Week 93: Oxnard

July 18, 2022

It was a fun day. After basketball, we picked up Elder Hales and had some breakfast at IHOP. Went shopping afterwards, and stocked up for the week. We have Elder Hales' money now, so food becomes a non-issue. We went skating, a lot of fun, getting better on my surfskate. 

We had a really good lesson later with our friend Paul. He gets it better than we thought, and he has a very basic, righteous desire to be with God because he loves God. And we had a great lesson with Sister Siquedo, talked about Romans 8:35-39 and God's love. The Spirit taught me as we taught today, I had spiritual experiences that cultivated my mind and that is helping me. 

July 19, 2022

We had a busy day, had a bunch of lessons and worked on the transfer train a little. Our lessons were with David, Tim, and Charlie. David is going to continue learning, and we're going to help him learn how Christ can turn his good life into a great life. Tim was a social media referral, and seems to be pretty solid. Charlie is improving every day. His testimony has been deepened and strengthened. We talked about the Plan of Salvation, and it makes sense to him. We even got to show him the baptismal font. 

On a lighter note, Elder Hales backed the truck into a pole today, and we spent time looking for a plunger to pull the dent out. We'll have to try something new, because we couldn't find one strong enough, so we'll go back to the drawing board tomorrow. 

July 20, 2022

Today was another busy day, and that will continue at least until the end. We had a Zoom based on the Missionary Standards, so we can keep our focus on those. Then we worked on the transfer board and got that figured out some more. We jumped from lesson to lesson, with Brother Aupin, Viri, Kim, Roxana and the Robison's. Kim is working on coming back to church and she is awesome. We taught about how light pushes out the darkness in our lives and how we need to live in the right circumstances to be connected to Jesus Christ. We also had a lesson with Roxana, and a lesson with the Robison's that went well. 

Days just float by, like you're driving on the highway, and you can't take in everything in the time you have. Our days are a blur, and I'm hoping to take in as much as I can. 

July 21, 2022

We pretty much took the whole day to do transfer boards, with a few fun things in between. For lunch, Eiko, our friendly neighbor who's interested in the Church, took us to lunch. We went to this place called "The Best Breakfast", so what can you expect? And then later, Sister Nichols took us to dinner at Antonio's. Good stuff. 

We were able to figure out transfer stuff in a much easier way than we usually do, so we're almost done. Should be a great day tomorrow. 

July 22, 2022

Worked out some more transfer board after district council. It was a good one, Elder Davies gave a discussion about conversion. For lunch, we were blessed to have Brother Tuitama take us to Golden Corral, aptly named "Samoan McDonald's". The rest of our time was taken up at the mission office, having a lesson with Tim, getting Elder Hales a new phone, washing the transit van, and having a visit with Brother Nishimura. Solid day, tomorrow we are hoping to have Charlie and/or Roxana come to a baptism. 

July 23, 2022

It was a great day. We finalized everything for transfers, and let the Zone leaders know about the transfer notes so they can tell the missionaries tomorrow. We visited Nikkos today, brought him some green jello with carrots. The joke would take too long to explain. Had a lesson with Lionel at the church, and taught the Plan of Salvation. For dinner we went to Sister Navarro's home and she fed us some good authentic Mexican food, with cactus and prickly pears and homemade flan and stuff. For the rest of the night we made a bunch of leadership calls, and turned in for the night. 

Almost forgot, May had us over for lunch and she said yes to baptism! Moving right along. 

July 24, 2022

The end of a rollercoaster week. We had good church attendance, May and Charlie came. For the afternoon, we had a ton of Zoom meetings and stayed busy, got to have dinner at the Clark's, say goodbye to Roxana and Sister Siquedo, and have the departing missionary Zoom. 

As I "chronicle" my daily events, I'm reminded of how fast time goes. I've become more sentimental about some things, and in recent months my heart has felt different. I feel the impression to change, but I can't figure out what to change into. 

At any rate, another transfer under my belt.