Revolutionizing Visitors Center Teaching and Another Baptism!

Sister Shkapich and I with programs for Gabriel Dias' Baptism!

Tuesday: We had interviews with the mission president :) He was impressed because my companion, Sister Shkapich, always asks me what my ‘Rose’ and ‘Thorn’ for the day was and I tell her I don't think anything really bad happened. I guess he likes my positive outlook. xD Then at district meetings we all gave talks on certain subjects pertaining to the spirit and I loved it! Before we started our shift at the Visitors Center a mother and her kids asked us to play “God's Plan” for them and then we took them around for a tour afterwards. The mother seemed very interested and was thinking about filling out a referral card but she wanted to read our literature before she did. So we gave her 2 of the pamphlets we give to investigators and “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” What was so cute though is she taught her little two year old to do ‘Praises’ meaning he'll raise his hands in the air xD What's cool is one of my prayers was answered! I prayed to find someone today who would become part of our 400 baptism goal or a different mission's baptism goal and while on teaching center there was a referral request for a Bible from a girl who is 18 but she's been interested in our church since she was 9 however her parent's wouldn't approve so I offered to teach her online :) And Sister Madsen always gets weird chats on Mormon.org. She seems to attract them xD Exchanges start tonight!!

Wednesday: EXCHANGES!! Sister Brinton and I had an AMAZING day full of Miracles! I had to lead the area today while on exchanges and both Sister Brinton and I wanted to work on recognizing the spirit's promptings etc… and today I didn't feel nervous at all driving the car or talking to people when we were contacting people at a park. We also knocked on doors down a few streets nearby and we got a few potential investigators!! What's funny is one lady that we talked to at the park and got her info ended up being one of the doors we knocked on so we wrote down her address as we walked away ;) After that, we had dinner at the Thornton's!!! 

The Thornton's had us over for dinner!

Then we had a lesson with a less active member and read Alma 32 with him and talked about the importance of continuously growing our faith :) We had a funny experience where we knocked on a door and the old lady (who tried to be stylish but let’s be honest, my Grandma's are the most stylish ;) ) opened the door very dramatically and said "Evangelical!" before we could say anything. Then we talked to her and she said she wasn't interested. As we were turning to walk away and as she was closing the door, she noticed our shoes and said they were very cute and asked where we got them xD  

A beautiful rainbow over the Oakland Temple Visitor's Center!

Thursday: AMAZING VISITORS CENTER TRAINING!!!!!!!!!! We had some people from Salt Lake come and give us a 2 day training to improve our teaching, etc… and it literally revolutionized and changed our teaching! We talked about the importance of sharing short powerful statements which allow the Spirit to confirm the truth to the person we are talking to and also talked about not letting the exhibits teach. One major thing that we learned was about invitations is that we help people to recognize and be guided by the Spirit on what they can change in their lives or who comes to mind that they can help or share the gospel with and we're there to help them. The whole point is to change the mindset of members that all the missionaries want from them are referrals. Instead we are there to help the members do missionary work and give them links and ideas to help support them in their efforts. One of the guys from Salt Lake said something came to mind for our companionship and it was about our Bishop and to find ways that we can help our Bishop and not be a burden to him. Then we ate dinner at a less active member’s house! She is Indian but came from Fiji and she fed us really yummy Curry!! While we were there, I learned how to cook the bread! We also met her daughter's friend who is from Afghanistan :) And I got a letter from my best friend in a neighboring California mission!! 

Picture of the Oakland Temple from the parking lot.

