Farewell from Sunny San Jose

Except its totally not sunny its raining. haha oh well!!

So everyone here is my final email. Well I actually forgot to bring my camera. stupid me. so you may or may not get an email next week with pictures. we will see. :)

So I will go over the week quickly

Monday-PDAY! we had an ugly sweater contest. i won. 

then we got to have dinner with two of my favorite mbrs here sister wallace and sister post. they are hilarious!!! also we got to go see christmas lights with a familly in the ward! they are the best!

Tuesday-We saw diana! we were hoping she could get baptized this last saturday but her husband doesnt think she is ready so we are waiting. guess ill have to come back out for that baptism! road trip anyone? but we told her that we were leaving and well that was a bad life choice. haha she was so upset it was sad! its really going to be hard to leave all the people i love out here.

then that night we got to go up to palo alto and help at the creche exhibit. they had nativities from all around the world! there was even one from Oaxaca (carson!) It was a really fun thing to do!

Wednesday- a busy day! we saw a few people and had interviews and life was crazy. 

thursday- we saw lots of people! okay only like 4. haha but we were at one of my favorite services in the morning. it was also pouring rain. like crazy.  and i had to drive. not my favorite. haha but we got to see penny, one of my favorite less actives. she is actually going to miss us. haha we also saw janet and the kids! man i am going to miss those little kids. 

Friday- we had a missionary meeting and then saw diana and then went to the ward christmas party! we got to be santas helpers. kids i have the in with santa. so you all better be good! 

Saturday. longest day of my life. but it was awesome!!! so we started by cleaning hte church then we had diana come for a baptism that the elders were having then we went and saw our investigators the ramos, going to miss them too! then off to see another investigator pepetua and thne to see our ivnestigator rose. she is in the hospital. it doesnt look good. she has a growth in her stomach that is the size of a watermellon. and she isnt in the best of health. i hope she is okay. but she was happy to see us! we also went to our other ward party and then to dinner! crazy day. 

Sunday- church. all. day. long. then we had the outgoing fireside. so usually its my favorite thing. i get to see people i love its awesome. well this time i had to speak. so that was unfortunate. hahaha But i survived! and i got to see some people i love from monterey and these wards right now. dublin couldnt make it down because their stake had something going so that was sad. but oh well!!! 

Well that was my final week. it was a good week. I am really glad that i have been able to spend the last 18 months out here in california serving the lord. i wish i could stay(though i am excited to sleep). But thank you all for your support. I know that this church is the true church restored upon the earth today. Our heavenly father loves us and i know that christ died for us. i wish you all a merry christmas and thanks for everything you all have done for me. 

SEE  YOU ALL SOON!

Love, Sister Stevenson

ps. 

So if you are lucky i might actually update my blog when i get home so if you want to continue following the adventures of me check out annliestevenson.blogspot.com. 

Fwd: Pictures!

Fwd: Steve Young

Me and steve young. he is the one in the blue on the ground, then there is the guy in white. then me! 

One Foot in the Grave and the Other on a Banana Peel

Well folks. here we are. My final full week of being a missionary has come. and the good news is that I am okay to go home? why you ask? well you see I had this thing called a mission bucket list. it was to serve in dublin. Check. to serve in monterey. Check. to go to pebble beach golf course. check. and to serve in palo alto so i could meet steve young. check. 

(this is the part where you all go what??? you didnt serve in palo alto!!)

Well Youre right. I am still in san jose. But I got to meet steve young!!!!!! Thats right. i even shook his hand. his hands are huge. but we will come back to that story in a minute.

Monday-pday! we played cracker tag. for those of you who dont know what that is, we tie saltine crackers to our hips and then roll up newspaper into bats and try to hit everyones cracker as well all run around. stupidest game ever? yes. but so awesome. hahaha

Tuesday- I was on exchanges with sis sakamoto! she is from Japan! I took her to her first american mcdonalds. I felt special. hahaha

Wednesday- We saw kristina and lisa and anastasia. Lisa made us hot coco. best day ever. especially since it was raining.

thrusdya- we did brianna's baptismal interview!!! she was so nervous it was adorable.

