Oct 21st and Oct 28th

Oct 21st

Well. This week was pretty crazy. We were evacuated from our apartment for a day and a half because of a giant gas leak. Yea we it was pretty funny because we were carrying all our laundry and groceries back and then they wouldn't let us into our street. SO we were homeless for a bit. The elders bikes also got stolen from the bike rack on our car during that time. And then my wallet was stolen/lost. It's been a little crazy haha. BUT. The good news is.... THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!!! I don't know, none of this stuff really concerns us too much because we are just so happy sharing the gospel!

ALSO!! we gave someone a baptismal date. He is a husband of a member, and he knows the church is true, so he has been hiding from the missionaries since she got baptized because he knew that he would get baptized if he didn't haha. He is awesome though, he has seen how it has changed his family for the better.  But yea when we came along we told the family we weren't going to teach them unless we could come at a time when everyone is home and we could teach everyone. So that's what we did, and now he is going to get baptized! With his daughter who is 8 :) it is going to be super cute. haha so yea that was cool!  His name is Douglas, and his daughter is Kimberly.

Also we are teaching an argentinean family... and it is the funniest thing of my life. The mom is SO stereotypically Argentine. She hates the son's girlfriend and so the whole time she is just like "No se que hizo para merecer ese pecado en su vida" (I don't know what he did to deserve this sin in his life) "Siempre esta con esa fea" (He is always with that ugly girl)  and then one time he said "yo" instead of the argentine "jo" and she was like "MIRA!! ESA FEA ESTA QUITANDO SU ARGENTINO! ES JO! NO YO!!! JO!!!!!!!!" She says all this in front of her son. I'm pretty sure she is just teasing him because even he is just sitting there laughing the things she says are so ridiculous. He like sits there and nods his head and mouths to us not to take her seriously. But yea we were just sitting there dying of laughter. But the son, Lucas, is super awesome. He sincerely has the desire to learn, and the spirit was super strong during the first lesson. He accepted a baptismal invite at the end of the first lesson. The mom is interested too but she pretends not to be, she goes into the kitchen as if shes not listening but then she will yell a comment in when she has something to say haha. Argentines are funny. I think if I had gone to Argentina on my mission I wouldn't been able to get anything done because I would have been laughing the whole time. 

Oct 28th

Well, what can I say, I knew I was going to be transferred because last week I completely lost my shame. The moment I started killing cockroaches with my fists I knew I had to go. But East LA will always have my heart. I am now in Chino. Which happens to be as different from East LA as is possible. And on the complete opposite corner of the mission. It is quiet and rich and there are even horses and cows out here. There are no busses and we are right by the mountains. It's weird, I've become so accustomed to the hustle and bustle and sirens and meth labs of East LA, but it is going to be AWESOME here. I am super excited to learn a completely different style of missionary work. But it will be weird for a while.

My last week in Bel 2 though was everything I could have hoped for. We finally had a lesson with Oscar, and he shared with us how he knows this is all true, and he has prayed and received the answer that he needs to get baptized. He talked about how the gospel has changed his life, how it filled a hole he didn't realize he had, and all the miracles he has seen and felt because of it. I often felt like Oscar was my purpose being in that area, and I always said, "If I could just stay long enough to be sure that Oscar will get baptized I will be happy". And well, that happened. So I kind of felt like everything came full circle this last week. Other things too. But guys, the gospel is SO true, it fills all those holes in peoples hearts. Jesus Christ payed for every hole whether it is from a sin or not, he payed for it so that he could know how to help all of us in our times of need. It gives them hope and happiness that they never knew existed. You see those holes, like with Oscar, get filled with light instead

Dad, I am super excited you are a ward missionary! You will be an AMAZING ward missionary! You will have to keep me posted about that. Missionary work is the most rewarding thing ever.

But yea, besides that THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYBODY!!!! MOM THANKS FOR ALL THE CHOCOLATE!!!! I THINK I AM SET FOR A GOOD COUPLE WEEKS NOW!!!! AND JESSE SENT ME CHOCOLATE TOO!!!!! I was just in a state of everlasting joy today at the mission office when I opened those two packages. And thank you to michelle and Joshy too!!! I am going to answer everybody but since I got transferred today and am figuring all that out it will probably be a couple weeks. But yea, I am going to keep my email short today unless I have extra time after emailing the mission president then I might send another.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is real and true. Keep up the awesome work!

love,

Hermana Bardsley

Bel 2, Week 4!!!!

