Exchanges and Miracles

Monday: Today was pretty good. We went around the Santa Maria Mall today and I bought a new tie, kinda fancy I guess haha. Our district activity was to walk around up in Pismo Beach, one of the five cities. It's super nice up there, just a little beach town with perfect weather and tons of cool stores. We walked around town and went into several surf shops but didn't buy anything. Kind of just looked around. We saw the ocean and had some of the best cinnamon rolls in the world! Pismo is a neat little town. We had a super fancy dinner at Panda Express haha and tried to go help our Bishop with lifting a pool table. But we couldn't because his neighbor, whose is giving him the pool table, wasn't home. We then walked around Santa Maria for quite a while until we just so happened to run into a potential investigator named Ray! He's pretty nice, he gave us water and told us he loved us and what we do. It was a cool experience.

Tuesday: Today was good. We got everything done in the morning, and then had lunch with the Zone Leaders and the other Santa Maria Elders. Elder Reichman and I had service at 1 so we left quickly to help Jeanie build some chicken coops. It was fun and easy to do because it gave us instructions and pictures like Legos haha. After service we had a lesson with a lady named Jennifer! She is pretty cool. She believes a lot of what we believe but she has a few small questions. She is really genuine though. We then had dinner with Barb and Dan! We had tacos, beef and chicken. It's always fun to go to their house because they have three dogs and all of them are super friendly. Well today was pretty good in general.

Wednesday: Exchanges with Elder Robinson!! Today was awesome, we worked in his area so we walked around and contacted a bit. We got a return appointment with one man named Victor. Then we had lunch with the other Elders at Panda Express! The rest of our day was focused on contacting potentials and teaching lessons. So we saw a few potentials and had dinner with the Salvesens at Chipotle.. which was good but today was a huge junk food day.. We had a lesson with the Ochoas teaching them about the Book of Mormon and its origin! The day went well and Elder Robinson is a great missionary! I'm glad I was able to serve with him for the day.

Thursday: Today we had a good time contacting potentials! We had some weekly planning and had lunch plus companionship study with the zone leaders in Arroyo Grande and then we did some work around the area trying to find new investigators. We had dinner with our ward mission leader Brother Gulliver! They just got back from Ecuador so they told us all about it. We ended the night with seeing Barb and Dan! They are so fun to talk to and each time we go we share a brief message or teach a lesson! 

Friday: Today was a long day of driving. So we had district meeting, and the focus was teaching while finding. Especially extending commitments. It was a super good meeting in general! Then we did some of Elder Reichman's MyPlan. After all of that happened we took the long drive up to Arroyo Grande so that Elder Reichman could give an investigator a baptismal interview. This man's name is David and he is part of the Pismo Beach ward but since my companion is the District Leader he needed to interview David. It was super cool because David was prepared and excited to be baptized! Then we had a great dinner at a steakhouse called AJ Spurs. It was good but I wasn't feeling too well afterwards. Then we had the long drive back to Santa Maria so that I could pack up for my exchange with Elder Jarman tomorrow.

Saturday: My exchange with Elder Jarman! Today was awesome!! Before we headed out to work we decided to say a specific prayer. We knew that there was someone out there that we need to talk to. So we prayed and asked who it was. And we had inspiration come to us that there was a man, who was wearing white clothing, who was older with facial hair that was graying a little bit and that he was outside of his house that's near a park. Crazy specific right? Frankly kinda odd as well. Well we go to lunch and right after we start walking in this neighborhood and start talking to this guy named Martin who was working on his car. He didn't match the description but we talked to him and he had us sit down and talk a little bit about the church. He asked us to comeback next Sunday so that was cool but that wasn't our man! Next we had an appointment with a lady named Gina and we taught her the restoration and it went super well!! The spirit was so strong! After that appointment we walked around the neighborhood a little bit. It took us about 20 minutes to go around the block and we noticed that in this smaller neighborhood there was a park! So we were on the lookout! We were near our car about to leave when around the last corner before we got to our car we noticed a man get out of his truck and he was dressed in a white shirt and white shorts. Also he was a bit older with facial hair matching the description we thought of. He was right outside of his house and we were somewhat near the park. Everything literally matched the description! We caught him right when he was getting home from work, he asked us a few questions about the Spirit World and the Plan of Salvation. We told him about our experience in praying for inspiration and finding him. He wants us to come back tomorrow!! It was so cool! His name is Kent! Today was awesome! Elder Jarman is a stud missionary and the Church is True!

Sunday: The Sabbath day was great! The meetings today in church were great, they were focused around the spirit and how we can receive blessings and spiritual gifts from the Lord. It was pretty cool! We then had dinner with the Mengel's. They are an awesome family! Their daughter is on a mission right now so that's cool! Anyway we had a good dinner and good conversation as well as a message! At the end I was asked to give a closing prayer and as I spoke I just felt the spirit super powerfully. When I finished I looked up and the Mengel parents had tears in their eyes. It was a cool experience! After that we went to the neighborhood near the church and talked with a few people who are potentials but either they didn't answer or they weren't home, oh well. We ended the night walking around the complex we live in but nothing happened! Today was great! 

- Elder Smith

Happy Father's Day

Monday: Well today went well. We dropped off Elder Reichman's suit at the tailor and then we emailed at the institute building for a while. We also had our district activity at a park where we played volleyball and frisbee and football. We had a good time, then we all went back to the institute building which was pretty cool as well because we saw the other district as well. We played pool and ping pong, finished up some emails and hung out. It was a pretty good day!

Tuesday: We taught a ton today which was awesome!! We had a lesson with Anthony and taught him more about the Restoration of the Gospel and about the Book of Mormon. He had some real genuine questions. We also had a lesson with Christ going over 2 Nephi 31 which is basically all about Baptism, why it's necessary and how we can come closer to our Heavenly Father. We walked around quite a bit talking to people we saw and tried to see a few potentials but couldn't catch any of them home. We did meet up with Dariel and talk to him about the Plan of Salvation for about 5 minutes. We set up an appointment with him as well. We also, also had a lesson with Barb and Dan. We went over the 3rd missionary discussion, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and explained it to Dan and asked him what his take was on it. We had a very productive day today!

Wednesday: Today was long! We did service in the morning for Jeanie building a bench and some chairs for her. I got headbutted by a goat which was pretty cool haha. Then we had lunch and drove all the way down to Camarillo which took from 2:30pm to 5:15pm. Mainly because of traffic on the 101. We went there for an appointment I had and saw a lot of the missionaries serving in that area because they were having their zone conference that day. Then we made the long trip back with stops along the way in Ventura, and Santa Barbara. We got home at around 10:15pm. Super long day but it's all good! 

Thursday: Today was pretty good. We picked up Elder Reichman's suit from the tailor and then went to see a few people who weren't home. We had lunch with some of the other Elders in Santa Maria. They fed us lamb meat which tasted okay. We tried to see Anthony but he wasn't home which stunk cause we wanted to teach him the Plan of Salvation this time. Then the rest of the night was dinner at the apartment and helping the other Elders with som and doctrinal questions they've been asked before.

Friday: We had a legit day today! So district meeting was cool, it was all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the 5 main principles of the lesson being Faith in Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. Then we helped out the zone leaders with some zone goal stuff haha. We had a good companionship study and a bit of weekly planning. We had dinner with the Cashmores and had a good time talking about missionary work. Then we handed out a Book of Mormon to a lady working in her truck. She was super receptive! Well we have exchanges with the zone leaders tomorrow so we drove up to Nipomo!

