Slow Week 5

Wassup!

SO this week went by kinda slow and not a tonne happened so I guess I can share some things from previous weeks that I forgot to write about. The first week when my very first lesson was in Spanish we taught at the library and when we left someone asked us to jump his car so we went over to help him and he started it by doing something with the batter in the hood while all the doors were closed. So we are pretty sure we helped someone steal a car...... yea. This week we were approached by a black lady when we were walking to an appointment and she started asking us questions and telling us stuff like, 'why Mormon missionaries never knock on black peoples doors.' and 'The founder of our church also is the creator of Readers Digest.' It was funny and we were able to clear some stuff up and we are going to meet with her later this week. We stole more guava from a different tree this time. Its crazy all the fruit trees that arent on anyones property, we also got grapefruit and some oranges but are waiting a few days form them to get more ripe before we get more. So for the most part people have forgotten about our dinner until last minute so we usually get pizza or this mexican food called Juan Pollo but yesterday we had this great meal with this family, like shirmp and steak :) also my comp hates seafood so like wtheck. But the dad went to Korea on his mission and married a Korean, and their kids were there who are like 30's. But they just roasted each other all night it was hilarious. I would attempt to explain it but it would be lengthy and probably wouldn't make much sense. We had 3 investigators come to church which ended a 15 week dry spell for this area apparently, but because we cover two wards it was super hectic. Sorry guys it was kind of a slow week and not much happened. We watch the district for fun of that is any indicator of missionary life. *sigh*

Maryn thats sweet that you are doing cross country! we usually just sleep through our workout time because its only 30 min but sometimes we run. It gets super hot during the day though so we walk/run as little as possible when its not morning. I still dont have my bike but I think the ZL's will bring it to the zone activity later today. Our ZL's are awesome and we do zone activity every other Pday when you are only supposed to do it once per transfer. 

I didn't know mark walker was engaged? or maybe I did I cant really remember. Oh I found out that guy from Calgary in our ward is Steve Merril and he lived in Priddis and went to foothills stake so maybe you know him.

Week 4

What up fam and friends? 

This week went by kinda fast but so much stuff happened and I remembered to write it down so get ready to have your minds blown! I guess I'll start with our apostate activity... SO we share the Rancho Park ward with another companionship who lives in the same apt complex as us and one day when we parked our car (we were giving them a ride home from something) we noticed this Guava tree hanging over the fence of our complex and so we boosted up Elder Hirst from the other companionship because he is super short and he picked a bunch. We blended them up and were expecting to have some sort of guava juice that some members had made for us earlier but we just ended up with this nasty flavorless soup stuff, but guava are like 1.75$ here and we picked like 10, but it was just like an empty trailer park thing that the tree was growing in so it wasn't that bad. 

I met my first crazy person this week! He used to have a baptism date earlier this year but his brothers whispered weird beliefs in his ear and he reads weird things online. I wrote down a few things after we left so I wouldn't forget. First of all he has been reincarnated multiple times, he was the original eve and then he was Mary Magdalene, he remembers crying when Jesus was crucified. Then He was an Egyptian shape-shifting deity named Isis. Also Hitler was the Jesus for Catholics. But he believes that Heavenly Father is his spiritual father, but also some sort of Greek Goddess is his spiritual mother. Yea, kinda crazy. I didn't say a lot the whole lesson I was so confused haha.

Saturday night we had a dinner appointment with a YSA member Anthony Vasquez who took us to a taco place and bought one of every meat type. it was super cool, there was brain, tongue, stomach, throat and something else along with he normal chicken and prok and such. He wouldn't tell us which was which until we tried it so I just went for it, apparently stomach or intestine is pretty good. The throat was super greasy and chewy and was my least favorite. The Brain was like eating air it was so weird/awesome. But he took a pic and posted it on his insta account. (anthony.ldsdude89 if you want to see it)

I gave a talk yesterday in the YSA branch, there was like 20 people there and it was on charity. Everyone told me it went well but I was just psyched because I actually took up all the time I was allotted and didn't go super short lol.

Ive been sick all week, just a sore throat and a cough but it sucks because every morning a cough up a tonne of nasty grey mucus haha tmi I know but I'll share what I wish.

That pretty much my week, love you all.

Elder Ockey

First Week

So this week was crazy, flew in on Monday and spent the night at the AP's and most of Tuesday at the mission office. My trainer is Elder Jennings and we are in the Ontario area (which is in the valley), we cover a YSA branch and a family ward so we have dinner pretty much every night. Also the mission is kind of split into two areas, the desert and the valley. The desert is super hot and dry and the valley is super hot and wayyyy humid so its kind of unbearable. Our area is really big and since we cover two wards we pretty much drive everywhere, which is good because I would die biking here, and plus they haven't given me my bike yet anyway. 

