Week 7 - Oildale

Hello everyone! This has been my first week as a missionary here, and a lot has happened. I got off the plane on Wednesday
after getting the chance to call mom and dad, and I saw our mission president, el presidente Layton, and he is an awesome guy.

We went to a church building where we had an orientation, and we had separate appointments with el Presidente. He asked how I was feeling, and to be entirely honest, I was super stressed. I told him that on the way over, I felt super sick to the stomach, and he comforted me really well. I came in knowing he would, but I had no idea how.

We then went to the president's home where we had pulled pork sandwiches. It was really good. I accidentally fell asleep on the president's couch, which wasn't a good idea, but he took a picture of it, and said I needed a bit of sleep. We then, after dinner, went to the mission home where I spent my first night. It was really fun to be there, and we talked and just had fun the first night.


The next day we had another orientation at the church, and we got assigned to our trainers and our areas. I am in North-West Bakersfield, opening an area! The first day, having opened an area, we had no idea what we were doing, and we just planned. The next day we went to an referral investigator, and taught him the first lesson. He speaks English, and his parents speak Spanish, so we can teach him. The Hispanic people are scattered all over the area, and are super hard to find. So, we taught him, named Brian, the first lesson, and gave him some scriptures to read.   

Anyway, we cover a few towns, and our goal is to build a Spanish branch, because right now we don't have one, and Hispanics just use headphones and a translator, so it's super hard for people to feel comfortable there, I feel. We are trying to find the less actives who left after the Spanish branch dissolved.

My companion is Elder Chamberlain, and he has been out for 20 months. He is pretty cool, and has inspiring things to say a lot. We have cars here, and I'm the driver. So, I was a goof and hit the rear-view mirror on a pole, and the mirror went flying. It's a little cracked, but we were able to put it back on and report it.

The language is difficult because the Hispanics in this area are super spread out and we can never find them.

Orchards are everywhere here. The weather is normally hot right now, having just missed the summer, and it is extremely dusty. There is almost no grass except in some yards, and it's a dessert everywhere.

I email from the church building. We live in an apartment that is not in our area, and so we go elsewhere to tract and such. I have one hour to email, and my daily schedule is waking up at 6:30, showering and eating, and then we have an hour of personal study, companionship study, and language study. We then have lunch, and leave at about noon.

Church was great, and to be honest, during sacrament meeting, I felt SO homesick. I just had a giant lump in my throat, and I missed you so much.

On Thursdays we have a volleyball game, and it's a lot of fun. I have honey bunches of oats every morning, and 2 eggs for lunch, and dinner depends every day. I get my groceries from Walmart, and our apartment is really small and simple, but nice and sufficient.

We do laundry at another Elder's apartment. His name is elder Rocha, and from what I've heard, he is an amazing missionary.

I like the small homes, and there are a lot of them. I love how much people have with so little. We've tracted a lot of homes, and not many people have listened, but we've gotten to know the members really well.  When tracting, our mission president says to do the following:

After knocking and saying who you are with a smile, you say "We've been trying to find someone who needs a message about peace, getting closer to your family, or getting closer to God, and we feel guided to be in this area. Do you know anyone who could benefit from this message? Would you benefit from it yourself?

The hardest thing is actually teaching because my companion doesn't prepare lessons, but just goes right into them from the few we've done.

I forgot my camera at the apartment this week so I'm sorry, no pictures.

It sounds like everyone is having a lot of fun. I love you guys!!!!

WEEK 5 - MTC

This was a great week at the MTC! On Wednesday, I got a package from grandma and grandpa Hathaway, and it turned out that Aunt Teilani got me an amazing leather sketchbook, and I love it!

Thursday was great. During our study time, I asked elder west if he wanted to study in the entrance building, where there are nice, comfy sofas. He said "Let's see how cold it is outside." It was burning hot, but we stayed outside. We then saw élderes Hanks, Perkins, Tauai, and Stevens standing near the rocks at the front. I started going there, but Elder west didn't want to from what I could tell (I can understand because we could possibly be distracted fairly easily). But we did, and sat with Elders Hanks and Perkins, Tauai and Stevens were a little further than we were. We were just reading the scriptures, and this Hispanic man passed by, and I waved and said "Hi, how are you?" He then turned and asked us where we were going, and after finding that we were going to speak Spanish in the US, he started talking to us about teaching Spanish people in America. He got such large tears in his eyes and was almost shaking. His tears filled the brims of his eyes, literally, I could see it, and they filled up into little bowls above his puffy cheeks. I'm being so descriptive because of how amazing this experience was. We gave him hugs twice during the conversation, and we no doubt all love him like a brother. Here are the notes I took from what he said. 

