Saturday is a Special Day

Happy Temple Day!

Isn't the Temple just the greatest place ever? I'm so glad (and blessed) that we get to go every quarter in our mission!

Well, just as the primary song goes "Saturday is a special day!" because WE'RE BAPTIZING!!!! It's the greatest thing ever to find, teach and baptize one of our Heavenly Fathers children! We've finished teaching the lessons to our investigator and she's all set, just pray she passes her baptismal interview!! This week we had a great relief society activity that she not only attended but invited a friend to! Not even a member of the church yet and already sharing the gospel as much as she can!! I LOVE when my investigators share the gospel, it helps remind me that yes the gospel IS very exciting!!

I'm running short on time but I love you all and am excited for transfer calls this Saturday! Perhaps I'll finally leave the heart of Fresno!

Love you!
Sister LeStarge

The Devil's Work-Out

Hey There,

   This week has proven to be the most painful week on my mission yet! While on exchanges this week I quickly realized I forgot my shoes for our morning (required 20 minute) run! Without shoes I locked my companion and I into the members back yard to do some kind of home-made workout...that was my mistake. Standing on the patio barefoot I felt great as I proceeded to do 50 jumping-jacks! Then using a narrow strip of cement pathway I tried lunges. Another 50 jumping-jacks, some high knee jumps, more lunges, more jumping-jacks and so on, and so on. I worked up quite a sweat and felt better than I did after a run! Feeling pretty proud of myself I hit the shower. It probably didn't even take an hour for me to realize I made the biggest mistake of my life by forgetting to stretch properly before and after...muscles aren't very merciful. I've struggled going up and down the flight of stairs to our apartment, getting in and out of the car and even carrying my bag on my sore shoulder! Jumping-jacks are the devil's work-out. For the past few weeks as my companion has been in Physical Therapy all the while I've had to massage out knots in her back. This week the tables turned as she dug her fingers into my shoulders, back and legs trying to work out my knots....companions aren't very merciful either...

    This week I also experienced the most amount of anxiety I've ever felt in my life! We had set up Saturday for one of our members to pick up our investigator for church. Come Sunday morning though, she informed the member she would drive herself and meet us all there. 15 minutes before sacrament started she let us know she was still coming and would be there ASAP! We waited patiently as church started. Half way through the meeting she still wasn't there! We again texted her to ask If she was on her way. 10 minutes before the meeting ended she plopped down next to us. What a relief! She was able to stay for the following two meetings, which was perfect because she got to meet so many members!  She felt very loved as most members mentioned how they had heard a lot about her and had been praying for her. After church got out we asked her if she had a time this week we could meet with her to prepare her further for baptism, she suggested right then! Instead we took her to the next wards sacrament informing her she needed to attend two sacrament meetings before her baptism. She now meets the requirements! Next week She'll be coming to church on time to hear my companion and I perform a musical number via cello and piano...do ask me how I got talked into that one...

Have a great week!
l Love you all and am praying for you!

Love,

Sister LeStarge 

Atheists and Dead Dogs

Bonjour! (look at me thinking up new ways to say hello to you!)

Well as always we had some pretty outrageous adventures this week!! It's always an exciting day to be a Mormon missionary! You don't even have time to blink or you might miss something ;) I of course had a fabulous 21st birthday!! When I say "fabulous" I really mean "well fed"....as it turns out when you tell people its your birthday as a missionary, odds are they'll hand you some kind of food...mine was no exception! I started my day off right with a nice brunch! courtesy of sweet members who took us out. I continued through my day with eating Ribs....twice! Which I have to admit made me feel like it was my birthday because its my birthday meal every year.  Then just before I thought my day was done I got delicious angel food cake and strawberries! Can't have a birthday with out cake! Even though I like pie much more....Over all though it was a great missionary birthday!!

The excitement doesn't stop there though! While driving this week my companion and I found a miracle! We received a text from a number requesting we meet with them and share the lessons! HOT DOG! Some one wants to hear from us! WE were able to make it to their home just an hour later only to find out it was a single man! Shoot, cant exactly walk right into his home...the Lord blessed us though to have a recently called ward missionary available at that moment!! We picked her up and sped back to his house! While getting to know him we learned his girlfriend is a member of another ward, and they've been dating for some time now. He being atheist has a lot of questions he would ask her, and she finally feeling overwhelmed turned him over to us. He's very open to learning and discovering truth. We have high hopes of building Faith in him in Jesus Christ, though we feel he'll be a little bit of a challenge.

