The Saga in California Continues

May 19, 2014

 

Well, I made it back to the Sunny State!!  I left Albuquerque at 6:15 in the morning and arrived in Orange County at 8.  I had a stop in Salt Lake and got to go on the plane with all the newbies! It was fun to see how excited they were, and how much more excited I felt.  I knew I was going home.  It was beautiful.  The Mission president and his wife and the other senior couples in the office, as well as the assistants and the Lead sisters were all there to welcome us.  They started cheering, and then when Elder Orme saw me, he yelled "Sister Haws!!" and I almost lost it.  I love this mission.  President and his wife gave me warm hugs and were so happy that I made it safe, and I was too.  After my less than ideal trip home, it was nice to go without a hitch to California.  I was just so happy to be back!

 

We went to the mission office and took pictures and met with president, and had pizza for lunch.  Then the other missionaries went to orientation, and I took a nap.  I then helped out a little in the office, waiting for transfer meeting at 4.  Unfortunately I am not with Sister Bingham again, but I got to see her that day.  It was so good to see her.  Everyone was so kind and so welcoming.  I have made so many close friends in this mission. I love them all so much.  I felt like I was going to burst with all the love.  I love my mission. 

 

At transfer meeting, I found out where I was going and who I would be with.  I am with Sister Andersen, who is one of the lead sisters, and has been out a transfer more than me, and Sister Morrow, who just got there on Tuesday.  We are whitewashing into the Saddleback YSA ward, which covers the stakes of Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita.  I am so excited! This is a really good ward and the members here are super missionary minded! We have a college in our area and so we go there quite a bit!  AND I am rooming with Sister Hehl and Sister Blattner.  I don't know Sister Blattner very well, but she is a really good missionary.  Sister Hehl was in my district in Dana Point and I love her to death!

 

On Wednesday I got to go to a choir performance up in Irvine, at a Young Women's Recognition night, and so I got to see all the people from Woodbridge 1st and Westpark wards that I love so much! They are so amazing and I love the relationships that I made in those areas.  I love the church and I love that my mission is small enough that if I go somewhere, I have probably served there and know people that I love there.  I love choir so much!!

 

Friday I got to go to dinner with these two twins, the Mittleman's and their friends, the Tate's.  They are so cute! All 4 girls have their mission calls, and just got called as Ward Missionaries.  The Mittleman's actually know the Webber's and Connor really well, and so it was nice to have a connection to my friends. They are so sweet! I can't wait to work more with them. 

 

Something new that my mission is doing is reading 5 pages of the Book of Mormon every day in our companionships.  We are all on the same page and it is so nice to have different insights from my companions.  I love hearing their intake on different things. 

 

This week's scripture is Jeremiah 18:6.  Remember that you are in the Lord's hands and he is molding you into the person HE wants you to become.

 

I love you all!!

With love in California (again!)

Sister Haws:)

all drains lead to the ocean!!!  It's true!!

I Made It!!!‏

May 13, 2014

 

 

Kayla's first day back in California with President and Sister Orgill.

 

 

Just another Week on the Rez, or CRAZY for me :)‏

May 5, 2014

Yah'ta'hey!! (that is Navajo for hello)

This week has been AWESOME!!! I can't believe how crazy this week has been and how much fun it has been.  I have had some experiences here that I would NEVER have had in California! :)  It has been a blast and Sister J has been awesome:)  

Monday:  I climbed Window Rock with one hand.  My arm was still a little hurt when I climbed it, but I DID it!!! It was really fun, really cold, really windy, and really beautiful.  Then we went and saw some less active members here and that was fun!

Tuesday:  I met the coolest old lady on the face of the planet!  Her name is Roberta, and she is getting baptized this Saturday the 10th.  She is so funny! She will repeat things that you say, she has read to 2 Nephi 20, she believes everything!! She is so set for baptism! I love her so much!! We saw her a lot this week.

We also saw a few more investigators, and then we saw Travis and his daughter Paris.  They are recent converts so we taught them, and then we played Bingo!! That was fun!

Wednesday:  We saw Roberta again.  Then we went to this lady Rosita's house!  She is crazy!! She has goats and works with them a lot.  She also only says "The Lord's Prayer."  We tried to teach her the order of prayer and why we pray, and she gave the closing prayer.  It was still The Lord's prayer.  We just looked at each other and shrugged.

