Week 4: Thousand Oaks

November 2, 2020

Today was my first day flying out and it was insane. I said my goodbye's to the fam, and got on my first flight, which was to Phoenix. It was a really small plane, but we go there no problem. We got right back on another plane to Santa Barbara. We also got there easily and we met President Carter and drove to the church building. We ate dinner, and I spend a lot of time talking to Sister Crane, Hermana Jensen, and Elder and Sister Rasmussen. They are all super nice, and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. From what I could tell, this coast is a great place. It looks awesome, and there are so many trees and palm trees. The weather seems to be nice, but I can't really tell yet because it was super foggy when we flew in. Elder Hereto is my comp for the night, and we are staying at the Cook's house. They seem like they very wealthy, incredibly nice and generous people. Their kindness has been more than I've seen in Utah. It hasn't hit me yet that. I'l be gone for two years in this place, but I'm sure it will soon. 

November 3, 2020

Today was another great day. It was really busy and actually gave me a headache, but I still feel good. I got paired up with my trainer, Elder Maeser, and he seems like a really good missionary so far, and I think I'll really get along with him. We drove to our area today, which is called Wildwood. That's also one of the towns that we drove through today. We didn't really do much actual missionary work today, because nothing was really set up for us, but we'll hit it tomorrow. Elder Maeser and I are sharing an apartment with two other elders, and they seem to be great elders. We also went shopping today, and I got some food for the coming week. I'm looking forward to learning from Elder Maeser, and I think it will be a busy, but fulfilling, upcoming week. 

November 4, 2020

Today was an actual busy day. We woke up and we went to the Moorpark church to play Gatorball with the rest of our district. After that we did personal study, and we did two hours of companionship study. Then we went on a faith walk, and set up my Facebook account and tried to find some people to teach. We have some meetings tomorrow, and for now we're trying to find out all we can, because neither me nor Elder Maeser have been in this area before. I've learned so much in just one and a half days, I'm starting to understand how we find and talk to people, and I'm learning about the doctrine itself as well. 

All the elders are great here, and I'm looking foward to getting to know them better. Elder Maeser and I have even more in common than I thought we did yesterday. I still haven't felt homesick yet, but one thing I have missed so far is the music. Elder Maeser and I both like the same kinds of music, so when we talk about it it's fun, and then it makes me miss my old music haha. Anyway, I have a lot to learn, and a lot to do. 

November 5, 2020

Today was a really good day. Elder Maeser and I really got to work today, and it was awesome meeting with the members. We met with Brother Tayler, our Ward Mission Leader, Brother and Sister Pollard, who are great members, and the Rupps, who are an awesome member family. They are all in our assigned ward, and I look forward to seeing them again. We didn't find anybody today, but we tried really hard and stayed really busy and made some great progress. 

Our zone is one of the least successful if not the least successful zone in the mission, and our district did very poorly last transfer, before either of us got here. But Elder Maeser and I are working tirelessly to turn that around. We're trying really hard and working really hard to find people, and I feel that we will soon. I'm not homesick yet, and I'm not even close to tired of looking for people. Elder Maeser is very good at working hard, and I think we'll be a good team.

November 6, 2020

So far in this area, we have had no lessons and haven't found anyone yet, but we made some really good progress today. We did a lot of calling and a lot of Facebook messaging, and we finally have contacted people in our area. It's a start, but we will keep working tirelessly to find every possible soul we can. We also met with the Bowman's, who are amazing members with an awesome story about how God and Jesus Christ led them to each other. I'm loving getting to know the people here better, and showing them that I'm here to love each and every one of them, trying to love them as the Savior would. I'm excited to chase down some more of these leads, and Elder Maeser and I are a great team so far. We've been steadily progressing this area, and I see our hard work starting to actually get somewhere. But I know I'm impatient, and I've only been here five days, but I'm excited to keep it going. 

November 7, 2020

The grind continues. We haven't found anyone yet, but we are working crazy hard. I met with President Carter today for the first time. He seems like a really great, spiritual person. I guess you have to be, to be a mission president. I't really late, so I'm gonna cut tonight short. 

November 8, 2020

Today I have some more time to write because Elder Maeser is our district lead and he has to do call-ins tonight. Today we watched church for the Wildwood ward on Zoom, and we did a sacrament with everyone from the district. We didn't do much finding, but I'll explain that in a little bit. For dinner, we went to an incredibly expensive-looking house, on most likely extremely expensive land. My guess is at hundreds of millions of dollars on the low end. It was the Geiss's and they are a really nice family. They live up on the hill in our area and we had to go through two gates to get to their house, it's so exclusive. Their house overlooks an enormous valley. We had a good dinner, gave them a good spiritual thought, and drove through the gates and drove to the church. 

We met with a Mr. Short, and we had a good old friendly bible bash and wasted a lot of time we might've used finding people who might actually be willing to learn something. He was a nice, intelligent person, but there are priorities that we have, and maybe we could've found somebody. Although it did help me realize and learn some things about our own Gospel that I should know a little better. Oh, and I tripped the fire alarm by mistake in my apartment complex. 

I'm learning a lot, especially how much I don't know or how much I don't know how to do. We haven't found anyone or taught any lessons that helps someone outside of the church, but I am fired up. There is so much more work and strength and will left in me, I just pray that it can be enough. We're just getting started, and so is my personal growth.