week 52 - Faith Requires Action

Monday 10/24/2016 

In the morning we went out and did some tasks that needed completed. We picked up Elder Sparacino/Lee and went to the Redwood park. We walked around till it was time to hit Pday activity. We played a round of sock soccer, before people showed up to play volleyball. Sister Despain gave Elder Rubio and I a haircut. We left with Elder Sparacino/Lee and grabbed some dinner before we dropped them off. We used the little time left in the night to do a little finding. 

Tuesday 

After studies and lunch we went out and did some finding. We hit up a blood drive at the church and got some free food. We were able to see Brother Manning and share a message with him and check on how he is doing. We headed to dinner with the Remington's. Brother Remington's sister was in town so we met her and had a fun time. After dinner we went to see Daniel. We taught him the word of wisdom after he finished his cigarette. He took it very well and knows that he needs to quit, so we are hoping he will be able to work through it. We recommitted him to come to church and setup the logistics. We tried Al before the end of the night, but he wasn't home again. 

Wednesday 

We had service in the morning. The service was with Elder Sparacino/Lee for an investigator of theirs. We helped clean up the backyard for awhile then went and grabbed some Wendy's after. While we were at Wendy's we saw the police bust down the bathroom door and bring out a homeless woman. She was probably under the influence of something. We dropped them off then went out finding. We where able to see Leo. We taught Leo the importance of scripture study. We did more finding until our late dinner with the Daltons. Sister Dalton's brother was over so we shared the restoration with him. He didn't really show interest and wasn't listening fully. We invited him to read and prey to know if it is true. We headed back in for the night once we left the Daltons. 

Thursday 

We had district meeting. We discussed daily Repentance and continuing to be progressing missionaries. We should always make sure we are trying to improve everyday. We talked about daily contact with our investigators. Daily contact is important, every convert I have taught I had daily contact before baptism. It keeps people on track to have those daily reminders. After district meeting we did the usual grab then gather. We dropped off Elder Sparacino/Lee and went out to find people. Dinner was at Elder Sparacino/Lee's, we brought the food and they cooked it. After we did some finding.

Friday

After we finished weekly planning we went out hunting. We weren't able to catch anyone. It seemed like everyone we tried to see had moved. So we are able to clear some names up. We hit Chick-fil-A to grab something to eat since we weren't going to have dinner for a while. We helped setup for the ward fall party. It was a big success, they had quite a few people to talk to that members invited. They had a chili cook off, too bad I didn't enter the contest. After we helped take down everything so we spent some time in the bounce house before we left. 

Saturday 

We had a morning meeting with Brother Larson. We finished up the presentation for the fifth Sunday discussion. We had a quick lunch before we went to see Nyle, but he wasn't home unfortunately. It seemed that no one was home that we went to see. We kept trying people till dinner time. After dinner we stopped by to see Daniel and remind him of church and to setup a ride. He was setting it up to not come so hopefully he will not be sick in the morning. We tried to go and remind Alex about church, but he was out biking in the dark. We were able to catch a few people before the end of the night and setup a few soft return appointments. We crashed a Halloween party while finding I thought about going in to eat some of their food and stuff (they offered). Elder Rubio was resistant and it probably wouldn't have been a wise use of our time. 

Sunday 

Morning ward council before church. Daniel didn't come to church which was expected unfortunately. We led a discussion in the third block, on the importance of missionary work, focusing on the members and their role with the spirit. Our dinner was with the Mangisi  family. After dinner we helped Brother Larson give a blessing to Brother Munez. We went to see Chris which is were the night died. We talked with him for a long while about the restoration. He just couldn't see the fact why he needed to pray about the Book of Mormon. He made the claim many times to be a seeker of truth, but doesn't truly want to exercise his faith. So we left a Book of Mormon with him to read and pray about. We are planning on following up next week, but the concern with Chris is he will not receive an answer unless he truly exercises his faith. 

Faith Requires Action 

So Chris had me thinking about faith. There are some that don't truly know what faith is. Well what is it? Alma tells us about faith “If ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma 32:21). Faith is not just something that can be stagnant, with faith comes action. There is something that comes with that action. What comes with the action is power, we can see throughout the scriptures the power of faith. There are many instances were the exercise of faith brought forth mighty miracles. If we exercise our faith in Jesus Christ, we can have the strength to do his will and accomplish the things he wants us to do. Faith is a motivating force that can help us to progress and bring us closer to our Savior. So continue to exercise your faith on a daily basis through the simple things. We must keep our spiritual muscles strong to show gratitude to our Father in Heaven. 

