Week 96

Barrio 6to - USC - Week 5

Monday we were right about to start our pday adventure for the day and we found out that Elder W had a flat tire, so we had to walk our bikes to the store for it to get fixed. In the meantime that the bike was being fixed we did our laundry (biking with laundry is a whole different experience let me tell you) and got the rest of the stuff that we needed to do get done then. For shopping we bought a little more healthier than usual and spent less money anyways, its a sign I tell you. We then made plans to go shopping at Fig at 7th to see what cool stuff they have there at the shopping mall. So we went and we were trying to find some cool USC stuff or some cool LA Rams stuff, but nothing that was like super cool, but we did find some cheap sweaters that looked nice and so we got those. We then got back to go and have dinner with the V family. They have recently been called as the ward missionaries and they told us that they would take us to the VC after we finished eating. We had a VC appointment with the G family and they had arrived before us, so I think they looked around the temple at all the lights there before we got there. The sisters that gave us the VC tour were a trio of sisters and it was a very different tour than I have had in the past. Both Elder W and I were looking at each other during the tour because we had no idea where the sisters were going with the tour or anything, and we didn't even talk! We barely spoke a word at the very end. It lasted for a while, BUT all in all it was SUPER good, why? Because the G family loved it and so that's what matters the most. The V family bore powerful testimony during the tour and that was amazing. I also wore my new cool shoes to the VC so that was cool too.

