Week 16: Morro Bay

January 26, 2021

I got a new area and a new trainee for my birthday. After a rushed morning, we started up the transfer train and took some luggage, along with ours, some two hours up to Santa Maria. Then we dropped the stuff off and drove for another hour to Morro Bay. And this place is awesome. This is exactly like I've always pictured the west coast, with rocky shores. It was also really stormy. 

I have a lot of thoughts running through my head, and one of them is President has put a lot of trust on Elder Strauss and I. This is probably the area with the most potential and most riding on it, and there are two people on date, and one about to be, and another almost there, besides a bunch of progressing people. I'm feeling the anxiety and the stress, so I'm going to try and have a lot of faith that we can do this. Oh yeah, and it was my birthday. 

January 27, 2021

Today was easily the craziest day that I have had on my mission. Elder Strauss and I were working ourselves to the bone today just trying to do studies, calling or texting members, or answering their calls or texts, doing Zoom calls, driving through insane winds and rain, almost sliding off the road, all while neither of us has any clue what in the world to do past lesson 2. This is going to work us very hard, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the busiest that I will ever be on the mission. We have two people on date, and two more we are trying to get on date. Also, we have tons of other people to meet, and some recent converts to meet with. We also need to plan a Sunday lesson that we are going to teach to everyone about social media. 

We are meeting with our District Leader tomorrow for an hour, and we have interviews tomorrow, so I'm hoping we can get some good insight on how to even do this. I'm trying to have faith that I can do what the people need me to, but it's honestly hard. My know-how pales in comparison to what is ahead of us, so I'm worried. Worried about so many things, and I know I shouldn't be worrying, but it's still hard to think I can do this. Elder Strauss is awesome, he is willing to work hard, and I have no doubts that he will do everything he can. But I just need to try and be more faithful, I guess. I'm just going to take this one day at a time, and keep trying to learn and learn so I can know how to do this. We've been commanded to help these people, so there has to be a way to do this, and that's what I am going to hold onto. 

January 28, 2021

Today was a little better, it was the first time that it seemed like we actually will be able to figure this thing out. Our district leader Elder Overson, and his companion, Elder Haroldsen, are awesome. They took a full hour out of their day to help us plan this social media thing on Sunday, and answer some of our questions. I'll always be grateful to them for that. We also had interviews again with President, and he always has great insights, and we got to connect on a more personal level. We also met with some members, who are absolutely solid and missionary minded. I'm excited to continue working with all of them. 

There was something that really touched me today, and grew my faith a lot. The missionaries have been meeting with a member named Brother Lamanuzzi, to teach him more about Preach My Gospel. It was an interesting thing to do with a member, so we asked him why he wanted to learn more about it. He said he was a convert to the Church when he was around 45, he used to be a Catholic. He says that his family never accepted the gospel, and he has been the only person to accept the Gospel. He wants to learn about what lessons to teach and how to teach them so he can continue to teach his family in the Spirit World. He realizes that the knowledge we have in this life goes with us into the next. He also said that he wanted to teach his mother the Gospel, because she passed away when he was only five years old. He knows that his time is short. His faith really was something else. I don't know how the Spirit World works, but I really hope that God grants him his wish. Meeting with him was one of the times that I have felt the Spirit the strongest, and it is times like this that make you grateful you're a missionary.

January 29, 2021

We had a good day today, we had our first district council, and we got to know the other four elders and the four sisters better over lunch. We have some really solid missionaries in our district, and I think they'll be a great help to us. 

It's been raining for three days straight since we got here, which didn't help my spirits while under a lot of stress. But as the sun broke through the clouds today, we finally saw Morrow Bay in all its glory. This is a really beautiful place we're in, and we are blessed to be here. It helped me to do what I have done the most, street contact. The Lord has helped me to be stronger in my speech than I ever have been, and I'm very grateful for that. I'm still just trying to learn how to do my part and train Elder Strauss at the same time. We're flying by the seat of our pants, the skin of our teeth, etc., but we are slowly but surely floating along. 

January 30, 2021

It was such great weather today, and this area is so fruitful in terms of missionary work, that it's hard to be in a bad mood. We taught a man named Tim today over the phone, about the Plan of Salvation. He really misses his wife, who passed away this last June, and the Plan of Salvation can really help him. He said he would like to believe what we're saying, so that's a start. He just needs to feel the Spirit and ask God, and then he'll know it's true. Other than that, we called some people, one of which was named Gary. He picked up, and then he started talking about his new Les Paul and Rambo 2. He wanted to talk for a while, and somewhere in there he mentioned that he bought a purple Batwoman suit and has worn it sometimes. We're going over to talk tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. We also found someone to set up an appointment to teach, and a referral for the Spanish elders, Elder Overson and Elder Haroldsen. And all this in 40 minutes of street contacting. If this keeps up, it's going to be an awesome transfer.  

January 31, 2021

Today was very eventful. We had some studies, and then we taught the whole ward about how they can help social media missionary work. It went pretty well, we just kind of got through it and did a pretty good job. After that, we did some more studying, and then we did the sacrament for an elderly sister in our ward, Sister Crigger. After that, we did some part contacting, and then we went back and had some dinner. Then we went to the Church and got ready for the lesson with Dan and Daniel. It was going well, and they were very accepting of tithing and fast offerings. They are so prepared, and their testimonies are really something else. Dan said that he will not get baptized unless the previous elders are both there, so that is something that we will need to work out. Also some Word of Wisdom stuff. 

But we finally survived our first week. Im still trying to figure out why the Lord decided to replace an experienced senior missionary and his experienced companion with a trainer with the least experience, who hasn't taught a single lesson past lesson 2, and his trainee. I feel bad for the members that they have to deal with my short-comings, and that Elder Strauss doesn't have a trainer that knows what he's doing, like I did. I always worry that I'm doing something wrong or I'm forgetting something important, and it usually turns out that I'm right. It's been an incredibly stressful and busy week, hopefully that changes this coming week.