Don't pay no minds to the demons, they fill you with fear

This week's shout out goes out to Mikkel. Heaven help your parents... :)

I learned that if you check your watch a lot, you'll eventually check it in your dreams and it'll be like inception and you can change your dreams cuz time gets really funky. Look out Leonardo DiCaprio.

We got to see a general authority this week! Elder... Audikitis. I think. He's from Brazil. But it was great! 5 hours and I totally spaced out (silly attention span) but it was really good. He talked a lot about setting goals and what not. It was really good. So this week we have a goal for 2 baptisms. I'm not entirely sure how we will get there, considering we don't really have anyone, but I'm sure the Lord will make it happen if it is supposed to. 

Azadeh is doing great. She just absorbs everything. Like an absorbent towel. She came to church this Sunday, and we had the primary program. It was fantastic. There were only 13 kids, but they all did such a great job and they were all so cute. But she loved that, and she wants a Children's Songbook to send to her daughter. She is soooo ready for the gospel. I just hope her father and her ex-husband are okay with it. But even if not, Heavenly Father knows the desire of her heart and she will be totally fine. 

The relief society talked about me! Only in name. Which I can't reveal at the present moment. But I was mentioned! And so was Ashley. Shout out to my favorite. But it was a great meeting too haha

I totally don't want to write anymore. I think I'm almost done.

We had a "linger longer" yesterday and it's just where we stay after church and eat food. But this cute little girl named Mikkel loves Veggietales and has to tell Sister Slaughter everytime she sees her, so she started purposefully running by us while we were standing there. She's so cute. But then we were sitting down and she was talking to Sister Slaughter, and I was talking to another kid at the table, and then Mikkel totally jacked my name tag. Punk kid. She's the cutest though. I ripped a piece of paper and wrote her last name on it so it could actually be hers and she was so excited to be a missionary. So then I sat down and took some paper and created name tags for her and her companion, Allie. They were sooo cute. And then we took pictures together and they're hilarious. So I will have to get them to you later because they are on Sister Slaughter's camera haha. 

So I quoted the song "Home" by Phillip Phillips in the subject heading. And obviously there's a reason for that (I couldn't think of a Taylor Swift song with a spiritual message). But actually, this song converted someone. Good stuff, huh? And it was the last song I learned to play on guitar. But I think there's a lot of good that comes from that one line. Demons can be pretty freaky. I've watched my share of horror movies, and yeah, scary. Sometimes. But for myself, a lot of my demons are from within. Conquering these demons is impossible on your own, and sometimes they aren't meant to be conquered. Sometimes you just gotta tame them. But in Moroni 8:16, it says "And I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear." Which is totally true. A lot of times if you love, you forget about yourself. It's a neat thing, to care that much for others that you forget yourself. Just forget about the demons. Which is pretty hard actually. But I know that if we try really hard and actually just give it over to the Lord, He will take care of it. Like everything else in this world.  

I hope you all know I love you!

Love,

Sister Kwan

My Life is a Gourd

This weeks shout out goes out to the moth who decided it would be a good idea to fly near our less active's face and literally got thrown on the ground. Take it easy little buddy. 

                               

Best FHE ever!

We had a crazy number of things happen this week. Unfortunately because I'm almost positive that Alzheimer's is infectious and I've hit my head too many times, I am not sure this e-mail will have everything. 

We got the prompting to walk around the streets at night and we find this day planner. We crack it open, and it is sooo packed of events. I like delved into it so we could figure out who's it was, and this woman was a shrink. There was so much private information in there, it was crazy. We opened to the front page and there wasn't any contact information in there, but I saw this sheet of paper with some like suicide hotline numbers on it, and there was a name on top and I felt like we should call it, so we did. She gets our call and is super grateful. We met her at like 10 at night in a bank parking lot and it was super shady. Like the one tree in the park at noon on the hottest day of the year type shady. But she's apparently met with missionaries before but... she was nice haha

Singing in church. Talk about a huge kick in the face. Of the spirit. I'm like playing the piano and listening to them was like. Holy cow it blew me away. So awesome. And her mom recorded it and said she'd put it up on Youtube, hopefully it'll be up soon haha I'll get the link out. Everyone told us it was fantastic, and with this ward... either they're super nice like your grandparents and would lie to you no matter what... or they'll tell it to you straight up, so. 

We had this awesome fireside called "Why I Believe" and they have recent converts get up and bear their testimony and talk about their conversion stories. It was way cool. Way way awesome. These people have great stories and there's a common element in all of them- member missionary work. Boom. But the best talks were the ones where people didn't write anything. Like they just spoke by the spirit and rocked it.

And I've picked up this awful habit this week. I'm telling people that they're my favorites. And not like everyone, but it's starting to become like everyone. But I mean it, nbd. But what I did learn is that I really love this ward. The old people are great, the teenagers are sassy as all get out, but they love me and I love me, so I must be pretty awesome. Haha and I love those punk kids too. It's weird that they're only a couple years younger than me. And I love the ten people that are between there and below there. This is a great ward. So grateful. 

This week I really liked Alma 26:30. You all should look it up yourselves, but that's basically a mission. At least for me. 

