PDay Sunburn, Pie and even more Pie

Elder Routledge...BEFORE...the sunburn 

So, I'll have to be fast as we are on a crazy tight day as there are lots of Elders today, being Memorial Day and this is the only place to write home. 

Thousand Oaks 

Monday we had regular sports and did all of our shopping. Monday night was good, we had dinner at a less-active membes house. It was pretty good. 

Tuesday was good. We had our zone hike and that was a crazy day. We had like 2 or 3 zones meet in Thousand Oaks for a big hike and conference. We met up and went on this very cool hike and for part of it, we were blindfolded as a companion activity to help build unity so that was super fun. We could not see anything and we had to only relay on our companions voice, they could not touch us at all. We had to go down some big hills, up some hills and we had to avoid some cactus, so we had to listen very carefully. 
We hiked for a few hour and then had lunch. There were a few other activies as well, then we had a talk with our MP (Mission President). After that we headed back into our area and got back to work. I was sun burned soo badly though. 

 Wednesday I hated to put on a shirt and tie with a sun burn and it was one of the worst things I have ever done, it hurt so badly. 
I went on an exchange with Elder Fridal and that was pretty good. I got to drive that day, so that was fun. We ended up seeing a few members and investigators and helped a family member mow their lawn, so that was pretty fun.

Thursday we had our district meeting and that was very cool with a few awesome lessons. Then the sisters brought us strawberry shortcake treats just cause they wanted to be nice. After we met with a recent convert and then a less active member. 
We had a really nice pork dinner at our Mission Leader's house and the red corvette is his car. It is soooo nice. I'm sorry it is so short this week, but we are packed today. Anyways, Thursday was a good day. 

Friday was our weekly planning session and that was good. We helped a member paint some cabinets so that was fun. Then we had some bad news. 
Remember the kid we met last week in the nice house we tracted into ? Yeah, well his dad told us not to come back anymore so that got us a little sad, but we'll just keep trying. We were pretty heart broken though. 
After that we had dinner at a member's house (the Morris's) and they made me a pumpkin pie (I didn't even know that he liked pumpkin pie !) We also met with an older couple 5 times this week, by far my favourite family on my missions. They are just so great !

Saturday was a very crazy day. This week was very slow, but Saturday we tried to keep busy all day. We went and saw a few investigators and one guy we saw got into a good talk on when the next big earth quake will be. Everyone keeps telling me very soon, but hey, I don't know how true it is. But it was a good talk and he is such a cool guy. 

Elder Routledge & Elder Gregory

After we went back to the Morris's and had more pie. When we got back to our apartment we saw cops everywhere with M4 Assault rifles and handguns just walking around. Turns out some guy was running around with a gun but we were in a good lesson so it is cool to see how the Lord keeps us away from dangers. (Yes, I know this is true, however....I swear I'm either going to have heart failure or grow a head FULL of grey hair from stressing about earthquakes and now armed gunmen! haha) We finished the day off with a Spanish baptism, which was very cool to see. 

Sunday was good. Just regular church and we had a 70 (A member of the Quorum of the Seventy (church leader)) show up and talk to us a bit. Then we went to the Morris' again and had more pie and barbecue food. It was sooo great. I love food so much. 

Well I am clear out of time. I love you all so much and I will talk to you later. Muah to you all. Keep being awesome. 

PS - I found a big leaf and got bored in the car so I decided to take some selfies hahaha

PDay, Promptings and Service

** We sent Elder Routledge some pictures of home, these were a couple of them :-) ** 

Okay, so first off, the picture of Furious 7 made me super crazy. Now I want to see it ha-ha, oh and for my placque, as much as you would like me to come home in 2016, it is not going to happen :-). I am staying until at least 2017, maybe longer, we'll see ha-ha. 

This week was crazy good and a lot of fun. 

Actual beam from Twin Towers

Monday was just a riot. We went to the Ronald Regan library. One of the coolest things was a piece of the 9-11 TWIN TOWERS BEAM and i touched it. I don't know if I was allowed, but I did it anyway. (Anyone that knows Elder Routledge knows how...obsessed...he was with September 11th, so this was a BIG deal for him). It was so cool and there was a piece of the Berlin wall and I touched that too ha-ha. It was so cool and I learned a lot and got myself a really cool shirt (He's becoming a t-shirt collector just like his dad !). It was just a really cool experience and then I went to some more firehalls (for his dad) and got more fire patches. I have like 8 now. Then we ended the day with a really nice beef tri-tip dinner at a members house. 

