Week 34

Hello wonderful family! 

This week was a little less exciting than last week, but hopefully you all like it. I did try the Elote, the mayo and corn thing. You could probably look it up online how to make it, it's super easy and pretty good. I should start taking more pictures, it's just a habit I haven't learned yet. 

So on Pday Elder Aguilar had to have an interview with President Weidman to renew his temple recommend. It was a little awkward because while he had his interview, a bunch of other missionaries came in. They all new each other and I'm just sitting there, awkwardly, just trying to mind my own business, but it was ridiculous. I don't think I could ever work in an office, just cause I like to do my own thing. It was a little crazy because I had to drive to the mission office (cause biking would take too long, and Elder Aguilar doesn't have privileges because he crashed on his mission). Elder Aguilar is the worst back seat driver. You know how I already hate driving? Try having a comp tell you everything you are already doing , play by play, and then repeatedly say "I hate it when other people drive".... I was so stressful. What ,add it even worse is that on the freeway, the car directly behind us got rear-ended and so they almost hit us, good thing they didn't cause that would've sucked! Well when we got back to the area, we took advantage of the fact we had the car and got our groceries, instead of having to bike with them later. That turned out to be really good because Elder Aguilar had to fill out some tuition thing for BYUI for the next semester which took us basically to the end of Pday. It actually started to rain!!! We pulled out our coats and biked with them on! Too bad it didn't rain though, so we just ended up going to the F family's house super sweaty. The F family are recent converts who were actually baptized by Elder Colman (from our stake) and we have a goal for them to do baptisms for the dead this month, cause they have never done it yet. Well only Hermano F was there, so we talked for a bit, then left.

On Tuesday we were contacting and visiting e potentials that we have in our area and this guy stopped me and asked me who I was and what we do, after telling him, he drove off, then came back. Elder Aguilar and I were confused and then the guy tried to sell us stuff like a phone line, or free wifi or something like that. We told him that as missionaries, we don't worry about that stuff, and then he got mad, and then drove off... It was weird. We had a lesson with this lady R G. She is 18 years old and has a kid... So sad. We talked about the Restoration and it just didn't click with her. We talked our ears off about the priesthood and prophets and the authority of God, but she just wouldn't understand. It almost go to the point that I said "lady, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true church on the earth" but no matter how hard we tried to explain it, she just wouldn't get it. We had to get our Flu shots this week, because we have to in the mission. The Missionary Medical card paid for everything, so that was nice. I didn't know before hand though, that my companion is scared, more like petrified, of needles... Hahaha! We go in there and they are having troubles finding the insurance stuff, my companion the entire time was like "oh well, let's go" but no. When he got the shot he looked away and stared right at me, of course I was the amazing companion and made fun of him the entire time, not too much though. The shot was taken and boom, done. 

Wednesday was a little interesting. I woke up a little sick, like a stuffy nose and we both thought that it was because of the Flu shot, turns out that it was just for that day so SWEET! We had a lesson with a part member family, the As. The grandma, A, always gets of topic. She is not a member but always says that she is because she use to go to church. She always asks about the most obscure things. It's ridiculous. She also was trying to tell Elder Aguilar at she knows a cute girl in the area that after the mission he could date, but turns out she is 30 years old and Elder Aguilar called her out on it... Priceless! We have a family that feeds us every Wednesday and the family is soooo funny. They always have something funny to say. The daughter goes to BYUI and she says that there she just hangs out with the Latinas because there are so many white people, you wouldn't know who was who, especially with all the snow! We have an investigator named K and he is a little slower than others, but he is still willing to work. He really likes skating and he asked us if we thought that if he read the Book of Mormon every day and prayed about it, then tried to go and do a kick flip, that he would land it. We said, if you do your part, than yes. Up to the this point he hasn't read in the Book of Mormon and he also hasn't landed his kick flip yet, which is sad.

Thursday was pretty exciting because that is the year anniversary of when I entered the MTC! We decided to get donuts for me and Elder Aguilar to celebrate and also I bought another bike tube because we thought that one of mine was popped by a sticker, but it wasn't. So I have an extra tube that only cost 5$! We had another lesson with K and read with him a little in the Book of Mormon. The problem with K is that his stepmom won't let him get a ride to go to church because she needs to trust who he is going with (K has some special needs) so we are trying to get her more involved in the lessons. She gets along really well with Elder Aguilar, they are always chatting it up. We thought that we could maybe bring a member over, but everyone has been canceling on us... Ugh! While walking down a street we saw 2 huge spiders in a tree. We thought that they were maybe Halloween decorations, but then we saw them move. When we walked by the area again, the smaller one wasn't there. Either it moved, was eaten by the bigger one, or we just couldn't see it, but these suckers were huge!

Friday we had Zone training meeting. It was really good. Throughout the day we had so many set lessons that we were super pumped! Almost all of them canceled though.:( we had a lesson with R, but when we showed up to her house, her dad and mom said that she didn't live there, and that she moved.... For real? We just talked to her 2 or 3 days ago and she moved? Ugh it made me a little upset that they would lie to my face, tried not to take that one personally but it was hard. We had a lesson with the As family, well the 3 little girls that they have. Two are wanting to be baptized so we are really working hard with this family. The girls are J, A, and G. J and G are sisters and are the daughters of W A, the only member in the family. A is the daughter of A A, who is W's mom. A and J are 9 and 10 so they can both be baptized. We tried to explain the restoration, but it was just so difficult cause G, the youngest one, kept going off on tangents. You could tell how much J wanted to learn more though. Elder Aguilar is also sick because of the Flu shot that we got. It's kinda hard to get him motivated to work because he only has a couple weeks left, plus he's sick, and it's hot, ugh, it's a struggle some days. 

Saturday nothing really happened except Elder Aguilar was sick and it was 100 degrees here, so you could say that it feels like fall here.

Sunday was weird. I think what bugs me the most about church is that there is no music. I wish I had learned to play the piano when I was younger because sacrament meeting is just not the same when everyone sings A Capella. The chorister lady is just flailing her arm too. I hope that I remember how to sing the hymns after the mission, because it is super difficult to sing the melody when everyone is just off. We had the final new member lesson with the F family, but it was probably one of the most awkward lessons ever. The members that we brought over talked about random things. We would be talking and then all of a sudden they talked about tattoos, I didn't know how they got onto that topic, and neither did Elder Aguilar! Our goal was to have them do baptisms for the dead this week, or at least before the 22nd of October. We had another lesson with the A family, but just with A (the grandma) and her "husband". She is not married to him because she is not divorced from her husband in Guatemala, so that's why she isn't baptized yet, has to get the divorce papers. We talked about the Mormon Message video "your potential, your privilege" and talked about coming to church. It was really sad because the husband would want to be baptized, but he can't if she's still married. She told us that it is impossible for her to get divorced, so that lesson was just a little downer.

So that's what happened this week, not too exciting, just going through the average day of a missionary. It's super hot here in Cali, I'm getting s pretty good tan line. I am losing weight because of being on bike, so I just try and eat more and more haha. We always say that if you don't gain weight on your mission, you didn't enjoy it... Awkward. I love the mission though, I seriously couldn't imagine a day not doing missionary work. 

Love,

Elder Roberts