Another Week in the life of Lola Z

Welcome to another weekly email. 

 

Thinking of subjects is super hard so if you could email me a list of catchy suggestions that would be peachy :) 

This week was really good though! I think we knocked on approx. 1000 doors. 

We got to teach our youngest investigator this week! She's 10 and the smartest kid ever. Her answers are so eloquent it's precious. We made her the little box (see pictures) and filled it with candy and we gave her a Book of Mormon, The Restoration & Plan of Salvation pamphlets and an invite to the David Archuleta devotional! Woohoo! Did I mention that last week? We are seriously probably the most spoiled mission it's great. Anyways! Our lesson was so fun and Isabell loved the box. We're trying to find her some friends to take

her to primary and activities. She's a little shy but we know some fun primary girls who really want to meet her. It's so exciting teaching kids because their hearts are so pure and open. She told us that she knows this is something she needs to come to know for herself and she's going to read the Book of Mormon with her grandma this summer. Makes my heart melt :)

We had exchanges this week! (Thanks for the backpack tip Maryanne) It was so much fun- I got to work with Sister Conder. They have a few old ladies they visit every week &

they were amazing and so hilarious. One of them plays the same song every time they visit and they just sit for a while and sing together it's pretty fantastic. We also tried a new tracting approach and we showed a 1 min video before we talked about anything & it worked miracles. The first guy we saw we showed the video and before we could really even say anything he was like- Okay I'll just come to church! It was nuts! Then we showed it to a few more people and one person accepted a Book of Mormon and said we could come back and teach her. Those mormon messages are inspired I tell you what. It was good times. 

One of my favorite tracting experiences this week was meeting this 85 yr old guy named Bill- He was so trendy lol he had on like a little hipster hat and aviators and his t-shirt said old guys rule! He was probably the coolest 85 year old I've ever seen. He talked to us for a long time and said we were welcome to come back and talk to him more. So excited.

Also tracting (we did so much tracting this week) we met a guy named Nick who has two kiddos. He's a Mormon already- He just doesn't realize it yet haha! He reads the bible every single day and can basically quote the whole thing & he believes all the same things we do. He also said we could come back and talk to him again! It was a fun week. 

We got taken out to restaurants 3 times this week! Monday we had Mexican food with a sweet view of the lake, Tuesday we had sushi, and Thursday we had claim jumper! So spoiled! It's crazy. The members here have basically adopted us I don't know what they're going to do when we leave. They haven't had sisters in a long time so they're just really happy to have us & so willing to help. We love them. 

Palannga ko kamo!! Be good! Be nice! 

Sister Z

 

 

Oh the crazy leaf bug was like 1in from Sister Western's face when she saw it- they're pretty good at hide n seek !

I think the sun is brighter in California

Happy Monday! 

This week was so good! We were spoiled so much by the members! 

We got facials this week from a sweet new convert named Alma- She told us about her life and her 20s living in Malibu and the international lunch parties she used to have. She gave us fruit called Lache or leche or something and it's 100% my new favorite fruit now. It's like eating a sweet cloud. SO GOOD! Also we got to have In N Out that day! And then we got invited to Empty Nesters FHE. I fit right in :) I think I'm an old person at heart. Their message was about the importance of writing down your personal history. So take sweet Mary's advice and if you haven't done it yet write down your memories :)

One of our goals this week was to place 4 Book of Mormons (or Books of Mormon if you're a psychopath :))) And we were able to place the first 3 while we were out tracting which was a miracle itself but then no matter how hard we tried we couldn't place the last one. It was also our last Book or Mormon we had to give our and we were excited to get more and start fresh the next day. But we just couldn't place it so we decided to bring it to dinner and invite the member we were eating with to write her testimony in it and give it out. She started crying as soon as we asked her and she said she knew exactly who to give it to and she had been prompted earlier to get a Book of Mormon to give to her son. It was a really tender moment and a sweet miracle. Heavenly Father is so mindful of His children- If it's important to you it's important to Him.