On Tuesday we had a lesson pretty much right after we were paired off, and my first lesson as an English-speaking missionary was all in Spanish haha. It was honestly the most weird thing ever, we had a YSA ward mission leader Eduardo with us because we cant speak any Spanish but it was so awesome. Jorge (the guy we/Eduardo taught) speaks a little bit of English, and they had been teaching him for a while before I got here. But after we taught Jorge on Tuesday we went to the Cortes' which is a less active family in this totally sketch area, apparently just a few days before we went someone was shot across the street soooo, yea, can you guess what kind of area I'm in yet? Super ghetto houses/apartments, pretty sketchy walking around some areas at night (are you scared for me yet mom?). Our apt is pretty nice though, the A/C actually works! that's a rare thing here apparently, its so dang hot. 

On Friday we had a zone conference and Elder Falabella? of the 70 came to talk to us. It was a good talk about inviting whole families to lessons instead of just single investigators. There was a lot more than that but I cant remember most of it. We expected it to only go until 1 but it went until 4 so we had to reschedule a bunch of appointments we had. Also at Jorge's baptism it was super funny because we told a few people to bring light refreshments like finger food but everyone brought a full meal which was hilarious and turned out great because that was the one day we didn't have a dinner appointment.

This week has been such a blur. We mostly visited LARC's (less active/recent converts) this week because we also had to plan Jorge's baptism for Saturday. We spent literally all day Sunday at church because we cover two wards, we head over at 9 and don't get home till like 4 or 5 which honestly doesn't seem that long when I typed it out but I almost/I did fall asleep like 5 times every hour. Luckily no body called me out haha. 

There is a member in the Rancho Park ward from Calgary though, Brother Merryl? (I think his first name is Steve?) but he said he recognized my last name. also there are like 3 other missionaries from Calgary or Alberta here but I did't recognize their names. Last night we visited Jorge's house, he lives with his member aunt and uncle from the Rancho ward, and his sister is visiting from Mexico so she said she would be interested in listening in on the lessons, but she speaks even less English and Jorge, so the Spanish Elders are annoyed with us because all these Spanish speaking investigator want to be taught by us haha. But yea first week, I feel like I had more to write but I forgot it all so I should probably start writing it down. 

Love Elder Ockey

Arrival

So we are just supposed to email saying that we made it safe yesterday. My MTC comp is the one sitting on the floor beneath me in the yellow tie. Our P-days are on Monday so a week till you get a real email I guess. Its so hot here, even at night. There was 7 of us sleeping on the floor of the ap's apt last night which was much more comfortable than the MTC beds haha. love you guys!

Mid MTC Letter

Tell Maryn that when ever she misses me she should just remember whenever we played halo and i would beat her so bad that she would get mad at me then she could probably go a while not missing me haha. oh we leave the MTC Monday at 1 (like lunch time not in the morning) and our flight leaves at 4:50 so expect a call any time between then unless i call after we land (its like a 45 min flight) but i bought a phone card from the MTC store for like 5 bucks that gives you a few hours of call time so we can talk as long as you want. I would directly respond to all your letters but I forget what was in most of them.. sorry. I would respond to Erin Lee cuz she sent me a dear elder but I don't have her email so let her know I got the luv. I love and miss you guys, I am still freaked out by the thought that maryn will be 16 when i get back :|

This week went by so much faster than last week. Everyone always says make it to Sunday and it will be all good which is so true. It feels like the last week was shorter than the first day I was here. President/Brother/Elder (I don't know what you are supposed to call him) Oaks came to talk on Tuesday. It was super cool at first but overall I was low key disappointed because all he did was quote PMG (preach my gospel (cmon get with the mish lingo crew)). Anyway it was still cool because I was right in the front. The food is still awful and my comp and I mostly have cereal or the lesser of all the evils, yes its that bad. The classes here are unbearably long but they are helpful so I cant complain to much. for the last few nights we have taught a TRC investigator (idk what TRC stands for sorry not sorry) but thats where each companionship gets an investigator and it can either be a LDS convert who is acting or a real investigator and you don't know until after you have taught your last lesson. Our last lesson is tonight and we haven't made much progress because this dude just rambles on and on about crossfit and his botanical garden company that he wants to start. Its kind of frustrating. But last night we actually got a few words in and invited him to pray for the same reason J. Smith did, to see if there was a true church on this earth and he agreed so I guess we will see how it goes. The sisters in our district are crazy, two of them have left, one of them willingly and one of them not so willingly, but it was mind blowing and our whole zone was just stunned for the whole day.. But on a happier note I also met a few missionaries going to Rancho, it seems like overall there aren't a whole lot of missionaries going, and Elder Hurren and I are the only English speaking elders. So yea, thats bout it, we go to the temple today around 2:00, other than that just lots of boring classes.

Elder Ockey