No time. Too much too say. Just love...

No time and too much to say...why must this always be my predicament???

So, let's keep it to the bullets, shall we?

1) Check out photo #1. This is what we call a visitors' center baptism...aka my first. and 2nd. and 3rd. All discovered in one phone call last week. This family came in the in the beginning of December. Wife had been less active since she was young. Husband and kids weren't members. They were looking to find a church to go to and thought they'd check us Mormons out. We showed them some stuff, talked to them about their experiences with God, taught them the first lesson, referred them to missionaries in their area and BAM. They're Baptized. With a capital B, of course. Because it's of the the-wife-was-preparing-her-next-FHE-lesson-when-I-called variety. This is joy. Definitionally. :) 

...Good thing I'm out of time and my camera just died. So no more stories and pictures for ya'll this week. Sorry 'bout that.

News to look forward to hearing about next week:

1) 3 New Investigators--one of which is Sis Jones' friend from high school.

2) Awesome members who feed us pic nic lunches after church.

Got a ton of great mail this week. (p.s. me telling you that Sis Jones gets a ton of packages was a fun fact, not a pity plea for more packages. I feel plenty loved. Don't even worry about it) bearing excellent news of the marriage and relationship variety. Go, friends! So happy for all of you!  Admitedly, sad I'll miss weddings.

Love you all so much! The Gospel is True!

Love,

Abbs/Sis Wells

Hello beautiful people!

It's been another beautiful week of progress in Malibu! 

But we'll start off with the bad news:

After 3 weeks of playing Gigi on He's Just Not That Into You, Miriam/(another pseudonym for the blog) finally broke up with me. In a VOICEMAIL. Yeah, it hurt. But don't you worry--we drowned our sorrows in some delicious choco-chip cookies a friend-of-a-friend brought in for Sis Jones. [So now I can be depressed AND obese. Luckily, my clothes still fit...but it's a fight everyday. Let me tell ya.] 

...but here's the good news:  First of all, I had a dream that Miriam/pseudonym got baptized, so it's really just a matter of time before she comes a-crawlin' back to us begging for her salvation. It's just a matter of time. The Truth can only nag ya for so long, ya know?  Second of all, she dropped us after a fireball DTR/member-present lesson. So maybe Miriam/pseudonym laughed in my middle of my baptismal invite. I still finished it like the champion baptismal inviter that I am. (As it was basically my first, my potential has yet to be unleashed.) Long story short, I fulfilled my purpose and the spirit was there. It felt great.

The other GREAT NEWS:  We found 4 new investigators!!! Faith precedes miracles, my friends. And I'm talkin' miracles of the I-got-let-into-a-house-to-teach-the-Restoration-after-a-street-contact variety...things like that have not happened to me before. And in Malibu, stuff like that is Gold.  And now I don't have time to share the story. Darn. But it's a good one! Just keep prayin' for the missionaries, friends! It's working!

Fun fact about my compa: She gets like 3 packages every week from every variety of relative (I'm talking aunts, cousins, grandmothers) of her ex-boyfriends/boys-who-have-been-in-love-with-her-at-one-point.  Yeah. That's the kind of girl she is. She's got extended families fighting for her in-law-hood.  Kids love her. Old people love her. I love her! She walks into a room and people just love life more, ya know? I appreciate it so much. She's awesome.

Keep the faith! The Gospel is true!!

Love you all muchisimo!!

-Sis Wells

1) I finally got sunglasses! Hence the myspace-esque self pic. Laugh at us. But the sun is bright down here in socal. Esp as we drive the Pacific Coast Highway more or less everyday on our way out to Malibu. The ocean has literally become nothing more than a backdrop to my mission experience. It is no longer real. 

2-3)  Eating our sack lunch on Pepperdine campus as we waited for an appt with investigator (Isaac!/pseudonym)--a dynamically contradictory character who doesn't believe in God and claims he never will...but still meets with us...? We're not quite sure what to do with this kid.

