Sept - Oct 2010 - Samoan Ward Service

Nov 1 -

Well  talofa my dear family! i hope you are still doing very well. my heart is full this week as i've read your emails and pictured the things going on in your lives and remembered the miracles and occurances that sister lyons have experienced in ours this week. Heavenly Father LOVES His children. cute story i want to share with you to illustrate that, didn't even happen to us but our roomates. there have been some signs up around our apartment complex of someone who was missing a turtle. they have been up for a week or so and the other night our roommates came home and told us that they were pulling out of the parking lot and they found this turtle! the lady who had lost it was moving that very day!! and so had taken down the signs saying where to take the turtle if it was found. they finally found the apaprtment and the ady was so relieved and joyful! she said that she had told the turtle that if it didn't come back today she was going to have to leave it because she was moving. isn't that so touching! Heavenly Father knew that turtle was important to His daughter and He allowed the sisters to be the bringers of glad tidings to her soul:) ah i just loved that. it made me so happy inside eventhough i didn't actually experience it.

so you peeps in cali, sounds like you had a really good stake conference. i remember our stake president in NSL was called, elder bednar came to call him, it was really neat and it sounds like he did a similar thing when he explained the process of calling a new stake president, only he didn't talk about 1samuel like that dad. i'm going to read that tmrw. mom and sara i did receive you package on tuesday so just in time. thank you so so so so so so much, it was wonderful, especially for the playdough, it has brought us a great deal of enjoyment this week and we even used it to do language study....video to come soon....

erin i'm sorry to hear that your move didn't go through, that's a huge blessing though that you are able to keep the apt you're in now in stead of having to find a new one yikes! that was a close call.

well family, another week has come and gone and more miracles have manifest themselves to use the lowly missionaries of the rialto 2nd SAMOAN ward. one really cool miracle. a few weeks ago we tracted into this kid, lewis. he had just had some surgery on his mouth so we didn't talk to him for very long but we gave him a pamphlet and referred him to some other missionaries because as we talked to him, we could just see he had a lot of potential and he was very open. well saturday we had to get our oil changed but we didn't want to just sit around and wait for it to happen so we went tracting. we just picked a street very close to the pepboys we were at and started going. we got to the 3rd house and there were these two guys standing outside talking. we approached them and said hello and whatnot. we starting saying who we were and one of them said yeah...i know you we've met before, you knocked on my door...it was lewis again! honestly familiy it was crazy we were on the complete OPPOSITE side of the city. he was visiting his friend there. he said that some boys had come by later and given him a book of mormon and that he had read some of it. we talked to thim for a little bit and ended up giving his friend a book of mormon as well. his friend said that he would have a lot of time very soon to read it...i'm pretty sure he is on his way to jail but that's just an assumption i made.....lewis said he would read more of it as well. it was so awesome, obviously he is being prepared and the Lord really wants him (lewis) to accept this message. that was no coincidence that we met him AGAIN. we called the elders and told them to go back to his house.

 we had like the greatest sunday ever here.

first off ward council was just regular ward council but the yw pres told us that she had called this one less active lady that we had been visiting and that she(yw pres) was going to bring her(la lady) to church this week. it was awesome. we have visited this lady almost every week for about 12 weeks and we have not been able to like start teaching her family like we wanted to but we always encourage her and share a scripture and invite her to come to church. but she doesn't havea car and we just have not known what to do to help her best. so it was SUCH a blessing to see that the Lord can use others, the ward members to make up for our weaknesses and inabilities. she actually did come with her two sons. we had a really great lesson with our investigator who is getting baptized. at first we were talking about the 10 commandments and he said..."i see them like, ways to help us live more like christ. i try to the live 10 commandments but sometimes i mess up so i just...repent and pray and ....that's why i'm getting baptized!!"  we also found out that another less active lady in our ward has decided to start going to the english speaking ward that is closer to her home.so that was just super awesome.

i think sister lyons and i are going to be transferred soon because in ward council one of the councilers(??) to the hp group leader expressed his gratitude to us for some of the things we've been able to do while we have served here. the woman who came to church with the yw pres is his sister inlaw and he just told us he was grateful for our persistence and such. and then there were like multiple times during ward council after that, the bishop expressed how much we have helped the ward. it seemed like we really got to see the amount of progress that has been made in our ward yesterday. the bishop always says there is a REASON why they put two white sisters in the ward when there were MANY samoan elders in the misssion. that happens a lot with sister actually, they are put into a ward that is kinda floundering...kinda just as a change, to try to jumpstart the work and then after things start moving right a long, they move the sisters out and put elders back in. i'm pretty certain that is EXACTLY what happened in this ward. and we have been SOOOOOOOO incredibly blessed lately with success. the members just expressed such a great amount of gratitude yesterday and...it was out of place so ...i think we're getting transferred i guess we'll see. that is something i have thought about this week actually. the first part of my mission i jumped from ward to ward. i prayed about and was unhappy with that fact that i never felt any sort of attatchment to any of the members or wards that i was in. when i found out i was getting transferred so unexpectedly from lake arrowhead i remember i went into the livingroom and just cried and cried and cried and i prayed to my Heavenly Father to please help me, i felt like i had no belonging on my mission. i felt like i had yet to sincerely love any one ward. the day after that sad sorrowful night was wonderful and i was very blessed with a healed heart because of a few different things that i won't expound on. but, here i am almost 4 months later, finding myself almost regretting the answer i got to that prayer because here i find myself not EVER wanting to leave this ward!! what will i do when i cannot learn from these people any longer. i was going along just fine having no attatchment to anyone....not being bothered when i moved from ward to ward. now...bah. this is a new experience and it is going to be very hard. i don't know if this makes sense to anyone but me...maybe you return missionaries understand somewhat. but i'm rambling. point of the story is.

HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES HIS CHILDREN.

THIS IS THE LORD'S WORK.

HE BLESSES US WHEN WE OBEY HIM.

and last but not least

I LOVE THE SAMOANS!!!!!!

i don't know what i have done to deserve serving in this ward or with my current companion but i have been shown more fully than i know how to express the Love of my Heavenly FAther through these times. I love being a missionary.being a part of this work is the greatest thing i've ever done and i don't know how i will live without it some day in the future.

oh family

the gospel is true.

what can i say more?

 

i love you all and i hope i hope i hope that you have a good week. stay close to the Lord and he will stay close to you.

 

love

sister molly

Redlands Temple

 

Oct 25 - week 4 strikes with a vengence...of love:)

HEY clan

whasup sup sup??

