(Elder Schick has been typing a little bit every day and sends us this weekly synopsis)
Week two is a go!
Monday afternoon- so today we had our P day, which translates into we hang out with other missionaries and do hood rat things. We played basketball at the stake center, raided a local McDonald's for food, played ping pong and pool at the Oregon Ducks institute campus, then went to the mall to shop a bit. Adams plays a bit of guitar, so we "stole" an amp from our zone leaders who had one, but don't know how to play. The mall was fun, there's a kid in our ward, Clayton oiler, who works at a Zumies (clothing/skate shop) in the mall and we stopped by to say hi, he was so pumped to see us there! We also can get mad discounts with him, and there's a pretty Nixon watch calling my name... Annyyywayyysss I guess his manager used to take the lessons and he talked to us today about him wanting to take the lessons, but he might live out of our zone... So we'll see! After the mall, we went to Walmart, got food for the week. Planning on some delicious meals using all that salmon we got, so we got some fish taco stuff, burger stuff, pizza rolls... We try to keep our trips under 30$ and we did well! We got home about 6:30, we didn't have a dinner appointment today so we ate by ourselves, but the neighbors stopped by and we talked for a bit and helped them move some furniture from our garage to theirs. Adams played the guitar, he got some chords to songs off the internet a while ago, so I sang to them. We also took the lyrics to "3005" by Childish Gambino, popped it into a lower key and played it country style...and surprisingly it turned out really really good hahaha. We might work on that one more and eventually make our own lyrics so it's "mission approved" haha! Oh, I also got a soccer ball... Thank the lord cuz I'm so bad at basketball hahahahahaha!
Tuesday- so this morning at about 10 we went to the lady that said she needed some service just down the street, she needed her yard raked because of the insane amount of pine needles... Well we ended up not leaving till about 2 pm. We really didn't have much else to do, so we helped her with her yard, trimming trees, tilling and planting in her garden and moving flowers around. Sounds like a lot... But she's an amazing woman. Her daughter has some physical and mental illness that should have killed her around he age of 10, but she's still going strong at 23!!! So she takes care of her, and she just really needed the help. She knows sooooo much about gardening and taught us a ton about the plants that grow here. She has an apple tree, Tom berries, black berries, several nut trees, a plum tree, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and literally an entire Walmart produce section. The plum trees were ripe... And sweet mother Mary you would have think you ate from the tree of life they were the most delicious fruit ever. They are small plums, about the size of your thumb, but holy Moses.... We each ate easily 10. They were so sweet. Sweeter than candy UGH SO GOOD. Then for all the work she let us have a go at her garden so we took a bunch of produce home, and then stir fried it for lunch hahaha! We also invited her to our ward activity Saturday, it's the Harvest Festival/ chili cook off and she said she would actually enjoy coming and her daughter loves being around people! So we hope she comes, but she's a great opportunity for service as well and we think she would be very open to the gospel! The kid we met on the street, Jonny, has a friend we met the other day, and ran into him at the library today and asked about Jonny. He said he hasn't been to school the past few days, so we texted Jonny to see how he's doing, I guess he had a scary incident in a friends car weaving thru traffic, and is having some anxiety. He agreed to meet us for dinner tomorrow night at a local Mexican restaurant and were gunna talk a bit! This kid needs the gospel in his life, he's so ready for it! Tonight we had splits with elders quorum, and only one guy was able to make it, so we went out, invited his neighbors to the Saturday event, and met his home teaching family the Ordoñez. They are a younger couple, the moms from Mexico and the dad is Peruvian! So we walk in and guess what I spot on the counter.... INCA COLA. FREAKING INCA COLA!?!?!? Inca cola is this yellow soda drink in South America that's like cream soda/bubble gum flavored. It's so delicious and I loved getting it in Chile... And they had it... A 2 liter just...sitting there.... Needless to say I freaked out a bit, and talked to them about all the Peruvian dishes that I ate down in chile, the stuffed potatoes, that yellow shredded chicken, and the red onion cevice... Holy throw back. The husband was excited to know someone that knows a bit of his culture, so I plan on eating at their house a lot. Real Mexican and Peruvian food? Heck to the freaking yes. He also told me of the store that has the inca cola, so Adams and I, after they let him try some, are going to find the store and buy a ton as soon as we can.
