8 months!

8 MONTHS!
haha i had my "mission birthday" today and i have been a missionary for 8 months! its so crazy to think its already been that long.

This week was a pretty unusual week.

On Tuesday I went on exchanges with a Sister From Wyoming. It was funny to meet people that day because they always ask which companion is from Utah, because well there is always one in each companionship. But with this exchange it was neither of us! It was fun :) Also i got to take her out of the mission! haha its so fun to serve in a ward that isn't included in the mission.

Wednesday was a weird day. We had to go pick up 2 sisters whose car broke and drive them to the mission office. It sucked about 2 hours out of our day. Then we spent a good chunk of the day at Chaffey College, a local community college. We aren't allowed to proselyte there, so we did all the paper work so us and our ward mate could have a booth on campus and talk to people for about an hour every week. Were really exited about that.

Thursday i went on exchanges with one of my favorite sisters! Her name is Hermana Griffiths. She is in a Spanish speaking ward and i went to her area! haha it was sooo nuts to try and teach people when i couldn't understand ANYTHING they were saying. SO while we were teaching she would look at me and say okay teach.....and then she would translate anything they didn't understand. It was tough but it was fun. I felt like a new missionary again. Her ward also does Zumba every Thursday night, and when the bring investigators the missionaries can go. So we took an investigator and went. At one point were were just doing lunges and i challenges her to a race. Needless to say we got a little to into it and were both VERY sore the next few days. But i had a blast!

Friday... We MOVED :) our last apartment apparently was worrying our mission president's wife and a few other people, so we moved into this super nice apartment! We love it! but we spent a TON of time moving. and we also did Service helping this lady make 400 enchiladas for the sisters Conference the next day.

Which brings us to Saturday! We had a sisters conference. all the sisters in the mission got together. We had dinner and had fun little "classes" on how to exercises better ect. and the we did a closet swap where we all brought clothes we didnt want and traded them around. And watched the Woman's Broadcast. and of course too a ton of pictures haha. It was great. It was sooo nice to see Sister Cobabe and sister Johnson. We took a fun "posterity picture" and a "4 generation picture" of all our trainers and stuff. ill add it at the end. That night we also had our Zone leaders come over and dedicate our new apartment. They also gave me and sister Cook blessings. We had both been struggling this week. But the blessing i got was exactly what i needed, and answered some of my prayers. I was so great, and just a testimony builder :) It really reminded me how blessed we all are to have the priesthood in our lives :)

Then Sunday.. It was a pretty average day i would say. OH! except, i met a guy in my ward who served in the Reston ward! i introduced myself, and he asked where i was from. When i told him Virginia he replied "wait like Hugh and Cindy?" i laughed and said yes. Then he said "YOUR DAD LET ME RIDE IN HIS BMW!!!!" haha it was really fun. He said he really enjoyed serving in Reston and it was a fun little connection to make.
Also i Shocked one of the senior missionary couples, Elder and Sister Cran. on Friday they brought us over desks that needed to be put together. They offered to do it but i said i could do it. Elder Cran later left a note in our apartment say to call us when i got stuck. BUT being the stubborn person i am i wanted to finish then. SO i finished in my spare time at lunch and dinner and on Sunday was done :) He was so surprised and said most of the elders give up and call him to do it. haha it was funny.

Anyways i need to run! but i love and miss you all so much :)

Hope everyone is doing well.

Oh and my new address is

8255 Vineyard apt. # 2000F

Rancho Cucamonga, Ca 91730

Write me :)

Ps. I CANT BELIEVE DILLON IS HOME!!! THATS NUTS!

Fwd:

Hey everyone!

 

So things are starting to pick up a little bit more this week.. but they're still moving kind of slow. Me and sister Cook are just trying to set this area up still,  but we're making progress.

 

Monday was good. After I emailed I had a sister try and fix my horrible hair cut haha. Its slowly getting better :) I figured out though based on when i cut my hair last April, that by the time i get home it should be pretty long again :) so yay.

