Letter #12 (December 9, 2013)

Hey everyone! I am emailing you from Pasadena, my new area! I am now in a trio (so I have two new companions instead of one), but one of my companions- Sister Richards -works at the office most of the time, so it will usually just be Sister Scott and I. When Sister Richards is with us we will use a car because she has some leg problems. We live in a condo with four other sisters. So there are seven of us altogether. And one smaller-than-average-but-not-mini fridge. So it should be fun.

Oh, something fun for my Maryland friends! Sister Scott was in the Annapolis stake her senior year! She was in the Broadneck ward and knows Kaitlin Harper, the McConkie's the ... I'll just sound it out: New-Ma-ta-lo-lo's, and she knows who April Evans is! CRAZY. 

But let me tell you about my last week!

I was struggling a little bit, knowing that I was going to be transferred, because I didn't feel like I had really been helpful in my area. You're sent to each area because that's where God needs you, but I didn't feel like I had made a difference at all yet. Until Monday.

So you know how I had a baptism my very first weekend? Well here's the situation:

The Estradas have ten kids. Six live at home. The father was deported to Mexico. He's not coming back. Sister Estrada and the kids at home were baptized a few years ago but quickly went inactive. Then, all of a sudden, Sister Estrada pops up and asks the sister missionaries to teach her youngest son Seth so that he can be baptized. I came in at the very end of that. So we have been doing FHE with them for Seth's follow-up lessons and I have become really close to two of his older sisters and the family in general. Well I've been able to see that family change so much since I first got here! I met Seth once before his baptism. He was not very excited to see us, to go over the baptismal interview questions, or to be baptized. Only a couple came in for FHE when we would go over. More recently, Seth is always really excited to see that we're there, all of the kids have been in FHE, even if they aren't paying attention, and Sister Estrada told us that she loves when we go over because she always feels so good when we're there. We participated in what was probably their first ever family scripture study a couple of weeks ago.

On Monday, Sister Estrada was having a really tough time. They had gone to Mexico to see her husband and she came back kind of depressed and really frustrated. We had FHE with them scheduled for that night. I felt like we should do it differently this time. Instead of teaching a follow-up lesson, I felt like we should watch the Mormon Message Mountains to Climb and then talk about how through following Christ's teachings (reading the scriptures, praying, coming to church, etc) we can find peace and comfort in our lives and we can become closer to our families. So we were going to do that instead. But when we called to remind Sister Estrada that we were coming over, she said that she was going out of town to pick up her daughter who was visiting someone. So we asked if we could come earlier. But she said that Bishop and her home teacher were coming over to give her a blessing (which is a good thing of course), so we rescheduled for the next day. But both Sister Chambers and I felt that we should still go over, so Sister Chambers told me to call her back and ask if we could go over right then. So I did, and we did. She cried when we watched the video, I just put my arm around her and hugged her until it ended. I bore my testimony about overcoming trials and talked about how Heavenly Father must love her and her family so much because I know that I love them an awful lot and he loves them more. Then she received a blessing. 

As we were leaving, Seth said that he hoped that I would never leave (which broke my heart a little since I knew already that I was being transferred). But what really got to me was when we were already outside and across the street. We were unlocking out bikes when I hear "Sister Kretchman!" So I turn around, and the oldest sister (Emily) runs over to us and gives me a huge hug and tells me "It's people like you that inspire me to inspire other people" and then ran off again. You have to understand, she never shows interest in us or the church. She was playing on her phone the entire time that we were there. In that moment, I just knew that they are the reason that I was there. I knew that it was okay for me to be transferred.

I'm going to miss them a lot, but they have grown SO much since I first got to Walnut. It's truly incredible how Heavenly Father helps people change for the better. I am so grateful have had the privilege of being a part of that process.

Wow, sorry that was so long, I'm sure none of you really wanted to know that much about the Estradas.

Moving on. 

