And it all started with "Shalam."

I'm learning Farsi!

Why? Because...

1) Our faithful investigator, *****, is from Iran and is teaching me little by little. 2) Sister ******, our favorite member missionary (We're talking "she-teaches-more-lessons-than-I-do-each-week" status), is also from Iran.  3) I just went to a rockin' "LA Persian Mormon Mafia" party on Saturday and I'm still twitterpated about it. (Hosted by Sister ****** to celebrate her 30-year baptismal anniversary and all the baptisms of all of her cool Persian friends and their family members)  4) I wanna help start a Farsi branch! Ah! This is my dream. 

So that's why I'm learning Farsi.

[For mom:  I told Sis. ******* you used to live in Iran! And she got super excited! She wants to invite grandpa to another Persian Mormon Mafia party in Salt Lake in October/conference weekend. Do they have an e-mail address I could send the info to? p.s. "Persian Mormon Mafia" is not an official title. It's just what our Ward mission leader calls it...but maybe don't pass it on, haha]

What About ***?

Well, we met *** last Saturday as well. *** loves the Book of Mormon. *** is already in Mosiah. *** has "warm" and "positive" feelings as he reads and prays about the Book of Mormon. *** is praying about baptism. *** is brilliant and awesome. But *** doesn't feel comfy with the idea of coming to church quite yet. :(

But we LOVE ***! We had a really powerful lesson with him. He will get baptized. Pray for him though, yeah?

FRIENDS and FAMILY, I have a request! I need your ideas--whether from your own mission experiences or your own life experiences with missionaries or your own creative brilliance...

We're trying to work and build members. How can we do this more effectively? What are some of the most powerful lessons you remember having with missionaries with your ward? How did they help you to be better missionaries?  How did they engage your families and children and win your respect and love (and more importantly--your friends' love and respect...).  I would love specific ideas, but also general thoughts...just word vomit at me. And then let's build the kingdom together, shall we? 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer. Repentance is change and healing. I love it and I'm trying to live it.

So much love,

Sister Wells 

P.S. I finally put my English tag on. ...In other words, I love white people again. Hooray!

Hello President! 

Thank you for your response to my e-mail--in particular to my question about tracting. It's nice to have some guidelines for finding, and I think we could be significantly more effective as we create and utilize our annotated area map (outlining all LA's, formers, etc.). We actually had followed a similar plan of action today--tracting and street contacting as we visited specific less actives and former investigators (all assignments from our enthusiastic bishop and ward mission leader!)...and it was a really positive experience (with the exception of a few mean dogs). We placed a handful of pass-along cards and ended up with one hopeful potential investigator. 

The second investigator that I mentioned last week is named ***. We met with him and his neighbor, Sister Heath (wife of President Heath), in his home on Saturday morning, and it went really well! He loves the Book of Mormon, and he has generally "warm" and "positive" feelings as he reads it. While he says he prays and meditates often while he reads it, he admitted that he hadn't offered a prayer in which he asked Heavenly Father specifically if it were true...he was afraid of not getting an answer and of losing his sense of commitment to finishing the Book of Mormon. We shared Alma 32 with him and explained the idea of faith as a seed. That seemed to bring him a great deal of comfort, and he committed to offer that specific prayer as well as a prayer asking specifically about a baptismal date/goal. (He turned down July 7th) We just have to get him to church! He still doesn't feel comfortable coming. The ward council is already helping us with that. And we also need to meet with him more than once every two weeks...

We also had the opportunity to attend (and sing at) Sister *******s baptismal anniversary party with our investigator, *****. It was amazing!!! Every member of the "LA Persian Mormon Maffia" (as our ward mission leader calls it) was in attendance, as well as their friends and family members. I was so overwhelmed with the faith and missionary efforts of these people, and I forsee a Farsi/Persian branch here in LA sometime within the next few years. Especially once they finish translating the Farsi Book of Mormon!

We are also continuing to have a lot of miracles in the Visitors' Center. The transition was inevitably difficult--returning back to the VC schedule from a full-proselyting schedule, but I am feeling more deeply now than ever before the beauty and testimony of my calling and purpose here. I have literally experienced the whole spectrum of tours over the past few weeks--from incredibly active members whose testimonies strengthen me to recent converts to less actives to non-members to investigators...I am feeling the spirit working through me! 

In terms of my consecration efforts, I am working (as always...and therefore somewhat discouragedly) on my living of the SCHEDULE. I am almost always in bed/praying by 10:30, and I am more often than not at personal study by 8am, but getting to the Visitors' Center (and other meetings) early is something I am (still) struggling with. And I am finally making myself specifically accountable to you, President. 

