Chapter 18: Signs shall follow them that believe
- Amber Prior
- Jul 25, 2025
- 10 min read
Updated: Jul 28, 2025
July 21, 2025 Weeks in the mission: 22 Days remaining: 569 Companion: Elder Watson —> ? Area: Riverside —> Riverside Ward: Mission —> Mission
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Hello friends, family, and anyone else haha! Welcome to chapter 18. This week was the last week of the transfer, and it was awesome. We labored a lot in the vineyard and saw amazing miracles and fruits of our labors.
This transfer as a whole FLEW by. I've learned so much. I'm thankful God sent me someone like Elder Watson, who taught me some very valuable and critical things about missionary work. I now know a lot more than I used to, such as how to put somebody on baptismal date in the first conversation I have with them. I've laughed a lot, worked a lot, and learned a lot. I met Cruz and got the privilege to watch the Gospel change his life.
It took me a while to go to sleep last night, with so much excitement for transfer news. Was I staying? Was I leaving? I'll do whatever, but I'd love to stay and continue to work with Cruz and get Mateo baptized and unify even more with the ward. As I was writing this email, we received the message regarding what our fates were. I'm STAYING, BABY!!! Elder Watson is leaving, but only our area. He's staying in our zone and our apartment. Elder Browne is also staying, so we prematurely figured out that the two of them are going to be companions. They were so hyped when we discovered that. They get along really well and make the whole apartment laugh.
That means only 1 new missionary is coming into this apartment, and he's going to be my companion. I wonder who it'll be?
Ok, just barely received another email. IM GONNA BE A TRAINER!!! HOLY COW!!! I GET TO INTRODUCE SOMEBODY INTO THE FIELD! I'M SO EXCITED!!!
(As you can see, I am very passionate about transfer results.)
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🌟 Miracle Highlight 🌟
Oh boy, there were lots of miracles this week. So many things I could bring up.
This time, I'm going to focus on our friend Mateo Nicolas. We have been working with him since the 2nd week of the transfer, and as far as I know, he has been coming to English Class for a couple months. He told us at the beginning that he couldn't come to church because he has work on Sunday, so we invited him to pray to God and ask Him what he can do in order to come to church. Nothing happened for 2 weeks, so Elder Watson was itching to pause him. But I could sense that Mateo had a deep desire to do what was right. I invited him to read from the Book of Mormon every day and told him I'd follow up with him. He said he would do it. I held firm in my position to not pause him just yet.
And HE PULLED THROUGH! He pulled up to church on sunday in his nice-looking suit and watch!!! He was looking sharp. He told us he called in sick for work JUST so he could come!!! We happily welcomed him inside.
To top it all off, he told us after sunday school that he was thinking about SERVING A MISSION. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We were so hyped for him and said "Ok, it's a long road from here but we'll help you get there. The first thing you need to do is be baptized." I have a feeling this is going to be the start of something great.
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🙏 Prayer request 🙏
Will you please include the following friends of ours in your prayers? You have no idea how much it helps and how many miracles we see out here.
Mateo Nicolas. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!! 🙏🙏🙏 The Spirit is working in him!! Please pray that he'll find a way to come to church every Sunday!
Roosevelt Cruz. Boy, he is just the best. He just keeps progressing on and on. There have been ZERO problems. Now his mom showed interest and said she'd come to church, but didn't make it this sunday for some reason. Please pray that she'll feel of the Spirit and have the courage to come see for herself the light!
Angelica Vasquez. We unfortunately had to pause her because she simply wasn't coming to church or answering our texts or calls, but Hermana Estrada will stay in contact with her and hopefully she'll come around.
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📅 Daily Events 📅
🔸️Monday A blessed preparation day! I sent out my email in the morning, responded to many of my friends who are in different missions across the globe, and had some precious chill time in the apartment.We also went to the church around 3:00 and played some games and hung out as a zone. I also practiced some piano and I can see slight progress.We were able to do some finding before sports night at 7:30, and we talked to quite a few people who might be interested.
🔸️Tuesday Today was the last day of DCM of the transer. Today literally marks the final 7 days. We have 1 week finish the work that we want to.I gave a pretty good training at DCM and did some following up on our district goals and how we can improve. I also bought donuts as well for everyone.We met a couple new people who might be interested today, so we'll see if they'll pull through. However, we also met a member who used to be so faithful but stopped going to church because of a bad experience he had with another who was very rude to him and his family and wouldn't leave them alone. He was such a nice guy and expressed interest in coming back to church again. His name is Enrique Tavarez.We also had a lesson today with Saul, with Hermano Ayala as fellowship. He comitted to coming to church, but it seems like he isn't looking to find the truth in his life.
🔸️Wednesday Honestly, today was one of those hard days. Not sure why, but I woke up feeling lazy and didn't want to do anything. All I wanted to do was sleep and not think about anything, but of course, I knew that was the wrong thing to do and that there's work to do.Me and Elder Watson actually got to use the car today for an hour. So we utilized it and went by everyone we planned to stop by that day. It would have taken us a couple hours to hit everyone on bike, but it only took us 30 minutes with the car.We also had a lesson with Cruz about the priesthood and followed up on how he was since his baptism. Cruz is such an awesome guy. I'll go wherever the Lord needs me, but it would be nice to stay in this area next transfer.
