Week 6: Thousand Oaks

 November 16, 2020

Today was my second p-day out here. We had a good time playing ultimate football, and we relaxed at the church for a while. After we had dinner at 5:00, we hit the road and tried to find people through Facebook  and through faith shopping. Both were unsuccessful, but we did have a good lesson with the Maynards, because they are moving out. We'll miss them, they were a great family. Anyway, I'm ready to work hard in the upcoming week.

November 17, 2020

We did another exchange today, and I went on exchange with Elder White. We had a good time, and we got a lot of work done, and he's a great elder. We were good at being bold with the people we talked to, even though no one wanted to hear more about our message. But there was one guy named Elias Franco. When we both got to the park, he stopped us and asked to use our phone to call his mom. He talked with his mom in Spanish, and then he started talking with us. He had tattoo-covered arms, hexagon sunglasses, piercing scars, talked really fast, and had a Bible on his dashboard. He said he was doing the Lord's work too, and he was trying to raise funds to build a recovery center for people trying to get off drugs. He seemed like a good guy, and I'm sure we'll have some interesting experiences with him in the future, to say the least.

November 18, 2020

Today was one of the best exchanges yet. I went with Elder Wardle, and he's a really good missionary. We visited with some members, but before that we met with Joseph, a 50-something year old veteran who was talking about committing suicide before that, so it was pretty serious. After that, we visited someone who is about to be baptized soon, who's name is Jimmy. He's a Hispanic guy who lives with his girlfriend, and has a super cute nine month old baby named Ezekiel. His testimony was so strong, and you could tell he was feeling so much that it was hard for him to tell us all of it. Anyways it was a great exchange, and I learned a lot today from Elder Wardle. 

November 19, 2020

It was an interesting day today. We were really busy doing lessons and finding, but the two people that were non-members that we had lessons with didn't get anywhere. One of them just wanted to Bible bash, and the other just wanted to hear what we had to say but had no interest in actually learning much, if that makes sense. Oh well. We kind of found someone through Facebook, but afterwards we learned that he's been on and off with other missionaries before, so we'll see where it goes. Today was the first day that I started to get down about us not finding anyone or making much progress with anyone, but it didn't last very long. I know that it's just going to take some time, and I'm going to give the people every bit of effort I have and then some. It's wrong of me to have anything but complete faith in God and His will and today I fixed that. I'm going to do my very best and trust that what needs to be done will be done if I do. I'm trying to follow "thy will, not mine, be done."

November 20, 2020

Today we had another district council and it went well, but it seems like they always take up a bunch of time. We went to the park and talked to some people. It was just another day of grinding Facebook, and trying to find people. We met with the Dubin's, an elderly member couple who have a very extravagant house in another gated community. They were very nice people, and they both had strong testimonies. We talked about President Russell M. Nelson's message today encouraging us to be grateful during these difficult times. I think it's a good thing to do, and I do believe that it's what God wanted everybody to hear. 

Today it hit me as we were going through Facebook and talking to people in the park that a very minuscule percentage of these people are going to accept the Gospel and gain the blessings of eternal life and family sealing to the fullest potential. We talk about the Lord's elect, and I just realized how few people actually are willing to even hear our message that can give them unimaginable happiness and exaltation on the right hand of God for all eternity. And usually I get over these "realizations" pretty quickly, but tonight I'm still thinking about it for some reason. But also, it did help me recognize the immense significance of doing my job. I need to give everyone that chance to change for the better, and give them the chance to find the everlasting happiness that I have faith will come if we live our lives the way we are supposed to.

November 21, 2020

Today after studies, social media training, and a faith walk, we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, Elders Myers and Langford. I went with Elder Langford to our area, the Wildwood area, and we had a very successful day. We talked to some interesting people. One was a homeless guy who said he's actually an inactive member and wants to go back to church. Another guy was standing barefoot on a hill in the park with a filthy shirt and said he was meditating. There were a few more people, and we did a good job of taking all their numbers down. 

Apparently Elder Maeser and I have been following restrictions that we don't need to anymore, so hopefully now we can really get things going. Anyway, we visited the Geiss' in their possibly $10 million home and property, and Elder Langford was going insane because he never sees stuff like that in his Spanish area. We probably have one of the richest areas in the entire mission, possibly the entire world. I've been learning a lot in a such a short amount of time, probably because I'm doing an exchange every other day haha.

November 22, 2020

Today was a good Sunday. We got to go to outdoor church, and meet some more members and the Stake President. After church, we did some more studies, ate lunch, and then got to work again. We tried to have meetings with members tonight, but they got cancelled and we did more Facebook instead. We did some street contacting, and it was nice because we didn't even have to hesitate bringing up the gospel. We also had the opportunity to go and knock on people's doors that were already in our Area Book, so I got a little taste of tracking for once. But without all the rules now, we made a lot of progress and got some phone numbers and gave ours out as well. Anyway, we have P-day tomorrow, and then we get back on the grind.