Week 13

Ah transfer calls this saturday! This is going by so fast I can't believe it.  It seems like only a week ago that we got the last ones, this is going crazy fast for me. I kinda hope that I get transfered, even though there are some really good people here it gets old with the same people not putting effort into changing. 

So after emailing monday and zone activity a bunch of us tried (or in my case, re-tried) the gallon challenge, I didnt get as far as before because I ate a bunch of oatmeal during the activity which ended up giving it a nice consistency in the church planters haha, gross.

Tuesday was our district meeting but P. Hobbs came at the end to show us the new church Christmas video that is getting released on the 29th, hooray for missionary privileged. Its a really cool video and will be super helpful. Anyway he ended up being about 45 minutes late so I tried to get the zone singing Christmas carols but they all complained because it wasn't even thanksgiving yet, they eventually succumbed to my charm and sang along though haha.

Wednesday was super slow, we went to the food bank again and on our way home one of our appointments cancelled which is always a bummer but we had time to meet with a lot of YSA less-actives which is good.

Thursday was the start of a crazy end of a week. First we helped a member of the high council move and the fed us lunch (free lunch? check) and we were running late to meet a LA from the family ward who lives right next to a referral who we have been trying to contact. As we were walking up to the LA's house the referral, whos name is Chiquita (or 'little girl' in Spanish, weird) was in her driveway. We talked to her and said we would stop by after we met with our LA. So we meet with him and end up taking him and his little daughter to teach Chiquita. Now Lance (the LA) is a super cool guy and his little girl has a learning disability so she can't talk really well and is usually all over the place. Once we got inside Chiquitas house Lance started stroking his daughters hair to keep her calm because it was pretty creepy in there, we were teaching by the light of her tv alone. Anyway the tv says that it will turn of due to inactivity but Chiquita doesn't see it say that, and as soon as it turns off she flips out and tells Lance to leave. It turns out she thought he hypnotized his daughter into turning the tv off using demons. And that's only one thing that made her appear super whack. Anyway, long story short we aren't going back haha.

Friday pretty basic in the morning with weekly planning and meeting a few YSA's here and there. We got to go back to the snack shack that night though which was awesome again! some other elders got one of the workers super interested. The funniest thing happened when we were leaving though, one of the security guards who opened the gate for us asked what 3 things where in the ark of the covenant. We got the stone tablets and the rod of Aaron but we couldn't remember the last thing.So the security guard gives us a hint of, "a jar of...?" and Elder Aso (this silly ole' Tongan Elder) shouts "Pickles!" Needless to say we all broke out laughing and offered him a BofM. And the answer is a jar of manna if you were wondering.

Saturday was full of meetings which is cool and tiring at the same time, we are able to really coordinate our efforts but it also drains your energy for the day. We had two meetings with the family ward and one with the YSA branch, which I like more because its more personal because there are less people. We met at the Pres. Chase's house and ended up talking about the temple, eventually the topic of those wierd temple recommend covers with pictures of the temple. E. Jennings showed his from Palmyra which as a hidden First Vision painted into the trees. Pres. CHase then sarcastically takes his from the Redlands temple and starts going off jokingly, "ohh man there are angels all around the temple and hidden pictures.." then he just pauses and shouts 'Ahhhhh! Joseph Smith! First Vision!' Turns out there was a hidden first vision in the Redlands temple picture as well. Probably a lot funnier if you know Pres Chase but it made my week haha.

Sunday was the usuall, apart from the fact that we had, like, 60 peeps at YSA sacrament meeting instead of the usual 20. It was super awesome, lots of LA's and RC's. Even more amazing is most of them stayed longer than sacrament meeting! A really good Sunday overall.

The tongan fam that we have been meeting with has a little girl a few months older than Sarafina and they kept offering me to hold her yesterday, such a struggle she is so cute. but we cant :'( 

Anyway, that was my week. I guess we will see if I am staying or going next week.

Later Fam! ilu all!

Elder Ockey

Week 12

SO this week seemed super long when it was happening but now that it is over looking back it went by in a breeze. Super weird the way time flows on the miss.

Anyway, Monday night we had FHE with the YSA branch which is always interesting, we had an investigator there who has a baptismal date but its set for January (I think I already said this) but she made a super spiritual comment on something I cant remember but then it got all silent and then one sister from the ward just shouts "Gurl we need to dunk you already!" it was super funny/awkward but it was all good. 

