Week 71

Korea Town // Episode II // Scene 4

Monday was a really interesting day. It was the second half of a heat wave that hit LA and in the morning around 10 AM we had to bike to the dentist office to repair my bottom retainer. We looked and the dentist office was about 3 miles away from the apartment... Yay. We biked in the sun and when we got there we were sweating like a bunch of Neanderthals. Got in there and the Indian dentist dude was very nice and didn't charge the taking out of the metal... Even though it was broken, gee thanks bro. Anyways, sorry about that call, I can only imagine what y'all must've thought when you got it. We then biked back and that was still really fun... Again, in the sun. We went shopping at Food 4 Less and I bought some stuff to make some Alfredo sauce and pasta... So hopefully I don't make it too poorly. We then got back to the apartment and dropped off the groceries. We headed to the library that we email at, but because it was around 12 or 1, everyone was there and the wifi was horrid. Elder B wasn't even able to open anything or even send anything. We then crossed the street to the McDonald's and sent our emails there... Yay! The elders that we were planning on going to Little Tokyo with canceled because they got a text from the mission office to go and give a blessing to someone in the hospital. They told us that the hospital was huge, and that they got lost in there really easy. It was a hospital that is run, or paid for, by the Jewish members in LA. During that time Elder B and I were exhausted from all the heat and the lack of fun plans that we took a small pday nap to recharge. We then went to the church to go and play some frisbee with our ZLs and the Wilshere elders. It was really fun, except that I taught one of the ZLs how to defend so good that he blocked me... Oh I was so mad. He kept smiling the rest of the day and he said that it was the highlight for him hahaha. Elder B collided with one of the other elders and so his knee hurt a lot. When we got back to the apartment all of the appointments that we had planned fell through and because Elder B's knee was hurting him, we walked around and talked with people the rest of the night.

Tuesday we had a meeting to go to in the morning. It was the second quarter training for Elder B, meaning that he is almost at his year mark. We went there and when I went to another room with all the other missionaries whose companions were getting the training, I hung out with Elder P basically one of those cool elders that you both always hear about each other but you have never been able to serve around them... Ya. He gave me this talk about a missionary story and it is a real cool story, it's called the Ricciardi Letter if you want to look it up. Anywho that talk is really motivational for a missionary and I read that on the way back from the training and during part of the lunch hour we took after the training. We walked outside and around the corner when Elder B started to talk to this older Latino couple that I hadn't seen. We burst end right up their porch and asked if we could share our message with them. To my surprise they said yes! We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they accepted the invitation to be baptized! The only set back is that they will be in El Salvador for a couple weeks, but they told us to get a hold of them when they come back! We then biked to the most northern part of our area and kept talking with people. A guy that we stopped to talk to was a British man named Ian. He had a bunch of tattoos, bad teeth, a cigar in his hand a beer by his side. He said he has been traveling the world forever and recently he just came back from India. He is an atheist and it was difficult to try and explain the concept of God to him. The perspective he had was that having a God makes everything so confined. We explained to him that having a belief in God and knowing that He is there is a peaceful feeling because we understand the plan that He has for us. We invited him to check out the temples of the church on his world tour if he has the chance and he said that it sounded interesting. Walking a little further there was a Latina lady who needed some help with a fallen branch. We told her that we could help and basically the branch got twisted in some rope. Thank goodness for these small hands and fingers Heavenly Father has given me and scouting cause nobody else was able to get the rope undone! She thanked us for helping her and we invited her to church to which she said she might come! We kept talking to people and finally ended up talking to this lady named A. She is a less active member, more of inactive, and she was a little different. First off, weird thing, she was walking her dog, a British terrier, named Ian... Wait... No way. Anywho she is from SLC and explains that there are "reasons why she doesn't come to church" but that "she is still doing missionary work by helping people understand that the church isn't a cult"... Hmm. We were able to have a small bit of service when a Latina lady came around the corner and the wheel to her shopping cart came undone. Elder B and I fixed a wheel with a safety pin (hey dad, wink wink) and a hair tie from A. It was really cool because the Latina lady was really nice and she is just going to remember the two guys in white shirts that helped her out one day. We then tried to visit some other potentials, but nobody was home. A member of the bishopric called us and said that they had some pizza for us, so we biked home and took our dinner hour at the end of the day to eat.

