#Halfway Mark!

June 12-18

Monday:  It was a crazy p-day, we were a little out of our normal p-day routine because we got our hair cuts and they took like 3 hours...IDK why LOL.  Then we ran home and hurried to pack a night/day bag for exchanges.  Then we drove 1.5 hours to Pismo, we got Wendy's for dinner on the way haha.

Tuesday:  I was with Sister Scott.  I have always wanted to be her comp, but this is the closest we'll ever get because she goes home June 28 🙁 We spent the day walking around and just enjoying being a missionary!  We met a pastor and he gave us some water and prayed for our future husbands. It was slightly awkward, haha.

Wednesday:  We had a lesson with out investigator Davis.  We taught him about the 10 commandments and CPR (church, prayer, reading)  It went really well!  He's super excited for his baptism in August!  Then we had a lesson with Chris, our returning member.  It also went really well, he's super awesome!

Thursday:  Today we planned for our upcoming week and had interviews with our Mission President.  It was super sad because it's our last one with him (He goes home June 29th aka my birthday🙁) But I'm sure gonna miss President Felix!

Friday:  IT'S SISTER COOKS 20th BIRTHDAY!!!💖 We had district meeting and I had to give a talk on the importance of reading the Book of Mormon everyday. (It's important, DO IT!😊)  Then we celebrated for Sister Cooks bday with horchata and Chic-Fil-a! YUM!

Saturday:  Today was super fun!  We got to go to the BEACH for a ward party! YAY! We made sure to walk along the water, well as close to it as we could with out getting in, haha, but yeah.  It ended up being super fun.

Sunday:  We had a lesson with our investigator J Michael on the word of wisdom and law of chastity. It went from 1 hour - 3 hours pf discussing, but all in all it was good!
HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!💗
Oh and also, my 1/2 mark was Sunday! CRAZY!

Face masks and a Baptism!

June 5-12

Monday: Today was super fun!  We did your average p-day activities such as laundry, shopping, putting gas in the car, etc. Then for our district activity we went to the church and played more sports.  (If you can't tell the elders are always in charge😊) Then 2 elders came up to us and asked where the facemarks were.   (we suggested that everyone did a facemark as a joke, but yes, we still brought them in case)  We told them we weren't serious about them, but they insisted SO we they all (6) played down in a row and we put face masks on them. THEY LOVED IT! lol.  We died laughing!  We didn't even of one, we had to take pics!

Tuesday:  We had lunch with a member at the Habit, that's everyones favorite place to take us, haha.  Then we had a lesson with a less active member and showed her "The Music of the Gospel" mormon message.  Nothing else happened. 

Wednesday:  Today we tried to track some people down, then we had a lesson with a returning member, his name is Chris, he's super awesome.  It was so cool, he came back to church this Sunday! We shared the story called "The Gift Uneaten" Its a really cool story about the Atonement of Jesus Christ #lookitup

Thursday:  Again, nothing too crazy.  We just planned for our upcoming week and tried to of find people to teach.  

Friday:  We had a district meeting and it was the Clarks (SR couple) last time because they're going home on Tuesday.  So they took everyone to lunch at a place called Freeboards, then we had a discussion on the talk "Certain Women" from general conference.  After, we were waling around Isla Vista and handed out a few copies of the Book of Mormon.  Then we talk to a homeless man and bought him a subway sandwich and talked with him for about an hour.  Then off to find more souls to teach.  

Saturday:  NICK GOT BAPTISED! And we got permission to go!  So we spent the day in Westlake/Thousand Oaks, with all my favorite people!  Nick was seriously glowing.  He was SO surprised that I was there that he cried.  It was super cute.  The Golden Chicken Nugget is official baked.  He fits right into the ward and LOVES the gospel so much.  

Sunday:  Today was so good too!  We had an amazing lesson with our investigator J Michael, and....set him with a baptismal date of September 24, 2017.  (he picked the date)  We covered SO MUCH it was cool!  God truly is preparing people each and every day! I am so grateful that I get to be a missionary and help God in this work!

