Week 47

Dear Amazing Family,

Monday was a pretty good day. I didn't need to buy a lot of stuff, cause I have SO much stuff from all the holiday goodies that I might not need anything ever again. I just really needed to buy milk, that was it. I bought peanut butter so that way I could eat it with all my chocolate:) I finally got a haircut that I like. They cut it down to the length that I like, not freakishly long like it was before. It was actually funny because our hair cutting spot was closed so we crossed the street to a different barber. This one had 2 old ladies. They took FOREVER to cut my hair, like 45 minutes... Yes I timed them... But still! Turns out however, that one of them is a member just super duper less active and the other one was going to be baptized, but her mom wouldn't let her when she was 'younger' (like 30 years ago). We had an improv lesson! I kinda like those, because that way I get to know the person better because they are the ones that are talking to me, not me talking just to a blank face. So all in all the 45 minute haircut was worth it because we invited them to come to church and they were really nice old ladies. We then went with some other Elders to go shopping. We were trying to find some cheap ties that looked cool, but we couldn't find any really. All the ones we were finding were like 15$ a piece.. Stupid California. We then went to Yogurtland (FYI one of my goals this year is to go to Yogurtland 1 time a week). That was good. We all got a soccer jersey, I got a Chelsea jersey, it looked good, I'll take a picture of it, and we all played soccer in the jerseys, acting like we were all good at playing or something. I kept making all the 'British' comments because I am the only with a team from England. Our dinner/ FHE appointment canceled on us, so that was sad. And that was the end of Pday.

Tuesday was weird, it actually rained! El Niño came to LA. For a good 3 hours, during the study time in the morning, the roads outside our apartment were completely flooded and I saw plenty of cars hydro planing because none of them know how to drive in the freaking rain hahaha. We tried to contact some referrals, but nobody was home. My companion contacted this guy in Spanish and tried to look at me for help, but what do I do to help me companion do a contact in Spanish all by himself? I act like I don't know a lick of Spanish and just act super white. We ended up getting the guy's info too! Score! We then had dinner with the D family. They are an older couple who have been members for 15 years now and have been married for 39 years.. amazing. They were really nice. We then had a lesson with a referral named J L. The whole time he was saying stuff like "I'm super Catholic and never going to change, but I want to listen to you because you won't lie to me." He also told us to be as bold as we want with him... Nice try tempting me;) it was really hard not to just come out and blast him with the whole "we're right you're wrong" type attitude. We told him that as missionaries, our purpose is to invite and help others come unto Christ. Whether that is getting them back at church or having them say a prayer for the first time in their life, we did our purpose. It's really hard to teach a Latino whose childhood dream was to be a member of the Vatican and uses a JW Bible. We will see how this turns out haha.

Wednesday was just full of ups and downs. We started off the day with Zone Conference. That was super inspiring. It helped me focus a lot more on things that I just need to just DO! I need to stop saying that I will do them and just DO IT. There were a lot of funny quotes too. Lots of mission rules and policies changed, just with like transfer stuff, but that would take too long to explain and doesn't even matter to y'all. It was really funny cause President Weidman at lunch saw me and walked by and just said to me "Elder Roberts, you're so cool" and then walked off. It seemed like he really meant it so I was like... Wow, thanks president. We got a lot of good trainings during that conference, a lot about being deeply obedient and being comfortable with silence when teaching. I think that silence or 'awkward' moments are some of the moments that I love the most as a missionary. I think that just going through the hard time of learning a language that you can't speak really helps you be comfortable with silence, because a lot of the time you don't know what to say, so it is better just to not say anything at all and let the Spirit teach instead of me blabbering at the person. After Zone conference we were trying to get a certain goal. We called up a bunch of people to come out and to accompany us to lessons with investigators. All of the lessons fell through. We did however, get a call from a member saying that his wife needed a blessing. We went over and she was just hit super hard with the cold. We gave her a blessing, and then talked to her husband for a bit. It was a really nice feeling knowing that the ward members trust us enough to call us for so,etching like that. We ate dinner with the R family again, and me and the son- K, talked for a while about why we shouldn't watch rated R movies. In the end, commandments won out, duh. The Rs told me that if I stay for another transfer, then I will be the missionary that has visited them the most out of all the missionaries, YES! 

