El Monte week # FANFREAKINTASTIC!!!!

Wow! What a week. Yeni, Eduardo and Dulce all got baptized yesterday.
Eduardo popped up and hollered and spit water everywhere. It was
pretty great. And the best part was they all gave their testimonies
afterwards and talked about how good and clean they all felt and about
how glad they were tthat they made this decision. The cleansing power
of Christs atonement is incredible. It is so cool that he gives us
that opportunity to start completely fresh. Mom, could you send me
your conversion story? I was thinking that would be cool to give to
yeni, because she is also a 13 year old girl who is now the only
member in her family. Her family is supportive but still it won't be
an easy road.

Also!!!! It is official, Aaron Bardsley comes into California in two
weeks. I saw his picture in the office where they put the pictures of
all the new missionaries coming in next transfer. That was pretty
cool. I showed everybody. President Becerra was like, "I saw that...
Good thing I'm leaving, one Bardsley was enough" haha.

So yesterday was like SUPER intense but awesome. So we had the three
baptisms which was crazy in itself. And then we were at home finishing
our studies. And I was feeling this impending need to find new people
to teach because we hadn't found any solid ones yet that week because
we had had a ton of meetings and also preparing for the baptisms. And
I don't know if I ever mentioned, but finding new people to teach is
my favorite part of missionary work. Baptisms are great, but what I
love most is teaching an awesome first lesson where they pray at the
end and ask if Joseph smith was a prophet or if Christ's authority
really was restored or something like that and helping them recognize
the Holy Ghost answering their prayer for the first time in their
life. So anyways, we hadn't done that at all in the week so I was
feeling this great inner need. And it was about 4:30, and normally at
that time we would just eat dinner, and then take our car because we
have a car to use at night since we are in a dangerous area. But I
just really wanted to take our bikes and go try to see this one person
we had talked to on the bus. So we did, and she wasn't there. But on
the way back, there was this huge family sitting outside so we got off
our bikes and talked to them. They invited us to teach them on the
spot, so we did and it was AWESOME. The dad like really got it. At the
end he accepted to be baptized, and then when his wife said that she
had already been baptized he was the one who cut in and was like "well
what they are saying is that Christ's authority was lost from the earth
after the apostles died and that it has been brought back through a
prophet, so your old baptism doesn't count". We were just like.....
What the....who is this guy... We asked him if he had been taught by
missionaries before and he said no. I guess he is just extremely
intelligent. But yea, because we rode our bikes we ended up getting 8
new investigators. And they are awesome, they are the family Banuelos.
Well there are some other last names but that is the one that is most
of the family's. Pretty cool. It was quite the Sunday.

As for the Roldans... We will see, it was a rough week concerning
them. We had to leave church to go to their house to have a ten minute
spiritual intervention amid preparing for the three baptisms. Pray for
him. That he will have the desire to act.

Well, this week was crazy, but fantastic. So many miracles. El Monte
is the promised land for missionary work. I love it.

Love,
Hermana Bardsley

El Monte week 9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, this week was pretty fabulous!! Yeni, Eduardo, and dulce and are
getting baptized this Sunday so pray for them! We taught them all
about temples on Saturday and we are planning a temple trip with all
of them to go do baptisms next month, after they get baptized and get
their member record number and stuff. We are also starting them on
family history so that they can bring their own names. That is super
exciting. They will love that. The temple is so cool. So cool how
there is a way to save the entire human family. Sounds like the truth
to me.

Also, this Sunday was stake conference. We got the roldans to go even
though it was like half hour away. I love seeing the little changes in
people. Hna roldan has been going in just her regular clothes for the
last two weeks but this week she bought a dress for church. Natalie
was super excited to show us her moms dress. Stake conference was
pretty funny though because when we got there, none of the chairs put
out were taken but all the soft benches were except the very front
row. And well, you never want an investigator to sit in the back
because then they feel like they are not actually part of the
congregation but just visiting. So we brought her and her four insane
children to the very front row. We were prepared and brought a ton of
coloring stuff and some puzzles and fruit loops. So the kids proceeded
to lay on the ground occupying pretty much the whole aisle way and the
space from the first pew to the stand with their coloring stuff.
Everyone who wanted to walk by had to step over them it was quite the
scene haha. But the kids were actually pretty good! They didn't make
too much of a fruit loop mess at all! And stake conference was
awesome. A lot of husbands and wives spoke like the temple president
and his wife and president becerra and his wife and I think it really
impacted Hna roldan to see that this gospel really does bring that
happiness to a family and to a partnership. Also we gave them a
baptismal date for July 13th. Super exciting!!!!! Families are the
best. The husband just needs to jump on board and go to church and
stuff..