On Tuesday we picked up a few potential investigators. Two of them right in a row. The first one is Amanda. She is awesome. We taught her about the Restoration on Friday. She not only committed to be baptized, but she committed to be baptized on December 28th! I am SO excited! I'm going to try really hard to get back for her baptism if everything works out. She came to church on Sunday and loved it and is still set on being baptized at the end of the month. I'm sad that I won't get to finish teaching her, but I am so glad that I got to meet her and start teaching her!

(We also have two other baptismal dates, one on the 11th of January, and one one the 25th. I'm hoping to be able to make it back for both of those is possible as well because I've been teaching both for a while now. They are both eternal investigators, so we're really excited about that. :) )

The second one is Matthew. We're pretty sure that he just wants to talk to us because we're girls. We texted to remind him of the appt we set when we met him, and he texted back that he had been thinking about us ever since we met and could we talk right then. Well we got that text during Amanda's lesson, so didn't look at it. One the way home from the lesson, he called us. He just really wanted to talk to us. We politely asked what we could help him with and reminded him of our appt the next day. He said that he just really wanted to talk and could we go over right then. Um. No.

So when we went to our appointment with him, we brought an older couple with us with the plan to make our purpose as missionaries very clear and if he actually wants to come closer to Christ, than we'll pass him off to the YSA elders. He wasn't at home though. Sister Chambers and her new comp get to figure that situation out now. It should be a fun story. Hopefully he actually will feel the need to come closer to Christ and the elders will be able to teach him. Probably not though. We just laughed really hard about the whole ridiculous situation. I'll be interested to hear how the story develops with that.

Anyway, this email ended up being really long, sorry! I hope that you are all having a fantastic week!

I love you all!

~Sister Kretchman

Estrada family

Amanda and Anna and Comp

Gingerbread from ward Christmas Brunch

More MTC pics that she just sent:

Anna and a Zone Teacher, Sister D.

Anna and MTC comp at the map

Anna and District

Anna and Zone

Letter #11 (December 2, 2013)

Hi everyone! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I feel like so much is going on and yet I have no clue what to write about. Does that make any sense? Probably not.

So this week pretty good. We were able to meet with Matt this week for the first time in ages. He's sort of better, but his collar bone isn't healing properly, so it's been kind of rough. The lesson went really well though. I'm really hoping to have a baptismal date for him soon, but we'll see. 

We also were able to meet with Odelia! And we have another appointment this Saturday! Well actually, Sister Chambers and a couple from our ward got to teach Odelia, I got really sick all of a sudden and just died on a member's couch so that my comp could still go to our appointments. She said that the lesson went really well and that Odelia's husband even came in towards the end of the lesson and seemed really interested! So I'll be excited to see how things go this Saturday. Oh, and funny story, her last name is Smith and she has a son named Joseph! We told her that it must be fate. Haha, we thought that it was really funny though. 

The 65-year-old investigator (Nowlin) is still set on being baptized on January 11th, so we're praying for him to find a new apartment quickly! I'm so excited for him to get baptized! Hopefully I'll be able to come back for the baptism. 

So on Thanksgiving we (us and the elders) played in Turkeyball, not a Turkey Bowl, we played softball with some members and an investigator family that our elders have started to teach. But we couldn't stay for very long because we had district meeting at 10:30. It was a really good lesson about making sure that we are working hard because we want to help people and not because we want to seem like an awesome missionary. One of the district leaders shared a bit of an email from his uncle and it was just really powerful. It can be hard not to feel kind of down because I feel like I haven't had much success, but I need to remember that people have their agency and all I can do is invite and then it's up to them.

Anyway, then we had a correlation meeting with our new assistant ward mission leader, Brother Kongaika. He's awesome. He really wants to help us turn this ward around and really start building the members up so that we will have more success and help more people come unto Christ. I think that with his help things might really get going. 