Wednesday we had the opportunity to go and do a temple session at 9 in the morning. I had to drive because, well, I didn't want Elder B to drive. The temple was amazing, it was really cool because I was able to help another lady in a wheelchair this time. Elder B and I pushed their chairs because the LA temple switches rooms. It was really cool. I'm at 3/4 videos right now so that's exciting. It was really peaceful in the temple and I just realize how fortunate we are to not only be members of the true church of God on the earth, but to have a more solid understanding of the plan that He has for us and for our families. We got back to our area and went to go and see a RC named M. She is a youth and the only problem she has is attending church. Why is it that it is the most basic thing for people to do, but nobody does it! Goodness, so frustrating this whole agency thing. Anywho it was really nice to see her again because she is just always smiley and upbeat, it's pretty cool. We then tried to contact a couple people, but they weren't home. We had set up a bishopric visit for our investigator J, but J canceled... So that was a bummer. We then decided to go and see M B. On our walk we had a lot of interesting conversations. One guy we talked to was named Louis and he is a homosexual and an atheist. He was ready and prepared to fight against us, just because he was. We tried to explain to him the power of the Atonement and the importance of God's eternal plan for us. I don't think anything really stuck with him, but I'm sure he was amazed to have a more pleasant talk with Mormon missionaries. We saw hermano B and it was kinda awkward. His father recently passed away and so its that awkward, we know what's going on and we don't know if we should talk about it, type thing. We ended up talking about the First vision and how the Book of Mormon can really bless us when we read it to find answers to questions that we have. On our way back to the apartment, it was a little passed 9 at this time, Elder B wanted to talk to this guy but we walked right passed him. We decided to go back and talk to him and it was a pleasant conversation. His name is R and he was very friendly. He said that we could come back and visit him on another day during the week next week. It was really cool because he seemed super open, tender mercy woot!

Thursday was just that day during the week when everything just fell apart. We had DM and it was alright, the DL in this area is going home and so the meetings aren't exactly the best or anything. It was really sad because we had this awesome day planned and even a lesson with J. But the phone was forgotten and so we could call her to see if she was home. We went by her apartment and even knocked on her door, but nobody was there, it was really sad. We went back to the apartment to drop off our bikes because then we were going to just walk around for the rest of the day. We tried to stop by C C, the lady with the prosthetic leg, but she was feeling really sick and so she didn't want us to come and visit her. We then walked all the way down to the Bs house and tried to help J, the son, to go to church. It was pretty funny because we invited him to come to church and just looked at him for his response. It was really funny because we were just looking at him in a smiley way and he took forever to say his response. It was so funny because he kept looking at us as if we were pressuring him or anything, but really we were just looking at him and waiting for a response, I think basically he said that he wouldn't want to go to church because "he can always renew his baptismal covenants" .... Face palm bro. What he doesn't remember is that part of the baptismal covenant is to always renew it by keeping the commandments.. Ugh, it was really rough. We then walked to our dinner appointment with W and R and their mom. She made us spaghetti and that was good, still missin that homemade though. It was nice because W is having a stronger desire to come to church and he is even making plans around his schedule so that way he can read in the Book of Mormon.

