Week 74

Korea Town Episode III - Part 1

Monday was the last pday with Elder B. We went to go and email real quick, and then we bought ice cream to have a party later at night. We then saw Elder P and a couple other missionaries and went out to lunch with them and took pictures. Elder Parker is going home!! Omg so when you see him playing baseball for BYU this season, just know that he was my favorite companion by far. We then had some other Elders come and pick us up to go to Little Tokyo. Elder P and V were the elders. Now Elder P is like me, into sports, slightly into superheroes, but definitely not all the Japanese manga or stuff like that, but his companion totally is. We saw a couple things that interested us, but they were like 12$ a piece... Uh.. No. There wasn't any little thing like a souvenir even, but it's ok. We then went back to play sports at the church with Elder H and T to join us, it was so much fun. We played ultimate and when Elder P and I were on the same team, the score was 7-0 hahaha. We then had a tall team and a short team. Elder B, Elder V, and I vs. Elder H (6 2) Elder T (6 4) and Elder P (6) and they all played sport before. BUT we won! It was 7-6 but man was my companion on fire! I would just toss it out to him and he would catch almost everything! It was awesome and Elder B liked it too haha. Elder V is so weird. He is the oldest missionary in the mission at 27 years old and he has had a hard life. He is just the guy that enjoys every little thing, and sometimes it's something just random. For example we went through a car wash, and he was so excited that he took a video of us going through the wash... Uh bruh, come on. We visited with M and it was a tender moment because in Elder B's mission, he only has 1 RC and that is M. It was just sad because she almost cried and Elder B was almost crying and here I am... Sitting... But it was touching. We then went to go and see the A family and that was cool. We went over the prophet of the restoration movie with them and that was good. We got back to the apartment and I tidied it all up for Elder D while Elder B packed.

Tuesday we had to wake up early because the member that was going to take Elder B took him around 7 am, so we had our ZLs come and chill with me while I waited for my companion to come. Elder H, one of the ZLs was going home and man will I miss him. I didn't serve around him too much but he was such a nice guy and an awesome example. We then waited until my companion came. My companion is Elder D and I have served around him 2 times before. He has a fixie bike which is different than normal. His bike had a flat and has no brakes so we had to walk to the store to buy our groceries. We bought a lot of food, but we split in buying so I know this transfer is gonna be a good one. Elder D is a hard core Mexican so he knows how to cook and loves so it stuff.... Yikes! Anywho he is really cool. We made orange chicken for lunch and it didn't turn out too bad! We then started working in our area and we were talking to people right before we had a lesson with the C's. L C had a baptismal date, and so we wanted to follow up on that. Well, we found out during the lesson that L may not have as much desire as we thought to read in the Book of Mormon and find out if the message of the restoration is true, which is really sad. We then went to go and pick up dinner from an Hermana that I had never seen before, but she is totally active in the church. She gave us lasagna and it is so good! We had a little bit of time to contact after dinner and before correlation because a lesson fell through, but it was good cause Elder D needs to learn the area a little bit. We had coordination meeting and it was interesting because the sisters didn't show up!!! Elder W is also training and he got a Latino companion, so that is good for him. His companion is Elder A and he is from Taylorsville, but went to Cottonwood Heights, so maybe when we are on exchanges we can connect about SOMETHING from Utah. We also found out that the missionary that is from Kaysville and knows the Jordan's is in the same zone as me. His name is Elder S and he is being trained by Elder P.

Wednesday was the first real day of the transfer. Woke up and did exercises (finally getting into a habit) and I make shakes in the morning so that is really good, better than cereal before hahaha. As a companionship we read Jesus el Cristo in our language study and hopefully we can read most of it this transfer. I am already in chapter 6 out of the 42 chapters so I know it will be pretty far by the end of the transfer, IF everything goes according to plan. We contacted around our area and tried to go and visit a couple people but they weren't home, so many people on vacation or what?? We then headed to the G's home and oh my goodness, did we walk in at the right time. The daughter had just gotten a new car (a Kia) and her Boyfriend  was driving right as we arrived to the apartment building. Well what we didn't know is that they (all 3 including the Hermana) had just came back from the dealership because the key got stuck in the ignition. Well, the key got stuck again and I guess tempers were really high. The Hermana was going crazy and just yelling at her daughter, and she was fighting back. The boyfriend was just there just kinda chilling and trying to calm her down and here we are just kinda trying to smoothen things out. Well it was crazy because the Hermana was wanting us to talk to the insurance people but her daughter ended up working everything out. BUT then she totally went off on her mom and then we stepped in. We just tried to be a little more positive and the boyfriend was just like "man, y'all are just the happy people huh?" And I was thinking, Ya bro, want to join the church? But then we ended up eating with the G and having a mini lesson with him. He is beginning is faith in God. It's not that he doubts that he is there, but just the fact that he doesn't have a solid foundation and with a bunch of churches and religions going around, it's hard to know (missionary time baby!) anywho so he is super chill and we are going to give him a copy of the Book of Mormon next week and help him out. A has some questions of her own because she is a little less active in testimony, but her mom is super solid and active in the church and A's brother is on a mission right now, so it's pretty much a good hand we have been dealt here. We then went to go and so S and I tried to tell my companion before that we were just going to focus on S and not his roommates. Well, it was really hard because the roommates are just full of DOUBTS. (Shpeal of a missionary here) when talking about RELIGION, DOUBTS are not good. QUESTIONS and DOUBTS are different and here is why: questions are a form of growing and learning. They make us ponder and think of the answer, that is why when the answer comes, we feel satisfied and uplifted (by the spirit). Doubts are the opposite. They make us question the reality of the truth. Doubts are the building blocks of fear, and fear is the opposite of faith. We cannot have doubts and faith at the same time. That's why the quote is "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith". Ok so his roommates have a lot of doubts. They ask questions just two test our knowledge basically and have very little desire to actually learn and apply the things that we tell them about the gospel. My companion is very bold though, so it's kinda like good cop and bad cop in our companionship. We ended the night street contacting some people and then returned back to the apartment.

