Week 39 (12//3/18): "Everything is mucho gusto."

So this week has been crazy! I feel like I say that every week, but it's always true. The biggest news is that we are now in a trio. Sister Walker was Sister Howard's companion before me, so now we have had all the possible combinations of me, Sister Howard, Sister Grammer, and Sister Walker (Sister Grammer and Sister Walker became companions when Sister Howard and I first did, and Sister Howard and Sister Grammer are companions now.) So that's fun. She is a totally different missionary than me, but she brings a whole different dynamic to Chowchilla. It's been good. 

Other big news is that I hit 9 months this week. That was weird. Mom sent me a super sweet (pun not intended) package. Pictures are included below. We used to do this for Father's Day when we were little, so it really meant a lot. 

We were in the Merced Christmas parade, and that was so fun! We took mini candy canes and tied them with ribbon to Light the World cards. We made somewhere around 800. So that was fun! I don't know if we have pictures of the parade or not... But it was fun!

Being a missionary at Christmas is the best! Everyone is willing to talk to you about Jesus Christ! I am so looking forward to the 23rd! Invitation Sunday is going to be amazing! Being able to help others come closer to Jesus Christ is the best thing I could be doing right now. 

Love you, bye!

Sister Cate 

Sister Smith, Sister Walker, and I

Sister Smith and I at the temple for transfer hub

Light the World cards in progress

Package from home

Reheating frozen soup

Week 38 (11/26/18): "It's a snail minefield!"

This week has been a rollercoaster. We got transfer calls, but we got a call from the assistants that we couldn't pick up, and they haven't called us back, so I'll wait to say anything until then. Because who knows what they want. We've seen so many miracles. We have quite a few people who we've met with once who we really think will get baptized, which is amazing! The work here in Chowchilla is picking up, and everyone is feeling it! And our new bishopric is really pushing Invitation Sunday, so that's huge! 

We got a ton of rain, which was amazing! And all the snails came out again, which was fun. But avoiding them at night is a challenge! But it was so good to get rain again. 

I love seeing how Heavenly Father has a plan, and how we are led to those who are prepared to receive the gospel every day! 

Love you, bye! 

Sister Cate

Week 37 (11/19/18): "I don't care if He's purple! He's your Savior!"

This week has been absolutely nuts. Between the smoke from the fires, starting the 5-7pm finding time and getting a new bishopric (which meant losing our ward mission leader) and figuring out how to work with the assigned counselors in the Elders Quorum and Relief Society, it has been a little overwhelming, but also really good. We have seen so many miracles from the 5-7 finding time, including being able to meet with a couple less active part member families for the first time. And we've met lots of amazing people. Everyone here in Chowchilla is feeling that the work is hastening. 

I have learned so much from Sister Smith. Sometimes I feel like she's training me. She is so good at focusing on our purpose, and is so optomistic. We laugh so much, and we work together so well. Can she just stay here in Chowchilla with me forever? 

I can't believe this transfer is already almost over, but I am so grateful to be here in Chowchilla with Sister Smith. This really is the best place ever! 

Sister Cate

Week 35 (11/12/18): "It's a form of mass hysteria."

That quote is kind of a good summary of this week. We had zone conference this week, and SO MANY CHANGES! We're setting aside 5-7pm for finding new people to teach every day from now on, eating dinner from 4-5 in our apartment, and eating with members only on Saturday and Sunday. It's really a higher and holier way of doing missionary work. This was tested in a couple missions, and they saw convert baptisms double!! That's exactly what Chowchilla needs! I am so excited!!! 

In other news, we get a new bishop next week, and my ear infection has progressed to a double ear infection. Good news though is that it's not really hurting as much anymore. And we've been able to do missionary work mostly like normal, so that's what's really important. 

Sister Smith has been so patient with me as I've been in pain. Seriously, I don't handle pain super well. It makes me want to stay in bed and do family history all day, but we've gone about missionary work mostly like normal. And she's been such a source of strength for me. She really helps me better understand our baptismal covenant to bear one another's burdens. She is such an amazing example, and the ward loves her. And so do I. She is so good at extending commitments and helping people to change. I am learning so much from her! 

