Sugar is sweet but SanDiego is SWEETER!

The only time to practice, at dinner.

Oh what a BEAUTIFUL week!
Oh my goodness, I now get to experience Spring time in San Diego!
IT'S THE BEST!! Ah. I'm the luckiest person alive. I got the golden mission, golden mission president, golden companions, golden areas, golden members, golden investigators, the list could go on and on! I literally am grateful for every minute of my mission! It rocks.
And so does Santee!! SANTEES ON FIRE!!!! We added three new investigators last week!!! Wooohoooooooooo!!!! But anyways, here we go:
Tuesday evening. LITERALLY MADE MY MISSION. Stacey English is the golden referral I've been waiting for my WHOLE mission! (Which will be 11 months tomorrow, AHHHH!!!)
I might have mentioned it in the last email but the zone leaders in another area gave us a referral from a member in their ward. Then that same day Sister Schmitt called us and said she had a referral for us, same person! She asked if she could come, so of course we said yes! (Can't say no to the mission president, and especially not the mission president's wife!) We also invited one of our members to go, she's the sweetest, Sister Carlson. (Not my MTC companion;)) And Stacey also wanted a priesthood blessing, so we tried to get one, but then Stacey called and said someone named Alex Morgan was coming to give her one and she said he was a member, sweet.
So we go there, knock on the door, and we hear a feeble voice telling us to come in. We open the door, there is a small woman just sitting on the couch covered in a blanket, crying. Sobbing. We come in and sit down. She tells us she is in so much physical pain, she had chronic arthritis. And she just wants help, physically and spiritually.
As we were getting to know her, superwoman, I mean Sister Schmitt, busts through the door with soup and cornbread and some pastry. She just busts in with the spirit and does her doctor evaluation, physically and spiritually, and it turns out our Alex Morgan was actually Sister Schmitt, aka Alexis Schmitt. Funny Moment! Then we asked her what she was expecting from our visits and she goes, "Well to become a member of your church."
ALRIGHT!!!! She is sooo prepared, she dated a member, she works with members, and her boss is a bishop! SO COOL! Super spiritual Restoration, best one I've ever had on my mission!
And when we gave her a copy of The Book of Mormon she was so excited! It was sweet! And she told us later on that the first night she fell asleep holding The Book of Mormon. She's so cute! And when Sister Purcell invited her to be baptized she said yes mid sentence! May 7th!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SHE'S GOING TO BE BAPTIZED!!!! Ah that's going to be the best birthday ever!
That's right, I'm turning the big 2-0 on May 5th!!! WOOT WOOT!!But everyone should put Stacey's baptism on their calendar because she is literally the COOLEST!!!!
And then at the end of the lesson Brother Carlson and Jacobson, our two counselors in the bishopric were able to give her a blessing. And let me just tell you, we went to go see her again on Friday, woof. I've never seen someone physically change so much!
When we went back, her hair and make up were done, she was smiling, she opened the door before we knocked, she was walking around! Don't get me wrong, she was still in a lot of pain, but something just changed in her. Her attitude and her spirit was different. And she told us she knew it was from the blessing and from The Book of Mormon. She brought the huge large print that we gave her to her doctor's appointment and she said three or four people stopped her and asked her if she was joining, she always responded yes and then they said you will never meet a nicer group of people! OH!
And then by the end she would say "Well you should join then!"
OH SHE ROCKS! She makes me laugh, smile and cry! She's the best! She wasn't sure if she was going to be physically able to come to church on Sunday, but we got her a ride AND SHE CAME TO CHURCH!!! Ohhhhhh my heart was happy as she walked through the doors!! She looked so cute and she had a big smile on her face, even though she told us later she had never been in so much pain. She has so much faith and such a strong determination! She got to meet the Bishop and the Relief Society President!
And then we saw her again on Monday and she basically remembered everyone's' names and what Relief Society was! (She could only stay for the sacrament) She's just the coolest and then when we met with her again yesterday she had so many questions and she said she LOVED IT! She loved all the children, she loved the music, the testimonies, everyone she met, and she loved that she felt safe! Oh she's so cool. And I'll never stop saying that! She asked why there weren't that many youth even though there is a big high school on our boundaries. I told her it was because they weren't members and she then says "Well it's because I haven't been there yet to talk with them!!" AHHHHH, I love her. Also she said she was in the DMV and she was getting frustrated with someone and she then thought how her sisters would react adn how they would be loving. SHE SAYS WE ARE HER SISTERS!!! YAYYYYYYYYY!! :)
Needless to say Stacey is one of my favorite people and definitely made my mission! I can't wait for May 7th!
PS Her house smells like Christmas. It's always Christmas at Stacey's house! :)
Thankfully we did get our car back. On Wednesday we were able to go on an exchange with the Hillsdale/Jamul Sisters! THAT'S MY MISSION HOME! My first area--love that place!
I had the fortunate opportunity to go on an exchange with Sister Stussi! (Sister Wardinsky's trainee!!:))

Exchanges with Sister Stussi and Sister Guest

She's a Temple Square sister and she's from Switzerland. She's awesome! We were able to meet with Eddie who is the coolest and best missionary ever! We asked him at the end who he might know who needs the gospel. He started looking through his contacts list and said he had a couple of names he needed to pray about! OH! He rocks and he also rocked our coordination meeting with our Branch Mission leader! We have been really trying to find YSA and we will soon go on Grossmont campus with a great display! Basically spear-headed by Eddie! He's the greatest!
We also met with Vanessa who I love sooo much! She's doing awesome, she's doing family history and she got permission from her parents to bring her grandparents' names to the temple!!!