Always Remember

Tuesday was really good. We went back to the dog shelter place in the morning to help them out and took some of the dogs out for a walk around the mall so that made them really happy. 
Then we went to another service project at an investigator's house. We were cutting down a big tree which was pushing her neighbour's wall out so one tree turned into like 3 big trees, like palm trees. The wood is a little softer, but heavy as crazy, so that was really fun. It took a lot of work and caused a lot of sore muscles, but oh mom, so worth it. We planned on doing a tree and ended up doing 3 and it made her so happy to have us go above what she asked us to do. She was so happy and her joy brought us great joy. 
Then we saw Carolina and her brother and sister. That was fun as it is always fun teaching people. 

 Wednesday was pretty good as well. We had to go to the doctor's to get a check up on my comp's wrist and all is good. His wrist is healing very well so that was good to hear. (Not sure what happened to Elder Routledge's companion's wrist as it happened before they became companions). Now that his wrist is better, we can start working out hard again and we just started an abs workout that kills so much. It is like 20 minutes long but non-stop. It is very hard but very effective and I am already losing my gut. 

At the Ronald Reagan Library 

After that we had some lunch, then (this is really crazy), I got a strong feeling to go tract in the richest area in Simi where the houses are in the million dollar range. My comp got a little annoyed because he said this area is very prideful. I was determined, so I made him go tract up there and I got the feeling to start at the 3rd house in. Well, we did and nothing, then the next and the 3rd house we skipped because some guy was sitting in his car, so we tried the next one and nothing. My companion decided we should try somewhere else and the house we skipped, both of us got the feeling to knock on his door, so we did. We ended up meeting a 22 year old kid who was very cool and very interested in knowing what we had to share. Turns out he is now a new investigator ! That was very cool that we acted on a prompting and the Lord blessed us. 

Elder Routledge and his district

Thursday was good. We had our district meeting and that was fun as I got to conduct this one. We had some good talks and my companion and I gave a presentation. It was a nice, spiritual meeting. 
After we went to go help a non member with her storage unit. She's a hoarder as she has like 7 units packed full of stuff and she is a little mean. We helped her move her things, and she is super picky with all of her junk. We could not drop a single thing or it would be our death, but we helped her out and then tried to meet people all day. It rained buckets all day so we were proselytizing in the rain most of the day and it got pretty cold, like it was 53 degrees. (for us Canadians, that would be about 12 lol). I had my coat on and everything and I could even see my breath, it was no good, but hey, the rain is very much needed. 

Written on the 9-11 beam 

Friday was our weekly planning session so that was good. We got our week all sorted out and then we went back to help out the lady with all the storage units but this time we helped her move rocks in front of her house. No special rocks, just 50lb boulders. It was so dumb. Well, I was in a rough mood because she is very mean and never says Thank You. Well, I just pushed it off and went to work and after she bought all of us snacks and expressed her deepest gratitude, so that was very cool to see that all of this help that seemed useless to us really meant a lot to her, so it felt very good after that. 

Saturday was crazy. We tracted almost all day and had a very good dray from it. In the morning, we got 2 others and a new investigator from just tracting. It was very cool to see people still open up to us when we are at their door. 
We also had a lesson with a less-active guy and his non-member wife. Usually we go over there and just talk but this time we actually got a lesson in. 

We also saw a less-active member named Tim and mom, I am shivering just saying his name. He is the nicest guy you could ever meet. He lives alone with his 2 cats and when we were there, he was talking to them. He said they are really the only company I get. His living situation is rather horrible. He is a hoarder and his cats use the floor as their bathroom. His apartment smells like urine and smoke. It smells so bad our throats were hurting from sitting there (we were there for like, 30 minutes). He is living in a dumpster and is so lonely. It is so sad and I feel so bad for him. I want to help him, but I have no idea what to do or where to start :(
That was the crazy part of this week. 

Sunday was great. We had 2 returned missionaries speak. They spoke with such power and had so many cool stories from their missions. They were very nice guys and both want to come out with us and help us. It was soo cool to hear them speak and to see their joy in serving full missions. They were also glad to be home though, and that was very cool to hear. 

Well, I have to get going, so I'll talk to you next week. I love you soo much. Talk to you guys soon. 

Skype call, Setting goals...and FOOD !!

Hey mom. How are you? I am doing pretty good. I sure loved seeing you guys yesterday, but it killed me to say goodbye. I was fine until the end, then once I said bye and left the Bishop's house I was fine again. It is just the stupid goodbye's suck, but it's okay cause I needed to see you guys. It really gave me the upbeat attitude I needed. It was nice to get that release of home sickness, now I can focus :)
And hey, in 6 months, I'll see you gain, but the next time we Skype, I'll be at my one year mark !!! Crazy, eh? I just loved bearing my testimony on the big screen TV. (He bore his testimony to us in Spanish !! For anyone that doesn't know, he is English speaking, so hearing it in Spanish was pretty great!)

