Pasadena Week 7 🌞

My new companion Hermana Arriagada, Hermana Wilde and I!

The sisters we live with!

Coming home after a long, awesome day!

I love hermana Wilde! She is wonderful.

Hello everyone!

We had transfers today, and I get to stay in Pasadena! My new
companion is Hermana Arriagada! Hermana Wilde finished her mission
today - I am so grateful and her example!

This past week flew by! I feel like every week flies by. I spent the
majority of this week recovering from a really awful cold but it was
still a great week! It was a week full of fun and laughter but more
than anything else, hard work, so it was awesome! The best part was
Sunday! 8 of the people we are teaching came to church with us and 4
other people who are learning about the church came too! It was
incredible. I am so grateful for this gospel. It brings true peace. If
you want to find peace that lasts, you'll only find it in Jesus
Christ.

I don't have too much time left, but I will try to send some pictures
today to make up for that. It is starting to get super hot here in
California and I think I'll spend all summer dying from the heat! It
is crazy but I love it.

Thanks for all the support :)

Love,
Hermana Hirschi

Hermana Sarah Hirschi | Arcadia California Mission
Mailing Address:
614 W Foothill Blvd
Arcadia, CA 91006

Pasadena Week 4

Hello everyone! I hope all of you had a wonderful Mother's Day! I got to celebrate Mother's Day three times because our congregation had an activity on the 6th, then the Mexican Mother's Day was the 10th, and we of course celebrated yesterday! My mom is the best in the whole wide world and I am so incredibly grateful for her and indebted to her.

On Saturday, a 17 year old girl that we have been teaching named Andrea was baptized! She is incredible, and it was such a spiritual experience to see her making that promise to God. It is so comforting to know that God has provided a way for us to be cleansed through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even more than just cleansed though, I have learned that it heals us as we follow the path Christ established. And I have grown in gratitude for the priesthood power and authority that was restored to this earth through the prophet Joseph Smith. This is the exact same church that Christ established, and it contains the same power by which he performed miracles and taught. It is the truth, and I am so grateful to have the security of that knowledge.

I love each of you! Thank you for your love and support.

Love,

Hermana Hirschi

Andrea and her little siblings on Saturday!

The other sister missionaries we live with!

Sister Gordon! We spent the day together on Wednesday. She is super sweet!

Hermana Sarah Hirschi | Arcadia California Mission

Mailing Address: 

614 W Foothill Blvd

Arcadia, CA 91006

¡Feliz día de las madres!

Hello everyone!

I am so sorry for the lack of emails lately. Monday's are busy, busy busy days and it is a struggle to fit everything in.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. There is nothing harder in the world but nothing better. I get to testify of Jesus the Christ every single day and there is nothing that brings more joy than standing up for Him. I love teaching people about His church - the exact same church that He established when He walked on the earth. I love surprising people when I speak Spanish with them - they can never quite believe that two gringas are in front of them speaking some fairly decent Spanish! I have even started to like parallel parking - something my dad probably thought I would never do willingly! I love California and I love that I still have 11 months to preach this marvelous gospel of change and repentance.

Right now we are teaching several incredible people. Andrea is 16, her mother is a member of the church but Andrea was never baptized. She is amazing. She has come to church several times and fits right in! It has been really cool to listen to all she has learned from us and to watch her change as she strives to come closer to God. Alfredo is probably in his 60s and is the coolest person ever! He used to have a lot of problems with drinking, but he quit it all and I LOVE when we visit him because he just talks about all the changes he has seen in his life since he started learning from us. He says he feels happier and has more desires to do good and to be up and about instead of just sitting around. Victoria is also in her 60s and has great desires to help her family come to Christ. Her two sons have met with us a few times and her grandsons have come to church 3 times! They each have told us that they have felt changed as they come to Christ.

I have learned, through each of these people and the many others I have taught, that a true faith in Christ stems from a desire to learn of Him, and the courage to follow Him. True faith centered in Christ leads us to act, and to change through repentance. As we repent, we are able to leave in our past bad habits and guilt, and past mistakes can be washed away through baptism by immersion, by someone who holds the proper authority. We remain close to God after baptism by receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and by keeping God's commandments so that He can continue to bless us. As we endure to the end and faithfully follow Him, we become changed through the power of the Atonement of Christ. I have felt that power in my life as I have followed that process. I have a long way to go, but what a blessing it is to know that He walks right beside me, guiding my every step. I count myself even more lucky that I get to see that process of change happening in the lives of people here in California, people I have come to know and love. 

Thanks to each of you for your support! It means the world. I don't have tons of time to reply to individual people today but please know that I am grateful for you and your thoughtful emails.

Love,

Hermana Sarah Hirschi

Hermana Sarah Hirschi | Arcadia California Mission

Mailing Address: 

614 W Foothill Blvd

Arcadia, CA 91006

I am obsessed with California.

LA! I love it. 

This is my favorite breakfast. Overnight oatmeal. Google it or ask me for the recipe. I think I eat it almost everyday!

"We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet!"

Buenas tardes todos! How is everyone?

This week has been so fun. Hermana Lyman and I are still getting along super well and it is so fun to work together! We have met lots of cool people this week and this coming week we will be teaching a lot of them about Christ and how they can increase their faith in Christ! 

