Cake for Breakfast

Bonjour!

This week wasn't as busy as last week, but it was still so great! On Friday we had a big breakfast with a lot of the missionaries because in October we are having a life-size replica of the tabernacle of Moses come to our area, and the people in charge of it wanted to give us some training on the Tabernacle and what our role will be in providing tours for anyone and everyone who wants to come see it. It is going to be so cool and we are all really excited to get to see it and be a part of it. 

On Sunday we had one of the people we are teaching come to church and she LOVED it! She said that it was such a great experience and she got to meet so many kind people and learn so many new things that she wishes church was everyday. Honestly, we have the most amazing people here in our area and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to meet them and become their friends.

Today is the birthday of one of the Elders in my district, so this morning we had a birthday breakfast party for him (we surprised him at his apartment and ate cake for breakfast), and then afterwards we went on a super fun hike to some old mines that were closed, but we still took some cool pictures so it was great!

It is amazing how the Lord works in all of our lives. Even hiking this morning we were all drawing parallels to the amazing things that Heavenly Father has given us. We are truly blessed to be on this earth and to be having all of the experiences whether good or bad that we have each day. No matter what is going on in our lives, there is something that we can learn from it! This gospel is so amazing and I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be teaching people how the gospel can bless their lives. I love you all so much, and I hope that you all know my testimony that God is good. He is always there to love and support us, and He may show that in unexpected ways, but if you are earnestly looking the light of Christ in your life you will be able to find it. I love you all!

Love, 

Soeur Connery

Classic name tag pic

Another classic name tag pic

One of the mines

My district at the mines

The Spanish speaking sisters and us

Hermana Leiva and I on top of the mine

 Our zone picture from our Friday breakfast meeting

Sister Bunch found a crown this morning

My district at the mines 

Fire danger is always extreme in California

A sign we found the other day on someone's car

Our birthday breakfast party

 My companions and I

Banana Leaves, Indian Weddings and Mega Cereal

Bonjour!

I've had another great week here in good old Pittsburg, California! We had some pretty great adventures this week! To start off, the Tongan man that we have on baptismal date actually asked us to move his date up this week. So instead of having his baptism mid-October we are having it on September 28th! We are super excited, but I still don't think we are as excited as he is!

To explain my title a little bit, first off my district and I found a giant metal bowl, and we thought "wow, you know what would be fun? If we had a giant bowl of cereal in this!" So that's exactly what we did; we made a giant bowl of cereal and then to be more sanitary we scooped out the cereal with smaller personal bowls and ate out of those, but it was still a blast and made for a fun adventure. Also this week, we ate dinner with our Bishops wife. She is from the Philippines and told us that we were going to eat Filipino food the Filipino way, which meant that we didn't use any utensils and instead of plates we ate on top of giant banana leaves. I don't know if you've ever eaten rice with your hands, but until you know how to do it properly it is so hard. However, we eventually learned how to do it and now we are pros. And finally, to explain the Indian wedding, we got new neighbors about a week ago and they are Indian. They are both super sweet, but we really only talk to the wife because the husband doesn't speak much English. Anyways to get to the wedding part, we were coming home from church yesterday and they were having a party and they invited us in and then explained that they were having a bit of an after party for their friends and family since they had gotten married that morning. It was insane! They gave us traditional Indian sweets and taught us a little bit about their culture. It was SO cool!

Overall this was a great week, and I experienced a lot of things that I never thought I would experience! This work is so good, and I'm so grateful for the different people and cultures that serving the Lord has given me the opportunity to experience! I love you all!

Love, 

Sister Connery

Indian sweets

Filipino dinner on banana leaves

 My companions and I picking up trash down by the water

Pittsburg

My companions and I at the visitors center in Oakland

My district 

 Our giant bowl of cereal

Filipino dinner on banana leaves again

 My companions and I at church

Still Killin' It In California

Hi friends!

This week was kinda crazy. So I told you about the man that we put on date, but this week we dropped him and we will try teaching him again in a few weeks. He is such a sweet man and wants to learn more about the gospel, but he is really busy right now and isn't prioritizing the gospel in his life, so we are going to cancel his baptismal date for right now and hopefully reschedule it in the coming weeks when he is more dedicated. However, we put two different people on date this week, so all in all we have 2 scheduled baptisms and 1 cancelled. The two people that we put on date are both so nice and they have really been working to know if this gospel is true. One of them is a Tongan man who just married into a huge Tongan family that is all members of the church. They love him and they know that becoming a member of this church is a personal decision that they want him to make on his own, so they are just being really supportive and always reminding him that it is his choice. We can't force people to believe the gospel and his family really understands that, so they are a huge blessing in lessons! I don't know if I'll get to be here for any of these baptisms, but I really hope that I will! I'll find out on Saturday if I'm going to a new area because as of now I still have no visa and they don't have an idea of when I will have a visa, so I'm just focusing really hard on the work here. Plus I love it here, so I know it's going to be extremely hard to leave and once I have my visa as excited as I'll be, I will also be so sad to leave everyone here.

