Sister Bolliger - Lemoore Week 61: MILAGROS!!

Well, this week has been fabulous. :) Things were a bit hectic getting Sister Pena all set to go to Visalia. I talked to our Zone Leaders before the transfer and was like, "Alright Zone Leaders. I challenge you to be logical and timely about how transfers will go this time." I then promised that I would not be frustrated or aggravated as well. Hahahha. Look at the things I am learning on the mission!! <3

Well.. they actually responded true to form! They were able to logically have me drive Sister Pena to Visalia and then spend the day with Sister Rojas (who is also training) on Wednesday! We were able to be in the Visalia 5th Spanish branch and I loved it! We went to a recent converts house who I knew from a full year before. She remembered me!!! Hahah. I had practiced spanish on her before, but this time was able to communicate. Sister Rojas and I then went to a Relief Society activity where they learned how to make bows. Perfect!! Now I am inspired to cute-ify my wardrobe in a frugal manner. Haha. It was great to spend the time with her and have In-N-Out before the training began again!

We ventured to the mission office thursday morning and met our trainees! My new companion is Hermana Croft from Cedar City, Utah. She's stupendous and willing to get out and work! I am so excited for this transfer!

Her second day here we went with a team-up to visit a man named Jaime, who Sister Pena and I had found the previous week when we were knocking. Well, we had a little lesson with him and Sister Croft committed him to be baptized on July 17th! And he accepted! Well, we set up a church tour for the next day at 3PM. We were all ready with a new fellowshipper, but sadly he didn't show. We were a little disappointed but were able to help out the Relief Society sisters who were setting up for the Father's Day brunch and prepare for our Missionary Correlation Meeting we had at 4PM at the chapel. Well, at 3:45PM Jaime showed up! He had walked six miles to the church for the tour and had left later than he wanted as he was waiting for someone to bring him his clothes from his old house. We were able to take Jaime on the Church Tour and wonderfully our ward mission leader showed up and was able to go on the last part of the tour with us! We gave Jaime a Book of Momron and committed him to reading a chapter before the next day--Sunday. Well, Sunday rolls around and we were disappointed to see that Jaime didn't make it to Sacrament. AGAIN Jaime pulled through. He showed up at 10:15AM as he had again walked the long walk. He was able to go to the Father's day brunch the third hour and we had a little lesson with him after church. He informed us that he had not been able to put the Book of Mormon down last night. He had read for 4-5 hours! He is in the Book of Mosiah because he said he keeps going back and cross-referencing to make sure he understands when he is reading. Sister Croft and I (as well as the members who have got to know him) are amazed at his preparedness for the gospel! This Thursday we're taking him with us to a member's house for dinner and a lesson. We're so excited!!!

Today we get a special treat. We are going to be able to watch "Forever Strong" in preparation for President Gelwix to come at the end of the month! We are getting together as a zone and we have already informed the Elders they must bring in the couches for us as we watch the movie. Haha. I don't know what to do with myself!

We have also seen an amazing miracle with one of the less-active sisters in the ward we have been working with. After we taught her the doctrine of receiving revelation through church attendance, she has come every sunday for all three hours! Well, she just accepted a calling!!!!! She'll be a primary teacher and is doing SO SO SO WELL! She is reading several chapters a day in the Book of Mormon. It's astounding to see the changes in her! You can just feel the Spirit radiating from her! We did an activity with her yesterday where we put a huge picture of the Salt Lake Temple above her couch and wrote tons of reasons why she wanted to keep being obedient, serve the Lord, go to the temple, and then blessings from the temple. It's all colorful! In addition we surrounded the picture with quotes about how we can continue to endure to the end! Hopefully this will be a great visual reminder for her of why she's making all of this fabulous choices!!

I am doing great. I can't believe how fast my mission is going by! But, in talking with Sister Croft and doing a lot of personal examination, I have been amazed at how I have personally grown as I have helped others accept the gospel! It's miraculous!

Hermana Bolliger

Elder Bolliger - North Fontana Week 42: Polynesian Cards, Using the Strengths in our Ward, Shoes Wearing Out, 2nd Nephi 25

Well that last email was not as long as I intended it be.

