Elise's mission letters

  Joyeux noël to'u mau hoa maita'i roa! Maybe I'm feeling sentimental or maybe I'm just lazy, but this email will merely feature the lessons I learned this week.  1. Sacrifice brings blessings The first time I was in the Spanish ward, I was pretty excited. It was something new and different and I was ready for tacos. This time, however, I was not happy about it.  You see, in my pessimistic eyes, I had spent 7 months diligently studying French and Tahitian, but here I was in the Spanish ward for the second time, with no idea of if I would ever speak the languages I had studied.  In Spanish lessons, I am not able to teach like I usually do. Feelings of uselessness came easily I sat quietly in hours of lessons, only able to make an occasional comment that would then be translated into Spanish.  Sister Hatch needed to be humbled folks.    I apologize for the mini-rant, but here is the lesson:  While frustrating, this week en Español has taught me that...

I a orana a tout le monde et joyeux noël!  This week I will be spending my Christmas in  Paradise.... which is the name of the Spanish ward in the Ontario Stake.  That's right folks. I'm back baby.  No hablo Español pero estoy en El Barrio de espagnol. (That last sentence was written without Google translate so I will hopefully survive another Spanish filled week.) Sister Dailey went home to North Carolina, leaving me companionless.  It was hard and sad to say goodbye, but I am SO grateful for the short time we were able to spend as companions.  1. And God told Noah to build an ark It rained! And oh boy did it rain.  I went on exchanges with Sister Lundberg in Mira Loma! In the rain showers, the hilly dirt roads of Mira Loma turned into ponds and lakes.  Sister Lundberg got a little power hungry driving our car, but luckily I survived the ship voyages we underwent.  Once we reached our location, we decided to go door knocking. We hopped and s...

  Iaorana à tous!  J'espère que votre vie est magnifique et carrement maita'i roa!  We will begin this email with a grand miracle:  We taught Robert again! (We knocked on his door last week and taught him a few days later.) His roommate Rich joined in and we taught the Plan of Salvation. It was an awesome lesson. This is my first time teaching people who have been incredibly prepared to hear the gospel- they are READY.  We went back to Salvation Army with the Hermanas! We helped hand out food carts in the rain! I love serving at Salvation Army. It has given me a huge appreciation for what service missionaries do. The Sister there, Sister Miller, is incredible and Salvation Army cannot give out food unless she is there to help them. I love her and love being able to serve people around Christmas time!  Speaking of, send me your addresses if you would like a Christmas card signed by yours truly!  Ontario = one big litter of cats.  The streets of Ont...

  Iaorana tout le monde! This week, our lovely car was taken away from us.  Seeing how we live a couple miles out of our area and Sister Dailey doesn't have a bike, our vehicle lack was frustrating.  However, when things get difficult there are still miracles and blessings so here is a list of some cool things that only occurred because we didn't have a car: 1. We needed a ride to a lesson with Jeremy! We called every member we could think of, to no avail. The lesson time was approaching and we still had no ride. Suddenly we got a call from the miraculous and incredible Sister Gonzalez! We got a ride and the lesson went really well.  2. We were walking around a neighborhood. The sun was setting and we had no ride back to our apartment, so we decided to walk to the church building! It took a half hour, but the weather was absolutely perfect and we got to walk through historic Ontario. It's gorgeous. 3. While on this walk, we were followed by cats on three separate occ...