Thursday we had weekly planning and Elder D I guess has always made popcorn for weekly planning. He has all the different types of flavorings and then he puts spicy stuff on it. It was really cool because that was also my birthday and J D and E took us out to eat at a Oaxacan (WA-Hak-inn) restaurant and I got some tacos that were good. They also gave us cheesecake that was good, except oft eh piece that E got because there was a little green on it (omg if you could've seen the face that she gave the waitress that helped us... My goodness) it was really nice and it was a good opportunity to talk to E a little bit more about missionary work and the church in general so it was worth it. We then biked back to the apartment to drop off the food from there and headed to the C's. Their dog is just causing problems I tell you. First off, they have to move because in the apartment complex they are not allowed to have pets in it. AND then the dog is really weird now because he thought that the C's abandoned him and so he is acting really weird anyways, he is the reason why they are so stressed and trying to find a new apartment building to live in. We picked up dinner from Hermana Z but I was so tried that I just crashed and fell asleep. We then went around and talked to a lot of people... It's crazy how similar some Koreans look to Latinos I tell ya... Wow. We finished off the night with a FHE with the eyes family and we found a crazy thing: the Hermana was just baptized because her husband got baptized... Uh oh! So now we are trying to help her gain a testimony for herself so that they can be sealed in the temple one day. It is just really sad in cases like this because last week she was asking when the temple classes were, can you imagine her going to the temple just because she wants to satisfy her husband?? There are some pretty serious stuff in there and so we have taken the responsibility to help her gain a testimony!!

Friday we had an awesome set up for the day. We had a lot of lessons scheduled with investigators, and with some less actives. We first started out heading towards the B family. Elder B and I had stopped visiting them for a while because they weren't keeping any of their commitments, so we decided to see if they were ready to progress. Well, because of that stupid new game called Pokemon Go the older brother is never home now, so we can never enter... Stupid. Well we decided to walk around for a bit and try to talk to some people. We came across an interesting building in our area that is a Masonic temple, so that's really weird. It is in that part of the area that there is no work basically. Well we were biking and S of all people saw us! She was all like "hi!!" And so we crossed the street to talk to her. She is 5 months pregnant now and still smoking.. Super bad, ya. Well it seems that things are going better for her, mainly. We set up a time to go back and talk with her so that's really good. She is crazy, but it's just one of those investigators that you get attached to because you found them, and they were progressing, so it's kinda intense for me. We then had a lesson with M and she is just awesome. I'm gonna do a quick rewind: so she invited one of her friends to her baptism, and that friend was originally taking the missionary lessons. Well NOW she has her parents permission to start attending the Mormon church. The friend really likes it and M of course is just being awesome at supporting her! It's so awesome to see youth do missionary work!! Makes me feel like such a loser that I never did it. The lesson was really cool, especially because some people on her Facebook have like the Mormon message that she shared so WOOO!! Go missionary work! Well from there we went to go and visit the P family, but we were only able to visit for a quick minute because they had to get going pretty soon. We tried to swing by and visit D with Hermana C, but D wasn't there! We called her earlier in the day and she said she would be there, but nope! So hopefully we can find her again because this is just craziness what is happening with her right now. We had Hermano P come with us to visit with S and his roommates and Hermano P is a really good member to take out to lessons! He reads his scriptures and he testifies super good, it was awesome. The lesson itself was really weird because the roommates were incredibly distracting during the lesson, so we decided that it would be better to teach S at the church. We then finished off the night visiting with the D L family, the less active family that is just so cool. Well I could go off about how awesome they are, but really there was only time to introduce my new companion and talk a little with them. We committed them to say nightly prayers and as a couple hold hands and kneel down in prayer every night, the idea came from a Mormon message about marriage so it will totally work!! 

Saturday we had DM and oh my goodness was that just crazy. Elder W is our DL and he is training and let's just say that the DM was not the most orthodox that it could've been. It was a little weird because the training was on how to contact better and it's really funny because Elder W is a little awkward when he talks to people, it was a good laugh though:) I FINALLY got everything for my birthday I think. I got 2 packages from you all, one from Charlie, and one from Grammy and Grampy. Grandpa and Grandma also sent me an email so that was really nice. We had a quick lesson with E in a park with J D (OMG they are totally going to get married I swear) and it was really good. We testified of the eternal importance of families and how the priesthood is a blessing in this life so that way we can return to live with our families after this life. We also set up a VC trip with E for this upcoming week so hopefully everything goes according to plan. We had a late lunch because we didn't have any time before and then we went out to go and find the elect. Well, we tried talking to a lot of people, but it was just a really hard day contacting I guess. We ended the night with a dinner and a lesson with the B family and we invited M to prepare to teach us the message of the restoration, maybe he will learn something new and gain a testimony of it ya know? It was a good way to end the day though.

Sunday was good, except not that many people showed up to church. The R family actually gave me a cake to celebrate my birthday and that was nice. We also did a FHE with the A like normal. Anywho, I forgot to write last night about this and I don't remember too much about what happened... Sorry.

Love y'all!

Love,

Elder Roberts