So I drew some Polynesian looking cards for mom, dad and Ann Marie, ( Yes I did draw them up, and its very meticulous right now but I do that on the back on letters that I send to people) and I also included a little politeness too in the card if you can pick it up. Something to do with my mom being "21." :)

Well here in the Summit Ward we are creating ways to use the strengths of our ward to our advantage, in that we have great members and not the investigators there, as we do finding activities to fill up our time.

But as I was talking to President Sears, the stake president who lives in our ward, along with like 1/2 of the high council as well as most of the stake leadership level and auxiliaries, its crazy how much our ward contributes to the rest of of the stake in terms of that, we have the current stake president, former (just released) stake relief society president as well as like 5 or 6 high councilmen, and other auxiliaries too, its kind of funny in sacrament to see all those people up on the stand.

Well yesterday we had a meeting with our ward mission leader and a ward missionary to go over how we can use our ward strengths to our advantage, we concluded that we need to set up monthly activities to help our members to invite our their friends so that they can be warmed up to the gospel in a good way. By doing things such as fhe nights at peoples houses, root beer floats, touch football games ( I have basketball shoes and cleats I bought out here for cheap at Ross, its like a missionary favorite store).

And my shirts and suits are starting to get a little more tight around the upper body as I work out and start to get some more muscle but no where near what uncle Al put on his mission but I am wearing through my clothing and shoes, getting more worn down.

Today in my personal Studies I finished 2nd Nephi, let me just say that from 2nd nephi 24 to 32 is one of the best nuggets in the Book of Mormon as it relates to the whole role of the Savior the Book of Mormon, the 2nd coming, missionary work in the Doctrine of Christ, How and why to pray.

In 2nd Nephi 25

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

Then the fortelling of the Ministry of Christ to the Nephites and Modern Days in 26.

In 27 the coming forth of the book of mormon ~ Isaiah 29

28, Apostasy and false churches

29 "A bible we have a bible and need no more bible"

30 Converted gentiles becoming the covenant people

31 The doctrine of Christ, why Christ was baptized and the invitation of christ to all men

32 Prayer and the spirit of god teaches man to pray

33 The testimony of the Book of Mormon and belief of Christ.

It's one of the most incredible back to back sections in the Book of Mormon and I feel are close in there with the Sermon on the Mount and the Book of Moroni.

I love this part in the book.

Well I hope that yall have a great week ahead and Katie I thought that esta cansada/casada was hilarious, I can see the jokes now.

Love,

Elder Bolliger

Sister Bolliger - Lemoore Week 60: Staying in Leemore, Wonderful Baptism, "Esta casada?"

Well everyone.. this week has been another FULL one!!!

This was the last full week of the transfer, so it just makes sense that it would be crazy! :) The week was spent preparing Celia for her baptism this Saturday! We went over baptismal interview questions with her, filled out her baptismal record, and did all of the other things such as making the programs and making sure we had all of the people we needed there! She had her interview with our District Leader and he was super nervous since it was his first one in Spanish! He marveled that we had known Celia for less than 3 weeks and that she was already so so prepared!

Her baptism was absolutely beautiful! She showed up an hour early. We had everything all set up and the font was just about full. She looked in the water and informed us that she was afraid of water!! Haha. Celia is about 4'10" and was commenting in a hilarious manner how she didn't want us to fill the font too much because she didn't want to drown! :)

She cried through the whole baptism and her whole family was able to be there. We are so excited for her family to come unto the gospel as well! Our ward mission leader was able to baptize her and it was cool to hear his Argentine accent as he baptized her. The WHOLE program was in Spanish which I thought was awesome. We had several members from our ward there who were only English-speaking, and it was interesting to see the tables turned. We had many of our Spanish members show and it was splendid to see them all come and support Celia as she made this huge step!

This week we also were able to find several new investigators that show amazing promise and find another family that is ready to accept the message of the gospel! We were able to go on splits this week and Sister Pena went with Bishop and his wife and I went with a wonderful ward missionary. We were both able to see SO many miracles and help others progress in the gospel!