We met the Chees.  They are so funny!!  They are this cute old Navajo couple and they tried to teach me and Sister J some new Navajo words.  I got a few!  Who knew I would be learning another language out here!

Thursday:  We had District meeting, which was really good, and then we had free hamburgers at Thatsaburger! They were really good!  We saw Roberta again! (I love that woman!)  Then we went to the Chees again and learned how to make frybread and fed baby goats.  That was an adventure!! Our frybread that we made was REALLY good!! The baby goats are SO cute!!! You feed them with a bottle and some evaporated milk mixed with hot water.  They come running into the house and they are CRAZY!! It was like a mad house, but they all got fed and it was good.

After dinner with Elder and Sister Rogers, we went to meet this lady who was a missionary here on the reservation a few years ago.  She is an older sister, and she broke her back on her mission.  Her name is Sister D.  She is amazing!! After she broke her back, she was paralyzed from the waist down and the doctors told her that she would never walk again.  Well, she is walking.  She is so cool! She is an inspiration to me of working hard and being diligent, and then you can go back to work! I learned that since she can go back on her mission, so can I!  I cannot wait to join my brothers and sisters in the service of my God.  I love missionary work so much, and this week has proven that to me!

Friday:  We did weekly planning outside (not the best idea on my part).  Then we went to the Chees again to split wood.  If I thought my arm was hurt, well it's not anymore! I was able to chop just fine!! Sure, I didn't have as much strength to do it effectively, but I did it anyways!! But, I got really sunburned from both planning and chopping.  I guess that white girls should not be out in the sun that much.  Crazy concept I know!  We also went to a movie night that the Ward Mission Leader set up for investigators.  We watched 17 miracles.  I love that show! It gets me every time!

Saturday:  We got to see this amazing woman that the Fort Defiance elders were teaching get baptized with her 2 sons.  Oh! I forgot to mention, in this ward there are 5 sets of missionaries.  There are 2 sets of elders, 1 set of sisters, and 2 senior couples!  It has been an adventure!  Anyways, her baptism was amazing!!  She is so stellar and so ready to receive these blessings and make these covenants! She was so excited, she wanted to bear her testimony after she was baptized.  Then at 9, we found out who was getting transferred.  Unfortunately one of those missionaries getting transferred is me. ;)  There were 2 other elders in this ward that were getting transferred.  They had been here for 6 months, and so they were going to miss it a lot!  They were pretty bummed. It is interesting-here, everyone knows who their companion is going to be!  That was interesting.

Sunday:  We got to go to church and there were 2 investigators there at church!! It was awesome!! It was great to be able to partake of the sacrament.  We finalized Roberta's baptismal service after church and she is so excited to be baptized! She is so cool!! Then we had 3 dinners.  That is a record!! We went to the Chees to see if they needed help with anything, and she put us right to work making fry bread!  It was so fun!! She was making stew, and had us eat some and some fry bread before we left.  Then we went to the Ward Mission Leader's house and they had all 3 sets of missionaries there! Then we went to the Fort Defiance elder's investigator's house and ate BLT's.  I was so full after that, I think I was going to die!! 

Wellll, that's our week!! It has been one crazy adventure after another!! I love being here, but I cannot wait to return to California!! I love the people everywhere and I want to be a full time missionary again!! I am sending all my stuff to Church Headquarters probably today so that I can be back to the mission on the 13!! I really hope that everything works out this way!! I really want to go back now, but there is a process to everything!

I love you all!! Have a wonderful, spiritual week!!

Love,

Sister Haws:)

 

Here is a picture of Sister Haws with her elbow in a sling and a nice big bottle of medicine!  ;)

Here is a picture of Sister Haws and Sister Bingham, two red heads serving together!

One trip to the ER later....‏

March 24, 2014

this is from sister bingham, since one armed typing is long and arduous:)  enjoy the adventures from this week!!! :)

 

Parenthesized quotes are from me:)

 One trip to the ER later....

....this time, not for me! I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've been in the ER for someone besides myself. This is a momentous occasion! :D (sister bingham has some serious allergies and goes to the er almost once every year, so being on the other end was different for her)

 

This week has been survival mode....I've included a cliffnotes version for those of you who don't feel like reading the whole thing/want to skip to the juicy parts!

 

Sister Haws fractured her elbow on Tuesday.

We went to a doctor on Thursday...he was an absolute quack.

She went to another doctor on Friday and actually got a good one this time!

