Week 62

April 18- April 24

Korea Town - LA1 Zone - LA 3rd Ward - Back on Bike

I'm basically next door to the heart of LA, my district leader is in the Downtown area, but it use to be ours so basically I'm downtown. Look for a pic that I will send of all the apartments I have stayed in, so that way your map is right. I also a, sending a picture of my area. Our borders are Beverly up north to Olympic down south, and La Brea to the West and Hoover on the East.

Monday we really wanted to play sports with the other missionaries. I called up Elder G and Elder B and we reserved the gym so that way 3 companionships could play. Elder G is going into his last transfer and so he is getting a little trunky. He is definitely one of the closest friends I have made here on the mission. We played sports for so long. We played basketball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee... For like 4 hours, I was so tired. After that we had dinner at the As house and they fed us some awesome food. M, the nephew who is a RC was there. I don't know if I have told you, but basically he started to get into some heavy drugs like meth and now we all think that the reason he was baptized was to please his aunt and uncle that he was living with. He would lie to the, saying he had a job and that he was doing whatever thing, so they were kicking him out. He was trying to play it off like we didn't know what was happening and I was just thinking "Boy, we all know you be getting kicked out!" We took pictures with them and that was really nice. I'm so surprised still that I was only in that area for 1 transfer. Am I that bad that I need to get moved around so much? A Samoan family also gave us dinner so that was very nice. I stayed up packing and Elder S was trying to stay awake, singing, cleaning, doing whatever while I packed. I packed my big suitcase super good! That thing was all organized and then for the other suitcase I just threw stuff in hahahaha. We then stayed up and ate ice cream and talked for our final night together.

Tuesday was just a hectic day. We woke up and I got everything ready. Brother T picked us up because we needed to drop Elder S off with his companion and then take me to K Town because of complications. Well, you know Samoans, they give you food right? So he took us to Tam Burgers (we already were late at this point) and he got us breakfast burritos and a soda. We then dropped off Elder S and right as we pulled up to my new apartment, I saw my companion and my new DL Elder L. My companion is Elder B, who was trained by Elder P and he is from Florida. His dad is in Navy as a pilot and his mom is a school teacher. This is his 6th transfer and I'm just a senior companion. We walked up to the apartment and I realized that when we put my bike in the truck to being it here, I had left the part to hook up my tire to my frame in the car of the Brother 2. Well we had to call him to come back and give me that little piece because I still can't pull a wheelie on Peggy yet. 🚲🚲🚲 we went walking to go shopping because it was like 11:00 and he said he would bring it back around 1. We talked to a lot of people. One person we talked to is actually a less active member of 6th Ward. He told us basically that he doesn't like Obispo Segovia and stuff like that. We then got a call saying that Brother 2 was at our apartment with the thingy so we went back, grabbed my bike, fixed it up, and then went shopping. I do not miss shopping on bike. You can only buy so much because you don't want to bike with all the stuff home. We went to go and visit  some recent converts named E and his sister E. They are really cool. E has depression and we are trying to keep a hold of him, E is just so close to be self sustaining at this point. They are really cool, we laughed, joked, got to know them a little bit, it was good. We then went to go and see the B family. The whole family are members, less active, except one daughter who is not a member. We talked with them for a bit and invited them to stake conference this weekend. We then had dinner at the chapel and coordination after. It was a good first day.

Wednesday was like my first actual 'legit' day in K Town. We planned to contact some referrals and the very first referral we knocked on, an old lady answered and said that the person doesn't live there and that they fooled us. It looked like the conversation was going to end pretty soon, but then we started to talk with the lady and had a short lesson with her. While going through the Area Book I had seen a lady named A C who was baptized during the time that Elder W was here. I figured she was less active so we planned to go and visit her. She answered and she was so happy to see us! We talked and she was even more happy that I knew who Elder W was! She said that we could come by any day and that she really wants to come back to church! Side note blessing, her daughter is not a member so hopefully we can work some Gospel Music there;) it was such a tender mercy. We were contacting referrals and again, the address was wrong but the person wanted to talk with us that lived there. This happened with a man named S. He said that he worked with the Family History center for over 15 years and that he loves it! But he is not a member. He told us that if we hadn't been wearing our badges as missionaries, he would've slammed the door on us. We talked to him and it seemed to cheer up his day. I hope maybe one of these days we will go back and his heart will be softened to hear more about the Gospel. Immediately after we were stopped by this lady names E. She and her 12 year old son were having a fight when she true do the car around to have 'us talk to him' we went over and talked to them, although the son didn't say anything, we had a good talk with the Mom. She seemed to be a little more humble and we invited her to church, we will see what happens I guess haha. We finished off the night with a visit to M B. He is a long term investigator who just needs to receive an answer that the gospel is true and he will get baptized. We got to know him a little bit. His wife is a strong member and their son, J, has autism and loves Thomas the Train.... 🤔🤔🤔🙄😃😃 it was a wave of emotions I tell you. But I'm excited, it's gonna be good.

