Hi Everyone!

 

Ok so this has been a whole week of new things and a bit of a culture shock!!!!

 

The ward here in Torrance is great! There are a lot of old people! But they too are excited about missionary work.

Sister Hart is AMAZING! She is so sweet. I'm supposed to be trainging her, but I feel like she's training me. I've learned so much from her already. She is waiting for her visa and so she won't be her forever, which makes me sad, but she's going to school in Utah, so we'll see each other. Oh she is from Iowa, and actually used to live her in the Torrance 1st ward when she was 10! So she knows some of the members! Crazy huh?!

 

Ok so we have this Sister named Marsha Wolper. She's old, and apparently we go to her house every Friday and Saturday to help get her mail, take out the trash, and stuff like that. She is less active. So we went on Friday and it was one of the most memorable expireneces. First off, she was shcoked to see Sisters and not elders. Second, she was a little annoyed that we came at the time we came. She introduced us to her cat Buttercup about 6 times. Her apartment has one of the most interesting smells. She explained that she has to drink coffe for her asthma and that we shouldn't get offended by it. I had to watch her take her Insulin shot. We helped her get lds.org as one of her favortites on her internet page. She told us that she is scared of death. We made her kool-aid, summerized a medical perscription for her, fixed light bulbs, and listened to a lot of great stoies about her friend Linda who passed away last year. So Sister Wolper is one of the most intersting people I've ever met, and when we left Friday, we were both a little scared to go back Saturday. But we did. and we did a lot of the same things we had done Friday. But then we watched a devotional that she like by Elaine S Dalton.  She loved talkling about how special we are to God. At the end she said our prayer for us (she made us all hold hands for the prayer) and she said some of the sweetest things I've ever heard. she was so sincere. She asked God to bless us with all the things that we needed, and that people would be able to look at us and see the difference and say, why are they different, I want what they have. She prayed for us to not feel like coming to her house was a burden, but that maybe we might actually enjoy talking to her.

 Both me and sister Hart walked out feeling glad that we could help her. It meant so much to her that we had come, and we we're grateful for the opportunity to serve.

 

I feel like we are going to have a lot of moments like that throughout this transfer. There are so many people out there who have it worse than we do. We need to look outside ourselves and think of others. My bishop in the YSA ward would always say "if you are thinking your life is hard, if you can't pay the bills, or can't find a job, or feeling sorry for yourself,.. get over it. Get out of yourelf and serve others."

It's so true. If we ever think we've got it hard, just forget about yourself and serve others, it will fix any thought's of "poor me" quicker than anything else. There is so much gratification and love that comes from serving others. So give it a try this week... and forever :)

 

I love you all so much! We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives! So get out and share it with someone! I LOVE YOU THE MOST!!!!!

 

p.s. We had an old guy at church yesterday say, we could get the lakers basketball team to come and do a practice at our church building so that people will come to the church to find out more about it. haha I love the elderly :)

 

kiera

 

 

District Leaders in Inglewood

 

Elder Bird and Elder Baich

Zone Leaders

Elder Cisneros

 

Billy and Holika

 

Sister Lomu and Rudy

Nov 11

Hi everyone,

I know I told you I wouldn't be on until tomorrow, but that got changed! 

So transfers... I am leaving again.

I am going to Torrence. My new comp is sister Hart, I am finishing her training, and I'm whitewashing.... and i'm going English. 

My heart kind of sunk when I heard English, and training and whitewashing haha. it's going to be very different. But I'm just going to try and do my best and try to find out why the Lord wants me there. 

As far as this week, We had some really incredible lessons with less actives. I really feel like this is a huge reason of why I'm on a mission. I don't know why, but I keep having these amazing connections with less actives, and they have changed my life. 

Holika is doing so great!!!! We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week, and by the end of it, He was basically bearing his testimony about the principal of repentance. It was an incredible lesson, we are hoping to set a date wit him tonight. 

We also saw Billy this week to give a recent convert lesson, and he is just doing awesome! the Word of wisdom is going great and has not been a problem since he decided to quit before his baptism. His testimony is so strong and he loves being a member of the Church!

