Service anyone?

Well, from the title of this email, maybe you can tell that we did a lot of service this week!! And it was so much fun!! But more on that later!

First I want to start off by saying thank you for the letters from Jamie Webb, Tasha Wheatley, and Celeste Hernandez!! I loved each of them! :)

Ok, now to get started on what happened during the week. On Monday the 20th, that was Pday! And it was also Elder Williamson's birthday! His mom sent him a cake and we were going to make it for him but we didn't get it so sadly there was no cake. BUT we did go bowling and Sister Davidson and I went to the .99 cent store and bought him a couple things to make it good! And we had tons of fun!

Then that night Sister Davidson and I drove to Glendora for exchanges. Sister Davidson was going with Sister Ackley and Sister Butler was coming to Chino Hills with me.

Then Tuesday the 21st, the Elders asked us if we were available to do some service for someone in their ward who is moving to Utah. So we went and helped them. When we got to Sister Lamping's and the Elders knocked on the door, you should have seen her face when 8 missionaries were standing there. It looked like she was about to cry! She was so beyond thankful that we were there. She had a lot of stuff in her home! Technically she is a hoarder (she was even on the TLC series Hoarders...) But to me, it wasn't as bad as some of the houses they had on that show. And what Sister Butler and I did there was wrap pictures. We probably wrapped about 20 big pictures that day! And it was fun!! Who knew wrapping pictures would be fun! But I have to say thanks to dad for teaching me in some way or another on how to wrap breakables. They couldn't believe how good of a job we did wrapping those pictures! So thanks dad :) haha

Then that night we went to meet with Rose and we read section 138 in the Doctrine and Covenants and we talked about life after death. It was a very good lesson! And she was really interested and loved it!

Then on Wednesday the 22nd, Sister Davidson and I met up with Sister Lancaster for lunch! We just love Sister Lancaster. We always have so much fun when we go to lunch together! She is hilarious!!!! Then, after that, the Elders asked again if we could go help with packing even more stuff at Sister Lamping's home. So we did!

Not much happened on Thursday the 23rd. Except for that after District Meeting, we met up with Elder Kasteler from the mission office to look at the house that we would be living in.

Then Friday the 24th, Sister Davidson and I had to pack our own stuff up so that we could move on Saturday. So we spent all morning doing that. Then the Elders called and said that Sister Lamping wanted to take all of us out to lunch for helping her pack. So we all met at Red Robin and that was tons of fun! Then we went back to Sister Lamping's house to do some more packing (see, lots of service this week).

After dinner that night, we met Elder and Sister Kasteler at our new place for them to drop off a bed. Then we met with Rose and then waited for the Elders to come to the church. Sister Davidson was having a hard couple days and she didn't feel at first that she should ask for a blessing but after meeting with Rose, I turned to her and I asked if she felt ready for a blessing and she said yes. Elder Lindsay gave her a blessing and it was really really amazing!!! Everything that Sister Davidson and I had been talking about that day that she was struggling with, was mentioned in the blessing. And wow! The Spirit was so strong!

Then Saturday was moving day. We moved all our stuff to the front room and we were just a little worried. We asked the Elders to come and help us so that we weren't taking too many trips back to the house and they asked if they needed to go get the mission truck from Arcadia, but we said no. They walked in and laughed and said, "I thought you didn't need the truck?!" But, we didn't! We got it all in our cars! We were so proud ;) So we went to our new home and dropped everything off and then unpacked and got situated. Then we went back to Diamond Bar and did some more service because the truck to move Sister Lamping's stuff was coming today and there was still so much that needed to be done! I think the best part about helping at Sister Lamping's is that her daughter has a friend who is not a member and we got to talk to her a ton! And we got to talk to her a lot about a ton of different things that we believe. The Elders have been working with her and her boyfriend so it was just nice to talk to her a little too. And we had so much fun! She is hilarious!!!!

Not much happened yesterday (Sunday the 26th). Except for that all of church was just amazing!!! The Spirit was so strong throughout all three meetings! Especially Relief Society! We had a lesson on the talk given by Elder Russel M. Nelson from the April 2012 General Conference called "Thanks Be to God." And it was an amazing lesson!!! The second Sister Scoll said which talk she was teaching from, I just got this overwhelming feeling of gratitude for all my blessings! I started thinking about the small things and the big things. I just wanted to cry because I felt so blessed! It is amazing! And she had each of us write one thing on a note card what we are thankful for and then she handed them out to us so that we all received a different one. And everything that people mentioned, I just thought of all the reasons why I'm thankful for each thing they said, from education to modern technology to music to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was realizing how much I really am grateful for things. I've just been truly blessed in my life! There is so much that I have been given and I know that I have and continue to not thank Heavenly Father for things but I'm trying to improve each and every day. I have grown so much on my mission, realizing not only the big things, but the small things as well.

Well, that's about all that happened this week. Not a lot happened but it was good! It was a very enjoyable week. But it was also very long! So I'm glad that Monday is here and we had a day to relax a little. I hope that things are going well back in good ol' Utah! Mom, Sister Davidson and I were surprised to open those pictures of you and her family haha That's pretty dang cool!

Well, time to go write to President Becerra, so I better run! Love you all! Thanks for all the prayers! I really can feel them!

Until next week...

Love Sister Rachel