Monday, April 27, 2015

#BikeLife


Happy Rebekah at Fiesta








WHAT? Yeah, that's right mis amigos, just ​got transfer calls and . . . I'm outta Burbank 5to! All I know for now, until tomorrow at transfer meeting, is that I am going to a bike area! Yep, in the middle of the heat, dry summer of California I'll be biking down Sherman Way all the Day :)
In all honesty, I think the scariest part about this transfer is the fact that I have to go bike in a skirt! Don't worry, I'm prepared with lots of sunscreen and searching for water bottles, and the hna's transferring out leave their bikes for us :) miracles come! It might just be rainy this week as well and hey, I have been praying to continue learning a healthy lifestyle! Not exactly what I had in mind, but the Lord knows what he is doing and I'm excited for this new adventure! :) It's a little tough leaving Burbank 5to, I mean come on, it's literally been my home the past 6 months! But I also know it very well and I also know that the Lord is pleased with my service here and trusts me in another area coming up! I've made some amazing eternal friendships here and have learned so much and really come to love this missionary work and the gospel, Burbank will forever have a place in my heart <3
Sorry this email is short, but it's just a quick update :) I'm sure you'll all love next weeks a thousand times more, especially photos of me on bike and the legit news of where i'm at, who i'm with, and what at the Milagros are in the new area :)
I loooove this work, there's nothing like it and there are so many miracles all throughout every day! This gospel is so true and there is truly the only way for happiness in this life or eternal joy in the next! :)
I thank you all for your wonderful prayers and support and love! And I hope you all have a wonderful week, full of many miracles! Say your prayers and read your scriptures and keep living as an example and sharing your testimonies! Keep being amazing! <3
Con carino,
Hermana Day

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

My Adventure Continues




At Ward Party

Hermanas Rodriguez and Day

Exchanges


Fun Dinner Appointment at Ruedas
Hola Hola familia!

This week has been pretty awesome! And, as usual, a roller coaster of adventures!  Being a missionary is super awesome and I looove all the experience and all these times! :) If I could savor every moment of every day and always remember it, I would! :)

We finally "finished" the yard work service we've been doing with the Elders and Hna. Guevara for the little viejita lady on the corner! After machete-ing away and pulling weeds  we were told to stop and we were "only making it worse" and there was nowhere for their inside trash to go because we were using the bins for the yard work! Ay ay ay!  The little viejita lady came over and complained to us how we weren't even working, and once we explained it to her she went from saying "I'm the boss, don't listen to them they don't know what I want with my yard"  to  "oh I am NOT the boss, don't ask me!" 

Service this week at the food bank went really well and they always give us some cheesecake and snacks! #missionarybudget

Thanks mom and dad for always letting the missionaries come over and for playing games like Trains and Catch Phrase because, boy is it fun! :) We had an appointment with the Rueda family and we played dominos with the little girls! They are too cute!

After 2 days on Dayquil, turns out, I don't have a cold, but allergies! We picked up some allergy medicine and I think it's starting to work! I still have a crazy loud sneeze that scares people and a really funny from my stuffy nose, but it's all just part of the adventure :) #havingfunwithit

Had some fun contacts this week! Ran into a cute young woman around her 20s who was walking back from work at Pollo Loco, she was super adorable and loved hearing about the message we were sharing, she took a photo with us and put it on FB, eso! My first fan! :)

 Missions are amazing and so is this wonderful gospel and all the joy that it brings!

Con carino,


Hermana Day 

Monday, April 6, 2015

Happy Easter!


My Comp Hermana Rodriguez

This Machete is sharp!


Happy Easter to ME!

My favorite pink scooter!


LA Driving

Windy Hair

Hola Hola! :)
 
I've been here in Burbank so long, I officially have some "best friends" here at the library, who come up and tell me all about their week and how they've visited the Mormon.org website and watched the Easter video! I looooove the Easter video.
  
To fill you in, this week has been a tad tough. Now listen up, future missionaries, keep being awesome and putting your papers in and preparing for those missions, and keep being suuuuuuper stoked and excited to come out to the field--because it's really one of the best places on earth, doing missionary work, becoming closer to your Heavenly Father and Savior in ways you wouldn't even expect, and loving everyone around you! It's quite the adventure and so totally worth it for the rest of eternity!

There's just one little, itty bitty thing you should put into the back of your minds so you're not all shocked -- missions are stressful as well. Now, this sentence is cliché and overused, but trust me, it's true. There's times in the mission where the work is slooooooooooower than this LA traffic during rush hour, and sometimes as missionaries we like to get down on ourselves, because all we do as missionaries is teach, teach teach, and testify, testify, testify! so when you're not finding many people, but are doing your best and searching, it can be a little tough.
 