Well, the gospel is true. I know it. And the Book of Mormon is true,
it changes lives. It is the best book ever. It brings us closer to
Jesus Christ than any other book. And families really can be together
forever if we perform those sacred ordinances in the temple.

Keep being awesome!!!!

El Monte week 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you are wondering. I have only been out on my mission 11
months still. Or that is what I tell people. My companion got confused
once, she was like.... "Wait but didn't you say you came out in June?"
LIES. I WILL NOT LISTEN TO SUCH BLASPHEMY. 11 months.... I have been
out 11 months. I also never turned 20 because I went to Neverland. I
am still 19 and always will be. The end.

So this week was ROCKIN!!! Wow. I have typed that word so many times
all in caps that when I typed it just now in lower case the ipad
automatically changed it to caps. Must mean its been a good 11 months.
We had 7 investigators at church on Sunday. The roldan family came
again, only the dad still didn't come.... But! In our lesson with then
on Saturday night he said something pretty cool. We asked them at the
end who they know that could use more of god's love in their life. And
he brought up his mother in law. His wife, Sandra, was like "no I
don't think she'd be interested in changing religions at this point in
her life". And then he said, "well the Catholics never did anything
for us. The Catholics don't come and make us breakfast before church
or give us a call to wake us up, or visit our family. So what's the
problem?" I want to say really quickly that I do know some fantastic
Catholics who do a ton of stuff to help. But it's true that this
church, Christs church, is action oriented. And really, love oriented,
that's what drives the members and the missionaries to action.
Sometimes, the result we want may not happen, like he still didn't
make it to church, which we know would help his family more than
anything we do, but it's still cool that he recognizes that love, and
that even though he isn't acting yet that he wants other people to be
able to have that love. But pray for him that he can start doing...
Well... Something. So that he doesn't stop the whole family's
progression.

Also, this is a cool story. A couple days ago we got a phone call from
some guy named genaro who gave us his address and said he wanted to be
taught. We thought it was a little weird because we didn't remember
meeting any genaro lately so we weren't sure if it was going to be
sketchy. Especially because he called us like several times. Well,
anyways, we made an appointment, and brought a member and went, and
then he called us right when we got to his house and asked us if we
could meet him in a parking lot outside a certain laundromat instead.
We were like..... Okay...... Hmm.... But since we had a member we
went. Well we got there and he was out there waiting for us but I
didn't really recognize him at all. But he was like "don't you
remember me?" And I was like "uhhh yea.... Of course, remind me where
we met though?" And he gave me the street name and then I remembered.
We are supposed to talk to ten people at least everyday on the street.
One night at like 9pm right before going home we still hadn't met the
ten. Well there was this sketchy group of people on the side of the
road, on a pretty sketchy street, some of them ere drinking or
whatnot, but they didn't seem dangerous, there were women with them
too, so we talked to them really quickly and gave them cards with our
phone number just to meet the ten contacts. That was like 3 weeks ago.
Well anyways, this guy, was one of them and turned out to be awesome.
He started out by telling us straight up all the things he wants to
change in his life that he thinks we can help him with. And then when
we were teaching the restoration when we got to apostasy he was like
"but wait, there needs to be a direct lineage of authority from Jesus
Christ so what happened to bring that back?" Made it really easy to
transition into the restoration of Christs authority.

Well, that is all, have a good week. The gospel is true. It changes
lives and is the true way to feel gods love.

Love,
Hermana bardsley

El Monte week 7!!!!!!!!!!!

So this first week of training was AWESOME. My trainee, hermana
Bateman is really really a good missionary. When we teach in English i
would have no idea that she just came into the mission a week ago. She
teaches very well. Spanish is another matter. But she's coming along.
It's weird because I've yet to have a companion who doesn't speak
Spanish, and since I grew up speaking it I don't really know how to
teach it to her. On a side note, All the Latinos call her Hna batman.
Pretty cool. Batman is my companion.

