Pictures from Redlands Facebook group

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Mission Highlights: Converts

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Converts: JESSE ESPIRIQUETA principally known as "Old Faithful", "The Jedi Knight" (as he dubbed himself), and "Latino Buddy the Elf" (dubbed by me). Jesse was all energy and fire. He met with missionaries several times over the years, but never paid them much attention until Hermana Miller and Stanfield showed up on his porch. "With them," he said, "I realized they were just sweet girls with something to tell me. My heart started to soften." Jesse was on baptismal date within weeks, and although he battled doubts and opposition from all sides, he never looked back once. A Zapotec Indian, he was fiercely passionate about dance, art, and storytelling, and was constantly sharing his culture with us. He wrote each of his missionaries a detailed "Tenali" which is a sort of horoscope which was terrifyingly accurate. He dubbed me "Yolohuitzi" or "Corazon de Colibri" --Hummingbird Heart. He decided shortly afte...
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October 14, 2019 Another Beginning

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We couldn't get all our friends in Thermal to church, but Hermano Esteves got the big idea of a movie night in his front yard. He rarely plans activities, so we took the idea and ran with it. He put his heart and soul into it, buying around 40 ears of corn to make elotes (dressed-up corn cobs), powdered cheese, and this cute little black table runner to "make it look fancy." Not too many showed, but those that did loved it--watching "Coco" on a big screen under a big harvest moon and surrounded by fields of corn and palms. We couldn't watch the movie, so Hermana Coenen and I sat behind the screen, bringing everyone drinks and popcorn and pasting countless corn cobs with mayonnaise and cheese. We felt very Mexican.  I probably drive my companion crazy, these last few weeks I've been just a crazy mix of trying to speed up and slow down--cramming too many things into the schedule, desperately trying to see everyone, and then running late to e...
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Little Mission Highlights: Areas

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AREAS  I only served in three areas, which is very unusual for a sister missionary, and stayed in each one progressively longer. I taught tons of people, but the Lord seemed to always send me to the ones with big obstacles that needed a lot of love, a lot of time, and a lot of patience. I think he knew I wouldn't just leave them in the dust when the going got rough, or the minute there wasn't a baptism within the next three weeks. FONTANA I remember landing in Redlands CA the first day, and thinking how well the Lord knew me to send me there. The place was hilly and full of citrus fruit and antique houses. It was lovely! The next day, however, I was assigned to my first area, Fontana, and I drove out with my trainer I was struck by how quickly the landscape changed! Fontana was pure concrete, with few trees, and full of litter, pollution, and people fallen on hard times. I never felt unsafe, but it was a dirty, smoky industrial town. Quickly, however, I grew to love it for...
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