So this week is transfers... we got the call this morning and Hermana Magnusson is headed out to Fontana and I am staying here in Palm Desert and I am getting a new trainer named Hermana Howe. I don't know her, but we are crossing our fingers that she is cool. I could use some prayers.

So I learned last week that the library has these really cool things called books where you can learn ANYTHING. Ha we were cleaning in the childrens section WWAAYY in the back corner and found these SUPER COOL books about how things are made and science projects and all this science stuff... yeah I don't need to go to school, I could learn everything at the library.

So this week was good, but hard at the same time, but definitely good. First, with Ana we finally got her dad to give vocal consent, but he hasn't given written consent... but we decided that as long as it wasn't going to break up the family, we were going to get her baptized. SO she is going to be getting baptized this Sunday!!! I am SOSOSOSO excited for her! I will send pictures.. this is a big deal.

The rest of our investigators are taking their time progressing. They are progressing, they read and pray, but getting them to church is a real struggle. We have 3 on a baptismal date right now, but I don't know if they will be ready by then or not.. It is just a matter of helping them learn about the gospel and inviting them to come unto Christ. They decide how much they progress. We are trying so hard to help them out and we know we will get them there, it's just a matter of time.

Not that much happened this week... okay that's a lie. So much happened this week, but nothing super cool or note-worthy.. well okay, so we went on exchanges this week so I had an English sister come into our area with me... It was so much fun. Granted, I was the only one out of the two of us who knew even a little Spanish, so that was hard when talking to people on the street or in lessons with our investigators, but her and I clicked so well. Like I love her. She was so cool, but she is English and I am Spanish... so it could never really work out for us...

I have focused a lot this week on prayer. Making sure that I am relying on the Lord in everything that I am doing and focusing on telling him everything that happened during the day and what I want to happen for the next day.. Letting him know how I felt during lessons and what I need his help on and how grateful I am for all the help that he has given me. Prayers last forever. But they are detailed and I can see the difference it makes in my day. I make it a point to look for those miracles that he gives me each day and I know that he answers my prayers because I see his hand in everything I do.

This last week has been difficult, but I made it through! Thank you for everything and for the package (sue:)) and mom thank you for the letter and candy... I assumed last week when you said you sent me some candy that it would be in a little box or something... but, no. It was in an envelope... hey I am not complaining, I love chocolate letters. Mom, thanks:) it was a good story for my journal.

Oh and tell Stephanie that my companion is teaching me how to sing.. we can totally start a band when I come home!! Bucket List Check!

I love you all so much! Your letters and prayers mean the world to me. I love it here and I truly feel like I am so blessed to be in this area and meet these people. I know I am here for a reason and as soon as I have done what the Lord wants me to do (which will be when I am so reluctant to leave) he will send me to Panama. I got a notice today about my visa, I haven't gotten it yet, but they said that they are still trying to get it so at least they haven't forgotten about me. I am surely on the Lord's errand and His time as well, but that is what I promised Him. That for 18 months I would leave everything and do what he needed me to in order to bring people back to him. I also know that I have grown so much and I am going to continue to grow and be made stronger through living the way he has asked me to. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father and I know that they have a great plan for me.

I am so blessed to have every single one of you in my life. Thank you for all you have done for me and tell grandpa HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! and tell grandma CONGRATS!!!! That is so cool. Keeping being great. Y'all are so awesome. I am truly one of the most blessed people on this earth to have y'all in my life. I can't wait to talk to everyone next week! Also, in 5 weeks I get to Skype for Christmas!! Everyone be ready:) I know it is on Christmas Day, but I don't know what time yet. I love y'all so much and I can't wait to talk to everyone. Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Eardley
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Hola Familia!

How are y'all doing? I hope everything is good.

