Week 18

Hey! I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Mine was pretty good, way different from at home but it was still good. This week was super slow, in terms of work I mean. We are told to proselyte as much as we can because everyone will be home which is true, but everyone just wants to be with their family.

Monday nothing really happened, dropped by our usual monday LA's and such.

Tuesday morning I woke up super sick which was no fun, we had d-meet then went to get some medicine. I slept a lot of the day so idk what E. Jennings did haha. WE still got to see a few people that night though.

Wednesday wasnt as bad. We had a few lessons with really promising investigators. Patrice has a son that became a member 10 years ago so she said she would come to our church for a full year starting January to see if it is right for her. She is already talking about how right it feels and who she would have baptize her so she wont need the whole year to figure it out. On an off note we saw an ice-cream truck out super late at night playing Christmas carol dubstep (super weird) and Santa was driving it! He waved to us haha.

Thursday we tried to contact a bunch of referrals we got but as per usual not a lot of people where home. We were able to stop by a few YSA's though which was good. We had Christmas eve dinner with the YSA branch counselor and his family. His son is less active and his daughter-in-law is investigating but the ward she is supposed to go to isnt very friendly so she goes to the YSA. We had a good time, they know how to talk haha. We were there for 3.5 hours talking (being talked to) about the Middle East current events haha.

Christmas! I want to start out by saying thanks to everyone who sent me stuff! We had a good time. 

Friday is weekly planning so we didn't feel as bad for staying in a little longer. We got to skype the fam which was cool. It was weird because it feels like I just saw them a few days before... but its been 4 months wtheck. We went and had dinner with our ward missionary leader and his family. They had Christmas movies playing so we low-key watched Christmas Story and Elf haha. ahhh we are so diso (disobedient for those unfamiliar with missionary lingo)

Saturday we were able to make up for not doing a lot on Christmas, we saw a lot of LA's in both wards which was nice, though I would rather teach investigators.

Sunday was pretty basic. We actually had an investigator show up at sacrament. It was weird because we kind of dropped him because he would always flake on appointments after we showed up. We are going to start meeting with him again though so we will see where it goes.

I hope everyone had/has a good week! 

Elder Ockey

Christmas Week

Its Christmas this week! Crazy, it seems like just a few days ago that I walked into the mtc in August! What the heck its so crazy.

Monday was a basic p-day, we set up a lesson at 1 for an investigator that we haven't seen in a long time so we ate out at mc-dees because we needed to eat fast and get there, then she called and cancelled so we ate McDonalds for no reason. sigh* I hate McDonalds.

Tuesday was cool I guess, I gave a training in d-meet about the BofM which was cool. We went to visit a LA that we meet with weekly then out of nowhere his girlfriend that we didnt know existed walks out of his house (we meet outside) and joined us for the lesson, so it was weird because we have never met or heard of her before. Really took us off guard, but hey, another person that we can invite to come unto Christ!

Wednesday we had exchanges, Elder Jennings became district leader this transfer so we do an exchange where we switch companions with every companionship in the district for a day. So wednesday Elder Bartlik came to our area with me, this is his last transfer and he is a really hard worker, but his favorite thing to do is tract which I dont find to be effective. Good thing we had our day chalked full of lessons, we got a lot of good preachin in so that was awesome.

Thursday was the Valley mission party (everyone not in the desert) which lasted 5 hours, it was cool but I imagine it will be a lot more awesome after I get moved around a bit and know more missionaries outside of our zone haha. We were able to meet witht he investigator that flaked on monday, Alejandra's mom was baptized a few years ago but never went to church so the spanish sisters are teaching her mom while we teach her. 

Friday we didnt get a lot of proselyting in because we had weekly planning, we invited Alejandra to a YSA party so we went with them to introduce her to everyone. Daisy was there as well, it was awesome to see how at the beginnig she was super shy and she pretty much ran the party activities on saturday. Shes more active than most of the members haha.

Saturday was another full day, we had to go get E. Jennings scriptures from the Tongan elders because they had them for some reason. E. Aso has a flashlight with a tazer on it so we ended up tazing ourselves haha. We practiced one more time for our singing as a zone that night, then we had to prep for Daisy's baptism which took a while, man those fonts fill up so slowly. Also funny story, we went out to eat some food and E. Jennings got a fortune cookie that said he would witness a miracle that day (Baptism!) We had a really good turnout as well. Most of the actives and a lot of less actives came which was awesome! Then after the baptism we went to go sing as a zone at this Christmas event they have on a main street, they had a bunch of professional choirs and stuff but we had the spirit haha. But it went fairly well.

Sunday was cool, YSA sacrament was full because of Daisy's confirmation, she is officially a member now! Thats so cool!

