Week 88: Oxnard

June 13, 2022

Today was Preparation Day, we were able to "Ball Mañana", and then hit the road to help out with bringing the new missionaries in. It was fun going back up to the Santa Barbara Airport, it reminded me about my first day flying in. The sheer shock makes it so you don't really register anything the first few days. It was fun driving around with Elder Davies and Elder Holmstead, and I even was able to see the mission home for the first time. It's nice to get to meet more missionaries. I even drove the mission transit van "Bertha" around. And naturally, we got Munchy Meals to finish the transfer strong. I'm excited for the transfers ahead. 

June 14, 2022

Today was very different, haven't been on this end of the transfer train before. We started from Newbury Park and drove the transit van up to Oxnard, then Santa Barbara, then Santa Maria, and back down again. It worked well, but there was only one trailer, so it took a little bit longer. For the rest of the day, we helped out with the departing missionaries. We got to head up to the Ventura Cross and the mission home. Was able to say goodbye to some awesome missionaries, but I'll be seeing all of them later. A very busy day, but tomorrow I'm excited to really hit the grind. 

June 15, 2022

We are exhausted, so good day. We started out getting some busy work done, some transfer planning. Then after some stop-by's in the afternoon, we had some impromptu service to do for an awesome guy named Freddie, and he took us to get some burgers after. But before that, before I forget, we had a super awesome lesson with a lady named Betty and a bunch of her grandkids. Got to show them our selfie with DeAndre Ayton. 

After dinner we had a pass-off lesson with Rebecca, a visit with the Carruth's, and we started teaching the Moin's again. Faye said she wanted to take a second try at baptism. After that we had another lesson with Roxana and Christian, with Brother Vick there, and finished off with another lesson with Joe, and met his girlfriend Vanessa. In total, we talked with Betty, Marcus, Tony, Malachi, Mason, Freddie, Rebecca; Brother and Sister Carruth and their sons Gus, Tim, and Theo; Kamal, Faye, Roxana, Christian, Joe and Vanessa. A productive day if there ever was one.

June 16, 2022

Today again was a busy day. This area has so many people in it and so much to do. We will have our work cut out for us for months to come. We made sure to have a really good weekly planning because that is the best way to keep things organized. We visited Betty today and shared a scripture with the little homies. Then we headed off to our lesson with Carlos. Carlos has had a lot of struggles, but he has come to church before, and is hopefully keeping the commitment to improve his life. 

The highlight of our night was dinner, Sister Tangitan invited us to a Polynesian graduation party for Malia Tangitan. It was a blast, we ate so much food, met so many nice people, and have 3+ pounds of meat that we brought back. I haven't heard music played that loud in a long time. We also had a really good lesson with Andrea, she really liked the #BecauseofHim video from this last Easter. Great day again. 

June 17, 2022

Started with district council and learned some great stuff there. After that we had lunch before the Carter's gave us some training on how to set personal goals. This time, we learned about subjective and objective goals. 

We had a real sit-down lesson with Betty today, and it was awesome. She wants to check out church, and wants us to teach her grandkids, which she has about 30. We later had a visit with Sister Marley, read 1 Nephi 17 with her. There are so many applicable principles taught in that chapter. 

I've loved being in this area so far, and I'm glad I'm getting to know the missionaries here a little better. It was kind of different last transfer getting sucked away to people I'm unfamiliar with, but it's all better now and I'm pretty much adjusted. Trying to catch up my energy though. 

June 18, 2022

We did service this morning for a super nice lady named Rose Ann, helped her move some furniture out of our apartment complex. I always enjoy doing service, or at least do by the end. We had another lesson with Niikkos again today, and we feel like we made good progress. He has such a pure heart. The gig is, we are pretty much a punching bag for his anti concerns, and then we loop it back around to helping him look to God for answers. 

Brother Vick also had us over for a housewarming tonight, we were able to meet some of his neighbors. Then we had a fun experience, we brought May, one of our friends, to the Young Men's fundraiser and loved it. Ate some spaghetti, and she even bid on something and won it to take it. I keep learning to love this church more and more, and what its purpose is; to help everybody learn and improve, no matter what stage they are at in life. We then finished off the night in a visit with Brother Tuitama, and on to the next. We have some good potential to have a lot of people at church tomorrow. 

June 19, 2022

We had a few people drop out of coming to church today, but Charlie came, and was able to meet a bunch of new people. They even gave all the men cake and treats after church for Father's Day. Then we went from place to place, stopping by and contacting a bunch of people as we went. Had a few lessons, and also a dinner with the Lemme family. Finished off the night with some Facebook and some member calls. Good day, we are going to have a much busier week coming up, we have two exchanges, one of them in SLO, and the other in Simi Valley.