Almost been out in Cali for one whole month!

Hey! I hope you guys have had a super great week. I have had an amazing week, nothing to crazy happened. I do hit my one month in California today, and man time flies as a missionary. The weather has been 50-60° and it's been kind of rainy, but that's okay. This is another long email, so I hope you guys don't mind reading. But it's worth reading I promise. So please hold as I tell you about a week in a small town called Loomis California.

⅛ Today is my 8th p-day!😜 We started out by going to the gym and I'm really trying to get some muscle. We then went to the mission office, and grabbed some Book of Mormons and packages we had. We then went to store on the way back, we grabbed some food and the essentials 🤣. We then came home and I started my laundry and?) called the family. Then the other Loomis elders wanted to go to panda express on the way to our pickleball tournament in our district. We got some fire Panda Express, I was kinda craving it all last week so I'm glad I finally got some😋. We then played pickleball and I sent out my last week's fire email. It was a pretty premium email. We then went and headed home and went to our dinner appointment. We had spaghetti and meatballs. It was pretty good, the people live in an RV in like a RV park. It was kinda different but I realized that the people who are less fortunate are the most caring people ever. They were super sweet and I walked out feeling blessed and loved. Elder Koyle on the way back had a strong impression to go down a road to see what was happening. We drove down a road and Elder Koyle slammed on the brakes in front of a house, we got out and grabbed our things. Their front picket fence had a gate, and on the gate there was a no soliciting sign. But we didn't notice till after. Anyway we knocked on the door and the guy talked to us through the window next to the door, he said he wasn't interested. So we left and knocked on the neighbors house and they didn't answer. We then drove away, as we were driving away I had a super strong impression to go back and that guy needed the gospel or to know that God loves him. So we stopped in a parking lot and I prayed to help me understand the prompt and what I should do. I got a prompting to grab a book of mormon and write my testimony and to let him know that god loves him. We then drove back to his house, I got out and walked up to the door and placed the Book of Mormon on his front porch. He has a Ring Doorbell and it must have notified him that I was at the door, because when I got back to the car I looked back and he was staring out the window. I just smiled big and gave him a wave and off we went. So hopefully we made his night and he will contact us, or we just annoyed him. It reminded me that missionary work is like leading a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Meaning we can give people the knowledge and resources to come closer to God and Jesus Christ but it's up to them to take it and to come closer to them. We then came home and did our nightly routines and went to bed.

1/9-Hey, Today was a pretty decent day. We started out by going to the gym and gaining the physical strength to try and keep up with the spiritual strength🤣. After the gym, we had our studies, and then we did a service project for a lady in the 1st ward. We were just helping put her Christmas decorations away. I decided I could be a professional christmas tree transporter🤣. We then had lunch at Taylors. It was honestly better than the last time we went, if you don't remember, look back at my past emails. Anywho, we went and had lunch at the other Loomis Elders house. You're probably asking yourself “why did you eat at their house versus yours?” Well you see we went to Lincoln to shoot a video for our missions facebook page. And we thought we were giving the elders a ride there. When we got to their apartment, their car was gone, but we thought they would be back. Well they never showed up. They already left for Lincoln. So this goes to show that communication is key in missionary work. When we finally got to lincoln we shot a video/Q&A. It was honestly kind of fun. We then headed back home because we had missionary work to do. When we got back, we did some facebook work and headed out to go talk to less active people. When we were out and about trying to find people and after no success, our vehicle coordinator for our mission came over because Elder Koyle had not signed one of the many papers to drive. So he wasn't allowed to drive in the church vehicles till today. That's a different story though. Anywho we then had a lesson with a new member over Zoom and then we went to our dinner appointment. They are the coolest people and super friendly/talkative. They Fed us super tender steaks and asparagus. We then came back, and here we are. It wasn't a super busy/successful day. So hopefully, tomorrow is better.

1/10-Today was another awesome day. We started by hitting the gym. I have worked my arms a lot, but they are getting massive🤣 (only if you squint hard enough). We then came back and did our studies. We then went to Lincoln for our district council. We talked about how missionaries leave an impact on people. It was honestly a super great training. We then had a phone call lesson with a guy named Jeff in the 1st ward. After that, we did some contacts in the 3rd ward, we went into a gated community and the people were so nice. And then we had dinner with the Addley family, they took us to a super good Mexican place called “La Fogata Taqueria”, it was so good. We then went to the young women's activity for the 3rd ward and did a Q&A with them. We talked about missionary work and answered their questions about the gospel or the mission life. We then went to a member's house to check in with them, the guy has a dump truck, an excavator, and a wheel loader. He does dirt work, and me and him are now like best buddies in California, he even has a shop with lots of tools and fun mechanic toys. We then came home, I sent a text to our ward mission leaders. We then called our district and called it a night. Nothing to crazy, just meetings, teaching, and friendships.