Well hello everyone! This week was a little bit somber. We went to two memorial services. One for a sister in our ward who unexpectedly passed away, she was only about 50 and has a 17 year old daughter. She LOVED missionaries. Every time we would go over she would send us home with like a box of cereal, gallon of milk, things of yogurt, bananas, water and other things haha. She was awesome, well, still is. The other was for the missionary who passed away, Elder Page. He had only been in the field for a month, and was from the first batch who came from the Mexico MTC. His dad had just died three years ago. Apparently, he came to the mission and told president and his trainer that he was here to teach people about the plan of salvation because that was what he had a super strong testimony of. Everyone says that he would bring everyone to tears bearing his testimony of the plan of salvation. What has amazed me through both these experiences more are the families of these people. The husband and daughter of Hermana Reynoso were at church on Sunday, smiling, and the mom of Elder Page was more concerned about his companion, Elder Ostler than anything. 

The gospel is so true. To normal people, losing a husband and a son within a couple years would destroy them and their hope, but the knowledge of being able to live with our families for eternity and the comfort that the holy ghost brings to people in need is truly incredible. This church is SO true. If only EVERYBODY knew it so that they could also have the same peace through hard things. And it's not just peace because we convince ourselves that we can be with our families again so it's okay, it is REAL peace and knowledge that God sends to people who truly ask God for that comfort. 

OH SO GUESS WHAT??!! We had interviews with president this last week and GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?? I walked into my interview, and president was like "sister, do you really need your car?" and I was like "NOPE!" And so now we don't have to use our car AT ALL!!! We didn't even say anything to him. What an inspired man ;). We will be careful, don't worry. We aren't going to use our bikes much anyways because we like just walking and talking to people.

But yea, besides that we kind of like... dropped all our investigators this week because they didn't want to progress.... So....... YEA!!! Back to finding people :D. Me and Hermana Lopez are both kind of blunt. If someone is refusing to progress we just drop them right away.  But yea! there's just really no point in holding onto investigators like that, a lot of people just do because it is hard to find new investigators. I should start learning some chinese so I can have more conversations with all the chinese people here.  Our bus conversations are oftentimes pretty funny, but they are just happy we are giving them something in their language because we have chinese pamphlets and pass along cards and so they read it haha.

I anxiously await the chocolate. This morning I had a chocolate fit. Just ask my companion. I went around the house complaining about everything. Like, UGGGG I don't want to sweep the floor, I just want to eat chocolate. And then UGGG I don't want to do my laundry, I just want to eat chocolate. But I don't have any. So then when I went shopping today like everything I bought was chocolate oriented, cocoa puffs, nuttella etc...

And we just got our bikes yesterday!!! Be excited for next week. We are gonna take some super sick modeling poses with our bikes whipping our hair around with some gatorade and stuff. It's going to be legit.

Keep it real, the church is true, tell everyone you know about it.

Love,

Hermana Bardsley

BEL 2 WEEK 3!!!!!!???

Well. Let me see. I have a ton of things to say. Only I am so tired I don't think I am going to say too much. Our pday got moved to Tuesday this week so that we could go to the temple this morning. So we did. And it was pretty awesome. The Los Angeles temple is GIGANTIC. Someone said it is the biggest temple. I'm not sure if that's true but it was pretty big. It was HUGE. And it was one of the ones where you move from room to room to room so that was really cool. 

Anyways, BE MEMBER MISSIONARIES!!!!! yeah. I loved how like every talk talked about that. This IS the hastening of the work and all of us missionaries can't do it without the members. This gospel is SO TRUE and makes people SO HAPPY you just have to share it with EVERYONE!

Oh and by the way, the made a rule specifically for me and Hermana Lopez that all sisters in this area HAVE to use their car after 5pm. We were the only ones who weren't. So we know the rule was just for us haha. Which is funny. Sad, because riding the bus all day long was the best but whatever. But cool story about before they made that rule. One night we were riding the bus talking to people like usual and there were these people who kept looking at us funny. And well, when we got off the bus Hermana Lopez were like "hermana, those people were taking pictures of us on their phone. And I was like.... "uhhh..... that can't be good". And then then next day we were at the church and this lady came up to me and gave me a huge hug and was like "congratulations!! good job!!" and me and hermana Lopez were like.... huh? Then she pulled out her phone and showed us all these pictures of us bus contacting haha. So it was her and her husband watching being undercover members on the bus taking pictures of us. So yea I'll forward those pictures to you guys because she sent them to us haha.

