Week 69: Newbury Park

January 31, 2022

For Preparation Day, we went to the Presidential Ronald Reagan museum down in Simi Valley. Fun time, I think I like Ronald Reagan now. Got to see a lot of cool stuff, like the Air Force One plane that he used to be flown around in.

As for missionary stuff, we had a good lesson with Natisse, and hashed some more things out for her baptism on Thursday. Had a couple visits tonight, and now it's back to the mission grind. 

February 1, 2022

Today we had MLC and talked about a few important things. The most important one, however, was a proposal to make primetime all day long, rather than just 5-9. There are a lot of pros and cons that we had to go over, but under further consideration, it's probably going to go through. It'll be a really good change if our missionaries can use it right.

For the rest of the day, I was kind of dragging. I didn't really know why, I was just in a spiritual, physical, and emotional trough. Nothing was really helping until we just got out and started getting to work. Then the fog lifted, the Spirit came back, and I was happy. It built my testimony of the 'forget yourself and go to work' mantra.

Natisse is still going good, heading straight for the font, we dropped off her jumpsuit today. The Boyce's are also doing so good. We've taught them the baptism commandments, because they are getting close to a date soon. The work rolls forward, the Lord is using his imperfect, clumsy instruments to do the job. 

February 2, 2022

Busy day, Natisse's baptism is tomorrow. So we've been running around, getting everything figured out for that. We had a ZLC to plan CDC today, and had our normal studies. Learned about humility, I'm to learn to best open my mind to new ways of doing things. 

Finding was good, we were able to give out a Book of Mormon and get some people's contact information. We got into a pretty frustrating conversation with a guy who pretty much went on a hunt for any anti that he could get his hands on. We spent way too much time talking to him, and it's experiences like that that really make you value the Lord's time. 

For Natisse's baptism, it's just a tiny bit unclear if she has her husband's consent. None of us think that there's going to be a problem there, it's just one more box that we need to check off. It wouldn't be baptism if we didn't have one last night of stress and some last minute stuff to do. 

February 3, 2022

Today was the big day. We had quite a few errands to run, and spent a good chunk of the day preparing for the baptism. We spent our whole day either studying or doing stuff for the baptism. 

It was such an amazing baptism, she was so prepared and wanting to be baptized. It takes a lot of courage, being the first member in her family, like Bishop Johnson said. We're so proud of her, and there's so much good stuff ahead of her. It's always a blessing to be just a part of someone's coming closer to Jesus Christ. 

It was a really good day, got to finish it off with some Oreo shakes from Jack-in-the-Box. 

February 4, 2022

We had CDC Today, I gave a discussion on being productive and being urgent in our missionary work. After we did some Zone Leader chores, we hit the streets; kind of a bummer we weren't able to find anybody, but we're not discouraged. There's a lot of good things ahead for us in this area, whether we get transferred or not. 

We had a run-in today with a man named "Ninja Kick." He's a guy that some of the elders have known, and he's not all there, to put it shortly. He wants to come see Natisse get confirmed on Sunday. He's an interesting guy, it's sad, because you can't do too much as missionaries for someone who's not all there.

We finalized our preparations for the car wash tomorrow, I hope we get a good turnout and things go well. 

February 5, 2022

Today, the main event of the day was a car wash we all did as a Zone. It was a good time, got to wash some nice cars over there in Westlake Village. That took most of our day, and afterwards we had a really good lesson with Natisse where we talked about the temple. After her confirmation, that will be where her sights are set. She said that she just feels happier, and her day was just way better, one of the purest testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ I have felt.

After a fun dinner with the Barruses, we made a bunch of stop-bye and had a good night of doing Facebook, and setting up visits. 

February 6, 2022

Today was another really good day, Natisse got confirmed! It was such a big relief when it was just finally said and done, she is now a confirmed member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It was a very fulfilling experience that brings you a lot of joy as a missionary. A really great day. 

Then we got along with our day and did some finding. It's the kind of day where we had a lot of great contacts, but not actually any return appointments. We did help some people start thinking and to feel the Spirit, though. We had a good rest of our night, got to hear some testimonies from the missionaries leaving. I'm going to be with Elder Hales for the next transfer, gonna be super sweet, I'm very looking forward to the future.