Thursday we decided to clean up the apartment because it just needed a good fixing up, this Pday I will have to go and buy some stuff so that the apartment looks a little better. We had our weekly planning at the church and that was fun, although it's not as easy now that we are biking in a very crowded part of LA. We had plans to go and contact a couple referrals. It seemed that on each referral that we contacted, the person didn't live there, but the actually person that lived there wanted to hear our message, it was such a tender mercy. At first we tried to talk to this guy and he seemed to be saying that he didn't believe in anybody, but then we showed him the Easter Video Hallelujah and we set up a return appointment with him. After that guy we saw an old man struggling to carry his own wheelchair up some stairs. I bear hugged the wheelchair and just flew up the stairs while Elder B followed with the old man. He said thank you and we were about to leave when we looked and we had a referral for someone who lived at his apartment! Turns out again, that they didn't live there, but we talked to the old man, named R. What started to look like the conversation wasn't going anywhere, he told us that he liked us and invited us back for a return appointment! Miracles baby! We then we're trying to talk with lots of people and visit referrals, but really the rest wasn't so lucky. We stopped by the P family. They had signed up to feed us but we couldn't get a hold of them. Hermana P said that she didn't have any food for us, but then after some talking and just being nice, she went and bought us pupusas while we talked to her sister/mom (?) who isn't a member. We then tried to go and visit a potential we had a lesson with and they weren't home. The day went by so fast.

Friday we has this special training for the mission on what to do for the people who are going to the Gladys Knight/ SUV fireside thingy. It's a shame because I'm in an area that covers Latinos and the missionaries really didn't invite anyone, so we will see what happens. There was a lot of cool stuff talked about during that training. One thing in particular hat they talked about and they totally chastised the mission on was about when people of African American decent ask about African Americans and the priesthood. We had a big presentation about whatLDS.org says and President W basically thrashed us by saying "If it is not doctrine, it is false doctrine, so stop having false doctrine come out of your mouths." Basically saying that unless we are 100% sure something is doctrine, then we should not say it. It was really touching when President W talked about the revelatory experience that the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had when the revelation was received in the Upper Room of he Salt Lake temple to now have 'all worthy males' be ordained to the priesthood. He got us all a little emotional when he said something like: Can you imagine what type of experience that was? And there is only one person on this planet who experienced it, President Thomas S. Monson. It was really cool, lots of deep doctrine was talked about, but all of it was from LDS.org. A quote that idk where I heard it from, I think from a Mormon Message was "God is the author of diversity". We went back to our area and just sad things started to happen. In our plans we had a full day, but one by one the appointments canceled and we were left with basically nothing. We did go and visit this former investigator and when we originally were talking to her she wasn't interested. We then showed her a Mormon Message and she actually let us into her home! We then said a prayer to end the improv lesson and we told her we would come back.

Saturday we met this lady named C. She is a less active who need a lot of help getting to church. She has a 3 year- old and so she would not only need someone to take them, but also a booster seat as well. She is so nice and LOVES the missionaries! We talked to her for a while, to get to know her, and that was really nice. We then visited with E and E because they had family over and we were trying to help them get their family more involved in the church, but that kinda didn't work because the mom had recently bought the other children Catholic prayer books. The night ended up with us talking to some people and appointments falling through.. I know, sad.

Sunday was just a crazy weird day. We had Stake Conference and so I was somewhat excited for that. I was at the last Stake Conference for the LA Stake back when I was with Elder A, his last Sunday, so it felt like I have only been in the LA stake my whole mission. This was actually my 4th Stake Conference as a missionary. We arrived there and I totally forgot that LA 6th Ward members would be there! Alp bunch of members from 6th Ward (Jungle) showed up and we talked, laughed for a little bit, oh man it was nice. We had some of our investigators show up at church! That was a tender mercy. After Stake Conference we were heading out when lo and behold A A and A were outside! A pointed at me and A couldn't believe that it was me, goodness this was a tender moment as a missionary. We talked and A, the mom, was just so excited to see me and said how their whole family misses me. She told me that A has missed me and me and A did a little handshake that we use to do. When we were saying our goodbyes A just came right up to me and gave me this huge hug. It was so adorable (but bad cause you know, no hugs) and so my companion, Elder B, was freaking out, but I mean, what am I suppose to do? Shove her off? It was a tender moment and Angie was crying as she left. Afterwards we had a lesson with E and E, the two siblings who are recent converts. We are trying to fortify them super good because their family just went all crazy Catholic life... So we don't want them to start slacking you know? We then tried to go and visit a potential investigator who told us to come back by and.... He wasn't there. We contacted around and ended up talking to this Korean guy. We talked to him and he seemed pretty legit, interested, everything. Too bad he is a referral for the 

English missionaries... Ugh. We then had dinner with the B family which was nice. Hermano B, or M, is an investigator who basically just needs to receive an answer that the Book of Mormon is true and to stop drinking coffee and he is in that water! Hermana B is super active and solid. She has gone through a rough time in her life. They have a son that lives with them named J, and he has autism, but can do things on his own. He is SO cool. We got to know him a bit and oh man, the similarities I tell you. He was watching AFV, watching YouTube videos, wearing sandals, playing with "little guys", and arguing with his mom 😜😂😂. I showed him the handshake and he just lit up! He was so happy and excited! That's how the day ended cause we barely had time to bike back to the apartment. 

Well wish me luck! I hope you all have a good week!

Love, 

Elder Roberts