Santa Cruz 12

Monday :) we basically did our errands and stayed home until almost dinner time when the seaside sisters called and asked if we wanted to do something - so to Mackenzies we went. :) funnily enough that is the first name of one of the seaside sisters. lol. It was awesome. Then we had dinner and our investigator bailed on going to FHE (opposition from her family) so we didn't go - it was up in the mountains and we didn't want to take the drive without a reason. 

Tuesday was "distract meeting". The questions for this week were "what genre of music are you", "if you were a crepe or a pancake what toppings would you have", and "what kind of socks would you be". xD Then we had a mini testimony meeting basically and "taught Steve and Rodger" ( the district leaders dressed up like random people from Elder Stakers old area). After district meeting we went to give Nicolette a lesson on the temple :) Also Seaside found a less active while they were at walgreens waiting for their car to be fixed and sent us her info and we met with her. :) she is awesome and wants to come back to church and has a really pretty name - Anyalesse. 

Wednesday we met with Liz - our investigator - early in the morning because we were scared of losing her. Nicolette came along - and they really clicked as friends! :) We taught her about opposition and lesson three. :) Saw a couple of people, had dinner with the Stake Presidents wife which was awesome :) and saw Krystal. 

Thursday we saw Nanci Jo and she gave us both necklaces that she made - maybe I'll take a picture with my ipad and send it later as I forgot to do that :). Had dinner with someone named Brianna and her adorable son (the dad and grandma weren't home). Sometime during the day we went to a donut place to commemorate Elder Scott and got free donuts because a member worked there. :) 

Friday we did service at the soup kitchen - nothing too exciting happened other than some new people were there and not so kind about what the kitchen didn't have instead of thinking of what they did have. And then. . . . .we went finding with one of our Ward Mission Leaders. :) IT WAS AWESOME. We went to Pacific Ave (we don't go there at night without other people - it can get scary) and Bro J played the accordion while Sister Palmer and I sang. :) We passed out a ton of mormon.org cards. It was sooooooo much fun. :) Then we went to have dinner. :) Pizza!!! 

Saturday we did weekly planning because friday was full. We cleaned (there used to be soooooooooo much stuff in our closets!!!). Saw Sister D who insisted that Sister Palmer and I's soon to be husbands were both waiting at the bottom of Sister D's super steep driveway and that Sister Palmer and I would be buried (married) by next year. LOL. Then we had dinner at Alice's - and missed the Women's session. Went to the Santa Cruz Elders' baptism - because we were asked to sing - and President Mella and his assitants were there. The baptism was awesome and we sang "Abide with Me" hymn #166. Liz didn't come - instead she asked us to take a step back - but she has not dropped us! 

Sunday was long hours of church - and fasting. YSA had food afterwards though, and it was good. :) Also there was apparently a red moon or something but the clouds hid it so I couldn't get pictures :(  Also we found out that the less active member whose house we go to for laundry got an adorable puppy!!! :) 

This is Krystal's lizzard - T Swift. :) 

this was the heat. and we weren't even in the mountains - cause that is where we usually feel the heat. 

Sissy the cat. :) 

I am so weird but does that not look like a dragon??? ^^^

​THE CUTEST THING (OTHER THAN LISA CAUSE LISA TOPS EVERY CUTE EVER) ROXY THE PUPPY <3 :="" font="">

CONFERENCE!!!!!!! <3 :="" :d="" a="" also="" apostles="" are="" awesome.="" be="" conference.="" expecting="" font="" getting="" going="" i="" is="" it="" m="" nbsp="" new="" probably="" so="" spiritual="" super="" three="" to="" we="">

Know what else conference means for the missionaries in the California San Jose Mission??? WE GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!!!! :) <3 -="" :="" a="" but="" california="" conference="" day="" each="" expect="" font="" get="" given="" go="" have="" in="" is="" it="" members="" mission="" monday="" nbsp="" next="" oakland="" of="" our="" outside="" pictures="" rides="" round="" s="" so="" temple.="" temple="" the="" time="" to="" we="" wednesday="" with="" zone="">

Have an awesome week. 

