California Girl - Adventures of Hermana Hawkes

Hello! For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Sarah Hawkes and I returned this week from a full-time mission serving the Spanish-speakers of Southern California in the San Bernardino Mission. It’s hard to put how I feel about my mission into words, but I loved it. It meant everything to me, and it was such a privilege. I learned so much about the love that God has for each of his children. On my mission I served among first- and second-generation immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries, and learned so much from them. I learned the importance of not taking yourself too seriously, loving with your whole heart, hard work, and family, and it doesn’t matter what you wear during the week but the weekend is time for bold eyebrows and bright lipstick. The most incredible part was that each and every person I met had a deep faith and love for God.           Spanish was NOT easy for me, because a "pedacito" is ...

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...

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...