Doctrinal
questions of the week, brought to you by kids under the age of 12
"Are
there girl gods in heaven?"
"Is
Jesus God?"
"Do we
celebrate Christmas in heaven?"
"Does
God take baths?"
"Do we
get to live with God after we get old? When does that happen?"
Quotes from
the same people
"Can
we put hot sauce in snow?"
"You
are so, interrupt."
USC -
Barrio 6to week 4
Monday we
cleaned a little bit in the apartment and that was really nice. We had some
other missionaries ask us to go to the bargain store that is really close to
our house because it has front and back lights for bikes for 1$ so thats kinda
hard to beat, so we got the lights for them. It was funny cause Elder W also
got a new light, but throughout the week he just kept braking it worse and
worse, it was kinda funny. This week we decided to buy a little more healthy.
My companion knows how to cook and make food taste good and so that is a huge
blessing. We also didn't spend that much money either so that was definitely a
plus:) our DL was having some stomach problems and so that was a little rough
for him. He got better throughout the week and had bought a lot of foods to
help him with his diet. We then played sports with some other elders and that
was ok, but I think I am so done with sports and I feel like I just now want to
explore or I want to go take pictures or something, so we are going to try to
go and visit some more cool places, the only problem that is always there is
that I am on bike and that causes a couple problems with trying to go visit
places. When pday was over we went to go and visit with A and L. They are
the couple that just need to get married to be baptized. It is really sad when
you are teaching people that they know what they need to do and then they don't
do it because of a reason that you don't understand. We then went to go and see
if Y had been reading. She told us that she hadn't been reading because
she had a project that she was working on for school. We were a little sad
about the fact that she wasn't sticking to the plan that we had made with her
to read for a little bit before bed in the Book of Mormon, so we will see what
happens next.
Tuesday we
set up a lot of appointments with former investigators. We were walking and
visiting a lot of people and this lady named V S was outside. We
talked with her and she said that she didn't have any time to meet with us (she
was just walking with her daughters outside and talking with them). I tried to
show the Christmas video for this year and she flat out rejected me, it was
super sad. We then went to go and visit this less active lady in the ward. It
is really sad because there are hundreds of members in this ward who are less
active right now because of members that they don't like, for whatever reason.
Sometimes you just want to go off on them about the Atonement and how nobody is
perfect and that you shouldn't be converted to a member of the church but to
the Lord and thats why you go to church, because of the love that you have for
the Savior, but sometimes it just doesn't go the way that you want it to. She
told us of this guy that she talked to that was a member of the church, but
that he left and started his own church. He told her that she was int eh wrong
church and that she needed to go to his church. She then began to ask him what
was negative about the church and what was positive. She said that he came up
with a list of about 2 negatives and a whole lot of positives. He then began to
tell her that as a pastor in his own church that he uses the teaching from the
Liahona and General Conference to teach to his congregation. She then asked him
if he would ever come back into activity in the church and he told her that
"as a pastor I can make money here in this church, but the Mormon church
doesn't pay me to preach". (This is the part when you slap your face).
Anywho we all laughed at the story and it was pretty funny. The sad part is
that she is less active and she has a negative feeling towards ward members and
so its really hard to help her look to the Savior when she will always bring up
the other members. We then walked to find some more people and set up some
return appointments for later on.
Wednesday
we went to World Harvest and did service again. We are getting pretty dang good
at organizing, let me tell ya. We then got back to the apartment and made some
super good food. We then went to have a lesson with S, the little girl who
is just the funniest. It was really cool because she understands so much about
the gospel right now that its amazing. We talked about going to the VC with her
and her family and she was super excited for it. She was just talking about how
much she loves Christmas and how she loves celebrating Jesus's birth. Then her
mom had to drop the bomb that Christ wasn't born on Christmas and S just
looked super confused.... great. We then went to go and see the G family
and we made pupusas again with them, and this time... we made good pupusas. We
talked with K because he was the only one there and it seems like he is
losing more and more interest in the gospel, we think its maybe because of the
environment that he tends to be around. We ended the night off having a
coorelation meeting with Hermano F and that was fun.
Thursday we
had our weekly planning at the church and so I was able to move a lot of my
pictures onto my USB so hopefully the pictures look a little better when they
are on there rather then when i send them, we then tried to visit a couple
people and everyone keeps telling us to come back another day, we then ate
dinner with the G family and oh my goodness is that chisme nation right
there. They just went off on members of the ward that they don't like and why
they don't like them and Elder W and I are just eating dinner like... ugh, we
got to go in a little bit. We biked to the C family to visit with them and
they are just so amazing, I cannot tell you how amazing they really are.
Friday we
had a really good day going out with members, the M family are just so
cool. We took them to go and see the A family and the L family.