4) That, dear Utah friends living in daily 20-degree winter weather, is SNOW in Southern California. But not really. But kind of. It's iced up water from last P-Day when we washed the car. It was incredibly cold last week. That was the point of the picture. But it's warming up again, so the point is now moot.

5) Headless picture of our awesome zone leaders pointing at our cute little zone goal board--turtles with baptismal dates escaping the sharks on their way to Sydney, Australia on the East Australian Current...I love our zone goals. They are always impressively and creatively bizarre. 

Exceeding Faith=Obnoxious Optimism. Happy New Year!

Hola mi familia,

I just got back from a beautiful P-day hike, coordinated by the one and only Grover couple and the fabulous Hermana Orellana. See attached photos and allow yourself to groan in joyous jealousy at this beautiful place I have been called to serve in. I know. California is phenom. Just move here already. Just hafta make 1 million dollars first.  

So, it's a new year, and I'm pretty content in the realization that I get to spend every second of 2013 serving the Lord. Again...so blessed...2 months in the field (today!), 3 months in the mission (in 3 days), and I'm still falling more in love with this everyday. Sis Jones and I celebrated the New Year by putting red lipstick on and drinking sparkling Pomegranate juice. It was a good 9:30pm moment before sleeping through the actual arrival of the new year. 

One of the things I am loving about my new compa (though the "new" part is wearing off as we've been together for half a transfer...) is her incredible energy and optimism. We've gotten some pretty decent rejections. No doors a-slammin' as of yet, but still some hurtful drops and rejections. But rest-assured that Sis Jones and I will walk away from those doors with a hopeful "Today's just not their day."...which is true. It just isn't. The missionaries will find them again when their hearts have been softened and readied for the message. I have faith in that, and I love it. I'm learning so much from this hermana. Her advice to all new missionaries is to be "obnoxiously optimistic" and "no one will ever be converted unless they read the Book of Mormon." 

And so that's my advice to all of you for this beautiful new year. The Book of Mormon mentions those people who had EXCEEDING faith...that lead them to witness miracles. So let's be obnoxiously optimistic, shall we?

Love ya'll tons!

-Sister Wells

Pitchas of Christmas & other stuff

Okay, first of all, Christmas was AMAZING. and I LOVED it. This e-mail is a visual reprsentation of my love and appreciation of what I just experienced on my FIRST MISSION CHRISTMAS. I'm so happy I get two :)

 

Alright, here are the descriptions:

 

Sis Jones and I posing in front of the seat in the small theater in which A SMALL CHILD VOMITED IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR TOUR.  It was hilarious. "Moments that Matter" has never gotten quite that physical of a reaction before, you know what I'm sayin?

 

Sis Jones, rockin' her shades and our brand spankin' new GPS. (Thanks, mom and dad! You have literally saved souls in Malibu with that Christmas gift. And it's just so pretty...)

 

Our brand spankin' new GPS.

 

The day I finally thought to bring my camera on our morning run, and could therefore capture the sunrise that literally changes my heart everyday of my life here.

 

Creepy stalker pic of a man with a bird on his shoulder in the Visitors' Center. I have the best job ever. (p.s. I never got a pic of this, but did I ever tell you that I saw Aaron Eckert (sp???) in the VC a few weeks back?  It was pretty cool. I felt guilty having the desire to go talk to him and therefore avoided him...but we made Sister Hara, a Japanese sister who had no idea who he was, go and give him a tour. Apparently he was way nice. Cool, huh?  Just hangin' w/ the celebs in the LAVC...it was bound to happen, right???)

 

Sis Jones and I in our Christmas PJ's. Ain't we cute?

 

Sis Jones and I in our festive Christmas get-up.

 

Elder Shakespeare, the incredible, reserved-but-with-that-Dumbledoresque-soulpiercing-twinkle-in-his-eye visitors' center director, beatin' down our GIANT CHRISTMAS HELLO KITTY PINATA on Christmas Eve.  It was maybe one of my favorite Christmas Eve memories ever.  No offense to the fam.  But really, it was an AWESOME surprise that all of the senior couples put on for us...

 

and then we all came back and ate...

