Another Week down! For transfers, I got transferred to a town near Santa Clara! It's such a cool little town! Our apartment is right on Mainstreet which is pretty fun! My new companion was supposed to be Elder John until we found out that the AP's had messed up the transfer boards. So, instead I got put with Elder Empey: he's cool! We think and act a lot alike, which is always good in a companionship. We got put on bikes which is fun during the day, but absolutely miserable at night. Watsonville isn't the safest place, and it's rainy season down here. Basically, this transfer we're going to bike in the dark and rain... it's OK though: it's good for me.
WEDNESDAY (12/13/23): Today was our P-day! We went to lunch with a recent convert and got sushi. The sushi was surprisingly really good!
After, we headed to our church to do transfer journals with our whole Zone. Transfer Journal signing is when missionaries who are leaving the zone get together and write in each other's journal. It was a good time! After, we headed to our English class. I had to say goodbye to Gerado, Arturo, and Bishop! I'm definitely planning on coming back here though when I can speak better Spanish!
THURSDAY (12/14/23): Today was transfer day! We woke up around 5, packed our stuff and went to the church to get picked up. I had to say goodbye to Elder Thompson and Elder Hammet. They taught me so much and we worked super hard together. We helped a lot of inactive members return to church and even put two people on baptismal date! I'll always remember our transfer! My new Zone Leaders picked me and Elder Empey up and we headed to Watsonville. There are miles of strawberry fields, apple trees, berry fields, etc. down here. I never truly realized how important/big agriculture is down here in California. After I unpacked my stuff and went shopping, we ended the night by having our weekly correlation meeting. Our mission ward leader, brother Meyer, is such a cool guy!
FRIDAY (12/15/23): We woke up early and played basketball with the Zone. My new zone is awesome! We have a pretty small zone, 10 people, and it's all Elders.
After basketball, we went back to the apartment and did our studies. For comp. study, we're reading through the books of Moses together which I'm pretty excited about. The Old Testament is pretty wild! After, we went over to meet Bishop Welch and his son, Mitch. Mitchell is special needs but is such a nice guy. He works at McDonald's a couple times a week, so we were able to say hi to him at work. Bishop Welch is such an incredible guy. We chatted with them for a while until our lesson with a man name David Hernandez. He's building this pretty crazy shed right now since his last one got destroyed in the floods that happened a while ago. We talked about the Atonement and Repentance and read D&C 58:11-12 with him. David has been meeting with missionaries for a while now, but just hasn't committed to taking that next step. We really want him to progress and we're definitely making him one of our focal points. After our member meal, we biked around trying to contact some people but had no success until we met this lady named Fidencia Cruz. We read a little bit of 3 Nephi 11 with her. She really enjoyed it! In fact, she gave us her business card without us even asking for her phone number, which was pretty exciting!
SATURDAY (12/16/23): After our studies, we met up with David again. He was out working on his shed again. We had a pretty long talk with David again. Across the street from his house were around 4 police cars, a firetruck, and an ambulance. We were trying to figure out what was happening, but it was pretty hectic.
After listening to him tell us stories about his neighborhood drama, we were finally able to begin our lesson with him. We shared with him Moroni 8:26 and talked about the importance of the Holy Ghost. In addition to that, we read Ether 12:27 with him and talked about how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ can "lift" us up during difficult times. I practically led the lesson, and it was probably the best lesson I've given on my whole mission so far. After, we had dinner with Daniel. Daniel is such an amazing guy. He is a recent convert who turned his life around after meeting missionaries. He took us to get pizza!
SUNDAY (12/17/23): David didn't show up to church, which was disappointing, but it was alright. We had 12 friends come to church as a district. We cover both the Spanish and English wards. After, we visited with the Meyers, and I got know them a little better. He served his mission here in San Jose and moved down here to date and then eventually marry a recent convert he helped teach. He's only 28, too! After, we had dinner with Bishop Welch and his family. Bishop Welch's family was there, and his brother was talking about the craziest things. He was talking about how lazers caused the fires in Maui, how we shouldn't eat food that has "natural flavors" labelled on it, how our government is run by Satanists, etc. We just sat not saying anything! It was pretty entertaining though! We ended the night by going to night church and helping out some recent converts.
MONDAY (12/18/23): Today sucked so bad! Like easily the worst day on my mission. It was raining the whole day, and we weren't able to have a single lesson. Today is definitely a day I'm going to try and forget!
TUESDAY (12/19/23): Thankfully, today was a lot better. We played basketball again with the Zone in the morning. After our studies, we had another long and good lesson with David. Bishop came to our lesson and bore the most powerful testimony ever. We talked about finding truth through the Holy Ghost, having faith through action, the importance of a living prophet, and the importance of attending church and partaking of the Sacrament. We invited him to church again on Sunday. Pray for David to come to church! After, we had a lesson with a recent convert named Orlando. He has been dealing with some health issues and has been going through a hard time. We read Mosiah 3 with him and gave him a blessing. Bishop gave an incredible blessing! To end the night, we set up a lesson with an investigator named Mike.
*Sorry if my emails are so long haha! I try and use them as another journal for me!
-Elder Copeland
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