This is Halloween

Sister "Elsa" loves reading the Book of Mormon

Hey, Happy Halloween, everyone!

Also, I'd like to give a big shoutout to Jordan Coburn, Kristina Katanic, and Nicole Rhoads! HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!!! :)

All Halloween afternoon, we got to volunteer for a Halloween carnival where we were in charge of games and face painting. Haha, I'm not so sure why I volunteered to do that; I can't paint to save my life. Sorry dad, I don't have paint in my blood. I feel bad for the first kid who wanted a pumpkin. Hopefully he didn't look too closely in the mirror. I guess it didn't help that the paint was super cheap and we mostly just drew with face crayons. But after that, they weren't too shabby, if I do say so myself. But that's only me talking.

By 6:00 p.m., all the missionaries have to go back to their apartments. I'm grateful; San B by itself is already Sketchville. Usually on holidays like these, President asks us to use that time to start weekly planning. This time, he wanted us to just get caught up in our journals. Woah, that's pretty sweet! Especially since I am the WORST at writing in my journal. Ugh, so much repenting to do.

Yesterday evening was kind of a panic. Every fast Sunday, after church, in the YSA Ward, we have "Break the Fast". Wow, bless those wives of the bishopric who make all that food every month! We had tacos, but the rice had peas in it. I thought I could just simply take all the peas out of the rice and just eat it like that because I've had no problems with it like that in the past. Ten minutes after I ate my taco, my heart started racing. Oh no...not good. Soon after that, my whole body started burning up. Everyone at my table looked at me funny and asked me if I was ok. 
"Umm, I probably shouldn't have eaten that..."
Good thing Mark, one of the YSA, who is an EMT, came to my rescue. He asked me how I was feeling and checked my pulse. He told me it was a little faster than normal, but as long as my throat wasn't closing, I would be ok. I was a little off the rest of the evening, but no swollen face, and no swollen throat! I truly feel the the Lord is preserving me.

Y'all have a great week, now!

Sister Sommers

And Here We Go Again!

Hey folks!

This week was KRAZY! That's right, krazy with a "K".

Tuesday evening, we had dinner with the C--- family, and Brother C--- showed me some pictures from his mission from four years ago because he served in the Ohio Cleveland Mission. It was weird when he showed me a photo of the ASHLAND BUILDING because I guess he had an exchange there once when he was serving in the Akron Ward. It was even weirder when I saw photos of him and Elder O---!!! Yes, that would be the same one who taught Tristan!

Tuesday, we had interviews with President. I love those. In all of our mission and zone conferences he's always calling us unto repentance, putting the fear of God in us. But in our personal one-on-one interviews, he always makes me feel better about myself and about the work. Sometimes I feel so frustrated with myself, thinking I'm not doing enough, but he always tells me, "nah, I'm not worried about you. You're doing what you're supposed to, and you're doing great work." That means SO MUCH coming from him.

Thursday morning, we got a call from the AP's, telling us that BOTH of us would be leaving the area, and we would have to be packed and ready to go by 4:00 pm! So that gave us little time to pack and clean up, and absolutely no time to say goodbye to anyone. Laaaame! So we just called everyone to say goodbye. Luckily for us, N--- and P---, and S--- and P--- came by to give us our last hugs. They're cute. :) Sister W--- is in Highland now, and I got to come back to the Northpark YSA Ward in San Bernardino! Woohoo!!! :) I also get Sister P--- back! And I get Sister M--- D--- as a companion, so I'm in another trio! It's pretty fun.

You know what's super weird though? Riding in the car with ELDERS! It was the AP's who dropped us off in our new areas. When it was me and Sister W--- in the car, it was only Elder R--- in the front, while his two other companions followed in our car. After we dropped Sister W--- and her stuff off, I gave her a big hug while the elders ran down the steps. 

"You better hurry," she said. "Your companion is leaving you."
"Haha, yeah, all three of them."
So for the next hour it was me stuck in the car with Elders R--- and B---. Fortunately, they didn't make it totally awkward and knew how to keep a conversation going.

It was really fun showing up at the YSA Halloween activity, surprising everyone. It was especially awesome when my recent convert, J---, saw me. His face was priceless. :) Ugh, I hated that it was so tempting to give him a hug though. Don't worry, we just stuck with the handshake.

So there goes my Krazy week. Thanks for reading!

Sister Emily KaeLynn Sommers

Don't Drink Dumb Things!

