Meet Wellis

Hello loves!

Sister Ellis, my new companera, arrived on Wednesday and life has been a happy, exhausting whirlwind ever since. She's phenomenal, of course (Let's be honest, God doesn't give me anything less for my companions--especially the new ones), and it's just oh-so-perfectly right that we're together at this time in this place.  Mar Vista needs this sister...and honestly, so did I. 

And for those of you who didn't make the connection to the subject line/are maybe slightly less familiar with the concept of celebrity couple names:  Wells + Ellis = Wellis.  Win!  Though obviously we still call each other "Sister" as anything else would be contrary to the highest standards of missionary conduct as outlined in the white handbook. No se preocupe, friends.  Exact obedience brings miracles and you better believe we know it. 

So, here's why I think she's great: 

1) She's naturally gorgeous and crazy low maintenance. 20 minutes to get fully ready. Pts 2-7 keep me from hating her.

2) She loves eating & exercise. We are soul mates. 

3) She plays the harp! What?? So cool.

4) She played soccer in high school. 

5) She went to U of Arizona for a semester, and UVU for another semester. (aka 

6) She is so dedicated! Her spanish has already improved muchisimo and we're in an English area.

7) She is patient and loving with her mess of a trainer who talks her ear off on a regular basis.

8) She is STRONG. She just has this amazing testimony. Her heart and her testimony have been so uniquely shaped...and she's here to share it. I have truly come to adore her, friends. The list will continue onward as the transfer moves forward.

So, here's the area update:  We're seeing milagros on every corner, of course, as is to be expected with the fiery new missionaries. 

Example: (one of many...time limits) 

Yesterday, we're sitting in the last hour of church (which both **** and ***** came to! Woot! We're still working on ***. He's got to figure out his girlfriend stuff. But we're teaching him about Faith on Saturday using 1 Ne 5:1-3. Think story of Lehi and his amazing wife, Sariah. Think about how her faith was tried and worn down...think of how easy it was for her to misunderstand and question. Think about how Lehi moved forward anyway, and how joyous miracles ensued. Okay, this parenthenical statement went a little long. Long story short, *** will be at church next week. I just know it!)...

So...anyway...we're sitting in the last hour of church and I'm getting a little nervous. Because, you see, over the course of Sacrament Meeting and Relief Society, all of our plans for the next 2 hours in our area more or less fell through. We still had a few back-ups, but not enough to hold us down. So, I'm tempted to start asking other members if we can come do a quick Active Member Training/Family Mission Plan Follow-up visit with them (yeah, our ward mission plan is that good)...but then I'm like, "Well, maybe we should just come back to the chapel and finish weekly planning once and for all" (Don't judge. 1st week for a new VC missionary=madness/not finishing weekly planning until Sunday night)...and then I remember what president told us in our training on how to train new missionaries.  "There will be times when you're not sure what to do, and a decision will need to be made. When in doubt, look upward."  

So, I said I little prayer. And then decided that we needed to trust the spiritual guidance we received in our planning session the night before. So, we walked over to the nearby apartments and started working on our backup plans. No answers...we start talking about how Heavenly Father put us here for a reason, and that as obedient missionaries who do their best to follow the spirit, you can literally never be in the "wrong place"...right after this conversation, as we're walking to our last less active's door, we meet _______ (insert Chinese characters here), a 50-something-yr-old Chinese man...who stops us, points to our tags, and then across the street to where the church building is located. We nod and smile and try to explain in a mix of sign language and...well, sign language...b/c I speak NO CHINESE.  Long story short, he writes down his name and his info for us and we give it to the new Chinese elders in the area and they're on their way to visit him soon! Joy! 

...that was Miracle 1. 

Miracle 2 happened 10 minutes later as we're leaving the complex. The 1st person we see stops us and asks us what church we're from and if he can learn more about the Book of Mormon. He spoke Spanglish, so it was this perfect opportunity for my compa to practice her spanish as she explained the basics of our belief...and then we invited him to read and pray about it...and then we invited him to be baptized. And he said yes. And THEN we invited him to go see a baptism at the church next door. Because it just happened to be started 5 minutes. So, he went. And then we went back to the VC, where we'll be calling him to follow up and sending missionaries to his home in Santa Barbara.

...and then like 3 more people we met told us they would try to stop by church next week. It was a miracle. 

Moral of the story:  When in doubt, look upward, then outward. Then move forward with Faith. God loves all of His children. 