 

Tuesday. Me and sister cook had the chance to give a training on the restoration in our zone meeting. It went really well. I'm not sure if we necessarily  said anything new to the missionaries, but the spirit was definitely there. We talked about how everything we believe hinges on the reality of the first vision and how we constantly encourage others to pray about it and how Satan is always trying to attack our testimonies of the restoration so we need to always be strengthening our testimonies. We watched a Mormon message called origin, and then had a mini testimony meeting. It was so good :)

 

Wednesday was just a good day, we had a few lessons, had a ward activity and it was just a good day.

 

Thursday.. was pretty uneventful.

 

Friday... i went on exchanges in a walking area! it was so nice to be out a walking instead of stuck in our little car all day. We taught a crazy old racist lady. and the sister i was with forced me to play board games during lunch. oh i also found out i'm moving apartments! that was exciting, but sort of sad. our apartment in legendary in the mission for being really janky.

 

Saturday was boring. and sunday...also not super eventful. But we did have one super cool experience! so our ward covers fintana, which is a city that is not in the mission, and on Sunday a family in Fontana invited us over for dinner. Right before we went to their house we were calling people trying to find a former investigator who wanted to be baptized, but didn't have parental permission at the time (he moved). But we weren't having any luck....So we ran over to dinner and there are 2 elders from the other mission (their home ward) also having dinner with that family. It gets to the end of dinner and we share a message and ask if there is anyone they are working with that we could help with. Turns out the Dad of the family was working with that former investigator! and so were the elders that were there! the former has moved to Fontana and our ward's missionaries lost track of him! but we found him and the Fontana missionaries are passing him back off to us! YAY

 

k well that's all for this week and im running out of time. BUT i love you all so much and i miss you a ton!!!

 

love, sister Redd

So this week has been... Slow.

haha Its been a challenging week, but I am loving it here in the valley.

My companion is awesome, I love our roommates, and my ward mates are hilarious so that is all going well. Not a ton happened this week though, so wont go day by day this time.

 

On Monday night we went to FHE and started meeting the ward, That's mostly what we've been doing this week. They're all super nice, but definitely CRAZY haha its weird to be around people my own age again. Especially because they're all just thinking about dating and parties and things like that and that is like the LAST thing we're thinking about haha, but it's been really fun so far.

 

We've been trying to find people but it is REALLY hard in this ward. SO ill give everyone a little back ground about my area now. I now cover 3 stakes, or cities, (Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, and Fontana) and we only teach people between the ages of 18-31. Soo it makes finding people a little tough, mostly because there is way to much room, that we just don't know where to start.

 

So in our efforts to find, this week we set up time to see lots of members so we can get to know them, and we tried every former investigator in our area book. Sadly none are interested right now.

 

The 2 biggest highlights of the week though were definitely this Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, I had the chance to shake Elder Neil L. Anderson's hand! woo! He came along with 2 member's of the Quorum of the 70 to speak to the Rancho Cucamonga Mission and the Redlands mission. It was such an amazing experience to hear them all speak. It was much different then I thought. I imagined it would be very similar to General Conference, where they would just have a talk prepared, but it wasn't. Elder Anderson had a microphone and walked around all the missionaries asking us questions and what we thought about certain things, it was really interesting. And he is super FUNNY! who knew?

 

On Sunday we had a non-member just show up at church! All week sister cook and I had been praying to find someone to teach. But every time we went out after praying to find someone, we would have like 10 doors slammed in our faces in a row. So we were feeling pretty bummed by the end of the week. BUT during Relief Society I turned around and ask these to girls what their names were and started talking to them. we talked for about 5 minutes until class started and then when they were welcoming visitors one of the girls introduced herself and said she wasn't a member! We talked to her after and she said she LOVED church, so we're pretty excited :) God really does answer our prayers.

 

oh and another highlight, me and sister Cook, Christensen, and Brown all went to Five Guys, it was great!

 

Anyways that's pretty much it this week.

 

I love and miss you all!

Thank you for all the support.

Love, Sister Redd

 

 

 

 

Fwd: It Finally Happened :)

So, it finally happened...I GOT TRANSFERRED :)

I finally made it out of the High Desert and down into the valley. I am now serving in Rancho Cucamonga, Ina YSA ward!!! I am beyond excited. Anything that could be different, is different this transfer. No longer in the desert, I have ward mates, I live in an apartment! with another companionship (s. Christensen and her greenie :D) I'm in a YSA ward, I will have sisters in my zone! Its nuts! But I wont keep rambling, ill go on with my week.