Friday for weekly planning I had all the stuff to make the "missionary Alfredo" is what I am calling it. Was it perfect... Heck no. But hey, it was a cheap meal that tasted pretty dang good. Elder B didn't complain about it so it must've been ok. Hopefully the pictures show just how novice of a dish it really was. We started out the day with a little bit of a brunch with the C's and L, it was really good.The Hermana made some good shrimp tacos that at first I didn't know we're shrimp tacos so I guess that means that they were good right? Anywho it was an awesome opportunity again for them to share their testimonies with L, the brother of hermano C. We explained how powerful even a small testimony can be. We then invited the C's to come with us to go and visit this lady that we had a lesson planned for. They were all like.. Ya sure we got time! Perfect! We wrapped up real quick and then we left. We tried the door for the lady, but she wasn't there. We then swung by another investigator who lived around the block and luckily he was just coming back from work! His name is S and he is the guy that we invited to be baptized and he said that he already was baptized in another church. The lesson was pretty straightforward and the C's shared their testimonies which was good. Basically we told S when we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon that all he has to do is read the book, pray about it, then he will know the truth. (Drop da mic) it was good. The C's liked coming with us so that was really good. We then dropped off our bikes and went to go and get some conversations for the night. We set foot outside and this hardcore Roman Catholic Korean stopped us and she pulled us aside. She wanted us to explain to her the reason behind the Book of Mormon, but when we told her she just went off on a tangent. She basically told us her life story about how famous she really is and it was really difficult to have charity for her because she kept bashing on things that we believe in. We would invite her to read in the Book of Mormon and then she would say that she already has God in her life. She then went off to say how Martin Luther is the devil and that anyone who tries to go against the Roman Catholic Church is the devil.. Pretty intense right? We then went to go and follow up with the As. They brought one of their friends to the VC because the friend recently had his father pass away. We called the friend and set something up for Sunday, so fingers were completely crossed. We stopped by that random cute couple that we found a couple days ago and we invited them to come to church and we also set a return appointment with them for Monday, so hopefully everything works out! A random lady that we stopped was full of potential as at first she seemed disinterested but once the conversation started going, it was as smooth as butter. We invited her to church and she seemed excited for that (but when we tried to call her to remind her about church, we found out that she gave us a fake number). We decided to stop by our WML home because his family isn't sealed yet and I mean, come on, they have been members for about 6 years now, so we decided to take initiative. We taught them about the first Vision and how we need to always be growing our faith in Christ. We invited them to start saying family prayers and how that would help them. Hermano R then asked if it would be ok that we eat with them... It was like 8:30 at night, but we said yes so it was a race against the clock. Normally we have to be inside our apartment at 9 or 9:30 if we are in a lesson or a visit. We started eating at about 8:57 so we decided that we were still good and we ate as fast as we could. Hermano bought us these gigantic tostadas that are sold on the side of the street late at night and it's like mini Mexico here in KTown at night. They were really good, taste so different than the tostadas you make mom. They were about as big as a paper plate and filled with crazy messiness. I finished mine in less than 10 minutes and the hermano and Elder B weren't even halfway done yet. Elder B rushed eating and we left with just enough time to run back to the apartment in time to arrive before 9:30. Woo!

Saturdays are always long days because nobody ever wants to meet with us or talk with us. We started out visiting the P family and we read in the Book of Mormon with them, it was a really good lesson and the two brothers are so cool. We then went to try and visit some less actives and investigators, but nobody was home. We talked to a lot of people on the street, and we got a couple people's information so maybe we can meet with them one day. It was really hot. We tried to stop by E and E and my goodness, they have just fallen off the face of the earth I tell ya. We haven't been able to talk to E in about a month and E has been in Mexico for about 2 weeks. We went back to the apartment for dinner because nobody signed up to feed us. We remade the chicken Alfredo and it was better this time, so that's good. We then left for the last part of the night and we were talking with people, having good conversations and everything. One lady we stopped is Pentecostal and she asked us a lot of questions. We explained to her simple truths about the gospel but for some reason she still had questions. The main thing that "threw her off" if you will, is the fact that we have stake dances and ward activities. She says that we are not allowed to dance because it is a worldly thing. Charlie, Emily, I'm sorry... Anywho we explained gospel truths again and she was not willing to listen at that time, but it's ok, she has family that are Mormons so at least there is that hope. We talked with more people and the last lady we talked to at night was just crazy. She is from the south and man did she have some language! She basically told us her life story (I've gotten a lot better at listening) and then she tried to explain what SHE thinks are gospel truths. A lot of her theories had to do with predestination vs. foreordination. We explained to her that God having a perfect knowledge of everything is not a determining factor on how they will end up being. We explained the doctrine of agency and how everyone is given the ability to choose to serve God or to disobey God. She understood that part, but still believed in predestination. Basically if everyone could either read the Book of Mormon, or in this case Jesus The Christ, there wouldn't be any problems!

