August 24, 2017

Hey everyone,

      So, like last time I will put together a day-to-day email, and trust me these last few days have been pretty eventful.

Monday, 8/14/2017

     Today was pretty eventful. It was my first P-day today and let's just say that laundry is now my least favorite activity ever. The story goes like this....We were going to do laundry, so we gather the cloths and head down to the washer and dryer which is in a separate building, and we realize that we need a special card to use the washers, so we call the other elders who had the apartment before us and they tell us where the special card is. We head back to the house get the card and head back to the washers and then we come to find out there is not enough money on it so we call another elder and ask to use their card. They are in another complex across the street so we walk over and get the card and then we come back and grab our clothes from our house and head to the washer only to find out that it is also a bad card and it only works with their complex's washers. -_-  We then call and ask to use their washers and they of course say yes. So we gather our clothes and drive over there and we go to the washer building only to find out that you need a key to get in, so we head to our zone leaders' house and they give us a key and we head back to the washer building, unlock it and find that all the washers are taken!!!!  So we head to another washer building around their complex and the key didn't work so we head back and find the zone leaders and they take us back to that same building and they are able to unlock it.....we left the clothes back at there complex -_-  We head over grab the cloths and go to the washers and load the clothes up into the washer, put the card in to pay and  guess what.......no money on the card!!!!!!! Huff. We head back and we luckily found another card and by this time we decide to try the closest washer building and luckily they were all empty and we were able to do our laundry, yay!.......We all lived happily ever after. 

      After that was over, most of the day had passed, but we did go and spend a couple of hours playing sports like basketball with the other elders. I was just happy to be moving again. For dinner that evening we went to the Valentine's house and they fed us tomato soup and grilled cheese which was super good, plus they were by far the best family we had conversations with....and they had a golden retriever.

Tuesday, 8/15/2017

      Today was the longest day in my entire mission so far. The reason was because, today is where we made up for the weekly planning that we did not do last week. Well, most of the day was spent planning at the apartment and sometimes at church since we did not have WiFi at the apartment, which definitely makes things a little difficult. After planning ended we did go and knock on some doors, but no one seemed to be home or to want to answer the door and those who did come to the door did end up yelling at us about who knows what........it was fine though, such is life. On the up side we did head up to the highest point in our area and got some pretty cool photos, which I will be sharing with you amazing brothers and sisters.

Wednesday, 8/16/2017

       Today is the start of my second week in the mission field and let's just say it started out really weird. I had a dream....that I was playing soccer and, as normal, I was the goal keeper. I had picked up the ball after an amazing save and so, as usual, I went to drop kick it. In the middle of my drop kick I remember that my foot stopped in mid kick, and then next thing I know I am lying awake in my bed and my foot was aching really badly.  I had just made a drop kick in my sleep and had kicked the wall that my bed was up against. I looked down and wanted to scream because of the pain, but at the same time I wanted to laugh due to how ridiculous the whole situation was! I ended up with a blood blister on my toe and a limp for the rest of the day. 

       Today is also known by us missionaries as the day of zone conference. I actually quite liked it, except for the fact that Elder Ukena told me that they would be serving lunch there, and guess what.....they weren't.  But besides that, the zone conference was based around diligence, and President Golden became a spiritual giant in my eyes.  I feel that I learned a lot about how I can better my missionary experience for myself and for others....especially others. After that we went to Subway for dinner and then to top the day off we were able to teach the deacons of our ward. It made me miss my deacon years and at the same time it made me wish that I would have given more of my time to God.

Thursday, 8/17/2017

      Today was a normal day of planning and studying along with visiting and teaching.  There was something that I learned today though, while doing service at Mary's Kitchen, and it is that the poor and homeless who have almost nothing are the most humble, and the rich and secure don't realize how much they have and how much they have been given. My challenge to all who read this is every night to say a gratitude prayer and thank God for everything you have because there are people who do just that and have a lot less than a lot of us. Thank you and love you all.

Friday, 8/18/2017

      The day of weekly planning.....definitely not my favorite day, but it does help us get ready for next week. Before weekly planning, however, we went and served a member of the La Habra ward. He was getting new carpet and needed everything that was on the carpet to be moved off the carpet. It was actually pretty easy, even when his CD case fell apart as Elder Ukena and I tried to lift it. Luckily we were able to clean it up pretty quick and put the case back together. After we were done with the moving part the member fed us a waffle, ham, cheese, bacon and hash-brown sandwich which tasted really good. You all should definitely try it if you haven't. 