We are also working on daily contact with our ward mission leader. 

Thank you for all you do, President! We'll see you at our special zone meeting tomorrow!

Sister Wells 

p.s. Shalam means "Hello" in Farsi

p.p.s. PICTURES NEXT WEEK. .

"He's BACK!" ...this is a reference to a Harry Potter Book/Movie that no one else will remember as naturally as I do.

But what I'm geting at is that...

I'm back in the Visitors' Center!!!  And it is wonderful and joyful and perfect! 

...But also kinda hard. At least it was for the first few days. But that's kind of a normal Transfer deal. A little crying, a little missing my old companeras and my Lynwood fam...a little "Oh my gosh. What am I doing here?"-ness...but Heavenly Father was there every step of the way giving me little miracles and tender mercies to pull me through to the state of inexplicable joy in which I currently reside.  (P.S. It's a Temple P-Day...the day in which my joy reaches an unheard of level of inexplicability. Go to the temple, friends. Also, the little red spell-check lines tell me that inexplicability is not actually a word. So don't hold me accountable when they do the same to you.)

Because here's the deal:  The Visitors' Center is AMAZING.  I love it.  And I have already had some pretty deeply powerful experiences just in this last week.  A few less-actives coming back, a few bomb.com investigator tours with their missionaries, a few super-cool phone conversations with people who were beyond prepared to receive the missionaries (and they KNEW it too, you know? Part of the definition of the elect: knowing your elect) = LOVE & JOY OF MISSIONARIES.  

And here's the other deal:  My companion is OUTSTANDING.  And surprising in all of the best ways. 1) She eats as much as I do and thinks about food just as much.  Which is RIDICULOUS if you know me. 2) She's HILARIOUS. Like witty. Like sometimes you think she doesn't understand you ('cause she's Cambodian and she still doesn't feel totally great about her English), but then she comes back w/ a one-liner that makes you laugh loud enough to get shushed and chastised for chasing the spirit out of the VC. 3) She has a DEEP, POWERFUL testimony of this restored gospel. Especially in regards to eternal families. Amazing, amazing experiences. She's just solid. And I love her. And she's crazy clean and crazy sweet. 

Below is a copy of my letter to pres. Enjoy it. Judge it. Whatever.  Love you all SO MUCH. You're in my prayers and on the LA Temple Prayer role. Keep prayin' for us Mar Vista sistas as we white wash this area into a Celestial oblivion.

Man. That was a good line.

Okay. So much love.

-Sister Wells

p.s. I totally still wear my Spanish name tag. I promise I'll get over it soon. :)

Hello President Baker,

Below is a copy of our Transfer Vision. White washing while serving in the Visitors' Center is proving to be an adjustment and somewhat of a challenge, but I emerged from the temple today with renewed hope and motivation to build this ward (AND the Visitors' Center) in the way that the Lord would have us do so. 

We have met with Bishop *****, and he has been wonderfully helpful in providing us with the information we need to move forward. We're hoping to get more specific assignments from him soon. He seems excited to have us there. We've already been assigned to speak in Sacrament meeting on Father's Day, which is mildly intimidating--but a wonderful opportunity. And our meal calendar is mostly filled out, which represents a lot more wonderful opportunities. 

The ward mission leader is also excellent. He has a lot of energy and innovative ideas, but from what I've heard, it's been his assistant who really carries them out. They haven't seen a baptism in a while, and they all recognize the discouragement that follows that, but they have focused on encouraging and helping members in their individual seed-planting efforts. We're hoping to bolster their efforts with a series of Active Member Trainings, in which we help members deepen their own conversion through the creation of their own mission plan and in gaining some missionary conversation skills, etc. 

The 5-5-5 program hasn't been moving forward in the way anyone could hope for...(which is the unfortunate norm that I have witnessed in my time in the mission. I think everyone needs to gain a clearer vision of what and how and why the 5-5-5 program works. It was designed by the first presidency, wasn't it? I don't even know...should I not be worry about it as much as I am? Then again, I probably shouldn't be worrying about a lot things as much as I am. Let's be honest. :) 

...but they do have an almost-official "shepherding" program in place in which each less-active family is "unofficially" assigned an active family fellowshipper. We'll be getting that list of assignments soon, and we're hoping to utilize it in our LA efforts. 

The ward, overall, is wonderful. A lot of great people, and a lot of potential. As Elder Cook admonished us, we will leave the Mar Vista ward better than we found it. Hooray for member work! 

