Week 2 (in the field)

Well the mission language is coming along well! I'm practically fluent now. Anyway going back to last Monday, we got this referral for this guy that lives in the Covenant Hills gated community. We pulled up to his home and we were like dang. His home was worth at least 3 million dollars. But anyway he was this older guy who was friends with the Bike coordinator for our mission, so that's how we got the referral. 

We had a lesson on his prized poker table, so that was awesome, haha. We planned to teach the Restoration (which is lesson 1) and we taught it...... In about two hours. This guy is very smart and he would ask questions about every little detail. He was asking us questions trying to find something we didn't knon how to answer but he was also genuinely (I probably spelled that wrong) curious about what we had to say. 

Hayden putting together his mean cooking skills by making the boys a pasta dish. 

Really good acai bowls that member made

Elder Pingree (the bike coordinator for the mission) and his wife were also there so they would say stuff too and try and help with some of his questions but that was probably part of why the lesson took so long. Anyway, we kind of talked about everything but it was just a wild conversation with the things we talked about. For example, we got into the genealogy of the Book of Mormon. Yeah. Stuff like that. 

Anyway this week wasn't too eventful. We had 6 member lessons throughout the week and then 3 more yesterday (Sunday). One night, after one of our lessons, we went to McDonalds. I don't know why I bought something there. I feel like I disgraced my family for buying McDonalds. 

Anyway, there are some awesome families here! Like super  awesome. On Saturday Brother Yang took us to this Chinese place and then he bought us a cheesecake and a chocolate pudding pie. 

He is so awesome and has such a kind heart. Yesterday we taught this member family. The kids had some pretty interesting names. But the parents met at BYU so it all adds up. Then we had dinner with the Ure family, and they are one of the coolest families out here. They had spaghetti, french bread, salad, amazing brussell (brussel?,brusell?) sprouts. They were probably aamazing because they had Bacon in them. Then they made us these legit pina coladas. Like they were good. 

One of the hardest things for me so far has been that we can't go out and find people. The mission is still as effective as it was before and it is really good right now because we are building trust and strong relationships with the members, which is very important because the members and the missionaries need to work hand in hand with helping to bring people to the truth. I think the biggest thing is that when you get to go outside, it gives your brain more of a sense of accomplishment and helps to feel like you are working hard. 

I guess right now there is more need for "much labor in the spirit". It is all in good time though. This pandemic can be a blessing in so many ways. There are things that God needs us to learn right now and it is our job to seek the will of the Father. Right now there are a lot of people being found through the efforts of technology, in fact it is, in some ways, more effective than street contacting because of how much time it saves and it can really help to find those people who are ready for the Gospel. Sometimes it doesn't feel more effective (for me) because the physical aspect is almost nonexistent. But God is in charge. It is important that we learn the will of the Father and do it. It is so important to be spiritually guided right now.

Hopefully some exciting things happen in this coming week! Thanks for all the support!

Elder Shockley

Week 1!!!

Well, I'm still alive haha. For those of you who don't know, while I was doing the MTC at home I was temporarily reassigned to the California Newport Beach mission. 

When my plane lifted off the ground on Tuesday I realized I'm not going to be home for the next 101 weeks (ish) and honestly I still don't think that reality has hit me yet haha. I mean maybe that's a good thing. 

Anyway, when we got here I was the last one off of the plane and I was waiting at the wrong bag pick up place thing in the airport for like 5 minutes when I realized all of the missionaries were a bit further down and they all had their bags (including mine) and they were literally just waiting for me. So that's neat haha. When we got here the first thing we did was drive to the Newport Beach Temple, and it is super cool. It is very castle like haha, but we got a picture in front (sort of) the Temple with President Reeves (our Mission President) and his wife. 

Hayden with President and Sister Reeves

All the new missionaries

Then we went to the Mission Office, which was at a stake center, and got lunch and all of that good stuff and then My companions picked my up. Yep, companions. Plural. Since a lot of missionaries are getting reassigned to the states there are a lot of trios. I am with Elder Elliott and Elder Christensen. They have both been out for about 20 months. Elder Christensen is from Arizona and was originally in Mexico, and Elder Elliott is from Tremonton, Utah and this is his original mission. 

Hayden's new companions

The first thing we did when I was here was set up my bed. We got stuff for a bunk bed from the mission office and then it took us two hours to set it up................ We skipped dinner and skipped shopping for me to get some food. Classic. We had two appointments that night with members. I will always remember this first appointment. We met with the Codds. Brother Codd is from South Africa and has a mean accent. It is so awesome, like wow it was awesome. Sister Codd is from Brazil and also had an accent. What a cool first lesson. We came in with masks but Brother Codd said, (in a mean British accent) "We've already had Covid-19." Those words, spoken in that accent, were probably the highlight of my mission so far. It was amazing. Anyway we taught them a short lesson and I got to speak for a bit. Then we went to In-N-Out after another member lesson we had. It was amazing. To save everyone from utter (udder?) boredom I will only include some of the more important and entertaining details.

I am in the city of Ladera Ranch. My area is the Mission Viejo area and my district is the Ladera District. We cover two wards, the Covenant Hills ward and the Terramor ward. We cannot do any street contacting right now, for obvious reasons that are dumb. So that means that our work right now is 95% with the members. We can contact existing "friends" (investigators) and find new people through the members. We have about 8 "friends." The members are a key part in the Work right now while things are still constricted because of covid. We had one lesson with Francelia, one of our investigators, and we got a new investigator to contact through the mission vehicle coordinator guy. So yeah, we spend a good chunk of time in the Apartment studying and practicing teaching skills. And then we go on a couple of walks everyday to get outside.

Some last fun experiences from this past week: We had a member lesson with The Gentri family. They are loaded. (Almost) Everyone here is loaded. They gave us cookies and the best part was the napkins. These were not your classic Walmart napkins. These things were like cloth. They were like mini blankets. It was amazing. 

Another thing was that every Saturday this guy in the Covenant Hills ward takes the missionaries out to dinner. His name is Brother Yang and he is a legend. He has a parakeet that he brings everywhere with him.

His wife won't eat out with him so he likes to eat out with the missionaries haha. He took us to this place called BLK Burger and bought us each a huge 3/4 pound, kobe beef, 20$ hamburger. It was amazing. 

Then he took us to ice cream and then he bought us two pizzas for later meals in the week. What a kind man. He is a legend. Then today we had a dinner with some members and they had this really good chicken and rolls. It reminded me of your food, mum (not as good though). They had 3 little boys under the age of 8 who were just absolutely crazy but super cute, I imagine that is how me and my brothers were when we were little, haha. I also knocked over this glass cup and it shattered. Anyway, this email is already too long so to close I will say one last thing: Missionaries don't convert people, the Holy Ghost does. Going into all of our lessons I had no idea what I was going to say, but I am always praying to have the spirit to be with me as a learn from the scriptures and prophets, and as I teach from what I've learned. The Holy Ghost is the teacher. -2 Nephi 32: 3-5

Elder Shockley