Email 4/4

Hello Family! Friends!

I have 4 minutes and I have to go, so pretty much I have seen Dianna and I saw Michelle right before my interview with President Tew. It has been great! I am excited to see all of you in the next few days. I Should be getting home to Mapleton sometime Thursday Afternoon. I think.

Well this past week has been so spiritual. I love my mission and am super sad in a way that I won't be able to have these types of experiances that I am having now, but a peace has come with it that it is time to come home. To see my family and begin the next part of my journey. It is exciting and scary all at the same time. Please be patient with me, I was with Dianna and her family and was without my companion and felt so out of place and everything! It was awful. But it will get better, with time! So if I look a little lost over the next week it is just me adjusting!  

Love you all!

See you soon!

Sister Pendleton

Email 3/4

Hello Family and Friends!

So this is my 3rd out of 4 last emails! Can you believe it???? I sure can't. Only the last two or three days has it really hit me that I will be home next week! I just keep thinking that it isn't really going to happen. It really started hitting when we were at conference Saturday night watching the women's session. I got home sick. I always do. Seeing the conference center it just reminds me way too much of home. So then I realized that family is so close! I was like wow...so my plan is to hang onto as much of being a missionary I can be. This is something that I am going to miss. Really, you might as well because I won't have those great stories any more ;) Then I will just be boring....

SO this past week we started the Because He Lives Initiative. You should look at it and share it with everyone! It is amazing! I love the website on Mormon.org. you can learn a lot about Christ's life from it all.

It is always kinda a funny moment when you have been teaching someone, and you don't really know if they like you or not, then one day you see them outside of teaching appts and they come up to you and are excited to actually see you. That is such a great moment. That happened this week. We teach this family, they are so rowdy and half the time I think this might not be helping, and don't know if they really like us or not. But then that moment happened and it just makes you feel so good!

We have been teaching a man who is from Vietnam. We turned him over to the Vietnamese elders when we realized that his English wasn't as good as we thought. It was so cool to watch as they walked in to teach him and they spoke in his language that his eyes lite up. It looked like he went home! It was so cute!

Well here comes the last stretch of my mission...I will race to the finish...if my legs will hold me up...haha...jk....maybe a little serious though...

Love you all!

Sister Pendleton

Newport Temple and St. Patrick's Day Pictures!

 Sister Harrison and me!

Email 2/4

Hello!

So story of the week!

We were out trying to find people because believe it or not the last month has been the hardest months to find! It is crazy to me! Seriously, I think that after finding for basically 17 months that at the end of a mission it wouldn't be so hard to find new people to teach, but that is okay. God is just teaching me about faith and how it is ever growing. So, we had decided on this street and we get out of the car and without thinking we walk past this house that we parked infront of and go up to this door, and well knocked and we started talking to these people who were soooo nice and friendly. They asked us how we chose this house and we didn't know what to say. they said, out of all the houses on this street you chose the one out of 2 jewish families on the block. Well, needless to say we chatted for a bit, they just kept asking us questions about our religion and then we offered service and they decided to let us come and help them. It was awesome. They are now some of my favorite people to do service for. I realized yesterday that I will not be able to have another chance to serve at the local library where we do service each week. That was an interesting realization. I may add that I don't feel too bad about that. I am the worst book finder ever. My comp loves doing the service but I prefer the dirty type of work. The work that you can visually see and physically feel the difference in. That is me!

We went to the temple today and I was so appreciative of it! I love the temple. I get to go next week as well for the departing missionaries. So crazy. Still trying to race to the end. I will say I feel like my body is giving out. Haha.

Last night we were out knocking. We typically don't knock past 8 pm...people around here don't really appreciate it. But it was 735pm and we knocked this house, and well this man came up and yelled at us. Swearing at us and telling us that didn't we know that they were sleeping! Hahah...nope we didn't. I laughed. It was super funny. But I do know a lot of people who leave for work at 4 in the morning and I would have been super unhappy as well if I were him.

Then we were out talking to some people on Sunday, and we met this man and he called us religious freaks...I was like okay whatev's people can think what they want. I am happier this way anyways. Then I find out he is a member. A member who doesn't want to be a member and doesn't want to remove his records either. I just felt a little less okay with the fact that he called me a religious freak. But I did feel a little like paul which made it all okay. Because if the great apostles have that same thing happen then I guess I should too...I just hope I can make it through.