 

So here's the skinny. On Tuesday we were parked next to the curb at the church, and I asked Sister Haws to grab something out of the trunk. As she was getting out her foot got wrapped up in the strap of her bag and she fell out of the car and ate it pretty hard on the sidewalk. She tried to catch herself but landed funny. She originally thought that it was her wrist, and said that it hurt like the last time she broke her wrist. So we decided to go to the hospital to check it out. Being the Boy Scout that I am, we ran inside to get a tshirt out of the lost and found and I made her a splint. And there was a blood drive going on in the building, so we grabbed an ice pack before we headed off to the hospital. I was rather proud of myself for remembering my training hehe.  (my story is that i saved her from a herd of wild coyotes and you should see the other guy)

 

While we were there we had the coolest experience! There was an EMT who wheeled a patient into the waiting room. While he was there he gave us a funny look and then said, "Sisters! What happened? Is today your p-day?" We laughed and told him what was going on, and he just shook his head. After he finished up with his patient he came over and said, "Has she at least gotten a blessing?" I replied that she hadn't yet, and he said, "I think I have a little bit of oil left in my car....let me go check." He came back a few minutes later and said, "I have just enough! Do you want a blessing?" So we went outside and he gave Sister Haws a blessing just around the corner, saying that they couldn't argue with religious stuff and that it would be fine. Tender mercies right there!

 

Sister Haws finally got admitted and they took a number of xrays. After several periods of waiting, they told her that she probably had a fractured elbow, though at this point the joint was too swollen to actually tell for sure. One of the nurses came and gave her a splint and wrapped her up well. But man, he gave me such a hard time! He asked Sister Haws, "Hey, did you beat you up?" "Yes." "Do you feel like you're living in a safe environment?" "Nope."  No respect, I tell you! Mind you, everyone has been asking me if I beat up my companion since then....I have no idea why! :P

 

After we were discharged from the hospital it was about 8:45pm. We ended up calling the M family  and asking if we could come get some food, since we had missed our dinner. They said absolutely, so we went there for a little while. They loaded us up on food and provisions for the next week or so....It was funny to see them go out into the garage and raid their food storage and come back with all this fun stuff haha.  (the M family have a daughter with the same allergies as sister bingham, so we know the food is safe)

 

Wednesday was rough...the hospital didn't give us her anything for the pain, they just said to take Ibuprofen. That wasn't doing anything for her though.

 

(we had a zone meeting that was long, but really good! sister bingham gave a REALLY good training in which everyone participated)

 

After that meeting we went to the doctor that the hospital had recommended...over in Fountain Valley. It was sketch. The doctor's office was so unprofessional it was just silly. The walls were pink, most of the counter space was filled with toy bunnies and easter eggs and chicks and all that nonsense....the staff was rude, the doctor himself was a quack. He answered his phone in the middle of the appointment with us. He was really rough with Sister Haws' arm and yanked it all over the place. (i had to keep telling myself "I am a missionary" so i didn't haul off and whack the man!!) He looked at the xrays from the hospital and said, "Well, the xray is normal. You can go back to regular life, I don't think it's a fracture." He then was really obnoxious when he wrapped her back up into the splint. I finally said, "Okay, look, she's in a lot of pain and Ibuprofen isn't doing anything for her. Could you give her something better for the pain?" He pulled out this wad of prescription sheets from his pocket and said, "Sure, what do you want?" Now if I was a drug dealer I could have said, "Oh hey, gimme some vicoden and some morphine and all the other stuff," and walked away a very rich woman. Anyways, he gave her some hydrocodon, and we left rather dissatisfied. When we got in the car we made some calls and decided to get a second opinion.

 

We ended up back at the M family's place that afternoon, and they helped us call around to find someone decent. And fed us ice cream in the meantime! Ice cream is always a must :) 

 

On Friday I sent Sister Haws off with Sister M, and they went to a doctor that sounds like he was much better. He told her that it was definitely a hairline fracture in the radial neck. She's out of a splint and just in a sling now--elbows apparently get stiff really easily, so she has to start moving and exercising it as much as she can. So it's been interesting since then. (in other words... OUCH!!!!!)

