Week 16 (6/18/18): Old lady houses put me to sleep...

It's bad. We have visited so many old ladies, and I've almost fallen asleep in each home. Their houses are just so cozy!

The other potential title was "Planning is priceless, but plans are pointless." Because planning invites the Spirit to guide us during the day, but we never actually stick to our plans, because inevitably we've forgotten someone God wanted us to see.

This week has been absolutely crazy! But so good.

Chowchilla is awesome! Everyone told me before I got here that they absolutely love their sisters, and they weren't kidding!!! No one knew we were coming, but we have had dinner every night, and we've had a couple nights where more than one person requested to feed us! We were given two member referrals on our first day here! This place is so prepared! As soon as I got here, I could just feel that the work is ready to explode!

Also, guess what we get to do because there haven't been missionaries in this area for at least 4 months? (Yeah, I didn't know that last Monday, but there haven't been missionaries here since February.) If you guessed putting in records, you're right!! We have 3 binders, with records going back to 2005. Heavenly Father wants to help me learn patience... There was one family I put in who had 57 lessons. And I found one last night who they saw almost every day from October 10th through December 28th. And in November and December, they only missed 11 days. (Out of 61 days) As such, she has been taught 96 times. That's going to be a fun one to put in.

Our zone leaders are the best. They have gone down to Fresno twice for us already, and come down from Merced another time to bring us our area book. They have been so patient as we try to figure out what in the world we're doing. Their support has been crucial during this transition.

Sister Howard is amazing! We work so well together, and we laugh so much!! It has been fun getting to know each other and figuring this out together. We probably haven't gone about everything the most conventional way, mostly because we don't know the conventional way, but it has worked fairly well thus far.

Our bishop wants to push family history with the ward (which is awesome, because I absolutely love family history!!)

I was able to go to the temple with Stefania on Thursday, which was absolutely amazing! Honestly, that was the thing that worried me the most about transfers. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find a ride to the temple. But on Tuesday night, I prayed and felt peace about everything, and I knew everything would work out how it was supposed to. And at the last minute, we found a ride to the temple for me and a member to go out with Sister Howard. And it was just the best answer to prayers ever. God is definitely aware of me!

Anyways, it was a long, but good week.

Love you tons!
Sister Cate






The wonderful angel who took me to the temple.

Week 15 (6/11/18): "We're God's ninjas!"

We ding dong ditch thank you cards. Though we don't ring the doorbell. It's fun. 

So the last 36 hours have been crazy. On Saturday night, we got transfer calls, and we didn't hear anything about us, so Sister Grammer and I thought we were staying. Well, we get a call at about 10:20am yesterday saying that there had been a mistake and we are getting doubled out. So we're both leaving. So we've been saying goodbyes and packing (I hate packing) and trying to get everything in order. I'm going to be going to Chowchilla, which is way up north (so I will be doing so much driving tomorrow) and I'm getting doubled in, so my new companion and I will both be coming in new. So we know nothing. That'll be exciting. But I hear that she's super nice, and that Chowchilla loves their sisters (though they haven't had any in a while. We're opening the area to sisters again.) So you'll hear all about Chowchilla next week! 

We have had so many miracles this week. I don't have time to record all of them, but I'll record as many as I can. 

So on Monday, we stopped by this apartment complex with a ton of potential investigators in it. We were talking to someone, and someone drove up and called us Sisters. So we talk to them and find out that they are members who used to live in Tulare, and that they're just visiting. It turns out that their less active son lives in one of the homes we've tracted before, and we even helped his girlfriend bring her groceries in once! Apparently we also gave her son a picture of Jesus, which made a huge impact on them. We had no idea that their son lived there, but God did. I think it was a huge miracle for the parents that even though we didn't know he was there, the Lord did and He took care of him. 

On Tuesday, we visited Diana. It was amazing. She is so eager to make changes in her life and to bring her family closer to God. We asked if we could visit 2-3 times a week, and she said that was exactly what she needed to actually go through with changing her life! And she wants to involve her husband! 

Then we got a call from someone in the Colorado Denver Mission presidency telling us that a less active and his wife were moving into our ward, and that they want ministers and that the wife, who is not a member, is so prepared to receive the blessings of the gospel. Then we stopped by them a couple days later, and it was a gated apartments and the gate was open (huge miracle. That never happens!) and then it took a us a while to find the apartment and parking. So we are walking over there and we start talking to this lady who is walking the same direction. We then meet her husband, who asks if we've come to meet them, and we had totally just happened to start talking to his wife! It was amazing! And they're super sweet, and they love the missionaries. 

We had a video call with a less active and he said that he wants to come back, and wants to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover, so he wants us to come over once a week to keep him accountable. Which was awesome! 

