Hola familia y amigos!!
Real quick here's some things that I've seen more of the last month in California than I've ever seen in my life:
Hispanics (obviously), Homes with Solar panels, Priuses, Teslas, Astin-Martins, Maseratis, Bicyclists, and a few other things that I can't remember right now... It's just pretty funny to notice the differences between different parts of the country.
Monday: After having some appointments fall through we called Antonio to see if he was available and he was!! It was the first time in about 2-3 weeks we'd been able to visit him and we were even able to have a member with us for it! We had a good lesson about the Book of Mormon and re-asserted the soft baptismal commitment he accepted the last time we visited him. With him it's hard because he works until late just about everyday, so we can only see him at about 8:00 or 8:30 and so time to see him is soo limited. He's soo super awesome though! If we can get enough time with him I think he's totally prepared for the Gospel in his life.
Tuesday: We had Zone Mtg. which is like a district mtg. but just with the zone. We set goals for 15, 20, 23, and 25 baptisms in May, June, July, and Aug. respectively. Hopefully we can do our part to achieve them, and believe me we're working hard to do so! We also had a Zone Blitz where everybody goes with different companions and goes to one area. I went with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Anderson, and we all went to places in Novato. Elder Anderson and I didn't really find anybody, but I did get attacked by a dog! It was just a little one and it just nipped at my shoes and didn't do anything at all to me, but the dog was definitely pretty upset, and it made the owner feel pretty bad. Then we went on Exchanges and I went with Elder Fonseca to the other Spanish Elder's area. It was a really good afternoon and we had a great lesson with Angel, a 13 year old boy that they teach who's getting baptized next Sunday.
Wednesday: While still on Exchanges we went and taught another of their investigators, Byron, who has been coming to church, wants to be baptized, but just wants his wife to be ok with it before he is baptized. We had a good lesson about tithing with him. Then we exchanged back and we did a good bit of tracting in Canal. We found some good people, but haven't been able to have any return appointments with any of them yet. We got to see a few less actives later that day, but over all there wasn't a lot that was special today.
Thursday: We got to see Rudi and set up a Church Tour with him on Saturday, but he ended up not being able to go... and then the rest of the day was a bunch of appointments falling through... Not the best of days. We did find some good people tracting again, but haven't been able to see them again yet.
Friday: Mostly we helped a guy from the English ward move for a large part of the day until about 2:30 or so. He has a big house up on one of the hills with a great view of the bay, but that means it was almost as bad as if we were moving things out of the lake house. It's that steep, but just not as far from the house to where the truck was. That evening we did a bit of tracting and found a couple people that we've been able to see a second time. We were supposed to see Antonio, but he wasn't available that evening. The good news though is that he called us to tell us that, which means he remembered our appointment and was looking forward to it, otherwise he wouldn't have called us.
Saturday: The same person we helped Friday called us and needed more help and even though he said it would only take about 30 min. it ended up taking about 1-1/2 hours. We had a bunch of appointments, but again, most of them fell through. We're trying to figure out what we need to do to keep our appointments from falling through, but I think part of it is that some people just have no desire and so either give us a bogus time, or don't remember and end up doing something else. We had a few lessons, but they didn't go as well as we wanted them to. One was with a less active and one was with Maria Acanon who was one of the first people we found.
Sunday: We again didn't have any investigators come to Church, even the one, Alma (found her a couple weeks ago, but didn't get a lesson with her until while I was on transfers), who was super excited to come. We're trying to also figure out what we need to do different to get investigators to Church, but from what I've heard, that's the eternal struggle of missionary work.
A few notes aside from what I did this week:
Our investigator, Alex, who had a baptismal date told us he didn't have time right now to keep meeting with us. So he's no longer classified as one of our investigators, but as a "Former Investigator". Maybe sometime later we'll be able to go by and begin teaching him again.
Also, I just read the priesthood session talk that Pres. Monson gave and I think everybody should go read it. The four things he outlines are pretty much the same principles that every missionary use to have success as full time missionaries, but Pres. Monson applies them so well to members to be able to have success as member missionaries.
