Week 42: Goleta

July 26, 2021

It was a fun Preparation Day, and we had a fun Zone activity up in Solvang. Got to see Elder Peterson, and a bunch of other awesome missionaries. It was busy, but we got everything done that we needed to. We got stocked up on some good, healthy food, and the rest of the week should be good.

July 27, 2021

Today we had a lesson with Christy and it was great. She said she got chills and felt really good when she was reading about the Pioneers going to Nauvoo. She shows a lot of real intent, and she really does just want to know the truth. I'm excited to keep teaching her. For the rest of the day, we did a lot of finding, and we were able to talk to some people and try and get the word out. We finished off the day with a lesson with Perry, which I think helped him out. He's really trying to start over and change his life, and we talked about how baptism is a way to do that. So we had a good lesson, after a little bit of a rough start haha. He really tuned in and listened to Brother Pearce more than he did us, and so we'll definitely have him in most of our lessons. But Perry said an amazing closing prayer today for our lesson. He just said the quietest, most sincere prayer I have ever heard. A huge faith builder, and we are helping him come unto Christ, there isn't anything better.

July 28, 2021

We talked to a lot of good people, there are a lot of Catholics around here. We were able to hand out a lot of proselyting materials, but we didn't get much potential. We grinded the streets, and did all we could for the people here. We got to take a fun, little drive into Santa Barbara, that's a really cool town, we were looking for someone named Gus that a member told us to reach out to. We couldn't find him, but the guy that lived where we though Gus would be was fairly interested in talking to missionaries. Other than that, we spend a whole lot of time setting up some member visits. It was a good day.

July 29, 2021

We got to pick some apples for Sister Mooberry today, now we just need something to do with them haha. We had some great studies, and I was able to gain some perspective changing insights on repentance and forgiveness. The scriptures are amazing, especially they Book of Mormon, and the insights and enlightenment I gain from it are unlike anything else anywhere else. It truly is the Word of God. 

We were pretty busy today and didn't get to have too much finding time, but we did have four member visits in one day. We visited the Moreno's, and they unexpectedly gave us a second dinner haha, it was really good. They are a really nice family. Then we had a visit with the Green's, then we had a visit with Brother Christensen. It was a great day, made a lot of progress on getting to know the members better. 

July 30, 2021

It was a fun day, full of fun things and interesting contacts. We had good district council and then some studies, and then we had a bunch of contacting. We knocked on one door, looking for a less active member, but she moved out. But Kyle and his kids were there. The way we knocked was by pressing the Ring doorbell, and a few seconds in his wife started talking through the doorbell saying nobody was home. But we're going back tomorrow to talk about eternal families. 

We also talked to some members that gave us some Fiji water, pretty high class. We also got two different Spanish numbers, I'm getting better and better at Spanish contacting. We talked to someone named Misty, and she seemed interested, but it was weird, she went inside and came back out and we told her we had to leave soon for another appointment, and she got offended at that. Maybe it was something we missed, because we are changed people, socially speaking. We'll probably go by later and bring her cookies, and maybe that will change her mind, if she's actually interested. 

We also talked to Perry over the phone, he's just a little hard to talk to sometimes, and interrupts a lot haha. But he's awesome, and he is still progressing and showing strong faith. It was a busy day, and we have exchanges tomorrow, at least we don't have to drive far.

July 31, 2021

Today we had an awesome exchange. I went with Elder Kaylor, and we had a great time. We were on our feet all day, and I learned a ton from him. He's very good at talking to people about anything, and being really friendly. We also had an awesome time talking to someone named Tara, she's so cool! And so faithful too. She's this super nice lady who has such strong faith. We started teaching her, and we love her so much already. 

We got to talk to so many people and share scriptures and bear simple testimony. It was really fun, and we're going to keep that up going forward. We had a couple member visits, and I feel very inspired on how we can do better going forward. Awesome day.

August 1, 2021

Today was incredible, we had a few miracles happen. We made a goal to start teaching two people today, and someone from our Areabook texted back out of the blue. We were able to start teaching her after a phone call. Her name is Annie, and she's interested in learning more. So we kept on grinding, we got some numbers and made some contacts. 

The next miracle happened when we were walking to a member visit. So it's 8:30, down to the wire, our last chance to start teaching someone new. We started talking to a lady named Gina, and the conversation wasn't being very fruitful, until we got the prompting to talk to her about baptism. After we thought of it, I was a little hesitant, because it seemed a little crazy to me, but I've been working on following spiritual promptings more. So we shared 2 Nephi 9:23, and talked about baptism as a fresh start and how she can be cleaned from her past sins. She thought about it a minute, and said that she had been baptized as a baby, but said she might want to do it again. So we got her number and prayed with her, and that was our second miracle. I think that it was because we had more faith today and we worked harder than we ever have before, I think that's why God put His children in our path. It was an awesome day, we were very blessed.