Transfer Tuesday

This week's shout out goes out to hot cheetos. They've become my new addiction. 

So... I'm going to Brentwood 3rd ward! Which I guess covers something called Discovery Bay? It's the end of the mission! But my companion will be Sister Lutui. It's super exciting. Although all I've heard about it is that it's super hot. Hottest place in the mission. There's a ton of fruit there. It's cherry season. And they have the best corn in America. So we will see :) 

 I don't really have much to say this week. Farewells are so sad. Life is hard. I think that's something that I've come to realize here is that we really don't have control over much in our lives. And you'd think that we would learn that SO much faster but we never do. 

There's a sister in this area who was crying when we showed up. Her husband is having Alzheimer's and he randomly leaves and remembers where he needs to be, but otherwise, he goes off to find his wife who looks a lot like her. It's super sad and she's having such a hard time. She refuses to accept the gospel's answers and there you can see how much it would bless her if she would just take it. 

This week's thought is about the Book of Mormon. Here we have a blue book about these people who traveled from Jerusalem to America. And they fight. A lot. And they learn a lot. And yet this book is so much more than that. It's God's word. So really, The Book of Mormon is true or it isn't. Either I'm lying to you, or I'm not. Either Joseph Smith Jr was a prophet, or he wasn't. Either 80,000 young adults have given up the best years of their lives to serve God, or they aren't. Either 15 million people are in Christ's church, or we are all being deceived. My invitation to you all is this:

 3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things,if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart,with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

Because I know it's true. I have read it many times and every single time it's true. This book brings peace. This book brings hope. But it's not just a book. These are God's words to us, today. Because He loves us, He's given us this additional help on our trip back to Him. 

Ask. And you WILL know. 

Love you all

Sister Kwan 

From Allergies to Agency

This week's shout out goes out to Sable the kitty. So. Cute. 

Well. This week has not enough time.

The temple was awesome. 

Met this lady at the store.

Her: This brand is super popular in Australia

Me: Are you from Australia?

Her: Yup

Me: Wow! What brought you here?

Her: Love

She's seriously my new favorite person haha

The high school here does this thing called "Every 15 minutes" and it was super awesome because it's like every 15 minutes someone dies from a distracted driving car accident, be it alcohol related or cell phones. Anyways, they actually pull people out of school and stage an accident and it's really crazy. People "die" mostly because their phones are taken from them (hahaha) and they go to a retreat away from family and friends. It's a super cool concept. Anyways, we were there helping out and this fireman comes and talks to us. We aren't sure if he was super interested in the gospel because afterwards he invited us to the firehouse for dinner. Luckily, it's out of our area so we "can't go." 

Everyone's been telling me I've become a "permanent fixture" here. It's ONLY been 6 months haha

Diamond Terrace seems to be a very Anti-Mormon facility. I'd say 50% of people don't care about us because they don't know who we are, and then 48% REALLY don't like us and 2% are ok with us/love us. But it's ridiculous how many mean looks we get. I didn't realize you could harbor hatred for someone who's really done nothing to you, but I've been wrong before I guess

Here's a conversation with a less active 18 year old

Me: So I have 6 months left and we exercise 30 minutes a day. How do I get back in shape?

Patrick: ...You can't

Me: What?

Patrick: Well. Depends how hard you want to work out

Me: I just want to lose the belly fat.

Patrick: Oh. Planks are good for that

Me: But those are hard...

Patrick: Wellllll

So this week we got to Skype home and stuff. And the interesting thing I was thinking about was this... "500 Days of Summer" is my favorite movie to hate on, but I still kind of love it. At least the filmography is wonderful. Anyways, there's a scene in there that shows Tom's expectations vs reality and it's my favoritest scene ever. Well I put my life on pause for 18 months and had this unrealistic expectation that everyone else's life would pause too... Which is totally false. But for some reason that didn't click for me until recently. Anyways, for those of you who haven't e-mailed me or written me, here is my thought for you: Alma 60:6

 6 And now behold, we desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect; yea, we desire to know the cause of your thoughtless state.

