Well.... that's a wrap folks

March 4 - 11

This week was full of everything you can think of when it comes to missionary work! It was the slowest yet fastest week. Every emotion was felt and good times were had! 

Monday: Well today we spent dinner with one of our favorite people! That's right, CLAY!!! and boooooy do we have some good stories to share! First a GIANT moth, the size of a humming bird, comes outta no where and Clay's dad proceeds to try and catch it while chasing it around the house. As this is happening Clay tells us a story from last week when they caught one and tied a fishing wire to it and flew it around the living room like a kite!! (We saw videos....I kid you not, it's real 😂) we are all enjoying a nice dinner of meatloaf when you hear "look, dudes. (his dad calls us dudes) if you are ever in survival mode and all you have is a Cheeto and a few matches, light the Cheeto on fire. It will burn 10x longer than the match" shocked by this random comment we say "really?" He then laughs and goes to the kitchen. When he comes out he has a giant cheeto lit on fire..... he looks memorized at the flame and says "I didn't think this would actually work..... I thought it would just blow up the cheeto." Oh and I can't forget our dessert, ice cream sandwiches chopped up into cubes and served on a silver platter! 
After dinner we had FHE where we played human battleship. 

Tuesday: Wallllllk dayyyyyyyyy!!!! We did lots and lots of walking and lots and lots of talking which led to lots and lots of referrals sent out to the family ward missionaries😄😄 oh!!! And Sister Brockbank hit 6 months today! 🎉.....I literally almost forgot the BEST part of the day.... We had a lesson with our sweet investigator Ande. At the end of our lesson she asked us "Sisters, how soon can I get baptized?" We responded with whenever you feel ready. She whips out her phone to look at a calendar and says. "Can I get baptized on the 24th of March?" Ahhhh that's in like 2 weeks!! Golden I tell ya, golden. 

Wednesday: Not gonna lie.....I have no idea what happened today....

Thursday: Oh boy. Today was a day. It started off with some good boothing. Buuuuuut during boothing we had some man come up and yell at us for a solid 20 minutes for being ignorant and stupid. So that put a little damper in our day. Some girl scouts saw what happened and came and gave us free girl scout cookies. 💕 So that turned our day back around! 

Friday: Luckily we didn't forget about district meeting today! So that was a miracle in itself. We then went to chic-fil-a with the Hermanas for lunch. After that we did our weekly planning which takes forrrrrevvvvvver on week 6. We then had to go to the mission office and while we were there the assistants showed us the transfer board so we know what's going on with basically everyone in the mission a day before they do. That's the one perk of going home hahaha they let you in on all the little secrets Hahaha. Then dinner with Cody. We then went to one of my recent converts house in Ventura and talked with him for a bit. It was good to see him again. Then sports night! While everyone played basketball we messed around with a very very flat ball haha. 

Saturday: Today was the faaaaastest day of the week! We started off by playing one last round of groundsies. Then we helped clean the church and someone bought us bagels.....I love bagels..... Then we went home for studies, ah my favorite part of the day! Basically I wrote my talk that I have to give tomorrow at church. We spent the day soaking in the rain, and visiting referrals. Lastly we boothed at the mall to find allllll those YSAs hiding. It was super successful! We taught a few on the spot restoration lessons right there in the middle of the mall. You could feel the spirit so strong in our little corner. After one of our lessons the kid tells us about all his missionary friends that are coming home within the next few months. He then asked us if we had any more pamphlets that he could read so he can talk to them more in depthly about what they did on their missions. It was a cool night full of miracles. Oh and the zone leaders gave us a referral for someone who wants to go to ysa tomorrow. Good solid day!! Tonight we, or Sister Brockbank...... got transfer calls! It was weird not getting a new companion or area..... sad😣

Sunday: Today was nutttttts. We started out with meetings: ward council and coordination. Then church. I had to give a talk, hopefully it went well haha. I made people laugh so I will count that as a success. During gospel principles we learned about Prophets. Relief society was about the importance on the Book of Mormon while reading the talk "The Book of Mormon: what would life be without it?" By President Nelson. It's a good read!! If you haven't read it I suggest you do!! Then we had a lesson with Ande!!! Man I love her. We taught literally alllllll the commandments in lesson 4..... twas intense but since she's so golden, she soaked it ALL in! We then said goodbye to some of people. 💕

