WEEK 75 (CORRECT) *78

Hola! We had a great P-day!  We cleaned the apartment, bought groceries, played sports, and talked to our families.

On Thursday, we did our weekly planning, taught Carlos about the Atonement, and found a cool man named Orlando. Afterward, we had a wonderful lesson with Andy.  He lives behind a house on the hillside and has an amazing view of the San Jose Valley.  While sitting on his porch, we taught him about the first half of the Plan of Salvation, explaining the premortal life and the fall of Adam and Eve.  We read from 2 Nephi 2 and parts of Alma 42 to help him understand the importance of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Afterward, we tried having a lesson with Alexandra, but she was tired from working all day, so we rescheduled.  We ended the night by teaching English and giving the spiritual thought.

On Friday, we had exchanges!  I went back to Yerba Buena, where I started my mission with Elder Thompson and Elder Hammet.  It was surreal to be back; it took me back to my first night on the mission and made me think about everything that was to come.  It's strange knowing how long I've been out here; it feels like years!  I got to serve with Elder Larsen, who was my MTC companion, for a day.  The whole experience definitely had me thinking about the beginning of my mission. Overall, it was a good day!  We found several people and taught some of the Elders' friends.  It was great to see how much I had improved since the beginning of my mission.

On Saturday, we began the day with Alexandra's interview.  It was a long one!  While Elder Gardner was giving the interview, Elder Rushforth and I contacted a bunch of friends, inviting as many as we could to church.  Alexandra passed her interview but wanted one more week to prepare.  So instead of having her baptism the following day, we planned to have it the following week.  Apparently, her kids were freaking out and running around the whole time during the interview; Elder Gardner said it was the hardest interview he's ever had to give!  After finishing daily contacting, we visited a couple of people.  We ran out of people to visit, so we began visiting grey dots in the area; we knocked on the door of a family named Rodolfo and Dolores.  They were so happy to see us and invited us in.  Apparently, they had been taught by missionaries in the past but had to be dropped because they weren't progressing; they are pretty involved in a church in Hollister and aren't looking for a change but love when the missionaries come and teach them.  We tried teaching them about the Book of Mormon, the importance of the Priesthood, and how our Church is the literal church of Christ.  They loved what we were reading from the Book of Mormon; we tried inviting them to church the following day, but they said maybe, which meant they weren't coming.  Regardless, it was a really good lesson, and we planned a time to go back.  

Afterward, we talked with Carlos and explained to him the importance of reading the scriptures.  We helped him download the Gospel Library app and showed him a video explaining the Atonement of Christ.  He seriously loves having us over; it's always great visiting him.  We ended the night by visiting a couple of other people and inviting as many people as we could to church.

On Sunday, we had a really good Sunday!  Alexandra and her family came, as well as Edmon, Jose, Rigo, and Ricardo.  Rigo and Ricardo were referrals that we had received the previous day; we were able to contact them through Preach My Gospel and invited them to church.  They were great.  After the services, we explained more about the church and fundamental beliefs.  We set up lessons with both of them. After a day of hard work, we went to Night Church, where two referrals we had also invited were able to come.  Their names were Mario and Jorge; we got to know them better, participate in the Sacrament/service with them, and then talked some soccer with them. I don't know a single thing about soccer, but Elder Rushforth is super knowledgeable.  I just sat there trying to understand what they were saying; it was nice being able to enjoy Night Church instead of having to teach it.  It went really well.  We had a discussion about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

On Monday, we had a district council where we talked about Sacrifice. We watched "The Stonecutter" and talked about the sacrifice of the pioneers and what it means to give everything we have to the Lord.  After finishing District Council, eating, and finishing daily contact, we got a message from a set of 

Sister missionaries serving in the Bakersfield mission that a recent convert of theirs had recently moved into our area. We were able to get her information and contact her.  We felt inspired to visit her in person.  We knocked on the door of the address that the sister missionaries had given us, and to our surprise, Anahi and her husband were home and let us inside. We talked with them for a while and introduced ourselves. Anahi had been a member for a little less than a year, while her husband was not a member; he told us that he wasn't interested in learning more and how he essentially didn't believe in organized religion. I think he has a chance to maybe progress if we continued to try and visit him and Anahi. It was a good visit; we were able to share the information for the ward down here and set up another time to meet them. 

After finding a couple of new people and visiting Hermana Lorena Rica (the member from Mexico who Elder Perschon and I helped find the church down here in San Jose; thanks to Bishop Garcia), we even talked to Jesus (Lorena's boss). Elder Perschon and I had talked to him a while ago about a variety of topics.  He had some pretty crazy/interesting takes the last time around.  We talked with him for a little bit and planned another discussion with him the following week.  After, we had a really good lesson with Edmon!  We went over the major commandments with him (Law of Chasity, Tithing, the Word of Wisdom, etc.) We had Andy come along as well and share his testimony/insights on them!  We didn't even have to teach from the Scriptures!  He had no problems whatsoever with them!  I'll always be amazed and astonished at the amount of faith Edmon has in the Lord and gospel! He had been put on and off of a baptismal date for a couple weeks now, but we set a firm and sure date for his baptism to be in two weeks; he gladly accepted our invitation and was all in! After the lesson, he began explaining to us how he had to go to court the follow Monday for his asylum case; the problem was that the paper they had given him was English!  So, for like an hour, we helped Edmon fill out his court papers 🤣; all we basically did was translate the questions for him into Spanish.  We weren't able to do the whole thing, so we planned another time to go over and help him.  We ended the night by going to Noche de Hogar and gave a blessing to the daughter of Christian and Roxie (the couple that was just recently married and baptized) since she was pretty sick.

Tuesday was a pretty regular day; nothing too special happened.  We taught our boy Carlos Rivas real quickly before he had to head out to soccer practice; overall, kind of a pretty bland day.     

-Elder Copeland