Two letters at once, since mom was on vacation

July 30, 2018

Hike, they do this hike at the end of every transfer. It was kind of similar to the hike in we do at home that starts at the road and you can hike up to the Reservoir except without the Reservoir at the top.

July 30, 2018

We helped a Sister in the ward prepare for a Dinner Party and then stayed for the food. It is a lot of work to put on a party like that.

Bishop Connors took us to Sushi, because Sister Mabunga loves Sushi. I ate it too and. It did not even taste too fishy.

We went on a hike this morning with almost all the missionaries in Murrieta. They do it once every six weeks. It was fun.

A couple of weeks ago Sister Mabunga told me about a bad dream she had had. In the dream a friend from the Philippines was crying and telling her about some bad things that had happened in her life.

On Thursday we were having our plans fall through and were also having bike problems. We were trying to visit a person we have been trying to teach Daleen, but she was not feeling good. As we were leaving Daleen's apartment we saw a lady named Carmina. I said hello to her and she immediately asked if we were from the Latter Day Saints Church and if Sister Mabunga was from the Philippines. We told Carmina that we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that Sister Mabunga is from the Philippines. Carmina told us that she is from the Philippines also and that she wants to get Baptized! She told us all about herself. She went to our church for about a year in the Philippines, but had family that did not want her to join our church, and she could not because she was 16. Carmina cried and told us about some things she has experienced. As she was talking Sister Mabunga started to cry, which is not normal for her. It turns out that her friend in her bad dream was Carmina not her friend she originally thought it was. We taught Carmina the Restoration and she enjoyed reading the Scriptures and listening to us explaining what they mean to us. We then taught her three times within 24 hours of meeting her and passed her off to the Young Single Adult ward missionaries. She came to church yesterday and also attended a Baptism after church. She is really excited to be a part of the church.

Love Sister Vernon

August 6, 2018

Hello Family,

Last Monday a lady showed up at the church and asked the Family History Center for help. She has met missionaries before that have offered service. They put her in contact with us because she lives in our area. We called her and she wanted help cleaning her apartment. She had an inspection for safety/clean that she needed to pass to be able to stay in her apartment. When we walked in it was a mess. She is a hoarder and her apartment had bags and bags of stuff all over. We worked on it with three of us, a member and us, for about three hours on Tuesday. We made some progress, but is was still a huge mess. The next day we brought 4 other missionaries and went back to work. I was praying that we would be able to get her Apartment acceptable. Somehow we were able to organize everything and she passed her inspection. We have visited her a couple times since and she has told us her life story and we have started teaching her. She believes we are there for a reason and that we were the ones to help her and that we "don't just talk the talk, but walk the walk".

We visited a lady who is 101 years old and lives by herself. She was super happy we visited her and she loves the missionaries.

There is a return missionary who went to Mexico named Danielle who has gone out with us a few times this past week. We visited a lady that mostly just speaks Spanish, but for some reason her records are in our English ward. She was going to send us away, but Danielle started speaking in Spanish. Her countenance changed and she let us in and we had a great visit with her. She also bore her testimony about it in sacrament meeting yesterday. It was cool because she shared about her conversion.

We hope that Daniel one of the people we are teaching will get Baptized soon. He has accepted everything we have taught he just needs to move forward and do it.

Love  Sister Vernon

PICTURE-We had an adventure trying to find someone's house. The map app said it would be a ten minute bike ride. That seemed reasonable so we started biking. As we got farther the roads kept getting less maintained and we ended up on these dirt roads. Needless to say we parked our bikes and walked to avoid flat tires. We ended up at a big modern apartment complex, after these dirt roads.