Anyways, there will be so many miracles to tell you about next week! 

Love you, bye! 

Sister Cate

Week 34 (11/5/18): "I now understand why babies with earaches are so grumpy!"

Wow, this week was even crazier than last week. We got sick (earaches are not fun), got to call the police (long story short, someone gave us some information that we felt obligated to report. But we didn't really get involved at all. So don't freak out Mom), had this guy named Modesto from Puerto Rico come up to our car and talk to us in hard-to-understand Spanish for a while (it was really stressful, I could only understand maybe 40% of what he was saying), helped someone change their Gospel Library into Hindi, did a bunch of family history with people, tried to do service with one less active almost every day this week (it still hasn't happened), played the piano a lot (while we were sick, at a homebound sister's house, and in sacrament meeting yesterday), helped someone be able to read their patriarchal blessing for the first time in 20 years (we actually showed up at their house about 30 minutes after the bishop and stake president left), and helped out in nursery (not by ourselves, and mostly with crowd control, but they really needed help in there). 

So yeah, crazy. But it was so good. We had so many people to plan for during weekly planning! It's awesome how many people we are working with! And a lot of less actives are starting to come back, so that is awesome! We have seen so many miracles! Sister Smith is amazing. Seriously, she is an amazing missionary. She has such a desire to help people progress. The members, and those we're teaching, trust her so much already. And she has so many good ideas! Chowchilla is so ready to grow! And it's going to be fun to see how the Lord will work miracles. 

Love you, bye!

Sister Cate  

We checked off one of the items on my mission bucket list: take pictures in an almond orchard (grove, forest, field???)

We had just a bit of a stomach bug, so we didn't go out (so we didn't spread it), and Sister Smith had fun playing with my hair. 

We put out a bowl of candy. And all that candy was in the apartment already. 

Week 34 (10/29/18): "Mole is just spicy fondue."

This week was absolutely amazing. And absolutely exhausting. It's funny how often the two of those go hand in hand. 

We have been doing a lot of strengthening the kingdom. A lot of the people we've been teaching were sick or had family who was sick, so we couldn't meet with them. But we did start teaching two new people this week! Well, one is not new, but we started teaching her again, and she is making some progress for the first time in a long time. And there's another we're kind of starting to teach, so that's cool! We had quite a few people we've been working with for a while come to church yesterday, so that is exciting! 

Honestly, I don't really remember what happened this week. It's been a blur, but a good blur. I feel like I've grown a lot, even just over the past week! 

Anyways, love you, bye!

Sister Cate 

Week 32 (10/15/18): "This is why I hate biking..."

This week has been really good. Honestly, it went by so fast, I don't really remember what happened. Oh, two exchanges. That was fun. The first one was fairly normal. We saw some awesome miracles! The second was good too, but it was absolutely crazy and absolutely draining. Both Sister Howard and I were exhausted afterwards. I was down in Selma and we got a call at 10pm saying that one of the people planning on  getting baptized on Sunday wouldn't be able to be confirmed the following Sunday because he would have to work. So they asked to move it to Saturday. So after a lot of craziness, we ended up spending the rest of the evening and most of the morning trying to plan a baptism in 18 hours. Then after talking to them again, they told us something slightly different, so we moved the baptism back to Sunday and arranged for them to be confirmed that day. And then had to call everyone we'd called and told that the baptism would be on Saturday. We probably made 30-50 phone calls... But everything ended up working out. 

So we got transfer calls and I found out that I will be training. I am excited and incredibly nervous to train. It definitely makes me see all my weaknesses so much more clearly, but really, I think some greenie fire is exactly what I and Chowchilla need. I think Chowchilla will be perfect for her because the ward will welcome her with open arms, though they are sad to lose Sister Howard. And so am I. I will miss Sister Howard a lot. She has been an amazing companion, and I have learned so much from her. But they need her elsewhere. She's getting doubled into an area again... It takes an amazing missionary to do that! But I am excites to meet my new companion.You know, I still don't know my trainee's name...