Friday: This was our last Visitors Center training day :( I totally wish it went on longer... what's amazing is when he has us roleplay. He told us to just be ourselves and had us role play together as a companionship the things he taught us about yesterday. This allowed us to receive revelation for ourselves on who we need to reach out to :) During the training we heard a quote by Elder Holland and I love it! He said: "God is so easy to please but very hard to satisfy." This is because our Heavenly Father is happy when we have learned something or progressed but He expects us to continue to grow and progress for our benefit. EVERYTHING GOD DOES IS FOR OUR BENEFIT!!!!! I feel like we forget this so often. God LOVES you! He does everything He can to help you return to his presence. Today we got 3 referrals at the Visitors Center! One was for a man names Angelo from Africa and he talked about how he literally grew up in "the bush" and how Christ was everything to him. He gained his testimony of Christ when during a war in Africa in his village he was by a bomb and it was supposed to explode but didn't until he left. I'm almost out of time but another awesome experience with a member is there was a lady and her mom (who just recently moved here from Peru) came to the Visitors Center. Her mom doesn't speak much English but the experience I had shows that it doesn't matter what language you speak, the Spirit is the same. We showed them our new exhibit “The Life of Christ” which is composed of still shots taken from the Bible videos the Church has commissioned. The pictures range from the birth of Jesus to His crucifixion and resurrection. After the exhibit, the mother left with tears in her eyes and bore her testimony to us in Spanish.  

Sunday: We had a Baptist choir come sing for our inter-faith group at the Visitors Center and they were AMAZING!! Their group is called ‘Citadel of Praise.’ That's one of the things that I LOVE about being at the Oakland Temple Visitors Center!!! We get to talk to people of all faiths and backgrounds and cultures! GABRIEL GOT BAPTIZED!!! He was an investigator that Sister Heath and I me during Christmas. We were on our outside tour shift at the Visitors Center during Christmas and it was FREEZING. We were out for the whole hour and got 4 referrals. However, one of them was Gabriel and he just got baptized today!!! YAY!!!! 

Gabriel with the Sisters who taught him the Gospel.

Linda's Baptism!

Thursday: We had a super cute couple come into the Visitor’s Center today!! They met at her family reunion when she was 15 and he was 19 but her parents wouldn't tell him how old she was XD She wrote him the whole 2 years of his mission but then things didn't work out after he came home and they went their separate ways. Then, years later, when both of their spouses had died, the girl's mom reached out to the guy and said she was lonely and he sent her a letter and now they're happily together again! Not married yet though :) I got hit on the head with a basketball this morning at sports with my zone. Then we had an adventure driving the Oakland 8th ward sisters to and from the mission home because they locked themselves out of their house and didn't have their car keys. Because of that, we were late to our Visitor’s Center training. But that's ok :) Linda had her baptism interview today and passed!! When we were leaving the Visitor’s Center we saw sister Xiao helping someone fill out a referral and apparently the Asian guy she was helping had just walked in and wanted to be baptized! That's something you hear about happening in Mexico, not here in California! In the teaching center, I'm keeping in contact with a teenager who sent in a request for a copy of the Book of Mormon. He is a foreign exchange student and he wants to get baptized before he goes back to his country in June! So cool! Then we had a lesson with Theo, who is the former investigator who lives in our apartment complex. Brother and Sister Grow came with us. Theo is a talker and we were only able to get through half of the restoration with him. After that we went to contact a referral we got from Head Quarters and it turns out the person said his friend did it as a prank because someone did it to his friend. :P But Sister Shkapich and I set a new rule that we have to at least knock on the doors on either side of the referral's house. We did that and we also knocked on the house across the street which turned out to be someone who was raised and baptized LDS but has also gone to other religions and isn't very religious anymore. But hopefully our stopping by did something. :) Our only light in our bathroom went out too. But that's ok, we're making due with the hall light and candles :)

Friday: Happy Birthday to my bestie Shayn!! She's 20!! We showed a group of members "God's Plan" (I think one was a new member because she said she didn't have her temple recommend yet). When we went to close the tour, she was sobbing. I know how powerful these exhibits are and I'm so glad I get to use them as teaching resources! On outside tour I used a huge umbrella and I thought I was going to get blown away by the wind! We had a lesson with our recent convert Mike. He's going through a hard time right now but Sister Sexton (a senior couple sister) shared a scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants; D&C 22:7 which talks about how we will go through adversity but it will be for our good and that we will gain experience from our trials. We have a possible service opportunity thanks to the Oakland 8th ward Samoan sisters!

