Week Four: K got baptized! We are moving!

Hello all!

I hope all is well with each and everyone on of you and that you haven't forgotten about me quite yet! This week was a little bit rough but it ended with a great baptism and great news that we are moving into an apartment! Let me just share some things from this week. Last Sunday we received a referral from the mission office for a woman named Cherry! The older sisters that work in the mission office had run into to her when she was dropping off mail (she is a mail woman) and started talking to her and gave her a Book of Mormon. We met with her last Sunday for the first time and she is literally one of the most humble and sincere people I have ever met. She has four boys and has been wanting to find some answers to some questions she has. We committed her to a baptismal date next month and we have met with her 3 times since then. They came to church on Sunday and they loved it and he boys loved primary. It was a really good experience for them. It was really awesome seeing how everything had played out for her because the gospel came into her life right when she needed it. She has so much potential and she already identifies herself as a Mormon. She is so solid. I just love her. We have been having a member come with us to every lesson that we have with her and that has been SO helpful. Member missionary work is necessary for the Lords plan to be accomplished. It has been a great experience. The rest of the week was fairly slow we had a couple lessons with some investigators and less actives and they were good but somewhat defeating I guess. We spent majority of the week trying to get Kiana ready for her baptism on Saturday. She was so ready for baptism. The baptism on Saturday went so great. She had so much family from different states come and support her and it was so great to see all the love and support that was brought to her. It was kinda of weird though because I felt like I was at a friends baptism instead of at an investigators baptism who I

played a role in. It hasn't really set on yet that I play a role in helping these people come unto their loving Heavenly Father. We also had some great Hawaiian food after from a family in one of my ward and it was so good! It feels so good to watch people you love come into the fold. I seriously love the people I teach so much it is almost bizarre because I thought that was something I was really going to struggle with but it hasn't been hard for me yet. Sister Huni and I are still getting a long pretty well. I think that we are getting over that honeymoon stage and onto the point where we need to learn how to overcome each others differences. I'm so grateful for her though and the love hat she shows me when I'm in a horrible mood because I'm tired and for the example that she has been for me. Seriously she is the best trainer a girl could ever have! We also got the call on Friday that we are moving into an apartment right outside of our area!Thank goodness! Living with Our member has been pretty good except for the fact that she doesn't believe in air conditioning and the heat puts me to sleep everyday. Seriously it is such a struggle getting awake and staying awake. I'm excited to move and be able to have be as cold as I want it to be! Yay sweatshirt weather! Haha. Since we cover

two wards in our stake we go to six hours of church. Honestly six hours usually goes by pretty fast and I enjoy it a lot but yesterday was slightly exhausting. Missionary work is exhausting and sometimes I wanna watch Netflix all day but like I said last week It is so worth it! I love it. I can't believe that I have already been out for a month! Craziness! I have to speak next week in one of our wards and I have to sing with Sister Huni. She basically volunteered us but we are singing with the ukulele so hopefully all will go well and Heavenly Father will bless the ears of those listening cause we all know I am not a singer. Haha I'm excited to take about conversion though and get in front of the ward and show them that I'm ready to work.We also went to one of our investigators twins birthday party and we posed as a mermaid and a pirate. It was a lot of fun! They are the cutest girls! I love you all so much and appreciate the love that has

been shown and felt.

Ps. We may have had a mini photo shoot #sistermissionarylife Also when you have rough day or you meet goals for, the previous week you treat yourself to some good old froyo

-Sister Lauren Camilleri

Week Three: So worth it!

Hello from the beautiful brown wonderland that I live in! This week was really good! We had a lot of lessons with some really solid investigators and we have been prepping K for her baptism on the 22nd of this month! I have learned a lot of new things about the gospel and gained greater knowledge of what it means to have faith in Jesus Christ. We had a zone conference of Wednesday where President Ahlander and his wife gave us trainings of faith and hope. President Ahlander spoke on faith. It became really clear to me that faith and faith in Jesus Christ are to very different things. When you have faith you can have faith in anything and just kind of believe it is true or that something will work out. You can just kinda say yeah hopefully the next door that I knock on will hold a good prospect. When you have faith in Jesus Christ it changes your perspective and mindset of how you think about something especially the gospel. My mindset began to change from yeah I hope that the next door will have someone behind it that could benefit from the gospel to yes because of my faith and knowledge in Jesus Christ and knowing that through him all things can happen I know that knocking on these doors will be worth it. It was an eye opening training and really caused me to think about where I stood with my faith in Jesus Christ. My question to you all is do you have enough faith in Jesus Christ even when the answer is no or not what you wanted it to be?