Sunday was a full of tender mercies at church. We didn't have to go to any meetings in the morning so that was really nice. Next, there was like little to no traffic on the way to church in the morning so it was a really relaxing bike ride. When we got to church we were not expecting any investigators to show up because we had lost all contact with J which was super sad. We sat down behind a member at church and we looked to the doors to see if we recognized any other members that were there and lo and behold M B showed up! Goodness! There he was with his wife and son walking in like they were at home, total tender mercy of the Lord. We then started to head towards the gospel principles class with the Bs when J D, a recent convert for the sister missionaries who comes out with us on Wednesdays introduced us to a friend that he invited to come to church and she came! Her name is E and she stayed for the entire 3 hours of church! What the miracle right!! We are trying to set up an appointment to meet with her and J D because J D is just a fireball and his testimony is just amazing. It was also really nice because we had some less active members come to church, so that was really good. We sat by M B in the classes and he likes to make fun of some of the members, which is a good stress relief for us. Sometimes there are just members in each ward that you are like... Ugh, but then when the investigators bite back at them... Hehehe. The member doesn't have anything to say back to the investigator because they don't want to offend the person and the investigator knows it... Such a lovely moment. We were then given by the RS president chocolate flan which was super yummy. We ate dinner with the Rs and I took a picture with them so that way you know what they look like. We then went to try and talk to people, but something about Sunday's gives people the heebie jeebies about Mormons I tell ya. We met this Haitian lady who was into voodoo and she was trying to tell us that we were in the wrong church... Hard pass hard pass. We ended the night with a FHE at the A family. I also have a picture with C so I will send that too. We watched the rest of Meet the Mormons with them and there was not a dry eye in the room for that family. The less active sister really wanted to change and we committed her to read in the Book of Mormon. We also found out that Hermana A when she served her mission in Guatemala back in the day baptized, or helped baptize a ward member's son here in barrio tercero! Small world right! It was really cool because that got C, the Hermana A's son to want to go on a mission and if he goes on a mission, then the job will be completed I tell ya.

This next week we are going to meet President Haynie... Exciting stuff!! Hope you all have a good week! Love you tons and bunches

Love,

Elder Roberts

Week 70

Weekly Letter

Reprimanding missionary thought coming in....

So during zone conference this week one of the trainings was about church leaders and what it really means to sustain a church leader. Long story short, there is a talk that was given by Dallin H. Oaks back in 1980 something on criticism and it is crazy how true it is. Every type of criticism goes back to this true fact. If the Lord is going to correct a leader, HE will do it. It is not our place to judge or to criticize what a leader does. We do not understand their intentions, nor do we know if something really will be for our benefit. The prophet Joseph Smith was criticized and it's amazing to even think that that part is written in the Doctrine and Covenants and not just taken out! However, if we try to criticize those whom the Lord has called to be leaders, we will be like Aaron and Miriam who were reprimanded and cursed (Miriam). So let's not do that, let's listen to those whom the Lord has called to be leaders and let us follow the example of our Savior and be perfect followers of our Heavenly Father:):):):):):):)

Korea Town Episode II // Scene 3

Monday we went to Food 4 Less to shop and I bought some bananas to go to my cereal so that way it is more healthy haha. I also got a haircut because this week we had Zone Conference and President Weidman asked that all of us go and get a nice haircut. There was this huge party graduation thing by where we email at, we email at a library, and the wifi was completely wacked. We saw some cops outside the library and it was pretty funny. They were two really big cops, a Samoan and an African American, and they saw a couple guys down the street get into a little a scruffle, what do they do? They decide that it is out of their jurisdiction and head inside the library... Wow. We ended up playing sports... I know I got to find other stuff to do in pday for real. It was fun though. We played with some new elders and frisbee was super fun because one of the elders is really fast so I would just place it and voila! Score. I also had some good blocks on that same elder which was funny. All of our appointments canceled on us after pday which was really sad. It got even worse after that. Because our dinner appointment canceled, I ate cereal with bananas for dinner. While eating that super hard meal (sarcasm inserted) the bonding for my bottom retainer (the one they fixed back in December) came loose... Kidding me?