Wednesday - so today we volunteered at the local food bank, it's like the bishops store house. They got all the food on shelves, they get a cart and we help them pick it all out. Today they were running short on hands, so we were pretty busy for the next hour or so. After that, we ate lunch, and went out tracting at a trailer park down the road a bit. We got 3 people who accepted the Book of Mormon, so that's really big! We usually give it about 3-5 days before visiting again, so we got their info and will head back in a bit! After that we went to visit 3 people who we gave stuff to as well, an older lady, a girl named Unique and another guy. The lady was there, and we gave her the first lesson. She actually read the Book of Mormon before we got their, and she said "it reigned true to me" elder and I were like "holy frick" and she agrees to many thing we talk to her about. She could be very promising!! The guy and unique weren't home, so we wanna try to stop by tomorrow again and check on them. We then went to a lesson for a father and his kid. The dads taken lessons many times before, but had word of wisdom issues. The mom is a member and the kid is 9. So we are focusing on the child, and today, we committed him to baptism, and he really wants it. We hope his example will whip his dad in shape for baptism too! This family is way cool, they said they'd take us squirrel hunting (shhh keep it on the down low) and then cook it up for us for dinner... And we may or may not do that ;) apparently squirrel is pretty common here... Kinda been wanting to try it!
Thursday- zone conference. it was long, nothing crazy worth writing. Good lessons, and very long... 8 hours then the president went over about 45 minutes... Good intentions but man haha long day!
Friday - so we got up, left the house at 8:30 to get to Eugene for our district meeting... Didn't have a key so we had to wait a bit.... And wait... aaaaaannnddddd wait... 30 minutes pass by, were like what the heck. Call zone leaders and nothing, district leaders, nothing! Turns out, it was cancelled cuz of zone conference, and we never got the text.... So yeah we drove out for nothing lol. Anyways we went to the mission office to grab my packages! One from my fam and one from my aunt Shellie's family! We stopped at this lake in between Eugene and Veneta and took some pics because we had extra time. It was beautiful out. The sun was shining, a cool breeze was in the air, absolutely beautiful. We got home, ate some lunch, then contacted some referrals at the trailer park, no success so went went home and swapped clothes into our sport stuff and did OYM, not many people but we played some ball with the kids we met before. The real icing on the cake tho was Friday dinner with our investigator Johnny. He's that 18 year old I met my first few hours on the field. We met at the local Mexican restaurant Ixtapas so discuss the first lesson. We actually started on lesson 2, that being the plan of salvation, which was the pamphlet we gave him when we first met. So we started. And we didn't eat a bite of our food, we just talked. The restaurant was noisy but as we talked it seemed we were in our own little sound bubble. Guys I have never felt the spirit so strong before in my life. This kid had the biggest smile on his face for the whole hour. He got goosebumps, he told us he felt a warmth inside, he told us he felt this is right. He said he had the impression to let me talk to him that day we met. He knew we were Mormons, but he figured he'd listen and he is so glad he did. I'm so glad he did. We committed him to baptism on the spot. He wants it so bad. It will be tough, he's a smoker and a bit of a drinker... But if he continues to feel the spirit as strongly as he did today... He won't have a problem. This spiritual high is better than any worldly high period. I was shaking the spirit was so freaking strong. Adams even started to tear up a bit sharing his testimony. I have no doubt in my mind Heavenly Father placed us there that day we met to cross paths. Johnny even said it felt like we were supposed to meet. Adams and I are still in awe, hours after even. Our heavenly fathers love for us is unmatched to anything. We all need it. More some and others less, but we all need to feel that love. It is true. I bear testimony with all my heart that it is true. I have witnessed it here tonight. Adams, Johnny and I witnessed the power of the gospel and the Holy Ghost. This is real. Amen.