Another thing that really stood out to me this week was a lesson that we were having with K. We were talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ or about faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost and

enduring to the end. K wasn't quite sure how all the pieces of the atonement were fitting together so we decided to explain it one more time and Sister Huni said something that really changed the mood of the lesson. "Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for each and every one of us. That is why he performed the atonement and we must go through him in order to be whole again because he has literally felt each personal pain and anguish that we do." It might not sound that profound but it really stood out to me and to K because it exemplifies the sacrifice that Jesus Christ personally made for each and every one of us. He is our lifeline back to Heavenly Father. He is the only on that can get us to where we need to be. That is why we must work through him to feel whole again and why he can replace any feelings that we may feel we are missing. Immediately K started crying and then we all started crying cause as many of you know I'm basically the best cryer when others cry or in movies. She then expressed her gratitude towards the atonement and repentance. It was probably the most spiritual lesson I have taught so far. I just want to second her testimony of gratitude. I'm so grateful for the atonement and repentance so that I can live with my Heavenly Father again. I know that because of Jesus Christ we all can be made whole again. It has happened personally in my life and it is can happen in anyone else's life.

The last thing I wanted to say was how thankful I am for the priesthood. Not having a worthy priesthood holder in my home growing up was difficult for me and caused me to never really use the power of the priesthood as much as I should or could have. Ever since I have been on my mission it has become clear that the power of the priesthood is real and that the authority of God is on the earth again. When I was in the mtc I received two blessings. Two blessings in 12 days it was way out of the ordinary for me but it was everything that I never needed. One blessing in particular strengthened my

testimony of the priesthood more than it ever has before. Right before I left for the field I along with the other sisters in my district received blessings. An elder from my district gave me the blessing and he mentioned stuff that he didn't know about me but what struck me the most was when he said "Sister Camilleri I hope you remember some of the things I said because that was the first time I have given a blessing and not remembered anything that I said" it was so clear to me then that Heavenly Father was working through him to bless me and it was literally Heavenly Father himself speaking through him. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Ever since that I have reflected on that comment. I am so grateful that the priesthood is here on the earth and that God gave this authority to those worthy to receive it to help those on earth and to administer his work. I'm so thankful for the Brother Casper and his willingness to give me blessing when I asked growing up. It has strengthened me so much. I'm so grateful for that elder who was worthy to receive the priesthood and help strengthen my testimony. This gospel becomes better and better the more I learn and teach it. I promise you that as you strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ and his work and that as you effectively and willingly use the power of the atonement that it will literally change lives.

The work here is so great. Las Vegas holds a lot of very kind people that are ready to believe and love this gospel. I'm excited for K's baptism and have learned so much from her example of being excited about this gospel. I hope you all are doing well! I pray about you all always! I love you!

Sister Lauren Camilleri

Ps I almost knocked on a nudist door and he was having a nudist

party...that was gonna be interesting hahahahaha

Week Two: I want some authentic Mexican food

Hello Hello Hello from the still not that pretty Vegas!

This week was slow. We spent two days at our Stakes Girls Camp so that totally threw us off schedule. They were super fun days though and we even had a dance party on Friday to non motab music and I jammed so hard. Literally had people coming up to me telling me that I was an awesome dancer. I mean what can I say I can never not dance when there is music on. Sister Huni even got a video of it but I'll keep that to myself talk about embarrassing! It was some super fun days though at camp and we got to know the girls in our wards so much better and we had about four investigator there so it was good to go and see them. It was really fun but it threw us so off on Saturday so we were not the best missionaries on Saturday because we were lagging so much.Yesterday was a rough day. One of the wards that we cover has been a little hard to deal with and it is frustrating because we have a lot of potentials in the ward but we need there help because we won't always be there for the investigators but I know it will get better as Sister Huni and I learn how to work with them and help them understand our work and our purpose. Our other ward is literally the best though, I love them so much! K is getting baptized on the 22nd and we are so excited for her! She honestly is one of the sweetest spirits that I have ever met and she has a great support system around her. I love seeing her come closer to her Heavenly Father and realizing that there is something bigger than herself that I watching over her and wants the best for her. D is progressing. The lesson that we had last Monday