🔸️Thursday Today was good! We went on exchanges with Elder Young. He came to our area and we actually trio'd up for the day. We talked to many people and got lots of contact info for people. Some people said some funny things to us. One lady said she'd drive us to the beach but we'd have to drive her home because she'd get too drunk to drive. Another guy said to stop referring to God as "he" and start using the pronoun "they" 🤨It was a very eventful day. When we got back to the apartment, we had to wait around for the other APs to return. Elder Young asked me if I had any questions for him, so I asked him some things about missionary work that I was still trying to figure out. After answering my questions, he told me I was doing a great job and he saw my efforts. He told me the most important thing I could do was honestly just give this mission everything I have, to dedicate myself fully to the Lord, and I'll be the happiest I've ever been.It was nice to hear that. People can see things I'm doing that I guess I can't sometimes.
🔸️Friday We spent a lot of time weekly planning today and reflecting on our goals as a companionship.We've accomplished a lot this transfer. Basically from the ground up, we got the work going in an area. We started out with 0 friends. Now there are a lot. Elder Watson is a fantastic missionary.Anyhow, we finally had a lesson with Juan Miguel, our recent convert. We invited the whole family to start a family home eveing every week. Let's hope the Lord will help them get it started.We also had a lesson with Mateo, and read from the first chapter of the Book of Mormon. He is very smart and awesome, but just can't come to church because he has work, so Elder Watson wants to pause him. That'll probably happen, but I'm still going to follow up with him to make sure he's following through on his goal to read it once a day.A missionary overheard me today while I was discussing the fate of Mateo and told me "it's not that deep. Elder Watson is right." I must disagree. I wanted to say this to him but I refrained: this is the DEEPEST thing we could ever be doing in our lives! Our friends' ETERNAL FATES hang in the balance. It's up to us to guide them to the iron rod.
🔸️Saturday A great day today! we saw a bit of success with finding some new people to teach, which is always the best!We were able to take the car again for a little bit today and drive around, to find some new people. There was this one white guy that we were talking to, and he wasn't interested so we were about to drive off. From the car window, I said it was nice to meet him and asked him what his name was. He gave me a fake smile and said "Have a nice day." Without thinking it through, I replied back: "Nice to meet you, Mr. Have a Nice Day!" Elder Watson drove off and got mad at me for saying that haha. I probably shouldn't have said it, but I couldn't help myself haha.We had so many scheduled lessons today that fell through, but we didn't let that stop us. We got a lot done.Our friend Alex is probably going to get puased. He is just not willing to act on the comittments we gave him and hasn't come to church ONCE. If he doesn't come to church tomorrow, we'll have to pause him.
🔸️Sunday Last full day of the transfer. Today was AMAZING! We experienced a lot of miracles today and found people JUST at the right time. We definitely went out with a bang.To start off, we had Cruz, Saul, and Mateo come to church today!!! We were happy that Saul came because he said he wasn't sure if he was going to make it. But we were BLOWN AWAY when we turned around and saw Mateo pull up in his nice suit and watch! He told us he called in sick for work, JUST so that he could come to church!!! I couldn't believe my eyes!!! We happily welcomed him inside.Cruz and Salvador also got their temple reccommends today! And we talked to Brother Cooper about sports night. Bit by bit, the ward is going to get involved.To top it all off, after sunday school, Mateo told us that he was thinking about SERVING A MISSION. He's 21, not even baptized yet, but seems to already feel a calling from God telling him that this church is true. I'm so glad I held on firm to not pause Mateo. Something tells me that he is going to prioritize God over work during these upcoming weeks.As far as finding efforts today, God lead us to those whose hearts were ready to receive us and make committments. We met Kenny, AJ, Hector, and Rudy Lopez. We gave Kenny a Libro, put AJ on baptismal date, and gave a priesthood blessing to Rudy. I'm especially glad to have met Rudy. He's going through a terrible addiction that is hurting his relationship with his wife and his family. I fully believe God sent us to give him support, and I fully expect to work with him over these next few weeks. I have high hopes for all of them. God is so good.
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☀️ Spiritual thought ☀️
There's a missionary I know that has an awesome story. I got to listen to his dad read off a letter that was sent to him in sacrament meeting, from this certain missionary. In the letter, he recounted his story of struggling out here in the field and wanting to go home. It came down to the point where he had a flight booked to go home in 2 days. But he wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing, so he prayed to God with all the energy of his heart.He decided to flip a coin on it.He told God, if it lands on heads, he's staying. If it lands on tails, he's leaving. He left it completely up to God.It landed on heads.Because of THAT moment, I've had the opportunity to serve around this missionary for the whole transfer. If it landed on tails, he would've been home 6 weeks ago. He has since seen so many blessing from the Lord. The very next day, he put someone on baptismal date, and saw a TON of success in the missionary work. He's so glad he stayed.
I promise ALL OF YOU that God wants only the best for you. He loves you too much to leave you as you are; He knows your potential and will transform you into something far better than you thought you could be. When you give Him everything you have, and place your full trust in Him, that gives Him the space to raise you to great heights.
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And thus ends Chapter 18, marking the end of my 2nd full transfer here in the California Riverside Mission. Big things are coming up. I can't wait to see what Heavenly Father has in store.
Sincerely, Elder Prior.
📸 Photos 📸
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