I've been reading the Book of Mormon. I'm only in 1 Nephi 1... I just have been learning so much! But somehow I'll finish before the end of the year. President Nelson said the Lord would provide a way, so I'm holding Him to that. 

Having our car in the shop complicates everything, but at least being in Fresno for a couple days while waiting for my trainee to arrive means I don't have to bike them. I caught my skirt in the chain last night... Luckily a couple members came to our rescue. But I am grateful things are working out fairly well!  

Love you, bye! 

Sister Cate

Week 32 (10/8/18): "How long have you been planning this?" "Oh, about a month."

This week was definitely an interesting one. It's been good though. And General Conference was amazing!! (I mean, how could it be anything but amazing?) It was way too short, but I received a lot of revelation and have lots of ideas about how to move forward. I can't wait for the talks to come out online so I can reread them, but it definitely has given me a lot to think about. 

We got to spend a lot of time with the Sheppards. We have been working with them for the whole time we've been here, and they absolutely love us by now. There were some sisters in the past who really pushed them, and they pulled away, but we've really just been trying to help them feel the Spirit and strengthen the parents. So this week, Sister Sheppard had a huge fundraiser she was helping with, so we went over for a couple hours and helped her bake and wrap raffle items. Another member saw her later that week and said that she'd said that we helped her so much, and so that was cool! Then we watched the Sunday morning session of General Conference with them, and we brought Conference Bingo, so that was a big hit. It was amazing! We are so hoping that they will initiate their kids being baptized. The 2 hour church will help them though, because they might actually stay both hours! 

Sister Howard's birthday was this past Wednesday, which was super fun. I put up orange and black streamers (because she always has a Halloween party), and I had fun making a cake (I had the idea for the design about a month ago, and have been gradually getting stuff since then), and we had dinner with our ward mission leader, which was awesome. She is so enthusiastic about everything, and it's infectious. 

So it was a good week. 

Love you bye!

Sister Cate

The cake

Us and the Sheppards

Week 31 (10/1/18): Getting raisins off the bottom of your shoes is not fun...

How is it Monday again? This week was so good! We saw tons of miracles! Seriously, Saturday was one miracle after another! First, one of our not so recent converts went to the temple for the first time! Then we went to visit them, and his mom, who recently went to the temple to receive her endowment, finally found a lead on her family history, which has been really hard because her family won't tell her anything. Then we went tracting and met someone who is willing to read the Book of Mormon and continue to meet with us! Then we met a former and they know a ton of members and said we're always welcome to stop by. After that, we went to the church and there was a guy sitting there, and we were able to talk to him for a while and share about prophets and the Book of Mormon. Then we had dinner with a returning family and were able to talk to their less active son! Later, we visited another returning family and met their other less active daughter and talked about General Conference, and they plan to watch it! 

One thing I have been doing this week is reading all of President Nelson's talks. Probably the biggest thing I've learned has been just how many footnotes he has in his talks! He has a scripture for just about every other sentence! And it's really made me think about how I use my scriptures in teaching. Ever since our zone started the 500 Book of Mormons challenge (did I tell you about that? We're handing out 500 copies of the Book of Mormon in 5 weeks.), I fill my bag with copies of the Book of Mormon, so my personal scriptures don't fit. Sometimes I'm tempted to just leave them in the car, but then I remember that in Ephesians 6:17, it says that my sword is the Spirit, or the word of God. So when I choose to leave my scriptures, I am leaving my sword. It makes me want to make sure I'm always armed. And after seeing President Nelson's example, I want to use them more in teaching. I think what I'll do is unsheathe them at the beginning of the lesson and then maybe it'll help me remember to use them more. 

Love you, bye!

Sister Cate

Week 30 (9/24/18): "The Sisters Strike Back"

That is the name of our plan to hasten the work here. It is The Plan of Attack: The Sisters Strike Back. Sister Howard thought of the name.

This week was absolutely crazy! We did so much- we went to Fresno last Monday to take care of a bunch of errands, we sang at a recovery hospital, helped our ward mission leader get his trash out to the curb for the curbside cleanup, had zone training, spent a whole day going to Fresno and Merced (doctor visit and picking up a new prescription, which included 3 hours of driving), went to the vineyard to box raisins for 4 hours in the afternoon (in 100+° weather) and narrowly avoided Sister Howard having a migraine, and then did weekly planning on Sunday because we hadn't had time on Friday or Saturday. It was an exhausting week. But we both made it through mostly intact.