Friday-I met steve young. so we were at a mtg and president mella was like so we will ahve a guest speaker at 1030 so that should be fun. and sis berry leans over and says its steve young and we both laugh because that never happens. so then we went to have a break before our guest speaker and i looked to the other door and guess what? it was steve young! hahaha so funny! I guess him and president mella know each other pretty well so he had him come speak to us and he even let us take a picture which is pretty rare.So firday was great. haha

Saturday- alright so brother young was pretty cool but he will never compare to saturday. it was brianna's baptism! she is the 9 year old that we have been teaching and she was so excited. nervous but excited. and her whole family was there to support her. it was just an amazing time to see her baptized and to reflect on how amazing the past 18 months have been. there is no feeling better than seeing someone you love accept the gospel and decided to make promises with heavenly father. I am so grateful for the chance that i ahve had to serve  a mission. But no worries i still have a week left so more stories next week!!

love you all!!

Sister Stevenson

God is not dead, nor does he sleep

But I sleep. And boy did I sleep a lot this past week! But we will get to that in a moment. So first I hope you all had a great thanksgiving! Mine was interesting. also the room we are eamiling in is freezing so i cant feel my fingers so If you wonder why the typing is horrible that is why. plus i am in  a hurry like always. :)

 

so monday!- we went mini golfing!  a mbr owns the golf land out here so we get to go for free. its great.

Teusday- it was a good day. but the start to the rest of hte week. i started sneezing. i thought it was just allergies. but alas no. so we saw a bunch of people which was great! we got to see the ramos family and they are awesome as always! then I went on exchanges with Sister Sotele! We both were in the same mtc district together so it was fun to be iwht her all of wednesday!

So wednesday- we saw their cute recent converrts, we helped them pack because they are mvoing, and they ahve this cat that they call the mormon cat becasue apparently it only comes out if there are mormons in the house. haha we also got to see some other people from their ward and we met this lady that still has a type writer and uses it. so legit! then at the end of the night we swtiched back but my sneezing was getting worse.

Thursday- turkey day! so president mella said no turkey bowls but that we could play others sports with our zones. so we did in the morning and then sister berry was sick so i went to one thankgviign dinner and then i came home sick and called it quits for the day. sis berry had food poisening and i had  a cold. so thanksgiving was a very chill day!

Friday- i didnt get up. my comp left me home most the day. so i slept! but then i got a migrane and took a excedring migrane and then didnt sleep al night. so then i slept some more saturday and tfinally went out and worked a bit in the eveing. then sunday was my first full day back. i was so tired by the end of the night.

So i have decided that i cannot be sick anymore because I only have 2 weeks left and i am working all of it!!!

 

WEll I hope you all had a better week than  me!

Talk to you all next week!

Annlie

Hi there!

Well this is the part where i am going to send a horrible weekly email. As in i have no time left. haha

So this week was great! Very busy, though we did have a few nights fall through. but over all it was good! 

I hope you all have a great thanksgiving! I have 4 or more houses i get to go to on thanksgiving so i might be dead before the night is over but oh well! 

Basically i just wanted to tell yuo all that i am grateful that i get to serve a msision and that I am so thankful for all of our support! 

HAve a great week!

Hmmmmm

Yeah I just dont have a title for this week! Sorry! haha so first for those who get my recording, i ended by talking about a car accident with some missionaries and i realized i never included the part that they were all okay. hahaha it was just a fender bender. 

Well on to the week!

Monday- PDAY! we chilled by a pool and had a bbq. it was fun! 

Tuesday- transfer mtg! Its a lot more fun to go to when you arent getting transfered... haha

then we went and saw diana, she is so sweet! she has been reading the book of mormon! its awesome! I mean she can barely understand it but she is trying! we also watched the restoration movie with the ramos! they are the best. and darlene said she really thought it could be true. i love this gospel. 

Wednesday- it was full of excitment. a previous investagor came back in town. that was fun. or not. haha oh but we saw luella and we told her that we would come clean her house and thursday and she was so excited! -see thursday for how that turned out. haha

thursday ;) - so we went to luellas, she forgot who we were. haha so we cleaned and then once again tried to explain that we were the missionaries but she still wasnt getting it. but then i was like can we share a scripture? and she was like yes! I have the missionaries come over every wednesday and read with me! they are great. i cant remember their names but i remember their faces! (she said this while staring right at me. luella i have bee seeing you multiple times a week for 4.5 months. you dont remember faces either.) hahah we were all laughing. she is so cute!!! we also saw janet! and had a great lesson with her!!!