Keep Rockin On

Love

Sister Kwan

Carry on

This week's shout out goes out to... errybody. You're awesome, and don't you forget it. Sure do love you all. Seriously, I'm always super grateful when I hear from you, but it's weird because I can feel the prayers too. Really you should pray for the people meeting me haha but I need it too, so thanks :)

Our walls are super thin and our neighbor has been playing this weird chanting music. I can't even begin to describe it but every time it starts up I feel like pieces of my soul are getting chanted away in the beat. 

Yesterday in one of our meetings, we had a social media training. Which was odd, because most of these people don't have Facebook. And they viewed it as time consuming. And I was like "Yo it only takes 20 seconds tops once you figure out what you're doing" but yeah. At least they are trying. I might be writing soon about sitting there and trying to teach people how to create an account. 

I HAD COTTON CANDY GRAPES YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!11 They were so cool. It's this green grape, but then like. You bite it and it's like a cotton candy explosion. It was only a little uncomfortable. Haha no, it wasn't. It was yummy. 

We got a prompting to buy ice cream for a girl in our ward, so we went to buy it, and then we needed gas, so we went and got gas, and there's Glendoris, the recycling champ, dumpster diving (called it). We were like "Hey! Do you want ice cream?" And she's like "yeah!" So we bought her some. And the girl in our ward wasn't home. So I'm pretty sure we were only inspired to buy ice cream because of Glendoris... but she enjoyed it, so that's always good. 

On preparation day... lunch with other sisters from the district.

One of our youth almost ran me over last night. Only, it was more like I was standing outside and I see her car coming at me so I move but she rolls up and she says "I thought about hitting you" and in my head, my first thought was "Headline: Local missionary hit in church parking lot." I would say we have a good relationship with our ward haha but seriously, they love us :D like everyone else in the world.

We also found out Hilary Duff and Kristi Yamagutchi (sp?) live around here. Talk about the best incentive to go knock doors. Gotta convert 'em all 

And now for an inspirational story by yours truly. 

So I'm praying, and an idea hits me like a brick wall. Like a freaking bullet to the gut. And mentally I was like "no... are you freaking... nonono... NONONONO- fine." I'm laying in bed waiting for Sister Slaughter to finish her 35+ minute prayer, and I'm like "I got inspiration but I don't like it... we have to sing in Sacrament meeting" And it's funny, because everything fell into place for it to happen. The music coordinator asked us if we could sing without us even asking, crazayyyyy. But the day she gave us was, drum roll, the 22nd! For some reason I thought it was like a month away. Totally false. That's this Sunday. Then here's the kicker/miracle. We were just going around asking for help picking a song, and we are at this girl's house, and she isn't a member but she has a great voice, so we were asking her for help. Then Sister Slaughter was like "I can't do this! I get so nervous, and there are so many people, and-" And this girl says "It's ok, I'll be there. I'll sing with you!" And we both did a double take like "WHAT" but yeah. This is the story of how God makes things happen when you do what He tells you to. Obedience, what up. It's also the story of how Sister Kwan is playing "I Will" on the piano again after 3 years of not playing it and miraculously remembering, and how you get a non-member to perform in Sacrament meeting with you. #churchistrue

                        Becca, the investigator who sang with Sister Slaughter at the sacrament.

Hope everyone is having a fanflippintastic week!

Love,

Sister Kwan 

Oh man, I totally forgot! Our Muslim investigator is so great. We are still being careful because she needs to talk to her dad, who is most likely to be against it, but still. We dropped off a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and she read it all by the next day when we went to see her. She asked us about tea, but she drinks herbal tea, so everything is right on track. But the greatest part was when she started bearing testimony to us of the Word of Wisdom. Talk about power.

The hills are alive with... the smell of fire?

This week's shout out goes out to the fam bam. 

So there's this mountain called Mt. Diablo in our area and it's on fire. Not like, #1 Scenic Mountain in "Mountains Weekly" for the past 10 weeks, but literal fire, the hot kind. We got evacuated out of church haha and it was kind of great. Sort of. They still haven't put out the fire, and they're nervous because the wind blows a lot here and it could spread super fast. My first thought was that we've already had a gas leak and now we have a fire, who knows what's next... 

This 40 Day Fast thing is really taking off, holy cow. We are like twice as busy now because we are meeting with a lot of members, but they love us. We don't know why. Actually, we do. We're adorable, how could you not. But a lot of less actives really like us because we don't "hammer them with the gospel" and I mean. I think we need to get to know them before we start discussing the gospel, right? Just doin' my job. 

We had dinner with the cutest family in the world the other day. Their daughter Allie is getting baptized this Saturday, so we are trying to find an investigator to go, but they are the cutest. We were playing Candyland with them while we were waiting for dinner. Then we had dessert and I was talking to the youngest one, Liza, who's like 3, and I was like "Wow you ate your ice cream fast! Where is it?" And she says "In my teeth" hahahaha so cute. 

Ozzy is a wonderful human being. Honestly, she is so great. She's one of those people that you wish nothing bad would ever happen to, but I think she has a pretty hard life. She is super sweet and always willing to talk to us. She is open to asking questions and meeting new people and overall she is just fantastic. 

