Letter Excerpts

Excerpts from Kirstin’s Letters:

Oscar Delgadillo was officially baptized September 29, 2013. It was such a great baptism. Oscar told his daughter that it was him being baptized right before he changed into his whites. It was so sweet and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Sister Lind, me, and Elders Chandler and Choi sang “Come Thou Font “and it was great; the Spirit was really strong. Oscar called us the next day to say thank you and he said that he didn’t know that music could bring such power and Spirit. Oscar, his daughter and son-in-law all shared their testimonies and it was so powerful to everyone there. It’s so great to see another child of God come back to the family of Father. Oscar is such a humble man; he is just an amazing person.

After the baptism we had a meeting that had the wards readjusting their boundaries; we stayed in the same ward and picked up some from another ward that includes another investigator that may be close to baptism. We will meet them soon.

I truly believe that I have now become an official Californian; I now have to wear a warm jacket because I get cold in temperatures of 60 – 70 degrees. I don’t know how I am going to survive when I go back to Utah; especially since I will be going back at the end of October. I am wearing a wool coat here and I carry a blanket in the car to wrap up in just to keep warm. I think my blood is really thinning out, I seem to be cold all the time. Sister Lind (my new companion from West Valley, Utah) and I have been busy getting use to our new area. We have this one community that is really nice with a lake that has ducks, fish and turtles.

We have picked up some great investigators: one lady was baptized a year and a half ago but never came back to be confirmed so we are going to try to bring her back so she can be re-baptized and confirmed. We are also teaching a Richard, who is a boyfriend of a less active member so we are trying to teach him and bring her back to church, but we will need to get them worthy since they are living together. We have three possible investigators that are married to members; the other is a friend of one of the young women in our ward – she has been to girl’s camp and church before, so hopefully we can teach her soon. We had a zone training meeting taught by the zone leaders and I learned so much; in 1 Nephi 13:34 it talks about ‘other books’ in our time and one of them is Preach My Gospel because it is such a powerful tool to help missionaries teach the gospel. Everyone should read this book; it is so powerful for anyone who wants to share the gospel with their friends and neighbors. I also came to realize a connection between missions and school: they both have a set schedule for a certain amount of time that doesn’t change very often. Although your schedule is the same from day to day, you are learning and doing new things each day. Missions are the greatest; I think everyone should serve a mission because you really do learn so much. I have learned so much like gospel principles in better detail that it will help me in my future life as a parent.
General Conference was Christmas for missionaries: by the end I was so full spiritually that is was so amazing. Between sessions on Saturday, we had a baptism which just made the whole weekend so spiritual. One talk I liked was Adrian Ochoa (2nd counselor in YM) he said “Your mission service will be the single most important thing to prepare you for the rest of your life.” It is so true; I’ve learned tons of gospel principles in more detail.
Oscar was confirmed a member of the church on October 13, 2013. It was so great to see him finally receive the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost to help him throughout the rest of his life. One of my first investigators in Studio City, Annette, was baptized; I didn’t get to go back for it but I was told that it was really special. Now for some sad news; our investigator, Richard, the one living with his girlfriend (the less active sister), dropped the lessons. His girlfriend said that he was not interested and that she was ‘so not interested.’ (She used to be a Relief Society president.) She left a voice message and her tone of voice was really harsh which is so sad. We picked up Cindy, a new investigator from the elders after the ward boundary shifts and she has been taught most of the lessons and already has a strong testimony. She wants to get to know the Book of Mormon better before she commits to baptism.

This week Sister Lind and I help out at the mission home with cleaning and re-organizing. One day we work so long that we didn’t get dinner so the senior couple missionaries took us out to dinner and we talked until it was time for us to go home. We really got to know them which was really cool. The major event that happened this week was the visit of Elder Kopishke of the 70 who taught us so much. I took 8 pages of notes during the day long conference. Some phrases that he said that I really liked were: “If you invite, you have succeeded.” “The righteous man falls 7 times a day, but each time he gets back up.” “Young adults should go on missions” (this one was really cool, no it’s not commanded for girls to go on missions, but in this day and age of wickedness in the world, it should be required – I think at least…). I really like how he taught – by the Spirit and with the scriptures.

Love,
Sister Reese