" Most of the people you are going to teach will have lost many of their own things: Their culture, their family -for most of them- and their homes. They do not want to be here where they are. They do not want to be where they were. They have learned to read people very quickly, and they cannot or don't want to trust quickly because they get abused by bosses or just other people in general. They need to know that you love them so much. They need to hear the following: "Can we return/ come to your home again soon?" They need to be able to trust us before they'll trust the church. They will see us and think we have it made. Love, and then trust. They will think that we do not care, and are only there to take advantage of them. In order for them to open their hearts, they need to trust you. They feel like they've been promised things that haven't been upheld. They are looking for the truth. They are looking for happiness, and they have lost trust too often. They want to be somewhere other than where they've been and where they are. When you just teach your lessons, and they don't feel that you really care, will they want you to return? That sounds more like you want something from them. 

"I don't know anything personally about the Lord, and that shows me that it was never about Him. They need to know it's not about you."

They need to know why you're serving. What you have struggled with is so easy for them, but you've both suffered. You have to be their friend. Are they going to want to hear you again when you've made no friendship at all? Nope"

Those are my notes from that guy, brother Molena. 

That night we taught Esteban. What we've started doing is, when we hug at the end of class with hermano Kinghorn or Powell, we pat their back twice, their head once, and their back once more. 

We taught Patricia Moura again, and while studying outside, I thought the following "She needs to have the desire to have a relationship with God if she wants to learn anything from this gospel, and if your only desire in these lessons is to understand your friends, you won't understand them because their relationship is real with Him." I asked Elder West what he thought, and he said "I think we need to open her heart with scriptures first!" We shared Ether 12:6 with her, and she said it was very hard to believe in things unseen. She is very kind, but I thought she didn't really desire to know if God exists, or that He exists, but that He doesn't. I felt like that was what she looked for. We taught a little about the restoration, and we were running out of time. She asked what happened to those who died during the apostasy, and we explained that God would give an equal chance for everyone to accept it. She said, as we left "I feel something every time you say "I testify" or "I know". On Friday, we taught Patricia Moura again, and we didn't finish the restoration- again. I've noticed something a little sad, that she has worn the same clothes every day. She's from Uruguay, and we ended by giving her a Book of Mormon, and asked her to read Alma 32. It's that chapter that compares faith to a seed. 

On Saturday, I learned the following quote "If we knew who we truly were, we would have no desire to sin!" 

For our dorm room, we have a password to get in (Mis ojos ya perceben la gran gloria del Señor) and someone knocked on our door. Elder Tauai ran to it, and cracked it slightly ajar, said "Que es el passwor- Hey, President!" It was our branch president, hahahaha. Face palm. Also, on Saturday I got my flight plans too. 

On Sunday, Elder M. Russel Ballard spoke! It was awesome. He mentioned Louisiana, and he loves the people there. He has 45 grandchildren and 75 great grandchildren! He said "I wish I knew when I was your age what I know now. I'd be dynamite! He said "The Lord Jesus Christ comes to know you as you serve." That was the second apostle in a row! 

Last week D. Todd Christofferson taught on Tuesday. We studied for most of Monday, and on Tuesday we taught Patricia Moura again, and she did read chapter 32 of Alma! She wanted to know how it was that in order to have hope in life, faith was necessary. I told her that if you have faith in something, you'll have hope that it'll happen. I told her that Heavenly Father has faith and hope that she'll see Him again, and live with Him, just as I have the same hope for when I come back from my mission, that I'll see my family again. She explained that she missed her father, and she started crying. The Spirit was in the room! We took a skype lesson with a member from Argentina and she said we answered her prayers and started crying, and grabbed a roll of toilet paper as tissue. I'm sure miracles happen as a missionary! That was my miraculous week! 

Oh, also my flight plans say that I'm flying to Arizona first, and then a 3 hour delay at the airport, and then off to Bakersfield. I guess we'll have a lot of time to talk to people, then. 