Other than that, not all that much happened. Lots of little tender mercies, like going to Taco Bell in Merced and finding out a member was the manager and we got a free meal. We made a plan to hasten the work here, and we are excited to put it into play. Cool thought from Jamie Hansen, the man in charge of the vineyard- apparently 95% of the earth's surface is made of silicate, which is what glass is made of. So in a very real sense, the Earth can be turned into glass with a lot of heat, which the scriptures refer to. It was cool to see how the scriptures will be fulfilled when it says the earth will be a sea of glass and will become a Urim and Thummim.

Love you bye!

Sister Cate


Pictures from off the mission blog:

ZONE CONFERENCE MODESTO NORTH, MODESTO, TURLOCK, MERCED ZONES 9.25.2018

Week 29 (9/17/18): "Can we get her to the temple??"

So this week was so fast. How is it Monday already?? 

The highlight of this week was definitely going to the temple. We were able to go when Erika, a recent convert, received her endowments, so that was super special. I think we may need to work on getting more people to the temple so we can go more often!! It's great motivation! 

We also had fun with the Sheppards again. We talked about the Atonement, and we showed them the Because of Him video. It really hit them. They could totally feel the Spirit!! 

Anyways, not all that much happened this week. Just lots of little good things. Have a great week!

Love you bye!

Sister Cate 

Week 27 (9/3/18): "These helmets are not very attractive."

We were on bikes for a few days this week. It was definitely an experience, but we had fun! 

Oh, the vineyard was a Church-owned vineyard run completely by volunteer work, where they make raisins to send throughout the world when there is a natural disaster or other need for food.

Transfers were not what I expected. I expected something to change, but nothing did. Out of the 18 missionaries serving in this area, only 1 changed. We listened to it and were wondering if they were serious. But honestly, I'm not complaining. I love serving here with Sister Howard. We've got some really good things going, and we're hoping to get some activities going here to help the members have something to invite friends to, and we're going to hasten the work here!

Funny story from last Monday- so ever since coming to Chowchilla, I have spilled a lot more milk than normal. I mean, I spilled a whole cup on our bedroom floor (of course at like 10:25pm...) and then a little on the living room floor. So needless to say, I only drink milk on non-carpeted surfaces now. But last Monday we were bringing in groceries and I was getting ready to close the trunk, and I was really excited because I got Jenga, and I was saying, "We're going to teach the Restoration to everyone!" and I lost my grip on the milk jug, and it fell and spilled. Luckily I was able to get most of it into a pitcher. So now we have both cookies and milk on the pavement. I died laughing!! I couldn't stop laughing for a good 30 minutes. I haven't laughed that hard in ages! 

This week was good. We have been working with a part member family whose kids haven't been baptized. The kids want to be baptized, but the parents are only kind of active. But they love feeding us! So we will take that opportunity to share parts of lessons through dinner messages, and to keep gaining their trust so we can eventually start teaching the kids. I want so badly for them to be sealed in the temple! And I think we may really make progress towards that this transfer. At least that's the plan. So please pray for us. 

We also had an amazing lesson where we Skyped in a missionary from our ward who is serving in Italy. The lesson went really well, and it was totally guided by inspiration, plus it was Steven's birthday, and we didn't know that when we were setting up the lesson, so he got to see his best friend for his birthday. But he's accepted a baptismal date for September 29th, so we are super excited!! 

Things are going well here. We are so blessed!

Love you, bye! 

Sister Cate 

Week 26 (8/27/18): Literally the Lord's Vineyard

Wow, where to begin? This week has been awesome! 

First, zone conference was amazing. I learned so much! I think the coolest thing I learned from Elder Whiting was that before the day of Pentecost, the apostles didn't have the Holy Ghost. They had the authority, but not the power. But once they had the power, they were able to act as the Savior, and people were amazed. Once they had the power, people joined the church. It really made me realize that I need the power of the Holy Ghost with me, and once I do, I can help bring people to the Lord's fold. 