This week I got to watch the Testaments. One of our recent converts hadn't seen it so we watched it with them, in Spanish. I love that movie so much and there are some super funny and cheesy parts, but it was different in Spanish... I didn't understand what they were saying most of the time and the funniest part wasn't even supposed to be funny. It was the part where they are accusing Jesus and asking him if he is the Son of God and he just says "I am". That is like a super serious part in English, but in Spanish... Oh my goodness it was awful... I didn't understand any of the words and then all of the sudden it was an old spanish man's voice and it just says "Yo Soy" and I just started laughing SO HARD. Everyone, it wasn't a funny part to the people who know Spanish... wow that was embarrassing.

We have had some really cool experiences this last week... We met two men on the street and started talking to them (just as friends not about the gospel) and they warmed up to us super fast and started telling us about how their lives haven't been that great and they just had a sister die and all these things and we were able to share with them the Plan of Salvation and they don't live in our area, but they asked us to send them some missionaries which was so cool!

We also had an amazing lesson with Octavio. I don't know if I told you about him, but we found him while looking for his roommate and he is so amazing! (We met his roommate outside the house one night while we were walking around and he was SO drunk but he invited us back) When we first met him he just started talking to us and telling us a bunch of stuff and we didn't really know how we felt about him, but we went back again looking for his roommate and the roommate wasn't there but Octavio was again. That time he asked us to teach him something.. and we were like.. uhh okay. He asked us how to pray (as I am typing this I swear I have already told y'all, but better safe then sorry I guess). We gave him a Restoration pamphlet and he read it.. like all of it, and when we came back he had questions! Like good questions about Joseph Smith. So we brought a member to our next lesson and it started off scatterbrained but ended on a really good note and then we invited him to come to church (that lesson was Saturday night) and he said sure why not so we had a member pick him up and he CAME TO CHURCH!! It was so cool and not only that, but him and President Parks (our branch president) got along so well.. they are going to be best friends. And everyone else loved him and they just clicked with him so well and he loved church and asked us for a Libro de Mormon and we gave him one and he said he was going to read it so I am so excited to see how much he read... Oh my goodness he is just SO AWESOME!!! We have him on date for November 22 so hopefully I get to stay in this area another transfer so we can continue to teach him.

We have also been teaching a cute girl named Ana. She loves the church. She is already a member she just hasn't been baptized yet and we had her on date for next Sunday but her dad said no. He is Catholic and she was already baptized as a baby into the Catholic church and because she isn't 18 we need the written permission of both of her parents in order to baptize her... so hopefully he will let her in the future or if not she can be baptized when she turns 18.. it's just sad. She even knows all 10 Commandments! I didn't even know all 10 until like a week ago. Go ahead, without looking name off all 10 Commandments right now. I dare you. She wants it so bad and she knows it is true, but she is over 8 and under 18 so there isn't anything we can do.

We also got to do service at the library this week and clean all of the childrens books since it is flue season.. it was great. I love childrens books.. they are my favorite. We just kept reading each other cute stories while cleaning books.. it is so relaxing.

Also, twice now President Parks has taken us and the Elders out to eat. The first time was Wednesday night. He took us to this place called "Richies" and I had ribs and it was so good and President Parks loves to talk.. he could talk for days and he loves us (his misioneros in the branch) so he spoils us a bit. But that time was super good. The second time was today.. like just barely. We were supposed to go to the temple today to clean it, but they called and cancelled so President took us out to lunch and Wow it was so good (that is when I started writing your letter mom) we even god blackberry pie and let me tell you it was so funny, like I said, he can talk for days. So while he was talking me and my companion pulled out some paper and started writing letters because P-Day time is precious and he didn't notice for like 15 minutes that we weren't even involved in his conversation.. It was great.

We also got to volunteer at the Braille Institute again this week. We ended up having to be the teachers because the actual teacher had car problems and wasn't going to be able to make it, but it was so fun and everyone was able to just get going on their projects and no one needed a ton of help so I sat down and made a cute small little bird house.. then once we got home I realized that if I get transferred next week I won't be able to get it back or even paint it... so I have been saying a lot of prayers saying Heavenly Father please let me stay here so I can keep teaching these people and loving these members and helping find people here and so that I can keep my birdhouse. yep...

