Korea Town Episode III (Blasted Heat) Scene 4
Monday was crazy. We had apartment inspections around 9:30 am and
the inspectors just talked forever... Well, we got another 100 on the apartment
so that made me feel good. We then went and did our laundry and shopping and I
only spent about 10$ on groceries because we already have a lot of stuff in the
house, plus this next coming week is a milestone week:) anywho, we did that and
we had plans to go hang out with the W elders and the ZLs to make a
custom shirt. We still haven't done it yet, but I am totally going to buy the
shirt, it's gonna be sick. Well we got to the chapel and Brother B was there. He is the building scheduler and he is a nazi about the rules. Even
if we just want to go and play basketball on Mondays, we need to let him know
how many missionaries, their names, what time we will get there, what time we
will leave, and a bunch of other stuff. He asks me more questions than y'all
did when I went out on dates or to hang with friends!!! So we started to play
sports because the ZLs didn't bring their outfits for the picture. Frisbee was
good, but then a terrible incident happened. In the gym in this building, on
the east and west side of the gym there are wooden walls with beautiful glass
windows, of different sizes. On the west side the walls are the doors to the
primary classes and on the east side the wooden panels are either doors to
other parts of the church, or they lead to the outside courtyard found in the
middle of the church building. We were playing basketball and Elder D lost his balance after jumping and fell. His arm went through one of the glass
windows and his face was super scared. He pulled out his arm and it had glass
in it and it was all bloody and scraped. My companion took off his shirt to
cover the blood and to stop the bleeding and I went to go and get paper towels
and a trash can for all the blood. All 3 companionships were calling people
like crazy, the mission nurse, the physician, the Haynies... Everyone. Elder
D was in a lot of pain. The W elders went with the ZLs to the
urgent care in the ZL car and Elder D and I were left to clean up
everything. During the whole mess of things, we ended up with the ZLs phone and
they ended up with ours. So here we are trying to clean up and the phone is
just going off, so we told everyone that the phones were switched. I called
Brother B (the building scheduler) to tell him what had happened and
he was getting mad!! I know I'm suppose to respect my elders, but sometimes
people just need to be a bit more Christlike and understand circumstances. He
was basically trying to blame Elder D for being reckless and braking a
window in the church, but the fact remains that you shouldn't have glass
windows in a church gym!! That cannot be the first time that glass has broken
there... No way. We decided that we needed to say a prayer for Elder D and so we knelt down in prayer. Afterwards simultaneously after the prayer we
both figured that because we had the ZLs phone, that we could send out a text
to the whole zone asking for them to pray for Elder D, leaving out all
the details and just asking for prayers. We did that and then the W elders had come back to the church. They were going to grab the ZLs clothes
(because elder N was in normal gym clothes without a name tag and so was
elder D but that's PERFECTLY UNDERSTANDABLE). Also they came back because
their wallets and stuff were still at the church. So we helped them grab all
the stuff to put in the car. Well so that Elder P and S had a ride
back to their area, we followed them in the ZLs car to the hospital. President
and sister Haynie arrived just as we were leaving the hospital and Elder
D had to go into surgery. It was a really bad accident, but good thing
that Elder D thought fast and covered it with his shirt. So that all
happened before 7. We then had dinner and ended off the night visiting the
A family and watching a Mormon message with them and reading in the
scriptures.
Tuesday we started a new workout thing to help us both get into
shape, and let me tell you that my arms were SO dead afterwards... It's called
Pyramid and we did it to the number 15, and then 16 with only 20 lbs (which
means we lifted the bar with 20 lbs about 256 times) and my arms have never
felt so dead. We traveled to the boonies of our area and tried to visit a
couple referrals, but nobody was home. We then tried to contact all of our
referrals and still, nothing. We were stopped by this lady named Netty and she
was like "who are y'all?" And we told her that we are the Mormon
missionaries. She then said "alright walk with me, let me tell you my
story". She talks to us about her and her husband, E. She works on Skid
Road helping out the homeless get food, that is where she met her husband. Her
husband was involved in some sort of crime in which he was then sent to prison
for 21 years. He got out after the 21 years and N, E, and N's dad
all lived together. Well one day E and the dad were driving and they were
being followed until they were driven off the road and hit a wall. The dad died
instantly and E had serious health problems. While he was in the hospital he
had to get a leg amputated and a hip replacement on the other side of his body.
He also had to get metal pins in the ankle that he still has. Well the cops
arrested E for killing his father in law and so they wheeled him into jail
(this is how she told us the story) then the roller coaster came of whether or
not Netty trusted the "system" and she had to sell their house to get
her husband a good lawyer. Eventually the lawyer was able to help prove E's
innocence and N got E some crutches, a chair, and a walker. He was
released from prison the night before (Monday night). She then was so happy to
have seen us! She said that she knows it is a sign from God. She then asked us
if we wanted to go and visit her husband, which we did. We met him but we felt
a little uncomfortable, so we left them with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. E is such a humble man. He was almost crying when he shook our hands and told us
"I am going to devote the rest of my life to God, I will do whatever it
takes". We said a prayer with them. It is too bad that they are English
because we had to send them out as a referral... They were super cool though.
