*Facebook Post* Jan 31, 2025

 Every 3 months, our missionaries are able to take a trip to the temple with their zones. It's a special opportunity to be involved in the work on the other side of the veil.

Our missionaries are the finest, most obedient, hard working disciples of Christ, and they do all of this because they love Him! #2gather2gether2day

People are Crazy Week 16

 Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well and loving life and just having an overall good time

My week was kind of crazy (yes, I know I say that every week) but it's true - we're always busy. So what even happened last week?

Monday:

Pday! We had breakfast with all the sisters in our Zone because one of them had a birthday! It was a lot of fun! Then we went to the zone activity and played board games! After pday ended we had a pretty awesome lesson with two of our friends, Yoan and Luis (brothers) about the Book of Mormon! It was pretty great! 

Tuesday: 

Not a ton happened. We had weekly planning (which takes, like, two hours) and both of our lessons fell through so it was just a lot of knocking on doors

Wednesday:

Again, not a ton happened...we had lessons set up - none of the worked out. For some reason, lots of people recently have been sending in referrals (requesting missionary visits, or looking for a church, or interested in English class - things like that) but sending in fake/wrong addresses, si we went to lots of houses where we were told that we're at the wrong house. It's frustrating, but fine. 

Thursday:

This week has just been a struggle - all of our lessons fell through again today. But we had english class which was pretty fun! We also had zone council - which was pretty average in and of itself - but afterwards all the companionships who didn't have a member come with them to a lesson or door knocking got pied! It was pretty fun to watch. Our zone is starting a new thing called "member Monday madness" and if you don't do missionary work with a member on Mondays, there's a penalty after zone council on Thursday. So, hopefully we can get someone to work with us today! I think the next penalty had something to do with peppers ...

Friday:

Exchanges! I went up to the Yucca area for the day and it was a pretty good day! 

Saturday:

Can you believe it? All of our lessons fell through today too! We even had one lady tell us to come back at 5 (they were busy when we stopped by) and she wasn't home. But we did have more success tracting and were able to find some people for the English missionaries to teach! We also met this one guy, Nathan, who said he was interested in coming to church. So we got his number and sent him the church info and everything. Turns out he was only interested in hitting on us  Funny to look back on - not appreciated in the moment. But we sent his info to the English elders so hopefully they have fun with him 

Sunday: 

A pretty good day! We had one of our friends come to church and another guy who showed up randomly who's interested in learning more!! It was quite the miracle! Then we had lunch at the church because one of our members is the sweetest lady ever and makes us lunch on Sundays and it was so good! She even let us help her make it (that hasn't happened before)! Then we went door knocking with one of our members - I felt so bad for her. Only English speakers answered the door (she only speaks spanish) and we met probably the meanest lady ever. She was not happy. But it was all good

So that was my week. It was a bit of a struggle - but good nonetheless! If anything, I've learned the power if optimism. It didn't change the fact that all our lessons fell through, all our tracting neighbors had already been tracted by the elders, and some people were straight up rude - but it made me enjoy everything a little bit more. I was able to see and appreciate the good things around me and have hope. That made the week good and I'm so grateful for the hope that comes through the gospel and through knowing that I have a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of me and my life. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! If you got time, write to me and let me know how you're doing! 

 Hna. Erickson 

1. Stars in Palm Springs

2. Exchanges

3. Tracting!

4. Kal Memorized the Living Christ and received this banner

5. "Forever Marilyn" in Palm Springs

6. All the Sister in the Zone

Oh My, What a Week! Week 15

 Oh my, what a week...it has been pretty crazy!

Monday: 

Pday, we went bowling as a zone and it was pretty fun! We also got a text randomly from someone we met in a park a couple weeks ago asking if we could come over and share something with them (miracle) We went over and had such an amazing lesson with them! They're such a cute family!

