I love my mission. Can I just stay here forever?

Being a missionary has taught me so much. I understand life better, not in the sense that the facts have changed per say, but I've been there--I've experienced more of life than before. 

Like, I always knew there were a ton of less active members, but now I've visited them. I know them personally. I know their problems. I've seen how easy it is to slip into inactivity. A habit is hard to break, hard to get back into. 

Annnnywayyys, we've had some crazy experiences this last week. Our single's ward bishopric had a major switch up. Everyone was crying and bawling and feeling spiritual and all. The new bishopric is made up of the 5th ward! (Which is my family ward) and it is insane what they just did for the single's ward. 

We got almost the entire stake relief society and our ward relief society president and a bunch of amazing people. So, I guess the stake cares a lot about the single's ward! 

Some people here are quite rich, but they are really well-educated and hard-working self created wealthy....so they act like normal people for the most part. However, they do some things a bit over the top. For instance, we had steak (technically tritips?) at our single's ward activity. And for the YW Medallion's thing they had a beauty pageant. With a swim suit section (I kid you not....Okay, so they showed photos of them as wee kids, but still?). 

We did three service activities last week and it was so fun! We helped paint, helped this eccentric lady move, and did some of that Helping Hands stuff. The lady was kind of crazy and she had so much stuff. I'd say she was a hoarder, but she actually wanted to get rid of everything. I think she was just a shopaholic. She let us go through and pretty much get whatever we wanted. I got a bunch of free jewelry! Yes! Anyways, at the end, she wanted us all to hold hands together. Which wouldn't have been a big deal except the elders were there....luckily  I was situated between two women but my companion had a bit of an awkward experience! 

Helping Hands was amazing, and the man who's house we went to started asking us questions. Anyways, we gave him the elders information and he said he wanted to come to church! And the food afterwards was amazing cause it always is with our stake! 

We hiked to the cross with the elders, taught some lessons...Anthony gets baptized this sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and I get to get my hair dyed for free! What?!? Awesome. I got it dyed and cut today. 

Cute photo, right? I had to put a better looking one there too. [Sarai's Sidenote: I only included the "better looking one" because you never know the cousin confidentiality clauses involved in the internet's infinancy...or whatever. ;)] I love you all! I can't believe I missed so much! But exciting. Love,

Sister Staker

I want to share one more story with you all:

The other day we knocked on this door and talked to this freshman Hispanic boy for a few minutes. We asked if we could share a thought, and we said a blessing on his house. Then, we exchanged phone numbers and went on our merry ways. The next day we got a text from the boy asking what the difference was between Mormons and Christians. I was pretty excited and we started brainstorming and we came up with a super SUPERB answer. Then, we got a text back saying, "Ok thanks. Are u the one with the pretty eyes?" ...............Seriously..... Then, before we even answered, he said, "Are you in school?"  I don't think this kid cared to much about the gospel, but I'm not sure what he was thinking hitting on nineteen and twenty-two year old women. Brave soul. 

A Week More Into It.

Well, Hello everyone. How are you all doing out there? I'm just dandy. 

A girl in the single's ward got baptized yesterday. She is pretty cute! I really like her. I never got to teach her, but she's in the ward. She was so nervous she was shaking before and everything. I took a picture with her, but I left my camera at home today--so I don't get to send it to you. Too bad...Oh, and I taught Sunday school yesterday, and I dominated. People were laughing their heads off and everything. I think they were laughing at me more than with me, but it was good.

Rick, the investigator I talked about before, came to church. AND guess what the assignments that were given forever ago were on....THE APOSTASY AND RESTORATION. Last time, he was having a hard time with it. We're going to meet again on Wednesday, but we might just drop him. He's driving me crazy, honestly! Cause he's brilliant and really kind. He runs a non-profit organization to fight women's trafficking. He looks like an apostle honestly! But there is something evil in his heart. Even though he is making good choices and studying out scriptures and praising God, I feel like Satan has a hold of that man in the sliest way. But I could be wrong. 

Anyways though, thanks to him I have become 10,000,000 times more rehearsed in the Bible. I'm studying it insanely. And I am finding out wonderful things! Why didn't I know this before. So, read the Bible kids! 

The elders in our zone are pretty nuts...like 14 year old boys at boys camp..but at least they try. Sometimes, I want to punch them in the arms cause they are so disobedient though. I will have crazy stories to tell when I get back home, but I'll try not to be  too negative for now. Cause we aren't really supposed to write or say anything bad about anything. 

Oh, Mom...there was some money leftover that you gave me from the stamps, so I've been using it. Hope that's cool!

Rachel looks awesome! I am so jealous of her! I will try not to covet her dress too much. I love it though. Her jewelry was gorgeous too!

How is everyone doing? Are you excited for school to be done with? What is Ashley going to do now that she'll be graduating. 

Tell everyone thanks for the letters!  I can't wait for Kyle and Stacy!

Love you family!

--Sister Staker

I've Seen Miracles All Week.

God has opened the flood gates and poured out blessings. And so, I knew something without being told. PEOPLE ARE PRAYING FOR US BACK HOME. I knew it. I could feel the weight(I'm not sure if that's the best usage for it..but in a good way) of beautiful prayers on my shoulders. And it's been great. We have seen miracles abounding. 