 

Kringle.  Aka The most amazing danish I've ever eaten in my life. Courtesy of Sister Shakespeare, who sort of took the role of Mrs. Clause through all of the festivities. Wonderful people taking care of us here in the Visitors' Center. We're outrageously spoiled, almost to the point of discomfort.

Okay, second set of photos:

 

Christmas dinner at our investigators' house. Gotta love Malibu. Note the sunset...

 

Me, Christmas socks, all my gifts. Once again, outrageously spoiled.

 

Sis Cole, my fireball friend who went to Spain with me, carrying me back to the VC after the Hello Kitty pinata showdown. FYI: She's like 6 or more inches shorter than me.

 

All of us!

 

A traditional Christmas breakfast:  Quiche (courtesy of Trader Joe's frozen food section, but so delicious) and cinnamon bites (courtesy of the dollar store)

 

....And my time is up.

 

But I so hope your Christmas was wonderful. I love you all dearly.  I'm sorry I've got nothin spiritual. Here's a copy and paste of my letter to pres (may or may not be blog-appropriate, I dunno...), which'll give you the dets of my actual work.  I'm just in love with where I'm at right now.

 

You're in my prayers!

 

Love,

 

Sister Wells/Abbs

 

Hello President Baker,

This week has been a little all over the place with the busy holiday times in the Visitors' Center and all other festivities. However, it has also been one of the most rewarding and full weeks I have ever experienced. I loved Christmas on the mission.

Sister Jones and I are warmed up and ready. We've spent the last few weeks doing some extensive transfer planning, "Cleaning up and out" our Area books, etc. Malibu will get a baptism soon. I have complete faith in that. And maybe I won't see it happen during my time there (though I have all hope that I will), but I refuse to do anything less than everything in my power to make it happen. This transfer seems to be a lesson on faith, and Sister Jones is a phenomenal teacher in that regard. It's fun to be "on fire" together.

Our new plans aren't anything fantastically original...just tweaking old ideas and making them fit the uniquely wonderful Malibu. We're focusing on finding in one section of our area right now. We updated our giant area map with labels for all potentials, formers, active, and less-active members...and then we began "pounding it out." Our area board is filling up and diversifying, and it feels SO GOOD. And we just started! 

The ward is sparking up. The new bishop has just come up with a fantastic new ward mission plan and the new ward mission leader is on board with us. He likes our ideas and he has been nothing but helpful. I feel trusted relationships forming. We're starting to get more referrals, and the bishop is urging us to work more with various part-member families. 

Our work with less-active members is progressing and diversifying. We have a few more families that we hope to start working with soon, and we seem to be on a brink of a break-through with one that we have been working with. 

Do you see what I mean? The stage is set! We're just faithing it out now. 

I have also reached a few really wonderfully fulfilled moments in the Visitors' Center. I still have a lot of improving to do, but it's the hopeful kind.

Things we still need to work on: getting caught up on 12-week program and working on our lesson plans...things we hope to have more time to focus on now that the holiday season is waning.

Happy Christmas Eve!/MOMENTS/Keepin' Up With the Jones/Just wanted to let you know that all of Malibu is about to get baptized/This week has felt like 5 weeks which is why I have a million different subject lines.

...but 5 of the best weeks of my life.  If you know what I mean.

So, first up:  I got a new compa. And she's AWESOME. Lemme tell ya. Sister Jones is my bosom buddy...I literally do not have time to describe in how many ways. But I adore her. She is light-filled, soul-piercing-twinkle-in-the-eye, ever-positive, HILARIOUS, and just...amazing. She is the coveted companion. Everyone loves her. And we click. And we're on fire together. And I AM LOVING IT. 

 

Biggest indicator of my love and adoration of her:  I immediately adopted her idiolect. (no idea how to spell this word, btw).  For those of you who have hung around Breanna Asbell or Maddi Moffat for longer than 5 minutes...you have experienced this phenomena. When adoration translates to imitation. But seriously. All of the sudden, I'm sayin "Shake my hand!" or "Hold my hand" or "She does what she wants" or "That's AmAZing!" every 2 seconds and I catch myself and realize what a pathetic follower I am.  But I'm actually really okay with it, cause she's great.