Another thing I realized is that if I had to describe salt, one thing I'd say is that it makes everything else more flavorful. And the Spirit does the same thing. And I also realized that I need to point it out more to people, saying that right now, they're feeling the Holy Ghost. 

I also hadn't noticed the word "will" in that paragraph of the introduction. It says, "Those who pursue this course and ask in faith WILL gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost." And we totally saw that this week. 

So right after getting back from the vineyard on Saturday, we had a lesson with someone we've been trying to be able to meet up with for a while. And she brought her Book of Mormon with her, and she'd marked passages with sticky notes and with colored pencils, and she's all the way through Ether!!!! And we asked her, and she said she knew that the Book of Mormon was true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. And she is getting baptized on October 20th!!! We're so excited! 

Then we worked in the vineyard on Wednesday night and Saturday morning. I did a lot gleaning, or picking the grapes others missed. There were a bunch of kids that joined me on Saturday morning, and we had fun. We found a lot of grapes, and the kids got excited every time. But seriously, the pictures don't show how massive this vineyard is. But it makes Jesus saying, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." (John 15:5) mean a lot more. 

So this week was pretty amazing! 

Love you, bye!

Sister Cate

Week 25 8/20/18): We may have acquired lightsabers...

There was a family moving, and they had a couple lightsabers they were getting rid of... I couldn't resist.

So this week was interesting, full of tender mercies, like usual. 

The alternate title for this email is "God often puts dogs in our path, sometimes literally." Sister Howard loves dogs, so we see them all the time. And this week, we were on one of the back roads and there was a dog in the road. And it didn't get out of the road. So Sister Howard got out of the car, and moves the dog out of the road, then tells me to drive forward a bit. But when she comes to get into the car, the dog keeps following her! Finally, after picking the dog up and putting it back in its yard several times, she was able to get back to the car. It was hilarious!

Since last zone conference, I've been going through the new Preach My Gospel and finding all the changes. Now, it does count all the times they changed the word investigator to something else, but I hit 800 changes this morning. And I'm only halfway through, if that. But it's cool to see some of the changes. One that I'm still trying to understand is that it changed "doctrines" to "doctrine". I'm not sure exactly why they made the change, but if you have any ideas, I would love to hear them. My only thought is the quote by Joseph Smith that says that the core doctrine of our church is the testimony of prophets and apostles that Jesus is the Christ and that He atoned for our sins, and that all others are merely appendages to it. 

One of the biggest miracles this week is that we got a member referral whose best friend is serving a mission right now in Italy. The missionary's father told us about him, and he told us that Steven wanted a Book of Mormon. I have never seen someone so excited to get a Book of Mormon! He was ecstatic! And he came to church on Sunday! He is so prepared! And he already started reading the Book of Mormon! We've been messaging with the elder, so hopefully he can be involved!

And then another of the full time missionaries from the ward, serving in Texas, texted us saying he sent us a referral, though we haven't gotten it yet because Area Book is down. But in any case, as soon as we get it, we are super excited to see her!

And then the family history activity went well. We had a few less active members, including one who called the elders quorum president to ask for a ride! It was so exciting! 

So it was a good week! We're excited to see what this next week holds!

Sister Cate

Week 24 (8/13/18): Down to the Wire

Okay, sorry, no time to write today. But have some pictures!

Love you bye!

Sister Cate

Week 23 (8/6/18): Jenga for the win

A cool insight from the scriptures- I was reading in Preach My Gospel and it was talking about how Jesus Christ overcame the obstacle of physical death for us, and it reminded me of the brother of Jared. He had 2 problems: breathing and light. He went to the Lord, and the Lord solved the first one, how they would be able to breathe in the barges. But then the Lord asked him to work on the second one himself, and so he carved 16 stones out of a rock and brought them to the Lord. He asked the Lord to make them light up. He put forth this effort, but he couldn't make it actually light up on his own. Only the Lord had the power to do that. It's the same with us. There are two obstacles keeping us from returning to live with God- death and sin. Jesus Christ overcame the first for us, but He asks us to work on the second. But really, we just bring rocks to the Lord. But through His power through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our efforts can be made enough.