Friday-So Diane, and briana and the vindiolas! some of my favorite people! 

Saturday. where to begin? lets start with Dublin. I GOT TO GO TO DUBLIN! yay!!! there was a baptism in the chinese branch and my comp served there! I got to see a few people i knew so that was fun! and i saw my old land lady marj and she had us come by the house to get some apples. home sweet home! the frigde is still outside if any of you were wondering. also there is an apple tree in the back yard. i lived there for 7.5 months and had no idea about that. haha

okay so after the baptism we all went to oakland!!! Elder Bednar was in town and so he had all the missionaries from the san jose  and oakland missions come and we got to have a q and a with him! it was amazing! he talked a lot about being an agent and not just and object. it was so good. and he is hilarious! 

well that was pretty much my week. sunday was good, lots of church! I hope you all have a great week! for those of you in the freezing temps, sorry. i went on a hike this morning! :) but dont worry i will be in the snow soon enough...:/

love you all!!!

Annlie

On to another Transfer!

Well Folks it is now the beginning of a new transfer. and well Im staying here! So I shall die in South San jose. and when I say Die I mean finish my mission. haha But my comp is also dying with me so that means my area is either being closed to sisters or 2 new sisters will whitewash. we informed one of our ward mission leaders of this fact yesterday and he about had a panic attack at the thought of only having elders in the ward. sorry elders. haha but there are 5 missionaries going home with me in our zone so we are planning a mass murder for the end of the transfer. actually we jsut really want to do a murder mystery party. haha

okay so on to the week!

Monday- we played soccer and did service.

Tuesday- We saw Rose! She had been sick again and she was like, where have you been? Sorry you were sick! we also got to see Brianna! and she set a baptismal date for december 6th! I am so excited! and so is she! she is adorable. and we also so the ramos' the are so funny and can talk for days... but thats okay :)

Wednesday- i was with another sister and when i got back with my comp the other sister took our phone. so we had no phone all night. it was pretty interesting. so hey mbr at the church that i ahve never met.. can we borrow your phone? haha

Thursday- We had district mtg and then went out to lunch. I might have accidently watched a trailer for the new hunger games. you see i was talking to the elders and one of them says oh hey mockingjay. so out of reflex i turned to see it. so it was an accident. now the next 4 times i watched it as it came on were not accidents so ill have to repent for those ones ;) BUT IT LOOK SO GOOD!!!

The rest of thursday was great, we got our recent converts sister who doesnt really like god to come with us to the outgoing fireside last night so that was awesome! we also saw janet, apparently her friend thinks we are satanic. YES! haha but Janet defended us and we had a good chat.

Friday- we did some service and saw brianna again

Saturday- we did a fun service with the zone and then saw diane! her cousin came in the house while we were there and started asking about missionaries being in sacramento and then she said she wanted to come to church with diane on sunday and so she came! it was great! and she loved it! you are welcome sacrament missionaries. :)

Sunday was good, we went to lots of church and then off to the outgoing. all the spanish sisters we came out with are ogin home this week. as of wednesday i will officially be the the oldest sisters in the mission. ........

moving on it should be a good week! also news of the week!! JK rowling has more books out! she has a mystery series under the name rober galbraith. Who knew? 

well this church true!

love,

Annlie

Fwd: A few pictures!

GUESS WHAT???

ITS NOVEMBER!!! and do you know what that means? It means that it was daylight savings time yesterday and so I got to sleep for an extra hour. BEST DAY EVER! haha also i cant believe its november. 

So this week!

Mon- We played soccer. i havent been that sore in a long time. 

Tuesday-we had a lot of good lessons, we saw diana again and helped her more with english. i think we did money. i can do that part. haha it was cute, she needs to practice speaking so we gave her a challenge to go talk to the bishop on sunday and tell him about the money. so on sunday she walked up and asked when we were going to the bishops office. haha it was fun.

we also saw brianna and asked her to pray about a baptismal date! we met with her again on thrusday and asked her if she had prayed and tlaked to her mom to which she responded that she had prayed but she forgot hte mom part. haha so hopefully this week we will ahve a for sure date. haha we also saw the ramos family and kim! they are all so fun!

Wed- i was on exchanges and the sister i live with was sick. so did some cleaning. 

