Riverside Mission

June 24

Normal Pday, we had our last zone pday together and played volleyball together and got froyo.

June 25 

We were truck elders for the day and it was crazy. We had district meeting where we practiced addressing common concerns using the scriptures. It was really good, we learned a lot there.  We took the Chaparral sister their bikes. We got to drive the truck. We went to Vista, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Escondido, Del Mar, and San Marcos. That basically took up our entire day but it was fun to touch every part of our old Carlsbad mission so that was really cool. 

June 26

We went on an exchange. I was in the Lake Skinner area with Sister Bradford. We came out together and have been on lots of exchanges together because she was my sister training leader for a few transfers. We knocked on a guys house who is YSA age but his mom answered the door. He wasn’t home but we talked with her and she actually accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon. We prayed with a lot of people. There are so many nice people, so many not nice people too but that is ok. We passed out two copies of the Book of Mormon that day. We met a guy whose daughter went on a mission for their religion. He took a copy. We went to a member appointment with some returning members and shared with them the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked to them about their goals and it is their goal to go to the temple. They have a cute little granddaughter, Ella, she loves Jesus. She is so little but knows exactly who he is. 

We then exchanged back for about 10 minutes then exchanged with the Las Brisas sisters. I went with sister Olsen to Las Brisas. 

June 27 Thursday 

With Sister Olsen, we visited Caroline, a member who goes to BYU I who jumped in the shallow end of a pool and broke her ankle and tore some ligaments. She was basically on bed rest but wants to go on a mission. So it was really cool. She asked us a bunch of questions about missions and our favorite scriptures and ones we use the most. It was a really good kind of study. We went to a member’s house and did our companion study with their daughter because we were supposed to have a lesson there and we wanted the daughter to be prepared for what we would teach. Her name is Ariana. Ariana is amazing. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about a scripture, pulled out the different points and talked about how these relate to her life. It was really cool. She is 15. She is darling and wants to be baptized. 

We at trail mix at the church for dinner and finished tracting. 

Friday, June 28 

Studies and weekly planning. We went by some should be YSA and then exchanged with Oso Oro. Sister Kartchner my baby came to YSA with me. We had a free car wash with a boot with pamphlets and cookies and lemonade. We actually were able to see quite a bit of success for missionaries in the zone and it was super fun too.

I talked to a guy, Kevin, he is Egyptian and has gone to seven different churches. We talked about the Book of Mormon. We also talked with a guy, Chad, who was interested. We found some new people and did some service for the members. It was a fun day.

We went to work and passed out party invites to returning members and to potentially interested human beings. Then we went tracting. We went to dinner with Elder Anderson, a service missionary.

Sunday

Normal crazy - studies and missionary correlation meeting. We went to church and Brother Beck brought one of his hula dancers (he owns a luau business) and she is interested in meeting with us. We had dinner with Andrew and Juanita, two recent converts who are engaged. 

July 1st

We made Elder Duetri a cake because it was his birthday. Happy birthday! Happy Birthday to Grace Carter too! I love you.

I had to go back to Carlsbad to a dentist appointment back where I got a root canal. I got to see Brother Packard again. Apparently I have an infection in my tooth. Sister Moore got to see the beach. 

We went to FHE a service project at cultivating inclusion.

Tuesday, July 2nd

MLC at the Riverside mission office. It was awesome, tense and spiritual. Combining three missions is no easy task. I am impressed with President Hammond. It was very organized, different from Carlsbad MLC. We talked about language and appearance. There are a lot of new things, a lot of new rules to get used to. We also had a sisters meeting with all the Sister Training Leaders. 

Wednesday, July 3

District leadership council - zone leaders, STLs and district leaders - Elder Halbut our assistant came. We had our interviews with President Hammond. He is awesome, very different than President Thomas, but he helped me out and I got to know him a little more. We went to a lesson with Annette, the hula dancer. She is amazing, she is beautiful. She wants God to be a main focus in her life. She is elect. She is so excited to read the Book of Mormon. We set expectations with her. We told her our purpose is to help people come unto Christ and be baptized. She answered, OK. She was impressed with the intro to the Book of Mormon where it talks about asking God if it is true and the witness she can gain because of the spirit. She is awesome. She is amazing. She said, I am so willing to dive in and do everything you ask me to do. She doesn’t want to focus on the world but wants Christ the center of her life. 

Thursday, July 4

Happy Birthday Kimiko Aramaki. I love you very much and am sure you are killing it out there on your mission. All-day cleaning day and then we exchanged with the Morgan Hill sisters. 

Friday with sister Vernon. We did our studies and then went to work. We went by a potential, Pam, who is super cool. We chatted with her for a good minute and then she asked, do you want to share something with me? She has been taught by missionaries in the past. We shared a couple of scriptures with her and talked to her about the Book of Mormon. We talked to Leah, she told us she believes God loves all his people and wouldn’t just focus on his people in ancient Jerusalem. We were like, wow Leah, guess what here is the Book of Mormon which gives an account of the people in ancient America at the same time as the Bible. We saw a lot of small successes.

We went to  our district correlation meeting and there was an earthquake. We all started shaking and were like whoa and then went back to our meeting. 

Saturday July 6 on exchanges with Hermana Allen. 

We walked outside and Menesa contacted us. She asked, where do you work? We answered that we were missionaries and she could come with us. She answered, oh, I would love to. So she planned on going with the Las Brisas sisters to church. I don't know if she went, I will have to follow up on that. 

We did “should be YSA” work and while we were doing that we placed ourselves in the path of Jose. He was working out in his garage. We contacted him and started talking with him. He was like well, that is amazing, I was just talking to my friend yesterday about Jesus Christ. It is interesting to see all the different opinions about him. He is a strong believer in Jesus Christ but is confused at why people get so many differing ideas from the Bible and why there are so many different religions and how people can interpret the same verse differently. That is amazing because that is what Joseph Smith wondered. We brought up the Book of Mormon and its role in clarifying and supporting the Bible.  So we gave him a copy and picked him up as a new person cuz he was excited that we would read more about Jesus Christ and share that with him about Jese Christ. So that was really great. 

We also met Andrea who is a new member. She is never at her house but we met her while we were out. Flash forward, on Sunday they asked us to go visit Andrea but we were able to say we already had. So, that was awesome.

Sunday

Michael got the priesthood. We are so happy for him and he is so excited. We had dinner with Michelle and Noah. We made personal homemade pizzas. We talked a lot about faith with Michelle and gave her a plant because she loves plants. We read her Alma 32 about faith being like a seed, and she loved it. She loves church in the gospel so much but is a little hesitant to take the lessons.  We will start teaching Michelle with the elders. she already feels the spirit so much, we know that. When we start teaching her she will recognize what she knows and what she needs to do about it. So that was awesome and we love her. 

These two weeks were fantastic and I loved all of it. I love you all so much. Happy birthday to Auntie Loli!

Happy happy day!

Love you love you bye!

Sister Dalley