On preparation day, Elder Isaacson and I were able to call our families! We also headed up to Gilroy to hit some golf balls at this makeshift range set up over an old field. It even had a dinosaur in the middle of it 🤣! It was awesome, though! Some pretty Republican folks ran it, so they had Fox News playing and everything. It was so American; I loved it! After hitting golf balls (we brought some old clubs from our apartment!) I was able to swing the ball pretty well considering how long I've been out here!
Afterwards, we stopped by some stores to buy a couple of things. I got some pants at Lululemon, and Elder Isaacson got himself some jeans at Boot Barn! Afterward, we went to Ross, where I found a pair of Doc Martens in my size for only $50! They usually cost $150. After shopping, we visited the Lepe Martinez family and taught them the first half of the Plan of Salvation. They have YouTube TV, so we showed them a video that the Church produced! We ended by reading in 2 Nephi 2 to help them understand the Fall of Adam and Eve.
On Thursday, we finished daily/weekly planning and went over to Little Mexico to teach our friends Jesus and Salvador! While teaching, Jesus basically cut me off and told me that he already knew what we were teaching him and just slammed the door on us! I was pretty disappointed because I thought he was gonna be pretty cool! After a couple more contacts, we had another good lesson with our boy Salvador! We talked about the Atonement and the importance of using it to repent, change, and become better through Jesus Christ! We explained the importance of the Holy Ghost and what it was. We read from Moroni 8:33 and explained what the Holy Ghost does/allows us to feel! We read from Mosiah 3:5-13 and explained the Atonement in more detail! We shared our testimonies and invited him to continue reading in the Book of Mormon! He said he had read a little! We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read. He's recovering from a stroke, so he is still healing. We said a prayer with him and ended by planning another appointment!
After Salvador, we tried visiting a couple of other people, but no one was home! We then went through our Preach My Gospel (PMG) manual and divided/organized our member dots into active, non-active, and those who don't live here anymore! To my surprise, the majority of the blue dots we have are active members or have moved! There is only a small minority of the dots that are inactive! Now we know who we need to go visit! Afterward, we had another really good lesson with Daniel! We went over the Restoration and talked about the importance of God and His nature, the importance of prophets and the Priesthood! We talked about the prophets of old and shared examples from the scriptures! We also went over the establishment of Christ's church and the Apostasy and the Restoration through the Prophet Joseph Smith! We showed him the "Ask of God" video and bore our testimonies on the Restoration and its truthfulness! We didn't cover the Book of Mormon or the Priesthood fully, but we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and the pamphlet, meet with us Saturday, and come to church! Brother Montuy helped us a lot and bore powerful testimonies and shared/taught as well!
Afterwards, we had a really good lesson with Juan and Dora! Arturo and his wife were able to come and share insight! They shared their conversion story and how the church has blessed them in their lives! We talked about how none of the church leaders receive payment for their service, how our church is very family-oriented and allows others to have a home/support system, and we talked about the importance of service and how our Church serves and helps members! We explained the Holy Ghost to them and how we need to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost to receive its constant companionship! We briefly went over the doctrine of Christ and how the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible! We bore our testimonies on the importance of following Jesus Christ to receive blessings! We invited them to meet with us on Tuesday, come to church, and read and pray! Afterwards, Elder Isaacson had to do an interview for the English Elders' friend! It wasn't really their friend (a member of the English Ward was remarried, and his new wife wanted to learn from the missionaries, so the Elders taught her, lol). She passed the interview fairly easily! To end the night, we played volleyball with the Lepe Martinez Family!
On Friday, we began the day by helping Hermano Montuy out with a service project! He needed help moving an old toolbox that got stuck in one of his barns! I guess while trying to move the toolbox the day before, the weight from the toolbox caused the floor to break! So, for around two hours, we had to use levers to get the toolbox out of the ground! After a couple hours of hard work, we were able to get the toolbox out of the ground and loaded on Hermano Montuy's truck! While taking the toolbox back to the barn, we got to ride in the back of Hermano Montuy's truck to make sure the toolbox didn't fall out! Don't worry, he was driving slowly, and we were holding on haha! Hermano Montuy's property is pretty cool! It's almost 80 acres! In the back of the property, there's a huge paintball field/course. I guess Hermano Montuy used to run a business back there! In addition to that, missionaries used to be able to play on their P-days until a Sister Missionary got hurt while doing it; kind of a bummer but oh well!
