11/25/16

<Dad> I told her I prayed about helping her on her mission, then opened my Book Of Mormon randomly to Alma 32 and began to read. So I suggested she read Alma 32 for inspiration on who to teach. </Dad>

Haha there are no poor people in Irvine California. This week they are pruning the trees. Let me explain:

No trees live in Irvine unless they were placed there intentionally by human beings.

Every tree is placed in a straight line with other trees of its same kind.

Apparently every year crews of people come through and prune each individual tree so that it looks as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

Obnoxious.

I'm in the Oak Creek ward. We met with a guy yesterday that may or may not know Severson's brother. Apparently there are like 3 people in our ward who work for Blizzard. I heard one of them is a pretty important character designer. I also heard that some very important members of Pixar belong to the church which wouldn't surprise me at all.

Transfers are not tomorrow, but next Tuesday. I will know what's going on by the end of the week though. Probably nothing since I'm training, but every time people assure me something will happen one way literally the opposite thing happens. So we will see.

You need to get on the Irvine California Mission facebook page.

Sister Shober keeps being frustrated with me because I'm a convert and I accidentally have a bunch of scripture mastery scriptures memorized somehow. I just memorize the ones I like. We met with a lot of members this week so Sister Shober is probably sick of hearing my conversion story. Tell Matthew that he needs to get ready to tell his conversion story a million times. Also if he gets called to speak a language the first thing he needs to do is convert his conversion story into that language.

We met a lot of converts this week too, somehow. At temple tours we met this guy who had one of those crazy conversion stories where he was praying to have more truth and a beam of light came in the window and the missionaries knocked on the door 2 seconds later. I realized that for the convert this is a huge spiritual experience, but for the missionaries they were just in daily planning like "we have an hour empty lets tract peppermint street." or whatever. I've just been thinking about how still and how small the still small voice of the spirit is. Elder Bednar is frequently pointing out that you don't have to realize you're being led by the spirit to be led by the spirit.

For example Sister Shober and I were planning for the lesson we were going to teach to the Hydes this week. The next thing in order to do with them was read the Book of Mormon. However we both ended up accidentally studying as though we were going to teach the plan of salvation. We decided it was probably revelation and taught them the plan of salvation instead. Sister Hyde's best friend was there that night and Sister Hyde later shared with us that the friend had some things she was going through and the lesson was just what she needed.

We also made plans to meet with this less active member and her roommate. They ended up coming up in ward council because the home teachers had been trying to contact her with no luck. They making all these plans to go over and talk to her and find out her info and we were just like "hey we actually have a set appointment with them today." Turns out the appointment we had right before her was with her home teacher. Everything worked out perfectly. All we did was make plans during weekly planning.

I've been reading a lot out of Ezekiel. Ezekiel is crazy and awesome.

We taught a lesson to a street contact. I placed a Book of Mormon.

Brother England taught me how to make Texas with my hand so now I can more easily tell people where Odessa is. Apparently he had a lot of companions from Texas on his mission.

Now for fun stuff:

Elder Ashton is the most normal name in our district. We have Elder Ashton, Elder Fuell, Elder Blue, Elder Dayton, Elder Center, Sister Wimmer, Sister Rudy, Sister Shober, and me. In PMG it suggests that you carry around your 4 generation pedigree chart and share it with people who have the same last name. Fat chance here tho...

Sister Shober always is saying stuff like "I'm gone for" or "I'm doomed for"

"nice tie" - me

"Thanks you too." -Elder Mann

We had steak and potatoes at a members home the other day

*Elder Center giving passionate discourse on different cuts of meat*

"Elder Center is just really passionate about steak." -me

"I can see that. Does he teach this way in lessons?"- Brother Stokes

"You should just talk about the gospel the way you talk about steak." -me

"If I KNEW the gospel like I know steak..... all of Irvine would be baptized" -Elder Center

"When I go back to BYU I'm going to be in the hip hop club. Just kidding I'm not ratchet enough" -Elder Dayton

"you know what it's like being with someone 24/7 I'm just trying to give him some space, but you live with Sister Atchley so you have nothing to worry about." -Elder Center

"Whatever Elder Center if you had to live with me 24/7" -me

"I would hate your guts!" -Elder Center

The reading assignment is this: 2Nephi3:12 is talking about the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Put this in your brain and then read Ezekiel 37. It's a super cool really awesome chapter. It was blowing my mind.

Matthew's reading assignment is D&C:84.