I adopted a California grandpa this week! He's in our ward and his wife isn't a member so we met with them and she said we could come over once a week to teach her! Our first visit with them her husband told us stories about how he has seen the Holy Ghost help him in his life. He's from Boston and has the coolest accent so I think he's very fun to listen to. He was also at the empty nesters FHE and I got to talk to them there too. We became fast friends. He kind of reminds me of my dad which is fun :) He is the one who made the pretty desserts in my pictures!

Newport CA temple

We got to go to the temple on Saturday! It was perfect and much needed. It was so hard for me to leave because I didn't want to leave the peace and safety of the temple. It is always a wonderful place to be. 

 

Also on Saturday one of Sister Western's very first families she taught on her mission were baptized! It was a really special day for them. Sister Western's trainer came up for it and she took us out to eat at Cafe Rio (blessings!). 

The spirit at the baptism was so amazing. I think everyone there leaked a little. What a precious moment to see a family be united like that and talk about their plans to be sealed as an eternal family. 

We've been focusing more on working with the youth in the ward because a lot of the people we're teaching are young womens age. We got to go to Young Women's yesterday and share a message with them about their role in missionary work. It was cool to see how they've already started since President Nelson's devotional. 

I love being a missionary! Every day is a precious gift. 

Palangga ta kamo!

Sista Z

 

 

Welcome to Miracle Viejo!!

This week was INCREDIBLE! 

Holy cow on toast.

I'm floored. 

So we had Zone conference on Tuesday and our new mission-wide goal is to have one baptism per companionship per transfer! I really think we can do it especially because of the week we had. We have a lot of missionaries leaving at the end of this transfer so they all had a chance to bear their testimony to us and one elder said something that just hit me & I loved-- His companion is a master violinist and one day he messed with the frets on his violin to see if he would notice. His companion came back and picked up the violin and played a beautiful song regardless of the violin being out of tune. He asked if his companion had noticed that he messed with his violin. And he said oh yeah of course I just wanted to prove to you that I could still play. The elder said the Master can play beautiful music with a broken instrument- and that's what I am, but when we're willing to work with the master and let Him lead us and act as the best instrument we can be He can play beautiful music through us. 

June 8th is officially the Heavenly Father loves Sister Zollinger national day of miracles! We picked up 4 new investigators and set 2 baptism dates in two hours! And then I randomly said I really wanted pizza and then we had pizza for dinner with a member family! It was amazing! Everything just fell into place that day. We started this week with 0 investigators and now we have 5. And all of them are So receptive and ready for the gospel. They've all been trying to change their lives for the better on their own and now we get to give them this happy message of hope and healing through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I'm so happy. 

I said a prayer of gratitude this week and just thanked my Heavenly Father for all of the amazing tender mercies and blessings and gifts I've seen in the past year of my life. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is Real- He loves us- He knows us- and He'll never give up on us.

I read about the miracle when the people ask Peter if Jesus is going to pay his tribute to the church or the temple or (I forget what it was) and Jesus says yes and he tells Peter to go out and cast his fishing hook into the sea and the first fish that comes will have a piece of silver in its mouth- use that to pay for me and thee. It's not like Christ made the silver appear in the mouth of that specific fish- He just had the perfect divine knowledge of every single fish in the ocean- what they had inside of them- where they were- and what they would be doing. If this is how perfectly Christ knows the fish just think of how well he knows us. Never think you're alone. Christ is always mindful of us- He knows us perfectly and he loves us way more than he loves the fish. What a gift.

I pray for opportunities to speak Hiligaynon every night and so far I have had one every day! I get to pray and bear my testimony in Hiligaynon all the time. It's so much fun. :)

Life is good in Miracle Viejo! I'm so happy to be here and I still just feel so incredibly blessed to be a missionary. 

Palangga ko kamo!! 

Be nice- talk to someone new- pray for missionary opportunities- believe in miracles 

Sista Z

(p.s. I'm so sorry if you've emailed me and I haven't replied! I haven't forgotten about you!) 

