The Presidential Suite

8 Days 'til the BIG DAY. 

(And if you don't know what I mean when I say "BIG DAY," you best be getting yourself out from under that Bah Humbug rock and buyin' yourself a pretty green tree for your front room...just sayin')

...And life just keeps gettin' better and better.

Like unto:  

My super neat companion, Sister Olivo, pretty much singlehandedly won us a dinner with President & Sister Baker by having the 2nd CLEANEST apartment in the mission. Amazing, right? It was delicious food. I may or may not have eaten like 3 and a half rolls. This, just an hour after consuming my accidental 2nd HUGE breakfast of the day. (One with the Grovers! Hopefully I'll have pics! The awesome missionary couple who works here and had Sis Olivo and I over for breakfast right before she left) Gluttonous missionary award also goes to me. My waistline is a miracle to all who witness my massive food consumption habits. But it may not be for long...eh...(insert whiny face emoticon here). Long story short, it was a great day. President and Sister Baker are AMAZING. And so are the Grovers. And so is our AWESOME investigator (the source of our second breakfast of the day), who seems to be getting a little more serious about her commitment to read the Book of Mormon... :D.  

Only Bad News Of The Week:

My dear, sweet trainer, Hermana Olivo, is going home to NY in less than 24 hours. In fact, I'm not even w/ her today b/c she has all her special "departing missionary" activities. Luckily, I have some cute temporary comps to tag along with--Sis Talataiga and Sis Mueller (hopefully I'll have time to add a pic!). She has honestly been so wonderful and patient w/ me and all of my "issues" and I've learned SO MUCH from my time with her. I'm gonna miss her lots, methinks. 

Alright, I gotta go. The hour time limit quickly approaches. But I love you all dearly! So so dearly! Hope you're having a merry merry Christmas!!

Love ya!

Sister Wells/Abbs/Hermana Wells

The one of sis olivo and I is at Pres's house...beautiful painting, right?

The piece of paper is the evidence of excellent parenting by our awesome new ward Mission Leader :)

Farmer's market at the Promenade in LA. Super cool.

Went to an awesome store named Lush! Kinda crazy, but fun! Check it out, mom and sisters! I think there's one in Phoenix.

Oh, and Elder grover and a pancake :) 

Toothpaste-less

I didn't buy toothpaste today.

Wanna know why?

 'Cause I was too busy going to the TEMPLE. :)

 That's why.

And so my teeth may rot between now and Monday, but if judgement day somehow arrives before then, I'm set.

It was also an incredible and necessary experience today.

 

Long story short, I am happy.

 

Other reasons I am happy:

 

We had a miracle-ridden fast last Thursday. (And I'm still a little twitterpated about it) I've always wondered why the white handbook says you're not allowed to fast for more than 24 hours in a row as a missionary ("'Cause who'd ever wanna do that???"--said my gluttonous, food-obsessed self). But now I know:  with these kind of results, it's a legitimate temptation.  We're talkin' results like unto:  An old investigator CALLED US BACK.  People followed through on their COMMITMENTS. We had a powerful experience w/ the PRIESTHOOD. We cooked and ate blessedly delicious DOMINICAN FOOD with some of our investigators. And we were just SO DANG HAPPY about life. Entonces...fasting is a good thing. I highly recommend it. Especially if you wear a black name tag and therefore get like 4x the blessings from whatever extra sacrifice you make. It's like getting paid overtime for a job that already overypays you and gives you ridiculous amounts of bonuses for every holiday or special occassion. Sigh. Heavenly Father is just so overwhelmingly nice sometimes. That's all I gotta say.

 

I got a letter from my dear roomie, Audrey Heaton, who is serving her mission in Hong Kong. It was so happy and smile-warming and so her. I can't even imagine learning a language like Cantonese, but I can so easily imagine HER learning a language like Cantonese...and then using it to convert all of everyone in her path. She's phenomenal.

 

It's CHRISTMAS TIME!!! I just love it SO MUCH!!! GAH!

 

And because it's Christmas time...we got to go our ward party. Which was also lovely. Great food. Super fun. AMAZING PEOPLE. I love our ward. They're so kind and generous and just COOL. So happy I am where I am and that I get to stay here (hopefully--unless president throws us a curve ball) for at least another 6 weeks. Esp since I love all of the people we're teaching right now.

 

Anywho, still love my mission. That's the moral of the story. And that probably won't change. So if that's the kind of special interest you're looking for from these letters, you might as well unsubscribe now.

