Stockton

I LOVE STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA!!!  Wow.  Stockton is full of diversity and a lot of humble people who are ready for the gospel!  This ward here is a lot younger than my last one.  The bishop is in his 30's.  We have two Deaf members, but one of them is less active.  Lani, the Deaf member who comes every week, has me interpret Relief Society for her but she has other volunteers for the first 2 hours.  I can totally handle one hour of interpreting.  She hasn't had a good interpreter for a long time, so she's excited that I'm here and I can sign fast.  There aren't as many Deaf people here, so we are mostly teaching hearing people, but I love it.  Being a missionary is so wonderful and it fills me with joy.  Before my mission, I would have never approached 5 black dudes smoking a joint.  The Lord is blessing me with confidence and with safety!!

Its been really fun to be back with Sister Konou, she's such a sweetheart.  I'm helping her deal with the recent diagnosis of diabetes and we go to a diabetes class every Friday.  She's learning how to keep her blood sugar levels up into normal range, but its also been really good for me to learn about MY lows.  We even have the same blood glucose meter.  hah.  The lady that teaches the class (its a free community class) talked with me last time and she's going to give me some advice and help next time we go even though I'm not diabetic.  What a blessing. 

Remember Sister Landon (teaches in spanish) that I lived with in during my Marshallese transfer?  Shes my roomate again.  YAY!  I LOVE HER.  She's training a new baby, Sister Marroquin, who is a spunky little sister missionary from Colorado.  We have fun when we come home at night to those two.  Its a great apartment. 

Thats basically it!  It was a fun week of being confused.  Thats what happens when you dont know anything about your new area.  But luckily I have a GPS this time, so I use it everywhere we go!  We are on the search for more Deaf people...

Story time: my area had a baptism last week just before I came. Her name is Zina and she's a black lady full of energy. Zina was walking on the street and she asked two people: "Where do I go to church to feel GODS PRESENCE?!" And they must have been LDS because they said "Go to the LDS church on Brookside!" So she came. Got baptized 3 weeks later. She brought 7 nonmembers with her to church this Sunday. Talk about a MIRACLE! One black lady who came (Linda), has been praying for God to lead her to a church. She said two days later that Zina knocked on her door and they became friends then she came to our church! She LOVED it too! One other lucky thing about Stockton is that our ward actually has black people in it. In Carmichael, none of our black investigators wanted to come to the "white church" and when they did come, they never came back because they were in the minority.

Stockton is a mix of colors and cultures, so although Linda still said there were more white people than she was used to at church, she still accepted everybody because they were all so nice to her. She has been to every church in Stockton searching for the right one but she never felt like any of them had very good people in them. Linda prayed and told God if he would find her a good church, she promised Him that she would go every week. Miracle. All 7 are coming back next week because they loved it and Zina said: "Oooooh girrrrrrl! This is just the beginning! I am gonna bring you all my grandchildren and kids and you can do your bible studies with them and lets get em in the water!" She's basically going to invite everyone she knows to come to church and meet missionaries. She wants us to teach them all our "bible studies" in her home, too, which is wonderful. Maybe we should set a goal to baptize 5 people this transfer instead of one...

I love all of you and I love this gospel!  Go read the Book of Mormon!

Sister Wilson

half way

What a WEEK!!!  I have way too much to say.  I'm sure I'll forget something.  First off, on Thursday, I got pregnant!

 Yay for a happy 9 month mark!!  The baby bump doesnt look too real, I know, but thats because it consists of a blanket and a popcorn bowl.  It was fun to celebrate my half-way mark and I am excited for the other half of my mission to start!

  Later that day, ALL FOUR of our appointments cancelled.  And then dinner cancelled on us, too, so we went to see a less active of the Deaf branch.  Get this.
  Her name is Stormaliza Beautyspella Powmacwizalord.  No, she wasnt given that name at birth.  She sleeps with a giant iguana.  She likes storms, not sure what beautyspella is for, pow is for power, mac is for magic, wiz is for wisdom, and lord is because she loves the Lord.  She was really sweet but we're pretty sure she's slightly to moderately crazy.  