I didn't take any pictures this week so I decided to keep up the fire hydrant theme right before we came to email haha

Cali week 1

Um SO much has happened. 

Saturday we had our last lessons with our teachers as our investigators- that was really bitter sweet but it was cool to see how far we had come. I cried like a baby at the end of that day to be 100% honest. :) 

Sunday was our last day together as a whole zone- We sang God Be With You probably 15 times our last 3 days at the MTC. We walked to the temple with President and Sister Mullen. While we were there we got in a circle and sang Hymns together as a zone. It was like you could feel a shield around us it was so incredible. Nothing helps me feel the spirit more than music. Throughout the night we all passed our notebooks around and wrote how everyone had impacted us at the MTC- it was really sweet. Sometimes we can't see how much we bless others' lives and I think it's really good to take time to acknowledge others talents and thank them for the good they've done in your life. After our Sunday night movie we held our own little devotional with all the Hiligaynon missionaries that we leaving and everyone took a turn and bore their testimony and happy thoughts from the MTC. The spirit was amazing. I love my MTC zone- they're gonna do so much good in the world. 

Monday we started saying goodbye to missionaries and dropping them off at the bus and every time we sang God Be With You. It was also the last full day there for me- I cried like a baby again lol. I was so lucky with the teachers and the zone I had at the MTC. They were all amazing examples to me. 

 

Now I'm in California! On the bus ride to the airport a lady sat down with Sister Thedell and I and we got to talk to her a little bit about her like and her religious background. I didn't have anything with me to give her but I had a bookmark with a picture of Jesus on it so I wrote mormon.org on the back and gave it to her. :) It was fun to talk to her. Our flight at the airport was delayed and I got to eat Cafe Rio! When we got to Irvine the President Clark and the assistants met us and loaded up all of our luggage and took us to the mission home. Then we ate 2nd dinner at 9pm! My trainer is Sister Western- She's from Washington. 

 

 

Sister Western and Sister Zollinger

We had a new missionary meeting and we all took turns introducing ourselves and then we got to meet all the senior couple missionaries. And I got to sit with Sister Thedell! It was like a little family reunion. They asked us to sing I'm a Child of God in Hiligaynon and we tried but we didn't know it :( So when we got to do language study together on Friday we memorized it! Our president is letting us meet up sometimes to do language study which is so nice. We got to study language together for 4 hours on Friday because my companion had a meeting. It was so fun.

I had my fist few experiences with tracting which is fun. Nobody wants to talk to us but you can feel the spirit walking along with you. I don't think I realized how sad it is how many people don't want to talk about Our Savior. It's the most joyful message in the world and Satan has done such a good job turning it into something people don't even want to be seen associated with. I hurts my heart. But we can still work hard and be good examples to everyone. 

The ward we're in is so great. They do a really good job taking care of each other and doing missionary work. We have a lot of new people to meet this week to teach :) They're also so nice and fun when we get to have dinner with them. Our ward mission leaders grandson was at our first dinner and he can list all the presidents of the US in like 2 minutes! It was madness! 

I wanted to take a picture with a cute firehydrant and because of it we met a cute old man named Seamak who agreed to meet with the pharisee missionaries! Inspired photo!  Also one of the ladies in our ward has a Filippino care-taker and she's going to introduce us! I'm SO excited!!  

Last night we had a music devotional/ temple walk. I love the peace and the spirit that music can bring. Also Sister Thedell was there! And we got to speak Hiligaynon for a little bit. Blessings :) 

 

Sister Thedell and Sister Zollinger

So much has happened this week but I'm basically out of emailing time. I just want you all to know that your Savior loves you so much. There's nowhere you can go and be out of reach of his love and forgiveness. He wants to help us and heal us. He wants us to be happy and to turn outward and serve others. The gospel is true and it brings so much peace to life in a really crazy world. I'm thankful every single day for the opportunity I have to be here. 

Love,

Sister Zollinger