The anxiety of the week was added to with this Saturday being transfer calls. I received three extra phone calls during the week questioning me on my Spanish ability and how comfortable I would feel leading in a Spanish ward. Duh duh duhhhhh.

Well, promptly at 9:30PM Saturday night we found out the big news! I am staying in Lemoore... AGAIN... and TRAINING... AGAIN. Haha. Ahhhhhhh. Sister Pena is going to Visalia 3rd! My old haunt! Sooo lucky! I am so excited for her to partake of the wonderfulness of Visalia 3. :)

I am excited to stay in Lemoore. We are seeing so many of our investigators progress and I am so thrilled to stay here with the wonderful people of Lemoore! There are lots of baptisms on the way and lots of learning to be had!

President Gonzalez leaves at the end of this month so this next transfer is going to be an interesting one! I am excited to meet President Gelwix but at the same time not ready for President and Sister Gonzalez to leave. :(

A funny spanish glitch on Sister Bolliger's part:

As we were waiting for our District Leader to come to the church building to interview Celia, she asked me, "Esta casada?" (Which means.. are you married?) I promptly responded "Si!" (or yes). Hahah. I thought that she had said, "Esta cansada?" (Which means.. are you tired?"). Hahahhaha. The look on Sister Pena's face was priceless. As soon I realized my error Celia, Sister Pena and I proceeded to laugh hysterically!!!! Hahah. That's my favorite thing about Celia. She loves to laugh! She is so naturally happy it's the best!

Elder Bolliger - North Fontana Week 41:

Well on saturday night I found out that I am staying here in fontana another transfer with Elder Renfro. There is a picture that I included with Elder Renfro and I at the top of our area, it is much more hilly than it looks to be and its really a good workout biking up and down and up and down all the time, its not that the task of riding gets any easier its that the ability to overcome increases. As an apostle said in a talk, its a really good concept that I am growing to like and understand and apply into my life, it really is a good one.

So this past week we had a lesson with a member and a father of a part member family, it was a very different lesson for one because of the fact that he has been around the church for more than 30 years, his son is now on a mission and we felt that it was time to teach him the lessons and this first lesson we knew would be a very different one than the original one, we discussed many different topics talking about how even if you are raised in the church it doesn't mean that you will automatically believe it that you have to find out for yourself if the church is true and we all testified of that, by the end of the hour long lesson we felt like we made some serious headway and set up some very good groundwork to build on in our next lesson, I am really excited to see how this turns out as all the rest of our investigators have been unfortunately dropping us and are making it difficult for us to reach them, its sad when you drop investigators but the lord will provide and others will turn out to be ready to teach.

Well I realized that I need to increase my work ethic and have a better attitude, also that I need to first master the physical (waking up on time) and then master the spiritual

Well the first picture is of stitch thing that mom has "Life is fragile handle with prayer", at dinner on Friday I saw that and was like Santa Vaca, Where did you get this? I was suprised and took a picture of it and the members told me that it was from their mother or grandmother in utah, have yall seen any others of these? Oh BTW, Santa Vaca is spanish for holy cow!

The next one is taken at the top of our area, its hilly there and was quite a bike ride up to the top of the area and its me and Elder Renfro my current companion.

After those is pictures from the Temple, the first one is of me and Elder Tupola who is going home tomorrow and his parents moved from Hawai'i to Rancho Cucamonga,CA , we always kid with him about either being dropped off at home or having his parents come pick him up. The next is the Temple and the Fontana Zone.

And another awesome one of the temple.

The last 2 photos are of some awesome skies that I saw here with the rays of light and the sunset, it was more awesome than the photo can describe.

Well I hope yall have a good week!

Elder Bolliger

Sister Bolliger - Lemoore Week 59: Sisters' Meeting, Awesome Mission President & Sister Gonzalez, More Spanish Adventures :)

This week was another crazy one!

We had a Sisters' Meeting at the Mission Home and it was such a wonderful opportunity to talk about things relating to sisters and to see all 18 of us gather together! Cute Sister Bayasal's english is AMAZING and Sister Clark (another I trained) is now step-training! It's awesome to see them all grow up. :) Sister Gonzalez is hilarious and had me help her with the food while the other sisters learned about bike stuff. I am going to be so sad to see President and Sister Gonzalez leave!! We had a splendid time learning about our purpose as women in the gospel and it was a great time to bond together!