Anyway that was my week, I got a few pics as well.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Elder Ockey

1. me and the christmas tie and our tree (we have more stuff under it now)

2. at the baptism. Left to right. Eduardo (branch mission leader), E. Ockey, Daisy, Azhley (Daisy's friend), E. Jennings

3. exchange day! we found a concrete turtle in the middle of an apartment comlex

Week 16

Hey so kind of a normal week this week. Daisy is getting baptized next Saturday so that's awesome. We also found a few new promising investigators from referrals so we should be picking up the pace overall which is exciting.

Monday was you classic p-day. We went to costco again with the ZL's and we saw a ton of members again. One of them offered to buy our stuff but we kindly said no because we aren't really supposed to let them, but then when we were in line she walked in front of us and told the cashier that she was paying for us which is awesome. I love to see the kindness and charity of our members. It really is true how people can tell us apart by the way we act. She then offered to buy us lunch at costco but then there was a different member that told her that she got us covered for lunch so score x2! it was awesome. Also in the parking lot we saw a car with a license plate that said 'LDS Jedi Knight'"so we took a picture with it haha.

Tuesday was zone meeting which is a little longer than dmeet, E. Jennings and I had a training on ward councils and how we can try our hardest to make them effective but its up to the council members as to whether or not they are (because a lot of the time they get off topic). This particular zone meeting lasted 5 hours because a bunch of Tongan members showed up with a huge feast for us. It was awesome but then we had to practice singing. All the missionaries in the zone (stake) are singing at this big christmas event called "Christmas on Euclid" next saturday. Man next week is gonna be busy.

Wednesday was kind of crazy, we had no set lessons until later at night so we just tried by a bunch of less actives and such, we ended up at this house with an old Mexican grandma who could barely speak english. She gave us this awesome corn-hotchoclate-drink called pinole because she thought we were cold (it was 25 degrees) but she shared her conversion story and told us that we needed to help out her grandson because he is a less active YSA, so hopefully we can go back. As we were driving round we witnessed this crazy police takedown which was cool because it was totally out of the shows were they are all standing behind their car doors with their guns out and then they sent their dog in to take the guy down. Pretty sweet.

Thursday was pretty basic, the most noteworth thin is a member took us to a nice steakhouse which is the sort of situation where its like "Oh you dont have to.." but we really wanted to go because its good food. Anyway it was really good and we got to talk to her friend about missionary work and temples.

Friday was super basic, teaching people and spreading the good word. thats about it.

Saturday some Jehovahs witnesses knocked on our door during studies. I answered the door without my name-tag on (whoops) and they started to talk with me about the Jesus picture in out window and trying to teach me about all sorts of weird JW stuff, then E. Jennings walks up to the door with his name-tag on and they were like, 'Oh! your Mormons!'and they just put their pamphlets away haha. We actually ended up trading one of our Christmas pass-along cards for one of their magazines. There is some super wierd stuff in their haha.

We actually had another run in with police when we were contacting a referral they knocked on their door and questioned the guy's son. Super awesome because they obviously had some contact with missionaries because they called us 'Elders' and said they trusted us and such it was cool. As we were leaving one of them said, 

"You could go anywhere in the world, Germany, Italy, France.... and you came to Montclair."

"You poor souls" 

probably one of the funniest encounters I have had so far on my mission. 

Sunday was super basic as well.

Overall a fun week with a few boring days but, oh well.

Hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Ockey

People in the picture from top to bottom:

E. Wiginton

E. Ockey

E. Robbins 

Week 15

So this was the first week of transfer three, as of this transfer I am the comp that Elder Jennings will ever be with for more than 2 transfers (he only has 2 left after this one. It was a pretty slow week so this may not be super entertaining but here goes.

Monday was basic p-day, we went to Costco and saw a tonne of members there which was cool. Nothing really happened, p-day activities and YSA fhe.

Tuesday we had a lesson cancel on us so we had extra time for dinner with a member who we never get to see, he took us to get vietnamese food and I am pretty sure we left the mission boundaries... whoops. anyway we ended up stuck in traffic and we were 40 minutes late for our lesson with Daisy but she said it was okay, our branch mission leader Eduardo was there and they just talked about baptism and stuff until we got there, btw she changed her date to December 19th which is awesome!

Wednesday we had service and then we went to look up referals on the computers in our apt complex when they closed the office because of the shooting in San Bernadino (its like 30-50 minutes away) and we were told by the ZL's to stay inside unless we have set appointments so we watched Joseph the King of Dreams or whatever its called. Pretty much the worst soundtrack to a movie ever but at least it isnt the District tv show haha.

