Monday was of course, Pday. We had a lot of errands to run, we went to Walmart, turns out they closed down a lot of Walmarts in California, so that sucked. I bought something called a tongue brush, idk if you have ever heard of it, basically it is the most amazing thing ever. We went to the church to play sports and do normal Pday stuff. Nobody had a key to the clerks office so my companion didn't write his family till like 5:30, I felt so bad. We played some soccer, basketball, and a little bit of ultimate.. Man do I suck at all three of those! I think it's the missionary curse. We ended the night having a lesson with G. She has a lot of problems going on right now, but she is slowly progressing. She now understands why we pray the way we pray, starting with Heavenly Father and always ending in the name of Jesus Christ. We were both super tired at the end of the day, so we slept pretty good.
Tuesday, where do I begin? We did our studies how we are suppose to, everything. We started out the day and of course, we talk to everyone. The first conversation worth noting was with a man named J. He is from Mexico and he is about as thug as it comes. He has tats everywhere and he has been to jail... The whole 9 yards. We talked for a good amount of time and set up a return appointment with him. We then went to go and see P and R. They are doing good, she is slowly getting better. P is doing well. I knew before that his job is sewing, but I didn't know how crazy it can get. He sews everything. He even sews ties! Of course we got ties and he is making us new ones... How cool is that? We then decided to walk by where we met those three young guys a while ago. Two of them were there, J and E. We had a lesson with them, which was a little rocky at times. Their friend who is a member was ridiculous during the lesson. When we were inviting them to be baptized, they were really wanting it. The member then said "but they were already baptized Catholic".... For real? Hush yo mouth boy! We slammed hard the need for priesthood authority and committed the two to be baptized. We will definitely need to find a better member mentor for them. We ate dinner with the E as always, and they gave us salad, chicken, bread and French fries! I love French fries! Not that I CANT have it, heck I live like 5 minutes from a McDonalds but having someone give it to us was really nice. We then stopped by the A family and they are all doing good as well.
Wednesday was a bit different, not bad, just different. We went to the Jungle so that I could have Elder L experience a little bit of the Jungle, and it was, alright. He was a little down because he was stressed out and worried about a couple things. I called a 20 minute timeout at a park that we were walking in and we talked for a little bit. After that we went and had like a mini lesson with this homeless guy, he just lives off of food stamps and lives in his car. It was sad to see him say that he has given up on God and that God can't help him anymore. We bore our testimonies of God's love for all of us. We then went to go and visit some other potential investigators in another part of our area, turns out everybody just got up and moved! What the heck? We then had dinner with the R. She made pupusas! They are from Guatemala, speak like Mexicans, and cook like Salvadoreans... Weird huh? After that we went to go and check on J and W to see if they were doing good. We had a good lesson with them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That poor family. They are trying to get a divorcement accomplished so that they can get married so J can be baptized while at the same time W is in her 7th month of pregnancy and is getting sick, taking care of a 1 year old while J is working all day almost everyday but Sunday's and Saturdays (sometimes).... Wow!
Thursday was a crazy day. We had so many opportunities for lessons! Elder L and I basically just have lessons with people on the street, or on their porch, it's so perfect! We had a lesson with the guy named J. He is the epitome of a thug, prison, tattoos, Mexican, everything. He likes to tell us about prison and gangs and stuff, kinda reminds me of V in Watts haha. He wants to come closer to God and I can see his potential, it's crazy. We invited him to church along with the Elder's Quorum President who came out with us to teach him. We then had a little bit of spare time before our dinner appointment with the S family. We were contacting on Crenshaw (a pretty ghetto street tbh) and we were talking to this lady at the bus stop when a young man approached us and asked if we were missionaries, to which we responded 'no'... Jk. We talked with him for a bit and things just aren't going good in his life. We have his phone number so hopefully one day we can meet up with him. We had a dinner with the S family and it was chicken, rice, tortillas... E'rday yall. They invited a friend over for dinner and we had an amazing experience! It's so awesome to see how easy it is for members just to bring a friend over for dinner and have the missionaries get to know the person... Religion just comes up, not awkwardly or anything. I thought to myself "so this is what I was suppose to do as a member before my mission", then I thought back to all of my friends who are not members and just felt sad. We then had ANOTHER dinner appointment (hehehhe I am so good at this missionary thing right?) we had dinner with the F family and the M family was also there. We ate flautas which are hard taquitos basically, soooo good! You put cheese, sour cream, and lettuce over it and if you want, some salsa. It is a finger food so it's definitely messy! I barely had room for the food, my companion, Elder L wasn't ready for the double whammy of two dinners and he was in pain the whole night, poor guy.