Wow. A year and a half gone in the BLINK of an eye! Its still blows my mind how fast things have flown by. I feel like just yesterday I was learning how to gain enough courage to say "Hi" to people on the streets. Haha now they can't get me to stop trying to talk to them about the gospel. I feel like I have learned so much! I just don't know how to form it all into words but I'll sure try:
• Never get too comfortable. That's when change happens
• Find anyway to testify of the reality of our Savior and his gospel
• Talk to EVERYONE, even if it's a simple hello
• There's no growth in the comfort zone
• Trust God with EVERYTHING, He can see the bigger picture....not you
• Love your companion and those who are PURPOSELY placed in your life at this time. There is no such thing as a coincidence
• Never stop progressing
• God is mindful of EVERY people
• Its okay not to be perfect, perfect people don't need a Savior

I'm so grateful for my mission and for all it has truly taught Me! I know this church is true and that we have a living prophet today to lead and guide us. I know that our Savior lives and loves each and everyone of us. Thank you so much for your sweet prayers and love throughout the past 18 months. I love you all 💕💕

1- packing :/ 

2/3- soothing! 

4- the district

5- just us 

6- Ande💕💕💕💕💕  

7- sister Henry wanted to take our picture and then used Snapchat to put filters on it 😂 

8- saying bye to the Henry family

1

February 26 - March 4

Ahhhhhhhh p day already?! Man... time is just slipping out of our hands lately! 

Monday- today was super fun! We got all our shopping done and then played some kind of baseball game for our zone activity. Man..... thay was pretty wild.... elders are pretty intense. I'll just put it at that hahaha. For FHE we played a game called "who am i" actually. Idk if that's the real name for it, but I'm naming it that. It's a game where you have a name taped on your back and you try to guess who you are. We played it with Book of Mormon names. So that was kinda tough. 


Tuesday- we had an AMAZING lesson with a..... NEW INVESTIGATOR!!! Her name is Ande and she is sooooo sweet! Ah I just love her so much! She is truly prepared and just GOLDEN! Idk how we got so lucky to teach her! We did a "How to begin teaching" lesson with her and then jumped into the restoration. The spirit was so strong! MAN I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! 💕 I finished myplan and while I was at the church I saw my dear old companion Sister McGuire 💕💕💕 I love her! Then institute. It was really good! Clay got a lot out of it! Ah he is progressing so well! I am so proud of him!! 

Wednesday- okay, I know something super awesome happened today.... but I cannot remember what it was.... but, institute was good! We had 7 people show up that don't ever come so it was really cool!! 

Thursday- today was "a trip" - Clay. 
Hahaha well basically we had this super awesome lesson planned with Clay and right as we begin, his dad walks up to us and is like "have you ever had a potato patty?" Then brings us a "potato patty" .... okay it was basically hashbrowns it the shape of a circle.... we finish his potato patty as we continue trying to share a message. Then we get a giant platter of tomatoes with pepper on it and Clay starts laughing and telling him to keep bringing food to see if we will eat it. Then we get like 6 glasses of different juices that we "had to try". Finally we get asked if we have tried "Casadillas" .... or as we call them quesadillas. I am pretty sure Casa means house but its been a while since I have spoken Spanish. Obviously we were not in control of what was going down. We then have Clay showing us all their "old Mormon books" basically a replica of an original copy of the Book of Mormon and lots of other random books. Then he pulls out the notes he took on the Book of Mormon a year ago and photos from his baptism. Then we got into a deep conversation with his dad about some doctrine and you randomly hear Clay yelling things like LOOKETH. SEEKETH. FINDETH. SEARCHETH. HEARETH. DOETH.....he was skimming through the Book of Mormon and reading off all the "eth" words. As we are about to leave we got handed an apple each, Clay somehow thinks this is hilarious and is like "heyyyy take the apple from Adam and Eve!" Idk..... YSA is a strange place my friends.... we almost made it out the door when his dad yells "cooking for these gals was quite the trip, Clay, have them over again next week for more food and bible talk!" .....looks like next Monday will have tacos and "old Mormon books" on the menu for dinner and discussion.... 