Thursday was pretty long, not gonna lie. We had a lesson with P though! We had invited the Elders Quorum President, hermano O, and he said he could come with us. We knocked like 5 times and called and texted P, but he didn't answer the door or anything. We were leaving and had just closed the gate when Pedro de repente appears in his window and shouts down to us "hey! Don't leave! We were just eating, I'm coming down!" We all smiled and were so excited. We talked about how things were going and P hasn't been reading AS much as before, but he is still reading little by little. R is back up to 12 pills a day. The doctors said that they want to get rid of the infection once and for all so for one more month they are going to give her 12 pills a day. She is improving though! During the lesson she read a scripture in the Book of Mormon and her voice was normal volume, and she was reading a little better than P haha. We invited P and R to come to church, and they accepted. We also said that we were going to stop by on Saturday to start a fast for R. After that we went back to the apartment to have weekly planning. It is so much easier with the IPads, it's almost sad. We then had amazing plans for the rest of the day, but all fell through. We stopped by to see a less active member, but just her daughter was there. We were going to have a FHE with the F family, but they weren't home and were in Long Beach. We even stopped by the A family, a 2 cars were in their driveway along with the lights on in the house, but nobody was home. After that long and sad ending, we went home.

Friday I went on exchanges with Elder W, the greenie, and oh man, is the green real. He does have the 'greenie Fire' that some missionaries lack, so that's good. He was extremely a,aging at starting conversations, but he just hasn't quite got the social aspect down to street contacting. He is diabetic, from Chicago, and his Spanish is just as bad as I remember mine hahaha. I took him to the Jungle, that amazing place, and we decided to just talk to everyone. We had a lot of crazy experiences and conversations. Our first convo gave us her information, and the second one we got yelled at because the kid we talked to was a minor (looked like she was older not gonna lie). We also talked to a lady who has talked to scientologists before, and we made fun of them. We talked to a guy who pulled out his switchblade to show us what he does to 'Devils' that he meets in the Jungle. We also talked to this guy who was super legit and really wanted to know more, but he is a referral cause he is English. We had 2 dinners that night (I love the Spanish program hahaha) the first one was with the M family, and they gave us pollo loco because they forgot to cook. We then had a FHE with the N family and they also gave us food. It was pretty cool. N, the son of the Ns, he has this shoe business where he stands in line to buy limited edition shoes that go for about 800$ but buys them for 200. So basically in this picture I am sitting by 6,000$ of shoes, because they have increased in value because some of those are older. So cool. 

Saturday was a really rough day, super rough. We did have a lesson with P U though. He wanted us to start a fast with him so that R could be healed from her infection. The lesson was really good. We read in 3 Nephi 11 with him and her and it was really good, they are just really nice people. We then we're trying to figure out how in the world we were going to get to the Visitor Center with the A family (with J, W, J, G and their baby) cause it was raining and we didn't have a ride. We called everyone that we knew, but nothing. We finally called hermana R, who goes to a completely different ward (the knee we eat with in Wednesday's and that I skyped you all with) and she asked us when she would need to give us a ride along with her son, K, who is 17. She asked us like this "¿ustedes necesitan ir, cuando? Ahora?" Y yo le dije "uh... Ya". It was pretty funny (basically I asked her if she could come right now, and she said she could) Ramos for the win right? Of course! We went to the VC and it was an awesome experience and K was with us and everything was just awesome. And that ended the day.

Sunday was just... Let's just say not the best. We were fasting for an investigator that didn't show up to church, and actually her health worsened. The family that went to the Visitor Center with us didn't even show up to church, and basically the only family that we teach that showed up was the N family, but just the parents. It was SUPER cool to see them at church, but just a little disappointing that nobody else came. Afterwards we walked around for like an hour and nobody talked to us. We biked down to the Jungle and nobody was home. We ended the night pretty good though. We stopped by the second counselor in the Bishopric's house and visited with him and his wife. They are awesome. They gave us food, which was a tender mercy that came after a really long day. The pastry you have a picture of is a mollete, which is super good. You should try to find out the recipe. Have you tried to make any Latino food lately? I gotta know what you've tried!

for y'all. 

Love,

Elder Roberts