August 16th - Pismo Beach and Arroyo Grande 1st Wards

Life is never boring - always an adventure!  I'm glad he's able to enjoy himself as well - I would have loved to see pictures of the dune surfing.  He mentions transfer calls in this letter - every six weeks missionaries get moved around.  For some - their two years are up and they go home - and others just get moved to other areas to change things up a little bit.  You don't know when moving day will come - unless you're going home and Jaxon's companion is going home so he knows he will be getting someone new.  

All,

This week has been interesting to say the least. I wasn't in my area very much, as we finished the last of our exchanges and I went into other areas for both of them, AND we had a training meeting down in Oxnard on Tuesday with President and Sister Felix and the Assistants. It was good to see all of the Elders and Sisters that I came out with almost six weeks ago! 

So, before I tell you about my P-Day last week, I must apologize. My camera's battery was dead and I was unable to take pictures. We went to the Oceano Sand Dunes and went Dune Surfing for the day! It was super fun. Basically, all you do is climb up the dunes, then we had boogy boards and slid down it! Awesome time. Most P-Days we try to play some sports. We've played Sand Volleyball, basketball a couple times, and today we are actually going to a mini golf place for the day! 

What else happened this week. Oh. At the dunes, we met this guy named Sheldon. Super cool. And he wanted to learn more about us, so he gave us his number. We have called him a few times, and haven't been able to get in contact with him yet, but we are hoping! Mainly this week we have been running around and trying to see all of the families we can, either less active or investigators. Both of our wards gave us lists of people to see, so that's been mega fun. 

We had another lesson with Mark, and he pulled the exact same things out and yeah. We have dropped him for now, and he said he would call us. So we'll see what happens there.

Sunday morning, we got out to our car and the battery was dead. That was fun.. haha 15 minutes before our first meeting. So we had to call our Ward Mission Leader for a ride. Then one of our Recent Converts, Jim Rogers, took us to go jump it.

We are in week 6! Super excited to get transfer calls this weekend, and see who my follow-up trainer will be. Good to hear home life is going well! You can do this! Super exciting time for all of you, and I know you will do great things in Kingston.

I don't really need much, just those garments! If you don't send them by Thursday, Then wait for next Monday for me to tell you if I am moving or not. Just in case :)

Thanks so much for everything you do. I feel your prayers working through me everyday, and have been really focusing on the Spirit and being able to feel it a lot more :)

Love you all,

Elder Harvey

August 9th, 2015 - Pismo Beach & Arroyo Grande 1st Wards

Was surprised to see a shorter email this week - but hoping that means he had a lot of things to do or a lot of emails to send! :)  

All,

HECK YEAH HUDSON. Great job against Surrey! That's so awesome. Hopefully you hit those go and corner routes perfectly! You rock buddy. Go show those flimsy Ontario kids where it's at ;)

Good to hear how well you all are doing with the prospective move. I get the bulletin's through email, and saw the announcement for your open house. Hopefully everything goes well!

Wow. Brother Gehman as Stake YM President. That. Is. Awesome. Those YM are luuuuucky. And Brother Fox as Seminary teacher! Super awesome. Is there going to be a new Elders Quorum President now?

This week has been pretty good. Our lesson with Heidi and Gena fell through, they were both sick. But our lesson with Mark went pretty interestingly. We got there on Saturday, and he had printed out five or six pages of anti material, and we maaaaay have gooten into a bit of a bash. No spirit there at all. He wants physical evidence, so we have an idea for our next lesson with him this week!

Also, a bit of a sad week this week. We were on exchanges with our Zone Leaders, and I was with Elder Hunt. He's had some helath problems, and we went to the doctors that morning and he didn't get too great of news. Long story short, our exchange was cut short after zone Meeting that morning and he had to go home the next day. 