Saturday: Exchanges with Elder Barzee! He's from Mud Lake, Idaho! We served up in Arroyo Grande and parts of the five cities. I have served around him before and was super excited to be able to go on exchanges with him! Our morning started out with a lesson. We taught Shauna, and Anne! Anne has struggles with recognizing God's hand in her life. And Shauna asked questions about why do bad things happen to good people. The lesson was planned to talk more about the Plan of Salvation but we felt prompted to talk about the Spirit and how it influences us in this life. It was a very spiritually uplifting lesson. We had a great talk with them and Anne said that this time that they were taught something finally clicked with her. It was a great experience! We had a short lesson with a lady named Pam about the Bible and some of the stories in that. We invited her to come to church and she accepted with grateful a response. We had dinner with the other Elders on the exchange at a place called Tanner Jack's which is just a steakhouse kinda place. We saw some members and did some work with them. I really enjoyed being around Elder Barzee, he is one of my favorites!

Sunday: The day of rest....... Haha jk. We had a great day at church we tried inviting one of our investigators, Kathryn, before church but she wasn't home. Our meetings today were great and focused on the priesthood and the keys of the priesthood. After church because it went a little long for us due to the coordination meeting we had dinner right after with the Boyd's! They are super nice! We dropped by another investigator of ours but he wasn't home either. But we did get to see Barb and Dan tonight! We left them with the commitment to read 3 Nephi 11. This was an alright week in all. Oh yeah, Happy Father's Day! 

- Elder Smith

First Week in Santa Maria

My week in Santa Maria:

Monday: Today was super sad. But fun at the same time haha. So we got haircuts from sister Pinneo and then we had lunch and after that we played basketball from 12-5pm. After that we stopped by the Pinneo's again so I could say goodbye to the whole family. I am really bummed to go, I can't believe that I'm the one leaving to be honest. We also saw Sister Scheu as well. I really dislike saying goodbye, it's the worst ever. Then we saw Dean and split home so I could finish packing. Goodbye Moorpark!

Tuesday: Transfer Tuesday! Well we got to the transfer train at around 7:30am and I left! I finally arrived and met my new companion, Elder Reichman, he is super cool! We had an awesome day, did a little grocery shopping and unpacked a little. Then we set out to dinner with the McCord's. Their grandson, Seth, who is 9 was recently baptized which is super cool. We had spaghetti and I made a mess haha, I still have a ton more white shirts. But what made it cool was that there was a non member there and when we gave our spiritual thought which was on the spirit, the scripture was Galatians 5:22-23, this man, Anthony, started to cry. What we told him tonight was what he was looking for. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment. It was so cool! After dinner we went around and saw some of the members in the ward here. Honestly I'm super excited to serve here! To end the night we saw Barb and Dan. They are super cool, pretty real. It was a good first day in Santa Maria!

Wednesday: Day 2! Today was awesome! We started with some service for one of our investigators named Genie! She lives out on this ranch a ways away and we helped her with some wood splitting, wood piling, chicken coop moving and other stuff! She fed us some deep fried tacos for lunch and they were awesome!! And then we had District leader council with all the missionary leadership in our zone. And had some super good ideas for this transfer and how we can best work! So this is my companions last transfer before he goes home so he has to do MyPlan, which is just a way the church helps returning missionaries prepare to be home! Then we had a really early dinner at Panda Express. I got to meet some more members, the Cornwells and all the youth at mutual! I'm ready to get working here in this area! Our night ended with some more ward review and investigator backgrounds between me and my companion! We are gonna see miracles this transfer for sure!

Thursday: Today was fantastic! We started the day by going to see a man named Ernie, we were going to teach him the Plan of Salvation but he was busy power washing his motor home so we rescheduled for next Tuesday. Then we did a little weekly planning before we went up to Nipomo for lunch with the Zone Leaders. It was about a 30 minute drive from Santa Maria to Nipomo so I got a little cat nap. After lunch we tried to go see Anthony and follow up with him on his reading and teach him. He couldn't meet however due to being busy working. So we did a bit more weekly planning and some companionship study as well. We then had dinner with the Speakers! It was pretty good, we heard stories of when they were both on their missions and the experiences they've had. We decided to go for a little walk after that from about 6:30-8pm around our area trying to contact people. At the end of the night we were supposed to meet with some members so I could introduce myself but as soon as we got to their house we noticed that their next door neighbors were outside working on one guy's truck. We talked with them for about an hour on the subject of who God is and their belief in Him. We ended up giving one of them a Book of Mormon, his name is Adam and the other ones name is Brian. It was pretty cool though because we were able to testify of the Book of Mormon!

Friday: Today was awesome! We had district meeting today which was centered around getting to know one another better which was pretty fun. We did a question activity. After district activity we finished up some weekly planning and had dinner with the Cornwells! Turns out their son is the next professional football player from Santa Maria! Even if he is just 10 haha. But their family is super cool! After dinner we decided to go help our friend Genie move a huge shelf. We also took some pretty cool companion pictures. Soon thereafter we did a lot of walking and talking to people. We handed out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon and set up 2 return appointments for next week! Super cool miracles because we weren't even planning on walking in the street we met both of them on. Their names are Dariel and Greg. They are both pretty darn cool. I'm most excited about Dariel because he was willing to give up his free time on his only day off to set up an appointment. It was successful overall!!

Saturday: Unfortunately today was another sick day in the apartment for me. Hopefully I'll get better for tomorrow.

Sunday: First Sunday in Santa Maria! The ward is awesome! We had two super good talks on Forgiveness and Putting God before ourselves. The entire service was awesome. We had dinner with the Sloan's and had a few appointments afterwards. Both appointments fell through so we walked around and tried talking to people. Our night was finished by meeting with Barb and Dan! It was a good first week here. 

- Elder Smith

Up to Santa Maria

The week:

Monday: Today was pretty simple! We got up emailed, shopped, and went to the church in Thousand Oaks to have district activity. We played basketball the whole time. It was awesome! We had dinner with a part member family, the Fouts! Sister Fout's husband is a baseball coach at Pepperdine, so he is always super busy! They are really awesome! They gave us a ton of healthy eating tips! After dinner we tracted a street and found quite a few mean people which was interesting. Kinda weird but it's okay we did find one decent guy that talked to us for a bit and said we could go by anytime. We decided to save the best for last and visit Laura. She is always awesome to talk to!

Tuesday: In the morning we talked with a man named John Greenwood. He isn't necessarily super interested but he is very friendly and welcoming to us. He showed us his hot rod, a '55 Chevy. He told us all the specs too, it had a Merlin 3 block and he's pushing up to about 900 horsepower in it. It's pretty slick. We also handed out a pamphlet to a guy and asked if we could drop by sometime to follow up and he said we could go by tomorrow! We had lunch and comp study next, studying to find ways to involve members in the work. We went out to follow up with a few other people and had to drop a few sadly. They just weren't all that interested. Then we traveled to another neighborhood to try and contact some member referrals. And we ran into a man who called us false teachers and right from the get go he dug into us and tried to tear down our testimonies. At times like these you can't help but laugh a little because people seriously don't know or understand the fact that all we try to do is make people's days better. After that we drove up to Oxnard and had an interview with the mission President. We were there right up until dinner. We ate at the Downes' home. We talked a ton about camping and outdoorsy things. Then we headed home for the night! It was a bit busy which always is good.

Wednesday: Our day started out well. MLC was yesterday so the zone leaders wanted to have a DLC and relay the news and counsel to the districts in the zone. So we met at the church and went over that. It was a lot of reiteration of zone conference so we can all work on and focus on those things we learned. We had lunch with the zone leaders and the other district leader and his companion. Then we headed back and saw a bunch of youth playing basketball at a park so we wanted to go challenge them and ball up haha. One of the youth actually turned out to be one of our members and his friends from school who weren't members. Elder Campbell played while I watched and held onto everything. It wasn't very long of a game because they all had to split before they could finish. We talked to a few of them and left. We stopped by the Scheu's to check up on how they are doing and visited for a bit. And we had companionship study next. We played scripture baseball, where one of us randomly thumbs through the book, being either the Bible or the Book of Mormon, until the other says when to stop. Then the one trying to figure out which book and chapter the verse is selects which verse. Its pretty fun but it's always challenging when using the Bible haha. Well we had dinner with the Hansen's, they fed us waffles and it was amazing. Haha tonight also just so happened to be a stake youth activity for the priests and the laurels. So we attended that after convincing the two Hansen boys to go to it. It was pretty fun. The YSA ward was trying to get some of the graduating seniors to start attending their ward and then we played basketball with some of the youth. Elder Campbell and I and two youth members VS. 4 youth members. All I can say is we won haha. Well we had to bounce out of there pretty quickly so we could be on time to our recent convert lesson with Laura! We taught and reviewed the Plan of Salvation. The Barker's are the ministering couple assigned to her so they are the ones that focus on the teaching. We get to sit back and fill in at any time to clarify or support what is being taught. Today was great, a good refreshing day.