Tuesday right before we left to go out for the day I was eating yet another "incredibly tough meal" aka ramen noodles with chopped up lunch meat and cheese when one part of the bottom retainer completely broke! The metal part itself! I have a picture, don't worry. We went to go and see the B family. We talked to Junior about lesson 5 and he seemed really interested in temples and family history... I mean, who isn't? Well right as we were about to leave, Hermana B offered to give us something to eat, I said no BUT... The face of my companion said otherwise. You could say I jokingly gave him a hard time about that afterward. Basically Latinos really like to over feed the missionaries, it's a tough life we live I tell ya 😜😜😜. We then contacted a lot and talked to a lot of people. We even talked to this guy named A, how crazy of a name is that! We hiked up to where S and J V live, so we decided to stop by. S is going through a really rough time. She basically dropped us and we wanted to know what was going on. We thought everything was good, we even made some new expectations, but later on during the week we tried to stop by and she sent us a text saying "you already stopped by this week".... 😐😐 so that was sad. We were really excited that she was going to progress, but I guess that's the Lord telling us to leave her alone for a bit. We stopped by J V who is S's neighbor and we set up a time to go and meet with her, she is just this most adorable little Peruvian lady... I really hope she progresses. We went to the church for dinner and for coordination, and those meetings are always interesting because of the different personalities that are there.

Wednesday we were able to meet with J. She is super awesome and one of our new investigators. We brought the coolest member with us, his name is J D. He is a recent convert and he just loves everything about the gospel. He can only come out wi us on Wednesdays because that is his day off. We were explaining the plan of salvation, part 1 and he helped out a lot! It was nice because there are some words that I still don't understand completely, but I know the context some can figure it out, but I mean, white dude who learned Spanish vs actual Latino, Latino wins. He then treated us to California donuts because none of us had had lunch by then, California donuts is so good! I would almost say better than Dunford.... Not the price though😨😨. We tried to contact a couple people and knock on some doors with little luck before dinner. We had dinner with the S family. It is a brother and a sister that are just pure jokesters... So funny. They are super awesome though. They said that they might have someone that we could go and visit so we were super excited!!! We then had to bike like mad men clear to the other end of our area to go and see W. Funny thing is right as we knocked on his door he had sent us a text (that we didn't see) to ask to cancel the appointment.... Haha! We had an awesome experience! We watched a little bit of the Restoration video and answered some of his questions. He is awesome, I hope he just starts to progress so crazy. We then went and saw C, another less active teen, and he is doing good. He is reading in his Book of Mormon and has set plans to become active and get his patriarchal blessing! Super cool. 

Thursday we visited with J in the early afternoon, so we invited P R to come to the lesson with us. He was the mini missionary that was with me and Elder S, he is in the ward. He came out with us and we finished up teaching the second half of the plan of salvation. I finally used that puzzle that you gave me! It really helped J with the plan of salvation and it was a super cool lesson. P even said after the lesson that he would want to come back with us to visit her another time... Woo! We tried to go and contact some people, with again, little success. Some weeks are just harder than others to be honest. We then went to go eat some dinner with the C's. They bought pupusas! Have you ever tried pupusas??? If not, go try them!! Weekly homework! And take a picture so I know it's real! We talked about helping them make plans to go to the temple and it was really cool because they always bear their testimony to their brother who is there and lives with them. Although he may not have the same beliefs, it's always awesome to see how a simple testimony of gospel truths really impact somebody. One day he will come around. We then went back to the apartment to have our weekly planning.