Tuesday was zone meeting so that took up most of the day, it was pretty fun though because one of the trainings was a competition that I don't want to get into details about because it was super missionary-y and complicated but obvi our team won because my trainer E. Jennings knows his scriptures like the back of his freakishly small hand.

Wednesday was awesome at first because we went to the food bank again. Its gotten to the point where all the missionaries just walk out with bags of food because they force it upon us, I guess a ton of it goes bad so all the volunteers take a bunch home. It's super convenient because we get all this canned fruit, oh which reminds me, E. Jennings taught me this sick trick where you eat all the fruit then you freeze the juice in a bowl and eat it with a spoon and its like this peach juice popsicle thing. Super good. Later on Wednesday though we had a lesson with Joyce again because her baptism was set up for this upcoming Saturday (the 21st) and we only had one lesson left. Then she drops this bombshell were her dad wont let her get baptized so that kinda sucks. We haven't seen her since and are trying to meet with the whole fam to see whats up.

Thursday was super slow, we just knocked LA doors until we were able to meet with the Gonzalez fam. They are the ones with 6 kids under 11 years old. Anyway we had a super good lesson and the mom said she feels calm and has noticed a change in the kids since we started teaching them but they still haven't come to church... #thestruggleisreal

Friday is supposed to be our weekly planning day but we actually ended up doing 7 hours of service and getting fed a ton of food. In the morning we helped brother Christensen with his patio some more and he fed us lunch. We were eating out when the Paris attacks happened which was super crazy. 

In between lunch and our next service project we only had time to meet with one person so proselyting-wise we thought it would be a bad day. Our service at night was we ran a snack shack at a high-school football game because the people who ran it were pretty much all LDS. But we ended up talking to a bunch of people about the church and some other elders got a few potentials from that night.

Saturday was cool because we have a referral we were trying to contact for a while and she actually ended up contacting us which is unheard of so that was cool, we will hopefully see her this week. We also got to meet with a YSA eternigator who keeps making the excuse of school to not see us (we all know that he doesn't actually have that much work) but he is super stubborn and skeptical about everything. Hopefully we can make some progress.

Sunday was cool because we had an experience with one of our main focus investigators. Daisy (the investigator who came to FHE) set the date back way far because her dad doesn't know she is taking the lessons and she is scared he wouldn't like it (her mom knows) but then this Sunday her dad asked her if she was going to a different church and planned to get baptized and he was ok with it which was cool! but then it ended up her mom didn't want her to be baptized so that was a weird flip-flop situation. It was cool (apart from the mother) because it was an answer to a fast that we all had included on fast Sunday. A senior couple in the family ward had their farewell yesterday, they are going to be welfare missionaries in Texas, canning peanut butter, which is kinda weird but also super cool. They were super nice to us though and always cracked jokes in ward council about how much everyone got off topic.

Its crazy that its pretty much been 3 months already, only one more p-day this transfer!

Its gone by crazy fast for me so far, already 3 months out? it seems like maybe 3 weeks ago you guys dropped me off. I think its because we are constantly working, when we have not-so-busy days its definetly slow. I hope I get transfered, low-key I want some adventure and I want to bike, but the YSA is also fun and all the YSA missionaries need cars so its kind of a double edged sword thing.

Dang I miss all of the friends and fam from calgary. Also the snow, its definitely feeling better here but I really need to see some snow.  

I love all you guys, have a good week!

Elder Ockey

Week 11

I'll jump right into this week because I am running out of ideas for introductions!

Monday after we emailed we went to the chiropractor who is a counselor in the YSA ward. E. Jennings has had back pain for a while so he got his back all cracked and such and his neck as well. Then Bro Francis (the chiropractor) asked me if I wanted to have it done so I figured why not. IT was super weird, there was one point where it felt like he was gonna snap my neck but it just made a really loud pop. It felt soooo good after though. 

Tuesday we met a LA family for lunch in hopes of teaching them an FHE lesson as well but it ended up just being a meal so that was funny. But they are the ones with the little kid named Bup and he was all over the place crazy it was hilarious. There was one point where he stole my sunglasses and said they made everything look green, his dad was all like, "you color blind aint nothing green!" haha classic. We taught the second last lesson to an investigator that day as well, her baptism date is for the 21st so that good.

Wednesday was pretty basic teaching wise, we visited a lot of LA's in the family ward. On our way to one address a chihuahua ran out into the road and we heard the owner scream super loud (we had our windows open) and we just burst out laughing. I promise the dog is okay though.

