Where did they arrive from?

I apologize.  We have been having tons of problems with our internet, so I haven't been able to post anything for Elder Ruby lately.  He has been doing really well, as you all know.  This is his last week as an Assistant to the President.  He will receive a new assignment that will start Tuesday May 10.  I will find out the new assignment when we talk to him on Mother's Day.  I am so excited to talk to him!!  Hyrum asked us to prepare to visit with him about our favorite scripture and why we chose it.  He said he can talk for 30-40 minutes.  I know it won't be near long enough.  I will treasure every minute.  

Here's a little from his email today:

Guess what! Mark (a young man he baptized a while ago) just submitted his mission paperwork to SLC. He put his availability date August 9th, the day of his confirmation! This means that he attend the temple while I am still on a mission. If that is the case, then I will be able to go with him if it's at the LA or Fresno Temple. I am just jumping for joy right now! This is why he said he is going:

"1. I've discovered an overwhelming love for Jesus Christ, and I think that it would be selfish of me not to spread that love to other people.

2. Since I've been a member of the Church, I have received so many unexpected blessings, it's impossible to count them all. I've always been really blessed, but my experience at school with the Church—the people that I've met, the support I've received from them, the opportunities that I've had to grow as an individual, etc.—has been something that I can't take advantage of without giving something back

3. Four of my best friends here are going to serve a mission after this year, and I think that by serving along side them, in all corners of the globe, we have an opportunity to grow closer as friends than we ever could have been without the experience.

4. For the last 14 years of my life, I've been focused entirely on school. It's a noble, but entirely inward focus. I think that by serving a mission will aid me in an effort to become outward focused. and more conscious of the people around me."

I am so happy for him.

We almost achieved all our goals last week! It feels so good to accomplish what we hope for. And achieving those goals gives us more hope. I love it. We really enjoy working in our area. Contacting people on campus has shown to be the most successful. We are also involving the members in missionary work and encouraging them to invite their friends/acquaintances to church or activities. The members love it. We took members contacting on campus and they seemed to know everyone. It was great!

I am learning to trust in God more. For my entire mission I have prayed to be led to those who have been prepared to receive the restored gospel. Despite my prayers, I don't feel like I have been led to as many as I thought I would be. Recently, I my mindset has changed a bit. I have chosen to give everyone a chance to receive the gospel, but if they do not accept it at this time, I just move on to the next. I have learned to clearly state our purpose and invite them to learn more. This has brought more peace to my heart and I expect to find someone eager for the truth sometime soon. Sadly, many people have hardened their hearts against the truth and the Spirit. I often feel like Jeremiah, Lehi, Alma, and many, if not all, the prophets did as they went out preaching to everyone that would hear them.

I tried to copy a few pictures from the California Ventura Mission blog, but the pictures wouldn't copy for me.  So, I will refer you to the blog's post of the Mission Tour to see 4 pictures of Hyrum.  He is in 3 at the beginning of the post and also the group photo of the Ventura Zone. 

Here are some statistics of his mission right now:

Where did they arrive from?

After the two missionaries who will be arriving (mid transfer) on Monday, April 18, we will have 146 single missionaries and 5 senior couple missionaries. This breaks down to:

Spanish Hermanas  22

English Sisters  28

Spanish Elders  21

English Elders  75

Below are the areas the single missionaries are from and how many came from that state or country:

Arizona 3
Brazil 1

California 1

Canada  6

Colorado 5

Georgia 1

Hondorus 1

Florida 2

Iowa 1

Idaho 19

Indiana 3

Kansas 2

Kentucky 1

Mexico 1

Maryland 1

Missouri 1

Montana 2

North Carolina 1

North Dakota 1

New Jersey 1

New Mexico 1

Nevada 3

Ohio 2

Oklahoma 3

Oregon 2

Pennsylvania 1

Tennesee 1

Texas 8

Utah 62

Virginia 3

Washington 3

Wyoming 3

All of the Senior Couples are from Utah.

Tiwi

Time flies when you are having fun.  Elder Boyce and I are loving the mission, but we don't' want it to end so soon.  Thankfully, I have a long time. . .  Sometimes we struggle and have tough days.  Here's some advice for current and soon-to-be missionaries: If you want the time to go by faster, you should work harder, smile and think about serving others:)

I loved General Conference!  I always do.  I'm not sure if it was just me, or what, but I noticed a theme of marriage and fulfilling our roles and magnifying our callings.  I liked Elder Renlund's talk.  Here is one quote from him, “The greater the distance between the giver and the receiver, the more the receiver develops a sense of entitlement.”  Since then, I have tried even harder to come closer to God. 

