First Week With Elder Owens

I officially met my new companion last p-day! His name is Elder Owens and he's a beast. He's from Payson, Utah. We got two Utah boys chillin in Cali :) 

Elder Owens went to a charter school in Eagle Mountain, Utah and already has his associates degree from Utah Valley University. I love new missionaries because they have the desire to work. I'm excited to work and serve with him, help this area, and the people in it to come unto Christ! 

So right off the bat when we got home from picking Elder Owens up from the office on Monday, we had a lesson with Jann and Diane. And like I said last week this couple is soooooooo ready to learn about the gospel! We had a Zoom call with them and it was awesome to finally meet and get to know them. I never really talked to Diane, mostly Jann but Diane was very nice and she said she admired that we were here on our missions at such a young age. 

It was a great call we talked about what we do as missionaries. We didn't get to teach them more because they are trying move into their new place here. So this week hopefully we'll start teaching them officially. Jann said one thing on the call that was super special to me. He felt that it isn't a coincidence that we're the missionaries who are teaching them. He said he knew that we were the ones who should be here at this time. I'm excited to teach them and see how they progress! 

We had a tons of Come Follow Me lessons with the members of our ward last week. Our Bishop gave us a lil shout out in the ward weekly letter. He asked them to meet with us and that it would be the highlight of their week! So hopefully we can meet many more members in our area!

I totally forgot it was Pioneer Day back in Utah until we had a lesson with a member in our ward and he said, "You Utah boys should remember this holiday!" Haha I totally forgot for some reason. We had a good time in EQ this past Sabbath day. Our Elders Quorum President talked about the pioneers and just how important our ancestors are.

We had a zone conference this week and President Cordon focused on Repentance. What true repentance is. It really got me thinking. Do I understand what true repentance is? So I tried to study about that this week. It's helped me a lot! 

One thing that President said was we need to turn away from sin and turn towards God. We definitely need to constantly repent daily and become better and better. I know our Savior Jesus Christ died for us so we can have the amazing opportunity to repent daily. I'm super grateful for that and His love for us. 

Hope everyone has a great week and stays safe! 

-Elder Espiritu 

Elder Owens!

Goodbye Elder Tennis

Getting a New Companion!

Well this week was a sad one. California put back most of the COVID restrictions, which was tough because we were going to the chapel every day and doing our work there. Our mission president said we can't do that anymore so we're back at it in the apartments. It's alright, it's not too bad. 

It was Elder Tennis' last week here in the mission. We've only been together a few weeks now but we got along so well. We're going to drop him off at the mission office today and I'm going to pick up my new companion. 

It's going to be fun. He's going to be a brand new missionary. I think his name is Elder Owens. I'm looking forward to it. I'm excited to continue doing the Lord's work with a new companion! 

This week we did a lot of Come Follow Me lessons with members. We're doing our best trying to get to know the member in our area. We met with some awesome families and I loved it even though it was over Zoom.

Very excited for a lesson we have tonight with Jann and his wife (the Filipino couple that just moved in). We had a call with Jann and some of the things he was saying to us and the questions he had was music to missionaries' ears! We're gonna meet with them later tonight! 

One of the highlights of the week was a baptism for the other Elders in our apartment. Elder Tennis actually found this lady when he was here about a year ago! She's gone through a lot of ups and downs but made the decision to finally get baptized. 

They showed me that the Lord's timing is the only timing. They had the baptism at their Bishop's pool, which was different. They were speaking Farsi the whole time so I couldn't understand a thing but it was a cool experience to see. I definitely could feel the Spirit the whole time. 

Hope everyone has a great week! 

Elder Espiritu 

Last pic with the man himself, Elder Tennis

Filming our video last week. If you haven't seen it, it's on my Facebook page

Filipinos Everywhere!

Hey Everyone! 

Pretty good week! I realized this week that my companion goes home in 1 week so I gotta start figuring out this area and finding people to teach. So every day we call a ton of people that used to be taught and members in the ward. It's been different but I've adjusted well. Elder Tennis and I are teaching well together and the Spirit is so strong when we teach. 

