Week 35

Well hey there!

This week was really good. Elder Boltz and I set a goal for 100 lessons this transfer (we usually hit around 80) and are already well on the way. We have 37 as of last night with 4 weeks to go so we should kill it.

Tuesday we were able to have a really good lesson with a part member family in the Samoan ward. THey had been taught the 5 lessons over and over and the previous missionaries all pushed super hard so when we got in we pretty much told them that was exactly what we werent going to do. THey really opened up to us and we now teach them according to their needs and they enjoy it. Funny how that works... (teach people not lessons!)

Wednesday we saw quite a few people. THe most noteworthy thing is we had dinner with the family that has AoG (Assembly of God) members living with them. THe AoG fam wasnt there so the mother talked to us about wanting to become better with the scriptures and strengthen her testimony so now we are going to keep going back to help her and her kids out.

Thursday was a little weird. We met with a Samoan referral from some other missionaries. He is hardcore AoG now but apparently he used to be LDS but he gave a bunch of BS excuses as to why he isnt anymore. But he is super nice to us and lets us share messages. Line upon line I suppose.

Friday pretty basic. We taught a lot of lessons but nothing super noteworthy.

Saturday we did service at Mojave Narrows. Its sort of a camping ground/park thing. But there were so many volunteers everyone just stood around for a while. The Samoan ward had a BBQ after (obvi we went!) and we played rugby with the youth. On our way home we finally got in contact with a referral that we have been trying forever. We set a return apt for this wednesday so we will see how it goes.

Sunday was good, there were a few Samoan homecomings from downthehill so our ward was half its usual attendance. The speakers didnt even show up so Elder Boltz and I had to improv. It was alright, I talked about Jesus Christ coming for the sinners and not for the righteous, related it to the strait and narrow and why we come to church. We had dinner with Bishop Pauga that night, he is super cool. Crackin Tongan jokes all day because his wife is Tongan haha. Later that night we went over to the Nonu house, picked up peters wife as a new investirgator because, long story short, she lost her records. #freebaptism #itsallaboutnumbers #justkiddingnumbersarepeople2

yea that was my week. 

Keep workin' hard an don'quit

Elder Ockey

Week 34

Well I guess I lied last week. We didnt take any pictures. Sorry we are calling others to repentance jeesh

Tuesday waqs a good day. We were able to finally get in with two Samoan families that we have been trying to see for forever! we have established a weekly contact time for them so hopefully we can get them progressing. Also tuesday we had no water....

Wednesday, we still have no water! also we had service in the morning then we got a super weird request. A sister companionship asked us to go and play soccer with them and their investigator.... awk. so we show up at the library to meet up and thank goodness the Spanish sisters were at the library so they came as well, making it a little less awkward. But the whole time the investigator was hitting on one of the English speaking sisters it was hilarious. We were still without water though so we had to go to another elders apt to change and such. We went to see a Samoan family later that night and to our pleasant suprise, there was a pastor for the Assembly of God (the church with the biggest congregation of Samoans other than ours in the desert). He is now moved in with our member family because they need some help. So we have been going over a lot and teaching his kids with the LDS kids!

Thursday was pretty basic, nothing extraordinary. Oh well, there was one family we saw and thier kid said she hated our lessons haha. 😢

But she is in 3rd grade and can take me out so I didnt want to dispute at all

Friday we had president interviews. President Hobbs goes home in Junes which is crazy. I think if our mission has any hope of getting ipads then it will be when the new president comes in. Anyway, we then went to see a less-active in the Adelanto ward. I'll describe the contents of their house in 3 words. Cockraoches, tobacco, pet-hair. Okay so that 3rd word was sort of two words but whatever. it was pretty nast in there. Well then we weekly planned. And finally we had water again friday afternoon. #ghettolanto

Saturday, to sum up most of our day, we visited a lot of Samoans and got fed at every house we stopped at. I think we got maybe 5 meals. #Samoanwardprobs #Iwassofull #helpme

Sunday was kinda normal. We saw a Samoan fam, their dad was working security at Cochella (however you spell it) its a big music festival. But he didnt recognize any of these big name bands it was kind of funny.

But yea, sorry I am always all over the place haha.

Have a good week!

Elder Ockey

Week 33

Heyo!

this week was crazy, I dont really remember a ton. It was the last week of the 7 week transfer (they are usually 6 weeks long). Elder Boltz and I are both staying! I am super psyched to keep working in the Samoan ward. Elder Boltz thinks we will stay together until he goes home in July which would be sick.

Tuesday we had a zone meeting. I gave the safety thought and the ZL's sort of egged me on to somehow tying Kolob into it, thinking that I couldnt.... their mistake haha. But yea it was cool. We saw the Nonu family and were able to watch a general conference talk with them. I cant really remember what else happened that day....

Wednesday... gosh dangit I left my planner from last transfer at home. are you ready for a random jumble of events?