Well this was my adventures of my week! Love you all!

Sister Pendleton

Email 1/4

Well in case you are wondering this is how I will be titling the last of my emails to you all. So this past week it finally hit me that I only have 3 weeks left. That is weird. That is weird weird weird. Oh well, I will soon forget. In the ups and downs of a missionary day days seem like weeks, weeks seem like months and well 3 months left...what a long time!

So this past week we went to this historical park that we will be volunteering for to help catalog and what not. It was awesome. They gave us a complete tour. It was beautiful. I felt like I was up in Idaho with Grandma walking around all the places getting shown how things use to be. I like history. we didn't have our cameras though, so we don't have pictures of it at all. Sorry, we were so sad about not having our cameras, but we will try to another day when we are there.

It has gotten so hot here! Got up to 92 degrees! Yeah, that was miserable but at the same time it just makes me antsy and want to be out side. I am so white. While my comp came out sooooo white and now has some color I am losing all my color. I will be pale when I come back I am sure. But life isn't about the vain things...mostly....

Miracles this week have been really great!

The biggest tender mercy has been how Deziree, who just got baptized, moved out of the ward and then the ward over there helped her move in, and was really involved. It is of great help that she will be well taken care of!

Another miracle: I found someone who was able to find a cello for me to play at my fireside!!! Yes not missionary really related, but definitely wonderful and a miracle!

Well Love you all!

Sister Pendleton

 

p.s. So ya know I will be coming home the 8th or 9th of April. It just depends on Michelle :) My talk in sacrament will be on the 19th of April as far as I am aware!

Last Month

So This is the start of my last 30 days....nope I am not counting but my dear Sis-in-Law just emailed me letting me know that I have that many days...well to be honest it was 29 days that she told me but I though it would sound better to round it off....

So this past week we had zone conference. It was good to go to and talk with the other missionaries. Our president taught us some good things. One of which is Faith is taking one more step. So I am continually telling myself that Faith is taking one more step. It is great. It helps me keep going no matter. what.

No huge stories this past week. Small daily miracles get us through the day. We met these two teenagers who I wasn't too keen on talking with but then something in my mind said, if this was your younger brothers would you want the missionaries to walk away. Well, that got my attention real quick. I began to dig deeper and get them thinking about life. So many teens have such a bleak outlook on life. So we taught them about repentance and what it is. They were really receptive to it and wanted to meet with us again. Glad I didn't give up on them!

Well, love you all!

Sister Pendleton

Baptism

Hello!

So this past week we were able to have a baptism. Deziree was baptized on Saturday! It was so good. Her husband has been very supportive of her and her husbands family as well. He own family didn't come and that was a bummer for her. She was beaming though when she was confirmed. It was awesome in church we got see her go up and bare her testimony. It was awesome! So simple, but so powerful. She was referred to us by a member, and it was awesome because she told him thanks even though at first she wasn't really happy about it. Now she is very thankful for it. It was a good dose of missionary work for the ward and how they should do missionary work. Then we get to talk next week about missionary work. I am excited about it. :)

Last night we met/found a man who pulled his records from the church. It was very sad. I wanted to cry and almost started crying for him. He was very active, he bore his testimony to us about how he knows the church is true. What held him back was that the people weren't helping him, he was trying to help the people within his realm of influence and no one would help him. He is very bitter with some bishops and other leaders about the lack of support. He knows he will come back, he told us of his manifestations that he was able to have due to his faith. He has looked into other churches but they are not what Christ would teach. This church is the closest he has found. I couldn't believe that, he was a member of the 70 at one time. I was amazed and realized just how close we have to watch ourselves and nurture and apply the atonement in our lives daily. That we must forgive people of their weaknesses, and we must forgive ourselves, but to not give up. I can't even tell you the feeling of sorrow that occurred as we talked. I could feel that God had a great work for this man, but he had walked away. We invited him to come back, to forgive, to read the Book of Mormon more in his life. He said he wasn't ready. We told him of the hastening of the work, that now was the time to prepare. That he couldn't waste more time, but begin his journey back. I pray that he will. I couldn't believe what had happened...It was crazy!

Well...I hope that you all know and understand the atonement of Christ isn't just to forgive us but to help us forgive others. To bind not split. To build not tear apart. I hope that if you have something against another person that you start the process of forgiveness now. Don't wait, don't waste precious time!

