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
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