We then went to go and see D, and had a short lesson with her. In this area
there seems to be a lot of old people who are going to take a lot of time
accepting the gospel into their lives.. But it's a good way to learn patience I
guess. We set up a return appointment with S L right before we had to
go and visit with the A family. We read with them and the mom is now
going to read in English so she can learn and C is going to read in
Spanish... It's all adorable and cute I guess. Hermano P was then super
nice and was able to come out with us to visit the R family. They were
crazy and full of energy that night. One of the reasons for that was because
they have a half sister who has special needs. She can't speak very well, and
cries a lot. She also has the inner giant (if you get the reference) sometimes.
The kids obviously don't know how to handle it and it doesn't help that the mom
always is yelling at the kids for doing ridiculous things. She even got mad at
them for drinking WATER... ?? What?? Anywho, it was an alright lesson and it
was nice to have Hermano P come with us.
Wednesday we headed out and started to just go tracking and
contacting. We met this guy named J C and goodness, he is about as close
to a "no I don't want to listen to you" as it gets. Through the
gnashing of teeth and a little wailing here and there, we were able to state
our purpose as missionaries, say a prayer, and set up a return appointment. We
then contacted some more and then we decided to stop by P and M.
They are a really old couple from El Salvador. He is 78 years old and she is
75... This is crazy. He doesn't know how to read an she had a really bad fall
so know she is going through a lumbar strain, so it's pretty intense. We talked
with them for a little bit and showed them a Mormon message about temples. It
was really good and they seemed to be super interested, so we told them that we
would leave them with the restoration pamphlet and then come back on another
day to teach them more, which they said yes to:). We then finished off the
night having dinner at E's house and talking with her. She is doing good.
It's really crazy because of all the things that can possibly happen in
someone's life and yet they don't know about the gospel. It makes me think
sometimes how grateful I am just for being a member of The Church of Jesus
Christ.. Wow.
Thursday we had ZTM, and it was crazy. There are so many new
mission rules!! A lot of them have to do with safety and protocol stuff. One
big announcement was that of music. Music is something that some missionaries
take advantage of because they justify by saying things like "I feel the
spirit" when listening to a certain type of music. President and Sister
Haynie have now said that the standard for music is LDS music. So basically my
iPod is still good:) . There have been a lot of elders who listen to other
stuff that isn't the best, so I am glad that they finally came out with
something to be the standard. There were SO many announcements that it took
about 45 minutes just to say them all, and talk a little about them. It was
still a good ZTM. We had a pretty good day planned, but like usual, whenever we
have a good day planned, the appointments cancel and nothing goes according to
plan. We did have the opportunity to go and visit with W and R. They are
doing good and we are going to start to help their whole family read in the
Book of Mormon. They now have a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon before
Christmas, which is about 2 chapters a day (there is this little card thing
that we have as missionaries that shows how many chapters a day). So we are
going to start them on that.
Friday we had to wake up early in order to go do temple service at
7:00 am. I woke up at 6 and just put work clothes on and the W elders
came to pick us up at 6:30. We worked outside from 7:00 - 12:00 so it was
pretty nice. There was some cloud coverage for most of the day so that was a
total blessing. We removed some bushes and some stumps that are by the mission
office because I guess they are replacing it. It totally reminded me of my
Eagle Scout project, just a lot easier. While we were working on that front
part the Haynies arrived at the office. They are so cool! Sister Haynie was
saying how awesome we were for working on that part and then she made the joke "every
missionary a gardener, right?" It was funny. Then President said that if
he wasn't wearing a suit that he would join us, and he said hi to all of us
individually instead of just saying 'elders' in general, it was nice. They had
to get a tractor thingy to come and remove one of the stumps because it was
super tough to get out. Elder D and I worked with the W elders and
we all were just having a "manly" moment hacking away and trying to
get this thing out. It was nice to get down in the dirt after every day doing
the same thing. We then worked around the temple making the garden spot flat,
pouring sand down, raking, a bunch of stuff. I scraped one of my callouses off
on my thumb and so now I have this raw skin part right where my thumb bends into
my hand... It hurts. Normally for service the lunch is always subway, but this
time we got to go eat in the temple cafeteria. It was super good. They had a
baked potato (with cheese, sour cream, and butter) and a piece of roast with
gravy, a piece of pie, broccoli, juice... I was in heaven, that was awesome. We
got back to the apartment and took a shower because we were covered in dirt, it
felt so nice. We then had our weekly planning, during which half of the
appointments that were scheduled for the day canceled on us. We went to go and
see M and P, the old Salvadoran couple, with Hermana C. It was
an awesome lesson about the Restoration! Hermana C bore her testimony and
M and P accepted an invitation to be baptized on the 11th of
September! It was an awesome experience. We then had the fire to just go and
visit everyone. We went to go and see Samuel, but he wasn't home. We then tried
to go and see a couple other people, but they weren't home either. We finished
off the night eating dinner at Hermana G's home. It was rough time for me
during the dinner because the Opening Ceremonies of THE OLYMPICS was happening!