Love you all!

Sister Pendleton

LAST TRANSFER!!!

Hello my family and friends!

Well, this past week more miracles have occurred. I can't say that they will ever stop because well this is God's work and nothing can stop it. I have been reading about President Wilford Wodruff...He testified of this great work and how it will never stop. Honestly it is actually amazing that this church hasn't stopped when considering it's history. But God has protected it. It gives me great hope and comfort knowing that I can't screw that up as a missionary. I am actually amazed at all the things that I have discovered about the prophets and just how cool they really are!

So I have to say that My comp chopped her hair all off!!! Hahahaha I encouraged her to...I thought it would be good for her to start new. She looks cute with it. Good thing though cause I would have felt aweful had it not turned out so well. Good thing it grows...but yeah. I thought about cutting my hair as well. But I just am not quite ready for that yet.

Well, I have 6 weeks left. After this email you will only receive 6 more...that is a weird thought for sure..Crazy!

Well this past week we met a lady and she told us how she just feels like it is time to change. She wants to changer her life completely now. Well lucky for her the Gospel is all about change. We love change! If we aren't changing than we aren't doing it right. I hope that I have changed a lot!

Love you all!

Sister Pendleton

Pictures

My Zone....

Valentines gifts....

My last planner that Sister Tumurbaatar made me! It is amazing!

Valentines Day/ Presidents day

Hello Family! So this past week we really had not too much exciting things occur. So I will tell you about some of the more tender mercies that occurred. So we went and stopped by this less actives house that no one knows anything about and we found out that the guy had just moved the week before to Whittier...yeah that is interesting. But the lady talked with us for just a few moments and we were able to find out more about her. She told us everything that she was going through and I was like wow you got it rough. Then we were able to share with her Mosiah 24:13-14 and it really touched her. She told us that we should come back in a few weeks and she would have more time for us. It was so cool! I was so grateful that we had stopped by. 

Then we went and stopped by this other less active that I didn't really know anything about. Well turns out that she really wants to come back to church but just hadn't felt that love from people. She showed us how she knows how to crochet and that she does minions. They are amazing just so you know! I was so impressed. So then when we go to walk out she was like I want to come to church next week. I was like wow, that was the easiest reactivation attempt ever on my mission. Now it is the follow through, didn't have to convince her or anything. She knows where she is suppose to be. It was awesome! So we were so grateful for those experiances this past week!

Well Hope all is going well! 

What are your stories for me this week?

?

Love yall!

Sister PEndleton

Hello Everyone! Oh the 1st week of February....

Well this past week was hilarious in a sense but so high and low. 1st though a good funny story that I think all of you will appreciate....

So yesterday I was wearing one of my longer skirts that was white. I just recently got it passed off to me from another missionary :) So I was getting out of the car and leaning over to grab my bag when my shoe fell off of my foot. So I partly put my foot in my shoe and lifted it up to put it back on. Well little did I know that part of my skirt was inbetween my foot and my shoe until I went to put my foot down....yeah....that is totally right....you probably guessed it....my foot hit the ground and my skirt came with it....okay not that bad but it did totally just come down though and then I pretty much yelped and tried to pull up my skirt but it wasn't coming up and it was just a problem. So I figured out that my skirt was in my shoe and so off came my shoe and up came my skirt...Phew...luckily I wear a slip...saved my life...and 2nd that by the Tender MERCIEs of the Lord no one was outside and I was able to have this whole situation go unnoticed except to my comp who was just laughing at me not helping me at all...but it did provide us with a good laugh...for a little while....

So next I realized the last week that I just don't have as much energy, my patience has worn thin with people...I am much more bold with people and sometimes just blunt...I have been pondering why my charity is lacking...so I realized that I am just tired. Tired of getting told no, putting in effort where people don't even care, tired of all the stress that comes with being a missionary....Then I went on this whole thing of what Christ went through and everything like that. Well....turns out there is nothing like that chastisement when you compare your life to Christs and everything. So then I realized that I just need to humble myself just a little more and pray for the strength to keep going and continue to love people no matter what. I figure that I will feel like this in several years when I have children or am trying to work with people...getting tired of things will never end...you just learn to pray for strength...

Well, what is your story for me this week?

Love you all!

Sister Pendleton

Asian food that we ate...not awful not the best either...