Then we had Thanksgiving number one at the Flores family's house. They are a family in the ward with three teenage girls and an 8ish year old son. It was lots of fun. They had a bunch of family over and everything and so it was loud and crazy and wonderful. I loved it. Then we went straight to Thanksgiving number two at the home of a less active sister in the ward. It was really nice. She had her very active daughter and son-in-law there as well as her son, nephew and mother-in-law. It was really funny because they were almost as loud as the other family even though there less than half as many people there and they were all adults! It was a lot of fun too. The elders didn't come with us to that one though.

I was SO stuffed and sleepy by the end of the day, so much biking and turkey and deliciousness! Haha

Anyway, transfers are next Monday and I'm pretty positive that I'm going to be transferred. I'm excited to see what Heavenly Father has in store for me although I will miss the members of the Creekside ward. I'll be interested to see if I'll get to go to two ward Christmas parties, because ours is this Saturday. 

Anyway, I love and miss you all and hope that you are having wonderful lives! PLEASE write me! I didn't get any mail at all on Thanksgiving. That's the first week that I didn't get any mail. That's not supposed to happen until I hit my 6 month mark... Haha. But really, I would greatly appreciate it. Tell me everything about your lives right now whether you think that it's exciting or not. I promise I'll appreciate it regardless. And I'm trying really hard to be better at writing back, I really am. So if you write me, I'll try to write back ASAP. Thanks!

~Sister Kretchman

Ps- just a reminder that the mission address changed.

614 W Foothill Blvd

Arcadia, CA 91006

Letter #10 (November 25 2013)

I'm really sorry that a lot of my emails have been so short lately. I keep ending up with almost no time to email, it's been crazy.

But anyway. This week was kind of frustrating because my comp and I were taking turns feeling sick, so we weren't able to go out much. BUT. I think this week also included the most lessons in one week that I've ever taught, so that was good.

We are "practicing" teaching this 65-year-old man who has been going to church every Sunday since the 70's, but isn't baptized. We have a baptismal date set for him in January (he needs to move out of his house first because he's living with his girlfriend), but we'll see what happens. He does seem to be pretty serious about it, he even asked someone to baptize him already.

We're also making headway with two of our other eternal investigators. And we're finally meeting with Matt again this week (I think that I wrote about him. He's the one who broke his collarbone while mountain biking) so that's good.

We also picked up a new investigator the other night. Her name is Odelia and she has been a referral since before I got here! We went to her house so many times and she was never home. One time we heart attacked her door and left a note with our number on it. She never called. But we finally caught her! She's super sweet. She told us that she took a picture of the hearts and put it on Facebook. I thought that that was really funny/cute. We're meeting with her again on Saturday, so we'll see what happens! Unfortunately we keep contacting people who seem like they'll turn into investigators and we have appointments set and everything, but then they fall through. This has happened over and over again. I still haven't actually had a follow up lesson with anyone after the initial first contact lesson. So I'm hoping and praying that it will be different with Odelia. Wish me luck!

Before I forget. The mission office is moving. So starting December 1st, my mission address will be:

614 W Foothill Blvd

Arcadia, CA 91006

So send my mail there, not to W Duarte Rd. Thanks!

Anyway. We have no idea what we're doing for Thanksgiving yet. No one signed up to feed us. But we have been personally invited to a couple of places, so we just need to figure out where we're going. It should be an adventure.

Also, I'm getting really pumped for Christmas. I LOVE Christmas so much. I love the lights and I love Christmas hymns. I just wish that it would snow. Just once. Just enough for me to make a snowball and a snow angel. Is that too much to ask? Yes. Oh well. I'm really excited because we're going to help an old lady decorated for Christmas on Friday. I've been asking around for anyone that I can help decorate because I just love the Christmas season so much. So yeah... I'm excited. Haha

I'll be interested to see where I am for Christmas and what we end up doing.

