This week has been really good and I love all the people I've come to
meet and love.
I love California-- the weather is so nice and the skies are blue
blue. There are these trees here that are beautiful. White flowers and
so full of leaves-- I mean stunning. They are all over and they are
quite the sight but they REAK. It's definitely up there on top 5 worst
smells I've smelled. I can't even describe what it is but it's bad.
Bad to the bone. I don't know how people are okay with planting them
all over the city. Every time me and Sister Saavedra walk by them we
have to hold our breath. There is this path we sometimes walk by and
the path is lined with these trees. I now call it the walk of death.
Because that's pretty much what it is. We always get a laugh by how
bad they smell and we wonder if anyone else is normal and smells what
we smell. I guess West Sacramento's motto is no pain no gain because
it's painful to smell those trees but they are pretty to look at
I don't know what it is about this city but there are CATS everywhere.
I kid you not. Ratio of cats to people is at least 3:1. And everyone
has cats like they hoard them and take strays in to mother them. It
kinda freaked me out in the beginning but now I think I might make t
shirts that say save the cats. I used to be afraid of cats because
well I've had some bad experiences but now I'm a cat whisper. As soon
as I sit down they come for me. It's very weird. But I'm embracing it
well trying to cat. Cats smell funny haha This week I'll count the
number of cats I see per day and I'll report back-- you guys will be
amazed.
This week we met with a lot more members and in active members so we
can get member referrals. I really enjoyed meeting people and sharing
my testimony. We visited this family the Lindsey's (mom this is the
lady who sent you the picture). We had never met them before and
called that morning to ask if we could come by and meet them. They
must have liked us because before we knew it they sent us home with a
full pan of brownies and asking us our favorite colors so they could
make something for us. I love them. They are super sweet. At church we
saw them and it was like we had been bffl forever.
On Thursday this week our appointment fell through for later that
night so we decided to call an inactive member on the ward list. We
felt prompted to call this lady. She agreed to see us and so later
that night we went over to her house. We were surprised to find out
that the house was actually inside a small nursing home and she was
living there. When we walked into her room, I have never seen someone
so excited to see us. She is a small little old 89 lady. She told us
that she doesn't get visitors ever really and lately she has been
feeling forgotten. She told us that when we called her it made her
feel cared about and important. She thanked us more times then we
could count. What a tender mercy from the Lord that allowed us to know
that we needed to be there to bring her some love. We shared our
testimony of the reality of the savior that he lives that he loves
each of us and that he knows us perfectly. Before we even stood up to
say goodbye she asked us if we could give her hugs. Sister Saavedra
and I wanted to cry leaving her room because we just wondered how long
it had been since she had gotten a good hug. She's a sweet old lady. I
know God knows each of us and he sends us little miracles to ease our
burdens.
On Friday night we had dinner at a lil Korean lady's house. She
doesn't speak English so a member that speaks Korean came to dinner
with us. OMG I love this lady. She is 70% deaf and lives alone. She is
so cute. Omg I actually just love her. We walk into her house and were
blown away by what we saw. I kid you not, from the ceiling to the
floor was full of orgami. It was so beautiful and intricate. There
were vases full of all different kinds of flowers of which were all
different sizes made out of paper. I can't even describe the detail
she had. She had these paper folded sunflowers that had paper seeds in
the middle of the sunflower. Impressive. I can't imagine the patience
she must have. Probably enough that she can send some my way haha
there were these orgami balls hung from the ceiling I mean whoa. We
sat down and had a Korean FEAST. I've never seen so much food in my
life and once your plate was lacking she would grab the spoon and put
more Korean food on your plate. Her food was so impressive and there
was so many different choices. Our personal interpreter told us that
she doesn't make a lot of money but yet she goes all out. It made me
have so much love for her. So so sweet. She told us that she married a
Man who only spoke English and that they couldn't understand each
other very well but that they were married many many years until he
passed away and that she's never been more in love. It was so cute.