But the bigger miracle was that right after we ended the call, we saw that one of our investigators, Jose, was online, so we called him up right then, and he picked up! We saw his daughter, found out that he and his wife actually are married, and shared Moroni's promise, and we committed him to get the Book of Mormon app and listen to it in the car. So that was a huge miracle! 

So we have been working with this family in the ward for a while, and this week, I was able to talk with their 10 year old granddaughter and find out that she does know a lot. Then we went back yesterday to say goodbye, and I didn't realize how much of an impact I'd had on Roxie. She really didn't want me to leave, and she made me promise to come back. And for a while now, she didn't want to say prayers (she was fine with other people saying them, but she didn't want to say it), but yesterday, she said the prayer (with my help) when I asked her to! And she asked us to talk about the scriptures with them! It was so cool. She will definitely get baptized fairly soon, and there is no way I'm going to miss it! 

Steven is progressing so much! We had an amazing lesson with him and the Mineral King elders on Thursday, and he really understood it and committed to be baptized on July 14th! Which is my birthday! Best birthday present ever!! And then we taught him again yesterday, and he had seen a miracle during sacrament meeting that really confirmed to him that God knew him and loved him. He is so excited to learn, and he knew that if he hadn't had the trials in his life, he wouldn't have the friends he does or the opportunity to learn more about the restored gospel. And then at the end he prayed and asked God not to send Sister Grammer and I to Africa. It was awesome!

So those were the main ones this week. There were tons of little tender mercies, but if I wrote all of those down, this would easily fill a book by the time I finish my mission. Not that it won't anyways... 

While I'm totally going to miss Visalia, and I will definitely come back later (that's the nice thing about having family in San Jose), I'm excited to start this new adventure! 

Love you tons! 

Sister Cate

Week 14 (6/4/18): Playing tag in a skirt is more difficult than I had anticipated...

The other potential title for this week was "Lawrence the cucumber just doesn't sound right." We were discussing how Larry is short for Lawrence as we tried to find someone on Family Search. We love doing family history work, and we've accomplished so much! 

This week was all good, but Saturday and Sunday were particularly amazing! We have seen so many miracles, and have no doubt that God is in this work. 

On Saturday, we went tracting in Ivanhoe, and we found two families! We have a set appointment with one, and the other we'll teach over Facebook. But one of the families had two boys, and they were so excited that we were helping God, and they wanted to too. So we gave them passalong cards, and they had specific friends they wanted to give them to!  

Then Saturday evening was absolutely amazing. We had an investigator lined up to come to the adult session of stake conference. But then he called and cancelled. And we were kind of disappointed. But it ended up being really good, because it went 2 1/2 hours and he would have been in incredible pain by the end. 

So we're trying to figure out what to do, and we decide to see a less active. As we're going there, we remember that we need to call Tiwi (the driver supervision system) and get a speed limit fixed. Well, it turns out that this company outsources their customer service to India, so we talk to him for 20 minutes only to find out that the speed limit is right, but the GPS is just off. But he did ask us why we went by Sister, so that was cool. 

So we continue to the less active member's house, and when we get there, her nonmember husband answers the door. We'd wanted to meet him for a while, but never had. He had just gotten home! But we had a good long conversation, and he invited members to come do Eagle projects and Pinewood Derby cars at his woodshop. Inspired questions are real, and they totally helped!  And he feels a lot more comfortable with us!

And then we arrived at Jose's at the exact right time to be able to talk to him and teach him all about the Restoration. And he committed him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it!  Jose was a referral from the elders from before we got smartphones. We'd never been able to talk to him, so we were super excited! 

And the timing was just perfect! We never would have met either if it hadn't taken so long to talk to the Tiwi guy! 

Then on Sunday, we had stake conference. At about 9:20, we got a text from a recent comfort, Stefania, saying that her normal ride was out of town. She was speaking in stake conference, so we were a little worried. We had been sitting in a classroom, and we walk out the door, and we see this sister who Sister Grammer had known in the other ward and ask her if she would be willing to give us a ride to Stefania's. She said yes, so we go pick her up. Come to find out she'd told her family to be ready by 9:30, but everyone was ready by 9, so they left. So they were early enough that they could help us!  

Then Stefania's printer was broken, so we needed to print her talk. The right people showed up in the clerk's office and we got the talk printed with time to spare. 

After stake conference, we talked to Sister Duyst and she invited us to join them for the broadcast, since a nonmember friend would be there. She also asked if we had dinner, which we didn't, so she invited us over. God looks out for us!  She also mentioned in passing that the nonmember friend, Steven Farmer, would be at the Harris' this afternoon when we visited. We didn't know this, so it was nice to know beforehand. 

