Week 6: Oxnard, CA

We are truly growing and enjoying our work here in California, if you can call eating fresh produce and going outside without a coat "working." Every week is so interesting for us. This week, we did our usual service at the Catholic Charity organization. We handed out a lot of turkey dinner packages, and we felt the love of those who donated them. People are really good and very generous. We met with our Elders Quorum president, who just happens to be Larry's first companion on his youth mission, and he asked us to go by some houses to find if the members still lived there. This was very interesting and gave us the opportunity to see parts of Oxnard that were new to us. Maybe a tiny bit dangerous? But we went in the bright sunlight and were very safe. One of the addresses was a church, specifically the "Embrace! Jesus!" church, so we went in (the door was open) and we asked if anyone there had heard of this person. It was Wednesday and the people there were running a preschool. They had never heard of her, but then they looked at our tags and said, "Oh, the Mormons! This was a Mormon church until about 5 years ago when we started renting it from them." As Larry and I walked around with the women, we could see the traces of our typical building, the accordion doors in the classrooms and the cultural hall (gym). It was surreal.

On Wednesday, we took a morning to visit Ventura Harbor, and we thought it was beautiful. We loved watching the pelicans diving into the sea for fish. We love the smell and the sound of the ocean. We love the views from these harbors, and we love watching the surfers in their wetsuits.

For Thanksgiving, we went to Golden Corral, and it was fun! We studied most of the day and we watched a little soccer. Our members here LOVE the World Cup, so we like to talk with them about it. Last Sunday, the ward clerk's office was shut during Sunday School, when he usually helps people, and when someone opened the door to ask if he was helping, they found him watching the Germany Spain match on his computer. Ha ha! On Friday, we helped in the mission office so that the other couples could go and shop. We received about 40 packages for young missionaries for Christmas. What a blessing! 

On Friday night, we had dinner with the Sotos, strong members in one of our wards. Elder Soto is the Elders Quorum President and Larry's boyhood mission companion. I am going to teach Sister Soto piano lessons. She has always wanted to learn. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. I'm really looking forward to working with her. On Saturday, we spent the day driving up to Lompoc to watch and help missionaries teach an English class. On our way to Lompoc, we went to Solvang, a Danish town, and I LOVED it! I told the missionaries in our group all about Grandpa Schow and going to Copenhagen. I am very proud of my Danish heritage.

Finally, last Sunday, the bishopric counselor asked Larry and I to bear short testimonies in Spanish so we worked on writing them all week. On Sunday, he announced us as the MAIN speakers! What? We thought we were going to talk for 5 minutes each! But, the "short" talk given before our "long" talks was given by a cute older woman from Peru. She spoke for 15-20 minutes, and Larry and I wanted to hug her for it! We have learned that the members here speak a lot for long periods of time. So our 5-minute talks worked out just fine after all. And the meeting ended on time. When the meeting started, there were only about 30-40 people there, and I felt less nervous thinking that it was a small ward. Then, as we sang the opening song, another 40 slowly drifted in. The young men shut the doors after the opening song, and then when they opened the doors again, another 80 people came pouring in and filled every seat on every bench. Yikes! And this is the ward that starts at 11:30 AM.  

This week, Larry and I will be very busy driving missionaries to the airport. Some Taiwan-bound missionaries got their visas, and a Brazil-bound missionary got his visa, too. We will take our first trip to the airport at 2:00 AM tomorrow. So today, we worked to clean our apartment and fill the car with gas, etc. to prepare. When Larry took out the recycling, he was surprised to find the doors to the huge dumpster garage closed. They are always open, and the trash dumpster garage was wide open. Larry opened the recycling door, and then he jumped out of his skin! A man was sleeping in the space with the recycling. He was homeless. Larry thought he was smart to sleep with the recycling instead of with the stinky trash. The weather here is good enough that we see a lot of homeless. 

I want to finish with something spiritual. We taught a man, Alberto, who wants to go to the temple to do baptisms for his family. His dad was murdered when he was four years old. Larry told him that grandpa just died recently and that maybe grandpa was teaching Alberto's dad about the gospel on the other side of the veil. Elder Bethers was there, too, and he said a closing prayer that asked to bless Alberto's dad and Grandpa to be well and to perhaps find each other in the next life. It was a really special moment. I have loved working with and seeing Chase several times a week. That is only one of the many wonderful things that have happened to us and for us on this mission. 

 

Week 5: Oxnard, CA

We are beginning to get into a routine, and we are loving California. 

Our mornings are usually open, after our study time, so on Tuesday, we hiked in a canyon that overlooks the ocean, near Malibu Beach. Gorgeous! On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, we worked in the Catholic charity helping distribute food from the pantry, pack lunches, distribute hygiene bags, and organize giveaway clothes. (Josh's eagle project trained us well.) Also on Wednesday morning, I have a zoom Spanish tutor.Then on Saturday, we went to Camarillo Ranch, where the first residents of Camarillo lived, then we went on to downtown Oxnard, where Henry Oxnard made sugar from the sugar beets they grew in this valley. We went to a farmer's market to buy tomatoes, blackberries, and strawberries. We love our mornings. 

