Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Week 21

Dear Lovely Family,

Man this week has been LOONNGG!

But first the questions: I started to deep clean the apartment, and today I am going to buy items to deep clean the toilet, shower, and mop the floors because they are so dirty. I am getting over the cold, I still am cold when I wake up in the morning and ALWAYS have a stuffed up nose, but it usually clears up in an hour or so.  hahaha I think I put my camera away because I take pictures with the IPAD, I'll try and use it more.

Ok the LONG week, here we go
:
So I found out that in my companionship, I am the Elder that likes to clean, go figure. Man was the apartment dirty... like really bad. Clorox to the rescue!! I bought tuna and oatmeal to eat for breakfast and lunch, but I think that was too little of food, so I'm gonna branch out again today (if it fits in the budget;) ) So this week I got pooped on by a stupid pidgeon, gross. We were having interviews for our investigators with baptisms and as me and Elder D were walking into the church building, we got pooped on, not cool. I was forced to drive again this week because we were on exchanges during the interviewing process (it's just how it ended up happening) but K passed the interview so that was good. We were never truly worried about her not passing or anything like that. We had a lot of transfer or trade off lessons this week with the other missionaries. It is such a blessing when we get a new investigator that already has a baptismal date or that wants to keep listening. We taught this father and daughter the Restoration because the father only speaks Spanish but the daughter can understand English and Spanish. He asked us how we can help his daughter because he wants her to change her life around (all of this was in Spanish so the English trio didn't understand any of it) so we explained what our purpose was and how that will help her (and him) to change. The other transfer lesson was with Elders outside of our Zone. The mom attends our ward because she has a son with Down Syndrome and he does not want to go to another ward, so we get to teach them:) She has another 12 year old son that is not baptized yet, but he comes to church and participates in YM and everything so he seems to be prepared, his baptismal date is on the 26th of July. It was really funny when we were teaching him because we taught in Spanish, but apparently the other Elders had been teaching him in English... awkward. We had ZTM this week and it was good. There are a lot of missionaries leaving at the end of this transfer! Most of them I know but I wish I got to know them more! The Zone Leaders were training us on how to audit our companions IPADS and Elder W (because its still the same zone) told the Zone Leaders that auditing didn't have to be so awkward. They then told him to audit a random missionary's IPAD (Elder C) and Elder W asked for us password, Elder C told him that it was "I am better than you" because he wanted to be funny. Elder W didn't believe him and all of us were laughing, even the Zone Leaders, it was so funny. A new Bishop and Bishopric was called yesterday so that was interesting. I am really excited to work with them because they seem way focused and willing to work with the missionaries.

The BAPTISM of K was awesome. Let me tell you the story of K now:
She lived in Peru. Her best friend (who is a member) would always invite her over to her house and she noticed something that was different about the house, a different "feeling of peace" in that house. She moved to California with her newborn son T and she didn't know where a church building was. She texted her friend and her friend told her about LDS.org and how to find the building. That same night K read a lot of information about the Church so much that she put in her address and requested the missionaries to come teach her. 2 days later Elder C and Elder C2 begin to teach her and she excepts a baptismal date the first lesson. She originally wanted to be baptized with her husband on the 21 of June, but he was told to go back to Peru by the authorities(he is still there). I shouldn't say husband, her boyfriend.
We have talked to her about the Law of Chastity and told her basically that the second he steps off the plane that they would need to get married, both of them say that that is PERFECT! (phew) So she never had any big questions, and if she did, she would go on Mormon.org or LDS.org and have all of her questions answered. She was baptized yesterday, Elder C baptized her, and after she gave a wonderful testimony about how she came to know that the church was true. During the baptism (while K, F, Elder C and Elder D where changing) Elder D2 and I taught about the Restoration. It has been a while since I taught the restoration so it was a little awkward and I stumbled a lot. The Bishop told me that he didn't think that I knew Spanish so well or that I knew any Spanish at all (gee, thanks?) anywho, everything was perfect, now she just has to be confirmed this Sunday, so that will be nice.

Contacts: I tried to talk to this guy that was sitting down and he told me that he didn't want to talk to me and when I tried to ask "why not?" because that's just me, he told me to "keep moving" so I was pretty bummed. I contacted this guy in English and as we were talking he told me that he wouldn't mind if the missionaries came by and talked to him, when I asked him his name he told me it was Jesus, but with the English way of saying it, then I gave him a card with the phone number on it. I GAVE A CARD TO JESUS that's pretty funny. We saw a random security guard crossing the street and decided that we would contact him. We asked him if he had ever talked to missionaries before and IN HIS HAND was a Book of Mormon. He told us that that same day his friend had given him the copy and that he had already started to read it. We told him that we can help him learn more about the book and he said that it would be cool if we came back by.. too bad he speaks perfect English. We also met this guy on his way to teach an AA meeting and told him that the Book of Mormon could help him come closer to Christ, he seemed super interested... again, too bad he was an English referral. We were heading back to the car to leave for the night about 2 days ago and this random (drunk) couple called us from across the street. They came over and began to talk to us about what we do... all the good stuff. They were so drunk that she kept saying "I need Jesus in my life" so we gave her directions to the church buildings and then she kept telling us "I know you guys work for the police, what do you guys do?" she ways saying it so loud that I thought we were gonna be jumped or something. Her boyfriend just kept telling her that we don't believe in God or Jesus, just "John Smith" and that we have 7 wives... I'm really sick of that stupid stereotype, I always tell them that I only have 1 mom though;) We did not get our 7/11 slurpees because it was packed ALL DAY!

Food: You know you live in an African American neighborhood when you see Church's Chicken and on the sign it says Waffles and Chicken $8.99

Personal Study: Reading El Libro De Mormon is really fun, sometimes not as funny as in English though. I was reading in Alma (the part with the rameumptom) and it's not as ridiculous in Spanish, it sounds like how most Catholic churches here pray, so it was actually really awkward rather than funny. Elder C has some John Bytheway talks on his IPOD so we listen to those in the car, man is he good! There are tons of things that I have learned that I love! I think the best quote that John Bytheway quoted was "procrastinate later" oh man is that perfect.

There have been lots of trial this week, but all will work out for the best. IDK what I would buy for my birthday or anything just cause its weird, it feels like its a normal day. The Zone leaders texted me last night saying Happy Birthday because on the CLAM CHATTER, the newsletter we get for the mission, said that my birthday is on the 12th, nope. I told them that it was Tuesday and they replied "oh, it was meant for the other Elder Roberts..." so that was funny.

Well, that's all for this week, I hope that you all have a good week!

Les Quiero
Elder Roberts


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