Hermano M was really awesome because he has this burning desire to sing
Christmas hymns to the people that we visit and so we sang with him, it was
super cool. While we were visiting with hermana L, Hermana M totally
connected with her and told her of some of the challenges that she has faced in
her life and she bore her testimony which was just so powerful! Hermana L was really glad to have seen us and both Elder W and I just loved that visit
because Hermana L just opened up and everyone could just feel the amount
of love that the Savior had for all of us there, and especially the love that
He has for her. It was a good lesson for sure. Afterwards Hermano M said
"I feel good" which was the perfect punctuation to a beautiful night.
Saturday
was just a crazy day. We woke up at like 5:30 in the morning to get ready to go
and do the whole singing thing at the park in Watts. Well, our DL came and picked
us up and we arrived there. When we got there there was already a group of
about 8 missionaries there and nobody knew where we were supposed to go or
anything like that. We walked to the main place and just stood around for a
little bit until the lady who was basically in charge of the service project
told us that "we were her singers". Ok so the whole service thing is
called a "rotary" i guess, so from what i understand is that they put
on this donation and free food event each year around Christmas time and they
do it all over, but this year was at this park. So there were a lot of boxes of
toys that were donated. They had food prepared and everything for the families
that are less fortunate this year. Our job was to lighten the mood and sing
Christmas songs to them, ugh, Take 10 anyone? So at the beginning we were
moving Christmas toys outside and there were about 20 missionaries helping with
this. It was really fun because I got to see some missionary friends. Then it
came time for us to sing. A member of the church who is form the San Fernando
valley and is in charge of a bunch of stuff for service stuff or something like
that in California was basically in charge of all of us, he was super funny and
he reminded me of dad. The way he dressed and the way he acted was a lot like
dad. We sang for about 2 hours while the families would come in and eat a
breakfast and leave. It was super funny because about 6 elders knew how to sing
the tenor part and so they broke off and then the rest of the elders either
didn't know what to sing, or we kinda switched what line we sang. A couple of
us tried to do the base line, and not gonna lie I think we hit it pretty good.
It was fun and all of us were glad that we went, we even got a shirt out of it!
We then had ZTM and that was completely different. Lots of new ways to do
things, lots of changes to how we do things at ZTM and I like the changes, I
think most do too. We then got back to the apartment and tried to coordinate
how we were going to go to the VC with a RC family in our area and with some of
our investigators. It came down to us taking the train and meeting up with the
RC family there at the VC. Well, its about a 30 minute walk from the train stop
to the temple, so we had to plan a little bit of time as a cushion. We then get
to the VC and the family isn't there. We saw a lot of missionaries there and a
TON of people. They said that on average, about a year ago, that 200 people
would go to the VC on a daily basis. Last month there was about 1200 people
going to the VC... !!!!!!!!!!!!! That's amazing! I didnt really believe it
until we went to the VC and it was PACKED!! While waiting we get a text from
the family telling us that they would not be able to make it and that they feel
bad for not telling us in advance... nooooo! Its ok though, they are still
cool. We went to use the bathroom inside before we made our trip home and we
came across the Haynies. President Haynie was wearing a super cool christmas
tie and sister Haynie talked to Elder W and told him that she had seen the
video of us singing at the place today. She then asked Elder W "where he
had gotten his training from" to which he said "my mom". Bless
all those dear sweet mothers who teach their sons how to lead music and to sing
properly!!! You truly bless their mission! We then went back to our are by
taking the train and doing all that jazz again.
Sunday was
a good day, kinda long though. We had a lot of people come to church which was
good. Hermano C was able to talk to the bishop about getting his interview
for the Aaronic priesthood. His son, M, was wearing a super classy argyle
sweater that was super cool and M was all smiles with it. Elder W played
the piano during sacrament meeting which really helps out the ward a ton. We
tried to go to the VC with a lot of people because the devotional was going to
be in Spanish. So my companion tried calling a couple people to try to give us
a ride to go to the VC and he couldn't find anyone and so he said in a very
saddened voice "we are going to have to walk with S and her family
from the train because she doesn't have a car and we don't have a ride".
Well y'all know me and that I don't like walking too much and so I call up
Hermana M and not only can they give us a ride but we went in 2 cars, the
guys in one car and the ladies in the other. Boom. The devotional was alright,
it wasn't the best though. The members really liked it though. It was basically
just a really really long talk from a member from La Cienega ward, but he did
talk about good things so that was good. During the devotional S leaned
over to Elder W and said "this is not for kids." And then we told her
that if she was bored that she should try and count how many lights were on the
Christmas tree hehehehe. We then went to go and see the lights and that was
super cool. We took some cool pics, but not too many good ones cause it was
blurry, but we got some good selfies in there. We then got a ride back and that
was basically the night. We did see a lot of other missionaries that we know
there and they had also brought families and that was super cool cause just
everyone was there! I also saw lots of members from 3rd ward, El Segundo, just
from all over, super cool.
Sorry some
days have more stuff than others, so much to write about that you end up not
writing about it hahaha.
Love,
Elder Roberts
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