was good. We found out that he knows the church is true and wants to be baptized but that he is afraid of the commitment. We have some work to do but I think we will see something good come out of our lessons.It is so weird how I love all these people that I meet and how much I want them to come to know for themselves that the things that testify of are true. It is hard to not be able to do that for them. I do know though that in order for anyone to want to know for themselves then they have act for themselves. This gospel is all about action and it takes a lot of work. Sometimes it can be disheartening to our investigator and us because we know it is worth it but they cannot see it yet. So far my mission has been very rewarding and I have learned lot about myself but it is definitely not easy work. It is emotionally exhausting. I love it though. Someone told me the other day that this

might not be the best 18 months of my entire life, but it will be the best 18 months for my life. That is so true. I'm sure I will have better 18 months but I will be eternally blessed by doing the work of the Lord for the rest of my life. Also on a sidenote I have had so much Mexican food this last week and it is fairly good but I miss some good authentic Home cooked food even though we literally had rice and beans every day at home. I also miss Seattle, now that I'm gone I miss the green and rain and the beauty of home. Seriously Las Vegas is only pretty at night. Anyway life is great here in Las Vegas and the work is moving a long. I love you all!

Sister Lauren Camilleri

WEEK ONE

Hello from the almost pretty mountains of Vegas!

I have officially been in the mission field for a week now and oh my what a week it has been. The members here are fantastic and help us out so much when it comes to working with people. i don't think i have every been around members that care about missionary work as much as we do. i serve in two wards so yesterday was a bit of a long church day but it didn't feel like i went to six hours of church because we were going in between the two wards all day. it was really great and there is a lot of love in this area. This week was a busy week. There was a lot of training that went on because im a new missionary so we weren't as active in the work as we normally would be but we still did have so great lessons and great people. On Wednesday we met at a members house for dinner and they had some nonmember friends there. D was a nonmember who had a member wife and when we were talking about the atonement it became so clear to me and to the people around us

that it is real. Jesus Christ suffered for each and every one of us and that is simply amazing. After talking about the atonement D committed to start taking the missionary lessons. We are starting them tonight. I think that there will be a lot of good that comes out of these lessons because we can see that he has a desire to find out for himself his relationship with Heavenly Father. Ever since i have been out here i have noticed how vital it is that we find things out for ourselves. These investigators will not get anything out of these lessons if they are not willing to pray about it and find out for themselves. I have noticed how important that is to my own life because if you are just going along with things because they sound right then you will not be able to have a strong testimony of it because you did not take the time to pray and find out for yourself. That is so essential to our growth in the gospel. I also had my first tracting and service opportunity. Tracting was interesting. there were

people that did not want to hear what we had to say but they surprisingly were still really and nice and we got so much water cause they felt bad for us. We helped a nonmember move into her house on Friday too. that was a good experience because you can see these people start to realize that the church isn't a bad church and we are not corrupt. some of the things people think amaze me. Hahaha. Sister Huni and I were also teaching a less active member this week and she had some really awesome quotes on her wall that I think everyone should take a minute to ponder about.

"write your worries in sand, carve your blessings in stone" and "The truths of the gospel are deep in my soul."

I seriously love both of these quotes so much. I love the first one because i think that it is telling us all that in the end our worries don't matter but it is the good things in life that we should remember. Every-time I read it it reminds me that I need to be a more positive person and that is something i really need to work on. The second one just simply blows me away. it tells me that the gospel should mean so much to us that it is carved deep into our souls and that as we grow we have the ability to have them in our soul as long as we are continuing to grow and be positive.it was good week in the field. not easy peasy but it was really good.I promise that if we try to find things out for ourselves and pray often that we will be able to receive our answers. i love you all.

-Sister Camilleri