Mortensen, Annalise

I don't really want to write today but I know once I get started I won't know how to stop so let's get into this week woooo. Cricket my girl. She still wasn't responding to us so we went to go knock down her door and her grandma answered. She was so excited to see us and was like come in come in!! She said that Cricket was on a call with some lawyer and has about 7 phone calls a day with them. (I don't know if I've said this before, but she was in foster care before moving in with her grandma about 4 weeks ago). She came out to talk to us and is SO SWEET as always. She's just been insanely busy with having to skip school to go to court and deal with all that. She said she wants to keep coming to church/mutual and really wants to be baptized, it's just a matter of when. We're going to teach her when she comes to those and get her ready soon!!! Jan is my favorite lady haha. She's been wanting more experiences with the spirit and God provided! She w...

Hiiii everyone! I love my mission. Update on Cricket is that she's been quite unresponsive what?! Homecoming was this past week and let me tell you the high schools here go ALL OUT for everything- especially dances. So she was really living up the homecoming week, attended a few youth activites (which we didn't know about until after the fact), and therefore did not meet with us. She still wants to get baptized on the 28th which is the funny thing. We were like okay Cricket, in order for you to be prepared for your baptism we need to have at least 5 more lessons because we have so much to teach still. She got the memo but then didn't get the memo and we didn't have a single lesson. In conclusion, baptism is happening but probably getting pushed back which is still a win. Luisa is my favorite. I love her so much. She loves the gospel of Jesus Christ! She's been an amazing example to me of being eager to learn more. We send her lots of chapters/general conference talk...

Another awesome week here in OC. It felt a little long and I wasn't in the greatest mindset, but my mom must've somehow known that because I got a package with a variety of general conference quotes that say "Be of good cheer." If anyone sees her, tell her she's a superhero. Our area isn't on the coast but we had a ward party at Doheny so we got to be by the ocean! I miss seeing it everyday. Cricket came to that and absolutely loved it. We have such a welcoming ward and it's awesome how missionary minded the youth are. After, we went and visited someone named Vickie. Her daughter was baptized in March and her/her husband listened in on all the missionary lessons. They've been to church many many times and Vickie has even read "Heart of the Matter" by President Nelson like what?! We'll help her realize the time has come for baptism. We had a few more lessons with Luisa! I love her. We taught her how we pray, and at the next lesson she said...

Moroni 7:29- "Have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay." We have seen so many miracles this week. The Lord is good, the work is working, and we have been blessed in abundance. Our lessons with Luisa have been going really well! She's eager to learn and is always asking for more chapters she can read from the Book of Mormon. She couldn't come to church but has met our Bishop and a lot of ward members so it's just a matter of time before she makes her first covenant with God. We met many amazing people this week but two to note are the sisters Cricket and Scarlett. We ran into them at a mall and they said they've been looking for a church to be baptized into. We talked for a while, asked if we could help them prepare for their baptism, and they said yes! Both came to church and absolutely loved it. The members took them in so much and helped them feel at home. We're hoping to put them on date this week!! Keep them in your prayers! We played picklebal...

Hellooo from Laguna Capistrano! That probably doesn't mean anything to anyone but our area covers a tiny bit of San Clemente so we're next door neighbors. My companion is Sister Miller (Nicole) and she's from Farmington crazy enough so I'm sure a lot of you know her. We knew each others friends but not each other so I'm really excited to be her companion! God is so real because I've felt very at peace with everything this week. We're actually pink washing so we're replacing Elders. The amount of nerf guns in this apartment is unreal. I don't know why they needed so many. And I'm convinced we cover the greatest wards in the mission- the members are AMAZING like top tier. We have felt so much love and enthusiasm for missionary work from them. Training is fun because she doesn't have any expectations for what missionary work looks like so we've been absolutely grinding mua ha ha. No one tell her. She's a natural at this thing and has a v...