Thursday: Today went well. We had a good weekly planning session writing whitewash sheets and planning for our next transfer. We had to take a lunch break and go to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream cones because it's the 31st and there is a minor discount. We also got pizza so our calorie count is pretty high for today haha. After that we headed to the Scheu's and did some service and tried teaching their daughter a little bit about what happens when someone dies because they recently had a death in the family and she had particularly been struggling with it. We also took care of some pigs haha. When we were done with service and had dinner with the Barker's and we had even more ice cream so I'm dying of sugar overload haha. And we finished the night with a really good feeling of the spirit. I really enjoy the honor and privilege it is to serve the Lord for this time I have set apart. I love that I get to wear this name tag each and everyday.

Friday: Today we had district meeting and it was super good!! A few of our discussions were on obedience which tied in well this week. We then went out and contacted some potentials but it was right at the time that everyone is working and not home. So we didn't catch too many people home. We picked up dinner from the Villafuerte family which was pretty good. Then we set out to see a few potential that is a referral from another member. The referral is a youth that has been going to scouts with one of the youth members. We talked to him, his name is Brandon, but his parents weren't home so we have to go by sometime later. But transfers are happening and I don't know if I'm gonna stay.... Oh well. I love this area so much.

Saturday: Well today was alright. We started out with a lesson with a man named Richard  and talked a ton about the Plan of Salvation. He is progressing in a very different sort of way. He agrees and has come to understand a lot about what we teach and tell him. We had lunch and companionship study and we tried to see a member family, the Purcell's, but they weren't home. We saw Laura and talked with her for quite a bit. Then we had dinner with the Penfield's and they fed us some enchiladas. Then we saw a few potentials and caught both of them home but and we set up a time to see them next week. Then we went to Dean's. We got our transfer calls, and I'm leaving. Going to Santa Maria 3rd ward with Elder Reichman, I have heard really good things about him so I am pretty excited! Pretty sad to leave this area though.

Sunday: Well today was a lot better than yesterday, I have had more time to think about transfers. I am super bummed to be leaving. It's hard to leave people you have come to love. Well we had church today and I was able to say bye to some of the members, then we had dinner with the Metheny's a newish family in the ward that have the biggest hearts. After them we saw the Barkers and said goodbye to them and right after we saw the Hansen family and said goodbye to them. It was a super sad day to me at least. I wish I could stay but the Lord needs me elsewhere I guess. It was an okay week. 

- Elder Smith

Surprise Visits

Da week!:

Monday: Literally great day. We shopped at Target for groceries haha kinda weird maybe but it works! We headed just over to T.O go all out, we hit up Burlington and Ross and JoAnn's Craftstore! Stinking party right there!! Haha it was okay I guess. After all that we came back to Moorpark and raced to the church so we could email and play some Basketball. I really love that sport especially recently for some reason. Our dinner with Bishop was awesome cause sister Benton is an amazing cook! I always look forward to going there!! Then to finish the night we saw a movie at the theaters. Avengers was super good!! Haha just kidding!! We can't see no movies! We are staying consecrated!! Haha we saw the Pinneo's and the Scheu's tonight. Two of my favorite families ever!! I also got to see a member from my first area, sister Greding! It was pretty cool to see her and ask about Newbury Park! I really think the Lord blesses is us with so many small miracles. But one by one the small blessings or miracles build up and hopefully we are able to recognize how much God truly does love us, otherwise this life would be absolutely terrible! And some people might still think that life stinks cause it's hard at points but that's just it, life wasn't meant to be a cakewalk for us. So many bad things are in this world that can really tear us down and eat away at our spirit. But like I said God blesses us in little ways and sometimes big ways! Some of the many blessings that I've had are uber influential in my life in helping me become who I am today. Like my family, or the amazing friends I've had. A good education, sports and the many many other privileges I have had that many others may have not. I believe and actually know that God isn't just gonna have a select few that he cares about, he loves us all and blesses us each. We just need to lose sight of ourselves and our needs and look at what we've been given.

Tuesday: Today was pretty great! We had interviews with our mission President and I have decided to come home so I will be arriving in the Idaho Falls Airport next Wednesday..... Haha Just kidding!! President and I had a super good interview helping me to become a lot more comfortable and Gung-ho about the work! So I guess I'll stay out here a bit longer haha. We then did our studies and all that outta the way! Unfortunately today we didn't have a dinner at a member's but that's okay we can always just go out and buy a pizza or something. Our night from 6-9pm consisted of contacting and knocking a few doors but we didn't find it to be super successful. We tried to see Martha and Eric, our investigators but they weren't available. And everyone else we tried to see weren't that interested. I have found that many days out here will be difficult and very discouraging. Knocking door after door, working and trying our best. But come up empty handed. It happens a lot to be honest, but I know that even if we don't see anything happen immediately sometime in the future we will be able to see the fruits of our labors. Just continue to press forward and work, don't dwell on the small things.

Wednesday: Exchange with Elder Goodman!! I was super excited for today. We started by doing some service for Norm, pulling weeds and feeding his cattle. I'm just a farmhand out here haha. Then we got back to doing some good ol missionary work! Our efforts for today were focused towards weeding out potential investigators in Elder Goodman's area. We began with seeing a few people in a wealthier neighborhood and most of them didn't answer or weren't home. One of them did and told us to not come by anymore so we made not of that. Kinda sad but we can't force anybody to listen to the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Coolest member dinner award goes to tonight's, his name is Bob Lundquist. He is a very successful man because he had good friends. Here's why! His friend named Nolan called him up one day way back when and pitched him this business idea. He explained a game you can play on a TV screen electronically, not mechanically. Brother Lundquist at the time was trying to get another job when Nolan asked him this but he turned Nolan down and took the other less risky decision. But Nolan struck gold! This game he talked about was called 'Pong' and eventually Atari was created! And video games were a huge hit! Brother Lundquist missed out yeah but not when Nolan called him up again sometime later asking if he would like to be a partner in this idea of a Rat on the side of a building that talks to people. (Or something along the lines of that) This time Brother Lundquist took the opportunity and became a co-founder of Chuck E. Cheese's. So he was pretty well off. He is a very humble guy that loves the missionaries because he was a convert to the church of about 2-3 years. After dinner our plan was to drop by some members and practice teach them a lesson. We had plans with the Hawker's, and taught them the Restoration. Their son in on his mission in South Africa right now and comes home pretty soon. This was a really good exchange! Tonight we packed up and headed to T.O for an exchange tomorrow with the zone leaders.

