July!

This week has been really unusual. So Tuesday I went into the doctor for a follow up and to know the results of the biopsy that they took 3 weeks ago because of my rash. Well I get in there to find out that the results say that there is a possible chance for a connective tissue disease such as lupus, a drug eruption, and some other things. The doctor was freaking out at me, and wanting me to see a doctor that specializes in autoimmune diseases, and going to get a blood test done right away. So we rushed over to the blood testing place, they took my blood, and told me that it would be a few days until the results come in. This whole time, we couldn't get a hold of anyone in the mission office. So we didn't know if it was okay to go to the other office, if I should get the blood test, and the fact that the doctor made me a little nervous since she was freaking out so much, and I just wanted to talk to someone with a little more knowledge or at least could tell me it would be alright. The only time that I actually almost called my mom on the mission. Also Sister Broderick sprained her ankle really bad on Monday, so she was having to hobble around to all these doctors offices when she should have been icing and elevating her ankle. 

We had a really fun lesson on the armor of God. WE made the kids put "their armor" aka their parents clothes on, while we read the scripture about it. We helped them to know that they always need to wear the armor of God and that you have to grow into it. 

Wednesday we met one of the new families that just moved into the ward. They are from San Antonio Texas and they have a Southern accent. It made me laugh. They are a great family. We also had a great lesson to a family that is getting their son ready for baptism. We are going to start the lessons with them, before he turns eight.

Thursday we got TWO new Investigators, they are actually former investigators that we decided to try. The one is Ashley, she is 15, and she really interested in the fact we have a modern day prophet. She understood so much of the Restoration, and said that she already believes that it is true. She told us that she would still pray to know though. The mother, Edith, said that she is Catholic, and that she only is interested in us talking and learning more about Jesus. She doesn't want to be converted. Little does she know that the conversion will come by talking about religion. :) 

Sister Broderick and I came up with a really creative lesson for one of the member families here. They are obsessed with Harry Potter. So somehow we remembered all the details for the fourth movie. The goblet of fire. And we had a gospel topic for each one of the challenges. The Dragons was all about knowledge and how that is the only thing we can take with us when we go to heaven. The second challenge was about the resurrection and the Atonement. Then the third challenge was the Maze and that was the fourth article of faith.  IT WAS AWESOME! The gospel really can be related to everything. :) 

This week we also found a lost less active member, well actually she found us. She has had a tough life. She has been a member her whole life, but she got addicted to drugs, got put in prison, lost her kids, she had a baby right after getting out of jail and is now living with her brother. Who went on a mission, but is now gay. She really wants to turn her life around, and she knows the church is it. We had a lesson with her, and she had great insight. She even came to church on Sunday with her 18 month old boy. 

Then our recent convert Gabrielle has had a tough but good week. She let us come with her when she got her patriarchal blessing this Sunday, and it was amazing!!! She is so loved, and is so blessed. If only she didn't have to go through this tough time right now. She basically got kicked out of the house she was living in, which wasn't her house, but someone was letting her stay there, she found out Friday that she had to leave by Monday. She has no money, has no where to go, and has an 18 month old girl who is the most adorable thing I have ever seen. She is in school right now and her finals are this week. She has no family she can live with either. So Friday we were running around trying to help her get boxes, and see if she could maybe find somewhere to live. Then today she got a Uhaul packed up everything and had no idea where she was going. A little over an hour ago she said she might have found an apartment. Everything is so expensive here though I have no idea how she is going to afford it. She is on welfare right now too. I hope that everything is going to be okay for her. Please pray for her and her daughter Emelia. 

This week we also helped with a less actives sons Eagle Project. We painted the United States onto the asphalt at a school. It turned out really well and was a lot of fun. I had never helped out with an Eagle Project before and I hope that he will get it. He is a great kid, and has been working really hard to be able to finish it before he turned 18. 

Well I hope that you all have a great week and don't melt with all this hot weather!!! 110 degrees here with 60 percent humidity. Yay! Well I love you all! 