Shows the power in love that love truly knows no boundaries. She fed
us so many types of desserts. Literally I've never been so full in my
life. She hugged us probably 6473 times but oh boy I was like wow can
I live here with you cause I love you
Of course because I am new they had me speak in church for 20 minutes
lol I talked about the Book of Mormon. I shared a personal experience
that strengthened my testimony about prayer and the Book of Mormon. I
want to share part of my talk with you guys.
"While I was at the MTC, I was feeling overwhelmed. I had let the
doubt from the adversary come in my mind that I was not truly forgiven
for sins I had committed. I remember talking to my branch president
asking him if I had gone through the proper repentance process if I
had been truly forgiven and why I was still feeling so guilty when I
had done what I thought I was supposed to do. I expressed concern
about serving a mission if I was feeling so uneasy still about where I
stood with God. He told me to find a time that day to say a prayer and
to ask God if I was forgiven and if he had heard my plea of change.
During sacrament later that day I took the president's advice. I said
a silent prayer and asked God if I had been forgiven and if he would
let me know some way so I could figure out what to do and how to get
rid of my uneasiness I was feeling. For that sacrament meeting, we had
a special speaker. He was the stake president over lots of branches at
the MTC. And the week had come for him to visit our branch.
He starts talking about his assigned topic on the Holy Ghost and out
of the blue he changes the topic and says, this isn't what I was going
to talk about but I feel the need to say this. He invited everyone to
go to Mosiah 3:4. I opened to the scripture and quickly read through
it. Tears filled my eyes. It says "For the Lord hath heard thy
prayers, and hath judged of thy righteousness, and hath sent me to
declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice; and that thou mayest
declare unto thy people, that they may also be filled with joy." he
then began to say I don't know which one of you this is for. But the
Lord has heard your prayer. You can now rejoice and rejoice in sharing
the gospel. I can't describe the peace and love I had come over me.
This experience not only showed me the power of prayer and the fact
that Heavenly Father hears us individually but also testified to me
that the Book of Mormon are words of God. I knew even more than I knew
before that the Book of Mormon is true. He speaks to us through these
word because they are his they are real and they are true."
This week has been great. Sister Saavedra is the bees knees. I love
her accent. She's teaching me all about Spain and her culture. I could
practically be a local if I ever go there
I miss you so much
Love you long time,
Sister Thurgood
Mother mother mother
I miss you and love you. I can't think about you guys too much because my eyes start to water haha one of my leaders told me a cool thing though they said that he likes to see when missionaries are homesick because it shows him that they have been loved which results in him knowing that they know how to love as missionaries. I really like that.
The weather is super nice. Perfect weather haha like 75 degrees with a nice slight breeze haha it's a dream. The members feed us every night well except last night but every other night yes haha they feed us too much and they feed us a lot of pasta haha my apartment is very nice like it is huge. It has a bug bedroom two full bathrooms and an office and a living room area and then a little table and then a kitchen. It's just the two of us In there. It's really really nice haha we even have a gym we get to use which I have been so grateful for because I was really worried about gaining weight. I think I gained a little but now I'm like no no and taking better precautions against the members cooking haha I hurt my foot though and I don't know what it is. The side of my foot on the outside really has been bothering me like I'm in a lot lot of pain. Maybe you could look up something and see how I could help it. I've been icing it and putting icy hot on it but wow it hurts. I can check my email all week long and read your guys email so if you ever want to send a talk or anything I can check it from 930-1030 every night. I just can't respond till p day or think of any responses. I have pictures to send but they are all on my camera and I have yet to get to a computer. Hopefully next week I'll send photos so you can see the area and other stuff.
I love you so much mom.
Tell dad I love her so much and miss him beyond words and that I will send him a letter soon. It's weird because in our mission we are only allowed to send/write letters on pday so it makes it more difficult to send them and write them. But I will try
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