Thankful for Pepto-Bismol and dresses with pockets!

Hola todos!!!!! This week was soooo fun and such an adventure! 

My beautiful comp and I:

Pepto-bismol was a life saver this past wednesday. We were eating at a members house and I all of a sudden felt soooo sick. I got up to go to the bathroom and ended up just barely making it to the bathroom before I threw up. It was AWFUL. I felt so out of it and I thought I was actually dying. I guess I was in the bathroom for a while because my companion had to come find me haha whoops. The lady we were eating with is like our mom and she gave me all the pepto-bismol that would fit in my pocket. She was so sweet about it. I guess my body is still not used to all the beans and rice and tortillas it has been fed. We went home for the rest of the evening haha. I have started running in the mornings here because all of the tortillas and rice and beans I get fed is crazy.

THANKSGIVING!! Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite American Holidays. We ate thanksgiving dinner with a family that knows my family in New Zealand. It was really cool to talk to them and be able to talk about things that I grew up with. (MUM WE TALKED ABOUT SHORTLAND STREET AND MCLEOD'S DAUGHTERS!!!). They were really cool and it was fun to be around them. I look like I could be her daughter apparently. Her husband is from Iraq and his family was there too. Very different cultures to be mixed but very fun. I had prime rib for dinner too. It was a little rare for me but I think Marlowe and dad would have loved it.I actually missed Marlowe's stuffing this year. I had two different types and it was not as good. The food was amazing and my comp and I thought we were going to explode, but good thing we wore dresses without waistbands hehe.

 We had a dinner with a member this week and she would not stop making tortillas. I couldn't handle anymore so when she wasn't looking I grabbed some and wrapped them in napkins and shoved them in my pockets. My comp did the same thing BUT she didn't have pockets so we did a little pass off in the middle of the prayer. We both about lost it during the prayer but we managed to keep it together until we left.
Us and our tortillas we shoved in our pockets!

Another lady makes us tamales every week now and brings them to church so we have had lunch every Sunday. Very sweet of her but man she brings us a lot.

This week we have been really trying to find people to teach. It has been a little harder because the sunsets at like 4:30pm and no one wants to talk to us when it's dark :(. We found two people that had genuine interest and one guy that we handed to the English elders. It's the best feeling when people want to hear more and make time for you to come back. Especially when you have had so many people tell you they aren't interested. So we are excited to start teaching them this week!! Saturday night we had been out all day and were exhausted and a little discouraged because no one wanted to talk to us haha so we decided that we were going to make cookies for a member that has been going through a hard time and write a little note for her telling her how grateful we are for her. We figured that since we were only going to drop them off at her door and run that we could just wear our flip flops. BIG MISTAKE. I knocked on her door and we started running away. I got to the bottom of her drive way and went to turn and totally lost my flip flops in the middle of it. But I didn't want her to catch us so I just kept running. We hid behind a truck and we waited for a long time. Me and my comp were DYING of laughter. So much so that she totally heard us. When she saw what had happened she started laughing so hard that she had to run inside to go to the bathroom so she wouldn't pee her pants. It was super nice to be laughing super hard (and for those of you who know my laugh, you know dang well that I was wheezing haha) after such a bummy day.
Cool frijoles!

Yesterday Quinn and Ellen came and saw me!!!! For those of you who don't know who that is, it's my BFFs Sister and brother in law!! The Gregoires are basically my second family. But it was so nice to see them and and catch up with them. They have been such a blessing in my life and I am SO grateful for them!! Shout out the Gregoire fam for kickstarting Christmas ❤

Anyways, this week was so fun and me and my comp are having such a good time. The mission has taught me a lot and made me realize that I can do things that I never thought possible, like speak Spanish. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that one day I would be able to even understand Spanish past the point of "Hola". It has taught me that with the help of Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost, nothing is impossible. Learning to rely on the Holy Ghost has been quite the process and I am still learning to, but it has blessed me so much.

I hope you all have a good week this week!!! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!!
The only tree that knows it's the end of November!!

If it's spicy going in, it's spicy coming out

Hola everyone!!!!

This week has been sooo fun and full of so many amazing experiences. Time is flying by but I guess that's what happens when you're having fun! San Diego is getting "cold" and by cold I mean below 70 degrees sometimes hahaha. I LOVE the sun and the warmer weather!!

This week Hermana Batchelor and I had so much fun. On Wednesday we did a little bit of cleaning in the apartment and rearranged the rooms because we now only have the 2 of us instead of 3. We have a lot of space now and it has been great haha.