Saturday- today at 9 we went to help our neighbors move his friend, it was just supposed to be a few big things, maybe an hour at most... Well things never go according to plan and we ended up basically moving her entire house. It ended up working out just fine, we didn't have much planned to do anyways that morning, but we had an appointment at 1. We got finished in just enough time to get home, change, and head out. After the appointment we took a late lunch break, and from there we left to help set up for our ward activity! It was a chilli cook off. They called it "the harvest day festival" which is some Veneta thing they do idk. But it was suuuuper fun. No one we invited came, but there were other non members that we got to meet that the ward invited!! It was good to get to bond with the ward a bit more, and all the food was amazing. We had face painting, hay barrels, bobbing for apples, egg toss and other fun things! It was super great! One of the young women brought her friend that seemed really chill, and I think we might try to teach her, but we will see. There were several other families that seemed pretty receptive, so we're gunna try them too! Exciting!! Also everyone goes to the same school here (it's that small of a town) and one of the kids in our ward is going to help organize a soccer game so we can meet more of the kiddos around here! We called Jonny tonight during planning, invited him to church and he said he would totally come tomorrow! So we will be looking forward to that!! All in all a good day indeed!!!
Sunday- good Sunday! Jonny slept in, so he didn't make it to church today but that's okay! We will try again next week for sure! We had our primary program, so there were some non members we got to meet after sacrament! After church we took the sacrament to a very old lady, and sat and talked with her for a bit! After that we went home, ate lunch for like 5 min then napped the rest of our lunch break hahaha we were dead from yesterday's events. There was also a court of honor for the scout troop, a kid was getting his eagle so Adams and I went to support him (I'm an eagle as well, but Adams isn't) so that was nice! After that we tracked a bit until it gets dark. It's getting dark earlier and earlier as the heat dies down. People say in the winter it gets dark about 4, so we will see how that goes! We came back in about 8, did planning then headed to neighbors to talk with them a bit. They are pretty much like our parents in a way! They are preparing for a baby soon, and are so excited (it's their first) and were pretty pumped too. We hope we stay in the area long enough to see the baby! Tomorrow is P Day, so who knows what we will end up doing. We have 600 miles left on our car or something crazy to burn off before the end of the month, cuz if we go to far under they lower our miles so we might go sight seeing or something!
Monday morning- it's raining today, last few days were sunny and warm, this morning it's foggy and rainy... Man this weather is WACK.
~Elder Schick
In a letter to me he sent the following info:
We have two people on date for baptism! Jonny for November 7th and Aiden (9 years old) for October 11th! Super exciting stuff!
Week two is a go!
Monday afternoon- so today we had our P day, which translates into we hang out with other missionaries and do hood rat things. We played basketball at the stake center, raided a local McDonald's for food, played ping pong and pool at the Oregon Ducks institute campus, then went to the mall to shop a bit. Adams plays a bit of guitar, so we "stole" an amp from our zone leaders who had one, but don't know how to play. The mall was fun, there's a kid in our ward, Clayton oiler, who works at a Zumies (clothing/skate shop) in the mall and we stopped by to say hi, he was so pumped to see us there! We also can get mad discounts with him, and there's a pretty Nixon watch calling my name... Annyyywayyysss I guess his manager used to take the lessons and he talked to us today about him wanting to take the lessons, but he might live out of our zone... So we'll see! After the mall, we went to Walmart, got food for the week. Planning on some delicious meals using all that salmon we got, so we got some fish taco stuff, burger stuff, pizza rolls... We try to keep our trips under 30$ and we did well! We got home about 6:30, we didn't have a dinner appointment today so we ate by ourselves, but the neighbors stopped by and we talked for a bit and helped them move some furniture from our garage to theirs. Adams played the guitar, he got some chords to songs off the internet a while ago, so I sang to them. We also took the lyrics to "3005" by Childish Gambino, popped it into a lower key and played it country style...and surprisingly it turned out really really good hahaha. We might work on that one more and eventually make our own lyrics so it's "mission approved" haha! Oh, I also got a soccer ball... Thank the lord cuz I'm so bad at basketball hahahahahaha!