Tuesday:

We had exchanges, and basically all of our lessons feel through and the family we eat with on Tuesdays was sick. So it was a bit of a rough day, but it all worked out

Wednesday:

We had zone conference! We had to leave at like 6:30am, so it was a pretty early day, but the conference was so fun! They talked a lot about working with the members of our congregation and bearing our testimony in lessons, we've already started applying some of what we learned and the difference it made is crazy! 

Thursday: 

All of our lessons fell through again  but it was still a pretty good day! Some of our friends came to English class which was amazing! Also, I've never realized how weird english truly is. It's such a strange language...

Friday:

Most of our day was taken up by zone council and interviews with the president. Not a ton happened other than that

Saturday:

Man, what a day...we had 3 lessons today...all of them ended up being about 2 hours. It's safe to say I was pretty brain-dead by the end of the day. One of the lessons was with probably the friendliest basher in the world. Every time we would try to share something, he'd just go off on tangents. It's actually a miracle we managed to get out of there, cause he just kept talking.

Sunday:

One of the elders friends was baptized!! It was so amazing and he was so happy about it! That was probably the highlight of the day! Everything else was pretty normal.

So anyways, that was my week! I hope you all had a great week and that all is well! Write and let me know how you're doing if you have the time!

Love ya 

*Facebook Post* Jan 15, 2025

 DAY2 of Zone Conference. Palm Desert, Yucca Valley and Yucaipa. The joy the sisters and elders bring is so rewarding. Powerful disciples. NO DOUBT!

Happy New Year (two weeks late) Week 14

 Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well!! And Happy New Year! 

It's been a busy two weeks, sometimes interesting and sometimes not  For new years we had a missionwide zoom meeting and we went over our goal for the year which was to help 1001 people be baptized. Before getting into the mission field, I really hated the idea of having goals based off of numbers because numbers are not what's important, it's the people that matter. But what I've realized as we worked towards this goal is that, while numbers are not what's important, they are great tools for giving you direction and helping you work as hard as you can, just don't let them become the most important thing. It's also been cool to see so many miracles come from working towards this goal. They had some missionaries share their testimonies and their experiences and it was amazing to hear about some of the miracles they have seen throughout the year as they've strived towards this goal.

We were in a trio for a couple of days last week since one of the english sisters finished her mission and it was a lot of fun! Then we had transfers...I ended up staying in Yucca Valley, but my companion, hmn. Dean, was transferred so now I'm with hna. Gray! We get along really well and it's been so fun! It's also been interesting leading out the area. I realized how much I actually know, and how much I still need to learn. 

Our current mission president goes home in July, and we finally found out who our new president will be! His name is Mark Oligshlaeger, and he and his wife seem really nice! We don't know a ton about them yet, but hopefully we'll get more information soon.

Thankfully, we haven't been affected by the fires in LA (just some power outages). Please keep the people of LA in your prayers, from what we've heard it's pretty bad there right now.

And now, to close with a little bit of a spiritual thought:

Last night we had a devotional for our friends and new members called "Why I Believe" and basically what it is, is 3 or 4 zones (areas in our mission) all get together and we invite all the people we're teaching and all of our new members and two or three people who have recently been baptized share why they believe that this is the true church. It was really amazing to hear their testimonies and their journey. It also made me realize that I haven't yet taken the time to put into words why I believe. I'm still thinking about this, but so far it's been pretty cool to reflect on this. So I would like to invite all of you to take some time and think about why you believe (in God, in science, in nature, whatever you believe in). If you have even more time I'd love to hear about your experience!

Anyways, I love you all!! I hope you have an amazing week!!

Me and Hna. Gray 

The wind blowing a TON of sand across the road...

A petty sunset

And some weird looking pedestrians

Week 13 - No Letter

 Kallie was pretty busy this last week and didn't write a letter home, but we did get to talk with her! Big news, Hermana Dean was transferred and Kallie's new comp is Hermana Grey. They seem to get along really well and she has loved getting to know her. Kallie is still in Palm Desert and is loving working with the people there.