 Another one of our investigators was unable to come to church this week, which was a bummer considering we had lunch with her the day prior and she assured us she'd be there. On easter she went to adopt a dog from the SPCA and was unable to make it to church for that reason....yesterday she couldn't make it to church because the very dog she had just adopted died!! Not feeling too upset because she had just adopted her, she needed to still take care of the body by having it cremated. Still sad for her though....on a more positive note, one of our neighbors who is like a dad to us, and is constantly feeding us, adopted a puppy this week!! A sweet little bundle of fluff. He's agreed to let us do him a service by taking the little thing for a walk everyday! He's a little Australian Shepherd. While playing with him he practically gnawed my arm off with is little razors in his mouth so now I look like some animal mauled me!  Oh the love I have for little puppies....

It was yet another great week though! I know my mission has caused me to have a "mighty change of heart". I know I am being blessed more than I know by serving my Lord each day. Its a privilege to be here!

Love,

Sister LeStarge

Easter and Baptisms

Well I guess Happy Belated Easter everyone?!

It's a pretty great day to be a Mormon missionary. Really everyday is but today especially! We had a pretty great week this week with the only down fall of the dreaded transfer calls, that are tearing my beloved companion Sister Olson away from me. How sad. 

  This week was a wonderful week as we prepared for Easter! We attended a baptism for our district leader's area, in which we invited one of our most promising investigators. The baptism was suppose to  be held at 7:30 but got pushed to 8:15 because of another baptism that went over (in fact we had 3 baptisms that day for our zone but the first went late so they all ran over on time). It ended up being perfect timing because our investigator was late! She loved the service and really felt the spirit. Although we had to explain what the spirit was to her since she could only describe it as a good feeling. It was a great baptism, full of the spirit due to the investigator having had a major change of life while in the process of investigating. Our investigator loved the whole thing and committed to be baptized at the end! Now we just have to teach her the lessons! 

Our Easter was pretty wonderful as well. We had a wonderful "passover" dinner at our bishops house (with his 5 sons all under the age of 12 who are quite the rambunctious crew). Usually the family eats that meal the Thursday before Easter, but being out of town this week they moved it to actual Easter day! It was quite the experience. We were also blessed to get a giant Easter basket! I love young married couples with no children! The same sister who cut my hair for me, delivered us a giant basket full of candies (that I've already given away), shower gels, expensive hair products and more! It was quite wonderful!

We had a wonderful week and I am grateful to be here in the CFM serving my Lord and God!

I love and miss you

Sister LeStarge

New haircut!

Sister Olson, Sister Crandall and me, after Conference. I got a free haircut from a member this week!

A Good Week

Hello Everyone! 

I hope everyone had a good week like I did! I was able to see some pretty amazing miracles, get some wonderful training and take another trip to the zoo! Over all I'd said it was a pretty good week. 

My companion and I got a strange call this week from the Coordinating Sisters (like the girl versions of the assistants) who asked to go on exchanges with us. Thrown off just a little at the purpose of this exchange we readily excepted. Exchanges are good no matter who they're with. They later explained going on exchanges with all sisters was one of their goals (we have 60 sisters now), so who are we to fight them!? I got to go with a sister who had previously been my Sister Trainner Leader, so we know how the other operates and I happen to love her! While in my area  we got to see a whole bunch of little miracles! 

#1 We tried to stop by on one of our investigators only to find him not home, instead of feeling down on ourselves we tried talking to his dad. He was very polite and willing to listen. In the end we invited him to sit in on the lessons with his son! There's potential there! 

#2 We went to have lunch with a member and his non-member wife. While we established she wasn't quite ready to have the lessons taught to her, we again chose not to throw a pitty party as we discovered her love and interest in Family History! It just so happens that the Family History Consultant for the ward is her husbands home teacher, and he's a convert from the religion she's familiar with! That's no coincidence! 

#3 We visited a recent convert and at the end of our lesson we asked if there was anyone she knew we could visit. She and her husband offered to take us next door to meet a neighbor and while she wasn't home we ran into another neighbor who said we could stop by! 

Thought these are all such small things I consider them little miracles! If you change your attitude you can see things in such a different light! We also had a really great training this week by President Gelwix, which is always inspiring. I know I learned so much from the spirit! My favorite part was dissecting our Patriarchal Blessings! We took a different apporach by praying and asking for understanding while we read our blessings. My blessing took on a whole new meaning when I did that! And can I just say I'm pretty awesome, it's all written on the paper! I encourage everyone to do that too! 

My final excitement for the week was going to the zoo! Round 2! Our zone took a trip today and it was such fun! I got to feed stingrays, touch sharks and also feed giraffes! What an interactive zoo! I'll be sure to send pictures next week! The computer I'm using at the moment is having some personal struggles. 

Stay strong and remember

NO Regrets, NEVER QUIT, NEVER SURRENDER! 

Love you! 

Sister LeStarge

Photos

 I got to hold a chicken! A lot of people have chickens in their backyard. He was so little and cute!

 We found snow-in-a-can!