First Week in the San Jacinto Branch

San Jacinto

Well family and friends....it is my first week here in the San Jacinto branch (yes, it is significantly smaller than Rialto). There is a lot of potential here for reactivation since only about 20ish people come on average. I am actually way excited! Sister Clarke is AMAZING!!!! She technically is my 'sister' in the mission since we were both trained by Sister Jimenez. She is literally the greatest!!!! She has been in this area 2 transfers and is really excited to help this area progress even more! YEAH!!!!!




My new companion...Hermana Clarke

Interesting things that happened this week:

1) I learned that its nice weather if it gets under 120 degrees

2) Every tree in the desert is home to some kind of bug that makes the most ANNOYING buzzing noise. When you are driving it sounds like people are doing yard work....but no one would do their yard work when you can literally shrivel and die outside. 

3) DON'T talk to drunk men with their shirts off....even if they look like the member you are going to go see. They may ask you for your number and hand you their phone.

4) This branch has 2 members of the bishopric who American....but speak Spanish from their missions. 

5) The people here are great!!!! Still getting used to everything!

 

6) If you go to Cardenas (the grocery store) you can find MANY people who would like to learn English! We are starting up another English class here, and so we decided to go hand out fliers at Cardenas...turned out to be very successful and stressful. Even in English its hard to start up random conversations. Usually it starts with, "are you making some salsa?"

7) Met a man feeding the pigeons outside of Cardenas (first one I've met that didn't know who was playing in the Gold Cup!!!!!!) he asked me where in Mexico I was from. WHAT??? Hermano Cardozo (our Ward Missionary leader) said that I could pass for some one from Los Altos--in Jalisco. Yeah!!!!! I would prefer to think of it as my accent that makes people think I'm native....but I guess it's my eyelashes. 

Things are going really great here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you all for your love and support!!!!!      H Wright

 

I know that I am in a new area, but I have lots of pictures from Rialto 4th!!!!!



Daisy

Our roomates - Hmas Ipson, Wright, Olsen, Shin

Toriz Familia (Ward Mission Leader)



Jenny and Kids

Pereira's

Uribe's  (Ruby, Claudia, Sol)

Justus & Kim

Medina's

Last Week in Rialto 4th

Well it's the end of another transfer!
...And I would say a pretty good one. It has been a roller coaster kind of week. First....big news on transfers. I am going to San Jacinto to be companions with Hermana Clarke. I replaced Hermana Clarke here in Rialto 4th after her first transfer of being trained. She is so awesome and I am ready to get to work. 

July Temple Trip ... H. Ipson & H. Wright

As we have really gotten to work in this area, I have realized that these great people here have my heart! It has really been tough coming to grips with the fact that I am moving. Hopefully in the coming week you will be able to finally put names with the faces of these great people. I really think so highly of these people!!!!! I am so grateful to have had the chance to meet them, work along side them, and help them come closer to Jesus Christ. 

This week we finally got a baptismal date for Hermana Fong...arguably one of the coolest people. We did everything we could to plan out the week to get her to come to church.....and she did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so so so so awesome! They walked in and I was SO shocked! I think we planned so much on how to get there....that we didn't know how to handle it when she did come. She brought her husband and we had Hermana Larios walk them to their first class. But, I wanted someone to sit with them, so we brought in the Felix family....who "by chance" have a mutual friend back in Mexico or something.

Walking from an investigators home.

I have to make a confession that I wasn't really listening during Sacrament Meeting because I was too busy planning who would sit by them in their classes. As soon as the Felix's walked in I KNEW they were the ones. They are coming with us to a lesson tonight at the Fongs!!!!!! They stayed and chatted together a little after church! LOVE THESE PEOPLE! Hermano Fong may have tried to hug me....but he is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool! He literally gets along with everyone at church! And every time he would answer a question in gospel Principles he would look over at us at the end! It was so cute! And watching them try to sing out of Hymn books for the first time was even cuter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

 

As we are talking about awesome people though...something MUST be said about Daisy! She is literally the most down to earth, sincere person I have ever met!!! She is a miracle mom and still does a great job of trying to meet with us!!!! If everything goes as planned I will get to come back to this great place for lots of baptisms!!!!!!! 