Sisters P-day

February

Can you believe that it is already February???? Yeah neither can I but that is totally okay! Lots of things are happening this upcoming month. We have a baptism and we are going to reach some pretty high goals.

I love that EVERYONE tells me not to get too trunky and then asks me when I am going to come home, and what not. Other questions. Hahahaha, how could I not!!! Just kidding, actually I kind of just forget that I am coming home and really it is like forever away. I am also maybe experiencing denial of some sort, and well maybe I have just gone so long without real life that I don't know what to even day dream about!

So with all these barriers I don't think that I am. Plus I am with a new missionary. I am trying to help prepare her for the next 18months....so it is almost like I have 18 months to go....until the members ask us how long we have been out and her 3 weeks is a stark difference to my 16 months now. Yeah...that is a significant time diference.

So this past week was crazy! We have definitely been doing some good work. Our investigators are coming along. Louis who doesn't believe in God, well he fasted, he doesn't think that it is that huge but it is...and well....Sister Harrison is doing great!

We found this guy and then he dropped us and then well we were trying his next door neighbor who is a member, and we saw his grandpa struggling to get back to the house. He was stuck next to a car. Not able to move. He was probably late 70s and so we stopped to help him and it took us 20 to 30 minutes to just get him from the end of his driveway to the house. His hip was grinding together. So my comp goes to the door and yells for his grandson to come help and he totally ignores us. Until she sounded desperate. Made me think of an old time show. But he came out and well...lets just say I am not impressed with this 22 yr old boy. He has a lot of growing up to do.

Well, love you all!

SIster Pendleton

Funny Story!!!

Ready for a very funny story family???? Okay well here it is...so two weeks ago before I got my new companion me and Sister Correa were working in the library doing service for them. We were finding books that needed to be pulled and discarded. Well we were minding our own business when this man who was clearly on some drugs come up to us and start talking to us. He looks at me and says hi and then says something to the effect of "DId you know that library girls are pretty?" I looked at him and in my head am thinking oh boy, you need help and should probably not use so much drugs all the time, and at the same time trying not to laugh, said "oh no I didn't that is a good thing to know!" He then leaves and goes to a shelf that is just on the other side of us to the paperback stories about heated romance. Well he grabs one of them and comes back and shows it to me and says " Have you ever read this book before?" I answered no I hadn't. And am trying to be friendly but looking to sister correa to make sure this guy isn't going to pull anything. We are now in the middle of the row instead of on the outside. Well, then he tells me how he has read the book and that it is pretty good. Then he proceeds to ask me "Do you have a boyfriend?" and I look at him trying not to laugh and I see sister correa trying despretly to hide her smile I recognize the opportunity to teach him and said well actually I am a missionary. I am from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We don't date people while we are missionaries. and then asked him what religion he is...He told me he was Christian and all of a sudden he isn't so interested in talking to me anymore. I love being a missionary!!! SO then we were at district meeting Thursday and one of the elders told me the story of how he met this same guy at walmart driving one of those handicap carts. And came up and said Hey elders! I am Elder Ted...then was like actually I am not an elder...and they were like yeah we know. Then proceeded to tell the elders how he had met their sisters the other day at the library. And said yeah I was totally hitting on them...no no I wasn't hitting on them...yeah okay yeah I really was. Well the rest of the story Elders were too embarrassed to tell me what was said. I just about died. It was so funny though. Then today as I am email I am hiding behind sister Harrison trying not to be seen because I don't want him to see me. Oh the life of a missionary!

Anyways! Well last night was the best night ever. Sister Harrison has been wondering if she receives promptings from the spirit and she received a prompting and we acted on it and we found a new person to teach! It was the coolest experience. I love that God knows exactly what we need just at the right time! This past week has been really good. I am finding that there are a lot of ups with the downs! I love you all! What is a good story from you all lately?

Pictures

Sister Harrison and I

My Plant!!!

 Dr. Suess grass...weird is all I can say!

Week 1 for Training!

Well I got my new missionary. Her name is Sister Harrison. She is super cute. She is from Texas and is just super cute. She kinda got tossed into a great teaching pool. This past week we taught a lot of lessons and she has held up so well with all the stress and everything. I am so excited to be her companion. 