Best moment of the week though was that we rekindled with Oscar!!! He had told us before not to knock on his door because the people he lives with hate mormons. But we hadn't been able to contact him in 2 months so finally I was like, that's it, we are knocking on Oscar's door. And we found him and it turned out he had lost his old phone, didn't have anyone's number and had been trying to find a way to contact us again. And then without us even telling him to come he came to conference the next day. We were there and then we just saw Oscar already there and we had no idea he was coming. He is such a good kid. 

But yea, this week was really awesome. We have a ton of awesome new investigors. Conference was really really awesome. I just kind of want to pass out because we got up at 5 to take the bus 2.5 hours to the temple. So we did 5 hours of bus riding today and we just got back like an hour ago and we still have to do our laundry and stuff. Cheers. Oh yea my bike is like aqua blue to answer your question. But I still don't have it yet, I think it's now at the mission office.

Bel 2 Week 2!!!!!!!!! !!!

Hey guess what we had today??! MILANESA DAY! It was fantastic. We made Milanesa and spanish rice and stuff. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but we live across the apartment complex from 4 elders. So yea we had a big milanesa party today!It is extremely ridiculous and they distract us a ton but it is also keeps things from getting too depressing, theres always a free comedy show. They knock on our door every morning at 6:30 so that we can lead group exercise/yoga. 

As for this week... lets see... I ORDERED MY BIKE!! AND GUESS WHAT?? IT IS MY FAVORITE COLOR! I also only have $10 in my personal account now because of it. I am also getting really tan from all the walking now that we no longer have a car.

So remember how I told you in the beginning of the mission my mission president compared me to a puppy and said to just put a leash on me but don't kill my energy haha? So me and Hermana Lopez together are like two puppies with no leash. Since we are in East LA and it is "dangerous", technically we have a car to use after 5pm. And I think when they told us that they were expecting that we would just want to use it after 5pm so they didn't tell us directly we had to. So we don't. At all. hehe. WE BUS EVERYWHERE!!!!!! And it is great because even though our area for Bel 2 is safe and asian people everywhere, for the singles ward we can go anywhere in the stake. So we go to like downtown LA and stuff on bus. Someday soon our mission president is going to realize we are doing that and tell us we have to use the car, but until he tells us... haha. I mean those are the people who need the gospel the most! So we aren't going to drive over there and miss talking to them... pish posh. 

We are having a ton of fun. We have a new tactic for Los Robles. We just tell them that if they bring investigators to a dinner with us we will bring chocolate cake! And HEY! It's working. We had an awesome lesson with one of members and two of her friends this week and we are going to teach the friends again. We are trying to work a lot more with Los Robles now because we kind of ignored it before, so we are starting at the bottom and just visiting members and gaining their trust and stuff so that they'll give us referrals because really that is the only way to work in a YSA ward. So it is taking some time to pick up, but it is getting there.

But hey my recent convert Gabby is doing AWESOME! It is amazing how the gift of the holy ghost really like... gives people the holy ghost! She says that now in all the classes she actually understands them and remembers them whereas before her baptism she didn't. She wants to get her patriarchal blessing too! 

But hey guess what? THE CHURCH IS TRUE! It's awesome. And sharing it is the best thing ever. It makes people so happy. And then it makes us even more happy. It's truly just... the way to be happy. So share the gospel so that e'erybody can have the atonement in their lives! 

Here's one more cool story. We bussed up somewhere for an appointment this week and then the family wasn't home, so we were like "well lets find out why we are supposed to be in this neighborhood." So we just started knocking doors. And like the tenth door we knocked on someone yelled from inside the house "WHO IS IT?" To which we replied "missionaries for the church of jesus christ of latter day saints". And she was like "I'm not interested." "wait... did you say latter day saints? I'm on your family history website right now! I love doing family history and your website has the best resources out of any and it's free!" And it so happens that we are teaching a class on family history this week but neither me or Hna. Lopez know how to use the program so we were like "uhh... do you think we could come in and could you teach us how to do that?" And so we did. So we went in and she taught us how to use the site and we are going to go back to teach her why we do family history. It was funny and fun haha. that's all. :D

Tell Teri Congrats!! The baby is super cute!! Can't wait to meet him! 

Hermana Bardsley