so long adams/wilshire ward

on sunday, we drove back out to LA for our last sunday in the wilshire ward. when we originally moved there, we were in the adams ward -- the low-income inner city ward in the LA stake. we made friends from every continent, most of whom are the first generation of their family in america; we spent time with amazing people we never would have gotten to know in our typical activities. we had a bit of an initial adjustment period, but really grew to love it. in january, they realigned two wards and we ended up in the wilshire ward, but with most of our friends still with us. the new boundaries allowed a way better distribution of leadership and needy areas.

anyway, to get to the point of my story -- we loved it there. i was lucky enough to work with the teenage girls for the past six months and LOVED it. on sunday, all the girls threw me a going away party complete with cookies, lemonade and a card that they all signed. i think leaving them was the saddest part of moving...i'm not going to lie, no amount of dots cupcakes or whole foods bakery items will take their place. no matter how much i already love our new house :)


all the young women on my last day


my friend whitney (aka my new brittany, who just found out she's having a BABY! yay!) and i worked specifically with the 12 and 13 year olds. here's us and our girls: whit, jael, michelle, adreana, me and yoo jin


this isn't from my last sunday but it was so cute, i had to post it. a couple saturdays ago we worked at the cannery and then took food to a homeless shelter as a service project -- this is a picture of some of our awesome girls (and jamal on the right -- he wasn't supposed to be there, don't be confused :)