Zone Conference and Cockroaches

So much happened this week that just left me with a spiritual high. This week I have really been focusing on Ether chapter 12. Since I have been having such a hard time this transfer, it has really helped me. We were able to share that chapter with so many different people in lessons, and the funny thing was that it actually tied into what the mission President talked about at Zone Conference. My favorite verse from it is from Ether 12:6, which talks about not having a witness before a trial of your faith. Well, that is what happened. Heavenly Father was sending me a trial of my faith. Something the Mission President was talking about comparing Heavenly Father to teaching a baby how to walk. At first you are constantly holding their hands and are always right behind them. Eventually, when they learn how to walk, you still are watching them very closely, and you are never far away, but you let them find their way. That really hit me. That of course Heavenly Father always is willing to help you and comfort you, but what would you ever learn if he is always there showing you the way to go? We do have our agency, and we need to make our own choices, but always know that Heavenly Father is never far away when you need His help. 

During Zone Conference we also just really focused on being close to the Savior and really understanding the Atonement and how it plays a role in our lives. Something that I really liked is that President Hobbs asked all of us to find our favorite scripture about the Savior and explain why it was our favorite.  Then pick a favorite Christ-like attribute and explain why it is your favorite. So I did.  My favorite is John 14:18, and the Christ-like attribute I love the most is one that most people don't think about very often - courage. We really do need to have courage to stand up for what we believe in - courage to go out and to open our mouths. 

This week we got a new investigator!! Her name is Areana. She is a cute little 9-year-old. Her family is less active, and she is so excited to learn more about the church and to be baptized. I explained the resurrection, using owies and booboos, and tried to help her know who Jesus Christ is. It reminded me so much of when I was a primary teacher and all the cute things kids say. Because after I talked about the resurrection, she asked if her guinea pig who died was going to be resurrected. 

We also were able to do service with the Elders in our ward for a less active member. We cleaned up leaves, trimmed a tree, pulled weeds, killed cockroaches, and bagged everything up. Let me tell you, there was literally a hoard of cockroaches of all different kinds living underneath this deflated pool she had. They were fast, too. They were all coming for me, and I luckily had a shovel in my hand, and just ended up pummeling them with the shovel. 

Well Memorial Day was kinda boring.  We didn't have a Zone activity or anything, so we just got our shopping done, did some cleaning, and I wrote a ton of letters. It was nice and relaxing though. I hope everyone had a fun time with the long weekend. I love you all, and I hope that you all have a great rest of your week. 

Love, 
Sister Jessica Bell 

Heat Wave and Hard Times

Well this week we got two new investigators,we hit a record of 110 degrees, and there have been 8 wildfires in Southern California. We have been asked for money, we have been hit on, and we have been dehydrated.

 

We are always getting out of the house and helping others. We did service this week starting at 8 in the morning and ending at 1 in the afternoon clearing a very messy yard filled with weeds, rocks, and bugs. On one of the hottest days of this week. It was so fun. I love helping people out. I wish I could have done more to help those people out.

 

Our one new investigator is living day by day on the money she can try and make with her two young boys. I wish I could have helped her to find a job or a house or something better that just telling her her life would be better with the gospel. That might help her spiritually, but it wasn’t going to help her in the short term. She cried asking for our help, telling us about how her daughter has been molested, how she lost her job when her husband went to jail, and so much more. I know that life is hard, and I am so glad that I have the life I have. I am blessed, and I know that the Lord is always with me.

Well I hope that you all have a great week.

Love,

Sister Bell

Mother's Day Week

How was everyone's Mother's Day? Mine was pretty good. lol What am I talking about?! I got to talk to my family of course it was a good Mother's Day!

 

This week has been crazy. Filled with cancelled appointments - like almost all of them each day, and new investigators. We also got a blessing this week from our wardmates. We called the Mission Nurse to make a doctor's appointment because my asthma is acting up, and I have had two bloody noses this week. So yea. That, and Sister Hopkins just wasn’t feeling very well.

So our new investigators:

Mary: She is Egyptian, has lived here for 3 years, and she wants to know why she owes everything to Jesus Christ and not Heavenly Father if Heavenly Father sent Jesus Christ to earth, and Heavenly Father is God.

Jamie: She came to Church on Sunday, and we are setting her baptismal date for May 31! She is the one whose mom we had to call the ambulance for.

Linda: We saw twice this week.  She really wants to be baptized, but she still needs to come to church. We called her 10 times Sunday morning to try and wake her up so she could come. We even had a ride set up for her.

Ana: Cancelled two appointments this week.

Adrian and Breanna: Their mom got sick so we couldn’t come over. We are on for Tuesday though.

Daloris: She cancelled and won’t answer the phone..Hopefully we can see her this week.

Joe: Is doing better! We are gonna see him this week!

Well I can’t believe that I am on my 4th week on my second transfer.

I hope everyone is doing great and I will talk to you next week!

Near Death Experiences and Disappointments

Well like I said, last week we took our car into the shop. Well we didn’t get it back until Saturday.