Well, this week was just great. We worked so hard and had so much fun. On Monday we went and hiked up to the cross which looks over all of Simi Valley. After that we had a member make us home made hamburgers which were super good. He put this super good spice on them and oh man, was it great and then we had home made slushies so just a great night.

Tuesday was really good as well. We went to the lab and did some stuff on Mormon.org, then went to a members house and helped clean up her backyard. After we went to a different members house and the made us waffle and I had, oh man, like 13 of these huge waffles. I could have kept going but they ran out and now that I think about it, I was being a little porker, but they kept saying, "oh now, eat some more". These members are trying to fatten me up, I swear. No one fees people this much without there being some penalties and in my case, it is a little tubby Elder Routledge.

Elders Routledge and Murell

Wednesday was good as well. I went on an exchange with Elder Murell. He has a big sword which is the sword I was wielding like a pro haha. The house with a lot of pots round the outside fence, well that is the pot house we found ha-ha.
It was a good exchange as we taught a few really cool people in their area. I also helped a lady build a flower box for some veggies she wants to grow, so I felt like an Elder Bob the Builder ;-) (It's nice to see Elder Routledge hasn't lost his sense of humor haha)

Thursday we taught a new couple, Carolina and Manny and then had a zone meeting with all of the missionaries in Simi Valley. We have some new goals and rules to work on and one of them is no more dodge ball in church gyms. A lot of missionaries are really sad because every single missionary in this mission loves dodge ball. We can play it outside, but no one will play it outside. After we had another feast at a members house. This Hispanic woman fed us soo much food again. I tell you, they are trying to blow us up ha-ha.

Friday was our weekly planning session which was good. We got our week all sorted out and that was super good. We have a few new big goals for me and my comp. One is to set 3 people with a baptismal date so that is something we are going to work towards. We also have goals to get 2 new investigators who can be ready for baptism in the next 4 months or less.
After we met with a young man named Noah. He was sweet and wants to start taking the lessons again. Then we had a member take us to a nice Chinese restaurant, and wait for it, more food. You would think I would just say no to all this food, but it is always so good and you can not say no to food as a missionary. Just ask anyone you know. (hahahahahah...My boy sure LOVES food)

Saturday was good. We stayed busy all day and did our very best to try to get in with as many less-active families as we could. We tried to see about 15 in total, and ended up seeing 8, so we did our best to stay busy all day so that was super cool.

Then Sunday and it was alright he-he. It was great ! I gave my talk in church and did not do very well. I just go nervous and forgot everything I wrote down, so I just rambled for like 10 minutes on who knows what, so it was a little weird. Then I got to Skype and that was so amazing.

Well mom, dad, Scott and Shel. I love you all so much and I miss you all so much. It was soo great to see you all and I look forward to the letters you are all going to send :)

I'll talk to you next Monday.

** As soon as I figure out how to do it, I will attach a

short clip of our Mother's Day Skype call **

        

Hot Weather, Exchanges and Service

Some cool updates. First I have to give a talk next Sunday on, wait for it, Mothers haha. 
I sent like 5 letters out to people so some should be coming soon. 
Get this, you know the girl, Daisy, I was teaching in Fillmore ? Well she goes to the ward here in Simi, so I'm teaching her here as well :)
So I am loving Cali and I cannot believe  I am almost at my 4 month mark ! What the heck, it goes too fast mom, way too fast. 

Simi Valley 

I can not believe I am missing my boy's wedding. He picks NOW to get married? Please wish him and the future Mrs. Nixon my best and tell them I love them dearly and how stoked I am for them...oops...slang is not allowed..okay I am so well pleased :) 

So my week was pretty sweet. 
Tuesday was so sweet. I went to do service work at a dog shelter and I got to pet puppies and see some of the cutest dogs. I was cleaning cages and there were probably 40 dogs all barking at once. When you stepped towards them they would just cower. The lady said that a lot of them are scared of men so they just feared us, but a few came up to me so I could pet them. 

Cool Elders 

Goofy Elders 

We taught a young girl this week. Her name is Paula and she is just a boss! She is 8 and wants to be baptized and has already read the Book of Mormon. 
Later a member took us out for dinner at Panda (Panda Express). I eat Panda so much here, I love it soo much (this is true...probably explains why his pants don't fit ;-) ).