In the afternoons and evenings last week, we had an office meeting, met with one or two people each night to teach them about the church, including Everardo, Ignatio, Felipe, Francisco, Omar, and Roberto. Do you see the pattern? We are working almost exclusively with 30 to 60 year old males who speak Spanish. We generally wait for a text from the sister missionaries that they would like us to join them for a lesson, and of course, we love being there, so we go meet them at the church. On Sunday, we attend a branch in the Camarillo chapel at 9:00, then we rush off to the Oxnard building for a meeting at 11:30. We have a meeting at 1:30 that goes long, then we come home and collapse.

We have had a few funny things happen to us. As we were driving on the 101 from Camarillo to Oxnard, we saw cars ahead of us swerving and then we got thumped by two giant tumbleweeds. They are even bigger than ours in Wyoming. We ate lavender ice cream. We saw a beautiful sunset at the beach. We hiked a very dusty trail and then visited the famous town of Ojai yesterday. We think that Brittany Spears has a ranch there. 

And we are doing really well. Dad and I both have mild colds, but we have our shots, and we wear masks here, more than we did at home. We love the beautiful weather, and we are thriving. Thank you for supporting us on this unique opportunity to serve and learn.

 

First 3-Week Update for President Carter

Hola Pres. Carter,

Per your request, we are sending you an update every 3 weeks.  Overall, we are doing well, settling in and really loving these wonderful Hispanic people.

 

We mostly spend our evenings accompanying the junior missionaries in teaching lessons to investigators and new members (13 lessons in 3 weeks).

 

One of the highlights has been teaching 3 Temple Preparation classes to Everardo Corral in the Camarillo Spanish group!

 

We have looked at a couple of different community service opportunities and chosen to help out at the Catholic Charities’ Food Pantry in Ventura (2 days/week, 4 hours total) for now.  They seem to really need our help.

 

We have only taken 1 missionary to the airport (Elder Redd for gall bladder surgery)…hopefully things went well for him.

 

Lastly, this week the Wilson’s are taking us up to SLO or SM to begin our training on supervising the English Connect program.

 

One question—do you know any more about the special multi-stake Hispanic fireside on Dec. 9 at the Ventura Stake Center?  one of our units announced it, the other one didn’t and we want to make sure to invite as many people as possible to this special opportunity.

 

Warm personal regards,

Elder y Hermana Weatherford

Week 4: Oxnard, CA

This was definitely a crazy week because we were only in the mission for 3 days, followed by 4 days traveling to and from my father's funeral. On those three days, we helped with zone conferences. This means traveling to a central location where missionaries meet, sing in a choir, have their cars and bikes inspected, hear inspirational talks, and eat a nice lunch. Larry and I attend to help with the lunch and take pictures of the missionaries to post on the Facebook family page. We drove to San Luis Obispo the first day, and it rained heavily the whole time. The people were so excited and grateful for the rain. But it made the drive really tough, 2 1/2 hours. We drove along the beach, but the rain made everything gray. We saw sea otters and lots of waves crashing on rocks, so we can't complain much. Even in the rain, it was beautiful! The next conference was in Oxnard, close to home. On that morning, I met on zoom with my Spanish tutor. I am really making progress in my Spanish, what a blessing! Then, we helped with the conference.

For the next day, we were asked to skip the third conference and drive an elder to the airport instead. He needs surgery and recuperation that will happen better at home in Bountiful. Yes, he graduated from Bountiful high school with my nephew, Chase, who is also serving in the Ventura mission. We picked up the elder at around 5:30 AM and drove to the LA airport. The traffic on the freeway was terrible, seven lanes in both directions, and cars were at a standstill. We are so happy to live outside of LA where life is more like life in Wyoming. After checking the elder into his flight, we went to the temple in Los Angeles and then returned for our flight to Salt Lake City.

The funeral was really nice. I saw family members there whom I have not seen for 45 years. I saw many of my cousins, and even a couple of families from Stockton for whom I used to babysit. The love at the funeral was beautiful. My siblings and I were real, but loving, and it was really good to be there. Larry and I flew home on Sunday, and instead of sitting in 14 lanes of stuck traffic, we drove on the Pacific Coast Highway to Oxnard. It was so beautiful! We walked around Pepperdine University, where dad interviewed successfully, but then the job opening didn't happen. Can you imagine how life would have been different? We drove by some beautiful hikes and beaches, which we promised to return to on Tuesday when we had a few free hours. We loved the ocean.

On Monday, we did laundry, and we went to Walmart to pick up some groceries for the week. We pulled up into the space between a Mercedes and a Porsche. The cars here are so fancy! And they shop at Walmart just like us. Ha ha! We walked for exercise and watched a possum cross a four-lane highway right by our apartment. The next day, we saw an exterminator parked right by the bushes where the possum was making his home. We think he caused a little mischief for the building. 

