This week!:
Monday: Today we had the opportunity to walk downtown State street in Santa Barbara and shop at some of the local stores there. We didn't buy anything but we did talk to a few people who were wondering who we were. I love being able to stand out in a crowd, wearing my white shirt and tie so that people do question us. I love it because then I get to share how I am a representative of Jesus Christ, its a whole lot easier for me to be spotted because of my apparel, but all Latter-Day Saints have this opportunity as well to stand out. Just by our example, out in public, within our friend groups, wherever we may be we can be a good example, always trying to be like our Savior. We had our district activity after that and we played some sports at the church, we had an intense game of Woofle ball. It felt weird to play baseball again, it has been a long time! Haha Elder Jones and I had a good end to our day, we had an appointment with our friend Elisa and her family. She has three kids: Sarai, Selena, and Danny. Also her boyfriend Angel. Anyway we had a good introduction appointment where we got to know her and the understanding she and her family has of what we teach. Some missionaries taught them in the past but that was over 8 months ago. They remember some of it, but not a whole ton! So we will probably start fresh and teach from the beginning. I am excited because they expressed their desire to live in line with God's love. They even said they had interest in being Baptized, and this is the first time we have met with her! God truly has prepared her!
Tuesday: Today was okay, we had an appointment fall through with a man named, Ever. Um after that we had a good companionship study about our potential as missionaries, regardless of who it is, as members of the church we can all do missionary work. One of the most important things we can do is the act of aligning our will with the Lord's. Giving all our desires and interests to him, so we can serve God. We tried by quite a few people and had a good tracting experience! We met a guy who asked us to drop by the next day when he wasn't so busy! Our dinner appointment fed us "comfort food" haha it was really good and they gave us a good dessert to take home with us. We decided to see one of our solid referrals, Allen, after dinner but he wasn't home, however his roomate was and told us that Allen has been wanting to talk to us, so we are glad he isn't just flaking on us haha. We ended trhe night by seeing a member who has worked extremely hard to be refellowshipped in the church and he got a confirmation from the spirit that now is the time that he is ready. It was really cool, because when I first knocked on his door a few months ago it was the first time in about 2 and a half years that missionaries had seen him. So surely he has worked hard and I have had the privilege to see his progress and help him in the 4 months I have spent here in Santa Barbara. Steve is one of the reasons that I was assigned to serve here and I am so grateful to God for the opportunity to help Steve and grow closer to him.
Wednesday: Today we had our Zone Conference! It was a super good meeting! President Nakken, and Sister Nakken as well as a bunch of other missionaries gave such amazing talks and discussions. They helped us to recognize WHAT we can do better and HOW we can do better. I definitely learned a lot from the meeting. Immediately after the meeting ended, we got a referral from the St. George Temple Visitor's Center, for a lady named Kira who wanted a Bible and a Book of Mormon. So we called her and set up an appointment for tomorrow morning! Super cool! We had a funny dinner appointment at Chick-Fil-A with a member and her husband who isn't a member. Anyway he was kind of explaining the concept of Bitcoin to us, and I was pretty intrigued haha. After that we did some more contacting with no luck, until 15 minutes before we were supposed to be in our apartments for the night. We were knocking doors in the apartment complex building next to ours and met a man named Ignacio, he was super cool. He accepted a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet and asked us for the time and location of the Church building so he could attend church on Sunday! That was an awesome miracle! President Nakken has been pushing for missionaries to proselyte in the 'prime proselyting time' from 6-9pm. We have had success finding new people to teach and being able to get in contact with people who expressed interest! It has been amazing how mucch the Lord works miracles in our lives so long as we serve him to the best of our abilities!
Thursday: So today has been pretty dang cool. We had a good lesson with our new investigator Kira! She accepted a Book of Mormon and told us she will try to finish it by May! That was pretty legit! She also was very interested in coming to church and she also even expressed the idea of being baptized! She is super cool! After that we had a meeting with our zone leaders, Elder Bundy and Elder Reeves to go over our goals for our area this month. We did pretty good with them but there is always room to improve! We set our goals for this upcoming month of March and we felt pretty good about them. We had dinner with a family who just moved into the ward about 2 months ago, they have 4 little kids and they are pretty fun! Haha After that we went to the hospital here in Santa Barbara to give a blessing to a man who was in a car accident. He was in a coma and his family was all there offering prayers. None of them were members of the Church, but they all prayed to God asking for his love and blessings. I had the opportunity to anoint this man's head with the oil, his name is Marco, as I put my hands on his head I was able to feel the complete and pure love God has for him. I couldn't help but cry because I felt God's love for him so immensely. With my hands on his head I just wanted to embrace him. The spirit has testified to me tonight, that God truly has a perfect love for each and every one of us. I have felt his love in my life, being able to say that I am a representative of Jesus Christ is one of the most amazing things that God has blessed me with. I have a testimony of the love God offers us.
Friday: Our day was really slow, we had our morning lesson with Steve, and that was great but it lasted for a really long time... like from 8-11. Then we went back to the apartment to have lunch, and do our studies. The rest of the day was super slow, we had dinner with the Graves, they are members and really pretty funny haha. We spent a little time there, then we had to head back to the apartment so I could pack and get ready for my exchange tomorrow.
Saturday: Today. Was. Insanely. Weird. We started off the day pretty normal, I was with the zone leader Elder Bundy, we were in Goleta for the day. We started tracting had no real luck there, so then we headed to lunch at Chick-Fil-A to celebrate Elder Bundy's 18 month mark! He is pretty old haha. Anyway we were walking to Chick-Fil-A from where we parked and met this man along the way whose name was Lawrence. He offered to pay for our lunch because it turns out he is a member, and served a mission. He was really odd though. We planned to meet with our district at Chick-Fil-A, so there was three sets of missionaries, 4 Elders and 2 Sisters and then Lawrence. He made it pretty awkward to be honest, he was just really weird to say the least and gave off a weird feeling. He started to tell us a story of when he was younger, and referred to himself as, Steve, not Lawrence. So we were a little freaked out at this point. The sisters decided to leave and the other Elders left as well. So it was just Elder Bundy and I. He was perfectly sane, but something wasn't right, and we aren't sure what it was. Anyway besides that weird encounter, we had a pretty good day. We talked with an investigator named Evan for a little bit and we attended the baptism of an 8 year old. It was pretty cool! We ended the day with our exchange review and dinner haha. It was a long day.
Sunday: Our day today was pretty good! Kinda slow but it was okay! We had church and nothing too special happened there, kinda the same old same old. Then we had lunch and did our studies at our apartment. We had dinner with the 1st counselor in the bishopric. After that we dropped by a few people, trying to get in touch with some members who were less active. We finished the night with our visit to Stephanie Cook, she is pretty funny. She is the one that gave me the nickname 'Laffy Taffy'. She really enjoys hearing stories, like any kind of story. It was an alright day, not too long but not too eventful either.
-Elder Smith
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