Thanks for the letters Ashley, Mom, and Dad! OH....Hyrum, I've been a wee bit of a bum, so I just wanted to say:

HAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPY BIRTTTTHHHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, I can't wait to see the pictures of Rachel. Someone send me photos of her dress! She is a lucky person to get a vintage dress! I'm sure Ashley's a babe like always, so tell her if she gets married after graduation I'd better get a wedding invite. Or something. 

I went to the temple today...

Yes, we only get one every six months. So, today is P-day. Hooray! 

We knocked on the door of a man, and without even saying anything, he opened the door and invited us to share a message. AND he offered us water with lemon in it. Then, we sat down for an hour and a half, and we talked to him and this lady he worked with. Then, he set up another appointment, and he planned to come to church on this coming Sunday. Miraculous, right?

...We're teaching him again tommorow. We'll see how that goes cause we found out he's a minister, and his wife teaches at APU, which is a very christian very anti-Mormon college. 

We're also planning this super cool Mega-missionary month for the youth in our ward. And its going to be awesome. We want to put the youth in "districts" and with  "companions" and do a MTC kickoff kinda day. 

Ohhhhh....I'm probably going to gain  weight out here. Most likely. At least, that's what I hear happens. My companino says she gained like twenty pounds. And the one before her gained thirty punds and has only been here seven months......oh well.

GUESSS WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTT???!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I invited our investigator to be baptized, and it was scary. My companion kept looking at me, giving me the evil eye. And I kind of asked him with a really shaky voice, 

"Will you be baptized?"

But he said 'yes'. And he's getting baptized on May 5th! WAHOO! 

And tell Kyle and Stacy I am excited beyond belief for them. I tell everyone I meet that they are getting baptized! And it's amazing. 

Welp, remind me to tell you about Pam and Amanda. They are amazing. Amanda's getting baptized in June. 

Anyways, we taught many lessons this past week and it's been fun. Love you all!

Sister Staker

Hello from Sunny California!

Well, hello out there cute kids/older people. I'm out here in there beautiful weather of California. It's  gorgeous. Seriously, it's not like Long Beach. There are mountains covered in foliage and tons of trees everywhere and all is quite green. 

Anyways, the rules have been changed, so I can email anyone outside my mission boundary (and anyone in that isn't male inside mission boundaries). At least, I believe the rules cover all that. So, if people wouldn't write, they could email. But I like getting letters a lot more. So spread that around with subtly. 

I'm serving in the Glendora 5th and YSA ward! Perfect for me, right? I've only taught one discussion so far actually. It was to two recent converts...who happen to be nine and twelve year old boys. 

They are exactly how you would imagine. Great questions. Impossible. Deep doctrine. But creative.On resurrection: "So will all our hair come back out of the drains..etc?" On eternal families: "What if I get divorced then I get a girlfriend[after death] and then..?"  And such.

Did you know there are all sorts of missionary lingo? If someone is your "baby", then you trained them. A "mama"  is the person who trained you. "Whitewash" means that two elders leave at the same time and "pinkwash" means they are replaced by sisters. You "die" when you leave. And you are "killed" by your last companion. If you train someone and then they train someone, the person is your "grandchild" and you are their "grandparent". You may even become a "great-grandparent". It's kind of crazy because we aren't actually allowed to use slang according to the white handbook, and yet we have our own missionary language. Yes.

We went door knocking and that was an adventure. People were not very nice all the time. One man opened his door, shook his finger, and then shut the door. Some woman's dogs were barking at us from the other side and she's like "I'm sick". She sounded perfectly healthy to me. We did have a good conversation with one girl, but she still said "no". Funnily enough, the teenagers are a lot more polite and open to us than the grown ups. But it's okay. We knocked on the door of this lady the other day who was korean. And asked if we could share a thought. So I read the one about God so loving the world. And I told her my limited knowledge of Korean words. She told us she didn't believe in Christ and that it didn't matter much if God existed because she didn't think he would love us if there is so much bad. So we talked to her a bit about the plan of salvation. Her husband's anti-christian but we invited her to pray and Sister Wheatley(my companion) promised that God would help soften her husband's heart. But we haven't heard from her yet. There's still hope though! And it's always planting seeds.

...Which by the way reminds me of a man I met at conference. He's from the Phillippines and is getting baptized this Sunday(or Saturday?). But his testimony was awesome and he was absolutely glowing with the light of Christ! YES! He said he kept having these Mormon friends throughout his life and there was something special about them. So, one day he decided to learn more basically.

My district is all Elders with me and my companion. And the rest of my zone is elders too. I guess my group coming out is among the first group of half sisters out, so it's really male-dominated. Which is fine, but the elders are pretty immature. They are trying though(for the most part) so kudos for that! 

Anyways, rumors can be true. But it's pretty interesting out here. 

This is what was left of my district as we started our journey out to California. All five of us are in the same mission. The rest left the day before for the hot Arizona weather. So sad. 

Anyways, love you! Be good out there. Write me. Tell people to write me. 

And some more pics from the MTC. Haven't taken any in California yet, sorry!