I went on an exchange with Elder Hamson (the tall one). It was so much fun and I got to drive finally as a missionary. It was a little scary as I am a little rusty for not driving for 4 months almost, but all in all we lived through the day. We had a super busy day as well and saw a lot of people and so many were just in love with how tall he was :)
Friday was our weekly planning session and that was really fun. We also ate at a Mexican restaurant which was good. Very spicy, but yeah, all in all very good. The food sizes were huge ! I had like 10 pounds of food, no lie and I ate almost all of it, but boy, was I feeling it later. I felt so full but it was soo good I could not stop eating haha. 
(I think that's all he does on his mission !) 

Elder Routledge & Hamson 

We talked about some Elders in our district and how we can help them. With him being the District Leader, we discuss a lot of our district and how to help them so that was cool. We made some goals on how to help them out. 

Saturday was fun. We got to help a member move into her new place. The move was fun, but the best part was we put a fridge through the window which was soo fun ! We took out the glass panes and stuck the fridge through the window because it would not fit through the door hahaha. It was kinda fun. 

The Pot House

After we worked on seeing some other people. We have a lot of less actives so that is mostly what we do. We work with them and try to help them get active again. 

The Hike 

Sunday was soo good. We had Fast & Testimony meeting and the testimonies were really good and we had a lot of less actives come to church. Like some people that have not been to church in years came so that was really cool to see. 
And the talk on Mother's Day next week really had me jumping for joy because you know I just love talks. After we had Break The fast at a members house and he is a Nascar nuts we kept busy talking :)

Well that was my week. I love it here so much! We are going on a hike today, playing golf next week and then going to the Ronald Reagan library so we are kept busy all day. 
I love Simi. It is very hot but very nice. Sorry no crazy stories to tell, but I'll try to get more in the future though. I can not wait for the package as I love treats :) Even more so, mommy treats. Dad also sent one so that was cool. 

Well, wish David and Chelsey my best and say hi to Shel for me and tell her to write more, jeez :)

I love you mom soo much and I'll talk to you in a week. Sunday for mommy day hahah and boy you are going to love the scar on my face...oh I mean my smiling face hehehehe jk. 

See you soon Mom. 

A Super week in Simi Valley

Missionary work is tough 

First off, my new area is so great !! My companion is Elder Gregory and he is from Sandy. I also live with 2 Spanish Elders, Elder Hidalgo and Elder Lopez. Elder Hidalgo, you might remember, was my first roommate in Fillmore. Elder Lopez is from West Jordan and is sweet sauce and so funny. 

So the new area is so great, but it is soo dang hot. Well, it was a little chilly this week, but the summers are insane hot. I am in a valley and it is sooo cool. Simi Valley gets hotter than Vegas sometimes and today at 9 in the morning it was cooking. Dad, you would love it, but as a missionary in full dress clothes, wow, not that fun.

But it is really a nice place. There is lots to do here as the ward I am in has a 75% less active rate. It's busy for us, which is so great. 

Okay, so every morning we run to a local hoop and play ball with the Zone Elders. Elder Hamson is 7'3" and always dunks it hard, it is so sweet and he is so gifted at bball. Being that tall he would be :)

Elders Hamson & Routledge

I also started a new workout plan that is tough. It is building hard muscle and really toning me up, but it is tough. I gotta look somewhat decent ;). 

Some PDay silliness 

Oh my mom, I can feel myself growing. My anger towards stupid things is going down and I am learning so much about Christ. I recently finished Russel M. Ballard's book and now I am on a new book. I am just soaking in the knowledge. 

So while I am out here, you at home can be doing missionary work. Start with little things like invite non-member friends, send missionaries to Momma's or Trish hehehe. Do all you can. 

I am glad to hear you have been keeping on up on the reading mom. Keep it up, you are doing so great and I miss you so much. I love you soo much, but I am having a royal blast here and there is no real need to worry. Just keep doing all you can and keep praying for us out here. 

Well, this week was pretty good. We had a lot of time to do service this week as there was a church wide service project or a lot of little ones. We helped a member move apartments like 20 feet from each other and I got to meet the Bishop. He is a swell guy and super nice. And get this. When he gets up in church to speak, he stutters and talks slowly and nervously. Well I heard him talk and I got such a boost of confidence, like his courage hit me like a brick to see him go up and just do his thing as Bishop and be as nervous as he was and not care was such a testimony builder for me. When you talk to him personally, you'd never tell he gets nervous, but he is such an awesome guy and so nice. 

I also met a guy who just got home from his mission in South Carolina. The same mission as Liam. I asked if he knew him, but he didn't, but it was cool. We are going to work lots with this young man. 

Well, my week was super. I love you all and will talk to you later :)