Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Just Another Week in Santa Cruz



14 September 2015

Hello Family!

How are you doing? Today has been kind of dreary. It is trying so hard to rain. Hopefully, it will. We are supposed to be cooling off from our "heat wave" (we were actually in the 90s). This week was good, though. We did a lot. 

On P-day last week, we hurried to finish our errands before heading down to Monterrey. We met up with the Sisters there and had lunch at a sandwich place I used to go to in San Jose. It was so good! We then went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. We didn't have a lot of time, but we went through it and looked at the different exhibits. It was so cool! They have tons of things. I took some great pictures. I loved that they had these giant fake whales hanging from the ceiling! :D We saw some octopus, penguins, otters, jellyfish, sharks, rays, and more! :D Seriously, so fun! I would love to go back there when I have more time! Also, when we were waiting outside for the sisters, a group of people walked by speaking French! I didn't chase after them, but it was so nice to hear someone speaking French! :) We got stuck in some bad traffic on our way to Santa Cruz, but our dinner was totally understanding. It was super fun. 

On Tuesday morning, we got a referral! So, we tried to go see her as soon as we could. Unfortunately, she wasn't home. After that, we tried to see a woman (Wendy) who the Relief Society asked us to see. We caught her at home and set up an appointment for later in the week. We then tried to see some more people and even dropped in on our potential, Danielle. She answered the door! We chatted with her and she told us everything that she has going on. She told us that she would have more free time this week, so we are going to try her again this week. I hope we get to start teaching her, too. We then did some finding before dinner with a family in Santa Cruz. It was fun. We then tried to visit someone else that the Relief Society asked us to see. We made contact with her, too! Unfortunately, she is not interested in being in the church anymore. We then had a lesson with Krystal. We talked with her more about forgiveness. She was supposed to come to church this week, but she had to cancel. Drat. 

On Wednesday, we tried to see our referral again and got her contact information from one of her neighbors. We then had an appointment with Tina, but she had to cancel. We then met with Rhonda and her boys and had a lesson with them. We talked about the things that we need to do to be closer to our Heavenly Father. One of her boys really liked it. We then met with Renee. She wasn't able to go to church on Sunday, so we talked to her about what we learned in Church. I love going to see her! She is also planning on asking the bishop for an interview for a patriarchal blessing. Yay! We then went to Sister Massey's house and did service for her before having dinner. Sister Massey LOVES to talk, so we were there for a while! :) We then tried to visit someone else, but she wasn't home. 

On Thursday, we had ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) in Santa Cruz. It was all about obedience. Sister Kelly and I were in charge of the activity. We also got to meet the senior couple  that will be helping out in SLV. That was nice. :) After ZTM, we all got lunch and ate together. After that, Sister Kelly and I had appointments. We met with Wendy and got to know her better. She has a lot going on in her life! We then had an appointment with Nancy Jo and answered some of her questions. She volunteers making catholic rosaries, so she always has questions about what she hears there versus what we believe. After that, we had some training and dinner. We then dropped by Rina's (a less active) house and dropped off a Spanish Book of Mormon. We thought that that would be all, but she asked us to say a prayer with her and if we could meet this week! :D Yay! We then tried one more time to contact our referral. We got her, but she was really rude to us. According to what we had, she referred herself. Apparently not. She wanted to know how we got her number and demanded that we get off her property. Yikes! I wasn't very happy after that. I try to remember something that Elder Holland said. He said that missionary work isn't easy for us, because it wasn't easy for the Savior. If people rejected Him, of course they will reject us.

On Friday, we were in San Jose most of the day because Sister Kelly had Advanced Orientation (a training that you go to your second transfer). This time, they had the trainers stay for it, too. It was really good. I remember a lot of it from when I was in training. It was a pretty long meeting, and they fed us lunch. After that, we drove back to Santa Cruz (about a 45 minute drive) and weekly planned until dinner. The couple who was feeding us lived in the Alma Branch (about halfway to San Jose) but they asked if they could feed us in Capitola because it was super hot in their house (it was really hot in San Jose, too). We were just fine with that! It was a good night. 

On Saturday, we went to SLV. We visited Alice and did some service for her. We then went and saw Sister Dallenbach and helped her. They are both doing well. We then came back to Santa Cruz and did finding. We then had a quick dinner before spending some time with our YSAs. We also tried to visit one more person, who we found out had moved. Ugh...

On Sunday, we had a lot of church. At 8h00 we had Santa Cruz ward council. Then at 9h00 we had Santa Cruz sacrament meeting. The last speaker spoke about marriage, and it was awkward because I couldn't relate. Haha. We then had Capitola ward council at 10h00. That was really good. Capitola just got a new bishop, so we got to meet him and talk to him about what we were working on. He seems like a great guy. We then had Capitola sacrament meeting at 11h00 before going to Ocean Branch Council at 12h00. After that, we had a fast lunch and then went to sacrament meeting at 1h00. We then had sunday school at 2h00 and then relief society at 3h00. In Relief Society, the lesson was on chastity. We just picked the wrong Sunday to come to these wards! XD

In other news, Michael got in touch with us. Hopefully we can meet with him this week!

Today has been good so far. We have some errands that we want to run today, but that is about all. Should be relaxed. Unless shopping takes forever. I have already warned Sister Kelly that I am not much of a shopper.... Tonight we have FHE, too. It should be super fun! 

Have a great week!!!! 

Love you lots, 

Sara

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