Love you bye!

Sister Cate

Week 22 (7/30/18): Smoke makes for great sunsets!

Okay, you're going to get a shorter email than normal because I don't have access to a computer today, but really because I have family history work I want to do. It's so addictive, but one of the greatest works ever! (Our bishop's wife may have said that right now I'm here to help the living. I almost replied "Well, you tell them that!" Because they want their work done.) There's one family that has so many duplicates. Like, they each have like 4 first names, and I think whoever records things just chooses two at random, so they never match up. One lady had 11 duplicates. But it's okay, because they're my favorite branch of the family. Mostly because that's where I've spent most of my time. 

We have had so much smoke here from the Yosemite fire. Rest assured, we are nowhere near the actual fire, but we do get the smoke. But the sunsets are gorgeous! Just like how in our lives, we need our trials to make our lives better and more beautiful. But the days can seem kind of gray. 

We have had lots of amazing experiences this week. Lots of stopping by at just the right time, being able to speak Spanish, and so much teaching. An 8 year old girl is getting baptized on Friday, and neither of her parents are members, but her sister is, and they're moving to Oregon next week, so we have taught her almost every day this week. So that's been amazing! 

Also, last Monday, we went to the DMV so Sister Howard could take her permit test, and we met Jessica. Come to find out, she was getting baptized this last Saturday, and she invited us to come. She was super excited to see us, and it was an answer to our prayers too, since it helped distract Sister Howard from being nervous. The baptism was awesome, and we gave the interlude. It was totally meant to be! 

Now back to family history. I promise I love you, but they need me right now. 

Love you bye! 

Sister Cate 

Week 21 (7/23/18): Happy Rebirth Day to me!

Today is the 12th anniversary of my baptism! It's crazy to think that it was 12 years ago, and even crazier to think that I'm 20. 

We had a crazy experience this week. We got so lost in some almond orchards (groves?) this week. Like, spent 20 minutes trying to get out. Our car got so dusty. Anyways, after the GPS led us astray, into the middle of the almond orchard and we finally got out, we made our way to the member's home that we were trying to visit. Well, it turns out that she had only gotten there a couple minutes before we did, and if we hadn't gotten lost, we would have missed her. So that was a huge blessing!

We have seen a lot of progress with less active members. Anyways, they love having us in their homes. One sister and her daughter have come back, and two kids have come back (a ward member is picking them up). And one of the girls is going to be baptized sometime really soon, maybe even before the month is over. She wants to get baptized before their family moves, and we're going to work with their new ward before they even move to try to get them going to church from the very beginning. 

Oh, also, we got transfer calls, and both Sister Howard and I are staying! It's going to be fun! I'm really looking forward to this next transfer. 

Love you bye! 

Sister Cate 

A sister we met with collects and sells a lot of movie memorabilia and gave me a sonic screwdriver necklace!

If you have a Costco, you have got to try this stuff. It is addictive, but it is so good!!!

There is a pig in the front yard of a house in town...

Week 20 (7/16/18): "I think the pulpit must have a strong magnetic field..."

"... because whenever I'm up here, my memory is erased."

-the high council speaker who spoke after me

This week has been crazy. I don't even remember what all happened this week. 

We finally figured out how to do missionary work in this area. We discovered that tracting in the morning is better, and if we talk about family history work, people will actually listen to us. But hey, if I get to talk about and do family history more, I am ecstatic! And I made a lot of progress on mine this week, which was so cool! 

The person we tracted into last Friday or Saturday is actually interested in learning more! She had read a little bit from the Book of Mormon since we'd last seen her, and she was interested by it. This is so exciting! I'm kind of in shock, since I've never had this happen before. 

Then Saturday was fun. Sister Howard went all out (well, as all out as she could) for my birthday. She even got up 15 minutes early to put up streamers, and she is not a morning person. And she was so concerned about making sure that it was a good birthday for me. I felt so loved! 

