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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.  

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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 

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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 :-)

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Jan 29 - Feb 4

Mon- today was pretty chill, there was lots of packing and cleaning. We signed shout outs in a mansion so that was crazy. After p day we said goodbye to the Aguaro family. They are the sweetest. They feed the missionaries every Monday night and have a family home evening with them as well. This week they told us that they were planning the whole thing so we didn't need to do anything but show up. Well, their FHE was basically one big goodbye session. They one by one told me goodbye and shared what they had learned from me and what they would miss about me. Let's just say, I balled like a baby. I love that family so much!! 
Then the elders left a dead rat on our front porch...... 

Tue- TRANSFER DAY! man.... goin back to ysa for one final round.... this should be CRAZY! We helped out with all the transfer stuff and had lunch at the church. Before lunch though, we had to run an errand for one of the office staff. While there, we ran into a member that I knew way back when I was in Ventura the first time. We talked for a bit, then I found out that a 10 yr old that I had taught last year had passed away. Mary was the sweetest, kindest child. I love her so much! But I know that she is no longer suffering from CF. I also know that because of the plan of happiness, she can be with her family forever. What a wonderful blessing it is to have a knowledge of Gods plan for us! 
On more of a fun, upbeat note.... We did our grocery shopping! Well, we parked on the opposite side of the mall and when we got done shopping we realized that we couldn't push the cart all the way over because it locks once you leave the store..... Well we had a bunch of groceries so we kept trying lots and lots of carts and none worked.... finally we hid our groceries in a bush and prayed no one would take them as we ran to our car. Luckily God answers our prayers and our groceries weren't stolen. Lol it was a good first day! 
We had a lesson today and dinner with Bishop. :)


Wed- today was good! We spent the day in Oxnard, doing my plan and finishing up putting our area book onto the phones. We visited some members and less active members, we recently added Oxnard to our half of the boundaries. Then one of the office missionaries asked us to go scope out our new apartment that we will be moving into sometime next week. So we did, when we got back to the mission office to give her the key back, she gave us a giant Costco pizza and 2 whole chickens!! 2 of 'em! Man.... We are gonna be eating chicken for quite a long time. We then had our investigator interviewed for baptism. HE PASSED!!!! 


Thurs- today was pretty relaxed. But most Thursdays are so idk why I always have to mention it. We had a lesson with a returning member and taught him the plan of happiness! I just love love love teaching people! It's one of the biggest joys of missionary work! Then we came home to do our weekly planning. Then dinner at the institute building :) 


Fri- today was SO GOOD!!! We had district meeting, which was good.  Then we met this really cool potential named Thomas. We randomly decided to knock on his door! It was legit.  Then we had to fill the font for a baptism!!! Then..... CODY GOT BAPTIZED!!!  


Sat- today we visited a bunch of people, one man was not too happy that we showed up at his door. But that's okay. Haha you can't always have perfect contacts! 😂😉 we then got a call from the cam ysa sisters(We share a ward with them)  saying that they need us to come help them with 2 lessons. So we went to help with the first one and then the man's stood them up. Then dinner and the 2nd, well now technically 1st lesson. After. We had a sports night. It was the first one so there was a tiny turn out but there was an investigator there so it was awesome! 


Sun- today cody got confirmed and received the priesthood!! We had break the fast and I got to meet some ward members, not too many though because most were at home watching the super bowl. Btw I heard that was a CRAZY game!!! We visited a few people, had one of the office missionaries check out our apartment to make sure it has everything the new senior couple will need when they move in next week. And then had a fireside at President Nakkens home where Cody spoke! It was the perfect end to a great week!