Week 83: Simi Valley

May 9, 2022

We had a great first Preparation Day and got to know all of our missionaries better, and have some fun with some activities. The first one was hiking up to the Cross, up on a mountain near our apartment. That was with the Simi District. With the Sequoia District, we went to Golden Panda Chinese Buffet and went crazy. I had a lot of good food, but I also challenged myself and ate some undesirable things. I ate a mini octopus, some squid sushi, mussels, regular raw sushi and other stuff. After that we all went to the church and played basketball, and rode my board around. All the while the Asian food I ate was sitting like a rock in my stomach. But for the rest of the night, we did some goal-gathering, and had visits with both of the Bateman families in our ward. Good day. 

May 10, 2022

We went to MLC today, and prepared for the mission tour next week. We also learned a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His grace. After getting Cains with our fellow Elders, we took a SIM card back to Elder Tree and Elder Taylor, because sadly Elder Tree lost his phone. But hopefully it still turns up. We had dinner with the Dickerson's, a lesson with Tami, and got to have a visit with the Roberts'. Tami is doing well. She is very good at finding the good in what we teach her, and holding onto it. She has a pure heart. Things have been going well, just a really busy week. I'm super tired. 

May 11, 2022

Super tired again today, we were very busy with a lot of lessons. I was also on exchanges with Elder Smith, and Elder Strauss went with Wilber. Our first lesson was with Tom, we talked about the priesthood and gave him a blessing to receive strength to live the Word of Wisdom. We also had a lesson with Jackson and his sisters and showed them the 'Ask of God' video and taught the Restoration. We had another lesson with Brother Ouimette, and later a member visit with the Basil's. Our lesson with Cameron was really great, he has a strong desire to change as a person and come closer with God. We connected because we both used to play football, and if we were on the same team I would have been blocking for him haha. 

I had a fun day with Elder Smith, it was over in a flash. We also did some service where our job was just to talk to some old guys named Bob and Mike at a senior home, fun stuff. 

May 12, 2022

Today was another busy one. Had it's ups and downs. Did some service for a nice lady named Margi, we were trying to figure out how to scrape off some wallpaper. After lunch, we did some weekly planning, and really went into it, tried to do it just like PMG says. We had a lesson with a friend named Ken, and a great lesson with Jorge as we read the Book of Mormon. Jorge has recently started feeling the Spirit as he's personally read the Book of Mormon. I'm glad to be a part of helping him do that. The only other things we did today were stop by's, Facebook work, and member visits. On to another one. 

May 13, 2022

Today we had district council with the Simi District. The members of the Simi District are Elder Isaacson, Elder Younger, Elder Tree, Elder Taylor, Hermana Malouf, and Herman Jorgenson. It was a good one. 

After lunch, we did some service for a lady named Hayley, we helped her clean our her goat pens. Such weird but funny creatures. Running around, smashing heads and playing King of the Hills. We did some more weekly planning, and then had a lesson with our new friend named George. We're going to talk some more about the Plan of Salvation with him next week. For the rest of the night, we did a ton more stop by's. Had some fun encounters, Elder Strauss got bit by the kid of a member family, and I got sniped by a kid of a friend we were visiting by a Nerf gun. Fun day, going on exchanges tomorrow with Elder Tree in a biking area. 

May 14, 2022

Super fun day, had exchanges with Elder Tree and Elder Taylor, I went into the biking area with Elder Tree. We visited a bunch of people and did a lot of contacting. Stayed busy with hard work. We did some service for the Post Office food drive, which resulted in us sitting around for most of it, eating Subway, while we waited for more food to show up. We did a lot of stop by's and contacting, it was fun to be with Elder Tree again. We finished off the night with some hill climbing and hill bombing. Good walk day. 

May 15, 2022

Not too much to report on today, we had a good day at church, and had a bunch of member visits. We watched the Young Adult Devotional from President and Sister Nelson. Then we had member visits with Brother Clement's, the Foote's, the Robert's, and the Brinkman's. We finished off more tired than we have been in a while. But after the devotional, I'm going to think from now on, "What would a holy young adult do?"