This week in my studies, I have studied a lot about prophets. All throughout the Bible, God taught and guided His people through prophets. Today, He does the same! There is a prophet on the earth again and he guides the Church of Jesus Christ through modern-day revelation. Something that impressed me this week as I studied about prophets was a quote that said something like "Prophets help us understand how our relationship with God should be." So I went and studied some of the former talks that the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson has given, and found lots of talks that helped me understand my relationship with God better. This coming weekend (Saturday and Sunday), President Monson and the other leaders of the church will again address the entire world! If you listen, I promise he will speak about how you can better understand your relationship with God. I know that God loves us just as much as He did in the Bible times, which is why He has called a prophet again in these days, to guide us and teach us! I am so grateful to live in a time with a prophet again. If you want to listen to what he has to say this weekend, visit lds.org. I promise you will not be disappointed!! 

Today we went up into the beautiful mountains (Mt. Baldy) and hiked a little bit. It was so nice to be out in nature and enjoy the views! I'll send some pictures soon.

I love you all! Thank you for the love and support :)

Hermana Sarah Hirschi | California Arcadia Mission

Mailing Address:

Sister Sarah Hirschi

614 W. Foothill Blvd
Arcadia, CA 91006

hermanahirschi.blogspot.com

HOoola!

Hi everyone!

Wow, what a whirlwind of a week! It was so fast and I can hardly remember what happened! Hermana Lyman and I get along so well! It is so fun to be with her and to be doing this work of salvation together! Her Spanish is improving so much and I am learning so much with her.

This week I have been thinking a lot about the will of God. Lots of times, we want things according to our timetable, and we forget that God has His own, perfect timetable. He has all the factors and all the outcomes that we cannot see, and He knows exactly what will help us the most. We think we know best when all we can see are the two steps directly in front of us, while he can see the beginning, middle, and end of the path. He knows the hills and the declines, and all the dangers on the trail. As we walk along, we would do well to remember His master plan, and cry out to Him, "Lord, I believe! Help thou mine unbelief," like a trusting father in the New Testament cried out. I am trying to trust more in His will and His timing every day. What a blessing it is to know that He knows the path, and that when we trust in Him, we don't have to worry about what comes next, because we can know that He will only give us the trials we can handle, and the ones that will help us become who He knows we can become. I encourage you all to pray for more trust in His plan, and to accept His will. 

I am so lucky to be a missionary! Thank you for all your support and love.

Love,

Hermana Sarah Hirschi | California Arcadia Mission

Mailing Address:

Sister Sarah Hirschi

614 W. Foothill Blvd
Arcadia, CA 91006

hermanahirschi.blogspot.com

Route 66!!!

Hi everyone!!

I'm so sorry I didn't get time to write a group email last week! It
was a crazy day (but then again they all are!) and I'm sorry for those
of you I didn't get to reply to!

This week has been great! I think a few times a week I sort of have to
pinch myself and realize that I'm actually a missionary and that I
really am in California! It's the best!! It's also pretty hard.
Something my companion and I were talking about is how individualized
missions are to the missionary. Some serve in third world countries
where they might not even have electricity all the time. Others serve
in the United States where they have iPads and cars to help them out.
But no matter what, each missionary has trials and individual
struggles that are perfectly designed by the One who knows us best, to
help us grow and become better. Really, that's how life is. Lots of
people we teach ask us "If God is so loving, how does He let so much
suffering occur?" And while I don't know the perfect answer, I think
it's something along the lines of this: God knows and loves us
perfectly. He never gives us challenges that are more than He can
handle, and through those trials, He molds us into the person He knows
we can become. Without the trials, we wouldn't know the joy of the
good times.

Something funny that happened this week is that we had a church
breakfast on Saturday, and so Hermana Hirschi and I went and helped
out. We ended up in the kitchen, and all the women were teaching us
how to make tortillas! It took a lot of trial and error (and a lot of
ugly tortillas), but finally we got the hang of it, and the ladies all
told us that we could get married now, since we would be able to make
our husbands tortillas! We had a good laugh about that😊 People ask
Hermana Hirschi and I if we are sisters all the time! We look enough
alike to everybody that they don't always believe us when we say nope,
we are 8th cousins, twice removed! It is pretty fun to see all the
reactions. Also fun fact Route 66 passes through my area and we go on
it all the time.

Well, I hope all of you have a blessed week, and a Happy Valentine's Day!!

With love,
Hermana Sarah Hirschi

And I think to myself... What a wonderful world!

Hello everyone!

What a wonderful week it has been! It's been so wonderful I can't seem to remember everything that happened haha, but I do know it was a good week - how can it not be good when you spend every day serving God? Also it is sunny and warm and I got to play frisbee today so I feel very blessed. 

This week I felt really loved as members of the wards here went out of their way to wish me a happy birthday and to make sure I felt loved! And so many of you did too - thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes and messages! I am so grateful for you. 

I don't have too much time so I will just share a scripture that I love: "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." (Mosiah 4:9) I love this scripture! It is so simple in its invitation and yet so profound. Believe in God! Believe that He loves you! Believe that He has a plan for you, because He does.

I know my Savior lives! I know God has a plan for me and each of you, and I'm SO lucky and blessed to help people here in Covina find that plan.

God be with you this week!

Love,

Hermana Hirschi

Hermana Sarah Hirschi | Arcadia California Mission

Mailing Address: 

614 W Foothill Blvd

Arcadia, CA 91006