So Monday we walked all the way home from our lesson in the dark. The roads in Victorville are not lit, and there are a lot of crazy people that walk around at night. Luckily, Sister Hopkins had pepper spray, and I have a flashlight.

So Tuesday we went and got bikes from two different people in the ward, because we weren’t sure whose bikes would work best for us. So we went and got the first ones at noon. Well the bike I got on, the back brakes broke 5 minutes down the road. Then there was a wire that was sticking out that scratched my leg all up, and we had an appointment to get to. We walked in and my leg was a bloody mess. Well the lady we were teaching was nice enough to give us a ride back to our appointment with the bikes. So we then walked to the other member’s home and got the bikes from them. The bike I was on belongs to a 6'4” tall man. It was huge! Well we went and started riding back. All the roads were major roads back to our apartment. So we start going, well the handlebars came loose on this huge bike. It just happened that they became loose while I was going around a bus stop, and a ton of traffic was coming. Well I ended up off the sidewalk with a truck coming at me. When I fell off I hit really hard on the bike seat. (If I was a man I probably wouldn’t have been able to move.) Well I got back on and we made our way to our dinner. It was crazy. I cannot believe how sore I was. Well after dinner we went back home, and I had 2 bruises on my legs, one on my ankle, and my entire inner thighs were completely bruised. It was traumatizing. Never again will I bike. We literally only biked that day, and then we ended up walking for the rest of the week everywhere.

Wednesday was so good!!! We got three new investigators! The first two are Breanna and Adrian. They are siblings, and are so eager to go to church. They had been going to church with their grandpa in Pasadena but recently moved up here with their mom who is less active. So we are going to start teaching them. Then we met Ana who lives in our apartment complex.  She has already been taught two lessons, and she really seems like she wants to learn more. Dinner went really well, too. It was with one of our favorite families here. We just talked about missionary work, and how they can help us improve the area. They are in their 70s and are ready and willing to help the work progress.

Thursday we were going all over the place, and all of our appointments kept falling through. Well we met with one of our less active members who is having a lot of trouble with her knees, and we ended up doing service for her. Well Sister Hopkins got a 3 degree burn from heating up a bag of brown sugar in the microwave to soften it. It was so crazy!

Friday I woke up with a severe asthma attack, and thought that I was going to throw up. So we stayed home until about 2:00 to see if I was going to feel better. Well I did, so we decided to go out and work.  Well it just so happened to be the hottest day of the year on record so far. We walked a good 4 miles, and I gave my extra water bottle to a family who ran out of gas near the library. Then we ended up walking all the way to the other side of our area for an appointment. I was sweating so much.

 Saturday was the worst! We were able to go and pick up our car, which was awesome! Then we decided to go to our new area, because we split it with the new elders. So we went to go see some of the unknown and less active members on the ward list. The first one wasn’t home.  The second basically told us that we are stupid for believing that we were going to be married in the next life,  that the temple is devil worshiping, that we don’t worship Jesus Christ, but everything else in the church, that miracles don’t happen in the Church, that the Church didn’t need to be restored because it has always been on the earth, and that we don’t have a relationship with God. No matter what we said, we were wrong, and it was just so upsetting that she felt that way. Her parents are in the ward, and their testimonies are so strong, and then to talk to her and see how she feels was just so crazy.

Then we went to another person's house that we have talked to quite a bit. Well she tells us that she doesn’t believe in the Book of Mormon, she didn’t know that there was a living prophet on the earth, and she believed that we are responsible for Adam's transgression. She has been a member for 48 years, has gone through the temple, and wears her garments still. Yet she has no belief in any of our basic beliefs. She kept asking for proof from the Bible. So we found it, and she was in unbelief. I tried to convince her to start reading her Book of Mormon, but she said she wasn’t sure if she would. That's all it is going to take. To have a testimony in the Book of Mormon, in Joseph Smith, in a living prophet, in anything that deals with the gospel, you have to start by simply reading the words inside the Book of Mormon - because it truly is another Testament of Jesus Christ.

This week I finished reading the book of Helaman, and it just hit me how much the Lord has given us to learn from. How many chances He gives us to repent and turn to Him once again, and all the many blessings that come from simply obeying His commandments. I love this gospel, so much!

I am so grateful that I have chosen this path. Sometimes I don’t realize how good I actually have it until I have a really hard and challenging day like Saturday. I really had to think of the blessings and the tender mercies that God gave me that day, but I think that I learned from it. I gained a testimony of the fact that I do know the truth, that I have chosen Him, and that no one can take that away from me, and no one can convince me otherwise. This week I am going to come up with at least 3 blessings from each day. I am going to stay positive, and if something goes wrong I am going to turn to the Lord. Just like the people did in Helaman 3:34-35. They were having a lot of trials and hard times, but they still turned to the Lord!

Well I love all of you so much, and hope that you have a wonderful week. I can’t believe that it is almost Mother's Day. So all you moms out there, know how special you are. Know that you are a daughter of God, and that you have been given the blessing of being a mother, that you have been given the divine calling of taking care of one of God's children, and I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day.

Love,

Sister Bell