Santa Cruz week 8

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Becca Sue I hope your day is awesome :)

This week was interesting. We did a lot of service, actually meeting the weekly goal for once! 5 acts for 10 hours. Woohoo. :)

So you know what we did on Monday, that was in my last email. :)

Tuesday we did service for someone in the c ward. She is awesome and a caterer and an amazing cook (no one is better than mom though) and just awesome, and her husband is a musician. We were helping move some boxes for a rummage sale in their community with Elder Staker and Elder Lund and it was awesome. :) We kind of rode in the back of a pick up truck. . . . Later that day we found out that Sister Palmers best friend moved without telling her :(

Wednesday we did more service for the same people, basically doing the same thing. :) I am totally finding them after my mission!!! Also the people in charge of the rummage sale gave me a dreamcatcher. Our dinner was with the Branch President of Ocean Branch and we used chopsticks  He and his wife are both awesome. :)

Thursday we had our second lesson with the investigator we found the week before and it went really well:) . District meeting was also today, and it of course was awesome and filled with learning more things about missionary work and missionary work games to help you do missionary work. xD :)

Friday we went to the doctor for Sister Palmer so that she could schedule a sleep study for her. We had more service, at our usual place the soup kitchen. Thankfully nothing insane happened there this week. That evening we went to an art show. :) When we went contacting a couple of weeks ago we met Karen Scarborough on East Cliff painting with Oils. She is AWESOME and we went to the art show. I now have a small card with a picture of one of the beaches of Oahu, Hawaii because one of the artists there does awesome water photographs.

Saturday we went to Watsonville for most of the day and almost as soon as we got there I started feeling terrible. I had troubles breathing and my chest hurt. I told one of the STL's and she said it was probably allergies as when people go to w. their allergies get way worse because of how much stuff is grown there. So I basically tried to ignore it for the rest of the day. Hurray. We then went to SLV which is on the opposite end of the stake so our miles were awesome by the end of the day (99.5, it was epic lol).  Visited Sister Dallenbach! And this time she said "I'll kill you" and sister Palmers started freaking out until sis D. said "where's the fly swatter". Yup. She is totally insane.

Sunday we went to Alma branch. That was fun. We were basically told to repent because righteousness and the rain are somehow connected. . . . o.O  then we went to OB sacrament but after sacrament, I was still not feeling well at all. I just have a respitory infection and have been told to take it easy for the next few days. Sigh. As a missionary, THAT IS SO HARD.

​this was the moon last night. 

This is on SeaBright beach in front of the Santa Cruz museum. It was

Thursday. Sister palmer was feeling sick after dinner so we went for a

walk and took a picture by the whale.

So I've been reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage, and it is super cool. It's all about Christ's life. Also, I have a really old copy that was owned by one of my great grandma's on my moms side and her signature is on the front cover, and there are notes and markings all over. It's really cool! It's super thin, because the pages are scripture paper and basically no one else I've met has a copy like mine which is kinda cool and it's pretty and an interesting read. :) I'm in chapter 16, which is talking about Christ's apostles and it is just really interesting to read about.

California is awesome! Even if it has been kindof hot the past couple of days. . . . Texas must be rubbing of on us a bit.

The week has been awesome and insane, but everything is going good. My companion is my trainer and AMAZING. A new transfer started this week. All's good.

Love and miss my people!!!

Sister Kelly

Santa Cruz week 7

This week was insane. Tuesday was district meeting as usual and I showed them the video of Lisa laughing.
Thursday was awful we had an appointment but it went terrible he totally went off on us so we waited till he left and then asked the Elders for blessings because they had thankfully walked into the church building a bit before. Also on Elder Stakers advice we called President Mella and he of course made everything better.  :) it was funny in the morning though as Elder Staker and some of our WML tried to find us dinners at the same time and miscommunication commenced. Friday someone had a seizure at the Soup Kitchen where we do service and of course I was closest so I called for help they call 911 and the person didn't want help :(.