Tuesday- so this morning at about 10 we went to the lady that said she needed some service just down the street, she needed her yard raked because of the insane amount of pine needles... Well we ended up not leaving till about 2 pm. We really didn't have much else to do, so we helped her with her yard, trimming trees, tilling and planting in her garden and moving flowers around. Sounds like a lot... But she's an amazing woman. Her daughter has some physical and mental illness that should have killed her around he age of 10, but she's still going strong at 23!!! So she takes care of her, and she just really needed the help. She knows sooooo much about gardening and taught us a ton about the plants that grow here. She has an apple tree, Tom berries, black berries, several nut trees, a plum tree, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and literally an entire Walmart produce section. The plum trees were ripe... And sweet mother Mary you would have think you ate from the tree of life they were the most delicious fruit ever. They are small plums, about the size of your thumb, but holy Moses.... We each ate easily 10. They were so sweet. Sweeter than candy UGH SO GOOD. Then for all the work she let us have a go at her garden so we took a bunch of produce home, and then stir fried it for lunch hahaha! We also invited her to our ward activity Saturday, it's the Harvest Festival/ chili cook off and she said she would actually enjoy coming and her daughter loves being around people! So we hope she comes, but she's a great opportunity for service as well and we think she would be very open to the gospel! The kid we met on the street, Jonny, has a friend we met the other day, and ran into him at the library today and asked about Jonny. He said he hasn't been to school the past few days, so we texted Jonny to see how he's doing, I guess he had a scary incident in a friends car weaving thru traffic, and is having some anxiety. He agreed to meet us for dinner tomorrow night at a local Mexican restaurant and were gunna talk a bit! This kid needs the gospel in his life, he's so ready for it! Tonight we had splits with elders quorum, and only one guy was able to make it, so we went out, invited his neighbors to the Saturday event, and met his home teaching family the Ordoñez. They are a younger couple, the moms from Mexico and the dad is Peruvian! So we walk in and guess what I spot on the counter.... INCA COLA. FREAKING INCA COLA!?!?!? Inca cola is this yellow soda drink in South America that's like cream soda/bubble gum flavored. It's so delicious and I loved getting it in Chile... And they had it... A 2 liter just...sitting there.... Needless to say I freaked out a bit, and talked to them about all the Peruvian dishes that I ate down in chile, the stuffed potatoes, that yellow shredded chicken, and the red onion cevice... Holy throw back. The husband was excited to know someone that knows a bit of his culture, so I plan on eating at their house a lot. Real Mexican and Peruvian food? Heck to the freaking yes. He also told me of the store that has the inca cola, so Adams and I, after they let him try some, are going to find the store and buy a ton as soon as we can.
Wednesday - so today we volunteered at the local food bank, it's like the bishops store house. They got all the food on shelves, they get a cart and we help them pick it all out. Today they were running short on hands, so we were pretty busy for the next hour or so. After that, we ate lunch, and went out tracting at a trailer park down the road a bit. We got 3 people who accepted the Book of Mormon, so that's really big! We usually give it about 3-5 days before visiting again, so we got their info and will head back in a bit! After that we went to visit 3 people who we gave stuff to as well, an older lady, a girl named Unique and another guy. The lady was there, and we gave her the first lesson. She actually read the Book of Mormon before we got their, and she said "it reigned true to me" elder and I were like "holy frick" and she agrees to many thing we talk to her about. She could be very promising!! The guy and unique weren't home, so we wanna try to stop by tomorrow again and check on them. We then went to a lesson for a father and his kid. The dads taken lessons many times before, but had word of wisdom issues. The mom is a member and the kid is 9. So we are focusing on the child, and today, we committed him to baptism, and he really wants it. We hope his example will whip his dad in shape for baptism too! This family is way cool, they said they'd take us squirrel hunting (shhh keep it on the down low) and then cook it up for us for dinner... And we may or may not do that ;) apparently squirrel is pretty common here... Kinda been wanting to try it!
Thursday- zone conference. it was long, nothing crazy worth writing. Good lessons, and very long... 8 hours then the president went over about 45 minutes... Good intentions but man haha long day!