Thursday: I went on another exchange today with Elder Clegg! He's from Washington and he is a stud of a missionary. We had a really good day serving in the Thousand Oaks ward area. Our plans today were trying to meet anyone new to teach! And we were fairly successful for the most part, meeting a few potentials just knocking doors in neighborhoods. We had lunch back at the apartment and had a surprise visit from a Missionary that has returned home now, Connor Allison! He is one of my favorite people for sure! Then we went back out and walked a ton working in one specific neighborhood. We didn't find anyone new but we felt good. We had a dinner/lesson with a part member family the Vudmaskas. Brother Vudmaska is not a member but we had pizza with them and other company and taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which consists of knowledge that Christ suffered for our sins, Faith in Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. We really wanted to stress Baptism because Brother Vudmaska has been investigating for about 8 years. The lesson went really, really well! The spirit was super prevalent. His only issues are that he doesn't think he is ready yet, and he is not a church goer. But he is definitely ready and prepared. He is to the point where he almost seems to be putting it off. Well we kind of boldly pushed him with love and were able to set him with a baptismal date for July 7th. Which just so happens to be his Grandson's birthday! Coincidence? I think not!! Haha. Well that was the end of the day and it went super well!!

Friday: Today was good we had district meeting! And had lunch with the other Elders at El Tapatio (some super good authentic Mexican food) and we did companionship study and personal study, it was good. We had service with the Scheu's helping build a pig pen for them which took the rest of our day! I love the Scheu's a ton!!

Saturday: Pretty exciting day!! We started with some Weekly planning, and that took up our morning until around 2. Then we had plans to meet up with some members for lunch. Those members were my Brother, his wife, and their son!! My brother is in the area for work and decided to meet up! It was great to see them and finally meet my nephew!! It really boosted my morale!! After that we went and saw Dean and chatted with him. He told us to come by later tonight for some ice cream and to meet one of the people he has told us about. So we head to dinner with the McDonald family!! They are so fun and their kids are super funny. Their kids really tried to be the center of attention haha. By now we were on our way back to Dean's and we get there and meet this guy Dean had told us about a long time ago. His name is Ninja Rick! He is a professional ninja haha. He told us quite a few stories about his adventures. He was fun to visit with, and that was the extent of our day!!

Sunday: Today was pretty good. We had church and had a pretty good meeting today. The speakers were great. We got to teach the youth class and that was pretty fun. It was last second notice but it was alright we can come up with anything in the fly haha. After church we went straight to dinner with the Pinneo's! And we brought Laura as well! I always love going to the Pinneo's!! After that we tried to see a few potentials but none of them were home which was a bummer because each of them seemed pretty promising! Hopefully sometime in the future we can catch them at home. Then we went to Dean's to set something up with his son Eric. We are gonna go to Dojo Boom, a trampoline park, with him so we needed to set up a time! 

Sick Week Part 2

My week:

Monday: I had a great time today! We shopped and got our groceries paid for by a member which was pretty legit! We ate lunch and emailed a little at McDonald's. We played basketball at the church until about 4. Our dinner was with the Ledesma's. They fed us Spaghetti and Meatballs, it was delicious! We then stopped by the Pinneo's and tried to go see some of the sheep things but we were too late. So right now the Pinneo's are hosting a sheep showing thing. So tons of kids in the ward and stake here are raising sheep and they are gonna show them to try and win an award. So supposedly Mondays are the busy days! We wanted to see the madness but we were late so we visited with the Pinneo's for a bit and we later saw Laura and checked up on her. She is continuing strong, she's great!

Tuesday: We had some phone work to do calling some people, so we went to the church and got that done first thing. Then we tried to go see Laura, but she wasn't home sooo we did some work in the mobile home park she lives in. We can't necessarily knock on doors there but we can just walk around and talk to anyone we see. Unfortunately we didn't find anyone we could teach. But we did visit a member who comes to church every now and again. His name is Gary, he is kinda funny haha. He told us he usually feeds the missionaries but we haven't been to his house yet. Maybe soon?? Hope so! After that we went home and had lunch and companionship study with the Elders in the district. I have been able to find a great importance in studying. I did not have that knowledge of its importance during high school haha but I definitely enjoy it now! I love being able to open up my scripture and read something that will help me during that day. Plus I learn something new each time I study! It's a win, win situation! Out again to find some people we went knocking in a small neighborhood. We didn't necessarily find anyone. But it was great to get out there and work!! We had dinner with the Hansen's, we got lucky and had tacos, one of my favorites! So Father's and sons is coming up this weekend. So today at mutual we helped set it up at the Pinneo's. They have a Go-kart so we helped make the track for it. Also we created a fire ring as well. Pretty exhausting day but that's a good thing haha!

Wednesday: Tragedy struck today! So the illness that Elder Campbell had finally got me. Today we were on exchanges. Elder Baker and I stayed in all day. Boring day but I got some rest and am doing a ton better!!

Thursday: Well I thought I was gonna get better but I definitely did not. Day 2 of being in unfortunately..

Friday: Guess what!? I'm doing a ton better!! Wait I can't lie, I am definitely still sick haha. We stayed in again but later we went to dinner with the William's. They have a daughter that is about 4 that is literally the cutest, funniest little girl.

Saturday: Another exchange day with one of my old companions Elder Emerson! But we stayed in all day but hey I'm feeling better and definitely on the recovery!! I'm ready to get back out there and teach! Sorry for the boring week! 

Sunday: Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!! Today was great, our church meeting was good. The primary children sang and we had three super good talks. Our dinner was with the McGregor Family. We had fish tacos and sparkling cider! Then I gotta talk to my amazing family! Surprising enough they still love me!!

-Elder Smiths

Working Hard and Pranking the Spanish Sisters

This week:

Monday: Today was super exhausting for some reason. We went to the zoo here at Moorpark College. They have a learning zoo for the students who want to go on and do things involving animals I guess haha. The zoo was pretty cool but pretty small also. It was fun though because we got to see some fun things like monkeys and lions and stuff like that. We took a quick trip to the Oaks Mall and Elder Campbell somehow convinced me to get my eyebrows threaded.... Literally the worst feeling ever haha. But now I can say my eyebrows are on 'flick'. Our next stop was this place called Dojo Boom, it's a trampoline park just like iJump back in Idaho Falls. It was fun. We had dinner with Bishop at Wood Ranch, which is kinda like Texas Roadhouse haha. We visited with Laura and checked up on her and then we saw Dean and partied with him haha. But on the real, Dean is a super cool guy, he always has many words of wisdom.

Tuesday: Today was really weird to say the least. So Elder Campbell is the district leader and he and the other district leader from the zone had to go to a Mission Leadership Council meeting in Oxnard. So myself and the other district leader's companion, Elder Pack, were on a sort of exchange until they got back from MLC. We worked in Elder Pack's area in Thousand Oaks. We started the day trying to get a phone that had a SIM card in it. It was difficult and took up the entire morning. We had service for two different people but the first service appointment had to be postponed due to some heavy rain. And our second service opportunity was indoors. We worked on moving furniture and boxes into the garage of the house because the owners are moving out. That was pretty fun but kind of tiring. Then we headed back home and waited there until our companions got back. Two hours later is when they showed up which also happened to be two hours after their meeting ended. Also Oxnard is only around a 30-45 minute drive to Thousand Oaks. So that was interesting. Back with Elder Campbell we picked up dinner from a member family, the Robert's, super grateful for cause I hadn't really eaten anything during the rest of the day. Elder Campbell got tangled up in a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu match at a mutual activity for the youth haha. It was pretty cool! And then we headed home for the day feeling pretty exhausted.

Wednesday: Today was really funny! We had a DLC meeting to make plans for our districts and the new things Elder Campbell learned at MLC. For lunch we kinda played a little prank on one of the Spanish sister missionaries haha we told then that I had decided to go home early. And one of the hermanas was just really distressed about it haha. But we eventually told them when we showed up to a district lunch and I was still out here haha. Our dinner was with the Zeedik's, they are super cool! They have twin boys around the age of 12 or 13. But they are hilarious. Anywho we continued our day of work when we had a mini exchange with the zone leaders in our area just trying to find and weed out some of the potentials that aren't super solid. We met a few people that were somewhat interested and a lot of them asked us to come back! We met some members, the Liddell's, and visited with them. We talked about ideas for helping the youth become more inclined to do missionary work. Brother Liddell is in the stake young men's presidency so he had a few good ideas. It was a pretty good last little bit of hard work that we did. It was great!

