To answer questions: The tall guy was a less active whose family we eat dinner with a lot. I don't know how well homeade goodies work, I guess we just have to experiment and see, but I wouldn't send them frozen, just bake them and maybe put them in a tuberware container or zip lock bag probably. I know that E Parker has gotten some homeade stuff and that is how they did it. We never get anything from the mission office, they don't like the other zones, we are nicknamed "Inglehood" but thats just cause we work in some sketchy areas, but everyone knows who we are so there is nothing to worry about. I am almost positive that Tanner could've gotten his garments from the MTC but, who knows?
My new companion is pretty legit. His name is Elder P, he is from Dallas Texas and he is a left handed baseball pitcher. he is good enough at baseball to have made the BYU baseball team, which he played on for a year before going on his mission. He was a lefty specialist on the team. His original mission call was to El Salvador where he contracted Salmonela and appendicitis, so he had to get his appendix removed in El Salvador. He served there 8 months before returning home where he waited 2 months to go back out and now he is with me. He has been out about 13 months and he is super good at Spanish.
So far for this past week we taught more lessons than any other lesson the past transfer with Elder C. We picked back up an investigator who I didn't even see for the entire transfer. Her name is W, and apparently another missionary offended her because she was making tamales on Sunday when the missionaries came by and she said that she was busy. Apparently the missionary told her off about how if she has time to sit around and make tamales, then she has time to listen to the missionaries (this is the story that she tells us, IDK how true it is because ella esta embarasada) but we started to teach M and W again. We showed them the Restoration video and they really liked it, they have even given us lunch and dinner this past week! They are from El Salvador so they like to chat with Elder P and it is pretty cool to see. We also taught this lady and her name is also W, but its a completely different W. We found her last week with E C, but she told us to come back, so we did. When we walked in, her boyfriend was there and he went off on how much he hates Mormon missionaries and how bad they made him feel one time, W then tried to defend us by saying "that's not them! They are not Mormons!" but then we said that we were and that we told her that when we first met up with her so that was a little awkward. He stormed out but we still had a lesson with her outside. She told us how she sees crazy things, like demons and darkness everywhere and it all started when her mom passed away. We tried to teach her the Plan of Salvation, but she just kept getting off track. By the end of the lesson we all were feeling pretty good and next time we visit her we are going to teach the Restoration and invite her to be baptized. That is something that this week we have struggled on, setting baptismal dates. Its really hard to set a baptismal date with a lot of the people that we teach because the moment that we will say 'B.." they will cut us off and go off about how they need to receive a sign from God to accept a baptismal date. I think a lot in those moments about a an example one time that I heard someone use by saying asking for a sign to change our habits or repenting is like asking a fireplace to give us heat without putting in the wood. I know that when we set goals and show that we are willing to do what God wants us to do, he will have the Spirit testify to us that we are doing is exactly what we need to do.
We began to teach this father and daughter named H and E. H does Marijuana and E has extremely poor health that it is almost hard to watch. Helen told us that her dad was in the hospital and that she wanted us to pray for him and to swing by the next day. Well we did and we saw E!! he was out of the hospital, but still in really bad condition. We talked with him and told him that we could give him a blessing to help him feel better. he said that he would like that, BUT we didn't have any consecrated oil! We told him that we would come back later to give him a blessing. After we went back we gave him a blessing and he told us how much better he felt. He has really bad Diabetes and he is constantly shaking, but after the blessing he stopped for a while. At the end of the lesson Elder P decided that we should sing Yo Se Que Vive Mi Senor, so we did. The Spirit was there, it was intense. Even with our terrible voices, this old latino Elio was tearing up in his old and faded eyes. After we sang he told us how much peace he felt and that he would like us to come back. We went back about 2 days later and he invited us in. We decided to reteach the Restoration so that we could invite him to be baptized. We were showing him a video about Joseph Smith and right as Joseph Smith was about to kneel down and have the amazing experience of the First Vision, E said "I need to go throw up" got up, and went to the bathroom. If there is one thing that the adversary knows is the most powerful message missionaries share, its that of the First Vision. It happens SO often that there is some other 'noise' that is always going on during the First Vision, but this time it was just bad, funny, but bad. After he went to the bathroom, he came out and told us that he wanted us to leave and to finish the video later. NOOOO!!! ugh it was so sad.
Something cool that happened this week was that the Familia R was confirmed! Remember them from my first area with Elder W? They decided that they would be baptized in Utah and confirmed here. Por Fin! Slow and steady is how they were able to make the covenant of baptism with the Lord and it feels so great knowing that i was a missionary who taught them. Our baptismal date, Y, we taught 3 times this week. We taught lessons 2 through 4 and even invited her to join the 21 club. The 21 club is something that E Parker told me about. We invite them to pray morning and night (2) for 7 days / the week (14) and to read the Book of Mormon for 5 minutes daily (7) so that all adds up 21. If they do that then we give them a candy bar. We also visited HP, he always confuses himself and always gets off track, but we always try to help him because his wife is the RS president and she keeps telling us that he is ready. He told us about how he believes in reincarnation and in spirits. He believes that we pray for their sins to be cleansed and they pray for ours to be cleansed. Well, if you believe in reincarnation, you don't believe in spirits, let alone spirits who pray for your salvation. He went on to say that our prayers do matter as much to God as those who have passed away. I know that prayer is a powerful thing. I know that God wants to hear each and every son or daughter pray to him daily, like any other father would. It is so sad to think that he feels that his prayers are not important to God because he hasn't died yet, so sad.
Last P Day was reidiculous. We went with the English Elders to The Alley, but they wanted to do the 50 piece Mcnugget challenge at McDonalds. I opted out of it, so all 3 of them did it. it was so gross, I just filmed certain parts, but all of them at one point was about to puke, it was bad. When we were packing up E C, I had on my slippers, (FYI they are falling apart its hilarious) and I stepped on a paper clip, yes a paper clip and it stuck through my slipper and went into my foot. It freaked me out, but I am all good, all healed, nothing gross or infected, its just funny that it was a paper clip. This last week we decided to fix the air conditioning. We got permission to go to Pepboys, but after 4 hours we finally found out that its a computer thing that is wrong in the car so we have to take it into the dealership this week to fix it. So we still haven't had air conditioning in the car, boy am I grateful for that, and a car ahaha. While we were waiting at Pepboys this guy asked us if he could buy us a coffee (he knew we were LDS) and he decided to chat with us (perfect). He asked us a lot of questions about how the LDS church is weird and set up wrong. We shared Ephesians 4:11 with him, which talks about prophets, teachers, evangelists, apostles, etc. We told him that that is how the church is set up, he then told us that he doesn't believe in that. WHAT? we just shared a scripture from the Bible, not even the Book of Mormon, and you are saying that you don't believe in that sort of stuff? Well he left and we had a pretty good laugh about that. This past Sunday we had a really good lesson in Priesthood about fatherhood and what the role of a father is. It made me think about all the things that you guys have done for me and how you have raised me. It also made me remember the Mormon Message that talks about how out of all the names that you could possibly give to deity, our Heavenly Father wants us to call him by that, Father. That personal connection with God is what he wants for all of his children, I think that is something that I have learned this week.
Any funny jokes? The spoons are from Yogurtland and i am trying to put them in every picture (that is appropriate) somewhere hidden, like the scenery during one of Dad's productions.
Les Quiero
Elder Roberts
(real tamales, apposed to the fake ones he has had before...haha)
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