Week 3: Oxnard, CA

We spent a whole week in Oxnard, and now we can write a really full letter home about what we are doing and how life is going here in California. Larry really loves it here, and for me, it feels so much like where I grew up. I am LOVING California! We are very happy on this mission.

First of all, this mission is night-and-day different from our Bogota temple mission. Yes, we do speak Spanish, but only with the older members. The youth and their parents grew up in California going to school, and they are actually more comfortable with English. So I'm still spending an hour a day learning Spanish, but when I lapse into English, the people here understand. There are 8 zones or stakes here in our mission, and each one of them has about 1500 members, of which only about 100 speak Spanish and meet in their own little groups. Dad and I are assigned to two of those groups, so we work with around 100-200 Spanish speaking members of the church. 

This week, we spent our mornings, trying to get internet set up, grocery shopping, getting prescriptions, etc. But when we got some free time, we explored the beach (beautiful and chilly), a park with an amazing view (Ventura), the Navy Seabee Museum, the San Buenaventura mission, and the Ventura County history museum. We are learning so much about the area. We try to do laundry and cleaning on Monday, preparation day. We know where to go to volunteer when we return from grandpa's funeral. My father died on November 1, 2022, not unexpectedly and with a final phone call from me. It was a special day to know that he could rest. Our days have just the right balance of work and rest. 

In the evenings, we have meetings with members. On Tuesday, we met Carlos, and Larry helped explain to him that he can still come to church and feel accepted when he uses curse words. It was a cute discussion. Carlos is such a sweet man. Then, on Wednesday, we met Francisco (or Fran). We learned that he is related to about a fourth of the members in Oxnard and he is really sweet, too. Larry helped explain to him in Spanish that he doesn't have to feel bad about working on Sunday and that we can have the sacrament with him later. The people here work SO hard, early in the mornings, most days every week, or the night shift. They need to feel loved and accepted. Loving them is a great part of our mission! On Thursday, we met Everardo. He loves coming to church, but his wife and six children are very upset that he comes. So we told him we love him, and we would pray for all of them. That's a tough one. (All in Spanish.) Mostly I would say the opening prayer and then a phrase or two like, "You look pretty" or "It's a nice day." Dad does the heavy-duty stuff. Then Friday we went to a Day of the Dead celebration, and I put a cell phone photo of grandpa on the table for ancestors. Carmella taught me that dying on Dia de Los Muertos is a beautiful thing, and that's when grandpa died. Pretty cool! 

Our weekends are crazy! On Saturday, we cleaned the building, then we were witnesses at a baptism in which the boy was someone who my nephew Chase taught. Chase blessed him in Spanish and it was beautiful. The man in charge called us the "Waterfords" as so often happens. The boy who was baptized was crying and I asked Larry to help him, but he said he was crying because he was so happy. Precious! Then, Larry and I decided to go on a date, and I found a Mexican grill. But Larry said it sounded too "hoity toity" with its locally grown organic veggies and tofu. I said, "Welcome to California!" We're not in Wyoming anymore. That night we had a church meeting, then another the next morning. After the meeting, we had a potluck with some of the Spanish speaking members at their home. This was a $1 million home in Camarillo. It was nice. The father does not speak English, but he is an amazing artist, and he has been very successful. One guest had a persimmon tree, and I ate 4 persimmons. Just like when I was a girl. 

Week 2: Missionary Training Center Provo

We finished another week of training at the Missionary Training Center, and we really enjoyed it! We had lessons on filling our day with different types of service, techniques for good teaching, how to use the Family Search app and share it with others who want to search for their ancestors (thus our funky photos in Samoan costumes), how to help people with financial needs including job searches, budgeting, preparedness for emergencies, etc. Larry got a haircut at the MTC, and we went to the temple on Thursday night. All in all, it was a fun and busy week.

On Friday afternoon, after we said goodbye to about 30 other couples who were training with us, Larry and I drove to Spanish Fork to visit with Uncle Jerry (Larry's Dad's brother) and Aunt Beth. We drove right by Larsen Elementary where Amy taught fourth grade! We loved sharing stories and family news with Jerry and Beth. It was so nice to meet someone who is so much like Larry's dad, Robert. Then, Saturday morning, after a quick goodbye from Josh and Emma, we drove to Henderson, Nevada. After church Sunday, we drove the rest of the way to Oxnard, Ca, where our first apartment is. The traffic was terrible, and that is our new normal.

Another missionary couple work in the office near Oxnard, and they fixed up our apartment, set the table, and brought us a meal. Our beds were made, and we loved feeling like we are home for a few weeks. We didn't have internet or cell service for a while, but now we are back. Yeah! So we made it. And we are really happy to be here.

"I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation." 2 Nephi 22:2  My new favorite scripture.