It's challenging to find people to teach through Facebook. We've been really trying to go through members. One cool experience we had with finding new people to teach was earlier in the week. We were talking and trying to find out new ways we can find new people to teach, when we got a call from our mission office. They had a referral for us! 

They told us about this couple that sounded great. They told us where they were from the Philippines! I got so excited! We got their info and called them immediately. The husband's name is Jann. We got to know them. We talked about the Philippines and he actually grew up in my mission in Manila! It was great to talk to him. He seemed great and told us he would cook us up some Filipino food. I'm looking forward to that! That experience was another huge testimony builder that I'm here for a reason and that each missionary wherever they are has people that need them.

We set up a couple Come Follow Me's with some members, recent converts, and part member families. This week's Come Follow Me was all about the power of words in Alma 30-31 in the Book of Mormon. This week was with the Kim family, Brother Ball, and the Acevedo family! 

The Kim family was great. We talked to them and really got to know them. And  because the Come Follow Me was about how strong words could be, at the end of the lesson we challenged them to reach out to someone who could use some kind words in their life. And they said they would do it. I just got a text from Sister Kim and she said they all did it and it that it was such a good experience for them. 

Our next Come Follow Me was with Brother Ball. He's was baptized about a year ago. He's about 70 years old. He's so funny! His example to me has helped me gain a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. 

Our last Come Follow Me with the Acevedos was actually in person. It was nice to go out and actually talk to people in person. They invited us over and we got to chat with them. The two youngest boys in their family aren't members so we tried to make it fun for them. Super awesome family! 

I loved this week's Come Follow Me. One scripture that stood out to me was Alma 31:5 "And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God." I love this scripture, talking about how the word can have a more powerful effect than the sword. 

What we say and how we say it can affect us in a positive or negative way! 

This week I try to encourage everyone to be positive in what we say and try to uplift others! Hope everyone has a good week and stay safe! 

-Elder Espiritu 

Here are more details about his week from our video chat with him: 

His typical days consist of pounding the phones and calling their Area Book. He and his companion have been having texting or calling people the other missionaries used to teach. During one conversation, they got a hold of this lady. She is an elderly lady with a peculiar accent. His companion asked, "Where are you from sister?" Sure enough she grew up in Manila, Philippines (this is a different lady from last week). So, of course, Dallin and this lady had a great conversation in Tagalog. She was very interested and they dropped off a copy of the Book of Mormon to her.  She wants to have the lessons in person but she is on the high risk category for COVID, so they are going to try to meet with her over facetime. 

He was excited to learn that his new Zone Leader is Elder Bridger Carson, one of his teammates on his High School football team. Another fun and "small world" fact. The other ZL, Elder Peterson mentioned to Dallin:

Elder Peterson: "Oh, yea, one of my friends in my ward went to the Philippines on his mission. He decided to do the 12-18 months option and is going to BYU in the Fall." 

Dallin: "Elder Peterson, where did you say you were from?"

Elder Peterson: "From Knoxville, TN." 

Dallin, "Wait, did you know an Elder Strickland, he was my companion at the Philippines MTC." 

Elder Peterson: "No way, that's who I am talking about. He's in my ward!" 

More on the Filipino family referral from the office: 

Dallin got a call from the Mission Office. They gave them two referrals to teach. The office gave them the person who referred those names to call first. He told them both are "golden families" (meaning they are willing to listen). 

When he called the first referral. He was so excited to talk to talk to Dallin in Tagalog. Eric grew up in the Philippines but his family now lives here and they just moved to LA from Nevada. They used to own a restaurant and as Dallin mentioned in his email, Eric promised to cook him some Filipino dishes. Dallin's favorite is "sisig" (a dish made of minced meat (pork or chicken), veggies and seasoned with onions, calamansi (small Filipino citrus) and chili peppers. 

They had a very spiritual conversation and his family has accepted to be taught by the missionaries. They are hoping to set up an appointment this week. 