Saturday: LINDA'S BAPTISM!!!! This day was really crazy. We found out the Oakland 8th ward was having a member baptism for an 8 year old that morning. It was scheduled an hour before Linda’s baptism so we couldn't go early and set up in the Primary room. So instead, we set up in the Relief Society room. But when they finished with the baptism for the 8 year old, they started draining the font! We got that sorted out and then we had some problems with the baptism and the 1st councilor came in at the last second for the bishop. But despite all of the craziness, Linda was SO happy when she came up out of the water! She had a HUGE grin on her face!! And the rest of the day went ok. We found a potential investigator while visiting a former investigator and we plan to go walking with him on Saturday and share a message while walking with him. :) While we were visiting the former investigator who ended up not being home, we knocked on some of the other apartment doors and one lady opened up and said she had family from Utah over. She invited us in and we found out they were members and were in town for their brother's funeral. We shared a message about The Plan of Salvation with them. We don't think they're active but we don't believe in coincidences. We found out a recent convert in our ward went to the temple and loved doing baptisms!!

Sunday: I studied about learning to recognize the promptings of the spirit in the Doctrine and Covenants; specifically D&C 11:12-30. What's interesting is that Sunday I learned a lesson about doing the Lord's work. A member came in to our ward to get our phone number because his less active mom wanted us to come over for dinner sometime. I found out that I had actually talked to him at the Visitors Center back in December about his mom. He wanted us to help reactivate her and I thought she was supposed to be in a different ward and forgot about it. I am so glad that the Lord gave me a second chance to help them. :) Linda had her Confirmation today!! And it was just what she needed! 

Monday: TODAY WAS AWESOME!! We went to get Thai food with some of the elders and sisters in our zone and then we went to Daiso. It’s a Japanese store where basically everything is $1.50!! After that we went down the kiddie slides in the pouring rain in our skirts. xD SO. MUCH. FUN!!!!!! I love you all!!!!!!!!!

Temple Week and Transfers!

I LOVE this picture of the Oakland Temple!

Tuesday: Transfers!!! Sister Shkapich is my new companion!! She's from Chandler, Arizona and she is 9 months into her mission. I've already learned so much from her! She's a dancer too (but hasn't done ballroom) AND she went to BYU Idaho like me!! Today at district meeting we discussed the Christlike attribute we're studying for this transfer which is diligence and it really put it into perspective for me what it actually means to be diligent. We said goodbye to Sister Lee and Sister Chiang today :( 

Wednesday: I wrote down a lot of notes from reading Helaman Chapter 5 today at the Visitor Center. We have a new exhibit here at the Oakland Temple Visitor Center!! It's still shots taken from the Bible videos the LDS Church has produced about Christ's life. Oh, I forgot to mention but I found out about 3 weeks ago that the Oakland Temple will be closing in February 2018 for a year or more because they are moving the entrance to the front since it's on the side. When the construction is done, they’ll have another open house for the public to come see the temple and then they're going to re-dedicate it. Our lesson with Linda went great and we found someone from our ward to do a special musical number for her baptism this Saturday!! Sister Sargent is going to play the harp!! We had dinner at Sister Davis's house and got to see her newborn girl! So cute!! It was cool to hear how she gained her testimony of the Book of Mormon. 

PINK! For Linda's Baptism reception this Saturday!

Thursday: At Visitor Center training today, we have been doing what's called "Exhibit Mastery" to help us revamp our introductions to the various exhibits. Today we did our introductions on the Life of Christ exhibit. However we didn't know we had to do it as a companionship and we had to talk about all of the new still shots. So Sister Shkapich and I did it on the spur of the moment and it went great! I feel like, for me, I always struggle with the first few words trying to figure out what I'm going to say or connect it to what my companion just shared but I've realized that once I get past those first few words and trust that I will know what to say, I gain more confidence and I'm more comfortable as I teach. Then we met some other people and that night we got Little Caesars pizza and Italian bread.. 8D Then we talked with leaders in the Young Women’s organization about how we can become more involved with the youth and got some great ideas! I am recognizing where I can improve and striving to do so. And it makes me happy. 