While we were there, I snuck away to ask President permission for me to attend a baptism that weekend. A family I taught with Sister To'a in Fresno 5th was getting baptized that weekend, and I so desperately wanted to go! She had called President a few months earlier to ask permission for me to attend--but the baptism didn't end up working out that weekend. I reminded President of some of the crazy things he had put me through before asking (haha) and I got the go ahead! So, that Saturday I went to Fresno (and had a dear sister in the ward drive us) and got to witness the baptism of Amanda and Madison Corpuz! I didn't know that Brother Corpuz was able to baptize them, so that was a wonderful treat to see them all unite together as a family! I was so touched to see the journey of this family and it was extra-special to be back in an area I had served in before. :) We ended the time in Fresno with a stop at In-N-Out. What could have been better? ;)

Celia--an investigator we found three weeks ago--will be baptized this weekend! She is absolutely amazingly prepared and is so excited to show her love to her Heavenly Father by being baptized. She is about 50 years old, and is my first all-Spanish investigator that I have found, taught, and then baptized! She loves Church and her little granddaughter Jackie calls me her "Hermana con lentes" -- her Sister with glasses. I seem to always wear my glasses there because since they're so close to the lecheria that the dirt just does not jive with the contacts. Little Jackie is only 3 and can speak circles around me in Spanish...but I still practice with her nonetheless. :)

This Sunday at Fast and Testimony meeting, one of our investigators bore his testimony! I was talking with him about what a testimony was and he replied that he didn't have one. Well, I then began to ask him questions about how he felt at this Church and about God. Then, he came to the conclusion that he DOES have a testimony! I joked around with him that he should go and share it with the ward. Well...he was like, only if you do first! I then looked and him and felt a bit sorry for the kid, because he did not realize which Sister Missionary he was dealing with! I love speaking in public! So then I immediately stood up and walked to the front. Hahahha. I think I might have had a smirk on my face as I walked back down to the bench. But he did it!! He was SO nervous but was able to share that although it is hard for him to pray sometimes, that as he has been praying he has been feeling the calm and peace that he needs. And, that as he attends this Church he feels something different. Taadaa!

We have been finding MORE spanish investigators. And I have been sacrificing the English language and only talking in Spanish with Sister Pena. President and other of my priesthood leaders have been hinting that I might be taking over a Spanish Ward with a companion that doesn't know any Spanish. Heh heh. :) So I'm kicking the Spanish learning into high gear!!

There have been lots of things that I have been learning about myself and the gospel and I cannot believe I only have THREE TRANSFERS LEFT! Ahhhhhhhhhh. I am beginning to have pesadillas (can't remember the English word) at night about civilian life. Lol. But I know that change is part of life and am trying to start accepting that now!!

Elder Bolliger - North Fontana Week 40: Time Flying By, 2.5 x 2.5 Mile Square Boundaries, Potential, Memorial Day BBQ w/Rudy's Brisket Rub!

Well yes now I have been out 10 months now and time is really starting to fly by. I think that I am getting a head of myself and saying that again but last week on the 28th it was my 10 month mark.

Right now I am still in the north part of Fontana, California where it is a very different demographic than the rest of the California San Bernardino Mission, it truly is a different place than the rest, and it has its pitfalls and its advantages. For one because of the strength of the Melchizedek Priesthood in this area the ward boundaries and because of that and the influx of families the ward boundaries have steadily gotten smaller and smaller to the point now where the ward is a 2.5 mile by 2.5 mile square. This is good because there is a lot of good leadership in the ward and its quite condensed, also on the flipside because of all the leadership in the ward and all of the people there it makes a great ward for member support, they are always asking us how the work is doing and other questions of that sort, but it also falls back the fact that you need the members for support.

Probably one of the biggest things now that we have going for us is the fact that we have an appointment with a member who knows the non member father of a missionary that just left this ward only a couple of weeks ago, this is our biggest thing going for us right now and I am really excited to see how it goes over because I feel if we can get through to him with the spirit than he will finally accept and want to be baptized as he has been around in the church for a long while now but has been reluctant to be baptized.