 Some pictures in the redwood park. We are planning on using them for the release of our new album The Woods on Pday coming out next year.

Week 51

Monday 10/17/2016

In the morning we gave Elder Gentry a ride to go pick up his laundry. I made Elder Sparacino breakfast while Elder Fisher went with Elder Rubio to a doctor appointment. We gave Elder Kuehne/Gentry a ride to the mission office to drop off their luggage and to take care of other departure stuff. We went to P Day activity, they played volleyball. It wasn't that great, it was a transfer day. We picked up dinner from the Olsen family. We stopped by and picked up our stuff from Elder Kuehne/Gentry's and then headed back to eat dinner. Finished the night with some finding. 

Tuesday 

In the morning we went to the mission office to go see the departure of Elder Kuehne, Elder Gentry, Sister Johnston and others. We went and stopped by the hospital so Elder Rubio could see the Mission Nurse after studies. We had to get a few things before lunch. After lunch we went out to do finding, we weren't able to see anyone. We had dinner with the Hansen family. We did finding for the rest of the night with no contacts. We stopped by the zone leaders apartment when we got back. 

Wednesday   

After studies and lunch we went out. We decided we wanted to walk for the whole day. We weren't able to get any street contacts while walking. We weren't sure if we should go see the Trasports at the bottom of our area. We had the strong feeling we should go, so we did. We were able to catch them home finally after two transfers of trying to catch them. We setup an appointment for Friday since they were expecting a guest. We tried some more people before we headed to dinner with the Powell's. After dinner we stopped by the Sanders to get some water. Then we saw Daniel and he is going through a hard time which prompted him to want to come to church. We are going to see him again on Friday. Then we walked back home. 

Thursday 

We are having the mission tour this week and Elder Carl B. Cook of the seventy came. He actually spoke in general conference this month and gave a talk titled Serve. It was a good meeting we discussed the topic of our mission motto, the Atonement, helping our investigators repent and many more great things. He shared an experience of Elder Russell M. Nelson telling him that the only thing he thinks of during the Sacrament, is Christ. We gave Elder Nelson/Bauman a ride back to their apartment after stopping by Joe's. We picked up our dinner from Sister Larson's. We had a meeting with the Bishop so the sisters could meet him. After our meeting we went by the Remington's home to let him know what happened with transfers. Brother Remington is currently going through withdrawal, since he is no longer ward mission leader. We tried to catch Alex home but he was busy and that ended our night. 

Friday 

In the morning after studies we had a service in the Brea hills ward. We helped move a older couple into a new apartment. It was a pretty easy move, it took longer waiting for them to get the keys to the apartment. The Elders went to Tony's pizza after for lunch. We went back to the Trasports just as they were leaving to go somewhere. Hopefully we will be able to get something solid with them set. We were able to get some background on them which helped. We had a quick dinner then went back out. We caught Daniel, but he wasn't able to meet with us. We finished the night finding. 

Saturday 

In the morning we had a breakfast missionary meeting with brother Larson. We planned to weekly plan after, but we found that our Area Book was gone. The app that has all of our vital information on the people we see had decided to clear everything. So we made some phone calls to see if we could get a quick resolve. There was no quick fix and we had to wait for people to get back to us. We had lunch with Elder Hugie/Boyle and got some Joe's. Did some finding till it was time to pick up Elder Sparacino/Lee for Stake conference. Elder Gary K. Wilde of the fifth quorum of the seventy attended the conference. The session focused on family councils, and missionary centered efforts. President and Sister Taggart spoke which is always good to see. We stopped President to see if we could get some action on our messed up Area Book, since we had heard nothing back. We dropped off Elder Sparacino/Lee then headed back in. 

Sunday 

President texted us in the morning, he pushed some buttons to attempt to fix our Area Book. It worked mostly. We gave Elder Sparacino/Lee a ride to Stake conference. I think we will be giving a lot of rides this transfer to Elder Sparacino/Lee. A member walked up to me as if she knew me and said hello upon arriving at Stake conference. My response was "I don't know you" not in a mean way, I didn't know her. She then explains she was in the same ward many years ago. So we got a picture for Mom. There was a lot of great talks given. Elder Wilde shared a story of a family being sealed that was powerful. Elder Wilde also shared a story of his orphan Shepard grandfather that was converted in the Middle East. The group of converts in the area left for Salt Lake and he stayed. The group eventually realized he didn't come, so they sent for him to come join them. We as members can't forget those orphaned brother and sisters. We had another meeting with Brother Larson to get ready for the fifth Sunday discussion. We went back and did some fixing of our Area Book. We had dinner with Brother Macefee he is a great cook and always makes sure we are satisfied. We ended the night by picking up some laundry that we are going to do for some other Elders. 