HELLO! Sister Sommers here!

This week was kinda crazy and super long.

Tuesday, we witnessed an arrest....at the library. Haha, who woulda thunk? The guy was sitting in front of a computer, waving his arms everywhere. The security guards asked him to stop, but obviously drunk, he just argued right back. It's not the first time this has happened. The police shortly arrived.

That obviously wasn't our first experience with drunks. Just last week, we were going around a neighborhood trying to get some neighbors to sign one of our member's birthday cards. We ran into a lady and her husband who were just totally plastered. I didn't realize it until I could smell the alcohol on their breath and kept noticing how close the guy was getting to Sister W---. After they found out we were missionaries, the lady kept saying, "oh my goodness, you're missionaries? Oh my, I just wanna tell you how much I love you, and tell you that you're doing a great work for Jesus, and I just wanna give you a hug!" And then the guy kept saying, "you two better be carful out here. Desert Hot Springs is a dangerous area. Uncle Tom is scared for both of you." And before we knew it, he was giving both of us a hug. All I could think was, "AHHHHHH!!!!" And then we TOOK OFF.

Wednesday, I got a text from the AP's, saying that two of my investigators in Lake Arrowhead, F--- and D---, were getting baptized! HOORAY!!! :) So Sister C--- drove me all the way up to the mountains so I could be there. Wow, she's amazing! We got totally lost, trying to find the building, but found it just in time. It was an awesome baptism! Sister R--- even came back for it. It was so nice to see her. Sister P--- made it too! Driving back was kind of rough though. I guess Sister C--- made a big wrong turn because before we knew it, we were already in Big Bear! Oh boy, that wasn't good. That's not even in our mission. BUT, with the help of a little faith and lots of prayers, we made it safely back. It took two hours to get there, and three hours to get back to DHS. Doesn't really help that I only served up there half the time for four weeks, and I'm the worst navigator in the world. So that was an adventure.

Last week, I was sent a picture of N--- (Sister R---)...WITH MY SISTER!!! My last mission companion and my sister are in the same Ward at BYU-I! CRAZY!!!

Hope you have thoroughly enjoyed reading all about my crazy awesome week.

Sister Sommers

How Do You Spell "Water"? N-O-N-E

'ello, Mates!

Not too much happened this week. But the weather thinks it's cool to change things up. It was so nice and cool at the beginning of the week, but then it was like...PSYCH! GOING BACK TO TRIPLE DIGITS! Ugh, I just want to wear one of my ten cardigans that are still waiting to be worn.

I found out that the F---'s, a couple that I worked with in La Quinta, are being sealed in the temple soon! Oh what a glorious day that will be!

One thing that I've noticed about the road that we live on is that everyone is so dang nice! Every morning, when we walk our street, almost everyone waves and smiles at us. What a blessing. There's this one cute old Mexican guy that we see every morning as he drives past us in his old, rusted truck. One day, he slowed down, rolled down his window, and said, "I call this "the road where the two angels walk." On another occasion, we could see an older guy from a distance wearing all black with long black hair, big gagues, eyeliner, and combat boots. The guy looked a little more questionable as we got closer to him, but nothing really told us to turn back, so we just smiled and gave him a simple "good morning!" Not really expecting it, he gave us the friendliest smile, and enthusiastically replied, "Why, good morning! Beautiful day isn't it?"

There are so many bunnies in our yard. It's so cute to see them chasing each other from my window. When we go out in the mornings, I try to chase them and see if I can catch one. I just know not to chase them after its rained or else I'll end up in the mud like one of dad's missionary companions. But it doesn't rain here, so it's all good.

Haha, just kidding, it's actually not good at all. This drought is unbelievable. The S---'s usually water their grass every morning and evening. Now they can only do that two days out of the week. It's so sad, it's only been a couple of days, and their beautiful grass is already going brown. Sister W--- and I only do the dishes when the sink is entirely full, and we have to do only one load of laundry so we mix everything, which is really no big deal to us. But then, Brother S--- told us the three words I had always feared would come out of his mouth: "five-minute showers." Sooo, I'm learning how to do that. Well, at least I have warm, running water, so I really shouldn't be complaining.