Real quick here's some things that I've seen more of the last month in California than I've ever seen in my life:
Hispanics (obviously), Homes with Solar panels, Priuses, Teslas, Astin-Martins, Maseratis, Bicyclists, and a few other things that I can't remember right now... It's just pretty funny to notice the differences between different parts of the country.
Monday: After having some appointments fall through we called Antonio to see if he was available and he was!! It was the first time in about 2-3 weeks we'd been able to visit him and we were even able to have a member with us for it! We had a good lesson about the Book of Mormon and re-asserted the soft baptismal commitment he accepted the last time we visited him. With him it's hard because he works until late just about everyday, so we can only see him at about 8:00 or 8:30 and so time to see him is soo limited. He's soo super awesome though! If we can get enough time with him I think he's totally prepared for the Gospel in his life.
Tuesday: We had Zone Mtg. which is like a district mtg. but just with the zone. We set goals for 15, 20, 23, and 25 baptisms in May, June, July, and Aug. respectively. Hopefully we can do our part to achieve them, and believe me we're working hard to do so! We also had a Zone Blitz where everybody goes with different companions and goes to one area. I went with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Anderson, and we all went to places in Novato. Elder Anderson and I didn't really find anybody, but I did get attacked by a dog! It was just a little one and it just nipped at my shoes and didn't do anything at all to me, but the dog was definitely pretty upset, and it made the owner feel pretty bad. Then we went on Exchanges and I went with Elder Fonseca to the other Spanish Elder's area. It was a really good afternoon and we had a great lesson with Angel, a 13 year old boy that they teach who's getting baptized next Sunday.
Wednesday: While still on Exchanges we went and taught another of their investigators, Byron, who has been coming to church, wants to be baptized, but just wants his wife to be ok with it before he is baptized. We had a good lesson about tithing with him. Then we exchanged back and we did a good bit of tracting in Canal. We found some good people, but haven't been able to have any return appointments with any of them yet. We got to see a few less actives later that day, but over all there wasn't a lot that was special today.
Thursday: We got to see Rudi and set up a Church Tour with him on Saturday, but he ended up not being able to go... and then the rest of the day was a bunch of appointments falling through... Not the best of days. We did find some good people tracting again, but haven't been able to see them again yet.
Friday: Mostly we helped a guy from the English ward move for a large part of the day until about 2:30 or so. He has a big house up on one of the hills with a great view of the bay, but that means it was almost as bad as if we were moving things out of the lake house. It's that steep, but just not as far from the house to where the truck was. That evening we did a bit of tracting and found a couple people that we've been able to see a second time. We were supposed to see Antonio, but he wasn't available that evening. The good news though is that he called us to tell us that, which means he remembered our appointment and was looking forward to it, otherwise he wouldn't have called us.
Saturday: The same person we helped Friday called us and needed more help and even though he said it would only take about 30 min. it ended up taking about 1-1/2 hours. We had a bunch of appointments, but again, most of them fell through. We're trying to figure out what we need to do to keep our appointments from falling through, but I think part of it is that some people just have no desire and so either give us a bogus time, or don't remember and end up doing something else. We had a few lessons, but they didn't go as well as we wanted them to. One was with a less active and one was with Maria Acanon who was one of the first people we found.
Sunday: We again didn't have any investigators come to Church, even the one, Alma (found her a couple weeks ago, but didn't get a lesson with her until while I was on transfers), who was super excited to come. We're trying to also figure out what we need to do different to get investigators to Church, but from what I've heard, that's the eternal struggle of missionary work.
A few notes aside from what I did this week:
Our investigator, Alex, who had a baptismal date told us he didn't have time right now to keep meeting with us. So he's no longer classified as one of our investigators, but as a "Former Investigator". Maybe sometime later we'll be able to go by and begin teaching him again.
Also, I just read the priesthood session talk that Pres. Monson gave and I think everybody should go read it. The four things he outlines are pretty much the same principles that every missionary use to have success as full time missionaries, but Pres. Monson applies them so well to members to be able to have success as member missionaries.