Also, I had my first real Holiday on the mission! Halloween was so awesome! A member took us out to dinner and I had a super delicious burger and a shake.. so good and then we went to the stake's halloween trunk or treat and got to see the members and the kids dressed up ( my favorite was the ghost busters boys) then we went home and did weekly planning.. It was so fun. We just planned and ate candy. Holidays are different here, like they are fun and stuff, and it's great to get to do stuff for it, but it is also just a normal day. We had to be in by 6 that night for safety reasons, but it was like.. we are stuck in the house.. what do we do for 3 hours..?? So we weekly planned. It was great.

Oh my goodness there are so many things to share and not enough time!!!!

We knocked on a door of a referral and turns out it was the wrong address but the guy just started looking for religion (his name is Byron) and so we had a lesson with him right there about the Book of Mormon and it was super awesome!! He is a really good Potential.

Last story, so we have this less active family and they wont let us in their door, so we made them a little notita and gave it to them and they loved it so much they showed us all of their cats. They didn't let us in the door, but they brought each one out one by one and told us about every cat. They have 7. It was insane. I couldn't even believe it was actually happening.

I have learned a lot this week. I learned the importance of getting to know people so that you can actually apply the gospel to their lives. The gospel can help everyone and it applies to everyone because Heavenly Father made it for us. It was designed for us. I have gained such a strong testimony of that this week.

I hope everyone is doing good! I love you all and I love your letters and emails! I hope you have a good week!

Love,
Hermana Eardley
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Week 4... Halloween ooooooOOOOooooo‏

Hola Familia!

Como estan? Quiero hablar con ustedes todo del tiemplo pero no puedo. Entonces! Write me:)

There are some great scripture jokes I found: In 1 corinthians 6:19 he says "what?" Like I imagine him saying it like "seriously? you didn't know this" oh man.. too funny.
Also in Alma 26:25 is a great joke because it is after Ammon has cut off all the arms of the lamanites by the water and then they are about to go to war and this is what he says.. Oh man I will find more. People in the scriptures are so sassy and sarcastic.. It is just the greatest.

Seriously this week was so great!

Monday we went to the store and got some chocolate oreos and made some chocolate milk and soaked the oreos in the milk... Yeah it was the highlight of my day. BUT the real highlight was we got one of our recent convert families interested in family history work. And I talked to a man who lives in a blue house. The whole house is blue. It isn't even a real house he lives in a trailer park.. EVERYTHING WAS BLUE. It was so funny, but I just told him wow I love your blue house... I have decided that I love the creativity of it.. that way I am not lying.

Tuesday was super cool! So we went to this potential investigator's house and he wasn't home, but his friend Octavio was and he was just super happy and pulled up some chairs for us and asked us to teach him something. We didn't really know what was happening or what to talk about but we just said "Can we start with a prayer?" and he asked us how to pray and said he had looked up YouTube videos on how to pray and we just looked at eachother and was like.. yeah, we can teach you how to pray. So we ended up teaching him a great lesson on prayer and then we invited him to be baptized and he said yes.. so yeah.. Tuesday was pretty cool.