well the past weeks of this transfer have been simply heavenly then we got to week four!  haha ok it wasnt' so bad. we did sisters exchanges which were really awesome, i got to go with sister morgan for a few days and she is living in the apt that we lived in whilst serving in upland together...it was a good ole time just like the olden days of three transfers ago haha. it was quite the experience being an english speaking ward. no one tried to feed us ridiculous amounts of food and all our appointments were the appropriate length of time. tuesday night rolled around though and i was super sick i dont' know what the heck happened. sister lyons keeps blaming on the flu shot that i got weakening my immune system...i think she's just paranoid of flu shots. anyway so i was sick all week which it wasn't too bad. wednesday night i was feeling a lot better and thursday morning i got a blessing from my district leader..i'm still just trying to get over the raspy voiceand throat. but because of that little episode of whatever that sickness was we didn't really accomplish much. our ward(because they are samoan and look for ANY excuse to have a party and invite everyone to eat LOTS of food) had this party. it was rialto 2nd SAMOAN IDOL. as everyone knows the samoans(possibly just all poly's really) can sing like no one's business. and sister lyons and i had sung previously at some things and since we're palagi(white)but we can sing and we've learned some samoan songs they practically forced us to sing in this competition. and we had to dance with the relief society. bah. it was fun but i was really sick still my voice was like really really horse so i didn't sound very good and just the fact that it was a competition, made us both feel just kinda off. missionaries are not supposed to compete in things. they love us to death and so we were fearful that they would just be like oh the palagi sisters sang a samoan song and their wonderful missionaries...they should win! haha thankfully, because of curfew we had to leave early so that did NOT happen. it was still a lot of fun...just maybe something that we as missionaries shouldn't have PARTICIPATED in...instead we should have just been spectators. haha. besides all that though we did have a really good meeting with one guy named geoffery. his parents are recent converts and he just moved in with them. they raised their kids in a strong christian faith and their whole family was rather taken back when they decided to be baptized. they are very very faithful people and Heavenly Father is starting to bless them by bringing their family members close around them so they may share the gospel with them. we had talked to geoffery previously and he was interested yet still slightly hesitant.we'd given him the book of mormon and a chapter to read and then when we came back he just still had a few questions especially about like the celestial kingdom. i think he found a little anti mormon literature or something liek that because he was asking about "do you actually believe you can have your own worlds and be liek god". it was such an amazing experience because we had planned to go in and teach him this one thing but ended up pretty much just answering a bunch of questions he had. i know for a fact that we were being directed by the spirit because this kid was asking some really deep doctrinal questions ah! we were able to answer them sufficiently for him and it came to about the time when we could tell it was time to go. we were both a little unsettled at this point thinking maybe he was just really confused now or like really turned off to the idea of it all and blah blah blah. when we asked him if he had any other questions. he kinda struggled for a few moments and then finally asked like the question of all questions. ..." everything that i've read so far n the Book of Mormon seems so right.....why are there so many people who are against it" oh my word family...you have no idea HOW MANY times we as missionaries and honestly me specifically wonder to ourselves....don't people see that it is SO absurd for ONE entity...one simple book of only 500+ pages, to get SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much grief and opposition from EVERY SINGLE DIRECTION??? why don't people get it. there's something good in there, why else would the book of mormon get so much NEGATIVE attention right????? well. he asked it. and that was the key. i told him that the only reason why it gets so much flak is because satan knows that is it SO true. that the things in the book of mormon will bring men on earth the greatest light, joy, knowledge that is avaialable to Heavenly Father's children. that while the church was founded under the direction of Jesus Christ THRough Joseph Smith that the truthfulness of any claim made by said church STANDS  on the Book of Mormon. we bore testimony of the book of mormon and the spirit was so strong. he said he hadn't said a very sincere prayer about it yet but that he would this week, and then he asked us...could you please give me more than one chapter to read this week. oh my word. the Lord works in ways that cannot be understood by us. But Heavenly Father Loves his children. He loves geofferey and wants him to come back to him, and live with him forever. He loves geofferey's parents and is now answering their unceasing and heartfelt pleas for their family to be around them in the temple some day. He is allowing sister lyons and i to once again, experience and witness the change that the gospel can bring into someone's life ANYONE'S life, who humbly seeks the true will of the Lord. i started this mission i am serving with the idea that i would come  out here and oh so graciously bestow upon other poor wayward souls the beautfiul light of the gospel that had been so graciously bestowed upon me and that by doing so, i would fulfill the desire of my heart to express my love and gratitude to the Lord who had done so much for my own poor wayward soul. yet as i have served these 12 months. i have yet to feel the satisfaction of my debt repaid, only, that my debt to Him has deepened. never in my wildest dreams did i imagine the change the gospel has made in my OWN life as i have tried to see it change the lives of others. the verse rings true of "he that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal, if any man serve me, let him follow me' and where i am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my father honour"(st. john 12:25-26). the only way to sincerely find and abide with our Heavenly Father is to serve others. but by doing so we are blessed with something we cannot entirely comprhend...eternal life. as the windows of heaven are opended unto...it's almost as we are pushed out of our dwellings by the promise of not having room enough to receive the blessings and compelled to go and unload said blessings to the less fortunate...which only brings more of said blessings. SO go out and give of the blessings you've received so undeserving as we are...Heavenly Father has a work for all of us to do and it is up to us to DO it.....or be buried. haha that's a really entertaining visual. The Lord Loves Each of us. He wants to lead and guide us. He wants us to bless the lives of others. and i Know, by the experiences i've had in these months of my missionary life that there is No greater joy or love than when we either literally for figuratively, lay down our lives for our friends. I love you all, i'm more than i can possibly express, grateful for the continued and constant support from all of you as i serve the Lord for this short time. I know Heavenly Father Loves you all and will bless you for serving Him.

1Nephi3:7.

I love you all,

until next week

Love

your sister

molly

Snuggling up in the blacket Sara and Myrna made for her!

Oct 18 -MIRACLES!!!

Hey family.

i hope you're all doing so good this week.

this week was AWESOME for me and my dear companion...we are finally seeing some actual progress in individual people here in the rialto 2nd samoan ward. that's the greatest blessing and feeling as a missionary i think. there are a lot of people in this area (i think i may have mentioned this before) that have been investigating the church or have been visited by ward members and missionaries alike for YEARS AND YEARS AND YEEEEEEAAAAARRRRSS. we like to call people like that eternigators. but this week. we talked to two of those people this week and invited each of them to accept and read the book of mormon. BOTH of them accepted. there was one man who actually has never investigated the church but one of his sons wanted to get baptized many years ago and he didn't allow that. he's very christian and has a lot of faith and knowledge of the bible. when we first aske dhim to read the book of mormon he was kinda adament to say no but with guidance of the spirit(that's the KEY) we were persistent in bearing testimony of it and it's importance to him. there was a time during the last part of our conversation that he litterally just sat in silence. for probably a two minutes or so. i knwo he was listening to the spirit because then he accepted it. there was a nother lady we visited, her sister is our rs pres and her brother is the hp group leader. we've visted her a few times and myself i have just been super intimidated by her. i always felt like she didn't want us to come over and she jsut let us in because she was a very nice lady and she's samoan so she respects us as preachers of the gospel of christ. she let us in and this time was different. she was SO sweet and welcoming. we had a good talk about faith with her and asked her to read the book of mormon. she said that yes she was open minded and she would. she also said "i'm glad you two come over and visit us...i was surprised when you came the second time without rhoda(her sister), i thought the mormons were afraid to come to my house, but i like visiting with you". oh my gosh...it was such a great experience. i felt a little lacking in my faith after she said that because i had been SO intimidated by her and my assumptions of her opinion of us but that didnt' even matter the spirit was SO strong. ah!! she signed up to feed us next month so that will be really good. we also visited this man who is less active and his family. his wife isn't a member and his kids are really young. we've visited them probably twice before that and they were so warm and welcoming before. you can see in his eyes that he wants the gospel to be a part of his life and his family as it once was but that he needs help. he told us, almost timidly, you two are always welcome to come see us..you don't have to call but if you call next time...i could make you some cake...everyone really likes his cakes apparently and he wants to make us one. such a sweet offering of a show of his love to us. i have so much hope for them. i know that his wife will accept the gospel. we met a lot of our numerical goals this week which is kind of uncommon. i know that all of this success is because of Heavenly Father's influence on those we have come in contact with. and i'm SO grateful that we were able to experience it.Heavenly Father always prepares people and directs us to those of his children whom he has prepared. it is the blessing to us and the joy that we feel to experience those times of enlightenment for THEM. we are simply and quite literally TOOLS in His all knowing and powerful hands. this is HIS works without anyshadow of a doubt. He LOVES his children...i can't emphacize that word enough. He LOOOOOOOVES them. just as any parent would. He will ALWAYS bless us. He's waiting to do so, to show us his love. why are we so QUICK to forget that? May we each remember that fact a little more this week. and act upon the still small voice. and FEEL the love of our eternal parents.

i love you love you love you all

until next time

your sister

molly

Sisters of the San Bernardino Mission

Oct 11 -miracles!!

hey fam....today is a holiday and i technically shouldn't be writing this email right now but i'm going to anyway

we had a LOT of miracles this week SOOOOO many. the first one happened on monday....i don't know if i shared this with you last week but i don't think i did.

i bought a pair of pants that do not need to be hemme

i know you're all in shock right now but...you best believe it.

ok the second one was not really a miracle , more like something really interesting that i thought you all should know....it might shake your testimonies so hold on to something.

joseph smith...talked........to a fish

AHHAHAHA

ok that's not true....BUT someone that we tracted into thought that he had haha he was dead serious to he said something lie...i just can't agree with some of  your doctrine like joseph smith talking to fish! haha we said um...joseph smith never talked to a fish...he talked to God and Jesus Christ and he said....through a fish?? haha oh man it was really funny...it made me laugh  a lot.

Heavenly Father is blessing the rialto2nd samoan ward. we are beiginning to see, i feel the fruits of our labors. we got a new investigator through one of our recent coverts. their son just moved in with them and he's kinda interested in seeing what's up with the church. then on sunday there were some potential investigators that know some people in our ward who came to church totally randomly! it was awesome!!we've visited them a few times but they go to a catholic church and they are pretty addiment(??) about it. we had some really good visits with some other people....ah i just love being a missionary.

i wish i could tell you everything else but i'm like super super out of time...i promise i'll write in more detail next week

i love you all so much

thank you for supporting me in everything

the Lord will bless you for your support and service to His representatives

I love you and hope you all have a good week again!!!

love sister molly

Oct 4th - Not enough time left to write a general letter.