Love ya'll a ton! I'm sending a pic of Sis Ellis and I...hopefully. And some pics of a pig we saw in the street as well as us with the ****** fam (Ward mission leader).  

More to come later on. 

Love you all! Praying for you!

-Sister Wells

"AGAIN???"

(subject line to be read w/ a Sister ***-esque Cambodian accent) 

Guess what??? 

I'm pregnant!

Again!

...but this time in the VC. So it'll be a whole new ball game that I...don't know if I know how to play. But we'll just see! Pray, please! 

I'm so excited for my new compa though. She's learning spanish, and...that's all I know. Of course you'll get more details next week. But know that I love her already. And Mar Vista is ready for her! 

I always sit down to write this e-mail and I draw a blank on what happened this week. We've been busy. The ward is taking off. We have a good handful of investigators and we're working with members more than ever. It feels SO GOOD to see the fruit, my friends. I love this work! 

So, let me give you the miracles I remember:

Monday:  We went to the LA Natural History Museum and LOVED it. One of our members works there and got us in for free/gave us an awesome tour. 

Tuesday night:  We met with ****. She's Bro James' assistant and she's AMAZING. She said she's been prayerfully preparing for this meeting with us for months (Bro ****** has had a lot of great experiences with her), and she feels that she's being called to read the Book of Mormon.  There's golden investigators, and then there's platinum investigators. ***** qualifies as the latter.  It was beautiful to meet her. 

Then, later in the week (I'm skipping over several hundred miracles in between)

 

AND then YESTERDAY...we had another wonderful miracle! We went to contact a potential, *******, and he wasn't home. So we walked down the street to contact another investigator (******--who hasn't called us back in a while :( ).  He wasn't home either, but we had a good convo with his uncle.  Long story short, a few minutes later, on the way back to our car, we see ***** outside his house!  And he immediately takes us over to the side of the house where we sit and teach him about the Book of Mormon.  Invited him to be baptized. He said "not yet." Set a return appt. And we'll see him again on Wednesday. He has an amazing life story. Sort of sad, but also just...resilient. Born in a Japanese internment camp, has had several heart attacks and heart problems that have almost killed him (so he knows God exists, you know?), and he's obsessed with Badminton. Like hardcore. So...I like him. And I'm so excited to see him on Wednesday with my new companion :)

Love you all muchisimo. I'm praying for a lot of you, and I feel the strength of your prayers. 

Love,

Sister Wells

p.s. Maybe pictures later...

"Just QUIT WORRYIN' 'BOUT IT!!!" ...and other miraculous moments.

Hello, lovely people of my former life!

Let me tell you 'bout my current life. 

You already know about the awesomeness that is *****. It's been amazing to show him the Truth (w/ a capital T) in his 86-yr-old wisdom.  (My favorite of which is Worry=Faithlessness=SIN.) ...and only kinda hard SOMETIMES when he goes on lots of rant-y tangents with that passionate 86-yr-old wisdom. But he's getting it, which is the best feeling in the world as a missionary. He came to church yesterday! AND to a dinner at Sis. ******'s house...

Wanna know who else was at Sis. ******'s house for dinner last night???

1) *******, who got baptized a few weeks back in the San Fernando mission. He's a whole 'nother miracle story. Amazing, AMAZING guy.

2) *****! Who we found at the laundromat LAST WEEK with his uncle. (Or I should say, my AWESOME COMPANION found at the laundromat last week as I was on the phone with our Distrcit Leader to arrange some servicey things for the next day. Someday I'll tell you about SIster ****. She's so so cool) ...He's already a Christian, but he'd been looking for a church closer by...we told him about Sis.****** and BAM. He's at the VC Friday night learning about the Restoration, listening to the Christus and getting emotional. I invited him to be baptized. His response (after Sis ******'s translation of my question):  "I am ready." 

...I gave you some white space there to take that in. But here. I'll say it again... "I am ready."

....MMMMMMMMMM!!!! I wish you could see the giant smile on my face as I type this. I love this kid. He's the same-ish age as *****, except he's only been here for 3 months, so his English is a little less refined. Which means he needs translation from Sis ******. Which means he gets to be taught in our area...but not by US....BECAUSE...