After finishing the service project, we headed back and got ready for the day! While heading out, we realized we couldn't find our gas card 😭; we tried looking everywhere but we couldn't find it; we went through our apartment, our car and even stopped by the gas station where we had last used the card: but we had no success. So, we had to call Elder Butcher and have him order a new card for us.
After all of that, we had our first lesson of the day with our friend Diego (the man that had come up to us at Panda Express the other day!) It was a fantastic lesson! We took him on a tour of the church and explained to him how the church is organized! We explained to him some of the basic beliefs of the churches and the importance of modern-day Prophets and Apostles! While teaching the lesson, Elder Isaacson and I were asked something that we had never gotten before as missionaries; he personally asked us to bear our testimonies! I shared my testimony on the Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon while Elder Isaacson shared his testimony on the story of how he got here on his mission and how the Gospel had changed his life; after the lesson Diego was like, "So how do I join your church/get baptized"! So, we explained to him how it worked and set up a lesson with him the following Tuesday! It was one of the coolest lessons of my mission!
After Diego, we went and tried visiting a couple but neither of them was home or interested; we tried setting something up with Maria Ochoa, but she was busy driving. We ended the night by visiting an inactive member's family and letting them know that we'd always be here to help support and love them! One thing that I've learned throughout my mission is that calling inactive members out for not going to church never works; instead, you need to love and nurture them!
On Saturday, we were able to go up to the temple and do endowments! Elder Isaacson over a year ago had baptized one of the friends that the sister missionaries were teaching named Ventura! He and Elder Isaacson are super tight! Ventura is in charge of the night church service in San Jose! So, while serving in San Jose, I was able to get to know him pretty well since I'd always go to night church! The endowment ceremony was completely in Spanish! It was the first time I've ever been able to do an endowment ceremony in Spanish; it was a really cool experience! In addition to that as well, the instruction room was completely filled! Every seat was taken! In fact, they had to bring chairs from outside and put them alongside the wall so that everyone could have a place to sit; me and Elder Isaacson sat along the walls on the chairs that they had brought out! After the endowment ceremony and pictures outside of the temple, we went to lunch with Ventura and the rest of his friends! Elder Johns and Elder Schriever were there as well.
After the long drive back to Hollister, we had a really good lesson with our friend Daniel! We taught him the first half of the Plan of Salvation and the importance of the premortal life, the creation, and the fall of Adam and Eve! We read from 2 Nephi 2 with him and explained to him the importance of the fall! Since he already has a Christian belief, he already knew of the story of Adam and Eve: we just had to help him understand that the idea "original sin" is wrong and how they couldn't have children before The Fall since they were innocent: Daniel has a lot of potential to progress but he's pretty set on a couple beliefs; we'll keep working with him though! In addition to that, we taught how the Atonement of Jesus Christ ties into the fall of Adam and Eve.
After Daniel, we taught our friend Javier (the partner of Veronica) the Godhead and the structure of the Church: we explained to him the importance of having a modern-day living prophet! We also talked to him about faith and explained it to him as a principle of action and power! We read from Alma 32:27 and invited him to act upon the faith he already had! He's a really cool guy and has a lot of potential to progress! We just have to help them get married and come to Church! After a couple more contacts, we ended the night by teaching class and sending a couple of church invite texts out!We had a really good Sunday! We had eight people pull up to church! Juan and Dora, Daniel, Diego, Martha, and Alfredo Lepez (this was their first time coming since Elder Isaacson had found them), Laura Gladys, and Eddie all came to church! Me and Elder Isaacson were pumped! They all really enjoyed the service and the classes afterwards! Since it was fast and testimony meeting, Elder Isaacson was able to give a really good testimony on the importance of sacrifice and what it teaches you and how it allows you to gain gratitude! After church, we had a couple meetings where we talked about the branch and the needs of the branch! After a Sunday nap, we went and ministered to the English Sisters and then went and visited a couple of our friends! We went and chatted it up with Mateo and his family! Mateo is very difficult to understand but we always have good conversations with him! He was busy watching John Wick haha! (we may or may not have watched a little with him).