 

Love you!

Sinceramente,

Sister Wells

 

p.s. I don't have access to a Thesaurus, but if anyone cares to help me out, I'm really in need of some synonyms for the following words:  LOVE, AMAZING, WONDERFUL, DEEPLY, GLORIOUS, HAPPY...

 

p.p.s  A lot of you are in my prayers on a regular basis. And some of you are in my prayers on a semi-regular basis. But ALL of you are "in my prayers" if you know what I mean...I felt like I needed to clarify. B/c I say that you're "in my prayers" a lot, but I don't actually pray for all of you in each of the 20 prayers I pray everyday as a missionary...

 

p.p.p.s.  I really feel like I need to give you a challenge or an invitation. Which is probably a good sign, right? 'Cause I'm a missionary and we do these things. But legitimately...I want to invite you to think and pray TODAY and TOMORROW about who in your life needs you the most in that very second, and then the second that inspiration is clear, please make like Nephi and GO and DO. (1 Nephi 3:7. You got that reference, right?).

 

Don't wait. Don't delay. President Monson has taught us all about the danger of waiting to act on a prompting. And I can testify to you that this is important for you to do--at least for one of you reading this right now. I say that because I honestly felt really strongly that I needed to include this in the e-mail. So, do it.  And then share with me some of those warm fuzzies when the tender mercies and miracles ensue, will ya?

 

I love you all so much. That's actually the real moral of all of these stories. Thanks for reading through all of the P.S.'s to get there :)

 the one of the little boy is our investigator's son's "sexy face"...he's 3 and SO CUTE.  :)

The day I got transferred to SCOTLAND

Family! Friends! 

So, Sister Olivo, Larson (our weekend mini missionary who is beyond ready to serve her own full-time mission in 3 years!), and I went off in search of a member of our ward the other day--thinking they were in the area and could use a visit. After 30 minutes of driving just to "stop by," and several mountainous roads later...we ended up HERE (insert pic of road). I literally felt like I was in another country...namely, Scotland. It was a beautiful adventure--as are most of the days when we go to different parts of our area--which is, by the way, one of (or maybe THE) biggest in the mission. It's a crazy transformation to go from downtown LA to woodsy mountains to beautiful beaches to ranches to farms in a matter of minutes...and we get to do it everyday. Basically what I'm saying is that I'm in the most beautiful place in the world right now. Which I know I have said before. And it has been true before. But hey, I can't help that I spend a lot of time in beautiful places. You can't expect me to choose one. Not to mention that I have completely forgotten that it's cold and snowy in other places right now. Enjoy the enchantment of winter, my friends! And I will enjoy the bliss of my Malibu beachy breezes and fogs.

Speaking of Winter...let's talk about the event of the season, shall we?  Namely CHRISTMAS. Which is just starting to spark in the bottom of my stomach. I can feel the giddiness rising everytime I look at the temple lights, which now fill the LA Temple grounds...or hear the Christmas music from the free 7:30 concerts every night here in the VC (what I'm trying to say:  if you live around here, you BEST be visiting us and bringing along ALL of your friends and family! Share the Light, friends!)...or talk to people in the streets about the Joy of Christ and Christmas...I just love this. Christmas really will be the best on my mission. Though I will, of course, miss all of my loved ones back home. But mostly I'm just happy for you. Because you're experiencing Christmas too!

Good news:

We got a new ward mission leader and he's STELLAR. We have a meal appt everyday this week, and there's lots of new ideas a-coming our way for ways we can increase ward missionary efforts. And the members of this ward are just great. Wonderful, down-to-earth people and families. And they make great food. I couldn't be happier.

I'm busy! And happy! The VC fills up with people every night now, which is still sort of confusing b/c I'm never really sure who to talk to or how to fulfill my purpose during that time, but I LOVE IT. Christmasy people who love lights and music are a delight to spend time with and testify to.

We have investigators!! Hooray!

For everyone again: (and in the most self-righteous, soap-boxy tone I can muster!) FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD. If you don't read the Book of Mormon--and I mean REALLY READ it, like Alma 32:28 style (plant that there seed!)...and if you don't PRAY and ASK and SEEK and continually GROW...you will either never gain a testimony or you will lose your testimony. So make like Nike and Just Do It. (Nike reference for Alyssa Call). 

I love ya'll. Thanks for being in my life and thanks for the letters and the prayers and all other manner of support. You're just great! Happy Christmas season!

Love,

Hermana Wells