Thursday- We had a missionary meeting, and some delicious cupcakes. then we had a day full of appointments! we were running like crazy! we got to see janet and her kids that night, they are so cute! and we helped janet understand more about the restoration which was good. 

friday- HAppy halloween! so we had to be in by 7. so we went to service and helped the old people and then trick or treated by a few people and then had dinner and called it a night! after which we watched the restoration and went to bed. it was great. haha

sat- we helped the stake with a serveice project and then saw some more people. thats pretty much how sunday went as well. except a lot of church on sunday. haha though at church on sunday the gospel principles teacher wasnt htere so we taught and diane said something to her husband in her language and then he told us that she was talkign about baptism and how is a contract with god and we need to keep our end and how you can go to church and such but with out baptism its like an unsigned check. SHE HASNT EVEN BEEN BAPTIZED and she knows all this. man i wish i could speak her language. its an african language by the way. something like kinarwanda. 

any who it was a great week, i hope  you all enjoyed the extra hour of sleep and i will talk to you next week!

this church is true!

love 

Annlie

Fwd: Pictures!

Here are some of my adventures from the past week!

Happy Halloween!

So this week was the bomb! We were able to see quite a few of our investigators and 6 of them came to church! i ahve never had that happen before!!!

so onto the week!

Monday- Pday- i dont remember what we did. oh yes we played sports at the church. but then that night we had an appointment with a potenital investigator and she is amazing! We should be seeing her tonight so i am excited! she is really nice and is looking for god and help and so i am excited to teach her!

Tuesday- we had a zone conference and Elder Pino from the 70 came and spoke to us. him and his wife are very nice! And it was president and Sister Mella's wedding aniversary sot hat was fun too because they showed us wedding pics! The conference was really good too, lots of good speakers! and then we were able to meet with the Ramos Family who are also investigators and i love them so much! And they came to church yesterday! sure they then left and went ot hteir other church but hey step by step right? haha

Wednesday-Had some good lessons...

Thursday- we went on exchanges and I was with sis lisala! she is so cute i love her. My comp was with Sister Sotele who came out with me so i am excited to maybe be able to go on an exchange one day with her so we can chat again! oh and after we swtiched back we went and saw janet and her kids! they are so cute and love the scriptures! we tuaght the restoration and they loved it. OIm excited for this week!

Friday-we helped a family move and then saw our investigator Diane who we are helping learn english. i fail at the english language in case you all were wondering. haha

Saturday-We helped a lady in our ward make dougnuts for the trunk or treat! so fun! and then it was the trunk or treat which was a blast. i might have even gotten scared. me and my comp were pumpkins. dont worry ill send pics!

Sunday- i long day but good! I got to see Carrie from monterey so that was fun! Also we had so many people at church! love it!

well I hope you all have a good week and happy halloween!

love

Annlie

Hola

Well Hello everyone, this email will be short. Why? because i have been doing this forever and i am sick of emailing. no i just kidding! its actually because i am out of time. haha thats the truth, if i had all day to email you would all get long lovely emails! but alas i dont. so here is what you get!

Monday- we went mini golf. that was fun. they had the water red for halloween. that was kind of creepy. hhaha

tuesday-yep. haha we went to a relief society activity. that was fun, we played family fued and when it was time for fav books we told them to do the book of mormon and our team didnt listen so guess what happened? the other team won. haha

Wednesday-We saw a recent convert Kristina, she is in young womens and my favorite! somehow we always get on tangents about lord of the rings and such... haha

Thursday-we had splits set up with set lessons and everythign and then they all cancelled. life as a missionary never goes as planned.

Friday-We have a new investigator! her name is brianna, and she is 9! she is so cute!!! 

Sat-service and planning. yay

Sunday- We had 5 investiagor come to church! it was amazing! and it was the primary program and it was by far the funniest one i have ever seen. it was great.

Well sorry for the boring email, im off to live more of my crazy missionary life. LOVE YOU ALL

Annlie

So...

When on earth did I hit 16 months? yesterday. thats terrifying. yikes. okay lets move on from that. 

So first and foremost, you all need to go see meet the mormons! It is so good! really though, i got to watch it friday at the church and it was so good! though i am going to say thats the first and last time south park will ever be shown in a chapel. hahaha

So on to this week!

monday- i took  a nap. that was fun.

tuesday- we saw rose again, she is so good! and we also got in with a less active family and they were so funny! he was a retired cop so he had some good stories for us. 

wednesday-a very busy day! we saw kim, and she so funny! she just cracks me up!

