Hermana Davis Ventura California Mission: 2020-05-31

This week has been great. I am learning a lot and meeting a lot of interesting people. We decided to make cookies for some of our members the other night. So, we made them and set out to deliver them. We were walking around one of the apartment complexes in our mission when an Uber driver drove by. We didn't think much about it, but he came back around and started talking to us. We found out that his son had married someone from our church and lived in Salt Lake. We talked for a little while about his family and then he said ok give me your spill. What are you going to tell me? My companion just said "If there is anything we can do to help you, please call us" and we gave him cookies. He teared up and was so grateful that we offered to help him and not try to change him. Missionaries main purpose is to help people and help them find joy in this world. People sometimes forget that.

We had also been teaching Juan for the past few weeks, but we could never get a hold of him. We also saw him walking around the apartment complex and we were able to talk to him and set up a meeting. That was a blessing.

I had my first member dinner at a member's house. It was fun. We had hot dogs. They were amazing. They had tomatoes and stuff on it. They didn't believe me that I can't handle hot sauce, so they put their mildest hot sauce on my hot dog. I almost died. It was so hot. They love that I am still learning the language. They always ask me to say the prayers. One of the members asked me if we weren't working hard and needed help. I said "si" and answered wrong in Spanish. They thought it was hilarious.

We go on walks everyday near the beach. It is beautiful here. The beaches are amazing. We do district workouts each morning too. It is nice to be around other missionaries and people. We do a lot of Facebook teaching.

On Sundays we can go get the sacrament at the church. The zone leaders bless and administer the sacrament for each missionary companionship. It is nice to have the sacrament every week. We can meet in small groups.

It seems like we are going backwards with the Covid restrictions now. We all have to wear masks now. We can only go outside for sanity walks. There is a law or ordinance against door to door or street contacting. So, we can't talk to anyone outside.

Today is another transfer. We are getting tons of missionaries. We now have a rental car and some missionaries will be put in hotels. We were expecting like 40 missionaries and we are getting like 100. There will probably be four missionaries in every apartment. Such a strange time. We can't carry Book of Mormons or pamplets around with us. We were kicked out of a park for too many missionaries playing soccer together. It is super weird.

Our Spanish ward is the best. They put the missionary calendar online and it was filled for the month of June in 15 minutes. They feed us almost every night. They are so nice.

My Spanish is coming along, but it is tough.

Thanks for all of the support.

Love you all

Hermana Davis