Chapter 20: Long-lost Sheep
- Amber Prior
- Aug 6
- 6 min read
August 6, 2025
Weeks in the mission: 24 Companion: Elder Garcia Area: Riverside Ward: Mission
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Hello everyone around the globe! This is my 20th chapter as a missionary for the Lord. Preparation day is today because we are going to the Redlands temple! We are actually on our way there as I write this right now.
We've made some progress in our area this last week. We discovered that there are hundreds of people that congregate at a park every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday to watch their kids play in soccer games. Me and Elder Garcia go in head-first and talk to everyone we can. That kind of finding keeps you on your toes, but you also feel very fulfilled because you're conquering fears and working hard for the Lord.
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🌟 Miracle Highlight 🌟
On Saturday evening, we had 2 incredible miracles, back-to-back. The first was when we decided to go to a member's houe for a visit. We knocked on the door, then a few moments later, a guy opens up the door with a beer in his hand. First thing he does is offer some to us. We said we don't drink, of course. Then we immediately got invited in and joined these 5 guys in the living room, who were watching an MMA fight on the TV. We met all of them and we came to find out that the missionaries hadn't spoken with them for decades. Their entire family stopped going to church when they experienced some trial and hardship. Nothing against the church, but some challenges I guess. Financially, maybe. The friendliest guy there, Jesse, was basically BEGGING us to come back next Saturday and bring some Book of Mormons. He said he'd get the whole family here and even some nephews he mentioned. We got his number and info. We are going to re-activiate this family. The second miracle happened when we said goodbye and started for home. We didn't even get all the way down the sreet before we met Adrian Lopez. His family had stopped going to church because they moved. He was baptized when he was 8. He wanted to start coming back. He expressed concern because he told us he'd broken his baptismal covenants. Then we explained repentance to him. God is so good. I know because of our faith and efforts, He can trust us enough to send people our way.
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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.
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📅 Daily Events 📅
🔸️Monday A good p-day! I did some fun things with the zone. I also took my bike to the shop to get it fixed. I ended up spending $80 to replace the chain, but it was so worth it. My bike rides as smooth as butter now! At the YSA church building, I took on Elder Demetropolous in pickleball. It was tons of fun! It had been a while since I had played last.
🔸️Tuesday Today was a grind. During companion study, I helped Elder Garcia memorize the first vision in Spanish. He learns things very quickly. We also spent some time with this debate with a guy who was against the church. I wanted to show him the truth, but he just wasn't receptive to any of it.
🔸️Wednesday Today was good, we had a big training meeting for all the new trainees at the Grand. I sat next to Elder Stocks, whom I knew in junior high school. He's an incredible witness to the joy of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. After english class, we read a chapter in the Book of Mormon with Mateo.
🔸️Thursday Today was a good day! We had Zone Training Meeting in the morning, and we made a plan to work towards getting 21 children of God to enter the waters of baptism this transfer. I delivered the very useful covenant path cards and every companionship was able to take several with them. We're going to put lots of people on plan this transfer! We had a lesson with Christian at the church at 4:00, which went fantastic, by the way. We taught them about baptism and we were super close to putting him on date, but he's not quite ready yet. We invited him to pray and ask God Himself about it. Oh, and they also read from a BUNCH of chapters in the Book of Mormon. Towards the end of the day, we had an epic finding spree. We saw hundreds of people at a park, watching their kids play soccer. Me and Elder Garcia went in there at 5:00 and didn't stop talking to people until 8:30. We found out they come here every tuesday, thursday, and saturday.
🔸️Friday It's already August? Holy cow. The months are flying by. Time is so weird out here. God sent us several wonderful things today. We ran into Christ, a homeless guy who said he'd meet us close to the starbucks just last night. He had completely forgotten, but nevertheless he happened to be there at the time we arranged to meet him. We gave him a Book of Mormon and told him there's hope. That's all we could do for him. He's in God's hands now. And good news: we got into contact with Jonathan again! He's been super busy and his car broke down. We gave Cruz's number to him and his brother, because Cruz is an expert mechanic. This could be an amazing opportunity for them to become friends. We also had an amazing lesson with Daniel Martinez at 8:40pm. We found out he has a wife and 2 girls.
🔸️Saturday What a fulfilling day to be a missionary. My joy is full. We worked so hard today. God blessed us because of our efforts. We went out at 8:00am to go to the park and find people there, just like we did on Thursday. I gotta say, doing stuff like that takes some courage. Fear somehow creeps in with every new person you approach, especially with so many eyes on you. At one point a head coach told us to stop and go away. But immediately after that, we met Mel, one of the nicest people on the planet. She and her husband are looking for a church to attend. We told her about the Book of Mormon and church and set up a time to meet her again. She should be coming to church tomorrow. We returned to the apartment to do our studies, and those were very productive. I've decided to start learning Mandarin so I can speak to people who only speak chinese. I'm using Duolingo, which should really help me a lot in getting started. And good news: we had another lesson with Jonathan again! Finally! We taught him about modern-day prophets and invited him to listen to a talk from President Russel M. Nelson. And we arranged for Cruz to pick him up tomorrow so he can come to church. [This evening was also when we had the miracle highlight of the week ^^]
🔸️Sunday Today was great, another day under the Lord's time. Not a single day should be taken for granted. We invited so many friends to church but nobody came to church, including Jonathan Layva. Which means we're going to have to postpone his baptism again. It'll have to be on the 24th. I'm starting to wonder if this is something he really wants. During the evening, we went to a member's house to visit and talked with them for a bit. They were the Pinedas family. Turns out the mother is sick and is fighting cancer, so we gave her a blessing. She was shedding tears at the end of it. It was also Elder Garcia's first time giving a blessing of any sort. He did a great job. I'm preparing to give a training in tomorrow's district council meeting. It'll be pretty sweet. I've been super prayerful and I know this is inspired. Preparation this week is on Wednesday because that's when we're going to the temple.
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☀️ Spiritual thought ☀️
During my personal study this week, I was reading in Mosiah 27, about the repentance story of Alma and the sons of Mosiah. Verse 29 really struck a chord with me. Here it is: 29 My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss, but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more. I love this verse because it applies to me personally. I remember all the pain and loneliness and darkness I was surrounded by when I turned away my mission call and fled to Spain by myself. I had many adventures there but my soul became lost. Then I remember when I finally turned back to God and asked for forgiveness and hope. He took me from where I was and brought purpose back into my life. I echo the words of Alma. I am here on a mission to help others do the same.
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That's all for this chapter. Love all of you, and God is aware of you!
— Elder Prior
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