On Saturday, our ward had a kite-flying activity (that, I admit, Ive been looking forward to since we planned it in January)!  We met some nonmembers there who were friends of some members so that was good.  Sister Despain and I didn't want to buy the cheap $1 kites so we took it "up a notch" and bought $5 kites.  They were harder to keep in the air, but we had a lot of fun.  We won the "ground hog kite" award because our kites would just dive bomb straight down after 10 seconds of air.  We all had a lot of wind, so the Lord answered our prayers for it and the activity was great!  

Our branch interpreter, Mark Crosley, moved his records back to the hearing ward where he lives so all of the interpreting falls to....yours truly.  Sister Despain cant hear well enough to interpret clearly, so my Sundays are slightly more stressful but I'll be alright.  You know what I love about the Deaf people here?  They're so childlike.  not childISH, but childLIKE.  Just like Jesus said we all should be.  Innocent, Meek, Humble, Submissive.  I love it so much.  They're so easy to teach and they havent been tarnished by the worldly grime of anti-mormon literature or other religious battles.  They are just so simply trying to be good people.  Trisha came to church again on Sunday and she is so overwhelmed by the holy ghost that she just grins from ear to ear during the 3 hours.  She loves it, and I am so happy.  We are basically going to teach her the discussions during the gospel principals class we teach and hope one day she'll be baptized.  Kelly is finally coming to church next week and Heavenly Father answered my prayers for her to have a bad experience at that other Deaf church she tried.  I am sure she will LOVE ours and the wonderful spirit there.  I can't wait.  

Ashlee is still trying so hard to quit smoking.  I love her dearly.  One day she will be baptized, that was Sister William's dying request when she flew home.  

 Randomness:

*I bought Connect-4 at Goodwill the other day for 50 cents.  Totally worth it.  We play on Mondays and at lunch time.  Ive won 25 of 27 games total.    

*I may be developing some slight pollen allergies.  I guess Sacramento is the worst possible place in the WORLD to be if you have allergies.  Lucky for me, I've never had allergies before and I don't think I will have them when I go home, but I wake up sometimes with a sore throat and the small sniffles.  No biggie, just annoying.  great.  

*The senior missionary in charge of bills called us the other day.  He asked us if we had a FAX machine.  (The zone leaders all have fax machines)  We said no.  He was kind of upset (not at us, just the situation) because he'd been paying $60 a month for us to have a fax machine, so he cut off the service.  Come to find out, it was actually the line that fed our Video Relay System (VRS) to web-cam chat with Deaf people.  Oops.  He's working on getting it back for us.  We use that VRS all the time when Deaf people don't have phones.  haha.  

*The back: the back is still up and running.  It doesn't really stop my work at all, it just gets sore sometimes.  Pene, a woman in my ward, offered to give me a free massage therapy treatment every week after the chiropractor and she says that will really help the muscles keep my bones in place better.  It should double my recovery.  I am going to start this Wednesday so I'll see if it helps.  Going the whole Marshallese transfer without treatment was a bad idea.  I'm just lucky that the mission nurse is letting all of this slide under the table.  (dont tell anyone!)  

I cant wait to skype home this Sunday and see all of your faces for Mothers Day!!  

Love you!

 Sister Wilson

greetings

Dear loved ones, I love you.  

 Its been a great week here with the Deafies and hearing people.  We ran across a crazy Jehovahs Witness earlier in the week.  We couldnt get away from him, but he was nice to us.  He was all buffed-up and cocky about the way he looked.  "Look at me!  How old do you think I am?  How old?"  Sooo.. I responded.  "fifty-seven?"  "FIFTY-SEVEN?!  OH MY GOODNESS!  IM NOT THAT OLD!"  Well, buddy, thats a dangerous question to ask.  He was only 51.  oops.  I was just trying my best to compare him to Dad.... haha.  

We went to a dinner with the ward and this super old guy walks by us an joyously exclaims "Isnt it WONDERFUL how food takes away your hunger?!"  I love members of this church.  We're so happy.  Doing exchanges with these women is a lot of fun.  Since sister Despain takes off once a week, I get to spend 5 hours with some of the RS sisters.  