 Also that night after dinner we somehow pocket dialed the Elders (we've dialed 911 two somehow, they called us back lol) and it was in Sister Palmers purse so lol. Saturday we tried to do another service but that didn't happen cause police were blocking the way. Sunday the organist in slv stopped us in the middle and made us start over the verse cause she messed up. Today we were at the beach from 9:30- around 2:30. xD It was AWESOME.

Sister Melia and me. 

Santa Cruz week 6

Some highlights from this week: I received the CD's Aunt Cindy sent!! :) One person we are meeting with right now is Nicolette. She is a recent convert who goes to school here at UCSC and is not even technically in our stake she goes to her home ward somewhere else. We are just helping to teach her the RC lessons. :)

I will go over how our week usually looks and then do how last week went. :)

everyday we wake up at 6:30 and exercise, at 7:00 is preparation for the day, 8 is personal study, 9 is companion study. 9:30 pm is daily planning when we plan for the next day. :)  mondays and sundays we don't go finding or contacting. 

Mondays are P-Days!!! :) best day we email, write letters, do laundry and errands, and have fun. Sometimes as a zone, or as multiple zones, or sometimes as a district (or substitute district) we do stuff. Because of the ipad we can email all day 10am-6pm and read emails throughout the week. After that is dinner if we have one and then FHE with the YSA. 

Tuesdays - Thursdays we have training, go finding, see people. Tuesdays is usually district meeting unless there is a bigger meeting happening that week. Wednesday was mini exchanges and interviews with President Mella ( :D ). The exchanges went well and we had fun. I took sister Snyder to Marrianne. On Thursday it was just bad., dragging us down all day. But, we met a person whom we had been trying to meet for weeks named Danielle. :)

Friday we have service from 10-1 unless we have a meeting like we did this past week. Friday is also our weekly planning day. Friday was Zone Training Meeting and that was of course epic because we all got lunch afterwards and talked at the church for like an hour more. xD Also the Zone Leaders had a baptism. :)

Saturday we do training and finding and stuff in the morning and in the afternoon Saturday the WML in SLV and his wife fed us yummy food (salad and chicken and fruit - healthiest I've had yet. . . . xD)And see our Saturday people. Expect one, Alice, who is going to the temple on the 22nd (this upcoming saturday), which happens to be Lisa's three month mark and Sister Palmer's Parents' anniversary :)

Sundays we usually go to three wards unless going to slv or alma, then we go to two. We always go to the YSA ward. 8 hours of church horray. bleh. Then we try and see people.  

"On sunday we taught Gospel Principles in one of our wards. The topic was talents. I am so thankful for talents and the fact that people have them. I want to remind everyone that YOU DO HAVE TALENTS. And those talents were given to you by God. Maybe you can't see the talents you have, maybe they are berried, but you have them. Think about all of the things you can do! All of those things are talents.  Think about it: God gave everyone talents. Maybe you have one, five, ten. BUT YOU HAVE TALENTS.

​This was the activity the FHE did last monday. :) Sister Palmer and I are the lighthouse and rose/vine thing 

 

​There is a chocolate place called Makensies Chocolates and wow. Yummy. 

But look what I found mom. LISA LANE!!! :) Lisa has a street! xD

Sister Snyder and me.

We taught our stuffed animals the Plan of Salvation in a role play because we were tired of using an inanimate chair. So we animated the stuffed animals. xD 

week 5 part 2

We lost some pictures last week and Kalani sent them this week...so it's like a bonus...enjoy:

Sister Palmer and Lily cat

The YSA made pancakes

This is Ella she just got back from her mission and came as a member to one of our lessons it was awesome!

A lizard called T swift. ;)

This is the fan in the window of one of our less actives! It is soooo awesome!

Santa Cruz week 5

I thought this was awesome

It RAINED!

