Letter - 9/4 {Gregory}

{some of this is repeated from his email, but some of it is new, so....here it is :) }

Monday8/24 - So today Elder Crook and I woke up at 4:45am and got ready to go! We said bye to everyone in our district then went and got on a bus with like 2  other people all going to Ventura! 8 people form my Zone, 8 people from some other Zone and then the rest were all Visa waiters! So we finally got to the airport and through security and everything then I called home!. Then we flew to Arizona and I called again hehe :) yay yay :) But then I had to say bye - lame - So we flew to Santa Barbara and literally flew along the coast the whole time, it was so cool. On the right side of the plane was land and the left side was beach and ocean :) Super duper cool! Once we landed we were greeted by President rand Sister Felix and their assistants. Elder Yager and Elder McKinley (but Elder McKinley went home this week) and it was awesome, super oil Elders and President and Sister Felix are awesome! Super great people, you can just feel their love for you, ya know? Anyways so then we drove to some beach and had a snack and visited for a bit (PS - total not allowed to go on the beach unless it is for a ward activity) and then we drove down the Pacific 101 to Ventura to the mission home! But they took a pit stop first at this place called "The Cross" up on a mountain that overlooks Ventura on the ocean and it was seriously so dope! Anyways then we went to the mission home and had dinner and got to know everybody a little better and then they told us where we are sleeping for the night and I was assigned to go to a members home for the night with a temporary companion Elder Landt who is a visa waiter to go to Argentina (he was in Grant Bakker's zone at the MTC) and so we went and slept and it was super duper hot and it has been super duper hot this whole week like apparently I came at the hottest time of the year!

Tuesday 8/25 - We woke up (me and Elder Landt) and the member (Brother O) drove us back to the mission home so we could have breakfast and then we went to the church to do some orientation stuff and then we lined up and went into our first ever transfer meeting! We went in and introduced ourselves and found out who our trainer companions were going to be and so I got Elder Willis from Chester, Virginia and he has been out for seven months now and we got assigned to Santa Barbara!!! yay yay yay! like seriously one of the nicest areas in the mission! Right on the beach :0 oh and I saw Hermana Miller (from my ward) and Elder whats-his-face from your ward! He left this week though too, haha, lame. Anyway, so after all that I got my bags and greenies package from you and my family :) and we got picked up by Brother N who is our ward mission leader and super awesome guy! He converted to the church when he was 28 and he served in the Vietnam War and was injured by bombs three time and he had cancer from the chemical warfare so basically that's pretty insane! But he is awesome! So he drove us back up to Santa Barbara and got us lunch at the Habit and then dropped us off at our apartment which is a dump, but that's ok, someplace to sleep at least! Anyways so we took our bags in and then tried to figure out what to do next. We got whitewashed which means they took both of the previous Elders out and put two new ones in so we had no idea what we were doing, like no idea other than a few notes the previous Elders left us! So we went and read the Book of Mormon wit a les active guy named M, then we got a GPS from a guy in the ward and then went to an Elders Quorum activity to start meeting people in the ward! None of them have faith in baptizing people in Santa Barbara because everyone here is rich haha like no joke, the Relief Society President is neighbors with Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Degeneres haha - super nice area!

Wednesday 8/26 - So today i started to realized how much fun I wasn't having haha but it was still a good day! Today we met a guy named R with zero potential haha so that was a waste then we met P who is a less active and lives with his mom because he had brain surgery. We read the Book of Mormon with him then had dinner with the D (they're in the ward) and the dad is int he Bishopric and is just totally awesome family! Then we were calling people and I accidentally called an 801 phone number because it is 805 here in SB haha - oops, my bad! 

Thursday 8/27 - Today we went and taught a lady named L and invited her to be baptized and she said "yes"! That's right, I'm cool I know haha :) There are 90,000 people in SB PS haha anyway! That  pretty much made all for Thursday :) oh and we did service for a potential investigator named D.

Friday 8/28 - So we had a district meeting and my district is pretty cool! They're all Spanish Elders and Hermanas (Sisters) but they are super cool and President and Sister Felix stopped by and I was having like a super tough day so it helped so much seeing them! Then we went to a Stake activity and Brother N bought us Rusty's Pizza for dinner, BBQ Chicken and it was so yummy, made me miss Sabrina's brick oven! Then we met our Zone Leaders, Elder Snyder and Elder Gregory!! Yes, Elder Gregory haha and much more than that there's another Elder Gregory who is also a Zone Leader haha - yes, two Elder Gregorys!! I will have to take some pictures with them :) So it's Elder Gregory  Elder Lamb :) anyways haha I'm funny I know! 

Saturday 8/29 - Today we met some crazyyyy people hahaha, anyways, so we went and helped this family in the ward who are the most recent converts to the ward all the way back in February haha. Bro U is from Turkey and Sis U is from Russia and they have the CUTEST little baby girl I have ever seen like so cute!! Anyways, I'll tell you about one crazy we met :) Some guy in a wheel chair and he told us this really funny joke and then two more very inappropriate jokes so I'll just share the super funny one: Q - How did the pirate die? A - he wiped with the wrong hand....hahahah I died it was zoo funny, he was literally insane though.

Sunday 8/30 - Today we woke up and went to a Bishop meeting and then had church and it was a really good break from everything because by now I was just thinking how bad I want to just come home and be done with all this and as I was sitting there I started to look around at all the families and it made me realize how much better church with family is so I was just depressed. After church we met with a guy named J and had a really good lesson and I invited him to be baptized (yes, me) and he said yes!!! I'm so cool I know :) So that's two in the first week!!

Monday 8/31 - So today as you know was my first PDay in the field! We woke up, did studies and chores then we went to email! I was so excited! After that we did more chores then we went with our district to the SB Courthouse and it is so dope! Then we met with the I family who live in the richest part of SB (same neighborhood as Oprah & Ellen) overlooking the ocean and city it is so pretty!  They know Summer Raymond (Savannah Raymond's older sister) and her new husband! She actually slept at their house, small world, huh? Then Elder Willis & I went out to In-and-Out for dinner with the H family and they are super awesome so all that helped bring my spirits up :)