Chapter 13: The Hand of God
- Amber Prior
- Jul 15
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 28
June 16, 2025
Weeks in the mission: 17 Companion: Elder Winter → Elder Watson Area: Corona → Riverside Ward: Del Rey → Mission Ward
“That's SO CHANGA!” —Elder Browne
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A big hello to friends and family around the globe! Welcome to Chapter 13. It has been almost a week since transfers have happened. Here's the news: I have been assigned to the Riverside area, which is so exciting! I live in an apartment complex with so many other missionaries, including the APs. It's really hype! I got super lucky, because my apartment has an air hockey table, so we've been keeping a scoreboard and it's going to go all transfer haha.
My new companion is named Elder Watson. He is the best! In fact, I think it's God's will that me and him are companions. Both me and him have had such long and winding roads to get to this point, in different ways. The Lord wants us to do some great things. And we already have. This last week has undoubtedly been the best week of my mission thus far. We've seen astounding miracles. We've opened up a new bike area with 0 friends to start, so we've been working from the ground up. But the Lord has magnified our efforts.
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🙏 Prayer request 🙏
Will you please include the following friends of ours in your prayers?
The Recna family. Help them to trust the new missionaries in the area and to learn of the truth.
Otis Salinas. Please pray that he'll continue to meet with the missionaries in Corona and accept the truthfulness of the Gospel. It'll change his life forever.
Oscar. Help him to remain strong, give him support that Satan won't succeed in knocking him off the path.
Roosevelt Cruz. He's a very accountable guy. Just the coolest. Pray that he'll have the diligence and desire to read from the Book of Mormon and come to know of its truthfulness of its teachings. It'll help him become so much stronger, spiritually.
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📅 Daily Events 📅
🔸️Monday My last P-day here in Corona. Tomorrow, I leave to another land. I know not where. I will find out when we all gather at the mission office for transfers. Elder Winter is also leaving the area, so that means we're getting doubled out. That's actually very rare. 2 missionaries will be replacing us. It's not usually like that.So this means no more Piquet family, no more Manuel, no more Otis, no more Recna family, no more Taber building, and no more nights with Elder Winter, Pitcher, and Bonham. Things are going to change dramatically.On top of that, I've been notified that I'm going to be a district leader next transfer. That's crazy! I hope to do a decent job.We said our goodbyes to our friends like Otis, Carlos, Adriana, Hermano Moreno, etc. Otis was especially tender to see us go. He told us thanks for everything. We got his Facebook so we'll be in contact and stay in touch.
🔸️Tuesday Transfer day! It was hype! The new way they're doing transfers is great and I'm a big fan of it. We all sat there in the gym, getting called to our new companions one by one. More and more of us disappeared. Soon enough, I found myself among the last few. I was finally called up and found out that I'll be in the Riverside area! And my companion is Elder Watson, but I actually haven't met him yet.You see, he's been out of the field for about a year. He had to go home for some serious medical issue. But now he's coming back, and I'll be his first companion.So for today, I went into a trio with Elder Browne and Elder Field. They are the other 2 elders assigned to our apartment. They're awesome. I already know I'm going to get along with them so much. Elder Browne is actually as old as I am in the mission. 2 transfers old! I'm excited to see the growth we have together and where we'll be in a year.Tomorrow, I'm meeting Elder Watson at the mission office at 1:00 pm. I can't wait!
🔸️Wednesday Wow, what an amazing day. So many incredible things took place. The Spirit is real, and I had the sacred honor to witness it change someone's life for the better. Me, Elder Browne, and Elder Field put someone on date for baptism. The lesson was filled with the Spirit. The man we met with was named Oscar. In the middle of our lesson, the Spirit prompted me to say "God is calling you, Oscar. He's been preparing you for this moment." And that's when we both started crying from joy.I had just experienced firsthand all of those stories that I've heard about before coming on the mission. The Spirit of the Lord is real. We are simply the messengers. We are simply His hands.I finally met my companion, Elder Watson! He is such a stud. He's friendly, hard-working, talented, and hilarious. It's a joy to work with him. He can do wheelies on his bike, so I've been learning from him.Now that we're finally starting to settle in, tomorrow we'll be able to make a plan and set some goals this transfer. I'm feeling that with the Lord's help, we could baptize 3 people this transfer. At least 3, if it's in His will. I have a feeling we're going to work wonders.
