Week 98: Oxnard

August 22, 2022

Had a great Preparation Day. For our district activity, we had a "California Snow Ball Fight" where we threw these rolled up plastic bags and did Team Deathmatch. Got some awesome new shoes from a buy one get one deal at Vans. 

We were led to meet Erica at just the right time when we were going over for her husband Charlie. She's about to have a hard time, but we helped her have a little more spiritual strength. Finished off the night with some Zone Leader call-ins, glad to be in the loop with the rest of the missionaries. 

August 23, 2022

We had exchanges today, I went with Elder Merling and Elder Hales went with Elder Larsen. We had a great day. We stopped by a ton of people, as per usual. Our main event was an awesome lesson with a guy named Tony. Tony was taught in the past, but no one has reached out to him and his wife Shawna since. He has a lot of doubts about religion and God, but we taught him by the Spirit according to his needs and asked the real questions. He even invited himself to church and instantly texted his coworkers to see if he could get his Sunday shift covered. We also saw Sylvia and Paul. We are also blessed with a busy day tomorrow. 

August 24, 2022

Today took a pretty different turn. After a mission Zoom today, our Zone stayed on and President Carter told us that due to some safety concerns, we now need to stop openly proselyting in central Oxnard and restrict our activity there. The boundaries described constitute the majority of our area, so we'll be making a lot of phone calls to our friends in that area. He also told us in Oxnard that we need to wear blue shirts without a tie for right now. So we spend a few hours around town looking for some plain blue button up shirts, which were sold out everywhere we went for some reason. But we accomplished our goal. 

We had a lesson with Kim, and she absolutely loved coming to church. She said she just needed to remember how it felt, and she wants to keep coming back. I think I'm the same way very often, I just need to remember. Also had an amazing lesson with Christian and Roxana, the idea of eternal marriage and eternal families makes complete sense to her. 

This morning we set Harlen on date for September 10th, that man is so ready to be baptized. He said if you stuck a fork in him it would come out clean. A day full of blessings and being led by God's timing.

August 25, 2022

Today we went to Agoura Hills for an exchange, I went with Elder Christensen, and Elder Hales went with Elder Parker. We had good day, with a good focus on member work and social media work. Elder Christensen is a really solid Elder, nothing fazes him. He's also a good cook, we had chicken Alfredo made from scratch and sweet/savory crepes for dinner. 

We had a lesson with a Brother Sharma, and he requested that we help him understand Isaiah. We read the first half of Isaiah 51, and you can go incredibly deep with Isaiah's trademark symbolism and imagery. Had a fun time, and furthered the Lord's work.

August 26, 2022

We went to our own district council today. Learned about how to better teach with unity. We went on a little split with Elder Hokanson and Elder Kosmicki, I went on the bikes with Elder Kosmicki. We had a good few hours of talking to people, and I got to know Elder Kosmicki better. 

After we went back to our area, we had a lesson with a member who's really struggling right now named Joanna. It was good, we were able to comfort her, and brought along Bishop and Sister Liporada. It was a good rest of our night, prepared for our exchange tomorrow with Elder Chang and Elder Thomas.

August 27, 2022

I went with Elder Thomas today, and we had a great time. We had a good mix of lessons and finding, and had good success. We found someone interested in a harder part of our area, had a lesson with May, and Sylva. We showed May the temple tour video, and taught about how her loved ones are learning about the Gospel too. And Sylvia, we were able to teach her and Savannah the Ten Commandments. We love teaching people as families. We had a great day, really good people we talked to. Looking forward to tomorrow. 

August 28, 2022

Another great day at church. We had three of our friends come to church, plus some less-actives we have been trying to help get to church for a while. Today started again with some transfer board stuff. I can't believe it's that time already. We talked with some Spanish district leaders about redrawing some boundaries and making some areas more "bikeable." Then we had dinner with the Clark's, always a fun time with them. Did some figuring out bike areas for the rest of the night, and finished off.

If it wasn't already to be expected, I found out yesterday that I will not be here in the area next transfer. They're going to move me out for the next transfer. It'll be hard to say bye to some of my friends here. It's hard every time it happens, and it's just a part of the program. It's difficult to build relationships to help people and then get called to leave immediately after. 

It'll still be a good week, this last week came quickly.