September 23, 2013
OH MY GOODNESS. I have so much to write! So little time.
Here it goes!
I'M IN BAKERSFIELD!!!! What is this nonsense???? But first,
my story begins in Mexico. I got a blessing the night before I left, and it was
amazing to hear things that were specifically for me. It's brought me a lot of
comfort this week, especially when I was leaving into an unknown world. The
Priesthood is awesome, and all worthy men are incredibly blessed to have it, it
such a great way to serve people.
But we left for the bus at 2:30 in the morning on Monday.
After I called you guys in Phoenix, I had just started walking back when two
elders ran to me, grabbed my bags and we ran to the plane. It was... an
adventure. But I got on the plane with 26 other new missionaries who were headed
here, and we headed to Bakersfield!
When we walked out to baggage claim, I was met with a flash
of a camera and my mission president! President Wilson is AWESOME. I love him.
All worries and concerns I had about having one I didn't get along with melted.
He's so great. When we were standing around the one baggage claim in
Bakersfield, he came up to me and asked me if I was majoring in Civil
Engineering. I was shocked he knew! He kept telling me that he knew I must be a
hard worker from that major. I thought it was pretty funny. In my interview
with him, he told me Spanish will come. Which is good. He also told me that I
won't probably be ever on a bike. He has 5 daughters and he's very protective
over the sisters (we text the Zone Leaders every night telling we are home).
But we have a car. Even though I won't get a bike, I have an awesome ward, so I
was pretty happy about that!
But when we got off the plane, there was nothing here. I mean
nothing. But a love just overwhelmed me. I know this is where I'm supposed to
be, and I'm SO excited to be here. We have sisters and elders in the ward. And
guess what? I serve Spanish and English! I do both! It's really interesting,
this stake doesn't have a Spanish branch, so it was dissolved into this ward.
The Elders do the Spanish through the entire stake, and we do it just in our
ward boundaries. We teach mainly in English, which is nice, I just hope I can
learn Spanish sometime soon! It's the 2nd best ward ever, right behind the
Millard Ward. The members and ward leadership are great. They help us a ton and
feed us SO much. I'm going to gain SO much weight here. I'm so scared! We eat
with English and Spanish families. They're both great, but the Spanish give you
SO much food. I always waddle out of their homes. It's crazy. So maybe I won't
eat lunch ever so I can balance out this intake of food? Good idea? I thought
so ;)
Oh! But thank you for everyone who send me letters! That was
one of the first thing I heard off the plane: "Oh, you're Sis.Lau?
You have SO much mail!" It was great. And THANK YOU so much for all the
prayers I received this week! I can tell how much they blessed me this week. I
was thinking that this week hasn't been too bad, and I realized that it was
because I have a ton of people praying for me. So thank you for your prayers.
Prayers do miracles. I need to learn how to have better prayers, because there
are so many blessing HF wants to bless us with, we just need to be open with
him and ask him.
My companion is pretty cool. She's pretty quiet and goes home the transfer before Steven. I had
to laugh with Steven's email about the greenies having so much energy: she
asked me to "follow her example" because I was going to fast. She's
really nice. I figured I will be with her this next transfer and then be here
for a little while after. Unless I get transferred in 5 weeks. Who knows!
But it's amazing how much people look for blessings when
they interact with us. I can see it when they feed us. And invite us in their
home. It's awesome to see the power and authority of my calling and how it
helps people's life. Life is sad and hard. But it's amazing to see how the
gospel blesses lives and really makes us happy!
We have a baptism this week. I'll write more about it next
week. But it's been cool to see how the Spirit teaches. Me and my companion
have the same ideas about scriptures or talks to share. It's pretty cool!
Well, I need to write my mission president. I love you all,
and I can't wait to write you more next week!!
Love you!
Hermana Sami Lau
PS: everyone asks me where my name is from. It's really
funny.
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