Thursday: Bummer today! Elder Campbell has caught a nasty head cold. So we have stayed in most the day. We did have dinner with the Scheu's but aside from that we can't leave the apartment. It's alright though!

Friday: Day 2 of sickness, Elder Campbell has gotten a little worse. But he is persevering. We stayed in again. He is going to rest and try to get better!

Saturday: Another day inside! Hopefully Elder Campbell is on the latter end of the cold. We got some medicine for him and he got a big thing of spicy chow mein to maybe help clear his sinuses.

Sunday: Elder Campbell is feeling quite a bit better today so we went to church and during our Ward Council meeting we went over the ward mission plan! It was just a rough draft but it's looking pretty good. We really want the ward to excel at missionary work, they are already pretty great at it but hopefully the plan will be beneficial. After church we had dinner and then we went to Dean's house again and chatted with him. Hopefully we can peak his interest in the Gospel! 

- Elder Smith

The Scheu's, Pinneo's, and the Barrus's treat us well!

Week 1 of Transfer 2:

Monday: Party Day!!! So we went and got haircuts at the Pinneo's and washed some of the horses they are boarding there. The  we headed to T.O and shopped a little at Nordstrom rack. We went to district activity and then dinner at the Quintons then we went to the Scheu's and shared a scripture and had a prayer!

Tuesday: Big transfer day, Elder Campbell and I stayed but we did get a different car from before so we had to change that out. And we got to say bye to some of the missionaries leaving! Kinda sad but exciting because we have new missionaries coming in. We did that and waited to get the new missionaries until about noon. We had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then came home and cleaned our apartment from the party we had the night before haha. We got to do some service for the Scheu's afterwards, moving some things out of their barn. We had dinner with the Wilde's and they are pretty 'wild' ha ha. Then we did our shopping during the night rather than right after Transfer trains came. We did have a lesson scheduled for today but they weren't home when we dropped by. It's alright maybe we can catch them home next time.

Wednesday: Service day haha. We did a ton of work today, we worked on Norm's farm weeding and then feeding the cattle herd. Then we did service for the Scheu's working in their barn and by their pond and in their house and everywhere! I have grown to love working and doing service! Plus the Scheu's are the best people ever!! We got dinner from the Murray's they fed us some gumbo! And we ended the night talking with a potential named Joseph who taught us some martial arts techniques. I have had an interesting day!

Thursday: So I can't really remember much of what happened today. We did weekly planning and we saw Laura, and a few other people. We talked with a couple of guys that had some nice motorcycles that they are gonna ride for a charity coming up. They seemed super cool and they originally were from Bountiful Utah! It was pretty awesome! Besides that I can't remember much at all. Sorry!

Friday: District Meeting started our day off! We got to know the new missionaries in our district and had a good meeting. We then had a really good 6 man companionship study talking about some doctrine! It was a cool discussion. Elder Campbell and I had service to do, we helped a lady move out of her house because she discovered a ton of mold so she completely moving out. Kinda sad cause she had to throw a ton of things away. Our dinner appointment was with the Patrick's, they gave us 2 pizzas. And that was about the whole day. We didn't find much success at all. It's sometimes very discouraging and difficult to talk to and find people to teach.

Saturday: Today was awesome! We started by setting our monthly goals for May. We set the goals to have 0 people baptized and 0 set with baptismal dates but it's okay because that is just how we feel like that is the right goal since we don't have anyone super close to baptism. Then we left to Simi Valley to attend a baptismal service for two people that Elder Campbell had taught when he was in Simi. We also had a baptism back in Moorpark for a lady in our ward, Jennifer Diermendjian. It was awesome! Spiritually recharging! We then went out to work after all that, and spoke with our two investigators Eric and Martha for an hour or two about coming to church tomorrow and just chatting in general. Martha is super good with gardening and all sorts of things in that aspect. Eric is a software engineer and is super cool. Both of them are very nice and kind, they have a good belief that everyone needs to be kind and civilized. They are awesome!

Sunday: Eric and Martha didn't come to church which was kinda a bummer, oh well maybe next Sunday. Our meeting was very good, the whole third hour was like another sacrament meeting minus the primary kids. We went over more ministering training. Then we had dinner at the Barrus's, they fed us the most amazing smoked chicken, and Halibut ever. It was great. We stopped by the Teo's and asked about a non member boy that has been going to scouts each week with the Teo's son. His name is Logan and he seems to be pretty interested from what we were told. And then we went to see the Adam's family and ask about another kid named Brandon who is basically in the same situation as the first one, Logan. Kinda cool, eh? Our final stop of the Sabbath evening was with the Hansen's, we chatted with them and said family prayers with them. Today overall was a pretty good day here in Moorpark. 

Also I think I may have forgotten to send the pics of me at the temple last Transfer. .. Here they are! 

- Elder Smith

Another Transfer

This week!:

Monday: Today was interesting. We got up and did our shopping but we went somewhere we hadn't gone to buy groceries before.. so I may starve this week haha oh well. When we got that done we headed to T.O for the zone activity! It was pretty fun we just played Kickball and Football. It was pretty fun. We had dinner at the Pinneo's house, they are maybe my favorite members in this ward! They live on a big property because Brother Pinneo trains Sport horses. He has like 20 stalls and a barn with more spaces, in addition to that he has an area where he gets the horses out and trains them in like an arena type thing. So whenever I go there I honestly feel like I'm home haha. Even though I never had horses or anything of the sort. It just feels right I guess haha. Anyway after that, we went and saw Laura, who was recently baptized. We helped her print off some names so that we can go to the temple tomorrow and do baptisms for the dead. I am super excited for her! We dropped by Bishop's house and visited with them and we also saw the Hansen family. They are really cool! Their twin sons, Blake and Ryan, went out on splits with us a couple weeks back. I always enjoy seeing members and being able to build relationships. 

Tuesday: Today was filled with hard work and the spirit! So today is the mission wide walk day so Elder Campbell and I walked everywhere and we tried contacting and a bit of tracting. We handed out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon and have one return appointment for next week! When we got all that done we had dinner with the Barker's and afterwards we headed to the Temple!! Our friend Laura who was baptized recently had some family names she wanted to be baptized for, her daughter and her mother. The temple is my favorite place on Earth. Sister Laura was very touched by the spirit, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to go with her so she could have those ordinances done. This church is true!

Wednesday: Today was exhausting. We did some good studies in the morning then we went and did service for a man named Dean, we put 2 coats of primer on some wood posts, we will paint them tomorrow most likely. Dean is hilarious! He has very certain sense of humor. We tried to see a few people but none of them were home. We had dinner with the Scheu's again. They are some of the best people ever. Some of my favorite members for sure! We dropped by Dean's again because he and his family had some questions about the Book of Mormon. It was actually a really good discussion!

Thursday: Today was full of service! We went to Norm's farm and did some work roping haha. Then we did some work for Dean again and stained some of the wood beams for his project. We had dinner with the other Barker's in our ward, they fed us super good Japanese curry. We finished by going to T.O for some errands we had to run. 

Friday: Our last district meeting of the transfer! It was so good, two of the missionaries in our district here in Moorpark are going home next week. They gave amazing talks and bore sincere testimonies. Their service to the Lord has helped me a ton to be more missionary minded and doing all that I can to serve. We rode the city transit bus around for an hour until dinner at In-n-out with the Donkersgoeds. The members our here spoil us haha. We then attended a baptismal service for a person who is going into the Young Single Adult ward. I love baptisms, they just have a special feeling about them. The spirit is so prominent and flooding during the service. I love the actions that we make to show our love for God.

