Salutations

Hello everyone. 

I'm still alive. 

It's still hot.

Tulare, California is still a super cool place to be a missionary. 

It's a really cool place to be a missionary, because it also happens to be the place that Daniel lives. 

We met Daniel last week and we shared the message of the restoration with him and after the lesson he just said..."Thanks for coming, I really appreciated it." Which I realize that is not that many words but it wasn't the words but the incredible amount of sincerity behind them that made Sister Burnside and I recognize that there was something real special about Daniel. We taught him again this week and he told us that the very morning we were going to come over he was wondering what his purpose in life was. The Book of Mormon had the answers-as it always does...and Daniel committed to be baptized this month. He is such a cute dad- all he talks about is his kids. We are super excited about him. 

*this is me taking a page from Sister Murray's book & sending home an inspirational mormonchannel.org quote 

KEEP PRAYING FOR DANIEL. 

Read your scriptures. 

and keep me in mind when you eat cheese because Tulare is the dairy capitol of the u.s.a. 

love you all! 

Sister Rendon

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES

                                                        Trent & Brenna Stokes
                                           

                                                    Sister Rendon Loves her pebbled ice

I'm sure that I can speak for America as well as myself when I say....THANKS FOR ALL THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES. Seriously....I was looking at all the pictures my sweet mom sent me of lot's of people that I love.....and I really thought to myself I should just send them all...THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU cards. Which may sound cheesy...but I really, really mean it. I love you alllllll. 

Important events of the week: 

The fourth of July was great. We were in early, which meant that Sister Burnside and I had plenty of time to seperate red sprinkles from blue so that we could make a festive little masterpiece of a cake. 

SOME REAL GIFTS FROM HEAVENLY FATHER THIS WEEK: 

Tuesday Sister Burnside and I were leaving for the day....when we pulled out of our garage a woman started chasing us down...at first it was just to ask if some people who were supposed to come check our apartment complex had come yet....and when we didn't know we offered up what information we did have...namely. God is our loving Heavenly Father and mormon.org is a great website where she can learn more. 

Well..she wanted to learn more...and as great as mormon.org is (greatest website on the whole internet) she chose to learn more from us. 

We parked right away and went in and then my love for missionary work increased ten fold. 

I walked out of that lesson absolutely sure that this work is the Lord's. HE IS DOING IT. WITH US. 

Ellie told us that the Lord had revealed to her that there were some steps she needed to take to return to Him. She felt that she knew that was true...but she also felt that she didn't currently have those steps or know what they were. 

What she did know is that when Elder's visited her grandma twenty years ago she felt the spirit. 

I LOVE teaching repentance. 

I love having investigators at sacrament....TWO REALLY PROMISING ONES THIS WEEK. 

I'VE GOT TO FLY...BUT LOT'S OF PICTURES THIS WEEK. 

-me crying about being twenty and the largest tree on planet earth. 

I LOVE YOU ALL.  

Sister Rendon

CA Fresno Mission

Welcome to the Lord's Vineyard

hello there everyone. 

It's nice to see you again, and by that I mean it's nice to see some words you type out that somehow get shipped across a few states and up on a computer screen. It's very kind of you to keep typing those words. 

Let me tell you some things about my week. 

Some things about zone conference:

I'm always a real big fan of zone conference:

 I've always gotten front row tickets my whole mission long. This one was something special though. It was President and Sister Clark's last one. Which means it felt a little like zone conference, and a little like a funeral...but the good type of funeral with a lot of love and gratitude and hope for the future. Also another thing I've always loved is Hooper, Utah. Now I love it even a little more because my home is right next to the Clark's home. So I vote that tender mercy of the year. 

Some things that were a pleasant surprise about missionary work: 

Sister Murray remembers a time...when I was an extra new missionary that I said...."Well, I know I'm not here to make friends." Which makes it sound like I was on a reality game show. And to be truthful I don't entirely remember what my expectations were at the beginning of my mission but what I got wasn't what I expected. I know some of the coolest people on planet Earth because of my mission and I'm pretty happy about that. 

Some things about experiencing tender mercies: 

Thursday morning started out with me assuring Sister Burnside that after we got to know the area well enough we would begin to have days were you just teach all day long and it's happy stuff and you really really love those days. We went home that night and we had successfully taught all day long and our investigators had kept commitments and it was just one of those days that you really really love. Also we had dinner with a member and they served really good chocolate milk and then when we got home they surprised us with some said milk. When we were talking about how they knew we loved it so much after we concluded that it was probably the three dramatic stories we told that included chocolate milk and the extreme gratitude in the closing prayer for the milk. 

 Some things I love: 

YA'LL. 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK. LOVE YOU

Southern Zones - Hanford, Visalia, Porterville

  Photo's credit- Sister Clark, fresnomission.blogspot.com

Back Row, Left to Right; Elders Fernandez, Watts, Nielsen, Jones, Maas, Vawdrey, Paukovic, Thornton, White, Gibson, Blume, Tapia, Gollner, Lopez, Del Carmen, Quinn
Third Row Left to Right; Elders McGraw, Kennick, Sullivan, Carnahan, Facer,  Fischer, Halliday, Rogers, Wilson, Ennis, Schaff, Mussin, Anderson, Wright, Flores, Lilly, Mountford
Second Row, Left to Right; Elders Davis, Austin, Derbidge, Sisters Kokol, Tatakamotonga, Rendon, Eastman, Jordan, Malpica, Pachner, White, Burnside, Elders Gray, Kauai
First Row, Left to Right; Sisters Johnson, Peterson, Murray, Gillespie, Elder & Sister Hammond,
President & Sister Clark, Sister & Elder Lilya, Sisters Jefferies, Jones, Jeffrey, Willmore

       New President and Sister Mackay to the California Fresno Mission!

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From Left to Right: Elder Quinn, Presidents Clark & Mackay, Sisters Mackay & Clark, Elder Gray