5/28/13

Dear Family and friends,
First of all family sorry I didn't write yesterday. We had a zone conference with two zones that President Becerra led which was like all day so our p-day got moved to today. I found some connections with people here too which is funny. There's sweet old couple in our ward, the Garrett's and he knows our cousin Paul Fjeldsted from dental school. Also, that nice returned missionary Uncle Neal had me talk to on the phone, sister Davidson, well I'm serving in an area she served in for like 6 months I think right before she left and I live in the same member home she did and am in the same ward and everything so that's pretty funny I'm just picking up where she left off here. She was companions with a sister that Sister Flemming trained so we are only like a couple generations apart. There's also an elder that just left the mission. His name is Elder Cotts. He's Caucasian but his family has lived in japan. I wonder if dad know's his family. There's also a family here moving to Apline, UT, the Blake's so I bet they could run into Paul and Rose's family. They're a nice family we've had dinner with and one of their kids just got home from a mission and their daughter is about to leave on a mission this summer. Then, there's lot's of famous people around here. Kip from napolian dinomite used to live in Pasadena, my last area. Paul Walker's sister lives in our city too, La Crecenta and the other sister's in our district met her, she's LDS. Mitt Romney's son Tag used to live in this ward and he's friends with people here still. Also something cool- go to mormon.org and look up Tom Ngo's video/ profile. He was in my ward in Pasadena and I know his family and they are wonderful and know them quite well and he has a mormon.org video- how cool is that! Lastly, in the conference Ensign on page like 64 or there abouts or maybe I'm totally off but somewhere in the Ensign there's a picture of people outside a church building and under it it says L.A. California. That's actually the Arcadia mission (but I guess it could technically be L.A. because we have a little within our mission). Anyway, I know all of those Elders they used to be in my zone and I had them all sign my Ensign because I'm a goof. Oh, and there's apparently famous people that have lived in La Canada which I totally believe- it is super ritzy. It's been said that Miley Cyrus used to live here. But that's not what's important, here's what's important- THE GOSPEL!
I have been so incredibly blessed to have sister Fleming as my companion. She is very wise and very humble. We have very similar personalities and a lot of the same strengths so it's great working together. We both want to work as hard as we can which is something I really look up to her for. Lots of people get to their last transfer and quit caring but we're going all out until her last day. And I am so excited for our last four weeks together.
People often talk about missionary work being "hard" in Europe and other areas because they all have their basic needs met and are happy with where they are and don't want anything more. Technically speaking, La Canada is a "hard" area. We taught like a total of 3 lessons all of last week, no investigators at church, no new investigators, and it was just rough, but we worked has hard as we could. We prayed harder than ever, we worked harder than ever, and nothing yet. But I don't like this attitude of an area being "hard". It's a trap I want to be careful of not falling into. If I go in thinking that this area is hard then I won't try to work as hard and think that there's no point. The other ward in this city the other sister's are in haven't had a baptism in 2 years. But that doesn't mean anything. There are people who are prepared to receive the gospel so we need to change the way we do missionary work. Sister Fleming and I are going to get our ward going on a 30 day fast. We will have families in the ward sign up to fast one day during the month so there will always be a family in the ward fasting and praying for missionary work. We can't get to people by tracting anymore. We've tried. They don't care, they're happy with where they are and what they do now, or they go on and tell us how weird we are, or they don't open the door, or they slam it in our face. There's got to be a better way- and that's through the members. There are SO many LDS people in this area. It's like a mini utah. Everyone knows the mormons here and all the people in the city that are LDS are all related. So everyone has mormon friends and neighbors and loves them so we need to work with the members of the ward to find people that are ready to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. We aren't out here to simple convert as people see it, and that's why they get scared off. We are here to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. That is our goal. To bring people to Christ. This fast should help us become unified as a ward to have that vision and goal of bringing our friends with us to the gospel of Christ and becoming part of our ward family. We are also using this to ask them to fast and pray about specific people and families so we can receive referrals. Without referrals here we have no one to teach and no direction. I know that the work is hastening. It is prophecy that has been fulfilled in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 88:73 "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." I like just looking at the last two words of that and reading- it's time! Now's the time! There wouldn't be a call for all these extra missionaries now if there wasn't work to do or more people that were prepared to accept the gospel. I'm excited for the work to move forward and to find people to teach.
Remember that true happiness comes from obeying the commandments and repentance. Repentance brings joy and aligns our will with our Father in Heaven's will. The gospel of Jesus Christ is really so much more simple than we make it out to be. I hope you all have a great week I love you all!
Love, Sister Chelsey Fjeldsted
D&C 23-24