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