Tuesday was just a really strange day. We started out a little early visiting V S, the lady that totally rejected the Christmas video last week. We talked with her outside her house and showed her the Christmas video. She liked the video, but still didnt seem very happy to see us. We asked her if she remembered anything of what the missionaries had told her about the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, anything, and all she said was that they told her about God. She then begins to tell us that she feels that she just needs to continue in her "own path" which is the nice way of saying to missionaries that she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. We looked at each other and did the only thing we could do: testify. We testified super simply of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration that there is no way anyone could not understand what we had said. We said a prayer and then left. We were both a little sad but felt happy at the simple, but powerful testimonies we had felt and shared with her. We then went back to the apartment to make some lunch. After that we decided to walk to Sophia's house. When we got there the mom asked us if we knew how to put together a table, to which we said yes. We put together a table for her, and it is a nice looking table not gonna lie, and so that was fun to do some fixing here and there. S now has the first article of faith memorized and we challenged her to have the second one memorized by Sunday. While walking away from S's house, S's dog named Precious, followed us. Elder W told me that the dog likes to run away, but that it always ends up back with Sophia. We kept walking (because we were going to be late to an appointment and had to go and get our bikes from the apartment. The dog kept following us. It was being a very good dog and stopping at lights and it was smiling the whole time. This dog didnt have a collar or anything so we really had to be careful. The whole time I was thinking whether or not we should call a member to come pick up the dog and take it back to S, or if we should do it ourselves, but I think we just kept walking because of how epic of a story it could've ended up becoming (just wait for it). It followed us all the way to our apartment and even walked in with us. We had to drop off some stuff at the apartment and get our bikes and all of our neighbors were wondering who's dog it was. There were even some neighbors saying "i am hungry, lets cook it up!" Not knowing that basically the dog was ours. Now we had gotten the bikes and Precious after a lot of whistling to have the dog continue to follow us. Now Elder W was sure at this point that if we rode our bikes to our next appointment that the dog would follow us. S then gives us call and she is just like any other little girl who lost her dog. Back story now, S used to be super depressed and so her mom bought her Precious so that she wouldn't be depressed anymore. So you can only imagine how S is feeling because she doesn't have her dog with her. Elder W assured her that her dog would come back to her. So then he starts to head to the next lesson on bike and tells me to go in front and lead us there and that he wold make sure that the dog followed. By taking back streets and sidewalks we were able to be in our lovely trio with the dog Precious. We almost lost her at the final turn to the house, but we got her. The house had a nice fence around it so we knew if Precious would be in the fence, that we wouldn't have any problems from then on. This whole time Precious hasn't even barked or anything. We knock on the door to the L family and they see our lovely dog. The whole family comes out and they start petting the dog and we tell them the whole story. Hermana L then tells her daughter to go and grab something from inside the house. That "something" was a guinea pig. They bring it out and were hiding it from the dog, thinking that the dog could sniff it out and find it. It got to the point that Precious was clueless and so the oldest daughter (while holding the guinea pig) basically set the guinea pig on Precious, that when Precious recognizes the pig. Precious then starts whining and appears "scared" but really its what a dog does when it wants something you know? When a dog starts whining and the tail starts wagging and the dog then comes in front of your legs and looks at you like "can I have it?" But this family didn't get it. So they kept holding the pig and then after a little bit went and set it down in the front lawn because there is this whole setup for the pig to play in with a bunch of holes that it likes to go into. We were talking and then all of a sudden Precious sees the pig and takes off! I shall liken this account to that of a cheetah vs. antelope on Animal Planet, National Geographic, etc. Hermana L jumps up as do I and she goes for the pig while I go for Precious. Precious actually had a good little "taste" of pig that night and if it wasn't for the intervention, Precious would be like all the other Peruvian dishes of cui. The hermana was freaking out and the kids were just laughing. We then put the pig inside and taught them the lesson that we had prepared. We were waiting for one of the members of the ward to come and pick up the dog to take it back to S, but it seemed like they were a little late, so we decided to just take Precious back with us (making the story even more epic). We almost made it back to our apartment (which you could say is like the halfway mark back to S's house) when we came up to an intersection. We were biking and Precious was following us and then the light turned red. We stopped, but Precious kept going.... (this is the part where you don't tell the kids). Precious went into the intersection with oncoming traffic and a car, in the words of my companion, gave it "a friendly nudge". Well that friendly nudge scared Precious and even stopped traffic. The dog ran back to be with us and so we dropped off our bikes and then we just decided to carry the dog back to S so that way nothing bad would happen to it. We get there and Elder W gave the dog back to S and she was just so happy to get Precious back! It was a good deed done. Total miles traveled with Precious 7.0, accidents 1.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder B. It was a very different exchange, but I learned a lot from it. We had service in the morning at the food bank and there was a lot of drinks that were forgotten to be refrigerated and so we had to throw them all out. It was a very sticky and tedious work, and we really only got about 2 pallets done. We then went back to change into our prosecuting clothes and head out for the day. Elder Wa had told me about some of the plans that he and Elder B had made and told me about the people that we were going to visit and what I could do to help out with the teaching a little bit. We were able to take a member out with us for a couple hours and he is super cool. His name is K and he is a recent convert. He really really wants to just be solid and he testifies of his experiences which is just awesome! We knocked on a couple doors and nobody really wanted to listen to us. We knocked on this gentlemans door and talked to him for a little bit about our message and it was really sad to see that he didn't really understand why we were there, so sad. We were on the same street as a part member family in the Spanish ward, but I remembered that the majority of the family (the younger generations) speak english and because the wards meet in the same building around the same time, we figured that it would be a good idea to maybe introduce the rest of the family to the English elders. The lesson started out a little awkward at first, but then the daughter (who is in her 20s) started to laugh at the personality of Elder B and the lesson was good from then on. They even got a return appointment which was super cool. Elder B then gets a text from a member of the Primary asking if he would be Santa Clause for the Primary activity that they were having later that night (like a 3 hour notice, ya know). So Elder B is here freaking out and I'm here telling him that he is not about to go and ruin a bunch of little children's Christmas! I kept telling him that he had to be the best Santa that he could be and say the whole "HOHOHO!" In the right way. We visited a couple more people and those elders are teaching some of the coolest people ever! Well, it was time for the activity and the primary gives Elder B the Santa outfit to wear. It was a total wreck. The kids here in LA are just super opinionated at such a young age that none of them even believed for a second that it was Santa, it was so sad. We had a kid come up to us (you know, cause we are taking pictures of the whole thing and taking videos at the same time) and he said "that is not the real Santa. 1 - Santa's belt goes along his belly, not under his belly. 2 - Santa doesn't talk like that. 3 - Santa doesn't have dark skin. Well kid, you totally got me there, that first point is definitely his strongest let me tell you. Well anyways Elder W and I had correlation but during which a crazy thing happened. Elder B had ran to go change form being Santa and so he is in normal missionary clothes right? Well a bunch of the primary kids chased him down and sat him down in a chair to tell him what they thought of him being Santa. They called him a "bad man" for pretending to be Santa and then they started hitting him! But oh! What wrath were upon the face of the parents of those children! They called their kids over and ooooooooo yikes! Those chanclazos tho!!! We then switched back to be in our normal companionships at that time. Pretty climactic ending to an interesting exchange to say the least.

Thursday it rained. It was a a light sprinkle at the beginning, but then it started to rain pretty good. We had to bike to a finally that lives in the very top corner of our area, so its a pretty long bike ride. Along the way I almost got "doored" which was such a heart pounding moment. Here we are biking and then this father opens his door and Peggy out of nowhere pulls some sick power slide maneuvers to avoid being hit and then everything is ok, but it was seriously a freaky moment. We then ate dinner with the G family and that was good. Then the rain started to pour. Elder W didnt have his jacket, but he did have an umbrella and so he decided to bike with one hand holding an umbrella and one hand on the bike. He totally looked like a character out of Mary Poppins or something. I was just drenched. We got back and decided to lock up our bikes and to go tracking. We really didnt have any luck. We had a lot of doors closed on us that day, and the only guy that talked to us didnt want us to come back to visit with him, but we still had a good conversation with the guy.

