April Fools

Hi everyone!

It has been another lovely week in the Cal Sac mission. I think I say
this like every week, but the weather here is so perfect right now! I
love being out & biking:)

So, Sister Christoffersen has been super sick this week. So that's been
pretty sad. One day she was just not feeling well at all so another
sister came and stayed with her in our apartment while sister Koyle and I got
to go out and bike all day! It was such a good day!! We were able to add
a new investigator and have a lesson with Jose! Jose is still
progressing, he's just a super busy guy! He's just got a lot of
stuff going on right now.

On Aprils fools day we went to a members house for dinner and we then
had dessert and she brought out tapioca pudding for dessert & let
me just tell you, I hate tapioca pudding!! But I ate it because that's
what you have to do when you're a missionary haha the third bite in,
I tasted something super nasty! I was like uhh what the heck! But I
kept chewing and it tasted like a paper towel, I was like "well I guess
I'll be nice and just swallow it!" Hahha I didn't know what else to do.
Then 2 minutes later I look over at sister Koyle & she's pulling
a nasty thing out of her mouth and I was like what the heck is that?
The member we were eating with yells "April fools, I put cotton balls
in your pudding!"  I was like "I ate mine!!!" everyone started
laughing so hard. So yeah that was embarrassing!

I seriously have no time to email so sorry this is so lame, but I hope
you all enjoyed general conference!!! It was the best. During the
first session during the closing prayer as the man who said the
closing prayer blessed the missionaries I started to cry! It was my
last time general conference as a full time missionary. I am just so
grateful to be a missionary!!! ❤️

Oh also I got to go to Coloma today with all the missionaries who go
home in July & August & it was one of the funnest days of my mission!!
So yeah life is going good.

Have a great week & CTR!

Love always,
Sister Sobotka

 

Happy Easter

Hey Everybody :)

HAPPY EASTER🌷

So it has been such a great week. It seriously flew by! The weather
here has been perfect & we've just been enjoying our time biking:)

We had the biggest miracle this week! So last Sunday we had some
investigators come to church & the sacrament meeting speakers did not
do the best job...haha it was basically an advertisement on
justserve.org & I don't think there was an ounce of doctrine spoken
over the pulpit. So we were kinda like "well our investigators are
probz never coming to church again" (I know we are such doubting
Thomas's) and we went by and visited them this week & they just said how
much they loved church and how they felt the spirit!! & basically our
jaws all dropped to the floor. They ended up coming to church
yesterday!!

We had the opportunity to watch the general woman's broadcast this
week & it was amazing as always. They really emphasized the importance
of serving others. I loved what Sister Esplin said, "When we reach out
with love and service, hearts soften and others can feel the love of the
Lord"

Oh I forgot to say that we are over a Chinese group haha so we got to
go play badminton with the Chinese members! Shout out to Jarod
Ingersoll for teaching me all I know about badminton haha I totally
wrecked the Chinese people lol!

We are still teachin Jose! He had a death in the family this past week
so we were only able to meet with him for like 5 minutes at his door,
but he said he's been reading his Book of Mormon!!! Yay! He said he
has a lot of questions and we are meeting with him this week:)

This week everything kinda hit me that I only have 4 months left being
a missionary! Time is going by way too fast. I am just so grateful for
my mission and the experiences I've had here in Sacramento. I love the
people I've gotten to serve around and the people I've had the
opportunity to teach. Serving a mission was the best decision I've
ever made and i’m grateful for such supportive family & friends. This
week we've been able to talk to so many people about our Savior, Jesus
Christ, to testify that He lives! My relationship with Jesus Christ
has grown so much in these past 14 months. I just love having the
opportunity to bear testimony of Him to literally everyone I meet.
What a privilege it is:)

I hope you all have an amazing week & ALWAYS remember Jesus Christ &
the things He's done for you. CTR❤️ enjoy conference!!!

Love always,
Sister Sobotka

Ants in my Pants!

Hey everybody!

Okay this week so many crazy things have happened!!