Love, 
Sister Jessica Bell  

I love the Book of Mormon

This week I have been absorbed in reading the Book of Mormon! Have you just gotten so into reading that you don’t want to put the book down. I have never been able to do that with the Book of Mormon until this week. Instead of writing in my journal at night I picked up the Book of Mormon and began reading again before bed. I didn’t want to go to sleep. During personal study instead of reading talks or something else. Instead of really studying up on a topic that we might be teaching I read and read and read. I love the Book of Mormon.

So I began reading this week in Mosiah. The story of King Noah then the wickedness Noah. That Abinadi came and told the people they needed to repent. I love how bold Abinadi was, the people wanted to kill him because he told the truth, but he wouldn’t leave until he told the people ALL of what the Lord wanted him to. He wanted to be obedient to God’s commandments, and because of his faith and his obedience he died. Alma was the only one that believed on the word of Abinadi. He went and began to preach to the people too in secret, so that he too would not get killed. Alma was able to baptize himself and Helam. Alma knew that he wasn’t the best person and he had made many mistakes in his life, but he repented, and he tried his hardest to be able to live up to what God wanted him to. Because of His faith, and his love for the Lord he was able to hear the Lord and save the people before King Noah came and killed him.

Then in Alma how it is all about the Atonement and about knowing the Lord. I just want to share some of my favorites this week:

Alma 5:14

And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

We need to become humble, we need our own conversion, and we need to trust the Lord. So have we been spiritually born? We all have come to the earth because we chose Heavenly Father’s plan in the premortal life, we have agency here on earth though. So we have been physically born, and been given our bodies so that we can have the freedom to choose the Lord. While we are here we need to be spiritually born, we need to choose Him, and His plan! So we need to want to change the way that we are living so that we can live with Him once again. That mighty change needs to happen in us.

Then in Alma 5:26 it says

And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

If we choose the Lord then we will want to repent and feel the power of the Atonement in our lives. That is the redeeming love that we can feel. We are not alone. We all make mistakes, we all can feel guilty sometimes, but if we choose the Lord and we use the power of the Atonement that guilt will melt away.

Alma 5:33

Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you

Wouldn’t you want His arms around you? To comfort you and help you through your trials??

Alma 5:45-46

45 And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety?

46 Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me.

I know that we all need to find out for ourselves, we cant just believe ever word that comes out of someone's mouth. Well we don’t have to. We can pray and find out for ourselves. I love that. I am not a good teacher at all. All I know is that the Holy Ghost is going to testify to everyone that I am talking to and tell them that it is true! I have a testimony that it is true and I know that the Holy Ghost is my constant companion telling all those that I am talking to that it is true as well.

Alma 7:5

And I trust, according to the Spirit of God which is in me, that I shall also have joy over you; nevertheless I do not desire that my joy over you should come by the cause of so much afflictions and sorrow which I have had for the brethren at Zarahemla, for behold, my joy cometh over them after wading through much affliction and sorrow.

The joy has come because of our trials and our sorrows. I know that I have learned so much from all the trials that I have gone through. I know that at the time I never wanted to go through the trial. I asked God why would you make this happen to me, why do I have to go through this, but if I hadn’t then where would I be now? Where would any of us be? We wouldn’t be happy. We wouldn’t know happiness without sorrow.

I have also read a lot of great talks this week about remembering Jesus Christ. Why do you think it is important to remember Him? How do we remember Him? One of the talks that I read is from Elder D. Todd Christofferson. His talk basically talks about how we must never forget Him because without His Atonement and Ressurrection, life would have no meaning. The ways we can remember him is to seek to know and follow the will of Christ just as He sought the will of the Father, to prepare to answer Christ for every thought, action, and word, and lastly Fear not and look to the Savior for help. He asks the Lord to reveal anything in his life that needed correction. Do we do that? Do we ask Heavenly Father if there is anything that we need to still repent for so that we can be doing everything that we need to do to be closer to Heavenly Father. Because nothing is hidden from Him. There is no part of our lives that can be kept from the knowledge of the Father and the Son. He said, “ Whatever we get away with in life or manage to hide from other people we must still inevitable day comes that ewe are lifted up before before Jesus Christ.

