Week 17: Morro Bay

February 1, 2021

Today was really nice, because I've needed a P-day for awhile. I think the hardest week in a white-wash is the first one, and now it's over, and we have a lot of things worked out. But it's going to be a good week with a new outlook, and we're going to still be hard at work. We're figuring things out with Dan and Daniel, and the future is very, very bright. Well, it always has been, sometimes it just takes me a while to see it. It's P-days that make me grateful for my family and the love they give me, everybody deserves it, but sadly not everybody has it. But everyone has the love of God, and that's the most important type of love. 

February 2, 2021

Happy Groundhog Day. Today was really good, and we were really busy. We did some last minute service for a Sister Mitchell in our ward, and we even go to take some pictures for a public service post that we made later in the day. That was in Los Osos, another really cool little town in our area. After that we did some studies, and we went park contacting. It was pretty cool, one minute it was a nice day with good weather, and then 15 minutes later it was completely foggy. After we went back, late for dinner, we met with someone named Jimmy from Peru. I mentioned Bagua Grande, and said that Owen went there for his mission, and he said that Bagua has a lot of people with deformities haha.. But he's an agricultural engineer, and he knows five different languages, and he is a real talker. We gave him a Spanish Book of Mormon, and we'll probably send him to the Spanish Elders soon.

February 3, 2021

Today was an even better day, and we worked hard. We didn't find anybody interested through street contacting, but some people messaged us back, which is pretty rare. We also did a comp study with our Zone leaders, Elder Teeples and Elder Christensen, which was really good, and we got an even better understanding of how to do a better job. We met with a really solid convert, named Sister Fishman, which is always a god way to end your day. The Carter's issued us a new challenge, to read through the entire New Testament by General Conference, and they're giving us another 1/2 hour of personal study to do it. I think it's awesome, because all missionaries, myself included, could use some more Bible knowledge. I think as servants of the Lord, studying the documentation of His life and His Apostle's minister is one of the best things we can do to become better missionaries. 

February 4, 2021

We had a lot of responses to our Facebook posts, which to me is a miracle in itself. We were sitting in our planning time, and I looked at my phone and saw there was a good 4 or 5 people that needed help with service. One lady's name was Alissa, and said we were a Godsend, and she needed help moving to another apartment. We helped her move some pictures and boxes, and the whole time she was talking about how much she loves our church and our members, and everything we do for the community. She almost said that she almost became a member of our church, but she caught herself haha... she said she had a bunch of questions about God and Jesus Christ, so we set up an appointment and we're officially teaching her now. That was a miracle, and she seems to be prepared to hear the Gospel, at the very least. We're excited for her. Other than that, we did some finding, and we had a really good member visit with the Bodily family. After that, we met with our new Stake President, our whole Zone did a Zoom call. Then Elder Strauss and I had a real talk, and now I'm going to bed. A good day, with many more to come. 

February 5, 2021

Today was a really good, eventful day. We had our COC in Atascadero, and they're always fun. After that, we did a follow up training for Zoom, and by then more than half of our day was over. We did some studies, and then we went street contacting at the Embarcadero. It's a really cool touristy place with a bunch of stores, and souvenir shops. It would be a really fun place to vacation, and it is right next to the actual Morro Bay. I've walked right over to the ocean, and we saw some seals and sea otters just swimming around in the water. This is a really cool area, I'm so grateful I was able to come here. 

We had a pretty awesome connection/miracle, just as Elder Strauss and I were about to head back and have leftover chili and PBJ's for dinner, we ran into a member from Los Angeles who was vacationing in Morro Bay, and he got our attention and stopped and talked to us. He said that he wanted to buy us dinner. We hesitated to accept, because all of the food on the Embarcadero is really expensive, like at least $15 to start for any kind of meal. But he insisted, so we had delicious fish and chips and a really good roast beef sandwich for dinner. I'll always be grateful to Brother Finley and his family for that haha.

After that, we did some Facebook, and did our best to turn an online Bible bash into a friendly conversation, but I don't think we succeeded. He said he had a theory that Joseph Smith ate moldy bread or something and hallucinated the First Vision. I have to admit I haven't heard that one before. I guess I must be eating a lot of moldy food to feel the Spirit like I do when I read the Book of Mormon. Everyone else in the Church too, I guess.

February 6, 2021

Today we drove 20 minutes to our district exercise, and then we got some really good donuts at SloDoCo (SLO Donut Company). We had a training meeting over Zoom, and that took up a good chunk of our day. Ever since we have put that service post up, we literally don't have enough time to get to all the people that responded. We're probably going to have to stop offering service until we get around to the people that already need it. Other than that, we worked hard, and took some cookies to Tony. I drove a lot today, and so for some reason that really tired me out, but at least it's a lot better than biking haha. But I can't believe our second week here is almost over, that went by really fast. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day, and a whole lot of work.

February 7, 2021

Well, week two in paradise ended today. We had another really busy day, and we taught some really good lessons. We taught Tony and the Boyette's, and both went very well. We watched church and did Ward Council in the morning, and we barely had enough time to get in some studies. We did some Facebook, and we had a testimony meeting for all new missionaries, and missionaries that are leaving for their original assignments again. And Elder Maeser is leaving! He's going back to Sierra Leone, and he's leaving our mission. Gonna miss that man, he was a good trainer, and an even better friend. But I know he really wanted to go back to Sierra Leone to finish his mission, so I'm happy for him. They'll be taking out a good half of all the missionaries that I have met so far, but their original assignment missions will be lucky to have them.