Week 3: First week in Atascadero California

So I left the MTC and flew from Salt Lake to Phoenix and then from Phoenix to Santa Barbra. I was picked up my the mission president Felix and had a picnic near the beach that included Tri Tip. It was pretty delicious. I stayed in the mission home for my first night. In the morning I had eggs, bacon, and Belgium Waffles with Nutella on top.. YUUUUUUMMMM! Over breakfast I found out that David Archaleta had spoke and sang 1 day prior to me arriving in Ventura. I'm lowkey salty about missing meeting him by just one day.

Anyway I was assigned my awesome Mission companion Elder Gibb. He's from Morgan, Utah and has been out in the field for about 7 months. He's a pretty good singer too. I don't even have to sing in Sacrament because his voice is so good and powerful. All I need to to do is mouth the word "Watermelon".

This area reminds me a lot of good ole Snohomish. There's a lot of vineyards and open fields. Also there's an In-n-Out burger that's less than a mile away from my apartment. I'm anticipating gaining at least 10 pounds in this transfer because of that.

Service is past week included helping do yard work at a local park. Then helping someone take the engine and transmission out of and old VW van. I guess you could say I'm a mechanic:) I also helped trim some rose petals and took out a huge stump from someones backyard. 8 hours of total service this past week with more to come I'm sure.

This past Friday we had a lesson at the McMahon household. They had a non-member family over because they were celebrating the wife's birthday. Her name is Emilia and for a year she actually lived in Snohomish and went to Elementary school at River View in the 3rd grade. She moved around a lot and she said that her favorite job was working at Snoqualmie Pass. When she said that I remembered that when I was sleeping on the drive down to Utah my dad had taken a picture of the pass just so I could have a picture of snow. I quickly pulled out my camera and showed her the picture. She was so happy to see the picture of her favorite workplace. She then showed her husband and her kids of the place that brought her so much happiness. We then shared a lesson on Matthew 11:28-30 and it talks about how we all sin and have burdens on our shoulders. But we don't have to try to get rid of our burdens alone. We Jesus to turn to to help give us strength for repentance. After the lesson Elder Gibb and Sister McMahon sang "I Stand All Amazed". The following Sunday the kids of Emilia attended church and loved it. It's little miracles like this that make everything I do worth it.

Friends and Family please feel free to email me how you're doing and I'll get back to you the following Monday around 11 AM. That's my designated email time. If you would like to send me packages my address is 5425 Palma Apt C Atascadero California 93423. Thank you and I hope to hear from everyone soon.