Week 85: Simi Valley

May 23, 2022

Had a good Preparation Day, we didn't have much to do because we aren't allowed to have gatherings as missionaries right now. We went to the Habit for lunch, went to the skate park, had a jolly old time. But there was a lot of time we didn't know how to use. 

We had some tough finding time, not a lot of people interested, actually the opposite. But things are still going good, and things are looking upward. Had a good visit with the Jensen's and are now turning in for the night.

May 24, 2022

Today we had a lot of finding time, but we were blessed and it was very productive. We had a Zoom companionship study with Elder Cosentino and Elder McArthur, had a great study, especially about 1 Nephi 13. We had a ton of stop-by's today, and we had a better success rate than we usually do. Yesterday we had a rough time contacting and had zero patience by the end of the day, so we focused on doing better today. And we did, it felt very good. 

We were able to start teaching our friend named Cheryl, who lost her son recently. We also were able to talk to Marty, a lady who said that she likes our views of what happens to people who don't get a chance to hear the Gospel. I do too. But we were really blessed today. Also got to do more service for Elizabeth. We have a lot of lesson plans, some exciting stuff ahead. 

May 25, 2022

Had a super busy day, we are really tired right now. We started the day with ZLC, and planned some upcoming stuff. After lunch we had a lesson with Jackson, and set him on date for June 18th! Super excited for him, and it's going to be a busy few weeks. Had a lesson with Brother Ouimette today as well, and a lesson with Tami. Tami is great. She has so much opposition, but has such a strong desire to change her life and come closer to God. After a short dinner, we had a lesson with George, but sadly he doesn't have the desire to change, so we might be passing him off. But such is missionary work, we'll try to connect him to some members before we do that. Tomorrow is packed as well, never a dull moment.

May 26, 2022

The first main event of today was having interviews with President. Our training was about baptism, and that was coming straight from God, because we just barely set Jackson on date Learned some good things from President Carter. After that we had a lesson with Jorge, he read on his own and is coming right along! We were able to have a little bit of finding time today as well. We talked to a man named Jay, who questions why God would let him and his wife struggle through dementia. We were able to offer some words of peace. I hope he continues to learn sometime about the truth of the Gospel and the continuous peace it brings. We are chugging along, just getting things prepared for Jackson's baptism sooner rather than later.

May 27, 2022

We had district council today, it was really good and we were able to get some good advice from our Elders. After lunch, we did some service for Margi. We've experienced why we are advised to not commit to service that may become long term, that wallpaper is a menace. Then we rushed to a lesson with Tami, and had a discombobulated, but good lesson with her. She's starting to ask the good questions. We are excited for her, and she is just about to learn for herself that the Restoration is true. We had some different kinds of finding until our visit with the Parry's, where we did our fire trick lesson. Good day, once again exhausted. 

May 28, 2022

Today we started off with some getting set up for next week, because our friend got caught up in some traffic and we had to leave for another appointment. Sister Bowers and Sister Peterson took us and the SS2 Elders to lunch for our member meal today, had some good food at this little diner in town. Had some more finding time today, because of some cancelled things, but it was still a little bit slower today. For some reason we still aren't able to catch many people at home. But we had some more Japanese Stew for dinner and had a good member visit with the LaBass family, so the day was alright. Going to have a very busy day tomorrow, hopefully our lessons go through. 

May 29, 2022

Today was a good day with some very interesting turns. For church, we didn't have very many people that we are teaching show up, but we took Jorge to the YSA ward today. And lo and behold, James "Gus" Burton was there in the ward. I was not expecting to see him anytime soon. But he was a great church friend for Jorge, and he even stuck around for second hour, which he hasn't done before. So he is really taking off, I'm excited for him.

I also got some really bittersweet news today, I am getting transferred to Oxnard, and leaving Simi 5th. It is such a bummer to be leaving all these friends just when I was starting to connect with them. But I know the Lord is going to take care of me and them, but leaving is still an act of faith. The uplifting thing is that I can still keep in touch with people after the mission, through Facebook and whatnot. Still bummed though, I was putting all my heart into our friends here. But everything is all good. 

Also, as I write this, we are sitting in a power outage, so that added some flavor to our night.