Well this week has been pretty eventful to say the very least. Whitewashing is an adventure and a half, and its really a miracle that I have any form of an idea of what's going on. Stay tuned and I'll give you a quick synopsis of the week.
So first and foremost, let me give you an idea of where I'm at. So Dos Vientos is the suburb of Newbury Park, which is a suburb of Thousand Oaks, which is a suburb of LA. I know, suburb-ception. Pretty needless to say, this area is high end. But that's not as bad as I though it would be! A lot of areas in this part of the mission really struggle work wise, but this area seems to be an exception. They've had 2 baptisms already this year (which is a lot for Newbury. One area hasn't seen a baptism in almost 3 years), and we have another planned for this Saturday!! Woooohoooo!! It's this really awesome family who just got reactivated in the past few months and their 9 and 8 year old sons are getting baptized. Their name is the Koeppells, and we were able to meet with them for the first time last night and I'm really excited to work with them more. Every area I've had I always seem to find that one nerdy family that I relate to really well, and for here that's them. But they're not the only awesome ones here. The members here are on fire. They're all excited about missionary work and are looking for ways to help us in any way that they can, so we're really hoping to capitalize on that. We are also the first Elders that this ward has seen in over 3 years. Could be longer, it depends on who you ask, but 3 seems to be the general consensus :) There is actually one kid in the ward that didn't know that there were "boy missionaries" and was pretty awestruck when he saw us haha! So yeah, so far, I'm liking it here :) I've been very blessed to have worked in amazing wards my whole mission, and Dos Vientos is no exception.
As for my comp, Elder Elliott is also pretty cool. He's from Kansas, and he's been out for about 4 months now. He's spent the entirety of those 4 months in Santa Barbara, and he's pretty excited to work in a new area. He went to a year of college before the mission, and his interests include uni-cycling, sewing, and making some pretty bomb omelets. Needles to say, we're getting along just fine:)
Now this week, we celebrate Thanksgiving, which has always been one of my favorite holidays. But until this year it hasn't really been for the right reasons. I can honestly tell you that the main reason I've love thanksgiving for the past 18 years has been for the food. I mean come on, who doesn't like stuffing their face with copious quantities of carbohydrates and poultry?? And I'm being entirely honest here. But all that aside, I've had a very bad habit of being ungrateful for a good majority of my life. Luckily I recognized that pretty early on in my mission, so for the past 6 months or so I've really been trying to cultivate and "attitude of gratitude." And, yes, I know how cliche that sounds, but bear with me. I received some council at one point in my life that if I focused on what I had, not what I didn't, and I devoted my time to serving the Lord, I would never want for anything. At first I thought that meant that I would be so abundantly blessed by the Lord that I couldn't possibly want for anything. But now I've come to realize that, as I do those things, I realize how abundantly the Lord has already blessed me and I can't want for anything. I encourage all of you to do the same :)
That's all for this week! I hope all of you have a very happy thanksgiving!! I love you all, and I'm very grateful for all of you :)
Love,
Elder Brennan Jon Rosenlof
He didn't send a picture, but I got this on Thanksgiving.
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