Week 55: Goleta

October 25, 2021 

A good Preparation Day, we carved some pumpkins and played some games with the Santa Barbara district. After calling our families, we had an awesome lesson with Anthony, where he pretty much said he believes the things we have been teaching him might be true. So we are hoping to give him a baptismal date soon. We had another lesson with Brother Hyde and Brother Beezly. We talked about 2 Nephi 2:10 and tried to make some sense of it haha. 

October 26, 2021

Today we did some goal settings with the Goleta district; we talked about companionship unity and about how we can gain better revelation as a companionship. We also had an exchange today with Elder Swanson and Elder Kirk, I went with Elder Kirk. He's awesome, and we have a lot in common. He actually knew and used to play music with my trainer, Jeff Maeser. He's such a great elder, and super bold too. I learned a lot from him. 

We had some awesome stuff happen, like a social media referral being really solid, and having an impromptu member visit with Sister Blocker. It was a good day of learning a lot, I really had to stay on my feet today. 

October 27, 2021

We went to Zone Conference today down in Oxnard. They trained us on how we can better work with members. We have a lot of things that we'll take from today and apply them in our missionary work. It was good to see a lot of the missionaries I already know and have served around. 

When we got back, we had some dinner, and then we went and saw Joshua and Donna. We recommitted them to read the Book of Mormon and to meet with us more often. 

We were walking down the street in another neighborhood, and we saw someone way behind us down the street. Elder Tree said he felt like we should talk to them, so we hurried over and offered the message, but they were not very interested. But as we were walking back, we got to talk to someone who had just come outside named David, who we were able to start teaching. It increased my faith in spiritual guidance, and my trust in my companion. 

We also taught Anthony tonight, and we extended the baptismal invitation. He said it was a very serious decision and that he would think about it, so we're waiting on it right now. Exciting stuff. I just hope he prays sincerely and gets an answer.

October 28, 2021

Today we did baptismal goal settings with the Santa Barbara District. In between meetings we got some super good sandwiches from Ike's Sandwich shop. They are all such awesome missionaries. After that, we had an awesome phone call lesson with a referral we got from a member named David. We started teaching him, he's trying to strengthen himself spiritually. We contacted a lot of people in the Areabook today, we cleaned things up and are getting closer to finding someone who's ready to be baptized. 

We had a busy day. We had a visit with Brother Record, who actually is my third cousin twice removed. It was cool, he had their family tree on the wall, with pictures and stuff, and it turns out he was my ancestor too, which was cool. Hopefully it will make a good Facebook post haha. 

October 29, 2021

Today we were able to have a regular day and we got a lot done. We taught Brother Azunna's daughter, Kianna. She wants to be baptized, so we are helping her take those steps. We also ran into another member on the way out named Tabitha, who we shared a message with. We did a bunch of finding for the rest of the day, and kept it going. We also shared a message with Sister Evelyn. She always loves to give us tons of candy and cookies and ice cream. It was a good day.

October 30, 2021

We got up early today to be able to get to the Lompoc District's exercise. After that we did goal settings with the district. We were able to have some awesome spiritual thoughts with our missionaries. We then did an exchange with Elder Kelly and Elder Alford. I went with Elder Alford and we had a good time. He's a convert of three years, it's super cool. Spanish work is fun, it's super different from English work. After heading home, it didn't take long for us to fall asleep because it was a long day.

October 31, 2021

A good Halloween today. We went to church, and we had Kianna come with her dad, Brother Azunna. We also had a lesson later with them, where Brother Azunna insisted that she be baptized on November 14th, and she agreed. So we set her on date! A great way to end the month. 

We also were able to teach Dave today, and made some good progress with him, even though it was a little all over the place haha. We had to be inside by 6:00pm tonight, so we did a little bit of calling and other things. 

We did really well this month, the Lord really poured out the blessings on Goleta in October. I'm super excited for the upcoming week, it's going to be busier than ever. I'm trying to make sure I use the second half of my mission much better than the first.