We just kept knocking, and knocking, and knocking. In fact, yesterday we knocked an entire apartment complex that was VACANT. Now why am I sooo excited telling you this? It's because I already know the outcome and let's face it, I can't make it sound as stressful or "blaaaaaaaah" as it was at the beginning of the week, because I am just waaaaay too grateful and happy for the miracle that came from the diligence, hope, and patience we've learned this week! Soooooooo, at the end of a long week, after contacting like crazy these streets, we had a 140 CONTACTS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MONTHS!

We had just finished knocking a street, with one door left and not too much luck yet. The people inside instantly opened up the door, happened to speak Spanish only, and welcomed us in! They gave us some OJ and water, and we shared with them the El Vive Easter Video, which they soon opened up to us and expressed their love for the Savior and how he has changed their life. We instantly shared our Spiritual Bomb of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, bearing powerful testimony of our Savior, that He lives and that He is there for us. That there is MORE out there, there are promised blessings and eternal life with our families, that there is a love for all mankind and a grace that we can't even comprehend. That there is a plan for us and it's not just a plan for happiness right now, but happiness for forever.  I teared up a lot, as they called us their angels and commented to us about the spirit that they felt and how they needed us at this moment and know our message will continue to help them come onto Christ, making the promises to God to receive the blessings we had spoken of <3
 
That right there, that is missionary work. The joy that comes from the persistence. The smiles and tears of the spirit that fill your heart as the investigator points at you specifically and asks you how the Savior has changed your life because you're only a young, 19-year old girl. When you bear a powerful testimony, and not only can they not deny it, but their hearts accept it and they ask to hear more. When you share with them personal experiences and promise them blessings to come, full of faith and love, you feel as if the Spirit couldn't get any stronger, but you're always surprised when it does <3
 
I testify to you all that our Savior lives. That he loves us with an incredible love. That He is there for you, no matter where you are in life. That His arms of mercy are outstretched towards us all, He has prepared the way and He is guiding us along that path to eternal happiness. He is our wonderful Redeemer and Example. Come unto Him and Receive of the everlasting blessings! :)
 
I love you all and you are always in my prayers! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Easter and continue to grow in your sweet testimonies as well!
 
Con Carino,
Hermana Day 

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

♪ ♫ Las Hermanas sang as they walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, annnnnnd walked ♪ ♫









Hola Hola mis amigos! :)

Apparently our Burbank library was closed yesterday thanks to Caeser Chavez Day I had no clue who that was until Mom googled it for me--- in 1962 he started a union to help migrant workers get more pay and better conditions.) It's been super hot this week, hitting 105 one day when we were walking. I just can't even imagine the summer! ah!

General Women's Conference was soooo good! If you haven't seen it, go look up some quotes on pinterest or something because I looooved it! Wanna know the coolest part?? I WATCHED IT IN SPANISH! I learned a few new words and got some awesome notes. My favorite talk was by Hermana Oscarsen, who talked about being defenders of the light and truth! I loved how she just straight up told us how to be great AND told us to be supporters and defenders of marriage, families, and motherhood :) I am soooooooo excited for General Conference this weekend -- and yes, ALL four sessions! It's going to be great! I am sooo excited to receive more revelation and guidance from our awesome prophet and his counselors and to feel the spirit testifying of our wonderful Savior, because it'll also be Easter!

We've been getting more cenas with the miembros this week, the amazing Hna. Castillo took a calendar around and had everyone in our area sign up! #FeedYourMissionaries!

She also treated us to some Porto's the other day, soooooooo delicious!!! She's not even in our area, but she sure does love us as much as we love her! I am loving this ward and area

 Hna Guevara is super cute. She always gives us a snack and some Fanta soda -- speaking of which the other day I got to have flan. It's like eggs and soggy bread mushed together into a "pudding" Some people like it, I am not yet one of them.... -- anyway, she and her son are very cute!

I ate watermelon this week, with chili salsa on it, because why not?  It was out for dinner and I ate it.

Here's some scriptures I liked this week, I've been reading through D&C:
"Ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of truth." D&C 50:40     

"Behold, I, the Lord . . . will crown the faithful with joy and rejoicing" D&C 52:43
(now that's just super happy, who wouldn't want that crown!:)

"Ye are blessed, for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you..."