We had a miracle this past week.  I went out with one of my precious members, Sister Christy Satfield.  She's an older single woman who wanted to serve full time but health wouldnt allow it, so she is serving a mission right now in the Family History Center.  Anyway, she came out with me for splits and I randomly picked this guy in our ward to visit because he was less active.  His name was Christopher Holt.  We went to his house and a woman just happened to be home and she didnt know who Christopher was.  She said the people who used to live there had moved to next door.  So we went next door.  A lady named Dana answered the door.  Said Christopher didn't live there because he moved to Utah.  So, we started talking with her and found out that she was his sister and she was also a member.  She looked at us and said "I havent been in 20 years.  I want to come back.  Ive forgotten all the basics of what we believe, can you teach me?"  uhhh.....SURE!  I guess I could do that!  So we will set up an appointment soon to go back and teach her the discussions, even though she's a member.  She is soo wonderful and what's even MORE crazy is that Christy grew up in the same ward as Dana's mom!  Also, Dana was working on family names for her ancestors and needed some help, so Christy is going to help her figure all of that out.  There were just too many coincidences for it not to be a miracle!  I love finding people who want to come back to church!  Its fantastic!  

 I forgot to tell you what last weekend was like for me.  Turns out when you interpret for 5 hours, your body requires that you go directly home and take a 4-hour nap.  Interpreting is exhausting, but I liked it.   Now that Sister Williams isn't here during church, I do the voicing for the ward too.  The branch members stand up and sign their talks and I voice it on a microphone for those who dont sign very well. I make lots of mistakes, but I'm getting better.  Also, we cancelled ASL class.  We just don't have time for it.  It will give us an extra hour every Wednesday and we never really found anyone by teaching that class, so even though it was a good thing to do, it wasn't the BEST thing we could do with our time.  Bittersweet.

We went to see a different less active lady in the ward (we've been doing a LOT of less-active work since we don't have any hearing investigators) and her name was Penny.  We got to the house and there was a woman outside so we were happy to catch her!  We got out of the car and walked towards her and she looked at us coming.  I said "Are you Penny?" and she RAN inside the house and shut the door.  She was yelling something and we were both really confused.  Finally, we knocked on the door and she just yelled at us from the other side.  "NOBODY HOME!  DONT SPEAK ENGLISH!"  Nobody home?  I know you're home, I just saw you outside.  And you're talking to me.  So I yelled back.  "ARE YOU PENNY?"  "DONT SPEAK ENGLISH!  NO ENGLISH!  NOBODY HOME!"  We tried to figure out which language she did speak, but that must have been the only English sentence she knew.  And I'm fairly certain we terrified her because she kept the door shut and wouldnt turn on the lights.  I even tried to tell her we were nice church people.  Hmmmm.  Maybe Penny moved?

With all these less active people Ive been seeing, I want everyone reading this to make me a promise.  If I ever go less active, I want all of you to punch me in the face.  Being a member of this church and turning your back on covenants that you decided to make with God is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.  Its awful.  All these people are missing out on so many blessings because they refuse to accept Heavenly Father and His plan.  Most of them are terribly miserable, too.  I never want to be that way.  I never want any of you to be that way.  If I ever lose my testimony, I want all of you to drag me to church until I feel the spirit again.  

Well, that seems like a strange kind-of sour note to end this email, so I need to talk about what I did on Saturday!  Mormon Helping Hands!  Do we DO these in Utah???  Why have I never been to one before?!   We were assigned to help clean up and re-build a nature-park down the street.  There were snakes and birds and all kinds of animals.  My group re-created a children's playground made of wood.  We basically shoveled dirt, shoveled wood chips, moved big rocks, weeded a lot, and built a wood play-place for kids to play on at the park.  It was a blast and I worked my tail off!  I had sore muscles that I never knew existed.  I love being a missionary and I cant believe this Thursday is my half-way mark.  Keep up the faith and love one another!!

love Sister Wilson

tie die rules!

