Shawn and Gus

Me and my companion have had this running joke for this transfer and last transfer where I'm Shawn and he's Gus. It gets pretty funny sometimes.

A lot of stuff happened this week! Here are some highlights!

-There was this man we talked to for a while outside his house and then he offered us a tour of his property and he mentioned that it is one of the oldest houses in Thousand Oaks which is really cool. He also kept telling us he was of the devil but was one of the nicest people we talked to all day.

-We saw this man across a canal and the road behind it. We called out to him and he said he would talk to us next time he saw us and walked off. We kept on trekking and talking to some other people and on our way back we saw him up the road. We yelled out to him "what about this time?". He then started to walk toward and we started talking and getting to know him. He told us he was suffering from alcoholism and that he really needed God. There was another guy down the street who was yelling and screaming some not great things so he invited us to walk to his house with him. As we started walking he told us some stories and miracles of his life as well as some symptoms he was having, it was all really sad stuff. When we got to his house he admitted that the first time he saw us he was on the way to by some alcohol and so he couldn't talk to us. We talked to him about changing and the atonement of Jesus Christ and just comforted him. We offered him a blessing by the power of God and he didn't want one then because he said he was filthy. We tried to get a time later but he still didn't want Gods help even though he knew he needed Him. It was all a really sad contact because he wanted to change so badly but couldn't commit. We also have to way of contacting him because he doesn't have a phone supposedly and where we walked to was his parents and he was going to leave. Pray for Bentley.

-We had an awesome lesson with a returning member and her friend who she wants us to baptise. It was awesome. She sadly didn't come to church but we'll get her next time.

-We met this woman walking with her kids and we started talking with her and she was interested in talking with us. Everything seemed a little off but we kept teaching her and she said her husband and would be interested in talking to us to. Their apartment was nearby so we ended walking to the apartment. We asked what her husbands name was and i recognized the name so as we get close to the apartment I look in our PMG (records) and we have a red record for him. The notes weren't too concerning just that he was bashy. They were nice and invited us in and we told them we had about 20 minutes and then we had to leave. and yup he bashed us for about 35 minutes as me and Elder Colton powerfully testified of the Restored Gospel and explain that truth simply. The wife was actually really cool but the husband (Larry) was not a reasonable man. After explaining multiple times that we had to get going, Elder Colton and I stood from their table and left their home. We ended up contacting another couple on the way out of the complex and they were a lot cooler.

-Our friend Ken is really funny. He's a REALLY busy father who loves to talk to us. He's rebuilding a lot of his house while taking care of 4 kids and his wife is away working, usually one a business trip. Cool guy. He's trying to find a weekend to come to church.

-This woman acted like she was calling the cops on us while we were contacting someone even after we were really nice to her. Ended up finding someone on the way out.

-Found this really cool tattoo artist while he was smoking a cigarette! He has an awesome testimony of Jesus Christ and is curious to learn about us.

-Found this Iranian man named Sayed who was one of the most humble people i talked to this week. He lives in another area so we sent him over.

-Had a lesson with our friend Jennifer who was asking us the best questions ever! The spirit was testifying to her of the things that we were teaching. She wants us to come back and teach her more. We mentioned bringing a couple with us so we can go in her home and she said if she's having company then she'll make cookies.

-We met a lot of Catholic people this week. Like more than usual.

This week was kinda a drag until Saturday. We worked hard all week with little success, however, when it hit Saturday afternoon we ended up raising our finding goal because we had hit it. In the evening on Saturday we found 3 really really cool people in a row. God always has blessings for us at the end of our sufferings. 

I feel like I have/tell a lot of random stories in my emails. I wish there was a way I could relay how the spirit worked with us through all these experiences but that's simply not possible. It's hard but God blesses us. Opposition is out there, especially here in California. Fight the good fight and I love all of yall!