Vernwood: Translado 3 Semana 2‏ May 10,2010

Hola familia!

Today is mother's day in Mexico, so feliz dia de las madres! :) I got to talk to you yesterday! I loved hearing your voices and talking to you, even though it was so short. I know that for a lot of missionaries it probably makes them feel sad and "trunkie," but for me it is just really motivating knowing that you are there for me and you love and support me. I really haven't had time to be homesick, and plus I feel like you should enjoy and take advantage of every experience in your life and not waste it by dwelling on other things that you're missing out on or that you can't change. I am so happy to be here on my mission and to be having these experiences and learning so much. I love how the mission forces you to change and adapt and grow by always putting you in challenging situations that make you keep reaching. If you ever feel like you've arrived, or you feel comfortable, then the Lord throws you another challenge to push you.

A great example of that is what happened this past week. Just when i was settled in with my new companion, feeling good and happy because I feel like we are really good friends already without even trying, everything changed. Another sister in the mission had a medical problem and had to be moved to the temple apartments, so everything else had to be shuffled around. We ended up being put into a trio with another sister named Hermana Cass, and they also combined our area with the bordering area of Vernon. All of this happened last Thursday. It was a little daunting thinking about having to work in two areas and get everything figured out. Sister Cass moved into our apartment in Maywood. The move wasn't that big of a deal, because I had cleaned out every single closet on transfer day and gotten rid of all of the junk in our apartment, which apparently was inspired because it would have been a big mess trying to move in another person if I hadn't. The most daunting thing about the change was just the fact that we now have to cover two of the busiest areas in the entire mission. We've had a lot of help from the Lord to get it all figured out though.

Sister Cass is from Utah as well, and it is great because she is pretty chill, and she is also really funny. She is really great at telling stories, so I've actually laughed so much and had a lot of fun this past week, even though it has been a little crazy. She just barely transferred from the Beverly Hills area, where she had Aaron Ekhart (sp?) in her ward (the guy that is two face in the dark knight). He is a less active that she got to visit a couple of times. Chelsea Hightower from so you think you can dance was also in one of the wards she covered. She says that is was really hard though because they would never have investigators, and they would spend hours tracting these huge mansions and no one would listen.

The new area that we cover is called Vernon. It is quite a bit more ghetto than Maywood- it has a little bit of Compton in it, and a lot more diversity. It is going to be interesting getting to know a new area. I am glad that I get to work in an area where the people are humble and listen to us, and also where I have been able to teach and practice my spanish a lot. That has been one of the biggest challenges for Hermana Cass because she hasn't had the opportunity to practice spanish. She also broke her foot a while back and has to wear this really big heavy boot. Hermana Garcia has her broken finger too, so we will be going to the doctors once a week for them. I am sooo glad that I haven't had to deal with an injury or major health problem. I have been very blessed.

On Saturday we got to volunteer at the Revlon Run/Walk for women's cancer at the USC colisseum. I was a huge event and only our zone got to help out with it. Our job was to stand at a booth area where the runners made "tribute signs" with the names of the people with cancer they knew who they were running in support of. It was a really neat event, and it was great to see so many people trying to do something to help. There were a lot of different teams and slogans. I got a picture with the "hot mom's club" team, and also with a team that's slogan was "save the ta-tas." We all got free T-shirts for being volunteers, and it was really funny seeing all of the elders wearing shirts that said "We've got Womentum," which was the slogan for the race. We also helped count the pledge money. They were telling us that the events coordinators want to try to use us for other events, because if you think about it, where else can you find a big workforce of bilingual, honest people that will work really hard and be really obedient for free? We did this as a service project while all of the other zones helped clean up parks as part of a California wide service called "Mormon helping hands."

I get to go to the temple again next week, which is another perk of the change we had because we switched zones, so I'll write again next Wednesday. Have a good week!

Love,
Hermana Dansie