Santee is the Promised Land

Helloooooo family!!!!!!

It's another great week and also the first week of the transfer.
I know you're all dying to know where I am and who I'm with. I'M STILL IN SANTEE WITH THE COOLEST AUSTRALIAN EVER!!!!! For some reason, one we hope to find out soon, Sister Purcell and I are to stay together still! Which I am so grateful for!
The way they do transfers now is they send an email, so we were in the car going to visit someone as I was reading it. So it was dead silent. And then I SCREAMED!!!!! I am soooo excited and soooooo grateful! I was so nervous I was leaving! But I love these wards, the people, my investigators, so I am so grateful the Lord is allowing me to stay for another six weeks! :) It'll be the longest I've ever been in an area! Yay!
But anyway. Back to the Milagros. So Tuesday night, we met with Stacey. STACEY IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!!! That is the best birthday gift ever. :)
(that's right; turning the big 2-0 this week!!!)
She's so awesome, even though she has a lot of pain, she has a huge smile on her face! She is willing to live everything even before we tell her, she goes above and beyond. Friday she passed her interview and then on Sunday they announced it in church! :) YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
She's just the coolest.
And then last night we had a Family Home Evening with her and another family in the ward, the McCullochs. They rock! She's being so well fellowshipped and she just loves everyone she meets! Meant to be!
Then we went out with the YSA Relief Society president for visits. Working with members is so important, it can be a struggle, but vital. Imagine the difference between 80,000 missionaries and 15 million. Huge. We all need to be working together! So work with your missionaries and make sure they work with you! It's the most important work you can be a part of!
Wednesday. We met with one of the YSA recent converts, Jake. I forgot to mention that last week, Sunday, he was asked to bear his testimony. I was so impressed! It was so eloquent and well thought out and definitely directed by the spirit! The gospel brought huge changes in Jake's life! It's amazing! We also spent time near our blessed corner, where we have been setting up the institute booth. We have been able to bear our testimony and give a lot of material away to people who say they will read it and they seem genuine. It's just the typical YSA problem. Commitment, they aren't willing to give it. That is definitely necessary for repentance so hopefully all of them will be able to achieve that someday! BUT when we were walking out we did find a girl, Natasha! She said she would be willing to hear our message!! WOOHOOO!!! Just have to follow up. :)
We are really just trying to find find find. We have four investigators and they all have baptismal dates. So hopefully all of them will become members soon! The time is far spent. And I promised the Lord I would help his children, so if I'm even the only one doing it, I will. It's that important. But I'm grateful I'm not the only one doing it! :)
Thursday. WAS SOOO COOOLLLLLLL!!
Vanessa went to the temple. :) And remember how I said Vanessa was going crazy with family history? Well she brought eight names to the temple! Four female, four male! It was awesome!

And it was funny because one of the YSA from my old area, Black Mountain was there and he told us he was engaged!!!! Good on you Devin Dahlberg! :) But to say the least, the Temple was awesome, it always is! And Sister Leavitt drove us there, so nice, man she's a crack-up! We love her. :)
Friday. Being a missionary is quite awkward. But it's the best! We were teaching this YSA who hasn't been to church in a while and all of a sudden he says to me, "You have blue eyes." And all I could say was "Yes, I do," and tried to continue teaching.
And then he says "You have brown hair, too."
And once again I say "Yes, I do."
Sister Purcell was dying! Ah man, missionary work, it's the best.
We also did some service in the jungle! This time it looked like we made a little bit of a difference! Sweet! Even though I got stabbed by a cactus. Man, I wouldn't recommend it.

We also had our last district meeting before people got transferred. Tears all around. The lesson was on the atonement and our district leader had us sit in the chapel and think about the last time we repented and how we can improve on using the atonement. Man, it was so good. Such power, so much revelation!

