C a l l e d t o S e r v e: Talk To The Hand

Hello everyone!

Sooooo my life. I still don't think it has hit me yet that I'm just not going back to Bolivia. I feel like this whole California thing is just a dream haha but it's been great! Me and hermana Vega are having a great time and we're working hard! I don't know if I mentioned this, but we've opened an area and so we literally have NOTHING which is sooo weird because I've always just had so much to work with. So pretty much this whole week all we've done is knock doors trying to find people to teach and that's been pretty different. And it's like one of the only ways we can find people here because no one really walks because everyone has cars so we've just been on the hunt for people to teach! Which is hard but hey, we're getting pretty creative with our door approaches. We've thought about making up a dance and song. I'll let you know if that works out. Hahaha just kidding. It's been very interesting to see how different people react to random people knocking on their door. This old 80 year old man told us to "talk to the hand". I'm pretty sure we've found 2 drug dealers. Lots of Philipinos and lots of Asians that don't speak English or Spanish. Lots of really nice people giving us random oranges off their orange trees, and just lots of people. But it's been good! We have a handful of people that have said we can come back! So I'll let you know how that all goes!

So some fun things that happened this week. We went bowling last Monday and I totally just beat everyone, even the elders. I got 144. Thanks grandpa for your awesome bowling skill genes. We went to a thrift store and did service this past week which was pretty fun. I love thrift stores and we had a good time. We got lost for like an hour this last week trying to find the bishops house.... our map ends at certain roads and we somehow ended up off the map so we had no idea where to go... it was awesome hahaha I hate driving I just want to take micros again. They called us like 30 minutes before church to ask if we could speak in church. I've got really good at winging talks so it wasn't too bad. I also got to go to a baptism yesterday of a small girl who happens to be related to the family that my mission president baptized years ago. That was an awesome experience and it helped me think of the bigger picture of spreading the gospel and how it effects people from generation to generation. So cool!

There was a missionary broadcast this past week so that was pretty cool. We watched it as a whole mission and holy cow there are so many missionaries I just don't know here. And it's just so different than my Bolivian missionaries thats for sure! But they're all pretty cool so I guess I'll survive here. Hahaha.

As for my health, I am getting better. I still have pains, but they aren't nearly as bad as what they were in Bolivia because I can control my diet more here than I could there. They're pretty sure I have hyper acidity so I just have to avoid acidy, greasy foods... and chocolate... it's a rough life. All of the tests came back normal so we're still not sure what's going on. But it's okay! I'm tough! Yes I still have pains and yes it does make the work harder, BUT I've just come to accept that theres nothing that I can do about it and that I can just work through the pain. And you know, I know that I'm not alone. I know that I have angels and my Heavenly Father and Jesus christ lifting me up during all of this. I am so grateful to be a missionary still and I know that there is a great reason why I am here in California. I know everything happens for a reason. I may not know the reason for why I randomly got switched here yet, and I may never know, but I have just learned to put my life in his hands. His plan allows us to have the most happiness and I feel so blessed to be here in California. I mean how cool is this? I have two missions! I got to see the struggle of a foreign mission and now I get to see the weird struggles and blessings of a stateside mission. I'm so blessed!! I want you to know that I am so happy here and that I am doing well, so DONT WORRY ABOUT ME! I do miss Bolivia a lot, but I am falling in love with the people here in California as well. My life is crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you all for your love and support! I greatly appreciate it and love you all! I hope you all have a wonderful week and always remember that YOU ARE LOVED. Talk to ya'll later (my Tenessee companion is rubbing off on me... so many ya'lls... hahaha )

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Higham

Also, yes, we have a car. And yes, they did call us 40 minutes before church to ask us if we would give a talk. Yes hermana Vega did just go through the whole tithing pamphlet for her talk. Hahahaha

I found these two people at a baptism! My mission president in Bolivia baptized them when he was a missionary! So that was a neat experience!

We went bowling for an activity and I totes got a 144 and killed everyone so wut up. Hahaha. And this is Sister Anderson, our mission nurse who has been taking great care of me!

California has beautiful sunsets like Bolivia.

This sweet little woman is from Bolivia! She's from La Paz and is just the cutest thing ever! We got to talk about Bolivian things which was wonderful.