Friday- OKAY TODAY WAS SO EMBARRASSING!!! lemmmmmme explain. NORMALLY, we have district meetings on Friday and we do our weekly planning on Thursdays at 10 right after our studies. But yesterday we were so busy, so we were planning on doing it today. I woke up and knew that we were doing our weekly planning. So right after studies I start doing weekly planning and my sweet companion followed. It wasn't until 11 when I realized that we were supposed to be at district meeting 45 minutes ago..... for some reason I've been super stressed lately and my brain is stuck somewhere in January. So I totally thought it was Thursday because we were planning weekly that day.... oops. Luckily we made it for the last 20 minutes. The elders got a good kick out of it..lol what is life. The rest of the day was kinda crazy so we ended up not finishing our weekly planning. Haha oh well.... we had sports night tonight where they played volleyball. Half way through the game our ward mission leader decides to say either: bop it! Spin it! Twist it! Yell it! Flip it! Pull it! (Like that one bop it game) every time someone hits the ball. Idk why I thought that was hilarious, but I did! 

Saturday- Today we actually did our weekly planning. It went well. We also contacted around downtown Ventura where all the tourists were. That was fun. Then at night we went boothing at the mall.... let's just say Old people aren't as nice as college kids with that kinda stuff. But we did have one man come up and ask WILL I SEE MY BROTHER AGAIN AFTER THIS LIFE. We were able to bare powerful testimony on the plan of salvation. He was super interested so we have a cool referral for some missionaries in Oakland! 

Sunday- Today was fast and testimony meeting! Wow. The spirit was SO STRONG today! Ande came!!! There were so many powerful testimonies! After I bore my testimony the Bishop stood up and asked me to stay up at the pulpit.... So I awkwardly stood there and he proceeded to tell everyone that next week would be my last Sunday.... So much for keeping that under the radar.... 😓 gospel principles was good! We talked about prayer!! I looooove prayer! It's how we communicate with our Father in Heaven! Who wouldn't want to speak to God everyday!? Then in relief society we talked about temples! After church we had break the fast. Boy do I love that time of day....food. tonight we had a fireside at President Nakkens home and it was all about the Restoration 💕💕 ah my favorite lesson! 

Man. What a good week!!! 💕 

2

PDAY ALREADY!? time is literally flying by! Well I've got lots of good stories to tell about this week!! So fasten your seatbelts my friends! 

Let's begin! 

Monday- today was super fun,  we shopped til we dropped and then had some fun with some hair dye! For FHE we played a game called werewolves  and villagers. It's basically the game of mafia but with fancy characters. Idk😂 I'm pretty sure I got killed every time.  It's fine.  😔 oh fun story! While we were loading our car with groceries,  an older lady came up to us and asked if we had any extra money for gas because she ran out.  We talked with her got a little and ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and a Bible. As we walked over to help her with her car,  3 companionships of elders pulled up so we all went over to help her.  It was so amazing to be able to help her! She told us that she knew we were sent from God to help her because no one would talk to her when she went to ask for help.