Friday: OUR TOILET FLOODED!!!!!!! We spent our morning scooping up poop water :( BUT! Never fear we got it cleaned up and working. What's more important and super cool is while we were on Mormon.org, Sister Shkapich clicked on a random chat and it turned out to be a church member who was 16 and wanting to go on a mission but she has cystic fibrosis. Lo and behold, Sister Shkapich has CF and had many of the same concerns as this member. Sister Shkapich was able to give her some really good advice based on her personal experiences! So cool!! A teacher that works at my Grandma's school came to the Visitor’s Center because her dad lives here in Oakland. He volunteers at the Visitor’s Center and engraves the copies of the Book of Mormon with our names on it. She was able to bring me a Valentine’s Day present from my Grandma. We also got 2 referrals today!!! 

 

This is the Chinese New Years/Valentine's Day package I got from my Grandma!

I got a new Dress and new Name Tags!

Saturday: Sister Shkapich has the General Conference talks on CD's so we've been listening to those and a few talks stood out to me. One was "The Healing Ointment of Forgiveness" by Elder Kevin R. Duncan and something that stood out to me that he said is that we must forgive everyone or else we can't be forgiven. And it is so true. PLEASE if you have someone in your life that you haven't forgiven for something, no matter how big or small, please forgive them. And "Be Thou Humble" by Elder Steven E. Snow. He said we should be happy for others successes. And not expect blessings. 

Sunday: I've found that so many things have had the subject of love (gospel wise) around this time and I think it's a wonderful opportunity to reach out to others. 

 

Picture of the Sunset and the Cityscape.

Monday: We went to the Ghirardelli chocolate factory!! And we had the most amazing crepes from Frodo Joes!!! We met with a member and her non-member friend and we might be able to add her friend as a new investigator! Miracles! We walked her friend home and on the way back to our car we got a referral for the Spanish speaking Sisters!! 

Tuesday: HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!! I met my first Gay LDS member! His story is amazing! He is such an example of keeping your covenants because he knows this is true and he's sacrificing the opportunity to have a relationship with someone so he can keep his covenants and be able to go to the Temple!! We got in contact with our 2 investigators!! It's amazing how the Lord puts people or things in our path to help us. We've definitely seen that this week as we try to find new investigators because after Linda gets baptized this Saturday we wouldn't have had any investigators.

Wednesday: TODAY!! Because of transfers we had our P-Day today. We went to the Temple and then after we went to Zachary's pizza and it was amazing!! And now I have to go! Bye! Love you all!!!! 

Transfers!

So I accidentally messed up on the days in my last email... Monday was supposed to be Tuesday, Tuesday was supposed to be Wednesday and Wednesday was supposed to be Thursday... So… Friday: We had a lesson with our investigator, Linda at a member's house. Linda met us at the church so that she could follow us to the member’s house but she missed the light and ended up getting lost.... BUT! She finally found it! YAY!!! It still blows my mind that she readily accepts all of our commitments without hesitation. I guess if you know something is true like she does then it's worth giving up things for :) 

A picture of me with our awesome investigator Linda!

We also ate dinner at the Bishop’s house! It was delicious!! And we were sent a referral from one of the visitor center sisters. Apparently we had already received the referral back in September but neither Sister Muench nor I were in the area back in September. So, we're going to meet him when he gets back from vacation!! And he gave us a referral for his friend too!! 

Saturday: The saying "one person's trash is another person's treasure" definitely was true today. When we took our trash out today we found a pair of brand new fancy leather shoes that had never been worn! They were just sitting on the garbage can! 

Hey Sister Muench - look what I found!!!!

Brand new without a scratch on them!