Sister S--- burned a bunch of church music we could listen to, and one of the albums was "Saturday's Warriors"! My gosh, I haven't seen that movie since I was like four, so I don't remember anything about it. But one thing that I do know is that it has the cheesiest music of all times. Haha, wow, it's bad. I can't wait to go home and try watching it again so I can sing along to all the bad music. But thanks to dad, I know one song. :) Sister W--- and I blast it up every time. "I'M SAILIN' OOOOOOOOOOOOOOON..."

So keep "sailin' on", everybody! Because you probably have more water than we do.

Sister Sommers

Three New Apostles!

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, hello!

This has definitely been one of the more interesting weeks that I've had.

First of all, congratulations to my aunt Courtney and her man, Alex!
So happy for you two! Wish I could have been there at the wedding. :(

Tuesday, I went to Palm Springs with (a different) Sister P--- for exchanges. She's only been out for a month, but she's an amazing missionary. I just love her! She was a little nervous and stressed since this was her first time being in charge of the area, and it didn't help much that the car died in front of a sketchy apartment that night...haha, but thank goodness they had some awesome members to come and rescue us! That was a huge blessing.

Coming back from exchanges on Wednesday, we went to go see this deathly ill woman and her 98-year-old mother. While we were there, we met her mother's caretaker, L---, who is Muslim.
"Are you girls missionaries from her church?"
"Yes we are!"
"I knew you were. Not because of your name tags, but I could feel you were."

It's so cool that even others who practice different religions can sense the Spirit of an LDS missionary.

Also, on Wednesday, I thought I saw my life flash before my eyes. We were slowing down so we could turn left onto a road, and as we were turning left, a truck behind us sped up and passed us on our LEFT SIDE and just kept going. Like, what the heck! Ugh to California drivers. We were lucky that the damage was only a tiny scratch at the front of our car. SO grateful that we were safe.

General Conference was totally amazing! If you missed it, you missed out. But it's ok, you can still find it on lds.org. Dude! THREE NEW APOSTLES!!! That's insane! Welcome to the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Ronald A. Rasband, Elder Gary E. Stevenson, and Elder Dale G. Renlund! Thank you for your love and many years of service, Elder L. Tom Perry, Elder Boyd K. Packer, and Elder Richard G. Scott. We love you, and we miss you so much. 

Fun Fact: It’s been over a century since the Quorum of the Twelve had three vacancies. Additionally, with the call of Elder Renlund, 100 apostles have now served since the Church was organized in 1830.

I am so grateful for our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, who not only leads and guides the church but the whole world, today. I know that he and the twelve apostles have been called of God. If you want to know with the same surety, watch General Conference. If you want to know the church is true, watch General Conference...and read the Book of Mormon...and pray about it! If you just overall want to know what's good for you, watch General Conference. I promise that it will answer any questions that may be lingering in your mind, and will give you a sense of peace and direction in your life.

Peace out, Girl and Boy Scouts! 

Sister Sommers

It's Time to Celebrate!

Because Dad has always wanted to use my hair as a paintbrush.

Hello, earthlings!

It has been quite the week of celebrations!

Fall has finally arrived. But not really because DHS doesn't know what that looks or feels like yet. It's been pretty hot out all week. I think I'm especially going to miss Ohio this time around. My favorite part was seeing all the leaves turn into their bright, vibrant colors, then crunching the brown ones on the ground.

Because it's GETTING cooler, the S---'s came back home! Yay! Now we get to bug them by sharing stories about our day.

As many of you may already know, our beloved apostle, Elder Richard G. Scott passed away Tuesday morning. Thank you for the many years that you dedicated your life to serve the Lord.

That is so crazy. Three apostles have passed on within four months! It will be weird not seeing them this weekend in General Conference. But I'm also very excited to be getting three new apostles! So all of you need to watch General Conference this weekend! It's so awesome when we get to hear the counsel that our apostles and prophet have prepared for us. Questions are answered and miracles happen. General Conference isn't just for the members, it's for the whole world to see, so I invite all of you to watch it. Everyone, invite your friends!
General Conference

The Women's Conference was also super good! I think that's been my favorite one, so far. So if you haven't seen it yet, you can look it up online. I think it should be up by the end of this week.
Women's Conference

Wednesday was the 20th anniversary for The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I know that our last prophet, President Gordon B. Hinkley, was very inspired by our Heavenly Father to write it. I feel it may be a little scary to raise a family in this day and age, but this proclamation gives me a lot of hope. It tells me what I need to do to
raise a happy and successful family.
The Family: A Proclamation to the World