Love and miss everyone (especially my darlings <3 font="">

Love,

Sister Kelly

Sunday

Santa Cruz 11

Hello to all! How goes it??

Our week was pretty eventful :)

So monday  we made mom's split pea soup with a member and it was awesome. :) Sister Palmer had never had it before, and enjoyed it. We thankfully had extra. :) Awesome Sister Palmer quote "I thought I saw a P-day - wait. My bad. There is no P-day." - because it flies by soooooooooooo fast!

Tuesday was Zone Conference. It went from 9am-2:30 pm. LONG. But apparently that length was usual. Okay. So it was awesome. We always have a pre-reading for our big missionary meetings and this time they were "A Reservoir of Living Water" by David A. Bednar, and "A Discussion on Scripture Study" by President Eyring. It was awesome. :) But we were fed, which was good, and I now have a tie. They were technically for the elders but there were some extra ones, so. . . . . :) Our dinner that night was had at Chili's with a member. :)

Wednesday we saw a less active in the morning. Had a random lunch at home.  Saw Nicolette the recent convert (finishing up her recent convert lessons!! we are now on laws and ordinances). Saw a less active and her son after dinner. They have an adorable Kitten!! :D Then we went and did some ward splits - but no other sisters showed up. It was fun though. :)

Thursday the coordinating sisters came down and made us pancakes. :) We had an awesome talk about finding. Also they wanted to talk about the October outgoing (the fireside where lots of missionaries who are going home that transfer speak and there are some musical numbers) because Sister Palmer and I want to sing in it (so many people want to sing for this one!!! PRESIDENT IS SINGING!!!!!). We want to sing, but it doesn't mean we will. They are still deciding. We would sing hymn number 165, Abide With Me; Tis Eventide, both of us singing the chorus', I would sing the first verse, and Sister Palmer would sing the second, and both of us would sing the third. The entire time Sister Palmer would be singing in FRENCH. :) I convinced her to sing with me. :) If it happens it will be awesome. :) After the coordinating sisters left, we saw a less active who has a lot of dogs. xD

So the referral system has been throwing lots of old referrals at everyone in the mission because the iPads are new and everything, and we found someone who was already in our phone. She was referred by a friend about a year ago and some sisters before us had tried to meet with her in april, but it didn't happen. She has been prepared by her friend, because her friend has told her a lot about the church. We called her and asked if she would like to meet - and she said does 4pm work? and we of course said yes. So we met with her and taught her the Restoration and invited her to be baptised and she said YES!!!! :) So we asked when she would like to meet again and she said saturday! (NO SKIPPING FRIDAY TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED!)

After dinner we went to see a less active named Brenda and she wants to have a pizza party with us on the 4th. :)

Friday we didn't have much happen. Some of our appointments fell through. :( We did weekly planning, had lunch, then went contacting for a bit. Saw a less active family. Had dinner at I-Hop with some members. Sister Palmer started telling me the Jane Austen Books by memory :) (she still needs to do emma, but the others are done). Another funny Sister Palmer "Satan makes GPS's" - because our church building doesn't show up on it.

Saturday we met with our new investigator for lunch. Her name is Liz. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and SET A DATE FOR HER TO BE BAPTISED!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D Then we went to visit a less active who is returning to church and recently went to the temple :) Then our service didn't answer the door - but she does that sometimes. So we went contacting.

Sunday was a primary program in one of the wards and it was adorable!!!! :)  Our investigator didn't come to church so we will have to move her date back, but she is coming to the YSA FHE (which means that we get to go, lol).

Today some of the sisters from monterey are coming up to visit -and I will tell you more of that next week. :)

thought they were cool

we did not actually go in, but it is really funny

I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THIS WAS ON MY CAMERA I FORGOT IT IS GORGEOUS

It's the Cheshire cat moon!! Yes, we do get that here. We also have very limited stars. . . 

Love and miss you all

Love, 

Sister Kelly

more sister Palmer funnies: a sister Palmer funny "Will you follow the example of missionaries before you and invite my iPad to be baptised?" - we were doing baptismal invitations during training. lol. :) 

Santa Cruz 10

 Monday was awesome. We went to Monterey! :) We had lunch at Ike's sandwich place with Hermana Sinclair and Hermana Grant (Hermana Grant was with me on the way to San Jose) which was fun, and then the Hermana's sent us to the aquarium without them cause the traffic was so bad, :( but we went and had a ton of fun. :) The drive back from Monterey took almost two hours, but we were glad to get out of Santa Cruz - they were apparently expecting thousands of people to be there!