 Vanessa and her sons

YAYYYY!!! And she also was able to bring her Mom to the Spanish Branch on Sunday! DOUBLE YAYYYYYY!!! Ah, I love her. She's doing awesome and is already so involved! Bringing sisters in need dinner, wanting to go support people at the Temple, she's awesome!
Much love for her!

 We were at exchanges today with none other than Sister Carlson!!

Love her :)

Thursday: Gail. What a sweetheart. She continues to call us her angels. One of my favorite lines she told us was as we were going to work in the rain, "Now you two be careful, don't you know sugar melts in the rain!" Oh we died! It was so funny! But she's doing good. She is very sick, still. But she was able to receive a blessing! She's getting there; she's working on living some of the commandments. We've been calling her every morning to help her remember to live them. She loves it! She said that sometimes it's hard for her to get up and live, but she knows that every morning we will be calling, and she's waiting for us to call her! I love her.
But she was still too sick to come to church on Sunday, that was super sad. Hard for me, we will now have to move her baptismal date. But have no fear! Gail even said she knows she's still alive on this earth to fulfill her purpose, and part of that purpose is baptism! Love her.
We also weekly planned, planned for zone meeting, and we had dinner with the Whitlocks! Cutest people. And they gave us marriage advice. Classic. :)
We then had power hour, prayed with some members kids and we were in the right place at the right time! We saw a woman get out of her truck, asked her if she knew of any people who needed some service we could help out. And she told us she was moving, and she actually accepted our help! We came back the next day, she said we were the only people to help her besides her sister. She's a single mom with a 14 year old boy. Myra and Isaiah.
Sister Purcell came back the next day while we were on exchanges and added them!!
Myra said she had called her Mormon friend and talked to her about us. Sweet. All good things, all good things!
Friday: INTERVIEWS WITH PRESIDENT SCHMITT!!! He is the man. And he also took a selfie with me to send to my family.

PRESIDENT SCHMITT!!!

And he wanted me to say (and I quote) "I love these missionaries, your missionaries, and the work is good in San Diego."

President Schmitt with the Sisters of Santee!

He rocks. He helped me out with some member work. He rocks! And I sure do know that he loves and appreciates me; he tells it to me every time. And I sure do love and appreciate him! AND GUESS WHAT?!? HE TOLD US THAT ELDER JEFFREY R HOLLAND IS COMING TO OUR MISSION AT THE END OF MAY!!!
Ahh, excitement can not be contained!
I am for sure preparing now before Elder Holland shakes my hand and looks into my soul. Thank goodness for repentance. ;)
We then went to power hour at the Whitlocks and he directed us to two of his neighbors houses, walked us over, and got us some service opportunities! Sweet! We also gave someone a Book of Mormon on their street.
'Twas a good hour of power!
Then we had district meeting, always good.
We then met Doug and Julie. Love them, lots. Doug said he listened to General Conference at work and Julie might be starting seminary soon! Sweet!
Doug also told us that they say family prayer in the morning with all his kids and every time they say amen Julie always says with a loud voice, "AMEN!" She rocks! I love her!
Saturday: Exchanges with Sister Starr!!!!! In Tierra Santa!!!!!!!

Exchanges with Sister Starr and Sister Lao!

Tierra Santa is full of military folks, all over! So many people to talk to! And Sister Starr rocks at it! :) She shines super bright! ;)
We had an interesting moment where we street contacted these two people and they thought they would show us a scene from The Book of Mormon Musical. They thought we would like it. But we decided to talk about the actual book with them instead. They said they would pray about it too after they read it! Sweet.
Sunday: Stacey and Stephanie came to church!! We met with our branch president, went into a primary class to talk about missionary work and fasted that we would be able to add a family and invite three new people to be baptized this week. Yeah! Game Day.
We went to a break the fast with some of the older sisters in the Grossmont ward. One of them tried to set me up with her grandson. Ah awkward moments where you don't know how to react. Good times. We had an AWESOME power hour where I just felt prompted to knock on a lot of doors. Sister Purcell called it my spidery senses. Where I would walk by a house, then stare at it and then walk up to it. AND WE SAW A MILAGRO FROM IT! We knocked on the door, a YSA opened and was interested in hearing more and set an appointment! YAY!! And we invited him to be baptized! Taylor's cool. His appointment fell through but we will meet with him soon! :)
Monday: main even was Stacy. Which I already told you about.

STACEY!!!!!!!!!

She's awesome. We also did some training at zone meeting about follow up. It's important, in all aspects of life. You all should read M. Russell Ballard's general conference talk that's called "Following up." It's awesome. Missionary work is awesome!
We also found a secret less active! Gonna do some service for her on Thursday! The work is GREAT!!
The field is white and is being harvested! Come join in on the fun!
You can get a tan while you're at it. ;)
Well, at least in sunny San Diego. :)
I just really love you all.
His mission has expanded my love for everyone. My heart will burst, but I'll just keep loving everybody!
I'm cheering for all of you!
Love,
Sister Whitcomb

 Some members moved in and we taught them a lesson and they gave us roses!

 Aren't they beautiful?