January 30, 2012

So, January is almost over...weird.... So... I might have sprained my pinky finger. Tuesday morning I woke up and it was FAT! or in other words I should say, Swollen! As we were leaving p-day activity, I was noticing that my pinky kind of hurt, but thought nothing of it until Tuesday morning when I woke up. We were playing scatterball during p-day and I must have caught the ball wrong... or attempted to catch the ball, which caused some minor damage. Anyways, I bought myself splint of some kind. I'm trying not to use it so much. But it's sometimes kind of awkward shaking peoples hands since it's my right pinky. Anyways, enough of the pinky.

Saturday was a busy day. We started off the morning doing service for a lady in another ward who is this week moving into our ward. We helped by cleaning her upstairs baseboards and windows and bathroom and ect. We did that for almost 3 hours. Then we quickly went home, changed, and went to a lesson with our investigator whose baptism date is on June 2. It was an interesting lesson, mainly because the fellowshipper we took talked a lot. Yeah, and we found out some intense concerns our investigator has. Yep. Not quite sure how to help her, but I know somehow we'll help her get over her concerns. But she did come to church yesterday! So after that lesson we had a hasty lunch and went to another lesson with the investigator we picked up last week. It was a really good lesson! We taught her the first lesson and she said that a lot of it she hadn't heard before, which is kind of a surprise since she is a former investigator and her teaching record said she had been taught lesson one. Oh well, at least we finally taught it all to her and she really enjoyed it. And she said she think she believed in Joseph Smith and in the Book of Mormon. Exciting!!! So she is doing well. Just next time we have to commit her to come to church! And then after that lesson we went up to Magalia and had dinner with one of our investigators/less active family that we haven't met with in about 3 weeks or so. That was
good. So it was one busy busy Saturday.

The rest of the week was just random visits to less actives, potentials, and formers. But yes. Oh and for the first time in a long time we went tracking. It actually wasn't all that bad. We met a magician! Haha, it was funny. I told him who we are and said ah, same religion as Mitt Romney (I think we are going to get a lot of that). And then he said he had something for us. He came back and handed each of us a $2 bill! And then a $1,000,000 bill! But of course the last one was fake and then he proceeded by doing magic tricks. It was quite entertaining. And then he told us he knows a lot of Mormons and he strongly believes that we are really good people - that he would trust anyone of us. But his wife has heard some stories and she doesn't like our church...so that was that. But I know one day he will join. Yep. Now... that's all I can think of for the time being. But I love all of you!!!! Have a great fantastic day!

January 23, 2012

How are you dear family? This week as been a good week. We picked up 2 new investigators!!! The whole zone picked up a total of 15. Amazing! So the first one we picked up, we were just visiting a less
active lady. Her .... boyfriend lives with her and has taken all the lessons before. He said when we can in, "I wondered if you two would come." And we did. Anyways, they are letting come every other week.
He's not going to get baptized any time soon. Because they are not planning on getting married any time soon. They've lived together for 8 years. And don't feel as though they are ready toget married,
even though they think as themselves married. Sometimes people are so frustrating. Life can be so much easier if we just live by God's commandments. He knows what's best for us. He knows what will truly make us happy. Today I was reading in Alma 28. The Nephites and Lamanites had just had a battle and great were the numbers of deaths. It was interesting me the differences between the Lamanites and the Nephites. Even though many lifes were lost, the Nephites had the comfort that they would be able to deal with God in a state of never-ending happiness. And the Lamanites had no assurance of that.
I know that God loves us. I know that His commandments are for our happiness. The whole purpose of our lives is to better ourselves. Because if we do that, if we keep God's commandments, we have the
promise of living with Him again. We have the promise of a happy life. But if we chose not to follow Him, we do not have that promise. It makes me so sad to see people lost and confused. Anyways, yes...
sometimes it is hard to help people to see the truth, but truly sometimes, they have to first humble themselves, have the desire to find the truth, and find it. Anyways, the guy said he would be baptized, but he's not planning on getting married anytime soon...and he also smokes, but says that he could stop that easily. The other investigator we picked up was a former investigator and a referral. She said "I wouldn't make a good Mormon." That's because she likes her wine and coffee and tea... Yes, once again a commandment from God. Sometimes I wonder if people really understand that all the rules and regulations we have really come from God. No one else. I know they come from God. He's just concerned for our welfare and is trying to help us. We just have to listen and obey. It reminds me, I heard that they have come out with a new Strength of Youth pamphlet. I'm excited to see all the new changes they have in there. I've heard some about it from Sister Webb (whom I live with.) She's the Stake Young Women's President. On Tuesday Sister Tubbs and I went out to the Concow area, which happens to be part of our ward boundaries. It is BEAUTIFUL!!!! up there!!!! I just fell in love. But, apparently it's a dangerous place after dark... a lot of weirdoes or something. Yep. It's been a good week. Full of learning experiences and meeting interesting/good people. Yep.