Also....Peter (or Pedro) the grandson of Josephina (Investigator) was visiting his grandma this week. When he opened the door, I believe I Iiterally said, "I have never met you before....what's your name." Maybe not the best first line....but hey....just being me. He is a young teenager and was actually REALLY interested in learning. We came over another day and taught the Restoration to him...and JJ again. We watched the 1st vision and JJ said (in a hushed tone) 'AMAZING'....SO ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we explained authority really thoroughly and he told us that he had been baptized 3 different times but NOW he understands why it's so important to have authority. He said 'yes' to being baptized.....but he lives in Ontario. So we will refer him over to the other mission. 

 

Celebrating with a frozen hot chocolate...delicious!

Well folks! My next letter (sadly and excitingly) will be in the desert....don't worry....for all of you keeping up on "the shades of my skin" moments.....I will take a before and after picture. Sister Shin (roommate and Sister Training Leader), said she got brown by the end of the first week. WOOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!! But don't worry I will put sunscreen on as well! 




I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week!!!!!

H Wright

Yes...that is a lemon. And I am laughing because Sister Ipson was being attacked by a small, green, shiny, flying beetle.

5 New Investigators

Well hello there family!

Things have been going great here in Rialto. This week was a little faster than last  week, but a little slower than normal. We picked up 5 new investigators, but were unable to have any lessons with existing investigators. We do a great job at planning and confirming lessons....but it seems like its becoming a habit for them to cancel on us. Oh well! 

 

We had a lesson with a new investigator named Daisy. She is the COOLEST person ever! I am so excited to work with her. She seems like she sincerely wants to know what to do with her life. She has such great potential!!!!!

 

We also got to have a lesson with the AWESOME familia Arcos! Love them too! We challenged them to start reading the Book of Mormon as a family! I love talking about the Book of Mormon. There are so many great promises that prophets and apostles have given us! I also love the idea that not only is Authority one thing that sets us apart from all other churches....the Holy Ghost is something else. No matter what we as missionaries can say, the Holy Ghost is the ultimate teacher, and will testify that the this church is the only true church. What i have studied about the Holy Ghost has truly changed my vision of what a testimony is. We have been taught that the Holy Ghost provides us with such a firm confirmation of truth that we CANNOT be separated from the knowledge that we gain from him. I think it is interesting however that when we refer to "knowing" something we ALWAYS indirectly or directly relate it with "feeling".....so I love the idea that our testimonies come (little by little first off....) but also they also follow the same pattern of faith it takes to gain a testimony. We may not know exactly why we know....but we just know!!!!! Sorry if that was confusing.....

I love this gospel! Missionary Work isn't easy...but it is simple....live the Gospel of Jesus Christ (that covers everything.....loving others, being an example, etc.) 

Have a great week everyone!!!!!!!!!!

H Wright

A Great Testimony Meeting

Dear Family:

Well it's another week here in Rialto! Looking back on the transfer, I feel like
we have done a lot to help the people here. And we will keep going! Everyday I am amazed at the quality of people here! Amidst all the crazy people, you don't have to look too hard to find the diamonds in the rough.

Sunday (yesterday) we had such a great testimony meeting. The people here are such sincere, lovable people! One after the other we heard such great testimonies and conversion stories! WOW! Something you don't see very often is that just about everyone here is a convert.....there is a lot of power that comes from a ward like that!

We picked up 3 investigators this week, and received a lot of referrals! Which will be perfect as we turn this slow week into a fast week. Gabriela, one of the new investigators, immediately invited us in.....without much intro. A couple of weeks ago I was looking through the list of potentials we had....just names and phone numbers basically....I decided to randomly select one to try. I called her and she made an appointment with us....usually I have to do a little more convincing.....but wow! So we sat down in her house and talked about the elders she had had 2 years ago. She pulled out her Book of Mormon and said she had made it to Alma. I have never felt so strongly to ask someone to be baptized, I felt tingles the whole time. She said ahorita no.....but she committed to read the Book of Mormon some more with us! Great lady!!

Well for the 4th of July we had to be in by 6pm, working on entering the area book  (basically the encyclopedia of the area....at least for investigators) into our IPads....which seems nice in theory......we got maybe 1/24 of the way through.......it was long. To celebrate the fourth and our 5 month mark, we bought frozen hot chocolate-- yes it's a thing and it's delicious!!

That is it for this week familia! I love you all! Have a great week!!!!!

Hermana Wright