It was a good Monday, we did the normal p-day things. We ended up playing soccer and hacky sack and had a lot of fun. All the sisters from the Temecula and Murrieta zones came. It was fun to be all together. We also practiced our song for Zone conference and did phone work for that day.
Tuesday was May 28th Zone conference and I absolutely love zone conference. It was President Thomas's last Zone Conference of the Carlsbad Mission. Everything about zone conference was kind of sentimental. Everything was just conducted with so much love. I absolutely love President Thomas and everything that he is and everything that he does. As was expected, all of Zone conference was focused on Jesus Christ and making connections in life and making connections with people. President Thomas talked about the people who we help come closer to Christ. We call those people our friends and our converts. They call the missionaries that teach them their missionaries. He focused on just how much love comes through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we become connected when we go through stuff together. President Thomas explained he loves us all so much because he was with us during spiritually building experiences and when we were growing and when we were frustrated about our lack of growth. We talked about member work and doing it because we love Jesus Christ. We talked about contacting and doing it because we love Jesus Christ. And we should pray for that love. It was so spiritually filling. We sang “I feel my Savior's love” a very fitting song.
After Zone conference, we went to work. We went by a lot of our should be YSAs and then we got ready for exchanges.
I went on exchanges with the Chaparral sisters, my old Ward. I was with sister Clayton who is like my best friend. She is an awesome soccer player and a Taekwondo champ. We went to the food pantry and I got to see a lot of the people that I worked with every week in my old area.
Miracle/tender Mercy, while tracting, we picked up Steven and shared the Book of Mormon with him. He is actually ysa age. We testified to him how important it is in our lives and how we came to find out that is true. We shared how we find peace and joy and happiness in reading it and applying it to our lives.
Sister Clayton is amazing at testifying and teaching. She teaches so personally. We got to meet a lot of amazing people and see a lot of amazing miracles. There was a man sitting at Harveston Lake with his daughter. We went up to him and started talking to him. He told us that he was trying to decide who God is and trying to decide what is true. He had started studying with Jehovah's Witnesses. We talked to him and testified of the Book of Mormon and shared one with him. We were able to explain why we have the Book of Mormon and why it is important to us. We testified how it how it shapes us and can change our lives and bring us closer to Jesus Christ. Miracle!
We also met a lot of people who were not necessarily excited about us being there...
We had a blast and tracting and contacting. She is literally like my best friend, I love her so much. We went and exchanged back and I got to be back with my companion Sister Moore which is awesome because I love her too.
On Thursday, May 30th, we did our studies and we started doing a little bit of weekly planning and then had president interviews. This was my last interview with President Thomas. He took me into the room and we sat down together and he just looked at me and he just said what do you want to talk about? Literally, our whole interview is just us talking about the sisters that were working with and talking about different life advice he has for me. It ended with present Thomas asking me if he could give me a blessing and of course I said yes. President Thomas gave me a priesthood blessing and it was so beautiful. I love that blessing so much and I love every single thing he said in that blessing. It has truly been one of my favorite honors to be one of his missionaries and to have him as my mission president.
I was low-key freaking out about going home and he laughed at me and said he doesn’t even feel bad for me because he goes home in about two and a half weeks. My new mission president will be President Hammond and apparently, he's super cool and he's super smart. I have been praying for him. It's my goal is to become fast friends with him. But I love President Thomas, he's my mission president and he has changed my life. I was sent to this mission for him.
After interviews, we met with the RS president of our Ward. We talked about how we can do missionary work and how we can have the help of the Lord in missionary work. I love them, they're so cool. We went and did more should be YSA list - lots of work there.
We talked Michael. He's on date for July 20th. He's so cool. We talked about recognizing the spirit and how we can know the truth and when the spirit is talking to us. He's just so elect.
We went on exchanges and we exchanged with the Meadowview sisters. On Friday, May 31st we went to service, yard work at this lady in Temecula to help Sister Bradford and sister Hansen. Shout out to Sister Hansen, cute story - she found my blog before the mission and she and her grandma were reading it. So Sister Hansen knew a little bit about me before the mission. After yard work, we got donuts at the donut shop cuz you can't go to that part of Temecula and not get donuts.
Then we went to the mall and had a booth. We have a big spinning wheel and on it we have different topics of the Gospel. People spin the wheel and either they can ask us a question or we can ask them a question. A lot of people got Jesus Christ and so we ask them who is Jesus Christ? Their answers are really eye-opening. There was a little boy. He came up and he wanted to spend the wheel and so he spun it and it landed on Jesus Christ. I said who is Jesus Christ? He answered God. I asked him how he became friends with Jesus Christ and he answered that he prays. He was little, like three or four. It just made me so happy that this little kid had faith in Jesus Christ and he loved him.
Sister Palmer is a really cool sister. She is from Tennessee and she also came out with Sister Kartchner and sister Clayton. So she's been out for about four months. She was trained by Sister Palmer who's also sister training leader. She is so funny. I was laughing the whole day. I literally I love her so much. She's soft-spoken, but she loves to share her testimony. She taught me so much about breaking out of her shell and about not being afraid. She was able to push through that and she is truly is a warrior for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We also had a whiteboard where we wrote questions. We had people to come and write their answers on it. Questions like how do you find peace and what makes you happy. It is really cool to see people's different perspectives and to testify of what the source of true peace and happiness. It was a really good successful day. We exchange back, I was with sister Moore for approximately a half an hour and then we exchanged again with the Oso Oro sisters. Sister Moore stayed with sister Kartchner and Sister Johnson and I came back to my area. With Sister Johnson, we talked about what success looks like and about building faith in missionary work.
We went to dinner with the elders and with elder Anderson. Elder Will Anderson is a service missionary in our Ward and he brought a non-member friend, Ethan. Ethan has kind of been around for a little bit. The elders shared a video called the Hope of God's light and it was really is perfect for Ethan.
I realized I haven’t talked to you about my dear companion Sister Moore. I love Sister Moore and learn a lot from her every day. She is amazing. She teaches me patience and boldness. Those are things she is really good at.
Also, something that stood out to me this week. I was studying diligence. I found a scripture that sums up my experiences here in California, why I chose to be happy. Here, it is hard to share the gospel because they aren’t as excited as we are about it. This is why I love to work.
Moroni 9:6
“And now my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently. For if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation for we have a labor to perform while in this tabernacle of clay that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.”
It is hard to get in with many and have them be excited about the gospel but we are here to labor diligently without stopping. We cannot stop. We have a labor to perform, to conquer the enemy of all righteousness. Every single day every time we step out that door we are entering into the battlefield.
I'm so grateful for the opportunity to fight for God and Jesus Christ and to share their light in there share their Joy and the peace that comes from that. I will not cease to fight for my God and for my savior and we will conquer all righteousness. I've been learning so much and finding so much joy in the scriptures. I want to continue to invite you to study the scriptures, to learn from them, and apply them in your lives. It helps us stay in the right mindset with perspective in the light in our lives and I just love it. I love the scripture so much.
I want to share with you my love for my Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is real. He is my friend. He is my light. He is my joy. Because of Him, I have no bad days just because of Jesus Christ and because of the opportunity that I had to share his light and his test and my testimony of him. I love you all so much and I'm grateful for all of you in my life. I'm grateful for this opportunity that I have to be out here to labor and to share that light and the gospel with all others. You're amazing and I love you so much!
I'll talk to you later! Love you, love you, bye!
Sister Josie Dalley
sisterjosiedalley.blogspot.com
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