Thursday- we went to the temple! my favorite! so good.  and we also have a new investigator! her name is janet and she has 3 kids. they are so cute! and amazing! the little boy new so much about god, it was so neat to see. really though i think he new the story of adam and eve better than me and he is 7. 

friday- MEET THE MORMONS. enough said. haha we also saw the vindiola family! I love them so much, they are so great. 

Satruday- was a lot of service. and we met a guy who saw jesus on the train that morning. yeah.... 

Sunday- was full of church and meetings. but i also got to go to the mission home and president mella has a golden retriever named jake. Yep i like that dog a lot. 

Well that was my week, sorry for the boring email but well thats life today. dont worry you only have 9 more boring emails to read from me. Buts whose counting? :) Actually i just really counted to i could see how many more times i have to wake up for ward council at 545 in the morning. haha

love you all!

Annlie

Its October!

When did it become october? YIKES!

 

So pretty much this email is going to be really lame. sorry yall!

 

so first

 

ROSALIE!!! - we found rose again! we decided to stop by her house and she answered and said " I was just talking aobut you girls 5 minutes ago!" So that was fun. she is awesome again. not sure where she disapeared to but oh well!

 

Oh I have a new comp. guess thats important. haha Her name is sister Berry and she is from North Carolina. she came out with me, but we were in different mtc districts. she also served in monterey before i did so we spent most of the week discussing monterey. haha So nwo the mystery comes with the fact that we both leave in december and neither one of us are up for a transfer in 5 weeks.. so i might have another area for the last transfer of my mish. yay... haha

 

Meet the Mormons. so now i am going to be a sales person and tell you all to go to meet hte mormons. so we get to watch it out here!!! Exccept we dont get to go to a movie theater. darn shame i was really looking forward to the popcorn.  haha but we do get to see it this friday so im stoked. at a meeting on friday president mella showed us a music video with david archuletta singing glorious to clips of the movie. president was like " I just trunked out half the audience" Me- yep. haha but it looks so good! and maybe its because i have been on a mission for way to long so anything besides the legacy and the testaments looks amazing but wherever! you should still go see it! or wait for my review next week and then see it. haha

 

Well other than that conference was the bomb, if you didnt see it go watch it!

 

love you all!

Annlie

Fwd: Our district!

So Sis powell has this "act normal" thing she does in pictures. so she told us to all act normal. that would be the picture of me sleeping :) 

Im Alive! Barely.

Can I just tell you all how tired i am? Let me  put it this way. as we were sitting there on the couch finishing companionship study i thought to myself. i am so tired i would literally sleep all day and skip emailing and everything if i could. thats how tired. fortunately for all of you i am still emailing :) 

So this week was.... drum roll.... AMAZING!!!

Me and sister Powell got 72 lessons. 72. thats a miracle. we beat the last record set. or so we thought until after we reported numbers last night and found out that the menlo park elders got 77 the week before. alas looks like i am going to have to beat them too! in like a month when i am awake again. haha so getting 72 lessons was a blast. I was able to see my perspective on missionary work change. The numbers turned into people and stories. it was a lot of fun to see the love that heavenly father has for each of his children no matter their background. I was also able to see that if you are willing to sacrifice an have faith God will help you.  To get 72 lesson without going on splits we were going to have to work hard. really hard. and not take lunches. now i really like lunch. its a great time to eat and sleep. but my sleeping part was going to have to stop if we were to reach our goal. (dont worry we still ate haha) but man as we got going we trusted heavenly father that he would help us get to our goal and he did! Sure by the end i wanted to die but its cool. haha It was also my comps last week on her mission so it was good to keep her focused. and also i made her tell everyone that she was leaving because she has been in denile for a while. shes a great missionary! Anywho so this week was a blast! It was also the outgoing fireside last night so i got to see some of my favorite people! Now on to pictures!

love you all! this church is true!

Sister Stevenson/Annlie :)

Fwd: a couple more pics

not sure if these will work but we will see!

Fwd: Pictures!

Baptism, Island fair, pday snow ball fight... other random pics...

Hi Yall!

Well here we are another week! nothing to great happened this week. Oh wait thats a lie. haha Our investigator Kim got baptized! Man the weeks are starting to blur together... haha

So lets go through the week!

