Week 67

Korea Town week 6

Monday was Pday and it was pretty weird. We went to get a haircut and it was alright. The guy talks a lot but hey, it was pretty good, cost 10$ and he seemed really nice, so it was good. We then went back to our apartment and then I took a shower while my companion did... Idk. We cleaned ourselves up and then went to go and email... Shop.. Etc. I bought very little because it was the last week of the transfer and I wanted to save money. We then made plans with the ZLs to go and play basketball and frisbee. It was a little weird, but I feel like I'm just starting to complain right now, so I'm just gonna stop right there. We had a little bit of time left so we went to Boba Time in our area (totally would go back someday) and then we went to go and see W and his brother R. They are less active members and they are struggling with.. You guessed it, church attendance! It was a pretty nice little visit and I enjoyed it. Afterwards the family that we had dinner planned with bailed on us... They weren't even home. We then finally caught M, a recent convert youth, right as her and her mom were leaving their home. We set a time to go back next week.

Tuesday we had this intense study as a mission about the Sabbath day. It is a problem with most areas that the investigators haven't been coming to church and so when it is a big problem, there is normally a study for the whole mission. We studied talks and PMG and it was super good, I took lots of notes. There are so many more ways to keep the Sabbath Day holy that I feel so bad about now! There is a part in PMG that says that our Sabbath Day worship is a reflection of our inner commitment to follow the Savior. Then the real question comes: Am I really committed to serving the Savior? And would people recognize that by the way that I keep the Sabbath Day holy? Then it was time for exchanges. I went on exchanges with Elder W in his area and it was a whole different experience. We talked to a lot of people and I am grateful that I have had experiences on my mission that have helped me be able to relate to others. I learned a lot of patience on the exchange. I learned a lot about truly listening to what others have to say to me and when to talk to them. As a missionary I think it is our responsibility to give everyone the best chance to hear about the restored gospel, which means listening intently to what they are trying to say to us. We had an opportunity to have an improv lesson with this guy named E. We showed him a Mormon message and then got his information and he was kinda interested, it was a tender mercy on a really hot day. We tried to visit a lot of potentials, but nobody was home, it was really sad. This gangster guy came up to us and was really trying hard to intimidate us, and (ok I'm just gonna be completely honest here) Elder W was not the best in that situation. The guy was talking about crazy stuff and he was a little drunk, so of course we should be slower with him and just leave right? Nope. Elder here just started to antagonize him by saying things like "you just think you're so tough huh?" I was like (enter Emoji here). I was almost just gonna go off on him... Oh man. Well after that we met with a less active youth named John. He is pretty chill, just doesn't come to church... Everyone, the problem here in LA. We then were scheduled to eat with this family and when we showed up to eat with them, the Hermana told us that she hadn't prepared anything because she just barely came back from work and didn't have any time to fix food for us. We then went and ate panda instead. We biked around the legit downtown downtown and omg I almost got really mad at my companion for the day because here I am, on a freaking heavy mountain bike biking uphill and here he is, a much more fit Elder biking on a fixie that is a featherweight. It was all good and I held my temper... I still am haha. We ended the night at coordination and we were asked to have one member from each companionship talk at church about missionary work, so all of the senior companions decided to speak... Aka me, I'll let you know how that went. It was pretty funny though because the WML and I were making funny faces at each other because he was getting a little bored when other missionaries were talking... Oh Hermano R.

Wednesday we switched back from the exchange and we set out to go and see S. She was super tired so we didn't see her. We ended up talking to her mom and that was interesting. She was talking about all the challenges that she has. We then had to bike really hard to go and see E and E. We have had to change a lot of things about how we teach them, but hey, sometimes you have to switch things up. We then saw the R family and oh my goodness, I am so frustrated sometimes with my investigators! We try so hard to help them understand the importance of everything about the gospel, take it slow, do daily contact, pray for them, everything! But somehow they just don't progress. We biked to go and see a lady named J V. She is really nice, but super Catholic. How do you help someone not cross themselves after a prayer? She is a very sweet lady and she's also from Peru, so I'm kinda bias, but she is just so upfront with us, it's nice almost.

Thursday was a very long day. We had weekly planning on that was good, kinda. We then tried to go and see a PM family, but they couldn't meet with us, so that was sad. We stopped by L to see how they were going and they were having lots of family problems so that was sad. We shared a scripture with them and hopefully that helped the situation. We wanted to take a less active to visit some recent converts, but his mom wanted him to run some errands so that didn't happen. We still saw the recent converts and they gave us some food. It was good because one of their family members were there and so they would bear their testimonies to him and we also showed a video to them. We then had a series of lessons that were planned out cancel on us. It was really sad. We even brought out a youth with us to go and teach! We ended up visiting a less active family with him and that was alright, but it was still pretty depressing.

Friday was district meeting and after we went to go and see the B family. It was a bit better than before, so at least they are progressing. We ate diner with the A family and that was a little weird. They made a stir fry and put worschester and soy sauce with taps tip on it... I cannot believe I survived hahaha. (Sorry I don't remember more from this day)

Saturday lots of stuff happened. We had a street lesson and set a return appointment. We visited a couple less active youth in the P family and that was good. We ate dinner with the R and they gave Elder B a cake because Monday is his birthday. (Sorry we are just rushed on time today, I'll email more later maybe)

Sunday just threw me off. The day started out nice, but then I guess we were suppose to go to a meeting in the morning with the bishop, but we were never told about it. So we arrived late to the meeting so that looked real bad.. Ugh. Then I gave a talk during sacrament meeting that I had to cut short, but it's all good, I survived. I didn't do so good at looking at the audience because I wanted to get in most of my talk. Everyone said I did good, so that's good. Nobody came to church again... I'm getting a little sad about that. It was nice though because all the members were saying that they were going to miss us cause of transfers. We went back to the apartment to change. While walking outside, we saw the R family! (Their baptismal dates fell because they didn't come to church). They said that they would be home later and that we could come by to see them. We kept walking and talking to people, and eventually we swung by to see E. He is just going through a really rough time right now. I think he is on that teenager mode when he is so cool that nothing is cool for him. We try to explain things to him, but he never applies it, it's really depressing sometimes. Returning home to the apartment for our dinner hour, I just crashed. I was so exhausted that I didn't even eat dinner. Afterwards we went to the R family to give the twins their children's Book of Mormon copies. We shared the message of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it was pretty good. Best part of the lesson was definitely when we were talking about repentance and we said that 'sin is disobedience to God's commandments' and then we kinda were sneaky and freaked out the kids by saying... "And what is the 4th commandment of the 10 commandments (cause we taught them this)" they were like "go to church!.... 😱😨😰. It was so funny! Their faces were almost white! We explained the miracle of the atonement and the process of repentance and then their frowns and faces turned to smiles and with determination they said to their mom "we are going to church next week!" It. Was. Awesome. That's how the day ended, kinda, because we just tried to visit people and they weren't home.

Sorry that this letter is a little more depressing, it was a more sad week, but hey, new transfer, new change right?

Love,

Elder Roberts