 

So this week was soo hectic, but it was one of the BEST weeks of my mission so far.

And im kinda bummed because I left my old planner at home so I don't have any of my plans from this week, so it wont have as much detail as normal...but I guess that's better for you all anyways haha.

 

Monday....I think I wrote last week, but we went to Phelan (middle of NO WHERE) went hiking and hung out with my zone.

 

Tuesday....WE finished teaching Cindy all the commandments. So we covered, Law of chastity, Tithing and Fast offerings all in one day. It was nuts.

 

Wednesday.... Was NUTS! we had to plan Cindy's baptism, but in all the craziness of getting our other baptisms ready,, we completely forgot to schedule a building! soo it was crazy, all the buildings around up were booked. One had a wedding, one a funeral and the other had 3 baptisms already, BUT we managed to call like 5 other companionships and find a nice little time we could squeeze our baptism in between the 3 other ones. It doesn't sound crazy but it was. Im pretty sure this was also the day Cindy had her baptismal interview. And she passed :)

 

Thursday....I don't remember what happened...opps. I think we went and saw Ron and Susan this day? I'm not sure, they had us over for dinner though and we had the best tacos! haha and Ron started to cry when we told him we might both leave and told us he thinks of us as daughters. That guy is so sweet.

 

Friday.... I got to go down the hill this day, Sister Davis went to the temple with the other 2 missionaries that are leaving and so I was sent to spend the Day with 2 sisters, Sisters Green and Johnson, It was a fun day, I got the rest of our baptism figured out and then took a nap while they weekly played :) quality day.

 

Saturday... CINDY'S BAPTISM! it was awesome :) Everything went very smoothly. Well for the most part. One of the people giving a talk  didn't write it one the write topic so she just spoke for like 1 minute and the other cut her hand really bad on the stand and we had to stop the baptism for a minute to give her some medical attention haha but I think it made Cindy feel more comfortable, since she wasn't the center of attention. It went really well and after everyone was asking how she felt, and she was just beaming. You could see how happy she was and it was so amazing to be a part of helping her find that happiness.

Also right before the baptism I found out I was being transferred so I started packing that afternoon.

Then that night Sister Haupt (one of the other STLs and s. Davis's last companion) and Sister Price (another stl) came to drop some things off for s. Davis and say goodbye. Thing is they locked their car and house keys in their trunk sooo......WE HAD A SLEEPOVER :) don't worry we got permission first, but it was a blast! haha I love those two sisters.

 

Sunday... We mostly just finished packing and said goodbye to everyone. It was kind of hard because I have really grow to love a lot of the families in that ward, and im really going to miss them, but I think we left the area with a bang so...I was happy. After we drove down to the mission office because s. Davis was having her departing devotional. It was really great and she definitely made cry. She has one of the strongest testimonies :)

After the Devo. we go to stay at the mission home! it was really fun, because most missionaries don't get to do that. and if they do, its for their very last day in the field. so lucky me :) We had a "late night" snack with sister Hobbs and talked for like 1 1/2 hours about her studies about Eve. It was soooo interesting. I LOVE sister Hobbs, she is such a sweet lady.

 

Which brings us to

Monday....This morning we shipped sister Davis off. It was really sad :( I'm going to miss her a whole lot. BUT again I'm really excited to be in this area. My companion's name is Sister Emily Cook. She went to BYU-I and she is super cute :) we are opening a brand new area, and we cover about 3 cities! our area is HUGE, it even leaves the mission!

 

Anyways I'm really happy to have this change and I'm excited to see how I can learn and grow here. Looking back on my last 7 1/2 months in Mesa Linda, I realize that I have changed a lot, and that my testimony has been strengthened so  much, so im excited to see how that happens here.

Anyways, I love and miss you all,

 

Sister Rebecca Redd

sorry I don't have more pictures, they're all on sister Haupt's and Sister Davis's cameras

This was a great week :)
Me and Sister Davis have been working our butts off this transfer and things are really starting to pay off right before the end of the transfer :)
 
So I'll just go through my week like normal..
 