This week was AMAZINGLY amazing!  Sister Despain is a wonderful missionary and I am learning so much from her.  We went to El Dorado Hills to visit 3 deafies that lived out there and it was BEAUTIFUL.  AND I SAW MOUNTAINS!!!!  Oh how I miss the mountains.

 Later in the week, Sister Despain and I were street contacting and we ran across a little family who sold tye-dye shirts.  We talked with them for like an hour and taught a lesson in their little tent and after we finished the wife said "Well, honey, we need to hook these girls up!  They're missionaries!"  and they gave us both a free shirt.  yay!  We also went to a "Deaf ice-cream night" to meet Deaf people.  The community picks a place to eat or socialize and inform all the Deaf community and everyone goes to see their friends, its a lot of fun.

 We have another one next week, so hopefully we can start finding some new Deaf people to teach.  We have 4 right now, but I would say at this point that two of them are progressing in the gospel.  Frankie, we met a few months ago and his mom passed away so he wanted to learn more about where she is and the plan of salvation.  He's been coming to the Deaf branch for about a month now, I think we can baptize him.  Kelly, another Deaf lady, just got out of the hospital (after living there for 18 months) and she's paralyzed from the waist down.  She's VERY humble and needs some uplifting.  We've been teaching her for a bit now and she should be coming to church next week!  

Speaking of Deaf people, I had to do 3 hours of interpreting yesterday all by myself so I'm kind of brain-dead...its amazing how much energy just interpreting something can take from a body.  We had "Branch Conference" so the stake president and his counselors were all there, and, naturally, none of them sign.  So, I interpreted all 3 hours of church and then a special meeting later that night.  Stake Conference is this weekend, too, so I'll do another 5 hours interpreting, except I'll have a teammate to help me from the branch.  I'll need your prayers!!  Whoo!  Good practice, right?  

We started teaching Ashlee again and she really wants to be baptized still.  She's still coming to church fairly regularly and she just needs to stop smoking!!  Other than that, our week was just crazy busy visiting less actives!  Because we don't have hearing investigators, we filled our time with finding and less active work.  This was probably one of the best weeks Ive ever had on my mission.  We taught 13 lessons and the mission had a few big changes that made me super happy.  I love being here.  I cant BELIEVE I'm almost halfway done!!  Thats so crazy.  I already miss being here.

Sister Despain got her "depressing mail" (her going-home packet and flight information) on Friday the 13th.  She was pretty bummed, and I will miss her when she leaves.  Until then, I want to siphon all the knowledge and talents she has.  The back is about the same.  I get to start going back to the Chiro every other week now because he's up here, so that should continue to help me.  Its been 5 weeks since Ive been cracked and I've had a bad headache for like 4 days that I cant get rid of.  But, I'm doing great and I'm so so so happy.  I see Dr. Armstrong on Friday and I'm excited to start treatment again, it helps me a LOT.  

We saw two mascots on the streets of Carmichael this week.  Not okay.  

Love all of you!!  Keep up the missionary work in Utah!!

Sister Wilson

Happy Easter

What a wonderful weekend!  I guess I didnt explain myself very well in the last email.  I am in the VERY same place, Carmichael.  Same people as last time, serving in one hearing ward and the Deaf branch.  Same apartment.  And I'm exceedingly happy to be back!!  Its amazing how only 6 weeks away from this place has thrown me for a real  loop, though.  Sister Despain has never served here, so we were shotgunned into the area, but its been a great adventure to figure all of it out together.
A little about her: Sister Despain is short.  Just like all of my companions.  She's hard of hearing, so I sign every time we talk so she can understand everything.  We laugh a LOT.  She's an ASL sister, too, but she's been in the other half of the mission for most the time so we havent been companions yet.  She's been out 14 months so she goes home in August!  (Which means she will most likely stay here in the Deaf branch until then) She's also what we call a "coordinating sister" which basically means that she does exchanges with some other sisters in the mission.  She goes out to Folsom and El Dorado Hills to do some training and work with other sisters and see how their work is going.  Which means I get to do a lot of exchanges with the MEMBERS here, which I LOVE!  I love these members, lets just hope they love me!  Lots of them were happy I came back, good to know I was missed.  I love Sister Despain a ton.  She's marvelous.

