So... transfers are Tuesday... and Sister Rolfson and I.... are both staying in Laguna Beach!!! :D #LagunaBeach4Life
We had a great week, although nothing super major happened. Tuesday we had an exchange with San Juan Spanish Hermanas again, and I worked on my Spanish skills. (Me hablo espanol un puccito, no mucho.) It was a super good exchange and I loved being with Hermana Christensen! Life is so much fun with her! But it was kinda forever ago and I don't really remember a lot that happened...
Wednesday we visited Ronnie, a less active young woman, in the hospital. She was having some testing done for some seizures she's had, and it was a fun surprise for her :) We tried our best to cheer her up, telling stories and talking about fun things and keeping things light-hearted. It was fun and felt good, and we shared a message about Alma 26:37, "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." I know God is mindful of us always, wherever or whoever we are. He knows and loves every single one of His children. Ronnie surprised us by asking some very sincere questions about why bad things happen in life, and we talked about God's love, our choices and agency, and our purpose in life. Mainly we talked about how we are here to learn and grow and make choices for ourselves. Hopefully it stuck with her, because it stuck with us and it was one of those rare times when we really saw our service making a difference immediately. Sister Baker used to always tell me to "make someone's day every day," and I've always tried to do that, and that day I know we succeeded.
Wednesday night we had our last lesson with the A family, and passed them to the Dana Point elders. It was hard to say goodbye, especially as BooBear kept interrupting and making Sis Rolfson and me "answer the phone" on his calculator lol. But they LOVE their new home and they will love their elders there! They are excited for the changes ahead, and we are excited for them.
Thursday we had a funny door knock. We walked up to a door and heard people inside, then we rang the doorbell and there was just silence. We waited, and a minute later heard an old lady shout, "Are you gonna answer the door??" to which the man replied, "SSHHHH!!!!!" It was so funny and we laughed so hard after we left. We could just imagine him, "sshhhh! It's the missionaries!!!!" hiding from the Mormons. Classic. Later that night we left some sticky notes on a member's door, but they had a big window on the top half and on each side, so Sis Rolfson hid around the corner of the garage while I ninja-crawled under the window and stuck the notes on the bottom half. It was a close call because they were sitting right there in the living room, but we made it!!!! Woohoo! ;)
Saturday we visited with a less active, Sis Strauss, who is having a really hard time. Her mom is not doing well and having a lot of difficult medical problems and she is so worried. But we had a wonderful visit and I really felt what it means to mourn with those that mourn. I felt her pain as we talked. We shared some scriptures about the Sabbath day and testified of the peace, comfort, and rest that could come from the Sabbath. Then we arranged for her home teacher to come and give her a blessing. She will be in our prayers.
Yesterday we had a wonderful day! Elder Payne sang "Nearer My God To Thee" in church and Sis Rolfson accompanied on the piano and I accompanied on the flute. Then after church we had an amazing visit with Karen and Mario. Karen asked for a Book of Mormon, and they want to start reading it! We are so happy because Mario seems to be opening up a lot more, and we are going over for dinner Wednesday and we will get to have a lesson with them! Yaaaay! Mario is even going to make something that fits my crazy diet haha. Then last night we tracted for a while and we met so many nice people. We have 3 houses to return to! What a miracle :)
So that was our awesome week! Not a whole lot more to say, we are working right now on finding more people to teach and we have a lot of potentials to follow up with and try to teach, so we are looking forward with faith :) Love y'all!
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Sister Heather Bambas
California Irvine Mission
heather.bambas@myldsmail.net