was going to get in the shower. It was a little slow and patchy for her so I asked her about it when I got out of the shower...she was definitely asleep and had no recollection whatsoever of asking me that. I had to giggle. However, that same night, I did the same thing. She asked me the next morning what I was yelling about in Spanish the night before. I told her that I definitely slept through the whole night-which is unusual for both of us. She told me I was going on about something in Spanish. So there you go. I can sleep talk in two languages now :)

     Thursday was UH-MAZING! Yes, I am old. Yes, my eggs are dying. Yes, feel older. But no, I wouldn't trade the mission for anything! This was probably one of the my most favorite birthdays of all time. My amazingly wonderful companion made me breakfast and sang to me. Sister Abbott and Sister Repman sang to me too. I opened a wonderful package from home-along with about 10 other letters (thank you all for your love and birthday wishes). Also, my fantastic companion made a cake for district meeting and the elders all sang and I had to blow out 22 candles (I'm not sure what I'll do next year...it took all I had to get them all out). Then we went for sushi-please be jealous-which was so yummy. And, what made it so great was that Hermana Dando doesn't even really like sushi, but she went because she wanted to make my day special. I LOVE HER! We also ate diner with the bishop and his family, ate more cake, and they sang to me in Danish because his wife is from Denmark. President and Sister Lewis also called to sing at the end of the day. It was just a fabulous birthday.

     It has been raining a lot here, but that has made things interesting. It's hard to contact, but people are a lot more willing to let us into their homes-especially when genius Hermana Freestone leaves her umbrella in the car. We were looking pretty ratchet, but it was fun!

     The work is going here. We are doing everything that we can to find some more people. I LOVE my mission and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world-because an eternity for someone else is worth so much MORE than that! I hope you all have a fantastic week and I look forward to hearing about from you. 

Love always,

Hermana Freestone :) 

Just Trust The Spirit

    This week has been a roller coaster, but to all of you that served a mission you know that pretty much every week is like that. But, for the most part, it has been really great! We added a new lady on Monday named Myriam. She was an old investigator of Hermana Dando's. I don't remember if I told you about her or not...? Anywho, we had couple of really great lesson with her this week. We took Hermana Ausban over on Tuesday and taught the Restoration. Sister Ausban bore the swwetest testimony and started to cry and the spirit was so intense that we all had chills everywhere! Myriam said that she wanted to get baptized. I was thinking about the date April 12, but I hesitated for a second to make sure that it was on a Saturday. No worries y'all, my companion decided to just pick it up and run with it and asked her if she would prepare to be baptized on April 12th. So, lesson learned: don't worry about logistics, just trust the Spirit. There were a lot of little kids running around so it was really hard for her to concentrate so we decided to have our next lesson at the church. Sister Potter (who is FANTASTIC!) picked up Myriam and her 2 daughters-that was unexpected. We went to the church and took her on a mini church tour and ended up in the nursery so that her girls-7 and2- could play and we taught her a super powerful Plan of Salvation lesson! Like, I thought the doors were going to burst open because the Spirit couldn't fit in there status. We gave her a picture of her favorite temple (one in Idaho) and she was so excited and happy that she started to cry. She came to church on Sunday and it was fantastic. I was dying inside for 3 hours because her little 2 year-old was running all over the place-like we're talking I had to go up on the stand and retrieve her so that she would stop playing the piano with Hna Dando during the special musical number-but it all worked out. Her daughter that is 7 doesn't really speak Spanish and she didn't understand much but she LOVED primary and wants to come back next week. We were worried that she would have to go to an English ward, but she liked how well the people in our ward welcomed her and how she felt the Spirit. She also told the entire Relief Society that she was going to be baptized. I was so excited! I was happy when it was over. Sundays are so great, but so stressful!

     We had a fantastic training this week from our mission President. At first I was just like, "Eh, we're just going to get chastised for not baptizing again." HoweverI was crying by the end of it. We had some super spiritual moments and then President Lewis pulls out that clip from the movie Facing Giants. The one where the coach expects one of his players to do his very best in the "death crawl." I have seen it before but it took on an entirely new meaning for me as a missionary. You should all get on YouTube and watch it. It will make you want to give the Lord your very best. It also made me realize that the only people that set limitations for you is YOU! LOVED it!

     So, you could say that it has been a very uplifting week! Just a small request, could you all throw some prayers in the way of my amazing companion Hermana Dando and her family? It would be much appreciated. Also, keep up praying for Sister Abbott and her family-the Lord is blessing them in ways that I can't even describe to you. Isn't the power of prayer amazing!

Love always, 

Hermana Freestone

P.S. Also this: Hna Dando is a collector of magnificent talks. Here's the link to one I read this week by Elder Holland. It's EPIC!