 This is a small video of some service they gave Bless her little heart!

Sept 27 -i'm back!

Well, this week of reading emails was quite the bipolar experience. so many good experiences from last week. I'm really sorry i couldn't check my email last week, i would have really liked to join with you all in fast for melissa. i know though that as you all did fast, we can have confidence in our Heavenly Father. He will guide and direct the situation in response to everyone's show of faith through sacrifice. wow. that's quite the news. I'm glad that i was informed though. please tell melissa and colby that i'm thinking of them and praying for them. i know that they are strong people, everything will be for the best whatever that may be. i'm glad to say i have for the most part recovered from that hike of death.   haha it will be something that we can all look back on and just laugh at our stupidity and  exhaustion. well this week is transferrs and you'll never believe this but i'm STAYING in the rialto 2nd samoan ward!!! i'm so so so so so so happy for that. there is so much more that sister lyons and i need to do in this ward and things are starting to come to fruition. we are so blessed. Heavenly Father is most definitely leading and guiding this work, without a doubt. that is so so obvious. the people hear are just so giving and kind to us. sister faumuina(the rs president) gave us some lava lava's this week, right from samoa. and then she said that she wants to get her seemstress to make us both a puletasi. those are the two piece dresses that the women wear with the skirt that is like a wrap around...they usually have really poufy sleeves, sister lyons and i are always admiring them when the women wear them on sundaysand how flattering they are...they are just so dang cute! but anyway...we aren't allowed to wear them unless it's our last sunday in the ward but she said she's gunna get us one. these people are too great to their fellowman...i don't know how they do it but i want to be the same way when i grow up. the women's conference was pretty good this week. there were a lot of parts that we missed because it was cutting out liek the sattelite feed was bad or whatever. i don't know how to spell that word. anywho. i'm so excited for conference this coming weekend. i'm so anxious to see what they all want to tell us! last conference there were SOOO many talks about keeping our families strong. yikes! i guess we'll see. this past week because of that crazy hike we didn't get tons accomplished so we didn't really have any like aaahhhh miracles or anything like that that i can shar with you. you'll probably find it humorous to know that eventhough sister lyons and i are staying in this ward we have to move apartments, that's not the humorous part though...the apartment we're moving into is the first apartment that i lived in ...the one with all the ANTS!!!  i told elder brasher(one of the assistants)that if we got there and there were ants..i wasn't living there. haha he was like uh...things might get a little stressful in an hour or two.......he doesn't actually think that they are having an ant problem but you just never know with elders that have been living there since I was there almost a YEAR ago. igh. i guess we'll say a good prayer and have some faith. well family. i love you all to pieces and i think, you should all read Jesus the Christ...it's the greatest book ever. that's my words of wisdom this week. keep the faith.

love love love

sister andasone!

Sept 20th
No letter for reason in the Sept 27th Letter

Serving in Upland there was another pic I can't find but Erin Ave instersects with Molly Ct.

Sept 13-best week ever yeaya!

Oh dear family of mine...my heart is full this week...brim and running over with love and gratitude. mom you were right i was inundated with letters but they were all so wonderful and full of good advice and good news that it just made me so pleased! everyone seems to be doing well despite a few struggles and mishaps...i hope you all had a good labor day weekend. woohoo on a new washer and dryer..they deserved to be retired i think mom, they've served you well. oh family...I love you and the gospel. It is true, Joseph Smith was called as a prophet of God and he DID translate through the priesthood authority the golden plates. That translation which is the Book of Mormon is a true record of the people from this continent in it's ancient state and it IS the word of God, Another Testiment of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ IS the son of God. He came to this earth and sinned not. He lived, suffered, died and was ressurected for His brothers and sisters, for us, for the sake of the inhabitants of the world. Through Him and His gospel and commandments we can fulfill our purpose of being on earth which is to prepare to meet our maker and reside peacefully with Him forever. This testimony was given to me through the witness of the Holy Ghostand all can receive it through dilligent and sincere seeking and prayer to the almighty. Thank you for allowing me to and supporting me as i share this beloved testimony with the residents of San Bernardino california. ok...this week was pretty great but yesterday was a miraculoussabbath day. let me share. We met this guy named etu two weeks ago. he's dating this girl in our ward who is preparing to go on a mission. he doesn't live very close but he comes up on the weekends to go to church with her. his brother is a memeber and agreed to meet with us and learn more. we met with him two weeks ago and taught him about the restoration. the spirit was very strong and he agreed to read the book of mormon and pray about it. he didn't come up last week but was here yesterday. we taught him about the doctrine of christ. faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and endruing to the end. this was only our second time talking to him and he hasn't even opened the book of mormon but we committed him to be baptized!!! Another one of God's children is going to enter the waters of baptism and gain entrance to the celestial kingdom because of the example of his girlfriend!! AH! ok that was totally awesome and the room we were in i think was literally warm in temperature because of the spirit. ...i love being amissionary. ok second.there is this guy,joe that is white but he's married to a samoan lady and she's not really interesting in anything we have to say but he is. we have been seeing him and apparently he's been visited by missionaries and ward members alike for like 10 years. he works in law enforcement and just started trying to read the book of mormon. our bishop and high priest group leader visited him a few weeks ago and while talking to him, invited him to come and speak to the youth of the ward. he agreed so we set up this fireside. the communication in this ward is kinda bad so we ended up doing it all kinda last minute. we missionaries overlooked some minor details like someone to play the piano for us and someone to conduct  the music and someone to say the closing prayer. well Heavenly Father really wanted joe to feel the spirit, i'm pretty sure the whole fireside was actually for his benefit, not the benefit of the youth. magically there was someone there who willingly played the paino! oh and another guy just bam volunteered to lead the music. there were some returned missionaries that spoke before joe did and then some really awesome musical numbers that i think really brought the spirit. also another "coincidence". sister lyons and i were singing a prelude song and another song later in the program. for the prelude we had at last minute chosen joseph smith's first prayer...when we stood up to sing the bishopric decided to sing with us so we sang a samoan song. later the relief society presented a musical number and what would you know...they had chosen joseph smith's first prayer! ha Heavenly Father is SO on top of things. ah! so that was all awesome and so cool but even BETTER. joe, who is not a member and doens't really understand what he reads in the book of mormon USED A SCRIPTURE FROM THE BOOK OF MORMON IN HIS TALK!!!!!!! hello!!! who does that!!! he talked about being humble and learning from our mistakes and getting back up when you fall. he EXHORTED THE MEMBERS OF THE CONGREGATION TO READ THE BOOK OF MORMON...i wish i could put this in bigger font but realize this one and all HE. IS. NOT. A. MEMBER. OF. THE. CHURCH.  he doesn't even know that the book of mormon is true for himself but he told them that basically he knew that it was the way. he may have said that indirectly but that's what he said. oh my gosh. icouldn't believe it. this man will accept the truthfulness of the gospel one day i know it. that whole mess of a "fireside" was cleaned up and put back together for HIS sake by our Heavenly Father. it was the most amazing thing in the entire world. sister lyons and mine jaws were on the floor pretty much. ah ANDD!!! after the fireside the music director came up to us and we had actually sung earlier in sacrament as well as at the fireside and in samoan both times but he said...oh you two sounded great blah blah blah but he said...you are true polynesians. haha it was awesome!! sister lyons and i this whole time keep telling ourselves that we gotta BE SAMOAN...we gotta act like them and eat their gross food and use the parts of language that we're learning and someone just deemed us actual samoans AH! woohooo, we succeeded. so....in all our conflict and strife, things are looking up in the rialto 2nd samoan ward. oh boy. i love you all more than i can express....God is Good friends....God is Good. amene.

sister molly

Sept 6 - Labor Day no letter!

From the gang Penguins Molly's "fave" LOL

Aug 30 -WEEK TWO- HAIRCUTS!!