Friday I came down with a cold and it was just a really rough day. We were able to have some meaningful stuff happen though. Our WML calls us and asks us "elders, what are you doing right now?" "Eating dinner at our apartment, why? How can we help you?" "I want to come with you to your lessons, when is your next appointment today?" (The time and place) "ok, see you then elders!" Hermano F is just so awesome. He came out with us for the rest of the night and we visited 2 families with him. He even invited both the families to come to the ward Christmas party and they both came! #memberpower #HermanoFlores 

Saturday we woke up a little earlier than usual to go to the Christmas Devotional for the mission. I was feeling so sick that it was really hard for me to get started in the morning. We arrived at the Kent building about an hour and a half before the meeting started, so we arrived early to say the least. We got there and everyone (generally speaking) was wearing a festive tie or outfit. It is really different in the mission now because Elders and Sisters sit together in the same zone whereas before all the sisters would sit in the front and the elders would sit according to the zone that we are in. The Christmas Devotional started and you could just tell that this was going to be different than last year. The Haynies started us of by reading the accounts in the New Testament about the events surrounding the Savior's birth along with musical numbers from a variety of missionaries, it was super cool! Everyone was very respectful to the performances and we all liked them too. After the musical numbers were over we had a testimony meeting and then broke out to lunch where we took pictures with President and Sister Haynie. I also took pictures with a lot of Elders that have become some of my closest friends on the mission, I didnt get to all of them, but I got a handful. We then watched a movie that is called Silent Night that was put on by BYUTV and it was super good. It was really funny to watch it as a missionary with all the commentaries that follow being a missionary... lets just say that there was a lot of laughter with the movie. The Haynies then gave us a temple recommend holder to all of us (which is super cool) and that was the Christmas Devotional. We then got back to our apartment just in enough time to change and go to the ward Christmas Party. Normally we would have stayed for a little bit of time, but when almost ALL of the people that we are teaching right now actually came to the dinner, it is so much more meaningful for us to actually be there with them and help them feel comfortable with the members and spend some time with our investigators. We actually had one of the nonmembers that came tell us that she wasn't going to dance because she believes that we aren't suppose to do that, well by the end she was dancing so thats a good sign. We took a lot of pictures and it was super fun.

Sunday was super cold in the morning, like 39 degress cold. Now California doesn't get that cold here in LA and when you bike to church in that weather and you have a cold, it is pretty miserable. Church was good, except for the fact that nobody showed up! It was so sad because this always happens at ward Christmas parties - everyone shows up to the party, but then nobody shows up to sacrament meeting. It was also super cold in the church, like around 63 degrees when we were trying to fix the thermostat to about 73 degrees. Nobody in the building even knew how to fix it! Oh there were some cranky faces that day. Thankfully a lot of the cool members where there, yes there are a lot of cool members in this ward. Hermana S is definitely one of the funniest members in 6th ward she had brought a bag of candy to share with everyone in Gospel Principles class, totally brought back memories to all those candies that we use to buy for school and for church... goodness. Whenever we get our food list from the RS the RS president always seems to have "another hermana" who "signed up on the dinner calendar" but that we never called her and then that poor hermana was left with cold food made and then wasted.

(Shhpeal) Ok, first off, please put your phone number by your name so that way we can call to confirm the dinner appointment the day before. 2 make sure that you signed up on the right dinner calendar. 3 actually make sure that you signed up on the right week and not one in the past or one in the future. A helpful hint would be to tell the missionaries at church (because you see them) that you are feeding them that week. Next, if they dont call, dont expect them to come! And definitely dont make food for nobody! And lastly, dont get upset at the elders when they dont want to eat 2+ plates of food, normally they dont do that. 

Anywho, thankfully we had an hermana tell the RS president that everything was good and that there had been a confusion with the hermana who complained, so that was all good. We then made sure that we would go with the C family to the VC to see the orchestra that was performing that night. We asked a couple of the members to give us a ride if they had time and we found a couple people that said that they could take us. We got back to our apartment for our lunch hour, but because we were having dinner a little earlier than usual in order to get to the VC on time and get seats, we ended up making a GINGERBREAD house during our lunch hour. Now, I dont know why we have never made gingerbread houses, but that was my first time. Yes, the first time I ever made a gingerbread house was on the mission. AND it was super epic. Pictures will follow (we have a lot of pictures this week, so I think I am only going send the pictures that are necessary for the stories and everything). We then ate dinner with A F and that was really cool. He was talking about how he loves church during the Christmas season because he feels that he learns more BECAUSE he wants to learn more. He says that during the Christmas time he has this longing to learn more. #eternigator. Its also funny because they had just come back from a birthday party for the wife of the EQ president in the ward #eternigators. So ya, their day basically was church, birthday party for a ward member, feed the missionaries... what a day man! We then got a ride from the V family to go to the VC and holy smokes was the VC packed!!! There was a huge line just waiting to be seated for the concert. Well, we got some good seats in another room and the C family told us how much they loved it. TOTALLY RANDOM - there was a GA there. He walks up to us and starts talking with us and then says "by the way, I am one of the new GA" like its nonchalant or something. He totally has a cool style of fashion, red peacot and one of those hats that dad wears. We then went and took pictures with the C family around the Christmas lights and they just loved the whole thing. 

See ya Sunday!!!

Love,

Elder Roberts