My comp and I, it's black and white because she wanted to hide how grown out her hair was and LOOK I did my hair for once, haven't done it since the first week in the MTC haha.

And another selfie.

On Thursday we had a meeting with the bishop and the other elders in our ward. He is so great!! He is really trying to get the ward to be better member missionaries and acknowledged that our ward mission leader was crazy and hinted that he might be replaced soon. Don't get me wrong, Hermano Dantes is really nice but is loco fo sure so a change would be nice! We went finding later in the afternoon and found  lady that wanted us to come back!! We were so excited! Finding people has been really hard lately so that was really fun for us.

FRIDAY!!! Friday by far was my favorite day this week!! We went to La Jolla for a doctors appointment for my comp and on the way there we get a call from an 801 number.. Utah!! We answer it and it's TINA GREGOIRE!! For those of you who don't know, Tina is my best friends mom and basically another mom to me too haha. She was in San Diego and we happened to be pretty close to each other. So we totally met up for lunch and it was SO fun!! I had a blast just talking and catching up! After we said bye (sad face), Hermana Batchelor and I went to an appointment with Karen. Karen is still progressing so well, we just need her to come to church. She has a car now and should be able to make it this Sunday, so fingers, toes, legs, arms, eyes, lungs, and everything crossed that it works out. We then had an appointment with a referral that we have been trying to meet up with for so long. It finally worked out and we went and saw her. She is totally excited about learning more and really loved the scriptures that we read together from the Book of Mormon. It is sometimes kind of nerve racking to bring up the Book Of Mormon to Catholics BUT I love talking about it and bearing my testimony of it. It is such a powerful book!!

Last night, we had dinner and FHE with the Gomez family and a set of elders from our ward. She made these things called "Poppers". Basically it is a whole Jelepeno wrapped in bacon. They said if we could finish 3 of them, they would give us our own little thing of ice cream. Challenge accepted and accomplished. My comp and I and the elders all downed the poppers and got our ice cream hehe. I definitely just stuck my lips in the ice cream for a good solid 3 minutes. They were on FIRE. But just like my subject heading says.. "if it's spicy going in, it's spicy coming out"..... Yikes.

Selfies in the laundromat with Lily and Lulu, we have been helping they're mom out with household stuff and this week it was laundry!!

Anyways, I had a blast this past week and I am looking forward to this next week!!! I love you all and I really appreciate all of your emails! Till next week!!

Changes!

Hola everyone!! How is everyone doing?! 

This week my email will be short because I am tired hahah sorry. Tranfsers were today and one of my trainers left to go to Chula Vista. Sad but I am super excited for this next transfer with Sister Batchelor!! She is amazing and we definitely are like the same person and it's so fun!! 

Last night as comps- 

We got to do some service on a members farm and it was so fun. It is definitely the most interesting farm I have seen hahaha. But the family is crazy but crazy in a good way and they are so funny. They told my comp and I that they're going to kill a pig for us so we can see it.. yay.. hahaha. I will attach a photo of the pig that will be sacrificed haha. 

And... here is the best Christmas ornament ever!

Anyways, we have Noche de la Capilla tonight and need to plan a lesson and a game so I need to get going!!! I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!! 

Bring on the heat!

Holaaaa todos!! 

This email will definitely be short this week, I've been at the beach and the pier all day soooo I don't really have time!! 

I take a lot of pictures of sunsets. They are just beautiful!

My spice tolerance this week has definitely been put to the test. A member thought I was crying at a dinner appointment and was sad but really my eyes were just watering because the spice was so intense. I don't even know what I was eating. After a while I couldn't even taste it because my mouth was numb hahaha whoops. 

Hermana Bunker and I (we were on transfers) with Hermano Ibarro.

Hermano Ibarro has a lost of every missionary he has fed. When he gets to 200 he is going to invite our mission President over for food. I was number 181 :))) HE WAS THE CUTEST! 

This week was full of so many teaching appointments and my Spanish was definitely pushed to the max. It's been so great to be able to finally start having genuine conversations with people and not have to have them repeat a million times haha. 

We did a trunk or treat on Halloween with the ward and it was so fun. One of the members wanted to do my make up like "Dia de Los Muertos" And it was so fun. Everyone at the trunk or treat loved it and I've now been adopted by them as Mexican hahaha mission accomplished😎. 

I love these people sooo much. I am so grateful that Hevaenly Father sent me here and made these people a part of my plan. I've already made such good relationships here and I am in LOVE with my mission!!! 

Hopefully next week I'll have more time to write! But I love you all and hope you are all doing so great!! 

-Hermana Wolferstan

Door knocking is the best

Hola todos!!! 

