Week 86: Oxnard

May 30, 2022

It was a fun Preparation Day, we all went to the park and had a good time. Ate some pizza, played some volleyball, played some Frisbee, and had a jolly old time. Actually had a pretty successful time tonight, some people expressed interest and we had a couple of member visits. Got to say bye to Jorge, it was great meeting with him, and now we even have a mutual friend. I'm grateful staying in touch is easy with advanced technology. So a good day. It's a little hard to stay focused, because my Areabook already switched from this area to Oxnard.

May 31, 2022

Had a busy day, we started off with some personal study and a mission-wide Zoom call, it was about setting goals and making plans for those goals. After that we jumped around, and had a few lessons cancel, but we were always up and doing. We drove to the other side of Simi Valley today and I did a baptismal interview for a really sweet lady named Ellen. She has a super strong testimony, and has so much charity. She loves reading the Book of Mormon, so as long as she does that, she'll be all right. Later on in the day we had a lesson with the Joice's, shared some good food and had a good message. 

Then we said goodbye to everybody, and made a mad scramble to meet Elder Holmstead and Elder Davies to pick me up and take me to Oxnard. So a busy day, there'll be a change of scenery tomorrow. 

June 1, 2022

First full day here was awesome, we got a lot of good work done. We started off on a Zoom call with the mission, we reviewed the goals we set as missionaries and more about our personal experiences and planning. After that we had some errands to run and some lessons to teach, we are already teaching a bunch of really humble, awesome people. We did some good work and had a bunch of great things to do. It was a fulfilling day and we were able to teach some members and also help our friends, one of which was Roxanna, such an awesome lady. I'm excited for the future. Tomorrow we have a MLC Zoom with President Bragg, should be fun.

June 2, 2022

Had a busy day, we started off with a MLC Zoom with President Bragg. Learned more about how we can be better leaders. I've gotten to appreciate receiving guidance more and more throughout my mission. We had a companionship study with Elders Strauss, Murdoch, and Merrill, and gained some insights from them. In a lesson today, we talked to a legendary man named Niikkos, a less active member who is unlike anybody else I've ever met. He is such a sweet guy with a good heart. We also had a pass-off lesson from the Spanish Elders, for a guy named Lionel. Had lessons with someone named Andrea, and the Lara family, all just really great people. 

We have so many people here who we could teach, it's just a matter of finding those who are ready for the Gospel of Jesus Christ the most. I'm looking forward to meeting some more of the members, they have all been really great people so far.

June 3, 2022

Today we went to a district council in Thousand Lakes, Elder Sutherland is the district leader there. Kind of fun because that was my first district as a missionary. We got some Cafe Rio and my missing scriptures and study journal, and got on with the rest of our day. We had some good lessons again, as per usual, and got to do some good finding as well. We have our day wide open tomorrow, so I expect we'll find somebody to teach. We had a lesson with Sister Marley and ate some cheesecake, we're hoping to help her go to the temple. We also did some weekly planning and had a visit with our friend Doris. We have some good friends we're teaching, just keeping the grind up. Elder Davies and Elder Holmstead are both really good teachers, I am learning a ton from them. Ended the night talking about Stan Lee's Superhumans.

June 4, 2022

We started our day by having some studies and then a lesson with Roxanna. She and her family are going through some stressful times, but she has such strong faith that God will help them, and I believe it too. Such a great lady.

We were also able to teach an awesome guy named Isaiah. He's a single dad who is a little bit down in life, but he and his three boys are so ready for the Gospel. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a Bible and he's coming to Church tomorrow. We visited some referrals today, and had a dinner with the Gamez family, all of them just great, humble people. Finished off the night with a visit with the Kinser's. 

Good day, I'm dead tired. I just ended the night doing a shove-it on my tech-deck off of a rail over a burning bowl of hand sanitizer.

June 5, 2022

It was an interesting day, really successful with an interesting turn to it. We started teaching two people this afternoon, and seem to have some good interest. We've been working down our "Interested" list in our Areabook. There's a point where you have so many that it's not productive to keep making more. We have already gone past that point, so it makes it easy for us to know what to do. 

As we were heading back to church, our day took a turn, Elder Espinosa and Elder Kofford asked us if we could go pick up Elder Alford and Elder Reusch, who are bikes, because Elder Alford crashed and got injured. Turns out his handlebar nicked a street sign and a nearby brick wall took some of his thumb flesh for safekeeping. So we drove him to the ER, and they patched him up. Elder Holmstead went with Elder Alford, and Elder Davies and I stayed back with Elder Reusch. For some reason it took a while, and we just had to wait in the hospital parking lot for about 6 hours making calls and riding bikes. Fun day, kept things interesting.