We have two investigators. One (*****) cannot get baptized until he gets his long-term visa, but he's amazing! He has an incredible amount of faith, and he knows that he will be blessed for it. We love him. The other we will meet on Saturday. The elders have met with him twice. 

[Note for those of you at home:  ***** is outrageously cool, and is teaching me Farsi. From Iran. Sister *******, one of our members, is also from Iran, and she translates a lot of the lessons for us. She's also outrageously cool.]

[Other note for those of you at home:  Don't judge the following paragraph.White people can be nasty when you knock them out of their houses, you know? Understandably. We have an increasingly impersonal culture. Front porches have gone out of style. Dr. Ralph Brown taught me that...Again, I'm so glad I'm a Sociology major. Somehow being able to explain away the horrible behavior we encounter while tracting by attributing it to overarching societal patterns makes me feel better. And tracting will get better.  I really do see the value in it. Especially since that's how Sis. ***'s family found the missionaries. Her testimony of it is softening my heart.]

I'm still working on my testimony of tracting, President. I know everyone tracts (unless you're in Lynwood and everyone's outside...) And I know a lot of people have been baptized who were found tracting, but I can't help but wonder if that's just because of the inevitability of finding SOME prepared people regardless of the finding method you use. 
Because statistically-speaking, it's not that effective, right? 1/1,000 doors gets baptized? As opposed to member referrals...? I don't know. Feel free to chastise me. I need to learn. It's probably mostly a pride thing, and should therefore be placed on the altar of sacrifice...but there's also the fact VC sisters don't have time to knock 1,000 doors. And my increased desire to work with and train members with the limited time we have. Given, with faith, all things are possible. So of course we can try and do both! I actually don't know if I need to be chastised now. I think just writing this may have given me the necessary testimony of tracting. Sorry to waste your time. 

Thank you for all you do!

Sister Wells

[Other note for those at home:  Once upon a time, this was beautifully formatted in Microsoft Word.  I promise I have not lost my love and obsession with beautifully formatted things. It just doesn't transfer over sometimes.]

TRANSFERS!

As predicted, I am being transferred back to the Visitor's Center! I feel blessed to have had a whole transfer to prepare myself and my companions for this change.  I'll be serving in the area of Mar Vista with Sister **** (from Cambodia!). I heard we're whitewashing, but I don't actually know much about anything. It should be another exciting transfer!

Of course I'm heartbroken to leave this place. I don't have time to write an ode to Lynwood, unfortunately, but I will toss ya'll this copy of the letter I just wrote to my mission president (who goes home in a few weeks! Crazy!). I wish I had time to write well. I feel like so much is lost in these e-mails. But I'll work on it!  Love ya'll muchisimo. The Gospel is real. The Atonement is REAL. Heavenly Father loves you and the kid sitting next to you, and He'll let you know the former as you express the latter.

So much love,

Hermana Wells (for the last time...at least for a while. Mar Vista=English area=Sister Wells)

P.S. Remind me to tell you about ********: former drug addict with a baptismal date.  So inspiring. So much strength in his spirit.  "Only for Today" is his motto. Live one day at a time.

P.P.S. Pray for me in my transition back to the VC, okay? :)

Hello President Baker,

Happy Transfers!

I've had the feeling that I would be transferred for some time now, and have therefore been doing some reflecting over the past few weeks in regards to what I have done with my time here in the South Gate 1st branch of Lynwood. Church on Sunday was particularly reflective. I haven't officially had any baptisms during my time in the area, which is, admittedly, discouraging at times. However, in thinking about the various "transfer visions" that we have created over the past three transfers, a great portion of our time and energy has been spent in lifting and building the members of the branch. As I sat in church on Sunday, the spirit testified to me of the fruits of our labors. This transfer, one of our goals was to reactivate 1 family to a point at which they would be worthy to enter to the temple. In looking around the chapel during Sacrament meeting, I saw the faces of a handful a families who had previously been considered less/in-active in the church--including one young man who is currently preparing to enter the temple and serve a mission; as well as 1-3 part-member families who we are either teaching, or with whom we have developed strong enough relationships to a point that missionaries could be teaching them soon. I am learning (slowly, but surely) the significance and patience required of "seed-planting", and I am figuring out (slowly, but surely) how the cycle of planting and harvesting comes about. Maybe I'll get it down by the end of my mission.