This brings me to the 3rd special guest as Sis ******'s dinner party last night:

3)  Elders ****** and *******, members of the newly--added SECOND COMPANIONSHIP of missionaries to the Mar Vista ward. Yup. Our area got divided. Which is SO SO GREAT. For all of the reasons you can imagine. It happened the day after our WML called President to tell him that he either wanted us full-field b/c there's too much work here for part-time sisters, or he wanted a second companionship. Apparently that call was an answer to a whole lot of prayers.  Elders ****** and ********* are the new office elders (not to be confused with the Assistants to the President, who have recently been released from their officey duties to go out and actually work in their area for once), and are therefore part-time, just like us.  And they're great. And they're going to help us save the souls of Mar Vista. Woot!! Couldn't be happier! 

Spiritual thought for the day:  Repentance is real, and Heavenly Father will teach you how to do it.  It's through repentance that we can gain a Christlike, God-like perspective of the absolute realities in front of us.  In other words, humility and charity. Which are the keys and base of a life of pure discipleship. So, I'm trying to repent more...that's all. 

Love you all so much!  You're in my prayers. 

Love,

Sister Wells

My Friend, ******

Guess what??? We set a baptismal date! All you lamanite missionaries are rolling your eyes, but this is a big deal for us Mar Vista kids, so rejoice w/ me. 

****** is 86 years old. ****** wears sweet threads. ****** is a sass-a-frass. ****** sincerely loves the Holy Ghost.  And he loves us too, which is fun. AND...he's getting baptized! On August 25th. If all goes according to plan that is...FAITH.

I'm gonna try to attach a pic, but I'm already over time b/c of this horridly long survey that the missionary department made us fill out. (Not that I'm complaining). But I had planned to write a good handful of super sweet, heartfelt e-mails today too. As well as send a ton of pics. Boo. Maybe next week...

Thanks for the love.

Love ya'll muchisimo. Keep spreadin' that faith of yours! You are in my prayers!

-Sista Wells

p.s. There's other pics there too...maybe you can connect them to previous stories, but if not...I'll try to next week!

Hello President,

I just finished the (rather long) survey. It was mildly depressing, but helpful.

It's been a great week in Mar Vista!

First of all, we set a baptismal date! With ****** ! He's 86 years old, and WONDERFUL. He's bold and funny, but very sincere in his desire to come closer to God. He is so appreciative of the spirit he feels when he's with us. He's preparing to be baptized on the 25th of August. He came into the VC last night with Sister Larson, and he loved it.

We've begun teaching **** in the homes of other members (besides Sis ******) to get him a little more integrated into the ward. We had our first yesterday, and it went really well! We reviewed the Plan of Salvation with him again and he was able to get some of his questions answered.

We taught ********* and her family about the Plan of Salvation by teaching them "I am a Child of God." The kids loved it! 

We taught a referral named ******** on Wednesday. He is sincerely interested, but he may decide to attend the YSA ward. 

...None of these people came to church on Sunday. Despite having committed to do so, and despite our efforts to have members and rides and follow-up calls prepared for each of them. It would've been a rather depressing sacrament except...

Our ward mission leader blessed his baby on Sunday and a LOT of his non-member friends came to support. It was a powerful testimony meeting, and a lot of great seeds were planted. As a missionary, it's not often you get to bear your testimony to a chapel full of Jewish people. So. I was happy. :)

I wish I had time to share all of the little tender mercies and miracles with you, president. Just know that they abound!

In terms of my VC ideas...there aren't all that many. My ideas have more to do with leadership structure, and there are a million variations. I was thinking about having there be 2 companionships of Sister Leadership Trainers in the Visitors' Center, and having them divide all of the VC/Full-field training responsibilities amongst the four of them. This would mean doing a full 24-hour exchange with each VC companionship, less logistical responsibilities for the VC Trainers, and companionship support in their leadership positions. Again, there are a million variations of this that would still be beneficial in different ways. 

In terms of the VC schedule, I understand that we don't have much control over that on a mission-level. I've heard of other visitors centers having 3-4-hour shifts instead of 6-hour shifts, or only working 3-4 days a week for 6-hour shifts. I don't know if it would be possible to try something like that here, but it would definitely be more nice to have a more balanced schedule. Right now, we spend about 42 hours in the VC and 10-15 hours in our area (outside of the few hours we spend in studies and training meetings). These are all rough estimates. 

Thanks for being open to ideas, president. I can't tell you how empowering it is to be able to express these ideas to an open mind, even if they are never even slightly implemented. You are appreciated :)

Have a wonderful week! Thanks for all you do!

Sister Wells