Tuesday we did not have "distract meeting"  because we had a different meeting on Thursday. :( But our investigator whom we had not heard from for about a week texted us!! He was really busy as he works at a hotel and it was labor day weekend - but he is still interested :) We got a referral during lunch which was awesome. We went and saw our potential investigator who is interested just super busy at the moment :) We had dinner with an awesome family with seven children. Then we saw Krystal, who is a YSA less active wanting to come back to church (she really really does!) but something happens as to where she doesn't make it. :( But, something funny! We were talking about movies to see once we get back, and Sister Palmer still needs to see the last season of Korra. So Sister Palmer says she will be going into it (watching it) with low expectations, and Krystal says "that's what I do with people". We laughed so hard. xD I hit my two month mark!!! Ahhhhh!!! 

Wednesday our one set appointment cancelled on us :( so we . . . thought about contacting while driving around to see if anyone was at the parks. Then we saw the person whom we see when we want to feel better - Renee! She is an awesome recent convert who has a twin and speaks french. lol. :) We did some service for our dinner before dinner and then she talked ages (so lonely).

Thursday we had Zone Training. :) And we met the older couple, Elder and Sister Hayes, who are now over the SLV ward  and are really sweet. The topic of the training was obedience. We were in charge of the activity - and brainstormed the night before! We had half of them find examples of people in the scriptures who were obedient (they were: Noah {genesis 6:22}; Esther; Balaam {numbers 22-24}; Nephi {1 Nephi 3:7}; Moroni {I didn't catch the reference :( }) and the other half find scriptures on obedience and the blessings of being obedient or the curses of not . It was really fun. :) We did find out that the referral we got was definitely NOT interested in any way. I finished Jesus the Christ after dinner - IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! :)

Friday was Advanced Orientation. Woohooo. I saw all the people I came out with :) it was awesome, we talked about scripture study and how to teach people, not lessons. :) Panda Express for dinner with some members. :) Also some old referrals showed up. . . .  o.O now we have to see if any of them are good.

Saturday we could've had service that morning but when we tried to call the night before we couldn't even leave a message unfortunately. I tried Taco Bell for lunch. . . . :) We did some service for Alice, and sister Dallenbach (I finished the puzzle!!) :).

Sunday not much happened other than church. Well, we had a hard time finding  lunch (a member brings us lunch every sunday because she found out the missionaries are at church all day!)

Sister Palmer, Me, Sister Sinclair, and Sister Grant

grumpy day octopus xD

They glow, it's cool.

It's a whalebox xD

The puzzle I finished. :) 

And that was my week. :) 

Love and miss everyone!!! :) 

Sister Kelly

Santa Cruz week 9

Monday we pretty much did p-day stuff. Laundry at the McArthers' house (we always do it there:)). Went to dinner at pleasure pizza with a member name Lillian  whose birthday it was as well :). We went to the YSA Bonfire at the beach FHE but left early cause I didn't feel well.

Tuesday the Hogwarts express unfortunately left without us. We were sad. lol. I slept in a bit because of bleh and missed the funny texts about district meeting. The first text said we weren't going to have it this week, the next one changed the time from the usual 10:30 to 10, and the last changed the time to 9:30. We were then asked to be in charge of the activity and thankfully Sister Palmer had one from her last area, which meant that Elder Ball knew it as well (he was in that same area for her first three months). The activity is basically commitment wars: you sit across from another missionary and spout out commitments until one of you cracks and can't think of any more. Elder Staker (DL) decided that Elder Lund and I (both of us in training) were the victors. lol. Afterwards we all went to Marrianne's Ice Cream. :) After Lunch Sister Palmer and I rested by playing yahtzee (which we borrowed from the McArthers) until we met an awesome less active named Lauren. She loves butterflies, kids, and knows ASL (and was an interpreter for ages). She dances and was a kindergarten teacher (like Bre, Sister Palmer's twin, does and wants to be!). It was awesome. I convinced Sister Palmer to sing at the October Outgoing (the meeting where missionaries bear their testimonies before going home) with me. Hopefully that happens (the program is still being decided, as so many people want to be in it!), but if it does we want to sing Hymn #165. I would sing the first verse, she would sing the second and then we would both sing the third. We would also both sing the chorus. The difference is that she would sing in French. xD