Now quick explanation of Steven. He has been to church 4 times now, though we only met him yesterday. He is really good friends with a bunch of youth in the ward. He actually lives in another ward, but because all his friends are in our ward, we get to keep teaching him. 

We had an amazing lesson with the Harris family on the Temples and Families pamphlet. Steven was so engaged, and the family bore such powerful testimony!  The Spirit was so strong, and it was just amazing. 

Later, we got to watch the broadcast with President Nelson. It was so good, and Steven was so focused, despite the craziness in the room. It was perfect!  And President Nelson's message was so good!  We're looking forward to working more with the youth in this amazing work! 

God has really blessed us this week. It's been the best! 

Love you tons! 

Sister Cate

Week 13 (5/28/18): I've been sent to take a lasagna out of someone's oven

Totally not joking. I can now say that I've been sent to take a lasagna out of someone's oven. We didn't actually get to talk to the mom, but we came in and I noticed that the oven was beeping, so I asked if it needed to be taken out, and it did. I think we'll go back later. 

On Friday, I had a raging headache and was a little bit nauseous. I think it may have been a very mild migraine. So we asked if I could get a blessing. After one of the elder's x-ray finished, they met us at the stake center, and we talked for a little while. Of course it was exactly the same room as we had met with you in. But then one of the elders gave me a blessing (I was too out of it to choose, so one of the zone leaders asked him to) and while it wasn't flowery or complex, he said everything I needed to hear. Not that I was surprised, but it was so clearly God talking to me. And things have been better since then. 

I had a really cool insight while reading the scriptures this week. I was reading in Helaman 8 and 9, and I noticed something I'd never noticed before. The background for this story is that Nephi is a prophet, but the people aren't listening to him, at all. A group there ask for a sign, and he tells them that their chief judge (head of the government) has been killed and that his brother killed him. So this group of people, which includes a bunch of other judges, sends 5 men to go find out if this is true. These five men get there, and when they find that the chief judge actually is dead, they realize that Nephi actually is a prophet. They also realize that the things he'd said would happen if they didn't change their ways really would happen, and they were terrified to the point that they fell to the ground. Well, the servants had gone out to gather the people after the chief judge was stabbed, and when the people gathered, they assumed these five men were the murderers, saying that God had smitten them so they couldn't escape. As if. 

So these five men are thrown in prison. The next day, the chief judge is buried, and only after the burial does the group who sent them remember that they never came back, so they start asking around. Finally, they put it together that they were thrown in prison. So the group goes, confirms that they aren't the murderers, and they're freed. Then the group starts accusing Nephi, the prophet, of conspiring with someone. They then put Nephi in prison, and then he tells them how to catch the brother, giving them the exact steps they'll need. The group then does this, figures out that the brother is guilty and Nephi wasn't involved, so after he was proved guilty, Nephi and the five men are released. 

Catch that? In both verses 18 and 38 (of chapter 9) it says that the five men were released. That means they were put back in prison! And in verse 18, we figure out why. After they were released, they defend the prophet when the group starts accusing him. So they're thrown back in prison. I can only imagine what these men were thinking. "First, we finally believe the prophet, and we're thrown in jail. And then, when we defend the prophet, we're thrown back in jail. Really, God? We finally changed our ways, and we are back in prison." I don't know how long they were in prison, but I assume it was a couple hours at the very least. But in verse 39, we learn that they became missionaries, and people were converted by the testimonies they gained while they were in prison. It says that they didn't just gain a testimony in prison, but that they were converted. I'm sure part of that was the first time they were in prison, but I imagine a lot of that conversion came when they stayed true to what they believed, even after being thrown back in prison. So when we're going through hard times, that's when we become truly converted to God. 

Oh, we went to the ramate (Spanish flea market) in Hanford today, and it was fun. And then we got ice cream. That's a single scoop! 

Also, last time, I stopped counting after I reached a thousand. We got more supplies this week, and I'm up to about 400 again... I will never forget this phone number as long as I live.

Love you tons! 

Sister Cate

Week 12 (5/21/18): "We don't have time to go to the hospital today"

This email will be fairly short. We went to the Sequoias, so we have almost no time left. 

We did a fair amount of family history, and I made a lot of progress! I have been working on one specific person for over a year, and I finally was able to find her birth record, and from that confirm her parents and find her grandparents and so on. I also found an additional sister. So that was an amazing experience. I felt like the family was finally complete. And going to the temple was amazing too. It always is, but it was exactly what I needed this week. 

The Sequoias today were fun. Sister Grammer had fun running ahead and climbing on all the rocks. I'm just glad she didn't fall. We are way too busy today to make a trip to the hospital. I took a number of pictures. It was nice to get out of the city and just enjoy some quiet up in the mountains. Plus it was cold enough that I got to wear my hoodie, which is always a plus. 

Love you tons! 