January 16, 2012

Hello wonderful family!!! How are you all doing today? So...this last week we did a lot of service. People here actually allow us to help! Haha, anyways, there is this lady that came from New Mexico and was trying to clean up her friend’s house who is now living in an old person place (I always forget what they are called.) And so we helped her clean things off to prepare them for a yard sale and then we went a second time this last week to help her box things up to give to goodwill. It was nice to be able to help her, although my eyes now hurt from all the dust and dust. Oh wells, such is life... We were also able to help our recent convert. He allowed us to paint/stain/something his fence. That was fun to be able to do. And then they fed us lunch...and dinner since they had signed up for that and we taught him a lesson. So it was "A Day with the Hamners." As we called it. It was fun. Oh, last Monday I played 5 bases with the elders. There are so many elders in my zone! It's a lot bigger zone than last time. There are a couple of elders that came out with me in my zone, but they weren't in my district in the MTC, so I don't know them as well. But yeah...slowly I'll be able to learn all the elders’ names. Slowly... but it was fun. (I'm in the Chico zone/stake... so I got to go to Chico for that and for shopping.) We were also able to make contact with some less actives in our ward. Also... we spoke yesterday in church. And what a relief that's over. But it was good. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I talked about faith and repentance and Sister Tubbs talked about Baptism and the Holy Ghost. It went really well. We also texted 2 part member families to invite them to come hear us speak, they didn't respond, but THEY SHOWED UP!!!! That was really exciting!!! But they left as soon as possible. So, gives us a perfect reason to stop by their homes this week and to thank them for supporting us. Also, about my talk... Dad, you must be famous or something, just kidding, but I quoted you, and when I was writing my talk I thought about how it was the 2nd time I was writing a talk and quoting you. The first time it was in the talk I gave at zone conference. And yesterday it was about faith. I remember one time you telling me, "God cannot direct your path unless you are moving your feet." I really liked that thought and related it to how we sometimes need to take a step of faith forward, for things to work out and God can help direct us. Oh! We set a baptismal date this week!!! We had a really great lesson with our one investigator. Currently she's working 24/7 taking care of this lady who's practically bedridden. She's hoping to find a replacement soon. We always have to find someone to take her place so she can come to church since she can't ever leave the lady. We're excited for her baptismal date...even though it's kind of far away. June 2nd that is. But she's still not quite sure about the whole authority thing and she wants someone special and close to her to baptize her. But she's amazing. She talks like a member. And was able to come to church for an hour yesterday. It was good. Yep. That's all the excitement I can really think about to say. I don't know if I ever said before but in Dad's letter you asked about why I was driving. Well, all the foreign sisters cannot drive and the original sister that was coming up here is from the Philippines. And my companion accidently had an accident a couple of transfers ago and backed into a pole and got her driving privileges away. So, yep. That's why I'm driving. I hope all that makes sense. Yep. Life is good here in Paradise. Just what I thought Paradise would be like. Haha, just kidding, well except that it is good up here. Still enjoying life. And Sister Tubbs is great. So yeppers. I love you all so much!!!! Have an amazing week!!!
Love you bunches,
Sister Kristi Walston