Talofa lo'u aiga!

this week has been pretty darn good. besides the fact that we didn't have district meeting this week yikes! we saw a lot of really great miracles. i love this work ah! we were given some food this week by some membmers that we for sure were not going to eat so we drove around for a little while and gave it to a man in need that we found by the sater brothers. we decided that any time from now on that we're given food in excess that is what we will do. it felt good to give someone in need some food that they could use and some water to keep them hydrated in teh heat. it's a humbling experience serving in a place of such poverty. we saw an example of that poverty when we went to dinner one night this week. after we had eaten and given a thought on faith the woman who had fed us started crying and without going into too much detail, she told us she had not been sure how she was going to feed us but because she had faith abecause we are the missionaries, she was able to get some food enough to feed and provide for us. she considered it a BLESSING to HER because the missionaries were able to come to her home, when usually hey couldn't because they were boys and her husband is out of town a lot. it's extremely humbling being in this ward. i know i don't deserve a fourth of the things that i am blessed with, monetarily, or otherwise. whew! onto happier things....i played volleyball for the first time in actuality this week that was pretty exciting. i hit the ball wrong a few times and woke up the next day with a huge bruise on my wrist. we went on splits with some peeps in our ward and always saw a lot of really great things happen. this ward is so unique. when we just go around and try to visit people it's like nothing really happens but when we have someone from their own native country with us, things just magically come into being. conversations are had, lessons are taught, friendships are made. ok maybe not all that quite so dramatically BUT, it's totally different. it's definitely strengthening my faith in the importance of member missionary work. so i say in way of exhortion, if you love the missionaries serving in your ward and really want to show them your appreciation for the work they do and the sacrifice's they make, DO STUFF WITH THEM! we met some pretty awesome golden people tracting this week that was a huge blessing. i really appreciate tracting and such finding efforts in this area because we never go out with the hope or expectation to find individuals who would be appropriate to come to our ward. so basically we have really awesome conversations with people on the doorstep or whatnot and we get their information and we pass it on and then we never see these people again. so we can maintain hope that thatperson really was as golden as they seem and they will get baptized and receive the blessings of exaltation along with the rest of their family. we never see them at their worst when they are dodging the missionaries or not progressing. it's a blessing i feel. we had dinner with a really awesome family this week andi got to pray in samoan. it was so awesome i was shaking like crazy but when i was done they all said oh you did good you didn't even say anything wrong yay!! it was so cool, i can pray in a different language!!!! if i can just learn a prayers in spanish i could then pray in FOUR different languages. a while back at the first of my mission i kinda figured out / made up a prayer in sign language and i did it one night with sister harrison. it really is awesome, God confounded the languages but because of the language of love, he understands all people. i've come to discover that really if we have love for someone and if we are worthy to have the spirit with us, that will transcend all language barriers. so cool. we also met this really cool guy, etu, at church this week. he's dating one of the ysa girls who's planning on going on a mission soon. his brother is a member and we got to teach him a lesson during sunday school. it was a really amazing lesson, like a roleplay lesson. the questions were answered perfectly, the spirit was felt and identified. testimony was borne. commitments were accepted and enthusiasm to learn more was shown. i think this kid will get baptized.  sweet. huge blessing fo sho. well today was the most exciting of all for me as you can see in my subject line...i got a haircut woohoo!!! i've been wanting one for so so long. it's been so outrageously hot lately. a week or so ago we got in the car and turned it on at the temp thing said 121 degrees! it quickly went down to 110 and stayed there for about two hours. but nonetheless. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY ONE DEGREES. ughck!it was above 105 all week. it's was crazy, i don't know if i've ever been in weather this warm. you look outside before you leave and see the trees swaying in the wind and think oh it's won't be that warm. then you walk outside and it feels like there's a cosmic sized blowdryer on the high setting pointed right for rialto. i can feel the scorching heat on my legs ew! we just keep reminding ourselves that at least we aren't on bike. whenever we feel the desire to say oh my gosh it's so hot or anything like unto it we just remind ourselves of our elder friends who are such troopers. there is this one elder from VA he's black and he's been on bike the entire 22 months of his mission. thank heavens we don't have to deal with that. we have air conditioned car. it's been really cool this weekend though, like down into the 60's and such. i never thought i'd see the day i would think 80 was COOL. i love california. well this email was super long and kinda random, sorry peeps. next time you all email me i want to hear some sort of spiritual insight you've gained, be it from scripture study or regular life.....as far as it is appropriate for sharing of course. i love you all so so much and i hope everyone's week goes so fantastically. serve the Lord and be happy:)

ALOFA!! sister molly

Molly and Sis House in front of their Xmas 09

Aug 23 -talofa lo'u aiga
well i will tell you right now this week's report will be boring...sister lyons was sick this week and so we pretty much didn't do anything....i'm really at a loss of what to say right now sincerely. it sounds like everyone is having an insane summertime. that's awesome that you got to go to san diego for the wedding and i'm glad you made it there safely and on time! what part of the mish did you drive through? like what freeway were you on? considering we're in the samoan ward and we have ward members all over the stinkin place, you were probably in some part of my area!!i honestly don't even know where san diego is though so i have no idea. eventhough we were pretty bored this week, just kinda hanging out letting sister lyons rest, it was still fun. i got some more study time and learned some good samoan stuff. there's a chapter in preach my gospel, chapter seven, about learning a language and i read it once before i left on my mission just to say that i had read it but i never thougth i would NEED to study it. but i did and we finally got our language study organized. i'ts been amazing to see the difference in our study time and the effectivness thereof when we follow the organized council and when we turned more to the Lord in humility. we had just kinda been like oh...um....let's study....this thing today?! really random and unorderly...very unchristlike. i guess that just goes to show...when we turn to the lord in all that we do He will concecrate our performances to the benefit of our soul (2nephi32:9). well family. i'm really sorry this is such a lame letter. i love you all, alofa. i hope you have a marvelous week and that you get some rest or just a moment to pause at least!! good luck sara and erin with school, i'm super excited for you, let me know how it goes!!! ALOFA! sister molly

3 Weeks and New area!

 July 26sionara lake arrowhead bliss

Hey family and friends!! i hope you're all doing quite well. this week was pretty good we worked hard and met some really cool members and non members alike. something happened this weekend that i need to tell you about though. so there is this place in lake arrowhead called "the village" it's like town square basically. it's got the stater brother's and just a bunch of little shops and stuff. well there is a concert stage there in the middle and they have like summer concerts on the weekend. we went to the village for dinner friday night and there was a billy joel tribute concert happenin and.......well let's just say i'm getting transferred.:S...................................................................................................................

.............................(pausefordramaticeffect). haha ok everyone can pick their jaws up off the floor and restore their respect and confidence in me. nothing happened. i AM getting transferred but not for any misdeeds. i don't think the billy joel tribute concert was actually this weekend haha. good one. well so the story is..i think...sister steele and lyons(just some other sisters) have been serving for about a month and half or so in a samoan ward in rialto. but for the past like 3 weeks, sister steele has been really really sick with pneumonia. they haven't been able to work like at all basically and we don't know the exact details as to why but sister steele and myself are basically switching places. we found out on saturday night and i won't lie, i'm pretty sad. this are is really remarkable. the members here have taught me more about charitable love in the three weeks i've been here than i've learned about it in the entire 9 months of my mission. i will remember the miracles and service rendered that i've witnessed here for the rest of my life. i of course haven't gotten really "close" to many people in the ward at all. yesterday was only our third ward council! but i will sincerely miss this ward and area. despite the fact that this is like a seriously beautiful and peaceful place. everyone was telling us wow, this is the place to be in the summer time, which honestly it is..it hasn't gotten over like 88 yet. pretty close to no one on this whole mountain have air conditioning. and when it gets like 79 everyone complains and complains about the heat. it's crazy. so...suffice it to say i will miss it here and i am a little sad about the situation because sister liston and i really wanted to be companions! but nevertheless, i will go and do. no questions asked. plus i'm going to be companions with sister lyons, she's pretty much one of the greatest missionaries ever so that's pretty sweet. she hasn't been out very long and i'm looking forward to serving with her. for those of you who haven't made the connection with the first part of this story and now...that means i'll be serving in a samoan ward. i'm terrified of that. samoan food, samoan people....samoan language! it will take a lot of prayer and a miracle for me to not gain any exorbitant(?) amounts of weight...i might not be the most popular missionary that the ward has ever seen but....the Lord knows what he's doing and president Godwin is called of the Lord. SO. this should be an exciting adventure. so that's my big news for this week. i know you're all shocked and thinking " i can believe they are transferring her again!!" and exclamations like unto it, but i have a miracle that i would like to share with you all..pretty cool. we were gonig to meet this less active woman, we had planned to go see her like two hours previous to when we actually got there so we get to the place that is her address and it is like an apartment complex but we have no apartment number! so we ask this guy who's walking around he says...there's a phone number on the sign. so we start driving over to the sign that was at the bottom of this spiral driveway but we stopped before we got all the way down so sister liston could write something down. there was a hispanic lady walking about the driveway a few minutes later and sister liston said well i would laugh really hard if that was her haha! and then i said , well i guess we could always ask her if she knows the woman we're looking for. sister liston thought for a second and then said ah, the moment passed and now we'd have to turn around. haha. so we drive to the end of the driveway and both of us were just like no i think we should go ask that lady so we turn around and sister liston speeds up there and we catch her RIGHT before she went into her house and we ask her...do you know so-and-so. it was her!!! whoa. both of us were just blown away. we had to stop and say a prayer of gratitude afterwards because if we had waited just a minute longer we would have lost our chance to talk to her because we wouldn't have seen where she went into. isn't it amazing how Heavenly Father gives us the missionaries a second chance to follow a prompting because it would bless the life of one of His children....super humbling. we helped the wife of our bishop make jam this week that was a lot of fun. she schooled us for like 45 minutes on food storage afterward and withstood our relentless questions about how to have and use it. haha it was the most enlightening thing in the entire world. i am totally going to become a food storage mother/wife. it saves so much money!! i'm so grateful for the church and the gospel and all the wisdom and direction we receive from our prophet. whew...we would be in the same shape as the rest of the world without them what a terrible thought!well. i thought you would all appreciate that little story. just to remind you all that when we are about the Lord's work, we'll be guided by the Lord's spirit. we are just the mouthpeices, or as president uchtdorf said, we are His hands. that's it. i hope my week was not the only exciting one:) i love you all and hope you're doing fine. onward and upward eh?...eh. i love you all !! love love love. ..love sister molly