Sister Cate

Week 11 (5/14/18): "We're dressing more and more like Lamanites every day."

This week was a week of firsts. I went to a funeral for the first time (I'm almost 20 and I'd never been to a funeral. I've been very blessed to have very few deaths of people I know. But it was a little awkward because I'd never met the woman whose funeral it was.) I painted a ceiling for the first time. Someone said, "Sister, you're supposed to paint the walls, not yourself!" Getting paint out of hair is a pain. 

And as always, the tender mercies. The gift of tongues is real. We met this amazing Hispanic woman while tracting, and she was fairly receptive to our message. The tender mercy was that I was actually able to speak Spanish fairly well, so she could understand me just fine, and we even came back the next day to bring her a Book of Mormon. And she spoke so fast. I had such a hard time keeping up. But I understood the important things. It's been amazing to see that when I need to use my Spanish, it just flows, but when I'm not talking to someone who actually needs me to speak Spanish, I really have to focus on it. The gift of tongues is real! 

This next one may seem fairly small, but it was huge to me. This week, we went over to the house of someone in the ward with our recent convert, Stefania, so she could Skype her family in China to get some information about her grandparents and great-grandparents so she could try to work on family history so she could take some family names to the temple this upcoming weekend. First of all, the member paid for the Skype call, all 35 cents of it, though she expected it to cost more. But while Stefania is talking to her grandparents, Sister McDonald, the member, gave us each a Ghiradelli chocolate square. It was the Intensely Dark Sea Salt Soiree variety. And there was no way she could have known that just a couple nights before, I'd been having a really hard time and I'd just wanted some decent dark chocolate with almonds, since that is my mom's favorite, so that is what we always had around. And then not two days later, Sister McDonald hands me almost exactly what I wanted, good chocolate with almonds (and my mom loves sea salt chocolate too, so she really would have loved it). And there is no way that she could have known that that was exactly what I needed to tell me that God was aware of me. I am so grateful for the tender mercies God gives me. 

And of course, Skyping with my family was amazing. It was so good to see their faces and hear their voices. And the baby gerbils were cute. 

I get to go to the temple twice this upcoming week, once with my zone and once with our ward, because Stefania is going to the temple!!! But I'm so excited to be in the House of the Lord again!

Love you tons!!!

Sister Cate

Painting is messy. 

My mom loves me. She picked all the purple jellybeans out for me. And she remembered the barrettes I'd wanted months ago. 

Week 10 (5/7/18): "We're in the Empire Strikes Back phase of the plan."

Said by the Bishop in Ward Council. (Referring to the Plan of Salvation.) 

This week's been pretty good. It's gone by very quickly. 

First, tender mercies from this week. The last three days have been so full of tender mercies. On Saturday night, I met someone new from the ward, (her maiden name is Jennifer Barber) and when I said that my family was from San Jose, she asked if I knew Vincent Cate, and that's my uncle!! She gave me a big hug (which I really needed) and said that my Uncle Vince was one of her best friends from high school! Then we talked for a while about my family and what had happened since she left high school (a long time ago). 

Then yesterday, Sister Vazquez asked us as we were leaving church, "How's your dinner calendar looking? Do you have dinner tonight?" And we didn't have dinner. Then she said that she'd made an extra casserole, so we had dinner, which was a huge miracle, since I'd been praying that someone would sign up for tonight, and I'd gotten this peaceful reassurance that it would be fine. So after getting the calendar back without someone signing up, I was wondering how the Lord was going to make this work, but He did. And she doesn't normally ask us that. 

Then last night, we stopped by this former, and she said, "I'd been wondering where you were." She'd been sort of dropped by the sisters before Sister Hicks and Sister Grammer, and she kind of got lost when they were doubled in. But we've sort of picked her up again. We're going to send her a scripture every day, or every week at least. 

The coolest was probably when we were tracting yesterday, and we met this lady named Valerie who welcomed us in. She had all these pictures of Jesus up in her house, and she told us her story of how she came to know God, and it was so cool. She really had a testimony of the power of God and prayer in specific. She was actually cleaning when we came because she had surgery this morning, and we invited her to receive a blessing. She said yes, and the elders were there in less than 10 minutes! It was really cool, and we're planning on checking in on her in about a week. 

Then we also met a Spanish family, and talked to them for a bit (the gift of tongues is real!) and we talked about how Jesus Christ is the center of the Plan of Salvation. Then we gave them a Plan of Salvation pamphlet, and the dad was reading it as we drove away!!

So we've gotten very familiar with the car repair shop. We've gotten two flat tires in two weeks. One part of our area has a lot of nails and screws that have fallen out of truck beds. It's bad. So thank you Dad for teaching me how to change a tire! 

Love you tons! 

Becca