Only downside: I do miss my dear Sis Olivo, who may actually be reading this at this point since SHE'S HOME WITH HER FAMILY IN NEW YORK...so in that sense, I'm happy for her. But she is missed. That's all.

Transfer day in and of itself felt like a week. We went and helped one of Sister Jones' investigators from her most recent area (it's a LONG story as to why this was necessary...but I promise it was more than appropriate), and then it was a day of running around and moving her stuff and training meetings and then just being and working together. Work is play. It's unreal how grateful and content I am to be where I'm at right now.  To the point that I feel that I have been here and will be here forever. I'm living the sunset...if you know what I mean.

Which brings me to my next subject line: 

 

MOMENTS

 

"Moments are the molecules that make up eternity." --Neal A. Maxwell

 

Amen.

 

Watch this video.

Let it blow your mind.

Note the incredible music and Elder Uchtdorf's dreamy accent.

 ...And then experience tomorrow MOMENT by MOMENT, okay?

 

...or in the words of Sister Baker, "Stop Martha-ing and start Mary-ing."

http://youtu.be/DpV4MIUrT9Y

...why I decided to put this video in this e-mail:  I am a big believer in moments. And my mission seems to be a string of them...a lot of really beautiful, precious moments--even the painful ones.  It's all part of this gift of a mortal experience we've been given, you know? Ay. I just love Heavenly Father. And I love and value life.

 

 

Other events of the week:

 

We attended a funeral for someone in our ward, and it was incredible. Great testimonies and memories shared of a really amazing man.  He was a radio broadcaster and a pilot. Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Was friends with all sorts of famous people and just a fireball of a man.  Sister Davis, one of the sisters here in the VC who used to serve in Malibu, sang "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul"...best rendition I've ever heard, I think.  She's an amazingly talented musician and has a rockin' testimony...it was the perfect storm. Such a powerful experience, and I got some powerful answers. That's all I have time to say, unfortunately. Funerals have been oddly uplifting and healing experiences for me trhoughout my life...but I suppose it isn't odd, knowing what we know about eternal families and life after death and such. 

 

 

CHRISTMAS!!!

 

This morning, we had the mission-wide Christmas fireside, which was bomb.com.  Some powerful messages from President Baker and his wife, and a lot of powerful songs that we got to be apart of. I love singing. I'm not great at it, and I've always been sort of weird about singing in front of people, but I just love it. I got to sing Mary's Lullaby with a group of VC sisters, and it was one of the more meaning musical Christmas moments I've had in a while. Look up the lyrics if you can. They're great.

 

And then of course, we got fed. And we are still being fed. By the Olivarez family, who likes to bring food and gifts into the VC way too often b/c they love us all for some crazy reason (they're AMAZING...some of the most humble, loving peopel I have met), by Sister Baker, who lives up to her name (oh my amazing poppyseed bread!), by my mama, who has sent me awesome baked goods (pumpkin and banana bread and chocolate covered cinnamon bears!!), by Sis Jones' mama and friends, who have also sent us awesome baked goods, and by the Grovers and Shakespeare's, who consistently spoil us.  Pictures below.  Because food moments are some of the best moments in my life.  And they're happenin' a whole lot lately.  Honestly, I feel like we need to start posting signs on the windows of the VC saying "Please do not feed the sister missionaries."

 

Okay, I've got to run! Ah!

 

But really, truly, dear ones...please have an incredibly MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  I love you all SO MUCH!  And I'll talk to some of you TOMORROW!! Hooray! :)

 

Love and Christmas wishes,

 

Sister Vanessa Abigail Wells

 

p.s. pics are of the VC and Christmas devo and Olivarez family dispersing gifts to us...pineapples are also theirs. VC has a nativity display from around the world. some samples. beautiful! And olive wood Jerusalem...it's huge. and beautiful and VERY valuable. Awesome, right??

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.  :)