I also studied Elder Uchtdorf's talk in the January Ensign titled "Aiming at the Center" It's an AMAZING talk!! Elder Uchtdorf talks about how it takes time and practice to master something and I am applying that to myself regarding missionary work. It also talked about someone asking the Savior which of the commandments was the most important and he replied with loving God and then loving one another as well and it talked about how Christ not only aimed at the target but also got the bull's-eye. It talked about the importance of loving others and gave really great suggestions on how to love them :) At the Oakland Temple Visitors Center today we met a man named Ray who had talked to some sister missionaries there before we came on shift and we ended up talking to him after they left. I think he is a literary artist. He was riding his skateboard around and found the Oakland Temple and came in to the visitors' center. He kept asking us if we could go to one of his shows or galleries or something like that on Fridays and said he'd be so honored if we did but we can't… and then he wanted to pray with us holding hands. Thankfully Sister Muench told him we pray folding our arms so we didn't break any rules :) He’s really spiritual and a talker HAHA.  

Sunday: Ward Conference!! President Swenson talked about five ways we can overcome the trials and to pick one of the five he was going to share to work on in our personal lives. They are:

1. Yoke yourself to the Savior by participating in covenants.
2. Recognize when Heavenly Father is strengthening us.
3. Be busy doing good!
4. Set aside pride.
5. Serve others.

I also loved our lesson in Relief Society about testimonies!! When

 we went over to a member’s house to teach a recent convert; we

sat in on the last few minutes of the family's home teaching 

discussion. I can't believe what these kids have to go through in school here! I’m so glad I grew up in Utah… 

Monday: Nothing really happened today. We stopped by a less active member's house and her daughter pulled up as we were leaving, so we ended up having a good conversation with her. We did normal P-day stuff. I splurged and got salt and vinegar chips :D Sister Muench is sick now for the 3rd time since December. So, while she's napping I'm making more Indian food! :) After that, we went to classic burger again with the Samoan sister missionaries :) 

Sister Muench and I with the Samoan Sisters
(The Four Stooges)

Tuesday: So while reading in The Book of Mormon, specifically in Helaman, a few verses stuck out to me Helaman 3:27-30 talks about how Christ will show us mercy if we come unto him and repent sincerely. I love Helaman 3:35 because the Nephites were being persecuted and in their time of affliction they turned to the Lord and were made strong and it helped to strengthen their faith as well. Also, it's important that we turn towards Him and not away from Him in hard times. Helaman 4:15 talks about how we're blessed when we repent. I really liked Helaman 4:21-26 because it talks about how the Nephites recognized that they had done something wrong and that is the first step in the repentance process. We had district meeting where we learned how to define gospel terms simply. We went to the Visitor Center but we went home after an hour because Sister Muench was sick. So while she slept I started the assignment to break our area into sub groups (which we’ve already done) and the hard part was making a list of all of the ward members in each area. Which is what I was working on and which I'm still not done with. 

Wednesday: FEBRUARY!!! The day started off crazy! We were doing our studies at the Visitor Center when a recent convert from our ward called us needing a priesthood blessing ASAP. So we scrambled trying to find people who weren't working to go over. I am so thankful to retired brothers in our ward who were able to go over :) Something really special happened today. A Vietnamese lady who comes in every once in a while came in today. I talked to her for a few minutes and she told me how she felt so happy coming here. A little while after we talked, she took off her shoes and climbed on the base of the Visitor Center Christus statue and I can't even being to have the words to describe how she looked up at Christ’s face as she ran her hand over his robes and then made her way to one side and reached up encompassing his large hand in both of her hands and just stared in awe and love and humility at him. Then she went to the other side and did the same but this time it looked like she was talking to him. Since I was seated behind the Christus statue, I couldn't see what she did when she went in front but another sister said she got on her knees and bowed to him paying respect to him. Then she quietly got up, put on her shoes and with her hands together in prayer position she bowed to him and left. This really touched me. It made the spirit stir inside of me and it reminded me of all of the people who came to Christ during his mortal ministry and begged him for mercy and forgiveness. It reminded me of his atonement, that he knows and is aware of us all and how pure and close people with disabilities are to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We also found a potential investigator named Elizabeth while we were out tracting (knocking on doors).

This is a picture of the Christus statue in the Oakland Temple Visitors Center.
This is where the Vietnamese lady was showing her respect to the Savior.

