Monday was my last day in
La JUNGLA. I did my laundry, packed a little bit, then we headed to the church
to email and to play sports with the other missionaries. It was a really
confusing day because there are 4 companionships in the district and only 3 can
be together at one time, so somebody has to sit out. We played soccer, basketball,
and frisbee. When we played frisbee, one of the elders was playing a little too
intense, probably trying to show us that his age didn't stop him from playing
cause he is a 26 year old missionary. He slid on the basketball court (we
played inside the gym) and his knee- cap smacked right into the wall in the
side. He started to bleed pretty intense and he had a good dent on the knee-
cap, now he does walk like he's a little older hahaha. He was fine after we
cleaned him up and gave him some ice. I challenged Elder L to a 1 on
1 basketball game cause everyone was always saying that he could beat me cause
he's tall and big and blah blah blah, so I challenged him. Let's just say daddy
showed the son what ballin' really is. I won 11-2 and blocked him like 6 times.
We then biked to the JUNGLA for one last FHE with the F family. They gave
us food and they actually had a lot of doctrinal questions. It was a really
cool experience cause it was a Q&A type feel. It was nice to have ended the
day seeing the Flores family, I am going to miss them and we will go back and
visit 6th Ward when my mission is over, por seguro.
Tuesday was transfer day,
so I washed some clothes one last time in the morning. My ride to go to my new
area wasn't able to come and pick me up, so we had to call our backup ride. He
came a little late (which I'm not complaining cause we basically woke him up)
and he took me to my new area. He is an amazing person, but a terrible driver.
I was so scared when we were driving on the freeway, my goodness. I arrived at
my new area and it is super nice compared to my last area. I met Elder S,
my new companion, and he is awesome. He is from Taylorsville, Utah, and he is
Samoan. In this area we cover a Samoan Ward and a Spanish Branch. The Samoans
feed us the last 2 weeks of the month and the Latinos feed us for the first 2,
so I have to prepare myself hahaa. I had a training because I am a new DL and
so I had to drive on the freeway, gosh I hate driving. Elder S's last
companion had a GPS so Elder S never had to learn the streets, so we are
both learning them right now :). We went shopping and didn't buy a lot because
the members give us so much food. We hit the ground running and just decided to
stop by members and investigators so that I could meet them and get to know
them better. I feel like my head is going to explode because there are a lot of
responsibilities and things that I have to worry about now that I really do
have to take things one at a time. We had a lesson with a RC whose name is
M. She is very sick. She has lung problems and that causes her heart to
have problems as well. She is an amazing lady. While talking with her she said
that the only reason why she went to church last week was to pay her tithing.
She has such a strong testimony of tithing already! It is hard for her to walk
and to breath, but she still goes to church? Wow.. Amazing. She even gave us a
little slice of cake and water before we left. One of our investigators,
N, has a baptismal date! She is a member of a part member family and she
is super shy. We got her talk a little bit during the lesson and she is really
nice. We then went to go see a Samoan family that is less active. They are
super cool. The mom is white and the husband is Samoan. The son and the mom are
recent converts and the son baptized the mom. They are preparing to enter the
temple right now, but just need to get some things worked out before then. They
gave us some chicken fingers, like 2 plates of it and ketchup... Yup, you know
I'm gonna be gaining weight in this area.
Wednesday was just crazy.
We didn't know where this investigator lived, so we had to go to the church to
get wifi and look it up. We live right by the Samoan Ward building and they
have seminary there. We talked to the seminary teacher and her husband and they
are super chill. We then had a doorstep lesson with the investigator, M S, because that's all the time she had. We went back to the house and
cleaned out the fridge because there was a lot of food from a while ago. After
that we talked to some people in the afternoon and had dinner with the P family from Mexico. They gave us carne asada and some rice. They are so humble.
The mom also use to go out with the sister missionaries all the time. We got to
know them a bit and they seem to like us. After that we had a lesson with
M and S. They are Samoans and they want to be baptized. They are
both 9 years old I think. It was cool because I got to meet members of their
family. I am so nervous! I bet you all can just imagine my face and how scared
I am because I'm tiny and here I am with a bunch of polys... It's intense. I
feel so out of place, but I love it. We had coordination meeting for the
Spanish branch, but there was a lot of construction and we were super late...
Great first impression right? Ugh.