Super awesome miracle this week. We had a member, Sara, give us a referral for her friend Bryant, and we taught him the Plan of salvation on Tuesday. He LOVED it. However, he is YSA age, and we had to turn him over to the Zone Leaders, in charge of YSA. Bryant also brought his sisters boyfriend Azlan (SUPER COOL NAME) and THEY BOTH HAVE A BAPTISMAL DATE. WOOHOO! Super cool. October 3! I should be around for that still. 

Everything is rocking over here. hard to believe I am almost done my first transfer here. Oxnard is the mission office location. We saw that on a TV in a pizza place. We are heading down there tomorrow for some training. 

Hopefully everything is going well. Elder Crapo will do awesome in Kamloops! 

I don't think i really need anything else. Thanks so much for doing all of this for me. 

Awesome. Love you all. I reeeaaally enjoyed that gift card too... hint hint wink wink nod nod. Haha. Kidding. Anything you feel I would like, send!

Love you all, I feel your prayers working through me everyday,

Elder Harvey

August 2nd, 2015 - Pismo Beach & Arroyo Grande 1st Wards

I love reading how he is falling in love with the people in California and enjoying this experience!

Regarding the toilet paper story - years ago when Bryan and I were first married we had some missionaries over for supper.  Before leaving we usually ask them if they needed anything - to our surprise they replied yes! toilet paper! :)  We gave them some and they were happily on their way.  It was a strange request - but a funny story!  

It must be hard trying to focus on serving when your family is getting ready to leave and move across the country without you.  I hope we all survive this experience! :P

Here's what he has to say this week:

All,

Officially one month out on my mission! We had our most productive week this week, with a few miracles and just an awesome experience. I'm loving it out here, and Elder Beus and I are really growing close to both of the wards we are assigned to. Yesterday, we had a break of fast at the Buntings home up in Arroyo Grande. That was a blast. I love the wards we serve in and the people we get to serve. We had two meetings for both wards again yesterday, Pismo's PEC and AG1st's Ward Council. For the Ward Council for AG1st Ward, President Ridgeway (Second Counsellor in the Mission Presidency) came and spoke to the Ward Council about making missionary work the central focus for their meetings together. He used to be the Stake President in the Santa Maria Stake, and he spoke so boldly and lovingly, it blew my mind away. He shared a scripture in Ezekiel 34, and about how it talks about us, as the shepherds of Israel, not seeking to sustain and feed ourselves, but to look out for the rest of the flock. DO MISSIONARY WORK. Please. Being out here, I've noticed the HUGE impact of members of the ward working with the full-time missionaries that serve in their wards. Please help them out. We are in your wards to teach and bring others closer to Christ. Please help your missionaries find the people they need to teach! 

We had a huge miracle with this this past week. We received a referral from a family, one of their friends who they thought would be interested. And we contacted her and set up a lesson for this past Tuesday. We got to Heidi's house, and she had a friend there who was interested in hearing what we had to say, so we ended up teaching them both on Tuesday and Friday! They seem receptive to the Restoration and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, so we"ll see how it goes. And you know that investigator Mark i wrote about last week? He lives right across the street from Heidi, and we found him after our initial contact with her, and he now has a ton of questions that he wants answered about the Book of Mormon. This all happened because of one referral. So even if you don't think that they would be receptive, if the Elders or Sisters ask for a name, and a name pops in your head, SAY IT. If not, you are denying them the chance to hear this glorious message that Christ has restored His true church through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Sounds like home is great, as always. I hope everyone knows how much I love them up there. This whole being Canadian in America thing works for me by the way. HUGE conversation starter. Apparently I'm pretty funny too. So that's a good thing I guess.

Oh. Funny thing I never told you: We got to our apartment our first day and discovered one roll of toilet paper in the entire apartment. And we forgot to buy some at the store. So, just like those missionaries who asked Mom and Dad for toilet paper, who we reference probably EVERYTIME, we asked a couple for some toilet paper. I laughed at myself as I asked them. Too funny. 

Also, tell Leah to watch out for an Elder Breinholt! He was in my zone at the MTC and he is in Halifax right now! Super cool guy. So exciting! She is also going to be in the MTC with an Elder McNeil. He reports August 19th. Look out for him! 