Not a lot of pictures this week. I got killed by a vampire robot kitty on Sunday. 

Week 50

Monday 10/9/2016 

In the morning we exchanged to go on a hike with most of the zone. I went with Elder Kuehne. After the hike we all went to Costco for lunch. Everyone met back up at the church after a while for pday activity. The sisters put together an amazing race for the zone which was pretty fun. Elder Sparacino has been having a car prank war with the Anaheim 10 sisters. So we helped sticky note their car at pday activity. We had dinner with the sisters and Elder Kuehne/Gentry at Marie Calendars that was the end of our night.

Tuesday 

In the morning we went over to the YL3 apartment so we could carpool to Mary's. After Mary's they dropped us off we went back to the apartment then changed. We did finding till it was time for dinner. Dinner was with the Bremer family. They had us playing guess this scent with Doterra oils. We hit Joe's ice at the end of the night with Elder Nelson/Boman and Elder Russel/Sparto.

Wednesday 

We had president interviews around noon we grabbed some Chick-fil-A for lunch. After Elder Kuehne/Gentry stopped by to use our lab. We did finding before dinner at the Underhills. We tried a few more people before seeing Elder Sparacino and Fisher at the end of the night.

Thursday 

We had district meeting in the morning we discussed working with members. We came up with ideas to help members get more involved in their missionary efforts. We had a comprehensive photo shoot, since it was the last district meeting before the end of the transfer. We did a zone grab then gather for lunch. After lunch we went to the mission office to pick somethings up, then headed back. We had dinner with bishop Paulson and his family. We stopped by the church and helped setup for a flu shot drive that will happen. We did a little finding before the end of the night and stopped by the zone leader apartment to end the night. 

Friday 

We had a service in the morning in the Brea hills area. They had a group of missionaries helping to setup a annual school carnival. We were there for a few hours moving, building and etc to setup. They got us some pizza for lunch. We finished up and then picked up Elder Kuehne and Gentry to drive them to a few places. We did some finding before dinner with the Rykieslys. After dinner we tried to go to a lesson but it fell through so we did finding instead. 

Saturday

After studies we went out to do some finding. We had lunch with Elder Kuehne/Gentry at Alohas. We helped them clean their place out in preparation of them going home. We headed to dinner with the Thompsons at Red Robin for sister Johnstons last dinner with them. We did a little finding before we ended the night at Sonic. We met with the sisters and Elder Kuehne/Gentry for transfer calls. We found out Elder Rubio and I will stay another six weeks. So we are pumped.

Sunday 

We had ward council in the morning. We went back to the apartment before church started. They had some good talks during sacrament meeting. I led the discussion in gospel principles on eternal families. After church we had dinner with the Medina family. We went back and did our weekly planning for the week. That is what finished the night. 

Week 49

Monday 10/3/2016

In the morning we stopped by the hospital to go see the mission nurse. We picked up Elder Hugie from the zone leaders apartment then went and got some breakfast/lunch. We dropped Elder Hugie off. Then Elder Kuehne/Gentry came and picked us up. We went to the mall so they could get somethings before pday activity. At pday activity they played volleyball. I played the guitar and made songs for people. We did some shopping before dinner. 

Tuesday 

In the morning after studies I had a appointment to pick up some glasses. After the appointment we picked up Elder Russell and Sparto to go to Sam's club. We grabbed lunch at Chick-fil-A. We stopped by Elder Nelson/Bomans apartment before we went to Joe's. We dropped them off and went to dinner with the Mierua family. We went to see Daniel but he wanted us to come back the next day. We stopped by the church before we headed back to the apartment. 

Wednesday 

In the morning we went out and did some finding we weren't able to catch anyone. Our finding continued till dinner. We had dinner with the Remington's at pick up stix, which was fun. We tried some more people before Daniel. Daniel wasn't available again so we will have to try to catch him again. 