1/11 Man, today was a good day. We started out by going to the gym. It was a win like always. We then went to a big service project in the 1st ward. We had the other Loomis elders with us. We basically emptied the flowerpots and helped a lady clean up her flower nursery. It was fun, kinda weird but fun. We then had lunch and headed to Auburn. We had a baptismal interview over there. We then came home and went to go talk to Formers. The first lady we went to doesn't live at that address anymore. We then knocked the houses up and around that house. We talked to a lot of people. We had people honking and waving at us. We even had a lady saying call me in sign language to us as she drove by. We then went to José's house for a lesson. He wasn't home, so we went to his neighbors house and talked to them for a little bit. They are super cool people, but unfortunately not interested. We then went to our dinner appointment. They had the cutest dogs ever, they are Bernese mountain dogs. One of them weighed 125lbs. (That's 5 pounds lighter than me)😬🤣. They also had puppies like 9 weeks ago. So I got to play with puppies. (Look at the pics). We then went to a recent baptized members house and we talked to her grandma and her dad. We then went to another member's house because we had some questions. After we came home, I wrote this lovely kinda of long email entry. So today was a pretty busy day that consisted of knocking doors and super cute dogs.

1/12-Hey, today was a pretty good day. We did the gym, and I'm trying to bench weight. Right now my little arms can only do about 45 lbs. After the gym we came home and studied. After our studies, we went to a service project and we pulled weeds. (Sorry no pics). We went with Elder Collyer and Elder Hobbs. (The other Loomis Elders) We then had lunch and I started making my mom's chocolate chip cookie dough. After we went and did our weekly planning. We are going to kill it this week. After we went to dinner at a pizza place with a member and her son. The pizza was so amazing, her son is also super cool. Him and I have alot in common. He has his CDL (Commercial Drivers License), which is great, he told me how to get it and now I know what to do because I want to get mine when I get home. After our lovely dinner we had sport night. We played volleyball and I’m actually pretty good at it. After the youth left we played a little 2 on 2 basketball. I had Elder Collyer on my team, and we creamed Elder Koyle and Elder Hobbs. We then came home, i finished my moms cookie dough and then went to sleep, we were super tired. We honestly were busy, but tomorrow I am hoping to get more missionary work done. Anywho that's it for today. 

1/13- Today was a cold rainy day. We started out with the gym and I benched like 60 lbs. I know it's not alot, but it's the most I could do. We then did our personal studies and I studied Jacob ch 2. It's honestly a super Great chapter to read. After our studies we went tracting in the rain. We knocked on a lot of doors and almost everyone answered. Nobody was super interested. But we had quite the experience. We started off with everyone being sick, then we had a dog bark at us for like 45 minutes as we went to the neighbors houses. We had one guy tell us to F off, one lady told us we were being a disturbance. The lady had like 5-10 dogs, and they were all barking. And as soon as we said we were missionaries she said we were a disturbance. I just think she had way too many dogs. We then came home and did some facebook work. A member gave us some freezer meals that you have to make yourself. So we tried cooking one for lunch, and let's just say Elder Koyle and I need some more experience. The food was decent, but probably would have been better if cooked correctly. We then did our companionship study, and I posted a video on Facebook. Then we went to do more rainy tracting. It wasn't as effective as this morning but it was okay. We then went and talked to one of our new people, and the more I talk to him, the more I realize that God should always be at the center of our lives. We then went to dinner at an Italian pizza place. It was super good, after we went and got ice cream. We then went to the church and practiced some songs on the Piano/Organ. We then came home and the other elders came over since Elder Koyle and Elder Collyer had a call. So Elder Hobbs and I just hung out. We them went to bed

1/14 Hey, ya'll, today was a pretty good day. We started out our day with going to our 3rd ward's mcm. We then went to sacrament meeting and that wards elders quorum. We then went to the last part of the 1st wards sacrament and went to their young men's. We then had that MCM. We came home, and we were both super tired so we took a nap. We then studied and studied for our lesson tonight. After that we then went tracting. We talked to some people, one of the houses we went to, they were doing yard work. So we stopped and helped them out in our proselyting clothes. We then went to the church and did some facebook work. After that we went to dinner and we had tri-tip steak. I guess that's super popular here 🤷‍♂️. After our dinner, it is my week to teach the lesson. I taught one about faith, it was decent but the more I teach the better I am hoping to become. After we headed home and did some more studying. Then we called it a night, nothing to crazy for today. 

Well, that's it for this week. Just cute dogs and knocking doors. Or as guns and roses would say, "knock knock knocking on heavens door" but for missionaries it's "knock knock knocking on people's door".🤣🤣🤣. I love hearing from you guys, don't be afraid to email and talk to me. Anyway I hope you enjoy the pictures:

1: Funny sign I found while tracting (Don't worry thats not the name of the street.)

2: Selfie with an bernise Mt dog. (It weighed 5lbs lighter then me)

3: Making cookies.

4: Reading the BOM with "grandma glasses" I found.

5: Cookie dough balls

6: Puppies 😊🐶

7: Mirrior Pic 📸 

8: Cute little frog we found while doing service

9: Ice in California 

10: Tracting in t