And my thought for everyone else haha 3 Nephi 13:33

 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take care. Love you all!

Sister Kwan

We all pee on the tile sometimes

This week's shout out goes out to Maggie the puppy. It's because of her that we have this wonderful message title this week. So. Cute. And my mom! Hooray for mother's day! She's cute too. 

This week was a scorcher. It was like 100 degrees and I was only kind of dying. Allergies were on full blast and there must've been some really important things for all of us to do that day, because it was hard. But it was a good day. 

MY NAME TAG WAS FOUND!!!!!! Seriously, it was unbelievable. Remember the Alvarez family? Well they actually aren't relevant to this story haha. Jeff approaches us across the street and he's like "Hey! Sister Kwan! I have something for you!" And I was like "Chocolate?" And he had my name tag! And I was like "AH WHERE DID YOU FIND THIS" and he was like "Well, saw it in a trash can in the park! We were so concerned for your well being" And I was so touched. They are so sweet. But seriously it's a miracle. Most people don't look in the trash can. And it happened to be the right moment for him to look and see, and man the Lord works in such mysterious ways. 

Kolonie has a baptismal date! June 7th. The hope is that her brother will be able to baptize her, but it's been really neat seeing their whole family come back. They haven't gone to church and years and now they are working towards being together forever. It's really neat to see the changes and the spirit that comes with living the gospel!

Oh so while I remember, you probably won't hear much from me next week because we are going to the temple on Wednesday! Hooray for the temple! So not only will you not hear from me until later, you probably won't hear much from me either haha. Sorry. 

So we invited our chiropractor (who's a member) and his family to start working towards being sealed in the temple. That's him, his wife, his 18 year old son Blake, and their 12 year old son Max. Blake is planning on going on a mission, so we challenged them to work towards doing it before he leaves. Now they're taking temple prep! Fast forward to Sunday, where Bishop says, "Blake came up to me and asked if I had talked to his parents. I said 'I wish I could take credit for this one, but it was the sisters.' He expressed a lot of gratitude for bringing his family to this point. Thank you." And I had never thought of like how much more that invitation really was. It extends far beyond what I can comprehend, but here's what I do comprehend. So they will all be sealed together. Blake will serve a mission and share this with others. And really it just blows up from their, but it was just really neat. These small things that we're doing are actually helping. It blows my mind. But I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be here to do it. I think one of the most valuable lessons I've learned is from my mom. She's not perfect but she's always trying to help someone. And a lot of times, it probably doesn't seem like she's doing anything and she keeps at it. That's a Christlike love. These people hardly ever do anything in return for her, but she keeps doing it. Some people are just born with good hearts. And some people like me are just born with good moms. 

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms :)

Love
Sister Kwan

Proselyting with a Puppy

This week's shout out goes out to Lauren. Who I remembered her birthday and forgot to shout it out so I'm doing that this week haha

Kim is doing fantastic. Everything in her life is on the up-swing except for her family, and their situation is kind of hard since they're all living together. She's trying to raise Ayden one way, and they want to go another way, so it's a lot of frustration since they don't really see a way out yet. But they recognize that the Lord has a plan, because if they hadn't been in their situation in the first place, they would never have met the missionaries. So all's well ends well. 

We found a puppy that was just wandering, so we picked him up and started knocking doors and asking people if he belonged to them. It's really quite brilliant and I wish we found animals more often! Everyone's heart was like "Oh that's so nice of you to help him find his home..." but we can't have pets haha oh well. 

Went on splits this week with the wonderful sister in our ward who brought us balloons and candy, and her 12 year old daughter Emma! It was a really nice experience. Emma invited someone to come to an activity and she totally got shot down, and she was kind of panicking about how it went down. It was neat to see how her mom handled it- she talked about how there's agency and how we do things by the spirit so they can know for themselves. It was neat. 