 

And then on Saturday, amidst all of this, we had a baptism! Christian is 9 years old, and he was baptized. His mother has been super less-active for 30-some odd years since she was 17. Last year Christian apparently when up to his mom and said, "Mom, you haven't done a very good job of teaching me about God." So at that point there was nothing she could do but stop avoiding the missionaries and allow them to start teaching him haha. Anyways, he turned 9 on Thursday and was baptized on Saturday (just barely a convert baptism!). It was really cool--all of their family came out and saw everything. It was great! We hope to be able to teach his dad in the future. It was just a really cool experience all around.

 

And that's the week!

 

I love you all! Hope everything is going well! :)

 

<3 Sister Haws and Sister Bingham:)

 

P.S. Sorry about the beast of an email....

Daylight Savings Time.... CURSES!! Plus some amazing miracles:)

March 10, 2014

So this week has been crazy and super tiring!! I HATE daylight savings time with the passion of a thousand burning suns that no longer light my 6:30 mornings.

 

So we were able to teach one of the ladies that decided to go to church on Sunday.  Her name is Jasmine.  We taught her Tuesday and Friday and...... she is getting BAPTIZED on the 29th of this month!!! We are so excited for her!! She is 19, and started reading the Book of Mormon before she went to Church because she had some friends that posted about it on Facebook! Who knew?

 

The other miracle happened when we were able to talk to this 9 year old boy who his family has been super less active.  He has been going to church for 3 weeks and will be getting baptized next Saturday, the 22nd! We are super excited for him and his family as well!!

 

This week we had a Zone Conference and President orgill gave this AMAZING lesson about agency and the forces of light.  We all have devil's angels that are trying to attack us, but we can call upon the forces of light to help us overcome that.  It was really good!!

 

So I normally despise daylight savings time, because we lose an hour.  But the worst part about it this year is that I am ALWAYS exhausted as a missionary and lost even an hour of sleep.  Oh well.  The Lord will provide for me:)

 

Scripture for this week: 1 Chronicles 4:9-10  It is a nice little gem in the scriptures:)

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

 

Love,

Sister Kayla Haws

Rain, Sick, Miracles--I love being a missionary of Jesus Christ!

March 3, 2014

This week has been pretty interesting.  We had a lot go on. 

 

Monday, Sister Bingham tried fast food for the first time!! So, Sister Bingham has a few allergies.  Like deathly allergies.  She is allergic to milk, eggs, and nuts.  So she has never been to a fast food restaurant (besided subway) because she couldn't see what they were doing or how clean their grills are.  Well, there is a family in our ward, the M...., who their daughter has the same allergies as sister bingham, plus a little more.  And they have been to In n Out with their daughter.  Apparently at In n Out, you can tell them that you have allergies, and they will call out to the line that they have an allergy coming.  They then proceed to clean the grill completely and make the allergy friendly food!! So she had In n Out for the first time and she LOVED it!!! Also!! There is a sorbet at Yogurtland that does not have dairy either!  So now we know that there are plenty of other places out there that Sister Bingham can eat at!!!

 

Tuesday, I had the privilege of going with my companion and another family to Sizzler (they have a sizzler here!!!)  It was just as good as I remember it!!! I didn't think that I would miss it so much!! I do miss it though:)

 

Thursday at choir, Brother Huntington did what he called "voicing the choir."  This is where you place different voices with similar tambre that will blend well together right next to each other and you put some voices in the center and some on the edges so that the entire choir blends better.  It is amazing what a little tweaking can do!! We sound good together, but after the voicing, we sound AMAZING!! It is fascinating how a little change can make a big difference!

 

Friday and Saturday, Sister Bingham and I were both sick.  And it RAINED!!!!! All of Both days!!!!! I did not know that I had missed the clouds! But apparently I did! It was marvelous!! Also, an answer to many prayers.  Last month on Fast Sunday, our stake, as well as all the other stakes in our mission and many other churches, all fasted and prayed that we would have rain.  We had had one of the worst droughts that California had seen in a long time! So finally our prayers were answered:)  It made everyone very happy and so thankful for the rain!

 

Sunday we had some amazing miracles!! We were able to pick up 2 new investigators who decided they should go to church!! And they are in our ward!! It was amazing to see how much the Lord can bless us!! We were sitting there thinking, "What did we do to deserve such blessings?"  Sometimes, we don't have to do anything, sometimes the Lord blesses us.  And He uses us to bless others.  I can't believe that this is happening, but it is!!! I love it so much!!

 

Well, that has been our week!! Hope you have a wonderful, spiritual week!!

 

Today's scripture, John 17:22-23.  We must be one!

 

Love you all!!

Sister Kayla Haws