1. us as pioneers

2. RS with the cake :)

3. my fantastic comp :)

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy- That Includes Going To Church

     So...here I was just rolling along this week and then in church yesterday Sister Potter came up to me and said something about having a movie for me. I may or may not have had a mini-freak out in the chapel. I was bouncing up and down in the chapel and the Elders were all laughing at me and telling me to calm down. Yeah...fwams didn't understand. I was pretty much beside myself all throughout church and for the three hours after church that I had to wait to go to the Potter's house. Obviously, I was so excited for Bubba! Minnesota! You are going to freeze to death bud...you better put on some fat...or get a good coat :) July 9th, eh? Wow...I miss you by 3 months exactly...it's a good thing that they invented Skype for Christmas and Mother's Day :)

     So, we were sitting in Relief Society yesterday and they were talking about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and all that jazz. One lady mentioned something along the lines of it isn't that bad if we miss church because sometimes we have to travel because we are visiting our kids from out of town and we have to come home on Sundays and we can't make it to church...then I got to thinking...um, it is in the 10 commandments:keep the Sabbath Day holy-that includes going to church. Then I thought back to exactly a year ago when I wanted to stay in St. George for the night but mom wanted to come home for stake conference the next day. I was super grouchy, but we drove home. I was driving until 2:00 in the morning, but we were sitting in church the next day. That was a really good example for me :)

     Oh! We met this super sweet lady this week named Theresa. She was a referral from the ASL sisters. Actually the referral went like this: "We met this lady that didn't understand a word of English. We sort of made gestures and asked if you could come over (ironic that the ASL sisters had to use gestures) and she said yes and walked away." So, we went over to check it out. We made an appointment with her and we went back planning to teach her the Restoration. However, the Spirit told us otherwise and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. It was actually a really good lesson for us in terms of comp unity. We came out and discussed what we were thinking and we both started apologizing to eachother for changing the lesson-realizing that we both felt like we had to do the same thing. Also, Theresa said to us after the lesson that she really liked us and that she feels really good when she talks to us! YAY! We weren't able to get her to commit to come to church, but we are going back tomorrow. BOO-YAH!

     We also met a lady named Miriam. She is an old investigator that Hermana Dando taught, but she was strung out on meth so they dropped her. Well, I guess that she went to this retreat thing a couple of weeks ago and she has been clean for a while. We are going to try and teach her and see how it goes because she had a baptismal date at one point. A ver...she has a lot of energy and she is really loud. It's kind of hard to get a word in and feel the spirit, but everyone has their timing and it may be her turn :)

Love, Hermana Freestone

P.S. we totally hit a cat in the car this week...you'll enjoy that video that we made :)

1. puppy! ps: I dyed my hair :)

2.elder reid...he's gone :(

3. us at the temple

THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!!!

     So, it is was transfer Tuesday this week and we went to the temple this morning. It was so great! It was exactly what I needed to refuel and keep on keeping on :) 

     This week has been fun/interesting/crazy/(adjectives).....We visited the Gonzalez family last week and we talked a lot about eternal families. Hna Gonzalez really wants to go. However, she is pretty much the one that asked her husband to marry her so she says it's his turn to ask and she isn't going to push him. Well, we are talking about eternal families here so Hermana Dando and I decided to give them a little empujo. :) We'll see how it goes. I am so happy that my family is eternal. It is such a great blessing to me!

     On Tuesday I was having a rough day and there wan't much sign of an "up" so i finally broke down and asked for my first blessing since the MTC. I miss getting father's belssings, but I asked Brother Potter (a seminary teacher here that is serving in the Spanish branch even though he doesn't know Spanish-he's from St. George) and he has been like a mission father for me in this area. I love him and his wife so much and they are always willing to help us at the drop of a hat. He gave me blessing that night and it was such a powerful blessing! I had Hermana Dando write it down for me and it was something I will NEVER forget! The Lord truly does know us personally because he mentioned things that he had no idea were going on in my life.I'm so grateful for that. Hermana Dando also got a blessing this week for her ankle-she's bionic :) Elder Lee gave her a blessing of healing (so it was legal) and it was-again-one of the most powerful things that I have heard. We are both just so lucky and are really gaining such a powerful testimony of the Priesthood this week. It's been a topic of discussion a lot for us.

     We have been teaching a lady named Mari and she had accepted a date for March 29th! We went over with one of out members last week and watched The Restoration DVD with her. She really liked it. We talked about church and we answered a few questions that she had about prophets. She came to church on Sunday (let me tell you how not exciting daylight savings was here-but we're alive and well)and it was CRAZY! Sunday school was interesting and a little much. We talked about the organization of the Priesthood and the teacher got a little deeper into the subject than we would have liked, but it was a great lesson! Relief Society was interesting. It was a little hectic, but the lesson was great. We never got a chance to talk to Mari about what she thought about church because she left with her two daughters a little bit early from RS because she had to get home to make dinner for her husband. I have come to realize that if Hispanic women die, their husbands will probably starve to death! Maybe that's just men in general... :)