Afterwards, we talked to Ismael and his buddies outside! They were all drinking, so we just went up to them and said what up! I talked to one of his buddies for a while about why we do missionary work and our purpose as missionaries! He kinda asked why we "force" our religion upon others and why we can't just mind our own business haha: while I partially agree, I explained to him all that we do is share and invite others to come unto Christ by having them find out for themselves if the message we teach as missionaries is true or not; I also shared the reasons that make our church special/true such as the Book of Mormon, the Priesthood, the message of the restoration, etc. After a good conversation with our friend Hector, we visited a couple more people and ended the night by teaching our friend Juventino (a nice man from Oaxaca) about the importance of our life here on Earth and the Plan of Salvation!On Monday, we had interviews with President Larson! Interviews were held in Gilroy, which is about a half hour away from Hollister! We had to head up early since we'd be having a special District Council with Sister Larson joining us! We had a really good District Council where we talked about the Atonement and why missionary work is so hard! We listened to a really good talk that Elder Holland had given to mission presidents awhile back about how going through the grind, struggle, and heartache of a missionary allows us to slightly better understand what the Savior must have felt during his atoning sacrifice; even though we'll never be able to understand or comprehend what the Savior went through, the "hard" from being a missionary gives us a better idea of what the Savior went through for us and how he is the only one who truly understands how we feel!
After District Council, we had a Zone training by President Larson on the importance of humble confidence! He basically taught us that we need to think highly of ourselves and others but that we're still sinners and will fall short occasionally and that it is important to realize that there are weaknesses that we all face! It's through our weaknesses and trials that we are able to learn, grow, and become better (with the Lord, of course). After the Zone training, we had to wait for a while for our interviews since the Zone is so big. After waiting for a couple hours, it was my turn for my interview!
I had a really good interview with President Larson! We basically talked about the area and how there are a lot of progressing friends down here! He basically told me he wasn't sure how me and Elder Isaacson would be together as companions since we are such wild cards, but looking back at it he's happy he did since the area is doing well! Right as we were saying the closing prayer, something unexpected occurred. President Larson told me that he had gotten an email from a member of the English Ward complaining about Elder Isaacson and me from the interview last Friday! A little context: The interview Elder Isaacson did was for the girlfriend of the member from the English ward; he had just gotten divorced from his previous wife, and he was dating this new girl; So basically, the girlfriend of the member was getting taught by the missionaries so that she could get married to the member! She was not genuinely interested at all; well, Elder Isaacson did her interview really quickly since she was super awkward/we didn't want to be there at all; while Elder Isaacson was giving the interview, I was outside with Elder Stocking and his companion talking to the member; the member was pretty rude to me and the other missionaries there; well it turns out that he had sent an email full of complete lies and slanders against me and Elder Isaacson! He claimed that his girlfriend told him that Elder Isaacson had been looking at her breasts the whole time during the interview and that me and Elder Isaacson were "trunky' missionaries who didn't take the work seriously and that we didn't carry the Spirit with us! I was appalled and shocked at these gross ridiculous lies and slanders that he had thrown at us! I immediately told President Larson that these were all incredibly untrue and unjustified attacks towards me and Elder Isaacson; I explained to him that this member has had a long history of this towards missionaries and how he had been racist towards Elder Leaune! I also explained to him how he had criticized Elder Leaune as a missionary and how it had affected him pretty badly; President Larson totally believed us and gave no thought toward his email. It upset me pretty badly how someone could go out of their way to slander and lie about someone they didn't even know; I still have no idea why this member told such terrible lies about me and Elder Isaacson. We are just going to ignore it and continue to keep doing great work!
After our interviews (which took a while), we headed back to Hollister to begin the day! We had a good lesson with Diego! We talked about the Plan of salvation and the importance of the Atonement! We talked about the importance of avoiding temptation/sin through the prompting of the Holy Ghost! We bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and invited him to read and pray about it! We also explained to him the importance of making and keeping scared covenants! We ended the night by doing a couple of contacts!On Tuesday, we had Zone Council! Our Zone is doing really well! During Zone Council, we talked about the Atonement, and we went around and shared our testimonies on the importance of Jesus Christ in our lives! I shared how Jesus Christ is not only our Savior, but the perfect example in our lives! I can confidently say that Jesus Christ and the life he lived has helped shape me into the person I am today! He has taught me how to act, what to say, and what to think! One of my favorite stories from the Savior will always be the Sermon on the Mount!
After Zone Council, we headed back to Hollister to begin the day! The day was SUPER slowwww. Our lessons were all canceled, and no one was interested today. After a slow day, we ended the day by going to English class (this class was run by the Stake) and helping the members/friends who came! Laura Gladys and Martha (the mother of the Lepe Martinez family) came, and we were able to help them with English! Elder Copeland
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