Thursday 

In the morning we had district meeting. We focused on commitments and extending them boldly and effectively. We did a zone grab then gather so we got Chick-fil-A again, it is too good. We got back to the church to find out Elder Rubio forgot his I pad so we went back. The member that works there grabbed and knew who's it was. After lunch we went back to the apartment and did some cleaning for apartment inspections. We passed as always, it is claimed we have the cleanest elder apartment. We went to dinner with Brady Trumbo, he took us to a sushi place. It was a all you can eat place, they served in three rounds like it was a fighting match. So we ate a lot of sushi for a good price too. After dinner we saw Alex and Brother Larsen came. We taught the plan of salvation and committed him to come to church. After we picked up Elder Kuehne and Gentry. Then went to Joe's to meet the new Samoan Elder, that ended the night. 

Friday 

In the morning we went to work out at the church. We then helped the Remington's setup for a funeral. We went back and had our studies and did our weekly planning Elder Hamby or now Johnathan texted to meet up. So we met up with him at the church building. We met the whole family and took a few pictures. We went to Anaheim and got Joe's with Elder Russell and Sparto. We headed to dinner with the Padilla family which is where we ended the night. We exchanged with Elder Hugie and Durant. I went to Elder Durants area.

Saturday 

In the morning we went out finding. We had no luck. We stopped by the Placentia parade that was going on. We saw some members at the parade then went back for lunch. After lunch we went out to find more people still no one. We stopped by the church and got some stuff from the zone leaders. We saw Elder Kuehne and Gentry while there setting up for a baptism. We did more finding up till dinner time. After dinner we did more finding till we exchanged back at the end of the night. 

Sunday 

In the morning we had ward council, then we went back to the apartment before church. We had a great time at church Al wasn't able to make it to church. After church we had dinner with the Trumbo family. We did some finding before we went back to the apartment. Elder Kuehne and Gentry stopped by at the end of the night. 

Week 48

Monday 9/26/2016 

 It wasn't our pday since we will be going to the temple on Friday. We had our usual morning routine. Elder Rubio was still sick so he rested for a long while. Elder Hugie/ Durant came by and we got some lunch. We had a lesson with the Castros in the evening, but they were not home again. We are getting ready to drop them if it continues like this. We did some finding and grabbed dinner at Elder Sparacino/Fishers apartment. That finished the night. 

Tuesday 

We did finding in the morning. We had to go to the mission office for our car. We stopped by Joe's ice on the way back Elder Westover/Masoy were there. We got stuck in traffic on the way back. Our dinner was at the soup planation with the Thompsons which was fun as always. After dinner we had a lesson with Daniel. We were able to put him on baptismal date. The lesson went long and it ended our night. 

Wednesday 

In the morning after studies we went out to do some finding. After lunch we went to the tire shop to get new tires on the car. We were able to have a lesson with Brother Manning. We talked about general conference with him and getting prepared. We did some finding before dinner. Our dinner was with the Daltons it was a good time. We ended the night at their home. 

Thursday 

In the morning we had zone training, we focused on commitments. After zone training we had a grab then gather so we split, got some lunch and then met back up. We were there for a while playing games. We had dinner with the Mieravs and we were there for a while. We tried to see Alex, but he wasn't home. We headed back in to get ready for the temple trip. 

Friday 

Temple 

We woke up early to meet up with some missionaries to get some pictures before our session. After our session we did the usual photo shoot that follows. We grabbed some lunch at cafe Rio. We got back and our apartment had been treated for bugs. We forgot that it was going to get treated since our neighbors got bugs. We went in ignoring the sign to get our stuff for the rest of the day. We went to the church where we had pday activity. We played sock soccer, we also played pivot when most of the people left. We picked up dinner from the Underhills. Elder Rubio forgot his iPad so the sisters dropped it off. 

Saturday 

We woke up and went to the morning session of conference we didn't have anyone come sadly. We went out and got lunch with a group of missionaries at a Japanese place. Then Headed back to the church. After the second session we hung around till the priesthood session our ward elders quorum provided pizza but non of the quorum members were there so all the missionaries ate it. The group of missionaries that watched priesthood session went to yogurt land then went back to the church. We fixed a USB port in one of the cars at the end of the night.

Sunday 

We had the morning session of general conference. In between the sessions the zone met up at the Anderson's house for lunch. After lunch we headed back to the church to finish the last session. I really enjoyed the conference, there was a few talks that really stuck out. We had dinner at the apartment, then stopped by Elder Gentry/Keenes apartment. We did some finding to finish the night. 

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