🔸️Thursday This was an amazing and incredibly productive day. I'm so excited to work with Elder Watson. Our morning was great, but at 9:50, me and Elder Field had to leave for the district leader training at the Grand (the mission office.)Being there with all the other DLs was awesome. We listened to the trainings from the APs and the mission president. They made some changes to our weekly District Council Meeting (DCM). I know that the DLs have more added responsibility and things to keep track of, so I'm gearing up to work hard.Me and Elder Watson took the full 3 hours of weekly planning and set some goals and envisioned what we want to accomplish this transfer. It came down to 2 big things: activate the ward, and baptize 3 children of God before next transfer. I know that it's possible if we do it by the will of the Lord.
🔸️Friday We saw a lot of success today. The hand of God really is in this work. It's an honor to be a part of it. Me and Elder Watson approached a 25-year old guy sitting alone in his garage. His name is Roosevelt Cruz. We both let the Spirit work wonders with him as we testified truth. He said that he had been praying for help just yesterday, and we were a sign from God. We taught him about the ordinance of baptism and its importance. WE LITERALLY PUT HIM ON DATE ON THE FIRST CONTACT! It's such an incredible miracle. There are children of God YEARNING for our message of truth and hope. We need to find them.It's no coincidence that me and him are companions. We've both had long and hard paths to getting here. I know that if we stick to God's plan and if it's His will, we can get to 3 baptisms this transfer.
🔸️Saturday Yet another amazing day with Elder Watson. The Lord continues to bless us. We had a huge zone-wide breakfast this morning with so many youth from the Riverside East stake. They cooked us pancakes and then they were randomly assigned to a missionary to talk to. I hyped up this one youth about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. She's so hyped to serve a mission now haha >:).Finding with Elder Watson is filled with miracles. We met Ramon who was SO prepared for the gospel! He'll try to come to church tomorrow. He's super eager to hear the message we share as missionaries of the true church.I'm starting to feel the added responsibility of being a DL now. There's a lot of things to keep track of and consider. I'll be giving my first training this Tuesday for DCM. President Hendrickson is gonna be there too, doing interviews. So no pressure haha. God has trusted me with this responsibility, so I'll do the best I can.
🔸️Sunday A blessed Sunday! Good ol' Cruz showed up! It was a privilege to get to introduce him to the joy of the gospel. The members were awesome and started talking with him. He expressed feeling the Spirit so strongly. We're meeting with him tomorrow, and we'll teach him all he needs to know.Biking around today was very hot. Much more than usual. But that didn't stop us from finding people!!! I loved especially Juan. He loves the gospel and happily accepted the Book of Mormon. We'll get meeting with him more and show him the truth.
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☀️ Spiritual thought ☀️
There was this short podcast I listened to this week, with David A. Bednar sharing his thoughts about how to recognize the Spirit. He shared some insights that I appreciated. He said that as members of the church, especially on the western coast, we tend to overcomplicate it. It's very simple. Just be a good boy, or a good girl. The Lord has promised that the Spirit will be with you. We don't have to recognize the Spirit in the moment. We are receiving revelation, even if we don't know it at the time.
He provided 1 Nephi 4:6:
“And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.”
Elder Bednar went on to make a point: I don't want to over-analyze this, but in modern day words, Nephi basically said that I didn't have a clue what I was doing. At the time he wrote that verse, 30 years had passed since then. There's a reason that verse was written in there, especially before all the Isaiah chapters.
The point is this: we don't have to recognize the Spirit in the moment, although it certainly can be a possibility. But more often than not, it is a "still small voice". We can look back after time, and see the Spirit guiding us throughout the whole way.That gives me a lot of confidence. The Spirit is always with me. It guides me even when I don't know it.
Love you all! The Lord is going to work miracles this transfer!
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📸 Photos 📸
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