Cool news. Our mission just opened to teach and preach the gospel in Farsi. Farsi is the language spoken by the people who live Iran. there are only two missions in the world that teach the gospel in Farsi. There are half a million people just in our little mission that speak Farsi. 

I was so over whelmed when I heard at our training meeting. The spirit was so strong. It just strengthened my testimony that the Lords work is moving forward and spreading to all nations, and  tongues! What a huge blessing!

I am so grateful to be serving here at thing time. I love my mission!!!

I love you all so much! Thank you for everything!

kiera lynn

.

The Ramierz family! They came and visited

us in Utah and brought us a box from Kiera!

They said she was an amazing missionary and

reassured me that she is happy and well:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sister Uele and Sister Wright

Sister Wright walked to the edge of her zone

on her birthday and found the

beach!! Happy day:)

 

Hey everyone!

Wow so this week was full of a lot of things. Some good, some... not so good. 

To start, last monday we were playing sports, I was playing soccer... hurt my knee and ankle. Not so good. But I walked it off the best I could, and then we played football and guess who scored two touchdowns and got tackled to the ground by her companion... ME. Haha it was a perfect pass thrown by Quarterback Beecher, I caught it, made flag run into the end zone and then, after the play was over, my companion jumped on me and took me to the ground!!! the elders got a pretty good laugh out of it, I laughed too :) It was pretty funny, but I do have a big bruise on my arm... she's a rugby player. :)

Tuesday, We had our interview with Elder Beecher and Billy for his baptism. We had decided before hand that we were going to wait another week, so that Billy could be off of smoking for a bit longer. So when they came out, they both seemed good, and it seemed to go great. But then when I asked Billy about it, he said he thinks he can do it this week. But we really thought he needed to wait. SO he starts talking to sister Uele in Tongan about it, and elder Beecher and Elder Nelson started talking to me in spanish about it. Lets just say, it was a very confusing hour, and it ended with us going into another room with Billy and Tina and kneeling down and praying about it. And after the prayer, we got up, and all knew and felt that he could do it this week. So BILLY GOT BAPTIZED YESTERDAY! 

There were so many people there, and they were ALL Tongan! So it was big, and loud, and yes after the baptism there was a feast, complete with a full roasted pig. It was a party. But everything went great. Billy bore his testimony after and talked about the changes he's gone through and how when he came up out of the water, he felt different, he knows this is the right path. 

It was so incredible to hear. After there was another baptism from our spanish ward from elder Beecher and elder Nelson. We did the missionary moment for that baptism, then went back to the party :) It was an awesome day :)

Sister Uele, Billy, Tina, Sister Wright

 

 

Bishop Fie'aki, Sister Uele, Billy, Sister Wright

Well I've written way to much. But I love you all so much! Thanks for everything. and Ty and avery, thank you for your letters!!! I will write back soon. love you tons!!

kiera lynn

October 20th, 2013

 

 

Hey everyone!

Ok so this week was kinda of awesome! First off... Joseph got baptized! I got to go back up to Hollywood and be there for the baptism. It was the best feeling in the world. He was so happy and the spirit was there so strong. Me, Sister Warner and Elder Roberts and his comp sang, "If the Savior stood beside me." it was so beautiful. Everything went so well. It was an awesome experience. And we found out that Josephs dad, is taking the lessons from the missionaries!!!! So awesome. And I know Jackie will happen soon. She's just gotta convince Walter to marry her :)

Billy was also incredible. His family kicked him out, and he is sleeping in the car. They are West Sanili, which is a christian church in Tonga, and they are not happy that he is getting baptized. He's really struggled with it. In our lesson yesterday, we started crying and just walked out. But when he came back in, he told us everything that was going on, but how he knows this is what he needs to do. He says he owes everything to Tina, and that he knows she's supposed to be his eternal companion. It was such an awesome lesson. He is very strong and has been a great example for me.