Got to go back to Alamo on exchanges! It's weird going back there, it's like going home. It was a great experience to learn from Sister Goddard, who actually came out with me. We were just waving at cars and suddenly one pulls over! She was already a member. But she was house hunting from Texas, and we talked to her. She was pretty frantic, so I'm glad we were there to calm her down. She was like "I just saw missionaries and I felt relieved! I knew there was someone who would tell me about the area!" It was great to be of service that way. 

Warren's heart is slowly being softened! He read the Book of Mormon! Which was a really big deal because he hasn't this whole time. He still has a ton of questions and major issues with Joseph Smith, but he's getting there. Very very slowly. And he's totally anti-government/organized anything. So we don't really know what to do with that.. 

This week's weather went from hot to super cold and rainy. There was a down pour. And then I stepped in poop. That was exciting. And I lost my name tag! One second it was on me, and the next thing I know, I have no idea where it's at. So I felt the next hour feeling super naked. 

We had a service activity where we cleaned up Clayton. The thing is, Clayton is super clean. We were like actively seeking trash to pick up. We ended up roaming the sides of super steep hills in tall grass searching for trash. Which we found a lot of actually. Lots of beer bottles, tires, ketchup pouches.. you name it haha but we didn't realize it was rattlesnake season. Luckily nothing happened, but we will probably be more careful in the future. I did find a tick in my hair later. I felt it moving, grabbed it, saw that it was something that was alive, and threw it. Then I had to find it, and I taped it to a piece of paper. Then I gave it to some kids who love bugs haha. 

Considering the way this week has been, I've been thinking a lot about persistence. So here's this quote:

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

And I'd just say think about it. There's a lot of good messages, and if you need help I can start with one. I always say that a room full of good intentions is empty. And it sounds super mean, but if I had every intention to pay you back, did I? No. But as long as we keep trying, then we will be able to accomplish something, anything. God does not expect perfection, but He does expect us to continue to try.

Happy Spring/Summer!

Sister Kwan

Easter Holladays

This week's shout out goes out to Jesus Christ. Go here and watch this http://easter.mormon.org/

Kim went out with us to teach a member family. She was awesome! We talked about the resurrection and she killed it. That totally came out really weird. But anyways, she did an awesome job teaching with us. And she made us Easter baskets! She is so nice. For real. 

So we were like kind of sick this week so we were confined to the apartment. It really wasn't that fun. I guess you'd think that it would be, but really you just feel super guilty for not working haha but we did get to watch The Lamb of God! It was really good. You should watch that too.

This week Bob called us asking for a journal, and we didn't have time to go out and find him a journal. So we were looking around the apartment, and I had bought one at Ross the other day, and the other was from Kim and it was pretty girly looking actually. As I looked at the one from Ross, which was leather with a lot of uplifting messages and it snaps shut, my thought was "He's so frustrating. He doesn't deserve this." And at that instant, I knew I had to give it to him. Because the most important things in life aren't things. And it's really just a journal. It was just an interesting moment where I had a huge switch of perspective, and it was actually pretty neat.

Hitched a ride with the Alvarez family to stake conference, which was in Oakland. It was insane in that her kids are kind of crazy. We were trying to play car games and the attention span was shorter than goldfish. (And side note. We caught a caterpillar this week and gave it to them. I was really intent on calling him Mahonri Moriancumr, but Sister Underwood wanted Johnny. So they named him Sticker. Because he sticks to things.) But it was enjoyable because who doesn't like a little dysfunction? Right? The perfect family is a lot harder to find than most of us think.  

Anyways, since I only just realized the other day that it was in fact Easter, I was like oh shoot better start studying. So I picked up my Bible. And I ended up comparing all 4 gospels and it was really neat to see all the things that piece together to create the Easter story- the story of how Christ lived and died. And lived again. And it's kind of crazy when you really think about it. I'm going to break it down.

So you know you have 24 hours to live. What do you do?

You celebrate the passover. You wash your 12 best friends' feet. 

Then you go to a garden and take on the sins, afflictions, and feelings, of everyone who has lived, is living, and will live on this planet. Your suffering and agony surpasses anything and you want to stop- but you understand that if you do, then hope for all mankind will be lost. 