August 2 -

TALOFA!!!!!

TALOFA FOI!!!!!(that's when you respond by saying TALOFA!!)...(it means hello:))oa mai oe?! (you then say, Manuia! fa'afetai...that means i'm good thank you!) then at the end of dinner when i'm all full and can't eat anymore of your gross weird food i say...ma ona, fa'afetai. well that's about all i know fluently at this point. i don't know if any of you caught that iwas being transferred to a samoan ward...none of you commented on that fact but oh well:). this week has been an adventure. just trying to get to know the ward and figure things out. like i said last week sister steele the one that was here before me had been sick for like 4 of the 6 weeks that the sisters were here so we are kinda starting from square one again. it's exciting. sister lyons is one of the most amazing missionaries in the entire world and she's only been out lie 4 months. i'm super blessed to be her companion, we are having way too much fun! i had a few experiences with the samoan food this week it was...interesting. boiled bananas and tarro root and this stuff called chop suey and lamb stew and meki?? and then fried chicken haha. it is going to take me a while longer i feel to adjust to this ward and to get to know the people. the names are all really hard to remember and there are so many that are similar!!! fa'alaulau and fuala'au.....stuff like that...it's lots of fun:) i think when i get back into a palagi(pronounced pa-long-ey...meaning,white) ward i will be confused with all the normal names! the culture is also much much different. this is a male dominant culture, that's hard to get used to but, just different. i've been outrageously concerned about the food situation because they really like to feed you and our zone leader elder aokuso who IS samoan said they feed the palagi's more than the samoans haha so sister lyons and i made some dinner rules for ourselves since i refuse to gain weight in this area. 1. dish up yourself small portions. 2. eat slowly(with your left hand) 3. leave a little food left on your plate to show that you enjoyed the food but that you just cannot eat it all because  you're so full 4. if they offer you dessert and you don't want any just say no and be persistent haha we had to call elder aokuso before we made that one up to make sure that the "culture" wouldn't make it so people would be offended if we didn't eat dessert. OR if you want dessert just say you will have some of your companion's dessert:). we are allowed to work out more in this ward and go to activity nights when they play volley ball and fun stuff like that so i'm sure if we can just adhere to our rules we will be just fine. they are a really great ward and i'm excited while still feeling a little aprehensive to serve here? i know that i will love it, i always do:):)! plus we get to go to the temple tomorrow. if for no other reason, being transferred was worth it haha jk jk jk. Heavenly Father knows what's up you all. don't forget it. even when we don't realized what's going on...he is in charge! well i love you all and i have to go but i hope you all have a great week!!!! love love love...sister molly

Aug 16th

TALOFA! from a brand new transfer WOO!!!

Talofa lava aiga!(pronounced, eye-ing-ah) oa mai oe?!

well this week was pretty good if i do say so myself, my companions and myself observed and learned some really interesting a humorous facts about the samoan people this week that i would like to share with you all at this time.

the samoans are incredibly giving and loving and they think that missionaries are just the end all be all and that when we come to their home to visit them that simply by being there we are blessing them, it makes me kind of uncomfortable sometimes because as any of you who know me are aware of, i dislike being the center of attention. i would rather be in their shoes,giving thanks and gratitude to THEM for serving us. when i got here sister lyons told me something, that the samoans don't really have a word for you're welcome, when you say thank you to someone (fa'afetai) they say back to you fa'afetai fui. they just say thank you right back! i was like oh that's kinda strange but oh well....a few days later sister lyons thanked me for something and i realized why she had pointed out that fact to me, because my automatic response to her was "no! thank yOU!" haha.

so anyway with that all said they are very sweet people, but they are not always the sweetest of people when disciplining their children.

 

we learned the word for spanking which is sasa, and promptly started recognizing it in almost every situation where there were children. haha. they speak in english and ask their children who are crying or misbehaving if they want a sasa! or hold up their hand and threaten with a "SASA!" in result the samoan children are INCREDIBLY respectful and well behaved. it's unfortunate however because most of the time the children aren't allowed to eat with us. we usually eat either by ourselves with the mother sitting with us or with the dad eating along with us and again, the mother sitting there. the kids are usually off doing their own thing. i've been told it's like this only when the missionaries are there so i am somewhat comforted that their family unity is disrupted only for on evening a month.

 

another interesting thing they do that sister lyons and i have started imitating amongst our daily lives is that whenever their kids or really anyone is either not listening to a command they are given or they are just misbehaving is they SHH them. it's really really funny to be completely honest. the child will be climbing on the table or just sitting on the couch, the parent tells them to do something ie, get off the table or...get the missionaries a drink. the child proceeds to not act upon the request that has been presented. the parent or grandparent usually extends the direction another time or two then finally a few minutes later when the child still is in his or her first condition or disobeying they SHH loud and just liek that. SHH then they tell them again the command. i don't knw what it is about the shushing sound that spurs the kids into action but something about it works and the result desired is usually accomplished after the onimonipea.

 

we saw some amazing miracles this week. i think the hearts of the samoan people are being softened by my Heavenly Father on my behalf because the forcing of food upon us when we can't eat anymore has been dramatically lessened at my arrival. i don't know if that's the case or if i am just really good at saying no. i don't think it's the latter, so i have faith that my Heavenly Father loves me and that He is intervening on our behalf. another great miracle we experience is that we were able to talk to our very intimidating bishop about the "ward mission process" for all of you who know what that means. he was against implimenting this program in the ward previously but we went to the Lord with our plea for him to see the way we do and our prayers were answers magnificently! Heavenly Father truly blessed us with the words we needed as we presented this program to him. i know for a fact that had we not fervently sought help from the divine that we would not have been able to present it in such a way that the bishop would agree with it. we presented it to the ward council as well and i believe that things will be moving in the right direction THIS week. basically the ward mission process will just get us people to teach. it's really different situation in this ward since we can't just go out and find people to teach. it's rare to tract and find a samoan family. usually you have to go through the other samoan's. so we haven't really had anyone to teach. we've been visiting a lot of people these past few weeks but we haven't taught any lessons so we aren't really being used as we could be so the fact that bishop agreed to this program is an ENORMOUS blessing. ALSO, up until now, our ward mission leader(who should be like the go between for the missionaries and the ward council/bishop) has had a lot of health and work problems and has basically been less active, my companion has been here for like almost 2 months and until yesterday had yet to meet him. anywho, so we haven't had ward mission leader in all of this and yesterday finally the Lord and the bishop blessed us with one. he's probably the greatest person that could do the job in this ward. he's super dedicated and super busy in life as well but he just said he's dedicated to his calling and wants to magnify it. his wife is not a member and is not really sold on ever being one. but heavens, it was awesome. sister lyons and i were incredibly happy when they announced it in sacrament yesterday. woo! so pretty much, the work in the rialto 2nd samoan ward is looking on the up and up. Praises on high! this week has brought and lot of growth in heart and knowledge, studying has been full of good stuff this week. This truly must be and IS Heavenly Father's work. i'll never be able to express the gratitude i feel for being allowed to take part in it, honestly. whoo! we are a blessed people...someone we talked to last night just said it perfectly, "i am honored privileged to be a child of God". just think about THAT satement...and so i bid you farewell until seven days hence.