We taught Ariel this week. She is also form YSA. She was raised with no concept of God, and is a physics major. So she has a lot of deep questions and just wants straight up answers. She doesn't really get the faith part, its hard for her to believe in something she can't have proof of. But we are working with her. :)

We also saw Hno Flores twice this week. He is just like hno. Marroquin. He's been taught for years, but won't get baptized. But we decided to just go over for 20 minutes three times a week and read the book of mormon with him, cause he won't read on his own. He doesn't believe in the 1st vision. So we are going to try this and see how it goes.

But ya, I'm loving my area more and more, I just really miss my bike!!!!! But it's ok, i'm learning to eat better.... kinda. I've actually lost weight if you can believe that. 

But I love you all tons. Thanks for everything you do for me! I love you the most!

kiera 

October 14th, 2013

Hi Everyone,

Ok well this last week was really good. Had some rough spots, but was good.

So to start out. On my birthday (last Tuesday) It was a normal day, trying to track down less actives and what not. But to do that, we went to the very edge of our area which is.... the beach!!!!!! It was so beautiful!!! So I got to go to the Beach for my birthday!!!! Then we went to the Viarruel's (a couple who are recent converts of about 5 weeks) for dinner. But When I walked in, the Vasquez family was there, the Cruz family, Ernesto, and Elder Beecher and Elder Nelson!! They had a party for me! haha I was so surprised! We started with a little FHE lesson watching a mormon message, then ate. And they made my favorite, tacos de papa!!! they were so good! Then they brought out this cake that had "Happy Birhtday Sister Wright" written on it! It was Three layers, tres leches, chocolate, and flan. SO GOOD! Then each of the families had gotten me a present! I got some T-shirts, body spray, lotion, chocolates and more. They best gift was from Elder Beecher and Elder Nelson tho. They got me, dark chocolate, peanut butter M&M's, dog stickers, jesus stickers, "I love my mission" stickers, candy corn, a mormon.org card, trail mix, cookies, something from their 72 hour kit, an Altoids can with crayons in it, tissues that say "you had me at achoo", aftershave, and a card. I. was. DYING. haha so was everyone else. It was so funny. And the card really was so sweet :) So I had an amazing birthday! I am so grateful for the amazing people that are here. They hardly know me, but were so loving. It meant so much to me.

Ok so cool story. We taught Billy and Tina this week again and we taught the Word of Wisdom. Both of them have problems with smoking and Billy drinks too. So we committed them thursday night. Then we met with them after church yesterday. we followed up on how everything was going, and Billy told us this. " After our lesson with you guys thursday, we went to a BBQ with a bunch of friends and there was drinking of course. And evryone kept offering me a drink, and kept offering and kept offering. I got really annoyed and irritated at how hard it was to keep saying no over and over again. And again, someone offered me a drink, and I hesitated. I looked at Tina, looked at the drink, back at Tina, then thought of the missionaries. and I turned it down. Right after I turned it down, I felt this little feeling of peace. and knew I had made the right choice."

So amazing right!!! Billy is incredible. He wan't to be baptized so bad. He is already a member. He comes to FHE, church, and loves learning. I'm feel so blessed to know both of them. 

Another cool story. We called a bunch of people in our area book this last week. Less actives, formers, and investigators, just trying to update everything. And we called this one Tongan guy, a former, his name is Leka. He answered but said he was busy and would call us back later. But he didn't of course :) but guess who came to church on sunday..... Leka!  We didn't know what he looked like, so we didn't say anything to him all of sacrament of sunday school, we thought he was a friend of Rudy's. So he talked to the old branch president and said "I don't think the sisters know who I am". so the branch pres came and got us and we met him. haha we set up a time to meet with him this week. he wants to learn more. It was so crazy, but so incredible. 

Ok last thing.... Joseph is getting baptized this coming saturday. so excited!!!! I guess his dad came up from Glendale, and met with the sisters and signed the paper! And joseph wants me to sing at his baptism, so I get to go back!

Well family I love you tons. I miss you a lot! I pray for you every night. Before you know it, we'll all be back home together, can we believe It's already October!! So crazy. Well love you tons!

kiera lynn