Friday oh my goodness, craziness. To start things off, it was zone conference. We had to wake up before 5:00 so that way we could get ready and BIKE to the church. Mind you the zone conference was at another building down in Santa Monica do idk why our zone leaders made us bike to the church... Rude. Well we went and yes, this zone conference was the Weidman's last one. It was so flipping amazing! A ton of missionaries are leaving this transfer and all of them I have gotten extremely close to. It was nice to see my father again, Elder W, and we took a picture together, it's on my camera. Seriously, I think this zone conference was just so cool, the testimonies, President and Sister Weidman throwing down (figuratively) it was so cool. This conference was all about how charity helps us become consecrated missionaries. It was really emotional to see President Weidman cry when we sang the mission medley (EFY medley). And then the testimonies of all these missionaries that I look up to, man. We got back to the apartment and then went to go and contact around the area that we were picking up our dinner. The Hermana that gave us dinner always wants to have the last word when saying goodbyes. You could probably go off for about 5 minutes just saying "cuídese hermana" "ok, que le vaya bien" "gracias hermana igualmente" "cuídese que le vaya bien" probably for a good little bit if you wanted to have fun. We were able to meet with M again and she had some very interesting questions. M is a RC who is just a fireball, except she doesn't come to church. If she could drive herself, she would come. Anywho, she asked a couple questions about homosexuality because some of her friends are "starting to think that they like the same gender" 🙄. She understood the doctrine after we explained it to her, and she is just awesome.

Saturday was a busy day. We started out visiting the P family. The two sons, A and A are less active, but the parents and the oldest daughter are active. We went over the plan of salvation and a lot of other stuff, but then we talked about little changes that we can make in our lives. It was a super awesome experience and they committed to come to church. We then went to stop by J to see how she was doing and invite her to church again. She seemed very happy and it was a good follow up, quick, short, to the point, prayer, done. We then visited with this lady named D. She was very nice, but we aren't sure if she understand the message of the restoration exactly. We asked her personal questions such as "what does this mean to you? Or what does this mean for you to know that..?" And all she would say is "you tell me" 😕😕😕😔😔 it was pretty demotivating. We then went back to the apartment for some dinner because only fed us... Haha. We visited with J V after dinner and taught her the restoration, we need to go back over a couple parts I think, but overall the lesson was pretty good. Afterwards she offered us food.... Wait, what? It was nice. She then offered us "an amazing drink! It's called green tea Arizona!"....😔😔 no Hermana, we can't drink that. It's called BAM the word of wisdom! But that will be for another time. We then had to bike super fast home to make sure that we weren't going to be late. There is also a school right by where we live and on Saturday there was this huge festival, convert, idk thing. It was huge. Like hoards of people were coming on going to that all day, cause we saw them heading towards it clear from where we were which was like 6 blocks away. 

Sunday was pretty good. The other elders in our district had 3 investigators get baptized and to my surprise one of their investigators asked me to baptize her! I had never met her, never visited her with them before, I didn't even know what she looked like! But she said she wanted the missionary who always greets people at the door to baptize her 😎😎😎😎 ya buddy! She had some curly hair, but don't worry, I got it perfect the first time. It was so hot outside! They said it was a heat wave, and that it will happen for this week, or at least part of it.. Idk. All I know is that it's that moment when inside is a lot cooler than outside. We ate dinner with the R family and that was nice, they gave us ice cream. We finished off the night with a FHE with the A family watching a part of Meet the Mormons. The older sister is a incredibly less active and at the end we asked her which story she liked and she was like, I liked this one, and this one.... Basically she liked all of it. 

Well, that's my weekly report.

Love y'all!

