WEEK 100!!!!

USC part 2 week 3

Monday was a very different Pday. I think Elder W and I have mastered this whole shopping together thing. We both only spent 6$ on groceries... thats 12$ together so even for a normal missionary thats super good. With the allotted money we are given you have to shoot for around 20$ a week, so if you get below that then you are really good. We got to the church to hang out with the other elders and a lot of stuff just happened that was really rough. Then my iPad bugged out on me. It completely stopped working a didnt recognize any touch or push of a button. Luckily I had gotten most of my emailing done before then so that was really good. Last week we set up a VC trip with the C family to go watch Meet the Mormons 2. We had told some people at church about it and they wanted to come. So Monday we went and in total there was about 10 people that we brought to the VC and 3 were non members. We had to hurry back to our apartment to change into our suits and then bike to the C home after the whole pday stuff which was just crazy. (Back story) Elder W and I had switched our bikes the day before (sunday) to see what the differences in each other's bike was. So my seat on Peggy was super tall and when we were rushing to the C house I put the seat where it needed to be, but I didnt put it on tight, so by the time we got to the house the seat had gone down all the way and I looked like a real cholo riding a bike in a suit:) We then got a ride from R (the dad, he is the non member in the home) up to the VC and let me tell you, he is a super aggressive driver, but he is a very good driver too. The videos were such a hit. I love the VC. It was a really good experience for them and we all had a really good time. 

Tuesday we had some guys come over and fix our oven!!!!! It was such a tender mercy that we had. Being missionaries we just naturally struck up a conversation with the workers and they were nice guys. One of them was wearing a nice Rams hoodie and I asked where he got it from. He said it was a gift from someone and then we start talking to them about where to get USC or Rams gear. Well the other then says "there is this place on... and ... the guy has a bunch of stuff. Tell him that Gilbert sent you, he will hook you up with discount. Its good stuff too." So we got hooked up man! It was cool. We also talked to them a little bit about what we do and we ended on good terms with them. We went over to the O family house ready to follow up on their reading on 2 Nephi 31 and to teach them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We went over and asked them if they had the opportunity to read the chapter, and they said they did! We asked them their favorite parts and they talked about different verses from the chapter. It was really cool cause we used the good ol fashioned pamphlets and we read from those for the lesson. They really liked the lesson and we felt like the lesson went really well. We invited them to be baptized but unfortunately they said no. The mom said that she was already baptized and so was the daughter. The mom continued to tell us that she was baptized as a catholic and a Christian so hopefully we can bring a member over to help her know what the difference and importance of being baptized with the right authority is. The two sons haven't been baptized and so there really isn't any from holding them back. What I think might be a problem in the future is the fact that we haven't been able to teach or talk to the dad yet, we will definitely need to jump on that so that way he can support his family and hopefully we can get the rest of the family on board (there are 6 kids total). The lesson was really good and we invited them to read as a family and they accepted. When we invited them to come to church the daughter, V, said "yo voy" which means that she is coming and the mom said "les mando primero" which means that she wants her kids to go first and then she will come. The only problem is that the two sons will go if their mom goes... ugh. 

Wednesday I was so sick in the morning. It was a really rough day in general. My nose was stuffed and so I could barely breathe. We tried to visit some potentials and contact some referrals, but nothing really happened. The O family had invited us over to J's birthday party which was really nice of them. When we got there we also met B and C who are their stepbrothers. The stepbrothers are nothing like J and E. One likes sports and cars and all the normal "guy" stuff I guess while the others are just nerds. I mean they talk like it, act like it, don't like touching things cause it has germs, allergic to latex, play video games all day, don't like walking, the thing. I feel kinda bad for them because they don't seem to mix very well, but I really do think that E and J are really trying to love them and get to know them. Elder W had made some cookies for J and his birthday and everybody liked them. P then gave us dinner and that was really good. We had to leave right as all the extended family showed up because we were late for our real dinner appointment with a member. We showed up to the G house and she was making spaghetti. She put a lot on the plate and I was just like, oh no, I cannot do this today. She noticed that I was sick and was saying things like "I can make you a tea right now if you want" or "I can fix up a soup real quick" but you know me and spaghetti, I just love it so I was fine with that. After finishing there we went to the church for coorelation with Hermano F. We talked about our area and the progress that we have been having which was nice. After that on our way out and as we are saying goodbye to all the members and such, the YM president comes up to us and asks about the O family (we had mentioned them in ward council). He basically invite himself to the lesson which was super cool. The ward is getting pumped right now!!

Thursday i woke up and was still a little sick with the cold. It was Elder B's birthday and so we decided to make him some cookies with our newly fixed oven:) Elder W received some special baking mint chocolate chips so the cookies were chocolate with chocolate mint chips. I had some chicken noodle soup for lunch. We went to the church to do our weekly planning and planned out next week. We then made our way to the Cs home for dinner. They fed us some chorizo and egg with chicken and rice with tortillas. It is really sad when we go over because Hermano C is the former WML so he is very critical of Hermano F as his "replacement". He is always saying how many baptisms there used to be when he was the WML. To be honest, Hermano F is involved in the work. We will be having a coordination meeting and he will ask us about how the ... family is doing or what about... person. He also is seeing for himself just the load of work that we have to do. He asked us to come up with a list of all the members in the ward who are less active... haha. We showed him that it would be better just to get him a list of all the active ones.  Afterwards we went to visit with Y and B. Y has been reading in the Book of Mormon! She is doing really good. We thought she had stopped but it looks like she is doing a really good job. So her sister, K (ugh I could go off right now), was just unbelievable during the lesson. The whole family knows what missionaries do, because they have been coming over for the past 3 years to help teach K and Y. K was baptized last April and will constantly say "what are you going to teach to me? I already know everything". So its a little rough. The lesson started and we were reading in the Book of Mormon. In the other room however, was K doing the dishes and blasting David Archuleta (like him less now) singing hymns. How ironic is that! The lesson being interrupted by someone singing hymns! It was so loud that we couldn't here each other reading. We asked her to turn it down and so she did. The lesson was really good and we found out something: that Y has been struggling with the desire to be baptized. We think its because all the missionaries ever focused on K and never on Y and so they haven't really ever focused on her. Its really hard because K is always on her back about "church stuff" it is awful. We finished off the night with a lesson at the C home. We got there and started to talk to them about temples. We invited them to set a date that they could go as a family to do temple baptisms and they set the date for the 21st of this month! We then showed them a video about temples and they loved it. They are such a cool family!