Monday- boring

Tuesday- Boring

Wednesday- I got asked out on a play date by a 4 year old. the good news is if im not married in 18 years he might be an option. and like his father said I will still look like im 12. hahaha I love little kids!

Thurdsay- Boring

Friday- Boring

Saturday! Okay so it was kims baptism! it was great! the spirit was so strong and she was so excited. when we got in the font she was smilling and so nervous and when she came back up out of that water you could see the difference in her. and she could feel the difference. I love baptisms. then that evening the stake had an Island Street fair. Which meant i was excited!!!!! YAY! So there was a lot of people to talk to and lots to eat and enteretainment. It had a really good turn out too! Well sorry this is a boring email, but ill send pcitures too!

love you all!

Annlie

Here we are again..

Who is ready for a very uneventful email!?!? I am! haha Sorry this week was rather boring. haha

So on to the week!

 

Monday- pday- we were supposed to go bowling, but then they switched it half was through to field day. too bad i was in skinny jeans in flats. so i just sat and absorbed the sun. and wrote a letter. it was actually pretty nice.

Tuesday- Oh! we had interviews with President Mella. It was good. He was funny, he was like, now you are coming up to the end of your mission so make sure you keep working hard. dont let obedience slip, stay focused, things at home can wait. And then he was like, but for your outoging interview it will be a lot of fun because we get to talk about one of my favorite things which is life after the mission. Wow president. way to get me pumped up to work hard to then make me trunky. haha He is funny.

Wednesday-Oh we have a stocker. She might be scizoprhenic. she calls herself 2 dfferent names depending on who she is talking to. the good news is she only has our phone number. plus the elders are meeting with her tomorrow so we shall see how this goes. maybe she is normal! haha

Thursday0 We soaw kim, she is awesome. She is getting baptized on saturday! we are so excited.

Friday- yep. haha so we had an appointment with an investigator and she texted us early and told us she might have to work, but she would let us know. then she never texted. so we texted her and no response. so we headed out and there she was walking by our apartments. not at work. and not at our appointment. so we followed her in our car. we are not stockers or creepy at all!! haha but she is quite good at loosing a tail becaue she dissappeared on us. hmmm well guess we will find out more about her! haha

Saturday- it was a good day. we did a service that was a good workout so that was fun. haha

Sunday- it was long. haha

So that was my week! it was actually a really good week, just kind of wierd! But thats the life of a missionary! hope you all have a great week!

Love ya,

Annlie

Fwd: Pictures!

Carson- I think i found your cement truck.

I put those bikes on all by myself. yes thats why they look retarted. #whyidontbike

the cook house! 

Me and Hannah!

Why didnt i take pictures when toryn and hardy came to see me? I have no idea. such an idiot. haha just kidding!

The week of contacting

Hi everyone! It was a grand old week and so now i shall tell you all about it. :)

Monday!- PDAY!!! Mary Hannah and Taylor from monterey came up and saw me! Well they came back from Utah and before going to monterey they came and saw me! It was soooo good to see them! I miss them. Except they got to go to the ogden temple open house so that wasnt fair. haha No im glad they went. So anywho after catching up with them we chilled at home and then went to dinner and to an appointment. The lady we taught is hilarious. She is less active but an RM and is so funny. she hates church. its hilarious. 

Tuesday-"I looked out the window and what did I see?" Toryn, elder hardy and elder hardy's brother.(elder hardy is now home and came back to visit people)  haha More monterey people! Yay!!! I am sure my companion wants to kill me by now. Sorry i cant help it if I am popular! haha just kidding,maybe. :)

So the rest of tuesday was good. it was actually a busy day. not a usual for tuesdays. and we met this awesome guy on the street named manuel. He wants to change his life, and he said he would read the book of mormon and we are going to go see him this week!

Wednesday-We helped an old lady named Elanor out.  she is having an estate sell and she used to be an antiques dealer so you can imagine what her house looks like. awesome. 

Thursday-a very busy day. we met a new family named mike and darlene! they are awesome! except for the part where they didnt come to church yesterday. lame. oh well. 

friday- more service. oh and we went contacting and usually sis powell will contact in spanish to the latinos but i contacted some and realized they didnt speak english and instead of helping me she just smiled. Awkward. haha i dont know spanish. haha also no one was talking to us so we saw a cat and decided to pet it but it ran away from us toward another cat so then we watched it hoping they would fight and then one of the cats started moving in slo-mo toward the other and then the big fluffy orange one ran away. boring. but if we hadnt stopped to watch the cats we wouldnt have ran in to john who walked around the corner just as we were leaving! and we had a great talk about christ and then he had to hurry off to go complete a drug drop. never a dull moment while contacting. haha

saturday-we met with our investigator dianne finally! she is from Rwanda! she is awesome.

