WEEK 35

Summer time is a time to sit back and unwind. The sun is out, pools across the city of Petaluma are open, and the Marin/Sonoma County Fair was in town for five days. Mmm, funnel cakes and cotton candy. Unfortunately, my companion and I were not involved in any of these activities but we still kept ourselves busy throughout the week. For the most part of our week we have been busy trying to get in touch with the people we teach regularly. A lot of people have been hard to find at home or to simply call and schedule an appointment with.

With it being hard for us to schedule appointments or meet with people, last Monday was an unordinary day as we noticed many people were coming to us. It first started at 5:30 when our dinner appointment had something come up and to compensate they decided to give us a giftcard to a pizza place here in Petaluma. We entered the small pizza shop and realized that it must have been cooler outside. My companion wanted to leave because he could not put up with the heat; while my stomach was growling and I was hoping to get some food, he was more worried about how stuffy it was and how "icky" it felt in there. While we were sitting and deciding whether to eat there then or at another time there was a guy who was placing an order and he too also seemed bothered by the temperature of the pizza place.

 

After he received his order, he came over to us and began to talk to us. He mentioned how his foster son was a member of the church and he admired our service and example although he himself was a Roman Catholic. Before he left he threw down some money and told us to add it to our bill. We insisted that he keep it, but he refused saying that he knew that we would be better off with it. Shortly after he left we decided to put the giftcard aside for another day and split the money to eat from any fast food chain's value menue.

 

As we peddaled around and came to a red light a man named Tom began to ask us questions. We engaged in conversation and he found our answers to be enlightening and uplifting. He asked that we write down some of the things which we shared for him to refer to later on and he was grateful to have came across us. He shared how he was on his way home from work and he had a prompting to pull off of the highway exit and come to the spot he met us at, which he visits a couple times a week. Tom attends another organized church down in Novato. What he will do is sometimes stand at this spot with an American Flag and a banner which reads, "In God We Trust." You have to admire Tom for what he does, especially in a place like Northern California.

 

Well these are just two of the four experiences we had last Monday. I also wish to share more about Crystal but I am just about out of time. We have not seen her around town during the last week which gives us the impression that she arrived safely to Garberville where she plans to start a group founded on similar beliefs and interests and where she plans to start her own business which would make and sell fairy dresses. She's a nice girl and it we were glad to see her a second time where we were actually able to help her set some long term and short term goals for her to get her life to where she wants to be.

 

That's all my time for now. I wish you all the best. 'Til next week.

 

With love!

WEEK 34

Hello, everyone.

 

I wish I knew what to write or had a lot of time to write it. So many ups and downs happen during a week that it's always nearly impossible to include them into one e-mail, especially one that is written in about five minutes. While a lot did happen in the last week I would say that the highlight of the week was Crystal.

 

And thus I am down to 30 seconds. *SIGH* Her story will have to wait until next week. May you all have a great week. Take good care! Stay cool or dry (depending on the weather).

 

Love!

WEEK 33

Hello, everyone.

 

I hope that you are all enjoying the weather wherever you may be reading this. A lot of people in Petaluma are happy to finally be having Spring-like weather, but it's not so fun when the obstical to going to church is a 20 minute bike ride in the sun. I personally prefer the rain but the weather has been crazy enough that it would not surprise me if that is what came in the next couple weeks.

 

Well not a whole lot of exciting or out of the ordinary things happened in the last week. I have a new companion, I am on the other side of Petaluma, and we have a lot of interesting potential people we are teaching. However, our week consisted of trying to make set times and days to visit people.

 

I don't know if I mentioned it, but Elder Fifita's last companion was moved to Santa Rosa after battling allergy induced asthma for three weeks. It became too much for him though and he was sent home. :( Whether he will come back after recovering or whether he will go to entirely new mission is not yet known. In whatever he does though, we are hoping he stays strong.

 

I am pretty much out of time. I hope that the few pictures I sent make it up on the blog, thanks mike, and that you all enjoy them. Know that I think about you all often. I hope you are all doing well. I look forward to sharing more with you all in the coming week. Take good care! 'Til then!

WEEK 33

Hello, everyone.