During his calls, he has also reached out to Michelle. They have been sending her a scripture daily to help uplift her. They were able to drop off a Book of Mormon to her as well. 

Overall, he has been happy with what their companionship has accomplished despite the challenges of COVID. Dallin has been very positive about the whole thing. He is just trying to figure out how else to get referrals from people so they can teach more people. He and his companion have called and texted members in the ward to teach "Come Follow Me" lessons or a message.  One time he said he sent out 17 texts and only got 3 responses. :(  

They are now allowed to visit members but only if they are invited. They can't just show up and see if they can share a message. He and his companion meets weekly with their ward council but he has never met any of the members or the Bishop. 

Despite all this, Dallin has remained very positive. They have taught a few lessons but they are still trying very hard to teach more people. Next week, he will get a new companion and he really hopes that he will be as hardworking and easy to get along with as Elder Tennis. They have worked well together even it has only been a couple of weeks. 

Elder Tennis and I 

Pickle Ball!

More pics of my district

My new zone leader Elder Carson who also went to PG! I played football with this dude!

I hit one year on the mission.
Can't believe it's been a year already
(the day I left last July) 

Week 2 in Los Angeles

YOOO what's up everyone! 

Hope everyone had a sick 4th of July! Really fast week this week which is surprising because it wasn't as busy as we wanted it to be. We got to meet some amazing people and got to experience some very spiritual things. 

We're still trying our best to figure out how to find some new people to teach or find some less active members in our ward that we could reach out to. Its really testing my patience for sure haha. We are lucky enough to have some people that the other Elders were teaching before we got here so we've been trying to focus on them. 

Here's some experiences that we had this week! 

Last Monday we were able to get in contact with the Bohanan family, and were able to do a Come Follow Me with them. Sister Bohanan is raising two kids at the moment and the kids are so sick. There's Hector he's about 13 and he's super funny. He likes playing lax so with the one year of me playing and my companion playing too we were able to talk a lil bit about it. 

Then there's Sister Bohanan's daughter Petra and she's about 9. Super sweet girl. She's ranked 15 in the nation for gymnastics so she's a beast. We hyped her up over the zoom call. 

Turns out Sister Bohanan called the Elders before us and said she wanted Petra to be baptized because she never was when she was 8. We've been trying to teach them a couple times. Monday we had a Come Follow Me with them and it was super fun. I love teaching kids cause it forces you to teach simple and that's what's so awesome about the gospel. It's just so simple! It was fun to be able to teach them. 

The next day we had a lesson with this guy named Mike and the lesson was okay but didn't go the way we wanted. I was frustrated and got pretty discouraged. But later that day we called this lady named Maria Lolo. 

The Elders before us called her once so we decided to try it out. She answered and we started talking to her and get to know her. We could tell she was from somewhere else cause she had a pretty strong accent. Elder Tennis looked at me and whispered "I think she's Filipina" and I was like nahh I don't think so. So he asked her where she was from and she said the Philippines!! I got so hyped and I just went off and tried to talk to her in Tagalog. She was so surprised! 

We had a really good conversation about how to find joy. She actually referred herself to the missionaries and said this was the reason why. She wants to find joy in her life. It was actually one of the most spiritual experiences I've ever had and it was over the phone. 

I was able to testify to this lady in Tagalog that God loves her and how to find joy is through our Savior Jesus Christ. We're gonna teach her again tomorrow. On Wednesday we dropped off a Book of Mormon to her. 

This experience really showed me how much our Heavenly Father loves each of His children and it gave me motivation to keep working harder cause that was the biggest tender mercy I've ever seen in my life. I really needed it exactly at that moment. Love this opportunity I have to be a missionary even though its different! 

Even though circumstances are different now a days the gospel isn't different so we gotta continue moving forward as a church. 

Hope everyone has an amazing week. Hit me up on with an email or a message. I would love to hear from you! Love ya guys! 

Elder Espiritu

President & Sister Cordon

Elder Tennis and I

Elder Plaisted and I 

Our District

went on a sick hike this morning 

a year ago I went through
the temple soooo crazy