We experienced an awesome miracle this week. A couple weeks ago, Sister W--- remembered she still needed to pay her fast offering, so she did just that. The next day, we did our grocery shopping, and it didn't even hit Sister W--- until we got home that she was double-charged for everything! It was too late, the receipt had
already been lost. Last Monday, she only had enough money to buy a couple of things. I insisted she get more things she needed, and I could just pay for the rest, but she resisted to let me buy anything for her. She hoped and prayed she would be able to just get through the week. Thursday evening, we got a text from a sister saying she had a couple of loaves of bread for us. That was so sweet of her, but Sister W--- can't have gluten because she has celiac disease, but I can, so we just went over anyways. When we got there, she had the bread all prepared for us....along with two big bags of groceries! Our eyes widened, our jaws dropped, and my sweet companion sobbed. The blessings of fast offerings are real.

And now, a couple of songs for Desert Hot Springs:

Happy Birthday, DHS!

You've had a birthday, shout hooray,
We want to sing to you today!
One year older and wiser too,
Happy birthday to you!

Happy, happy birthday,
From all of us to you!
We wish it was our birthday,
So we can party too!

That's, right! It was DHS's birthday Saturday. Everyone celebrated with a parade of booths, including the elders and us. Well, we didn't exactly have a booth, we just made a bunch of sweet-looking signs and drew out the Plan of Salvation. We almost got kicked out because I guess we were supposed to get permission first....whoops. But we were all set up, so they just let us stay anyway. It was great advertising, and a great way to get hit on by super old, ancient men...gross. :/ Good thing the elders were there to distract 'em.

That's it! Have a fun week, everybody!

Sista Emi-Kae-Som

Our Burdens Can Be Made Light

Rain? Could it be?

Hey Folks! It's that sister missionary again, writing about how her week went!

Okay, so here we go. Wednesday, we had another Mission Conference! We talked a lot about The Book of Mormon and how we can use it more effectively in our teaching. It was really good, but the only thing was we were there for ten hours! Most of the time it's only six hours, but those times they weren't putting TIWI boxes in our cars. Yep, it's finally happened. The talking boxes that yell at you if you're driving too fast or too aggressive have been installed in our cars. Okay, it doesn't yell at you, but there have been a couple of times where we jumped because it's kind of loud and gives you no notice that it's about to tell you how to drive. Before we drive anywhere, we have to swipe a card over the TIWI box in order to log in. The third day we had it, the card wasn't letting us log in, so every 30 seconds we had to hear, "no driver." At that point, I did not love technology as much as Kip from "Napoleon Dynamite." Five hours later, we finally got it to work. PHEW! We're learning how to love it.

Friday, we were over at our investigator, V---'s, house. Her friend, Susan Stafford, was staying over there this week. That name ring a bell to anyone? Anyone wanna buy a vowel? I guess she was an actress, and Vanna White took her place in "Wheel of Fortune". Pretty cool, eh?

Sunday was AWESOME! President Madsen, one of President Van Cott's counselors, is retiring from being a veterinarian and moving away with his wife. That's not the awesome part, that's actually really sad because we really love him. The awesome part was he spoke in our sacrament meeting as a farewell because he works here in DHS, and he invited a TON of his friends! There were about 50 non-members there who got to be in sacrament meeting and also witness two confirmations! You can really tell how much President Madsen is loved in this valley. He talked about his love for animals, the love for the people he worked with, and the love for the gospel. There was no denying that everyone in that room could feel the spirit. One of my favorite stories he was able to witness was that of a 9-year-old boy and his mom who went shopping for a puppy. When they found the litter, the boy spotted a puppy with a crooked leg.
"I want that one!" the boy exclaimed.
"Honey, that pup's leg is bent. He probably has lots of other problems. Why don't you choose one of the healthier ones?"
The boy then lifted his pant leg, uncovering the brace that held his own crooked leg.
"I want that puppy. That puppy understands me."

This boy and his new dog reminds me of the atonement. Sometimes we may go through things and think that nobody understands. But there is one, and that is our Savior, Jesus Christ. He knows you perfectly. He knows
you inside and out. He knows your name. He knows exactly what you've been through in this life because he has felt it. Rely on the Savior and His atonement and he can make you stronger. He may not take the burden away, but he can give us strength, so our burdens may be light.

Have a fabulous week!

Sister Sommers

I guess it does rain in Southern California.