Then we got a phone call from Temple Square during planning or companion study, and they had a referral for us! She has met with missionaries before, and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she's even come to church in Chowchilla before! We met with her briefly, though it wasn't a good time, but we're hopeful! She even said that she was excited to get back into the Book of Mormon! 

Then I got to go down to Visalia for Steven Farmer's baptism. It was amazing. And my talk, which I'd been asked to give 24 hours before, went really well. Seriously, he's the most prepared person I've ever met. And I got to see people from Mill Creek again, which was so good. 

And the fact that my family came to Chowchilla to drop off a birthday present for me was also amazing. They know me so well. They got me Expo markers! And barbeque potato chips! I'm really glad that they didn't decide to meet up with Sister Stocker at the church, because we were at the church right then!! But it all worked out, and it was nice to feel so loved. Plus they did the temple work for the family I've been working on for over a year, so that was amazing!  

All in all, it's been a good week. Sorry this is shorter than usual. I'm fighting off a bug, so I'm really tired. But I had a 3 hour nap this morning, so I'm doing better! 

Love you, bye! 

Sister Cate

Week 19 (7/9/18): I may never eat ice cream the same way again...

This week has been kind of a rollercoaster. There were highs and lows. I feel like I am really growing a lot here. Sister Howard and I are very different personality wise, but we have a lot of the same weaknesses. So it has really forced me to grow, but that's definitely not a bad thing. And it's actually been a relatively painless progress.

Now for the normal tender mercy novel. 

One day, we got to a less active's apartment and were knocking on the door when he drove up. So we were able to have a great conversation about how God guides our lives. He thought it was so cool that we got there at exactly the right time. Definitely not a coincidence!

On the 4th, we visited an older sister, and it was really good because her family was out of town, Anna she doesn't have any plans for the day. Then she asked us to take a frozen pizza over to another elderly couple, which we did, and they really needed the visit too. And we thought we weren't going to be able to see anyone that day!

Then Saturday was amazing! During companionship study, a less active sister texted us asking us to ask the missionaries in Madera to give another less active sister in our ward a blessing because she was in Madera hospital because she broke her femur. But it was amazing that the first people she reached out to was us!

Probably my favorite was a meeting with our ward mission leader. We mentioned that we wanted to help the youth do family history work and we started talking about his, and he mentioned how he couldn't get father than his great-grandfather on one line. Well, we found a census where he was a son to the head of the household and right there was his great-great-grandfather. When I said, "That's his dad," Brother Long started tearing up and you could feel the Spirit so strongly. It was probably in my top 5 favorite experiences of my mission. And it took maybe 5 minutes, and he had parents and 3 additional siblings. It was so moving.

After that, we tracted, and it was totally a Fourth Floor, Last Door experience. We went 3 blocks down and then 3 blocks back, and at the second to last house, after facing a ton of rejection and no success, we knock on this door and a 12 year old girl answers. We ask if we can share a message, and the older sister said she was headed to the store, but that we could share a message with the other sisters. So we came in and shared 3 Nephi 11:10-11 and talked about the Book of Mormon. And they said we could come back! They just moved here, have a two week old baby, and haven't found a church yet. We hope to visit tomorrow or Wednesday!

We also stopped by another less active's house, and he was actually there! So we are visiting with him later this week!

Then, a couple less active families came to church! It was so cool to finally see them there!

So yesterday we started delivering all these Relief Society activity flyers to all the less active sisters, and we decided to take one to someone we're teaching, and we got there and her husband, who is a member but hasn't come to church for 10 years, was outside! Now, we were told by previous missionaries that we would never talk to him, that he left the room whenever missionaries came. But he was super nice and invited us in and talked with us for a while. Our ward mission leader and his wife took them cookies the day before, and I think that softened his heart a lot. Members are the best!!

This week, I read from the book of Ruth. So Ruth was gleaning in the fields. She was picking up the barley that the reapers dropped. I imagine it was kind of slow going. She probably needed a lot to support her and Naomi. But with hard work and some intervention by Boaz, she was able to gather about an ephah or batley kernals (grains?). Do you know how much an ephah is? About 8 GALLONS!! But she did it by picking up one piece at a time. 