Our Thursday was crazy busy, we met with pretty much every single one of our progressing investigators so we had continuous lessons from 2:30 until 8:00 so we were super hungry afterward. President Chase, who is the president of the YSA branch, is the best flippin missionary I've met. He came with us to our 7-8 lesson and pretty much taught the whole thing. He pulls people aside every time we bring them to church (less active or investigator) and puts them on the spot its awesome.

Friday was super uneventful because of weekly planning, but we were able to meet with a few more people than we usually do on Fridays, nothing super exciting happened though.

Saturday was probably the worse day we have had so far. At least in the morning/afternoon because we had service (that part wasn't bad) helping a family move, and they actually had everything boxed up! #blessed. but then we had to try to rush to organize a ride to get an investigator to a baptism so they could see what they are like because the ride wee had cancelled. Long story short we spent3 hours calling and stopping at peoples housees begging for rides and we never got one. We ended up just showing her a video on baptism at her house instead... sigh... But the late evening/night was awesome! first of all we had a different investigator attend a different baptism, and on out way into the building we saw a meteor that qwas crazy bright white light that exploded into a green haze which was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. And then the baptism was awesome but it was in spanish so I didnt understand any of it and the font was filled up to high so water spilled everywhere. Our investigator loved it though and they committed to a baptismal date! but its in January... we are gonna work on that tomorrow.

Sunday was basic, every sunday is fast sunday for us because we go there at 8 and we get out around 4, but then we have a dinner at 5 so we go another hour without eating. the struggle is real. For priesthood though we had a branch counselor teach (not Bro Francis) but he was kinda crazy like, "buy food storage with cash so the government cant trace it," and, "THe US government is building concentration camps." Super weird, I think the lesson was supposed to be on the word of wisdom. We all got a good laugh in though which was nice.

Elder Ockey

Week 10

So jumping right into  things I was looking back on my emails and they are super jumbly so I decided to make a new years resolution to organize them better, then I thought 'New Years is super far away.' So its a daylight savings resolution haha.

So Mondays are pretty basic, we always go to the stake center with the ZL's to play some games but usually no one else comes unless its a zone activity but pretty much everyone was there this time. We had dinner at one of the YSA branch counselors homes, apparently one of their cousins is in a bunch of videos on mormon.org <http://mormon.org>  but I didn't really catch which ones because I was half asleep

Tuesday is when we have district meeting and I gave a training on referrals from church headquarters. I know being a missionary we are supposed to be humble but I killed it #NotReallyButKinda. We were able to meet with a YSA aged person who we aren't sure if they are an investigator or really lost Less-Active, like so lost that they don't even remember if they were baptized. But it was hilarious because when we went to leave she tried to hug E. Jennings and he totally rejected it by accident and gave her a handshake, he couldn't stop thinking about it all day. We had FHE that night with a Tongan family in the ward, they have a bunch of boys (the oldest is probably 10) and one baby girl. All the boys bore thier testimonies which was so funny. But whenever they sang a song the youngest who is probably 2 would say a prayer it was super funny, also his name is Bup sooo extra awesome.

Wednesday was super slow and not a lot happened but we were going to contact a LA YSA and we saw this yard decked out for Halloween so we looped back and took a pic.

Thursday we didn't get out of the house till super late because we kept getting calls and text or we were texting and calling about dropped appointments or organizing for a member to come to our lesson. It was all good though because we got to meet with the Gonzalez fam (the ones with 8 children all super young and rowdy). The mom told us about how she took them to a bunch of different churches trying to find one that was good for them and they were at one of those meetings were people shout in 'tongues' and fall on the ground and are shouting and just super weird haha (I totally want to go to one just to see what it is like). She said all of her kids were crying they were so scared. But one a super awesome note she said as we were leaving that she felt really good and hopeful for our church, mostly because her kids actually calmed down and listened a little into the lesson.

Fridays are our days to weekly plan so we didn't really get anything done at all which sucks but we got next week planned down nice and good.

On Halloween we met with Joyce (the fishy house smelly person) and set another baptism date (we have to keep pushing it back because she wont come to church!) but we are feeling good about it. We also went to a pass-off lesson with some other elders who found someone for our YSA branch but the investigator didn't show up which sucked because it was a 30 minute drive for us soooo, yea. Then, because it was Halloween we couldn't proselyte after 6 so we just went to the church and played b-ball with the ZL's all night and then watched the testaments... man that movie is so badly made.

But yea. then Sundays are super basic unless something surprising happens which didn't happen this week but oh well. 

PCE fam!

E. Ockey