I Didn't Choose Spanish, Spanish Chose Me

Week 26, Transfer 4
Area: Yuba City (Tierra Buena Branch)
Comp: Hermana Leatherwood

Buenas noches a todos! It's been a minute since I've sent one of these (sorry, Grandma Jolley), but all is well in Northern California! We got transfer news last week, and I am now in Yuba City!! The Feather River temple is right in our area! It's kind of a hard building to miss, so most people here have at least seen it before. We are able to talk about it a lot and use it as a topic of conversation almost every day! This is incredible because, really, the temple is our goal. Baptism is only the first step, but there is so much more that follows that we need the temple for. It's powerful when a first interaction with a friend gets to be about the House of the Lord.

Highlights & Miracles!

Before I left Corning, we found Consuelo's baptismal records! She was baptized almost 30 years ago, but between moves and personal circumstances, she has been inactive for almost 20 of those years. All she wants now is to go back to the temple, but we first needed to find her records, or else she'd need to be baptized again. After what was one of the easiest searches I've probably ever witnessed, her records were FOUND! We told her the next Sunday, and with happy tears in her eyes, she BEAMED the entire time at church. She couldn’t remember the exact date she was baptized and really wanted to remember it, so we made and gave her a cute little paper with the date a few days later. She BEAMED once again and said, "I am going to frame this!" It was so, so tender to see how much this baptism meant to her and to witness her love for the temple in our lessons and visits with her and how deeply she wants to return inside!

I went to my first Mexican fiesta! It was a member named Rosa's birthday, and she invited all the missionaries! She makes the BEST posole. She is the sweetest!

Three of our friends came to church on Sunday! None of them had ever come before. It is no easy feat to come to church for the first time. Even as a missionary, it's hard to sit in a new congregation with people I don't know, even though I've been a member my whole life. I can only imagine how our friends feel when they come to this new church for the first time, and I have so much respect for them. Every Sunday, I pray that our friends can have the courage to come to church, that they'll be able to recognize the peace that can come from taking time to worship God.

And I know the blessings are the same for each member, too. No matter where you're at with your faith—whether you've been a member or religious your entire life and church comes naturally to you, or you've been going through some things and it isn't always easy, or if it's been years and years or you've never stepped foot inside one before—the same peace is available to you, too.

If you need to pray that same prayer—for courage and for the ability to recognize and feel that peace and joy—then PRAY for it. And I will, too, with your name in mind.

The Lord loves each and every one of you. Never forget how precious you are to Him and how precious your soul is. The reason it's important to know that is because everything relating to our soul is of ETERNAL importance, and we need to take care of it, nourish it daily with the love of God, and prepare for the eternal life we will live with the God who loves us more than we can imagine.

Que tengan una buena semana. ¡Les amo muchísimo! Let me know if there is anything I can do for any of you or anyone I can pray for! I love each of you!

Con amor,
Hermana Ellis

Fotos (Go check out the album to see what's happening in Yuba!)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UtFZf4erpztBvg7x5

Notable quotes from the last 3 weeks:
"The smell of smoke makes me just a little bit happy because it makes me think of Disneyland."

"You SLEEP in a DU-RAG!" (about a silk pillowcase)

"What do you call a girl cow with really tall legs? Skinny." (This 7-year-old kid who was at dinner one day.)

"I dressed up as Si from Duck Dynasty for Christmas."

"I didn't choose Spanish; Spanish chose me."

"Children are chill though because they have potential."

"Yerba mate is like drinking a leaf. It's like drinking pure nature. It gives me mental clarity. It's not a drink; it's a friend."

"How is it racist? HE'S Asian!"

"I've had good wives in my days… I've had good girlfriends. But today, there's something wrong with the people."

"English, English.
Español, español."

"There's a problem? Well then, let's just solve it."

"I wish I could just pat you on the head and give you a big burrito!"

"I'm not sunburnt because I'm not in pain."




















































































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