Now this one is very special to me and really touches my heart. It's very nice to know that after all these testimonies I am sharing that they will be remembered, that I will never forget this knowledge and that it means something to those around me. I invite you all to share your testimonies, even if it's as simple as "I know that Christ lives" or "I know that answers come through prayers," because this is what changes lives and this restored gospel is truly amazing! :)

I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week! I know that Christ is our wonderful Savior.

con carino,

Hermana Day

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

It Hit 98 Degrees This Week. I am a new shade of Red!

March 16th

New Companion, Hermana Rodriguez
H Rodriguez is a new convert from CT, but only a couple years, 
she is originally from the Dominican Republic, and Rebekah
LOVES that they speak Spanish most of the time!

Pday FLOUR fight,Hermanas Glauser, Day, Jensen

Elder Gamble-Thomas and Hermana Day


Pretty Sunset (pretty girl too!)

Approved Street Art, Downtown Burbank

Silly faces with the Ramirez family

Elder Small, English speaking Elder, she met him at an EFY a few years ago!


Hola Hola

Pday last week we got together as a zone and played some capture the flag and had a flour fight, it was so fun!

Funny story, Jose and Edith fed us tacos, yum! Until they had us try a second taco, with "vaca de lengua" yep…I had a COW TONGUE taco. Officially the weirdest thing yet! This week I also got to try papaya, it wasn't ripe yet though. We get a lot of pescado (fish) out here with rice and it's very good!

I attended my first transfer meeting EVER on Tuesday and it was pretty good! My new companion is super adorable! Her name is Hermana Rodriguez, she is from the Dominican Republic (wooo my Spanish is going to sky rocket!!) and currently her family is living in Connecticut :) She likes to speak to me a lot in Spanish, now I just have to work on responding in Spanish! :) She's super cute and we are working along with the contacting and teaching and we do role plays every day to help!

I get to drive around everywhere as well, turns out I actually know the area, even though it is pretty big! :) I've never been so thankful for AIR CONDITIONG in my whole entire life! It hit 98 degrees here this week, with the other 2 days being around 94. Talk about SUNNY! I'm loading up on the sunscreen and reapplying a lot, no worries there, still got a little bit of a burn and reddened cheeks but what do you expect, I'm a redhead, we weren't built for the sun haha :)

We found some service to do as well, and we're helping out Hna. Guevara as she helps one of her vecinos (neighbors) by trimming their bushes and weeding the yard -- it needs a LOT of work so we started helping her out in the afternoons as well. It's the MIDDLE of the day and the hottest times, but the Lord is blessing us with service and he gave me some shade :) The coolest part is, we don't have many tools to be doing the yard work and getting rid of the thorny bushes, so ... I got to use a MACHETE! Yup, that's right. SUPER AWESOME! I did ask for a way to exercise my arms more, so here it is!  Afterwards we share messages with Hna Guevara and have Ginger-Ale and bluberry bread :) She's so cute :)

I love this missionary work and the people I'm meeting and everlasting friendships that I am making with the members, community members, missionaries, and ultimately, with my Savior. <3

I love you all lots and lots! Also, check out the Engisn article, "Follow the Path of Happiness" by Bishop Gerald Causse, its' very good! :)

Have a good week! May the Spirit be with you as you continue to feel God's love for you throughout the week <3

Con Carino,
Hermana Day 

Monday, March 30, 2015

Working in Burbank!

MARCH 23rd

Hola Hola!

Before I went on my mission, I had no clue how much missionaries got to know each other, now that I am here it is the coolest thing ever! Hanging out with other missionaries is so much fun! We're all in the "awkward" missionary life and get to share the funny stories, the Milagros, and the testimonies. I'm building friendships out here that I've never had before, and as much as I loooove the friendships I have with the members and recent converts and investigators etc. I am even more grateful for the friendships I am making with these missionaries I have been blessed to serve with! Their examples are amazing, their spirits always lift mine, and I really just can't describe how much I love my missionaries surrounding me! I love this opportunity of eternal friendships and yep, I'm tearing up, being a missionary is so awesome-- in ALL aspects!

I HAD MOLEY AGAIN!!! AGAIN, FLIPPIN AGAIN!? ayudame!!!!!! I've had it 4 times now, it does NOT settle well, and I think I've had it more often than all the elders in their missions here put together! go figure! haha

We went to district meeting on Martes, I've had a prayer the past few days asking for just something, anything to come along and prove to us that we're good missionaries and to have some miracles! During district meeting, Elder Reynolds gave a training about "how to be a successful missionary." It was soo inspired! "Wanna know how you can be a successful missionary, Hna Day? ...YOU ALREADY ARE!" Ahhhhh, thank you Spirit!!! <3 I cried, so did Hna. Rodriguez.

