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