Well I guess that I should stop talking about all I learned this week and tell everyone what happened. So I have some bad news… Rinku and her family dropped us today. She says it will be too much of a hassle to come back from Santa Monica to come to church on Sunday after her 5 year old son has his tennis lessons at UCLA. I feel devastated. I feel like I might have done something wrong. However, she did say that they went to the LA temple over the weekend and saw the visitors center. They still want to investigate the church just not here even though they have a their house here. They are going to in Santa Monica. Then Ana and Jacob will not answer our text messages or our phone calls. So I don’t know if they want to go investigate anymore. Candaice is going to the young single adults ward. Then Silvena… She is doing so well she says that she is considering baptism which what she wasn’t sure about when she was investigating in Utah. The only bad part is that she lives in the other ward boundaries and we are going to have to give her over this week. Then there is Fannie. So on Sunday she just walked into church because the Lord told her that is what she needs to go. She has been feeling like she needed to come for 3 weeks and every time she feels that way she decides not to go until this Sunday. She pulled into the parking lot and left 3 different times before she finally came in. Sister Herrada found her wondering around the halls during sacrament meeting  so she came and got us. Fannie decided to stay for all 3 hours! She shared her testimony in Relief society and says that she wants to come back every single Sunday. She felt a good feeling inside and knew that this is where she is supposed to be. The only bad thing is that she is in the other ward as well. So we literally have no investigators anymore. We went tracting for around 10 hours this week and probably only had 15 people open up the door, and only 2 said we could come back. Everyone is working and I think that the members are getting sick of seeing us come and give them lessons each week. I honestly have no idea what to do anymore. Tracting is supposed to be the last resort and we now need another last resort. So please pray for us, pray to help us find people to teach, to know what we can do with our time. WE have even tried finding service and no one will let us help them. We really need help.

I really do love my mission, and I hope that we can find those that we need in this area. The recent convert in our ward is getting her Patriarchal blessing this week and she has invited us to come with her. I know that we are helping her, and maybe that is the reason we are here. Please help the missionaries in your area though. Give them people to teach.

I hope that all of you are going to have a great week. I love you all.

Love,
Sister Jessica Bell

P.S.  The weather this week has been really nice this week though only 80! And it kinda rained this week!!!

Transfer Week and Doctors Appointments

This week was when we figured out about transfers. What is everyone’s guess??? Well I am staying in Rancho Cucamonga with Sister Broderick. We both figured that would be the case though, since this is her last transfer before she goes home. Okay not only did we find out transfer doctrine this week, but I went to Urgent care and a dermatologist this week…. So the rash spread all over my body, and continued to get worse and worse all week long. The mission nurse had made me an appointment on Tuesday for Thursday, but by Tuesday night, it was so bad that the nurse came to our appointment to see how I was doing, and make an emergency appointment for Wednesday. They took a biopsy in two places. But they have no idea what happened…. They said I might have had a systemic allergic reaction. So they gave me a lot of medication, and is has make me so tired. I feel like a zombie. I am awake physically, but I am just so tired I could sleep constantly. I am hoping that this will get better soon, cause I cant just sleep all day long on a mission. Especially since we have so many investigators and things that we need to get done in this area. I just want to go out and help people here. I hate not being able to go out and work as hard as I can. This week we have really been taking it easy since I couldn’t even walk on Wednesday or Thursday, and having to sleep a little bit more because of the medication. The rash is just barely starting to go away though.