Tuesday- what. A. Day. Tuesday's are WILD! It started of with a good comp study and then to a lesson with Clay. We decided to break down a scripture for him as a visual to keep his mind focused on one thing rather than going off on random tangents like our wild lesson last week. Well we taught the lesson and it went SO well! He then tells us his story about when he finished the Book of Mormon he decided to follow Moroni's council and pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true. He had an amazing experience! After the lesson we went to a institute luncheon with him where they feed us food while we listen to a talk and discuss it later. During the talk the speaker mentions moronis promise just like clay talked about in his story. We looked over at clay and his jaw was too the floor in amazement that we had just talked about this scripture. The teacher then asked if anyone had any comments about the talk. Clay raised his hand and said "you're never gonna believe me, but the sisters and I JUST talked about this scripture like 20 minutes ago!! What a trip man, what a trip." ....i don't think he knows this, but that scripture is one of the most comely used scriptures among missionaries 😂😂 our stake president then proceeds to tell him that that happens a lot in the church, but they aren't coincidences. They are tender mercies of the Lord and once you become a member, they will come more often! Clay then awkwardly tells him that he is a member... he just made bad decisions in the past. 
Idk, it was hilariously awkward. 😂 anyhow. We then went on campus and boothed! Today's question was A HIT!! "IF YOU COULD ASK GOD ONE QUESTION, WHAT WOULD IT BE?" we had lots of people come up and put their questions on the board! 99% of them were ones that were super gospel related. We handed out tons of pamphlets and copies of the Book of Mormon. And a ton of return appointments! Awwwwwwwe yeaaaaaah. The work is finally picking up here!! 😄😄 then institute! Clay came to that too! 

Wednesday: Today we had zone conference and I had to give my departing testimony. So that part was depressing. But the rest was super good! We learned about utilizing our prime proselyting time to find families to teach. Man, zone conferences just ignite the fire a little bit more in missionaries. I love them so much! Before zone conference though, we had an interesting encounter..... We were waiting for the Hermana's to pick us up and some crazy homeless man walks up to us and is like "heyyyyy Jesus Christ!" (Pointing at our nametags) we both felt kind of uneasy about the situation and felt the spirit telling us to leave. We said yeah! And went to walk away. He stopped us and said "girls, that's me!" Us - oh really......? 
Him "yeah! I can prove it to you too" he then starts to spin in circles And flings his arms around for a solid 2 minutes. 
Let's just say you couldn't hide out emotions. Or mouths are wide open in shock of what is going on. All the cars around us are stopped dead in their tracks. Some lady looked worried about us but not worried enough to try and figure out what's going on. He then tells us that he is turning the world gold and cleaning the sky. Luckily the hermana's pulled up in the nick of time and we drove (very slowly cuz Santa Barbara traffic is the worst) to zone conference. That night we helped Cody prepare a name for the temple! Then institute!

Thursday: today was AWESOME!!! We went to the temple with Cody to do baptisms!!! Man..... it was a PARTY. After, we got a very late lunch at Chic-fil-a. 😍😍 we then went around and talked with some people. We had about 5 min before an institute class so we decided to go contact a referral that's never home. We knocked like 4 times and nothing. So we decided to leave. As we are walking away, a car pulls up and someone's says "can I help you?" We didn't know where the voice came from so we awkwardly said " uhhhh we are missionaries...." and he cut us off and said " missionaries?!? I love missionaries! Come on in! I want to hear your message!" We quickly exchanged looks and got to the door pretty fast. People RARELY resound that way! We did begin teaching and did a brief over view of the Restoration and the plan of salvation since the Elders had recently taught him. Then went into talking about faith. He had to go shortly after we started but that's okay! He set up a return appointment! And now we have a new investigator! He even invited us over for some beers to party with him and his friends. We said no to the beers and party.... but it was a kind invite haha. Then we decided it was a good idea to get food since it was 8:30 and we hadn't eaten..... So toppers pizza was calling our name. We brought it home. Opened it up to smell our yummy food..... only to find out they mixed up our order 😢 so we went back and they have us a free pizza. So it was a 2 for 1 deal. 

Friday: I had to do my plan today and learned about dating 😝 my companion thought it was funny, and so did the member cleaning the building. I on the other hand would rather run away from dating like it's the plague and stay a full time missionary for eternity. But unfortunately that's not now this works. Don't worry, I'm only slightly bitter. We then had a Skype meeting with our zone leaders and the Hermanas to go over our baptism goals.... that was strange over video but hey, when you got technology.... hahaha I really don't remember what else happened today..... oh yeah the Cam sisters investigator invited us all over for dinner at..... TOPPERS PIZZA. We had a good discussion with him and bore testimony on the reality of God. The spirit was strong in our section of that pizzeria. We then went to sports night. 