Friday we had district meeting and it was a good meeting. This district is seriously the most versatile, weird, goofy, and awesome district ever. We have a goal that next week we will in total have 35 lessons with members out with us next week. That is more than most zones in the entire mission FYI. It was really crazy cause at the end of district meeting we get mail and there is the CLAM CHATTER with all the incoming... and departing missionaries.... ya. Its so crazy that only 5 missionaries are leaving this transfer and that only 2 are elders. 2 are chinese missionaries and the rest are spanish, crazy!!! We went immediately to go try and find G at her home and there she was! We were able to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was a super good lesson. The grandma then wanted to feed us a "refreshment" but I guess that is what you get when you mix corn starch with milk and something else, basically milk soup. We then went back to our apartment and ate an actual lunch. We were trying so hard to get the YM president out with us to go and visit the O family. When we arrived there we got a text from him saying that he was coming back from work and would be there for another 40 minutes, so we decided to go visit them anyways. When we knocked at the door B answered. We asked him if his family was home and he told us that they weren't. He also said some other stuff really quietly and so we decided to leave. We were in the process of unlocking our bikes with our helmets on and everything when we hear V, E, and J all yelling for us to come back! They were flicking the house light to show that they were home. We went back and had a nice lesson with them. We read in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 11 with them. They really liked the chapter and had some good questions about it. E I think is the most solid. We finished and he simply said "no questions, it is all clear". B came out from idk playing video games or something and so we talked with him a little bit and explained what we do as missionaries. It was nice because we totally know that the gospel is for everyone and especially for families so we really want to include everyone in their family! We invited them to come to church and they committed to come. We ate Yogurtland for dinner. We swung by to see G and the gang and they were all in their pjs. We had an intense (as intense as you can be with a 9 year old) lesson about coming to church and they all committed to come. At one point we told them that we would love to come by to make pancakes in the morning for them so that they could be awake and come to church. Angela then turns to me and says "tamales are so much better for breakfast, don't you think?" To which I said no, pancakes are better. She then says "elder, you must not like latino food. I can see that you don't like latino food, its such a shame that..." and she went off. I was like, for real? I just said that pancakes are better for BREAKFAST than tamales and she is going off like I don't like any latino food, whatever, not worth the fight. We then switched to go be on exchanges with Elder W and Elder B. I went to go be with Elder B and we spent the night in the other apartment. 

Story time.

Elder B was in the shower at night on exchanges and Elder Roberts had an idea. Elder Roberts hid underneath the bed of Elder B while he was getting out of the shower. He got out of the shower and looked around for a bit. He got to his bedside and Elder Roberts grabbed his ankle with his bare hand and Elder B jumped out of his skin. They had a good laugh, it was funny.

And some other details that I will tell at a future time.

Saturday we started out the day at World Harvest. Elder B and I taught Glen and his son a little lesson. We talked to them about the power of prayer and the importance of real intent and faith. We used Enos to do that one. Glen really likes to talk a lot. He is definitely a different guy, completely different lifestyle than someone who lives the gospel. He talked to us about some stuff that is going on with workers at World Harvest, about some crazy stories that he has about ghost and how he can communicate with ghosts. Then his son starts talking about rapping and what he wants to do with his life, and Im just sitting there cause I don't know anything about rap. We then went back to the apartment to change into our clothes and then headed out. We visited with J M who has a baptismal date and he is doing really well. He has been reading a lot and understands a lot of what he reads in the Book of Mormon. It was a good lesson. There was a kid who is learning how to do card tricks and so he showed us a couple, and then I showed him the only card trick that I know and he liked it a lot. We tried visiting some potentials but nobody was home or didn't answer the door for us. Saturday night was the concert of Bless4. Bless4 came to do a performance for the Inglewood stake and so we went there because we had a lot of people wanting to go see it. It was crazy and I'll explain later who was there and what happened there, but lets just say that a former AP from this mission and his family are famous pop stars in Japan and it was a cool concert. I took a picture with him finally! He was a really good missionary too.

Sunday was just awesome. We had 11 investigators at church! The O family came! We were so happy to see them there. A bunch of members started fellowshipping them and they loved it. They even sang the hymns during sacrament, it was so cool! E and J saw the gym and they fell in love, so they are probably going to start coming to mutual now too. B was there and he showed E and J around which was really good. It was just awesome to see so many people at church, yes! We also saw Yesenia later in the day and we finished off the night at the C family home. We taught the C family about the Restoration and it was a good lesson.

Well, another week flew by! 

Love y'all!

Elder Roberts