Wednesday was interesting. We went to see a less active but she wasn't home, so as we turned to leave I apparently didn't swivel my feet or something but I hurt my left meniscus. OUCH. So yeah, it'll heal in 4-6 weeks (if nothing else happens to it!) and I ice it every day 2-3 times for 15 minutes. Also no kneeling :( Hooray. xD We later went to see Krystal (awesome YSA less active who wants to come back to church!!!!!!) and she gave us Santa Cruz bumper stickers. Sister Palmer has a mermaid, and I, of course, have a butterfly. :)

Thursday we both slept terribly (mostly cause I just could not get comfortable cause of my knee). We met with Brenda later and she is hoping to finally get sundays off from work!! She is hopefully coming back to church starting the 13th of September. :) I shared my song Still Have You with her because her sister recently passed.

Friday we dropped the eternigator (eternal investigator). Carol Beth had been investigating for YEARS and still was not progressing towards baptism. We are keeping the door open, but will be seeing her less than we already did. She travels a lot so that was my second time meeting with her. Our awesome recent convert was out of town, named Renee. She speaks Czech and French and we visit her when we want to feel better. :) She's just awesome.

Saturday we got trims from a less active named Laura. She is professional and does our haircuts for free! :) SLV day, but surprisingly nothing weird happened, lol. We had Chinese for dinner and that was an experiment. I have realized very much that I don't really like super spicy food of any sort. Gah. Afterwards we went home and she decided to draw so I wrote a song so I wouldn't feel left out of the artisticness. lol

Sunday was our stake wide fast for rain. :)

An awesome recent convert , named Nicolette, who's lessons we've been doing came to the YSA (she usually goes to her home ward)  She is awesome. :) I totally feel the spirit in our lessons with her and last week something came up that wasn't in the lesson and was totally from the spirit and it was awesome. :)
 Funny thing: Nicolette bore her testimony then so did everyone else in her row so I had a thought that was confirmed by the last person to go who said everyone had been told to go up. lol. Mom, you're email was really funny because I got up and said that that would sometimes happen in my family, lol, where one person would go up and then eventually almost the entire family would go!! xD it was really funny. Also I said "I was asked a couple days ago (by carol beth) for reasons I enjoyed being a missionary. I gave a couple random ones then said that it brings me closer to the Savior than I have ever been.Back home I kind of read my scriptures, but usually just a verse or something, or sometimes not at all. Here on my mission I have an hour set aside every morning where I read the scriptures or a talk and I can totally see the difference. When I didn't read my scriptures at home, sure I could see something different, my day wouldn't go as well or something, but nothing like it is now. Now, I can literally tell if I haven't read the scriptures that day. The spirit is just not there no matter how we try and keep it, the day goes wonky and all the appointments fall through. So I know that when we read the scriptures there is a difference and the blessings we get from the spirit when we read make our lives so much better".

Sister Palmer and I were invited to Monterrey by the Seaside (spanish) sisters down there. One of them is Hermana Grant, who came on the plane with my group so that'll be fun. Hopefully we are going to the aquarium. It'll be fun. :D We were planning on leaving Santa Cruz anyway as it is Labor Day and most likely no one will be able to get anywhere. lol.

We found out there is now a missionary couple in Alma and SLV!!!! We have yet to meet them, as they are still figuring out where they will be parking their living van thing whatever it's called. xD

​Bonfire at the beach. FHE last Monday. :) 

 found outside the stake center

Sister Palmer holding Gigi, Sister Dallenbach's 

 dog. :)

deer from last week

awesome sign I thought my sisters would like

jamba juice with sister palmer

Enjoy my ramblings. :)

I LOVE ALL THE PEOPLE AND MISS THEM. :) 

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