Elder Roberts

Week 69

Korea Town // Episode 2 - Act 2

Monday was pday. As you know we have to bike to our lovely R's, and I felt a little adventurous. I bought some things that I might never have bought before, and hopefully I will take pictures with it so you have proof. I had bought ramen (selling our souls in missionary language), lunch meat, cheese, pickles, pretzels, hummus, cereal, and milk. Yes I bought pretzels and hummus for my "snack food" for the week, it was a bad idea cause my stomach hurt ALL WEEK...NO MAKING FUN! 😑😑😑 we walked back to the apartment and that took a bit. We took a little ciesta in the apartment as we waited for Elder H and T to come pick us up to go the the science center. It is a really cool place on the USC campus, right by the rose gardens and all the other museums. I feel like if I wasn't a missionary it would be fun to check out, maybe with a better group. There was a place that showed a real life surgery from a video, it was a surgery on a lung... 😷😰😰, I don't think I will ever go medical, yikes. We left and my companion was a little upset because he was interested in the stuff, but I wasn't too much into it. We left and went to go and eat Chik Fil-A, that's why on the card it says I went there. I payed for Elder B because he paid for me one time at Korean BBQ, I owed him. I don't know but for some reason my stomach just really hurts whenever I eat fast food, so I don't think I will be going there anytime soon. We got back to the apartment and both of us didn't feel so good, so we watched a couple videos a took a pday nap, really lame, I know. We went to go contacting because unfortunately both of the set appointments fell through. We talked to a good amount of people and actually had a street lesson with this guy named J L, hopefully we will be able to meet with him again. We stopped by to see C A, he is a teenager. His mom worked on Sunday so they didn't come to church. They live right around the corner from us so we stopped in to see how they were doing. I made a deal with him. I made him a deal that he has to read 2 pages in the Book of Mormon every day and I do my morning exercises, cause I have been slacking a lot lately. We made all the little rewards and stuff, I have to buy him a candy bar if he reads more days than I workout, and he has to come to mutual if I workout more days than he reads (he hates going to mutual). 

Tuesday we had an extra companionship study on the blessings of baptism, super cool stuff. Basically it's the scriptural blessing around in Mosiah 18:8-10 and there are 4 specific blessings... Let's see if you can find them. Now I didn't say ONLY 4, but there are 4 really big blessings. After that we went to go and see C C. She is the older lady with the prosthetic leg. She was having a bad day because the following day she had to go to the doctors for another appointment. She was happy towards the end because she got a call saying that she was going to get a new prosthetic leg next week that she would be able to go to church with. Oh my goodness her smile was just so big, it's adorable. She is this really older Latina lady who looks almost Asian and always says "mmhmmm" so it's pretty funny to be around her. A lot of the appointments canceled from that day, and we talked to a lot of people. We were able to have another street lesson (we call these lessons miracle lessons) and so that was really nice. It's always nice to actually have a good conversation with someone on the street and they are interested.

Wednesday we started out visiting J, or Junior. He is the older brother of the B family, and it's really interesting their whole family situation. We talked to them about expectations as missionaries and as members of missionary visits, what should happen in a lesson and stuff. Basically it was our way of saying, please stay off your phones and quit playing video games when we are over. They always get so interested into the lessons and then they never follow through with their commitments... So frustrating sometimes. We then went to go and see the C's and they are just so awesome. They are working on family history right now and they are really excited. The only problem is that they can't figure out how to get onto the website and everything (man I wish I learned how to do more of that when I was younger). They have strong testimonies of the commandments, they are just so cool. Dad, you should definitely tell the youth, in a nonchalant way, that family history is crucial in missionary work. I wish I would have paid more attention to how to do it, because now I can't help my investigators who are preparing to go to the temple. They also gave us pizza so that was nice. We then went to go and see a former investigator named J. We arrived a little early, but we didn't think that would matter. We decided to say a prayer that she would be there and we climbed the stairs. We knocked, and no answer. There was a man standing outside the window by the railing and Elder B was like "we should go talk to this guy" so we did. His name is S and he is an older gentleman. He always was saying stuff like "amen" or "Gloria a Dios" at anything we would say. We tried to explain the restoration to him and when the part came of "the priesthood power to be baptized is only found in Christ's true church" he was like "well that's good! I'm already baptized" and it's like (face palm) you don't get it bro. We set a return appointment with because he was really nice and asked us when we would come back. When we ended the prayer with S, low and behold J and her family showed up! Sl is the neighbor so we were standing right there when she came in. It was such a tender mercy. We were a little short on time and so she asked if we could come back another day, we shared a short message, and planned to come back the same day for S, because they are neighbors. 