This past week we once again saw a lot of miracles happen especially with the guy that we are teaching. He is super funny and he has almost stopped swearing. When he found out that Sister Correa was leaving tuesday night he sent one more text and in this text he swore. Well without thinking I read the text outloud because that is what we do to make sure that everyone knows what is going on. Well I read the bad word as well and Sister Correa was about dead laughing at me. She was literally crying because she was laughing so hard. I think that it was almost worth it. I have never seen her cry ever so even though it was tears of something close to joy it was almost worth it. 

My new missionary is full of faith and is anxious to do some tracting and contacting people around us. We haven't done much of it because we have been teaching a lot but I think that soon she will know just how lucky she is to be teaching so much. However we will need to find more people to teach. miracle people so that she can begin to see the miracle of finding people. We have been getting referrals as well and that is exciting! 

One of our investigators who is planning on getting baptized the end of February had her brother who was 17 over. We taught them all the law of Chastity. It was the best lesson of my life! I can't even tell you how great this lesson was. I laughed because the first time he meets mormon missionaries he was taught our standard of Chastity. He will never forget us I am sure!!!!

Well love you all! 

Sister Pendleton

Training!

Hey everyone! 

So this transfer I got released as an STL and am now training! I am so excited! I am so happy about it! It means that I get to see great miracles and rely on God's hand and trust that this is His work. I am so excited! I told my mission president all the time that he should let me train and amazingly God decided to let me! It was actually really funny because my comp and I both made requests. I wanted to train and She wanted to be with Sister Anderson and stay in her ward, but President Tew called us into his office like two weeks ago and let us know what would be happening this transfer. We didn't really believe him until it actually happened though because last time he told me something that would happen before transfers when transfers came it was all switched up. So it was so great that it actually all happened! So I will be getting a new missionary tomorrow and start on a new journey. She is so lucky to be coming into this area. We have some baptisms all set up and they look they will actually happen. One of the people we are teaching has been progressing so well. She got her answer and came to a baptism Saturday and she felt the spirit so much and she just knows it is true and she wants to tell everyone that this is what she is going to be doing! She felt the spirit and it caused her to tear up which was really cute to me because just the other day she was like "I don't get it. I don't understand why these people start crying randomly and I just want to tell them that it is okay." It was something like that. but then she finally understood. And she got all teary. She is set, now all we have to do is help her to live the commandments. The same day that she got her answer she decided that when she goes out with her friends she will have to be the DD. It is so great! Just what the gospel does for people. All through the simple things in life. I am so excited for her and her family. 

The ward is very sad to see Sister Correa leave. And well she is a great missionary so it is sad to see her leave. They are even sadder to hear they get a missionary with no experience. But for me I know that this is God's work. Even with my experience I couldn't get this work to go forward if it was all up to me. I am excited to see the work that God will do. Often times I just wish that I wasn't so experienced because the spirit is so much stronger with those missionaries because well God needs to make up the difference. And well in all reality I don't really with that I was new again, but I wish I wasn't so prideful and rely on God more. That is really what it comes down to. And that is what I am learning lately. God makes up the difference as I try and do my best. That is how we found Luigi and that is how we help others come to Christ. All through Him. 

Well I have an announcement to make! 

If you were planning on coming out and getting me, just know if you come to my departure fireside I would love it but our mission president told us that we can't go with you until Tuesday morning. Like stay with you are what not. We could have meals with you and what not but I would just have to stay with my comp until Tuesday morning when she would get her next companion. So ya know...hope that is clear!

Love you all!

What miracles are happening to you?

Sister Pendleton  

Hello everyone!

Hey Hey!

So pretty much I always run short on email time. I don't know how it happens but it just does so I will update you on some great experiences...

Luigi came to church. He is still having such a hard time believing in God, but on the note he wants to come to church next week and that he really is interested. It is so cool! I am so amazed. Here is this man who I didn't even think that would talk with us when we first met and all of a sudden we are meeting with him like everyday and he calls us and texts us when we don't. He recognizes the difference when we are there and not. He is a good guy. He walks us to the car every time to make sure that we are safe. It is amazing. 

Today we went to an asian market and pretty much I am the biggest fan now. It was amazing except for the fact that I didn't understand half on what was there. I don't know how to cook with any of it and yeah. That is my life right now. I love this place and it is getting better! Next week is transfers and it will be interesting to see what happens! 

So be patient with me on the Christmas stuff....it is getting difficult to get it done! 

Love you all! 

SIster Pendleton