We got a new investigator this week though! Her name is Candace, she is 19. So we have to refer her to the YSA ward, but she is incredible, and just kept asking questions and wanting to know more. Her mom is a lost member… Apparently about 12 years ago they took lessons and everyone besides Candace got baptized (she was too young) , and then they moved and we found her. We are going to try and teach her mom Anita and see if we can get the family back to church. We were able to set a baptismal date for Vikram, but they didn’t come to church this Sunday so we are going to have to reset it for him and Rinku. The blessing that Richard, their son, their son received last week worked. Apparently he had a blood test done this week and it came back negative for Antibodies and he doesn’t have Lupus. It was incredible apparently the difference found after the blessing. They said they want to make church a priority. So hopefully that happens and they come to Church on Sunday. Ana and Jacob are doing good .We haven’t been able to see them, but they had some family come in and they were on vacation. So we are going to really try to see them this week. We are going to work really hard, and show this ward that they can do missionary work.

I had to give a talk on Sunday, and it was awful. I had to talk on feeding the missionaries. How can a missionary talk about that and not have the ward think that we are begging for food.

Well this week is going to be great. It started to sprinkle a little yesterday, and it looks like rain today. Everyone cross your fingers. I miss the rain. I love you all and hope you all have a great week.

Love,
Sister Bell

It's Hot and Getting Hotter

So this week has been really good. I am dying because of the heat though. The fourth of July we helped with the 5k run that our stake put on. We were out at 6 in the morning, by 8 it was already 80 degrees. We ended up staying outside at the pavilion at the church until 11. Then we went and did service at our recent converts house and she has no air conditioning. I was sweating like a pig. Then we ended up going to another members home who doesn't have air conditioning so by the time 6pm rolled around and we needed to be inside because we weren't supposed to leave our apartment after 6. I had a migraine from the heat and sun. It was 104 degrees basically all day. Then Wednesday night we were at a members home at 830 at night playing soccer with their 6 year old son and it was 91 degrees. It is only going to get hotter apparently and I am not liking this at all.  Especially since I was having hot flashes over the winter. So let's hope that I can handle it and not pass out. 

This week has been awesome. We went from only having 8 lessons a week most of those with active member to this week having 21 lessons and only 7 of those were with active members. The work has definitely picked up, and it has been awesome. The Spirit has been so strong this week. We got TWO NEW INVESTIGATORS!!! One of them is a referral from the bishop. She is the sweetest young mother. The family just moved here about 3 months ago from South Jordan where she took the lesson, but the missionaries there were just pushing her to be baptized and only read scriptures with her. So she just wants to ask questions and learn. She really wants to go to the temple. 

Our other investigator is Rinku's husband. We were able to get Richard their 5 year old son a blessing on Wednesday, and they really want to be baptized. Rinku looked on the LDS website and found out all about FHE and a lot of other things that our church does for families. She wants to do it all. It was so cool. The husband was able to be there for the blessing and just wants to learn just as much as the rest of the family. 

Tina our recent convert/less active came to church on Sunday after we gave a lesson on keeping the Sabbath Day Holy.

Today we went on a hike to a waterfall it was quite fun. O ALSO SATURDAY I met Minnie and Mickey Mouse. I just didn’t get a picture with them. Lol. Other than that life is good. Well I hope everyone has a great week. I have to plan for a talk... Fun stuff.... I also think I’m going to go to Urgent care in a few hours so that is going to be fun( I have either a rash that is spreading or a ton of bug bites all over my body.) . On another note don’t ever EVER try Papaya. It is disgusting... Also don’t try lactose free milk even grosser. 

This week I have really been studying the Doctrine and Covenants. That is a really awesome book and I am just getting sucked in. I really want to finish all of the Standard works before I leave my mission. I think that I would be so much closer to my Heavenly Father, and be able to teach so much better with that kind of knowledge. I mean I have read all of them before but just not together or with putting much thought into it. Right now my favorite section is D&C 76. It was just so profound all of the descriptions and details it gives about the Plan of Salvation.     

Well I love you all! 

Love,

Sister Bell 

P.S. There was an Earthquake this week on Saturday! My second one in Cali.