Hello Everybody!
One week into the mission! What an awesome time to be a missionary. This mission is so amazing! I am so glad to be serving here in California!
I arrived here a week ago today. After we got off the plane we met the Mission President at the baggage check. His name is President Hall. He is such a great President. Even from just meeting him in the airport I could tell that he is a man of God and really is guided in everything he does. After we got picked up we went over to a Stake Center close by. There we did some quick paperwork and then they sent us off to do some tracting.
I was paired with Elder Lowry. He is now the assistant to the president and he is a great missionary. So the two of us went out to do some tracting. We were out for a while and did not have too much success so we decided to stop and pray to be able to have more success and find a family who had been prepared for the gospel. We left the apartment complex and went to the one next door. The first door we went to we found a sweet Hispanic family. It was amazing. They were actually some former investigators who had lost contact with the missionaries. It was so great to see the hand of the Lord the first day out in the field. To be able to find a family like that was so fantastic.
(Update from Mission President’s wife: I was just talking with the Elder that Elder Lightheart went out finding with on his first day. They had prayed and found a family who let them give a five minute scripture and set a return appointment. Tonight the missionaries in the area went to the appointment and now have eight new investigators from that one visit!)
That night we slept at an apartment in the Santa Clarita Valley. The next day we had the transfer meeting. When we arrived at the transfer meeting we were talking with some of the other missionaries who were there for the transfer meeting. As I was talking with some of them I met and Elder Wood. As soon as I met him I got a strong feeling that he was going to be my companion. Then as we went through the transfer meeting and President was announcing all of the transfers he got to Elder Wood. And then he said that I would be trained by him! I was so excited about that. Elder Wood later told me he had the same feeling when we met. That we would be companions. It was an awesome experience to have that happen.
After the meeting we went to our apartment. It is a nice little apartment. A kitchen, bedroom, study room, and bathroom. It is a little old though. And this week our heater hasn't been working and it has been super cold in our apartment. For instance as we left our apartment to come to the library and send emails, it was 59 degrees in the apartment. We called the apartment manager today and hopefully we can get that fixed.
Since then we have just been about the work for the past week. We also had one Exchange this week with Elder Maxwell and Elder Rockhill. We have definitely had our share of miracles this week. It has been an amazing week.
One miracle was when I was on exchange with Elder Maxwell. We biked to an appointment and on the way we were impressed to stop by a house and knock the door. Our appointment fell through so we went and dropped of our bikes and walked over to the house to go knock the door. It was a three room house. The first door we knocked the man who answered the door was not interested and was pretty rude with us. Then we went to the next door and a sweet Hispanic lady answered the door. We found out that she was a member but the most amazing thing was that she had just moved there six days ago and she invited us back for dinner. The dinner appointment was amazing. Elder Maxwell and I taught them the Restoration and then we asked them is there was a family we could do a family home evening with. They said they would invite their neighbors and we will get to teach them. It was a great miracle the Lord gave us.
The next day was also pretty amazing. The miracle that happened was that we had the goal to talk to everyone. Our goal was to not let anyone pass us without talking to them unless we were already talking to someone. The miracle was that EVERYONE we talked to listened. It was incredible. Everyone we talked to was interested in hearing more and we set up quite a few return appointments. We got 9 potential investigators in one day without have anytime set apart for contacting. It was so great to have so many people interested in our message.
The last miracle that I would like to talk about has to do with the family who lives right above us. The Ceja family. The wife, Sister Ingrid Ceja is an amazing lady. Her husband Jose is less-active now and has put Sister Ceja through a lot but she is one of the strongest sisters I have ever met. She is so devoted to the church. It is so great to have people like her in our area. Anyway we went over to eat dinner at their house and Jose brought his friend Victor who is not a member. We had a great dinner and then decided to teach The Restoration to the Ceja family and Victor. It was such a powerful experience. Victor was so interested in the message and he was so excited to learn. He was so prepared to hear our message. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and he was so eager to. Then we invited Victor to Church which was the next day and he said he would come. It was so amazing. The next day at church Victor came in with the Ceja family and Jose came as well! It was definitely a miracle.
Well the people here are amazing. I love Hispanic people. They are the best. They are always so kind and loving. I really love all the people down here in the Newhall area. Hope everyone is doing well!
Elder Lightheart
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