So Tuesday morning we got up and found a billion ants in our room!! It
was disgusting! So we had a bit of a teenage girl freak out and screamed
& called the apartment office, but unfortunately the office only
sprays for bugs on Mondays!! That wasn't for 6 more days. So we got
permission to go buy ant spray and had to empty our whole room and spray
it down. It took forever! But we finally killed the ants. You'd think
I was serving in a third world country;) haha just kidding.

On Wednesday we had to take our car to the shop which is super far out
of our area because our "check engine" light came on. So we finally
made it to the shop and the guys told us that it would take 6 hours for
an engine diagnostic! So that we should come back the next day. So we
came back the next day and they said they needed to keep our car over
night!! So we had no ride back to our area so we started walking &
walking & walking. We were about 30 miles away from our area! We
called some members to try and pick us up but no one answered, then we
finally got a hold of some Spanish sister missionaries and they rescued
us haha!

The next day we got a call from the car shop letting us know our car
was ready to pick up...we asked what the heck was wrong with our car and
they said "oh the gas cap wasn't tightened all the way" hahahaha
Sooo yeah we had to leave our car there for 30 hours and pay $95 to tell
us to tighten our gas lid...also yeah that was totally my fault so I'm
actually super embarrassed about that hahaha.

Then on Thursday, nothing exciting happened I don't think.

On Friday I got to have dinner with Sister Hickman (aka Genny)!!! It
was seriously Sooo good to see her. It made me miss her a ton, but I
got to meet her sweet mother.  It was so good to catch up with her!
She brought me an Oklahoma shirt so basically I'm a huge OU fan now
Lolol jk!;)

We had a way cool experience with this less active lady this past
week, she hadn't been to church in like 40 years, we just happened
to stop by and her mom was there who is really sick and she just happened
to ask for a priesthood blessing so we were able to call our ward
mission leader and he went over and gave her a blessing and invited them to
the Easter program that's happening in our stake and they said they
would go! That was way cool that Heavenly Father lead us to go to
her house on that night.

To be completely honest it's been such a crazy week and not a lot of
cool missionary experiences happened haha but, I have been loving
my mission lately. I can't believe how fast time is going by. The
other day we were driving to the car shop and I was just thinking about
how privileged I am to be serving the Lord, to have such supportive
family & friends. I'm so blessed and I'm so grateful for my mission &
the experiences I'm having. I know I wouldn't have been able to learn
the lessons I've learned here if I didn't decide to serve a mission. I
know this church is true & my testimony has grown so much while I've
been here. I love my Heavenly Father & His Son, Jesus Christ. & I love
being a missionary!!!!

Have a great week & CTR!

Love always,
Sister Sobotka

1. Us at the park doing studies
2. My fav hickmans :)
3. We helped our fav less active member Sis Mackay in her garden & she
gave us these flowers to take home! Cute huh?
4. We played that pie in the face game with Sis Mackay
5. The First 12 Weeks
6. Sister Hickman came to visit



 
 

You've been punked (weekly email)

(For the past two weeks Ashley didn’t write a group email, here is the latest and greatest from yesterday. She is doing so great and loving her mission)

Hi Family & Friends!

Okay I'll admit I was being lazy last week & didn't send out a weekly
email. Anyway, this here in Elk Grove are going well! I got put into
another trio!! My third trio on my mission. My new companion is Sister
Christoffersen:) she has lived in the same apartment as me for the
past transfer, but her companion got really sick & had to go him last
week so she joined my companionship! Let me just tell you it's been
the biggest tender mercy to have another companion right now! Like I
said, people always hate on tri-panionships, but I love them! The Lord
knows I was made for trios...not sure that that means for my future
marriage...hahaha jkjk

Sister Christoffersen is from Bentonville Arkansas and she is an ASL
missionary so now we cover her Ward as well. So we've been able to go
to a few deaf people's homes and watch her teach them lessons in sign
language & it is so cool! We just sit in complete in silence, but you
can still feel the spirit. It's amazing :)

We are still teaching Jose. He's been sick and out of town, but we had an
incredible lesson with him last night and he's praying about baptism on
April 9! Woohoo!!! I'm not even joking when I say he's the most
prepared person I've ever taught on my mission. He's such a good guy &
will make an amazing member. I'm so grateful for this opportunity we
have to teach him.