Our cita with Jose and Abel was tons of fun, boy do I miss them!! Their smiles and spirits are so uplifting and oh how I love them! I started crying during the lesson some because we were talking about temple work and sacerdocio (WHICH!!!! JOSE BLESSED THE SACRAMENT YESTERDAY!! AHHH!!! I TEARED UP AS WELL!!!!! AND THEY'RE ALREADY THINKING ABOUT GIVING HIM THE MELCHEZEDIC PRIESTHOOD!!! AHHH MOST PEOPLE WAIT ALMOST A YEAR!!!!!!!) anyway, I teared up in the lesson because I realized something so amazing!! Jose can go through the temple next February, and because I was the missionary for his baptism, I GET TO GO WITH HIM THROUGH THE TEMPLE!! AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY DREAMS!!!!! AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!<3 He's so amazing!

I know that this gospel is true and I love my Savior so much! I am super excited for General Conference coming up -- invite your friends to come listen to the Prophet's voice! And it's also Easter -- what!? Awesome!

I love you all sooooooooo much! Big hugs!!!!!

Con carino,

Hermana Day

FOR P-Day this week, we were able to take the Walking "Cities" Tour at Universal Studios
Hermana Castellano, from Honduras

Giving Iron Man a High 5

Cool Dudettes!

Hermana Rodriguez and Hermana Day at Universal Studios

Niiiiiice!

Sisters in the Zone

Selfie with my Hermanas

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

I Stay in Burbak: Round 4!

Hola Hola!

This week has been pretty sweet! I'm on my FOURTH transfer remaining in this wonderful area -- ahhhh, I looooove this people so much! <3   I get a new companion (which I find out who she is tomorrow ah!) and we get to find tons new investigators and do tons of contacting to start off this transfer because ........ all our investigators are BAPTIZED now! :) Eso! :D

Yesterday, Samantha, the cute little girl, had her baptism, and it was so fun! We got to sing "Soy un Hijo de Dios" with the primary and young women (and even got the elders to sing!) and oh what a sweet spirit! After teaching here for about 4 months, we finally got her birthday for the baptism papers/records to fill out and...turns out... SHE IS 8 YEARS OLD!!!!!!! Sooooooooo she didn't need the missionary lessons and she actually needed an interview by the Obispo (he quickly did it there....) and it was very exciting!  We have tons of fun photos, and there was such a special spirit!


Abel (Jose's brother) got to come and brought his little daughters (Gia and Italy) as well, where we got to teach them a little about baptism. They came to church earlier in the day as well and they are just sooooooo cute! In the middle of all the talks they ran up to my pew, scooted in, squeezed themselves beside me, and started doodling some fun photos for me :)
Ahhhh, I loooooove the Martinez Family!! (that's jose, jossymar, abel, etc!) They are sooooooooo prepared and soooooo amazing! Speaking of which, after church on Sunday we got to do another after lesson with Jose and Jossy, the Gospel of Christ, where we shared Mosiah 5:15, about being steadfast and immovable and enduring to the end to receive all those promised blessings! Jossymar shared his testimony about why he was baptized and totally teared up! This gospel is amazing and changes lives, it is so powerful and brings so much joy! Always share it!


We contacted a "rapper" from South Carolina, his name is "Sun-e-Swag," and we said a prayer with him. He let us listen to what will more than likely become the next top hit single at some point in time, "For the First Time," and it was actually pretty decent! So if you ever hear a good new song with the chorus of "for the first time", I contacted that guy! And got a photo with him! He said if he ever joined a religious group, it'd be LDS because they know what they're doing and always have answers haha :)


I ate some bean soup the other day. There was a giant green "bean" in there, so I decided to eat that one quick and first. Turns out, it was a Jalapeno pepper. No big deal. JK, super big deal, MY MOUTH IS STILL BURNING! Everyone was cracking up, apparently it's "just for savor" and no one eats those all at once. It was funny, I ate it, and didn't want to make a face, so I was like "um...Hermana...que es este?" and pointed to the one in Hna. Glauser's bowl. They busted up, once I learned it was a pepper and was supposed to be that spicy, I made the faces, my eyes started watering, and not even the giant roll beside me could save my taste buds. It was hilarious )
I love this missionary work and I am very excited for the adventure this week holds! eso! Keep being amazing everyone and I love you all lots!

Con Carino, Hermana Day
Backwards Hat Day for Pday

Service Day

Hermana Day and Hermana Woods

Hermana Jensen and Hermana Day

"Who's hair is longer?" 

Hermana Jensen, Hermana Glauser (going home this week!) and Hermana Day

Bekah just LOVES these cute girls!