Week 47: Goleta

August 30, 2021

We had a great Preparation Day, we went back to the Disc Golf course and played more than just half of the holes. We have a fun district, we all get along well. 

Then we had some more errands and had a good night of contacting. We talked to someone named Nathan, who just had family member pass away. We were able to offer some words of comfort and explain a bit about the Plan of Salvation. Hopefully we'll be able to teach him again soon. 

We also had a Zone Leader Zoom meeting that we have every week, and counseled together about how to help the mission. It was a good day, and I enjoyed working. 

August 31, 2021

Today we had interviews, and it was good, I once again learned some good stuff. We spend most of our day doing that and doing clerical work, so we were little late to getting some real good finding time. But we did have this little exchange with someone named Cathy, we gave her a guitar we found in our apartment. Nice lady. 

We also texted our Hell's Angel's friend Jason, trying to set up a lesson with him. We also had a great conversation with someone named Daniel. We talked about repentance and the joy we feel, and he was definitely feeling the Spirit. He took a Book of Mormon, but he declined meeting, which was sad, but hopefully he'll come around and talk to missionaries again. 

September 1, 2021

We had a good day, we got to put in some really good work. We weren't able to get a ton of traction, but we did start teaching this super nice lady named DeAnne. We're going to really try to start teaching her family because the Gospel will really bless them. So we're keeping it going strong, and we're going to keep it up. A good day, but fairly uneventful. 

September 2, 2021

Today we did some studies, and then had lunch with Sister Tisdel and two of her non-member friends. They are some funny people, living in their retirement community, living it up haha. Then we had exchanges to do with Elder Kok and Elder Jackman. I went back to the Goleta 2 area with Elder Jackman, and spend the rest of the day on that schedule. 

September 3, 2021

We spent the day up in Lompoc today, we went up for district council, and then for an exchange afterwards with Elder Anderson and Elder Martin. The council went well, we learned about doing missionary work with real intent. Then we split up, I went with Elder Anderson, and Elder Marks went with Elder Martin. We had a good time, we did a lot of contacting, and we were able to start teaching two new people. Elder Anderson is a great missionary and he's improved a lot since I last did splits with him. Lompoc is a humble town, and there are some nice people there, but it's also pretty sketchy haha. 

September 4, 2021

Today we had a strange day. We tried to get some studies in, but we kind of just go where we need to go, and do what we need to do. 

We did some more service for Debbie, and she gave us some good lunch to take home afterwards. We did a lot of work on the stake reports, where we gather information about the areas in our zone so we can send it to the Stake President. Then we had dinner with the Giroux's, and then got to do some finding. There was a huge Hispanic party that we were able to get a few numbers from. We've been working with some awesome people, it's such a blessing to teach the Gospel to all of God's children. Also some elders got in a car accident, so that took some time to handle. 

September 5, 2021

We had church today, we helped Sister Nelson get to church, she has a disability. But she really hauls in that electric wheelchair. After church we did some more work, planning and calling and setting up lessons until we picked up some lasagna for dinner from the King's. That stuff was good, but I ate so much it sat like a rock while we were contacting. Little harder to focus that way haha.

We had a lesson with Elijah in the Bunker's home, and it went really well. We focused on how we apply the scriptures to our real-life situations. Felt the Spirit, and that's how we'll help him the best. We want to help him feel the Spirit, to help him to know God does exist. Then we listened to the new missionaries bear their testimonies. Solid week, really busy.