Elder Shields in Carlsbad, CA

First week in Escondido Hills ward. My new comp is Elder Bonds for those who don't know. Elder Bonds is from Gulfport Mississippi and he absolutely loves basketball. I love the ward already. The members here and really involved with the work and willing to help out. I am excited for what lies ahead in this ward.  Our only investigator with any potential is a lady named Joan. Bonds and his last comp, Elder Jensen, tracted into her about a month ago. She has a baptismal date for August 4th, but she has a few things that need resolving...she doesn't really understand the priesthood and that we are the only true church (this is just what Elder Bonds told me, I haven't met her yet).  We spent most of the week working with members and getting me introduced to members of the ward, mostly members of the ward council. We did find a new investigator named Josie while we were contacting in an apartment complex she seems way solid!  I also got to go down to Oceanside for Tammy an

Happy Fathers Day Everyone!!  Want to give a shoutout to Pablo for being an awesome dad and being so loving and supportive of me throughout my whole life! Love you dad!!  So this week I got some news with transfers. I will be getting transferred to Escondido! I will be in the Escondido Hills ward and my new comp will be Elder Bonds! I will also be the District Leader over there. I am super sad to be leaving the ward when there is so much going on, but I am so excited for the new opportunities that await me in my new ward!!  This week was awesome though!! We spent some time doing baptismal interviews with the Seols and Rashida and the Yabuts and planning their baptisms, getting programs ready, etc.  We also had the chance to go to the temple with Don and Kathy to do baptisms for the dead with them!! That was so amazing! I got the chance to baptize Don and then Don baptized Kathy for her mom, it was such a spiritual experience! Kathy and Don loved it too! Kathy talked to us about

This week was another great week! We had some good lessons with the Yabuts and Rashida. They are now both done with the lessons and just need the interview and they will be ready. Both their interviews are next week!   Brian Seol had his baptismal interview this week and he passed with flying colors. Elder Meyer said he was just so happy during the whole interview! Tammy's will be next week. They had to he on different says because of Brian and Tammy being out of town and different times.   Warren came to church again this week which was awesome!   Had some super fun exchanges this week, one with Elder Meyer and the other with Elder Hadfield, who is one of the traveling trainers.   We did have Luisa one of our investigators cuss us out over text. We still have no idea why. We had a lesson with her and we invited her to church and she was all excited to go, and then the day before church she texted us just swearing a ton and told us never to come back. Shook us up a little t

What is up everybody!?   Another solid week in paradise out here. Probably the best thing that happened this week is that Don got ordained to the Aaronic priesthood and to the office of a priest! He will now get to pass the sacrament and bless the sacrament which is so exciting for us! Me and Elder Phillips have been working with Don for a while to get him here. He feels a little inadequate as far as his knowledge in the church which makes him hesitant to do certain things. But he really is so much farther along than he even realizes. He's awesome!   Other than the Seols, all of our investigators have been pretty flakey. Either they just aren't responsive and they don't want to meet, or when we do meet with them they are becoming more hesitant to keep their commitments. The Yabuts were sick this week and so was Rashida. Just one of those weeks. We were able to find some new investigators, but we will be passing them off to the Spanish Elders because their families are a