Week 94: Oxnard

July 25, 2022

Today we played some basketball, our last one for the transfer. Afterwards, we had a mad scramble to get Elder Davies packed up and headed up to the Santa Barbara airport to pick up the new trainees. It was fun going back to Goleta with Elder Hales. We picked up Hermana Stubbs from the first flight, and then 14 more missionaries on the next. After we got everyone back to the mission home, we had dinner, and had a testimony meeting. Then we hit the road. We drove up to Santa Maria so we cold start the transfer train in the north, so we all hopped in the transit van, got some Polar Pops, sunflower seeds, and headed to Santa Maria. Stayed the night with Elder Packard/Hokanson, had a lot of fun. Early start tomorrow. Sleeping on a Munchy Meal. 

July 26, 2022

Woke up at five this morning and we finished up the transfer train at 4:15. Longest driving time I've had. We saw all the missionaries, and did some service for them, and everything went off without a hitch. There were many "audibles" called, and many things going exactly right somehow, by no credit of our own. God works in the details. 

After that, we stayed around the departing missionaries and helped out there. Went to the Ventura Cross, had dinner, had a testimony meeting, and said goodbye to the missionaries. It was hard for both of us to see Elder Davies go. It's always sad to see them go, but I'm excited to make my last three months the best yet.

July 27, 2022

Today our goal was to get the area back on track and to get things going with all of the people we're teaching. After some office stuff, we scrambled around and went to our friends' houses, and were able to have a lesson with Charlie. We had a bunch of lessons cancel, and did some calls and other things to set up some lessons. Elder Hales felt inspired to go visit Janet, and so we went by and had a lesson. Her nephew David was there unexpectedly, he is a really cool guy and we are going to keep going over to read the Book of Mormon some more. Led to the right places at the right time. 

July 28, 2022

A very busy day. We spent a bunch of time to figure out the car and miles situation. We did some service for a lady named Rochelle and had quite the hassle with a massage bed. Went to visit Mama Tessy, and as usual she didn't let us leave without some snacks. We kept up the grind with our green dots, and were able to set up a bunch of visits with members and non-members. Sometimes it's not fun to sit inside and make a bunch of calls and texts, but I've learned it's more important to do the needed things than the things that are a little more interesting. 

We were led to Rebecca today, again at the right time, and we realized that we need to really keep prioritizing our friends we are already teaching. It's too bad some things slip through the cracks when we get to the transfer week. 

July 29, 2022

The first thing we had today was district council. Our District Leader is good ol' Elder Tree. The discussion he gave was an origami activity that we likened to the Gospel. My origami frog came out nicely. Afterwards, we had interviews. In mine, we talked about how to avoid the "Brother of Jared Syndrome", where we aren't as spiritually active/awake in the good times. 

For the rest of the day, we attempted to contact our green dots. We had a mini-FHE-party with the Ashby's and a lesson with Joe. We have had a very quick week, there just seems to not be enough time in the day to do everything. We're going to go to bed early tonight so we can have some extra energy tomorrow. 

July 30, 2022

Got to do some different stuff today, we helped Elder Murdoch and Elder Foutz get to their areas; they had COVID right before transfers happened. So we drove up to Santa Maria today, and came back in time to have some lessons. We had a lesson with May, and she is doing so well, we are planning to baptize her on August 13th! So she is progressing on the path. 

We focused for the rest of the night on people who have referred themselves in the past, and haven't been able to be contacted yet. It was really neat, we were led to find Robert, who's door would usually be inaccessible, but he just happened to be grilling some dinner outside his apartment complex. God helps us when we put ourselves in the right places. And now we're ready to do some personal study, because we were too busy the rest of the day to have one. Good day. 

July 31, 2022

The end of a busy week. We were happy to have Robert come to church, especially after meeting him for the first time yesterday. We taught the Barker's today, taught them the first half of the Plan of Salvation. Then we taught Charlie #2 about the importance of receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and about baptism. Had dinner with the Liporada family and went by to see Sylvia. She has struggled with a lot of loss, and we shared the talk "Infuriating Unfairness", and it helped. 

Great week, dead tired.