A Royally Grand Week...and a new Companion !!

Hey mom. So this week was soo crazy!!! It's going to be very spotty on this email because I have had so many great things happen. I am only going to write about some days to fit it all in. 

Elder 007 ?? (thank you Bridgette Viola :) )

First, about 20 minutes ago I went to Ross to get a belt and some lady walked up to me and told me she was buying my belt for me because she has a daughter in Chile and wanted to help me out :) 



Cool update I have for all of you back home is this...Elder Gregory and I are getting a new companion on the 27th ! There is a young man who is 16 (we think he is disabled and not able to serve a full 2 year mission). He is going to come and work with us as a full time missionary for 2 weeks. He is only with us for 2 weeks but he is getting a real call and the whole deal. He is going to sleep in our apartment and teach with us and just be a full time missionary for 2 weeks. We were told 2 weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to tell you. I will get lots of pictures of this young man. President (Felix) has trusted us to take care of him and I promise you we will, so updated will come next Monday. He lives about an hour away from Simi Valley and we are picking him up on the 27th. His name is Elder Peterson :) 

Kevin's pet rat, Winston

Monday was just sports and shopping and stuff. 
Tuesday we had our Book of Mormon class and there was a girl there with some really intense questions. Two brothers from our ward answered her questions but it turned into a huge discussion and stuff I had no idea about, so the two brothers just led the way. It was pretty intense though. 

Wednesday I was on an exchange with Elder Wickern in the YSA (Young Single Adult) ward and it was really fun. I went to Institute and that was just a blast. It is like Seminary for big people. It was just a riot. I loved it so much. I am going everyday when I get home !

THURSDAY!!! was crazy!!!! So we had a General Authority come and talk to us. It was in Thousand Oaks and was from 10:00am to 5:00pm. It was all day and he taught us soooo much!!! He told us how to get more baptisms and how to get more lessons. He also changed a lot of the rules we use for teaching and he made some requirements for lessons more intense so it is going to motivate us to work way harder. 
He also taught us how to get continual baptisms and he really laid down the law on how to work harder and he told us our mission is too low in baptisms. It sounds bad but he said it way better!! 
NEAR THE END HE BORE HIS TESTIMONY AND OH MY WOW!!!! When he bore his testimony I actually teared up. It just hit me like a train with the spirit. He just plainly said in a very quiet voice, "I KNOW that Jesus lives". It was so amazing and I got to shake his hand. It was just powerful. He had power in his hand shake. SOO COOOL !!!!

Lovely Dust Mask 

Friday was good. We went to do service at a members home and well, we were doing drywall. We were shaving it down and smoothing it out for painting and we had to wear masks because of the dust. No lie, we were WHITE after we were done. I did not get a picture :( But we are doing more this Friday so pictures to come. It was very fun. It was the kind of service I needed to get all of my energy out for this week. It was a fun day. 

Elder Gregory

Saturday I was on an exchange with elder Gaylor. Really the only cool thing, well crappy thing, that happened today was we went and saw Tim. He is the man that is a major hoarder. Well, we are NEVER going back inside his home, for the health of us. It was really bad, with flies and other stuff. We made it a goal to try to meet him, just not in his home. We'll try to meet him elsewhere. 

This week has been Royally grand!!!
Well mom, it is that time. I love you soo very much and I am soo blessed to have you all as a family and have you all support me sooo much!!!

I love you, mom, so very much. 
DAD...HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, SHORTY. KEEP BEING SMALL AND KEEP BEING AWESOME. Keep working towards the Temple as well. 
Scotty, hey man, miss you very much. 
Shel, love you sooo much. Miss you. 


Love you all back home. Hi to my favourite Gregson Family, Chapman Family, Armsworthy and Stevens families. 

Hello to my Ockey, Groom and Viola families and everyone else supporting me here. Love you and miss you and I'll talk to you soon.  

Care Package from home

Looking sharp in a Little Red Corvette

Short Email, Surpassing Goals...and BLUE IS HOME !

I'm at the library, so I don't get much time. This will have to be very short. 

This week we had a goal to have 20 lessons. Our numbers for this week were 6 member lessons, 17 others and 5 less active lessons !! We worked very hard and we are going to keep it up for the upcoming week. 

Because I'm on such a short time frame, I'll answer a few questions and then expound more next week as my week was Grand !