Something really special happened today. A Vietnamese lady

who comes in every once in a while came in today. I talked to her for a few minutes and she told me how she felt so happy coming here. A little while after we talked, she took off her shoes and climbed on the base of the Visitor Center Christus statue and I can't even being to have the words to describe how she looked up at Christ’s face as she ran her hand over his robes and then made her way to one side and reached up encompassing his large hand in both of her hands and just stared in awe and love and humility at him. Then she went to the other side and did the same but this time it looked like she was talking to him. Since I was seated behind the Christus statue, I couldn't see what she did when she went in front but another sister said she got on her knees and bowed to him paying respect to him. Then she quietly got up, put on her shoes and with her hands together in prayer position she bowed to him and left. This really touched me. It made the spirit stir inside of me and it reminded me of all of the people who came to Christ during his mortal ministry and begged him for mercy and forgiveness. It reminded me of his atonement, that he knows and is aware of us all and how pure and close people with disabilities are to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We also found a potential investigator named Elizabeth while we were out tracting (knocking on doors).

Thursday: We had Visitor Center training and departing Visitor Center Sisters testimony meeting. Sister Wirthlin (she was Sister Muench's trainer) couldn't stop laughing and crying while bearing her testimony about how happy it makes her to share the gospel with others. She talked about how, in this dark world, we have Jesus Christ to be our light (Mosiah 16:9). But I really loved Sister Chiang's testimony. She shared about how her grandparents were one of the first people to be baptized in Hong Kong and how her grandma knew this gospel was true and when she passed away Sister Chiang found out that her grandma had saved some money so that she could go on a mission. 

Sister Chiang and I in the Oakland Temple Visitors Center.
I'm going to miss her!

She also talked about the scripture found on her grandpa's grave, 2 Timothy 4:6-7. She talked about how, even though her mission is over, she will be starting her Hong Kong chapter. She talked about how we're all the army of Jesus Christ. I also love this story she shared about a father with children who grew up and were leaving home and he talked to them individually and said "Please make good choices. Please come back home." This is our loving Heavenly Father and we are the children. He wants us to follow His guidance and make good choices so that we CAN come home. Role playing a lesson is SO important! This is the second time it's happened with one of our lessons. A concern that came up when we role played actually was a concern in one of our lessons and we were better prepared to answer it. Also a man came into the Visitor Center because he dropped his parents off at the temple. He had been less active for a while but is now coming back to church and we showed him around. At the end he said he felt really bad for being inactive but Sister Muench told him that it counts that you're here now and there isn't anything the Savior wouldn't forgive you for if you sincerely repent.

Friday: We had an awesome lesson with Linda again!! We ate at the Coopers for dinner. We are going to have a new art gallery in the Visitor Center! Pictures about Christ's life!! 

Saturday: BIG NEWS!!!!!! We found out Sister Muench is getting transferred to Berkley to be the new Sister Training Leader. I'm going to be staying in this area and Sister Shkapich will be my new companion!! Yay!! We also talked to a really nice guy who found Christianity and said it changed his life for the better and he's more patient etc. 

Sunday: I finished the talk on love that my dad mailed to me; "Love  - the Essence of the Gospel" by President Monson (Look it up!!) I loved how it talked about how we need to love each other! Dale Carnegie said each person has within himself or herself the "power to increase the sum total of the world’s happiness … by giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged." I GOT HUGGED!!! A man from Texas came in and asked if this was the building he saw from the freeway. I said yes and he went to shake my hand but ended up pulling me in for a hug and halfway there I put my hands up and said sorry! I can't hug you! Hahaha Sister Muench said that still counts as being hugged.   ;P

Monday (TODAY)!!! Miracles!! I only have 1 minute left! But a former investigator we tried contacting in the past randomly stopped us today while we were leaving the laundry room in our apartment complex. He asked us to help him with something on his computer and then we found out it was the former investigator we’ve been trying to contact!! It was SO cool! He said he had prayed and asked to find someone who was smart to help him with his computer and was about to leave and look in the parking lot when he saw us. Funny thing is; we had to refill our laundry card and that made us have to come back to do our laundry, so if it hadn’t been for that, he wouldn't have seen us!! Then we went to lunch with a member at "The Mexican"!! It was SO good!!