Sweet. Well, everything is good. Thanks for the package! Our district loved the Ketchup chips. 

Loving our huge area. We are as busy as we possibly can be, and we absolutely LOVE it. Working hard, and serving the Lord. Nothing else could beat this. Not even Jacksonville winning the Super Bowl (because that probably won't ever happen, although I can definitely hope). 

I think that's it for now. I might be buying some shoes today.. I don't know yet. Just some casual service shoes that I can get all beat up and junk. we'll see. 

Thanks so much for everything. I feel your prayers working through me and I can feel the love from all of you. Email me everyone! I would love that. Haven't gotten very many emails from any friends or other family. 

Love you all. Stay strong. And family, this month will be hard. One thing I've learned being out here is that there are no coincidences. You have all been called to Kingston now. You need to be there. You need to grow there, and help them grow. Remember Doctrine and Covenants 121:7-10;122:7-9.

Love you all,

Elder Harvey

July 27, 2015 - Pismo Beach & Arroyo Grande 1st Wards

Jaxon is loving his mission - it is everything he's thought it would be and more!  He seems to have a wonderful companion - who is on his last transfer before going home - but is still working hard and finishing out his mission strong.  Here's what he has to say this week...

Hey All! 

Great to hear that you all are doing so well. This second week down in California has been great! Being the companion to a district leader, I help in exchanges and we have had two this past week. Super cool miracles happening all around us too. 

So on Tuesday, I was with Elder Jones in my area and we were contacting some people when a bulldog ran up to us. Probably the nicest dog I have ever met in my life! With the dog, a 13 year old girl named Leane came and asked us a bunch of questions about who we were, and about prophets and the bible. We had a thirty minute lesson on the Restoration right then and there, and she invited us back to teach her family, if they were interested. We left her with a Restoration pamphlet, and we are going to see her soon. 

We were up in Grover Beach, and we were walking along the street after talking with an investigator of ours, Heidi, and this man came out of his garage with a Stop the Oil Trains badge on and we asked him about it and we were talking when he asked us if we were missionaries and told us that he was converted to Christ about a year and a half ago. We continued to talk about his conversion from Atheism when we asked about the Book of Mormon, and he said he heard a little bit about it, but wanted to know more. We ended up giving Mark a copy, and he committed himself to read it and pray about it, and we are going back to see him tomorrow!

Okay. Saturday was crazy. We were on exchanges, and I don't know if I told you, but there are three new missionaries in our district, which means I have to exchange with the two other ones at least once this transfer, and this happened on Saturday. I had a ride set up with a member in our ward named Jeremy McNeil, super awesome guy who's leaving for Winnipeg in two weeks for his mission! Anyways, he couldn't driver us around all of a sudden, and we couldn't find another ride, so we started walking, and were outside for about three and a half hours straight, with a huge miracle. We contacted Sandy, a potential from three years ago, and she hadn't been contacted since. So we went, and she said she had been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon for THREE YEARS. AND she said she felt peace and happiness whenever she read it. We set up a return appointment, and we are suuuuper excited to teach her. 

Yes, we are in a car. In our cars are this device called a Tiwi, and it tracks where we are, how fast we are going, seat belts, RPM, the whole shabang. So I have to wait until next transfer to get my "Tiwi Card" and be authorized to drive. I was one of two missionaries that sent in all of my driving things in the mail! So I am ready to go. 

We are allowed to listen to any music that we think brings the Spirit, so if you can, I'd love for Aydan to make a USB drive with a bunch of classical music and church songs and such. That would be sweet. 

OH also, I didn't tell you this, but last Sunday we spent NINE AND A HALF hours at church. Crazy stuff.

I'm loving it down here, and am so excited for you all to take the trek down to Kingston. 

Thanks for everything. Life is just a great thing down here. I took the attached picture of the ocean. Yeah. I live here.

Also, here are pictures of my apartment!

Love you all,

Elder Harvey