Paradise

Hi!!! How are all of you? Paradise is good. Very pretty. Lots of TALL trees. The town almost reminds me of Moab, but more trees. I live with members - they are wonderful! The Webbs. In their backyard is a canyon and it's beautiful. One of these days I will have to take a picture of it and send it to you. My companion is Sister Tubbs. She's from Bountiful. She's awesome. We get along just great. And yeah. I love it here. The ward members are awesome...a bit old like my last ward, but they have been referring like crazy to the sisters. The sister’s shot gunned this area last transfer and they had 2 baptisms on Dec. 31st. This is a miracle place. I'm excited to be here. And it’s fun driving. The other day I was backing out and one of the elders later told me how I was smiling the whole way back. Haha, I must be having fun. Right now we have 5 investigators, but I've only met one of them. I'm surprised she's not already a member. But we're hoping to get her to commit to a baptismal date one of these days. The other investigators canceled on us or are sick right now. But I've been able to meet the recent converts. One is a 65 year old man. Last year he had a stroke which caused his speech to not be very good. But it's actually really fun to hear him speak. He pretty much had been investigating the church for 40 years, ever since he met his wife. We did service for them the other day raking leafs. I jumped into the trashcan to "trash compact" the leaves down. That was fun :D The other recent convert is a 15 year girl. She came from a part member family, and now they are all members! She's awesome. I love her and her family. Our ward area is very odd, long shaped. It goes up to half of Magalia, part of Paradise (there's 3 wards here), and part of Oroville... it's a very odd boundary. But it's great. I love it out here!

Here's my new address:

8372 Montna Drive
Paradise, CA 95969

My ward now meets at 1. It was really weird to go back to that time. I don't think I've gone to church at that time for years! Anyways, it's kind of a small ward, old. With some small families. We get to speak during sacrament meeting next week. Yea....

Love,
Sister Kristi Walston

January 3, 2012

Happy New Year!!! What did you all do for New Year’s? We had to be in by 6pm...so, I went to bed at 9pm. What a nice long sleep I had to celebrate the New Year. Also on New Year's Eve Day, Dec. 31, I went to 2 baptisms. The first baptism was of one of my old investigators - the 19 year old girl who read the Book of Mormon before we first met with her and bore her testimony on her first day attending church. She finally made it! It was such a tender experience watching her get baptized. She truly has a strong testimony despite the opposition she receives from her family. She is such a sweet girl. We attended the other baptism opening that one of the 3 people we invited would show up, but no they didn't. Our 2 golden investigators are still doing well. One of the less actives we visit almost every day, well as we were reading from the Doctrine and Covenants, a verse stuck out to her that she should come to church...so she did. That was exciting. I also had exchanges on Thursday and got to serve with Sister Wither's again in Woodside. That was fun! I love Sister Withers. Such a great friend, person. Tuesday we helped a lady in our ward move. That's really about it except for one more story: Sunday night we received transfer calls. Sister McKellar and I were told we were staying the same. She was really excited for that. I was fine. I didn't feel like I was leaving or anything of the sort. Monday morning comes, went about our usual lives - studying, cleaning, washing the car. When we went back to our apartment, I saw that we had a voicemail from one of the APs saying that we needed to call him back. We called, and he told us there had been a change of plans. The change is, I am transferring up to Paradise, CA. Apparently the two they were originally have up there, neither could drive...I believe that's the reason. So I am transferring once again, but this time it's a lot further up. I'm told it's a 2 hour drive from here. And that's it's pretty. And that's where a lot of old people retire too. And that it should be like home...like the boonies. Anyways, that's what happening with me. And if you do want to send me letters you can send them to the mission home, they'll still get to me pretty quickish. Anyways, sounds like all is well there. Tell Trevor to have a fun time at BYU!!! At his first day of classes. Love you all bunches and bunches!!!

Love,

Sister Kristi Walston

December 27, 2012

Well, don't have a lot of time to write today. Yesterday the place where we email was closed... Anyways, we had a good Christmas. Had dinner and played Sour Apples to Apples with the Reed's (he's the 2nd counselor in the stake). It was fun. A good Christmas. Christmas Eve our zone went caroling. That was a lot of fun too! I love you all bunches and bunches!!!!

Sister Kristi Walston

P.S. We just got a referral!!! Actually surprised us, mainly because who it was from... a recent convert/semi-active/older lady in our ward.