Week 35: Solvang

June 7, 2021

Had a good day to unwind and have some fun. We played frisbee in the park, and had some good fish and chips too. We also were able to buy a lot of food today because we went to Foods Co. in Lompoc instant of Albertson's. After Preparation Day, we did some finding until we joined in on the "Empty Nesters FHE" where we get to add our thoughts while our elderly folks talk about the D&C. Ready for another one.

June 8, 2021

Today was really good. We did some service for nice old guy named Frank, and then we had our studies and went finding. But something really cool happened this time. We felt impressed to go to Hans Christian Park, which doesn't usually have people, but we decided to try anyway. So we got out, and spotted this guy in an electric wheelchair that we had actually talked to before, but the last time we talked to him he said he was having a really rough day and wasn't interested. Well, the same thing happened today when we approached him. So we kept walking in that same park, and kept talking to people, until we got to someone who wanted to talk a little bit. His name was Blaine, and he's the head pastor at Grace Bible Church here in town, so you can imagine how well that conversation went. He was quite the talker, and talked about how he used to be LDS, and how our doctrines don't match the Bible and how we're wrong and how he really found Jesus through the Bible. While he wasn't letting us get in a single word, our friend in the wheelchair wheeled over and called us to come back over from across the park. So our pastor friend excused us, and we went back over to talk to him. He said he saw how that guy was and said he felt like he should save us from that conversation haha. So we had a good laugh about that, and then he told us his name was Dale and he was sorry he was kind of rude to us the first couple of times. But in my opinion, justifiably so, because he has had a really rough life and has had a very hard time with his health. We bore powerful testimony and he told us we could come back and meet with him again in the park. So that really made our day and kept us going. 

We also had a really good lesson with Ray. He's been showing more faith and reading the Book of Mormon on his own, and so he is still progressing. Like I said, really good day.

June 9, 2021

Today we got to drive down to Goleta for interviews with President Carter. It was a good interview, and he said he felt impressed to tell me that we should know that a large part of our job in this transfer is to plant seeds. So we'll be taking that into account as we try to find. We were also able to have a short lesson with Nati, he's a cool guy who is working at the Valley Fresh Market just downtown. He grills tri-tip and ribs outside in a Santa Maria Grill, and we teach him while he does that. So we've been seeing some success, and we'll have some more lessons coming up in the future, so exciting stuff. 

June 10, 2021

We had a good day. We had some studies, and we were planning going to see Dale. But we tried to start the car, and it was dead. So we had to have a Senior missionary come down from Santa Maria to fix it, because it's a hybrid and kind of weird. We had some contacting, and we even went to the Main Street, but no one was interested. After that, we had some calls and then had a good visit with the Agins. That's pretty much it. but it was kind of fun to walk around and stop people with a "Could we have a second of your time?" It was very bold, and I was pretty nervous to do it, but I forced myself to, and then little by little it got easier. Seems to be a trend on my mission so far.

June 11, 2021

Today went by really fast, mostly because we had CDC for half the day. That's always fun, and we also got a super good sandwich called The Jordan at El Rancho that is super good. We had some studies, and then went contacting. We weren't able to find a ton of people to talk to, but we did meet two nice ladies named Kelsy and Brit, and they gave us their numbers. After some more finding, we had a visit with the Liljenquists and that was our day.

June 12, 2021

We had a really good day today as well, we did some service for Frank again, and got to take some service pictures for a post. We were able to teach Nati again, he's a really cool guy, he's the one who has lost tons of weight over the past six months. We had a cool lesson with him while he was barbecuing, and he even turned off his music to listen to us. He also asked us about family history, because he is native American, and doesn't know his dad, and so he's trying to find his ancestors to see where he came from. So that's the first time that's happened. 

We also talked to Dale, the guy in the wheelchair we met at the park. He's really nice, but he doesn't think that we teach doctrines congruent with the Bible. So we'll show him how it does, and kind of "bash-teach" him, because that seems like our only option haha. But after a dinner with the Rosses, we had some good contacting at Main Street in Solvang, while we were surrounded by a lot of drunk people haha.. That's Saturday nights. But we got two numbers to refer, someone named Mark who's a Buddhist and some people named Julianna and Joey who had a lot of interesting questions like: "Do you believe in hauntings?" or "Is there going to be a second earth after the Second Coming?" But we did get their number and we'll send both to the missionaries down in L.A.

June 13, 2021

We had a good day today, we had a pretty basic day of church and studies. Then we had some finding, but we didn't have very much going for us. We had Ray come to church as usual, but Sheri is out of town so we weren't able to get her there. But we had a good dinner with the Saunders and then had some calls until a new missionary testimony meeting.