Saturday: Transfer call day! We had a decent start to the day, we wrote our white wash sheets. Just in case we both leave the area! We took a bit of time to do that. We finished those, and headed out to serve the Lord. We knocked on a few peoples door but no answers, except one. A lady named Evelyn. So a little backstory on her, she is super shy and actually kind of scared of people. Anyway we go and knock on her door twice. She answers by yelling through the door. She asks who we are and she says "oh well I'm only the babysitter and the home owner isn't home." She was totally lying to us and just saying she was someone else. Its whatever though. We got to see Laura again and see how she has been. Then we dropped by and saw Dean, he is really funny. We had dinner with the Penfields, they are super nice and missionary minded! It was a really good spiritual experience, cause we shared a good scripture with them. And then we got transfer calls! Drum roll..........................................................................................................................................................................

Both Elder Campbell and I are staying!! I am so excited for this next transfer with Elder Campbell!!

Sunday: Today was alright, we had a good day at church. We got a new Elders quorum president! It has been pretty exciting! We stopped by a few people, but nothing too crazy happened. We had dinner with the Adams Family, their kids are just entering the stage where their kids are gonna be getting phones. So they asked us what our parents did! I explained how my parents always hovered over my shoulder through everything..... haha just kidding! I told them how good of a job my parents did. But I did advise that the Adams should keep a good balance between monitoring and letting your kids learn on their own but with some guidelines so they don't have free reign. It was good! Then we visited with my favorite member family here, the Pinneo's! We watched 'The Phone Call' with them, it's a funny video from the 70s the church made trying to get kids to be more confident. We talked with them for a while, it was great! They are just a very fun loving family!

I really love being a missionary :)

- Elder Smith

An Idahoan and a Canadian walk though little Mexico

Week 5 in Moorpark:

Monday: Miracle Monday! So today started off like really every other day. Waking up and following the schedule, then we shopped and emailed at the church a little bit. Elder Cambell and I had a lesson scheduled for today at 11 am. So we went there and brought a member along but they weren't able to meet with us at that time. We reschedule for later this week. Kinda bummed from that we go out to lunch at Cheesecake Factory, it was delicious! Haha After that we walked around the T.O mall and checked things out a bit. Then we played basketball and got a good workout there. We had dinner with our Bishop and went along with him after the dinner to Laura's, our recent convert, and gave her a blessing. She had a little spill down her steps and hurt her back. Overall we were actually kind of discouraged even though the day was a P-day and okay. In the night we had a lesson scheduled from last week with this couple we met last week. Eric and Martha. We went in a bit unfaithful but the Lord rebuked us haha. We taught them the Restoration and a lot of what the church does. At first Eric didn't seem too interested but by the end he was smiling and invited us back. Martha was pretty friendly and accepting the whole time. The entire visit, or should I say, ministry to them went rather well. We had a good conversation and we formed a good base to a friendship that will hopefully grow. One of the things that I was able to bear testimony was Eternal Families and how God has blessed us with families here on earth. So I was adopted and recently I found out my DNA results which was pretty exciting. But my family that I was able to be sealed with in the Idaho Falls Temple, for time and all eternity mean absolutely everything to me. I straight up told Martha and Eric tonight that I knew that I was not the most pleasant to raise haha but my parents continued to support and love me, along with my two exemplary brothers , and my sister who is one of my best friends. I really know that I was sealed to this family for a reason because God sent me here to learn and grow and help my family as well. That is the key to our life here on earth, second to Christ and the doctrine and Gospel he has given us. But families, God is our Father, we are all brothers and sisters. We are one big family! I love my family, and I am so grateful for them and all that they do for me. 

Tuesday: Zone Conference today! President and Sister Nakken came to T.O and gave us new information regarding Facebook usage. But also the importance of staying in tune with the spirit so that we can always minister to those we feel prompted to. It was a great meeting! After that we had dinner with the Downs family. We also got to go see Laura and see how she was doing. Today was a really good day overall.

Wednesday: Today was pretty good overall. Elder Pilling, who is from Okotoks, Canada, and I were on exchanges. He is super funny! He even convinced me to go on a cruise after the mission haha. (I have a fear that cruise ships will sink.) Umm during the entire day we just worked by tracting and finding people to teach. We had 2 unplanned lessons, and 1 lesson with a lady that is being re-baptized. The 2 unplanned lessons were good. One was with a man named Ray that had very similar beliefs but didn't understand when the authority of God was taken from the earth. The other lesson was with Bobby, a former investigator that we read out of the Book of Mormon with. The day was really fun! Elder Pilling is super cool! 

Thursday: Weekly planning day!! We studied and planned and weekly planned for the last week in the transfer!! It felt like yesterday that we just started! It went super fast! Then we went out and Elder Goodman and my companion decided to go on a mini exchange to do some service while Elder Pilling and I were back together for about 2 hours. We gave away two copies of the Book of Mormon, and talked to 10 people! It was a very productive 2 hours haha. Then I was back with Elder Campbell and we went and talked with a guy who was very interested in us trying to convince him that God exists. We simply fulfilled our purpose by inviting him to find out for himself, along with a few other points we told him about. Then unfortunately we had to go in early because I have caught the bug. Throwing up is no fun at all.

Friday: Sick day.. :( Today has been very boring but I was able to do a lot of studies today. Hyrum Smith, not the brother of Joseph but the first mission president of the Great California Ventura Mission, gave a talk at BYU about the Apostasy Timeline. Throughout the talk he gives many historical dates in time that help us see why the Restoration of the Gospel needed to happen in 1820. It was super good, so I was able to listen to that talk and make my own timeline that I can look back to every day to figure out any questions I have regarding the Timeline. Besides the sickness, it has been pretty good spiritually! Other than that, recently it has been a little difficult trying to stay happy. A lot of random things happen and sometimes it's just so hard. But life is never supposed to be easy. So I will continue to work through it.

Saturday: Well I spent half the day in again but since around 5 I have been feeling a lot better. When I started feeling better we went out and had dinner at a potential investigator's house. We were there for a while. But they are some of the coolest people! His name is Dean, and he has a super good friend named 'Bobo'. But we had a great time there! After that we headed home!

Sunday: Fast Sunday! Hardest day of every month haha. But we had a super good fast and testimony meeting, many of our members have rock solid testimonies that they share with their friends or co workers. So Sunday was awesome. We then dropped by the Henshaw's and taught their three grandchildren the Restoration of the Gospel. And they fed us a marvelous dinner! We talked with some members and followed up with some other members about a commitment we left with them. They may have forgotten haha but they promised to get it done! Great day today though!

- Elder Smith

Ministering Mormons

This week:

Monday: Our day today was awesome. We had to cut p-day short today because we are gonna be going to the LA temple this Thursday. So we had shopped and got some haircuts, also I found out my DNA results! That was pretty exciting! We then did service for a potential investigator and got to talk to him for a bit. He is really cool, and he has a cool dog. The dog is an American Dingo, a wild dog that the Native Americans used to have over in the Carolinas. Anyway after that we went out and saw a few people but didn't have much luck. We did however hand out a Book of Mormon to a man that wasn't super interested but accepted a Book of Mormon.

Tuesday: Exchange day with one of my old companions, Elder Goodman! I was super excited for this day. It was kind of weird because it felt as if we were companions again, just in a different area. We started our day with some service for the same guy as last week, Norm. We unloaded some hay bales out of his trailer and did some more roping. We headed back home so we could go to lunch with Laura our recent convert. She fed us some Italian food, and it was pretty delicious. Then, out we went to preach, and teach as missionaries do. We found 3 pretty solid potential investigators. One guy named Kevin, looked pretty rough. He had some tattoos and didn't look very friendly, also he was eating an ice cream cone. We asked him if he wanted a picture of Jesus, a little pass along card, and he accepted and we asked him more questions and he seemed interested. He gave us his phone number so we could teach him sometime. We also met a few interesting people but that is everyday haha. We walked all day, and reminisced the days when we were companions. We had a pretty good day overall. 