     We did weekly planning which took the whole day and that was unexpected so we had to cut the planning a little short so we didn't miss our appointment with Brother Cox. Once we got over to Brother Cox's house we were told that he wasn't there which was unexpected, because Brother Cox has never missed a meeting. The bishop was there with us when we tried to visit Brother Cox so we pretty much just talked to him the rest of the night about the ward and possible investigators.

Saturday, 8/19/2017

     Today was my first exchange, which is when you switch companions for a day. I was paired with Elder Yeager and I'll be honest, when I heard his name I thought of the robots from the movie Pacific Rim. Elder Yeager has been out on his mission for a year and he is a really cool companion to have, he can speak Tongan, he is very nice and has an amazing testimony and he definitely knows how to talk to people and make them feel good about the gospel. 

     We started today off with a service project which was moving someone out of their house and into a house literally a mile away. It was actually a really good bonding experience since the whole zone was there helping out. We were able to have pizza and I'll tell you now that eating 5 pieces of pizza is not the best idea, but I do not regret the pepper that came with the pizza that I ate, that was good. At 2:00 pm, Elder Yeager and I had to hurry over to meet with Kelsey and she was a recent convert that is working to be able to go into the temple. I was able to share with her my experience with my little sisters who we were sealed to us, and she thought that was the coolest experience ever. After we had left from that meeting we went to the apartment to change into a shirt and tie, but as we walked in we got a call from 2 other elders about how they had left there keys in our car and so we had to drive 20 minutes back to the place where we had helped with the service, but there was no one at the old house and when we went to the new house they weren't there either. We called them and asked where they are and they told us that they were at the old house.....so we drive back to the old house and finally got them there keys. We were finally able to go change into our shirt and ties. The day was pretty hectic, we started by going to dinner with a future missionary and we met him at a restaurant called Islands and there I ate a giant burger which did not rest easy with the pizza I had ate 2 hours before....oh did I hurt. After that we went to dinner we tried to visit a potential investigator named Alex, we were able to sneak through the gate with our car, but as we walked through the apartment the numbers on the doors were not making any sense so we just decided that we should head back and try someone else first. As we tried to get our car out though we found out that the gate we had come through was remote activated so we had no way of getting out until someone with a remote opened the gate. We were there for 30 minutes and then we finally got out. We went to a few other houses, but none of them answered the door. We were deciding what to do next, then Elder Yeager thought we should go visit a man named Raul and so we did. While we were talking to him I had a prompting to ask him what he was hoping to get out of the LDS church....at first I thought that it wouldn't really fit the situation and I wasn't gonna ask him...but then I heard, "don't you dare", and I asked him. He thought about it for a minute then he told me about how he had lost his grandma a month ago and how he has hope for his grandpa and his grandma with our church, and I bore my testimony about how I know what he is going through because I lost my grandma [in April] and I promised him that he would be able to see her again.

Sunday, 8/20/2017

    Today I actually felt like a grown up. We went to ward council and with adults all around me I actually felt like one of them, which both scared me and made me feel important at the same time. Afterward, we went to church and I have to admit it feels weird being in a ward where there are very few teenager's and kids. We had previously asked an investigator to come to church, which he said he would, but sadly he did not show up. We went and visited the investigator after church and found out that he has to take care of his mom quite a bit and he had to take care of her today. For the most part today was very spiritual and along with that, I think that everyday can be what you want to make of it, even if everything is going south.

Monday, 8/21/2017

     It is literally the day that is 2 months away from my birthday.  Soon I will be 19. Today was the day that everyone seemed to be home. We had gone to the Romeros which is a less active family for the past 2 weeks and they are not very good at answering their door, but today they answered and told us about how they were having back problems and that they just haven't had the strength to even get up for the past few weeks. The day was full of experiences like that and even a few others. We were able to talk to an older fellow who wasn't interested, but definitely respected us for our commitment and as we talked we found out that he was in the military as a type writer which was pretty cool. For the rest of the night we talked with our ward bishop about some possible investigators.

Tuesday, 8/22/2017

     Today we had 2 amazing experiences, the first was a blessing that we gave to an elderly woman named Sister Rudisill and that was amazing for me, and I realized how important it is to have the priesthood in a family. We also got one new investigator today! Her name is Brianna and she wants to learn.  She didn't really want to try going to church but she did take a Book of Mormon and I hope she reads it.

     I learned a lot through these past two weeks in the field and there is one quote that I wish to share, "Dare to be a Mormon, Dare to stand alone, Dare to have a purpose firm, Dare to make it known" - Thomas S. Monson