Friday - so we got up, left the house at 8:30 to get to Eugene for our district meeting... Didn't have a key so we had to wait a bit.... And wait... aaaaaannnddddd wait... 30 minutes pass by, were like what the heck. Call zone leaders and nothing, district leaders, nothing! Turns out, it was cancelled cuz of zone conference, and we never got the text.... So yeah we drove out for nothing lol. Anyways we went to the mission office to grab my packages! One from my fam and one from my aunt Shellie's family! We stopped at this lake in between Eugene and Veneta and took some pics because we had extra time. It was beautiful out. The sun was shining, a cool breeze was in the air, absolutely beautiful. We got home, ate some lunch, then contacted some referrals at the trailer park, no success so went went home and swapped clothes into our sport stuff and did OYM, not many people but we played some ball with the kids we met before. The real icing on the cake tho was Friday dinner with our investigator Johnny. He's that 18 year old I met my first few hours on the field. We met at the local Mexican restaurant Ixtapas so discuss the first lesson. We actually started on lesson 2, that being the plan of salvation, which was the pamphlet we gave him when we first met. So we started. And we didn't eat a bite of our food, we just talked. The restaurant was noisy but as we talked it seemed we were in our own little sound bubble. Guys I have never felt the spirit so strong before in my life. This kid had the biggest smile on his face for the whole hour. He got goosebumps, he told us he felt a warmth inside, he told us he felt this is right. He said he had the impression to let me talk to him that day we met. He knew we were Mormons, but he figured he'd listen and he is so glad he did. I'm so glad he did. We committed him to baptism on the spot. He wants it so bad. It will be tough, he's a smoker and a bit of a drinker... But if he continues to feel the spirit as strongly as he did today... He won't have a problem. This spiritual high is better than any worldly high period. I was shaking the spirit was so freaking strong. Adams even started to tear up a bit sharing his testimony. I have no doubt in my mind Heavenly Father placed us there that day we met to cross paths. Johnny even said it felt like we were supposed to meet. Adams and I are still in awe, hours after even. Our heavenly fathers love for us is unmatched to anything. We all need it. More some and others less, but we all need to feel that love. It is true. I bear testimony with all my heart that it is true. I have witnessed it here tonight. Adams, Johnny and I witnessed the power of the gospel and the Holy Ghost. This is real. Amen.
Saturday- today at 9 we went to help our neighbors move his friend, it was just supposed to be a few big things, maybe an hour at most... Well things never go according to plan and we ended up basically moving her entire house. It ended up working out just fine, we didn't have much planned to do anyways that morning, but we had an appointment at 1. We got finished in just enough time to get home, change, and head out. After the appointment we took a late lunch break, and from there we left to help set up for our ward activity! It was a chilli cook off. They called it "the harvest day festival" which is some Veneta thing they do idk. But it was suuuuper fun. No one we invited came, but there were other non members that we got to meet that the ward invited!! It was good to get to bond with the ward a bit more, and all the food was amazing. We had face painting, hay barrels, bobbing for apples, egg toss and other fun things! It was super great! One of the young women brought her friend that seemed really chill, and I think we might try to teach her, but we will see. There were several other families that seemed pretty receptive, so we're gunna try them too! Exciting!! Also everyone goes to the same school here (it's that small of a town) and one of the kids in our ward is going to help organize a soccer game so we can meet more of the kiddos around here! We called Jonny tonight during planning, invited him to church and he said he would totally come tomorrow! So we will be looking forward to that!! All in all a good day indeed!!!
Sunday- good Sunday! Jonny slept in, so he didn't make it to church today but that's okay! We will try again next week for sure! We had our primary program, so there were some non members we got to meet after sacrament! After church we took the sacrament to a very old lady, and sat and talked with her for a bit! After that we went home, ate lunch for like 5 min then napped the rest of our lunch break hahaha we were dead from yesterday's events. There was also a court of honor for the scout troop, a kid was getting his eagle so Adams and I went to support him (I'm an eagle as well, but Adams isn't) so that was nice! After that we tracked a bit until it gets dark. It's getting dark earlier and earlier as the heat dies down. People say in the winter it gets dark about 4, so we will see how that goes! We came back in about 8, did planning then headed to neighbors to talk with them a bit. They are pretty much like our parents in a way! They are preparing for a baby soon, and are so excited (it's their first) and were pretty pumped too. We hope we stay in the area long enough to see the baby! Tomorrow is P Day, so who knows what we will end up doing. We have 600 miles left on our car or something crazy to burn off before the end of the month, cuz if we go to far under they lower our miles so we might go sight seeing or something!
Monday morning- it's raining today, last few days were sunny and warm, this morning it's foggy and rainy... Man this weather is WACK.
~Elder Schick
In a letter to me he sent the following info:
We have two people on date for baptism! Jonny for November 7th and Aiden (9 years old) for October 11th! Super exciting stuff!