Week 53: Goleta

October 11, 2021

Awesome Preparation day, we actually planned it out, which made things very productive. We got some In 'n' Out for lunch and also played Mafia for our activity. Some fun stuff, it's always fun to get to know your missionaries better.

We had a cool experience with Anthony, we couldn't get a hold of him for a lesson, and he didn't show up. But we decided to call him and see what was up, and apparently he didn't get any of our texts. So we were able to meet last minute and had a really awesome lesson. He is quite possibly our most progressing person now. He has a lot of potential. 

October 12, 2021

We went to MLC today, it was a very uplifting experience and once again, I learned a ton. There was a large focus on the temple, seeing as we are going on the 20th! Super excited. We are thankful for the hectic mess that it must be to get us missionaries there through Los Angeles. 

Recently there have been some pretty serious fires coming through, but they don't think it'll be too serious. It would be kind of exciting if it was though haha. We also had a stop-by lesson with Susan, what a precious soul. 

October 13, 2021

Today we planned our CDC on Friday, so we could be ready to go. In the middle of the day, we had another awesome lesson with Josh and Donna, and really got to make some progress with them. We also had interviews today, got to talk about the amazing missionaries we have here in the Zone. We also had another really awesome lesson with Anthony, where we talked about the purpose of life. It's been a good day, we are so crazy busy. 

October 14, 2021

Today we did an exchange with Elder Jackman and Elder Emmett, it was pretty awesome. The main exciting thing that happened was we were to talk to yet another teenager playing basketball, who is a teammate of TJ and Nathan. It's crazy, we'll start teaching the whole basketball team pretty soon. We also went to the Vietnamese noodle place again, good stuff. 

After an awesome Book of Mormon study with Victor, we made some quick calls and got to finish off the night with a good old Wendy's run for some Frosty's and fries. 

Also it was my year mark today.

October 15, 2021

Today we had a CDC up in Solvang, it went well, just went a little overtime. I led a role-play about teaching when we find, rather than trying to find at a different time and place. After, we did an exchange with Elder Kartchner and Elder Martin, I went with Elder Kartchner. He's awesome, we had a great time and found someone new to teach. Love these elders.

We got Burrito Loco for dinner, and at the end of the night, we drove all the way back to Goleta. It was a good, long day. 

October 16, 2021

Today we had a fun day, and got to watch a little girl named Alyssa get baptized. We watched it with Josh and Donna, and they really liked it. I think they have a lot of potential. We also had a phone call lesson with Susan, where we talked a little about baptism and about helping her come to church. We've been struggling to keep her progressing, she is just busy all of the time. We didn't get much going, but I think tomorrow will be better, we've got to find someone. 

We finished off the night with a visit with Sister Damitz, and Keith, who has a referral for us. It was a good day, but I think tomorrow will be even better. 

October 17, 2021

We got two people to church today! Donna and Josh were able to watch over Zoom. That was awesome because it's been a while since I've been able to have anybody come to or watch church. 

We had good rest of our day, but are yet to find too many people this week. But we had a lesson with Elijah, and ended up dropping him because there hasn't really been any progression. He's an awesome guy, but he just isn't in the right place now. The agnostic bump is a hard one to get over. There has been no philosophy more blinding among all the people I have taught/talked to. It's a hard one, but I know it can be beat because I've gotten over it with God's help. You really can know, because God wants us to know and God can't be beat in reason, intellect, philosophy, nothing. And neither can we, because He is where our testimonies come from. It just comes to the point where we have to have some faith, who could've thought?