I love all of you, and thank you all for your love and support!

Love,

Elder Daniel J. Sant

Week 4 - MTC

Hola, mi familia y mis amigos amados!

This was a great week, an extremely difficult week, but great in all. On Wednesday, after having finished my hour of email time, my teacher, whom I love, hermano Powell, opened his heart to us. He explained that his whole life, his family was just a checklist family. They did everything just to do it because they'd be looked down upon otherwise. Then, just after his mission, his parents got divorced. He then said that his father explained, after telling their children of the horrid news, that if he followed this PRO symbol (meaning Pray, Read, Obey), their marriage would have been saved. He then said that he would do his best not to be a checklist family. He said that on his mission, he had a sheet of paper where, after finishing a day, he'd mark everything he followed from the white handbook. That's how it was for him. What he taught was very eyeopening. On Thursday our class gave each other goof names. Mine is Dilbert, my companion's is Reginald. My favorite is Kurble, Elder Wallace. At night, our teacher came and said that we'd be teaching someone immediately and to go follow him. We were terrified. But then it turned out that we were just teaching each other(our teacher got us). In the lessons, we could only ask questions, and only take turns with each other. It was fun. On Friday we got our information for our first real investigator, and her name is Patricia Moura. Everything about her was very unclear. She is an Odontologa, but I'm not sure what that is. I'll explain the lesson in a moment. We found out that if you put your scripture marking pen (the one you can pull the lead out super far with) really close to the camera lens with the flash on, and connect it with someone's hand, it becomes a lightsaber. We took a lot of lightsaber battle photos with it! We taught Diego, and took longer than we meant. I was in Alma 32 on that day. On Saturday we learned from Hermano Kinghorn, and he taught about keeping your lesson focused on the commitment. We asked him to be baptized today and he said yes(again, this is just a practice guy). He also said that Sunday is not a time to hang out with members, which is what I've always imagined, to be honest, because Sundays are usually when families are together. Hermana Ellison taught us, and we've started memorizing D&C 4. I have the first 2 verses in Español, and thank you mom and dad for helping me get it in English. We had a great conversation together about just spiritual things. It was cool. On Sunday Elder West and I fasted for Hermana Moura, our real investigator, for fast Sunday. We had a devotional where brother Chad Lewis came and taught. He played in the NFL. He is such an adult Jeaux! When he and his wife went on a date, he was on BYU's team but barely played. One of the first things he said to her was "I had a dream that I jumped over a guy in a football game. I want to do that so bad." While they went shopping he leaped over her shopping cart and said "YES! I've almost got it!" without any warning at all. He then jumped over her car perfectly and had the same reaction. He said some great things. "You are blessed with His Spirit which has no fear," and "The veil is so thin. I can hear His voice". He was an awesome guy. "This is the law of life: As you serve, you will love." He also said "Do we have faith in the one we're teaching about? "Don't let anything discourage you from thinking about and working for and loving those you see." "My superbowl is my family. Superbowls last three hours. Families last forever." After he spoke, we watched "Joseph Smith:The Prophet of the Restoration." It was really good. Here are some awesome quotes from that. "The trials I had passed through seemed but a small thing; we learned first to trust in God." It was great. On Monday we taught Diego about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On Tuesday we taught Hma Moura, the real investigator. She said she didn't believe in God, and I tried to convince her to pray. She said she only took these lessons to make friends here. I'm trying my best with her though. She kept saying that Elder West and I were young and basically that believing in God was childlike and that I didn't know reality. That night Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and taught us. It was awesome. Some of the significant things he said were " Repentance is the testimony of Jesus Christ. When you teach repentance, you are testifying of Christ. The original Greek word for repentance is "A change of heart or a fresh view, or turning our hearts to God. It is greater to be trusted than loved. Can we be trusted? The Lord can look at you at any time and say "I can trust him and can send Him anywhere: That should be our goal. He then said something that really fortifies my faith from what Patricia Moura said about me being too young and not knowing reality. He said "It doesn't matter how young or inexperienced you are. It is still just as true." This has been a great week, and it sounds like everything is awesome at home. I love all of you guys, and I hope the best. Of all that you've read, remember that the Lord has a plan for all of us.

I can't work my SD card so these are random copies from other missionaries.

Love, Elder Daniel Jacob Sant
Go and Do