     Our most interesting day was definitely Saturday. We taught a whole slew of people and did some things that only missionaries could get away with. We were tracting and saw this very well-kept lawn and Hna Dando and I decided that whoever lived there deserved to be complimented on their yard, and to be taught the gospel. Well, long story short, it turned into an hour and a half long circular borderline-argument about whether or not Adam and Eve could have children before they ate the fruit and if they really had agency before they did that and then why there was so much pain and suffering on the earth. And THEN, the guy tried to tell me that I don't have a testimony of the Book of Mormon...that would be the closest I have ever come to losing my cool on a doorstep. If there is only one thing that I know in the world it is this: THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!!! That is a FACT! And if it is true, then Joseph Smith really DID see God the Father and Jesus Christ and he really WAS called as a prophet of God and that the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-Day Saints really IS the Lord's kingdom on earth again and that I AM called as a representative of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So DON"T GO THERE! Yeah...we miraculously got out and we just sat in the car and screamed a little bit. And then we got ice cream with ASL and life was better :)

     We also met a man named Matthew. Funny story: we were driving around after dark on one of the most ghetto roads in upper Stockton-or so we are told...we've never actually seen anything-and we see this guy pushing his truck so we jump out and offer to help him. We end up going to the gas station and getting a gallon of gas for him to put in his truck and then he was like, "I know God is real. Where else do you find two young white women in a predominately black neighborhood after dark willing to jump out and help a big black man push his ghetto truck on the streets?" We were able to teach him and give him as a referral to the elders. We just laughed and then got in the car, realizing what we had just done and said a quick prayer that everything turned out alright. God really does protect his missionaries :)

     The Elders had some fun with us on transfer calls. For outside reasons that don't need to be explained we had a pretty great assurance that we were staying together. Then the ZL's call and tell me that I am getting transferred to Manteca and I seriously started to cry. We both did a little. I actually got the whole thing on camera so when I send my next SD card home you can all watch the hilarity of my face :)

     We read this talk in the Ensign this week as an apartment and we were all floored by how bold it was so I am going to attach it in case you don't want to be not lazy and open the Ensign. Here it is :)

Well, I love you all tons! MWAH!

Love, Hermana Freestone

No One Challenge A Testimony

 This week has been really great! Yesterday at church was fantastic! There was a guy that got up and said something that I really liked. He said that the distance between man and God is the same distance between your knees and the floor. BOOM! So cool! Then, this kid named Johny got up. I saw him a couple of weeks ago with Hna Cardullo and we asked him about serving a mission. He mentioned how he wanted to go to school and he wasn't really sure about whether or not he wanted to go. Naturally, we both freaked out and made him promise that he would pray about what he was supposed to do because God knows everything and only He can give us every answer. So, Johny gets up and talks about how he was thinking about a mission and he started to read the scriptures and prayed about it and he got his answer that he is supposed to go. He then talked about how he has started his papers! I practically started to cry I was so excited for him! It was so touching and a testimony-builder for me about missions. Then, to follow that up, Elder Reid got up. He is going home next week and talked about how his mission changed his life. He also started to cry a little. The flood gates opened I was pretty much bawling. My mission has changed my life so much and I love to see how serving the Lord and losing yourself in the work makes such a difference in our lives. That is why I am so excited for Bubba because I know what a blessing it is going to be-and the fact that we are going to be doing it together...I can't even describe it!!!!!

     We had another lesson with Danny this week but we decided to hand him off to the YSA elders because we think that he would be better there. We tried to move the appointment to the church, but it didn't work out so hot. So there was me, Hermana Dando, Elders Parrish and Gilray, and their member. We totally rolled up to their little apartment like a gang...it was awkward. Then we get into his house and says, "My brother wanted me to call when you got here." Then, his brother rolls up with his Bible and some notes prepared...this was not looking well for us. Long story short, they came at us with every Bible bash topic-I really hate that-and the whole "seventh-day worship" thing. Elder Parrish laid down some scriptures and then bore a super powerful testimony and then Elder Gilray double-testified and bore one of the most powerful Book of Mormon testimonies I have ever heard in my entire life. Hermana Dando and I added our testimonies of the prophet and of the Book of Mormon and then their member (recent convert) bore a stellar testimony as well. They would argue with us scripture after scripture, but they couldn't argue a thing about our testimony. That is one thing that I was amazed at. I knew that no one can challenge a testimony that you have received by the Holy Ghost, but that was using testimony at it's finest. This gospel is so amazing! I LOVE IT!!!

     We also met a lady this week named Maria. We taught her the restoration and she really like it, but the second lesson was where it was at. We taught the Plan of Salvation and she was loving the fact that families can be eternal. Then she brought up something about the holy spirit and we decided to just go into the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She LOVED the idea of receiving the Holy Ghost so we invited her to be baptized and she was so excited! We will be working w lot with her this week so I can't wait!

Love, Hermana Freestone

P.S. Please send some prayer in the direction of Elder Parrish here and Elder Parrish (idk where he's serving) and Sister Parrish-an ASL sister in Oregon. Their mother, father, and two siblings were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning. Sister and Elder Parrish went home for the funerals and things, but that's all I know. Elder Parrish in this mission is related to them as well. It has been very difficult for them so pray for them please.

1. we love panda!