YSA in a nutshell:

I hold you & bless it

May 29-June 4

Monday:  So today was fill of adventures!  We went and bought matching Santa Barbara shirts.  (they're super cute BTW!) Then for district activity we played basketball and chair soccer.  We played for 5 hours, yeah I was super winded....then for FHE we also played chair soccer and during the LAST game @ 8:30 pm I sprained my ankle and couldn't walk on it.  #accidentprone
Then we went home and had to call the mission nurse and she said I needed to find crutches...luckily in my last apartment there were some in the closet, so we found a way to get them down, or up to Santa Barbara.

Tuesday: We had like 3 appointments.  Our investigator Davis sent himself with a baptism date for August 17.   We were so excited! He originally didn't want to be baptized for another 5-6 years!  Then we had a lesson with a returning member.  He told us "Overtime you girls come over, the sun comes out"  (the past 2 weeks we've gone over it rained before we got there) and he shared that he's always in a bad mood until we get there, then he feels better.  So that's comforting that we made a difference in his life.  Then we had an appointment with a potential.

Wednesday: We also had 2 appointments! One with a potential who shared that she wants to be baptized! WOW! Then we had an appointment with a less active, but it got cancelled so we went home for lunch, while there we got a call from a member saying "there's a girl at the institute, will you come here?"  Puzzled, so we went anyway and he was right, there was a girl there and she was crying, so we took her to the library in the institute. She shared that her BFF was a member of our church, passed away in a car accident today and she didn't know who to come to, so she decided she wanted to meet with the missionaries (she's not a member) We then taught her about the Plan of Salvation and emphasized that Spirit world and told her what her friend was doing and where.  It was super powerful, then the institute president gave her a priesthood blessing and she said she wants to come to church.  It was amazing.

Thursday: Nothing exciting, just weekly planning.

Friday: OOOOkay.  Friday was strange...We and the Zone leaders had a lesson with a man, he saw my ankle and asked if he could pray for it! I said sure.  He asked if he could hold me while he prayed, we all said NO.  Then he gave this demanding prayer that it would be healed...nothing happened #awkward.  Then he spent an hour trying to bible bash.  We all just kept testifying of the truth of our message/the Book of Mormon.  The he said (in his prayer) I pray that these missionaries FAIL in all their missionary efforts and that no one would listen to them.  That they can come to know the real truth.  #awkward!  He said he'll keep praying like that until he hears that mormon missionaries are no more... Friday night we made the elders give us a blessing.  LOL.

Saturday:  We found the CUTEST dutch town in our area, Solvang and proselyted there all day.

Sunday:  Today was awesome.  We had church and one investigator came! YAY! Then we went to a baby shower for an investigator and they feed us real Mexican tacos and horchata (I 💖 that stuff) All of it.  Then dinner at the institute.  We also had a lesson with a potential named J Michael.  It was cool, he became a new investigator! YAY! '

Twas a crazy week my friends, CRAZY!

Have you ever seen a Bat swim?

May 22-28

Day 230: Today was such a sad day! It was my last P-DAY in Westlake/Thousand Oaks area.  For FHE, we played softball, which was way fun.  Then I had to say goodbye to the ward for the last time! 🙁  Johnny Mitchell, the ward mission leader, gave me big hammer that has WLV YSA welded on it! (WestLake Village YSA)

Day 231:  Transfer day! I had to say goodbye to Sister B! Which is sad because she goes home in 5 weeks.  (We have a 5 week transfer this transfer) My new companion is Sister Cook.  She's from South Jordan, UT! And we are serving in Santa Barbara, baby! We had a session with a recent convert.  He got baptized when Sister Dye and Hardy were comps here.  (My 1st and 2nd comps!)  He's awesome, he taught us about temples and family history, and eternal families.  Then were traced around Isla Vista, aka, parties on basically EVERY corner/street, cuz UCSB.  LoL, this should her fun. Then we had institute.  

Day 232:  Today we taught our first lesson together! IT WENT SO WELL!  We taught prayer and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and committed him to pray about a baptism date.  Then we went and saw some people and had another institute class.  One member showed us a video of a bat swimming.  IDK, YSA's are weird!🙂

Day 233:  Today we planned for the week.  Had a lesson with a returning member about the General Conference talk "Confide in God unwaveringly"  It went well.  We had some appointments cancel so we walked around Isla Visa. 

Day 234:  Today we met as a district for district meeting, then we had district lunch.  Sister Cook and I made waffles for everyone.  