We have more investigators in Hesperia and AppleValley so we are travelling a lot more. A bunch of polys in the stake make music so we listen to island music everywhere its pretty sick.

Our house started flooding, this morning actually right before we went to pick up Elder Loveless' new comp. Its sort of fixed now but we dont have water #thestruggle

Elder Hurley (our housemate) and Elder Jennings (my trainer) are currently on airplanes home right now... crazy

Our Adelanto investigator Shanay showed up to church! I guess we never really realized how weird our ward is until she came and we wanted a good impression.

There were a ton of Samoan LA's that came to church which was awesome! but we had to leave early to give a blessing

We had Elder Loveless with us SUnday night because Elder HUrley was down the hill. We had a big dinner, he made the rookie mistake of eating quickly so they kept giving him food. You hafta learn the tricks of eating so they dont give you your 3rd and 4th plates #SamoanLyfe

Elder WIlding is our new housemate, he seems super cool. Elder Boltz and I are messing with him a bit because he doesnt know either of us haha.

Sorry I dont remember a whole lot. Elder Boltz and I plan on taking some sick pics in Ghettolanto this week or today so yea. But dont get your hopes up we super busy.

Have a good week fam!!

Elder Ockey

Week 32

Tulofa!

This week was pretty good. We made contact with some potentials and such. Probably biggest news for this week is we have permission to dedicate pretty much all of our time to the Samoan ward. Adelanto is mostly a place to tract and backups now, apart from our progressing investigators.

Monday was normal, we did all our usual thangs. we ended up just relaxing at the house because we were feeling lazy.

Tuesday was district meeting. I gave a training on the difference between conversion and testimony. I think it went well. we had to go to the library afterwards because Elder Hurley needs to do some sort of going home assignment so that ook up a lot of our afternoon. We hhad exchanges with the spanish elders that night.

Wednesday Elder Guerra was in our area with me, we were able to see a few less-actives and investigators. We found out that one of our Samoan less-actives is 23 and he has 3 kids, one more on the way. He had his first kid a week before he turned 20. #SamoanLife 

Then we had a lesson with our gator from Adelanto. She had quit her vaporizer cold turkey and was going on 4 days! it was super cool. but then in the middle of our WOrd of Wisdom lesson she just says, "Question. why cant we have sex outside of marriage." Haha, Elder GUerra was floundering around while I tried to find the Proclamation to the World. It went well though 

Thursday we did service in the morning at a homeless shelter. Elder Guerra was on exchanges with Elder LOveless so he stayed in the house 2 days in a row haha. We had a lot of potential Samoan fams in Hesperia so we took Jr and Sam out with us. We got a return appt with a family out there. ALso he just gave us a huge paper bag full of bagels and a bunch of drinks. #blessed #SamoanLife

Sam and JR kept making fun of Elder Boltz because he got a driving violation on the way out though haha

Friday Elder Hurley had his departing temple trip so we had Elder Loveless all day. We ended up rearranging the whole house so now Elder Boltz and I have a study room instead of studying in the living room and we all sleep in the same room on precariously balanced bunk beds. We then went to help a tongan family in the Adelanto ward lay some hardwood in their house. ended up staying all day helping them out. Haha poly kids are crazy.

Saturday was general conference. We watched the morning and priesthood session with members from the palagi ward (white people) and the afternoon we watched with the Tupai family, who we also had dinner with after priesthood.

Sunday we watched the morning conference with the Mau'u family we ate tacos while watching a documentary about the Provo City Center Temple and the mormon equivalent of the Amazing Race (hint: it included family history...) We then went to the other Mau'u family to watch the afternoon session. I honestly couldnt tell you what my favourite talk was because its all such a blur. Anyway we weekly planned between GenConf and dinner. We ate with a Samoan club. There was a ton of food it was crazy. Bishop was hilarious he was lamenting about how much he loved this club and how they should meet every week. Its sort of a running joke with him and his love for food in the ward. 

but yea, crazy week. Hopefully all is well wherever you may be!

love you all!

Elder Ockey

Week 31

Okay so this week was pretty weird. It started out kind of slow, then got slower but just the last few days have been awesome!

Tuesday was your normal district meeting day. I dont know if I mentioned this earlier but the Adelanto north area is were Elder Jennings served early last year so he told me to go see this less active. We finally found out where he lived and visited him on tuesday, it was a good lesson. THen he told us he wanted to play some songs for us on his guitar. THinking it would be a few minutes we accepted the offer. About 45 minutes later we finally got out, haha, yea. His songs are all about the gospel somehow, which is nice, but they are kind of... eccentric 

Wednesday we got a few lessons in here and there. pretty basic day. I wasnt feeling to well going into dinner and by the time we got home I was pretty sick (it had nothing to do witht he food, it was super good!) but we had exchanges the next day so I sucked it up.

