Sister Jessica Garfield California San Fernando Mission

Hey everybody!   Favorite scripture: This is probably in Isaiah too, but I don't have time to try to find it, haha: 2 Nephi 8:12, and also a few verses after that, but mostly twelve. I liked this because the Lord is trying to help us to know with such confidence who He is. Because if we know who He is and what He's done for us, we have no reason to fear anyone or anything. He is the one that comforts us. Favorite spiritual thing: Brother Alfarro and his oldest son passed the sacrament on Sunday! It was so cool to see. Then, after church, the son went with the other priests to do in-home sacraments and blessed it for the first time too! It's so cool to keep seeing people progress. Favorite funny thing: Sister Trujillo and I had to drive to a meeting in LA this week, and we had to leave pretty early in the morning, when everyone was still driving to work. First off, it took a ridiculously long time to drive about 15 miles, but what was funnier was the cars...

Comp Picture 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 unde...

Hey everybody! Favorite scripture: I'm going to steal one from my awesome mom this week. Amos 8:11-12: "Behold, the days come... that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And [people] shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." My mom shared this with me because she knew that we'd be a little low on investigators after the baptism, as a reminder that there are lots of people out there who are seeking the word of God. This scripture is about the apostasy, and how there were people then who could not find it, because the gospel wasn't restored yet. Well, it has been now! And what a blessing it is. I am so glad that I get to help people who are searching for the truth. It's really amazing to see the miracles that the Lord brings to pass every single day. (This is a littl...

Hey guys! I'm going to have to be a little quick with this one, but here I go! Favorite adventure: I'm doing this instead of a funny thing because the reasoning behind it was actually kind of sad. The Hermanas in our zone had a baptism that was supposed to happen the same day as the Alfarros, just in the evening. Their investigator dropped them less than 24 hours before her baptism. They were super sad and were just having a really hard time with it, but we didn't know until 9 pm, when we were over at the church, setting up tables in the cultural hall for the baptism the next day. It was late, but there happens to be a McDonalds like 200 feet from our church building, so we decided to bring them ice cream. We got President Henrie's permission since it would mean we'd be out past curfew, and then we went through the drive through and headed to their apartment as fast as we could. We were literally sprinting through their gate before it closed, McFlurries i...

Hey everybody! With it being Fathers Day on Sunday, I just wanted to tell you all how grateful I am for my dad. He's really so amazing. He is such an amazing example to me, and I have learned so much from him. It is such a blessing to have such an amazing father in my life. I know that I am so blessed. Cool Scripture: One I liked from this week was 3 Nephi 18:10-12. It's about the sacrament and how important it is. I like how it mentions that if we always remember Him, we will have His Spirit to be with us. It just was cool to look at it that way. I don't know if I had ever realized that that was the reason behind it before. Spiritual stuff: We had a super awesome lesson with the Alfarros this week. Since we've picked them all up at different times, we wanted to review the Restoration again before the first few get baptized, but we wanted to do it a little differently than usual. We decided to show the video about it. It was so amazing, guys. The movie is ...

Hey everybody! Favorite Spiritual Moment: Emilio got baptized this week! It was so awesome. I don't know if I've shared how he found the gospel with you guys, so I'm going to do it now. Emilio was on instagram one day and found this girl who is a singer and songwriter who lives in South Jordan. He started following her and getting to know her, and then found out that her boyfriend, Seth, was about to go into the Marines. He happens to have a brother in the Marines, so he got Seth's information and started talking to him so that he could hopefully help him out while at basic training. Well, Seth shared the gospel with him! Emilio received pretty much the entire first lesson over a video chat with a kid in a different state, who hadn't even graduated high school yet. He got transitioned over to the missionaries, and ended up getting baptized. He is seriously one of the most amazing people I have ever met, and probably is the most prepared person I have ever taug...

Good morning everybody! I hope you all are so happy! This week was a really good one in a lot of ways, but there were also a couple of weird things that happened. It makes things interesting, that's for sure. ; ) Favorite scripture: Helaman 5:7. Helaman was talking to his sons, Nephi and Lehi, and telling them why they had the names they did: so they could look to the example of those great prophets and go about doing good. They later became great missionaries. He said, "Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them." We liked this because Helaman knew his sons had great potential, just like our Heavenly Father knows that each of us does. Each of us has the potential to do incredible things, and to help so many people. As missionaries, our job is to help people to come closer to Christ, but a lot of the time, those people help us to come closer to Him too....