Also this super funny thing happened this week...so we were out
visiting some potential investigator but we had the wrong address, but
I was like "oh we probably need to be here for some reason, let's try
this door!" So we knocked on it & this Asian lady answered & she
wasn't interested so we asked if she knew anyone that was. So she
pointed us to a house across the street & said, "there's an old lady
who lives there who might be interested" & we were so excited so we
went & knocked on that door & this black guy answers the door & he's
like "hey ladies I'm just sittin down to dinner" & I said, "oh yeah
sorry for interrupting, we are the missionaries..." Then he cuts me
off & says "no I'm saying do you want to come & join me inside for
dinner?" & my companions looked terrified, but I was like "HECK YEAH!"
Hahaha so he's like "sweet come on in" so we are about to walk in the
door then he's like "PSYCH GOT YA!! YOU JUST GOT PUNKED GET OFF MY
PROPERTY" & my companions were like so offended but I was just
laughing so hard! Hahaha yeah that was funny.

We had Zone Confefence this week & it was one of my fav ones. I think
it's because we talked about prayer & The Book of Mormon-the most
basic simple things that we can always do better! Also that one awful
play, "The Book of Mormon" is playing in Sacramento right now so we've
been able to talk to a ton of people about it & the Zone Leaders get
to go to the play & stand outside & hand out copies of the Book of
Mormon after the play & they've been able to hand out over 150 copies
every night!! It's actually quite amazing that even though Satans
working really hard to tear down the church, we can still make the
best outta a bad situation.

Anyway that's about all that's happenin here in good old Sac❤️ there's
a less active lady here who told me that I should like the golden
state warriors so yeah I got a new fav basketball team! Go Warriors :)
lol #NotBandWagon #CaliforniaPride

Love you all! Have a wonderful week & remember how much your Heavenly
Father loves you & wants to hear from you through prayer :) CTR


Love always,
Sister Sobotka

Pics
1. Exchanges with Hermana Stevens
2. Zone Conf with my fav Sis Starnes
3. Sac Zone!
4. Sacramento Pride!

Sweet Potato Festival

Hi Family & Friends!

So probably the craziest thing that happened to us this week is that we
volunteered at this sweet potato festival and it was for the “Negro
Women Association"  hahaha so yeah it was a ton of African American
people eating sweet potatoes. Good memory<3

Oh remember Brittany I talked about a few weeks ago? We met her
because we had a potential that lived there but no one by that name
lived there and Brittany answered the door and said she was looking for a
church to come to! She came to church this Sunday!! But like here's
the thing it was regional conference- so she was seriously like way
confused. Haha we haven't taught her yet, but we are hopefully going to today!
She's super sweet and said she loved church and would come again!

Regional conference was super good! There were 4 speakers- Sis
Oscarson, Elder Renlund, Elder Grow & Elder Hamula(70's). It was cool
because I've met Elder Hamula and Elder Grow on my mission! But I loved
Elder Renlund's talk. He spoke about keeping things basic and bearing
testimony of the Restoration! It was really good because so many times
we over complicate things, but the gospel is so simple!

Yesterday on Valentine's Day this random guy gave us roses on the
street so we took a cute pic with him.

Anyway that's about all I got! Keep choosin the right❤️❤️❤️

Love always,
Sister Sobotka

The Lords Timing

Hi everybody!!

Okay so I can't even tell you all how amazing this week was!!
Cathy's baptism was this Saturday and it was the most spiritual
experience ever! I'll give you a little run down on Cathy-she has
lived next door to this awesome family in our ward (the Jensens) for
17 years. She has literally been taking the missionary lessons for 17
years! And this past year of 2015 she committed herself to come to
church for the whole year and really decide if it was true. She was the
number 1 family history indexer in the Sacramento stake and she wasn’t
even a member!! She has been paying her tithing, and faithfully been
coming to church for a year & she just barely decided to get baptized.
The baptism was amazing. So many people from the ward came and so
many of Cathy’s neighbors! It was a full house! I've never seen someone
so excited to be baptized. It was such an incredible thing to witness.
You could just feel Heavenly Fathers love for her and the sense of peace
that was in that room. It was such an amazing experience and one that I will
never forget!

