Escondido (Week 13)

Well I got transferred last week, haha. I am now in Escondido! Escondido is about 30 miles northeast of San Diego and to be honest this place is a little rough, haha. It's kind of like if the ghetto part of Salt Lake and Price, Utah had a baby. It's weird, haha. Me and my new companion, Elder Lundgreen, are white washing into the area. There were sisters before us and we are both new to the area, so we have a lot of figuring out to do. Elder Lundgreen is from Kamas, Utah. He played football and basketball at South Summit so we played against each other a few times, haha, small world. He is such an awesome companion!

The week was pretty interesting. The people in the ward are a lot different than what I'm used too, haha, but it's all good. The first night we went to this really old house and talked to this really old lady. Her son has some stuff going on and still lives with her. She just needed someone to talk to, haha. There are these trailer homes behind our apartments and the sisters before us were teaching a lady there. Her name is Patty. She doesn't have much and we are about the only interaction she gets during the week. It's kind of sad but she is making progress. We are also teaching this older guy who knows a lot about the Bible. Our ward mission leader is helping us teach him and the lesson we had with him was awesome! We are doing a lot of figuring stuff out right now. 

We watched General Conference on Saturday at this member's home. General Conference was amazing!  We watched the Sunday sessions at our Bishop's home. I always love how much peace in Jesus Christ there is. Everything good comes from Him. So much hope, peace, love, and guidance were given. There were so many messages that were truly amazing an truly meant for me and I know for all of you! I can't want to go back and read and listen to all of it. One thing that Elder Holland said was that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to everything in life. I have found that to be so true, especially as I am learning more about it everyday, and learning more about Jesus Christ everyday. I love you all!

Keep pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ y'all. I invite all of you to go back and listen or read the talks when they become available and see how you can apply them in your own lives. There is a lot of adversity right now and there will surely be more, but as Elder Uchtdorf said, "With Christ at the Helm things will not only be alright, they will be unimaginable."

I love you all! 

Elder Shockley

P.S I'll take more pictures next week, haha.