Sun Sand & Scriptures: San Diego AKA Africa

So I don't know if you all know this. When I opened my mission call I
was at first really disappointed. I was sad because I was so willing
and ready to leave the country and go somewhere crazy and have such an
adventure. Especially excited to learn a new language. I got the exact
opposite. Instead I got called to a pretty little historic site and
get to live in "paradise" aka San Diego, and speak English......I was
let down. Only because I thought that I would never get a chance to
serve people in another country, or learn a new language.

Luckily Heaven Father knows better, and knew that I needed to come to
San Diego,it took me a while to realize that. But currently I get the
chance to teach TONS of refugees from the Congo.And learn Swahili!!

Literally all of our urrent investigators are from Africa. I LOVE IT!!!!

I feel like I am serving in a different country. There is this apartment

complex on Pentecost (where I ran into King Tut) and when me and

Sister Patterson walk into it, all the little black Congo children run

up and give us a hug😭😭😭 melts my heart every time!

Yesterday I had an experience that truly changed my life. We have this
investigator Roger who is from the DRC (democratic republic of the
Congo) we went by the teach him and I'm going to share with you his
story of his life that he told me. Roger is a 22 year old guy. He has
lived in the US for 6 months. He knows perfect English, we don't need
a translator for his lessons. When he was young his mom ran away from
their family and left him and his 7 other siblings with their Dad. His
dad sent him to live at a boarding school far away from his house to
go to high school. 3 years ago there was a huge war in the town where
he was going to school. People where walking into their school and
killing people on site. There was a big war. Everyone one at the
school had to run and hide. Hundreds of children ran across the
boarder into Uganda. Running away meant that he could not go back to
his family. There he stayed at a refugee camp for orphans because he
did not have any family. He was then transported to another refugee
camp in Kenya. From Kenya he met someone that made if possible for him
to come to America. Here he works everyday for 10 hours, and then goes
to school after to learn English. Roger is trying to get a high school
diploma so he can get a better job. He lives with other refugees from
the Congo that are not his family. They do not provide anything for
him except a couch to sleep on. He has no family. No one to tell him
that they love him at the end of the day. No one to celebrate his
birthday. On Christmas he gets no gifts. That one day when he went to
school was the last day that he has talked to his family. He has had
to start a completely different life here. After all of that, after
all this young man has been through I have yet to hear him complain.
He only thanks us for our service as missionaries. He thanks us for
leaving our families so we can teach him.

What I love so much about being a missionary is that I get to bring
love into people's life's that have none. Roger gets to feel a little
bit of the love that Christ has for him through the missionaries. He
thinks that we are changing his life (which is true, we are) but what
he doesn't know is that he is changing my life. What an amazing
opportunity I have to be a missionary 😊

I love you all so much!! I love being a missionary! I love San Diego!

I love the Mormon Battalion! and i still love Jimmy Johns #12MonthsGoingStrong

Enjoy pictures of people that i took on tour this week.

XoXoXo

💜Your Favorite Sister Missionary S.$