This week has been so fun and I hope you are all having as much fun as I am!! 

Things are getting spooky over here because of Halloween and it's SO fun (for the most part). Our zone leaders have been telling us some pretty spooky stories, which probably hasn't been too good for me because I've nightmares for a couple nights! Whoops haha. But a lot of the people that we teach and that are in our ward don't celebrate Halloween, they celebrate Dia de Los Muertos, and Dia de Los Angeles. We're really excited to see how they celebrate that and how different it will be from Halloween. 

It's such a struggle to know what the write about because so much happens, so I'll just write about my favorite day this week! 

My favorite day this week was definitely Saturday. We went door knocking in a few trailer parks. It was a really beautiful day so we stopped to take a photo. All of a sudden we hear "is everything okay out here?" And we look around and find this guy with just his head sticking out of his door. We said yeah and told him who we were and what we were doing and his response was "oh yeah I love talking about Jesus, you can come into my house ANYTIME, here come on in, BUT WAIT, I've gotta get clothes on, I'm naked". We just stood a little back from his door, a little shocked and were debating if we should run, laugh, cry, or all three. We decided to stay and we talked to him in his drive way and oh boy, that conversation was hillarious. He offered us beer, swore like a sailor and told us we were his angels. We couldn't stop laughing. It was so funny. We gave him a Book of Mormon and got his info and left. We will definitely be passing him along to the elders haha. Another funny story from that same trailer park: we were knocking on this one door and only the screen door was closed so we could see in. We knocked and about 5 seconds later my trainer farts so loudly. The door was open so people inside definitely heard and we had to run away before anyone came to the door because we were dying of laughter. 

This was the prettiest little trailer park home-

We have the best of fun knocking doors, and we find so many different kinds of people. It's so fun to be able to talk to people from all kinds of backgrounds, and I love every single one of them. It sounds weird saying that but I really do. I've already learned so much in the short time that I've been out here and I love it. Missions are the best!! 

Anyways, Thank you for all of your emails and support! It really means a lot to me! I love you all and hope that you all have a spooky halloween!!! 

-Hermana Wolferstan 

Hispanic wedding receptions are CRAZY!

HOLA TODOS!!!

Another great week full of crazy adventures and sunshine. Last Tuesday we went to a trampoline park with a bunch of elders and sisters and it was so much fun. I guess a member owns the place and so missionaries get in for free whoot whoot! We were there for like 4 hours so we slept good that night haha!

Every Wednesday we have been having Book of Mormon class with an older couple in the ward, Ralph y Juanita. We read about 2-3 chapters and then talk about it. It's been super nice and has been really helping me with my Spanish, especially pronunciation. Ralph is trying to improve his English because he doesn't really speak any so he reads in English, and it helps me to be more comfortable reading in Spanish because he understands the struggle of learning a new language. We love reading with them, especially since they have two cute little doggies hehe.

We met again with Karen this week and she is so awesome. She had a really tough week with her baby but she told us that she has started reading the Book of Mormon in the morning before Sally wakes up and she is amazed at how much it has been changing her attitude. She feels like the Book of Mormon was written just for her because everything seems to relate to her. I LOVE that! It's so amazing that a book written in a totally different time period can help so many different people today with anything. It really is the word of God and another testament of Jesus Christ. I love it so much. Reading it in Spanish has really made me focus on the words and what they're really trying to say. So amazing.

Saturday was by far the best day this week! We went to a birthday party at the chapel which ended up being such a great opportunity for missionary work. There was a group of boys (seniors in highschool) and they were doing a high school project where they had to pick one religion and find more out about it. They picked "mormonism" haha cute. But they were from a nondenominational Christian church and asked some really good questions. They were really respectful and it was really cool to have a conversation about their beliefs. After the birthday party we went door knocking. We had only knocked 3 doors when my trainor turned to the side and threw up. She threw up like 4 more times on the way to the car so we decided to go home. She laid down for a while, but she felt great when she woke up. That night we had a wedding reception for a couple in our ward, Ricardo and Vanessa and oh my gosh. It was nuts. We had so much fun. There was "Mexican line dancing" and horchata galore. So much fun.

We had my first presidents devotional on Sunday and it was all in Spanish. It was so fun to listen to the testimonies of some of the recent converts and hear their different conversion stories. The Spanish speaking sisters did a musical number. We sang "Señor, te necesito" or "I need thee every hour". Some of the members of our ward came to watch us sing which was super sweet of them!

