Week 91: Oxnard

July 4, 2022

A super fun Fourth of July. We played some basketball, and then right after went to our Ward's breakfast. Got some chores done, and went to the church for a Zone barbecue. A lot of fun stuff, we played some football, and 3-kill, and got to board around a bunch. After dinner, we had a Mission Zoom that was a lot of fun, we had a spiritual message and then heard some really awesome and funny stories about the Revolutionary War, such a good time. I just told Elder Davies I feel sufficiently unwinded for the day, I'm ready for another week in paradise. 

July 5, 2022

We had MLC today, I conducted today and was super nervous for some reason. But we talked about a lot of great things, like grace and how better to teach it and clarify the doctrine. Afterwards, we had an exchange. We had a great day finding and talking to a lot of people, and I learned some more Spanish. We got to teach this awesome guy named Damian, and say hi to Fermin. We met a member named Brother Payne, such a great guy, a lot of fun. Had a good time with Elder Skinner today. They're also spending the night, so that's fun. 

July 6, 2022

Another exchange today, I went with Elder Hales and Elder Davies went with Elder White. A super busy day. Started out with a district leader training, and then I had the wonderful privilege of attending the tech council, Elder Hales is giving the tech lead mantle to Elder Sutherland. 

We started teaching Eiko, a nice Japanese lady who lives near us. She cried when she felt the Spirit as we read parts of the Introduction. We had lessons with Laritta, Lisa, a new friend named Paul, and Mama Tessy. For dinner we got a pizza named el Gigante, that has 32 different slices. The guy taking our order was excited when we ordered. 

We started teaching Paul as well, we really made sure and confirmed that he was interested. We are also trying to get Lisa to church, hasn't been in a while. A great day being with Elder Hales today, we're going skating in the morning tomorrow. 

July 7, 2022

Today had an interesting twist, Elder Davies went to the temple for the departing missionaries trip, so I went with Elder Ward and Elder Schultz in the Pleasant Valley area for most of the day. We got some finding done, studies done, and some other good stuff. Picked up Elder Davies later on, and then got to the rest of our day. We dropped off a giant Book of Mormon to May, then visited Sister Bailon, did Facebook, and helped Doris Ann with some service. The service was tearing up this fake wood flooring, pulling off sheets of it. But it was a really good day overall, we just keep floating on. Trying to do the most important things at the right times, and visit the people that need us the most and that we can help. 

July 8, 2022

Today was Friday, so we took a little trip and headed up to Agoura Hills to the Oak Park building for their District Council. It's a small district, so we were glad to help out and add a few bodies. We met Brother Crain and his sons at Subway for lunch, good to see them again. He even gave us a tour of his workshop. For the rest of the afternoon, we went by and saw a lot of people, and did many stop by's. But it was one of those days where there weren't any home for some reason. Our Areabook needed a few clears anyway. 

We gave Charlie a blessing today with Brother Ramos, we are excited for Charlie and who he's becoming. He gets lighter and happier every time we see him. Did some more stop by's, some more member calls and some Facebook, and that's a wrap. 

July 9, 2022

We had a very busy Saturday, another "Walk Day" without much walking. We headed from our walk day Zoom over to Phelice's house and started teaching her. It was such a great lesson, just short and sweet, just on her doorstep. All we needed to do was testify of how the Gospel has blessed our families and how it will help hers. For lunch we went to May's house, and brought Sister Navarro with us. May is so great, and Sister Navarro is such a good friend for her. As for our other lessons today, we got to restart with Lionel, and had an amazing, Spirit-filled lesson with Roxana and Christian. We talked about baptism and they are reading that section in the Gospel pamphlet. 

To finish off the night, Brother and Sister Vick took us and Sister Nichols to Lazy Dog's, and I had the best burger of my entire life. The Vick's are special people, really appreciate them. 

July 10, 2022

Really awesome day for church, we were blessed to have 4 people come to sacrament meeting. That was May, Roxana, Charlie, and a kid named Mark. It was really great, because the messages that were shared were all perfect for the people that came to church. We stayed really busy and had a few visits. One of those was with someone who used to be a member, and then it took a turn south after we talked about family history. 

We later had dinner with Brother Haws, and Sister Haws was out of town, so we had dinner bachelor-style. We visited Mama Tessy tonight, and had a great visit where she bore testimony. Then we dropped off some children's scriptures to the Ruiz family, and tried to have a church tour with Jerry, but he ran out of gas. 

I love this area and the people here, God is good to us.