Welcome to the CLAM

- July 08, 2018

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Hey everybody!

This week we became a part of the California Los Angeles Mission! It's pretty exciting. There is a lot of craziness that's happening, but everybody is working hard to make it as smooth as possible. We have a big meeting next week to get a lot of stuff worked out, but it seems very much like President Haynie wants this to be a merge and not a take over. He wants to learn from us, and we want to learn from him. I really hope it works out that way! Since a few people asked, I am still an STL for now, and Sister Trujillo will still be my companion for another 6 weeks. We are no longer required to do KnockOut, but President Haynie purposefully didn't bring up a few big topics when the mission first met him, so we'll see what else we find out about that this week. I like President Haynie so far. He seems to care about us a lot. Sister Haynie is... different for sure, but I'm doing my best to be patient and to understand the way she works. It will all be good; I know it!

I so can't call it the CLAM though. It's super funny. You can tell who is from which mission, because the missionaries from San Fernando only use "CLAM" in jokes. We all just call it the LA mission. ; ) But apparently, we are also all determined to "be the pearl within the CLAM." ; )

Favorite Scripture:

3 Nephi 5:13. This is the mission scripture for the LA mission. We recite it every morning. It's a good one!

Favorite Spiritual Moment:

There is still one Alfarro kid that we are teaching who hasn't been baptized. His date is for August 4, and this week, a lot of things changed for him that made him and us realize how serious he really is about it. He's experienced some crazy things, and I'll just leave it at that. We had a lesson with the family this week though where we were reviewing the Plan of Salvation for the the recent converts and going over it for him. We got to talk a lot about the Atonement. It was really cool to feel the Spirit that was there when talking about all our Savior has done for us. I hope it helps him!

Favorite funny thing:

So. Garfield the Cat is truly universal. I know I said that a few months ago with the Sister from Thailand, but this week, we went to go to a member inspire with a deaf member in our ward, and it went even to another level. Sister Trujillo knows quite a bit of sign language, so she was doing pretty much all of the talking, but she told me when this sister asked what my name was, and I was able to spell out "G-A-R-F-I-E-L-D" very slowly with the signs for the letters. This sister we were talking to looked at Sister Trujillo and made some sign with both of her hands up by her head. They were ears. She totally asked "Like the cat?" in sign language. ; ) Sister Trujillo laughed, confirming what I suspected. It's super great. I think it's a lot of fun actually. : )

Other stuff:

Sister Alfarro got two callings this week! And what's crazier than that, is they're not even little things to help her get in the swing of it. She is now in the primary presidency and is going to be the camp director for girls camp! I guess when you have 9 kids, you're not going to escape something like that. She's excited though, so that's good! We're so proud of her.

The oldest son in the Alfarros' family also got the priesthood yesterday! It's super exciting. He wants to take it very seriously, and is excited to learn and to serve.

We are planning on going to the temple with the Alfarros this week to do baptisms for their first time! It's going to be so cool!

I hope you guys have such an awesome week! Always trust in the Lord. With Him, you can truly do all things. : )

Love,

Sister Garfield