I love all of the members in the ward. They are really patient with me and my broken Spanish haha and they all try and help me when I don't know exactly how to say something. All of the women tell us that they are our temporary mom's which makes being here really fun. I'm loving every single second of my mission. Sorry for the semi long email but honestly it could be longer. Too many good things happen to write about. Till next week!!

Photos-

My companions and I with a cheesecake that one of our investigators made us! (Yes I'm already in pjs while they're still in dresses..)




Very happy girl, because Vegemite!




The beach



Our evening conversations always end up being on one bed bc our zone leaders tell us spooky stories so we get scared haha



Thank you for all the emails, I really appreciate them😊


Love you all!
- Hermana Wolferstan

Conquering my lactose intolerance, one quesadilla at a time

Hola todos!!

This week has been amazing and so fun. I've honestly lost track of how many cheese quesadillas I've eaten (also I'm not conquering the lactose intolerance, it's conquering me haha) but I love quesadillas so much, yikes.

This email is going to be short because I don't have a lot of time left sorry haha, I'll just write about my favorite parts of the week!

This week we were able to meet with one of the ladies that we're teaching. Her name is Karen and has a little baby girl named Sally. It's been kind of hard to meet with her because Sally was born premature and they have a lot of doctors appointments. But on Monday we committed her to baptism on January 5th!! She needs to get married to her boyfriend in order to get baptized but she said that she's going to propose to him so they can get married faster and so she can be baptized faster haha she is SO cute!! But we are so excited to continue teaching her and getting to know Her!

This week for service we harvested willows and cottonwood along the San Diego river bank. It was really fun but there was a homeless camp in the bushes and the homeless people were day drunk and trying to hug us haha so that was really fun. We get to go help re- plant them in a few weeks so we're super excited about that!



On Saturday the Oteo family took us to chick fill a. The Oteo's are a younger family in our ward and are so fun. They have two little boys and they are adorable. They're seriously the best. They love taking us to get ice cream so it's been really great with them hahaha! I love them so much!



That night, one of my companions got really sick and she ended up falling asleep on the living room floor. My other companion and I felt bad so we dragged our blankets out into the living room and slept on the floor too. Definitely wasn't our best night of sleep haha.



Sunday!! Sunday was so fun! I finally got to meet the whole ward! We had ward council in the morning and it was all in Spanish and I was completely lost, so hopefully my Spanish improves haha. But everyone in the ward is so nice and very patient with me and my Spanish. I LOVE the Hispanic people so much. We also had Mayra come to church with her whole family (the Ambriz family). They've been inactive for a while so hopefully they keep coming!!

Our zone leaders



I've also eaten so really interesting food this week too: cactus bulb/flower things, pozole, and things I don't even know what they are. My tastebuds are a little confused sometimes haha.



Well I don't have a ton of time left so that's it for this week! I am SO excited for this next week! I love being a missionary so much, in just the two weeks that I have been out here I have learned, experienced, and felt so much. The spirit is definitely helping me every step of the way and I am so grateful. Small miracles occur everyday and I can see God's hand in my life constantly. I love you all and I hope you all have an amazing week!

-Hermana Wolferstan

Additional photos

Elder Boeree and I (we were in the same ward in Australia and we were in the MTC together WHAT, crazy cool feeling) also yeah he's like more than 2 1/2 feet taller than me. It's been like that for a while haha

Flat tire right before conference!!




Conference-

In San Diego!

HOLAA TODOS FROM SAN DIEGO!

This week has been filled with so much. Leaving the MTC last Tuesday was so bitter sweet. I had such an amazing district, companion and zone and it was weird saying bye. But I am SO excited to be in California and my MTC comp and one of the elders from my district came to San Diego also, so that fun!

I am already so in love with my mission: I can wear birkenstocks!! Jack Johnson is on the approved music list😍 there are palm trees everywhere and the sun is always shining.



My mission President and his wife are the sweetest and I love them so much already. They are really down to earth and they feel like my second parents.



The people here are sooo nice. I may not always be able to understand everything they're saying but they're really patient and repeat things for me. They love my Australian Spanish accent (apparently I do have one haha) and they call me "Hermana Loba" or in English "Sister Wolf" because Wolferstan is too hard.

I'm in a trio and I loooove my companions. They're Hermana Batchelor and Hermana Francis. They've both been out for 8 months and are total pros. They help me A LOT with the language.





I'm currently in the Santee and the El Cajon area so not super close to the coast but I love it.

On Wednesday we went to the mission home and did some training. Its so beautiful and the living room is where the interviews for "The Distrcict 2" were filmed (fun little fact). You can actually see mexico from the backyard too.