Oh! My comp, our elders, and I are singing a song that one of the elder's brother wrote in a couple of Sundays! It's actually pretty hard, but I think that if we can get it together, it'll be really good. I'm also singing with some less active YW that same Sunday. And they want me to sing at the Relief Society Christmas party, but I probably won't be here because it's after transfers and I'm about 99.9% sure that I'll  be transferred. 

Anyway, I can't think of anything else. I just wanted to end with some Thanksgiving cheer:

I am thankful for (not necessarily in this order):

The gospel

A loving Heavenly Father

The Book of Mormon

The Bible

Preach My Gospel

My companion

The Plan of Salvation

My mission president and his wife

My family

My friends

Letters!

General Conference talks

Warm blankets

The awesome elders in our ward

Joseph Smith

The Atonement of Jesus Christ

All of you that care enough about me to read my crazy emails

I love you all so much and love hearing from you! Happy Thanksgiving!

~Sister Kretchman

Letter #9 (November 19 2013)

So the past couple of weeks have been kind of crazy. But things are really starting to pick up here! Sister Chambers is awesome. Since she got here, we've been getting really close to setting baptism dates for three of our eternal investigators! I'm so excited! And I've really been able to see how the Lord has been working through me at times as well.

Here's one example:

We have an investigator named Dede (his real name is William) who has been investigating the church for over 15 years. He keeps saying "don't give up on me!" He says that he'll be baptized eventually, but that he has an issue with tithing. He feels that he is already putting his money to good use by helping his grandkids through college. He's been through so many missionaries. All of them testifying of the power of paying tithing, how much he'll be blessed for it, etc. But he still isn't getting it.

So a couple of weeks ago we were trying to find a member of the ward to come to the lesson with us. We tried a few different members and none of them could come. So I'm scrolling through the phone when I pass a Sister Pardo (she's a semi-active sister in the ward, super sweet). Then I stopped, scrolled back up, and called her. I just felt like I should. Well, she is apparently is good friends with Dede. So she comes. During the lesson, she bore her testimony about how the best way for Dede to help his family is by joining the church and receiving the Priesthood because then he can give blessings and things like that. She also shared an experience that a friend of hers had with struggling to pay tithing. Dede got really quiet.

So next time we saw him (last Thursday), he tells us that he has been seriously thinking of getting baptized soon. He said that he has been thinking a lot about what Sister Pardo said and feels like it's time for him to be baptized. Woah.

So we don't have a date set yet, but I really feel like we're closer than we've ever been. And it's all because the Lord wouldn't let me pass Sister Pardo's name. He really does know what each individual person needs. I'm just grateful that I listened to Him.

Anyway, that was a lot longer than I meant it to be, so I'll try to be quick with the rest of my email.

Funny story; we were waiting at a bus stop and started talking to this man that was waiting there as well. It was really awkward, I could tell that he didn't really want to talk to us, but we tried anyway. Well all of a sudden, this college age guy with a backpack starts walking by. And then about a second later a cop car pulls over in front of us, the guy with the backpack turns around and walks over to the cop, and is arrested. Right in front of us. I was a tad bit distracted from out conversation at this point, but Sister Chambers was totally focused and kept trying to talk to the man! It was so bizarre, but really funny to think back on. I keep having run ins with the police! Haha

I have more that I want to say, but I don't have time so...

I love/miss you all! I hope you're all having a fantastic week!

~Sister Kretchman

Letter #8 (November 15 2013)

Sorry this is so late everyone. This Monday they were cleaning the carpets at the church so we couldn't email here. So we were going to go email at the stake center, but they were doing the carpets there too. So THEN we were going to do it on Tuesday, but everyone else that didn't get to do it on Monday was doing it on Tuesday, so we didn't end up having time. And then we had exchanges on Wednesday so we weren't together to do our email. And yesterday was just crazy. So yeah... I'm emailing today. We were going to just not email this week since it's so late as it is, but then we remembered that we won't have P-Day until Tuesday because we have Zone Conference on Monday, so we decided to do it quickly today so that you know that we haven't died.

So.... I haven't died. There.

