Mortensen, Annalise

Dear Mortensen family, I am happy to inform you that your daughter, Sister Annalise Mortensen, has been assigned by the Lord to serve as a Trainer of a new missionary in the California Newport Beach Mission. A Trainer is the most important assignment in the mission, because she will influence the outcome of this new missionary's mission. As she properly trains, she will instill characteristics of teaching effectively, budgeting time and funds wisely, and working spiritually with investigators in the mission. In doing these things she will become one of the most important people in this new missionary's experience. You may be rightly pleased with her progress and contributions as a missionary. I am sure you will see in her many wonderful changes and much positive development. She is a great missionary! Please continue to give her your encouragement to magnify her assignment as a proselyting missionary and as a Trainer. May the Lord’s blessings be with you. Sincerely, Mark T. Car...

The last week in paradise. It's been one to remember. I am indeed leaving San Clemente which is tragic but you know what's even crazier is I'm training a new missionary- what?! I swear I just got to California yesterday. I've talked about humility a bit on these emails, and I think this is God giving me an experience that will really humble me. We're white washing an area and I won't find out where until transfers on Wednesday. It'll be an adventure and I'm excited for it!! Lessons on base on Saturday were great. I got my last peanut butter smoothie and we talked to the cute girl who usually runs the shop. Her husband just finished his 4 year contract but decided to re-enlist. I've grown so much empathy for the marines and their families like it is not an easy thing. Left me feeling very patriotic. Our friend Beddingfield gave us a spaghetti MRE (meal ready to eat) and it was definitely something. It comes with raisens and a crystal light pack so the...

What is up everybody. This week was both amazing and really challenging. We had some awesome lessons- Hailey brought her brother Oliver (17) to a few lessons and he's so cool. After Hailey left for college, we passed Oliver off to the Elders and they said he wants to know the doctrine so he can serve a mission. We love the ripples. Zoe texted us last week saying she was "really thinking about baptism" so in our next lesson we taught the doctrine of baptism and she was like yes. We put her on date!! But then 22 hours later she decided she didn't want to go through with it because of how busy she is... but then said she wants to keep meeting with us! It was a rollercoaster. I have faith she'll realize the "time sacrifice" isn't a sacrifice but a blessing. Stay tuned. We got our DBIDS passes for base so we can get in without a sponser! They had to search our car while we stood off to the side and I wondered what they thought of the many Books of Mormon,...

Helloooo. Yesterday I gave my first talk since I've been here. It was at our ward in Camp Pendleton. Usually when I give talks I write it out word for word and memorize it haha but not this time. I did the classic missionary thing where I wrote the last half on the drive over and it surprisingly didn't stress me out which in itself is a success. Growth lets go. I got another one of those heavenly peanut butter smoothies for those who were wondering. Our lessons on base Saturday morning went pretty well except Braden didn't show up butttt he did come to church so that's a win. Hailey, the cute girl who came to ysa church last week, had two lessons with us! She's the sweetest. Very social and loves to learn. Our lessons were extremely long because she had a ton of questions so we've been over basically everything. She leaves for college in Texas this Thursday but she wants to keep meeting with missionaries there yayayaya. Luna and Zoe are both doing well. They...

4 days later and its pday again! Today has been really fun. We've gone finding at the shops in downtown San Clemente a few times before, but today we went just as ourselves and it was great. Finding there is pretty chill too though. We went on Friday night and met these two girls. One was very much interested and the other was very much not. We got their numbers and somehow broke off so we were talking to them one on one. I was with the uninterested one which was fine until it became an hour long contact. Sister Hill taught the other friend the entire plan of salvation and the girl started crying- it was crazy. She's so cool. Meanwhile I'm desperately trying to tell this girl about the restoration and it's going right over her head. So we basically small talked for an hour haha but she's a sweetie so it was good. We went on base Saturday morning for our lessons. I got the most divine peanut butter smoothie from this little shack by our church building. I'll prob...

Surprise it's Wednesday. Our pday was switched because we got to go to the temple today!! I miss being able to go to the temple whenever. We're assigned a day every other transfer. This week was one of my favorites so far. The hard parts made it even better which I'll talk more about later. I went on an exchange with Sister Thomas (the new Sister in our zone) and it was awesome! Two little missionaries hanging out all day. She goes home the same transfer as me because I'm assigned 13 so we're in this thing together. We had zone conference and San Clemente had interviews with President/Sister Carter, so I got to see them a lot! Have I mentioned they're the greatest? Wow okay Sunday!! This sounds dramatic but it could've been my favorite day on the mission so far. We had a lesson with a marine named Wetterman on Saturday (which he brought his friend Williamson to) and they both showed up to church the next day! Braden, a marine we taught two weeks ago, also sh...

I'm going to be honest this week was a blur. I'm questioning if it even happened or if it was all a dream. Good thing I write in my journal... brb  Ah yes so we met this guy in the parking lot who was pretty chill but had his own faith and wasn't interested in learning more. He gave us his girlfriends number though (always always ask for referals) and we've been having lessons with her!! Her name is Luna and she's super cool. At our first lesson, we asked her to read 3 Nephi 11 before we met again and she'd read all the way to 16! An angel on earth. During finding one day, we prayed and asked Heavenly Father to have the spirit guide our feet. We were walking along, trying to let the spirit guide, and came right up to this lady. She ended up being a member but said there was a ysa girl playing her guitar in the tunnel (which was pretty far off from where we were) that we should go talk to. We went and she was SO COOL!! Got her digits and gave her a Book of Mormon...