We went out for food after a huge awesome service at the food bank. :)

This is the end of the rope xD

This week was pretty cool. Hit the one month mark on Saturday! o.O wow. . . . has it really been a month? It definitely doesn't feel like it!! 

Last P-Day our zone didn't really do anything. . . But Sister Palmer and I met up with the Watsonville district and played Settelers of Catan. It was awesome. Also I made Natalie tell me stories. . . . xD 

Sister Palmer and I finished putting our Area Book into the planner app on the ipads! Horray! 

Had what we called a mini zone conference, but it was really just a training/pep with President and Sister Mella and the AP's. 

I keep having a hard time thinking of what to write and thought I'd share a story I forgot to share one time. We were up in the foothills visiting someone and once we were done and backing out of the driveway, I kindof went a different way than Sister Palmer directed and our front left wheel went off the driveway and we became stuck. We had to ask the landlord of the person whom we were visiting if he could pull us out with his truck! He did, but we had to cut the rope off of our cars cause it wouldn't come off, so I have a souvenir. 

Santa Cruz is really cool and an amazing place to take pictures and the weather is epically amazing, especially compared to Texas. ;P 

Going to the beach again today! The San Jose South Zone has made a day of it, so we shall meet them after our errands are done. :) 

I love and miss everyone!!

Sister Kelly

Santa Cruz-week 4

So I said we were going to the beach! We did and it was awesome! No one had a volleyball unfortunately . . The Santa Cruz Zone! Going left to right: Elders: Barbosa, Staker, Larsen, Sundrud, Ball, and Lund. Sisters: Snyder, Scarr, Me, and Palmer. 

Elder Larsen wanted a pic with his actual companion, Elder Ball

Where we parked the car.

Trying to street contact!

NATALIE SHE IS USING OILS SHE DOES IT ALL THE TIME AND HAS AN UPCOMING ART SHOW WITH ABOUT 20 OIL PAINTINGS AND I WANT TO GO SHE IS AMAZING I HAVE A SMALL HANDOUT OF ONE OF HER OTHER PICTURES!! Also we gave her one of our handouts.

Church Pioneer BBQ on Mommy's B-DAY!!!!! :)

"Watsonville district" including Sister Palmer and I because we are already considered to be part of the district. xD

Random beach picture after and appointment fell through.

We went to a baptism in Watsonville on Saturday because Sister Palmer had a hand in teaching Elsa (yes that is her name and no she has not seen frozen) when she was in Watsonville waiting for me. 

Getting Ice Cream at Marrianne's with some OB YSA's! Trevor was leaving to work in Utah so Courtney had us all meet up. We do our laundry at Courtney's families house. 

Sister Palmer's awesome family sent me some chocolate in a box they sent to Sister Palmer. . . . And they melted all over everything! It was really funny. I froze them. xD

There is a duolingo app on the iPads (technically just for those missionary's learning a language. . . ) and I am trying to possibly learn some German. :) It's fun. xD

Basically Santa Cruz in insanely awesome (emphasis on insane!) and I've had a  good first two weeks. 

To all those people who have emailed me, it really does brighten my day, no matter who you are. To see an email from a friend or family member is a highlight no matter what is happening around me. Thank you :) 

Something I noticed while marking my scriptures (as I have so many different copies. . . ) is the fact that every time I get a new set I still mark all of the "and it came to pass" or "therefore it shall come to pass" (stuff along those lines). I guess it's to remind myself every time I read ,that even though trials may come at random times, they always come to pass. I will stay a lighthouse for the Lord and any trials or struggles or hardships I have will come, but only stay a little while. They will pass me by. "And thus saith the Lord, it shall come to pass". In the long run, very few of the things that bother me now will still bother me in a couple of years, or even a couple of months. Remember the 5 thing: "will it bother me in: 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months, 5 years?" Heavenly Father is the constant whereas any trials will pass. John 14:18 says "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you."

Love and miss everyone!!!

Sister Kelly