Hi again from the high desert! Last week was pretty slow
because we only have one solid investigator that we were able to meet with, but
we are still trying to work hard to find new investigators! The members in the
Ranchero ward are really cool! Our dinner appointments with them went great.
Still trying to get familiar with the area fast, because the area we cover is certainly much bigger than the Walnut Park ward back in Chino haha. Because
Elder Hulet had to drive all the way down to the Mission Office in Rancho, he
used up a noticeable amount of miles that we are allotted each month, so until
today we have been trying to be careful to drive less than 20 miles a day. I
jokingly told Elder Hulet I'm surprised I haven't gone into a
"withdrawal" from not riding a bike for more than a week haha.
The weather last week was perfect, it was chilly in the
mornings and then by the afternoon it never got higher than 85 degrees or so,
so I was loving every moment of it! But this week we were told it will get to
100 degrees by Friday! And today after district meeting it was 95 outside, so
maybe this transfer in the desert will test whether or not I have actually acclimated to southern California haha. The desert is know for it's strong and sporadic winds, and we've certainly been experiencing that so far this
transfer. It was a little eerie yesterday to walk out of the stake center after
zone activity and have no wind, and then a few seconds later a big gust of wind
comes through and a huge dust devil forms in the parking lot haha.
Last week we were able to teach a recent convert named
Barbara. She was baptized back in February I think. She knows that the gospel
is true, and she loves the church...but we think she's been reading anti-Mormon
stuff, so we we will have to address that next time we meet with her haha. On
Friday we got lost trying to find our dinner appointment. They live in Oak
Hills (it's practically the boonies), and almost all the roads are dirt roads,
unpaved and not maintained by the county. So while trying to use a map to find
our dinner appointment we found a road on the map that we thought would take us
to them, buuuuut it didn't. Instead we later realized we were on an ATV trail
that didn't even exist on the map haha! So we turned around, and with some help
from the members we eventually found where they lived!
Church was really cool, we had a change in the bishopric but
we have the same counselors. Interesting story: before sacrament meeting
started I was talking to an older gentleman. He asked me where I'm from and I
said Provo. He paused, looked at me and said "You wouldn't happen to know
anyone with the last name of Matu, do you?" I thought for a second, and
then said "No, but I do know a Matsu, I went to high school with her. Is
she McKenna Matsu?" He said yes she's the one! Long story short, he's her
grandfather, and he told me she got her mission call to Spain! So once again,
the world is small when you are LDS haha.
I'm loving every minute here in Hesperia. I look forward to
the rest of this transfer. I know that there are people out here who are
prepared or are being prepared by Heavenly Father to receive the restored gospel. We all can touch each other's lives in one way or another. I know that
we are all His children and that he loves us.
Love you all, and talk to you next week!
Elder Ruiz
Elder Hulet
and I standing in front of a Joshua tree, very iconic out here in the high
desert. Apologies for the crooked angle of the picture, we had nothing but the
hood of the car to place our cameras on haha.
Ahhhhh, sparse green
desolation, groundquirrels, rattlesnakes, and Mojave greens (which supposedly
are more venomous and aggressive thatn rattlesnakes, yikes). Welcome to
Hesperia, enjoy your stay, and good luck trying to find water!
Cool shots of a
beautiful sunset in the desert!
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