Wednesday: Today was great, we had interviews with President. My meeting with him was great, he asked me a little bit about my life before the mission. We then headed back home to give a ride to the Elders for their interviews with President. Then we had a District Leader Council, with the Zone Leaders. They told us about some new things that are happening, things like us having Facebook. After that we did some service for a member, welding a sheep feeder. Then we had dinner with the Scheu's, they have the life. They are living the farm life out here in California. Sister Scheu is taking us to the Temple tomorrow. I am so excited to be able go to the Temple and learn so much more about the Gospel. And strengthening the testimony I have formed.

Thursday: Temple trip day! Elder Campbell, Goodman, and Pilling and I all where able to attend the LA temple. It was awesome! I just love the spirit that is felt there. And all the blessings that come from going to the Temple. I went in with a few big questions in mind and I feel like the Lord has answered them. The Temple is an amazing place. Sister Scheu took us along with some youth that did baptisms for the dead. The whole rest of our day was great! We headed home and then to the church to set up some more of our Facebook accounts. And then headed to dinner with the Quinton's and I heard a lot of really cheesy jokes haha. After that we went out and proselyted and met some super cool people that were interested enough to set up a return appointment with us. Eric and Martha, were out gardening around 7pm and we chatted with them and were able to set up to see them on Monday. Then we went in for the night. This whole day I felt as if I had the Temple glow! I love going there.

Friday:  Today started with a great District Meeting! The APs made a trip down to Moorpark from Oxnard to attend our meeting. Since we missed our weekly planning from yesterday we did it today and that took a little while. But we got it done. Then we had a quick dinner at our apartment and headed out to serve the Lord. We knocked a few houses but didn't find too many interested people. We tried to go see a few people that missionaries had spoken to in the past but due to a few complications within their families we couldn't meet with them. And from 8-9 we had a lesson with a lady named Jennifer. It technically wasn't a formal lesson but, we got the chance to plan out her Baptism! She is being baptized on April 28th. It won't be a convert baptism, it will be a rebaptism. Super exciting though!

Saturday: Today was very interesting. I was on exchanges with Elder Jones. The one who is leaving in about 2 weeks. We had a very long day of just walking around within his area, trying to street contact. We tracted a few doors but literally everyone we talked to acted not too friendly to us. But we just kept working despite the, um persecution? Adversity? Either way. But. This night was great because we had the Thousand Oaks Stake Conference! Elder Kim B. Clark of the seventy was the presiding general authority. The meeting was amazing all of the talks were centered around ministering, as we know within the church that ministering has become the new, home or visiting teaching. In the middle of the meeting, Elder Clark had about 10 people give impromptu testimonies of the Savior Jesus Christ in front of the whole stake. One particular testimony touched me with the spirit. A lady in the ward I am currently serving in was asked to bear testimony and she is actually deaf. So she and her translator got up on the stage. And she did all the sign language while another member translated. Although this certain sister did not say a word verbally. She conveyed a beautiful testimony of her love for the Savior. I too have been blessed in the duration of my entire life. Although there were many times that I didn't realize how blessed I was growing up, I have been able to reflect and recognize everything that has helped me be who I am today. My family, helping me through literally everything, friends and the support they've shown me, the Boulevard ward that I had the opportunity to grow up in and now the Summerfield ward I have to further my spiritual growth. I have been able to look back and see how rotten I truly was haha, honestly if I were my parents and had to raise me. I would go nuts! I am grateful my parents have put up with me for this long haha. But in the center of all these things that I have is Christ. He is the chief cornerstone, the redeemer, our Savior. I love him, and as I continue to know him better each day, I strive to want to become as he is.

Sunday: Round 2 of Stake Conference! Elder Clark gave another great talk, as did our mission president and his wife, President and Sister Nakken, they spoke a lot on missionary work. The Thousand Oaks stake is pretty good at missionary work and ministering to others. We had a really good day, we talked to a few people after the conference and then we had dinner with the Barker's. They have texted us almost every day asking if we had a dinner or being fed. And we didn't have a scheduled dinner tonight but they invited us over! We also saw a few people after that. One lady in specifics was not very nice. She called us pests and gave us back the Book of Mormon we gave to her roommate. But later we talked to a guy named Dennis Reed. He is originally from Boise, Idaho. He is retired Deputy Sherriff. But he was the nicest guy ever! He wasn't necessarily interested but he was not mean either. We spoke with him for a good 30 minutes. The rest of the night we tried street contact, but no luck there. I do believe that there are people out here that are prepared and ready to accept Christ's Gospel.

-Elder Smith

Adversity and Tender Mercies

Another Week in Moorpark:

Monday: Today was kind of rough. We did our shopping and everything to prepare for the week, but my email account wasn't working. I wasn't able receive or send any emails so I had to get that fixed and that took a while. Also our car was doing something weird, where it wouldn't start but everything else was working. It took us an hour to fix that. We then had our district activity and played basketball for a while. Now this is where the fun part of the day comes. First we had our dinner with a fun member family and that was good, but after that we decided to take some of the youth out to proselyte with us. My companion and I split up with these 2 young men. Anyway we went tracting, knocking doors, and the first door me and my new temporary comp was the door of a man who was seeking to tear down our testimonies. He went on about how all religion is corrupt and how what we do is terrible. He insulted God, and he made it adamant that we were horrible people. The youth I was with was already kind of struggling with his testimony so I felt horrible about that experience for him. But after we dropped them off back at their house we sent the one youth a text with a scripture that comes from 3 Nephi 12: 10-12. 

10 And blessed are all they who are persecuted for my name’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 And blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake;

12 For ye shall have great joy and be exceedingly glad, for great shall be your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.

Hopefully he feels the blessings of serving the Lord. So back to me and Elder Campbell being comps again we went and knocked on a random door, and a man came out and talked to us for a solid 30 minutes. He was very knowledgeable about the doctrine of many other churches. But we gave him a Book of Mormon and he told us he would read it and pray about it. It was an okay day overall but one thing I have learned is that Satan is going to do anything possible to attack the testimonies of people. So we must always strengthen our faith in Christ.

Tuesday: Today was long and tiring. We were able to do service for a potential investigator for about 4 hours. His name is Norm. We were able to do some cattle herding, and we did some farm working. I was being taught how to rope. After that we didn't find too much luck. We did go home pretty early to pack and go on exchanges with the zone leaders.

Wednesday: Our day on exchanges were great. I was with Elder Morgan. We were in the Thousand Oaks area. And we met tons of cool people. We handed out 7 copies of the Book of Mormon. And we got quite a few solid potentials for the zone leaders. We met a very interesting man named Frank. He was set on making sure that the end times are happening now. We had a very successful day though.

Thursday: Today was really slow. We did service for a lady named Carolyn. She had a massive ranch with like 65 horses on it. She also had pigs, geese, goats, sheep, dogs, cats, all kinds of birds, and chickens. But we did weeding work and helped build a dove cage. And other things around the ranch. Then we went to lunch after she gave us 2 dozen eggs and some avocados. The rest of the day we spent weekly planning and doing our zone goals. For our ward here, we plan to have a person set with a baptismal date in the month of April. But we felt that the person we will set a baptismal date with, won't be baptized until after May. Anyway we did that and then we went to visit a member, from Mackey, Idaho. Sister Scheu, pronounced Sh-oo-ee. We talked to her about taking us to the temple down in LA, and she said she would totally do that. She is super cool! Then we went and street contacted for a little while but didn't find anyone. I have really loved to get to know members out in the mission. They are so friendly and loving to us missionaries and being able to get to know them and befriend them is such a blessing.