MIKE AND ANNE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!!!  Okay, it was just to do baptisms for the dead, but it was still the temple!  And President let me go too!!  It was the most amazing wonderful experience!!  I sat in the temple with my two recent converts and I cried as I watched their excited faces in awe of the spirit and beauty they took in.  I felt like a proud mother.  Such a wonderful chance for me to have the opportunity to see these two souls grow their testimonies and change their lives.  It's brought me so much joy!!  I decided if they were the only two souls that I brought unto Christ, my mission was worth it.  I have been so thrilled to experience this.  It reminds me of D&C 18:15-16.  "and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy...and now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!"  My joy is great.  Ive never felt anything like it before.  

Sister Williams left me some pretty big shoes to fill, even though her feet were tiny.  I miss her, but she is an amazing missionary and I want to grow up to be just like her when I go home!!  

 

I love all of you!  The Missionary life is a GOOD LIFE!!  

Sister Wilson

transfers

No more Yokwe.  I'm being transfered to the strange land of Carmichael!!  YAY!  Carmichael is like home to me here on the mission.   Oh how Ive missed it.  My new companion is Sister Despain.  She's from Washington!  I'm so excited to serve with her in theDeaf branch.  Sister Williams had to retire her mission a little early and I miss her DEARLY but I hope she finds healing.  They decided to close our Sister's Marshallese area, which is totally okay with me since we really struggled to find people to teach!!  All the Marshallese people seemed to live on the Elder's side of the map, so they are giving them our area too!  Sister Konou is headed down to Stockton to be in Deaf work with sister Larson!  Its ironic, really.  Now we've switched worlds.  She was still pretty sick all week so we did some testing at  the doctors and lots of sleeping. 

 Thats basically it for my week!  Quite uneventful, but I cant WAIT to get back to teaching my Deafies and lovin' every minute!!  Also, I was informed that my recent convert of December, Mike, got the Aaronic Priesthood on SUNDAY!!  YAY!!!  He's such a beam of light for all who meet him. 

Since I dont have much else to say, I wrote a fun list for ya'll.   You know you're a missionary when...

*Cockroaches become analogies for investigators

*You geek out over a new Mormon.org video and you can't wait to watch it!!

*Every time you get a hold of some "new" old Ensigns, you spend the evening looking through them for cool pictures to cut out and use on your planner

*You leave appointments smelling like smoke for the rest of the day

*You forget your first name

*You put on pants to serve someone and you wish you were in a skirt because skirts are more comfortable

*P-days are too long and they only slow you down

*Members who havent been to church in 20 years are "Less active" not "Inactive"

*You start going to bed at 10 instead of 10:30 because you're so exhausted

*All your emails home ALSO include some kind of testimony

*One hour of scripture study every day ISNT ENOUGH TIME

All of this is true. 

 Love you!!

 I'm going back to being Sister WINK!

still here

Bula!  Yokwe!  Hello!

This week was pretty uneventful.  Sister Konou was sick for like 5 days so we didnt get out much.  I did a lot of reading and cleaning.  Ive decided that whoever is put with me will become deathly ill within one transfer.  I seem to make all my companions sick!  (then again, Ive only had two in the field...)  We had zone conference last Thursday and it was amazing.  I love being a missionary!!!  I got to sing a musical number for it, too and it was great.  Singing musical numbers is kind of like insurance that President won't ask me to give a talk.  Why do you think I always sing??  ;)  kidding!! 

General Conference is this weekend!!! YAY!  I'm so excited to hear inspired words from our prophets and apostles!  I dont know why it never occurred to me, but General Conference in California starts at 9 instead of 10 was a surprise!  Why did I think it started at 10 all over the world?!  Thats impossible!  Then sister Konou told me that in Hawaii they start watching at 6am.  Oh my days!  Glad I dont have to do THAT! 

 
In other news, WE ARE GETTING A NEW ASL SISTER IN AUGUST!!!  I CANT WAIT!!!  I'm probably going to train her (I'll be the only ASL sister left...)  Its too far away, I am soooo excited! 

I love all of you!!  Sorry this is a short one!

 

Sister Wilson