Our mission has been focusing on the Christlike attribute of humility since Zone Conference.  That is the same topic Elder Snow spoke about!

Hyrum mentioned that his new vehicle didn't have a Tiwi.  So I asked him what a Tiwi was.  In your last letter you asked what a Tiwi is.  It's a cross between a tangerine and a kiwi.  Just kidding!  He still has a sense of humor:)  Tiwi is a device installed in all mission vehicles that uses GPS to help coach us while driving.  It tells us to "check your speed" and give us violations when we go over speed bumps too fast, accelerate too fast, brake too hard, or go around a curve too fast.  The church records these and sends a weekly and transfer report on each driver's driving.  So far, I have been a green driver (verses a yellow or red)!

Right now we are cooking some halibut in the oven.  Our neighbor, Cindy, gave it and some freshly picked oranges to us.  She is super nice.  We are eating much better now that you sent me some recipes and with our crock pot.  Having prepared meals makes dinner at the apartment something to look forward to.  Some more advice: start learning to cook quick meals and be creative before serving your mission.

If you make the best of your week, it will go by fast! :)

Finished the Book of Mormon in Three Months

Zone meeting went great.  President Felix is so inspired.  We presented a new Christlike attribute: Humility.  Our scripture that missionaries will recite every morning is Doctrine and Covenants 112:10.  It turned out that two elders had been highlighting humility in their Book of Mormon for the last two transfers and another sister had been prompted to study the song "Be Thou Humble" at our last MLC.  These instances just help confirm that the attribute and scripture President Felix chose was right.

Our mission has been highlighting the Doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end) in the Book of Mormon for the last three months.  I finished it by reading about 6 pages a day.  I really loved how engaged I became with the Book of Mormon.  With every page, the people became more real and the Book more true.  I also underlined or highlighted every reference to Christ.  If a person will do this, you will come to understand:

1. Your purpose
2. Your Savior
3. How much the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ

Transfers have been exhausting.  We started on Sunday at 6pm.  We calculated about 32 hours of transfer planning and travel arrangements.  This time I was not so stressed about how the travel was going to happen.  There were only 10 companionships in the mission who stayed together.   We had 73 missionaries moving to a new area!  Everything went pretty smoothly.  We had one set of missionaries who arrived at the transfer location 25 minutes late, so that was frustrating.  But, other than that, it was a smooth transfer.  President Felix let Hyrum know that this is his last transfer as an Assistant to the President. 

A few Sunday's ago, we felt prompted to visit an active member who is preparing to go on a mission to Brazil soon.   We texted her to set up the appointment.  Before the scheduled time with her, we were driving to visit a less-active person who we hadn't seen for a while.  I had the thought to stop by another less-active person on the way there, so we did.  (A thought is inspiration until proven otherwise, right?)  The father, a pretty fit younger, black guy answered the door.  The person we were looking for wasn't home, but the father was willing to talk.  We stood at the door talking with him for about 30 minutes.  He wasn't quite bashing, but he sure liked to debate.  We testified and corrected his misunderstandings.  That was interesting.  It was one of the few times when I didn't bring my Bible with me and he just tore us apart about that.  We invited him to study the Book of Mormon to find out for himself that it is the word of Christ.  We read 2 Nephi 33:10 with him.  After our discussion with him, we drove to the house of the girl about to leave for her mission.  She told us all about the missionary work she had been doing with her friends.  We proposed that she ask her friends if she could "practice" teaching them in preparation for her mission.  She loved the idea.  "There can be miracles when you believe" (Watch The Prince of Egypt).

We look forward to the Mission Tour with Elder James J. Hamula of the Quorum of the Seventy this week. We will have a special MLC with him and two zone conferences. We have to do a presentation/ lead a discussion on our mission's key indicators and how we can improve. After the conferences, just President and Sister Felix, Elder Boyce and I will be meeting with Elder Hamula. Oh, boy.

 

It has been a great week.  I'll keep in touch:)

Dairy Queen :)

We had this really neat idea for Zone Conference which is Tuesday through Thursday this week.  We want to do some training on planning, goal setting and accountability.  Elder Boyce and I will be training on Planning.  Our idea was to show a live planning session and project our daily planner so that everyone could see.  Sister Felix has this Samsung tablet that comes with a pen, so it is really precise.  We took a picture of a blank planner and we could write over the top of it.  Today, after emails and studies, Elder Boyce and I drove to President's house to figure out how we could project what was on the tablet.  We had a horrible time trying to sync the tablet to President's computer so that we could project it.  We started at 11:30am and we left the Felix's home at 2:00!  Eventually, we found an alternative.  Instead of writing in our plans live, we will just type them in.

