Sister Harley Munk: 2/6/2017 It's Already February

Hello wonderful people!!

This week has probably been one of the fastest weeks on my mission. I swear I just blinked and boom the week was over! I have a ton of things to tell you all :)

So first off this new area is absolutely giant compared to my past areas. We cover the entire Sacramento stake while the elders cover the Elk Grove stake. It's kind of confusing even for me still but the YSA Ward is 2 stakes combined so we share it with the elders. Of course our half of the Ward is the most ghetto part while the elders have the nice, pretty area but hey no complaining! Haha

Sister Moffett has been here for like 6 months so she knows the area pretty well which is super nice for me because holy smokes I'm so lost! There are freeways and like a trillion little streets and neighborhoods...but don't worry I'll figure it out soon enough :)

The nice thing about a huge area is that we are basically full time car :) We get 1600 miles a month and it is the best. Assuming this will be my last area I'm really excited about not having to bike in the heat of the summer :)

So this week we had a few really awesome lessons with some really cool college kids. It so nice being able to teach people my age. It's my favorite! It feels so much more natural and more like a conversation. I feel like it's just easier for me to relate to them so teaching is so fun! Plus Sister Moffett is a really awesome teacher and we have been getting pretty good at teaching together. Just the whole YSA thing is so fun! Contacting people on campus is absolutely terrifying but I love it!! The downside is young college students tend to be a little flaky so we find a lot of people but getting solid return appointments where they actually show up is harder. But those who are truly prepared are out there and we are gonna find them!!

Funny Contacting on campus story:

So we were walking around on campus trying to talk to not be awkward lol (contacting college students here is always awkward....but we try) And all of a sudden this girl comes up to us and she starts contacting us! She was a missionary from a non denominational church and she was just going around inviting people to a bible study on campus. It was super funny! We told her that we were also missionaries and we were going around talking to people about Jesus Christ and repentance and she just didn't get it. She was doing a good job contacting us and we could tell she was trying so we just let her talk and then we tried explaining it again but somehow we ended up holding hands praying together. So I guess even though she didn't fully understand who we were at least we were able to strengthen her faith. She was so cute and gave us hugs. After that Sister Moffett and I were just busting up. That was the first time I had ever been on the "other side" of a real life contact! It gave me some new perspective:)

Crazy story of the week:

One of the amazing recent converts in the Ward took us to lunch on Thursday after district meeting. She took us to this really yummy sushi place and it just happened to be an all you can eat day. So she went crazy and was ordering like one of everything haha But it was all super good :) Anyways, she ordered some octopus and she told us that we HAD to eat one.... so we did. It was so weird!! I'll send the video of me eating it :)

Also we have this week my testimony was strengthened so much! We had some crazy cool miracles happen :)

First off we have this investigator named Khalida and she comes from a Muslim background but she is dating a member of the church. He actually just got home from his mission. So thanks to him she already knows a lot! Sister Moffett had been teaching her before I came so we got the ok from our mission president so we invited her to be baptized on the 18th. She is crazy prepared :) When we were teaching the plan of salvation she was already so familiar with it and she kept finishing our sentences hahaha She loves the idea of repentance. It was so sad when she was telling us what she grew up thinking. She said "Well I already know I'm going to hell anyways so why even bother trying?" It's so sad to me that people truly believe that there is no hope. The fact that we can make it back to our Heavenly Father by repenting and using the gift that Christ gave us (the atonement) has changed Khalida's whole life. So keep her in your prayers! She will be interviewed this week :)

Next miracle! We got a referral from the Spanish elders of a YSA who is also already praying about the baptismal date of February 25!! We met him in Sunday at church and he is really nice. His girlfriend is a member, recent convert in the Spanish branch and she is a huge support to him. Flirt to convert. It works ;) So ya we have a lesson with him this week and we will see what he is thinking!

Ok last one!! The zone leaders texted us last night saying "You have an appointment Saturday at 3" haha so we are super excited and hoping that whoever it is with is interested :)

Well this thing is long enough!! Sorry I keep blabbing away. I just love being a missionary. It's the greatest and I am really going to miss it. These last few months are going to be amazing and I can't wait to see more miracles here in Elk Grove!

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Go serve someone :) Help them to feel Gods love!

Love you all,

Sister Harley Munk ❤️