We also met with Gail! Had a serious lesson about the sabbath day. Boom. Spirit. It was awesome! AND GUESS WHAT??? SHE ACTUALLY CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!!! Wooohoooooooooo!!! It was awesome, she came to all three hours and when she was introducing herself in Relief Society she said "Hello, my name is Gail, I've been meeting with the sisters once a week to prepare for my baptism."
YESSSSS.
It was awesome, super awesome!! :)
But back to Friday, we also met with Julie who continues to impress me with her desire to attend seminary and surrounding herself with people who will help her keep her standards! Love her!
Then Saturday.
It's always a special day! When Sister Purcell got emergency transferred out a couple of months ago she went to Black Mountain, which was actually her first area! And she was teaching this boy named Matthew and this past Saturday he got baptized! And he asked Sister Purcell to speak, so we got to go! It was weird and awesome to be back in Black Mountain but it was even cooler to see Black Mountain welcome one of their brothers home.
There were a lot of nonmembers there so it was awesome to talk to them! Some of them planned on going to the Mormon Battalion! :)
Also on Saturday there was a huge Just Serve community event where many of the people in Santee came to clear trails and pick up this little area which was right behind a WalMart. Weird things were found in those bushes. The craziest thing I hear was one of the sisters in our ward found a prosthetic leg!  Crazy! But it was awesome! We made friends with this little boy from a Catholic Church and he just followed us around the whole time! He called me Sister Zero because he said I was a hero and he called Sister Purcell Sister Two, Because second is the best! :) It was fun and it was fun to talk to that little boy about what we do as missionaries! A lot of churches there and it was good to interact with them! :)
And Sunday. Like I already said, the most exciting news was that Gail and Stacey came to church!!!!! WOOOHOOO!!! :) I also loved it because it was fast and testimony meeting and I was in the YSA Sacrament meeting this Sunday and I got the opportunity to bear my testimony! I'm just proud to be a member of this church. And it was awesome because Eddie and Anthony, two recent converts, got up to share their testimonies too! :) Great times!
Then Sister Purcell and I were asked to attend this special meeting with a couple sets of missionaries and our ward mission leaders. It ended up being a lot about how we are trying to work with our members. Our mission just recently came out with a faith card, which has a picture of Christ in the front with a quote from President Monson that says, "He will assist in our labors if we will act in faith to fulfill his work." And then on the back it says who, what and when. To help people identify who they can help, what they can do and when they can do it by. Then with the when we try to follow up and see how it went.  It's been pretty cool but definitely could be used better. So the meeting was about having like a district 3.0. They picked Sister Purcell and I, and four other elders to be recorded at dinner using the faith cards, so missionaries can see how it should be used, what proper follow up should be used, what proper follow up should be had. If you've ever heard of "The District," it's like that, but just with member missionary work. Why they picked us, I have no idea. But it should be fun! More details to come. :)
We met with members as well to help prepare for a lesson with an investigator to make it the most spiritual environment it can be. It was awesome! I'm excited for the lesson with Rose!
And now Monday. So transfers happened, craziness. Then we met with Anthony to talk about his new member lessons and getting him to the Temple. And we had ice cream with him. And then we had ice cream at dinner, and then ice cream at FHE. Ice cream overload yesterday! But it was awesome. We also had a lesson with Eddie where we gave him the lesson plans and he taught us, it was awesome! He did really well and he even prepared by reading from Preach My Gospel. He's cool!
We did the booth, gave away a copy of the Book of Mormon so that was awesome!
I love giving people Copies of the Book of Mormon because I love telling them it's the greatest gift I could give anyone. I love testifying of that book, because I know it's true and I know it can help anyone and everyone.
We also met with Vanessa, talked about tithing, she's awesome, I'm excited to see what her calling will be! And she also brought her niece to church n Sunday! So cool! She's an awesome missionary! Missionary work is so important. It's the most important work we could be doing. Or at least I could be doing. I hope all of you can experience it in some aspect and always strive for it, even if you have already done some, there's never too much missionary work! I love you all and I especially love all the mothers out there who have impacted me! Especially you Mi Madre! I love you mucho, and I'm grateful for you! You do so much and I truly do see it and appreciate it! I can't wait to Skype you on Sunday! :)
Love,
Sister Whitcomb