Wednesday was interesting too.. we were doing service at the library and a man pointed to us and said, "you are who I want to talk to wait right there!" and we were just like.. okay. So he came up to us and asked what religion we were and we told him and he said, "now I am an atheist, but I study religion. Do you have a pamphlet or something that has your beliefs on it that I could have?" We were like.. um YES. So we gave him our information and he kept talking to us and giving us some advice about life.. Oh Craig. His name was Craig. Oh Craig he was so funny and talked to us about what we wanted to do with our lives and about music and about how to pick a husband.. Oh man. He was a cool guy. But I hadn't ever met an atheist who studies religion... I have a feeling he isn't an atheist... he just thinks he is.
Also, that night (my companion likes to do jinxes..) I got jinxed. Now.. I can be stubborn at times, so she didn't realize what she had done. But she can be stubborn too, so let me tell you how this played out: "You're going to have to talk during the lesson" "...*head shake*..." (and it came to pass that Hermana Eardley got her companion to compromise) So I was free to talk only during lessons and planning (if I spoke I would have to make her breakfast (I was going to anyways, but I didn't want to lose the game.)) Anyways so the night went on, never did I speak unless aloud to according to the rules we had set. But we were walking home and to my absolute horror we saw a slugbug car. I started running and she started chasing me but I had to use the bathroom so bad and so I just fell to the ground and was like "just take it, don't give up, she will stop eventually" and she did.. that was painful. but we got into the house and I went into the bathroom and she followed me and then started tickling me.. She just said "whose going to win? Your mouth or your bladder" BUT we tripped over the rug and she fell into the shower and broke the shower! I took a second to look but she was distracted so I took off and ran to the other bathroom. I ended up winning the game and making her breakfast and now our shower door is broken.. so it was a pretty great game of jinx if you ask me.. never again.

Thursday was so much fun! We got to volunteer at the Braille Institute! I absolutely love it there I wish there was one in St. George. That night we went on exchanges and I was left in charge of my area with an English speaking sister.. It was great. On Friday we got to exchange back and I just love my companion. Also I am in love with this CD! The band is BYU Vocal Point and the Album is Lead Thou Me On. I just absolutely love it. It is on my list of things to get when I come home because I just want to listen to it all the time.

Saturday was the highlight of the week. Are you ready? WE HAD A STAKE FIESTA!! It was so much fun oh my goodness everyone It was Authentic Mexican Fiesta material. Wow it was so great we got to talk to so many people and found some potential investigators and had real Mexican food and the was an actual Mariachi Band there and I got to wear a sombrero.. I tell you it was so so prime. Like legit. I can't even describe to you how great it was. I will send pictures and I took a video but I don't know if I can send it we will see.

Sunday was good. We talked to people and I met a very old nice little lady. She was cute.

Anyways, that was my week. Numbers have been small, but they don't really mean anything. We have done some great missionary work this week and I loved every part of it. Tonight we get to watch the Testaments with the Jimenez family.. I am so excited. Me encanta ese pelicula!
I love you all so much and I am sad I missed the deer hunt, but I am out here and this is the best place for me by far. I am learning so much everyday and it isn't easy, but already I know without a doubt that I wouldn't trade this for anything. You all mean the world to me and you are all in my prayers! Thank you so much for your letters and emails! They make my week so much better!
I have learned that there is no such thing as praying too often. Even if it is just to say hi. I love my Heavenly Father so much and I love that I can talk to him whenever.. It makes it easier to not be able to talk to y'all whenever. I love you all so much!

Love, Hermana Eardley
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One Month

What? Yeah. I have been in the field for a month. It is getting real.
This last week was awesome! On Tuesday we got icecream which, let's be honest, is a big deal. I also got to meet our branch president and he is so super cool. We stopped by the church on Tuesday as well and one of the boys came with flowers for one of the girls because she hadn't been feeling well.. it was so so embarrassing but so funny (and sweet, let's not forget how nice that was).

On Wednesday we got Ana on date for baptism! It was great she is the cutest 13 year old, but her dad is Catholic and we found out yesterday he won't give his consent so.. we can't baptize her. Ugh people frustrate me.