 

Short e-mail this week and no inclusion of pictures. I did receive quiet a few e-mails to read through and I am thankful to those who have written and continue to support me with your thoughts, good vibes, positive energy, and anything else you (respectively) may practice. I did get moved and thankfully it was not so bad to packed. I am now on the east side of Petaluma. Elder Weiland went to Fort Bragg and Sister Missionaries will now be in our former area.

I am now companions with Elder Fifita--he is born in Utah but his parents are Tongan. He says that there are a lot of promising people that are being taught in this area so I am looking forward to it. I hope to include in my e-mail next week some pictures of the people I have taught over on the west side of Petaluma. I don't have pictures of all of the great people I met but I look forward to sharing a bit about them.

That's all for now. I wish you all well in the week to come. Bye bye!

WEEK 32

Hello, everyone!

Being a holiday, the library is closed today so we are e-mailing from the church. Unfortunately, I got the computer that has been constantly freezing so I don't have much time. I do hope to share a few experiences from the past week. For one, Bo and Ashley O'Keefe were baptized yesterday! For the past two months, they have accepted a date to work towards, because they wanted to be baptized but they continued to face challenges and trials. Afterwards, we encouraged them to pray about a date in which they did. We then went to their house a few days later and they told us that they received their answer and wanted to be baptized May 29th.

Things have went well for them the days before their baptism and they did have their baptism service yesterday. Bo had been looking for work and he was hired a few days ago. His job is not exactly a dream job but he does get to make his own hours and the job does have potential to help them provide for their means.Ashley told us that her mom and dad called her on Saturday and they each told them that they loved her, which she said was rare for them. Their baptism service was a very special experience for them and I hope to share pictures from it next week. Elder Weiland and I got there early to set up and when Bo and Ashley arrived she had seen four rows with twelve chairs in each row and said "Uhh, I don't think we will be needing all of these chairs." While only a few members from Bo's side of the family came to support them, it was good to see a lot of members from the church come to be part of that special day for them.

Bo and Ashley O'Keefe are very awesome people. I know that their life and the lives of their children will continue to be blessed and good things will continue to happen to them. Unfortunately, my companion Elder Weiland is still hoping for a miracle to come within the next week. Last week I was teaching with Petaluma Spanish and Elder Weiland was with Elder Hatch. They were eating lunch and teaching a homeless man outside of Jack In The Box. When they were done, Elder Weiland jumped on his bike and rushed to someone's house he had an appointment to see, thinking the whole time that his backpack was on his back.

After the appointment he rushed back to Jack In The Box but his bag was gone. He believes that the homeless guy, Dennis, has his bag but we haven't been able to find him in the last four days. Our adventure has led us down railroad tracks, to a homeless shelter, and even through a large field of tall grass and large mounds of dirt where small homeless dwellings were set up in certain spots. No one was at the spots, but Elder Weiland left a note at each one. Our adventure brought us a few memorable experiences. One unfortunate one was where we talked to a guy who happened to know Dennis. Elder Weiland asked him if he knew his phone number and the guy thought he had it somewhere.

So here we are along a dirt road behind some train carts and there is a guy kneeling down on the ground going through his wallet trying to find Dennis' phone number. Some other homeless people were walking towards us and I knew what was going to come before it happened, but one of them shouted in a joking way, "Hey, I thought you all were supposed to be good Christians. Now you're pulling people over and asking for ID?" The bag had a lot of papers about the people we teach in this area, but Elder Weiland is anxious to get his memory card for his camera back.

Elder Weiland brought it up to David whom we are teaching and he told Elder Weiland to let it go and maybe whoever took that bag needed more than he did and something in that bag would change their life. Indeed maybe it will. One thing that's comforting to know is that my companion will stop approaching anyone on the street who may have a beard or be wearing a big bag and ask them "Do you know a homeless guy named Dennis?" :)

Well I wish to share more. Unfortunately my time is up. I hope that each and everyone of you are doing well. I'm sorry that there's not enough time to write each and every one of you. It will be soon enough though that we speak again. Another transfer is ending next Monday and a new one will begin. By the way, if you read this and are ever in Petaluma and you love Mexican food, go to Mi Pueblo. I wish I had my camera on me that day to take a picture of the burrito I got for $6.00. Well I'm signing off! 'Til next week.

Take good care of yourselves and each other!