 

Alofa(i love you), sister anderson

May and June and Part of July!

May 10th -
hey friends. how art thou. i hope well. so the past two weeks have been something else. last week we set a baptism date with our golden investigator ramona. she's so awesome we're so grateful that we were shown the way to her and her to us. she has been ever so prepared to receive this gospel. her baptism will be on the 29th of may..that's is at least the goal she set. her husband is not a religiously minded person but is accepting of the decisions she makes for herself. he wants her to be sure that this is what she wants to do and keeps mentioning to her apparently that this is all just going really fast. she is facing a lot of opposition but she is just knocking it all out of her way. she reads outrageous amounts in the Book of Mormon a day and is already just so strong in the gospel. her faith is such an example to us. everytime she tells us a story about something she has had problems with she says....i prayed to God "please help me (with whatever she needs help with)" and she ALWAYS receives that answer in a short period of time. she reminds me of the brother of jared who pleaded witht he Lord and saved his friends and family from the confounding of the languages. who then because of his faith saw the finger of God Himself...whew! yesterday ramona came to church for the first time...her grandson was staying with her and had been begging her to be able to go to church with her. ramona's husband was a little concerned because their grandson wanted to go so badly but he didn't have any appropriate clothes. ramona prayed and asked Heavenly Father for guidance. she tried to convince tommy to wait until next week to go with her. after breakfast sunday morning(mother's day) ramona's husband took tommy and said they would be right back...ramona assumed they were going to get her something for mothers day but when they returned..tommy was in a newly purchased suit and tie with new shoes and the whole shabang. ramona got very teary eyed while relating this story to me. it touched my heart and i can see that the Lord has prepared This righteous woman to receive the gospel and is now softening the heart of her husband. one day their family will be able to be united in the gospel and be together forever. oh my word....how beautiful is that?!? the gratitude i feel for being able to show ramona the path she has been looking for cannot be put into words. this gospel, this church, the Book of Mormon, the Atonement of Jesus Christ are all wonder to be beheld and when seriously considered and pondered upon will show us the true loving nature of our Father in Heaven. That same Father in Heaven that we are to emmulate to the best of our ability while in this failed and mortal state. i love the saying...two people can accomplish anything when one of them is Heavenly Father. man we are so totally blessed. well ramona is the best thing that is happening here in the upland third ward. we are very excited for her and we are very grateful for all the other miracle we are experiencing from or gracious and loving Heavenly Father. people that get to hear the gospel are so dang lucky! well i'm grateful for everyone and their love and support to me. which love and support allows me to see the enjoy the blessings of being amissionary. something i know i will never regret doing. i love you all and hope you're doing well. remember what you're here for and where you're going after this:) i love you...love molly

May 17 - Had a sister's activity and couldn't write!

May 24 -

ok drumroll please........................................................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................i ......................am...................................................................................

NOT BEING TRANSFERRED!!!!!

sing praises and shout horray

yes yes yes, i'm staying in upland..and with sister morgan, it is very very good. i'm ever so grateful. i've come to dearly adore this ward and it would have been a heartbroken departing to have to leave. so yay! finally:) if you still feel the overwhelming need to call president sanchez, do it now and tell him thank you because this is his last transfer! well this week seems to have been overwhelmingly miraculous and happy:) erin getting things together for school, pete and his new job, dad and his new calling. we having been teaching a less active 16 year old boy who for the past month or so has been prepared to be ordained a priest but refused to come to church consistantly and refused to go out and buy a white shirt to go to church in and this week HE CAME! and in a white shirt. it was one of the happiest days ever. so over all we have all been blessed...lets all be very happy and praise the Lord by following Him diligently!:) i love the gospel...i wonder sometime if Heavenly Father is just watching us blunder around in our fallen and sinful ways just shaking His head thinking...if you would just listen to me like i asked you to you would get a really cool blessing and life would be fine haha. i feel that way sometimes about people we teach and then i think well now i know how God feels about us:). well i'm just really really happy for our little family here...:) yay families! besides our less active young chap, we didn't really have anything outrageously miraculous this week...well i guess besides transfer calls as well. so unfortunately this letter is going to be very short. i love this gospel and our loving Heavenly Father. there is no two ways about it...if we strive to follow Him we Will be blessed and we WILL be happy. following Him includes being patient and waiting just a Little bit longer for the blessings we are promised..but if we obey and we look for them...they will be there. i'm so grateful for the plan He has for us, we would be so hopelessly lost without it. that is why i choose to serve, to help those who are hopelessly lost. i'm bursting with joy right now and i don't know how to express it:) just know i love you all.   love sister molly

 

May 31st - Memorial day couldn't write.

June 7th - Again didn't write ( a group letter I mean).

June 14th -

Heyllo! how art thou dear familia. sounds like everyone is doing ok. this week was pretty good here in upland california. we had a baptism!!! ramona our investigator got baptized along with two other people from another ward. the two other people were a woman named valarie and her son dillon. they have friends in our ward who are kind of less active but invited them to church. after that valerie just loved church and it was only a short time later that she was baptized..yesterday...?.... so that was really awesome. ramona's husband who is basically agnostic came which was really great. i don't know waht more i can say about it. i love being a missionary and i love it when people accept the restored gospel through being baptized...a.fter of course having exercised faith unto repentance of their sins...anyone who knows the purpose of a missionary will understand that. ha. ok anyway sooo. another outrageously miraculous thing happened this week. we've been teaching this young boy named jake..i don't know if i told you about him but the gist is...he just turned 9 and he has a twin brother with aspberger's. his mom is less active but he goes to church with his very active grandma. he wants to get baptized but his mom didn't want him to get baptized without his brother but because of his brother's aspbergers he just wasnt interested in being baptized. but hallelujah...he can get baptized now!!! we were so excited to get the call from the bishop friday night. he talked to jake's mom and worked out some things with her. we were very excited...so we have another baptism next week woo!! it's funny because friday am when we were weekly planning we were setting our goals and the first goal is baptized and confirmed...we said zero zero...should be one and one cuz jake should get baptized....then we discussed for a brief moment how we COULD put a goal of one and one and exercise our faith in seeing a miracle of him being baptized. we did not exercise such faith but it's still happening! i just need to listen to the spirit better but i guess that is an eternal struggle. we met a man a few weeks ago named benjamin. we met him tracting and talked to him for about an hour and all the concerns he had in his life and questions he was seeking answers for were just...of course answered by the restored gospel and the book of mormon. we set up an appt with him and he wasnt there but we saw him yesterday and he's still just golden as can be...he'll get baptized one day. i love seeing miracles and seeing the fruits of being used as an instrument in the Lord's hand. we are so blessed to have this gospel in our lives and that is the reason i strive to share it with the people of san bernardino. i'm grateful beyond expression to be able to serve this way. i love you all and hope you have a fantastic week. love sister molly