Saturday: nothing too crazy today unfortunately but we went over to our investigator Jordan's house for a lesson. Only to find him totally stressed out about homework and now stressing out that he totally forgot that we had an appointment with him. He felt bad so he let us in even though he was super behind on school. We could tell he probably wasn't going to be too receptive to hearing a lesson today so we asked him if we could do anything to help relieve his stress from school. So we ended up helping him practice for his quizzes and testing him on all his terminology and procedures that he has to have perfected. It was nice to serve him and help him not be so stressed! Then his step dad gave us a giant bag of lemons. 🍋


Sunday: well we had church which is always a good time! One topic was about temples, and the other 3 were about the importance marriage. Sister B thought it was hilarious that that was the topic because of my plan. Gross. Sunday school was good. It wad about the role of the holy ghost! Relief society was about keeping the Sabbath day holy.  

3

Feb 12-18

Wow! Another week done..... where is time even going?!


Monday: basically felt like we were running around getting everything done. But I'm not entirely sure what "everything" is now that I look back on it..... during district activity I cut one of the elders hair. That was fun. We then ate with one of the senior couples in the ward, so that was sweet of them to feed us!! #blessed. For FHE they did "speed dating" so we watched😂😂 

Tuesday: today we had a super awesome day planned, so you know what that means..... none of it actually happened and we still ran around like chickens with our heads cut off.... we had a lesson with a returning member named Clay. It.... was interesting😂 the conversation went literally everywhere and we tried to bring it back down to earth but it was too late at that point. BUT the miracle of it all........ after we left, he told the member that after our "conversation" he realized he really wants to stop drinking. Friends... I testify that God works in mysterious ways. There is no way anything that was said could have resulted in that. But just the spirit of having missionaries in his home helped the spirit testify to him that he needs to make some changes. God is so good. Later we went to a lesson with the other sisters in the ward and taught their investigator Stephen about obedience and Heleman 5:12. Man, I just LOVE teaching anyone and everyone about this beautiful gospel! Then I did my plan 🤐😝. Nah it wasn't too bad. Just learning about being self reliant. While doing my plan the office missionaries (3 couples) asked us if we would run the office for 2 hours while they went on an assignment, so we got to feel important and answer phones left and right and help everyone! And by that I mean we finished my plan and answered like 4 phone calls. But hey, it was still fun! We then had institute and Clay came! Yay!! 


Wednesday: ah, the day of love. I was blessed to have my cute dad send me flowers #daddiesgirl⚘ we had a lesson with a less active member about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went really Well! He said he would be at church on Sunday:) then we went on Ventura College campus and boothed. We had a white board with a question " HOW DOES GOD SHOW US THAT HE LOVES US?" tons of people came up and wrote their answer on the board. We got lots of contacts that day and handed out a bunch of copies of the Book of Mormon. Man, handing someone a copy of that wonderful book just makes my heart leap for joy every time!! I am so blessed to be able to talk to people about the Book of Mormon everyday!! Then we ran over to the stake center for interviews with President Nakken. My interview was super short because we are gonna have a big one in like 2 weeks so we just talked about life and all that good stuff. While Sister Brockbank was in her interview, Sister Nakken and I went on a fun drive around Ventura to deliver stuff to some people. It was fun. It felt weird to be without my companion. But she joked around and told me it was my form of my plan for the day. 😂 (my plan is a program that prepares you for home.... I forgot if i explained that already) anyway, then we were driving home to get food before institute and as we are pulling up we get a text from our new investigator saying he wants to have a lesson right now if we are free. Mind you, we haven't eaten since 11:30, and it's like 6 at this point... We sat and contemplated just getting food and pretending like we didn't see the text but we decided that wasn't what Jesus would do so we drove away from our food and went to have a lesson with Jordan. About a year a go some elders had taught him and we just started teaching him again this last week. I am SO glad we did decide to go to the lesson though because that lesson was such a powerful lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel. The spirit was so strong there! Jordan kept awkwardly smiling so we figured something was wrong so we asked him what was going on in his head. He then proceeded to tell us that he has never heard the story of the Restoration in so much detail and said so beautifully. He couldn't help but smile because of the feelings that he was feeling. (Not gonna lie I almost teared up..... almost) at the end of the lesson he told us that he had a Valentine's gift for us to share since we took time out of our Valentine's day to come over. He gave us a bunt cake from "nothing bunt cakes". As we left we looked at the time and realized that it was 7.... institute time. So we started driving to institute with our stomachs making the sound that only a sea monster could make. As we were going to turn into the street the institute was on, we get a call from a member asking if we were coming, we said yes we are almost there! He then tells us that institute has been canceled and President Clark (the teacher) was taking everyone out for dinner and milkshakes for Valentine's day! Yep. We cried. Miracles are REAL. And God is mindful of every people! 


