I'm writing this email very late! I'm definitely going to be better on getting my emails out on time! Overall, I'm doing pretty good! This email might be a little shorter than usual! I'll make sure to make more time for them as I have been!
WEDNESDAY (1/17/24): Super fun P-day. We hiked the Redwoods and played some basketball at the church afterwards! The Redwoods are absolutely gorgeous. It blows my mind how massive some of those trees really are. It's always nice to be able to talk with my family as well!
THURSDAY (1/18/24): It was pouring the whole day which made it really difficult to get any work done. We went shopping and visited a couple members in our ward. Biking is great until it starts raining. It hinders who and where we can go.
FRIDAY (1/19/24): I got my hair cut during our lunch break. I learned my lesson: Don't go to a Mexican barber while you're still trying to learn. My hair turned out nothing like I wanted it to. It turned out good though! I love short hair and how easy it is to take care off.
We did some contacting today and went over to Orlando's house to try and have another lesson with him. As we were doing so, he called us telling us he wasn't feeling good which was a bummer in all honesty.
SATURDAY (1/20/24): We woke up early and played basketball with the Zone at the Stake Center. It was fun but a little frustrating at the same time. Our Stake Center has extremely low ceilings which makes it almost impossible to shoot. After, we had a service project with the Zone picking apples for a friend the other Elders had met. It was pouring rain, but it was such a good time! After helping him, he invited us into his house to have a prayer with him. He told us that he was a Baptist and a Freemason. I know a little about Freemasonry, but he was very secretive about it when I asked him. He was such a nice guy! In fact, he gave us money to go buy groceries for lunch which was incredibly nice of him! After lunch, we did some work and then headed back to one of the Elder's apartments to bless the house. They had been experiencing some things and needed for the house to be blessed. It was my first time ever doing it, which was cool!
SUNDAY (1/21/24): We had 18 new people come to our Sacrament meetings, English and Spanish this week, which was amazing! It was the most we had ever gotten! Orlando wasn't able to make it today since he wasn't feeling too well still. President Varney, one of the counselors for President Larson, came and spoke in both Sacrament meetings and did an incredible job. He served a mission in Brazil but has been learning Spanish here while on this mission. We stayed longer to try and hear one of the Elders in the Zone sing, but he wasn't able to because the ward he was in announced a whole new bishopric. To end the night, we had dinner with the Hastings. Cole pulled up and we talked with him for a bit. We taught the Hastings about why baptism and making covenants are so important! Elder Butikofer was definitely directly pointing the lesson towards Cole with specifically calling him out which was funny. Cole needed to hear it though. We sadly found out though that Cole is actually moving to Arizona in a couple weeks. He told us he wanted to try and go to the YSA wards down there, which was great to hear. In all honesty, we hope he finds a girl in the ward that will help get him on the covenant path because he'd definitely get baptized if a girl he was dating asked him too 🤣.
MONDAY (1/22/24): It poured again today! Just our luck. I've honestly just gotten used to biking in the rain at this point. After our District Council and reading some of Preach My Gospel together, we did some street contacting. We tried visiting Sister Schwalenberg to see if she was home, but she didn't answer. We assumed she was asleep. We went over to the Welches tonight again and it's always such a good time. The Welches are literally some of the nicest people I've ever met. We had a discussion about the Tree of Life with them, Seminary, why electric cars are going to fail 🤣, etc. We
ended the night by starting exchanges with Elder Butikofer.
TUESDAY (1/23/24): Really good day today with Elder Butikofer! We were able to meet Sister Schwalenberg! We had actually accidentally knocked the wrong house the day before. She was so happy to see us that she began to cry. She told us a little more about the traumatic experiences she had to go through with the floods and health issues she has been having. We shared Alma 7 and 2 Nephi 2 with her and explained to her that the Savior knew better than anyone else on what she was going through. She found that really comforting. She really opened up to us afterwards and began explaining to us stories of her baptism and growing up in the church. Right as we were about to the leave, she came out with a large set of scriptures for us to look at. We read the First Vision together and then left her JST History to read from. After, we had a really good lesson with Salvador. We taught him the whole gospel of Jesus Christ and he really enjoyed it. He really wants to get baptized. There are just a couple of things that he needs to work on before he can get there. We had a lesson with Orlando about the Tree of Life in Chapter 8, played soccer with the ward, and then got transfer news! We found out Elder Empey would be leaving, and that Elder Johnson would be coming here! Love, Elder Copeland
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