Same ward, new place

What is good fellow people??? It has been so good here in SLO, things are really going in the way I know the Lord intends. 

So I'm staying for another transfer in SLO! Another 6 month area.  I'm super excited.  It's both thanksgiving and Christmas this transfer so I'm glad I know the members. One thing though, I'll be moving (today actually, we have a crazy day) and my apartment doesn't have a mail address so it'll get sent to the sister's apartment and they will give it to us lol. Anyway my new companion is Elder Drury. He was in my Moorpark District and we got along great. He's a very focused missionary, he's a state champ water skier, and it's gonna be good. Really excited and looking forward to it!!

So many things I want to say today but I should probably start with the changes to our schedule. My parents know, but probably no one else. So we will not be having dinner with members anymore Monday-Friday. We will eat alone in our apartments from 4-5pm. This allows us to proselyte, specifically finding, from 5-7pm, which is the new identified prime proselyting time. Then 7-8 is primarily teaching and then 8-9 is our focused member work. The ward council should be setting up this time for us but I know that won't happen for a few weeks so idk. It's super exciting, really looking forward to it because knocking from 8-9 is always a fun time haha and this kind of makes the members see that food does not equal missionary work. It just doesn't. We can eat with members Saturday and Sunday tho from 4-5. Should be interesting. 

OK the good stuff, so Tuesday we had an experience I'd like to share, we were knocking doors at 8 and there is a house with a piano on the porch so we obviously knock it and the response we received from the home owner was so cool! She says, 

"Oh the Mormons are here! Kids come see, come meet the Mormons, I've NEVER had the missionaries knock on my door I've been waiting for this forever!"

She was straight up ecstatic!! So we go in and she has all these super good questions and we laid it out and didn't answer question 5 before we taught principle 1 and so forth. She's super cool, she's a yoga instructor so she's all down to earth liberal and stuff and so she didn't like our view on the homosexual group, or the other things but she did love a lot. They were literally leaving for Mexico the next day so we won't see them for a minute but isn't that legit??? It was sweet. Her name is Victoria. 

Junior is doing so good, he had his baptism interview Saturday and is ready for the 24th. It's actually happening hahaha only took a year. But he's really getting it. He's even working on his mom Veronica for the hermanas and that's going well. He even hooked us up with a dozen donuts:)

Wendy, well Wendy dropped us:( but it was actually all very positive. She knows what she needs to do, she's just studying for the MCAT and needs to focus on that.  She said that was her answer to prayer. Anyways I don't think she'd admit she believes in God again but I totally think she has gotten her faith back. It was a very cool journey and she now has many friends in the church plus she's coming to church next week and the first week in December!! So it's very positive and I feel very strongly that we did what we were supposed to do. One day she'll accept it. 

Shaun... Nothing, but we talked to his girl friend a little more and that was good. 

We've also had some really cool lessons with everyone else. One ended poorly though, let me explain. So Bubba, he is this biker looking dude with tats and a bandana on all the time and we had just finished a powerful restoration lesson when his friend sits down and explains this fight he just had with his wife. Well his wife then pulls up and gets out of her car and wasn't the nicest, this guy said, "Oh and here she is, the love of my life" on a sarcastic level of 3000.  Anyway his wife then rips him apart in front of us and it was extremely awkward. The guy then looked at us and said, "Is that part of your training, helping me with that?" lol it was a good experience haha

Saturday was the best day, we taught Laverne, Bubba, and had some encounters with turkeys. We helped "harvest" turkeys by simply chopping their heads off with an axe. Nothing in the handbook that talks about axes... I don't think anyway so that was legit. Reminded me of when we did it with Bro Perrett and Bro Faribanks. Classic. Total of 6 turkeys. And they were fat. I'll get pics up on here.

And right after that we had to fulfill my first "special assignment" from P. Nakken, which was to attend a young adult baptism and make sure "no inappropriate decisions were made".  It was funny but felt like a waste of time. Got to do what you got to do. 

Well dying turkeys isn't too spiritual but let's go back to the schedule. This isn't just so we eat less haha this is so that the members have a better opportunity to actually do missionary work. The gathering isn't just going to happen over night. It's going to take some serious and prayerful effort in order to actually achieve convert baptisms. I have been reflecting on "salvation" lately. Salvation is being saved right? And that happens when we make covenants with God. We, as members of the Lord's restored church have made such covenants but what about the other 7 billion living people and all the billions of people on the other side of the veil? Seriously what about them?? Just because we got it means they don't get it? We'll obviously not, God's plan covers everyone and it's such a blessing it does. So I ask: When was the last invitation you extended to someone regarding anything gospel related? When was the last time you did something you'd consider "missionary work"? 

Good questions to reflect on. Now it may have been yesterday, but it may have been a year ago. I say this a lot by this is eternal life!! This is salvation or better yet, exaltation! We are commanded to gather and we know the Book Of Mormon is the key to that gathering yet what is being done about it? It's very easy for a full time missionary to think about these questions and I get that, I get that there is 'fear to offend'  involved in all this. I know that you have precious relationships with people and all that good stuff but the Lord will reveal to you what YOUR part is in the gathering. I know this is His church, this is the truth and it's beautiful. I love this gospel and I certainly love being a missionary. 

I'll close with P Nakken' s definition of urgency. 

Urgency: a value or benefit you placed on an activity

Love yah, Happy Thanksgiving!

Elder P  

New address 

11323 Los Osos Valley rd apt. B

San Luis Obispo CA 

93405