We were hungry, so we drove to the mall where we heard there was a Dairy Queen.  Dairy Queens are not common out here in Cali.  We both had gift cards.  We stopped and talked with a couple guys at the mall who had previously met with missionaries.  We got one of the guy's number and he may come to the Young Single Adult ward.

When we arrived at Dairy Queen, our cards wouldn't work.  The old Asian lady that took our order did not know English well.  She took FOREVER with our food.  We were probably waiting there for 15 minutes.  No joke and no one else was ordering.  Yes, I was impatient, but we also had a lot more to do.

We had three more errands to run after we shopped: mail a package, drop off some pants and shirts at the Goodwill, and get a car wash.  For some reason I could not make the right turns or I couldn't go the way I wanted or planned.  Oh, the care wash and vacuum were lousy.

St. Patrick's Day

I have learned that meal planning is a really good idea.  This week we made something called Aztec chicken in the crock pot.  We got this recipe from Sister Floyd (our mission secretary) after she made this dish for MLC a while ago.  The members still don't feed us much, so it's hard to get fat off of sandwiches, noodles and rice.  But we are doing some meal planning ourselves and eating better.  What kind of meals will you be planning this week?

We are getting a brand new 2016 Nissan Frontier truck tomorrow!  The truck that I drove up in SLO is getting high in miles, so the mission is selling it.  The SLO elders will get our truck and we get the
new one!

I have grown a lot spiritually, emotionally and mentally these last few months.  This assignment has been really good for me and my confidence.  Wow!  Eighteen months down.  Six months to go.  Those 6 months will be gone before I know it.  I will be sure to give all my heart, might, mind and strength to serving Christ and representing Him.

May the spirit be with you!

Scenery coming back from Santa Maria

Doors and Trainings

This week has been great.  On Tuesday, we had MLC.  Elder Boyce and I led a training on finding people and we involved many of the Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders.  We put a bunch of our black socks in a crate and inside of one of them we put a white sock representing a prepared person.  We had a volunteer try to find the white sock.  The missionaries seemed to like the demo.  We went on exchanges that evening.  We taught a Buddhist who thinks everything is God.  It was a good day!

We did a booth the next day at Ventura College.  We found a few people that were really interested.  That was really fun.

On Thursday or Friday night we (Elder Boyce and I) got the door slammed in our face the hardest either of us ever had!  We were trying to find a less active member.  We knocked on the door at about 7:30pm.  A big, white guy answered.  He didn't even let us get a word in before he cussed us out and called us Jehovah's.  Then he slammed the door so hard that I felt it in my face.  Yikes.  We just walked away.

Speaking of Jehovah Witnesses, we met one today at the store who wanted to bash with us.  She was an older lady riding one of those scooters.  She stared asking us questions that were meant to catch us.  She told us that we needed to study up more.  We just offered to help and then went on our way when she declined.  I haven't run into many of those people on my mission.

Tonight we met a couple who don't believe there is such a thing as true happiness.  We assured them that there is.  Their opinion made us sad for them.

Yesterday we had the weirdest door approach.  We were trying to find a less-active member of the church.  When we walked up to the house, the door was open and the TV was on.  We knocked and a lady walked up to the door.  We asked if the less active person lived there and she said, "no," and told us rudely to take this person off the list.  She then walked away and another lady answered the door. She said they were watching the Oscars and wanted us to go away.  Out of the blue, an older lady came to the door with a platter of Hostess treats (Twinkies, Ding Dongs, etc).  She gave us a treat, took a pamphlet and said good-bye all before we knew what was happening. . . Yeah.

We just had a zone activity where we learned life skills like budgeting (the missionaries have $135 to spend a month on things they need), cooking, medical help, communication, public speaking, and car maintenance. They were also taught how to maintain their vacuum cleaner and scrub the bathtub.  That was pretty fun.  Elder Boyce and I helped Elder Stewart, an older office missionary, with teaching the missionaries about what is under the hood of a car, how to change a tire, and how to jump a car.  We had three of those activities this week.  We saw all the missionaries and we loved it.  We have such a good mission.  The missionaries here really are fantastic.  We could be more bold in opening our mouths and knowing how to work with the members, but I trust our missionaries.

President has asked that we record the number of people we contact in a day. A contact is someone that we talk with on the street and we make an effort to share something with that person or get their name.  President wants us to have at least 50 contacts in a week.  The purpose is to find more people.

Car Maintenance Training

Elder Ruby showing the missionaries how to change a tire.

Elder Ruby showing how to safely use jumper cables.

I have gained a testimony of following the direction from our leaders. As we have contacted everyone we could, I have felt the Spirit direct my words more than I have before. We heard from almost all the zone leaders today that those with high contact numbers also found more new investigators. Go figure.