One of your best friends comes up and kisses you. Next thing you know, you're getting arrested.

Following your arrest, you get some completely unfair trials and you just keep getting beat up.

The beatings continue, and most people die from the things you've been handling. You suffer in silence.

Finally, these people you grew up with decide that you need to be crucified. So you do. 

Now this isn't your typical final 24 hours. Let's REALLY think about this. Would you be able to? No. Because no one else could do it. And everyday I just think. How grateful am I for what He did? How much would I be willing to suffer for myself AND others? But only through Christ can we be cleansed from sin and be released from our feelings of guilt and shame. Only through Christ can we start over, and REALLY start over. It's all because of Him.

Happy everything :)

Love

Sister Kwan

This week's shout out goes out to Kim! She's so great! 

"If you haven't been offended lately, you haven't been to church"

Kim's baptism was magnificent. It was seriously one of the best things ever. She was literally glowing. And it's like one of those moments where everyone knows it's going to happen but when it does you're like "Is this for real?" But it was great. Pictures to follow! We went to the visitor's center after, super peaceful and they were really able to feel the spirit, which was great. 

We always walk by these two girls in our ward as they're walking home, but this time they saw us walking with bleach and duck tape in hand. Not sure what they thought haha

Miracles.

Had a Relief Society activity, 40 meals in 4 hours about creating freezer meals. The sister who gave it did a great job and we were helping her clean up. Then as everyone's leaving, she goes, "Where is my car key?" And we were like aw no. So we were searching back and forth for a pretty long time. Just back and forth from the car, to the church, and back. And again. And nothing. So we drove to her home and got her spare key, and came back. We go inside to leave a note on the board about a lost key, walk back out and right in the middle of the sidewalk. I look down and I was like "Oh. Here's the key. WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIDEWALK." So we found out. The best part about this though, is as a result, we were able to fix her car (with duck tape) and clean it out for her! She was so grateful, but that didn't really matter. We were just glad to help. 

We saw a lady smoking on the street in the dark and I was like "HEY THAT"S MYRA" so I pulled the car over and we got out and talked to her. She's still not totally interested but she goes, "I told my daughter some girls tried to clean my house the other day. She started laughing." Hopefully we run into her more, she could really use more hope in her life. 

The other day we got the opportunity to share a thought with a large group of people, which I did. From like the back row of people, I hear this lady go, "She's a good speaker. I can hear her..." and I started laughing so I couldn't hear the rest of the things she said. 

It was a week of cancellations. Nonetheless, it was a good week. 

This week's thought is on Easter. I didn't even realize it was Easter until yesterday, but it is! This is the season to remember Christ. It's kind of a big deal, because it's not every day that someone takes upon them all your sins and afflictions and pains and then dies and then is resurrected. The best part is that because of Jesus Christ, we can all be clean! And live again! It's the best deal ever, because we don't have to pay anything for it. By the grace of God, we can repent of our mistakes and live with God again. Do we deserve it? No. Do we try and earn it? No. Do we want it? Well, that's the question. Sure we are saved, but if we don't try to be more Christlike, would we want to live with God? Probably not. And that's it, really. If we want to be WITH God, we have to be LIKE God. It's kind of like. Sure I want to be with fish. But if I'm not fish-like, then I'm going to drown. But if I try my best to grow gills (bear with me on this one) then I'll be able to swim with them. Either way, I hope you get my point haha. 

 

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter! 

Sister Kwan

Holy Hotness

This week's shout out goes out to the California weather. 40 degrees and haling Thursday, 85 degrees and sunny on Friday. I'm not complaining, but I sure am sweating.

We survived transfers! Another 6 weeks in Clayton with Sister Underwood. It was kind of crazy because literally minutes before, Kim asked us to speak at her baptism. There was no breathing as that call happened. Transfer calls are almost like waiting to hear if someone made it through surgery...