And sometimes in our lives, we feel like we're not making much progress, but with hard work and some intervention on the part of the Lord, our little efforts add up to become great. It reminds me of Alma 37:6 which says:

"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

Anyways, we have been super blessed.

Sister Cate

I made a friend. He sat on my shoulder the entire time we were there. 

In another missionary apartment.

Week 18 (7/3/18): "You get complacent, you get hit by a car."

From ward council... 

The alternate title for this week is "They're less active on Facebook." Facebook is the best! It is so helpful. 

This week was so good. There were so many miracles. But there was one big one. Last night, we tried seeing a bunch of less actives, and while we had a long list of names, we finished them much more quickly than we had expected, so we weren't sure what to do. Sister Howard suggested we visit the Zamanos, a mainly Spanish family. While we were on the way, we got a text back from a less active we'd texted, but we were 95% certain was a home phone. We were wrong. But it was so exciting, because from previous missionaries' notes, they are so ready to come back to church. Anyways, we get there, choose a scripture to base our spiritual thought off of, and we go in. And it was amazing. The gift of tongues is real! I was able to speak fluent Spanish, and understand so much better than I normally can, and she was so engaged in the spiritual thought, and the Spirit was so strong! I came out, and was just like "Wow." It was amazing! It gave me so much confidence that maybe I can teach a lesson in Spanish if asked to, because with God's help, I can speak Spanish. And I think that's part of why I was transferred to Chowchilla with Sister Howard, because if I had come to Chowchilla with a Spanish speaking companion, I think I would have let my companion do all the talking, and I never would have realized that with God's help, I really can contribute something. 

Also, I love the story of the man with the palsy in Mark 2. The thought I had as I was studying for a specific family this week was that they really needed all 4 people. Imagine if one hadn't shown up. It would have been so much more difficult to get that man up on the roof and to Jesus to be healed. Yes, they probably could have done it with 3 or even 2 people, but it probably would have been a lot more painful for that man. And just like they needed all 4 people, everyone is needed. We all have a role to play in God's plan, and everyone is needed. 

Love you, bye! (The way we end phone calls with other missionaries here!) 

Sister Cate

With Sister Howard this week, we used dry erase markers and pens and pencils to explain how the Jaredites fit into the Book of Mormon, and Coriantumr and how their records were found. It was fun! 

One fun thing about our apartment- we have a TON of snails! 

Can you tell I was tired of inserting records? 

It's so fun to tell people I lived in Gilroy. The look on their faces... 

Sister Howard and I. 

Week 17 (6/25/18): Spicy shrimp and other fun adventures

This week has been good. Nothing super crazy happened, but the missionary work here is slowly getting moving. We taught Gospel Doctrine yesterday, and had two recent coverts and one future investigator there. We were able to answer a lot of her questions. She is coming with a member family, and they have been super helpful. We also stopped by a part member family, and one of their girls wants to get baptized! So we will definitely have a couple baptisms here in the near future!  

We had deep cleaning of the church building on Saturday, and we were assigned to clean the baptismal font. Well, it turns out that water roaches/beetles that are over an inch long like to come up from the drain. So after Sister Howard screamed when they first moved, our ward mission leader and I got them back down the drain, injuring them in the process, and after cleaning the font, we put the plug in so they couldn't come up. Why hadn't they done this before? I have no idea. 

Oh, Mom, you would be so proud of me. So something you may not know about me is that I hate seafood, but shrimp in particular. And I don't do well with spicy food. Well, we went to visit some members and they invited us over for dinner the next day. And what did they have? Ceviche. One was really good. And can you guess what the other was? Yep, spicy shrimp. And raw purple onion, which I also dislike a lot. And normally, I just wouldn't have gotten any of that one. But the abuela made me a plate of food (I had planned to wait a little longer) with one of each. And I ate all of the spicy shrimp. It took me a while. But I was so proud of myself. They had the best piña agua fresca ever, so that made it worth it. We were just excited that they wanted us in their house!  

I also got Sister Howard hooked on family history work yesterday. It was fun to see her get into it. Now to get the rest of the ward hooked! 

Love you tons! 

Sister Cate