Investigator-wise, we have three investigators with baptismal dates who are consistently coming to church. We have two more with baptismal dates that are beginning to come--one of which is married to a member. And then we have a handful of new investigators with a lot of promise! The investigator pools are flowing. We have been very blessed.

And of course, most gratifying of all, is the deep love and admiration I have come to feel for these beautiful children of our Heavenly Father. They have lifted me and strengthened me in ways that are unfortunately unbeknownst to them. I am feeling the increasing faith, love, and trust of the membership, as well as an increased excitement about missionary work.

This branch is a gold mine. It deserves every one of its three companionships of missionary helpers, if not more. The work is hastening here in Lynwood, president. And I am deeply grateful for this opportunity I have had to be a part of it--to build upon the visions and efforts of my predecessors here, and now to leave the work to the incredible missionaries who remain here. Hermana ******* and Hermana ***** are what Lynwood needs right now. I am so grateful for what they have taught me, and for what they have brought to this area. They are faithful and therefore prepared for this transfer "on their own" in Lynwood. Thank you for yet another inspired transfer decision.

In terms of our short term goals, we have done consistently better in keeping our lessons shorter and in sticking to the missionary schedule.

Thank you for all you do. You're in our prayers!

Sister Wells

I also wanted to let you know how successful our most recent zone goal has been for our area. It was centered in working with members: asking them for dinner, service opportunities, referrals, etc...and it was EXACTLY what our area needed. It has changed me significantly as well. It gave me the courage and motivation to more proactively build and seek help from our branch membership. I would attribute much of the success that we are having now to that shift in mindset. Not to mention that it was a blast! We felt more unified with the rest of the zone, and it gave us an additional energy in our work.

P.S. We WON. Catwoman dominated the zone goal. With the help of her loyal district...it's a long story. But just know that it's a big deal for the only sisters in the zone to dominate the goal. :)

Sometimes Elder Quentin L. Cook shows up. And sometimes you get to sing for him in a special musical number.

Saturday, May 18th. 7:27am. Elder Quentin L. Cook and Sister Mary Cook entered the ********, LA LDS Chapel.

A few minutes later, myself and 10 of my fellow missionaries sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me".  Don't ask me how I got chosen...I've never been one of those obviously musical/outrageously gifted people, but I was so SO grateful to be a part of it. 

...Especially b/c I got to sit on the front row afterward--aka like 10 feet from an Apostle of Jesus Christ as he left us with some of the most relevant, real counsel we could have ever asked for...becoming a part of our wards and branches and LIFTING them, having truer and deeper FAITH in the work, and focusing on COMMITMENTS. in addition to an Apostolic blessing on each of us--that we would overcome discouragement with an ability to remember the deep importance of the work and that those specific family members back home who were struggling would be blessed and bolstered because of our efforts.

It was a beautiful day. I love LOVE this work, and all of you.

You're in my prayers.

Love,

Hermana Wells

May 6, 2013

Trios are a BLAST. I don't know how anyone could not like them. Eh, that's a lie. I could see how things could go very wrong very quickly. But in our case, it's mostly just a blast.

Mostly because Heavenly Father loves us, so He works with us to keep us balanced. For example, if one of us is having a bad day, the other two team up and pull them up and out before anyone crashes. And might I say, these two companions of mine work phenomenally within this particular dynamic. We're just a great team is all.

 

And now I have no time to tell you about anything real that happened. Feel free to judge me.

Real fast: ****** IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON JUNE 9th!! You know those moments when your investigators describe to you exactly what the Holy Ghost feels like? We had some of those with her. And then she shows up at the Mother's Day fiesta and makes friends with everyone in the ward. She's the sweetest human. We're so excited for her.

AND we ate cow stomach. On one of the pheremonal war days, AND right after being blown off my one of our investigators. It was...a good experience.  Sister B ate every bite. I was so proud of her. The probably with speaking Spanish is that you actually understand what food is before you eat it.

AND one of our less-actives is thinking about a mission/starting to figure out his identity as a child of God. Powerful powerful experiences. We love him so much.

AND I adore my companions. They are exactly what this area and I need. Can't even describe how much I love them.

AND  we had exchanges, which are just so inspired. We had some really powerful experiences and learning moments with Sister *****, the Sister Leadership Trainer whose assigned to us (a change in mission structure).

Powerful moments this week. So much joy.

Remember to have joy, aight? 2 Nephi 2:25. And... D&C 123:17. Some of my favorite mission scriptures.

Love you all MUCHISIMO.

Hermana Wells

p.s. Mother's Day:  Any time after 3pm CA time. We'll just see when I can get ahold of you!