Monday 12/26/2016

In the morning we did a zone hike called Black Star. It took up all of our p day so never again. We got back to the church and did some emailing before dinner. We did our weekly planning that night since we didn't get a chance to before the week started.

Tuesday

We had a full day of finding people, but no one was home seemingly. Our dinner was with the Mannion family, they are a fun family. Brother Mannion showed us his train that he setup for Christmas, he is quite the collector of trains. We talked with them for a while about missions. We finished the night with a lesson with Pedro and Linda.

Wednesday

After studies we stopped by Walmart to get something. We got a call while there from a companionship in Placentia. We then were notified or volutold that we had a service in 15 minutes. So we hurried out of the store after purchasing our items. We got there and find out the woman we were helping didn't live in our area. We helped her unload the few furniture items that she needed in the little room she was renting. We got in the car to realize I didn't have my iPad. So we went back to the store and the result of checking camera footage was it was stolen off of a checkout sadly. That killed our missionary efforts for the day.

Thursday

Unable to recall what happened for most of the day. We did have a lesson with Brother Wright and it went really well. He came to the realization he needs to start taking action in his progression.

Friday

We were able to do our weekly planning.

Saturday

In the morning I had a interview with President for the stolen iPad. He approved that I could get a new device. Then we talked until more people came to the mission home. We spent the rest of the day finding. We talked with Joshua about reading from the Book of Mormon, he decided he is busy right now and for us to come back in a month. The Walkers took us to dinner at Honda sushi before we had to head in early for the holiday.

Sunday

The meeting times for the wards swapped so we are the first in the building now. We helped setup chairs in the cultural hall before sacrament meeting. Our dinner was with Bishop Watkins and his family. The Sisters brought beanboozald a game were you have the chance of eating bad flavored jellybeans.

Monday 1/2/2017

Most all of the planned pday activities fell through due to the observation on new years. We did go to the blaze pizza as a district and we got introduced to a new game called death ball. Death ball is where one group is on the stage and one isn't, then the one on the stage throws tennis balls at the one group as they try to get a cross the gym. We played pivot after death ball. We had dinner with brother Haddock. Then we wrapped up our night.

Tuesday

In the morning we had a service at Brother Schwartz house with the Sisters. We helped him take down all of his Christmas decorations. After our service we took the car to Placentia to get it fixed. We got a ride back to the mission office from Elder Beddes/Jones. We were stuck at the mission office for a while waiting on a car that we could use while ours was in the shop. Once we got a car we headed to El Chef for dinner with the Dean's. At the end of our night we exchanged with Elder Beddes/Jones. I stayed in the area with Elder Beddes. I was up for the challenge of going through an exchange without using technology due to a lack of an iPad. So we used all paper.

Wednesday

After studies we went out finding. We talked with this women that had dementia. That is kind of sad to talk to someone then they will not remember what you said to them. There was a good amount of people out and about for us to talk to. The day continued to go very well, we were able to teach a Spanish woman then we referred her to the Spanish missionaries. We were able to have a very effective day. We exchanged back at the end of the night.

Thursday

We were able to go and pickup our car from Placentia after district meeting. We had dinner with the Larkins and had a good discussion on the influence of prayer. At the end of the night we had a ward mission meeting to get all of the activities planned for the year.

Friday

We finished studies and I answered the phone it was some other missionaries in the zone saying they got a call from our leasing office and to go check the car. So we went out to check the car. We found the car doors all open and pretty much everything cleaned out of the inner car. They even tried taking the monitoring device that logs driving off the car. So we made all of the proper calls to get things taken car of, then went to service at stop hunger now with the district. We built quite the cardboard fort while packing cardboard. Lunch at subway then we finished up. We headed to the mission office to get new paperwork and stuff for the car that was stolen.

Saturday

We did some finding in the morning the first house we knocked on was a members house. We knocked and we hear a man say go away from inside so we turn to leave. A women then answers the door and yells for us to leave. That is just one of the more memorable doorstep experiences. We continued finding until district lunch at Bruxies. At Bruxies they make sandwiches in waffles it is the bold fold. We then exchanged and I went with Elder Jones since Elder Beddes was sick. I got to go to a lesson with a women that has a good story. She works at the university in the area teaching a comparative religious literature class. She uses the Book of Mormon and the Bible in her class. Through her teaching she has found the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. She has also had many students come to that knowledge too. The concern she has is she can't join the church because she would no longer be able to use the Book of Mormon in class. She is now thinking it is time to join. We then exchanged back later in the evening.

Sunday

In the morning we had ward council. It is fun when you have to wake up earlier than 6:30. It was a good fast Sunday. We taught about our heavenly family in gospel principles. There was a lot of really great conversation. We then talked about the restoration in elders quorum. After church we hit the apartment and got some rest before dinner with the Brewridges. They are talkers. We got to hear about their experience living in the California desert. We went back and did weekly planning till the end of the night.

Challenge

Well there has been quite a few challenges to our work for these two weeks. The key to dealing with most things is not letting it effect the work I believe. It sounds simple to me, but we are all different some have more patience than others. I think my companion learned patience from these experiences. He seemed to be very troubled with it, but I think he learned. I tend to enjoy a nice challenge every once in a while it brings growth. I did learn to keep even closer watch over the things I carry. It turns out one of the things they stole from the car is a Book of Mormon. We can hope they take a look at it and maybe even read it. I do pray for their welfare.

We often don't know why things go the way that they do. We just need to remember that there is only so many things that we can truly control. We often don't know what our father in heaven has in store for us. We need to remember that we all are given challenges and we are given them for a reason. It may not seem like it at the moment when we are asking why is this happening to me. Usually after we are able to look back and go well I'm thankful for that experience or I learned this thing. If we try to remember that maybe this is happening for a reason, but I know not why at this time, it can maybe make it a little easier.

I'm always reminded of this classic talk about the currant bush by Elder Hugh B. Brown. When thinking of challenges and God's will for us.