Thursday: I bet you are all thrilled to hear that nothing really happened today..... considering the last 2 days had a novel written about them. Oh wait.... We had dinner at this super cute taco place on the pier. Hahahaha my mission is so great 😄😄 
Friday: we had district meeting, which is always fun, we then had ice cream after so I can't complain. Well my mind is drawing a blank.... I know we had sports night.... But that's all I remember. 


Saturday: we went and visited a bunch of people today. Man, I'm the worst. I put so much effort into thinking about what happened Tuesday and Wednesday I can't remember anything that happened over the weekend. 😣😓 


Sunday: today was good! We had ward council and coordination before church. Then church, Clay and Jordan both came!!!! It was awesome!! The talks were really good. They were both about sustaining the Prophet. Sunday school was good. It was about the creation and the fall of adam and eve. Then relief society was about the family: a proclamation to the world. Then one of the senior couples called and invited us over for dinner #blessed 

Lately I've been studying the Saviors life in the new testament and it is so amazing! I love learning of him and his doctrine and then turning to the Book of Mormon and seeing that same doctrine taught to those in the ancient Americas. These books truly go hand and hand together and testify of our Savior. We are so blessed to be able to have this Gospel in our lives. Never take it for granted! I testify that this Gospel truly blesses families and every single one of Gods children (that mean all of you 😉) 

1- being an office missionary!!  

2-3: booooooothing! 

4-7: Valentine's day 

8: dark photo but dinner on the pier 

4

Feb 5-11

Mon- FHE! We played a bunch of games and things got real intense haha but that's what you get when you're in ysa!! 

Tue- walk day! walk day was awesome we walked all around Ventura and try to find people to teach and then we went to institute there was a less active there that hasn't been to church in ages and he wants to learn more and retake the missionary lessons and come back to church and then that night we got a referral from the assistant so walk day was a success! 

Wed- we started the moving process today then had to travel a long way clear  up to Pismo for exchanges.  that night we had a lesson with Sandy and she forgot who I was for a little bit and when Sister Martin asked her who she wanted to say the prayer she looked at me and realized who I was and cried and freaked out and we talked for a little bit then we read the book a Mormon with her and helped her understand it and it was really awesome to see someone I had taught before and to see how much of an influence we can truly have on people. 

Thurs-  today was awesome we went and visited a ton of people that I had taught in the past and I served in Pismo and it was really cool to see them and we saw a lot of cool miracles and found 3 for potentials for that area and we had dinner at the Mickels house and I love the them! They are so awesome they're probably my favorite families!! 

Fri- today we had district meeting and after district meeting the zone leaders asked if they could borrow our car to run an elder to the emergency room because he busted his ankle playing basketball so we let them have our car and we went home and did some weekly planning and then when they came to drop off our car we ran outside to get it and saw a man that needed help with this tire because it popped so we ran over to try to help him and now he's a really cool potential and we're going to try to teach him soon!!! I'm glad my mom made me learn how to change a tire #thanksmom 

Sat-  today was probably my favorite day because we got to go help the people who were affected by the mud slides and the fires and so we dug a giant trench around this house to help protect it from the water and it took a good chunk of our day. Then afterwards we came home and moved to our new apartment it  basically took all day so that was really tiring then we have stake conference and Elder Costa was there from the 70! 

Sun- today we had stake conference and then we had the singles ward. Then we had dinner at a members house it was super awesome and then we came home to finish our weekly planning :-)