December 31, 2018 to January 13, 2019

December 31, 2018 to January 6, 2019

Monday we had a Nerf gun war with our zone. Then we all went home early because it is New Year's Eve! Sister Williams and I played card games and had our own little New Year's Eve Party. 

Wednesday we went to Mission Leadership Council. Then we drove out to Trona to have a lesson with Jasmine. She is doing amazing and so are all of her kids. Then we drove back to Ridgecrest and I took Sister Williams out for dinner. When we finally got back home, the zone had decorated our apartment for her birthday! They even got her a birthday cake! I watched her unwrap presents. Then we ate cake together. 

Thursday we had weekly planning then we took clothes to Jasmine and a family that she is helping out. After that we had a meeting with the elders to plan district counsel. 

Friday we had district counsel which was sad because it was our last one together. Then Sister Williams got super sick so we stayed home. 

Saturday Sister Williams was still sick so we stayed inside and the elders brought us soup. Then Sister Sandall went with me on an exchange so I could teach Nathan. We got him on date in February. Then we taught Sebastain and got him on date as well. When I got home it was time for transfer calls.... I am going to Palmdale with Sister Jackman. I will still be a Sister Training Leader, but now I will be covering five sets of sisters. We also share the ward with Elder Pitcher and Elder Hayward who are the zone leaders. 

Sunday we had two hour church!!! Yay!! Then we watched Nathan Gaceta get the priesthood!! It was so awesome. Sebastain came to watch as well. Then we went and visited a bunch of ward members so I could say good bye to them. 

January 7, 2019 to January 13, 2019Monday we went to Trona so I could say goodbye to Jasmine. Then we went to the church and had a nerf war with the zone one last time. We had dinner at the Powell's and Sister Powell told us so many funny stories about when she was a teenager. Then we dropped my bike off at Tenisha Barnett Bowman's so she could mail it home for me. Then we went and I said goodbye to the Calderons. 

Tuesday was transfers. We drove to Bakersfield and got to talk to a bunch of missionary friends. Then I had to say goodbye to my cute best friend Sister Williams... What a sad sad day!! Sister Jackman helped me load up all of my stuff and then we helped all of our sisters load up all of their stuff. Then we headed off to Palmdale... well jokes on us; we ended up getting super super lost and drove all the through Kern Valley and almost back to Ridgcrest before we figured out where we were going... apparently Sister Jackman has a tendency to get lost... she was so embarrassed but I was laughing my head off. We were driving Sister Allan and Sister Vogel and they both thought it was hilarious too. We finally made it to Palmdale around 3pm; ate lunch, then we all went grocery shopping. Just before 6pm we got all of our stuff to our apartment and all of the sister's stuff to theirs. We stopped by Melva and read scriptures with her. Then we got a return appointment. We stopped by Jackie's and read some scriptures with her as well. She has the cutest two little boys ever! She was on date to get baptized, but because she got sick she was not able to make her date. We talked to her a little bit about baptism but she was just a little too worried about getting sick again. After Jackie we stopped by Larry's. Oh my heavens Larry is so prepared. We shared a few scriptures on repentance with him. Then he followed us to the church for a church tour. He loved touring the church and he is now praying about a baptismal date! Then we had ward correlation. It was such a nice meeting with the elders (Elders Pitcher and Hayward )and with Brother Diaz. I am so excited to serve in this ward! 

Wednesday we found Byron while we were out walking down the street. At first he wasn't interested; but once we shared our testimony with him about the Book of Mormon, he got really excited and asked us how he could get a copy. Then we ran into Karen who loved the idea of the Book of Mormon and really wants to share it with her family so that they can all be stronger. Then we had a pass-off lesson with the Spanish elders; Elder Spenogle and Elder Stayings. They found an amazing man named Steven Moore. He is an older gentleman who is so so funny. Oh my heavens I just loved talking to him. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he asked us some truly thoughtful questions. Then he asked us to come back. What a cool guy! Then we stopped by Kayla's who wasn't home; but we meet her mom who was so excited and invited us to come back! We had a meeting to realign our area with the elders who cover our ward with us; Elder Pitcher and Elder Hayward. Well there we were talking about the boundaries of our area when all of a sudden the elders screamed MOUSE and ran away from the table like no one's business screaming their heads off! Sister Jackman climbed up on her chair screaming her head off... and I was just sitting there so confused because I couldn't see any mice anywhere and what elders are scared of mice? Then I saw what all the screaming was about.... apparently the elders had made a fake mouse out of tissues in the bathroom in the attempt to scare.. us... wow.... welcome to Palmdale Sister Howard. 

Thursday we had weekly planning which was crazy because we have so so many people that are being taught in this area. It took a really long time and we both were getting stir crazy, so we went back and got ice-cream before we finished. We talked to a lot of people. Then we stopped by Kayla and her mom Katrina was home and she loves God so much that she did a cheer for us about God with pom poms... that was super super cool.... then we went to Book of Mormon class. It was so fun to just read the scriptures with everyone there. I honestly can't remember anyone's names but it was so fun to just read the scriptures with tons of people. 

Friday we had district counsel. We went and picked up Sister Vogle and Sister Allen to go to district counsel. Elder James is our district leader and he is so cool. His companion is Elder Dalley. Then we have the sisters and Elder Pitcher and Elder Hayward in our district. We talked about Christ-like attributes and how we can show more love for the people that we are teaching. 

Saturday I was feeling sick so we stopped and talked to a few people. Then Sister Jackman took me home and I just slept for a few hours. Then we drove Sisters Vogle and Allen to get their car and had a lesson with Jackie... honestly I can't remember much of what we said because I was feeling so sick, but we managed to get her back on date for February 9th. Then I went back home and fell back asleep. I keep waking up every few hours just feeling so so sick and I was stressed because Sunday I was suppose to see an apostle and I didn't want to be too sick to see him too. I prayed and prayed that Heavenly Father could help me to feel better and he did, and I was able to fall back asleep. 

Sunday we woke up, got ready, then drove to Lancaster to pick up Sister Schradder and Sister Hart. Then we all drove to Bakersfield to have a mission wide conference with Elder M. Russell Ballard. We got there and it was so cool because I was able to talk to all of my mission friends. Then the whole mission lined up and we sang together until he came out to take a picture with us. Wow the spirit is so so strong when over 170 missionaries are singing together. I almost cried because I was so overcome and so grateful to be a missionary with so many people that I love. After the picture, all of the missionaries lined up so that we could all shake his hand. Well guess who got a special assignment? This girl did!!! Sister Jackman and I were asked to stand at the front of the line and as the missionaries came past we were suppose to tell them to shake his hand gently. Honestly when the assistants called us to ask us to do that we thought they were kidding... nope they were being  serious. Then I got to shake an apostle's hand!! Wow!! What an amazing person!!! Then we went into the chapel and some members of the seventy spoke to us and so did Elder Ballard!!  He was so sweet and told us how amazing we were to be missionaries! He challenged us to be spiritually aggressive and to deepen our belief and relationship with the Savior. After we drove home we had dinner and stopped by Bishop Steel and Alex. Alex wasn't home which honestly was okay because I was feeling so so sick by the end of the day. So we just went home and I ended up going straight to bed, but Heavenly Father answered my prayers and I was able to see Elder Ballard.

Love, Sister Howard