I'll TRY to catch up on Tuesday!

I love/miss you all! Keep the letters coming! Sorry I'm so bad at writing back, I'm working on it! 

Have a great week!

~Sister Kretchman

Ps- We had a high of 92 on Wednesday! What the?

Letter #7 (November 4, 2013)

So last week my email was really short again because of lack of time due to transfers. I am still in the Creekside ward, but I have a new comp. Her name is Sister Chambers. She's 25 and has been out for about 7 months. She's really nice and is a really good missionary. I think that I'm going to learn a lot from her.

The transfer was really hard because I had become such good friends with Sister Mattingley and also because we had been preparing a member missionary fireside for weeks that I was being left with. Luckily though, we also got two new elders in our ward and they, and Sister Chambers, are awesome. They stepped right in to help. The fireside was last night. It went... alright. The members here like to talk A LOT. And it's hard to cut in and redirect things back to where they need to be. Hopefully they got something out of it though!

This week with my new trainer/comp has been kind of crazy. The S family (The people we live with) are out of town, so it's just us at home. So the one night, we're walking to our dinner appointment when the sister we live with calls our cell. Apparently the security alarm went off on the back door and so the police went over to check it out and everything. We think that we secure the back door properly and the wind blew it open. But that only kind of makes sense because in order to turn the alarm on, the doors have to be shut properly or else it won't set. So it should have been closed all the way. But anyway, we get home that night to find that the police re-locked the doors, including a sliding bolt at the top of the door. Which means that the key still won't open the door because you can only unlock the bolt from inside. So we tried the back door (Sister Chambers had to climb the fence into the back yard), but it required a different key. We were finally able to get in because we called the S family  again and they were able to tell us where the spare keys for the back door are.

But then the next day, apparently the alarm went off on the back door again. While we were still there. And the alarm wasn't even on. We didn't know that anything happened until Sister S called again and then the police came to the back door. I let them in and they demanded our IDs and stuff. They weren't happy that my ID wasn't a California ID. They totally thought that we were burglars! We convinced them that we weren't by turning the alarm on and then putting in the pass code to turn it off. What should have happened though is that when the alarm went off, the alarm company is supposed to speak through a speaker in the alarm box and we would give them the password to prove that we aren't burglars. But that didn't happen. No one asked us for a password, no one spoke through it at all. So instead we started out the morning by being interrogated by the police. Fun stuff. It's funny to think about now, but I was NOT a happy camper when it happened.

On a better note though, I got to go to a baptism of Sister Chambers' yesterday before the fireside in one of her old areas. We got one of our investigators to drive us (we've been trying to get her to a baptism for ages). It was really nice. A lot more put together than the one when I got here!

Oh, I forgot! Last Sunday Sister Mattingley and I sang "Come Thou Fount" in sacrament! Everyone had kept asking when I'd perform for them, and I always responded "when they ask me to." So they finally asked me to. It went really well I think and all of the members have been commenting on it to me ever since.

Anyway, I can't remember the rest of what happened in the past two weeks, so I guess that's it.

I love and miss you all! PLEASE write to me! I probably won't get back to you for a while, but I will get back to you eventually I promise! And I'm a lot more likely to write you if you write me first because I still don't have many addresses. So yeah... Write me. Haha

~Sister Kretchman

Elders in Anna's MTC district

Anna's district with their teacher

Smelling the orange-creamsicle tree at the MTC

Letter #6 (October 29, 2013)

We had transfers yesterday and so didn't have time to email, so I'm having to do another quickie today.

My comp was transferred and both of the elders in my ward were transferred. So I'M the one who knows things and I really don't know a lot since I'm new and don't know what the heck is going on most of the time. BUT. All three of the missionaries who transferred in seem really great and like they know what they're doing a bit more than I do, so it should be okay.

I'll try to catch up a bit more next week.

Love you all!

~Sister Kretchman

MTC zone with the Branch President and his wife