Hello! I hope everyone is doing good! I got a new companion! Elder Johnson is a really cool guy. I was pretty disappointed to have to be split up from Elder Empey because we got a long really well. It's alright though, my new companion is a cool guy! I'm definitely learning a lot in my studies and my teaching mastery has improved immensely. Personal Study is definitely one of my favorite times of the day. Spanish is still extremely hard, but it's coming along little by little. It's by far the hardest thing I've ever had to learn. Calculus is easy compared to this haha! The area is still doing very well! I love Watsonville so much! The members and the friends we are teaching are such a joy to be around.
WEDNESDAY (1/24/24): The whole Zone was pretty upset and sad about the changes we received during Transfers. No one wanted to leave and 6 out of the 10 people in our Zone received the news that they would be transferred. We still had a fun day though. We played beach volleyball and some basketball at the Stake Center. After, we had to go pack up all of Elder Empey's belongings in preparation for transfers the upcoming day.
THURSDAY (1/25/24): Today was Transfer Day. I got to say goodbye to Elder Salazar as he had finished up his mission. I'm so happy I was able to go on an exchange with him last transfer. He was such a great AP. The whole mission met at the Mission Office to drop off and meet our new companions. We picked up Elder Johnson, stuffed the Zone Leaders' car with as much stuff as possible and then drove back to Watsonville. Let's just say it was an extremely tight squeeze the whole way back. After, we unpacked Elder Johnson's things, cleaned, and then reorganized our apartment. It is so much cleaner now and we have way more space. To end the night, we had a really good lesson with Salvador. We read all of 2 Nephi 31 with him and we went more into detail about baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Salvador truly wants to be baptized and become a member of our church! Him being unmarried is the only thing holding him back. We set up a time with him to meet with our bishop so that he can figure out a way to get married. He also struggles with the Word of Wisdom. He has never been taught the Word of Wisdom, so the upcoming the lessons that we are going to have with him we're gonna clarify that with him.
FRIDAY (1/26/24): Today was a pretty good first day of the Transfer. We finally got in contact with a progressing investigator in our area named Blake. We met him at his house, and we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End). He hadn't been taught the Book of Mormon before and he didn't really know what it was about. Instead, we focused our teachings from the Bible which was effective. He loves the Bible so much! We read Hebrews 12:1 with him and talked about Repentance. Afterwards, he told us how he had done some pretty hurtful and sinful things in his past and that through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, he had already begun to change his life around. We also read Mathew 3 with him and explained to him the story of Jesus getting baptized. He told us he really wants to get baptized! He has a couple things that he needs to work on/get taught, but he's progressing! After, we knocked on our friend named Jessica's door and talked with her for a second. She's definitely not interested anymore. In fact, she lied to us about her first name, which was pretty funny. Sister Franklin didn't want us over, which was disappointing. We had dinner and then visited our friend Salamon. Salamon and his family are amazing. We talked with them for a while. I can notice my ability to understand and speak Spanish is improving, but I still have a long way to go. Salamon has the chance to progress, but he's moving out of Watsonville to go work for a couple months.
SATURDAY (1/27/24): Elder Johnson got invited to a baptism of someone that he had taught in Freemont. In fact, he was asked to be the one to baptize her, which was pretty cool. We practically spent the whole day driving to Freemont and back because of the traffic and how far the drive actually was. To end the night, we got salads with Juan, our Spanish Groups Leader, at Habbit.
SUNDAY (1/28/24): As a district (Me, Elder Johnson, Elder Pepper, and Elder DeRosier) had 19 friends come to church today. Salamon, Christopher, Salvador, etc., all came! Orlando wasn't able to make it since he was out of town. In Elders Quorum we read, "The Hallmarks of Happiness" together and discussed it with one another. There are so many little things that we can do in our lives to make us happier: being kind, loving, virtuous, non-judgmental, etc., are just some of the few out of many ways that we can live happier lives by. It's all about your attitude and perspective. After our studies, we had dinner with President Duran and his family. They had the 49ers game playing so we were able to watch the second half of the game. I felt so happy being able to watch football again. It also helped that it turned out to be a really good game! President Duran told us about his conversion with the missionaries and how later on he was called and set apart as a Stake President by Elder Holland. We ended the night by going to night church.
MONDAY (1/29/24): We had district council this morning. We talked about self-mastery and building up Spiritual Strength, following the commandments, and overcoming the wants of the natural man. After DC, we did a little contacting. We ran into one of our friends named Victoria at her house. She told us that she had been taught by Sister Missionaries in the past but wasn't interested anymore because they stopped visiting her all of a sudden. I was pretty frustrated when I heard that had happened to her, in all honesty. After, we had dinner with the Welches, which is always the best. We were able to throw some darts on Bishop Welch's dart board, which was fun.
After talking it up with them for a while, we visited Mike and his friends. Mike was pretty drunk and had been smoking weed. We gave him a quick rundown about the Plan of Salvation, but him and his buddies did not care at all. We're probably going to have to move on from Mike. We had another really good lesson with Salamon after though! We explained to him how we receive our mission calls, the church as a whole, what covenants were and how they tie into our temples, and the sacrament. They gave us some fruits as we left, which were delicious!
TUESDAY (1/30/24): We did some more contacting today. We met a 7th day Adventist named Isabel. She was very nice! We talked about the importance of praying and reading our scriptures. I read Alma 34:38 with her and explained to her that God always listens and answers our prays, whether it be through the Holy Ghost or another way. We also talked a little about the 10 commandments and the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy. We left 3 Nephi 27 for her to read. We met a nice family afterwards and set up a return date. Salvador was supposed to meet with Bishop today but had to reschedule. We went to soccer night, but this was the first time in weeks where no one showed up. Love, Elder Copeland
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