Sister Jessica Garfield California San Fernando Mission

Merry Christmas Everyone! Hello from the Hollywood ward! I have to say, Christmas in Hollywood is super weird. It is definitely show business out here! We've still been trying to work with the less actives in the ward. We've met a few more of them. Now it's just figuring out how to help them progress. We keep having all these awesome, spirit-guided lesson plans set up, and then the lessons keep falling through! It's sad, but it is cool to have the Spirit in our companionship studies so strongly still, even if we don't end up getting to share what the Lord wants these people to hear. It just means that when we get to actually meet with these people, we'll have a super great lesson ready for them! Favorite Spiritual Thought: This poem was on the tables at our ward Christmas party on Saturday, with a key attached to each copy. The key was meant to represent the key to the inn, and at the bottom, there was a quote from an apostle talking about how each of...

Hey everybody!  First, for a quick transfer update: nothing has changed. I am staying in Hollywood with Sister Howard. We are so excited to get to be companions again! We are still kind of struggling to find, but we've been able to work with a lot of less actives lately as a result. It's super interesting to see how these people who want to progress have noticed that something is missing in their lives, and that they recognize that it's the gospel. We are working with a bunch of people to try to help them come back to church right now.  Favorite spiritual moment: I had the opportunity to sing at the Beverly Hills hotel this week with a choir of missionaries for a party for the Swiss consulate. Someone who was part of setting it up was a member of the Church, a man named Raju, and he contacted the mission to ask if we could sing. We were singing pretty simple stuff, straight out of the hymn book for all but one song, and mostly unaccompanied. We were supposed to ...

Good morning everyone!  This week was a pretty good one. It is starting to get a little cooler out here, and it even rained! Sister Howard and I enjoyed it so much. It really was pouring a couple of times though. ; ) We definitely got soaked a couple of times, and California is definitely not built for this kind of weather. But it was so much fun! Favorite Scripture: 3 Nephi 27:1-2. I liked this scripture because it talks about fasting, praying, and being united together. It also talks about teaching and baptizing. On December 23, the first presidency has announced that it will be just sacrament meeting worldwide, and that it will be an invitation Sunday, to help people to feel the Spirit of Christ. Yesterday, we had the opportunity as a church to fast to know who to invite, and how. It's cool to me that the Lord answers our prayers like that when we are united in common cause, His cause. Favorite Spiritual Moment: We got to help at the Elders' baptism for a ...

Hey!  I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had the chance to have dinner with a family in our ward, along with the Elders, together. It was pretty fun! Favorite Miracle: Until recently, most of us were advised to do some of our studies at night since it isn't necessarily the safest thing ever to be out in the dark in some of the areas of our mission (ie, Compton). However, just last week there was a change in missions on the West Coast to allow us to spend all of our time from 5-9pm out finding and teaching people. At first some of us were a little skeptical about the details of the change and the ability to find people (safely) when it's super dark outside. But we have seen so many little miracles from it already! Just since Monday, we have talked to Giovanne, Gary, Simon, Jorge, Zach, Larissa, Karl, Trevor, and Dariya all after dark, most of which were on the streets between walking to people who we were stopping by. And those are just the ones whose na...

Hey! Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope that everybody has a really good holiday! Favorite Scripture: I have been asked to give a talk on the new Home Centered Church Supported thing in a couple of weeks, and found this scripture that I thought was really good: 3 Nephi 17:3. I liked how it talked about going to our homes and pondering the things that we've been taught, praying about it, and seeking further understanding. That's what this is all about. I think it's really cool that the church wants to help us to deepen our personal conversion to following the Savior. After all, this is His church and His gospel. We need to know that for ourselves. The end of the verse talks about how He is going to come again, to share more with us. I thought about that like the second coming, and how we know that these are the last days. I know that this new concept can help to strengthen and prepare each of us for the Second Coming! Favorite Miracle: This was really simp...

Hey there! I hope that everyone has such a great week and is enjoying their Veterans Day! Our week was pretty good, with some fun service opportunities and a decent amount of teaching, in both English and Russian! We're slowly but surely getting things going here.   Favorite Scripture: Alma 60: 6-12. So, this is actually going to seem like a super depressing scripture when you read it, but the reason I put this on here is because I was thinking about it from a missionary perspective. Moroni is accusing Pahoran of neglecting his people and withholding provisions from them that they need to survive. I was thinking about how, as missionaries, we have the spiritual provisions people are in need of in order to make it through this battle against Satan to make it back to our Heavenly Home. From this perspective, I was thinking about how I never want to be caught withholding those spiritual provisions from people who are seeking the gospel. Instead, I want to do everything I can...