Sister Laird in the hollow log

Sister Bostrom

I'm in a big hollow log!

I got to spend the WHOLE day with the sister missionaries!!

Sister Laird and Sister Bostrom!

Today I had the privilege of spending the ENTIRE day with the lovely sister missionaries!! Let me start by telling you the story of how we met!

My family and I had the spent the entire day in Stockton, CA probably a week ago doing a service project mowing lawns, etc. We pulled back into Elk Grove around dinner time so as a treat my family decided to go out to dinner. The three girls decided they wanted In n Out and the guys and mom wanted Burger King. So we ran into In n Out while they drove to Burger King. Anyway, keep in mind that we have been mowing lawns all day and we are tired and dirty. Well of course, we run into the Sisters!! I was excited to see them though because my older sister is serving in Manchester England right now and I am close to turning my papers in (I turn 21 in April!) So I'm always happy to see the sister missionaries! They were so sweet and my sister Katie and I fell in love with them immediately. We talked to them for a while and then exchanged phone numbers and I promised to go on exchanges with them. Since then I have been thinking about missionary work and just getting excited, but I didn't get around to calling them. So later that week I got a message from the sisters and called them back. They wanted me to go on exchanges with them so we scheduled a time. I told them to let me know if they ever needed anything at all because I have so much time on my hands right now. I am between jobs and during the day I really don't do much. So they timidly brought up the fact that the elders wanted to go see "the big trees" that coming Monday but they didn't have a ride so they weren't going to go. So I was excited! I love the redwoods (which is what "the big trees" are called here in california! :) ) There was a bit of confusion about where to go because the place I always go is outside their mission boundaries etc etc. We eventually agreed that the place to go was Calaveras Big Trees, CA! We were worried a little bit about road conditions and roads being snowed it, etc (are surprised that we get snow here in CA??:) ) But I think we just kindof went on faith. :) Sister Bostrom would probably tell you that the lesson we all learned today was about being patient as we waited and waited for the elders to get it together. Oh, and earlier I picked up the sisters and took them to my house so they could do their emails and journal writing and such and then we were just planning on leaving from here. The Elders wanted us to wait until their meeting was through at noon but we were anxious to go and knew that they wouldn't actually be ready to leave until 12:30! Well, we were right, and we actually didn't leave until around 1:00 I think. So we had to practice our patience together and Sister Bostrom taught us a song about patience! That helped and was a huge hit with sister Laird! She loved it! Haha!

But we were finally on the road and so happy! The drive up was beautiful! It was long and twisty but the sisters took lots of pictures and it was fun to see the beautiful countryside! It was such a BEAUTIFUL day! I had printed out a map and directions and we were going to use that and the GPS in my car to get there, and I was thinking about leaving this part out, but we ended up making a wrong turn because the directions were confusing and we were going through such small towns and winding on such tiny roads! Anyway, the Elders fired us from being in the lead and they used their handheld GPS to find the way there! Although we sisters know that they took a wrong turn and just recalculated the way to get there because we were definitely off the beaten path for a little bit!! :) Anyway, all of the sudden there was snow and it was snowing and we were all so excited! It is so fun to see the snow covering everything and making everything beautiful! Sister Bostrom and Sister Laird were both taking pictures like crazy! Haha! But we finally got there after a long 2 hours of winding roads and it was SO worth it! It was absolutely beautiful!

I'm starting my own blog!

So I'm going to try out this whole blog thing...so I can keep people updated on my mission progress and hopefully keep sort of an online journal. I actually wish I started this earlier because so much has happened in the last week!