Day 235:  We had lunch with a member at Chipotle.  We reprinted a ward list so we had an updated copy! It's very helpful, LOL.  But nothing huge happened..oh..some man tried to Bible bash us, so that was interesting. 

Day 236:  Today was my 1st day at church in Santa Barbara.  I had to give a talk.  (BOO) Haha, J/K it went well.  We had a lessons on the Holy Ghost which is a pretty good topic.  Then we visited a few potentials and one became a new investigator! All in all, it's been a great week in the "Murder Capital of the World"  

one last FHE with the westlake ysa ward :(

one of the members put this on his snapchat story.... BOOOOOOO!

this is Kayla, she always came up to moorpark college with us to talk to the students!

BISHOP MONTAGUE!!!!  hes the nicest human. basically, hes the human version of a hug!

This is Johnny Mitchell. the Ward mission leader! he gave me a hammer with WLV YSA welded on it!

AHHHHHH BYE SISTER BESENDORFER! TAKE CARE OF OUR GOLDEN CHICKEN NUGGET!!!!

FIRST NIGHT IN SANTA BARBARA WITH SISTER COOK!!!

First lunch together. awe precious!

also, ice cream! YUM!

MIRROR PIC! 

hahaha awkward selfie!

this is Jake Walden. the one with the snapchat story!

Santa Barbara Bound!

May 15-21

Day 223:  P-DAY! Well, we had a color war for our P-DAY activity and then played frisky after.  For FHE we had a lesson on the Holy Ghost.  Our investigator came and loved it!  He's loving the people in the ward and really soaking up the Gospel!

Day 224: Today was good! We did, well, I did mormon.org time while Sister B did my plan.  Then we partied at Moorpark College and talked to all the kids there.  Institute was good, we haven't been to the tuesday night one in a while, but since our investigator wanted to of, we went with him!  Again...HE LOVED IT! He participated in the discussion and is basically already a member.

Day 225: We did service today and basically cleaned until our arms fell off.  The, you guessed it, Moorpark College contacting for most of the day.  Institute at night and our investigator didn't come because he got held up at work. 🙁

Day 226: Moorpark, Moorpark, Moorpark! But no one wanted to talk to us today because of Graduation...we didn't know it was today, LOL. We had 3 sessions today.  1 with a former investigator who is now re-investigating.  1 potential investigator.  1 with our current investigator, and.......WE COMMITTED HIM TO BAPTISM! He said yes, he's getting baptized June 10th! and then a missionary meeting.

Day 227:  Today we planned for the coming week, had our last district meeting.  And yeah that took over the whole day and studies.

Day 228:  Today we had a lesson with a potential who ended up trying to convert us to his religion.  Then we went chalking and drew "The Plan of Salvation"  at a park and talked to people about it!  Then a member took us to Red Robin, YUM.  Then we booted at the Mall and 2 people walked up and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon, Wowza!
Then transfer calls...Sister B is staying for her last transfer and I am getting kicked out of Westlake 🙁 I'm going to Santa Barbara YSA with Sister Cook!  And...I have to be the driver...AH! I don't know how to be a Cali Driver! 🚗

Day 229: Today I had to say goodbye to people and break the news to our investigator that I am leaving.  But he came to church again! And came to a Fireside.  It was a cool one, Brady Popping spoke.  He was on the Green Bay Packers team when they won the Super Bowl!  We had dinner at Bishops and man it's gonna be so hard to leave this ward.  But I'll be back June 10 for a baptism!

jumping for joy cuz we SET OUR INVESTIGATOR WITH A BAPTISM DATE!!!

this is how we feel about the dab.... (top left corner)

 awkward zone picture. and the lighting was terrible. and elder ameny was a little late..

saying goodbye to the ward :(((((((((((((( this is Darren. one of the ward missionaries that would always help us! dont mind his bald head. its cuz hes going to firefighter training haha

random selfie

us, nick, and Brady Poppinga. he played for the greenbay packers... and that giant thing on his finger is his superbowl ring....

OUR INVESTIGATOR NICK!!!!! AHHHHH I DONT WANT TO LEAVE THIS AREA!

WE GOT A SCOOKIE!!! IT WAS SOOOOOOO GOOD! #treatyoself