Week 92

USC area - Barrio Sexto - Week 1

Monday was just a day in itself. Elder B was also leaving and so the other elders helped us do our laundry. We went to go eat Yogurtland while our laundry was washing and Elder L and I were just talking the whole time. We then made plans to go a swampeet so that way I could buy some sweet shoes called huaraches, they are so sick. A member of one of the wards here in LA owns a shop and gives missionaries a little bit of a bargain for the shoes and so we went to her store, and I got some shoes:)) I wanted to get another pair, but we will see for in the future. We met up with Elder H and H and they are really cool missionaries too. We then went to go and get something to eat from this shopping center so that way all of us could get something to eat. We then went back to the church to do our emailing and play some basketball with the other elders. It was really fun when we were playing 2 on 2 with Elder H and Elder H (I was with Elder L because our companions didnt want to play at all) and that was really fun. Then it ended up being Elder L and me playing basketball and I was trying to teach him some basics of ball handling because he had never played basketball before in his life before the mission. Our companions didnt want to play with us so they were on the other side of the court shooting on their own. We ate dinner with the A family and that was super yummy too. The Hermana is just one of the sweetest ladies that you could ever meet. I then packed up my things when we got back to the apartment for the night.

Tuesday morning I made sure that I hadn't forgotten anything. I made sure to take the jam (I forgot the bread in the last apartment on accident) and I was just waiting to leave. Hermano B came to pick me up and he has a huge van/truck thing. It was super cool. Everything that I have really does fit into my suitcases which is super cool because that means that I still have space to get more memories from my mission! We drove up to the apartment about at the same time that my new companion Elder W did. He is super cool. He has this super cool hat that has flowers on it and he loves wearing it. We are working in the LA 6th ward in the 2nd area. That means that we now cover the rest of the ward that i didnt cover before, and we are on bike whereas the elders before were all on car. It is a big area, and we cover the whole USC campus, but i think that this transfer is just going to be a blast. I am so excited to be back in Barrio 6to even though they have more problems now than before, I am just really excited to be back and that I get to spend another Christmas here! It's like I never left. We got unpacked and oh my goodness do we have food!!! I love apartments with food! And better yet, my companion knows how to cook!! I am definitely going to have him teach me how to make some good food, hopefully there is time for all of that;) We then went to the church to sync our ipads and get the information for the people that live in the ZL area, well it wasn't there yet, so we didnt find anything. We texted the APs and they told us that they would fix it for us. We then went to go and see S who is just one of the most funniest little girls ever. She was baptized about a month ago and she is just so happy! We decided to teach her about the articles of faith. We told her about the first article of faith and she was like "I already KNOW that!" And then we told her that there was 13 that she would be able to learn and she looked SUPER DUPER excited to learn all 13. Afterwards we had a couple lessons cancel on us and a couple lessons that we didnt know we had! I had asked Elder W if we had a dinner appointment and he told me that we didnt, so i called up that E family because you know, they always fed us on Tuesdays, and so we set up the dinner appointment and they fed us:) They are so nice. We then went to go and see the A family!!!!!!!! A, A, W, all of them! I am not in my old area, but they way that they redid the boundaries now has that finally in OUR area:) I am so happy. We stopped by and we talked to them and that was really nice. We then went to go help Elder B, who was the senior missionary in charge of all housing stuff and he was just so freaking amazing, take out some of the stuff from the old apartment that the elders were staying in. They combined 2 areas together for me and Elder W so they closed down one of the apartments. We then got a text from the APs saying that they fixed everything and that we should be able to get the information for the area if we were to sync again, so we did at the church and then we went home.