Monday...After we emailed, s. Davis, s. Haupt, s. Price, and I all hung out in this little town called Ore Grande right off of Route 66. We went to this fun place called the cross eyed cow (delicious pizza) and then went to this weird antique shop. We didn't buy anything but we found a lot of weird/funny stuff to play with and look at. We ended up deciding that about half of the things in there were just found in the desert and fixed up a little then brought in to sell. But it was fun either way because those sisters are HILARIOUS and every time we go and do things together i with out fail end up in tears because i laugh so hard. I love it.
Oh we also have been getting Jessica and April ready for baptism so we  tried to meet with them everyday this week. On monday we taught the word of wisdom and we were reading the story of Daniel with them where he refuses to eat the meat and drink the wine and the Lord makes him 10 times smarter then everyone else, and we asked thier mom to read a few of the scriptures. She was reading Daniel 1:4 and said " Children in whom was no blemish, but well FLAVORED, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge..." no one laughed at the time....but we laughed so hard in the car after..Maybe its not funny to regular people...but to a missionary....it was gold.
 
Tuesday...We met with Adrian again. Our lessons with him are always funny, but we were talking with him and he told us that he had finally begun praying and was looking for his answer, and sister Davis told him that she was leaving, and that i might be leaving too, and he said that must be his answer. He said God would know that he wouldn't want to have to get to know more missionaries so it must be a way of saying that its not right..Honestly I'm like 95% sure he knows everything is true, hes just looking for excuses not follow the answers hes getting.
K i have another story...and me and my companion have been discussing weither or not i should share...but its pretty funny so here it is. While teaching Adrian that day, we were reading Alma 32 with him. We got to verse 28 about the seed and this was his response after i read it...." I dont know, ummm all i got out of that was breasts, enlarging, and delicious"
Sister Davis and I DIED! haha we were laughing our heads off for about 5 minutes straight.
 
Wednesday.....I GOT TO GO ON EXCHANGES WITH SISTER COBABE :) it was soo fun to be with her again. She is in apple valley now and is living with 2 of the Spanish sisters that i LOVE. It was so fun to be in the apartment with them. It was just overall a really fun day. First me and sister Cobabe set a baptismal date with a 94 year old man to be baptized 10 days later. Then during lunch we sat in the back yard and "tanned" but really just sat on chairs while we were looking out into the desert and shooting the breeze. We laughed and agreed that it made us both feel like 80 year old men.  But it was really fun to spend time with her again.
 
Thursday...well we started the day with driving back down to apple valley to sister Cobabe and sister Johnson's apartment. Sister Johnson accidentally stole our phone the night before. But the day was pretty average, we were supposed to do the baptismal interviews for the 2 girls we are teaching...but one of them broke her finger...so we rescheduled for Friday :)
 
Friday... we had the interviews with the girls! They are so awesome. They seriously could answer every question in with like 30 minutes answers. I swear they could reteach any lesson we gave them. It was awesome! We also had them try on their baptismal suits and they were running around the house dancing in them because it made them feel like they were in the 70s apparently :)
 
Saturday.... The baptism! It was a little crazy, but baptisms always are. The building was supposed to be opened and the font full because their were supposed to be stake baptisms right before us...but when we got there no one was there and all the doors were locked, and we didn't have keys..It was a bit a scramble to get everything together...but it was really great and it ended up being a great service and a ton of the ward was there to support them.
 
Sunday....by this point in the week i was sooo tired. So we got up at 6 went to our ward council and then once they excused us i went and passed out in our car until church started. I didn't think about it at the time, but we had parked right out side of the doors, so when everyone else left ward council 30mins later..they all saw me passed out in the car. When we went back into the building all of the ward council was nudging me asking if i felt better and if i had a good nap. It was a little embarrassing..but mostly funny.
Also we started the task of getting sister davis packed to go home! its so sad :( but on the bright side...i get all her fun stuff that she doesnt have room to take home :)
 
Monday...Today was really fun, our whole zone did a hike up in Phelan (the mountians) and had a barbaque at a members house. We played pool too and soccer and some other stuff but it was just a fun day..
 
K im sorry this was so long! but it was a  great week :)
Thanks for all the email. I miss all of you so much and hope to hear form you next week :)
 
Love, Sister Rebecca Redd
"the Lord does not studder. If he says something twice, it must be important"
(a quote i heard a few weeks ago and really liked)