This Week in Santa Barbara!:
Monday: Today was pretty cool! We got to eat breakfast at Denny's, then we went to a few thrift stores and looked around. After that we headed to Footlocker so I could buy a pair of sneakers! Then we went to our P-Day activity, with the entire Santa Barbara zone which includes missionaries from Carpinteria, Solvang, and Lompoc. Which was roughly 23 missionaries total. We all went to a member's home who lives in a community called Hope Ranch. Needless to say, many of the houses in Hope Ranch are pretty massive. Their property had a perfect view of the Ocean and of the Mountains on the opposite side! We were there for a few hours hanging out and playing sports. Then we had dinner with a bunch of the widows in the ward. They are all really cool and kinda funny haha. Next we went to visit a member, Stephanie Cook, she is the one that gives out nicknames and likes stories haha. She always makes me laugh a ton. Overall it was a good birthday!! Thank you so much to all who wished me a happy birthday, I really appreciate it!
Tuesday: Today was the mission-wide walk day. Everyone has to walk from 10am-5pm then we can use our bikes or cars. Soo, Elder Jones and I started the day with some study time and we had lunch at our apartment. Then we headed out and decided to walk State street, which goes all the way down to the beach. It's about a 3 mile walk there and a 3 mile walk back. Along the way we were able to contact a lot of people, and we dropped by Coldstone and got some ice cream. We were on our way back to our apartment when we ran into this guy named, Chris, who happened to have one to many drinks haha. He talked to us for about 15 minutes, all non-sense and gibberish but we were able to give him a Book of Mormon! Haha When we got to our car we headed to dinner. We had dinner with a member family, the Sorensen's. Their daughter just got back from her mission in Virginia. They are super cool and they have a giant house haha. After that we drove by some of our referrals but we weren't able to catch any of them at home. Elder Jones started to not feel very well so we went in for the night at around 8:30. On our way into the apartment we ran into one of our potentials that lives in the next building over in our apartment complex. His name is Ignacio, he is super cool. He said he has been meaning to text us and go to church but he has been pretty busy. It was a weird day.
Wednesday: Today was pretty slow, Elder Jones has been sick so we stayed in for the day. But we got out at around 2 and did some service for this lady that is being removed from her house. So she rented a U-haul for a few days but she doesn't have anywhere to go. So she is in a bit of a predicament. After that we went to dinner with a member, Brother Diaz, to an Italian restaurant right next to our apartment. After that we went back to the apartment.
Thursday: Today we had our weekly planning session, and this time it was pretty weird because it's already the end of another transfer. So we did these 'whitewash' sheets where we write down all things that are happening in our area just in case Elder Jones and I both get transferred. After that we went to see a few people, we tried to go see some potentials but some of them weren't home. We went by one in particular, Hector, and he was home! It was really cool, because we had tried to see him so many times in the past but he was never home. Anyway we tried to talk with him but got nothing out of it because there were some workers using a leaf blower right behind us so we couldn't hear anything he said. Our dinner appointment was with a member family, the Barnes. Brother Barnes works for the Coast Guard and they have to move around fairly often. Soon they are moving out! They are super cool, the rest of the night was pretty slow, we didn't really find anything!
Friday: Friday was okay, we had a good District Meeting and then one of the Elders going home got to burn one of his suits! Haha It was fun, we tried by like 10 people today and 8 of them were home and spoke with us, it was legit! We had dinner with the Shipley's, one of my favorite families. We ate at Blaze Pizza and the younger kids, Jane and Isaiah are crazy! Haha they are so funny! We were able to also have a really good lesson with our investigator Rachel! We talked a lot about aligning our will with God's will. We also read the Book of Mormon with her. She is super cool! And very spiritual! So our day was really successful!
Saturday: Today was somewhat nerve-wracking. We weren't able to see that many people. It was a pretty rainy day so we tried to stay dry. We then got called to do service for a lady named Deborah, she needed our help to unload her U-haul truck into a storage unit. It was only Elder Jones and I, and another guy who wasn't super helpful haha. But Deborah wasn't even there. It was crazy. We did as much as possible but we had to leave pretty quickly because then we had stake conference. We unloaded most of the truck and then went as fast as we could to make it to stake conference. President and Sister Nakken, our mission president and his wife, spoke on how member missionary work is essential to getting convert baptisms. 85-90% of baptisms usually come from member referrals. They also counseled the members to 'open your mouth'. Especially when sharing the Gospel with a friend who isn't a member. The spirit will put words in your mouth to say what the person needs to hear. The Lord will be on your side and will magnify your testimony. So, just open your mouth and say what the spirit tells you, even if something weird is said the Lord will back you up and the spirit will testify to those you share with. It was a great stake conference. The next part of our night, we got to figure out what is happening for our transfers this next week. I am leaving Santa Barbara and heading down to Thousand Oaks. I am super excited! I love Santa Barbara but I know my time is up. T.O will be good!
Sunday: Our day at Stake Conference was great! Elder Miskin of the seventy spoke to us and gave such a powerful talk. He spoke about being in tune with the spirit and gave many examples of it. He helped me personally understand how I can be more of a service to others. One of the things he spoke about was how much you need to love people regardless of situation or condition. He said "Never let your love wax cold, because of the iniquities on the Earth." After stake conference we visited a few members, Buck Paulson and his wife are super cool, he is a really good artist. Santa Barbara members are really cool, I am gonna miss them!
-Elder Smith
