"Look for clues" aka Motorcycles!

Hey family! I actually have time to write but wouldn't you know that I am not sure what to write about. First, If you haven't heard our mission and part of Ventura mission are combining to make the new Bakersfield mission. The changes won't take place until after I am home but I am really excited. It just goes to show the work is moving forward. We had a conference this week with our zone and heard a little bit about the new President but don't know who it is yet. I WANT TO STAY ON THE MISSION!!!! I wish I didn't have to come home. I am headed home  just as all the changes are taking place. I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father as my life planned out perfectly and I have faith that he knows what he is doing. However sometimes I loose my faith and try to take control. Note to self- Trying to take over driving from the backseat doesn't work. Life is so much easier when I sit back and have faith that he knows where he is going. I know that it doesn't mean we have no control. We can suggest (pray) to go a different way because Heavenly Father lets us decide what we want to do with our life. That sounds a little contradictory to my previous statement but I am talking about trying to take control of it and never have faith. I don't know if that makes sense. When I was thinking it, it made sense but it is not coming out clear. Haha okay change of subject!

There is this quote in Preach my Gospel that says this "Look for clues- such as items in homes or yards, lettering on clothing, or indications of children- to help you know how to begin talking with people." I have really loved this quote for several reasons. Mainly because it is so true. I will have to talk about it later but this is the story that comes from putting it to practice.

On Saturday we did a zone wide blitz. Something I haven't done before. The whole zone was working in one area for 2 hours, finding people to teach. It was really good! We were assigned this one area. I think we knocked the whole place without getting anyone. Finally giving up hope I saw this guy outside. In front of his house was 3 motorcycles all lined up in a row. It reminded me of my college days living at the colony. I have this group of guy friends that all owned bullet bikes and they would take me on rides every now and then. I love motorcycles! They would line up there bikes in front of there house. I think there were 3 bullet bikes, 1 motorcycle and 2 scooters. Haha I should have taken a picture of that. When I saw this house it brought back some good memories. He was outside so I walked up to him and started talking to him about his life. He has survived 5 accidents and the last one was his most scary but he didn't have anything happen to him. It was scary because the guy broke his bike in half. Obviously Heavenly Father was watching over him. As I talked to him I just wanted to teach him so much! I could see him being a really great blessing for the church. Sadly right as I started talking to him about the gospel his friend came up and he had to go. I was really sad. He is also for the English Elders. When we met up to talk about who we had found I said to the elder "Elder! If you don't take care of this guy I will beat you!" I have to say I have never been so violent in my words before but my companion says that to me in Spanish all the time so I think I translated it in my head. I told him that if things didn't work out I was going to find him in Heaven and teach him. I have this running list of people I might have to find if they don't accept the gospel here. As I walked away I just realized how much love I have for these people! It is incredible because we found two more people that were really awesome after that experience and I could have kept knocking all day long. We had to end though and when we did we went back to our apartment to use the bathroom which was really close. I don't know why but the minute I sat down I wanted to stay in our apartment for the rest of the day....wait I know why it was Satan. I realized in that moment I need to get out of the apartment back out on the streets as soon as possible. We didn't stay in our apartment too long. We went and visited a less active member. It was really good! She opened up and told us a lot of her struggles. She really needs to come back to church but she didn't come. Maybe this week!

I know I mentioned Zone training this week but I wanted to tell you what I learned. The zone leaders passed out a page of our mission plan. Something we were given at the beginning of the year right after Elder Clark came to our mission. This time the paper was blank. They asked us to fill in the blanks. I have to say I failed miserably. I didn't remember anything...well not a lot. They talked about how we have forgotten as a mission the things we learned and encouraged us to pull out our notes and start doing those things again. I realized how true it is. We learn something and have the desire to change but we may start out good for a little but after awhile fall back into our old ways. It is hard to break habits. I know! I have tried! Several times! I caught myself saying the words "como like" the other day! It is a habit I broke but sneakly creeped back into my vocabulary. I am working on some other habits but I fail constantly. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to have the Atonement to repent and start new.

Did you know that we only have 26 days until the next conference!? We eat dinner with our Branch President every Sunday. Yesterday we decided we were going to review every week a talk from conference to help ourselves prepare to hear the words of the Prophets and apostles again! I am really excited. It was the Hermana's idea! She is really great! We are excited but as we were planning we realized we only have 4 talks to review until conference! Weird that it is going by that quickly! 26 days! Please don't forget to start preparing. Think of questions you want answered, problems you want solved, re-read the talks from last conference! Prepare to receive inspiration now! Hermana talked about how sometimes we wait until Friday to prepare. It doesn't work. There is that saying that Noah didn't wait to build the ark when it started raining. Can you image? Yeah it doesn't work! Well until next week! Love you all! Hope you are all well!

-Hermana Fish