Thursday was a fun day. We
had our weekly planning and got a little more organized. I still felt like I
didn't know what was going on. We planned to contact a lot of referrals and
visit some investigators and recent converts, but they couldn't for that day,
so we rescheduled the lessons for another day. We talked to a lot of people,
and surprisingly a couple people stopped us! This man stopped us and asked if
we were Mormons. He then started to ask if by serving a mission we can then go
to 'higher' ranks in the church, and if that's the reason that we serve a
mission. He thought that we go out on missions to one day become bishops or
higher up people to earn money, but when we told him that there is no member of
the church that is paid, he was amazed! He said "then WHY are you out
here?". We bore testimony of the gospel and that we knew it blesses
families. Hopefully one day he will listen to the missionaries because I know
he was somewhat interested by the end. We ate dinner with the Branch President
for Spanish, Presidente O. They made mole! They are from Mexico and they are
super funny. We had to get permission to eat with them because they live right
outside our area. The mole was super good, just a wee little bit too spicy for
me, but I told the hermana that it was good, cause heck, it was awesome! She
then asked what my favorite Mexican food was and I went down the list hahaha. I
finally decided that flautas are my favorite and she was so excited that she
said "I'll make it for next time!" I reminded her that they don't
live in our area and she just said back to me: "oh psshhh, just get
permission Elder!" I love them haha. After that we had a lesson with
M. She is 9, Samoan and she has a baptismal date as well. We went over a
lot of the lessons because we asked her questions and she forgot a lot of
stuff. It was so touching because at one point we were talking about Jesus
Christ and she said something so awesome: "It makes me happy to know that
he died for me, that he would do that for me" my heart was just full of
joy when I heard that, because she truly does understand!
Friday was just a packed
day! We had a lesson at 9:30 in the morning with a RC named M. He is
moving to Phoenix next week and we wanted to go with him to do baptisms for the
dead before he left, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen, sadly.
He made us a sandwich that had an egg in it and it was super good. We read with
him in the Book of Mormon and had to end early because we had a car inspection
at 10:30 from the ZLs. FYI Elder C from out stake is my ZL right now,
crazy huh? After that we had District Meeting. I am a District leader, but we
meet with another district, so me and the other DL switch off and on we
conducts and who trains. I was conducting and he was training. The ZLs then
wanted to sit in on the meeting and then after them the APs walked in (holy
freak man!) it was a good district meeting though. In the other district is
Elder H, I went to Bingham with him so that's even more weird. After
district meeting we had dinner with the R family. They are super cool.
They are from El Salvador and they made us a soup, then rice with chicken and a
salad. They are converts of about 2 years and they have a daughter who just
left for a mission! They are such a cool family. He even gave me and Elder
S a cool pen that I guess is super legendary among missionaries, score!! We
had to go back to the apartment then to work on the ABP. ABP is the app we use
as missionaries that has all the information of everyone the missionaries have
ever taught, that has been recorded. How does it have all the information? Well
missionaries, like me, have to enter it all in by hand. We finished it up in my
last area but in this area there are still over 200 records to go, UGH! What
stinks is that because Elder S is new, I'm the only one who can do it,
great.... We then headed to LA to pick up our mini missionary. His name is
P R and he is 17. He went on a mini mission last year and he turns 18
this year. He is a fireball. We took him to a lesson with N, the teenage
girl, and she started to open up! She told us that she is a little scared about
the water when she is getting baptized and we took care of that. We then
visited the C family, well the father and the daughter. We showed them a
video called "Remember Him" and talked about the blessings that come
from church. They also were feeling nervous because they don't know anybody at
church, so hopefully we took care of that. We did a last minute run to the
Chinese food store because we didn't have dinner and we were all hungry. After
that we went back to the apartment and got ready for bed. I slept on the floor
because there wasn't a third bed for the mini missionary.
Saturday was just mixed up
on everything. We had a lot of people ask us to come by during the morning, so
we switched around our studies for later in the day. When we called to confirm
the appointments, they all canceled on us. We then had to reorganize the day.
There was a Samoan Ward party because there was a homecoming for a missionary.
We were invited so we scheduled to go. We stopped by a less active lady and she
is having a hard time with her health. We read with her in the Book of Mormon
and she said that she didn't feel any more pain. That was so special! We then
ate dinner with another Hermana P and she made grilled chicken... Mmmmm! It
was so good! After that we had the Samoan Ward party and this is what they gave
you to eat: corn beef, beef broccoli, fried chicken, pork chops, taro, sapasui,
oka... So good!!! Man I hope I get fat here hahaa!
Sunday we had to go to two
sacrament meetings, the Samoan and the Spanish branch. That was pretty cool,
but kinda hectic. We went back to the apartment because I had to do ABP still
to catch up and the poor mini missionary just fell asleep. We dropped him back
off and took pictures. After that we ate dinner and then tried to go and visit
some potentials, but nobody opens their door after 6:00 here! They think that
it is a super bad part of town but it's really nice! FYI I am by my old area in
South Gate/ Watts. I am now serving in Lynwood, Southgate, and Compton, Watts
area, pretty big.
Love,
Elder
Roberts
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