This transfer, I feel like I have been the best missionary I ever have been.  I have been less hard on myself.  Elder Boyce has really helped me.  I am learning to trust Christ and have confidence that I am doing His work.  That understanding has relieved a lot of unneeded stress.

 

Transfer Train

This past week (middle of February) was crazy.  We tried out our new system for transferring missionaries to different parts of the mission.  We picked up the new missionaries on Monday.  They were really solid.  I feel really good about this group.  On Tuesday, Elder Young and I woke up early (5am).  We split up.  Elder Young went south and drove a van from the south to the north parts of our mission, picking up and dropping off missionaries as he went.  I took a Zone Leader, Elder Chatterton, up north with me to Santa Maria.  I drove a 10 passenger van.  There was a Senior Elder who drove a truck and trailer for each of us.  There was traffic going up north in Santa Barbara, so that put us about 20 minutes behind schedule.  Other than starting late, we stayed on schedule really well.  Everyone was at the check points when they needed to be and it was easy to load everyone.

We finished at about 12:40pm.  We had a trainer's meeting at 1pm at the Gonzales building in Oxnard.  We set up for that and didn't have a chance to eat anything for lunch.  Elder Boyce, my new companion from Idaho, did a great job at the trainer's meeting.  We kind of threw it together short notice.  There, in the chapel, we brought the new missionaries in and introduced them to their new companions.

Wednesday was busy in the morning.  Four of the departing Elders stayed with us, so we dropped them off at the mission home Wednesday morning at 6:45am.  After saying good-bye to Elder Young and others, President Felix brought us inside.  Sister Felix made us breakfast.  We then discussed the upcoming transfer schedule.  This next transfer the new missionaries will be coming in the same day that the departing missionaries are going out.

After talking with President Felix, we drove to the mission office and fixed the phones.  It was wild.  All the office couples needed us for something.  Also, they got a new printer, so there was a guy there to install it and get all the computers to talk to it.  Elder Boyce looked like a deer in the headlights.  It was his first day as an AP.  I think he asked me if every day was like this two or three times:)  I assured him that we spend probably 80% of our time proselyting.

The rest of the week we have been "hitting the pavement."  We have been talking with everyone.  It's been so great! We haven't found any Young Single Adult potentials from our effort yet, but we have given out a few referrals to other missionaries.  So, that's cool.

Tomorrow is MLC and then we start all the craziness and busyness.  I will be going on 9 exchanges this transfer.  Elder Boyce and I will be doing a training on Chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel: Finding People.  Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach.  It's going to be great.

Zorbie Balls at a Zone Activity

Transfer Preparation and Sushi

Elder Ruby hasn't been communicating much to us lately.  I do know he spent 30 hours last week to prepare for transfers.  Here was his report before the transfers happened, so I will hopefully get a full report soon.  As you can see from the pictures, it is a very big process, especially when this mission has never done transfers like this before.  Enjoy!

Yeah, the transfer process took all week long. We finished on Friday afternoon and then called all the Zone Leaders with their zones' assignments on Saturday morning.  It turned out alright. When we talked with them this morning the zone leaders all had good reports. If everyone follows directions, it should all run smoothly tomorrow. Today we are driving up to Santa Barbara around 2:30 to pick up the new missionaries. They are so funny. They are so excited and nervous. They ask questions like "When do I get my trainer?" "Are you guys the APs?" " How long have you been out?" "What's your favorite area?" "Do you get fed a lot?" "Do you eat a lot of seafood?" "Is the traffic always this bad?"

Tomorrow morning at 6am I will be heading up to Santa Maria with a Senior Missionary: Elder Floyd. We will start at the stake center and we will pick up missionaries who are going south and

head down the mission, We will pick up and drop off as we go. I will be driving a 10 passenger van and Elder Floyd will be driving a truck and trailer for all the luggage. Elder Young will do the same with another senior missionary but he will start at the bottom of the mission and drive up.

I am excited for Elder Boyce, my new companion. He's from Rigby, Idaho and he wants to be a mountain guide in the Teton Mountains.  We also have a training meeting on Tuesday and a District leader training on Thursday. This week is going to be busy. This month will also be busy. MLC is next Tuesday. This transfer we will have two zone conferences and two MLC's. Next transfer there will be a mission tour. Elder Hamula of the Seventy will be coming!

The Finished Train

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He also gave himself a haircut.  He looks pretty good!

Elder Ruby had the "opportunity" to eat sushi.  Here's a little about his experience:)

 

These are pictures that a member took of my first time eating sushi. Yep, and the orange stuff on the top of the second one is calamari. . . It was all pretty good except for the thought that I was eating raw fish.