Thursday there were so many things that happened. We had Elder Evans come and talk to us. It was so good and I got so much out of it, but he talked for literally 6 hours. I am not joking. We had an hour of lunch, but we were there from 8AM to 3PM. Craziness. Then, after that whole day of spritual upliftness, we had splits. I will be honest, I don't like splits, but my companion is the Sister Training Leader so I have to go on splits once every single week. anyways my new companion for the next 24 hours ended up being a clone of Jessica Fowler. What? No joke. Same personality, same looks, it was pure insanity. and while we were walking we saw a swarm of cats. It was creapy. Like there were at least 15 cats just sitting on a patch of dirt by the road... yeah I know. Me and my (original)(actual) companion also fasted that day for Ana which was good. Also, that night after I lesson I made the mistake of complementing a lady's collection cabinet and she just started giving me these random glass things that I have no idea what to do with. She gave me one and it was so big and she wouldn't let me give it back so I tried to ask if I could trade for a smaller one and so I picked out a smaller one and she was like oh no keep them both. This was all in spanish. I could not get my point across. So I was just like wow I am digging myself a huge hole. So we got out of there before she could give me anything else so now a have this candle in a teacup and a big fat statuette of this asian dude in a basket.. I have no idea what I am going to do with them. I need to learn better spanish. Or if anything I should have remember how to say no thank you. No, gracias. Seriously, how hard would that have been?

On Friday, remember how I said we were fasting for one of our investigators? Yeah so on friday we decided to break our fast by going to chipotle. My companion ran into a lady that was in front of us in line and we started talking to her and she showed us pictures of her family and everything, then ordered her food and left. We ordered our food and went to pay and the lady was like to woman in front of you wanted to use her change to pay for your food. She seriously paid for more than half. Like 10 dollars. It was just the nicest thing. Also, I got to sleep in my own bed that night.. yeah it was a good day.

Saturday was cool. We went to a members BBQ and they had invited some non-member friends. I started talking to one lady named Petra about her family and then I mentioned that we have a family history center in our church and that she could use it to look up her family tree and stuff. She got so excited and we actually scheduled an appointment with her tonight. I am so excited.

One last thing, Sunday, we ran into a lady from Iran and she speaks Arabic and she wrote my name in Arabic for me in my planner.. yeah, that was super cool..

Well, that is all I can think of, but I just want to assure you that I am having so much fun and that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Honestly the people here are amazing and I get to share the gospel everyday, all day. I am having some wonderful experiences and my testimony grows stronger all the time. I feel like I am better missionary everyday and less and less of a burden to my companion. I love it here and I know I was sent to California for a reason. There is so much love here and I am so glad to be a part of it.
I hope that everyone is doing good! I pray for each one of you specifically and I promise it takes me a good 10 minutes to finally get to go to bed. I love you all and I miss you terribly.

Love, Hermana Eardley

Hola Familia!
Okay, so I am finally starting to get the hang of things. I no longer feel like such a burden to my companion because I sort of know what I am doing. I am also trying really hard to learn Spanish. We have gotten pretty creative. My companion has me translate songs that we listen to in the car. It helps a lot with grammar, but I am starting to dislike music. It is so hard. and frustrating. but also good. It really does help. My companion is really great. She corrects me when I say something wrong and she lets me struggle, but during lessons she will help out when I don't know how to say something. Our investigators love to hear me speak. Probably because I say things like a child would say them. They always ask me to say the prayer too. Oh well, it is good practice and at least they focus on my words.
Before I forget there is a drink called a "horchata". It is so so so good. Wow if you can find it you should try it. Also, the movie "Meet the Mormons" came out last Friday and Saturday. I don't know if it was in Utah or not, but I would assume so and I hope y'all got a chance to see it. It was so good! Wow the spirit was so strong. We told all of our investigators about it.
We have this investigator named Fulhencio. He is the happiest person I have ever met. And he is so ready for the Gospel, but his wife is strict Catholic and he doesn't want to create any problems in their relationship. It is so frustrating. I just want him to be baptized so bad. We have another investigator named Ricardo who had a baptismal date, but he fell off the wagon on the Word of Wisdom so we have to recommit him, but really it is about helping him realize how much we care about him.
Also, this last week we were on splits and I really had to use the restroom, so we stopped at a DelTaco place and on our way in a man who was obviously on his work break said hello and we said hello and then he said "you look really happy" and we just looked at eachother and was like, we will come talk to you in a minute. Ha so that is what we did and he is Christian, but not practicing. I ended up teaching half of the Restoration right there on the street.. it was pretty cool.
Yesterday we went bowling during P-Day.. yeah it was pretty great. I will send pictures. I know what you will think, but I promise, those were our actual scores. We really are that bad at bowling.
I am having a blast out here and we are working hard. There is so much to do here and it really takes a lot of endurance for sure. I hope y'all are doing great and that everything is going good back at home!
I love you all so much!
Love, Hermana Eardley