This is Blue

BLUE IS MINE WHEN I RETURN HOME !! (Blue is Elder Routledge's blue-tongued skink (lizard) and was with another family but has since been returned to us). I was actually missing her tons last week, so if you and Shel would be so kind as ot take care of her for me that would be perfect...love you hehehe (He knows I'm not a big fan of lizards...but she's growing on me lol). 


Mom, a prayer to the Lord is a prayer to the Lord whether it be 10 minutes or 10 seconds. He recognizes our efforts in calling upon Him and thanking Him. He loves to hear our prayer, big or small. Just remember if you open with, "Heavenly Father" and close in "Jesus name" there is no bad prayer. (This was directed to me as I gave the opening prayer in our Stake Conference. I'm quite sure it was the shortest opening prayer EVER as I forgot everything I was going to say until I sat down :-D). 

Simi Valley Sunset 

Please make sure to tell everyone that the letters they received are not one and done. I'll keep sending them and I love pictures and love hearing from everyone so keep it up :)

Not sure who this Elder is :-) 

I got an email from (a couple friends) which made me miss home. I have to focus on my mission, but sometimes I get caught up just being in deep thought about home. I set a goal to think less about home during the week but sometimes it's hard. 

Well, I have to go but I love you soo much. I'll talk to you next week. Love you all and keep progressing forward :)

Eating well, Setting Goals and Just Being Awesome

This week was very fun. I have been keeping very busy and meeting so many people, learning so much. I am loving the heat but now it's getting into the 90's, so it's very hot for me now. 
The members are so great here. My favourite family are the Morris'. They feed us so much. Every second Monday they feed us breakfast and dinner twice a month. My other favorite family are the Herr's. One of their sons just got home from South Carolina, like 3 weeks ago. He is very cool. They feed us once a week. 

Pretty excited about Ketchup chips

Monday was pretty fun and sad. We all met at the church and played basketball as well as a game called werewolf. We also got some pictures and then signed each other's journals saying goodbye. I sure am going to miss this district. It's been my favourite on my mission so far, so it was a little sad saying bye. But I got some fun pictures (in hard copy) so I'll try to figure out how to show you. It was a fun day and a great end to an amazing transfer. 

Tuesday was really fun. We went in the morning to our High Priest President's house to discuss the ward and get some help with some of the member missionary efforts going on. (Make sure your/our ward missionaries are being fed. You have no idea how much it helps, you could even bring it up in RS. It goes so far for us Elders and Sisters). 

Elder Gregory 

We had a nice talk and set in motion some cool goals. We also gave him a blessing as his back is hurting him. 
After we had dinner at the Morris' again and it was soo good. I swear we ask them everytime if it's okay we are there all the time and they always say they love our company hahaha. 
We had our second Book of Mormon class and it was good. We had some awesome members there and we met the new district. There is a sister there from Palmyra, New York and she said they have a Tim Horton's there and she loves hockey and maple syrup. She was like, "I'm pretty much Canadian"...it was kinda funny. 

Wednesday was good. We walked some dogs, which was fun. We met a lot of the heads of the ward today including our Ward mission leader. We talked about some of the goals of the ward, which was pretty cool, and he gave us some really sweet ideas. Later in the evening we met with the Bishop and brought our new ideas to him and he is totally on board with them. He is very pro-missionary and has given us permission to start some of our goals for the ward to help us see some better results. 

Yum...Ketchup chips 

Thursday was our first district meeting and it was really good. We got to introduce ourselves and it was just a nice meeting. After we taught Manny again and then did some service at the Morris' again. I know, 3 times this week, but hey, they invite us hahaha. 

Friday was good. We did a big blitz and I worked with some Elders while my companion went down to Oxnard for a big meeting so that was cool. It was nice to work with them and we ended up seeing a few really cool people. After my companion got back we went to the Herr's for dinner, then met with the Youth President and talked to him about how we can get the youth involved in our missionary work so that was a fun night. 

Saturday we went to a funeral for a less active member in our ward to show our support for the family. We never really met the family but thought we should go. For supper we went to a burger place and got stuffed up with food. It was cool. 

Well my mom I love you so much. I'm doing some amazing things here. Keep being awesome and tell everyone hi's and I love them so dearly. You all are helping me in abundance so keep it up :) 
Love to all of you back home. 

Must have sent him a Safeway bag by accident :)

A Challenge, Creatures...and more food

Hey mom. How are you? I have a lot more this week :-)
First off, I am STAYING in Simi with Elder Gregory ! That makes me soo happy. He is soo great. 