Sunday. The contacting day. church was great. then it was time to go contacting. Sis powell is somewhat competative. so am i. So the elders really wanted to beat us in lessons. But i cant have that. and then we found out that the hermanas were beating us. we cant have that. so we went contacting. and kept teaching. it was great! so many great lessons! there was an awesome couple, and a fun pastor guy and another guy that told us that christ was a vegan... yeah. haha but then the best was when i guy walked up and had a gryffindor tshirt on so i started a converstaion about that and next thing you know we were all talking about harry potter and how i was in slytherin and how powell was in gryffindor but we were hanging out and then the guy was like. you two just made my day. and then we walked away. totally didnt relate it to the gospel at all. oh well. haha then we saw the hermanas and helped them get more contacts and in the end we tied for lessons but still beat the elders. but then i found out that there is a record of like 70 lessons taught in one week here in the mission. challenge accepted. 

have a great week! this church is true!

Annlie

Fwd: When did it become September?

Well hello everyone. here we are on another september day. WHEN ON EARTH DID IT BECOME SEPTEMBER???

crazy how time flies. speaking of time, this shall be another short email. sorry yall. :)

Monday- pday. i spent my lovely time sitting on the stage at the church writing letters. who i wrote letters to at the moment i cant remember. But if i wrote you a letter you should write me back! :)

then monday night was really weird. very weird. yep.

So tuesday- no one was home.  no one. but for dinner we went to a cute old couples house and guess what? it turns out they are the grandparents of the relief society president in the monterey ysa ward! I love their granddaughter carrie!!

wednesday- our car broke down. not really, it just started making weird noises so we took it to the mission office and took another car while i was looked at. turns out nothing was wrong. strange.

ugh im out of time.

so cool story we have this indian lady we teach and she doesnt understand a lot of english and we were trying to figure out how to teach about the apostacy and so i asked if she had been reading the book of mormon and she said no we read some with her and then i asked her to read on her own and so right there she flipped to a chapter and started reading. after she was done she told us what it was about. Guess what it was about?? the apostacy!!! God is awesome.

Have a great week!!

Love you all!

Annlie

Fwd: a couple pictures!

I have no idea why my skirt is all skiwophmas is that pictures. also i dont think that skiwophmas is a word but i dont care. :)

Yes I survived...

Yes everyone that heard about the earthquake in Napa i did survive. haha Though it did wake me up and i have come to the conclusion that if i am ever in a real earthquake i will die because as it was shaking i looked at my watch and thought "sweet 2.5 more hours of sleep!" and fell back asleep. yep will die. oh well.

So this is the part where i would love to tell you all that this email is going to rock but its probably not going to. sorry. haha

monday- Pday! we signed journals and did nothing.

tuesday- it was a good day, we met with our investigator kim who informed us of her baptismal date on sep 20th. I love when they plan their own dates and then just tell us. haha We also got to know brenda more, she is a member and amazing! though the ysa ward might have stolen her from up. :(

Wednesday-Luella! we helped clean luellas house. she is the cutest old lady ever with the worst memory. haha

thursday- We saw a lot of people. it was a busy day!

Friday- WAS THE BOMB!! Sister smith was my companion again :) her new comp was at advanced orientation in the mission office so she came with me to do service while sis powell went with another sister to do some service and teach lessons. Multitasking to its finest! plus that meant i got to catch up with smith! and all the monterey people i texted using her phone. haha :) It was a great 4 hours.

Saturday- we did a lot of service. and helped a lady move. i hate moving. haha no it was fun!

Sunday- was busy with church and other things! we contacted a man and in spanish he tried to save us. my comp knew what he was saying but i had no idea. haha but when he got down on his knees and started praying for us i figured he was trying to save us. haha got to love it!

Well this week was much more productive so that was nice! I love you all and have a great week!

Annlie

Fwd: Guess what?

More pictures. :)

 I totally forgot to get a pic with May and seth! They were there too! So many people that I have come to love. too bad i had to say goodbye to them all again. :/