June 21st -

i'm so sad, when i will come home...sad as i can be....:)

jk jk jk, i won't be sad, that was just a little play on that father's day song i'm so glad when daddy comes home. speaking of father's day..how was all of your father's days? i hope all went well. i thought of you much my dear father. i hope you had a good day. we had kinda a weird week. we saw a lot of people but we didn't get much done haha. we had a big service thing we did this week. apparently there is an international competition at this raceway in fontana. the company that sponsors it is called formula sae. it's all these college students who are doing like engineering and stuff liek taht and that make this little formula racing cars and then..race them? i guess i'm not actually sure. but there were people there from all over the world. japan, italy, canada haha, m.i.t. it was pretty much a waste of time though...we because we're sisters i assume were stationed at the registration desk and pretty much did literally nothing ALL day. well not all day but for like 8 hours straight. i wanted to die. oh well. it's done and over with so i'll repent for being a slothful servant and move on with my life. saturday was awesome possum. i don't know if any of you rememeber me mentioning our investigator who want to get bapitzed but his mom wouldn't let him and then she decided to give him permission. well that was this saturday. the baptism went beautifully. sister morgan and i got the chance to speak together about baptism it was fun!:) the spirit was very strong there and you can tell that the strength and courage and faith of that little boy will bless his life and the life of his family so so much. we were so pleased that he was able to get baptized but at the same time very sad for them. they are going through a tremendous amount of difficulty. the grandma is very active and is the one who always brings jake to church. well apparently the lady they were renting their house from was pocketing the rent they were paying and now their house is being forclosed on and they are being kicked out. they have known about it for about a month or so but jake's mom is on disability and vicky the grandma has been searching for a job and a house to move to for the longest time. since no one is working and they have bad credit and such it's hard for them to find somewhere to rent. well the bank who bought back the house is offering them liek 6 grand to move out by saturday. they signed the contract and now of course...have to be out of their house by saturday....a litle hard to do when they have no where to go. so they are have a lot of issues. there are things on top of that that i won't go into but we are very very worried about them and because of all the drama that is happening to them the baptism almost didnt' happen. satan is a very sneaky and sometimes effective spirit. we fasted for them yesterday and the ward came up with some good plans to get them moved and out of the house on saturday so we have faith that it will all work out the way it needs to. President sanchez gave us permission to give more than 4 hours of service this week for them so that is one way we can help. our perspective as a missionary is an awful one since the only thing we know how to do is teach the gospel. that won't help these people at all! this is a very affluent ward though with lots of big houses so.......things will work out that's all i know and have to say. so that was our week. lots of bitter and one really big sweet. oh funny thing that happened. saturday after the baptism bishop frandsen came up to us and said well ladies what do you have lined up for next week? because we had a baptism two weeks in a row. so he said that and we were like well....we dont' really have anyone that has fulfilled the requirements to be baptized...so anyway we talked and kinda chuckled about that then yesterday in ward council we finally got around to missionary work and bishop frandsen said ok let's talk about missionary work.....we have a baptism this saturday...!!! sister morgan and i were thinking....is he joking?? apparently a lady that had come to our ward quite a few times but was being taught by the ap's was being baptized and he wanted to let the ward know since a lot of them knew her haha it was so cool and hilarious..i can justimagine the looks on our faces...bah he probably thought he was so funny. pulled a fast one on the missionaries. anyway that was pretty funny.  so that's all i have for this week...the gospel is true, the book of mormon is the word of God and President Monson is the prophet of God on the earth today and i know that missionary work brings Heavenly blessings upon us and those we influence for good. i love you all thank you for your support and letters...ahem...your LETTERS:). i hope you have a good week!!! love love love...sister molly

June 28th -

well it sounds like we all had very eventful weeks! mom and sara and erin in san diego, even though it wasn't QUITE what you had planned it sounds like it was a lot of fun! that's too bad about the temple, i hear it really is gorgeous,we saw a picture of it in church news with all the scaffolding that's too bad. sounds like lake powell was a blast as usual for the boys. i'm super jealous..i love that place. people are always asking me how on earth i made it 21 years living in utah without seeing things like zion's or bryce canyon or other things like that and i just say...i've been to lake powell more times than i can count! haha. it holds a special place in my soul..i love it dearly and can't wait to live there someday..it will happen. i bet hole in the rock was fun..we haven't been there in a while. this week was a lot of up and a lot of down! we got a two week missionary on thursday and because of the family i told you about last week that had to move because their house was being forclosed, we did service thursday friday and saturday. it was crazy. we saw so many miracles and met some reallycool people this week. we talked to this guy that we have visited a few times before this. he is a super methodical thinker and because of that he has needed some time and patience while he researched our religion. we gave him the website and warned him of all the anti literature to be found but he wouldn't accept the book of mormon. well when we visited him on friday he started asking us a bunch of kind of obscure questions. we tried to answer him to the best of our ability and eventually he opened up about something that he has had a problem with in his life since he was in his twenties. he's now probably in his fifties or so. as the problem he had unfolded before us i did and i'm sure sister morgan did as well, prayed fervently for guidance to help this child of our Heavenly Father. of course, that help came. It was a testament to me of the love that is had for everyone we meet. he had expressed how he knows he needs to develop faith in his life and how that will help him overcome this problem so i shared a part from alma 32 with him and emphasized the fact that because he WANTS to have faith in christ that he CAN develop that mountain moving faith. sister morgan then in her always inspired ways, shared a story in the ook of mormon that related so perfectly to his situation. he finally admitted that the things we had shared with him had opened new ideas in his mind and that he would now accept a book of mormon. he couldn't promise that he could ever be a mormon haha but he would take the book of mormon. it was really great. we were able to help and comfort this man using the word of God. such an amazing blessing to have been a part of that. ah- missionary work. that is not the only miracle we experienced obviously because we are missionaries! but i won't bore you with all the details:) the family that we had to help pack and move still doesn't have a house so one part of them is living in a hotel..the grandma..i'm not sure where she's staying. the bank i think gave them an extension on when they had to be out of the house so until that time i think she's staying in the house. i really didnt' understand that things like that happened and it makes me  so heartbroken to see these individuals that i have grown to love so dearly in such a situation and i cannot help them. i see from my vantage point so many people in just this ward with resources to help them out if only for a short time and while i understand i cannot in any way persuade any of those individuals to depart of their substance as I think they should...one thing this has taught me is that whenever i am in the situation of having the ability to help others monetarily or otherwise..i will not hesitate. at least that is my hope for the future me. there is a scripture in the book of mormon that talks about if you seek for the kingdom of god then you will be given riches if you have a desire to use them in a righteous way. that is paraphrasing and probably totally butchered it but i think that is an amazing promise from our Father in Heaven. i hope one day i can recieve that blessing. i guess it really would just be another way to be used by heavenly Father to bless the lives of others so it really wouldn't be a blessing that you were given. anyway. we have faith that they will find a place to live and soon. i guess this also shows me WHY the white handbook says don't ask your family to donate to causes in the area you're serving. well so that was our week in a nut shell. sister piutau is our two week friend. it's really cool they let the youth age boys and girls 18 and over serve missions for two weeks. they are set apart as missionaries and everything. i'm super jealous i woul dhave loved to do that. except when i was 18 i had no desire to serve a mission so i probably wouldn't have done it even if i could haha. well i love you all and i have to get going.. thank you so much for all your support and love and letters. i know that this is the Lords work and i know that we can all take part in it if we want to and when we do, the Lord will bless us beyond our current comprehension. I love this gospel and i'm grateful more than words can say for the blessings it has brought to myself and those that i love. i hope you have a good week! love sister molly

July 5 - No letter due to Holiday here in Cali since the 4th was a Sunday everyone decided to take Monday off. 

July 12 -busiest week of my ENtire life. period.