He is one of our main focuses right now but yesterday I had a nice Memorial Day like 75 degrees no smog(awesome) and a nice clear day where we played kickball as a zone and it was an intense game. Later that night at dinner we had a dinner over at a non-members house where our dinner family invited us to come to, as well as a less active family being there. I brought my 2 1/2 pound chunk of Brisket that I Bought and cooked it slowly, for like 1 hour 20 minutes. Yes slowly because normally it cooks for like 10 hours in a smoker but it turned out really really good with all of the brisket rub from Rudy's that I put on it. Thank yall so much for that family!

Well I am unsure what the future will bring as transfer calls are this Saturday and I may be staying here ( I have been here 3 months now) or I will be leaving to go to somewhere else in the mission.

Elder Bolliger the younger.
Post Scriptum, I will send a lot of pictures next week.

Sister Bolliger - Lemoore Week 58: "Aloha"

What's up!?

I am feeling insanely lazy today when writing this email. I think it's because my groove has been all messed up since it's Tuesday! Oh those national holidays. :)

Well our Memorial Day was quite swell. We had a tri-zone activity in Visalia. So, missionaries from the Visalia, Hanford, and Porterville stakes were all there! We had trouble finding a ride, so in desperation, we received permission to call someone from my old stomping grounds of Visalia to see if they'd be able to take us. :) So.. at 7:00AM I texted the veritable King of Hanford..haha..and his lovely musically talented wife came and picked us up in their fabulous hybrid!! Amazing!! What a sacrifice on a holiday. But we appreciated it greatly as it allowed us to go booowwwllliinnnggggg!!!! The first game I wasn't quite up to my best...but then I dominated the second game. Poor other sister missionaries. :) I only got 152...but hey for not bowling for over 1.5 years, I was pretty pleased! It was so weird to see everyone in civilian clothes. But it was insanely comfortable. And I have a battle wound to remember the day by! A beautiful blister on my thumb. But so be it!! The Elders were crazy and a group of them decided not to play for the score, but to try and see who could throw the bowling ball the fastest. This began to involve them running from the back of the facility to get enough speed to throw the ball quickly. One elder got it to 26.47 miles per hour! Hahah. Amazing how they amuse themselves. :)

When we arrived to Lemoore, it was run run run!! We had a little latina gathering where we learned how to make tres leches cake. Deliciosa!!!! It was so amazing. A recent convert taught us and it was absolutely inspired. Haha. We ate some of the cake for breakfast. There are so many benefits to serving a mission. :)

This week was full of MORE MEETINGS. We had Zone Conference on Thursday and then the Trainer and Trainee Meeting on Friday. I am officially exahusted. Sister Pena and I hobble around like abuelitas these days. Haha. Usually we loosen up by the end of the day, but then it's time to sleep on our beds that are like rocks. ;) What a cycle!!

This week I conquered some personal goals I had and have learned the importance of communicating! I definitely just let everything all out this week and we had some quite precious companionship inventories...but things are way better! I decided that I could either pout and be frustrated and not have the Spirit, or actually communicate and resolve things that were on my mind! Gasp! What a concept. :) Could I be emotionally maturing? Amazing. Lol.

We have some amazing new prospects. We sat down with our Bishop and he went through the ward list and we identified SEVENTY-EIGHT part-member families! 78!!!!! Can you believe that? Don't worry. We have detailed plans to contact them and help those who are ready to learn about the gospel!!

We found more investigators this week, all of them coincidentally spanish-speaking. I am having to work on my Spanish as I have been asked whether or not I'd be comfortable taking over a FULL spanish ward with a comapanion who knows no spanish. Oh boy. More growing experiences in the future!

We started teaching an English class this week using a program called "Daily Dose" that the Church distributes. It's amazing! And totally unorthodox. You all stand in a circle by a poster and in the "huddle" there is ONLY spanish. It was amazing to see our lovely spanish-speakers so quickly progress and master some basic phrases!

Things are going great!

Hermana Bolliger