Sooooooooo the most exciting news this week is this! The family that
we had been teaching, the roldan family.... Came to church! And on
time too! I don't think I had mentioned how hard we had tried to get
this family to church in the past. We had done pretty much everything
in our power. One week we even went to their house, got all their kids
ready, and made them pancakes for breakfast and they still didn't
come. So this was a huuuuge miracle. And it went AWESOME. She got
fellowshipped super well. Sometimes investigators kind of go unnoticed
and that's why no one says hi or introduces themselves, but since she
has four little kids, who are... Well... Quite energetic... And
definitely not used to sitting through sacrament meeting. She
DEFINITELY didn't go unnoticed. Which was good, because then
afterwards everyone came up and started talking to her telling her
their stories about the crazy things their kids used to do in
sacrament meeting so not to worry, I don't know if they were planning
to stay all three hours, but one person took her kids to primary whole
the mom was talking, so then they did. It was perfect. The husband
didn't come though which was a bummer. Next week. A family even
invited them over for a family home evening tonight as well, hopefully
he will go to that.

Kids are awesome, there are so many families we teach that the little
kids are the motivating factor for the parents. The little kids read
the Book of Mormon everyday and are the ones who want to go to church.
They can feel the difference and the spirit right away, while adults
are so stubborn oftentimes. Like with the roldans, the eight year old
girl Natalie, was the one who in our last lesson with them committed
her parents to go to church. She was like "before we say the last
prayer I need you guys (to her parents) to promise me that you will go
to church this Sunday because you said you would for the last two and
you didn't, so promise me right now". We just sat there like..... Wow.
Who needs missionaries, we all just need Natalie. If all parents knew
how much the gospel would bless their family and their kids, I feel
like they'd just jump in the waters of baptism right away.

Sad I missed the pbd [Pacific Ballroom Dance] concert, but I'll be there for the next one!
Today I was getting my hair cut and the Mexican version of dancing
with the stars was on. Needless to say, it was very difficult to not
let my eyes wander.

On another note, I've been coming across a lot of prophecies in the
scriptures lately about the hastening of the work. All the stuff about
when god sends everybody out right before the end to gather fruit and
stuff. And there's some stuff in Isaiah that talks about it as well.
Crazy, to think this is it. This is the hastening of the work of
salvation. The last call before the end. And all of us are those
workers in the vineyard in the last push who need to help others find
salvation. Some apostle said that the hastening of the work is up
there with the restoration of the gospel and other huge events in the
history of the gospel in importance. And we are part of it. Now is the
time when we do everything we can to help everyone come unto Christ
and receive the ordinances of salvation!

Love,
Hermana bardsley

Ps to answer your question mom we don't have senior or junior
companions in our mission, just companions. I've had companions that
I've been out for longer than before, but there's no distinction.

Sooooooooo guess what?!

I am training [a new missionary]!!!! Yep. I get the new missionary tomorrow. I am super
excited. I have always wanted to train my whole mission.

As for this week, it was pretty awesome. We taught a big family last
night for the first time of like seven people. It was the grandma,
grandpa, daughter, her husband, and then their three kids. The spirit
was super strong. They were all just like captivated the whole lesson.
It really seemed to hit them how much this gospel can bless their
family. They are the Salvador family.

But guess what? Yesterday there was a farewell for the missionaries
leaving and guess who came and sang? David archuleta. Whhhhhhaaaaat?
But I didn't get to go because I was teaching that family. So jealous.
A sister who was there just showed me a picture. Not fair. Oh well. I
guess if it's really meant to be I will meet my husband on another
occasion.

And I do think the vitamins are helping. I feel somewhat more energy I
think. It's hard to say .
exactly.

I can't really think of anything else to say.... I haven't tAken my
pday nap yet so my brains not really working. Maybe I will send more
stuff later if I think about it.

Cheerio

El Monte Week 5

So, we are teaching like pretty much all youth. Which is pretty cool.
At first I was worried because it is harder for like a 15 year old
girl who gets baptized by herself to really stay active in the church,
but god has been sending us like these STELLAR youth. I think it is
because we have been taking the young women out with us a lot, so god
is sending us the people to teach that will benefit the most from
that.

One girl, Sandra Torres, is 16 years old and we knocked into her one
day looking for somebody else. Well, she invited us in, and MAN this
is where we were supposed to be. She told us how for a long time she
hadn't believed in god, but just recently all these things have
happened that are just like super blatantly god trying to get her
back. Well, she is like devouring the Book of Mormon now and she gives
her friends at school our pamphlets and invites them to the lessons.

