Staying in the Ward...Holler. Love It...dated 1/6/14

So Sister Decker, Sister Mickelson and I received transfer calls last night... we are getting split up. You didn't see that one coming, did ya? Didn't think so. This is how it is working out... Sister Decker is going up to the Pickering ward with Sister Folsom, Sister Mickelson will be covering the west half of the Cerritos stake with Sister Black and Sister Merkley and myself will be covering the east half of the Cerritos stake and the Assistants will cover from Carson down.... It's planned so that each companionship is over an Institute. That means I am over the Cerritos Institute which means Sister Merkley and I have a lot to do in order to get that institute to a place where non-members will feel comfortable. Oh yeah! With the change I am now Sr. companion...  weird, but exiting. I guess we'll all "...find out what we can do"

Staying in the ward... Holler. Love it.

We have three investigators right now. Walter, Erika, and Chord. They are all really awesome. Walter was a referral from the Norwalk elders (they attract YSA's like cray, we all of a sudden have a massive teaching pool) he used to be in a gang... (I'm not sure how he got out of the gang, I heard you don't get out unless you're dead so that's scary) but now he is looking for good friends. We taught him the restoration and the spirit was definitely there. He said he believed it so... pray for him :)
Erika has been letting us meet with her but just for informational purposes. We taught her the other night on the plan of salvation and she totes knows it's true... she is just scared. We have another lesson with her tonight and we are going to teach her the third lesson and we are going to have Perla come. Bishop suggested it and we all thought... why not? Perla will be good for Erika I think...
Cord, was a member referral from the ward Elder Schoof is serving in? he lives in Norwalk. We made contact with him last night and we are going over to drop a Book of Mormon off. He works 13 hours a day so it's going to be hard to meet with him during the week but we'll text him passages to read everyday for daily contact and then make sure a member is at every lesson and I think he'll be progressing... he sounds super solid.
All in all I am excited for this transfer... I am excited to find out what I can do. I'm ready for that!

Sister Luft and Sister Fulgham came back for the weekend. It was really good to see them! Sister Fulgham went around hugging everyone and that was weird so....

Ivan got confirmed :) He is officially a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I love him. He is just so precious!

I love everything and everyone... most of the time.

Peace and blessings. The Church is soooooo true it's insane.

I had the best time...dated 12/2/13

Congratulations to me! Who honestly thought I would make it this far....? HA! 

This week was full of food and sickness! Two things that do not go well together! 

Thanksgiving was so fun! We had 3 dinners. We had a Thanksgiving lunch with a member from the Norwalk ward who happen to be Sister Carr's in-laws. We were supposed to go straight back to our apartment after district meeting to weekly plan but the Carr's invited us to eat with them and we couldn't say no so we went there and by the time we were done there we only had about an hour and a half until we needed to be at the Tew's for our second. Our dinner at the Tew's was good but it was a little awkward because their kid's were there and the Assistants. We played a seminary game that Sister Tew had made a few years back and I was trying to crack jokes and make it a little less awkward but it proved to make it even more awkward. Elder Dixon got mad at me because I got a little frustrated (which I apologized for. You know it is something I am working on) because they are crashing our baptism day.... (which I understand that I was overreacting. I am over it now, I promise!) Anyway, I apologized for it and then continued to crack jokes about it which he was having none of and it ended with him being not so happy with me... I saw him the next day though and he apologized for getting so mad and then we shook hands and we are back to being best friends again :)The third was with the Cambodians! That was by far the most fun experience I have had thus far. We went and ate at a Cambodian members home who speaks little to no English. All of the current Cambodian missionaries were there plus three RM's and us :) We sat around learning Ca-mi and laughing while we waited for the food. The thing with the Cambodian culture is when they tell you to eat, you eat. and when they tell you to go get more... you go get more. So by the end of it we were all stuffed and I'm not sure about the rest of them but i honestly thought my stomach was going to pop. It was so fun! The host, her name is Ming, was laughing so hard at us because the turkey was the last thing to get done and no body wanted to eat it but we had to. I asked Sister Mickleson if she would grab me some turkey... when I asked her this I had in mind a little sliver that would show I was eating some but I wouldn't have to eat too much, but no. She comes back with an entire turkey leg that I now have to finish and I look like a barbarian doing it. Ming was so happy. She was having so much fun telling us to eat more... it was cruel. I love her so much. She asked us to come back for Christmas! Yay!! 

We also got Cambodian names which the natives call us. Mine is Thida. pronounced Tina with a "D". (Tida) It means "Someone send from on high. Royalty." 

In the California Long Beach Mission we have the only Cambodian ward in the world. There are some missionaries here that are called to speak Ca-mi and they will spend almost their entire mission in this one ward. So you can imagine how close they all become.... Well it has always been just the Cambodian's in their own district but last transfer they put us in their district I think for the purposes of trying to help the Cambodians feel more apart of the district and I have never been happier! I love them so much!

I had the best time.

I have to go though! I'll write you a letter telling you more about Anthony!