As for our other investigators... Our investigators seem to disappear off the face of the planet. Wendy, who we were doing yard work for, hasn't been home in a month. And no one knows where she is. And Amanda is like everywhere and nowhere. But I'm sure they will turn up soon... Man. 

So the other day someone was smoking and I was like "WHAT that's not fun. Twister with paint is fun. Smoking is not. What are you doing." And I guess a lot of times we know that what we are doing isn't that great for us, but why do we keep doing it? Because we're stubborn. Because we think we're cool. Because it helps us avoid other problems. But I'm not so sure that's what's ultimately going to make us happy in the long run. For now it's great, but you know, I've heard lung cancer sucks. I guess what I'm just trying to say is that wise people make wise choices. Just something to think about I guess.

Have a terrific week!

Love,

Sister Kwan

Tanlines for dayss

This week's shout out goes out to Smash. Go get 'em.

I'm kind of tired of typing today haha so sorry this one will probably be lame.

This week our ward starts the 40 day fast! Every family in the ward fasts for a day and we just work with them so they can be member missionaries. Sweet deal right? Some people are more excited than others, but I think it's going to be great. And I bore my testimony yesterday and I was like "Why would over 80,000 young adults leave their family, friends, and education, to ultimately face rejection on a daily basis? That's... that's stupid." I did, in fact, say stupid over the pulpit. People were paying attention though, let me tell you. Anyways, we meet with the family a couple days before they fast, and then the day they break their fast. The first family we did it with was great. We had this awesome discussion about aliens, bigfoot, mermaids, unicorns, and ghosts. I'm actually convinced on the existence of... all of them at this point haha. Seriously though. I'm a believer.

We scheduled appointments with Amanda, but she bailed on just about all of them. We found out she drove to the Golden Gate bridge to clear her head and I was like "Wait are you-? She better not jump" but she's ok. That night we also had a member meet us there at the chapel and she calls us whispering like "...hey. There's a guy by the light post and I'm not sure if he's talking to his dog or himself so I'm just going to chill in my car..." poor girl. Then we dragged her out to see a less active and since his house was gated, we got creative. We went through his neighbor's gate and like hiked through a small forest and got to his house. Luckily he was there, because it was like pitch dark outside. Long tangent, sorry. We were going to see Amanda Sunday at church, but she was in Oklahoma. Who even goes there? Haha but she's going through a really hard time and we're sitting here like "hey, if you listen to us, we can make your life better, ten-fold, promise!" But I don't think she's sold. We're still working on it though...

I love this ward. The best was this one lady who I had talked to at the reception, and I was like "Yeah, my favorite food is pizza and my favorite flavor of ice cream is... chocolate." Turns out she was feeding us this week! And guess what we had? That's right, mashed potatoes and chicken. Naw, I'm just kidding. She made us homemade margarita pizza! And bought chocolate ice cream. Sure do love this ward. I mean, who does that? Bless her heart, I'm so so grateful. We had pizza 3 times this week. Didn't even have to pray for it

We were able to meet up with our Muslim investigator twice this week! Her name is Ozzy. She is seriously the sweetest. She is soooo ready. We asked if she'd be baptized and she was like "YES! Of course!" And honestly, I think we should just have a choir following us to sing "Hallelujah" everytime something wonderful happens. It'd probably get annoying but they sort of go off in my head and Sister Slaughter thinks I'm crazy everytime I start laughing. But she's really really great. We are going to keep teaching her and hopefully everything goes well!! :D

This week we had a ward barbecue and there were some homeless people we tried to convert. Haha jk we just tried to give them a Book of Mormon. One guy was like "I already have one" and the other one sped off faster than a snail. We got to talk to a bunch of people and there was a 13 year old girl who was there there with her aunt who wasn't a member and I started trying to find a young woman her age to talk to her. But I'm talking to this girl, and I'm changing her name, but I was like "Annie. Go talk to that girl, she needs to talk to someone who isn't over 50." and she goes "Why? She seems kind of anti-social and I don't need friends." And in my head I was like "Jesus didn't need you either." In the end, I sold her on it, because how could you say no to this face? It's impossible. But I don't remember being that frustrating to work with. I'm pretty sure we went and talked to people on our own but whatever 

Something that popped into my head while I was tossing and turning at night was this one really really awful day I had and it's 4:30 and I pull into the parking lot of my workplace and just break down. And I called my friend and she was like comforting me, but then I had to go to work at 5. I cleaned myself up a little and walked in, but my boss was like "Are you ok?" And I lied and said yes, as most people do haha. Then she was like "Well, I'm here if you need to talk." And that kind of made all the difference. It wasn't pushy or overbearing, it was just really supportive. I think as people, sometimes we forget that we don't need large gestures to get a point across, sometimes it's just really simple. And you don't know what's going on in a person's life, so why pretend? Everyone has their own demons, the last thing we need to do is make it worse. 

I'm attaching the pictures I said I would last week! They're great! I found a clown nose! How much do you miss me now? Haha :)

Hope everyone has a great week! Just keep swimming

Love,

Sister Kwan