Wednesday we did service at this place called World Harvest. Now it is super cool to do service here. For one, we do 4 hours of service and so that means that when we are done that we can take whatever we want as groceries, so we totally have the most legit hookup here! The owner of this food bank is named G. Now G is not the typical guy. He is buddhist and likes worldly things. He is very different and is very rich. He is very bold in the language that he uses and he doesn't really care what other people think about him and it is always super funny to be around him. He also gives us as much free food as we want, even these super good cupcakes from Sprinkles... so good! Anywho, our DL and his comp are teaching him and so we just go with them to do some service and we like talking to the workers there and having a good time, because they are just some of the nicest people that you are ever going to meet. We came back to the apartment and organized the kitchen a lot because it was in terrible condition and I like things to be clean, and my companion knows how to cook so he knows where he wants stuff to be put. After that we went to go and visit with A S who is reading in the Book of Mormon and is a very nice guy. He has a lot of desire, but sometimes he may just lack the action. We had a really good lesson with him and invited him to church. We had a dinner appointment with the G family and they are super cool. The daughter and two grandkids of hers recently came from El Salvador to the US and they are super nice! The hermana told us that she wants them to learn about the church because they aren't members, so we got to know the daughter G a little bit more. We then found A FAMILY! Now this finally is a 7 person family and the youngest person that lives there is 16 years old. They really want to learn english, and we really want to teach them about Jesus Christ. It was an interesting lesson because we mainly talked to one of the sons who seemed super chill with us, so that was cool. We then had ward coorelation at the church and you will never guess who is the new WML in Barrio sexto...... HERMANO F F!!! We knew that was going to happen, he is just super cool. It was awesome to see him again and the input that he gives for our investigators and for the people that we visit is super good advice, I love that man.

Thursday we had a special ZTM to show that the LA zones are "united". It is crazy because we have 30 missionaries in the zone, thats a lot. We then had DM and that was good. We got back to the apartment and cooked up some food that was really good and then we set out to our area to go find some potential investigators. We knocked on a lot of doors and contacted a lot. We talked to this one guy that was just..... UGH! He was wanting to subtly bible bash with us! He just had a hardened heart and so we testified to him that Christ is wanting him to draw closer to Him, and that whenever he wants to experience the blessings that the Lord has in store for him, to go and find the missionaries. We then decided to park our bikes around the area of the family that we were eating dinner with. While doing that we met this wonderfully nice lady named A. She was really nice and we had a quick lesson with her. We then found out that the address that we had for the family that we were going to have dinner was wrong. SO basically we had to go to the completely other side of the area to go have dinner with them. We then had a lesson with Y M who is super cool. The only reason why she isn't a member is because her mom hasnt given her permission to be baptized yet. He sister K went through the same thing, but she already turned 18 so she is baptized and is preparing to go on a mission. We biked a total of over 8 miles that day, it was ridiculous.

Friday was a good day. My companion is teaching me how to cook, so hopefully I will be able to cook something by the end of this. We had weekly planning at the church and my companion practiced playing the piano which was really cool. We then talked to people as we contacted around the USC campus and that was pretty fun. We then went to go and visit this guy named K. He is pretty cool, but he hasnt really had an upbringing with a belief in God, so it is really hard to teach him. We then picked up dinner from a member and the traffic was super crazy and i almost died. We then went to actually have the legit dinner with the C family and that was good.  There was a lot of crazy things that happened that night and there was a lot of cops outside, even outside our apartment complex, but we are ok... just fun memories from  the mission.

Saturday we saw this super crazy teen named J. She is a member of a church that has bizarre beliefs. We tried to teach her about gospel truths, but her beliefs are just so weird that it is hard for her to believe anything else. We then ended the night visiting with the C family. They are a recent convert family that are just super awesome! They love the gospel and they have the fire to continue doing what they are doing! I am going to love visiting them.

Sunday we had church and that was good, we had a lot of people show up to church. It also rained so that was... not fun, but memorable:) we visited a lot of people including the G family and the A family. We had some ups and downs in both lessons, but for the most part everything worked out for the best.

Sorry the last two days dont have as much, I forgot the details, but im so stoked for this week!

Love,

Elder Roberts