Christmas, Transfers, And 2025!!!!!

Week 43, Transfer 7
Area: Yuba City (Tierra Buena Branch)
Compañera: Hermana Park

After 4 months in Yuba and MTC time plus 2 transfers with Hermana Park, I'm staying in Yuba for transfer #7 and going for MTC plus a third transfer in the field with Hermana Park!

We both had strong impressions that we were staying. Everyone was convinced I was leaving since I've been here for 3 transfers already, but the Spirit doesn't lie, and I guess our mission president felt the same way. I am so beyond excited to stay in Yuba with Hermana Park!

Christmas this week was amazing! We made tamales with Hermana Quintero on Christmas Eve morning, and we spent Christmas Eve night with the Hernandez family in our branch and basically their entire extended family. It was so fun! You can always feel so much love and the Spirit of God in their home. It was so special, and we shared a message about loving others with Light the World. Super cool night! We slept over that night with the other sisters in the zone and had fun opening presents at their house Christmas morning!

We've been hitting that finding grind the past few weeks, and I am so excited to keep going! We're trying to find the souls who have been prepared and are ready to hear the gospel because I know they're out there. God provides a way, and every time He does, I'm amazed at how perfectly timed He does it.

A crazy miracle this week was that we (all 8 Spanish missionaries in our branch) had dinner with an inactive couple! They moved to the area a while ago and have only come to church a handful of times since. The elders somehow got in contact with them, and they invited us all to dinner. They are the sweetest couple ever, and the wife came to church this past Sunday! The husband was going to but had work, but they both have such strong desires to come back to the church. Please pray for the Ivarro family! (Also, when we passed around our meal calendar on Sunday for people to sign up to feed us dinner, Hermana Ivarro reached out her hand before we even passed it out and just did the "give it to me" hand motion and signed up for another dinner with us! Dubs member haha)

Spiritual Thought
My mom shared a cool quote with me from someone she works with, and I thought it was inspiring for the new year:

"Anything that annoys you is teaching you patience.
Anyone who abandons you is teaching you how to stand on your own two feet.
Anything that angers you is teaching you forgiveness and compassion.
Anything that has power over you is teaching you how to take your power back.
Anything you hate is teaching you unconditional love.
Anything you fear is teaching you courage to overcome your fear.
Anything you can’t control is teaching you how to let go.
Anything you want is within reach, but it’s teaching you that discipline, daily habits, and choices are what it takes to achieve it.
Anything that leads to happiness comes from your choice to stay happy and optimistic, regardless of what life brings."

We go through a lot of hard, happy, sad, and magical things every year. Life can be a rollercoaster, but like this quote shows, there's always something worthwhile to learn from it. So, whatever you go through this year, try to look for the reason behind it (both in the highs and the lows) because I promise you that God is in the details of your story. And more than anything...

Anything you go through teaches you something about the loving nature of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Que tenga una buena semana! ¡Feliz año nuevo! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

/Hermana Ellis

Fotos (also, apologies in advance, Google Photos is temporarily not letting me upload pictures, but here's the link to my past pictures):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/UtFZf4erpztBvg7x5

Notable Quotes:
Alice: "Am I Mormon yet?" (After being baptized but before getting confirmed.)
Elder Peterson: "Almost, Alice, almost."

Elder Peterson: "God has His fingerprints all over her."

Elder Pugh: "This rice tastes like that one type of instant mashed potatoes... the good instant potatoes though."

Elder Montilla (in the middle of his talk in sacrament meeting): "Si no tienes casa, casi siempre vas a morir en un huracán." Draws a house on a whiteboard he brought and relates it to covenants and firm foundations in Christ. "Con esta casa, no te matará."

Hna Genzer: "If you lose a limb, I'm in charge!"

Hna Ellis to Hna Park on transfer night: "You can't get rid of me because my mom has your mom's phone number." (Proceeds to get transfer news the next morning that we will not indeed be getting rid of each other haha.)

Elder Montilla: "I came to California to baptize and get a stuffed elephant... I haven't quite accomplished either of those yet."
Hna Park: "Well... I have accomplished both!"

Sister Tarwater: "Mi español es muy poquito... uno, dos, tres, taco, burrito, tostado."






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