On thursday we all met at the Mormon Batallion center in old town and took a tour and did some training. It was really fun but let's just say I am really glad I wasn't called there haha. After that we went tracting in a few trailer parks and contacted a few people. It was really fun but kind of weird haha.

Dinner: oh my gosh haha. It was interesting. We went to a part member families house for dinner (the Gontes's) and just the mom and daughter and granddaughter were there. They were the sweetest people ever. I wasn't feeling really hungry in the first place because we ate lunch late. For dinner we had molé with corn tortillas, chicken, avocado, and cheese. It's a really interesting flavor. It's basically chocolate sauce haha. I only got half way through when I felt like I was going to be sick. I looked over at my one of my companions and she couldn't finish it either so that made me feel a lot better. Hopefully I get used to it because apparently it's served a lot. Other dinners have been really good but also really spicy for me. One dinner my lips went numb because it was so spicy haha but I am slowly building my tolerance! The burritos here are really good, especially from Los Chavos. I'll attach a photo of one below haha they're HUGE.



This week we have been focusing on reactivating members and teaching part member families. They're are a lot of recent converts that have become inactive so we have been visiting them a lot. One family that we've spent a lot of time with this week is the Ambriz family. The mom is from El Salvador. She has two daughters and a 3 month old son! So cute! We watched like 3/4 Conference sessions with them and they really loved it. They said that they were really grateful for President Nelson and for the church and are going to start reading the Book of Mormon as a family together which made us super happy. She makes reallyyyyy spicy food haha (but really good). This is Lily Ambriz.



We went to dinner on Sunday at the Siebach's house, they're all members. The mom is from mexico and the dad served a Spanish speaking mission in Florida. But they both speak perfect English which was really nice. They also made hotdogs and Hamburgers which my intestines were very grateful for.

We also had the opportunity to go to the San Diego temple this morning for pday. It was so beautiful. Favorite temple by far.






Overall I had a really good week and I am loving San Diego (Santee/El Cajon) and the people here.

I am SO grateful for the opportunity I have to be here for the next little bit of my life. I am so happy that Heavenly Father put me in this mission, I already feel so at home after just one week. I am very grateful for the opportunity we had to listen to the prophets and apostles thus weekend and I know that President Nelson is the prophet. I loved when he explained the importance of not abbreviating the name of the church. This is Christ's church and it is an honor to be able to be a representative of Him. I love my savior and my Heavenly Father so much.

More Photos-

Arriving in San Diego





I love you all! Thank you for all of your emails!

- Hermana Wolferstan

P.S. My new address is:
7404 Armstrong Place, San Diego, CA 9211 :)

Sister Training Leader Calling- MTC

Dear Sister WOLFERSTAN,

Congratulations on your assignment to serve as "Sister Training Leader." Through your example of Christ-like living and appropriate missionary behavior, you will be an inspiration and role model for the sisters in your branch. As you seek to "Become as He is" you will learn how to see the other sisters through the Lord's eyes.

May you be guided by the spirit in your stewardship as you reach out to those who may need your attention and love. Please learn how to minster to the one, as you will have some sisters that need to be uplifted and encouraged.

Your branch president has assigned you through inspiration. We know you will be blessed as you follow the counsel and direction he provides. Remember the Lord's command when He said, "He that is greatest among you shall be your servant."

Please study the document at the following link for your specific responsibilities: Sister Training Leader Responsibiities

Click this link to download a printable version of this letter: Printable Letter

May the Lord's blessings be with you in this assignment and throughout your mission.

Sincerely,

David C. Martino
The MTC President

Week 5- MTC

Hola todos personas, another super mega bien week in the CCM. It is a little weird to think that today is my last pday here. The days have been long but the weeks have flown by. Our district is sad to be leaving next week but we are all so excited for each other. We have become best friends which is super nice and it makes being here really fun.

I don't really have much to say since every week is pretty much the same here but the language is still slowly coming. It's getting a little more difficult because we have started using the two past tenses and we have started to learn the subjunctive conjugations and apparently the subjunctive tense doesn't exist in English so it has been a little bit of a headache to figure out when to use it. But with practice I am sure we will get it.

We had two of our Hermanas leave Tuesday morning at 3:45 am so now we are down to 8. Sometimes we wish there were more but it makes it a lot easier for my companion and I to only have 6 to look out for as STLs haha. A lot of people have started getting sick since it is getting cold down here so I use hand sanitizer way too often. I am grateful for this gospel and for everything that I have learned while I have been here. I love Jesus Christ and I know that he is my savior and that through Him I can return back to Heavenly Father.

Anyways, I'm not sure when my pday will be out in the field (probably monday) so yeah hahaha till next week sometime.