Friday... Craziness. We started the day off with interviews with President Weidman. It was really cool. We also talked with Sister Weidman and she told me all that stuff about school. We also did a role play lesson with her and the Restoration. She told us that we did the best job that she has ever seen... What? It was actually a way intense lesson too. We taught simply, asked inspired questions, everything. President Weidman then wanted to talk to my companion again... Oh crap.... What did I do? Turns out cool news! Elder L has a lot of family here in LA and they are not members. We have the unique opportunity to work out having them take the missionary lessons... It's gonna be a very "dot your 'i's and cross your t's"experience, but we will see what happens. We then went to go and have a bunch of lessons that day. Turns out nobody wanted to be home. None of our investigators were there and it was really sad. Now, for the story of the week: I was biking along the left sidewalk of a street. We had just came out of a side street and we were going to cross the crosswalk, then the intersection, so that way we could bike along the right side of the road. As I was biking in front of my companion on my faithful steed Peggy, the pedestrian walk sign was on for the crosswalk, so I gladly continued to bike at a constant pace. A black '13 4- door Jeep had the intent of making a right-hand turn at this intersection where we were crossing the crosswalk, but did not stop before or after the crosswalk. As I was in the crosswalk I was hit. The car directly hit my left shin and I flipped in the air. I landed on my helmet which caused me to get a little goose-egg bump on my forehead. I laid there in the middle of a major street, holding my leg in pain. My head was fine, back, everything, just my leg really. My companion called President Weidman and the lady that hit me called the ambulance. Everyone crowded around me. There was this black preacher lady who put a blanket underneath my head (and gave the blanket to me) and they all were worried for me. The lady who hit me said at one point as she was balling her eyes out "I hit a Jesus Man?" The ambulance came, everything was taken care of. We went to the mission doctor's house and she said that what happened was my shin muscle has some bleeding in it, that's why it swelled up (like the Hulk, haha jk) so it's tender, but nothing too crazy. Here are the crazy details now: I am a 140 lb. 5'6" white guy who got hit directly by a Jeep. The only damage to clothing was my white shirt, it got dirty. Pants were fine, shoes fine, bike perfectly fine, fine, fine, fine. The part were my garments are didn't even receive a single scratch or ding whatsoever. That's was my Friday!!
Saturday was a bit boring, because I basically couldn't do anything the entire day, just ice my leg and such. I went to District Meeting and Ward Coordination with the bishop which was extremely productive and I'm glad I went. I then iced my leg, did what the doctor said, everything. We visited some of our investigators with a member of the bishopric, he drove us around. That was pretty much the whole day, a little boring, I know... But what else can I do?
Sunday was just a long day. It was down pouring. We normally take 15 minutes to bike to church at a nice pace, but it took us about 25 minutes in the rain. It is an awful experience and I never want to have it again. We were so soaked on our pant legs. Future reference, wear normal proselyting pants in the rain to change to suit pants at church because it you don't, it looks like you have a cowboy outfit on were you are drenched on your pants. None of our investigators showed up to church either, very little of our members too. It was really sad because this week we did so much (except for those 2 days of workers comp hahaha) but serious! We called everyone and they all said that they would be at church, so frustrating! It was a good church service though, it was about the Ward mission plan for the year, really good. We went to go and see P, J, all those guys. We ate dinner with Hermana C and Hermano P, because she is a single mom. It was good and she made baleadas. It has tortilla, sour cream, cheese, egg, avocado, and beans. 4 things that I would have never eaten before the mission and look I ate two of them.
Something that I really liked from church this week and it is my invitation to all of you: in Genesis chapter 4 when God is talking to Cain, he asks the question "Where is Abel thy brother?" That is the question really "where is your brother?" How many of us have friends in the church and they may or may not have shown up to church this last week? Did we recognize an empty seat by us? Who wasn't at church? These are our brothers. D&C 18:10 "For the worth of souls is great in the sight of God". These empty seats are souls who are not being nourished by the good word of God. President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that toeing nourished by the good word of God is 1 of the 3 things a convert needs to stay active in the church. I want all of us to think of a friend and pray specifically to when we are going to invite them to come to church or have the missionary lessons with them. It could be for this month, or next, or even September, but if we are not actively trying to help our fellow brothers and sisters receive the blessings that comes through the ordinances of the gospel, we need to understand the Atonement more in our lives. So go out and find those who are prepared to receive the restored gospel into their lives!!
I hope you all have an amazing week!
Love,
Elder Roberts
The knot on his head when it first happened
it's just a little bit swollen
What a miracle :)
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