Thursday we didn't have any appointments really so we tried to contact lost LA's and ended up trying to help some random dude with his car, long story short he is crazy, I honestly dont even know how I would put it into words but he pretty much explained LDS missionary work to us and then asked us if we were JW's soooooo, yea.

Friday was weekly planning so its always a drag, but we got to teach a LA who is really struggling with understanding doctrine, its gonna be a struggle to help them out. Their first language is spanish but they cant read spanish, and their second language is english and they can barely read english, so we are really trying to teach simply. Its a great learning opportunity for us though, I guess.

Saturday was pretty basic apart from the fact that we had brekkie with Santa! but yea there was a ward party in the morning and we went because #freefood also there was a lot of LA's that we were able to see which was nice.

Sunday was another basic YSA awkward testimony Sunday, I don't even want to talk about it haha. But we were able to watch the Christmas devotional and then we had dinner at the Chase's house with the whole branch which was cool.

That's pretty much my week.

Give my love to the Bishops.

Love you guys!

Elder Ockey

Week 14

Transfers today! I am staying same area same comp which is cool. The YSA is fun but also a struggle, low numbers and super needy but we make it happen.

Our address is:

910 W Phillips St

Apt #179

Ontario California

91762

How do they say it? Charity is the pure love of Christ? haha

This week was supposed to be good but it ended up being a little sub-par.

Last monday was pretty normal, week 6 pday you dont really buy anything because you may get transfers so we just played b-ball at the church pretty much all day. When we got back we found out a uhaul destroyed a carport in front of our apt, classic california drivers. I guess I'll use this as an opportunity to describe some things I have seen drivers do here for the past 3 months. 1. Drive through a stop sign with hazard lights on (I guess that makes it okay?) 2. At a light, be in the left turning lane, but go straight and cut off everyone else. 3. Buy a dumpy civic or similar car, slam it to the ground, install super loud muffler. Do nothin else so your car is super loud but super slow. 4. Join the 89% and by a mustang, literally we see 50 mustangs a day, I used to count. But yea, California.

Tuesday was basic d-meet day except Pres. Hobbs came to another districts meeting and was talking with everyone. Once he left you could see the relief on everyones face haha, kind of nerve racking like he is gonna call someone out for something. We tried to contact a bunch of refereals through knocking and also calling, they each answered but then hang up right away when we said missionaries #thestruggleisreal

Food bank wednesday! Doing service is always nice, we get to help out all these people, but at the same time it amazes me. All these people are begging for food and getting it for free but they complain when they get something they dont want, and then they just throw it in the trash. Honestly I lose a bunch of faith in humanity every food bank day. E. Hatch (one of our ward mates) accidently cut open a can of cranberry juice and it sprayed is white shirt, so now its all pink. We also had a lesson with Eunice and all her crazy little kids, we were really looking forward to it because we didnt meet her last week. She cancelled last minute though. :(

Turkey day! We had a ward turkey bowl in the morning but it ended up missionaries outnumbering ward members but we still had a lot of fun. Also a non-member from a part  member fam showed up which was awesome! WE only had one dinner which I am thankfull for, the tongan elders had 3 in 3 hours haha. We ended up staying at dinner a lot longer than we planned. We are encouraged to proselyte on thanksgiving but from the few people we tried and from E. Jennings experience it seems like although most people are home, they would rather spend time with their fams than listen to us preach. 

Friday we got to meet with Jason, who we havent seen in a long time. Turns out he got anti-ed super hard, he had notes and notes on how Joseph smith made the church to get rich and he stole from people and killed a bunch of people at Carthage jail. Wtheck Jason you showed so much promise! This got us worried because we had rescheduled with Eunice and her kids for friday but when we walked up to the door we saw the lights turn off and no-body answered. Hopefully we can get in this week, they are such a cool fam.

We had a Tongan member recently move into Ontario with his family who just got back from his mission in Samoa. Anyway he signed up for dinner Friday and said he would drop us off food. we were just expecting some sandwiches or something but then he drops off this huge feast which was awesome! Shout-out to Ean even though he doesn't know this exists, your the coolest!

Saturday we were supposed to do exchanges with the tongan elders because E. Aso's comp doesnt like seafood and my comp doesnt like seafood and we both really wanted seafood. Sadly that didnt end up happening. This transfer though for sure... maybe haha. We said goodbye to Jorge (the investigator I taught my very first lesson to... in spanish) because he was going back to Mexico that night. Other than that we saw a few investorgators and tried by Eunice again, same thing. I hope she wasnt anti-ed.

Sunday was your basic YSA sacrament, because we had so many people last week obviously we only had like 8 people this week. dang, just come to church you lazy people!

Tell the Remingtons and everyone else I miss those awesome thanksgivings.

Anyway, all is good here, staying another month and a bit. Crazy how fast this is going.

Elder Ockey