Speaking of Kim. SHE"S GETTING BAPTIZED THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is so nervous and so excited and so are we. This is pretty insane. Weeks of preparation all come together for this moment. Unfortunately, she's been dealing with a lot of opposition, especially from her husband's side of the family. Lots of angry texts and crying, but ultimately, everyone is okay. They prayed and felt at peace with their decision, and I really wish it was that easy with everything. But yes, Saturday morning at 10! So stoked. 

One of the greatest things happened this week. Here we are, sitting and planning. We get a text from a member.

"Where do you live?"

"The apartments by the church"

"Okay I'm on my way" 

And we were like what? Anyways, we walk outside, and this member has balloons. And we were like "Who's birthday is it?" But it turns out that this dear member just wanted to show us her love and appreciation for the work that we do. It truly was a tender moment. Just to know that someone was trying to understand and help was really great. I was just filled with gratitude at that moment, and it really makes me think what kind of member I want to be when I get home. 

Met with Alisa, who has the cutest kids. They are also pretty rambunctious. So I was given the job of distracting them while Sister Underwood taught. I don't think that's how we're supposed to do it, but it ended up being the most effective. We went from constant screams to basically silence. They were watching me draw. Luckily I have some drawing capabilities, be it limited. Using my talents! But she is super interested. She really wants to know for herself, so we are providing her with the materials that will answer her questions so she has to seek the information. 

On a funnier note, it's the strangest thing being hit on by a 70 year old man on the mission. And he kissed my hand. I was like "AH NO AH WHAT DO I DO" in my head. But it started with a phone call. Some other sisters called us and told us to talk to him and so we did. And suddenly he asks "Are you married?" And I was like "No... we are missionaries. We don't get married until after our missions." And he says "Oh. Ok. Well I figured with a voice like yours, you'd have 900 guys chasing after you." So first I was a little insulted because there's always that joke about having a face made for radio. But then I was like eh my voice is kind of low and a little raspy, definitely not radio status. And then we were like "900? That's a weird number." Anyways, it continued when we actually met with him in real life and he also hit on our married member. We left him a pamphlet and our number in case he ever wanted to come to church haha

Warren is... slowly getting it. Super slowly. We all walked out exhausted from our last lesson with him. But it's good, because we are able to help him resolve his concerns and I think he's slowly opening up. He is super concerned for our safety and told us he'd buy us some mace. I'm unsure of whether or not it's going to be one of those spiky ball weapons or if it's like pepper spray, but I'm kind of excited to see! 

In better news, we have a new less active! Cherie, who wants to be active! She is a convert who was Jewish before, but wants to come back to church. We texted her and she said come right over! So we did. We started talking about the atonement, and she really liked that. It's so powerful in our lives every day. Then she went into figuring out who we were without even telling us. It was something along the lines of this:

Cherie: So you (Sister Underwood) are a pisces? And you (me) are a capricorn right?

Me: Uh. Yeah...

Cherie: And let me guess. Your birthday is.. January 9th? 

Me: (Who is this woman...) Yeah....

Anyways she had us all figured out. It was kind of insane how good she is at reading people. We've only talked to her like twice and she already knew us. She's awesome though, and hopefully she will start coming back to church again! 

I don't even know where to start! Wasn't General Conference great? How blessed we are to have a modern prophet today! I loved the talk about the 4 minutes. I couldn't even tell you who said it, but I loved how he related our life to the Olympic events. Our life here is a short time, a small moment if you will. And for someone like me who lacks foresight, I have to break it down into even smaller segments. As of right now, it's the mission. And all these things that I've already learned, are going to help me in the next "4 minutes" of my life. I know God lives. I know He loves us. I know there's a lot in this world that will make us happy, but not a lot of things that will bring us joy. This gospel and the knowledge of God's plan for us will bring us that joy. Some things will make us sad, but I know that Jesus Christ has already felt everything that we go through, and His hands are always extended towards us to lift and comfort. May we all do the things we need to in order to have this joy.  

Take care! Love you all :D

Sister Kwan

Shoot. I forgot my camera cord. Look for next week! We played chubby bunny...