Sister Ellaina Vernon

April 8, 2019 WHO WAS OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW! Dear Family, We had a lesson with a returning member named Samuel. He contacted a missionary online who contacted us. We tried really hard to get someone else to come to the lesson. We finally got Brother Christensen, our ward mission leader to come. The problem then is that we would have even numbers which is against mission rules. I was really hoping and praying that their would be someone else at the Church. Thankfully Samuel brought his girlfriend, Regan, and we were able to teach both of them. They definitely felt the spirit. One day we were having dinner and we got a random phone call,  a man asked about how he could watch General Conference, so we told him. We were kind of confused on how he got our number. Apparently he has a friend who told him to call us. We ended up pulling weeds a few times this week. We helped a member and Vergie who is someone we were teaching a while ago. Vergie took us out to eat afterwards. Afte...

April 1, 2019  MOVING AND MORE MOVING We did a lot of service helping someone move. The Elders are teaching them and they wanted Sisters to help them pack. We had to stop teaching a lot of the people we are working with so we are working on finding new people to teach. A man name Samuel who was baptized a few years ago lost contact with the Church and chatted with an online missionary. He sounds like he is excited to come back to Church. We also meet with a Sister who has not been coming to Church and she came To Church with us yesterday. She moved into the area right as the boundaries were changing and she got a little lost. . We went and saw the Carlsbad Flower Fields. We did not pay to walk through them, but they were cool to see and we walked through the nursery. Lots and lots of flowers!

MARCH 25, 2019 We taught the Plan of Salvation and we thought it went pretty good. They asked a lot of questions and seemed to want to understand it. Then at the end of the lesson they said they wanted to know who Joseph Smith is. We have shared the story of the Restoration including the First Vision before with them and we were surprised that they did not remember. We went to a Relief Society Dinner. It was a favorite things night, so we were supposed to bring something cheap that we love. Both of us not wanting to spend any money grabbed a little nativity tile that was sitting in the apartment and a Book of Mormon. Everyone thought our gifts were pretty good. They were definitely the most focused on the Savior. Last week we started setting up a Lemonade stand with our district by the High School. We ask the kids a gospel question and then they get a Lemonade. Lots of the kids that are members of the Church sneak up with all the other kids. So it is a guessing game on if the ...

March 18, 2019 This week we were tracting and we talked to a lady named Andie. She was not interested in learning more and we thought that was that. Then we noticed that she had some cool pottery and we asked her about it. Her husband is an artist. She ended up giving us each a pot. We walked by her house the next day and she waved at us. We had Zone Conference this week and it was all about Repentance and how to use Facebook. So I am going to try and use Facebook more to reach out to people. We did the Musical number we were practicing last week and it went pretty good. We taught Delia and her six year old son Oliver. Oliver has been asking her what happens after we die. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and it went really good especially for teaching someone so young. We had dinner with a family last night and their kids made all the food blue for Saint Patrick's Day. They tried to make it green, but used the wrong color.

March 11, 2019 I was asked to accompany another district while they sing Nearer my God to Thee. It sounded really bad at first. We have practiced a lot with them and it is sounding a lot better. Sister Rigby is also singing with them to help. It is cool to see how much a little practice helped. Sister Rigby had a Doctor's appointment in Temecula so we spent a day going there. We helped some people move. One of the people helping move saw a lizard in their house. He was trying to get it to go outside. Then the person we were moving comes and grabs it. Turns out that is was his pet lizard from India that had escaped from its cage. We taught Eddie and Irma this week. Eddie asked us what makes it so our teaching is successful. We stated our purpose as Missionaries, "Our purpose is to invite others to come into Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, a...

March 4, 2019 At the beginning of the week we sent Sister Durfee home. She was really sad to not be a missionary anymore, because she loved it so much. Then I got my new companion Sister Rigby from Lehi Utah. She is only my second companion from Utah.   We had a cool experience tracting (this is knocking doors) this week. A lady told us her 6 year old son has been asking her about what happens after we die. She said she did not know how to answer that question and so she asked us. We were able to share with her that this life is not the end and that we can see our families again after this life. We walked Bill's dog Molly again this week. Love, Sister Vernon

February 25, 2019 This week was Sister Durfee's last week as a missionary. So we worked extra hard teaching people and inviting people to Church. Bill and his niece Kathy came to Church. He was early enough that when we got there he opened the door for us. He really enjoyed it, it is just hard for him to get to Church because of how old he is. Sister Durfee sang a version of Oh my Father at Church and I accompanied her. It was fun to do with her because she is a really good singer. My new companion will be Sister Rigby, she is from Lehi, Utah and has two transfers left so I might be her last companion as well. We had a day this week with four lessons and we were running around trying to get to all of them. We had a member that helped us to. We had a few mini exchanges with a Sister whose companion went home. We went on a college campus with her and it felt weird, but was fun. Love, Sister Vernon Us with Sister Vockel at Mira Coasta College, we went to the Oceans...