The ward here in Pittsburg is so sweet, and they haven't had the best relationship with a lot of the previous missionaries here, but ever since my trio got here we have been working hard and building their trust and they are finally opening up to us and recognizing that we are here to help and serve them and their neighbors. Also, they have recently started feeding us a ton and they have been feeding us a lot of really exotic food (mainly Filipino food because of Sister Liquiran). So basically I'm no longer a picky eater because once you have eaten yam ice cream with beans and jello there really is no where else to go.

We went on exchanges again this week too! Because we are in a trio, we get to go on exchanges 3 times rather than the regular 2. So, Hermana Bravo came back into our area again and we had another great day. Hermana Bravo is super sweet! She is from Columbia and is here in the Spanish program. It's so nice when we go on exchanges because we live in a diverse area, so most of the time we try our best to tell the Spanish speakers who we are and give them the number of the missionaries who speak Spanish. However when we are on exchanges and we have Hermana Bravo it works out so well because she can have a perfect conversation with them in Spanish and then we can nod our heads in agreement to what she is saying. Basically, exchanges are wonderful and we love the Spanish speaking sisters!

This week wasn't super eventful, but it was still wonderful! I love the people here, and I especially love the work that I'm doing. Every day is just another testament to me of how true this gospel is, and how grateful I am to be a member of this church. I love watching this gospel change people's lives and I love seeing how all of the people and experiences here are changing my life. This truly is a great work, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. I love you all and I'm so grateful for everything you are all doing for me! I hope you have a great week!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Love,
Soeur Connery

OH and P.S. I got In-N-Out this week so I was a pretty satisfied missionary 

This is what arrived at my office this morning - I thought they were so darling I had to share! 
The Oakland/San Francisco Mission is enjoying your amazing missionaries!
Sister Baker
Mission Secretary

Blessings Upon Blessings

Bonjour!

So there is still no word on my visa yet, but all is well! There is so much work to do here in California and I'm so grateful to be able to work here! The people here are absolutely amazing and getting to serve them everyday is such a blessing to me! Plus all of the other missionaries here have kinda become my family and its going to be so hard to leave all of them! My visa will come eventually, but for now I'm just glad to be here and to serving the Lord and the people in this area.

This week wasn't too exciting, but of course it's missionary work so its always exciting! We had zone conference this week and focused a lot on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement truly is such an amazing gift that we have been given and I'm so grateful to be able to constantly use the Atonement each day as I'm trying to improve and I'm so grateful to be able to share the blessings of the Atonement with all those that I get the opportunity to meet and teach. On Tuesday we had a lesson with some of the Elders because they were teaching a man named Enrique who is in our teaching area. He is awesome! He has a lot of questions and is really interested in helping himself become better and especially helping others become better! He has such a special spirit, and I think that comes from all of his life experiences. He is honestly one of the best people that I have met, and I'm so excited to be able to teach him more and watch him progress in his relationship with his Heavenly Father.

On Thursday we went and contacted a few members who haven't been at church in a while, and they were all so excited to see us. The people here are really amazing and are always willing to welcome you with open arms. One of the families we visited is a man and his wife who isn't a member. She is from Brazil and always gets so excited to see us! They asked if they could feed us dinner and of course we said yes, so now I'm just fingers crossed that I will still be here when she makes us her traditional Brazilian food which she has been raving about! On Saturday we went on exchanges again except this time, Sister Bunch left us to go to the Spanish area and Sister Bravo came into our area with Sister Liquiran and I. It was so much fun! None of the three of us have permission to drive the Church cars for insurance reasons, so we took the bus all day. Fun fact: I love public transportation! The rides are too long and there are germs everywhere, but you get to meet and talk to so many people that it is 100% worth it! I talked to more people on Saturday than I have in any other single day in my mission so far! I love talking to these people and getting to explain what I believe and why I believe it.

Honestly this gospel has blessed my life in so many ways that it feels wasteful not to share what I know with all of the people I meet! It's like if you watch a movie that is super amazing and you tell everyone you know that they should go see it, except the gospel is more than just an hour or two it's a lifelong commitment with unlimited blessings! I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to share this gospel and I'm so grateful for the testimony that I have of this gospel that is constantly blessing my life. I know this church is true and there is nothing that brings more satisfaction to my life than knowing that truth.

I love you all and I am SO grateful to have all of you in my life! 

Love,

Soeur Connery