#40 返回南邊 fǎnhuí nánbian (return to the south)

Hello everyone! Elder Larson here reporting live from Newbury Park. Oh boy it's been quite the week. I don't quite know where to start. After our 3 1/2 hour drive down to Newbury I met my new companion and we got moved in. This was the first time I have ever white washed an area and it's been quite an experience. The ward here is great though, and it's actually the same ward which my MTC buddy Elder McLeod is from! So that has been super fun. The people here are very nice but slightly prideful, which makes spreading the gospel a little more difficult, but we have still had a lot of success this week. I realize now that I am kind of rambling so I will break this down a little bit more. 

Area: geographically speaking our zone is the furthest south in the mission, it is also one of the smallest zones, (the Templeton ward would cover our whole zone). We are also a lot closer than I thought from some major cities. For example Malibu is just 20 minutes south of us. And LA is about 45 minutes to the east. 

People: we are currently working with a few people. Most of them are pretty new to the teaching pool so I will focus on the one who has been taught for a while. 

Natisse: Natisse is a middle-aged mother who has been investigating the church for about 2 years now. We are working on clearing up her concerns with baptism so we can get her a date soon, we don't know quite what is holding her back but we will figure it out soon. 

That's all really. But since I neglected to mention it last week, let me share some of my thoughts from general conference. My personal favorite was Elder Dunn's talk about changing by 1% daily. I found this one really applicable especially as a missionary. I have often set up in my mind a golden image of who I want to be by the end of my mission. The "perfect missionary" if you will. But it is impossible to achieve if you don't change daily. We can't build Babylon in a day. And we can't be who we want to be in one night. So focus on doing small simple things daily and consistently to become who you need / want to become.

Funny story for the week: Me and Elder Nickle were out street contacting and we tried talking to this man as he was walking along the other side of the road. He gave us the cold shoulder and we asked him if he spoke Spanish. He waved and kept walking. Later we saw him and tried again. Turns out he spoke Farce which we later realized is just Persian on Google translate. So that was awkward.

Love you all!

1. The view from Dos Vientos

2. This straight up Barbie Jeep