Dear family!
This week was so fun. Okay so missionary work is a lot different than I expected it to be, but in a good way. We get to teach a lot of lessons and talk to a lot of people, but we work a lot with the members. My days are pretty great I have more time to get ready and studies are focused on actual people and it really is a lot of fun.
My companions name is Hermana Magnusson, she is super fun and really nice. We have a lot of fun together and we haven't had any problems as a companionship. She is my trainer so obviously she will help me and correct me in things but I don't mind because I need to learn how to do things. She really is nice though I love her to death. We live in a nice little apartment with 2 other sisters and both of them are super fun as well. Because we have to do training we don't actually leave the apartment till 1:00 pm. But that includes meals, studies, and training and getting ready. Then we go out and get to work with teaching appointments and talking to EVERYONE. It is a lot of fun. Really, it comes down to planning. We plan every minute of our day and then make a backup plan for every minute of our day. It really makes all of the difference.
My companion is one of the Sister Training Leaders so my 2nd day in the field she had a meeting and I had to go on splits... so I got to spend a day in English land which was wonderful and I got to teach an 8yr old named Ana who is getting baptized next week. She is adorable. I have taught a wide variety of people all ages, each one special and unique.
I don't actually think I am learning more Spanish. Everyone here is fluent so they seriously talk English all of the time except during lessons... it is ridiculous. I was so excited to be forced to learn.. but no. They talk just like me except for when it really matters. It is whatever. I just have started trying to think in Spanish so hopefully that helps me learn a little too.
I had my first encounter with opposition yesterday. We knocked on a door of a potential investigator and this man answered and he was so interested in what we had to say, until he learned that we had a Book of Mormon than he started talking about how it was the devils work and written by man and things got a little heated, but we bore our testimony and told him the only way to know for himself was to read it and ask God. He took our challenge so we will see how it goes. I have learned as a missionary we have that power to do and say things in the name of Jesus Christ. So we make promises all the time like you will know, God will tell you, you will feel peace.. just a ton of promises. Then when we get home we kneel down and pray to God that he will honor our words. That really motivates everything you do--being worthy to ask for God's help-- because without it we couldn't be doing this on our own.
I know God is with us in this work. I can see it how the spirit will touch so many different people.
I miss ya'll so much! How is everyone doing? Are my grandfathers staying out of the hospital? You need to tell them to start getting younger rather than older.. How is everyone else doing? I got to talk to Sue and the boys before I headed out. Grandma didn't answer her phone... that was disappointing. I hope everyone else is doing good!
I sent a ton of pictures and put captions on them so I hope you get them all. Sorry there were so many but I told you the computers at the MTC were really bad at loading pictures so I just couldn't send them.. but now you should be getting regular pictures sent which is great because then you won't forget what I look like...
I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week. I promise I am doing good out here and I love it more and more everyday! Tell everyone that I love them and that I hope to hear from them soon!
With all my love,
Hermana Eardley

Your Missionary has arrived in Redlands, CA

Your missionary arrived safely yesterday at Ontario Airport. The missionaries were greeted by President & Sister Van Cott. After all the luggage was collected the missionaries were taken to the Mission Home where lunch was served; that was followed by individual interviews with President Van Cott and training on Mission policies and procedures during the afternoon. Today they meet their new companions and receive additional training. In the afternoon they will be off to their new assigned areas. They are all well and enthusiastic about serving in this wonderful part of the Lord’s vineyard. A short note from your missionary is attached to this email. Enjoy!