Week 66: Newbury Park

January 10, 2022

Today was hopefully our last day of quarantine. We got up and got all of our groceries and chores done by 11:00, and so we've started doing a Simon Dewey painting of Christ puzzle. That helped us really burn through some time and have some fun doing it. 

We did the usual Facebook and member visit, and then had a Zone leader Zoom with the other Zone leaders of the mission and the Assistants. We're trying to help all of our missionaries not get discouraged because of the current restrictions of the pandemic. 

January 11, 2022

Today we sadly learned that we will be quarantining for another five days, because Elder Larson also tested positive for Covid. 

We had a pretty regular day, I got to listen in on Elder Larson's Zoom call to practice Chinese, I'm almost fluent. We had interviews with President, and then carried on with our regularly scheduled program of Facebook and calling dots in our Areabook. 

We had a good lesson with the Boyce's, they have decided to hold off for now on their date, because they want to better understand what baptism is and know more about God first. The way I see it, we're making converts now, not just getting baptisms. So things are looking up. We're pretty much professionals at this quarantine thing now, so it'll be no sweat. 

January 12, 2022

We had a fairly normal day. We did some studies, and I actually had a really good personal study. I studied President Nelson's talk about strengthening our spiritual foundations, and it really enlightened me spiritually. I'm going to try to have a better understanding of my covenants and become better at consistently keeping them. 

We had a good, productive CDC today, and also a good Zoom companionship study with Elders Kelsey and Winn. After that we had a pretty standard day, lots of Facebook and Areabook. We finished off the night with a couple of member visits with the Merril's and the Barrus'. Good day. 

January 13, 2022

Today we had a fun exercise, we had a mission-wide Zoom where we did some easy calisthenics with President and Sister Carter. Good way to energize and uplift the mission. We also had a mini micro training Zoom, and a Zoom companionship study with Elder White and Elder Ferrin. 

Today was a slow one otherwise, we have kind of been running out of things to do finding-wise. I've been reading 'Jesus the Christ' more, and it has given me a tremendous amount of understanding about the Savior and who He is. I've been able to keep my spiritual slope pointed upward recently, and it brings so much hope and light to my life when I realize that. 

I also tried tapioca pudding today. Interesting stuff. 

January 14, 2022

Second to last day of quarantine. We got to Zoom in to the Westlake District's district council, learned some really great stuff from the missionaries. We had a day packed full of studies, and I felt really good about my study. I did a lot of memorizing, and studied the talk "Lovest Thou Me More Than These?" by President Ballard from this last Conference. 

We got on the finding grind, and were lucky enough to grab some Chinese food to break it up. Our lesson with the Boyce's went well, it's just little hard to keep it focused with younger people when it's a Zoom call, we'll love getting back to in-person lessons in a little over a week hopefully. 

It was a good day, I am spiritually sorting things out and I'm very happy with the spiritual progress I have been making lately. 

January 15, 2022

Today we finished off the quarantine strong, we are excited to see our members in person at church tomorrow. We finally finished the Simon Dewey puzzle, I really had to put in the work on that thing. We had a Personal Purity Zoom this morning, where we all gather together as Elders in the mission and have a Zoom about virtue, and controlling the natural man. We also watched the video that talks about being a father and it always makes me want to be a papa haha. We did a lot of Facebook, and have been trying to burn through our SIM card and call all of the numbers we don't recognize. Also Natisse had dropped off the map for a little bit, but we got in contact with her and she's still going great! So things keep going good and we are excited for tomorrow!

January 16, 2022

A glorious day, back to it at full speed. We were able to go to church and see all of our members in person. We were kind of bummed because it didn't seem like the Boyce's were going to make it to church, but they made it last minute and were able to take the sacrament. So we were super happy for them, they are such an awesome family. 

We also got to do a combined companionship study with Elders Kok and Packard. Awesome elders, they've been doing great in their area. We also attended a Just Serve stake meeting, we are trying to be able to serve more as missionaries and this will help. It felt really good to go contact today, we had a good success rate, especially for how rusty we were; whenever there's a time we go without contacting it's a little hard to get back into it. 

It's going to most likely be a pretty busy day tomorrow, but I've come to like a busy schedule, by the grace of God. It's hard to believe the transfer is already half over.