Friday: Today was awesome.... kinda. So we had our district meeting and we had the focus of finding people to teach through members. It was pretty awesome because I personally learned a ton and ways to apply it to my own effort. After that meeting we decided to go out to lunch and celebrate because one of the Elders here is going home soon and they had a miracle but I will explain that later. We went and had all you can eat sushi. 4 of us ate 17 rolls of sushi, and guess what sushi doesn't settle well with me haha. So after that happy time, we went and had our companionship study and headed off to dinner with the McGregor's. Super cool family! After that dinner we went back to the apartment and I couldn't keep all the food down so I spent about 15 minutes with my head in the toilet haha. After I felt like I was good to go we headed off to a few neighborhoods and gave out a Book of Mormon to a man named Tony. He seems pretty solid, he agreed with what we told him and accepted the Book of Mormon happily. And we headed to the apartment for the night. But....... back to the story about the sushi celebration reason. Soo this one Elder, His name is Elder Jones, he goes home in about 3 weeks and hasn't had a baptism. So recently he has been praying and asking God if he can have a baptism before he goes home. He was reading in 3 Nephi 11 when the Savior ministers to the Nephites and he tells them that he gives them (being the 12 Nephite apostles) the authority to baptize in his name. Side note, the minimal time to have a baptism is 3 weeks because the investigators have to go to church for at least 3 weeks in order to "qualify" to be baptized. It's a requirement to gauge invetigator's commitment. So Elder Jones and his companion are out doing work and it's around 8:45ish so they have to walk back to their apartment but on their way back they get stopped by a man in a car that tells them he had been reading the Book of Mormon, and that he wanted to join the Mormon church. So Elder Jones has 3 weeks left, 3 Sunday's. The baptismal date they set with him is 4 days before Elder Jones goes home. The Lord truly blesses us as we are faithful and strive to do all we can.

Saturday: Okay, today was amazing. Conference was awesome this time around and I didn't even fall asleep this time haha. The new apostles seem pretty awesome. I had a ton of favorite talks from today but Elder Wakolo, who visited our mission about 6-7 months ago, did an excellent job. One of my favorite quotes by him was, "Casualness leads to casualties." This is so true. As we become a bit too casual in performing our duties as members of the church, it may lead to a "spiritual casualty". We may become comfortable to going to bed without saying your prayers, or feeling to tired to read your scriptures. Don't allow yourself to become so casual that you don't even go to church or go to youth activities. The point kind of ties in with my favorite scripture from the Book of Mormon, Omni 1:26, in part of it the scripture says "... Offer your whole souls as an offering unto him ..." It is telling us we need to give our WHOLE souls. Not just 78%, or if your feeling kinda tired just 60%, no he wants you to offer 100% and maybe even more. Because later in that scripture it says "... As long as the Lord liveth ye shall be saved." So, don't let yourself become a casualty in this fight to return to our Father in Heaven. 

Sunday: Day 2 of Conference. Today was crazy! Elder Gong, and Elder Soares are super cool. I am excited to listen to them talk more. And holy cow, crazy new changes! One Elder's Quorum, no more Visiting and Home teaching, and 7 new temples announced! President Oaks talk was awesome. Honestly general conference out on the mission is like Christmas for missionaries haha. Today we also had a good dinner with a great family in the ward. The Hansens. At the end of the dinner they gave us some brownies but, instead of actual brownie treats they tricked us and gave us brown E's. Like paper that was brown in the shape of E's. I totally forgot today was also April Fool's day. One really important thing that I have been able to reflect on this Easter Sunday was the Savior and his Atoning Sacrifice, and then his resurrection after his crucifixion. All that he has done for us has been the ultimate sacrifice of the world. It just helps me feel the love that God and his son Christ has for me, and all of us.

- Elder Smith

Laura's Baptism

My week:

Monday: Today was a pretty fun day. We went to Nordstrom Rack and Elder Campbell bought a new suit. We went on a hike to these waterfalls in Thousand Oaks. It was pretty cool. We then went to a park and played football as a district, it was pretty fun I guess haha. Then we went to dinner with the Barker's and they gave me a brand new Raincoat which is actually super nice. I was super grateful, then we headed off to a lesson with a lady named Jennifer who is gonna get re-baptized in May. It was a really good day.

Tuesday: We started our day with Laura's baptismal interview! She is ready to go this Saturday, I am so happy her and excites for her decision to be baptized. Then we headed off to a member family, the Pinneo's house and planned out Laura's baptism program. They are one of the coolest families out here! We had dinner with the Barker's again at a restaurant called El Tapatío, they had one of the best burritos ever. It was like a foot long burrito. Then we head a lesson with Laura and took the Priest quorum along. They taught her about baptism and the Holy Ghost. Our day was great!

Wednesday: We started the day with riding the city transit bus for an hour and a half trying to contact people. But no one really got on the bus. Not to mention it was raining like crazy today. We then did some service for Laura, painting one of the rooms in her house! We only put on a coat of primer and we will put the paint on later. Our dinner was with the Downs family, super cool people. We visited with some members, Brother Quinton, Sister Luekenga, and the Purcell's. It was great! Our day was pretty legit haha.

Thursday: The day was fine here, we started out with service for Laura. We finished the room we painted. That was pretty good, today was extra rainy. After that we did some weekly planning and took the other elders around to a bike shop so that they could fix their bike tire. After that we had dinner with brother Quinton, our ward mission leader and correlated plans for the ward mission plan. Then we saw some more members after that to invite them to Laura's Baptism. One member family were the Zeedik's, they are super legit! Haha They are super fun to talk to and chill with. We had a pretty good day here.

Friday: Today was an interesting day. We started with riding the bus to the church building for district meeting. Then after we had a really good companionship study with all of the Elders in our district. We then did some more weekly planning after yesterday, and we headed to pick up dinner from the Villafuertes. Then we went back and had fun with some of the other elders in our apartment complex. We visited with a potential named Dean and talked with him for a while. He is pretty legit, he has a really cool dog. We had a good chat today. I realized that the spirit really does reside with those who are obedient.

Saturday: Today was amazing. So the first half of our day from like 10am-1pm we spent prepping everything for Laura's baptism. We were working pretty quickly and thankfully got everything good and ready in time. Elder Campbell got all dressed up ready to baptize Laura and tons of missionaries who have taught Laura in the past showed up. We had about 14-20 missionaries there, all just for Laura. Along with the missionaries we had tons of members show up too. Laura is definitely well loved. The whole baptismal program was fantastic, we had two really amazing members give talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. We also had a beautiful musical number sung by one of the members accompanied by a violin and piano. She sang Gethsemane and it sounded perfect! The spirit was so strong. I was also able to witness Laura being baptized, and as soon as she was immersed into the water and brought back up, I was able to feel God's love for her so powerfully. I know how happy our Father in Heaven is whenever one of his children make the decision to come back to him. And the delight, and pure happiness I felt for Laura is definitely how our Father in Heaven will feel when we do our best to return to him. Then we decided to bike to the church from our apartment to conserve miles on our car. We tried talking to a few families but no one was interested.

Sunday: Today was great, we have church at 12:30 so before then we drove to the church and walked about a mile and a half to a trailer park to see Laura before church and on the way we talked to a man named Gary Share, he had an Austrailian Sheepdog and was out side watching it as it played around. We chatted with him and he was very friendly. His wife is actually a member but she hasn't been to church in a while. Anyway he said we could come back and sit down and have a lesson. At church we were able to stand in on the confirmation of Laura. It was a truly amazing experience. She explained to us that as we put our hands on her head to bless her, she got a tingle in her back that she made her feel good. After church we went to dinner with a younger family, the Roberts who know Joe Elison. Jason Roberts is the name of the father. Then we went out to find some people. As we were walking in the neighborhood we met a guy named Frank. He had a Ferrari and he was super friendly and he took a Book of Mormon. Then we talked to another guy named John Greenwood. He is super cool, His family is all affiliated with Law Enforcement in some way. But he was willing to have us come back and talk with him. The rest of the night we tried talking with people but no other luck.

-Elder Smith

 

1. Hike with some of the Elders in my district.

2. Laura's Baptism.