Monday was our P-day. It was pretty great as we had our zone activity and played a few fun games. We played a game called Ozzy ball, where we pass a rugby ball around and sink it in a hoop so that was cool. 

Then we went to a members and had breakfast for dinner and Brother Groves made some bomb (meaning good...how old does he think I am? I know what "the bomb" means..geez) french toast. 

Tuesday we kept pretty busy all day. In the morning we went to Brother Danible's house to have him cut a piece of wood for an object lesson that requires nails and having a strong foundation. Then we went to walk dogs and help them clean up some cages and tidy around the shelter. After that we went and had some lunch, relaxed and then headed off for more service, finishing up cleaning the tree. 
While there, we found an unwanted friend...a decent sized animal which was black and white and smelled so bad, my first thought was skunk, so my companions and I ran as fast as could, out of there ! Well, this mystery animal crawled out and turned out to be a possum. When we went back to check out his home we found 6 other babies and I know they are pests but they wer soo very cute. We finished the job, and just worked around them, but it was kinda cool to see. 

Men In Black...and White shirts

Then we went to do that cool wood object lesson. After that we went to dinner at the Chambers and we helped them build a shelf and the rewarded us with a nice meal and some groceries from Costco. After dinner, we went to a Book of Mormon class we started. This was our first class and we have 4 wards involved in it now, so it's big, but it went sooo well. We had some very interesting people come out so it was cool. 

Wednesday was pretty good as well. In the morning we did some stuff on Mormon.org so that was pretty fun. There is a new video on there called, "Lift". You all should watch it. As a matter of fact, I'm challenging all of you back home to watch it if you haven't already and to act upon it and try to serve someone you know who needs help :)
After that we went and talked to a few people and then went for Taco's so that was good. 
We went to help that lady who is kind of a hoarder. She is a non-member and in our ward boundaries so we are going to try to get her to investigate church because she loves talking to us. 
We ended the night off with dinner at the Flinder's house. 

P-Day activity 

Thursday was our last district meeting because 4 of the 8 are being transferred into our district. We had some fun and got some good pictures. We also got an oil change today but we didn't have any tire issues this time, so that was pretty nice. Dinner at another families home. A little slower today, nothing too exciting. 

Friday was our weekly planning session, followed by dinner at the Herr's. We tried people all day and were not seeing very much success. Now that we know we are both staying together we have set some high goals to work harder and really get some people with seeds growing. All we really do is plant those seeds. Don't get me wrong, it is so great to be planting them, but like my companion, we'd like to see some of these amazing people reach the amazing gift of salvation. With this new transfer we are going to hit some of the goals we have put into place :)

 I hope you like the spider we found
it was huge enjoy :)

Saturday was crazy ! It was like 90 degrees all day. From 10am until like 5 at night. We baked. And we did a lot of tracting today to try to get some solid people, so we definitely stayed busy and we were sweating buckets. I was being a stick and hated it and complained. I realized from some talks that...get this..this is not my work. This is the Lord's work and if I can not sweat a few hours to help someone else with their salvation while the Lord, Jesus Christ was sweating blood from every pore, I am not doing my job. So...I sucked it up and realized He was with us and put my feet to the ground and got to work. And we ended up meeting two great ladies who are potential investigators, so it was pretty great. 
After all that, I needed Panda (Panda Express) so we went and got some Panda. It was so great. 
After more tracting we went and helped the Cambers build another shelf. They fed us some pizza and ice cream :)
We met two great ladies who are new potentials, so it was pretty great. 

P-Day Activity from last week 

After that we went to a soft ball game our ward was holding to try to encourage a less active family that there are people who care. (Don't worry, we got permission. this was to help a less active member and try to get him some friends). Unfortunately the family wasn't there so we only ended up being there 20 minutes but it was cool to see that. 

Sunday was just a regular church day. After church we tried some people and actually put our goals down and made them solid goals for this transfer. 

Just before I go, please tell Trish Congratulations for graduating. That is soo amazing. For the package that is coming a few more things, besides food :), are ties, socks and I wouldn't mind hard photos of y'all back home. I also like to put stickers on the letters I send you :)

Well Mom, Dad, Shel-bell, Scotty my boy. I love you all soo much and pray for you every night. Keep doing awesome and keep sending the support. I love it. I love you all soo very much :)