We have had a lot of adventures this week. If you couldn't tell, I'm the queen of adventures. We adventured down to the coast to talk to the doctor (more of a routine chat than anything), found a lot of little dogs at home while tracting (not a lot of people, unfortunately), and finally saw Lisa at church yesterday! That was one of the better adventures. :)

It's starting to creep up on me that I don't have much time left in southern California, and sometimes I look around at the palm trees and wonder how I'll ever leave. Most of the time, though, I'm feeling awkward as I talk to people on the street or finding motivational scriptures to keep me going. You know, average missionary stuff.

I've discovered, lamentably late in my mission life, the existence of military scriptures. Compared to my giant seminary scriptures, carrying those bad boys around is wonderful. If I had to give advice to missionaries who are stuck in the field with a huge set of scriptures, it would be to find those military scriptures! Unless your Old Testament is crucial to your life (the military scriptures don't have the Old Testament) you should ask your bishop about them. Then you can make a cute cardboard case and have the cutest scriptures and be the cutest sister missionary ever!

​Are they not the cutest??

:) In all seriousness, though, I love this work. This is the only place in the world that I want to be right now.

I love you all! I love knowing that the prayers of millions are carrying me through my time here. Thank you for yours! 

Love,

Sister B

It's been a pretty crazy week! Did I tell you that Sister Cavaretta was sick last week? Well here's the thing about being companions with someone who gets sick... You ultimately get sick, too.

So this week was my week to get sick, which was not the most fun thing I've ever experienced. It started off as just a bad cold, but that turned into a sinus infection which turned into a trip to the urgent care which turned into a prescription for antibiotics and an inhaler. I never thought I would have to use an inhaler! It's an interesting experience.

We had a really great week this week. We picked up a new investigator named Brooke. She's turning 10 really soon and will be getting baptized two days after her 10th birthday! Her mom is a member of our ward and is so excited for her daughter to get baptized.

We also finished up exchanges! I was with Sister Lemon, an old companion, and Sister Sillito, a Canuck who emailed me months and months ago to ask me about the Carlsbad mission! It's so cool to see her now and how much she has grown. We had an awesome thunderstorm on Saturday during exchanges, which was so much fun! Everyone is going to think I'm so weird when I go home and am excited about all of the precipitation.

Despite being sick, this week turned out to be full of adventure! Just this morning we got to go to the Wild Animal Park again as a district activity. This time, though, we took the tram tour! It was so cool! And it was so nice to just be able to sit and enjoy the scenery for once. :)

I love you all! I hope you have an awesome week this week. And hey, if you ever get bored and need something to do, you should write a missionary! Missionaries LOVE mail in all shapes and forms. ;)

Love,

Sister B

We've had a most splendid of weeks here in San Marcos. I went on two exchanges this week: one with the other Sister Broadbent (whom we lovingly call B2) and one with The Berglar (Sister Berg)! I can tell I'm getting old when I actually enjoy going on exchanges. Alas, that's the case! I really love being able to be with different sisters and get to know them better.

We also had a huge stake event on Saturday called the July Jubilee. I was posted in the snow cone cave, where I scooped snow cones for people for three hours straight! Needless to say my back is still a little bit sore, but I actually had a lot of fun scooping and making snow out of ice cubes. 

We got to see my favorite girls, Taylor and Kacey, this week! I was so surprised when they asked if we were going to talk about Adam and Eve, like we had said last time. Kids are so smart! Did everyone but me already know that? I lovelovelove teaching Taylor and Kacey because they are so open and willing to experiment upon the things we ask them to do. No wonder Christ commanded us to be as little children!

And to top it all off, we played with Max, Michael's huge Bullmastiff. Seriously, Max is the size of a small pony! It's a good thing he's sweet, otherwise I'd probably be terrified of him.

I love this article from the July Ensign, "Becoming Perfect in Christ". It helped me to realize that a lot of my struggles as a missionary stemmed from my own perfectionism and lack of understanding of the Atonement, not because of a lack of skill or testimony on my part. If you're prone to perfectionism (like me), please read this talk! 

As always, I LOVE YOU! Can you believe that it's almost August? Where did the summer go??

Love,

Sister B