Thursday we had exchanges withthe spanish elders. I went into Elder Selph's area. Pretty much all day I felt pretty gross, but it didnt matter because I cant speak spanish haha.

Friday, we sort of took a sick day. I was all sorts of hurting and so forth.

Saturday I was feeling a lot better so we went out to Apple Valley #wedonthaveboundaries to see a Samoan potential who wasnt home :(

But the ward was having an activity in AV so we swung by and talked with some less actives. We headed back towards Victorville/Adelanto area and weekly planned. We biked around in the evening to save miles and everyone we were seeing lived close by. It was super weird, first time riding the bike on the mission. But yea, that was about it.

Sunday there was a homecoming talk in each ward. Im not biased or anything but Samoan was way better. The missionary who came home to the Samoan ward came out with us the day he was set apart. Also he was in the Jacksonville FLorida mission, although he didn't know my homie Steveoooooo.

That was my week. Hopefully yours went well.

Elder Ockey

Week 30

Well sorry folks but this week was pretty normal. 

Hopefully you will find something entertaining in here.

Monday was pretty normal. P-day activity and such. Elder Boltz screwed up his knee which he had previously had surgery on so we didnt see many people.

Tuesday was a normal district meeting day. We saw Peter, who finally came to church yesterday! He is a less-active living in a Tongan household so we always see the Tongan Elders over there. We saw Sami, he said he would go to the addiction recovery meeting that night but we haven't seen him since so we haven't been able to follow up.

Wednesday we met with and dropped an Adelanto gator, who said that you can convince yourself that anything is true if you read it enough. thus was her reason for not reading and praying about the Book of Mormon....

We saw Sami's niece and nephews, they are members. Their dad works in Alaska but he is back in California for a while. Hopefully we can get the whole fam active. That night we saw the Tupai's, Im not sure exactly what happened but we were there for a long time haha.

Thursday we went to help someone in the Adelanto ward move, anticipating maybe 2 hours of service. But naw, we were there for 7 hours because the Elders quorum was slacking and it only ended up being us 4 missionaries. It was super hot there to.

Friday we helped weed another members yard before we weekly planned. Then we saw the Rosales family. We had committed the 3 kids to read a chapter a day but they hadn't so their Samoan grandparents gave them a talkin to haha. We got all their cell #'s and we are texting them everyday to remind them to read.

Saturday we taught the Jacksons, another half Samoan family. Ray-ray is 14 and he is probably a foot taller than I am.  But they are all super hilarious. Dinner that night was a party for the Releif Society. Usually in a white ward it would be a womans only thing but because its a Samoan ward its an excuse to gather together and eat. We ended up being there 3 hours because we couldnt get out haha. But there were a lot of less-actives so its okay.

Sunday was normal. There were a lot of less actives there which was awesome but we still only had about half the turnout of a normal sunday. Its super sad but there was a Tongan RM who was killed Sunday morning and everyone was related to him so they all were elsewhere. Super sad, I never got to meet him because he lives down the hill but his father is the Adelanto ward counselor. Yea kind of a bummer on the whole week.

Hopefully you all had a good time, wherever you may be.

Elder Ockey

Week 25

Sorry I missed posting Week 25 so here it is.

I was about to say "What up fam!?"but I realized that I say that almost every week haha. I also noticed I start by saying "dang" all the time so I am just going to jump right in.

Monday was your average p-day on the miss. we played some soccer and rugby and such. Another Elder got some nice pics, Ill have him send them to me for next week.

Tuesday was zone meeting. It was longs as per usual, gosh its awful to sit there for so long. Then some Tongans came and fed us again. so much food. I dont know how I feel about Tongan food. Some of it is really good but some of it is just... there.

Wednesday was your basic Wednesday I suppose. We did some food bank and taught some peeps. Gosh normal missionary days are so boring to write about

Thursday our investigator Patrice had to cancel because she was sick so we went over to give her a blessing (she asked for one) and finally got to meet her son who is a convert (for about 13 years I think?) he is super funny though. Hopefully we can keep the progression going. We were also able to see a bunch of less-actives. 

Friday was weekly planning day... Gosh weekly planning is the worst. We saw one less-active and we had a really good lesson then at the end she just started throwing all these super anti questions at us which was super weird. But she has like 10 cats and a huge dog in a tiny one bedroom apartment so we were covered in hair.

Saturday was exchanges with the spanish elders again. Elder Ward came to our area with me. We were able to finally re-establish contact with Eunice (the mother with 9 kids) who we haven't seen since before thanksgiving! crazy stuff. She is still interested she was just busy working the holidays and taking care of her mother. I guess we just always stopped by at the wrong time. But we have return appointments set up and everything so hopefully we can get the ball rolling again.

Sunday was different this week. We didnt go to 9.5 hours of church this time because the western coast of north america all received a special broadcast from SLC. My favorite talk was from Elder Renlund probably. I would quote him but I dont take notes haha.

Love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Ockey