Week 77: Right Place & Right Time

What is the best way to explain my week.... hmmm.... AMAZING! MIRACLES! BLESSINGS! LOVE! All the above. 

I love Alta Loma Upland soo much! I just love my mission. I reflect daily at how blessed I am for all the priceless people I have met and the experiences that I have been given! I love my mission! 

So my companion Sister Wood has been out on her mission for 6 weeks at this point of the beginning of the week and she is fantastic! Seriously, so much fun! I don't even feel like I am training because she is soooo scholastic! SO she has only been in this area for 6 weeks and so really we are learning together! It has been an adventure! BUT we have seen nothing but God guiding us and blessing us! We have had miracles every single day! 

We got two new investigators this week - Theresa and  Daniel (separate investigators from each other). We got a bomb referral from St. George for a lady named Marlene and we met her and she wants to meet this week! Mary prayed and received an answer about Joseph Smith so we gave her a Book of Mormon! And Daniel came to church and loved it! Two families from my first area have actually moved into the Alta Loma ward over the past year so it was so fun to see them again. One of them being Wendy who's husband passed away while I was in the Redhill Ward... I never knew her but we tracted into her and I made the connection and she began to cry and wants us to come back. Heavenly Father has placed us in the right places! I am so grateful for so many experiences that I can feel God's love for His children. 

I just feel so blessed and feel that I am in the right place in the right time! I am so grateful for this gospel and for this organized church! I know that it is true. Everything is too perfect when follow God and we trust in Him. 

I will have more stories next week! Just know that I am being taken care of and SO beyond blessed and happy! 

Love Always,

Sister Holt

pictures: 

Sister Wood and I

Trio for the day with Sister Fullmer! 

My cactus from the desert in the valley sunset! 

Sister Wood and I

Trio: Sister Wood, Sister Fullmer and myself

My cactus in the desert in the valley sunset!

Week 76: Transferred & Training

Wild news! I was 6 week shafted out of my area... Said good-bye to the desert and hello to the valley once again! Who woulda thunk... NOT ME! 

I am back down the hill in the valley in the city of UPLAND serving in the Alta Loma ward! I am so excited actually. My plans are never the Lords's plans and I have learned this over and over again. You think I would just understand by now.  But I have felt peace and a confirmation that this is where I am supposed to be for the last 6 weeks. I am grateful for this!! I truly am! 

My new companion is Sister Wood. She has been out in the field for 6 weeks!! #greeeeenie!! WAHOO! I am half training her this transfer and then she will send me home. Till then we have some fun adventures awaiting us! I am so excited!! 

SO my last week in Mojave Narrows and High Desert YSA was absolutely perfect... Heavenly Father placed the most perfect events in my path and we had amazing experiences, enough for me to be at peace with leaving. 

We had my last lesson with Daisy. She is still on date for April. So as my last lesson we did a prep baptismal interview where she read all the questions and answered them out loud. It was marvelous! I felt so blessed. All her answers we filled with the spirit. I could just feel in my heart that she has made sufficient changes in her life to get her closer to baptism. I know she will make it! I am so overjoyed for her and to have experienced part of this journey with her! She also came to stake conference this Sunday and LOVED it! 

I had to say good-bye to Ashlyn as well. But for us like many others here I have met,  it was just a see you later! It was hard to leave knowing I won't see her for a very long time! But I know she is in Heavenly Father's hands and always has been, so what is the difference with me there and without me. I know we will always be friends no matter the distance apart and I am so thankful to know that! 

Saying good-bye to Shannon was heart breaking! Her sister Sharlene who we taught came to say good-bye as well. And as a departing gift they gave me a necklace with three butterflies on it! Because WE ARE BUTTERFLIES and can do anything!! They also made my favorite peach cobbler! 

And finally to end my week on Sunday night when Sister Ysasaga and I got home it was 9:30 and Sister McCombs and Sister Clarke (our housemates) stopped me before I walked inside and had me cover my eyes and sit on the couch and told me to stay there until they tell me to come. SO I was obedient and did so... even though I absolutely hate surprises! So they ran upstairs and left me downstairs in the dark with my eyes shut sitting on the couch. Then they said... "OK you can come up now!" 

I opened my eyes to see white sheets covering our stair case and music was playing. They had built a tunnel up our stairs. I lifted up the sheet at the bottom of the stairs to see LIGHTS all along each side of the stairs with pictures and index cards with written memories on each one going up to the top of the stairs. I CRIED AT THIS POINT! Seriously.... I have never felt sooooo blessed in my entire life to have such loving, amazing, and real friends around me!!!! Sister Ysasaga, Clarke, and McCombs came into my life at such a hard point in my mission and they have turned out to be one of the biggest miracles on my mission to just live with them. I absolutely love them and words can express my gratitude!! Here is a picture, so you can have a visual. 

All in all! I have had AMAZING experiences every where I go. From Rancho Cucamonga Redhill ward, to Diamond Bar, to Apple Valley... there have been people in EACH place that I KNOW without a doubt I was supposed to meet them and have them in my life. I have been able to experience so much and I am so grateful! My mission so far has been perfect!! more then I can express so I KNOW that these 6 weeks in Alta Loma Upland are going to be the same!! My heart is FULL! I love my Heavenly Father and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ... only through Him have I been able to do this!! 

Thank you for all your prayers and support. I FEEL THEM everyday! 

Love always,

Sister Holt

Pictures: 

1. Said goodbye to Daisy

2. Ashlyn

3. The view from the bottom of the stairs where I started crying! 

Daisy --- good bye

Ashlyn

Slept on the balcony my last night

Sweet Sister Summer -- dear friend

Apple Valley Zone

Week 75: Short and Sweet

I will never get good at starting these emails home. I just never know what to say other then another week went by... and here I am again! 

We had three exchanges this week with Wrightwood, Maple, and Bear Valley ward sisters! It was super fun but exhausting! Exchanges take a lot of energy out of me and we have 11 total. It is crazinesssss! It was not without challenges this week, but we hung in there. 

I got to be on an exchange with Sister Hernandez this week! I aboslutely adore her! We just click right back where we left off! She is my other half in the mission for sure!!! It was so much to be with her again for the day!

We were able to meet D and A both this week. I talk about them together because they are both in the YSA ward. D is doing great and still on date to be baptized this April 15th! She came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. I don't even know how to explain the difference in her happiness! She is just beaming lately! I believe it is because she is living the gospel more fully. 

A is doing really good! I love her so much! She got an assignment to speak in church! 

We have transfers coming up this weekend.... #mylasttransfer so I hope I stay for my last one especially to hear her speak in church! 

I had a President interviews this week and it was such a great interview! My final question to President was 'How can I make these last 7 weeks most effective to end strong?' He thought about it for a minute and he told me that I have a few stepping stones a head of me that I need to focus on but Heavenly Father doesn't want me to lose view of the big picture but I also need to be careful that I don't spend too much time thinking of the big picture that I trip up on the steps I need to take in front of me. In the end the few steps that I take in the near future will result in what the big picture has in store for me! I am so grateful for the inspiration and advice from President Taylor! I really needed to hear this and it was most definitely meant for me to hear! At least it made sense to me.

Grateful for all that I have and the time I have on my mission! This time here has been the most rewarding. I have gained so much that I wouldn't have gained anywhere else! 

Love Always,

Sister Holt

 

Sister Hernandez and I

D's pet squirrel that she has raised since it was a baby