Kylie Takes California: Aaaand that is a crazy lady. (August 8, 2016)

HAPPY TWO MONTH MARK!

Hasn't hit me quite yet that I haven't actually spoken to or texted my
family in that time. Sounds sappy, but it'll make the reunion that
much sweeter when I get back.

Sooooo here in Antelope/North Highlands:

Y'all Terry is doing so well with not drinking coffee or smoking. We
made her a chart so that each day she keeps the word of wisdom, she
gets to put a sticker on it. It's the little things man. Ooh and her
surprise party went off swimmingly! The cake was all cute and said
"mission accomplished" on it. We're loosing 4 elders from our zone :/
Once our transfer devotional came around, the two leaving the field
were practically bawling. It's funny how close you get to be with
these people over the span of like 6 weeks. It helped light the fire
under my butt in that I need to always be working hard as a missionary
and taking advantage of these 18 months.

I forgot to mention that last Sunday was what we decided to call Super
Bowl Sunday or Christmas in July. We had 4 investigators come to
church and about one million less actives that were working with show
up!!!! I was just sitting there between everybody and thinking, "Yup.
This is it. This is what it should feel like. This is what we are here
to do." Sister cichos and I were sitting there grinning like fools the
whole time. Side note: totally realized within the past two weeks that
sister cichos's name is indeed spelled cichos and not chicos. I'm a
great companion.

We didn't get to see Tammy this last week :/ She's been sick and all
kinds of other things have popped up.

The B family keeps growing on me. Justin (the dad) is kind of like a
pineapple. All spikey and hard on the outside, but soft and sweet on
the inside. He can also be a little acidic in his language if ya know
what I mean. He works so hard to provide for his kids and he loves the
sister missionaries. He keeps in touch with all of the ones who have
worked with him and his family. I think that something just needs to
click with this guy. We're just trying to help them take baby steps so
they can feel the spirit's guiding influence in their lives. We're
going over this week to their house for dinner again. Be prepared for
another massive pancake picture. I'm determined to be the first sister
missionary to finish it in one sitting.

Lol Peter is doing awesome. We read the Book of Mormon with him most
of the time and help him with his understanding and English and all of
that. So anyways, he got to sharing a story from when he was a
teenager on Chuke. He mentioned something about the church there and
the missionaries. Then he said that he was baptized Protestant and
catholic before he found the Mormon church. He went on to say
something about his baptism into the Mormon church on Chuke. So sister
cichos and I looked at each other like wuuuuut. This guy was baptized
here in California like a few months ago.... Turns out, this simple,
humble man was baptized in Chuke like 20 something years ago! I guess
the church didn't have record of it, so they must have been able to
baptize him again here. Haha fun times with our not-so-recent convert.

No Cecil this week :/ Were hoping that our absence prompts him to miss
that spirit and seek for it more on his own :)

This week we were able to contact lots of people we don't normally get
to see! We had dinner with our new ward mission leader and he has the
craziest 3 little boys ever (all 4 and under). But I'm in heaven when
we get to teach little kids so life is good. Plus, his wife made the
bombest red cabbage dip stuff that we ate with tortilla chips along
with our fajitas. It sounds like I'm five years old, but I'm branching
out with my fruits and veggies! Mom would be so proud.

Ooh something else that happened is that I went on exchanges with
Sister Andersen! We got to ride around and do our thang and teach
lessons and meet some new folks. We're so goofy together it's
hilarious (but ya know, in a good missionary way :). We took pictures
with leaves bigger than our faces.

By the way, I kinda sorta chopped off my hair. It was getting too dang
hot and I needed a change. A lady in the ward who is starting to come
back to church told us that she had been a hairstylist for like 10
years. Sooooo naturally I was like, please take all my hair off. I
feel sassy with my new do.

So about the whole crazy lady title thing. We were biking to a dinner
that was on the opposite side of our area than where we live. We were
on a busy street when we came across this lady who was not looking
quite right. She was dressed all crazy and started waving her arms and
walking across this busy road! We kinda swerved around her and went
on, but then turned around to see if there was anyone like helping her
or calling to cops to come get her or something. We could only watch,
horrified as she walked back and forth and cars were swerving around
and slowing and honking. You just couldn't look away! Thankfully,
someone had called the police and they were able to corral her on the
side of the road. Crisis averted. Welcome to North Highlands errybody
:)

One thing that impressed me this week was in a lesson we had in relief
society on "Come what may and love it." It correlated with a talk by
Joseph B. Wirthlin and also with Jeffery R. Holland's talk, "An High
Priest of Good Things to Come." In Holland's talk he says, “Don’t give
up, boy. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is
help and happiness ahead--a lot of it--30 years of it now, and still
counting. You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end.
Trust God and believe in good things to come." Then I love this last
part which says, "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some
don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus
Christ, they come." It takes a lot of faith to know that we will be
blessed for choosing the right. Many times we see the fruits of our
efforts manifest almost instantly. Many other times, often when our
biggest trials come, I've found that the blessings associated with
them are farther ahead of me than I might think. And some of those
blessings won't come until heaven. But because of this gospel, I know
that they will come. Our Heavenly Father knows us so much better than
we know ourselves and sees the potential we have in the eternities. He
has a plan for us that will bring us the most happiness we could ever
imagine for ourselves. So hold fast! This life is so worth it.

Much luv,
Sister Thorum

Ps we got Cheesecake Factory this week. I repeat, we got Cheesecake
Factory this week. I was in heaven.