hello friends and family alike. how are you all doing? i hope well. well well well. this has been hands down the busiest week of my entire life ever. let me first answer some questions and make comments to all your letters so i don't forget. mom- the shirt i was wearing in those pictures isn't new and i as well like this watch a great deal. sister taber is the stinkin coolest lady ever i love her to death. she commented once on one of her relatives naming their child it was something like ellie and she said i don't like that name it's like a name for a cow like..bessy or molly. haha it made me laugh. someone in the bishopric of our new ward's dog is named molly and we have to feed her this week for them while they are out of town. if you ever email sister taber back tell her not to feel bad cuz i get stuff liek that all the time. haha. so yes i was transferred again but you must be a little confused cuz it was time for transferrs. tiem is just going by so swiftly that it seems like we just had transfers. i agree with dad, i will be an excellent packer when i go home haha. i HAVE served with sister liston before, she was with me when we whitewashed the ward in san b. and yes she worked at the rec center, she's from ogden area but she is a figure skater and there aren't very many rinks so she skated there. my actual half way point was july 7th. sara you asked for alist of recent converts. here goes. jake halczak-june19,2010. ramona dougherty-june 12th, 2010. christine duran-jan 16, 2010. vicky anderson-march 27th,2010(but she doesn't really count, i only taught her for a transfer). p.s. do the robbins have family that live in upland? jay and pamela? ask them...get back to me on that. yes mom i got your letter both times. SO. onto better news. yes here i am in lake arrowhead. it's an awesome place...first i need to tell you something from my letter last week that i lost...for the frist time in almost nine months...i'm not wearing nylons haha. they made that not a rule anymore yay! oh yeah one more thing, our new pres arrived yesterday and i haven't even met him,,,you all know just about as much about him as i do and all i know about him is from the little bio they had in the church news. SO lake arrowhead is the bomb.com yo! it's gorgeous up here..Super dry but still awesome. tracie and adam were right...i don't want to leave and i haven't even been here a week yet. this first week was insane busy busy busy busy. the elders that have been here previously i guess were not very good at keeping up the area book or making notes or anything like that and so it seemed like there was no work to be done, ya know no one to be visited or taught etc etc but tha tis just not the case at all. the members are amazing!!! i had kinda given up hope on elderly people sharing the gospel but we had tons of people sayin...hey i want to start something with my neighbor and stuff liek that. we went to dinner yesterday and this brother i swear is like 100 and he just said hey! i have a boy  that comes to work with me everyday and he's been asking a lot of questions...i want to set up lunch with you all and have you come over and answer his questions and show him that video you just showed us. oh man people...they just GET IT. the ward just sincerely UNDERSTANDS the gospel. they get that when you have a sincere testimony of the atonement that you will want to serve and to share it. ah...i don't know how to explian it other than they get it. sister liston and have i have had the conversation  alot about the difference between being active in church and being an active member of the gospel. i dont' knwo if that makes sense to anyone else but like ya know there are people who are active in church but for whatever reason, they are just going through the motions. then there are people who sincerely strive to use the atonement and the gospel to improve their own lives and the lives of those around them. that is like the entirety of the active members of the lake arrowhead ward. we walked out of ward council with our heads just buzzing of people we could go see and try and teach. whitewashing is sometimes a daunting task because it means usually that for wahtever reason, Heavenly Father thinks or expects you to bring new life into an area...but that wasnt' even needed in this area. all they needed were some missionaries who would take time fromt heir busy schedules to do some stinkin missionary work! sister liston and i are just very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very blessed to be serving inthis ward. beside the fact that it's been DECADES since sister missionaries have been allowed to serve in the mountains like here and big bear and such because in the winter time the elders spend a lot of time digging people out and shoveling driveways. so this is a super rare opportunity. i doubt they will leave us up here in the winter time, unless they bring elders up to be here with us but i doubt that will happen. so here we are. in lake arrowhead. we were reading in our white handbook the other day and realized something...lake arrowhead is kind of a famous place...people drink water from here EVERYDAY. TOOOOONZ of famous people have lived here like...pricilla presley, michelle kwan lots lots lots more that i can't remember, , doris day filmed here with rock hudson, american president was filmed her in part...the part they go to camp david. the original parent trap was filmed at a camp that is up here. wicked cool right? so anyway...this is a really cool place but sister liston and myself have been entrusted with the responsibility of building up the kindgdom of God here. how awesome is that! ah! it's kinda super hard to find our way around here cuz of all the windey mountain roads and such but other than that, this is pretty much the ward all missionaries dream of being in. there is a talk by elder perry a few conferences ago and he talks about how missionaries are underutilized and should be teaching more than we do and how the members should be primarily our finding tools like they should have referrals for us, which is totally true because people are much mroe likely to realize the truthfulness of the gospel when introduced to it by friends instead of being like tracked into. and that is THIS ward. first off we can't really tract that easily anyway because most houses are just vacation or weekend homes and they are all built on the side of a mountain so there are stairs galor! it makes me feel super out of shape cuz of the altitude difference, you get winded just walking up some stairs! not that those things make tracting or finding impossible, just a lot more difficult. so we need to work with the memebers a LOT but hello, they already want to work with us. ah....it's soo cool. i feel way to blessed to be here and i don't know what sister liston or i did to deserve this! plus we get to be companions again so rad!! we wanted to serve together not in a threesome when we were together last time but that didn't happen. but here we are! so we're going to work our butts off and the people of lake arrowhead are going to be blessed for it. yikes. it's powerful. so since the elders didn't really keep the records very well and because of a few other things we had to deal with, we basically spent last week and yesterday organizing our thoughts and all the materials and names and things we wanted to do and people we wanted to see. we had to go down the hill to take our two week friend back and so all in all it was just exHAUSTING. i'm glad it's over and we're on to a new week and a new transfer of awesomeness. if there was any question in anyone's mind let it be known that i love with all i have being a misisonary and serving the Lord. this IS His work, and whether you wear a black tag or not we CAN be guided by Him to find those lost souls, those Elect of God who have been lovingly prepared by Him. it happens. all the time it happens. and whether someone is prepared right this second or not, we can still be led in this work because we will be used to prepare someone for the future when they will accept this glad message. and when someone does, we will feel joy beyond measure in our eternal home and in this life as well. well dears, that's what i have to say today. i love you all so much and i'm grateful for all the support an sacrifice that has brought me to the point i am right now. words cannot express the thanks i feel. i hope you all have a good week. love love love. love your sister, molly

July 19th -

oh boy family...i think i went on and on and on about how awesome this place is last week so i'll just say...i feel that way time's ten. it's so hilarious...we had to go down the hill a few times this week. once to meet our new president who is totally awesome and once for a dr appt for my comp and it was like 100+ degrees each time. up here it's been a tiny bit humid and like 85...maybe 86 and oh boy, everyone up here is like oh my gosh its soooooo hoooooot!!!!!!! everyone we talk to is like oh my gosh i can't believe it's so warm. in church yesterday it ws ...probably 75...78 maybe and everyone had the air blasting. oh man...sister liston and i were just laughing our heads off. it's so not hot!!! it's like the perfect temperature but EVERyone is just throwing a fit for how "warm" it is haha. how is it in palmdale and utah? so adam and bryce were up here that's awesome! did they have a blast? do they have a boat? dad i think you would love it up here. apparently it's a private lake so i don't know if you can get on it even but..i guess since adam came up you probably can. it's so cool...it's kinda small, i'm sure there are a lot of wakeless areas but you still see people skiing and stuff ilke that. way cool. and they have a bunch of cute little shops. so cool. but anywho...enough about the scenery...we had tonz of miracles this week. i'll just tell you about one...family, friends, i exhort you to take note of this one and if you don't already(i'm sure most of you do) try to exemplify this kind of christlike love in your life and service. we met an inactive woman who hasn't been to church in years and years and years. she agreed to let us come over and teach her so we did. we brought the rs pres with us and when we got there we were asking the woman about how her brother was doing(he had just recently gotten his tonsils removed). she said he wasn't good he was in the hospital. she then was telling us what had happened and in the midst of her story she said she felt bad because her two sons, 4 and 5 had been shushed and kinda ignored in the hustle and bustle of things. she said she wished she had someone who could watch them. this is the shortened version but sister rs pres jumped to action! she called a family in the ward who had little kids and they agreed to take the boys for the day so the family could have some time to figure things out. within the hour we at the boys loaded into sister pres's car on the way to the family's home. the boys hadn't eaten lunch yet and it was like 2 in the afternoon. so what did she do? took them to macdonalds! the boys were very worried about their uncle and their mom was very worried about her brother. sister pres is "coincidentally" a nurse and was therefore able to explain to the boys that their uncle was fine. and in some detail explain to thier mom and grandma what would probably happen to him and that chances are he would be just fine. she calmed nerves and satisfied needs. without bliking an eye. later that night she went and picked up their mother and took her to the house that they had played at to introduce her to the parents. Hello! this woman hasn't EVER been to church in this ward. nobody knows her and she doesn't know anyone. does that matter? no. this is something i will never forget for as long as i live. sister telmos(the pres) didn't hesitate to do all she could to help this woman who is a daughter of our Loving Heavenly Father. that is exactly what Christ would have done had He been there in the situation. he would have calmed fears. sympathized. and solved the problem. even if it takes sacrifice on our part of time talents, monetary funds or just simple convenience, when something needs to be done and we have the capacity to do it. we should. oh boy. it was truly a miracle for if sister telmos had not come with us that day, us missionaries would have been Helpless. i'm so grateful for the chance to see that love in action. i just want everyone to ponder that situation. understand how truly miraculous that was. it humbles me. i am surrounded by people like that...not only in lake arrowhead but in my life in general. you never know the good you can do. you simply have to strive to do your best and you WILL be used as Heavenly Father wants you to be. and in the process you will be shaped, refined, and you will become a truer follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and as such you will become LIKE Him. i'm inexplicably grateful for this time in my life and for all of who you put me her. i loev you all and hope you're doing well. miracles happen everyday if we have the faith to recognize them. Love love love love and some more love love, sister molly

Til next time!!!