Thursday was just weird. Because we have sister missionaries in the zone, and in the district that work at the VC, we have our district meetings in Thursday, rather than Friday. This time it was ZTM and so we just receive training from our leaders. It was really weird because there are an even amount of sisters and elders... Not cool. The ZTM was good and we have a lot of new goals as a zone, to help us improve as missionaries and as disciples of Christ. Basically this whole transfer is on charity, and having charity for everyone. Charity really does affect a missionary and those that they come in contact with. Charity has helped our companionship be more bold in inviting people to make and keep commitments. The ZTM was good also because our ZLs are some pretty funny guys, so that makes everything just more relaxed. We finally were able to see M B. His father has had a lot of trials with health, and this is really either going to make or break the faith of M. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and it was a very intense lesson. We invited him to be baptized and he.... Wasn't too sure. We fear that maybe he might soon become an eternal investigator, which would be sad. We are hoping to get him on family history, you know, try and bank on that whole "spirit of Elijah" type thing. It was a good ending to a really rough day though. 

Friday we had planned to go and see the B family, but they were a little bit busy, so instead we started our weekly planning. We then had planned to go and see J and S back to back. We went in to J's house and omg she was prepared! She pulled out her Book of Mormon and was asking us a bunch of questions. It was really good. We taught the Restoration and invited her to be baptized... She accepted! She has a baptismal date for the 10th of July and she is ready to progress. She told us that Sunday would be a little bit busy for her, so she wouldn't know if she could come that time. She was really excited though, asked a lot of good questions, and we set up times to come back, it was awesome. We then went to go and see S and he was drunk. He had been watching a soccer game and el aprovechó de la taquilla les digo. It was a complete different experience from J, but he still kept saying all the amens and Gloria a Dios and stuff. We invited him to read the pamphlet for more info before we came back. We then saw and visited W. His mom brought us pizza - meat lovers - and we talked about how he is doing and everything. He is slowly progressing and his brother too, just sometimes people don't progress as fast as we want them too ya know?

Saturday was just rough. We started out with apartment inspections, which we got 100 on, woo! But they didn't give us any treats like all the others do so that was sad. We then went to go and see E. She has literally gone awol. We tried to find out where she has been and she was like "I know I need to go to church" she's just one of those people that you know gets it, but she doesn't act, or isn't acting right at least. We went back to the apartment for lunch and every single one of our set appointments canceled. S even dropped us! She said that she doesn't want to be baptized anymore and that she doesn't want to meet with us... It was sad. We ended up walking the full length of our area because half of our area we never go into, because it's full of rich housing. We literally had a competition counting how many BMWs and Mercedes cars there were. We felt the need to go there because neither of us had been before, so we kinda felt that we were neglecting part of our area, but then we realized that our area is where the fruit is, so right now we need to focus on the people who are progressing! 

Sunday we had a meeting with the Bishop at 8:00, like always. That was good. Church was good, yup. We had a miracle happen when a member in our area invited a friend to come to church. We introduced ourselves and he stayed for the last 2 hours. That was nice. After church we had to go back to the apartment to grab a missionary bike to give to a member because the missionary is finishing his mission. So we walked clear from our apartment to the church which took about 30 minutes... Service? After that we had a lunch with the Rs and that was good, they gave us red velvet cake for the dessert. We decided to walk around because we were going to see E and ask her why she didn't come to church. She wasn't home so we decided to go and talk to the D L family. They were home and had invited friends over. We explained our purpose as missionaries and at one point I got a little 😑 because we explained that the role of a missionary is to help people make the covenant of baptism, and the random friend was all like "that's good! Keep going!"... Bro, you need to be baptized...?? It was a little, ugh. It was nice that we were able to find them though. We went back to our bikes and we found out that M's father passed away. He is going back to El Salvador for the funeral and hopefully when he comes back his faith will increase, or he will be at a point that we could start to teach him. We went to go and see C, the teen I made the deal with, and I lost the deal, just because I didn't exercise every morning like I should've. Saturday morning we actually spent cleaning for the inspection so, that's what got me. He said he would come out with us in splits on Monday so that was cool.

Love,

Elder Roberts