There's another girl named yeni, who came to church on Sunday, and
then she set up her own ride with a member for mutual on Tuesday. We
were like... Well... That makes our job easier.

It's amazing how young people in a lot of cases haven't hardened their
hearts yet. They listen to the spirit. They feel good with us and at
church and so they actually follow that instead of making up excuses.

Here's a funny story. We are teaching a family, the roldan family. And
they are Easter and Christmas Catholics. If you get what I mean. It is
the mom, dad, then 4 little kids 8 and below. We were in a lesson with
them and the spirit just announced to me in my head that we had found
them because she had been praying for help for her family. So I asked
and when she said yea, I testified to her that that is why we ran into
them and god sent us there. So anyways, that was like Tuesday, Sunday
morning before church we went over to their house to get them all
ready. Which was quite a task by the way. We even made them pancakes.
Well, the mom decided she was going to be stubborn. She was like "I
don't feel comfortable going because we are catholic and all my family
is catholic and I feel like I'm betraying them". And we were like,
"you asked god for help, and he sent it, so are you going to open the
door to god knocking or not?" And she was like.... "I know I asked for
help... " and she got this really embarrassed look on her face and
then said... "I just wasn't thinking god would send me the Mormons..."
Hahaha! Sucks! Except actually it rocks because it can help her family
more than anything else.

Well! That's all! The gospel is true. Christ lived and died for us!
And because of him our lives can be filled with peace and joy!

El Monte Week 3

So!!! MANNY GOT BAPTIZED!!! And Alma!!  I didn;t know both of them
were getting baptized, but I knew manny was and so we went over to
Chino for Mannys baptism and Alma was getting baptized too. It was
awesome. I have never been to a baptism quite like it. Manny was like
sobbing extremely loud the whole time, and then like shouting the
songs. He said, that he just finally made the decision and that after
doing that he had no doubt that this is the right decision. They had
two people baptize him, it was awesome!

I am using this cool bluetooth keyboard thing right now that my
companion let me borrow. That way I am typing on a keyboard thats not
connected by any cords or anything and it is going onto my ipad.
Pretty cool. A lot of missionaries have these now. Oh also, I am
emailing today because we had to switch our pday to today.

WELL, El Monte is ROCKIN!!!! I really love this place. The ward is
awesome. And there are four sets of missionaries here and they are all
super good missionaries so there is a baptism almost every week. It is
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool.

Here is one cool story. I don't think I told it in last weeks email
though I may have.... On like my first day here we were super
determined to talk to EVERYONE. And we were. And so anyways we were on
our way to visit this other person and there was a lady inside a car
cleaning it out, but since we were super determined we stuck our heads
in and started talking to her. Well anyways, she then came out and
said we could share a message with her. Her name is Leti. There wasn't
anywhere to sit, so we just shared the restoration standing out there
with her. At the end she told us that that morning she had prayed to
God and asked for a change, and so she believed everything we had said
because she knew we were the answer to her prayer. The only annoying
thing is we have only been able to see her one time since. She is
young, like in her 20s, and recently came here from Guatemala.

We have had some other pretty powerful restoration lessons in the past
week. Its amazing how you can see the spirit just work in people.
Because no person in their right mind, after having only known these
two white girls for twenty minutes, would accept to get baptized into
some unknown church, but almost everyone on the first lesson does,
even if they don't really know what they are agreeing to yet. The
restoration is such a cool message, because really the message of it
is that God loves you, today. Whereas, no other church really has that
message. God sends prophets today, because he still loves you; God
restored the authority to become wiped clean of our sins through
baptism because he loves you. It is really quite cool. And while a lot
of the times doubts or things they hear or laziness gets in the way of
them actually receiving those blessings, almost everyone who has been
taught acknowledges that it sounds really really good, they just dont
know if it is true. BUT IT IS!!! BECAUSE GOD STILL LOVES US TODAY!!!!!
what a cool thing...

Oh, also, maybe if sometime you could send me some good vitamins that
would be nice. I think I need some because I almost always feel kind
of sick for most of my mission. Part of that is sleep deprivation but
I think vitamins might help. THanks!

love,
Hermana Bardsley