So hard... So hard... I made A G (the daughter) promise to keep
me updated on the medal count of the olympics, I cannot believe I am missing an
olympic game...goodness.
Saturday was a bitter sweet day. We had some good plans and a
couple confirmed appointments with some investigators, but for one reason or
another, the lessons fell through. As we were walking to one of our
appointments, we saw a lady who had a flat tire. We asked her if we could help
her and she said yes! She was trying to put some can spray thing that fixes
flat tires apparently into her tire, but what she didn't know is that her tire
was just flat, but someone slashed a hole in the tire! We looked and her back
tire also had the same problem! So she had wasted about 20 or more $$ on these
can things and they were just leaking out of the tire. Well Elder D is
really handy with car stuff so we changed her tires. We couldn't put a spare
tire on for her because she had 2 flat tires. So when the tires were off, we
put it into her car and she drove away to go and get them fixed, or to buy new
tires. While waiting we called some referrals. She came back and we put the
good tires back on. She was so happy that we helped her and she was even
wanting to gives us money! But we said no. We did ask her if we could come by
to visit her, and she said no as well... Oh well. We got a little dirty and
sweaty because this was earlier in the day, so Elder D had to change and
take a shower. It was fun though, this was like the 5th tire I have changed on
the mission... Definitely something youth need to know how to do. We went to go
and visit some people but nobody was home. It was a rather sad and depressing
way to end the day, just cause we couldn't find anyone home or nobody wanted to
talk to us.
Sunday was an ok day. We woke up early to go a meeting with Bishop
at 8:00 in the morning. Going to a meeting at 8 in the morning on a fast Sunday
is not fun... Just saying. We talked to bishop about recent converts being able
to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead I don't know why it has taken
so long for the bishop to finally allow the converts to go do baptisms for the
dead. It took a lot of gnashing of teeth, but for some reason or another his
heart was softened today. We then went berserk telling all of the recent
converts to go and talk to the bishop and ask him for a temple recommend. Church
was interesting. Hermano B showed up and I sat by him. I was teaching him
how to read music and how to sing, a let me tell you, it was A LOT OF
PRESSURE!!!!! I was trying to explain what the notes where and everything. He
then told me that he would sing after he heard me sing.... !!!!!!! So he stuck
his face close to mine (like mom always did when she made she we could sing or
were in tune) and I had to sing out pretty loud. At first I felt confident, but
the more and more I kept singing, the worse and worse I think I got... It was
bad. BUUUUUUTTTTT by the end of the song Hermano was singing SSSOOOOOO it was a
success! The rest of church was a little awkward for some reasons, but hey, it
was all good. We got back to the apartment to break our fast and the instant
meal that you sent me with the roast and potatoes and gravy... Mmmhmhmm! It was
amazing! We then went to go and see the P family and read with the two
sons. I really hope that A, the older brother, decides to serve a mission,
just because he needs it. It was Andrew's birthday and so finally he is 16! He
was so happy. We talked about some commandments with them and we also talked
about the book of Ether, so that was good. We then had dinner with the Romero
family and that was super good too. The Rs are just so cool, let me tell
ya. We finished off the night at the A home. We read with them in the
Book of Mormon and the son is trying to get better at Spanish and the mom is
trying to get better in English, so it's pretty cool. We did try to stop by to
see E because now her phone isn't working and she didn't come to church...
So we don't know what happened with her.
I am so grateful to be serving here in LA. This is definitely an
amazing experience. It is so true what everyone says about a mission, how it is
one of the most hardest things that you will ever do. The mental, spiritual,
emotional, and physical stress that it puts on you... Wow. I do know that it is
worth it. This week during a personal study I found a scripture that I really
like, short, sweet, and to the point. It talks about why people love missionary
work:
1 Thessalonians 2:20
20 For ye are our glory and joy.
The joy that comes through missionary work is the fact that lives
are being changed! If not in front of you through others, at least it is
through yourself. Missions don't change lives, living the gospel does, and
THATS why missions change people, because THE GOSPEL is being preached and
lived:) Thank you for all your prayers and support😀😀😀😀😀😀
Love ya!
Elder
Roberts
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