Pasadena 🌞

Hello everyone! 

I am unfortunately running out of time so I will just have to send lots of pictures today :) thanks to all of you for your love and support. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! It is the best thing ever. 

Love,

Hermana Hirschi

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Pasadena Week I have no idea

Hola a todos!

It has been a whirlwind of a week. I love missionary life! This week marked 10 months since I said goodbye to my family and walked into the Missionary Training Center. I cannot believe it! I have loved every second and I am so grateful that I still have 8 more months to enjoy being a missionary.

This week the highlight was for sure the barbecue that our congregation had! We had yummy carne asada and hamburgers and juice and it was so fun. Us missionaries were in charge of guarding the water balloons until it was time for the little kids to play with them and it went really well until they all bombarded us and we got soaked! I did have a slight advantage though since I had the hose the whole time :) 

This week I have been reading and thinking a lot about faith. Lots of times, God asks us to do things that we think are hard, for example, keeping the commandments, giving up our Sundays to go to church and worship Him, going on a mission, living high standards, etc.. Sometimes we don't understand the reasons why, and so we hesitate or balk at complying with His commands. But the scriptures teach us that we don't receive an answer until after the "trial of our faith," or in other words, until after we have tried it for ourselves. As we keep the commandments, we grow in the conviction that it is something good, because when we keep God's commandments He can and does bless us. I have seen that a lot in my own life, and especially in the lives of those I teach. We are the ones who make the commandments seem scary or unrealistic, when in reality they are just the way to receive a flood of blessings in our lives. So I am growing in my appreciation for God's commandments, because even though I don't understand the purpose all the time, as I keep them I feel of His love and receive more blessings than I can describe in a short email :)

Have a wonderful week! God bless each of you!

Love,

Hermana Hirschi

A cool elevator on the way to Olive Garden to celebrate Hermana Arriagada being in the mission for a year!

You can't really tell but we are SOAKED to the bone here!

I also got my first sunburn since I arrived here in California. And I am still super white, even with it.

The crash that comes after eating a yummy cake

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Hello from Pasadena!

Always tired.

At the temple with Carlos, Eduardo, Vicky and Edward. They are an awesome family.

Hello everyone!

What a crazy week it has been! As usual though haha! This week we had
meetings three days in a row and then we were gone from Pasadena
Saturday and most of Sunday. Saturday we left because I was asked to
sing at a funeral for a stillborn child. It was really humbling to see
the family come together in love at a time of trials. It made me feel
really grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which makes it
possible to have family ties last forever, after death! I know that is
true and possible through the temple. We went to the temple visitors
center after church on Sunday with some of the people we are teaching
and that experience reaffirmed my knowledge that my family will be
together forever. I love my family, sorry to all y'all out there but
my family is the best. I cannot imagine heaven without my family.
At the visitors center, Carlos, one of the people we are teaching who
went with us, asked us what drove us to continue in this church, what
drove us to believe it, and that really made me think. Why am I here,
in California on a mission? Why do I believe that the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of Jesus Christ on the
earth? As I thought, I realized that my answer boiled down to two
simple facts:
1. I love my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ, and know that
They love me.
2. I love my family and want to be together with them forever.
Those two facts give me the motivation to keep going when it gets
hard. Because my Father and Christ love me, they have provided a way
for me to be happy with my family forever. And I know that They have
provided that for every single person on the earth. That is why I am a
missionary - to help other families have the same hope and comfort
that I have, and to be able to have forever families.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,
Hermana Hirschi

Free slurpee day!

Pasadena Week 11 🌞🇺🇸

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE💙❤️

I love America. I feel so grateful to live in this great nation! Land of the free and home of the brave.

This week was an adventure! I don't think I've had such a stressful week my entire mission! Everything that could go wrong did. But at the same time I saw so many tender mercies from God. Our new mission president and his wife came to our baptism that we had this Saturday and it was so amazing to meet them.

On Saturday, Blanca got baptized! She is the 15 year old niece of a member here and she is just amazing. We met her two weeks ago and since day one she has just had the biggest desires to learn and come closer to God. Her baptismal service was beautiful and full of the Spirit, and on Sunday she shared her testimony with the congregation and it was so powerful. I know that this gospel is what brings true, lasting happiness to each child of God. It is His given way to happiness, satisfaction guaranteed! It does not mean that it will be easy. But it does mean that we will have the divine help we need when we struggle and fall. He is always there, just a prayer away! I know He lives to help us.

Have a wonderful week everyone! Keep cool and hydrated- that's the challenge for us here in Pasadena now :) 

Love,

Hermana Hirschi 

Hermana Sarah Hirschi | Arcadia California Mission

Mailing Address: 

614 W Foothill Blvd

Arcadia, CA 91006

President and Sister Wells with Blanca and Hna Arriagada and I at her baptism.