The rest of the week was SO SLOW! Haha I can't even tell you, but our
little trio had a good discussion on the verse Alma 26:27, where it
says, "bear with patience thine afflictions and I will grant unto thee
success"  how so many times as missionaries we think of success as
something you can see and show off to people (aka like baptisms) but
like President Hunter said, "Visibility does not equate to value".

I'm just so grateful we got to see Cathy get baptized and make that step
to come closer to her Savior Jesus Christ. I wish I could explain to
all of you how strong the spirit was in that room. President Jardine
came to the baptism and committed Cathy to bear her testimony in church
the next day and she agreed. So yesterday Cathy got up after her
confirmation and bore the most powerful testimony!! Although I've only
known Cathy for a few weeks, it strengthened my testimony of why I am
here on a mission. To see that mighty change of heart in someone and
help them come closer to Christ. It also helped me realize that the
Lord's timing is not always our timing! 17 years of missionaries!!
That we don't always see the big picture. But Heavenly Father loves
all of his children and some it takes longer than others:)


Anywhoo hope you all have a wonderful week & CTR!!

Love, Sister Sobotka

1 Year Down!

Hi Family & Friends!

1 year down?! What!! So crazy that a year ago I was in the MTC with
Sister Marks:) This past year has been the best and hardest year of my
 entire life, I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be serving the Lord.

This week has been filled with hours & hours of biking-that's not even
an exaggeration. (Last week of the month aka no miles for our car) So
remember Beatrice and her family that I wrote about last week? Yeah she
just moved?? Out of the blue without even telling us!! Haha we were
literally so disappointed.

Then we biked around and talked to everyone and I mean EVERYONE! And not
one single person was interested in the slightest! Every person we
talked to we asked for referrals and none of the referrals were
interested either! Haha it was crazy. But hey, I know the Lord is
preparing people here.  Cathy's baptism is this Saturday! She is so
awesome. She's been coming to church for the past year and has been
paying tithing for the past 6 months. She will make an amazing member!

We met one old lady this week who wanted to bash with us so hard! She
was raising her voice at us telling us about how the Book of Mormon
wasn't true and how Joseph Smith wasn't a Prophet! We all just kinda
stood there and listened to her and Sister Sili just invited her to read
the Book of Mormon and then we left. As we biked away I was so sad and
annoyed. I mean I've met a lot of people like this on my mission but
for some reason she just really bothered me. Was I supposed to state
my opinions right back at her? Then later this week I read about
Sherem in Jacob 7. How in verse 5 Jacob says, "He (Sherem) had hope to
shake me from the faith...I could not be shaken" I thought about
Jacobs powerful testimony, that even though Sherem was going around
bad talking the church Jacob's testimony was solid & firm. I read a
talk going along with this called, "Christian Courage: The Price of
Discipleship" by Elder Robert D. Hales. I loved this talk!! There was
a quote that really stood out to me that said, "Some people mistakenly
think responses (to accusers) such as silence, meekness, forgiveness,
and bearing humble testimony are passive or weak. But to “love [our]
enemies, bless them that curse [us], do good to them that hate [us],
and pray for them which despitefully use [us], and persecute [us]”
(Matthew 5:44) takes faith, strength, and, most of all, Christian
courage." I realized the importance of being Christlike in all
situations, even when that lady was very strongly voicing her opinion.
Elder Hales goes on to say, "...All who seek to know how we should
respond to our accusers, I reply, we love them. Whatever their race,
creed, religion, or political persuasion, if we follow Christ and show
forth His courage, we must love them. We do not feel we are better
than they are. Rather, we desire with our love to show them a better
way--the way of Jesus Christ."

The rest of the week went well! I'm so grateful for my 2 sweet
companions and all that they do! We have fun and work hard together:) we
had Ward conference this week and our Stake President spoke about
missionary work! It was really great. I hope you're all looking for
opportunities everyday to share your testimony and bring people closer
to Christ.

Love you all! CTR

Love,
Sister Sobotka

1 Year Down

Exchanges with Sister Naylor

Contacting at Sac City College